My new hobby: handmade flowers, brooches, headbands out of foamiran

This post is going to have many pics in it. I’ve been crafting these flowers for few months and I just love them. Now, Foramiran is a pretty new thing here in Ukraine. It is sort of rubber fabric and it is handy in making flowers and dolls our of  it.

You can actually make any kind of flower of foamiran and the best thing is you do not need any special tools and paints to do it. That is why I love this craft.

Here is one of my flowers – poppy flower composition. It’s a hair clip I made for my daughter to wear to school. Poppy flowers are national Ukraine flowers and they are very fashionable now.

foramiran flowers handmade flowers

foamiran flowers handmade flowers

This is sort of fantasy flower, but it kind of resembles magnolia flower (they are blooming now in Kiev).

foramiran flowers handmade flowers

This flower is also can be used as a hair clip or as a brooch for a scarf. I used white foamiran to make it and I colored it pale pink and green. I really loved the result.

foamiran flowers handmade flowers

I also love these rosebuds. They are tiny and I made a handmade brooch out of them. I also used white fabric for them and colored them to be pinkish.

foamiran flowers handmade flowers

This is a sample of wedding decor out of foamiran. It can be used as a pin or to adorn the glasses and bottle. These are jasmine flowers. I have many more to share and maybe I’ll do a quick tutorial in the next post on how make’em. You may find more pics on my other blog or on Pinterest.

DIY: glass bottle into romantic candlestick

I love making cute and useful things for my home. One of such things is a candlestick. I have made one out of glass bottle using decoupage. My can has broken it.  Now I used a different technique.  Just before New Year they started to turn off the light in Ukraine for several hours a day. So, it’s a pretty useful thing, too.

DIY candlestick out of glass bottle

Here is what I made out of a small green energy drink glass bottle. I have already used these to make outdoors fire torches. Now, here is my short upcycling DIY course for you.

What you need for this handmade candlestick:

– 1 glass bottle

– hot glue gun

– organic rope or thread

– decorating items

I used hot gun glue to attach the organic thread to the glass bottle. I just rolled the thread around the bottle and glued it in several places. It took me about 10 min to finish this up. It’s pretty easy and the thread or rope doesn not have to lay smoothly on the bottle.

DIY candlestick

As you may see, it is attached unevenly. In some places you may see the green of the bottle come through. Since it is a romantic candlestick I used some pink crystals and glued them on in several spots.

candlestick

Then I made a small decoration composition our of handmade fom flowers (I made these rosebuds myself), ribbon and pink veiling. I glued the whole composition together using hot glue gun and then attached it to the candlestick. It serves nicely. The bottle is heavy enough and it does not overturns. I head up the bottom part of the candle a bit and stick it into the bottle hole. That’s how it works. It’s an easy, fun and eco friendly upcycling DIY project.

Handmade hair clip ideas

I have two daughters, so naturally I love making all sorts of nice things for their hair.

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Лето ах лето

A post shared by Elena Razinkova (@elenarazinkova) on Dec 2, 2014 at 1:44am PST

I have already shared red poppy flower hair clip and wreath I made for them. I just love making different fabric flowers. Now I have embroidered this cute hair clip heart.

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Заколка вышитая французским узелком

A post shared by Elena Razinkova (@elenarazinkova) on Dec 2, 2014 at 12:10am PST

I used a stitch we call French knot. It is used in ribbon embroidery, as well as when you embroider with threads. You attain a special effect using this stitch. Your embroidery becomes sort of 3D. This handmade hair clip heart is very curly and nice to touch.

DIY flower headband for kids with felted fabric flowers

I love making headbands. This one is made in ethnic style or Ukraine style with red poppy flowers.

ethinic trim headband

This headband is made out of Ukraine ethnic trim you can get in my Etsy store. The base for it is made after recycled crafts, cause I used a piece of plastic bottle as a foundation for the headband.

Here is how the headband is made. Step by step DIY

I cut out a piece of plastic and used hot glue gun to attach trim to it. First I applied wider piece of the trim and them added a narrower one on the top from the front side.

Next, I placed to wooden bids on 2 pieces of ribbon and tied knots on one end of the ribbon. The other end was attached to the headband using glue gun. These are the headband strips used to hold in on one’s head.

I have used a piece of felt to cover up the other side of the headband and hide the plastic. I glued it there with the hot glue gun. Finally, I have made a small red poppy flower bouquet out of felt. Each flower consists out of 4 heart shape petals glued together. I attached them to the headband with the glue. You can find more photos of this DIY here. You can follow my fabric flower Pinterest board to get more inspiration.

Handmade jewelry project: a ring and a pendent

This is one of my handmade jewelry projects. Unfortunately I do not have much time to cover them all in my blog. This fabric ring and pendent are the part of one of my refashion projects.

I have bought a pair of huge and ugly green pants at a flea market. I looked exactly like Asterix in them. But I refashioned them into a stylish skirt and a handbag. I had some scrapes left, so I made this fabric jewelry set.

fabric jewelry set

This is my green fabric pendent. It is accompanied by the fabric ring.

fabric jewelry set

Here is my quick how to on this fabric jewelry set. I used coins for the fabric circle bases. I used hot glue gun for attaching the fabric to the coins. I have also used a piece of recycled belt as the base for the pendent. So, this is a go green jewelry project, as I have used only recycled or recycable materials for it.

fabric jewelry set

As you may see, I have used just tiny scrapes of fabric for this jewelry project. Still it does look good and I get many people asking me where I got this set.

Decoupage ideas: French style glass bottle decoupage

I really love this glass bottle decoupage project. I got this little glass bottle with one flat side and it suggested a wonderful decoupage idea to me.

glass bottle decoupage

 

glass bottle decoupage

As you may see, the bottle has Eifel tower on its front side. I used a very nice vintage type of napkin for this decoupage idea.

glass bottle decoupage

I have also made a small leather bow for the bottle and attached a short chain with a little silver key to it. So, now I got a nice French style and vintage looking vase made out of recycled glass bottle with decoupage on it.

 

Jumpers refashion project

This is my first refashion project for kids. I used to love sewing when I was a kid. And I have even taken one year of fashion college, but later on I have all foresaken sewing. The good news is that my husband made me a present: a vintage sewing machine. Here it is:

vintage sewing machine

 

So, now I have tons of refashion projects to finish. Here is the first one. As usual I have forgotten to take the BEFORE picture. So, this was a jumper of my older girl and she grew out of it. I refashioned it into a dress and a small handbag.

jumpers refashion

 

I had a very colorful top I got for the daughter on a sale. It surely looked nice on the store shelf, but it did not fit her well. So, I used it for this jumper refashion.

jumpers refashion

 

The top had ruffles on it, so I used them at the bottom on the dress and on the pockets.

I have made a small handbag out of the scraps of the jumper and decorated it with a rolled fabric flower made out of the top.

jumper refashion

I have also made a headband out of the top. So, now my girl got a colorful set of things instead of one old jumper. It’s an easy refashion project and a great way to go green.

 

 

DIY pin cushion out of coffee can

This is a very quick and easy DIY pin cushion project. It took me about 10 min to finish it.

This was a small tint coffee can with a plastic  lid. I have decoupaged it with recycled fabric. This fabric used to be a baby dress. I also sew a heart for the pins. I used dish sponge for the filling.

I have used the scrapes of butterfly ribbon to decorate the can and I used the organic rope for the edges.

You can see that the lid opens up and I store the threads or ribbons inside and the pins and needles on the top. It’s a cute DIY project you can make using hot glue gun and fabric scrapes. Check out my Pinterest boards for more inspiration.