Posts

Millie Hilgert of Miss Courageous turns found objects into what she calls Pop Art. “As in pop caps, pop music, pop a lid, pop art, pop culture.” Her materials range from discarded records to vintage wallpaper to game pieces, and she does all of her cutting by hand. She finds her inspiration in the world around her: nature, architecture, and in the materials themselves. The puzzle of figuring out how to transform a found object into something new and unique is part of the fun!...

Gardening can actually be kind of expensive, considering that you’re supposed to be saving money on grocery stores and florists by growing your own organic produce and flowers. Seriously, I don’t have much of a green thumb, and even though I try to make up for that with a lot of Type A stick-to-it-iveness, I wouldn’t even want to venture on how much money I spent on seeds and plant starts and garden fencing and organic fertilizer last year, to basically end up with two pumpkins, four cherry tomatoes, and one sulky basil plant....

While we’re on the topic of Weddings this week, I noticed that these lovely spring flower pins would look just darling on top of a veil or as an exquisite bridesmaid’s corsage. Have you ever made fabric flowers? I love the idea of upcycling wasted fabric into little fabric floral bouquets. This is a actually great idea for wedding bouquets that will last a lifetime. Even better if you make it at your bridal shower!...

Did they never give me anything of my own to paint because pottery painting was too expensive back then to waste on a little kid, or did I just have no interest in adding to our house’s already expansive collection of hand-painted ashtrays and vases? No clue, but I do know that the experience totally scarred me, because early in December, when my own little kiddos wanted to paint cat bowls as Christmas presents for their best friends, the cats, it was with much reluctance and hesitation and prior research that I walked them into our local hands-on pottery painting studio....

Can cold-process soap bring your family closer together? Shannon Hayes sure thinks so. Hayes, the author of Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture, claims in her book that the kinds of eco-friendly craftiness that we enjoy as a hobby–gardening, thrifting, sewing our own clothing, making our children’s toys–can be embraced full-time and marshaled into a political movement and a way of life that will allow us to be happier, healthier, and freer all the while improving our environment and bettering our political systems....

Of course, since I’m from the South, a plain white popcorn garland isn’t nearly gaudy enough for me, so read on and I’ll show you not only how to easily make a great popcorn garland, but also how to easily paint it to match (or NOT match!) your holiday decor. For your popcorn garland, you’ll want plain, unsalted, unbuttered popcorn. If you don’t have an electric popcorn air-popper (I found mine for four dollars at Goodwill a few years ago), you can make DIY microwave popcorn with just popcorn kernels and a paper bag....

I am what you might call “not tall.” Some might even go so far as to say that I am short. Those people would be right, and it was the bane of my thrifty existence before I learned how to sew. Luckily, taking up a pair of pants can be quick and easy! Not only can you use this tutorial to shorten pants, but the same process will work for shortening a skirt that might be cute if the length weren’t a bit dowdy....

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been doing some spring cleaning. I went through my thrift stash this week and found this adorable jewelry box. I liked it to begin with, but I wanted to spruce it up a bit. Here’s how you can spruce up your own jewelry box! What You Will Need: An old jewelry box Paint and paint brush. Remember, paint isn’t the greenest craft supply, so opt for a low VOC paint if you can....

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Q. Do you need another reason to drink beer? A. Bottle cap magnets recycle beer bottle caps. You’re welcome. While you can make bottle cap magnets with a strong, clear crafter’s glue, I prefer the clear, hard gloss that you get from epoxy. Epoxy is simpler to use than you think, though, and the easy-mix, low-scent epoxy that I use is simple enough that my eight-year-old can use it....

Being a ballet parent is no joke. There’s thrice-weekly classes at the ballet department on the university campus with no free visitor parking. There’s getting your kid to Nutcracker rehearsals, at whatever weird time the director has decided, always slightly different every single day. There’s that leotard that has to be kept clean. Those tights that have to be hand-washed. That bun that you had to watch a million Youtube videos to teach you how to do before the first day of class....

It’s a good thing really, enabling you to BYOB (bring your own bag) on any numerous shopping excursions. On one such recent shopping excursion to everyone’s favorite big box store, Target, I found another green offering to the tote world. Made of 100% organic materials, the cute market tote is available with sassy slogans like “Kiss me I’m Organic” and “I don’t do Plastic.” While not hand made, it is refreshing to see organics and other eco-friendly materials and products making it to the mainstream....

Her fabulous linen swatches are the perfect size for a multitude of craft projects. Read on for some great ideas. Michelle has a few tutorials on her blog including this great one to make a fabric lamp shade for an inexpensive Ikea lamp. I happen to have 2 of these lamps collecting dust in my garage because I thought they were too bright. Well, I just ordered my Forsythia swatch and plan to recover one of the lamps for my newly redesigned living room....

Remember my most favorite ever fabric print, that Hobbit book cover panel that I turned into a fabric wall hanging? There were actually TWO Hobbit book covers in that yardage that I bought! The burning question that I asked myself then became: what ELSE can I do with this beautiful fabric to show it off to its fullest extent? I think that this skirt fits the bill perfectly. It’s made from that single panel, with a casing made from stash fabric, and its existence in my life is currently making me very, very happy....

And the best part? The projects I’ve chosen won’t just work well with second hand onesies or ones that are already in your kid’s dresser drawers. You can also use eco-friendly and reclaimed materials, so you don’t have to feel any green guilt, either! Win-win! 1. DIY Cardigan Onesie I know, there are a gajillion cardigan onesie tutorials out there, and I chose this one by Jennifer at Baby Making Machine because the directions are clear, and her method is the simplest I’ve seen....

All you need to do to enter is fill out the quick little form on this page, add the Showcase button to the post that you’re entering, and kick back. You don’t need to write a brand new project for the showcase. If you have something that you wrote about in the past that fits the bill, you’re welcome to submit that, too. We’re flexible around here. There are already some super cute and creative projects rolling in, and we can’t wait to see what other entries we get over the next few days....

Rubber stamps are fun to make, and can be used for a number of projects, from scrapbooking to decorating a letter, to making your own funky t-shirts. You can make stamps from a lot of different materials, and the bottoms of used shoes is a great material that would otherwise go to waste. What you need is scissors, an X-acto knife, and something to scoop out the area of the stamp that you wouldn’t want to show....

If your fingers are itching to get started on your holiday sewing, there’s still time to participate in Craftsy’s 2nd Annual Charity Sew-Along by sewing a NICU smock for a preemie baby. When my younger daughter was born six weeks early, she had to spend three weeks in the NICU, and one of the many terrible aspects of that terrible time was my inability to treat her as a baby....

When choosing sensory materials to DIY and offer to kids, think of it like a buffet: some sensory materials won’t be amenable to your kid’s palate at all, and that’s okay! Some kids aren’t going to naturally be attuned to sticky materials, for instance, and some won’t like crumbly materials, etc. But other sensory materials will be some of your kid’s favorite things on earth. Your kid might LOOOOOVE dough-like materials, or materials they can sift or scoop, or materials that ooze between their fingers....

The simplest crafts can be the most fun. They’re often the most accessible to those without a lot of crafting skills, and they generally make the best use of materials at hand. Yet it’s the simplest crafts that can be the hardest to figure out for those not already in the know. For instance, crafty types could figure out easily how to make a paper bag book cover, and so they’re not likely to spend the time to make and post a tutorial....