Crafting ideas galore

Here are some pictures that I have taken surreptitiously on my call phone of things that have inspired some craft ideas.

This geode necklace would be exceptionally easy to make yourself. Geodes can be bought in many natural history or science museum gift shops.

I'm not sure how inspiring this is to the rest of you, but to me, it seemed like a unique idea for a pair of earrings. This would probably be easily made at a bead shop in a matter of an hour or so.

I know that this picture didn't turn out all that well (I was trying to take the picture quickly so as not to call attention to what I was doing), but I the point is that the ring is simply a cheap thing that you can buy in a bead store. The top of the ring is flat and you can buy rings with different sizes of surfaces for attaching. Then, you can glue on a button (which I am thinking of doing with some of my Grandma's buttons) or a coin, or whatever you'd like.

I love this idea. It is so simple and yet so useful! It is just a frame with wire hung between two sides, which you can use to hang earrings from. I think that it would be really cool to do this using reclaimed wood or to use "new" wood and antique it (http://www.ehow.com/how_17669_give-furniture-antique.html).

I think I saw this at Old Navy. It just looks like a shirt with a handle! How easy!

Alright, I'm off for now. But before I go, I was thinking that I would like to try using some sort of photo transfer for the tile coasters that I had made. If anyone knows anything about the process or tools, let me know!

Toodleloo!

-E

Must craft more!

Okay, that's it. I need to start crafting more. It's the summer, I have a job but no classes...no reason why I can't spend my time crafting (and reading novel after novel). I just got back from a crafting fair in DC and a part of me kind of wishes that I could sell crafts on the side. I know that it is probably a lot more work than one realizes, though, and it would probably have to be a full-time thing. If it were to be full-time, I'm pretty sure I'd be a starving artist, so I should probably stick with the Public Health path. Well, my solution to all this is to just craft and blog more. In the absence of Kristina, I think that I am going to take this blog more in the showcase and crafting idea/journal direction. That way I don't have to wait until I actually make something to blog about it, I can keep track of my numerous craft ideas and share them with you all, and I won't necessarily need to hamper down the crafting process by painstakingly taking a picture each step of the way.

Oh, also, while I was at the craft fair, I signed up to receive emails about art classes in Silver Spring, MD. While that is a bit of a hike for me, I am very excited because I have been dearly missing the arts and crafts scene of RI and the classes available at AS220.

I would also like to mention that Kristina got in to a Clinical Psych PhD program! Whoohooo! I'm very excited for her. I should also say that I hear she has been making some fabulous things in lil' Rhody but that she has misplaced her camera. Boo!

Yours,
E

Textbook purse

Hey everyone,

While researching how to make a totebag for my cousin's birthday, I found some instructions on how to make a purse from a hollowed out book. I had posted a picture of my own medical textbook purse but without instructions, so here they are now:

http://curbly.com/chrisjob/posts/4164-curbly-video-podcast-how-to-make-a-handbag-out-of-a-recycled-book

Sincerely,

E

Valentine's Day

I had no idea what to get A for Valentine's day (yes, I think men should get gifts on v-day too!). One night, as I was staying up way later than I should meandering the internet aimlessly, I came across, quite possibly, the cheesiest website I've ever seen. It's called Links 2 Love. And while most of their items are far beyond my romantic threshold, there was one thing that I came across that I thought was actually rather cute.

http://www.links2love.com/buy_links2love_pillowcases.htm

Can you make out the little black scribbles on the two pillowcases? It is a man climbing on a rope to a woman, waiting for him on the other side. It reminded me of long-distance love.

I figured that I could easily make similar pillows, especially since A (bf) and I happen to have the same sheet set from Target...

Materials:
2 pillowcases
Soft fabric (I chose satin) - 1 yard should be more than enough
Thread that matches the above fabric
Fabric markers if the pillowcases are light in color (otherwise, you will use the thread instead)
Paper
Scissors
Cardboard

1. Get out your first pillowcase


2. Lay out your fabric

(Yes, that is a black flower in the background left over from Halloween...)

3. Draw a heart on some paper and cut it out.

4. Lay the heart on the fabric and cut around it. You can try taping the center of the heart to the fabric so that it doesn't move. You will be folding the edges of the heart under itself so that it will not fray, so cut an inch or so out from the paper heart.

5. Place a large bit of cardboard inside the pillowcase, so that when you sew on the heart (assuming you're handstitching and not using a machine), you don't go through both sides.
Lay the heart shaped piece of fabric on top of the pillowcase. Next, fold an edge of the fabric underneath itself and start sewing that in to place. You may want to do this inch by inch because it is hard to get the curves just right so that they don't look jagged.

6. Now your heart should be entirely sewn to the pillowcase.


7. Stitch a line from the heart to the edge of the pillowcase- this will be the rope.

8. Then, since I was having a terrible time hand sketching the little man and the little woman, I printed it off from the Links to Love website, cut it out and stitched around it (since the pillowcase was too dark for me to use fabric markers).


9. When you're done sewing the heart, rope, and person, move on to the second pillowcase.

10. The finished products should look something like this...

Happy Valentine's Day!

