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Showing posts with label Craft Tutorial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Craft Tutorial. Show all posts
6.02.2012

Recycled Art: Jewelry on the Cheap!

I've written about this craft before-
This was 1.5 pages of magazines worth of beads.
Normally I try to not write duplicate posts but the last post was back in 2009, so I hope you excuse me! I made the beads myself, but Chucky Sue helped me string them into some beautiful necklaces. It was great for her fine motor skills. She is really turning into a girly girl, so she loves anything with jewelry or makeup lately.

Don't let her serious face trick you, she was having a blast- it's just hard work to concentrate! (also the bad editing is for Jake, he didn't want to show up in his PJs on my blog!)

Our first completed masterpiece.
They are a perfect rainy day craft, all you need is paper, scissors, glue and string. 
1: a dowel or skewer to roll the paper on 2: glue to hold it all together 3: long skinny triangles of magazine paper works best! 4: any string you have laying around will work 5: Scissors to keep the edges neat, I've tried tearing it before and it never turned out well!

I really love that I can make fun old necklaces and bracelets and if Chucky Sue crushes it, or it gets ruined all it cost me was a few cents and an hour or two. Quite different from when she rips my chain necklaces to pieces and I'm out at least $10!


Fun, easy, and earth friendly jewelry!
12.19.2011

Tutorial: Quick and Easy Wreath

Due to the budget restrictions we weren't able to purchase a wreath for our door this year (finally when I have a pretty door to decorate!) So I searched around my home to find things to help christmasify our home.

I found:

a wire hanger
plastic shopping bags
scrap felt pieces

I bent the hanger in a vaguely round shape, I did it with my hands so it was a little wobbly.

I then hot glued shopping bags around and around the wire circle to thicken the shape and make it smoother.

Here it is hanging on the door, I was judging the size before proceeding.


Then I glued alternating colored strips of felt, and topped it off with a felt "holly branch"


and TA DA, easy peasy and FREE christmas wreath. I could have made it much thicker, but I didn't have enough felt to do so.

9.05.2011

Craft: Painted Baby Food Jars

What to do with all those leftover baby food jars? One person only has so many buttons and screws they need to keep organized. My idea? Turn them into holiday decorations (or as Jake calls them, "pretty dust collectors".)



Use a sharpie (or hand paint it if you are that talented) a design on the front of the jar, fill the inside with slightly watered down paint and roll it around until the whole thing is covered. Then place the jars upside down on a paper covered tray to drain the extra paint and allow to dry.

*add just a few drops of water, too much and the paint won't stick, too little and it won't spread well. (and use new-er paint, my older paints were clumpy and I had t use a brush to cover the whole jar, leaving annoying brush strokes everywhere.)

* use dark colored or metallic sharpies, light colors just don't show up.

* This a messy project, don't do it on the kitchen table like I did. you've been warned!

(when painted yellow, the jars look like legoman heads- just FYI.)
1.22.2009

Finger Knitting in 9 easy steps!

For my F.i.G classes, I've been teaching different types of crafts to the girls. This past week, we did finger knitting. It's much much faster than traditional knitting and uses a lot less yarn. I love these scarves because they aren't so warm that you can't use them in the early spring or fall. After you get good at doing it, you can crank out 2-3 scarves in an hour, if your hand doesn't cramp that is.
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