leather headband with The Merrythought

You guys I am so excited about todays guest post with Caitlin from The Merrrythought. I have been huge fans of the  girls behind this incredibly inspiring blog for a really long time and was first introduced to them through the Ten on Ten project - they are seriously some of the most beautiful, talented women and I know you will adore their blog if you haven't found it already. True eye candy almost everyday of the week over there!! Caitlin is showing us how to make this adorable leather headband today and I am honored to host her here!

Hey! My name is Caitlin, I am a vintage ­loving, craft­making lady that spends a lot of time behind a camera. I share a lot of pictures, projects and thoughts over on The Merrythought, where I blog with Manda and Marla! I am so excited to be here on Rebekah's blog to share a quick DIY beaded leather headband today!

What you need:

­Leather

­Leather lace

­Beads

­Needle and thread

­Scissors

­Mod Podge and brush

How to make it: Cut a piece of leather 12" x 1.25"  and lay out a design with beads that will fit in that space. (Sketching out your idea ahead of time will help.) Use your needle and thread to sew the beads in place. For bigger beads you will have to go through the leather between each bead and smaller ones you might be able to get away with stringing a few on the thread before stitching it back through the leather.

Cut four 19" pieces of leather lace. Use a dab of Mod Podge at each end of the beaded leather to help hold two pieces of the leather lace per side. Cut two pieces of leather .75" x 1.25". (I used the same type of leather as I did for my main band but I used the back side of it to add some contrast.)

Use another dab of Mod Podge to secure this over the pieces of leather lace. Once the Mod Podge has dried, use your needle and thread to stitch an X over the piece for extra support.

Tie it and wear it!

Thank you so much for being here today Caitlin and a huge kiss to your whole team over at The Merrythought you guys are definitely on my blog crush list! xo, Rebekah

Love Does Stuff :: $5 Challenge

Last week Chris and I got a chance to meet and hear from the incredibly inspiring Bob Goff at the first ever Love Does Stuff Conference in Tacoma. If you are not familiar with Bob Goff or his book Love Does let me encourage you to get a copy, curl up with a cup of coffee and laugh and cry over the crazy and incredible things this man has done and how God is using him to spread love and challenge us out from behind our fear to just do stuff. We loved the entire two days and left feeling full and excited about all that God has laid on our hearts to do. (which is for another post entirely!) 

One of the things Bob also challenged us with was five bucks! Not a ton of money but enough to do something to spread love somehow, someway. He gave each of us a crisp five dollar bill and instructed us to just do something good with it. Buy coffee for a friend, donate it, leave it in a secret spot for somebody to find...whatever we could imagine was what he wanted us to do with the money there was no right or wrong.

Bob is a lawyer and he started an incredible organization called Restore International in Uganda. They seek to find daring and audacious ways to combat human rights violations, including forced prostitution, slave labor and human trafficking bringing hope, justice and restoration. I was moved by so many of the testimonies we heard at the conference so I wanted to set out to do something bigger with my five dollars trusting that God can use even the smallest offerings.

I told Chris my idea and he happily gave me his five bucks too and we headed to the craft store to see what I cold make to raise a bit more money for this amazing organization. Being a jewelry girl through and through I landed on a small sack of beads and some findings and came home and got to work - of course my little arts and crafts lover Levi wanted to help!

We put together a few pairs of these chevron earrings and thought we would attempt to sell them, trusting God to do more. We are selling them for $18 including shipping. The entire $18 will go to Restore International to continue the fight against child slavery and injustice! Please won't you consider helping an amazing cause. (more colors available as well)

If you are interested email me at rebekah(dot)gough(at)gmail(dot)com with the subject line $5 challenge. And that's not all I want to challenge you to do something too with five dollars - anything you could possibly imagine to spread a bit of love. If you need five dollars I have got you covered there is no reason a lack of money should stop us from doing good. Email me and I will send you a five dollar bill, seriously I just want to continue the ripple effect.

So what's on your heart? What would you do with five bucks to spread a little love? I would love to encourage you to go for it, whatever it is and know that I've got your back - we are family and I believe we can do big things together!

**This post was written prior to the tornado destruction and tragedy in Moore Oklahoma this past week so I also wanted to extend another way to spread love. Every single ad space sold this month and next on a bit of sunshine, the entire amount will go to the Red Cross to aid efforts there for the people of Moore! Check out my sponsor page HERE for more details.

neon cord + beads + knots

POW! Instant gratification naptime crafting = my fave!