DIY - Magnetic Jewelry Board

The first thing you are going to need is a piece of sheet metal. The size of the metal doesn't matter but for this project I used a 12"x 24" piece of sheet metal I bought from Home Depot.

Once you have your metal you are going to want to drill some holes in it so you can loop through some thing (i.e. ribbon) in order to hang it. I would suggest watching this helpful video before whipping out your drill and damaging the metal, your table, or yourself. 

I drilled 1/4" hole 1" down and 2" in from both top corners of the sheet metal.

I decided to cover the edges of the sheet metal in ribbon because a) it makes a nice border and b) the edges are sharp. I used 1 1/2" ribbon you can buy at any craft store. I used a cheap sponge brush and applied a thin layer of glue to the top edge of the metal about 1" in width. I then pressed down the ribbon on the glue so that 1" was over the metal and 1/2" was over the edge. I then flipped the metal over and applied glue to the remaining 1/2" of ribbon and folded it over onto the back of the metal.

Then I cut two pieces of smaller 1/4" ribbon approximately 16" in length and folded them in half. I then attached the smaller ribbon to the metal by using a Lark's Head knot through the two holes I had previously drilled. I secured the two loose ends of each ribbon by sewing them together. 

          

I need to some magnetic hooks to hang my jewelry on and try as I might, I couldn't find small cheap magnetic hooks. So I decided to make magnetic hooks myself. I used 1/2"x 1/8" disc neodymium magnets, 20 gauge crafting wire, buttons (2 not 4 holes), and E6000 industrial strength adhesive. 

First I cut a piece of wire about 3" long.

Then I bent the wire in half.

Then I formed the folded end into a hook.

Then I put the two ends of the wire through the button holes and crimped the wire down onto the back of the button. 

Then I put glue on the back of the button.

Then I placed the magnet on the back of the button. 

Set the magnetic hook off to the side and at least 4 to 5 inches away from other magnets. Because the magnets are so strong they will snap together quickly and you will get glue all over your fingers trying to get them back apart. After I let the glue dry and set (approximately 24 hours), I had the perfect magnetic button hook :)

Now that you are finished with all the different components, it's time to hang it on the wall. I used some 3M Command hooks. Make sure they are strong and can hold a good deal of weight. I had to replace the clear adhesive backing on these hooks with stronger opaque adhesive backing and so painted the clear hooks silver.  Place the hooks on your wall where you plan on hanging you magnetic board. Hang your board and all your jewelry on the button hooks.  I used a bit of ribbon and some cross-stitch fabric to make an earring holder which I also hung on the hooks as you can see in the bottom left corner.   

And voilà, you're done! 

P.S. If you decided to make one, then I would love to see some pictures. Tell me what you think and leave a comment :)

DIY - Cross-Stitch Sleeping Mask

First thing you need to make your own cross-stitch pattern is get some graphing paper. Then just draw whatever you want to cross-stitch on the graph paper. Don't worry about making it match up with lines or anything. (This drawing is scaled down to half the sized of what the pattern is going to be.)

 Once your picture is finished, you want to put in some guide lines.... since this is half scale, the guide lines are every five squares.  It makes it much easier when you then re-draw you picture on to the next piece of graphing paper. Before you transfer the pattern on the next piece of graph paper, you'll want to draw guide lines on it. This time I drew the guidelines ever ten squares so each square coordinates with a square on the fabric. When drawing you want to make sure that your lines are either straight or diagonal on the graph lines so that when you use the pattern to cross-stitch

 Color your picture and then start making your design. I also use thin thread to represent the guidelines on the fabric. I utilized a lot of dark colors for borders and lighter colors for the rest of the area.

As you can see the lines are all straight or diagonal. It is almost like making a picture very pixelated. Then each square you stitch is a pixel. 

 Once you have finished, you can remove the thread guidelines. I then used my pattern to stitch the backing fabric.

 Then I sewed on a elastic and biased tape, to cover the edges.

 ALL DONE :D

Twitter

So in order to be more accessible to employment opportunities, I am making myself more visible on the internet. Ergo, I made a twitter account. Yes, me, a twitter-er. I am sure I will hardly ever use it. But if you have one you should "follow" me and then I will "follow" you back. I promise I will never-ever-ever post silly tweets about how I'm shopping or eating ice cream... I'm not even sure what to tweet. Any ideas? Let me know in the comment section. 


