Sonya Nimri

At this past weekend's CHA (the craft industry's trade show), Rit dye had a fabulous floral pin make and take.  I went a little nuts with the spray dye and the unlimited mulberry paper flower supply and made a whole bouquet of them.  These flowers are simply sprayed with three different colors Rit dye and left to dry.  The result is a beautiful light yet intense wash of colors that blend one into the other seamlessly, just like the real thing.   Spray nozzle attached to the Rit Dye bottles Spritz And again A little more, then move to another color. Dyed flowers on the Rit Piano.  I brought these beauties home for the rest of the process. Don't need much for this project: mulberry paper flowers, cotton ribbon, a plastic headband, and a hot glue gun and dyed flowers.   Wrap the plastic headband with the cotton ribbon.  Glueing the flowers directly on the headband would melt the headband. Hot glue t...

My friend Catherine is having a rainbow bird party for her son's 4th birthday this weekend and had a little craft party to make feather headdresses for it today.  She bought tons of gorgeous feathers from Lincoln Fabrics (sadly going out of business which is why she got so many feathers at a discount).  Too much fun...  I went crazy and made about 5, not sure which one to wear yet. Inspiration from Free People More inspiration from Free People. Having a feather frenzy with Catherine, Heather, and Anna. Cut a band of cotton about 4"x24" Fold into thirds, and hot glue a strip of feathers right at the mid-point on the top folded part.  Turn lower part of fabric up to cover the base of feathers.  Hot glue in place. Turn front ways.  Hot glue a decorative strip of beaded ribbon right below the feathers.  Sew a running stitch to finish the rest of the back of the headdress.  Gluing would make it too stiff to tie nice...

It's not like every every artistic challenge I take on isn't an adventure in and of itself BUT...my friend Dany's wedding crown was a project that I was so totally excited to work on. Even more so than usual. See, this was payback time. Not only because Dany is such an amazing artist, and did an awesome job illustrating my two books- Beadalicious, and Just for the Frill of It , but on top of that she helped me make a beautiful handmade photo album for my wedding and, well, she's just an awesome girl who I love hanging out with. And I'm so supremely happy for her to finally have found a deserving match.  So for her wedding crown, I wanted to make something not only beautiful, but comfortable.  Dany is having a salsa-dancing wedding (how she and her hubby met) and I want her to be able to dance her little heart out without her head hurting from a harsh wire headband putting pounding pressure behind her ears (certainly not the good kind of accupressure). You can dance ...

   I saw a girl wearing one of these at a cafe the other day.  Right after, I happened to see an old knock off of a Chanel bag lying on the street in a pile of stuff someone had put out (I think- Chris thinks that they were moving but, honestly, it was all junk).  I took the chain off with my handy-dandy jewelry tools and voila, now I have one too!  Tres chic and tres simple! What You Need: 31 inches 1/4 inch curb chain for a double chain (or 16 inches for a single) The length of chain plus about 4 inches 1/2 inch satin ribbon Clear tape 8 inch elastic band or you can cut a ponytail holder open Directions: 1.  Make the ribbon into a shoelace by wrapping one end with tape as tightly as possible. 2.  Weave the ribbon in and out of the chain link causing the Chanel affect.  Leave a couple of inches of ribbon at the front end and also after you have woven it through the whole chain.  Tie knots at each end. 3.  Run the elastic cord through each end of the headband after finding the right te...