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 […]
Lighthouse Tea Towels My sister, Cindy, has a vacation home in Maine, right on the Eggemoggin Reach. They spend summers and Christmases there, and also loan it out at other times of the year. When I was at a fabric store looking for embroidery transfers for another tea towel project, I saw a package of lighthouse […]
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 […]
Pretty Snowflakes with no Scissors or Scraps If you are bored on a snow day, here’s an activity that can keep you (and/or the kiddos) busy for hours — go to the Make-A-Flake web site and design your own snowflakes. You can save the results as JPEG files, in case you want to use them […]
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 […]
Cupcake Ornament Made from Recycled Sweaters We had an ornament exchange this year at work, and I wanted my contribution to be handmade. I found directions at the Better Homes and Gardens web site, telling how to make a cute cupcake ornament from recycled wool sweaters. Although I did not follow the directions exactly (I […]
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 […]
Turn your cookie cutters upside down! As the holiday season approaches, my thoughts always turn to cookies. I have very fond memories of baking and decorating dozens of cookies with my sister, Cindy. (If Cindy reads this, I expect she will astutely point out that she did most of the baking… I mainly did the fun decorating […]
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. […]
Dishy! Just a quick post to show you the casserole carrier I made. First saw this on the Chica and Jo web site. (Love that web site!) Then dutifully trotted over to 2 Little Hooligans for the tutorial. The only modification I made, was making a round velcro emblem to replace the spoon holder. Yummy!
Upcycled fashion Let me just say, I have a “thing” for boxes. If a box is pretty… or particularly sturdy… or interestingly-shaped… I have a hard time throwing it away, even if it’s going into the recycling bin. It may be genetic, because when I was a girl there were certain boxes — for example, one marked “Tom and Jerry […]
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, […]
A Plethora of New Patches As you may know, I have been swapping patches for a while now… I’ve been experimenting with all sorts of techniques, which has made it a lot of fun! The main image for this patch is a scanned picture from a wonderful Alice in Wonderland coloring book available from Dover Publications. (For […]
Did somebody say HOOK? Recently, I did a craft swap with someone who adores crocheting… and also adores Ariel and other Disney gals. I used this great tutorial to make her a crochet hook wallet, since her Pinterest suggested she might want one. To make it special for her, I added appliques of a couple of […]
Folded edges form multicolor stripes When I was young, I would occasionally help my mom or my sister fold and put away the bath towels. (In case my sister reads this, I should probably admit that it wasn’t very often!) Anyway, I remember my mom (or maybe it was my sister…) being very particular about how […]
