Lanyards

Hello wonderful readers!  I hope you enjoy the fresh new look of Pocketful of Poise.  I can't be more excited about this perfect design by one.little.m. She took my ideas and came up with this beautiful concept.

So, for those of you who do not know... school starts tomorrow!! I feel somewhat prepared, but I guess you never feel fully ready for the first day.  I am kicking off the school year with some pretty cute lanyards.  Yes, you guessed it... I am making them for my kindergarten team. Maybe it's part of being kindergarten teachers, but we seem to get so excited over the smallest things. So, if a cute ribbon lanyard with our school's little cub paw print gets them excited then I have to make them!

Here's what you need:

• ribbon
• lighter
• key ring
• felt flowers

Start with a spool of ribbon. I used a whole spool of ribbon to make six lanyards.  I cut each ribbon at 30 inches.

 Burn the edges so they will not frey.

Place the ribbon around your neck and overlap the ends. Holding the two ends in place, fold the edges back and pin in place.

You can hand stitch or run it through your sewing machine; don't forget to back stitch reinforcing the ribbon.

You now have a loop to run the key ring through. 

Decorate with felt flowers, buttons or just leave it as is.  Add your teacher I.D. and maybe you'll actually remember to wear it now that it's on that cute lanyard!

I hope all my teacher friends have an awesome first day!

~Happy Teaching~

Awesome Guest Post from Paper Wings!

So, I'm so excited to introduce you to my very good friend and talented DIYer, Tracy at Paper Wings. Sticking with the jewelry theme, she is going to share a super cute necklace tutorial.  You can head over to her blog to see my first guest post... also a necklace, but a totally different look. I hope you try out both!

Hello everyone! I am Tracy from Paper Wings, and (YAY!) I am super psyched that Kristy has started this blog cause, let's face it...she's stink'n GOOD at this crafting/DIY biz. :) Hope you all like what I am sharing today, and by all means....come on by Paper Wings to sit for a spell..... :)

Ok, so on to today's post. I have been eying these types of necklaces since last summer/fall. It's about time I take action. :) Here we go.

What you need:
* Strips of material, about 2 inches wide. Fold in half and iron, so it's about 1 inch. (Or 1 inch ribbon.)
* beads (need to be about the width of your folded fabric.) I had this old necklace I picked up at a yard sale years ago. I took it apart, and used the creamy beads.
*string/ needle
*scissors

What to do:
Ok, so you have your fabric cut into a long strip, folded, and ironed. ( You may need to have a second strip to attach later if your original fabric strip isn't super long....I did.)

*Leaving a few inches at the end, fold strip into two pleats and stitch through.
*Feed bead onto needle, and stitch through.

*Add two more pleats to the other end of the bead and stitch through. Then stitch back through both sets of pleats and the bead.

*Continue until you have the length you desire.

*If you have a super long strip, then you just tie off your ends. I had to cut another strip in half, then use those two pieces to knot my ends.

Thanks again, Kristy for having me. It's been fun in the Pocket. :)

Loads of love- Tracy