Crafty Corner

What do sorority girls love more than just about anything else? That's right...crafting! As an art minor, I spend countless hours finding new things to craft and I've compiled a few projects I have been working on lately.

Gripper Socks:

            What you'll need:

                     -Socks (whatever kind your precious heart desires)

                     -Puffy Paint

Step 1:

Lay out the sock bottom up. Think about the designs you want to do. I was thinking school and sorority spirit!



Step 2:

Get creative! The main thing to remember is just to have fun; that's what crafting is all about.

Step 3: 

Let them dry and then put them through a wash and dry, then they are ready to wear!



 Make-Up Brush Holder:

                 What You'll Need:

                          - Aquarium rocks/beads/sand

                                   - Spray Paint (I used gold and gold glitter)

                                   - Glass bowl or container 

       

Step 1:

 Empty the aquarium rocks into a box. I slipped a shopping bag over my box so that when I spray painted the rocks they wouldn't stick to the box.

 

Step 2:

Spray paint rocks and let them dry. Then shake and repeat until rocks are covered with desired color.

Step 3:

Once they dry, they may stick together. If this happens, just put your hand between the bag and the box and crumple until they are loose again.

Step 4:

Pour the rocks into a glass container of your choice. I got one at Walmart that is deep and has a square top. It goes with the theme of my other bathroom things.

When you're done, stick your make-up brushes in and place on the counter! This is a super cute way to keep your brushes separate so you don't have to constantly dig for them, and it doubles as a cute decoration.



These are simple but fun crafts to do this summer and the best part is, the materials used are usually bought in multiples giving you more reason to craft for your Bigs or Littles!

Hope you enjoy!

XOXO

-Ashely W.











How To: Recruitment Edition!

This month’s craft project comes straight from our formal recruitment. Our recruitment chair decided that because of the mold incident (our campus decided to turn off the AC in our Greek Village resulting in mold growing EVERYWHERE. It ruined everything) we would have to make all the preference night decorations. She passed around sign up sheets at the meeting and I thought that making “puff-balls” couldn’t be too bad. Well, I thought wrong. We had to make 30 of the suckers. In all honesty, they are actually super simple to make, just not when you’re making 30 of them in one sitting.

To start, you need a package of tissue paper in whatever color you want (we went with white), a stapler, scissors, and lots of patience. Grab the package of tissue paper and count out 8 sheets.

Take those 8 sheets and fold them accordion style. When you’ve got it all folded cut off any excess, if there is any.

Next, staple the middle of the paper. I folded it in half to figure out exactly where the middle was.

Then, cut the edges. The ‘puff-balls’ look weird if you leave the edges uncut plus they’re easier to fluff later.

 

HUGE CRAFTING TIP: if you can do a little extra work now to make it easer later, DO IT. You’d be surprised how easily things go when you get the hard work out early on.

When we cut the edges, we made them either pointed or rounded. After you cut the edges it is time for fluffing! And yes, I mean exactly what you’re thinking when you hear ‘fluffing’.

Once you get the ‘puff-balls’ fluffed you can hang them by tying a piece of rope around the center part to whatever you want to hang them from!

 

Website Spotlight: Craft Cuts

Hey ladies! How have we all been the past few weeks? I hope recruitment has been going great, and I want to give a huge congratulations to all of the new member classes that we've all had the chance to take on this Fall semester!

Today, we're doing something a little different from my usual how-to. Since initiation is just around the corner for some of you, I'd like to share with you a great website that my mother found while browsing the internet one day. She had been looking for a present to get me over the summer, something she knew I'd appreciate and would last me a while to come.

Wooden Greek Letters.

If you'll remember correctly, most of us have large, Greek letters, something creative and cute to show off at events and rituals. You may remember that they look a little something like this:

Aww, lookit how cute, letters~

I'm sure that jogs your memory. I'm sure we've all posed in front of our letters and held them up, proud to display the letters that we wear across our chests and across our hearts. And, though many of us may have gotten these done by a carpenter, or someone we know, or some other hole-in-the-wall place that many of us, collectively, may have never heard of, I'm here to tell you that there's a place where you are get all of this and more for a cheaper price than you'd expect.

It's a website called Craft Cuts.

My mom should have been particularly proud of her self when she found this one. Craft Cuts is a division of a company called Woodland Manufacturing Inc. that specializes in craft lettering and shapes, small Greek letters, custom stencils, and decorative vinyl designs. Of their products, which specifically include unpainted and painted wooden letters. When ordering, you can specify a size and a width, ranging from  6inches in height to 48inches and 1/8inches in width to 2inches. They're incredibly easy to order from and have a lot to choose from. Their customer service is fast and friendly and they know what we want.

