it's another one...

you know how i love me some mandi(y) right?

remember the award i made just for them?

 well..i've got another mandy for you today..

and this one needs no introduction....

but I'll give her one anyway.

that's right...sugar bee is in the house.

i often think of mandy as my crafting twin.

I think we have the same crafting mind! everything she posts is just my style...awesome, fast and easy....

for example:

You can see more of her  projects in her new Tutorials Page, so check that out as well.


she also has an awesome linky party on Tuesdays


with a round up that i steal all my shout out sunday ideas from....

she also does a What I Wore Wednesday
that I totally love....I was thinking about starting one here on agaagg....and figured no one wanted to see all 27 pairs of pajamas i own.

anyways...she's got an awesome craft for us today so let's turn the time over to mandy:

So when I was trying to come up with a Grand Idea, I knew it HAD to include hot glue, of course.  Immediately I thought of my elastic belt, because it's amazing AND it is constructed with hot glue - win win.



I recently bought this black dress - I figure everyone needs a plain black dress.  But then I wanted to add some POP to it.  I knew it'd be a belt - they're all the rage.  Well, then I found these shoes at a thrift store:





So I knew it needed to be a pink belt.  I grabbed a bunch of fabric that had any form of pink as a main color:




Then I dyed some wide elastic - elastic is so cheap - perfect!  You buy it by-the-yard, just like fabric. (I didn't want to waste a whole pot of dye so I threw some shoes in too -see them here)



The dye pot was looking more purplish than pinkish, so I pulled the stuff out early, after about 20 minutes - but the purple rinsed out and left the pink, so that was good.  I probably could have left it in for another 20 or 30 minutes, but oh well, I didn't want it to be too neon, so better safe than sorry.



 Side note, when adjusting items in the pot, you WILL dye your hands.  This is before I stuck my hand in another couple of times.....

Alright, moving on to the Elastic Belt Tutorial.  Make various fabric flowers (my tutorial, with video, for fabric flowers) and then place them where you want them on the belt.  After laying them all out, hot glue them on one by one - - for the ones that stick off the belt a bit, be sure to one put glue where it will touch the belt.  For dimension, I stuck some pink tulle on as well.



Here's the close-up of my flower arrangement:



Then, finish the ends of the belt. Of course, using hot glue again -  I glued the ribbon on - - first, put a row of glue on the elastic and stick one side of ribbon down:




Then fold like a present and glue the other side down, so the edges are all wrapped on the inside.




The glue is holding great, but hand-sewing the hook and eyes on through hot glue was tough, so if I did this again I would use the sewing machine and sew the ribbon on.  But either way works.  So as I just mentioned, to finish, you just hand sew on a few hook and eyes.  (Side Note - I thought about buying a big ole bra that fit on my head at a thrift store and cutting off it's back hook piece and using that, but I just couldn't bring myself to buy it!  I knew that the clerk would look me up and down and realize something very fishy was going on)  Here's the back view of my belt:





Just the thing I needed!!! Voila:

(um, ignore the bucket - that's our castle playhouse-in-the-works).  Here recently I wore it with jeans to add pizzazz to a normal outfit (I'm trying to step up my style in life - trying!)

 So there you have it - - super cute, super easy, super cheap (if you have scrap fabric, and the elastic was only around $1, and maybe you have eye hooks - - and of course you already have hot glue) - - so go try making one - you can do it!!




it's she like the cutest? I am starting a petition to get her to move to idaho....leave a comment if you want to sign the petition!  thanks mandy!