Ponytail Tutorial

Lets get started. I will make this a little more exciting as time goes on, but I would like to get you started with this one. Please excuse the photos, it is hard to hold the camera and make buttons at the same time!

Cover buttons come in many sizes, here is a list of the various sizes. We also sell the buttons in your choice of a back - wire back or a flat back. The wire version is your traditional shank button that would be used in a sewing application. Flat backs are great for magnet and other glued applications. For the purpose of making a ponytail, we will use a wire backed button. The main reason is so we can use the holes to secure the hair elastic.

You will need to remove, we use wire cutters, to access the holes and remove the button shank from the back.

a quick snip with wire cutters does the trick.

then using a simple craft wire, available at all craft stores and some hardware stores. Snip off some wire to work with. I use about four inches to start with.

Attach the elastic to the button back with the wire as shown above. Pull the wire through to the back and make sure the wire is snug to the button back.

About 5 or 6 twists of the wire to secure and then snip off the end leaving 3/4's of an inch tail.

You will need to see what is comfortable for you, I have never had one come unattached. If you leave a bigger tail, just smush it flat . . . it will be hidden by the button.

We use elastics that we find at Target, Walmart, drug stores or often our grocery store has great prices. We like the version that doesn't have the metal connection. Often called "ouchless" or "no damage". We use a bigger elastic for size 45 and 60 buttons to make ponytails and smaller size elastics and size 30 and 36 buttons to make pairs of pigtails.

Take your fabric scrap and set it print side down into the pusher tool (you need a tool for each size button you use) and then set the button in with the domed side facing down and the bowl side facing you.

snip the excess fabric and trace around the button. This is a trial and error kind of operation, we leave different amounts of fabric depending on the fabric type. For quilting or regular cotton, we leave about a half-inch.

It will look like this when trimmed and ready to attach the button

Tuck the fabric into the center of the button shell.

Insert the back into the button shell with the elastic side facing out and the side with the wire twisted into the button. Using the pusher tool as shown in the photo push the back into the button, you will feel it snap into place.

Remove the button from the tool and you will have yourself a ponytail!

The back will look like this

The finished ponytail will look like this!

Art Show in Glens Falls, NY this weekend

It was a BEAUTIFUL day to spend outside in downtown Glens Falls today.  We really enjoyed ourselves at the show.  It was fun to see a lot of friends and to make new ones.  Jessica from Rosebud Johnnies shared space with us and it worked great.  She is about to list some of her fantastic bags on her ETSY site along with all her great kids hats, quilts and other fun stuff.  She has a wonderful color sense and started sewing along with me a few months back.  She is great at making all kinds of bags.  

We sold a ton of scrabble tiles and were thrilled to find a lot of customers return from previous craft shows.  It is so fun to have people come to the booth and say, "I have been hoping you would be here. . ."  

Hammered sterling silver disc.

We sold a lot of our chunky initial necklaces and are reminded what a wonderful gift item these are.  Our goal is to get our act together enough to approach some local stores about carrying them.  They flew off the bottles today.  Speaking of bottles, we received ALOT of questions and offers for my hand blown glass bottles that we display some of our necklaces on.  I got them here and LOVE them.

Darcy in shop girl mode.  It was great having another body in the booth, so when one of needed a break we were all set.  I never left the booth, which saved us lots of money!  I plan to venture out if we hit a slow patch on Sunday.

Lots of fun wired wrapped earrings . . . from the semi-precious stone purchase from India.

Pigtails, Pigtails, Pigtails

First time having key fobs in the booth and they were a big hit.  We will make sure to make lots of them for future shows.

Czech Glass earrings, we are loving these!

Wire wrapped topaz.

The talented Jessica of Rosebud Johnnies!

Close up of her awesome bags.  I will have to post some shots showing the whole bags, but wanted to show the wonderful crystals!

Who doesn't want a little bling on their bag?

Off to sleep, so we can get going early and hopefully have time for a STARBUCKS, this Seattle transplant needs her fix!

Teacher's End of Year Gift

We started out to make some fun fabric covered button magnets for Max's first grade teacher, but before the night was over we added his music teacher, art teacher, librarian, and the nurse.  I asked him why the additions to our list and he told me he was in the craft zone.  That was all he needed to say, we could have been making magnets all night!  I guess it makes it easy that we sell all the supplies on our ETSY supply site to make these and had plenty on hand.  Sorry the pictures don't do them justice, but Max wanted to show Grandma via this blog - so look Grandma what Max made!

This really is a wonderful little project that uses all of your small scraps.  We used size 30 cover buttons, with flat backs.  After covering the buttons with Tonga Batik in fun and vibrant colors, we used E-6000 craft glue to adhere STRONG rare earth magnets.  Max loved this part, before he had a system down, the magnets were flying off the backs of magnets and jumping back together.  We solved the problem by placing them far apart on a divided tray to dry.

It is hard to see in this picture, but the little window tins make this the fun gift it is. It keeps the magnets from bunching up since they are magnatized to the container.  It also just makes for a sweet little presentation.  He will tie a piece of fabric around it and hang a little card off of it.  He also likes to tell the receipient that he has tested the magnets and they will hold up to 10 sheets of paper.  I will be making a lot more of these in all kinds of fabrics to have at our booth at the ZONTA/LARAC show in June in Glens Falls, NY.  They have been really good sellers for us in the past.

We have our Scrabble Tiles made and almost ready for the show and now we are starting to work on our hand stamped sterling items and pearl jewelry.  We will make some various accessories with fabric if time permits.  Hair ponytails, bobby pins and key fobs tend to sell well for us.  I started a batch of key fobs and got them sewn and ready for hardware.  I don't think my love of all things pink, brown and hot pink will fade anytime soon.

We will try at this show some funkier prints on the fobs.  We lots of fun Japanese fabrics and thought it would be fun to see if they are a hit.  In addition lots of preppy stuff that seems to be making a comeback.  It will be a wide range of items at this show, so we can get feedback for the Saratoga Springs summer shows.