Brief Posting Hiatus

Since I will be out of town until Friday night, I am posting my usual Wednesday post today.  I'm also cheating since travel plans have eclipsed everything else in my life right now.  While browsing, I found this amazing project, which I hope to try out once I get home.  However, I would like to give you the link in the meantime.  If I do actually try this out, I will post my creation (fabulous or abysmal) and will share it with you lovely readers :)

Side note: this blog is also amazing and you should browse through some of the creations here. There is a myriad of crafty gems!

Rubber Stamped Silver Jewelry

Hand-Knit Bag

I know that not all of you out there are knitters. Believe me, knitting is not just for your grandma anymore! There are so many fun yarns to work with that you can make any project exciting.  I borrowed the idea for this bag from a lovely lady over at Deviantart.  If you have never heard of this website, you should check it out. There are a lot of talented folks that showcase their work.
http://scarysk0olgurl.deviantart.com/art/Knit-Tri-Color-Mini-Tote-34104941?q=boost%3Apopular+knit&qo=88

Don't be angry, but there is not picture of the materials this week. The list is super simple though.  You will need size 11 knitting needles, a yarn needle to sew in the ends, and three yarns in colors of your choice.  I opted for black, orange, and a fun little bit called Fancy Fur which is a Lion Brand Yarn.

I used an altered version of scarysk0olgurl's pattern. 
Cast on 30 stitches in 2 strands of orange and 1 strand of black. 
K (knit) for three rows. 
K 10 stitches, BO (bind off) 10 stitches, K 10 stitches.
K 10, CO (cast on) 10, K 10
K for three rows.
Begin Stockinette Stitch (ST)
ST for 20 rows (or until purse reaches your desired length)
Seed Stitch (SS) for at least 5 rows (this will be your bag width)
ST for 20 rows
K for 3 rows
K 10 stitches, BO 10, K 10
K 10, CO 10, K 10
K 3 rows
BO all stitches

All that's left is to stitch up the sides of your bag using your yarn needle! With the sewing of the side seams, the bag took me a little under three hours from start to finish!

Voila! Super fun hand-knit bag!

Momma's Got a Brand New Bag!

You may begin to notice a small trend in my posts. I like bags. I like bags a lot. Making my own purses is an added bonus because it makes my bag unique. This bag will require patience though.  To begin, you will need scissors, clear tape like packaging tape or clear duct tape, and cards.  Have a deck of playing cards that don't tally to 52 anymore? They will work. Flashcards, tarot cards, baseball, Pokemon....any kind of card will work.  I opted for Sesame Street sight word flashcards.

 Once you have your materials together, cut some long strips of tape.  Overlap each strip about a quarter of an inch with the next.  You'll want to tape the piece together until you have a sheet of stickiness that is large enough to cover six cards (or more if you want a bigger bag).  Make sure you have at least a quarter of an inch margin of tape around each card as well.  This will help make sure the top layer adheres well to the bottom layer.

Once your cards are laid out the way you want them, you are going to make a second sheet of stickiness.  This time, you will be putting the sticky side of the tape down.  You want the two layers of tape to stick together with your cards in the middle. 

You will repeat this process for the other side of your bag.  To make the sides, you will need four cards, two for each side.  You can use two additional cards for the bottom, or make a very thick tape-y layer for the bottom.

Before assembling the bag, trim the tape edges of each side to make sure they are even.  Attach the sides and bottom using more of your clear tape.  For handles or straps, you can fold long strips of tape in half and then tape them to the bag.  If you want something livelier, you can attach chains, ribbon, or wooden handles to the bag with, you guessed it, more tape.

I felt like the bag was a little plain.  To spice it up, I added big eyelets around the top edge of the bag.  Then, I threaded some red gross grain ribbon through the two eyelets in the center of each side.

After you secure your handles or straps onto the bag, your project is complete!

All Tied Up

While on a recent Thrift Store excursion with a few friends, I admired an assortment of ties.  Neckties come in so many fun patterns.  I decided they had to be useful for something (other than their intended use, of course).  So, I picked up a few.  I think they cost me $0.50 a piece.  Other materials I gathered were a pair of scissors, a needle, some thread, pins (if you are afraid you can't sew a straight line, like me), and a pair of D rings.  These are metal rings that are shaped like the letter "d".  I picked them up at A.C. Moore. I got 4 for $1.99.

Materials

 

Use your scissors to cut the tie in half.  Set the fat end of the tie aside. I am working on a project to utilize this piece, but haven't come up with anything yet.  You'll only need the skinny half of the tie for this project.  Loop the cut end of the tie over the two D rings.  Use your pins to hold the loose end in place.  Stitch across the tie to hold the two rings in place.

The end should look like this once you have finished your stitches.

In about five minutes, you will have a handy dandy new belt.  The D rings allow for an adjustable waistband!

Bingo!

This project was sort of commissioned by a friend.  Her aunt, who was an avid Bingo player, recently passed away.  She had some of her aunt's Bingo chips, and wanted them made into a necklace.  Said Bingo chips were passed on to me, and I decided to tackle the challenge. 

Materials: Bingo chips, jewelry wire, jump rings, necklace closure, round and flat pliers, beads, something sharp (like a needle or awl), soda can tabs, wire cutters.

The first thing I did was use my something sharp to punch two holes in the Bingo chips.  This would give me a way to feed jump rings through them or otherwise attach them to the decorative beads.

Example of wire swirly thing

Since I am a glutton for craft punishment, I opted not to use jump rings on the chips.  Instead, I threaded wire through the holes and made decorative swirly things. See example to the right.  They took a little longer than forever, but I am very happy with the way they turned out.  Nature channel documentaries help pass the time while wrapping.

