The Handy Hausfrau: Portable Spice Kit for Camping or Travel Today's DIY project at The Handy Hausfrau is a portable spice "rack." We have a second home (a ski condo in the mountains) and I am constantly filling up Ziplock bags with various spices for cooking. Why don't I just leave the spices up there? you ask. It's only 6 inches x 1.5 inches and it easily fits in any tote bag or suitcase that I'm lugging back and forth. *I would check with the airlines to see if you can carry on spices. To create this project, head to your local Walgreens, CVS or other drug store. Notice the little key in the upper right corner of the package? When you open it up, you'll notice that each day's lid also has raised dots on the corner - braille to indicate the day for the visually impaired. Find your strongest pair of nail clippers and get to work clipping those dots off. Then get our your emery board (or buy a pack of the cheapies for $0.99) and get to work sanding the lids to a smooth finish. This is what the lids will look like when you're finished.
Little Lucy Lu: Ladder Laundry Rack I am SO excited about my latest "project" ... it's kinda a long one. ....But it'll be worth it. :-) Are you ready??? OK, so to preface this I need to remind you that I am a TALL gal. 5 feet 11 inces, to be exact. And my legs take up a great deal of those 71 inches. A 35-inch inseam makes me ridiculously happy. But it is also relatively hard to find ... and more importantly - KEEP! I can't tell you how many times I have "ruined" my just-barely-long-enough jeans by putting them in the dryer And therein lies my problem. Let me put this in pictures ... This is what my laundry room looks like most days: Jeans, pants, and various other dryer unfriendly articles of clothing hung on the coat hooks and any other hooks I can find (like the one inside my ironing board cabinet door). I NEED a drying rack. Enter: this old wooden ladder. Which I painted turquoise blue (the same turquoise blue I used on the trunk on the front porch!)... And then I sanded and scuffed and stained it up a little bit ... P.S.
Colorful Silverware! « Spearmint Kitchen Pin It a cute DIY project to spiff up your old silverware for spring. doesn’t everyone have a set of old silverware? i keep a set underneath the sink and it could definitely use this makeover. wouldn’t it be fun to use this for your picnics? Pin It all you need is:spray paint metal primer, spray paint, painter’s tape, and sandwich bags Pin It see the full DIY @ creativelychristy.blogspot.com via casadefirulas.blogspot.com Pin It
How to Crochet with Pop-Tops Crochet a Flower With Pull Tabs For crafters who want to know how to crochet with pull tabs, we've come up with this free crochet pattern that will teach you how to crochet a flower. This is our first DIY project and it's a good introduction to recycled crafts. This crochet flower can be made into a Christmas tree ornament, a brooch or incorporated into a larger project. To download a printable version, click here » Step 1: Materials & Tools 6 pull tabs Crochet thread (1 or 2 colors). Step 2: Prepare Your Pull Tabs Choose tabs that are in good condition. Step 3: Start Crocheting Begin crocheting the center of the flower using a single stitch to cover the 'thin side' of the tab (top figure) (the side that's pulled when a can is opened). Step 4: Connect the Circle Pull the line of tabs into a circle and crochet them together (top figure). Step 5: Add Color to the 'Petals' Cover the outer ring of the pull-tab using a double stitch with different colored thread. Step 6: Cover and Connect
How To Make A Stylish Photo Frame For Several Photos Here is a simple yet stylish photo frame that can accomodate quite many photos at once. The idea is very simple. Fasten twines on the empty frame and hang photos using clothes pins on them. You can use a frame you bought or a frame you made by yourself. To make it you just need to find some wood strips, sand them, paint or stain them and fasten together with the staples and nails. Yes, everything is as simple as it sounds. DIY: Hand Painted Mug October 17th, 2011 I’ve been wanting to try porcelain paint for a while, and it’s just as amazing as I anticipated. You have to give it a try. The holidays are coming up, and hand painted coffee/cocoa mugs would make great gifts! Supplies: porcelain mug (mine is from CB2) Pebeo Porcelaine 150 outliner (available at Dick Blick) There are transparent porcelain paints that you apply with a brush and outliners which are thicker and opaque. If you want to achieve the ink-like look that I did, go with an outliner. How to: 1.
Weblog Altered matchboxes are easy and fun to make! To view a step-by-step tutorial with photos for making these paper boxes, check out the Matchbox Valentines How Tuesday post on the Etsy Storque blog. These little boxes are approximately the size of standard, store-bought, 32-count matchboxes (1.5″ x 2″ x .5″). They make lovely mini gift boxes, and are also fun to swap! Here you can download the PDF template I created and use for creating these matchboxes from scratch using heavy card stock. (Make sure to download the full-size document using the link below. Download Rachel’s matchbox template. Instructions: Print out template on card stock at 100%. Optional: Want to include a little card or mini zine in your matchbox? Want even more matchbox fun?! Here is a newer Envelope-style matchbox template: The inner drawer of this matchbox is exactly the same as my original Matchbox Template above, but the outer wrap differs significantly. Download the Envelope-style Matchbox Template PDF here. Also…
Credenza: Practical meets Pretty Last year I remodeled my home office, and it’s been a genuine pleasure working in this pretty and personalized space. For the longest time, I was loving the sofa that sat on one wall, but over time, paperwork started piling up, and I reasoned I needed a more practical solution if I really was going to run a business from home. So I made some changes! I started with a credenza I found at (where else?) a thrift store. Before: After: Slate blue/gray paint + sleek contemporary pulls + geometric pattern on top = perfect! Some of you are probably wondering how the heck did I get such straight painted lines on this piece? First, let’s start at the beginning. Here you can see I’m painting the laminate shelf on the inside. Note the can says "No sanding" but people ask me all the time if that is for real. Moving on. Next, I thought I was sooooo smart to paint the rough pattern in white, lay painter’s tape on top, then add the gray paint over the top of that. First attempt: This I have learned.