Oh! and my twitter page is twitter.com/_miss_kay_ (I had almost forgot)

How To Make Snakes

I decided that being Medusa for Halloween was a great idea. Making snakes should be easy... right? Turns out it's kinda tricky. So for anyone who would like to make a snake in the future, I've basically done all the R&D.... But be forewarned.... It's a lot of work.

Miss Kay's Instructions for making snakes:

1. Get some snake fabric.

My fabulous sister Cherry found shiny snake material for me at JoAnn's. 1 yrd = $5

2. Make a template. (each square is 1"x1")

3. Trace template onto newspaper, alternating directions, and then pin newspaper to fabric and cut out. (This takes up most of the fabric... about 21"x3')

4. Each piece of fabric is used for one snake. The wide end will be used for the head of the snake.

5. Use the remaining fabric and cut it out like the template below. This material will be used for shorter snakes and some tails.

6. Take on piece of material and fold in half, wrong side out.

7. Sew one seam approximately 1/2 inch from edge of fabric.

8. Sew another seam parallel to the first seam, approximately 1/4 inch from edge of fabric.

9. Cut out tongue (I panel felt: 50¢)

10. Center the seam at the wide end. Put your tongue in between the layers of material pointed down. Sew a few stitches at the top so both the tongue and the fabric stays in place.

11. Place a template for the snake head over material and sew around edges. (This is the hard part. Don't be afraid to go back and sew spots so that the head is symmetrical. Not all your snake heads need to look the same.)

12. This is what you want it to look like. The seams should extend off the fabric and it's fine if the material is a little bumpy. It won't make a difference after the snake is stuffed.

13. Cut off excess fabric.

14. Turn right side out.

15. If you want your snakes to be bendable, take use some 18", 20 gauge floral wire as a support. (It's green, BONUS! I package = $1) If the wire is a smaller gauge then it won't be strong enough to support the snake.

16. Shimmy the wire down between the two seams.

17. As a filler I just used styrofoam pellets from an old beanbag chair from Goodwill = $3.

(So I live about 2 miles from Goodwill and had borrowed Cherry's bike that has rack on the back. I succeeded in strapping the beanbag to the side of the rack [Cherry's daughter was riding on the seat on top of the rack] and riding all the way home... It must've been a spectacle to behold.)

18. Fill snake with pellets

19. Sew the bottom closed.

20. Hot glue on some black felt eyes and you're done!

After I was done making all the snakes and tails I had my lovely sister attach the snakes to a mesh cap. Hot glue rules!!

Top 5: Favorite Holidays + Movies

1. St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is my FAVORITE holiday. I love to dress up all in green and pinch people. I love the food! (Corned beef and cabbage soup - YUM!) I decorate and listen to Celtic music (Irish Rovers... of course).

My favorite St. Patrick's day movie is Darby O'Gill and the Little People. A fun family film that stars a young Sean Connery.

2. Halloween

Halloween is a close second to St. Patrick's day. I love dressing up for halloween and spending way too much time on my costume. I also love trick-or-treating. Seriously, I might be a college graduate but people still gave me candy last year... a lot of candy!

For Halloween the obvious movie is the Nightmare before Christmas... an excellent story with excellent visuals!

3. Christmas

Christmas is a fabulous time of year. A time to give gifts and be filled with the spirit of Christmas... I'm not big into the "Santa" aspect of Christmas so that's why Christmas got bumped to #3. Hurray for Christmas and the celebration of Christ's birth! 

My favorite movie for this Holiday is the Muppet Christmas Carol... by far one of the best muppet movies. This movie captures the essence of Charles Dickens' beloved classic and it is very entertaining.

4. Thanksgiving

... Giving Thanks for the many blessing we have... and lots of food.... need I say more?

Movie...the only movie I could think of was Pieces of April... It's a pretty good movie but kinda sad too. My favorite part is when April says she's not worried about the cranberry sauce because all she has to do is open a can.... and the neighbor gives her this dreadful look.

5. Valentines Day/Single Awareness Day

This holiday can be a double edged sword... Either it's the day you spend expressing love to your significant other... or the day you commiserate that you lack a significant other. But in elementary school we got to make little valentines and get candy so it's on the list. (Notice most of the Holidays mentioned involve food.)

The movie for Valentines day is easy... because any romantic movie can be used for this holiday... so I'm going with one of my favorite romantic movies and saying... The Princess Bride!