Howdy friends! I learned a new trick and I am happy to share it! It’s called “tying a lovely bow with miserable velvet ribbon” LOL! I could never get my velvet bows to resemble a bow until I volunteered to help the boy scouts decorate wreaths and I got schooled! Here is the easiest way to make a cute bow, all you need is ribbon and wire, no fancy tools! Have a look:
See, easy huh:) You’re welcome. Have a great weekend and til next time happy crafting!
Happy Black Friday! I kept my tradition of staying AWAY from ANY stores alive today:D I just can’t deal with crowds but I have to admit it looks like it might be fun to get together with girlfriends and hit the stores at midnight when they open…getting up at 4am is not for me, I’d have to stay awake LOL! If you braved the stores I hope you got what you were after, now you deserve to relax and look down upon the rest of us sorry lot who still have shopping to do. Well, I stayed home today and worked on some handmade gifts, well packaging them anyway…
My husband took one look at that ands said “so, you’re giving away yarn for Christmas?” Nope, it is a cleverly packaged scarf that looks like a ball of yarn, neat huh! “yes, dear, looks great” Well, I’m sure my auntie who does not read my blog will love it:) While I was at it I made tags, and tags and more tags!
I was beginning to worry that my stamps and ink were feeling left out lately due to my obsession with paint and yarn so I had to play with them. In the midst of my madness I turned on my video camera…
I was also worried that you might think I was a “put-together” organized crafter so to put those ideas to rest I thought I’s let you see my mayhem and offer my tips for making fun gift tags.
To make the slip on bread tags (I had a die from Sizzix to make mine but it is old and probably discontinued) you can punch a hole with any small hole punch like a heart or flower then cut a slit from the edge of the tag to the hole, easy peasy and you can make it whatever size you like!
You can make a batch of tags for upcoming birthdays, Christmas or any holiday and always have a tag on hand AND it is a great way to get to know your stamps too! Thanks for “visiting” with me tonight and til next time happy crafting!
Happy Thanksgiving to all of my USA peeps! Today I have a super quick, easy, last-minute idea for your supper table. The supplies I used today are from around the house and from Papermart.
I am always running around last-minute. That’s why I love the idea of letting kids help out. A flower frog on the table with crayons of colored pencils in it is great for keeping people busy while waiting for the food!
The kids can make these shipping tag place-cards, they are pretty decorations and make a cute keepsake bookmark too.
We all have mason jars. By wrapping a bit of ribbon around them and placing them on a metallic gold doily we have an instant centerpiece. Don’t forget the basket for height and flat backed marbles for sparkle! You can find the beautiful crinkled paper here.
A roll of burlap mesh makes a reusable table runner!
I hope you have a happy safe holiday and even if you did not have a chance to use these ideas today you can try them out at your next dinner party! Happy crafting!
Howdy friends! Wow what a morning! We are having a crazy wind and rainstorm today, the internet has been down all morning but it is back for the moment, hopefully long enough for me to get this post up! We got a lot of wonderful questions for this weeks episode of Ask a Crafter so without further ado here are two vegetarians talking turkey on this Thanksgiving week episode of crafty goodness!
Gosh, that was fun! They say 10 laughs is equal to a sit-up, well, I got my workout today I guess, I hope you did too! I want to wish everyone here in the USA happy Thanksgiving and safe travels. If you have a question for next weeks episode you can leave it in the comments section here or on YouTube. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Hello friends! This is a busy week for many Americans gearing up for Thanksgiving! Why not take a quick painting break and make some gift tags for Christmas?
Here is a video demonstrating two ways to make the tree tags:
And one to show you how to do a simple pen and ink holly:
Well, I gotta run! Til next time happy crafting!
Happy Monday folks! This weekend I saw The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and it was amazing! Way better than the first movie and I daresay it was as good as the books! But what really left me speechless (me, speechless, heh, can you imagine?) were the gorgeous knits in the film..well I guess many were woven but still, yarny goodness for sure! A few days before I went to see the move I whipped up these cute boot cuffs to wear:
You can get the pattern from the Crochet Crowd, the pattern is adaptable for whatever kind of yarn you want to use, I used a bulky wool/nylon blend. Very cozy!
It was a corner up type pattern, I have never done that stitch before and it was quick to make, I also had never crocheted ribbing before and I really like the look!
So then I got to thinking, I bet some really clever knitters have come up with some Katniss inspired knits. Here are a few that I have found:
The Katniss Cowl by LollyKnits
Distrect 12 Fingerless Gloves Bethanny McRae
District 12 training beanie Nancy Fry
Mockingjay Stitch Chart DWTC Hunger Games Fansite
The above links will take you directly to the designer’s free patterns. Enjoy and may the odds be ever in your favor! Happy crafting!
