Charlie Tamara Piper

Sometimes when you've got an oddly-shaped gift to give your best bet is to use a gift bag. But my inner crafter wouldn't let me simply use the complimentary shopping bag that the store gave me. I knew I could turn it into something super classy. Thanks to a friend's suggestion, I created this tuxedo-themed gift bag that was a little complicated to figure out until I got the hang of it. I completely failed on taking step-by-step pictures because I really needed to focus! But you can learn from my lessons and recreate it yourself. Here's how I did it: First, I started by visiting my old standby - Google Images - to download a tuxedo jacket pattern. Once I found one that I liked, I used it to trace out the black lapels of the jacket and layered on a white triangle to represent the shirt. From there, I started adding in some extras - I used spray mount adhesive to mount the lapels and shirt onto black card stock to round out the tuxedo jacket. I cut two ...

Last month, I shared my favorite products for curly hair . I definitely feel most like myself with my natural curls but every now and then it's fun to switch it up and go with straight hair. Here are the products and tricks I rely on to turn my curly hair straight - and how I keep it straight for a full week. (A quick note - I know it seems like a lot of products, and you're right! I use small amounts but my hair soaks up product like nothing else, so it's never weighed down). Styling To protect my hair from the heat damage of using a blow dryer and flat iron, I double up on my heat protectant. Moroccanoil Heat Styling Protection is a great spray-in heat protectant that lightly coats my strands - plus, it smells amazing. To add a bit more heat protection and to help style my hair straight during blow drying and flat ironing, I use Bumble and Bumble Straight Blow Dry . This creamy conditioner promotes shine once I've finished straightening my hair and h...