Sonya Nimri

This is a very simple project to make.  I hung cut plastic water bottles with living plants in them but you could hang lots of things- jewelry, photos, tools, keys... so many things! What You Need: Peg Board Frame Jig Saw 4 Drywall or Wood Screws Paint- I used a color called "Sprout"  Measuring tape Pencil Small rocks Directions: 1. Measure the back of the frame, draw a line where the edge of the frame is and cut the peg board a little smaller than the edge of the frame.   2.   Cut pegboard with your jigsaw. 3.  Use drill to screw pegboard into the frame.  I put the screws in the corners because the wood was thickest in the corners and the screws didn't go through the frame. 4.  Our theme is recycling so I decided to go with plastic bottles for the display.  Put a few rocks at the bottom of plastic bottles with their tops cut off and plant small rooted plants into them. 5.  Take 24 gauge wire and wrap around plastic bottles...

This blackboard display with sleep chart is very easy to create with a sewing machine, some scrap fabric, shelf paper, the Cricut cutting machine and a printer. I cut all the letters out of shelf paper with the Cricut using the Don Juan cartridge. I  cut and sewed clouds out of felt, cotton broad cloth, shelf paper, and cork and printed out animals with the regular printer on color paper then put it all together on the Family Commons black board.  The line graph is a chart of how much sleep children need as they grow.  It drops to 8-9 at 12 years old but before that it is significantly higher.  

 For the Mother's Day event at the UCLA Commons I made a bunch of these flower pins and hair clips to giveaway to the moms with scrap fabric that designer Cynthia Vincent donated to the center.   Look how cute they look as a set on this mother/daughter team! They couldn't be easier to make. All you need is:  Strips of fabric Wire- 24 gauge works great Hot glue gun Scissors Little felt scraps to back the pins Pin back or Hair clips Directions: 1.  Bunch strip of fabric lengthwise. 2.  Wrap center tightly with wire and twist tightly in back. 3.  Hot glue felt backing to back of pin 4.  Hot glue pin backing to felt. 5.  Repeat with a shorter, narrower piece of fabric and glue to top of first flower.

My latest craft job has been as spokesperson for the quickly growing craft powerhouse Provo Craft  as one of their spokespersons.  This job has entailed demonstrating their machines the  Cricut Create  ,  Yudu , and the Yourstory on the Shopping Channel in Canada.  It's been a pretty fast-paced job and after being out of the game for a while after the pregnancy and birth of the wee one I have to say it's been really nice to work again.  Being on the shopping channels is just like being on the morning news in most ways.  Living on the west coast really puts me at a terrible disadvantage in the morning when I have to travel east and get up at 6 a.m.  I feel destroyed for the first half an hour after waking up but with a little coffee and the buzz of getting ready for a live show, I always wake up pretty quick.  The main difference between the news and the shopping channels is the shameless self-promotion of products ( a given) and looking...

I haven't designed windows since I worked at Anthropologie but, like riding a bike, it came right back... working the ladder into an impossibly tight, hot space, getting paint where I shouldn't have, spending too much time removing it, being stared at by homeless people right on the other side of the glass...ah, yes, the glamour of window display!  It's awfully frustrating, but so worth it when it's done!  These gigantic flowers were really easy to create and would be a great project to decorate, say, a float in New Orleans.  If you want to see it in person, it is at 1221 2nd Street, Santa Monica, CA 90403 at the UCLA Family Commons  until Mother's Day. What you need for the flowers: Scissors Cardboard boxes- I used large flats from Costco Colorful scrap fabric Gold foil 12x12 Card stock or Crepe paper Tissue paper Background: Painter's Tarp 4x12 feet ( I only used half) Yellow Paint 1 quart diluted with water For the Window Poem 2 packages Provo Craft vinyl...

 Leather Hairclips These are one of the projects that we make in my Mommy and Me Eco Crafts class at the UCLA Commons . A really easy project to make with the Cuttlebug.   What You Need: Leather Scraps Hair clips White glue Scissors Directions: 1.  Use the flower die cut and cut one scalloped petal and one flat petal.   2.  Cut individual letters out. 3.  Cut a tiny slit in the scalloped leather.  Slip the bottom of the hair clip through the slit and glue in place.  Glue flat petal on top of the clip. 4.  Glue letters onto the hair clip.

This month's More magazine features a really awesome spread with Lori Loughlin relaxing in a hammock that I made especially for the shoot.  I took the rope ends of an existing hammock, cut the loud stripped plaid fabric out of it then used the old hammock as a pattern.  The hammock was basically a rectangle with tabbed ends so it was a simple process.  Thick canvas fabric covered on both sides by vintage inspired patterned cotton replaced the bright red plaid fabric.   I first sewed a pretty cotton to both sides of sturdy 6' piece of fabric that measured 54" wide.  Then, cut slits in each end of the new fabric which each measured 2 and change inches wide each so that there were 8 tabs total at each end, finished the raw edges with a zig-zag stitch, then looped the tabs around the rope loops and secured them by sewing a box with an "X" in the middle.  A really simple project that didn't take more than an hour!