How to cut your own bangs.

MONTHS ago I was agonizing about whether or not to cut my bangs. Well, a few days ago I decided I want to cut them. I saw some recent photos of myself and just cringed when I saw my semi grown out bangs just hanging there, with no purpose but to confuse innocent bystanders. And of course the cutting was something that needed to be documented! And it turned into a how to, so let's get to it:

Pick a spot at the top of your head. Since I always keep my parting on the left side, I decided to pick the spot from along my parting. Then make two parts in a triangle-ish shape towards the front, leaving the hair you want for your bangs at the front and the rest secured back with hair clips. If you picked your starting spot at the center you can easily do a symmetrical parting, but since I wanted to keep my side parting my triangle is more wonky. 

Use scissors that are meant for cutting hair. Cut your bangs to the length your want them (careful!).

Then take your scissors, hold on to them in the same direction as your bangs (vertically), and start chopping just a couple mm in to your bangs. This will make your bangs a little bit more lively and textured.

The wicked wind kept messing up this shot with flyaways! Oh well.

So relieved to have my bangs back! I can't believe I ever doubted them. Remind me to read this the next time I even think of growing them out.

DIY Stripe Stamped Herb Pots (Basil)

I wanted stripes onto one of our basil pots, but it took me a while to decide how I'd make the stripes. Well, today I figured it out!

I got some inexpensive stamps at Hobby Lobby a while ago, so I decided to use them in this project. The ink is a permanent one, so I'm confident it'll stick to the pot.

How to:

Get white pots (or as in my case, bought some pots at IKEA and painted them white). Mine aren't the shiny kind, not sure how the stamp ink sticks to those.

Tape together letter stamps...

... and stamp away!

Let dry. Done!

Now I just have one more pot to decorate...

DIY Dragonfly Themed Burlap Cushion Covers with Fringe

Me and my sister are working with some models to build up our portfolios. There are a few shoots where I wanted to have some cushions as props, and wanted them all to have the same theme. Since it's so summery here already, I went for dragonflies.

These will look cool in our guest room once the shoots are over. They work as decoration very well, but the burlap is so ticklish! So they are definitely not for snuggling.

How to:

Cut cushion pieces (two per cushion). Make them bigger that the cushions; I made mine 2 inches wider on each side to have some extra fabric for the fringes.

Make a dragon fly stamp for cushion nr 1. You can see how to make stamps in this post.

Put fabric paint on the stamp with a brush.

(If you want more "coverage" than with the stamp, you can cut out a stencil instead, and use it several times)

Then you need a text stencil for cushion number two. You basically just cut out the text you want to use (print out some text from your computer if you don't feel confident drawing your own). I made this wrap around text in iDraw, e-mail me if you want to use the same template!

Protect your work surface! Dab on fabric paint with a foam brush.

For cushion nr 3 I also made a stencil: just cut out a dragonfly shaped hole in some paper.

(Again, let me know if you want me to e-mail you the template)

Dab the fabric paint with the foam brush again.

Let them dry.

Sew the edges together (put the cushion in there before you sew the last edge), leaving the extra fabric outwards.

Then start pulling away at the burlap to make the fringe.

Done!