Category: Crafts

I found this fun idea to make water balls for our many trips to the pool. Head over to Make and Takes to find out how to make these cute balls!

We took the girls to Disney World and Seaworld earlier this month and it was their first trip to each. We had a blast!

I always have a fear of getting separated from one of the kids when we are in big crowds. Our kids know our home phone number. That wouldn’t work so well for them if we were away from home. They may also have difficulty trying to come up with our cell phone numbers if they are scared.

So I needed a way to attach our cell phone numbers  to them. I’ve seen things like wrist bands, temporary tattoos, etc to put on your kids so they always have your phone number. Those sound nice, but they can be costly and that also requires prior planning, which for people like me who wait until the last minute, that doesn’t always work.

The night before we left, I decided to drag out my Shrinky Dinks and make them an ID tag. I cut a circular tag shape, wrote our numbers on them and punched a hole. After shrinking the plastic, I strung each one on a ribbon to tie around for a necklace.

They worked perfectly. They also made it through water rides and didn’t fade, smear or smudge. We can also use them for the next time we go out in a large crowd. I love reusable!

The girls also loved having them. You can see the tags on the girls in most of the pictures  of the girls from the trip.

They were easy to tuck into their clothes.

I did find one downside to the ID tag. By the end of the trip, the girls were very disappointed that they never needed their necklace.

Teacher gifts for this year were fun and easy. The girls made ribbon bookmarks and we also gave their teachers gift cards to the bookstore. So the teachers are ready for summer reading.

We used ribbon clamps and the girls made charms out of Shrinky Dinks for the ends of the bookmarks. I made myself one out of a fabric scrap and a bikini charm.

They were a hit!

To make them, cut a piece of ribbon about 10 inches long. Get some ribbon clamps (found at craft stores in the jewelry making section) and use a pair of pliers to clamp them to the ends of ribbon. Adding a charm to the end finishes off the bookmark.

The camps come in several sizes, but I used the same size with several different ribbons. I used a lighter to melt the ends of the ribbon just a bit so they wouldn’t fray if they extended past the clamp.

This week I had plans to sew and do some Easter/Spring crafts.

Instead, I spent my time

shopping,

running kids around,

working,

doing chores

And getting a bit of sleep.

This tired bunny is looking forward to Spring Break next week.

Want to make your own bunny finger puppet? Here’s where I got the pattern and instructions.

This is one of my favorite gifts from Christmas last year. My brother made everyone portable wine holders. I loved this idea! As more family rolled in, we opened more gifts and more people got these travel wine holders along with a bottle of wine. It was fun to show each new person how the holder worked. We decided it may be a good sobriety test…if you can’t balance the bottle of wine, you’ve had too much to drink.

So who’s ready to make a lamp?

For this tutorial, I’ll show you how I made my lamp, but you may need to alter the directions a bit depending on the size of the lamp you have.

Things You Need

I started with a buffet lamp.

4 candle holders from the Dollar Tree (pretend you see 4 of them here). I bought 5, so we could practice with one, but I only needed 4 for my lamp. If your lamp is shorter, you may only need 3. Be sure that the stack nicely together.

And a diamond drill bit to make the holes in the glass. I used a 1/2 inch bit.

You will also need spray paint for the base and candle holders as well as some glue appropriate for glass.

Taking the Lamp Apart

Begin by disassembling your lamp. Disconnect the wires and from the socket part by loosening the screw on the sides and slipping off the wire. I marked the wire letting me know which wire went to which screw, but that may not be necessary. I’m not electrician, so I just try to reconnect stuff the way I found it. Leave only the base and the pole holding the electrical wires. The socket just screws onto the post and is easy to remove.

I didn’t take a picture of the naked lamp. Sorry!

Painting the Lamp

Take the naked lamp outside and spray paint it. I decided to use a glossy black.

It will take several coats. Use light layers and let it dry well in between coats. Just spray the base and don’t worry about the pole. You won’t see the pole in the end anyway.

I found that propping the small parts with a dowel helps you get paint on all sides easily.

I ended up needing to go back and paint another piece the lamp needed, but I didn’t know it until the end, so you may want to spray extra pieces to save time in the end. It was difficult to know how many filler pieces you need since you don’t assemble until the end. I don’t like taking the glass globes on and off more than necessary.

Drilling the Holes

Next, you need to make a hole in the bottom of each piece of glass. This part is a little tricky, but totally doable.

