Hi Friends! Today I have a fun and inexpensive craft for 18″ dolls or stuffed animals. DIY Ice Skates! Let’s face it, the accessories sold for these dolls could quickly put you in the poorhouse and you are limited to what you can buy BUT if you make it you can have whatever you like! When I was a girl I loved my Barbies, I think I had more fun making furniture and clothes for them than actually playing with them. Do you ever wonder why our kids tire of their toys so quickly? Because everything is done already. Let them create accessories for them! Today I will show you how to make accessories from Duct Tape! Have a look:
I want to thank Oriental Trading Company for supplying me with the duct tape for this project, they have the best prices I have seen for genuine Duck brand Duct Tape and they have their own brand that is cheaper and has more yardage per roll which is really good if you share your duct tape stash with your kids who will use it with gusto!
I was noticing that the most popular post on my blog and pinterest over the past couple weeks has been the DIY Tent and Sleeping bag tutorial for American Girl Dolls. I made these as a Christmas gift for my daughters 2 years ago and they loved them! It is a quick and inexpensive gift to make for any kids who likes to play with dolls or stuffed animals (that is most kids 10 and under). You can find the tutorial here.
Click here for tent and sleeping bag tutorial!
And if your doll is in need of a little TLC I have a tutorial here on how to fix frizzy doll hair. I think it is wonderful that kids still play with dolls, just remember the best gift we can give them is creativity and resourcefulness so the next time the American Girl catalog arrives in the mail ask yourself “Can I DIY this?” It might not look just like the magazine (what does) but I bet you will have way more fun making it yourself. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Hi friends! I wanted to do a bit of fun scrapbooking yesterday and thought that I would turn on the camera when I did. Little did I know that the these of the video would be scrapping with only paper and photos and tips for using both. I made this 2 page layout in under 30 minutes:
Meaningful pages do not have to take a lot of time or cost a lot of money to make. In fact I think using the supplies you have on hand is best for 2 reasons: Less choice so it is quicker and less money because you shop your stash. If you are about to do some scrapbook shopping keep my tips I share throughout the video in mind so you can make wise pattered paper choices. I’ll type more tips out for you below as well. I hope you enjoy this chatty video:) Grab some photos and it will be like we are cropping together!
Since I talked so much (and so fast, sorry about that guys) I wanted to write out my tips and specific items I mentioned in case you wanted to find out more. First, here are the supplies I used on the page:
2 sheets 12″x12″ cardstock (kraft colored)
2 sheets patterned paper (stars and dots from a $5 CratePaper/American Crafts 12″x12″ pad on sale at ACmoore)
3 sheets of patterned paper from a Heidi Swapp/American Crafts pad (also a $5 deal at ACMoore)***This paper I refer to as “embellishment paper” because it contains a lot of elements that can be cut out to use as journal cards and embellishments. (not to be confused with the embellishment paper that Making Memories used to make) I save all of the unused parts of this papers for future layouts, it is really handy because it coordinates with the other papers in the pad. Look for paper pads that have these “embellishment papers” in them because they make scrapbooking cheap and easy!
X-Acto knife and metal ruler/scissors
Dry Adhesive & foam tabs if desired
Brown ink pad if you like the look of inked edges.
Tips for embellishing with patterned paper:
1. Use a natural background like kraft, black or white.
2. Choose papers with patterns of different scale, notice the star print is small and the dots are medium.
3. Choose paper that has journal blocks, cards, banners and tags that can be cut part giving you many ways to use one sheet.
4. Save leftover scraps from your project together in a page protector and you have a future layout ready to go!
Tips for photos {I print mine from home!}
1. I use generic HP02 ink cartridges (6 color set is $5 on amazon and works as well as the $40 HP ink) and Canon Pixma paper, also purchased on amazon for about $12/100 pack 8.5″x11″
2. Print your photos in a collage. I used Paint Shop Pro to arrange these because they needed corrections (they were taken with a low-end camera phone) but for most printing I use the free ipiccy online software.
3. Print dates and titles in leftover areas of the page (if you have any) not only will it help you remember but it is also another page element for no extra cost!
4. If you are printing at home you can use dye based ink to ink edges or rubber stamp on your photos BUT avoid using photo-polymer stamps on your home printed photos because they may bond with the slick photo paper.
5. Store your photo collages in 8″x11″ page proctors (cheap at the office supply store) right in your scrapbook until you are ready to scrapbook them, that way they are organized, you can still flip through and enjoy them and if you never scrap them it is not the end of the world. You have them printed, yeah you! You win the day!
6. This is an organizing tip. Download photos every month from your phone, camera, tablet and Facebook (download any photos you are tagged in and want to keep, they will not be the best quality but they are memories and you should print them, they will look OK if kept under 4″x4″.) Then print out a bunch of photos at a time every couple of months OR upload them to a photo lab to have them printed. You can even have them uploaded to Target or Wal-Mart and pick them up in an hour. There is no excuse, you can do this:)
Biggest tip!!! Don’t worry about being perfect, just capture the memories and have fun. There is no wrong way. Your way is perfect! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Hi Friends! I have like 6 minutes of battery life left on my computer so let’s get to this fun craft using leftover book pages from our book safe project. Paper beads, and really, they are not cheap, they are free, woohoo! Use these with regular beads to make one of a kind jewelry!
Here are some other old book crafts:
Book Safe (great gift idea especially if stuffed with cash!)