<3,
E

Scribble Flower Shirt (J-Crew/Anthropologie)

Oh man, two posts in a row. Look at me go. Today I am going to show you the "Scribble Flower Shirt" that I decorated for my mom for the holidays. Take a peak at the shirts that it was modeled after to see if you're interested in making this craft.

Anthropologie sweater

This is the shirt that another girl made that was inspired by
said Anthropologie sweater.

Materials:

Plain shirt or sweater
Fabric paint or markers in various colors - I used markers. I actually didn't even think to buy paint, but I think that I would've like the markers better anyway because they allow you freedom to vary the opaqueness.
Needle and Thread
Sequins, buttons, beads (optional)

Unfortunately, I do not have pictures of each step of the process, but you can get the idea here: http://simplyhandmadebypaige.blogspot.com/2010/07/tutorial-tuesday-guest-blogger-jessica.html --> I will admit that she has a ton of cute tutorials, but that doesn't mean you should stop reading e & k !

1. Take your shirt and scribble some blobs on there in different colors. The messier and more asymmetrical, the better, I say. Stop for a moment after each circle to take a look at your shirt. It's easy to get carried away and paint/draw too many, which would make it look like a clown shirt.

2. Sew shapes in the rough shape of flours on top of each scribble. You could probably hand stitch this, but I chose to use a sewing machine because I was pressed for time. You can obviously use whatever color of thread that you'd like but I think that black looks nice because it provides a stark contrast to all of the colors and is somewhat grounding.

3. In the center of the flowers, you can sew on sequins, buttons, or beads.

This is the shirt that I made. I realize the quality of the photo isn't very good,
but it's the only one that I have right now. I will try to upload better ones at a later date.

Au revoir!

- E

More T-shirt crafts

Sorry for my long absence. I have continued crafting since my last post but all of my projects are either half done or are too small to be worth posting here. This winter break I was excited to go back home (as I have re-located to The District for my masters), if only so that I could get my hands on a sewing machine (and see my friends, I guess... just kidding). I decided to decorate a shirt for my mom and a scarf for my boyfriend for the holidays. Unfortunately, I do not have pictures of the entire process, but I should be able to walk you through them, nonetheless.

T-Shirt Scarf Materials

needle and thread - you can hand stitch or use a machine
scissors
t-shirts
tape measure

1. First you're going to start out with your t-shirts. You can use plain ones as you'll see in mine or you can use some of your old favorites to make a memory scarf, as seen below:

(http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/10/t-shirt_memory_scarf.html)

2. Next decide the length and width that you'd like your scarf to be. You can take one from your closet and measure it. I believe that I made mine 5 ft long and 8 inches wide. It would also be possible to kind of wing this by cutting the largest possible area of the shirts within the area of the seams and then decide your scarf length based on how much fabric you have.

3. Lay out your first shirt. If you know what size you want each piece to be, cut a couple of inches larger than that so that you will have room for the stitching. Or, as I said above, cut the largest possible square/rectangle from each shirt and figure out the precise dimensions later. You can always go back and cut all the pieces to be the same size as the smallest one.

4. What do you want for the other side of the scarf? Unless you're a hipster, you might want to think about creating a scarf that actually functions (aka has the ability to keep you warm). Therefore, I chose to make one side of the scarf from t-shirts and for the other side I used warm, fuzzy fleece. If you do choose to make both sides of the scarf using t-shirts, you may want to consider keeping one of the side-seams of the shirt along the edge of the scarf since this will cut down on the amount of sewing that you will have to do.

5. Organize your shirt pieces for one side, pin them together, and sew.


6. Now that you have one side of the scarf, pin it to the other side of the scarf. Don't forget to pin it inside-out, so that the seams won't show (unless you want them to).

7. Sew both sides together and turn right-side out. Sew the remaining side.

This is a different scarf than the ones that I used for the instructions.
I finished this scarf, but do not have pictures of how to do it and I have
pictures of how to do the other scarf, but I have not finished it.

Two happy people + 1 lovingly made scarf

Instructions on my mom's j-crew/anthropologie-like t-shirt will be for the next post. Until then...

- E

bag made from a shirt

Admit it. You have some old shirts shoved away in the dark recesses of your closet. You know what I'm talking about. Those ones that you haven't worn in years and may not even remember you had until you poke around. Let's say we re-purpose those and get some use out of 'em, ay? This is so easy, you'll wish you had done it sooner.

Here's what you need:

1 shirt (long or short sleeved, doesn't matter)
scissors
needle and thread
sewing machine (optional)

Dig that shirt out of your closet. Maybe that one from the high school when midriff was in...

Cut the sleeves off along the seam, leaving the seam attached to the chest of the shirt.

This is what it should look like when you're done cutting.

Turn your shirt inside out, line up the bottom of the shirt and pin both sides together. Then, using a simple needle and thread or a sewing machine sew the bottom of the shirt closed. Turn the shirt right-side out and you get your finished bag.

Your finished product should look something like this. Wear the bag by putting your arm through the arm holes and place items through the neck hole, which you can enlarge by cutting past the seam. These bags are particularly convenient for rolling up and carrying in your purse for those unplanned purchases. I say, why should recycled bags just be used for groceries?

When I write to you next, I will have started my graduate school classes. Wish me luck!