Design by Night

I can't go anywhere without seeing a pair of feather earrings. They seem to be really hot right now so I decided to whip up a pair. They are a very simple peacock feather pair, you should be able to get most of the supplies in your local craft store. Supplies: 4 peacock eye feathers Scissors Hot Glue 1 Set of Wire Earring Hooks 2 Fold Over Crimp Ends 2 Jump Rings Small Pliers (used for jewelry and delicate work) Take 2 of your peacock feathers and trim the wispy eyelash like ends off of the rounded top and cut off the stem about an inch below the “eye” (see fig. 1). Trim the two remaining feathers similar to the others, except you will be cropping closer to the eye, see fig. 3 for a reference. Use the glue gun and add a bead of glue down the spine of one of the trimmed eye only feathers. Glue this feather on top of one of the larger feathers (see fig. 3). Repeat this step with second set of feathers Place a small bit of glue to the very tip of the feather clus...

I am a bubble wrap girl. Even as a child I was more excited about popping the bubble wrap than playing with the item the bubble wrap was protecting. So recently when I was packing up one of my feather creations to ship and I reached for the bubble wrap and it wasn't there I didn't know what to do. It was late and I couldn't go to the store but the package needed to ship first thing in the morning. I wandered around the house looking for packing items when I came upon my "bag o' bags." You know, that bag of plastic bags you get from stores? I usually try to bring reusable bags but find that I still have at least a dozen plastic bags on hand. I usually use them as trash or doggy poo bags or return them to the recycle bins at the stores but now I use them for packing. Plastic store bags make great packing material around delicate objects! So the next time you need packing material grab for that bag o' bags. I usually wrap the item in tissue paper befo...

Every week the Baltimore Sun's Sloane Brown writes a column called Glimpsed , where she visits businesses and picks five fashionable people to photograph and write a blurb about. A few weeks ago she visited where I work, Devaney & Associates and I was one of the people chosen! This was super exciting since I didn't think I really had any "fashion" sense. This finally makes up for those high school years where everyone would give me the hairy eyeball for wearing what I wanted instead of what was in style! I have attached my picture but you should go check out the online column yourself. There are a lot of great outfits worn by everyday people. Glimpsed can be found here .

Usually when I go to the mail box I only ever pull out bills so you can imagine my surprise when I had the latest copy of Green Craft magazine waiting for me. It was such a big surprise because I did not order the magazine, I got a free copy because my Recycled Ruffled headband tutorial was published! I love how to craft books and magazines so coming up with tutorials is one of my favorite things and it tickles me to see one published!

Recently I got a pleasant surprise while I was checking my email. I was very excited when Melissa, a bride I worked with months ago, sent me wedding photos! When I work with brides I often get written descriptions, fabric swatches and mobile phone snapshots to help me come up with design ideas but I rarely ever see the finished item as it was meant to be seen on the wedding day. So when I got the photos I was completely tickled to see the hair accessory in action. Not to mention Melissa could make anything look good! She was such a lovey bride, if you didn't know better you would think Melissa was a model. Thanks Melissa!

Recently I have been working on a lot of special orders for brides and bridal parties so I thought I would share some of my latest feathered creations! I love the above clip because it uses a cluster of several different feathers in shades of white, off white and cream. This clip features a retro piece of jewelry. I have a whole collection of old earrings and pins that I love to use to create one of a kind pieces. The two colored peacock clips were for a bridesmaid. She wasn't sure what she wanted so I made two different clips and let her choose her favorite. I often do this in my shop for special orders. Making options for the buyer to choose which they like the best. If you are getting married and are interested in a Special Order, visit my shop on ETSY and convo me.

Even though I am not what I consider a "girly girl", if you have followed my blog for a little while you will notice a slight girly obsession with making flowers. I have no idea where this obsession came from but I constantly look at items and ask myself...can I make a flower out of that? So it should be no surprise that I have yet another flower accessory tutorial. This flower is very easy to make and you only need basic hand sewing skills. Supplies : 4 foot length of Doily Lace Small piece of felt Needle and thread (matching lace color) Medium to large sized buttons Gator clip and/or pin back Hot glue gun Scissors Cut a 4 foot length of lace. Using your needle and thread, tightly gather one side of the lace. Note: If your lace has an unfinished side or is pre-gathered, stitch along this edge. Even if it is pre-gathered you want to gather the lace as much as you can. Print out the Doily Lace Flower backer pattern. Cut out one of the shapes from the felt (Use the scale to ma...