Hey! This is another blog post for the wedding craft contest hosted by dollarstorecrafts.com and sponsored by Dollar Tree. I have three crafts that would be great gifts to include in a bridesmaid gift basket (or any gift basket for that matter).
The three crafts are:
- Strappy flip flops
- Flower hair clips
- Flower-like bath scrubby
Flip Flops
This flip flop idea is my absolute favorite! You take a regular pair of flip flops that I found at the dollar tree for, yep, $1, and turn them into an awesome pair of strappy sandals that can be converted into many different styles!
Materials:
- flip flops from the dollar tree. You can probably use other ones as long as they are very similar. Read the instruction before you purchase a pair to make sure you'll be able to use them. You could also probably adapt the instruction to work with any pair of flip flops.
- shoe glue (I used hot glue because that's what I had on hand, but it definitely wont' be very durable)
- old tshirt turned into yarn (google the tutorial) or any other kind of fabric strap that you'd like to use.
- Xacto knife.
Instructions:
1) Separate the bottom part of the flip flop from the top. Be very careful with this part so as to not rip either part. Start by prying on the edges and gently move your way toward the center.
2) Once they are completely separated, pull out the straps. Next we cut a piece of of the strap to fit into the hole left at the toes. Fold it in half and stick it through the hole making sure that there are enough ends to glue down. Make sure the piece is big enough to go in between your toes and still be able to thread it with fabric, but not too big because we need to use the strap sparingly if we want extra loops. On my shoe, I had 5 loops, 3 in the original locations of the straps, and then I made 2 extra cuts using an exacto knife, one right by the toe on the inside, and another one just slightly above the original hole on the outside. See picture.
Continue adding loops in the remaining holes and any extra holes you want to make. The original strap only gave enough to make the toe loop plus 4 on the sides. If you find another type of material to use, you can definitely make more than 4 loops and that way you can also make them bigger. Mine are fairly small in order to get as many as I wanted, so I can't have fabric that is too thick.
3) Once you've glued all of the loops into the holes, it's time to glue the sole back on! I used hot glue, but I would not recommend it unless you have no other option. I've never used shoe glue, but I'm assuming it will work, seeing as how these are shoes and all. You could probably find another glue that would work well too, I think you just want to make sure it can bend once it's dry.
4) Now that all of the gluing is done, it's time to get creative! Take whatever you've chosen as your strap, and remember, you will always be able to change it whenever you want! I chose t-shirt yarn because it's what I had on hand. I didn't even measure them because I wasn't sure exactly how I wanted them designed, so I just made sure that each piece was long and equal. Too long is better than too short!
Here are some examples of things I tried with them:
You should definitely let your imagination run wild! The possibilities here are endless! So many fabrics and so many styles! If your fabric is thin enough, you could probably even use beads on them as well.
Flower Hair Clips
These hair clips look so cute and any girl would love to have them. Not only are they cheap, but they are super easy and quick to make! I made mine all one color, but you can mix up the colors if you'd like. Go with what you like!
Materials:
- Hawaiian Lei, they sell a few at the dollar tree, but the one I used is from Party City for $3.99. Dollar Tree is cheaper, but Party City as a lot more to choose from.
- Hot glue (is this my go to item now??)
- Bobby pins, clips, combs or anything else you can think of. I used bobby pins.
- Little bits of felt.
- Scissors
Instructions:
1) Once you've chosen the lei or leis you want, cut the string and take the flowers off. Take one petal and pinch it at the center, bringing the petals up to meet above. Now twist the part that you are pinching. See pic.
2) Next, stick the end of the petal into the hole of the second flower petal, just enough that you can glue it and have it stay put, but where you are able to twist the "stem" of the second flower around the "stem" of the first flower.
3) Now add another flower by sticking the stem into the hole of the next flower petal. This time, just glue, but don't twist. If you want it to stick up more, you can glue some of the petals together. Add more petals this way until you have your desired fullness. I only used four!
4)Once you have your desired flower, it's time to add the clip! First, cut off the extra stem so that the clip can be glued. I used a bobby pin for the clip, so that's what I'll be showing. You can adapt this step to fit with what you're using. Take a tiny rectangular piece of felt and stick it into your bobby pin. Next, put dabs of hot glue onto both ends of the felt and stick it on the flower! Let dry and ta da, cute hair clip!
Towel Bath Scrubby
Now, this is not my idea, nor did I even do a very good job with my trial of it! But I still think it's a great idea and if you can pull it off, it would make a great addition to a gift basket! I used an old towel we had lying around that wasn't too bad but was fraying at the ends. If you're having an eco/green wedding, these would be perfect bridesmaids gifts, keeping with your theme. If not, and if you don't really care, you could probably go buy a normal size bath towel and make multiple scrubbies out of it.
Materials:
- New or old towel, any color
- Sewing machine (unless you're very brave, you could probably adapt the instructions so that you can just hand sew it)
- thread
- scissors
Instructions:
This is the website I found the tutorial on! I did not create this tutorial, all credit goes to the owner of the above website. She does a great job of explaining every step, unfortunately I haven't mastered the sewing machine yet, so mine didn't turn out as good.
And that's the end of my post! I hope you found it interesting and inspiring! Thanks for sticking with me!
