Cheap Craft Ideas - Inexpensive Crafts Tea Towel Market Tote Adapted from Clare Youngs’s The Perfect Handmade Bag ($19.95; Cico), this cute carryall requires little more than a pair of small wooden spatulas and two tea towels ($15 each; motherlindas.com). Cut six strips of fabric from one towel. To make a tab, topstitch one of the long sides of a 31⁄2"W x 8"L strip near the edge. Lay the second towel on a flat surface, right side up. Flip the towel right side down. Fold the towel in half, wrong sides together. Coffee Filter Rose Tutorial - Emmalee Elizabeth Design I’ve had some requests to do a tutorial on the coffee filter roses I made for my wedding. So here it is. Like I said they really are easy once you get the hang of them. A bit of practice and you’ll have beautiful roses in no time. The supply list is simple. Trace the petal patterns onto the coffee filters and cut them out. Tip: Make sure that you keep the different petals separated. So this is where the explanation gets tricky, so bear with me as I try to explain it the best I can. Tip: Make sure that you wrap each petal with enough tape to secure it tightly. Rip open petal #2 at the seam, leaving one side still connected. Pedals #5 and #6 require two steps so that they stick securely to the stem. When you are finished it will look nothing like a rose. The flower doesn’t have to look perfect at this time you just want the petals to be some what open. With a wooden stick (a pencil will work) curl the petals edges. Once the petals are curled you will need to color the roses.
Blueprint Crafts » Tile Coaster Tutorial Tile Coaster Tutorial April 7th, 2010 So my good friend Emily just moved into her completely redone house a few weeks ago, and she asked me to make her some unique coasters. UPDATE! For this tutorial, you’ll need a set of tiles – I got a handful from Home Depot for $0.20 a piece, some scraps of scrapbooking paper or any kind of paper really, some mod podge, clear acrylic spray, and felt pads for the bottom. First, cut and measure you paper to the fit your tile. Next, clean and dry your tiles – they are much easier to work with if you clean them off thoroughly. After you’ve applied your mod podge top coats, take your tiles out to a well ventilated area and apply two coats of your acrylic spray (I sprayed mine outside in the grass). Cute right! Today I’m going to finish up Emily’s – so excited to see how they look in her new house! And, I’ve got a few big projects that I am STILL working on, and I CAN’T wait to show you all! This post was featured on Handmade Matters & The Rubber Punkin!
Backlit Canvas Art Do you have one project that you've been longing to do, but just haven't found the time yet? This is it for me. I call it my Backlit Canvas Art and the inspiration piece has been pinned in my "Crafts to try" Pinterest board for ages. My "pin"speration is an artist's piece made from metal that has hand cut flowers all over it. Its backlit by Christmas lights, and I pretty much love it! So I decided to give it a go and create my version. There are two main differences between the two: 1. 2. The idea of the canvas is that during the day (ie. with the Christmas light off) you have a beautiful sculpture while at night (you guessed it, with the Christmas lights on!) How about a tutorial? Supply list Mounted canvas (mine is 10"x10") cardstock to fit on your canvas (mine is 12"x12") stamps ink pad X-acto knife light source* *I wasn't sure if I wanted to use a single bulb or Christmas lights so that is why both are in the above picture. I decided to go with the same flower theme as my inspiration piece.
Neighbor Gift Week: Shelley at How Does She Sentimental gifts are always the best, right?! One of my most treasured gifts was a simple board with words on it. Yep words. My dear friend Alison made 'subway art' with words that reminded her of me. My family and I sat down and made a list of words that described a family in our neighborhood. If you've never used Wordle before, you simply plug in words, and it creates a word collage. We wrapped the 'family word art' around a can of hot chocolate. We then wrapped the 'individual word art' around a Styrofoam cup for each member of the family. We attached a little note to the can of hot-cocoa that said... I like to imagine the family gathering around, having a cup of hot cocoa, and discussing all the sweet words that describe them. I hope it makes them smile. Thank you for the opportunity to be on the fabulous U-create today! You May Also Like… Reindeer Feed Christmas Gift Idea Personalized Ornament Tutorial
DIY Wood-Grain Laptop Wrap When I was wandering through the dollar store the other day I came across this super amazing wood-grain contact paper. and was completely smitten! I knew I needed to find something to cover it with - pronto! Enter, my lapytop. This poor beast is old, makes a crazy fan-sound whenever it's on, and can't really handle doing more than one tast - but it works! So, I had plenty of photos of the entire process, but my camera is also an old and quirky beast and has taken to randomly deleting photos, which it decided to do half-way through the whole DIY process, so sorry! So, to start, go ahead and power off your laptop and take out the battery so you're free to work on it without any worries. Now, unroll your contact paper, and lay your computer on top with the grain going wichever way you want, then cut around it, leaving a large boreder on all sides (you'll trim it down later). Now, you can decide what you'd like to do about the logo on your cover.
