WOYWW: Sewing & Silliness {How to Juggle Tutorial}

Happy Wednesday folks! I love Wednesdays because it gives me a chance to peek at hundreds of crafty desks through the marvelous event know as What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday! Here’s what I’ve been up to this week:

Sewing! My sewing nook is wonderful, it is ergonomic (no sore shoulders after a day of sewing) and since I have my big table I have room to iron and cut fabric (no more cutting fabric on my bed and hoping I don’t snip the bedspreads!) and I can keep all of my mess in my craftroom instead of overtaking the house.  Last week I asked if I should so a weekly video blog and the answer was a surprising (and resounding) yes, wow, you actually want to hear me gab about what’s on my crafty little mind?!? So here is my WOYWW video blog, grab 3 objects because today folks, we are going to learn how to juggle!

Once you learn how to juggle it is addicting (so I apologize if you had things to do today) there is something zen-like about it.  The juggling bags were made from my scraps from my shopping bag (carrier bags for you British folks) caddies:

I used to have this eyesore hanging on my door, all of those bags fit into the one caddy and I can even fit more! I made a smaller version for the car and dog walkers, I have to thank You Tube viewer Snoopy for the clever name P.U.P. bags, it stands for Pick Up Poop, way better marketing, thanks Snoopy! I’ll have a tutorial for you next week sometime!

The juggling bags are made from 5″x5″ scraps sewn up and filled with 3/4 cup of rice. I love no waste projects!

So what’s on your workdesk today? Leave a link, I would love to see! And be sure to check out Julia’s blog for all of the WOYWW fun! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

 

Eco-Friendly Reusable Gift Bags!

Howdy folks! I love green crafting! I find myself rummaging through my recycle bin all the time looking for something to repurpose for crafting. I also like making things that will do a good turn for the environment like these reusable gift bags:

I started with cotton drawstring bags from Papermart. I used the 5″x6″ size and they were 39 cents each (you can’t make them that cheap!) Then I used my newly made spray inks, clear stamps and pigment ink to decorate them.  Watch the video to see how!

Easy huh? Another idea is that you can personalize a gift bag. Kids love stuff with their names on them and if you have an unusual name (like Lindsay, at least in the 80′s when I was a kid) it is hard to find personalized products.  Well, you can grab your letter stamps and make a bag that had anybody’s name on it, neat! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

WOYWW: A Winner & A Sewing Nook!

Howdy folks and happy Wednesday. Over the weekend I promised that If I didn’t clean up my craft studio that I was going to post photos on What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday (I also invite company over when my house is trashed because that lights a fire under me to clean it up!) but luckily it did not come to that, in fact I tore the room apart to make room for a sewing area:

Isn’t that cute! My sister gave me the sewing table, she found it at an antiques shop, it was the iron base of an old treadle machine with a thick board on top. I have wanted it in my craft-room since I received it a year ago but I just could not figure out how to fit it in without getting rid of anything else of course But I documented the process (so technically you DO get to see the messy room LOL) in 3 steps and I am thrilled with how it came out. Here is my 4 minute renovation video:

And yes, I made the poncho! OK so I know a lot of you are tuning in to see who won the stamp set from About Art Accents, well… drum-roll please…..

Sharon Hannifin

Congratulations! I will email you for your contact details so check your spam folder if you have not received an email from me yet;) Thanks to all who played along.  After making that first card last week I decided to make a dozen and use one of my favorite About Art Accents stamp sets: Flowered ATC Trading Cards, it is great for those who like to color with alcohol ink markers because the detail is amazing, and it is on sale for $16.99 (regular $29) each stamp is 2.25″x3.25″, that’s a lot of rubber!

I plan to sell them at the spring fair I am vending at next month. I thought they would be great for Mother’s Day but I did not want to limit my customer base so in each card package I include a Happy Birthday  Thanks and Happy Mother’s Day sentiment and 2 foam squares for sticking them on. That way there are 3 occasions the cards can be used for. I am selling them for $3.

