Hand Made Archives - Earnest Home co.

Tutorials: Hand Lettering on Photos

IN Favorite Projects, Hand Made WITH 11 Comments

hand lettering

Most of you all know that I love hand writing. I hand letter lots of my projects, but today’s tutorial is a first for me because I’m taking it digital! I have never shared any tutorials or projects that are geared more toward tech and blogging because I don’t want to just be blogging to other bloggers and didn’t want to isolate my other readers with web or online projects. I am sharing this project, however, because I feel that it can really appeal to anyone who does some computer-based creating. With this tutorial, you want to add hand writing to photos for things like wall art or scrapbooks. I know a lot of designers have tablets (like the wacom tablet) which can easily capture hand writing onto the computer, but I don’t love using my tablet. I have one, but it makes my writing look so crazy! I might just need to practice, but in the meantime, I have created this work-around. [Read more…]

Tutorial: Fur Pom Hat

IN fashion, Favorite Projects, Hand Made WITH 4 Comments

fur pom hat diy

Over my winter break, I did a fair amount of thinking about the DIYs that I post here on House of Earnest (soon to be something else!). I determined that I hate the idea of making things for the sake of a post. Although I really love just making something creative for the hell of it, it doesn’t seem like a great use of resources or time. I decided that going forward (because there will, of course, be DIYs going forward) the projects and tutorials I share will be for one of two reasons. Either because it’s something I really want/need on my body or in my house, or because it’s a new skill or technique that I’m trying to explore. I’m trying to be mindful of living simply and getting rid of superfluous *stuff*, so the DIYs will follow suit.

Today’s project is a perfect example of creating to fill a need. I bought this slouchy hat a while ago, but it didn’t quite ‘slouch’ on me and always looked like a dunce hat or something from the movie Elf. I needed to add some weight to the top of the hat to get it to lay properly. I had a bit of fur left over from the throw I made last month, so I decided to take action and make this hat work for me!

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Making fur poms is just too easy not to put them on everything you own, let’s get going on this simple tutorial! [Read more…]

Waxed Paper Transfer Towel

IN Christmas, Hand Made, handmade holiday WITH 8 Comments

It might be the week of Christmas, but we’re not slowing down quite yet (we’re saving that for Wednesday). Just in time for the weeks’ festivities, we’ve made a few custom tea towels to bring to the people in our family who are hosting the holiday as a sweet little hostess gift.

I decided on using the ‘Joyeux Noel’ simply because I was listening to my french lesson yesterday and was inspired to use the phrase somewhere. I surrounded both the monogram and the Joyeux Noel with some laurel leaves to give them a festive feel. I used the same monogram on my custom printed napkins as well!

These towels are super super simple and just use wax paper as a way to transfer the ink onto the plain muslin towels – there is no special iron-on material or anything like that. I have the graphics and all letters of the alphabet for you to download for the project too! Here is the easy tutorial! [Read more…]

Handmade Holiday: No Sew Leather Clutch

IN Christmas, fashion, Hand Made, handmade holiday WITH 6 Comments

no sew clutch diy

We are really getting down to the wire here, but in my mind, this is the most fun time of the holiday season when creativity and resourcefulness take center stage when trying to really pinpoint the perfect gift for someone special. My favorite part of the gift giving is really when someone opens a gift and they LOVE it. Isn’t that the best feeling?

This gift is designed for an easy, two material way to show someone that you love them enough to hand make them something. This is a gift I’m planning on giving to my sister and I know she will not only love it, but be so proud that it was made for her.

envelope clutch diy

I love working with leather, which is a total throwback to my corporate days working with leather goods in the retail industry, but there is something deep inside of me that just loves the texture, the grain, and the smell of leather. I bought a few beautiful metallic skins from Florence, Italy a few years ago and I’ve been doing projects with them ever since (a full skin lasts me that long!). You don’t have to be a leather buyer, though. There are loads of wonderful resources that I use in the U.S. who offer fabulous quality skins for crafting. Tandy Leather Factory is one of them and ACS on Etsy is another good one. Although a good hide will cost between $50-100 they are fairly large and you can use them on lots of projects.

This clutch was a challenge to myself to make a beautiful no-sew style. There is one piece of leather and some ribbon involved… that’s it!

Although it’s a super easy project, there are a fair amount of photos to follow (just so that you all can get the most detailed tutorial!) [Read more…]

Birch Cottage Christmas Ornament

IN Christmas, Hand Made WITH 3 Comments

mini gingerbread house ornaments

What is it about all things mini that makes me get all excited? I love mini anything! I was inspired the other day by the adorable mini house luminaries

I saw on Remodelaholic and thought… “I want mini houses in my house”. It was a deep thought, I know.

So, I had these birch sheets that I’d purchased from a local nursery (the tree kind, not the kid kind) and although I was planning to make ornaments with them to share with you guys, the luminary idea sparked in me the desire to make mini house ornaments.

birch christmas ornament

The mini birch houses are way more practical than the typical gingerbread, and still have all the charm. I made a few for our tree (to be revealed on Monday!) and couldn’t be happier with how they turned out.

Since the birch sheets can be cut with scissors, it’s really the only ‘special’ thing you need. I used a hot glue gun to bind it all together and a little piece of twine with which to hang it! On to the Step-by-Step! [Read more…]