Braid Hairclip

Hi! Have you ever fancied having one of those colourful hipster string braids in your hair? You know, the ones they offer at little stalls near the beach? Not near one of them right now? Not allowed them for school or work? Never fear. Today you will learn how to create one of those colourful braids...that is attached to a hair clip, so that you can put it on, take it off, or relocate it whenever you please! How about that? And the best part is, it's really easy!

You will need:

-1 ordinary hairclip

-3 strands of colourful string/not too thin thread (I recommend them being about the length of the distance between your hands when you spread them out horizontally, but you can change it to suit the length of your hair.)

-1 pair of scissors (which you have probably already used to cut your string)

-1 quite heavy item, e.g. a thick book or, in my case, a snow globe

-1 mirror (just to look in, not cut up and stick anywhere - don't worry)

Step 1:

Put your three strands together, and make sure that at one end, they are all the same length. Roughly 10cm from this end, tie a knot. Just a normal knot. Do two on top of each other if you're really worried it's going to come loose, but it will be fine with just one.

Step 2:

I recommend doing this part on a table. Put your heavy item on top of the 10cm strip of string just above the knot. Now move your heavy item and its piece of string as close as possible to the edge of the table, so that the strings are not lying on the table, but are in the air. If you know how to plait, great: go ahead and do so until you're nearly at the bottom of your three strings. If you don't know how to, I'm sure there are many websites that would teach you how (it's not hard). Don't worry about making mistakes in your plaiting - it adds to the character of your braid hairclip. I know that I made plenty!

Step 3:

When you think your braid is nearing the length of your hair, go to a mirror. Grip, with a finger and thumb, where you are up to with your plaiting, and with your other hand, hold the braid against your hair, with the top quite near to the parting. If your braid is nearly the length of your hair, you can stop braiding. If not, keep doing some more plaiting and some more checking until it is nearly the length of your hair. The reason why I say nearly the length of your hair is because when you tie the bottom of your plaiting, there will be the three strands of string poking out at the bottom, and they will make the braid a bit longer, and make it the actual length of your hair.

Step 4:

I realise I've given you a bit of a spoiler, but oh well. Tie a knot (the same kind you tied at the top of the braid) where the plaiting finishes. Now cut the extra strands to size, to make the length of the braid more similar to the length of your hair.

Step 5:

Remember that 10cm strip of three strings at the top? Take it, and push it upwards through the middle hole of your hairclip. (See the picture for more clarity.) Pull it nice and tight, until it is stopped by the knot on the underside of the hairclip. Now tie a knot there, and make that tight, so that the hairclip can't move much between the two knots on either side of it. You might want to do an extra knot on top of it, just to be safe. (I did - I think this knot has more of a chance of untying than the one I said didn't need an extra knot earlier.) Now clip off the extra string on top of this double knot, leaving about 1/2cm of string remaining.

Step 5:

Clip it into your hair and wear it with pride.

And there you have it! Your very own reusable braid hairclip that should last you ages! It wasn't that hard, was it?

Issy

Paperson

Hello!

Are you in need of a small companion? Then look no further, because today you will learn how to make a paperson in a few simple steps. As well as being great decoration for rooms, these nifty things make fun presents too.

You will need:

-1 sheet of paper/card

-pens/pencils for drawing

-colouring pens/pencils

-1 black biro/fineliner

-1 pair of scissors

1. 

Draw a person - any person - about the height of your index finger. Draw them in standing position, adding as much detail/colour as you want. Then, with a black biro/fineliner, draw around the edge of your person to make them stand out, and also to make it clear where to cut. If you want to have more clarity, you can also draw along the lines inside the outline (this has been done in the picture).

2.

Carefully cut out the person you have drawn, along the black lines.

3.

Now for the folding part. This takes some judgement but is not too hard - you can use the picture here as a guide. First, estimate where the knees would be, and fold the lower half of the legs back behind the person. Then fold the shoes upwards, at 90 degrees to the lower legs. Then fold the waist by lifting the legs towards the stomach. Then fold the elbows - how to do this will depend on the angle at which you have drawn the arm.

4.