Hi friends and happy Thanksgiving to my American readers! By now the turkey and sides have been put in the fridge, the dishes have been washed and you may be sitting down and enjoying some much deserved relaxation. Or maybe you have got your second wind and you are ready to shop, if so, more power to you! I have never done black Friday and stores are not allowed to open in Thanksgiving in Maine so I am content to stay home and be cozy with my family. One thing I always loved about after Thanksgiving dinner was the crafts we would make (except for those darn baking crystal sun-catchers…those were aggravating) mom would give us girls a project to work on while she addressed Christmas cards. I wish I was that organized! But even I can lay out a few bowls of beads and some pipe cleaners so my kids can make some special ornaments!
These are really easy and inexpensive and you probably have the supplies on hand. All you need are plastic beads and pipe cleaners. If you do not have pipe cleaners you can get them for a steal from our sponsor Papermart. Watch the video to see how I made these:
Tips!
If you have small children make the snowflake form for them but let them string on the beads.
Use old or cheap scissors for cutting the pipe cleaners because they might nick your nice ones. Those scissors can be your pipe cleaner scissors, wrap a piece of pipe cleaner around the handle so you will remember!
Use leftover beads from other projects. The mix-matched ones your kids will pick will make them all the more special.
Fishing line makes an excellent hanger.
Now, if I can get my Christmas cards addressed before mid-December I will be doing great! Enjoy this wonderful day with your family and til next time happy crafting!
Hi friends! Tonight I have selected, at random, a winner for the GreenSneakers template giveaway…adkwyvern (AKA Angela)!!! Make sure you respond to the email I sent you so you can get your prize! I was inspired to use the GreenSneaker popcorn box template for tonight’s project:
I think that this would be cute for serving popcorn at a party or for tucking some boxes of candy, and a DVD or cinema tickets in for a custom gift for a movie lover! Watch the video to see how it is done:
I want to thank everyone who played along in this giveaway. Don’t forget the coupon Lind20 is still good for 20% off your order through 11/30/14 so you can grab the goodies you want and save! Thanks to Greensneakers for sponsoring this giveaway and thank you for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Hi Friends! I am posting this weeks Ask a Crafter in the morning because I have so much great stuff to fit in before Thanksgiving! You still have a chance to win templates from GreenSneekers on last weeks post but be quick because I will be drawing a winner tonight! And now it’s the video you were waiting for…Ask a Crafter!
I am glad you spent a moment of you day with me. I am sure many of my American readers are busy getting ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow. The weatherman is calling for 6″-14″ of snow for us tonight so I hope everyone traveling in this tomorrow does so safely. Hopefully the roads will be clear by Thanksgiving dinner. Leave questions for future shows below and as always happy crafting!
Hi Friends! Today I am going to show you how to paint vibrant Chinese lanterns in watercolor. It is really easy too! These will look nice on a card or as a larger painting. Follow along and have fun!
I am trying to come up with some easy Christmas card watercolor lessons for you, if you have some ideas of what would look like watercolored on a card for Christmas please leave them in the comments! Thanks so much for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Hi friends! Well, I have been busy with my new hobby…learning how to twitter…or tweet, I’m not really sure. But the reason I have logged into my long neglected twitter account was because of you guys! I have been receiving emails lately from some viewers who were upset that they were missing videos, one woman had thought I stopped posting over the summer and quite a few were saying that my daily videos were not showing up in their You Tube subscriber feeds and they were not getting the subscriber emails from YouTube. I did not know what to do, I did not realize that everything you subscribe to does not show up in your feed until I had to hunt down the latest videos from one of my favorite YouTubers. Then it clicked! I remembered that my Youtube account has a feature to post to twitter as soon as a video goes live. I thought, hey, that could be my solution for my friends who use Twitter, they can ignore it if the video does not interest them or watch it if it does and it won’t clog up their emails. My Username on Twitter is @lindsayweirich and my name is TheFrugalCrafter, I would have reversed that but thefrugalcrafter is too long and someone already has frugalcrafter as a username so there we are. I only have a handful of friends on Twitter so I’d love it if you followed me (maybe you can give me some tips?) I hope this solution is helpful to those of you who are missing videos. I try to eventually get all of the videos I upload here on the blog but it does not always happen so this way you won’s miss anything:) I am so grateful to everyone who watches my videos and I don’t want to overwhelm anyone but I want to make sure you can find them if you want them, that’s all:)
Now for today’s video!
DIY Glue Dots:
Supplies:
Aleenes Tack It Over & Over Glue ($4 and will make thousands of dots!)
wax paper
Directions: Squeeze out small drops of glue on wax paper and let dry. Cover with another sheet of wax paper when dry. Sticker paper backing works better than wax paper if you have it. I have even kept mine in an old sticker book.
Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Hi Friends! Whew, I just got back from seeing the new Mocking Jay movie! I really liked it! Ten of us friends went together, I drove one of the carpool vehicles which was referred to as “Mr. Toads Wild Ride” hey, I will entertain you to and from the movie, that is the kinda gal I am! we had a great time and most importantly I delivered everyone (well the 5 in my car) home safe and sound. I did not really have a post planned tonight but I did make this fun journal page the other day so I thought I would share. I am using an Audrey Hepburn Quote:
Please note that the virtual convention sale with Lost Coast Designs I mentioned in the video is over but maybe if you type “Lindsay sent me” in the comments box the owner will do something nice for you:) I used the cityscape and 4th dimension background stamps. I would have liked to blog this last weekend but I did not have the time. I hope you have a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
The Frugal Crafter Blog 