DIY Designer Ribbon Headbands for the Stylish Co-ed

Glam headbands are the new way to stay chic and bring the heat.  By designing your own, you can personalize your ribbon headband to match your style or accessorize your favorite outfit.

Here are the supplies you will need:

• approx. 20” of ribbon (play with different textures and widths!)
• 2 elastic hair ties
• decorations  (anything will work—flowers, studs, feathers, jewels… it’s time to get creative!)
• hot glue gun with glue sticks (or a needle and thread for you crafty gals)

Supplies can be found at your local supermarket or craft store.  We like Hobby Lobby because of their wide selection of decorations!  Prices for decorations range from $1.50-$5.99 typically and ribbon costs less than $2.

Let’s get started!

1. Loop the 2 elastic hair ties together as shown.

2. Place the ribbon top-side down.  Now place one of the loops of your hair tie knot around the ribbon leaving about ½” of the outside edge of the ribbon extending past the elastic loop.  Fold the ribbon over the hair tie loop and glue (or sew) being careful to not attach the elastic, only ribbon to ribbon.  There should be a loop in which the elastic hair tie rests freely to allow for movement when you are finished with this step.

3. Test the length of the ribbon for your desired fit and place a mark on the inside of the ribbon where you want the other end of the elastic to attach.

4. Cut off the excess ribbon 1” longer than the place you have marked.

5. Attach the elastic hair tie to the other side of the ribbon using the same technique explained above.

6. Start designing!  Using your hot glue gun, you can now decorate your ribbon headband anyway you like!

Here are some styles of headbands we can’t get enough of!

Fashionable Flowers

Grecian Goddess

Precious and Perfect

Design your own glam headbands with these easy DIY steps!  Show off your creations around campus, share them with friends, and feel good knowing savvy little you is a designer-in-training! Watch out world…. the College Lifestyle gals are intelligent, inspired, and fabulously crafty.  So get designing ladies, and send us pics of your best creations!

DIY Headbands on a College Budget

This week is my Spring Break and since I am not going anywhere I decided to hit up Woodfield Mall since it is about 5 minutes from my house. For those of you that don’t know, Woodfield is the largest mall store-space even compared to Mall of America. First on a quick rant, I am so thankful that the holidays are over because going to Woodfield is pretty much impossible between Thanksgiving and the end of January because of tourists (literally, by the bus load walking around with video cameras). Anyways, I was walking around the mall and every single store had fun headbands in the windows. I found one with a big bow on it that I really loved, checked the price tag, and then almost had a heart attack. $15.00. Um, what? Then add a little over 10% for sales tax and we are at $16.50 for a piece of plastic with a bow practically superglued to it. The more I thought, the more I realized, why can’t I just make my own? I googled plastic headbands and found out that you can get them in packs of 12 for around $6 or $7. Here are some ideas of how to dress up your headbands for practically nothing!

Go to the clearance section of you craft store. Look for fake flowers, ribbon, or sequins.

You can tie the ribbon into your own bow and attach.

If you go to the fabric section, they have bins of their scrap fabric. You can get these scraps for under a dollar and wrap your headband in any color or pattern.

Also, if you saw in Liz’s post about hair accessories, the snake chain elastic headband, that can be created at from your craft store too! Go to the area where they have ribbon spools and look for cording. They have tons of colors to go with any outfit. Pick your favorite and secure underneath your hair with a small safety pin.

How would you create YOUR headband?

Katy is an intern for CollegeLifestyles (TM). She likes shopping for accessories because they do not need to be tried on and always look good.

Our Favorite Ways to Store Jewelry

If you’re anything like me, you have a ton of jewelry.  I have always had a hard time figuring out how to store it without it all getting tangled since necklaces are my favorite pieces.  I am going to share with you the method I picked up from some lovely ladies in college (thanks Spring 07!)-it hasn’t failed me since!  Believe it or not, I fully believe you should use a tackle box (like for fishing) or something similar.  I have an art box that I use that I got from AC Moore.    This is the one I use here, on sale for $22.79 at Jo Ann Fabrics.

The top compartment is large enough to fit headbands in a way that they don’t bend and snap (sorry for the bad Legally Blonde pun).  I also store some random things in there like hand lotions and really it is my equivalent of a junk drawer… as you can see below.

Then, you can open up the front and there are three boxes that have movable dividers in them.  These are the best for when you go on vacation because I end up putting the jewelry that goes with certain outfits all in one box and taking one of them with me. 

What did some of our readers have to say?  I have to admit, we have some very creative followers!

On Twitter, @healthybeachbum told us she is a fan of the jewelry box, while @Maddie_Elizabet separates hers into daily wear and everything else.  She stores the jewelry she wears every day in a Tiffany & Co. jewelry box and everything else goes in a Vera Bradley jewelry case.

On Facebook, Becky Alberico told us she stores everything in a cigar box.  Lia Sorce bought a really big martini glass to hang all of her earrings on (and trust me, she has a lot!).  Jess Tedder hung picture hooks on the wall because they are cheap and you can add as many as you want to sort out your necklaces!  Jess Morelock took a similar route to me and bought plastic bead organizers from Michaels.  She either puts a single necklace or two different sets of earrings (chandelier and stud for example) in each compartment.   Kayla Martin got her idea from Digital Junk Drawer where they show you how to hang your jewelry inside a picture frame!  She also suggests stapling metal netting to the frame and using the holes in the net to drape the earrings over.

What is your favorite way to store your jewelry?  Let us know in the comment section or e-mail us at intern@collegelifestyles.org!

Kaitlyn Kline is an intern with College Lifestyles^TM.  She is an Edinboro University of PA and Alpha Sigma Tau alum.  She is addicted to jewelry and just bought three anchor necklaces from Forever 21!