Take a piece of paper and trace around the bottom of your candle holder. Fold the paper in half from side to side. Form a crease. Open the paper and fold in half again, from top to bottom. Where the two sections intersect, you have the center of your circle. Mark the center with a dot.

Place the paper under the candle holder so you can see the center mark. Mark the inside of the glass with a Sharpie. It is important to place the mark on the inside because you will be using water in the next step and you don’t want to wash your mark off.

Drilling the holes is easiest if you have two people. I purchased an extra candle holder so we could practice cutting the hole on it.

To drill a hole in glass, you need a diamond drill bit. Measure the diameter of the center pole staying in the lamp. I bought a 1/2 inch bit because was big enough to slide the pole through, but not so big that the lamp would wiggle around. You can find these bits at any major hardware store.

My husband helped me with this part. For some reason he didn’t seem to trust me with combining water and power tools! That was probably a pretty smart move. I would have had a hard time taking pictures at the same time too. So I accepted his help.

Place a towel in the bottom of your sink to help secure the candle holder while drilling the bottom. Place the candle holder on the towel with the bottom turned up towards you. Use a towel you plan to throw away in the end. When we finished, we had lots of tiny shards of glass on the towel and decide it wasn’t worth the risk of getting hurt later by a hidden piece of glass, so we threw the towel away. Just keep that in mind when choosing what to use.

When drilling through glass, you need lots of water to help keep the glass and bit cool. It also helps decrease the glass dust produced by the drill. So as my husband drilled, I used the sprayer from the sink and kept a low flow of water hitting the surface the whole time.

He had to apply a decent bit of pressure as he drilled. Do your best to keep the drill centered. Once you get started, it will form a groove and that makes it easier to keep the bit from sliding as you drill. As you get close to breaking through, the sound changes just a bit and you know that just a few more seconds you will have the hole. You need to let up some pressure at that point or you risk chipping or cracking the glass because the weight of the drill may hit the glass.

Repeat on all the glass candle holders until you have the holes finished. Sorry about the bad photos. I was working on a crafting deadline and had to take pictures at night.

Painting the Glass

I tried 3 different ways of painting these. I tried craft paint. I tried acrylic paint and finally, I got out my trusty, rusty can of spray paint. Painting it with craft paint and acrylic paint didn’t work well because it was so thick, took forever to dry and then peeled right off like it was never there. I started off with rolling paint around in the glass and it covered well, but like I said, it just didn’t hold up like I wanted. So her’s what I did.

Wipe the inside of the candle holders with white vinegar. Apparently this helps condition the glass so the paint sticks better. I didn’t do this until I tried the spray paint, so I don’t know if it would have helped the other paints, but it was a cheap and easy thing to try before my third attempt and since the final try worked, I’m also passing on that bit of info.

Hold the spray paint in one hand and the candle holder in the other. Using quick spurts, spray the INSIDE of the glass. Spraying the inside helps keep the shiny milk glass look to the lamp.

It will take several layers of spray paint before it’s fully covered. Be careful to not overspray and cause the paint to run.

Once the paint is dry, if you got some paint on the outside of the glass, you can wipe it off with acetone.

Assembling the Lamp

Once all the paint is dry, start assembling the lamp. Place the first globe over the pole and let it rest on the base. Continue stacking until all of the candle holders are on the lamp.

To help secure the lamp, you need to glue each of the candle holders together. I used E-6000, but using a glass epoxy will probably hold better in the long run.

Run a bit of glue along the bottom rim of the candle holder. I stacked mine one at a time and applied the glue once I got it on the post. There was enough room to lift up and run the glue under the candle holder. I took the top candle holder off to see how that would work and I managed to get glue everywhere when I tried to thread it over the lamp post.

Can you see the glue here?

Continue stacking and gluing the candle holders until they are all on the lamp post.

Place the remaining pieces on the top of the lamp. When I first assembled the lamp, I didn’t realize I needed the larger piece. So I took the original pictures without is since it was still waiting for a couple coats of paint. Replace the socket and place the wires over the correct screws before adding to top of the light socket.

I glued a circular piece of fabric to the bottom of the lamp to make it cute too…not that anyone ever sees it.

Now your lamp is complete!

Recovering the Lampshade

I’ll share how to recover a lampshade. It’s nothing new or different, but I figured I’d add it since it was part of the new lamp.

