The great craft challenge

Somehow, over the years I've accumulated more craft materials than I know what to do with. I always look at the potential in a matieral even if I may not have the skills or time to carry the project through. Now I'm planning on moving into a much smaller space I sadly don't think I'll have room for it all. So - I better get crafting. Its time to exercise those creative muscles to the maximum this summer.

Curently my inventory includes:

• 2 shoe boxes full of vintage lace
• 1 paper box of pink satin and crepe fabric (Man its heavy!)
• 1 sweater box full of black, red, and purple feathers, and bits of craft foam
• 1 sweater box full of ribbons, wedding bells, stamps, and ink.
• 3 drawers full of miscellaneous supplies including paint, paper, sketch pads, and glues.
• 1 HUGE heavy box full of miscellaneous fabric.
• 1 big box of fleece
• 1 bag full of cotton stuffing
• 1 drawer of beads
• 1 paper box full of paper and chip bags (leftover from candy wrapper purse making).
• Several sheets of poster board and craft foam.
• 1 big box of peach, blue, and yucky brown silk flowers. The flowers are nice, but the colors are aweful.
  

It all adds up to an entire closet's worth of stuff not including all the paper I have. I'm up for the challenge. How many ways can I use pink satin and cream lace? If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them!

Recycled Jewelry

These beads look like colorful pebbles. I think they'd be just beautiful strung on a silk ribbon. Better yet, they're made of recycled paper - newspaper to be precise. I've got a ton of scrap paper lying around and this looks like just the project to use it up. I'm definately going to try this at home. You can view a tutorial on how to make the beads here: A Storybook Life

Now this isn't quite a DIY project but it sure is beautiful! These earrings were made from recycled sake bottles. You can also find lovely shades of green and amber - a product of recycled beer bottles. You can buy these online at various locations including this one.

Paper sculpture

If you haven’t already noticed, I love paper art! Molly Jey makes some fun and beautiful pieces (available on Curlby). I really like the clean and modern look of the white on white pieces. This picture and the artist I found this via the Something Old Something New blog.

Stage props

It was a kitchen takeover! I had to rescue the project from my dad. His idea of a shield included duct tape and laundry detergent lids. I love him, but he's got no concept of style. Here's a snapshot of the shields and spears I lovingly hand crafted from the finest of cardboard. I ended up covered in paint and glue, but I think the end result was worth it. Now... I hope the boys don't play too rough with these babies because they're only cardboard...

Great craft glues

It's been an interesting craft weekend. A few friends and I were recruited to be part of a small dance production. We're short on props so I found myself applying sequins, making papier-mâché spear tips, and painting swords.

The first problem I ran into was how to apply sequins to tulle. I've tried fabric glues in the past and have been disappointed. I tried sewing but applying individual sequins was a painstaking process! In the end I decided to risk buying another kind of glue, and was happily impressed.

Here are some craft glues I've tested over the years and recommend:

• Crafter's Pick (The Ultimate) - Available at Michaels Craft Store. It's cheap, and it works! I was able to stick sequins and beads onto tulle without a problem. It grips right away, dries clear, flexible, and it is non-toxic.
• Weldbond (Universal Space Age Adhesive) - Available at hardware stores. If you're looking for heavy duty adhesion this stuff works! It's water resistant, impervious to oil, fungi, non-toxic, and used by NASA. I had a small bottle that lasted me years.
• Regular old white glue - Good old white glue always comes in handy. It's not the strongest but I use it for making papier-mâché, and when working with paper.

I try to avoid harsh chemical glues because I get the glue everywhere and like to use my fingers.

Candy Wrapper Photo Albums

Oh to do with my leftover collection of chip bags, candy, and granola wrappers...

I found some binders and turned them into candy wrapper photo albums. What do you think about them? I made one in silver and another in gold. It was much less time consuming than making candy wrapper purses so I'm happy.

Paper Crafts - Greeting Cards

Isn't this card pretty? I especially love the way it opens up. It looks complicated but its actually really simple! If you had enough time, this would work as a beautiful hand-crafted wedding invitation. There are instructions on how to make this card at Stamping Mathilda. I could browse through that site for hours. The paper crafts she has posted are so colorful and cheerful. Its like a little bit of sunshine in the middle of this cold spring ;)

More Candy Wrapper Purses!

I didn't make any new purses but I finished the ones I started. These pictures two sides of the same purse. I think at one point I found myself hitting vending machines and selecting junk food by color. Not exactly very healthy!

This week's crafty project

Thanks to Loe for forwarding me this project! I love the idea taking old things and turning them into something new.

This particular project uses old neckties to make a purse. Cute!

Check out craftbits.com for more craft projects and sewing ideas. I'm definately going to try some of the projects there when I get the time. Best of all a lot of them have photos to walk you through the process. If you're like me, reading the instructions alone doesn't always make sense.

Warm Fuzzies

Betz White creates the cutest things out of recycled sweaters! Here's a cupcake pincushion. It looks cosy enough to snuggle with. I love the way she puts colours together. She also makes teacup pincushions and fuzzy journals. I accidentally stumbled across her blog while looking for gift ideas. It was a happy accident. Now I want to try making felt out of old sweaters. I picked up a few from Goodwill this past weekend but I probably won't have time to play with it until January.

