Archive Category: 'Crafty Ideas'

• How To Make Handmade Designer Bubble Mailers: Today’s feature is a professional secret revealed from 27 Things: Make Your Own Bubble Mailers… Make Your Own Bubble Mailers I love making my own mailers! It adds a personal and stylish touch to all my orders and it’s helped me stand out in the marketplace. A few months ago, I decided to open a second shop [...]
• Homemade Gift Baskets – The Ultimate How To Guide: Have you always wanted to learn how to make beautiful homemade gift baskets or have a large running list of basket themes and gift ideas at your disposal? Then this is the ultimate How To guide for you! Today’s tip is jam packed with videos for how to make gift baskets as well as lovely homemade [...]
• Reuse Plastic Bags – Fuse Them!: Today’s feature is from Etsy Labs with a great tutorial for How To Fuse Plastic Bags: Do you have one zillion plastic drugstore and grocery bags under your sink, or perhaps smushed into a drawer? Ever wanted a cheap and easy use for them? One that leaves you with an intriguing and useful homemade craft supply? [...]
• Fabric Burn Test Chart: Today’s feature is from Ditzy Prints with a full page chart for unknown fabric testing–Fiber Burn Chart: To identify the fibers in an unknown piece of fabric, cut off a snippet — it’s best if it’s about 1″ long and a triangle at most 1/4″ wide (try to cut from one of the already cut ends [...]
• Craft Tutorial: Charming Corkboard Wall Pocket: Today’s feature is from Craft Apple with a tutorial on How To Make a Corkboard Wall Pocket: Materials Needed: 12″x12″ piece of 1/4″ corkboard tile (available in office supplies at Target for around $4/4-pack, or art-supply stores for around $10/4-pack) 11 3/4″ x 11″ cardboard piece (I cut mine from an old box) 11 1/2″ x 11 1/2″ [...]
• Block Printing With Eraser Stamps: This is an excerpt of an article detailing how to make your own stamps from erasers and use them for stamping projects (on paper, fabric and other items). How To Block Print With Eraser Stamps Though stamps are, of course, limited to size of face of eraser, they are easy to make and work very well [...]
• Create A Craft Idea Digital Catalog File: Here’s a simple way to keep track of all those great projects and ideas you come across online, no special software necessary! Create a folder on your computer: Craft Ideas Inside that folder, create a folder for each category: Christmas, Easter, Gifts, Quilting, Sewing, Crochet (whatever works for you) Place a text file in each folder named: Index Whenever [...]
• How To Print On Fabric With Computer Printer: Today’s feature is from Sewing Star with the easy to follow instructions for How To Print On Fabric. Breaking it down: Use a 200+ thread count piece of fabric Iron fabric to the plastic side of freezer paper (cut both to fit 8.5 x 11) Place freezer paper backed fabric in the printer (fabric side up to be printed [...]
• How To Dry Flowers: A Collection of Tips: After yesterday’s Homemade Potpourri information, I thought this collection of flower drying methods and tips was a perfect follow-up. Tips For Drying Flowers Collect flowers first thing in the morning (after the dew is gone) and at least two days after a rain. Handle them carefully so they don’t get bruised. Choose flowers that have reached near [...]
• How To Make A Lavender Wand: Today’s feature is from GardenGate Magazine with nice instructions for how to Make a Lavender Wand: After it is dried, the heads and buds of lavender can be used in soothing sachets, potpourris and bath bags. Or you can save the entire stem and use it in flower arrangements or as a fragrant fire starter for [...]
• Homemade Potpourri 101: The Three Components of Potpourri Fixative: These do the best job of absorbing the different fragrances so things keep smelling nice for a longer period of time. Potpourri fixatives are things like oak moss and orris root. Fragrance: Essential oils, fragrance oils. These are applied to the Fixatives so they’ll retain the fragrance for a longer period of time. [...]
• Make Your Own Rub On Transfers: Today’s feature is from Rubber Stamping Fun with the instructions Fantastic Rub-On Transfers From Stuff Around The House! Get ready to have a blast making custom rub-on transfers. We spent hours researching the best way to make smudge free, rub-on transfers that could be used in scrapbooking and rubber stamping craft projects. We had a wonderful [...]
• How To Make Rose Water: Recipes & Tips: Rose water (also spelled Rosewater) can be used in cooking as well as a rich beauty aid. Try some as a facial toner or astringent, in your bath water or as a facial splash (refresher). Notes on Preparation: Rose petals must be freshly picked and have no pesticides or chemicals used on them. Pick the roses just after the [...]
