Need a gift that’s easy to make but still personal? A matted photo that you make yourself can be just the thing! You use a photo or artwork that lets your recipients know that you’re thinking only of them, and yet the actual matting and framing of the photo takes less than an hour and costs less than five bucks. Key to this project is the thrifted frame. If you’ve never gone thrifting for frames, I highly recommend it!...
Egg allergies are becoming more and more common. One of my nephews is allergic to eggs, and he has to wear cumbersome gloves if he wants to participate in egg dyeing. It really takes some of the fun out of the whole thing. Of course, egg allergies are only one reason that you might opt to skip egg crafts this Easter. I’m vegan, and now that my son is old enough to taking part in egg dyeing, I don’t want him to dye living eggs....
It sounds like craftiness runs in her family! Paula says: Paula worked for almost a decade at some large, chain fabric stores: You can find Paula’s vintage fabric finds, along with her handmade wares in her Etsy shop. She also posts projects and tutorials on her blog.
Green crafting was never something that she intentionally set out to do. It evolved when she “discovered that she enjoyed using rescued materials for her creations.” She says of green crafting that “the materials and pieces speak to her,” and she will gather them without an intended purpose at first. Her Sassy Sayings collection, for example, came together many years after acquiring the materials for her line. She picked up ceramic tiles at a neighbor’s yard sale, had vintage magazines stacked up and waiting, until one day it just hit!...
As luck would have it, this month’s theme for the showcase is all about green: Featuring fantastic fashion, accessories, art and home accents in all shades of verdant glory, this month’s Poppytalk Handmade is not to be missed. This particular showcase is running from March 10th to April 11th, so make sure to stop by and browse today because once it’s gone, it’s gone. At first glance, I was instantly drawn to sellers Louelle Bloom, Ecojot, Gaia Conception, Susan Schwake, and Black Sheep Heap....
Americans spent nearly $7 billion dollars on Halloween this year. BILLION! That’s BILLION, with a “B”! How on earth is that possible? I guess if you factor in decorations, treats, kids costumes, adult costumes, and even pet costumes – yeah, that all adds up pretty darn fast. As eco-crafters, that number is particularly frightening because we know that much of our store-bought Halloween fabulousness will end up in the trash....
Kittehs LURVE getting stoned off of catnip. The ubiquitous catnip mouse is THE best catnip distribution method known to mankind, but your kitties deserve better than that junky Dollar Store poly-fill catnip “mouse” that they’re half-heartedly batting around while wondering why you don’t love them very much. You DO love your kitties, though, right? You DO want them to have the bestest, cutest, most catnip-filled mice that human hands can make, right?...
Garden Week is going strong, you guys! Today I’m excited to share how to build one of my favorite features from my own back yard: our herb spiral. I live in intown Atlanta, and from a gardening perspective, that means two things: I have terrible soil that’s packed with clay. My yard is basically made of bricks. Not everyone living intown has a yard full of bricks, but most of us find crazy debris in our yards whenever we dig....
Got a kid who’s in love with color? These DIY color viewers will help her see the world in a whole new light! These color viewers are a project that is suitable for a wide range of ages. Toddlers and preschoolers will incorporate them into their sensory play, while older kids (who do still love their sensory play, of course!) will be able to use them for a variety of scientific observations and experiments–colored shadows, color mixing, the properties of light, the properties of the eye, etc....
Fortunately, the beauty of natural playthings is that, unlike those molded plastic My Little Pony toys that my kiddos snatch up at every yard sale, you can make them yourself. I’ve made tree blocks. I’ve made organic play dough. I’ve made my own modeling beeswax. And, although I can’t actually make my own silk, I’ve bought undyed silk cheaply and dyed it to make beautiful, colorful, free-form play silks for my daughters....
D’oh! It seems that I sent one of my sweaters through the dryer, and it shrunk beyond the point where I can salvage it. Technically, what’s happened here is that I accidentally felted my sweater. Yep! Felting a wool sweater is so easy that you can do it without even meaning to. My closet’s loss is my accessory stash’s gain, though, because I turned that shrunken sweater into a super cozy infinity scarf....
The trick when you’re crafting with books is to make sure what you have is junk and not a treasure. If you find a vintage book in good condition, you’re better off leaving it for someone who will enjoy it in its entirety. The trick is finding books that are damaged. That’s when you’re really diverting waste from the landfill with your crafty powers! So, you’ve got your past-its-prime book?...
Want to decorate your cakes without springing for expensive organic sanding sugar or settling for the cheaper (but still expensive!) conventional sanding sugar? Fortunately, making your own colored sanding sugar takes about ten seconds, and you can use the same high-quality organic sugar and natural food coloring that you already have in your pantry. Here’s how: Start with your favorite organic white sugar, and pour a little into any unused glass jar that has a well-fitting lid....
I hate logos. Fortunately, it’s easy-peasy to sew your own camera strap. When you sew your own strap, you can make it just as long or short or narrow or wide as you prefer. And you can sew it from your own supplies already on hand, so no leather and no logos! You will need: Two pieces of narrow webbing that will fit in the strap holder of your camera, or a suitable substitute....
The girls and I sometimes paint building blocks with acrylic paint, and although they often use the seascapes and rainbows and street scenes that are painted on those blocks in their play, I guessed that they would really like a set of blocks that they could re-decorate for every game. Combine that with my penchant for painting everything with chalkboard paint (have you seen my tutorial for turning an old globe into a chalkboard globe?...
My younger kid loves to make handmade birthday gifts for her friends, and in the lead-up to a recent party, she came up with her most ambitious idea yet: handmade matching skirts for herself and her friend. Skirts can actually be pretty easy to sew, so thankfully this project was less ambitious than some of her handmade gift ideas. And ever since I sewed my first one-seam skirt from that awesome Hobbit fabric, I have known exactly how to do this....
My grandparents, who raised me, were the king and queen of kitchen kitsch. We had ceramic canisters with mushrooms on them. We had dish towels with crocheted loops to hang onto your cabinet handles. We had decorative magnets ALL over the refrigerator. And we had, hanging up in the breakfast nook (because of COURSE we had a breakfast nook), a giant decorative wooden fork and spoon with handles carved to look like tiki guys....
Why not celebrate how mathematically beautiful a well-made quilt is by making a quilt out of one of the most beautiful mathematical sequences that we know so far. Let’s sew a Fibonacci quilt! The Fibonacci sequence, named after the guy who first noticed it, is a series of numbers created by adding up the two previous numbers in the sequence. You’re given 0 and 1, so add them together and the next number is also 1....
Heck, forget the Girl Scout Overnights–I go through the exact same scenario five nights out of seven here at home! So whether you, too, are a precious sleeper like I am, or you just need a little help occasionally, you might find that a sleep mask is just the ticket. A soft and comfy sleep mask will block any ambient light that comes your way, letting you drowse in complete darkness....
16 Nature Crafts for Summer 1. sandy handprint. If you’re headed to the beach, use the sand to make this sandy handprint that you can keep forever. 2. earth-encrusted candle. It’s too hot to make candles inside, so go outside and make them! Make them during the day, then light them in the evening after your neighborhood barbecue. 3. ice tunnels. This is a fun way for little ones to cool off and play with colors....
