Magnetic Earrings

I just got my ears pierced (yay!), but for quite a few years, I've been apprehensive about getting it done, so I made a bunch of magnetic earrings to hold me over.

Super easy to make too!

 You'll need four strong magnets, whatever you want on your ears, and...

...some magnetic tape. As you can see, you don't have to cover the entire back with tape-- just enough for your earring fronts to stick to one of the magnets.

Like this.

Then, just stick the front + one magnet to the front of your earlobe, and the other magnet behind. If the magnets are strong enough, they should stay on all day with no problem!

Here's another set I made by sticking rhinestones directly on the magnetic tape.
This should work for any small, lightweight object with a flat back! I've never tried adding anything that dangles, but if you do, send me a message!
I got my magnets from those little charm things that light up with red and blue lights...yeah. Click here and here for a picture if my description left you clueless XDBut anyway, I got mine pretty cheaply at Chinatown (a couple dollars for a whole sheet of them, I think)You could probably find similar magnets at a hardware store though. Or just find some strong refrigerator magnets!

Locks of Love

Sorry guys, no craft today. I'd like to give a shout out to Locks of Love though!

They're a pretty amazing nonprofit organization which collects hair that people donate in order to make hairpieces for children who lose their hair to illness. Click on the banner above to check them out!

I finally got around to cutting off my 10 inches of hair to donate...

I hope it goes toward helping some little girl regain a sense of self-confidence =]
Alright, that's it for today!New tutorial coming up before this weekend, I promise!

Origami Bouncy Cube

I'm not sure what this is actually called, so for now, it will be known as the origami bouncy cube ;)

If you're a nerd like me, you may even take one look at this and think "companion cube"!
But I digress.
This cube is made from 6 separate modules that are assembled at the end. Perhaps you can figure out a way to make the cube without glue, but I find that the modules don't like to stay together without some help.
Tutorial:

Start with a square! As always, you can use any size square you like, but if you're new to origami, I'd suggest using a larger piece of paper for this project.

Crease some guidelines...

...so you can fold the corners into the center.

Then fold those corners into the center.

And once more, corners to the center again.

Then unfold it to the point where you just have one "corners to the center"

And flip it over.

Then, following the creases you made before, fold the corners in to the center in the opposite direction you did the first time. Then unfold them again.

Take the center point of the edge of one of the sides, and fold that in to the center.

Do the same with an adjacent side.

Squish the protruding square flat, following the creases that should be in the paper.

Repeat for the other sides.

Turn it over now. You should see four triangles on the back...

Fold these out flat. They will be your tabs. You'll use them to connect this module to the others in the cube.

Now turn the piece over to the front again.

Fold the inner corner of one of the squares out to the outer corner.

Repeat for the others.

Now the assembly...

This is actually the easiest part of the cube. Just put some tape or glue onto the tab that will go under...

Put the tab from the other piece right over the tab from the "under" piece, and stick.

Ta-daaa!

Possible uses:

• Make this in pretty colors and hang it in front of a window
• Save it for the holidays to hang on a Christmas tree
• Bounce it!
• Have your kitty chase it as you bounce it -- just make sure she doesn't eat it.
• Be a nerd and change it up so you get said companion cube! (send me pics if you do!)

P.S. Bonus points to anyone who can tell me what these are actually called!

Father's Day Baking

Father's day is allllmost here! I got together with my friend today, and, inspired by Bakerella's fast food fun, we made our own with a few modifications. Behold:

Burger with a patty, ketchup, mustard, and lettuce; french fries; and heart shaped chocolate peanut butter cake.
Let's start with the hamburger:True to Bakerella's instructions, we made the bun from yellow cupcakes cut in half. However, we made our cupcakes without sugar, since the rest of the burger would be so sweet. It turned out pretty well in sweetness! We just filled the cupcake papers about halfway so the top would be flat, and sprinkled them with sugar to give it a more bun-like appearance. 
We baked a whole sheet of moist chocolate cake that we used for the patties. We crumbed up the entire cake and then added some chocolate syrup....

...and squished patty shapes with the mixture, just like you would with ground beef. 

Finally, the condiments are made with cream cheese colored with food coloring. Just stick globs of each color on the patty with your finger and squish the entire burger a bit when you put the top of the bun on so the colors peek out from the sides. 

From a distance, they actually look like the real thing ;D
Now the fries:We had some yellow cake mix that we turned into cookie dough with the following:1 box cake mix1/3 cup vegetable oil2 eggs2 tbs milkJust mix it all together and voila! Cookie dough!Of course, you also just could use any cookie dough recipe you have. 
For the fries, we covered the bottom of a flat pan with sugar and then laid a rectangular sheet of cookie dough on it. Bake at 350F until they turn golden around the edges and then flip the whole thing over and bake for another 5 minutes. Then we cut them into french-fry-like strips. 

The hearts were a bit of an afterthought: we had lots of chocolate cake left over and some peanut butter, so we mixed the PB into the crumbled cake and pressed it into heart-shaped baking tins.