Fleece Blanket with Crocheted Edge // DIY

This week has pretty much been working with a few crafts sprinkled in between. I was able to do crafty things and hang out with my friends Lauren and Chanel. Those awesome projects are coming soon to the blog nearest you! (aka Elemental Carbon). I also went to Bible Study on Tuesday, Women's Bible Study Wednesday morning, and a RealLife get together playing sand volleyball on Thursday.

I also picked up my guitar again because it had been way way too  long. I learned to play the song Safe & Sound by Taylor Swift because I think the intro is really fun. I also worked a little bit on Study No. 7 in Am by Matteo Carcassi which I had learned previous to my guitar hiatus (due to college busy-ness).

When I was younger, and even now, it seemed like every single person and their brother had one of those no-sew fleece blankets where you tied the edges, but I never got or made one. I was at Hobby Lobby with my friend Lauren and saw this really cute black and white plaid fleece (and it was on sale!) and knew that this was the perfect opportunity to make up for the missing fleece blanket in my childhood. 

Plus, I love blankets and I feel like you can never have too many.

At the same time, I was never overly fond of the tied edge look, but as much as I love sewing, I still jump at the chance of anything that is no-sew.

So instead of tying the edges, I crocheted them so that they look braided!

Want to know how? I'll show you!

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Gold Chevron Army Backpack // DIY

Did ya miss me?

This week has been so busy! I moved into my new room for the summer, trained for my job, and started working! Thursday I went to the summer kickoff of RealLife, the campus ministry that I am involved in here at Ohio State. Then last night I went with some friends to a cool theater downtown to see the old movie Casablanca. 

Two very exciting pieces of news:

I was featured on one of my absolute favorite blogs, Cotton & Curls, yesterday! 
SO exciting. I looked on her blog and all of a sudden, my picture from the DIY Lace Shorts Tutorial was at the very top! I did a little happy dance and immediately called my mom and fellow crafting buddy Katie to tell them the great news.

I have also become the DIY Coordinator & Stylist for a website called Collegiate Consumption (see logo on the right sidebar!) which is also very exciting. I will be posting 1 out of every 3 or 4 of my DIY tutorials on there, but don't worry! Elemental Carbon will still be running as normal and you will always get the most and best right here.

Now that I've probably bored you to death with all my blabbing, on we go to this week's tutorial!

After a week off from blogging, I am more than ready to come back and show you what I have up my sleeve! I am SO excited for you guys to see this post.

Ready to see what we're doing?

A DIY Gold Chevron Army Backpack!

And this tutorial comes with a freebie downloadable chevron pattern!

I got this cute little backpack from an Army Surplus/Resale store that is close to campus. As soon as I saw it I knew it would look perfect with some chevrons on it. I was originally thinking silver, but I'm glad I changed my mind to gold.

Click "Read More" below to continue with the instructions!

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Sneak Peek June 2012

Surprise! It's a mid-week mini blog post!

I'm so excited for the next upcoming blog post that I'm giving you all a sneak peek of what is to come! 

You're going to love it, I promise.

I've also been making some changes to the blog design - notice a difference? I like it a lot better. 

I have added this icon at the end of all my posts:

It allows the main page to not be quite as wordy. If you want to read more into the post, just click it and a new tab will open with the entire post in it!

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Today I wore my hair in a ponytail, but with a little twist. (Literally!)

All you do is take a small section near the top of your head, split it into two sections, and start twisting. While twisting, pick up little pieces of hair along the edge as you go. It's like a french braid but twisting!

Such an easy way to dress up a simple ponytail!

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Metal Stamping from a Penny // DIY

Finals are this week, so this weekend has consisted of Diet Coke, ice cream, and studying. Maybe some procrastination too...but we won't get into that!

Just a heads up - there won't be a blog post for this coming week because of finals and I move dorm buildings for the summer and I start my new summer job. So there won't be time for a blog post, let alone to make anything (sad face). Posts should return as usual next week though!

Today is a two-fer. The first part is a tutorial, the second part, I'm showing off a necklace I made here at the dorm! More details when you scroll down.

Now to the tutorial:

Lately, I have seen some cool metal stamping projects on pinterest. Alphabet metal stamps cost about $25 (sans coupon) at MIchael's for the whole set. That's a little pricey for me. Not that the price I got was too much better, but I was at an antique store with my mom once and found a set for $15 that was just as nice, so I got it. (sorry, there aren't pictures of it - I left it at home!)

But then came the real sticker shock. The metal to stamp on? If it's precut into necklace pendant sizes, it is $20. WHAT?!? No. That just isn't acceptable.

So my friend Katie and I decided to become inventive. 

This is actually the cheapest project I have made to date. And I doubt I could ever make anything any cheaper. The idea we came up with? Cost a penny. No joke!

We took a penny and made it into pendant-sized metal to stamp on. And it worked perfectly! We also made some out of dimes to have silver-looking pendants.

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