Ren Hoek Tapestry Crochet Tote Bag/ Ready to by eMLeeCrochetGifts Stab Bound Journal Make a hand bound journal with elaborate side stitching for yourself or as a gift. The stitching is a lot easier than it looks and is so much nicer to hold than a spiral bound edge. Supplies and Equipment – sharp utility knife and cutting surface BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THE SHARP BLADE – rulers – drill with 1/16th inch bit OR a small paper punch BE VERY CAREFUL WITH POWER TOOLS – fancy cover paper – I used Cavallini Vintage Tickets Wrapping Paper – 20″ x 28″ – 1 sheet of 8.5×11 for endpapers (this can be fancy or the same paper as your pages) – 10 sheets of 8.5×11 paper for pages – 3 yards of embroidery floss – mat board – I used Crescent No. 33 White & Cream Smooth Mat Board – Yes Stikflat Glue or other archival glue that leaves paper flat – heavy object to use as a weight – waxed paper – cutting/hole punch template – click here to download – thin cotton or linen fabric (optional) – needle with an eye large enough to fit embroidery floss – brush for glue Stitch down through the next hole.
Autumn Flower Wreath Today I have a tutorial of sorts to share. It is not a full tutorial because 1. I learned to make the flowers from an already pretty amazing tutorial and 2. I left my camera in Ryan’s truck and was too impatient to wait to put it together until he came home so I don’t have photos of the actual attaching to the wreath phase of the project. This wreath is a combination of a regular grape vine wreath you can purchase at the craft store, lots of coffee filter flowers and a few acorn and berry sprigs. Okay, so on with the tutorial. I wanted fall-ish colors for my flowers, so I used yellow, pink, red and orange paint. Mix your paint with water, stir well, scrunch in a stack of coffee filters and let them soak up the paint. I dried some flat on paper towels, but then ran out of room and made a clothes line to dry the rest. Okay, now on to the flower making part. For flower #1, fold three coffee filters into quarters, cut a scalloped edge along the top and then a scalloped center.
Friendship Bracelets Macraméd friendship bracelets were all the rage when I was growing up in the eighties. All the girls at my school would obsessively make them for one another in a dizzying variety of colors, widths, and patterns. It's amazing, thinking back, that such young girls could make such beautifully intricate accessories. I, of course, tried my hand at making them as well. I would ride my bike down to the five-and-dime store and pick out the most sophisticated color combinations of embroidery floss I could find, but when it came to the actual macramé I never got beyond plain stripes. Fast forward 20 years: Purl Soho started carrying DMC Cotton Embroidery Floss in every conceivable color (including fluorescents! Making friendship bracelets is a surprisingly easy craft, and best of all, in the end you'll have a bunch of cute summer bracelets to give to your pals. Materials Since this is such a free form enterprise the amount of colors of DMC embroidery floss you get is really up to you. Beginning
How To Mix Chalkboard Paint in Any Color We love using chalkboards as backdrops for displays and parties (like this one here!). So we were super excited to learn that you can create your own custom colors-and it's really easy! We first learned how from Martha Stewart whose tutorial you can read here. Supplies: 1/2 cup acrylic paint (choose any color you like, or mix colors together to make the perfect shade!) 1. 2. Once your chalkboard has fully dried be sure to slate the surface before using it for the first time. Have fun creating any color combination you like!!
Decorate Flowers Hey all! Here's a fantastic set of ideas from our own Nancy Doren to help you have more fun and get more bang for your buck! Altering Prima Flowersby Nancy Doren The February Passion kit contains beautiful Alabaster Roses from Prima Marketing. They’re the perfect canvas to try out some fun techniques to make your layouts a little more special! Start by separating the flowers into layers. You can try... Stamping Ink your stamp with dye or chalk ink (pigment ink will not dry sufficiently) Press the stamp over the paper flower. Spray Ink Did you know you can make your own spray ink? Spray your flower (make sure you use something to cover your work surface... after it dries, acrylic paint is hard to remove!). Watercolor + Glitter I love to use my Prang watercolors on my scrapbooking projects. Dip a paintbrush in water, then in the paint. Add a sparkly finish by applying Stickles glitter glue (I used the green Ice Stickles from the Renewal kit) along the edges of the flower’s petals. Cutting Love,
Teach Me: How to Make Lace Crowns Last week I showed you an easy way to "glitterify." Now I'm going to show you how to make the crown that all the glitter goes on! I know, lace crowns have been all over Pinterest. But none of the tutorials gave the nitty gritty details. So I got my hands dirty, and I'm ready to spill what I learned. Honestly, it was easier to make the crown than it was to get someone to stay still long enough for pictures! Materials Needed: Lace Fabric Stiffener Round container Plastic gloves (optional, but you really should use them. Step one: Wrap the container you plan to use with plastic wrap or wax paper. Step two: Cut the lace to the desired length. 15 inches works for newborn crowns. Step three: pour some of the fabric stiffener into a shallow container. Step four: wrap the lace around the container. Step five: once it's dried, peel the lace off the container. Now you can embellish it! You can paint the stiffened lace with crafter's paint, like I did with the blue crown.