• DIY Homemade Dog Rope Toy: Two different sites for today’s feature tip, first from HGTV with instructions for Homemade Fleece Rope Dog Toys: Weave a sturdy rope toy that’s comfortable for you to tug and perfect for your dog to sink his or her teeth into. This rope is especially soft for dogs with new or sensitive teeth, but can be [...]
• How To Wrap – Beautiful Bow Instructions: Here’s another great pdf for today’s feature tip, it’s from The Container Store with Your Guide To Beautiful Bows (pdf). Seven pages of instructions including color illustrations detailing how to tie gift bows such as: Basic Bow Florist Bow Basic Pom-Pom Bow Chrysanthemum Bow Carnation Bow Poinsettia Bow Aster Bow A little bit a ribbon and some hand coordination and you’ll be wrapping a [...]
• How To Make A Pressing Ham & More Pressing Tools: Calling all sewers & crafters: Today’s feature is from the University of Kentucky with a fabulous pdf file filled with info on How To Make Your Own Pressing Equipment (pdf). You’ll find instructions for how to make the following pressing tools: Tailor’s Ham (also known as a Pressing Ham or Dressmaker’s Ham) Seam Board & Point Presser Seam Roll [...]
• Homemade Bubble Machine & Bubble Recipes: This tip is from ParentHacks that both kids and the young at heart will love: Strawberry Basket As Bubble Blower: Pat just gave me a bunch of old green strawberry baskets. Dip them into a plate of bubble solution and swing them in the air for a homemade HUGE bubble machine! Fun! Plus here is a tipsheet full [...]
• Painting Glass Items – Perfect for Garage Sale Finds: Here’s a link roundup for stenciling or freehand painting various types of glass items. Glass pieces like bottles, vases, mason jars, jam jars, votives, whatever type of glass that catches your eye. Great for mismatched pieces, and yet so functional in plenty of different ways: Store pantry staples (rice, beans, spices, coffee, etc.) Designer bottles for cooking oils & [...]
• How To Make Outdoor Hanging Jar Lanterns: Today’s feature is from P. Allen Smith with the instructions for how to make Hanging Jar Lanterns: Hanging Jar Lanterns are a fun and easy way to add a little light to your garden. Materials: assorted sizes and styles of glass jars with a lip fine gage metal wire wire cutters needle nose pliers votive candles Supplies are inexpensive and basic [...]
• More Crafting For A Cause: Today’s feature is another opportunity to craft for a cause with Head Huggers: Do you knit? Crochet? Sew? Would you like to use this skill to help someone who has undergone hair loss due to chemotherapy, brain surgery, burn wounds, etc.? I am embarking on a project to do just that, and would like to invite you to join [...]
• Hikaru Dorodango Tutorial: These are something to be seen! Today’s feature is from dorodango.com with their information about Hikaru Dorodango: Hikaru dorodango are balls of mud, molded by hand into perfect spheres, dried, and polished to an unbelievable luster. The process is simple, but the result makes it seem like alchemy. Materials Needed: Water and dirt. That’s it! Well, a [...]
• How To Make Soap: Today’s feature is from TeachSoap.com with their great resource for making homemade soaps: Soap Making Recipes, Tips, Instructions and more! TEACH SOAP is the premier site for soap making instructions, soap recipes, soap making tips and everything you’d want to know about making soap and other handcrafted products including lip balms, lotions, and more Plenty of information [...]
• More Craft Care for Virginia Tech: Visit Craft-Chick’s livejournal for another opportunity to reach out to Virginia Tech, this one is for quilters: Project HOKIE HOPE: I am an alumna of Virginia Tech (PhD finally finished in 03) and was, with the whole country, horrified by last week’s events on that beautiful campus. In my effort to ease some of my own [...]
• Reach Out To Virginia Tech With Knit & Crochet: The Mosaic Yarn Shop in Blacksburg, VA is requesting 8×8 inch knit or crochet squares in Maroon, Burnt Orange, White, Black so that they can be made into blankets to give to the victims’ families. All designs are welcome. Color choices for squares: Maroon, Burnt Orange, White, Black Please knit or crochet squares out of the nicest, softest [...]
• Kids Crafts & Cookie Sheets: Give kids their own Craft Cookie Sheet to work over top of when snipping bits of paper, gluing pieces of ’stuff’ together, dusting pom poms with glitter and all the other fun, wild & crazy things kids love to do when crafting. By giving them each a cookie sheet to use as their crafting space, [...]