Shoe lacing with fold over elastic- slip on easy!

This is by request of a friend of mine who saw this photo I posted on Facebook

I laced up one of my pairs of sneakers with foldover elastic to make them easy to slip on and off, and have been wearing them like that for a week now, going for walks, etc- they've been holding up well. I did have to tighten the elastic a bit, but haven't had to tie my shoes, and they don't come untied. Plus I love the bright cheerful colors and plan to do this with the rest of my Chuck Taylors. It's less expensive than most no tie methods, and has a lot of options because there are so many colors and prints available for 5/8th inch foldover elastic. I got mine here- DIYSuppliesAndKits on Etsy

So cut about a yard of elastic per shoe, and start lacing following the diagram below. It's shown with each side in a different color to make it easier to follow.

Be careful not to twist the elastic, and adjust it so it's all wide and flat across the top of the shoe. 

Adjust the lacing to be comfortable after it's tied, and tie in a square knot on the underside between the two eyelets. Put a drop of glue into the knot to secure it. Trim the excess and put a light coat of glue on the cut ends to seal. I use PVA glue (Elmer's Glue All or Aleene's Tacky Glue type). 

Now I need to find the perfect elastic for the Wonder Woman shoes my dad got me! 

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The last couple of weeks I've been very busy with my mom and dad's place. Packing things, deciding what gets donated, what we want to keep and getting my son all moved in. It's hard packing up a life, and deciding what goes and stays, and Dad never could do it with mom's things so it's a lot of stuff to go through. It has it's good moments. Finding old photos, or things I remember from childhood, but there is still a whole lot to go through. My daughter, who never really knew her grandmother (mom died when she was 2) but has heard all her life how much she looks like her has found that she and her grandma have a lot of the same taste in clothes. She was absolutely thrilled by a long red wool coat and finding her grandma's hats. William has been seeing photos he never knew about that have him with his grandpa. We are getting it done, but that's why I haven't been updating. I did finish the Color By Numbers Mandala coloring book too in the last month. 

Heart lock and key printable gift box

I hope you enjoy this heart themed box to print and make. Click on the image for a larger version, print on card stock, cut out, score folds, fold, glue.

So how are we doing? Still hurting. Christmas, William's birthday, Dad's birthday without Dad... it's hard. There is still so much to do at his apartment, and I was working on finishing up a coloring book. Staying busy. We laugh though, laugh at memories, laugh at life. We are treating each other gently, and saying "I love you" an awful lot.

Elastic watch band

This doesn't count as a tutorial, or even really a craft because it's too simple. But I'm really happy with it. My husband and I have been taking walks together, at the mall because it's really too cold and slippery to walk comfortably outside, and today I was wishing that I had a nice, old fashioned watch instead of checking my phone to see how long we'd been walking.

So I stopped in at Claire's at the mall and they had all sorts of clearance as usual. Including Christmas watches for 2.00 each.

So I cut the band under the watch face and it out of the watch pins, then cut a 9 inch piece of elastic and thread it through the pins, wrapped it around my wrist for a comfortable fit, tied it in an overhand knot, trimmed the ends, and there it is- a watch that I can slip on easily, is really comfortable to wear and it isn't a Christmas watch anymore.

If you haven't used foldover elastic- it's the same stuff that a lot of trendy ponytail holders are made out of now- and a pack of 4-5 of them costs a few dollars. But you know what? You can buy 5 yards of foldover elastic for the same price, cut it, knot it and make the ponytail holders the size you need. For me, that's "Fit around my wrist" size. For my daughter, it's a bit larger because her hair is so thick. Plus when you buy your own fold over elastic you have all sorts of options for colors and prints. I got the ones shown above from DIY Supplies On Etsy.