Day 63 – DIY Corona Glasses I cannot even tell you how excited I was when I found this pin explaining how simple it is to cut glass bottles. For our first anniversary, my husband signed us up for a glassblowing class. It was awesome and we had a great time. As we were leaving, one of the artists was turning Corona bottles into drinking glasses for a friend’s wedding gift. I was wondering why these glasses weren’t one of the projects we could choose from that day. You can cut glass bottles at home using materials you probably already have on hand. glass bottles yarn nail polish remover lighter sink full of ice water sandpaper 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. The hardest part about this project is getting the cut in the right spot. You can make more than just drinking glasses. Source: Crafty Scrappy Happy Related posts:
Tracy's KILLER Garlic Bread & shutterbean While we’re on the subject of soups, I thought it would be nice to share my SECRET recipe for the most KILLER Garlic Bread. What goes better with soups than garlic bread? Not much! My neighbor taught me to add dill in the garlic butter. It’s what makes this garlic bread killer. That’s the secret! If you were to ask me what my death row meal would be, I’d immediately tell you a buffet full of this KILLER GARLIC BREAD. And we’re off! Get your butter ready. Chop up your garlic, nice & fine. Put the garlic and the butter in a microwave safe bowl & melt in the microwave. Time for the dried herbs! Put all the herbs in the melted butter. Let the butter sit until it gets harder. Now smear it on your bread! Put the halves back together again. Unwrap your bread and put it under the broiler for 2 minutes. Wait for it to cool slightly and cut up your bread with a sharp knife. Brace yourself. Tracy’s Killer Garlic Bread (recipe by me!) Shutterbean Notes:
iCandy Handmade Hi friends! I can't tell you how excited I am to be a creative guest on Ucreate today! I've been bubbling with excitement for weeks and have been scheming over what project would be Ucreate-worthy. I hope this one fits the bill...! First of all, I'm Autie and my friend Jen and I blog over at iCandy handmade. I'm a busy mom of 2 cute little kids and during nap time and bed time, I love to work on projects! The project that I thought I'd share with you today started out with these. The drawer does not open, but the cupboard door does...and it leaves about an inch of space to keep something in it...like art masterpieces of a few sheets of homework paper...hmmmm I bounced some ideas off of Jen, and this is what I came up with...I give you the Cupboard Door into Art Desk Tutorial I made one for each of my littles, and so far, they're totally diggin' it! If you want to know what I did, here's a quick run-down on what I did: I wanted to use the drawer as a supply holder. Here we are so far: -Autie
Anthro-Inspired Serving Tower There are some beautiful serving pieces cropping up around blogland, using all sorts of great materials, and I’ve been wanting to do something similar. In browsing Anthro a couple of weeks ago (I know I know, I actually went in the store – but I had a good friend on speed dial in case I succumbed to anything too crazy) I came across a serving tower made from beautiful white dishes and cups, stacked on top of each other. Now because I was in an Anthro-high-price stupor, I did not take a picture of this lovely item. I wanted mine to be a bit more colorful though . . . I scoured our local thrift store and found a great selection of pretty plates and cups. In trying to decide what would be best to glue these dishes together I came across the DIY Club Challenge – which requires you to use certain projects to participate. To start I wanted the bottom plate raised just a bit, so I used an upside down dessert plate as the base. I added the glue to the base plate. Pretty easy right? And again. . .
The Boy Trifecta: Dino Spike Crochet Pattern I sort of think it does. Or at least it seems so to me. And I've definitely got the crochet bug these days. I've got a little monster running around my house these days, so I thought I'd create a hat to reflect his wild insane out-of-control hilariously adorable personality. Of course, this one modeling the hat, he's not a monster at all. He's just the only one who will sit long enough for me to take a picture. I mean seriously, how can you not love those eyes? In case you have any little monsters that you would like to make this hat for, here's the dino spike pattern. Hook: 5mm (H) Yarn: Any worsted weight is fine - I used Wool-Ease. Mark the first stitch in each round. Round 1: Make a magic loop/ring, and do 6 single crochets in the loop. Round 2: Single crochet around (6 sc) Round 3: 2 single crochet in first stitch, 1 sc in next stitch - repeat around (9 sc) Round 4: Single crochet in each stitch (9 sc) Round 5: 2 single crochet in first stitch, 1 sc in next stitch - repeat around (14 sc)
Mason Jar Key Hook Hey guys! Hope you all had a great Wednesday I have a fun project to share today! I started with a 1×8 board from Lowe’s that I cut to about 2′ long. I used a different paint method on this board and I love how it turned out so I am going to share it with you in my next post. I also purchased 3 hooks and a pipe clamp from Lowe’s. My next step was attaching them to my board. Then it was time to attach the clamp. I used a 3/4″ wood screw to attach it to my board. Finally, I added to picture hangers to the back of it and hung it up. I love it. I’m thinking these would be super cute hand towel hooks for the bathroom. Thanks for stopping by! I will show you my new paint method in my next post so stay tuned. ~Whitney