Good morning friends! I had a request on my last Ask a Crafter video to do a painting in oil pastels. Ahhh, oil pastels. What fond memories, I always loved it in elementary school when my teacher would let us use the Cray-Pas, the rich, smooth creamy texture, the sweet waxy smell and the vibrant colors that were like crayons on steroids. Good times! Let’s relive our childhood with this fun and easy painting!
My Christmas cactus is in full bloom right now so I decided it would be the perfect subject. I used Crayola brand Portfolio Water-soluble Oil Pastels (my favorite) but if your oil pastels are not water-soluble you can still blend them easily with your finger. You can heat them for a few seconds with a hair dryer or heat tool to blend them easier if needed or use a bit of paint thinner or baby oil. If you don’t have oil pastels check your child’s art supply box as most childrens art kids have a set included. These are one of the least expensive art mediums you can get so a new set will only set you back a couple of bucks! 😀
Pretty fun huh? I bet you can think of a bunch of fun stuff to paint with oil pastels. Teach your kids too! Share the fun! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
PS I am working on some watercolor Christmas tags so if you need more crafty ideas and projects head over to my YouTube channel, the new video should be up this afternoon!
I will be sure to keep my chewing gum, paper clips and duct-tape in this MacGyver style purse…wait, you probably have no idea what I am talking about do you? OK, This purse started out as a scarf until I had about a foot knit and I realized that I dropped the wrong stitch in the 3rd row of the drop stitch pattern and my lovey scarf was unraveling. Well, I did what any crafty ninja would and I snipped the dropped stitch and wove one end around a secure stitch and tied it off. I could not be a proper scarf now because there was a visual mistake on one side so I folded it in half (so the mistake was on the inside, stitched up the sides, crocheted on a handle and turned it into a purse!
Here is a tutorial on knitting the drop stitch stripe pattern, let me recommend you knit with your full faculties when doing this because if you get distracted you will end up with a MacGyver purse too!
Knitted purses can be tricky, unless they are tightly knit or made of wool and felted they are likely to be holy in a bad way. So if you don’t want to leave a trail of loose change, paper clips and gum wrappers behind you you will need to know how to line it and that can be done with non fraying, cheap craft store felt! So grab 29 cents before it falls out of your holy purse, buy a sheet of felt and learn to line that bad boy!
Now that was easy! Purses are a great way to try out a new stitch pattern or relieve the boredom that scarf knitting can cause, if you get tired making a scarf just fold it in half and make a purse! Problem solved.
Oh, and in case you have no idea who MacGyver is was very resourceful secret agent from the 80’s TV show of the same name. He could build a bomb from a bottle-cap, hairpin and a piece of dental floss and he always saved the day just in the nick of time. The show is on Hulu if interested;)
Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Happy Friday folks! Sometimes (ok more often than that) I shoot a tutorial and afterwards I think “will this benefit anyone?” and “Will people like it?” because something in the work leaves me nonplussed. I usually end up uploading the tutorial anyway because I find there is something “new” that someone will learn from it. That is the case with the first poppy video I filmed, it’s the single poppy card, so I tried the technique again with softer colors and liked it much more. I asked folks during my koi freebie video yesterday if they wanted to see take 2 on the poppy and they did so I have both videos up for you today!
Since I know someone will ask 2 of the cards are in the 6″x9.5″ clear bags that I package my cards in for sale, you can get them at Papermart. Here is the first poppy, After it was done I thought my poppy was too low on the card so I added stamping and a swipe and splatters of color to balance it out. The stark white background was jarring. This tutorial is mainly watercolor pencils and the 2nd can use watercolor pencils or regular watercolor paints. I hope you enjoy the video!
This is the redo, I think the softer colors are prettier and someone wanted to know how to paint a background after she painted the flower, I did it before but this is the same technique for putting a background in after the fact. 🙂
Which card do you like better? The point of today’s lesson is that there are many ways to paint the same thing. Use the materials you have on hand. A viewer asked me if she could use watered down acrylics to do my tutorials with. I say “why not?” There are some techniques that will not work like lifting out color after it has dried but for other techniques it will be fine AND as a bonus you just learned a new way to use what you already have! Getting new supplies is fun, I get it (I do it!) but there is nothing like the pride you feel when you are resourceful with the supplies you have! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
The Frugal Crafter Blog 