Archive Category: 'Crafty Ideas'

• Bugs-Be-Gone Bags: Materials Needed Rosemary Lavender Buds Thyme Lemongrass Peppermint Tansy Cedar Chips Cheesecloth, Muslin drawstring bags or fabric envelopes (free pattern download below) Directions Fill small drawstring bags to hold between 1/4 cup and 1/2 cup of the herb mixture. Place bags in your pantry, closets, drawers, chests, under beds, hang in kitchen windows. You could also place the herbs in open, decorative bowls and place them [...]
• How To Make A Flower Press + More: Here are several different plans and tutorials for making a flower press, some cheap and easy–others are more sturdy and long-lasting. I’ve also included a few resources for how to use pressed flowers and a selection of pressed flower craft ideas that you may like to try. How To Make A Flower Press Build a Flower Press Make Your [...]
• How To Make Cookie Cutters + More: Here’s a packed list of instructions for making your own cookie cutters as well as a few different projects and ideas you can use them for (they can be utilized for much more than just baking cookies!). Some of the instructions are quite simple using basic materials, others involve some metalwork. Whichever method you choose to [...]
• Homemade Herbal Sleep Pouches: Did you get enough sleep last night? Two methods for falling asleep on those “restless nights” are reading a good book (but not one that’s too stimulating) and reaching for a lavender filled pillow or sachet. In folklore, pillows were filled with lavender flowers to help the restless fall sleep. There is now scientific evidence to [...]
• How To Make Homemade Soap: Today’s feature tip is from MillerSoap with Miller’s Homemade Soap Page. If you ever wanted to learn how to make your own soap–this is the place for you! I have been making our soap for over 30 years and in the beginning we got some of the materials from raising our own beef. Since getting [...]
• Repurposing Biscuit Tins – Organizing Ideas & Craft Projects: It seems this time of year I’m swimming in biscuit tins, but I’m not complaining since they’re such great organizing tools! Plus the crafts you can make with them are gorgeous and not that difficult to manage–you can go as simple or as elaborate as you like. These tins are also known as cookie tins or [...]
• Homemade Reuseable Tea Bags: Today’s feature is from Craft Leftovers with instructions and pattern for a reusable tea bag: Pinch of Tea! This week’s pattern is a nice little tea bag that you can reuse. I just love tea…. love it. But I’m not too fond of tea bags. They just seem so wasteful to me. Unfortunately, as on [...]
• Homemade Scrubbies Pattern: Today’s feature is from the Canadian Crafter – Kansas A for a tutorial on Homemade Scrubbies: This scrubby is really scratchy but because the crino is 100% nylon it won’t scratch Teflon® or even my ceran top stove! I used crino purchased from the fabric department at Wal-Mart and plastic canvas yarn bought at Michaels. I haven’t tried [...]
• Concrete Lightbulb Project – Cool Desktop Item: Today’s feature is from Finkbuilt with a project for how to make a Concrete Lightbulb: The concrete bulbs are particularly popular among visitors to my cubicle at the office. When people pick one of these things up off my desk, they invariably finger it for a second while doing a few eyebrow exercises before finally letting out [...]
• How To Make Photo Snow Globes: Today’s feature is from Photojojo with a nice project for Photo Snow Globes. Very basic supplies needed and the snow globes are surprisingly easy to make: Items Needed: Water Bottle or empty mason jar Two photos (or 1 transparency) Clear packing tape, the wider the better. Scissors Goo Gone Glitter & sparkles Clear (light) Corn Syrup Good old-fashioned Water If you don’t have any Goo [...]
• Patchwork Sewing Basket Tutorial: Today’s feature is from Little Thing with Patchwork Sewing Basket Tutorial: Materials and tools: sewing machine, scraps of fabric, light weight batting, leather cord (or ribbon or jute), trim like rick-rack or lace, one wooden button (plastic or metal if you like too), a piece of heavy cardboard (big enough to make the top of the [...]
• Recycle Project – Magazine Bowl: Today’s feature is from A Little Hut with a Recycle Project – Magazine Bowl: The beauty of this project is that you can make the bowl any size you’d like by changing the width of the base and by stopping at any point during the process of building the sides. I’m thinking that this bowl will [...]
• Homemade Smelly Jelly Recipes: Homemade Gel Air Freshener 2 cups water 4 packages Gelatin (plain) 15 to 20 drops Essential Oil (adjust to personal preference) 1 to 2 TBS salt Food Coloring Directions: In a small pot, mix 1 cup water, essential oil and food coloring. As soon as it starts to boil, remove from heat. Completely dissolve gelatin and salt in the hot water then add [...]
