At our house, our holidays are primarily handmade (except for Santa, of course–Santa’s been shopping the deals all year long), and I try not to buy any new materials when making my gifts and other projects, either. AND I do almost all of my crafting with two little kids either actively helping, or at least in tow, so my stuff can’t be super-complicated or destroyed by the input of a five-year-old....
These particular bean bags were inspired by my three-year-old, who hasn’t yet memorized her numbers. Sure, she can count on her fingers and plays a mean game of Uncle Wiggily, but sit down long enough to figure out the difference between a 5 and a 9? Eh. Why not just call everything an 8? The beauty of the stenciling, however, is that you can put anything that you want on these bean bags–kids’ names, states and capitals, letters (I really want to make this alphabet bean bag set), or instructions for the craziest Game Night game ever!...
I have quite a collection of embroidery hoops, and I’ve done projects like Embroidery Hoop Easter Eggs and Embroidery Hoop Pumpkins. Even so, I bought more embroidery hoops at a garage sale in order to make colorful wall art pieces for my craft booth. Here’s the first one that I came up with: What You Will Need: An embroidery hoop Two types of fabric. I used yellow and brown fabrics that I found at a garage sale....
Let’s face it, most little boys don’t give two hoots about Valentine’s Day. Well, except for the candy! So when my nephew came to me last week, WE had two issues with his assignment to build a Valentine Mailbox. His problem: he doesn’t like hearts or pink. My issue: while these mailboxes are cute, they can be extremely wasteful because there’s not much you can do with a glittered, painted-up piece of cardboard once the holiday is over....
I love vintage glass. I have a few hoarded bottles and unique finds that are currently stashed away so my kids don’t break them. Eventually I will have all my antiques displayed around my home and not stuffed in boxes…after the kids have grown up. If I displayed everything now it would just get broken. But broken glass pieces don’t always get wasted. There are many artists who have found creative ways to turn broken glass into works of art....
From wool and wool blends to soysilk yarns, Midnightsky offers hand spun and hand dyed yarns and fibers. Special emphasis is placed on wool and wool blends with all natural and environmentally-friendly fibers used in the blends. All of their yarns and fibers are available in their natural state, dyed, or hand painted, in addition to a number of fiber clubs and sock yarn clubs. They source their yarns and fibers from other small companies committed to supporting small artists and environmental issues....
For the curious amongst you, Churro sheep were introduced to the New World because of their hardiness and adaptability to the new climate. They are an old breed dating back to the 1500’s. They were adopted by the Navajo and Pueblo Indian Tribes, soon after their journey. Their fiber is similar to that of merino, but was eventually found to be secondary to other breeds and their stock was rapidly diminished....
Is your kiddo headed back to school in the next few weeks? Send him off in DIY style with these upcycled back to school ideas! It feels like summer ends earlier every year, doesn’t it? My kiddo actually started back at preschool yesterday! He’s a little bit young for supplies like pencils and notepads, but even my toddler needed school supplies like a backpack and lunchbox. Below are back to school ideas for kids big and small....
Want your creative business to have creative business cards to go with it? Check out this list of handmade business cards, all made from eco-friendly materials! 1. brown paper seed packet business cards. Makers of crafts made from natural materials would do especially well giving out these business cards that double as seed packets. 2. confetti cards. If you sell small crafts, you might even have the tiny envelopes on hand....
Because it’s so versatile and can take on so many looks, a log cabin quilt block is a great choice for a ton of fun projects. Here are some of my favorites! Quilts and Blankets Confetti Cabins quilt. Want the ease of constructing a log cabin quilt but not the look? This is the quilt pattern for you! For extra interest, change the base color from white–I think black or grey would look VERY cool!...
Most of the projects and works of art displayed in Collage, Altered Art and Assemblage all have a vintage feel that really appeals to me. This delightful book covers the basics, the materials and the how-to’s for creating collages and assemblages and other altered art. It is chock full of ideas and showcases an awesome gallery of other artist’s work. Some of the projects in this book are whimsical while others are clever and fun like a Voodoo Doll project....
Refashioned Bags: Upcycle Anything into High-Style Handbags is a new book that shows us how to turn almost anything into a fun, funky and fabulous handbags. Refashioned Bags: Upcycle Anything into High-Style Handbags will show you how to turn the most mundane and uninspiring objects in fashionable bags. Come on an umbrella, really? Yes! On pages 56 and 57 you can learn how to turn an old umbrella into a rainy day bag....
Art and craft has played a big role in both bringing awareness about the disease and how to cope. One of the most prominent displays of craft is the AIDS quilt. Made up of individual “squares” that memorialize those who have been lost to the disease, the AIDS quilt is the largest on going community arts project in the world. It holds more than 44,000 individual panels made by friends, family and loved ones....
Well, what about the non crafty people? Should they be relegated to using plastic bags? What if everyone was given a free handmade bag to carry home their fresh produce instead of those plastic bags? And what if these bags were made out of fabric left overs such as outgrown t-shirts and scraps? Bags for the People was formed in reaction to when Glenn Robinson would work at his local farmers market in Union Square in New York and hand out hundreds of hundreds of plastics bags every day....
The National Wildlife Federation wants you to save the monarch butterfly, and they’re going to give you the stuff that you need to do it. Well, part of the stuff. People-made butterfly gardens typically contain water, food for both caterpillars and butterflies, and inviting spots for butterflies to lay their eggs. When you become a Butterfly Hero (to sign up, you’ll have to submit a photo of someone doing the American Sign Language sign for butterfly, as above; you can even do it over your face if you’re camera-shy), the National Wildlife Foundation will send you a Butterfly Garden Starter Kit that contains either native milkweed or flowering nectar seeds, and information about what other native plants will suit–you can take that list to your local nursery to fill in the gaps of your own butterfly garden....
This happened while I was on a Spring Break trip with my kids, so I missed much of the debate as it went live. But every night, browsing Facebook before bed, I’d see the updated shares. The first couple of nights, there was lots of “Cheerios is giving away free wildflower seeds! Go get some! Yay, Cheerios!” The next couple of nights, those types of posts were being overtaken by ones that looked more like “Cheerios is giving away free non-native, invasive, poison seeds!...
I’ve caught myself contemplating this quite a bit lately–whether it is actually possible for a craft that relies so heavily on paper to be done in a way that’s eco-friendly. It seems that scrapbooking has a few extra challenges that makes it difficult to find supplies that are made from recycled materials. For one, the paper used as the base of the page has to be sturdy enough that it can handle having photos and other potentially bulkier items adhered to it–generally cardstock weight....
On Wednesday we talked a little bit about what craftivism means, and today I wanted to share some examples of groups that are using crafts to make a difference, whether it’s through donations or by raising awareness. If you’ve been wanting to do a little crafty activism but weren’t sure where to start, these are also good resources for getting active! Craftivism in Action March for Elephants This is a great example of using art to raise awareness....
Artist Ali Golzad gives a face to traumatized children in these beautifully haunting examples of craftivism in action. War displaced Golzad from his home in Iran when he was only 10 years old, so these pieces are very personal to him. He lived in a Swedish orphanage for three years before his parents finally found him. His mission with his cardboard bas-relief portraits is to give faces to other children suffering trauma and abuse....
Crafter Marie Brian – aka The Cotton Floozy on Instagram – was fed up with hateful and sexist comments on her blog. Rather than start a flame war, Brian grabbed her embroidery needle in a stunning example of craftivism. Brian is calling her craftivism project “Adorable-izing the Hate.” Her goal is “turning something mean into something frickin’ adorable.” Basically, she wants to deflate these hateful comments by adapting them to her medium of choice: embroidery....