DIY Book Clutch I love things that are quirky, and if they boarder on the nerdy side of quirky I love them even more. Olympia Le-Tan’s handmade embroidered book clutches are so perfectly and quaintly quirky that I immediately fell in love. If the clutches alone hadn’t already woo-ed me sufficiently, the film she made with Spike Jonze for Nowness definitely would have tipped me over the edge into obsession. The real thing starts around $1,300, but you can DIY for about $15! I used one of these newly reprinted classics from Barnes & Noble, they’re perfect for this with whimsical hardcovers and sturdy pages. Like this: Like Loading...
Liberty of London Swatch Portraits In our teeny-tiny fabric shop, Purl Patchwork, it is a challenge to find fresh ideas to display our favorite products in customer-friendly ways. We were really scratching our heads when a bunch of new Tana Lawn prints from Liberty of London arrived last week on unruly five-foot-tall bolts! Our solution: we filled a handful of simple wooden embroidery hoops with swatches of fabric and displayed them all on the wall like a family portrait gallery. These swatch portraits are so easy to make and they make great gifts too! The Materials To make one portrait: A square of fabric, at least 2" wider than your hoop in all directions. The Pattern Place fabric in the hoop, pull taught. Turn to wrong side, run a small line of glue around the inside hoop, just next to the fabric.Press fabric into glue, all the way around. Allow Glue to dry. Trim fabric to edge of hoop.
Lined Paper Tee by Maybe Matilda I’m pretty dang excited to be guest posting on U Create, of all places, with an easy and fun project for you. Just in time for heading back to school, I came up with this cute top: My name is Rachel, and I blog over Maybe Matilda. I’m from small-town New York, currently living in Utah with my soon-to-be-chiropractor husband and our soon-to-be-one-year-old son. I think this lined paper tee is such a fun way to bring out the inner student, and possibly even encourage a little bookishness in a little one (maybe that’s a stretch, but a girl can hope, right?). It’s really simple to put together, and you can easily make it in any size. Here’s what you’ll need to make this tee: a white tank, tee, or onesie masking tape foam brush blue and red acrylic paint fabric painting medium (available at craft stores–you’ll find it with the paint supplies) (You can see here that I only painted in every other open space for the adult tee. Give it some time to dry, then carefully remove the tape.
diy: bird mobile One of my very best friends is pregnant - someone with whom I went to preschool, Mother's Morning Out and Girl Scouts, and who I picked up every day for high school. She and her husband live in Kentucky now, and they're decorating an adorable baby-girl nursery. Two years ago, I made a bunch of little birds to decorate our wedding reception, and I based the pattern on these beautiful birds that Jessica had made for me. I thought they would make a perfect mobile for a nursery some day, even before Spool's showed up online (theirs is adorable, too). Materials: 1/4 yard each of four contrasting fabrics needle and thread polyester stuffing 10" and 12" wood embroidery hoops monofilament or fishing line about a dozen crimp tubes (available at beading stores) needle-nose pliers, for flattening crimp tubes staple gun and 1/4" staples Here is the simple pattern that I made to make these birds. When you've made eight birds, sew them onto the inner ring of a 10" and a 12" embroidery hoop. Done!
It’s a good idea to use free paint chips: Check out the 31 ways paint chips are used in all kinds of projects!! Some of these you may have seen around blogland others are from Etsy. 1.PaintswatchWall2.SnowmanOrnaments3.cut leaves 4. 7. 10. 13. gift boxes 14. 16. 19. 22. 24. 26. 29. 31. Hi my sweet bloggie friends!!! Simple Shell Candles {Tutorial} Got candles??? Make some of these beautiful shell candles and add a summer glow to your table any time of year! I’ll just give you a quick how-to on creating these and then you’ll be making candles out of every shell, tea cup or old tin you find around the house. First, you’ll need these supplies from a craft store… soy waxwicksfragrancedye I really like the way soy wax melts so I always use it whenever I’m making candles. Find and clean a large shell.Take a glass measuring cup and melt one cup of wax to start. Tips: I use just a little yellow to give it a slight color like the inside of a shell. These would be wonderful for a dinner party on the porch! If you have a bunch of shells left you might want to make a shell frame! Have fun! ~Kim
Hand Embroidered Cards Look what I found in my desk drawer! I made these embroidered cards so long ago and then just tucked them away in a drawer to be forgotten about. What a shame! I thought these cards would make a great DIY for the blog because they're easy and fun to make, and you probably have all the supplies on hand already. If you're anything like me you have waaaaay too many colors of embroidery floss tucked away somewhere. What you'll need: Pencil for drawing your designPiece of thick cardboardEmbroidery flossSheets of blank paperEmbroidery needle and a pin with a headBlank Card Start by drawing out your design on a piece of thin blank paper. When I made my fruit cards, I actually used an iron-on transfer from Sublime Stitching, which is a really great book that you should all run out and buy right this very second. Now you can start poking holes along the lines using the pin with a head. Now comes the fun part! Once you're done, admire your work!