A Sewing Box from an Old Book - CRAFTSTER CRAFT CHALLENGES. I found a tutorial to turn a book into a sewing box HERE and I knew it would be perfect for my partner in the Book Lover's swap, which I had just started organizing when this challenge was announced.
So she got a new sewing box, and I got something I could enter in this challenge! Win-win! It started with this big, thick volume of Shakespeare I found for $1 at my local library. (People donate old books and the library sells them to fund their programs.) First I removed all the pages--it was actually very easy to do with an X-acto knife: just one cut along the inside of the spine at the front and the back, and they all came out together. Then I glued book-themed scrapbook paper to the inside of the covers, sandwiching in some ribbon to tie the box closed. I glued more of the scrapbook paper to the outside of the balsa wood to give the box a finished look. I painted the top edges of the wood with gold paint. Denim purse and a cat. Orange velvet purse with a bow. The Walking Dead patchwork bag. My first post on this board!
\o/ Heehhee, it feels like something worth celebrating. For the Walking Dead swap I participated in recently, my partner had a lot of bags, particularly Teesha Moore (?) Junior Varsity Quilling Tutorial. I learned the basics of quilling years ago but never advanced to varsity level projects and rarely found the inspiration to pull my supplies out of hiding.
Fortunately, Craftster is blessed with members like littlecircles and mezcraft who are both incredible quilling artisans and all the inspiration I need to practice my own skills. I don't claim to be an expert quilling artist, frankly, I'm not good at all!! But I am excited about this craft and wanted to share my very basic knowledge. Quilling is an ancient craft (also known as paper filigree) that's done by wrapping paper strips around a quill to form a coil. Crazy Quilted Paper Cloth Bookmarks. I recently acquired the excellent book Stich Alchemy by Kelli Perkins and immediately became obsessed with making her crazy quilted paper cloth bookmarks.
So of course I did.... The process for making the paper cloth is much like what PurpleHeather details in her fabulous tutorial. Trinket shelves simple upgrade. DIY Natural Room Scents. Don't miss my follow-up post to this one withNATURAL ROOM SCENTS FOR DIY GIFTS & CENTERPIECESCLICK HERE This post was featured in the April 2013 issue of Woman's Day magazine.
Here's the thing. I'm married to a man who hates artificial scents of any kind. That goes for air fresheners, candles, perfume, soaps and anything else that is scented. We buy unscented everything. Turns out that King-Man may just be ahead of his time. But, the air in my house gets stale sometimes. There is a simple, all natural, truly lovely solution. Keeping the supply list simple. Holder for Charging Cell Phone (made from lotion bottle. My husband and I both have cell phones.
And both of us have phone chargers. And that means lots of obnoxious cords. You never know when one of us may be moving phone cords around, to give our phones an extra charge while we’re chatting away……… or trying to charge our phones up before running errands or something. Needless to say, those phone cords seem to be everywhere…..and are generally in the way and hanging all over the floor.
(Okay, and how about when you’re in a hotel or visiting family/friends. DIY String Art Tutorial. I’ve been seeing tons of string art popping up all over the web and decided to try my hand at a piece of my own.
I really didn’t want to mess with hammers and cutting wood and all that though, so I used cork board instead. Easy to work with, light weight and cheap! What’s not to love? Here’s what you’ll need: {Before I started this project, I unrolled the cork boards and placed a bunch of heavy books on them to straighten them out a bit. Each piece of cork board is only about 1/32″ thick – definitely not enough to hold a nail stable. You can download my template for the word “dream” here. Reinforce the spaces between the “e” and “a” and “m” with some additional tape.
Center your template out on your cork board. Radical possibility: Easy Anthropologie Confetti Tumblers. Thank you all so much for such amazing feedback and for helping this project circulate all over the internet!
My cups have held up pretty well due to not being used too often (they are currently just holding bobby pins in my bathroom) but several readers said after a little wear and tear, the paint comes off. Make Your Shelf at Home: Revamping a $10 Bookcase. Our sunroom houses my little home office, but it didn’t originally.
When we moved in, it was more of a room-we-don’t-know-what-to-do-with-so-we’ll-put-all-the-extra-boxes-there-until-we’re-done-unpacking sort of area, and at the end of all the moving in, four boxes remained, forming a tower that loomed over me as I worked. I hung curtains, got houseplants (now long dead of course), and put art on the walls, but there were the boxes, ignored and despised. They stayed there for about a year. Living with them sucked, but looking back, we deserved it. We deserved it because most of them were empty. DIY Dollhouse Jewelry. Oh my god, you guys.
Do you find yourself making squealy squee noises when you see dollhouse stuff, like you might die from how cute and tiny it all is? I do. I can’t walk by without picking up all the tiny things and admiring their perfect tininess. But I don’t have a dollhouse, so I don’t get to have the tiny things. This week, it was finally time to take some tininess home for myself. If you’d like your own necklaces to harness the power of all the tiny littleness in the world, here’s how I made both of mine! First, a tiny tea set is simple to make into a cluster necklace. A miniature tea set, or any set of tiny objects, ideally with handles or other loops.Jump rings.Two pairs of pliers (needle nose or chain nose pliers are easiest), for opening and closing your jump rings (here’s how).Additional charms or beads on head pins (optional).A long chain to hang your tea set on. Use the above photo as your guide. Six paper flowers.