Teesha Moore Patch Swaps Today’s blog entry was supposed to be just a quick post to share a few Teesha Moore-style patches I’d made recently for a craft swap. But then I got to thinking about patchwork quilting in general, and then about quilting bees. And I began wondering whether these patch swaps are like [...]
Cuppa pins! I participated in a “Fabric Lover’s” swap recently, where the participants were challenged to create a variety of items related to fabric crafts. There were seven themes; one of them was TINY, meaning items were supposed to be two inches or smaller. My swap partner had expressed a great fondness for tea, so I came up with [...]
Carpe diem! Words are powerful things. They can inspire us, or touch our hearts. For most of my adult life, I have collected quotations and posted them where I will see them daily, in an effort to absorb their messages. Typically, I jot them on wipe-off boards, or print them via my computer’s inkjet printer and then tape them [...]
Sharp looking pins These bejeweled sewing pins are pretty, but also practical — they sparle, making them easier to find in the folds of fabric, or if dropped on the floor. They make a great gift for anyone who enjoys sewing. To me, they look like fancy, antique hatpins. You can create a set by [...]
Gamer fancies! Yes, I am posting yet more items that I made for a craft swap! This swap’s theme was the game Dragon Age. We sent our package in early April. Like the Hunger Games swap, I participated in tandem with my son Will, who came up with the ideas for the swap items we sent, [...]
May the odds be ever in your favor! Have you read or seen the Hunger Games? My son, Will, was actually the person who got me started on the book series, and then the whole family saw the movie when it came out. As I so often do, I participated in a craft swap on the [...]
Colorful translucent pendant You know those metal-rimmed string tags? Recently, I picked up a whole box of them, second-hand. Those tags always remind me of Martha Stewart. She seems to like them a lot… I picture her writing on them very neatly (in ink of course), with all of the tiny words correctly spelled, beautifully [...]
Pencils take a stand! In my last post, I told you about the Big Bang Theory swap I participated in recently. In most swaps I’ve done, you exchange more than one item, using a points system so that the swaps will be fairly equitable. For the “big” BBT item, I sent this hand-sewn pencil holder, featuring the [...]
Bazinga! On the Internet a few weeks ago, I ran across Gavin Worth’s wonderful wire sculptures. They are beautiful art pieces, like contour drawings pulled off the page into the three-dimensional world. I knew I was eventually going to have to try the technique myself. As a fan of the television show Big Bang Theory, I recently joined [...]
So today, I put away my sewing stuff and craft glue, and decorated a cake. A friend’s daughter is turning 16, and the theme of her “Sweet 16″ party is flamingos. So I made a pink flamingo cake. I had intended to take lots of detailed pictures as I went along, to show you the [...]
Love on deck I ran across this idea on the Craftster web site last year, and instantly fell in love with it. (The artist of that “52 Reasons I Love You” card-deck book said the idea had been around a long time, but I’d never seen it before.) What a great way to make someone [...]
Spiraling swirls of hearts and flowers My husband, Bill, and I have been married many years, and he is not only my True Love, he is also my dearest friend. The other day, I was reminiscing about our romantic courtship and the early years of our marriage. We didn’t have much money back then, but we [...]
Upcycled upholstery I admit it. I have a terrible addiction to upholstery samples and drapery remnants. There is just something SOOOO appealing about their colors, designs, and textures — irresistible! So I have a lot of them in my “craft stash.” Very often, you can get several samples that are a “set” — all part of a [...]
Pocky pocket! Are you familiar with Pocky? It is a Japanese snack, in the form of a stick that has been dipped in a flavored coating. Pocky sticks are great — low-fat, tasty, and not too sweet. They also add an elegant and unusual flourish to ice cream desserts or fancy cupcakes. And the boxes are so cute! [...]
Yet another fabric journal… I have been ill, so haven’t been crafting as much lately. So the only way I can keep posting is to pull out some old projects. For this post, I dug out another one of the Teesha-Moore-inspired fabric journals I’ve been making for the past few months. I finished this one sometime this past [...]
Numerical tiny treasures Here is a New Year’s craft (or really “anytime” craft, since this calendar has no real start or end) that you will be able to enjoy – -and update, if you like– for many years to come. It is also a great way to display some of your favorite trinkets. I [...]
Scrapbook of attended events So, my eldest neice, Anna, is in college in New York, and she is studying theater. As you can imagine, she goes to lots of public performances: plays and shows and concerts and the like. And she is also heavily involved in staging events like those. This year, I’ve been enthused about making fabric journals. Now, [...]
Coiled zipper bracelet This wrist band reminds me of a coiled octopus tentacle. I made it from a vintage zipper from a craft stash I inherited from my mom. My mom was a church craft bazaar organizer, a girl scout leader, and a home sewer. The woman had accumulated quite a craft stash! When I went through [...]
Mixed media memory book This past summer, my husband and son and I took a vacation to Los Angeles. The weather was blissful, the sights were breathtaking, and we did, in fact, see an actual TV star in person. When we got home, we missed it so much that I decided to make a memory book, [...]