Since I used a  buffet lamp, the shade that was with it was not the size I needed for my new lamp. So I found a black lampshade to use instead. That shade worked, but was a bit boring and  I couldn’t find anything else I liked.

So I headed over to the fabric store and purchased 1/2 yard of fabric.

To recover the shade, iron the fabric to remove the center crease.

Place the shade in the center of the fabric and begin to draw a line approximately 1 inch above and below the lamp.

Roll the lampshade to the right and continue to draw the line above and below the shade. The lines will begin to curve upward as you roll the lamp. Be sure you have enough fabric to overlap the short ends slightly.

Cut the fabric on the lines and run a line of glue along the inside bottom of the lampshade. Take one of the short sides and fold the fabric back a small amount and glue it. This will give you a finished edge to the back of the shade. I didn’t take a picture of that part, but I can if someone need a visual.

Turn the edge of the fabric up and press into place.

Run glue along the inside portion of the lampshade at the top and press the fabric down along the top too. Run one more strip of glue where the ends overlap in the back and glue that down.

Place your new lampshade onto your new lamp and enjoy!

If you missed the first part of the picnic blanket tutorial, click here to head that way first.

Time to make the picnic blanket fun! I decided to add a checkers game, Bingo cards and tic tac toe grids to the top, but if you have other games your family loves, you can add them instead.

To make the checker board, you need 2 fabric colors. Using the lighter color, cut a square that measures 16 x 16 inches. Iron a piece of Heat’n Bond Lite to the wrong side of the fabric.

Out of the darker fabric, cut a rectangle measuring 16 x 8 inches. Apply Heat’n Bond Lite to the wrong side of the fabric.

Cut 32 squares measuring 2 x 2 inches out of the darker fabric.

Remove the paper from the squares and place them on the large square in a checkerboard pattern. Iron the squares in place.

Remove the Heat’n Bond Lite paper from the back of the checkerboard. Place the checkerboard on the center of the picnic blanket. Turn the board so the sides of the board align with the corners of the blanket. This gives you more space to sit when playing the games. See photo below for placement of the checkerboard.

Iron the board down to help it stay in place when you stitch. Use a zigzag stitch to sew the squares together and secure them to the top of the picnic blanket.

Time for the Bingo cards. Using a piece of fabric measuring 16 x 40, iron Heat’n Bond Lite to the wrong side of the fabric. Cut 4 rectangles measuring 2 x 10 inches. Remove the paper backing and iron the rectangle to the picnic blanket along the sides of the checkerboard. Refer to the picture above for placement.

Using a fabric marker, write BINGO on the fabric. Space the letters evenly.

To complete the Bingo cards, use the fabric marker to write the numbers under the letters. You can randomly select numbers for each section following the rules below:

Column B contains numbers 1 – 15

Column I contains numbers 16 – 30

Column N contains numbers 31 – 45

Column G contains numbers 46 – 60

Column O contains numbers 61 – 75

You can also use an online Bingo card generator and just copy the supplied cards.

Draw the tic tac toe games between the Bingo cards.

Time to make the game pieces. I used unfinished wood pieces from Michael’s. I used round discs for the checkers, Bingo markers and tic tac toe pieces. They were the 1.5 inch size. Katelyn painted them for me.

I used small heart shaped wooden pieces to make the calling pieces for the Bingo game.

The games are complete. Now it’s time to attach the top and the bottom of the blanket.

Take the top of the blanket and the vinyl tablecloth and place the wrong sides together. Now it’s almost ready! Round the corners slightly to help soften the edges and make it easy to sew the binding.

You can either make bias tape or use store bought tape. Place the bias tape around the perimeter of the blanket and stitch the edge of the blanket all the way around. Stitch carefully to be sure you catch everything as you go. If your stitching is off around the corners, your game pieces can slip through the spaces. If that happens, just restitch the area you missed.

Place your game pieces and other small games (like cards) into the corner pockets.

Roll up or fold the picnic blanket and you’re ready to head out for a bit of fresh air and entertainment.

If you have any questions or something doesn’t make sense, please let me know!

Things You Need:

1 vinyl tablecloth 60″ x 60″

1 piece of fabric 60″ x 60″

1 1/2 yards of coordinating fabric

Coordinating scrap fabric (to make checkers board)

34″ sew on Velcro cut into 4 equal lengths of 8.5 inches

34″ ric-rac cut into 4 strips 8.5 inches long

7 yards double fold bias tape

Heat’n Bond Lite

Fabric marker

game pieces: 24 pieces of wood 1.5″ diameter and 75 small pieces for Bingo calling numbers (I used small wooden hearts)

Let’s get started making the blanket.