After each chip had its swirly deal, I attached a jump ring to each side.  I then attached the beads with another jump ring. Rinse and repeat until all Bingo chips are hooked to beads.  Add your necklace closure of choice ( I went with lobster clasp), and you have a finished piece of jewelry.

But wait! There's more!  I had more Bingo chips leftover, and thought it would be nice to make some earrings to match.  I recently saw earrings in a magazine that had been made with soda can tabs.  I decided to incorporate them into phase two of this project.

I started by using wire to attach a bead to the tab.  I used more wire to attach the Bingo chip.  I bent the stray ends of wire with rounded pliers to make them a bit prettier.  Once done, I added some earring hooks and I had a pretty set of matching earrings.

 

Sorry I didn't try the earrings on!

Personalize Your Placemats

If you are like me, then greeting cards hold sentimental value and you cannot bring yourself to throw them away.  I have a hoard of cards in my craft room.  I decided I should turn them into something instead of letting them gather dust.  This project is quick and easy and only takes about 10 minutes.  Materials you will need? Some greeting cards, scissors, adhesive (optional), and contact paper (or clear packaging tape).

1. Cut (or rip) your greeting cards in half.  You can either use only the fronts, or you can use both sides to display the personal messages scrawled inside each card.  Do not feel obligated to retain the traditional greeting card shape. Cut them into circles or triangles if you want!

2. Cut pieces of contact paper to size.  The size of your placemats is completely up to you.  Again, don't feel like you have to keep with a rectangular shape.  Round, oval, square...the shape of your placemat can be whatever suits your fancy.

3.  Once you have your contact paper and greeting cards ready, decide how you want your cards placed.  Peel the contact paper off of the roll, and place it on your table sticky side up.  Arrange your cards.  If you chose the double-sided motif like me, you may want to adhere the two sides together so that they don't separate when you put the second layer of contact paper on.

4. Place on a second piece of contact paper so that the two sticky sides face each other.  Adhere the second piece slowly to avoid bulges and bubbles.  You can use a brayer to work out bubbles if need be.

5.  Trim any unseemly, uneven edges, and your placemat is complete!

Puzzling

So, you have a puzzle that's missing a piece...or two.  I have a fun alternative to just tossing it in the trash.  Gather together a handful of pieces, some jump rings, pliers, maybe a few beads, something sharp like a thick needle, and a jewelry clasp.

I also opted to get out some acrylic paints to spruce up my pieces. Once you have all your materials collected, you can get to work!
I painted each puzzle piece with a bright green paint.  Then, I sponged a darker green and bit of blue paint over the base coat.  The downside to painting your pieces? You have to wait for them to dry before you can move forward.

Thankfully, acrylic paint dries quickly. After a long 5 minute-ish wait, I was able to move forward. I used my sharp tool to punch holes in the puzzle pieces on their ends.  I used the pliers to get the jump rings through those holes and then close the jump rings again.  They are very easy to bend, and you might be able to do it without pliers, but I would be worries that the rings would work themselves back open.



Once I had jump rings through my puzzle pieces, I used another jump ring to attach a bead to each puzzle piece.  Then I connected all of the pieces together.  I attached a lobster clasp on the end to make it wearable.

I painted a coat of Mod Podge over the paint as an inexpensive sealant.  This will (hopefully) help the bracelet survive should it get wet.

Make It Your Own

So, you know how composition books have found their way onto everyone's class supply lists? Well, it makes it a lot harder to individualize your notebook.  It also makes for very generic note-taking.  Well, who says you can't personalize it? For this craft, you only need some paper, scissors, adhesive and a composition book.

There are a ton of different paper options. You can get some very interesting designer paper from your local craft store.  I opted to use white card stock.  I gave it a watercolor feel by inking some plastic wrap with ink pads.  I then sprayed the ink with a water bottle and dipped my paper in.  Once the paper was dry, I was able to begin decorating.

How you decorate the paper is completely up to you.

You may decide to draw on it with pen or markers.  You might be a fan of collages. I opted to use some rubber stamps I had laying around.

Once you have your paper decorated to your liking, you can affix your design to the notebook.  I chose a double sided adhesive tape.  You could probably also use rubber cement or any other strong adhesive.  Remember that you are going to be carrying the notebook around.  You are going to want an adhesive that will hold.

When your new cover is in place, trim away any excess paper.  Use the original notebook cover as your guide.

In just a few minutes, you should have a much more personalized notebook to stuff into your book bag every day.

Tank Top Bag

Tank top pre-op

Another great craft as a result of a thrift store adventure.  One gray tank top: $0.50.  Other materials: thread, needles, scissors, a button (optional).  Yes, this one will require some sewing. *gasp* If I was able to do the stitches by hand, anyone should be able to tackle this. If you have a sewing machine, it will be even easier (and a bit less time-consuming).

1. Turn your tank inside out. Determine how deep you want your bag to be.
2. If you have a considerable amount of excess material at the bottom, I suggest cutting a bit of it off with your scissors. (The seam that normally touches your waist will be the bottom of the bag.)
3. Stitch the bottom.  I double stitched it just to make sure the seam would be strong enough. (Tested it today and was able to carry one bottle of water, phone, keys, and wallet easily.)
4. Turn the shirt right side out.  If you want to add a button closure, sew a button near the top of one side.  Poke a hold through the tank fabric on the opposite side of the neckline.  To give it a more finished look, you can stitch around the hole to make it look more like a button-hole instead of just a tear.

And your bag is now complete. Easy peasy. The best part: you can use an old tank that you love to make this project. No shopping is really necessary.  My bag looks a bit plain, so I will most likely attack it with some fabric markers or sharpies later on to liven it up a bit!