Christmas is coming! It's my favourite time of the year because I love thinking up the perfect gifts for people. However, I really do not enjoy Christmas music anymore. I can't believe stores start playing it in November. I wanted to make all my presents this year, but it doesn't look like I'll have enough time. I'll have to start early for next year ;) I've already got a long list of ideas that can tide me through the next few years worth of gifts.

I really need to get a cardboard light tent setup for photographing what I do have already made and to get my website finally set up, logo painted, domain names correctly transfered... sigh... and I also need a new computer.

Santa, all I want for Christmas is to be less busy!

My raven costume

Hi folks! I'm back with a tan! The husband and I spent a wonderful week in Hawaii on a long delayed honeymoon. The Halloween party was a lot of fun, and I did finish my costume in time. Here's a picture of it. I decided to compromise. This year I picked the raven but I think next year I'll use the pieces as part of something else. ;) I like Halloween.

P.S. I've been working on more candy wrapper purses but this time with a more colourful twist. Hope to get more photos up soon.

Costume hunting

Halloween is coming up fast so I’m writing a special post today. I think homemade costumes are half the fun of Halloween!

Are you looking for a costume? I’ve never purchased a costume in my life – how boring! Flex those creative muscles, and see what you already have in your closet, can find in the thrift store, or at the dollar store. You can do a ton of things with paper, glue, and accessories. I don’t think costumes should involve a big cost, unless you intend them to be worn more than once - like my masquerade gown ~sigh~

That’s one costume that I’ve been working on sporadically over the last few years. It all started when I decided to make a pair of black angel’s wings. I worked so carefully to craft those wings but they weren’t quite a costume on their own. Inspired by a trip to Venice, I ended up making a matching masquerade mask with some scraps of fabric and leftover feathers. Naturally, I needed a dress to go with the mask and the wings so I bought up a basic corset pattern from Vogue and stitched up a skirt too. The corset is great but the skirt wasn’t the right color and I kept tripping on it. In the end, the costume was neither authentic, nor gothic, nor scary enough to make it really great.

I found these pictures online. I’m inspired again, but I don’t really know if I want to go down the route of authentic and romantic, or gothic and creepy. I have a costume party to go to next Friday! Help! What do you think?

1) Raven or 2) Ball gown

If you’re looking for costume ideas here are a couple I thought were really creative. Click here to see instructions for the jellyfish and 8 New Sew Costumes. Maybe you don't want to get all dressed up. How about playing with your hair instead? You can find instructions for this beehive and a bunch of other Hair Raising Costumes.

There are tons of cute baby, and child costumes on Martha Stewart’s site too. My favorite was a baby dressed as a chicken, with little chicken feet made out of stuffed rubber dishwashing gloves. So cute! She always has craft ideas that don't look cheezy and many don't have to cost a lot either.

My Candy Wrapper Purse!

I'm really happy about how it turned out! Here's a shot of the purse I made. I've already got an order for one but I don't think I'll make too many of them since this one occupied most of my free time for an entire week. I vowed only to work on the purse while watching TV and as a consequence I watched more TV than I have in months. hehe I guess that's my fault.



All the materials were recycled: chip bags, christmas wrappers, granola bar wrappers, a chain from a broken pocket watch, and one black zipper. I didn't buy a single thing to make this cute little clutch purse except a glue stick. I plan on adding a lining to the purse with some leftover pink satin fabric in the future.

Candy Wrapper Purses

I've embarked on my latest crafty endeavor. I saw this picture while was surfing for interesting recycling ideas. That bag is entirely made from left over candy wrappers and chip bags. Now that is 100% trash to treasure!

Do you ever remember making gum wrapper chains as a kid? Thats the basic principle behind this design. You can find instructions for the purse here here: The Candy Wrapper Purse.

Did you know that in the movie classic "The Man With The Golden Arm," (1955) star Frank Sinatra, on being released from prison, presents his wife with a belt made of woven cigarette packs. Really these purses can be woven out of anything. You can find out more about the history of American paper crafts at the Tramp Art website.

One neat trick: you can also turn the candy wrappers inside out and use the silver lining on the outside for a sleek and sophisticated look. I bet no one will even know what your purse is made from!

Now, I've started on my own purse and let me tell you it's taking so much time my husband is rather annoyed at my constant snipping and folding. If you would rather buy one you can also help charity at the same time. These are a few sites I found:

• http://basurabags.org/ - These bags are made in Honduras, are entirely made of bags picked up off the streets, and all the profits go back to the workers and funding youth education programs.

• http://www.ecoist.com/ - A tree is planted for every handbag sold. This company supports fair trade for its workers and runs its company in a sustainable way. In addition to handbags they also sell belts, bracelets, placemats and an assortment of other items.

• http://www.bazurashop.com/ - This company works with a women's co-op in the Philippines. Every day, children from the local schools collect used drink containers then sell them to the co-op. The women sew them together into attractive, durable bags. Unlike most third world factory workers toiling away in sweatshops, these women are entrepreneurs and shareholders.