Fitting Homemade Masks for Noses

I have been powering through some homemade masks.  I feel utterly ridiculous doing it, but only because it seems utterly ridiculous that we are so incredibly under-prepared as a country but that's a whole other conversation.  A nurse friend of mine I've been making them for reminded me that these masks need to fit over people's noses to give them some sort of protection.  At first I was thinking pipe cleaner, or other thing metal but she reminded me since these are supposed to be reusable and washable if they put pipe cleaners through the wash they will start to rust.  Finally, after discussing this problem with my mother she came up with a good alternative if you do not have any nose bridges for your homemade masks.  If you buy bags of coffee to make at home you'll no doubt have some of those big twist ties as seen below:

These things are perfect, they fit well over someone's nose, will bend and stay and won't rust when washed since they are plastic coated.  So now you can help in the pandemic and recycle/reuse old materials.  Although the plastic between the two strands of metal is pretty thin and I've accidentally been putting my needle through it a couple times I've been trying to just sew around the strips like so:

My mother put out a call to our community through FB and people have been bringing me their spare twist ties for a couple days now.  Although I doubt any of them will read this thank you!  Although it's truly the first responders doing the hard work it's nice to see us coming together to do small little things to support them. 

Another day, another dozen masks:

Reusing Old Pamphlets

At work we just ordered new pamphlets, unfortunately we now have boxes of old out of date pamphlets left.  Although we as a company are massively eco conscious we do get plastic coated cards so they keep a little better but this means we can't recycle them.  I am looking for any possible suggestions for what to do with these.  Although the back is totally out of date the front is still all good information.  So any suggestions with what to do, whether it's something with the front for advertising or a paper craft of some sort.

Any suggestions!  I already started making a paper chain out of some of them I'm that desperate to try and use them again.  Thanks internet!


Update.... this is what I've been able to make so far, a wreath.  It's not much, but it's something.  The first one didn't turn out super great since I wasn't paying attention and they were all facing different directions, see my mess ups below:

On the plus side my boss got back from holiday and she loved it so I was able to sit at my desk and make another, larger, better looking one:

So now this is hanging on the office door.  My weird contribution to this wonderful company front and center.  First two weeks of this promotion going great.  Still looking for new options because we still have boxes of these darn things left, suggestions still welcome!

Beer Cap Wreath Ornaments

Quick and easy ornament for the beer lover in your life!  Just need six beer caps, some hot glue and ribbon.  Hot glue the bottle caps and just add a bow!  Use fishing line or string to hang and enjoy!

Bud Light, my personal favorite.

Christmas present for a friend.

Cork Angel Ornaments

For the wine enthusiast this Christmas I'm making wine cork angels.  So simple, was able to use a lot of things I already had.

Start off with a cork and wire ribbon.  About 5-6", depending on how big you want them and the size of the corks you're using. 

Fold the ends into the middle and scrunch it down.

Next put a dot of hot glue down in the middle and place another, smaller ribbon, I found a sequin string, I had leftover.  Put another dot of glue on top of the end so you can wrap it around the wings and they stay when you glue them down to the cork.

Glue the wings to the cork and spread them out, shape them the way you want.

I found these styrofoam balls at the craft store that were perfect for the head and out for Christmas. If your craft store does not have them they will have regular styrofoam balls, without glitter or anything that you can paint whatever color you want.  Beads are also a good option, they have good size pearl beads or wooden beads in the children's craft section. 

So to make the halos just wrap metal around another cork.  Aluminum wire bends the best and cuts easy.

After that just hot glue the halo to the back of the head, then a string to hang it.  Fishing line works well too.

Complete!  Hope every one enjoys and has a fabulous Christmas! :)

Pearl Ornament

Nothing says "classy mo-fo" like pearls.  So for my classier of friends I made pearl ornaments.  Pearl beads in a clear ornament.  I had to super glue the top to the bottom cause it got a little heavy, but a small little bow covered up the super glue and added a little something to it.  Super simple, super cute.

Skull Chandelier

So as I previously said, I absolutely love Halloween decorations.  So today the focus was on the chandeliers in the house.  Very simple.  Added styrofoam skulls on each candle rung.  Then we used leftover mardi gras beads, black, dark blue and one that looked like pearls to accent it all.  Ran out of beads, cause the more we added the better it looked, back to the party store we go!

Monster Heads

So with Halloween coming up my sewing and crafts have taken a backseat to decorating, and I LOVE Halloween decorations.  So we have this shelf thing that we never really know what to do with, just somehow ended up in our possession, so we finally just started decorating it with the seasons.  Hands down my favorite decorations are these monster heads my father made.  We got some cheap monster masks in the post holiday clearance sales.  He put ping pong balls in the eyes and poked holes in them so we could put Christmas lights in the back so they light up.  Personally, I think they look bomb, one of my favorite decorations :)

More to come as the fabulous Halloween season continues!