Jewelry from Salvaged Belt Loops & Vintage Buttons I volunteer at the local recycled art materials shop, a nonprofit that benefits the public school system. The other day, I was tasked with salvaging belt buckles. The belts themselves had already been cut off — no doubt they wound up in the scrap leather bin. As I was […]
Acrylic Frames Become Memo Holders Looking for quick and easy volunteer appreciation gifts? Or maybe a craft activity for a group of kids (scout troop or school classroom) for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day? Or maybe an inexpensive teacher gift? Here is an idea for you! It is very easy to make these cute little memo stations that […]
2 Fine Girls and a Fine Dog Last week, I ran across a picture of my sister, Cindy, and I posing with our childhood pet, a chubby fox terrier named Ginger. (We insisted that her name should be Ginger, despite that fact that her fur was black as coal.) I have a strangely vivid memory […]
Groovy! So as you may know, I have been using vintage LP record album covers to make spiral-bound notebooks. In most cases, this means I have the actual records left over, so I wanted to find fun, creative things to do with them, as well. So I took advantage of their round shape and center hole, to decorate […]
Spiral-bound bounty I just cannot stop making these notebooks/journals. I guess I need to start selling them… although they take so long to make that I’m not sure I could price them within reason. The covers of the ones above, came from a vinyl 33rpm LP record album cover. Again, the interior pages are an odd […]
Upcycled Ephemera Notepads I am a frequent customer at a local “Overstock and Closeouts” store. You know the type. There is an odd mishmash of products — some of them very nice brand-name items — all priced amazingly low. It is one of my go-to craft materials suppliers. One day a few months ago, I was […]
Upcycle a Shoe Box & Old Board Games I love board games! Electronic games can be fun, too, but there is something special and intimate about playing board games, whether with family members or close friends. Even the pieces scream “FUN!” … colorful glossy game boards, clattering dice, and tokens make of plastic, wood, or metal. […]
Human Plushie I had a request to make a human female plushie and (at long last)… here she is! The request was for a specific style of stuffed doll, similar to the Japanese “UFO Catcher” plush anime characters. She was originally supposed to be about five or six inches tall, but she ended up closer to seven or […]
Rope Pot Rest There is something so fascinating about complicated knots. I have a ring that is a Celtic knot, and I love the way the lines double back on themselves and intertwine with the other lines in such mysterious but symmetrical ways. Like M.C. Escher art… Or mathematics brought to life. I ran across a tutorial […]
Tone-on-Tone Winter Wreath This year, I made some yarn-wrapped winter themed wreaths for some of my relatives. But deep down, I really wanted one of my own. So I made two more — one for my office and one for home. The first one was this multi-tonal ivory and tan assemblage. It is made of […]
Enclose a Gift Card in a Snow Globe! This year, I gave someone a gift card that had a snow globe design. I decided it would be a neat trick to present the card actually enclosed in a faux snow globe! I started with one of those globe-shaped Coke bottles that appear around the holidays. […]
Cozy Winter Wreath Featuring Wool Roses Doesn’t it always seem a little barren in the house, when the Christmas decorations come down? Here is a special wintertime wreath, meant to be hung when the Christmas décor is packed away. I have seen a lot of these wreaths on the Internet lately, so I’m not sure […]
Facebook Twitter and You Tube Throw Pillows These are great gifts for a young person who is a fan of Facebook, Twitter, and/or YouTube. My pillows are made out of flannel (except for the lettering on the You Tube pillow, which is felt.) However, they could also easily be made from fleece or felt. I put a flap on […]
Quilted hoop clock with book title buttons This quilted clock was a gift for someone who loves children’s literature. I followed a great tutorial over at a.squared.w. The only changes I made were: Lining up the hours on the seams instead of the centers of the sections. Using foam core rather than wood for the back. […]
Chim Chim on the Cheap (and Quick) When I was a kid, we would have called this a “stuffed animal”. But now, there are so many new words that people use to describe plush toys… I’m not quite certain what to call it. Plushie? Stuffie? Softie? I tried to search online for the distinctions between these, […]
Shared at Our Family Table I think it must be true of all families, that some of the warmest memories involve cooking (and eating!) Special dinners, birthday cakes, holiday cookies… And perhaps most of all, heartfelt conversations around the kitchen table. At a bookstore several years ago, I remember seeing the book Kitchen Table Wisdom, and […]
Imprinting messages on homemade treats Instead of enclosing a greeting card with your baked goods, how about embossing your message right on the sweets themselves? I love this technique! It produces very professional-looking results, even for those of us whose handwriting is sketchy when using a frosting piping bag. You need to use fondant and […]
Ballerina warrior princess! In a recent craft-swap email, my swap partner referred to herself as a “ballerina warrior princess”! I don’t know exactly what it means, but the turn of phrase lodged in my imagination, and I had to create something for her, using that as a theme. This is a vintage photo that I printed […]