Shown below are various examples of purchases that my sisters and I have made over the past couple of months since using their website:

A set of portable letters my roommate made for tables and club fair.

A small set of letters, 6inch height and 1/4inch width, for a crate for my Little.
There were painted by the manufacturer and sent to me this way.

1 1/2inch thick and 9inch high, these are perfect for the window of my suite.

Each set of letters has been a great addition to my crafting collection as a whole. They're so convenient to have around (I buy them in sets at a time), and they're sturdy and made to last. I cannot tell you how often I've dropped the bottom set, or how often the letters on the crate get shoved into a wall while hiding it from potential littles.

As far as pricing goes, they're reasonable and cheap. Including shipping, I paid $15 for an unpainted set of 6inch letters, similar to the ones in the middle picture. My roommate paid $35 for the ones on the top, a 14inch height with a 1/4inch width.

Not only does Craft Cuts sell Greek letters, they also sell the English alphabet, stencils, vinyl wall decals, and carved monograms. On top of their painted, patterned, and unpainted finishes, Craft Cuts also sells letters made specifically for the outdoors, starting at $12 before shipping.

Craft Cuts is one of the best finds I've made since sliced bread. It has everything I could need as a demanding sorority girl and has given the answers needed to every #sororityproblem I've ever had. This site, along with Little Problems, has been the answer to many "What Am I Gonna Do For My Little?????" themed questions.

I hope everything has been going well for us all, and I hope you'll continue to follow us here at the Little Problems Blog! We love to have your smiling faces here everyday, and nothing will stop us from bringing you the best of our best. Again, congratulations to all of the new members of Greek life and a happy Bid Day to all of those to come!

How to: Make a Paddle!

Nine times out of ten, when I go to craft something, I have a clear view of what I want the finished product to look like. There are always some minor adjustments along the way, because let's be honest, my mind imagines things that can’t always be done. Of course, this project was furthest from the truth. 

The supplies you need for any paddle are very simple. I have a tendency to use paper and modge podge instead of painting but that’s only because I make stick art look hard. You can buy everything you need at your local craft store and probably for cheaper than I got it. The paddle that I use is from Michaels. Really, other than the paddle you only need a couple of things if you use paper like I did. I picked this beautiful gold glitter cardstock and got regular modge podge and glitter modge podge to go with it. I also bought two wooden ovals and stick on letters to use for her name. Everything cost me under $20.

The before picture.

Using my paper cutter, I cut the cardstock into manageable strips and began to modge podge them onto the paddle. This is the tricky part; you want to use a lot more than you think. And by that I mean drench the paper and paddle in modge podge. Only drench it if you’re using cardstock like I did. If its normal scrapbook paper then you’ll have a way easier time. I got the middle part done fine and pretty quickly too. Now this is where I started to run into MAJOR issues. The cardstock I chose was just too thick to fold over the rounded parts of the paddle.

The process of adding card stock to the paddle.

I decided to take a trip back to Michaels to see if they had anything similar to what I used but in a thinner paper. I was in luck, I found something that could work, it wouldn’t be perfect but it would work. When you use the thinner paper, you work around the curves much like you would when wrapping a gift. I left the paddle to dry and came back about 10 minutes later to finish it. Of course, as soon as I left one of my sisters accidentally dropped her project onto my drying paddle. It was COVERED in bright pink paint. By the time I got back, there was no saving it.

While attempting not to cry over spilt paint, I painted one of the wooden ovals blue and then covered it in glitter modge podge (which by the way is amazing). I put her initials on it and set that aside to dry.

Cute wooden oval for the paddle.

I had to do something about the pink paint that covered the top half of my paddle. It luckily got mainly on the new paper that I had just added. I remembered that I had a ton of gold glitter in my craft box and decided to make it work. To remove the old paper from the paddle, you’ve got to pull it off and then sand the paddle down. This is really important because if you don’t, it won’t go on flat and the paddle surface will be uneven. 

Thick modge podge layers.

Once I covered the rest of the paddle in glitter, I put a thick (and I mean THICK) layer of modge podge over it to seal it down. Don’t skip this step. If you do, then I hope you like living covered in glitter. The next morning, the paddle was dry and my suite mate was overjoyed to have it!

The finished product!