I found a 60×120 tablecloth and cut it in half for this project. Now I can make a second blanket one day. I used a bottom weight khaki fabric for the top side of the blanket, also cut 60×60. So that’s where I started.

Next, cut the pieces of fabric you need to begin making the pockets and borders.

Cut 4 strips of fabric (out of your coordinating fabric) that measure 37 x 6.5 inches.

Cut the corner pieces that will form the pockets. Follow the measurements on the diagram below and cut 4 pieces total.

Stitch each strip of ric-rac to the top piece of your Velcro. Be sure to stitch it to the backside of the strip so it’s not between the layers of Velcro later.

On the side of the corner piece that measures 8.5 inches, turn under 1/2 inch and iron. Stitch the top piece of Velcro (with the added ric-rac) to the folded edge of the corner piece. Allow the edge of the ric-rac to extend beyond the edge of the corner. Fold back and sew the Velcro to the remaining corner pieces.

Place each corner piece onto the top portion of your blanket with the corners aligned. Mark the position for the bottom Velcro piece. I use a disappearing ink pen, but you can pin it to secure it. Doesn’t matter how you mark it, just be sure you have it aligned properly. Stitch lower Velcro onto the 60×60 inch piece of fabric for each corner.

Moving on to your 37 inch strips now. Fold one long edge of your strips under 1/2 inch and iron flat. Place the strips between the corner pieces with the folded side towards the middle of the blanket and align the outside edges of all the pieces. Using a 1/2 inch seam allowance, stitch the pieces together as shown below.

Place the border/corner pieces on the blanket top and stitch. I stitched each side of the seam between the border strips and the corner pocket pieces.

Part 2 of the tutorial will show you how to add the games to the top of the blanket!

Click here to head over to the second part.

I made it onto the next season of So You Think You’re Crafty! Thank you all for voting, even if it wasn’t for me. I hope you will continue to head over there weekly once the contest starts at the beginning of next year. It should be a fun ride and I’m so excited to be able to share this experience with my sis. I’m already hard at work on the first project for the contest and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

This was my audition piece. My sister ended up stomping everyone with her cute bowling set, so she set the bar pretty high for the rest of us!

Having a Christmas party and want a cute way to display wine charms? Place them on a small Christmas tree and let them double as table decoration. Then guests can easily see and choose what charm they want on their glass.

I made some custom charms and placed them on earring hoops (I couldn’t find regular wine charm holders) and they worked great!

By making them myself out of some small pieces of craft felt and some DMC floss, I was able to make the charms the colors and style I wanted. I made some holiday themed and I stitched some with initials on them for my party goers. These make a cute housewarming or hostess gift too.

For another theme, I took small glass ornaments and wrote on them with a metallic Sharpie marker. I wrote names, drew holiday pictures and wrote holiday words, like Peace and Joy.

Just in case you aren’t feeling too crafty, using store bought wine charms on the tree is quick, cute and easy. You can’t get much better than that combination.

So last year, my mom saw an idea online to make a wreath out of different sized glass ornaments. So my sister, mom and I decided to give it a go. I think that in the end, mine was the only one that went. Mom ended up redoing hers several times and then dropped and broke some of it. I think it’s in their basement. My sister thought hers looked too much like an Easter craft because of the colors she chose. I thought both of them did a great job and they turned out cute, but in the end mine was the only one that made it to the front door. I will snap a picture of it tomorrow when I get it out as I start to decorate for Christmas.

This year, I found a mini wreath holder and these mini glass balls at a discount store. I’ve been wanting a wreath holder like this for a bit now. I then took some wire and bent it into a circular shape. I started to string on the balls and just put them on there pretty randomly. I didn’t attempt to make it look uniform. Then I bent the ends of the wire to hook on each other and placed it on the holder.

Now it looks so cute sitting on our fireplace mantel.

I also learned while taking pictures of this project that it’s important to be mindful of what you are wearing when taking pictures of reflective objects. I threw a jacket on over my pajamas really quick after I snapped and previewed the first few pictures.  I refuse to be like the people taking pictures of toasters to sell on eBay with reflections of freaky stuff.