Anti-virus protection! Last year around Christmas-time, I discovered a great craft project over at the Chica and Jo craft web site. (Love their web site!!!) It involved embellishing a tissue box cover with computer keyboard keys. My husband is a “computer professional”, so I could not wait to make my own version as a [...]
Crochet-topped towel to loop over a handle My grandmother sent me a set of two towels like these many years ago, and they have been used constantly ever since! Because of the button loop at the top, the towels can be attached to an oven handle, a cabinet drawer, a hook, or a towel rack. [...]
Build-your-own flower adornments Is it a hair clip? …a pin? …a headband or purse decoration? Surprise! It’s all of these, and more. This year, my little neices are getting these felt-and-fleece adornents, that feature interchangable multicolored flowers and leaves. The girls can stack the little flowers however they like. All of the flowers start out as [...]
When I was working on my owl key cover, I used the Millefiori technique to make the owl’s eyes. When I was finished, I had lots of the “Millefiori’ed” clay left over. So I smashed it all together and made a couple of erasers. (I happened to be using “Amazing Eraser Clay” for my owl.) [...]
This summer my husband, son, and I went to Los Angeles for a vacation. While we were shopping, I found the most adorable key caps with tabby cat faces. Even though they do not say “Hollywood” on them or anything, those key covers turned out to be a great souvenier, because now whenever I use my keys (obviously often), those carefree California days come [...]
Cute pyramid-shaped felt coin purse This ingenious little coin purse makes a great gift, stocking stuffer, or favor-box for a wedding. It is incredibly inexpensive and easy-to-make — so also a great craft for youth groups. I am calling the shape a “pyramid”, but the mathematically-correct term is actually “tetrahedron”. Here’s what you need: Felt Embroidery thread Needle [...]
Beaded tree I first saw a beaded tree many years ago in Phyllis Fiarotta’s Nostalgia Crafts Book, and it immediately captured my imagination. What a great idea! While I’m sure it was intended to be a Christmas tree, I thought you could easily adapt it for a variety of holidays: A beaded Easter tree made with [...]
Courtside cookies! A co-worker asked me to make some cookies for her daughter’s basketball team banquet. She wanted maroon-colored basketballs with white numbers (incorporating the team colors and the individual players’ numbers.) I was more than happy to oblige. I have an embarrassingly vast collection of cookie-decorating paraphernalia, and happened to have a “sports ball” cookie [...]
Beverage brand bottlecap magnets I know I already showed you how to make bottlecap magnets where there is a little picture inside the cap. These are a little different, in that they show off the TOP of the bottlecap. Some bottlecaps are stylish, cute or colorful… or even funny/kitschy. Or maybe someone on your gift [...]
Embroidered Days of the Week Tea Towels A co-worker of mine married recently, and I thought immediately of a traditional wedding gift in my family, tea towels embroidered with various colorful designs and the names of the days of the week. No one knows how many sets of these my grandmother has made over the years… [...]
This black-draped pumpkin is reminiscent of the peculiar artistic stylings of Edward Gorey… or maybe Charles Addams. You’ll need: A pumpkin, preferably one with a long, twisty stem Black stretch fabric with a lacy design (about 3/8 of a yard) Black glittered bird (I got mine on sale at my local Michael’s) Black artificial roses (again a [...]
Super chain! Here’s just what you’ve always needed. An enormous, oversized fake chain! If you are in charge of props for a school play or community theater group, or if you need a mondo-humongous chain for a Halloween or haunted house decoration, this is the project for you! My sister Cindy, who often acts as prop mistress for [...]
I happen to have a lot of small circular pictures (created using a 1-inch craft punch). You may remember these from the bottlecap necklace project I did a while back. I took 6 of these and made a set of magnets out of them. l had punched all of them from the same magazine illustration, so that [...]
My friend, Nichole, has three daughters and they like ribbon hair bows. But the bows can be rather expensive, especially in multiples of three! So she and her daughters (Taylor, Brieana, and Alivia) decided to make their own. They gathered pretty ribbons and hot-glued them in loops, then glued all the loops together to form bows. A [...]
So I recently had a blast participating in Craftster’s “One Tiny Harry Potter Thing” swap. My partner said she liked Minerva McGonnagall, so I decided to make her quill / pencil cup. Since Professor McGonnagall is the head of Gryffindor house, I put a Gryffindor crest on the front of the cup. Since she is Scottish, I [...]
I was enchanted when I saw some wonderful, roughly-quilted scrapbooks on one of my current favorite web sites, Craftster. The creator of these lovely books, Craftster’s Phizzychick, credited Teesha Moore, who has a series of YouTube videos showing how to make these gorgeous journals and scrapbooks. I owe my cousin a wedding present, so it was [...]
Pull-string surprise egg This is a fun way to bestow Easter treats. When the recipient pulls the embedded ribbon, it breaks the paper mache egg in half to spill its hidden treasures. What you will need: An oval balloon Several yards of ribbon Tissue paper Your favorite papier mache glue (I use wallpaper paste) Glass jar [...]