Scratch-Off Save-the-Date How-To You won the lottery when you found each other, so send this cheeky save-the-date card to let guests share in your luck. After scraping off the paint with a penny, they'll hit the jackpot: your wedding date! Tools and Materials White card stock Fine-tip pen or marker Clear packing tape Freezer paper Metallic acrylic paint Liquid dishwashing soap Foam brush Craft knifePennies A2 or 4-bar envelopes Scratch-Off Save-the-Date How-To Download our PDF file and replace the placeholder text with your own (you only need to do this in one box; the form will automatically fill in the rest). Note: A card backed with decorative paper will fit in a size A2 envelope.
Crepe Paper Roses Today we’re happy to present the first Folding Trees tutorial from a contributor! (If you would like to write for Folding Trees, see our Submissions page for details.) Find out how to make SiSi’s beautiful crepe paper roses with our tutorial: You will need: Red crepe paper (at least 30″ long)Green crepe paper (at least 12″ long)Green wired stemScissorsGlue Instructions Fold the red crepe paper in half horizontally to form a long thin strip. Roll the paper around that end about 3 times (you are forming the center of the rose). With the long end of the crepe paper, gently fold it backwards and continue to roll. A good tip is to hold the bottom part tightly so it does not become loose. When you get to the end, leave about 2.5″ unrolled. Insert the green wired stem at the bottom of your rose. Cut a piece from the green crepe paper, and cut out an X-shaped ‘leaf’ for the bottom of the rose. Cut the remainder of the green crepe paper in half to make it thinner. Finished!
Make + party | Wire heart crown | Make and Tell This week we celebrated the Queen’s birthday. Which I should point out is no where near the Queen’s actual birthday, but we get a public holiday so I’m not complaining! And despite the fact that I spent most of the day eating and relaxing and not thinking about the royal family at all, somewhere along the line I was inspired to create a project with a bit of a regal twist. It turned out to be easier than I expected given that I almost never work with jewellery wire. So if you have a costume party coming up or just want to be the queen of hearts for a day, try this one out for size! Materials Jewellery wire (I used 20 gauge copper wire)Jewellery pliers (for bending and cutting the wire) Step 1 Bend the wire so that it forms the top of a heart shape. Step 2 Join the two ends of the wire together at the bottom and twist to close off the heart. Step 3 Repeat the first two steps above so that you continue making hearts at intervals of about 3 cm. Step 4 And it really is as easy as that! xx Steph
Paper Roses You know how it goes, a friend calls you and invites you to dinner at the last minute. OMG! What gift can you take?! I thought this was a wonderful idea. Supplies: Patterned paper-one 12 x 12" sheet. These directions will give you one flower. 1. 4. 5. Tip: For single sided paper. 6. Note: Florist tape is stretchy, just play with it and pull gently but firmly as you move down the stem. 7. Note, you will have to play around with the height of the petals, and where on the petal you start your tape. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. For tutorials on how to market yourself online, go here.
Imprinted Easter Eggs Every Easter, as long as I can remember, my Grandma dyed the prettiest leaf and floral imprinted Easter eggs! They were so natural and lovely, but produced with nothing more than an easily concocted natural dyestock and little bits of flora. We lost my Grandma last year and for the first time, Jaydin and I recreated her dye with spanish onion skins, water and a few tablespoons of vinegar. We first skinned about 10 spanish onions and placed the skins into a medium sauce pan along with about 4.5 cups of water and 2 tablespoons of white vinegar. We placed our leaf and/or flower petals onto the raw eggs and wrapped them tightly in a small piece of nylon securing both ends with elastic pony tails. We placed all of our eggs into the dye pot and hard boiled them by bringing the pot to a very light simmer on medium heat and lowering the temperature to low then covering them for about 12 minutes. We removed them to reveal our pretty natural looking eggs.
Wrist Exercises For Knitters & Crocheters If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! If you knit/crochet a lot… chances are you suffer from some achy wrists! I know that during last week, when I was crocheting up a storm, I certainly did! Here are a few exercises that I do to relieve my sore wrists. Try to give these a whirl every hour or so while you’re working. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Happy wrists make a happy knitter/crocheter!