I think they look nice and tidy in their clear envelopes!

Well that’s all for today. I hope I inspired you to cram more junk…er, I mean look for alternative storage space in your craft space! If you want to check out more crafty desks visit Julia’s blog and til next time happy crafting!

Quilling: How to store it?

Happy Sunday Folks! I hope you all remembered to “spring ahead” last night. I love it when we turn our clocks ahead an hour to get that extra hour of sun in the afternoon, spring is almost here. Just tell that to the snow that is still on my lawn LOL!  I guess it’s better than mud…wait, we have that too!

Today I wanted to share my quilling supply storage. I taught a kids quilling class last month and afterward my supplies were in such a state of disarray. All of my paper strips were in a basketball sized snarl, I almost tossed it in the trash. My tools and supplies were dived between 2 large plastic bins and everything was corralled in a large produce box. This was taking up way to much space. I wish I tool a “before ” picture because the transformation is quite amazing! I painstakingly straightened out all of the papers (it was worse than brushing out a child’s hair with silly putty in it) and I snipped off the binding on the end of the strips. Then I took a clear plastic tube that I had received an order of glass rods in and carefully slid the strait papers in. Anything that hung out I cut off! This might seem drastic but at this point I was a mad-woman who just spent an hour detangling quilling strips.

I got the idea because I had some tubes of quilling papers from Joanns that came in 12″ long tubes, brilliant, they NEVER got tangled. I will be saving any long clear tubes for this use since I have a little hand crank paper shredder that makes the perfect sized strips. this way I can store the extras! And all of my tubes fit in my large flat Artbin box:

I placed the slotted quilling tools in a clear bag. My quilling comb, paper crimper, quilling board and glueing board (which is a scrap of foamboard with wax paper taped to it) are all in there too as well as any ideas and patterns I have collected.

I place finished quilled art in a clear CD case to keep it from getting crushed and so I can easily see it when I want to use it on a card.

This storage solution might not be for everyone but I want my quilling stuff to be portable. I like to bring it upstairs to work on while I watch TV or take it to a crop if I have nothing else to do. I don’t quill that often so the space the supplies occupy needs to reflect that. I hope this helps you corral your quilling supplies. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

My Bead Cores Arrived!

Howdy folks! It was a banner mail day for me on Friday  The bead cores I ordered from ebay arrived (1000 for $4 and free shipping!) and I got a new torch. The torch I got for Christmas stopped igniting and I wrote to the company Diamond Tech who make the Fireworks torch and they offered to send me a replacement free of charge if I sent them back the broken one.  I had my new torch a week after I mailed them my broken one. Wow! I was so relived and impressed with that company. I wanted to mention it because we don’t hear about when a company does good often enough. Here are some beads I used the new bead cores on:

I had a hard time deciding what size to get but after much deliberation I picked the smaller ones and I’m glad I did because he others would have been way too big. As it was I had to use nylon pliers to press the cores into the beads. I actually cracked 2! I will put another coating of bead release on my Pandora mandrel next time to make the hole a wee bit bigger and they will be perfect!

A couple of weeks ago I bought some plastic divided boxes from the Dollar Tree, they are a usual item they carry and they are perfect for storing my handmade beads! I put half of my bead cores in one with my hand-made glass beads…

And the rest in a box with handmade clay beads…

I’d say the boxes are roughly 8″x10″ and they stack too! Well that’s all for today. We have an early indoor league softball game this morning so I have to boogie! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

DIY Ring Display Box {Video Tutorial}

Howdy folks! Phew, the snowstorm we had last nigh only dropped about an inch of the white stuff so school is in session! I (as well as my kids) was pretty sure it would be cancelled today, boy, they will be bummed when they wake up. So this week, with my thoughts on spring I made this cheerful jewelry display box to use at craft fairs to showcase my handmade rings:

I upcycled a Ferrero Rocher chocolate box and made the inserts with fun foam. Here is a quick video to show how I made it:

And here is a photo to show how I made it. Tip: Use a heat gun to remove the labels on the box and some goo-gone for any leftover adhesive under the labels.