• How To Cover A Lampshade Frame: Today’s feature is from Kirin Notebook with instructions for How To Cover A Lampshade Frame: Equipment Lampshade frame (these can be tricky to find – I buy mine from Handworks in Prahran, VIC) Fabric (anything that can hold it’s own when the light is on – you want to be able to still see the pattern!) Some sort of [...]
• How To Make Chocolate Dipped Spoons: Chocolate dipped spoons are easy to make and are a nice treat for your coffee, great gifts for coffee lovers! Here’s how to make them: Ingredients Milk Chocolate (use a bag of chocolate chips if you like) Dark Chocolate (2 squares or small handful of chips – used for decoration. Amount will vary depending on embellishments used.) White Chocolate [...]
• How To Make Shrinky Dinks: Here’s a fun one for the kids, today’s feature is from Curbly with DIY Shrinky Dinks: Materials Needed: Clean #6 Plastic Permanent Markers Scissors Aluminum Foil Oven and Tongs or Oven Mitt One of the comments suggests using this process to make zipper pulls and cell phone charms, great ideas! If you’re worried about what the heck #6 plastic is, the author explains [...]
• Furoshiki How To: Today’s feature is from DIY Life with DIY Definitions: Furoshiki – multi-use wrapping cloths. Normally the feature tip slots here on Tipnut are filled for a couple weeks in advance, but I had to bump this one in NOW because it is so unique and new to me, I’ve never heard of Furoshiki. Have you heard [...]
• Homemade Herbal Bath Bag Recipes: Herbal bath bags (also known as bath tea bags) make a lovely soaking bath that can be beneficial to your skin, ease stress and help soothe aches and pains. They’re similar to the Shower Spa Bags except these soak in the tub with you, making the bath a luxurious tea spa. If you just need some [...]
• How To Turn An Umbrella Into A Kite: Today’s feature is from HomeOfTheSampler.com with a cool tutorial – September How-To from Rose Travale: How to Turn an Umbrella into a Kite. You take apart the umbrella by removing the wires then reuse the nylon umbrella fabric and wires to make a kite. Even the umbrella handle is utilized! Supplies needed are very basic: Pliers Scissors Permanent Marker Sewing Machine Kite [...]
• How To Prepare & Preserve Pine Cones: Gathering your own pinecones is a great way to save some money on Christmas crafts, plus gives you a little exercise and fresh air while out collecting them. If you’d like to gather your own pine cones to use for crafts like pinecone wreaths and ornaments, you first need to prepare them so they’ll be [...]
• Fabric Wall Appliques Technique: Today’s feature is from ThisIsLoveForever with a tutorial for Fabric Wall Appliqués – Weekend Wall Project: Basically, it involves covering fabric in liquid starch and using a brayer to roll it onto the wall for a temporary wallpaper. I thought it would be cool to cut motifs out of fabric and brayer it onto the painted [...]
• How To Make Crayon Nibbles: Today’s feature is from CraftyDaisies with the instructions How To Make Crayon Nibbles For Toddlers: A friend of mine told me awhile back about melting down crayons to make chunkier ones that are easier for little hands to hold (and tougher for them to break). This is also a great way to use up broken crayons [...]
• Collecting Vintage Tablecloths – Crafts Ideas & Resources: It’s no secret that I love vintage patterns, crafts and fabrics–and that includes tablecloths. The fabrics are soft and durable, usually a good quality cotton or cotton/linen blend and the patterns deliciously whimsical, folk artsy and retro. Perfect for brightening up the kitchen or sewing with! Here are a few craft ideas using the tablecloths, as [...]
• How To Make Cell Phone Charms: Today’s feature is from Made-By-Kali with the tutorial for How to Make a Cell Phone Charm (or zipper pull): I don’t quite understand the appeal of dangling things hanging from your cellphone, but who am I to argue with trends? This tutorial will explain, as simply as possible, how to make your own cellphone charm. Materials needed [...]
• How To Make Gel Candles – Easy Oven Method: Try making a small batch or two of these to get the swing of things, then setup an assembly line to whip up several at once. How To Make Gel Candles Materials Needed: Gel Wax Liquid Dye for Gel Wax (optional) Gel Safe Fragrance Oil (optional) Zinc Core Wick (pre-tabbed) Glass container to hold candle Prep Materials: Large Pyrex Measuring Cup Metal Spoon (for stirring) Candy [...]