(Check out Part 1 and Part 2, if you missed 'em.)
This time we've got pom-pom bobbles! Yes. You need to be a certain type of person to wear this bangle: Confident, playful, and ready to shimmy their wrist in the air at any moment that needs a festive flourish. Directions for making one are below.

Now carefully braid the three strands together, pulling the pom-poms out of the braid as you go. 

Once your braid is the correct length (long enough to slip over your hand and onto your wrist), trim the end, leaving about a half- or three-quarter inch of excess. Trim the pom-poms from this excess section, and from the other end of the braid, as well. 

Tomorrow I've got one more bracelet for you, and this one doesn't involve tissue paper (though it is paper-based). It might be the coolest one yet! Stay tuned...
​xo

(If you missed it, here's the first bangle.) Bracelet week continues! This one's a thinner, more sedately-colored variation of the first. I swapped out one strand of paper for a length of hemp cord, and I covered the finished bangle with Mod Podge. Read on for complete directions.

Come back tomorrow for a third tissue-paper bangle variant that's the most radical yet!
​xo

The weather has finally turned warm enough to wear short sleeves, so in honor of that, it's bracelet week at Ink and Glue! I have a few variations on today's basic tissue paper bangle in the works, so stay tuned. The design of this one relies entirely on the bright, cheery colors of craft tissue paper, so choose your colors carefully. (As you can see, I went all crazy-festive with mine.) If you know how to braid, you can make one in just a few minutes.

You should end up with a braided cord, like so. Measure the length around the wearer's wrist, and trim the ends so there's about an inch of overlap, and making sure to keep the bangle wide enough to slide on and off the hand.

If you want a longer-lasting bracelet, dab the bangle (don't brush, unless you're sure your tissue paper won't bleed) all over with Outdoor Mod Podge and let it dry. Add a second coat over the first for extra strength. There's also Hard Coat Mod Podge, which claims to be extra durable, but it doesn't say it's water-resistant, so assume that it isn't.
​Or, just enjoy your bangle as an ephemeral object!
xo

Our local Pride march is this Saturday, and it's always a celebratory, life-affirming occasion. I made this pin with thoughts of wearing it on the day, but naturally, any fan of rainbows — or whatever color combo you fancy — can make this pin too. I loosely modeled it after those iconic military bar pins, so you can pretend you're a major general in the army of love and equality. (Aww!)
​
To make one, or many, start by cutting strips of tissue paper in your chosen colors. I went for the classic ROY G. BIV, without the indigo, because I think blue and purple pretty well cover that end of the spectrum; no need to get all medieval with the coloring. 

Keep adding Mod Podge and overlapping strips until you've covered the rectangle with all six colors. Note: Some colors of my tissue paper — the green and blue — bled quite a bit. Just brush the Mod Podge only on those colors, then rinse the brush before continuing. If you don't rinse it, you'll smear greeny blueness all over your rainbow. It's no biggie to rinse, I swear.

Now you've got a nice color-bar rectangle! All that's left to do is to glue a pin back to the back. Or, make it into a barrette by gluing a (you guessed it) barrette to the back. 

Happy pride day, or rainbow season, or whatever makes you feel happy today!
xo

Have you met Nate Duval? I learned of him through Tiny Showcase, which has sold several editions of his work. He's a graphic artist/illustrator, and does a lot of posters for rock bands and concerts you've might have heard of.

He has more pins on his site, and some of them are not totally kid-friendly, just FYI.
I wanted to share some of his art prints, which would be wonderful additions (or gifts) to a hip kid's decor. Click on the image to go to that poster's shop page.

This next one is pretty awesome: It's an alphabetical, illustrated guide to all of the spells in the Harry Potter books. Word. 

Go to Nate's site to check out the rest of his work! He's got shirts, more pins, and the aforementioned rock posters for sale, too. 
xo

Just what it says on the box. I found this at a Goodwill, surprisingly. It was in the glass case where they put all the good stuff, but was surprisingly inexpensive. I think they're from the 1960s, and I'm sure they were made in Czechoslovakia by a company called TOFA.

I did a quick Google and learned that my box of puppets originally just had the five animals pictured on the front of the box. The human figures came from a second, matching set. 

...And here's someone else's set of humans, available for sale on etsy:

...and a different person's set of animals, for sale via ebay.uk. 

The construction is pretty simple. The fabric is sewn into a cone, with the tip of the cone glued inside the wooden head. You could make a simple version with wood ball dowel caps. (That seems to be the right phrase for finding a round wooden thing that has a hole big enough for a fingertip to fit inside.) 
If you want to read an exhaustive history of TOFA, the manufacturer of these dolls, visit dollhousespastandpresent. "TOFA" stood for "TOy FActory." Pleasingly literal!
xo

These poster rails are made by Parabo Press specifically to hang the posters they print, but there's no law that says you can't use them for your own on-paper art. Magnets hold the wood strips to the top and bottom of the paper, so it's a snap to switch out old artwork for new. 

The rails come in 12-inch or 36-inch widths, and cost $20 or $40.

Parabo Press's main gig is making high-quality prints of the digital photographs you send them, and it looks like they do a wonderful job at that, too. Check 'em out!