The center label would not come off, it seemed to be painted on underneath so I cut a cloud from felt and used some stickers to spell “rings” and hot glued it over the label. Works for me!

I am thinking of trying to sell my wares at a spring craft fair, I think some product are better suited to spring such as elaborate jewelry and watercolors. This colorful display would be perfect for spring/summer I think! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

WOYWW: A Splurge, a Bargain and a Tower of Tools!

How is that for a title, eh? It’s Wednesday again and time to have a look-see at my desk and join the fun that is What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday (or WOYWW for short!) We are supposed to get 4-8 inches of snow tonight so I expect the kids might have a snow day tomorrow so I need to be extra nose-to-the-grindstoney today and get some stuff done.  I’ll keep it shot and sweet! This is how my desk looks today:

I took my MIL out to lunch yesterday and afterward we went to BAM! (books-a-million) bookstore, I had never been there before. I found an amazing (yet ungodly expensive) magazine that I could not live without, it had jewelry made from wire, clay, quilling and lamp-working.  It is one of the UK publications so I am going to see if I can subscribe in the states. I was recently able to subscribe to Cardmaking & Papercraft for $24 a year USD and I am very happy with that (because that too is $10 on newsstands) so I am hoping I can subscribe to this publication as well.  Speaking of the UK my twins’ girl scout troop has picked England as their country for thinking day! They have been learning about scouting in England, prepared a skit and made swaps! I was tasked with coming up with a make and take for our booth and we are going to teach the other 100 girls who attend how to make rolled “English” roses. I’ll have a tutorial on that later, you can see some of the attempts scattered around my new craft loot. Oh and I almost forgot, check out the deal I got on the Gel sticks (they work, look and feel just like gelatos by the way, I can’t tell the difference!) You get 2 sticks for $5 at the craft store and I got a 12 pack for that price, score! If you live near a BAM! you might want to go grab some.  It is funny how quickly my desk changes. I took this photo yesterday before shopping:

I wanted better access to my tools, I spent countless minutes searching for round nose pliers or tweezers and I decided enough was enough! I had another rack like I used for my water media and it was empty so I hot-glued it to the top of my iris card and loaded it up with my tools! I can see everything I have, no more random pails of junk! I did keep my altered soup can for my scissors though.

Underneath the rack it is hollow so I can store my long ring mandrel and my stampin-around wheel guide and other unruly items. I truly feel like I am sitting in the cockpit with all of my tools within reach. Why didn’t I think of this before?

That’s all for today, if you want to see what other crafters have out on their desks go to the Stamping ground to check it out! Til next time happy crafting!

Cute, Easy & Cheap Desk Accessories you can make!

OK, I want you to file this idea away for the next time you need a teacher appreciation gift or secretaries day gift. I love altering ordinary things. It’s more fun to sit at your desk and pay bills (or do homework) is your desk is cute, its everyday art! A couple of weeks ago I showed you how to make a cute desk caddy organizer using supplies from Papermart and today we are going to fill it!

You will need Jumbo paperclips, thumbtacks, paper scraps (use the ones left over from the desk caddy project!), hot glue gun, buttons, clear flat backed marbles, ribbon and a container to put it all in! We will use the divided wooden box we decorated in the desk caddy tutorial. Watch this video to see how it’s done!

Let’s take a look at the finished goodies:

The next time you are in the office supply store have a look at the supplies with an artist’s eye. You can color paper fasteners to make designer brads, binders and page protectors can become scrapbooks OR storage binders for stamps and dies. Cute clips can decorate your cards or scrapbook pages and don’t forget the storage aisle! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

WOYWW: Craftroom Tour {in High Definition!}

Howdy folks and happy Wednesday! This week for What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday I thought I would do an updated studio tour and storage video! And (drumroll please) it is in high-definition (notice how I am not in front of the camera LOL!) Just promise me that you won’t report me to the TV show Hoarders!

