Pom Pom Purse

For someone who runs a craft blog, I haven’t been doing a lot of crafts lately. Sorry folks. I blame it on seasonal affective disorder, but seasonal affective disorder is blaming it on me. Either way, I don’t really give a rip because it’s supposed to be 40 this week and I can already smell the rain coming. Smell. It. Whooooo!

Pair this onslaught of enthusiasm with a House of Cards marathon, this last weekend was what you might call, productive. Ask me, did I produce clean laundry? File my taxes?

No. I made pom pom purses. Priorities: I got ’em.

These are stupid easy to make, but before we do I want to talk supplies.

For on thing, don’t go out and buy a purse. Next time you want to glue stuff to a purse just go to the thrift store and get a cosmetics bag. They have tons of them. Dirt cheap too. This black and white one was 99 cents. The stripes are snazzy but this woulda looked awful swell on plain black or some funky pattern. Gold lamé ? Oh hell yes. That’s all Imma say about that. Get what you want. But if you choose to cover the whole things with pom poms, leave a strip around the zipper clear. K?

Now let’s talk pom poms. Namely craft store pom poms. I am not a fan. They sell them in giant bags at craft stores like Michael’s and Joann’s and the color combos are not exactly attractive. The poms are good but you have to buy five bags of the stuff to pull together a decent combo. I’m not knocking anyone here, but if any craft company execs out there would like me to come over and mix and match up your color combos, feel free. I’m down.

Given this, I have two favorite sources, equally exotic and inexpensive; Thailand and the Dollar Tree.

These poms from Thailand are made of little bundles of cotton yarn. The colors are so rich and vibrant. Plus, they cost $2.00 for a whole bag*, less than half what you pay for a smaller quantity at the craft store. Shipping aint cheap, but if you already buying something awesome (LIKE THIS PILLOW) they make an inexpensive tagalong.

*Ack! Sorry guys, the original link to the etsy item I used to buy the pom poms appears to be sold out (this happens a lot on Etsy) so I swapped it for a link to their supply section in hopes they start selling it again in the future. Plus they also have some cool stuff. Dontcha just want do up a whole Christmas tree with these rad tassels?

The Dollar Tree sells 80 poms in a bag for a buck. Way cheaper than the craft store. They are all the same size but the colors are super saturated and happy looking. Go get you some.

Okay. That’s what I know about that. Let’s get going on the purse.

Hot glue. That’s all. Just lay down a strip of hot glue and go to town. This sucker filled up in 20 minutes. Bam!

The tassel on the end is just a snippet of ribbon slipped through the zipper pull, followed by a small cluster of pom poms. Sure, the tassel is overkill but it takes the bag from crafty to something special.

Easy peasy, fun and funky.

Pom pom purse: It’s a good thing.