Your paperson is ready - now all you have to find is a corner for it to sit on. This can be the edge of a table, the edge of a chest of drawers, the edge of a stack of books, or many other places. If you want, you can design a paper bench or chair that folds around the corner for the paperson to sit on. Be creative!

I hope you enjoy the company of your paperson! You could even make a few more to keep your paperson company when you're not around. How about experimenting and making different paperthings to sit on your corners, such as paperanimals!

By Issy

Personalised Washi Phone Case

Hi everyone! 

Do you like washi tape? If you do, then this post (and our other washi posts) is for you, because we're going to show you how to make a personalised washi phone case. They take ten or less minutes to make and the result is really cool. Enjoy!

You will need:

1 transparent or mostly transparent phone case

1 pencil

1 ruler (optional)

1 plain sheet of white (or a different colour of your choice) paper or card

1 pair of scissors

2 rolls of differently patterned washi tape

All of the above items are easily obtainable - you can purchase clear phone cases, pencils, rulers, paper, scissors and washi tape on online stores such as Amazon, and in most real shops.

1. Lay the phone case on top of the paper, with the back of it facing downwards and the open side facing upwards. Next, pick up your pencil to draw the perimeter of the transparent part. If this is a completely transparent case, you can simply trace around the outside of the case onto the paper, remembering not to include the camera section in your outline. However, if you have a case that is not completely transparent, like the one we used for this tutorial, you will need to trace as accurately as possible around the transparent area. We did this by lifting up the case, estimating where an edge would be, then putting the case back down and seeing how close to the edge it was, moving the line if it wasn't very accurate. Keep doing this draw-compare-move method until you have an outline that is more or less accurate.

2. Cut out your outline along the lines so that you have a paper template of the transparent part of your phone case.

3. Time for the fun, creative part! First, make sure your template is the right way round - you don't want to create a cool design only to find that it has to face your phone because of where the camera hole is. Take your two rolls of washi tape and decide which is the paler, or slightly less vibrant, one. Hold onto this one and put it near your template, scissors at the ready. Unpeel it slightly and stick this end at the very top of the template, horizontally. Then unravel the tape gradually, sticking it down as you go along, until you reach the other edge, when you need to cut this strip off with your scissors. Keep doing this in neat horizontal rows until you reach the bottom. If there are any ends of tape that don't quite fit on the template, simply fold them around the other side and no one will know!

4. Some might be happy with the way the template looks at this stage (it does look a lot better in real life than in photos), but since this is a tutorial for personalised washi phone cases, we will show you how simple it is to make it special to you. Take your other roll of washi tape, the more vibrant/darker one and work out how many initials you want on the case. We did it with just the first letter of a first name, but it would also work with two initials if you were prepared to do a little more fiddly work, which could involve splitting tape in half lengthways. Once you know how many initials you will do, figure out how you will make the letters out of washi tape. If you have a letter that is all straight lines, like the 'I' we put on the case we made, these are not too difficult, but if a chosen letter has a curve, you might like to overcome this problem by turning the curves into corners (for 'S', imagine a '5' on a digital clock) or by cutting a few small squares of tape and arranging them, in mosaic fashion, in a curve.

5. When you know what letter(s) you are doing and how you are doing it/them, you can start sticking the second type of tape onto the horizontal stripes, in the way you have just planned. 

6. You have now finished the template! Congratulations! The last, and easiest (hopefully) step is to insert the template in between the transparent part of the case and the phone, with the pattern facing outwards. The transparent plastic should make your pattern shine and really stand out. You should be proud of your personalised washi phone case!

We hope this post has been helpful and that you've enjoyed making your quick and easy, but very professional-looking, phone case! Now your design will last forever, because the plastic protects it from scratches or peeling. One of the really good things about it is that, once you have your plastic phone case, you can change the design inside at any time if you fancy something new.

Variations:

-use different patterns of washi tape

-try a different number of initials

-have a picture instead of an initial

-try having the stripes going vertically

-put stickers on top of the washi tape

-try using more than two rolls of washi tape

-...the possibilities are endless! Have a wander in your imagination and think outside the box!

Little note: sorry about the bad pictures of the making of the phone case. If you have just scrolled down all the way here, reading the instructions before making it, then don't let it put you off - the real thing looks a whole lot better!