So I walked into my craftroom the other day and thought “what the hell happened in here?!?” it was a mess, boxes of quilling and knitting mayhem not put away from classes I taught last week, beads everywhere and general crafty chaos…well, you saw last weeks WOYWW desk…just multiply that and add a few more piles, it was a freaking craft obstacle course! So Saturday night I cleaned up my mess (I am a wild woman, home organizing on a Saturday night) and here the photos:

Well there you have it, since my kids are on vacation this week it still looks this way too (will wonders ever cease?) But best of all I come in ready to create and not bummed out about the mess or injured because I tripped over a 25 pound box of glue sticks. If you have any questions about how I store my stash just leave a comment and I am happy to answer it. Thanks for visiting me in my studio today and til next time happy crafting!

Adventures in Plastic Canvas….

Happy Sunday folks, we have another snowy, stay at home, weekend here in Maine and I love it! Recently my girls learned how to stitch on plastic canvas. Their school bus driver prepared little kits for the kids who rode the bus to work on during their rides to and from school. It was a hit with many of the children and my kids asked me if I could get them some supplies to use at home. So the other day I picked up some needles and 7 point plastic canvas and made them up a few project kits. I found some patterns online for free and I also put some plain graph paper in page protectors because free plastic canvas patterns for kids were not as easy to come by as I thought they would be. I tried my hand at making a “minecraft creeper” pattern for my son and lo and behold it turned out OK! Later I realized that patterns for fuse beads (pearler) would also work quite nicely for plastic canvas.

Yesterday I sat on the floor in the living room with my 3 kids and the prepared projects and attempted to guide them on their plastic canvas journey (mind you, I have not used the stuff in MANY years) and within 10 minutes we were all frustrated…how Bus-driver Sue managed to get several kids going on projects AND drive a school bus is beyond me.  Then I thought, I need to leave them to it and let them figure out how to re thread their own needles and discover what stitching method makes sense to them. I left the room and all was well.

Before I let the kids know I had the plastic canvas supplies I gave them some choices as to the projects they wanted to make. Maizy wanted to make Mario, Lila wanted to make American Gil doll shoes and Jack wanted a minecraft creeper. I looked to see what was available online for free and let them pick from what I found. Then I took a heavyweight page protector and placed the printed pattern, cut plastic canvas piece and yarn for the project inside (see above photo. ) Then I pout all of the kits in a 3 ring binder. The needles are kept in the packaging they came in and a pair of scissors are in the front pocket of the binder so they do not get lost.

I did not buy any yarn for this (they have the small cards of yarn for $1.39 right next to the plastic canvas supplies at the craft stores if you need it) because I have a lot already. Instead I took my large merchandise tags from papermart (they come in a box of 1000 so I have loads of them) and wrapped them with many colors I already had of worsted weight yarn. They fit perfectly in baseball card page proctors. It keeps them tangle free and in view. If the kids use up a color I can simply refill it from my stash and it is cheaper than buying the small amounts made for plastic canvas. You can get a 10 pack of baseball card page protectors at Dollar Tree.

We are in day 2 of plastic canvas crafting. Lila has almost completed a pair of 18″ doll flip flops, Maizy is half way done with Mario and Jack finished his creeper. Oh, and I had to get in on the fun too and I made a pair of American Girl size flip-flops too using this adorable pattern. Idid not put elastic on mine so they fall off the doll pretty easily, I put the elastic, as the pattern suggests, on Lila’s and they stay on quite well. They are a little rough around the edges…and in the middle…and the back, well you are not seeing the back…that’s why it is the back ha ha, but all in all not bad and we had fun which is the whole point!

I recommend that you keep the binder upright so the yarn cards do not slip out or you could put everything in a box rather than a binder. Another tip is for you (the parent) to cut out the patterns for your child, you can get a lot of projects from a 10″x13″ 50 cent sheet of canvas and you are less likely to make a mistake (hopefully) than your kid Enjoy your weekend and if you have the kids home this week on vacation you have another idea of what to craft with them. Til next time happy crafting!