Dad's Craft, too!

Hey, blogger land!  Long time no see!  Maybe we'll start posting here again.  I'm feeling nostalgic for traditional blogging. :)

This Christmas our family was surprised by not one, but TWO homemade gifts.  From our Grandpas.  Awesome!

The first is this plaque my father-in-law made for each family of his favorite saying.  Not only is it beautiful, but also sentimental.  He made it from a walnut tree cut down from his Mom's historical home in Manti, Utah.  I love sentimental gifts.

The second was the big shocker.  My dad made each of us our own walking stick.  My dad hardly does his own Christmas shopping let alone MAKE his own gifts.  He found these great sticks on different camping trips/outings with my mom and their friends.  He did all the work, including almost all of the bead work.  (My mom did have to show him how to do the beads. :) He was so excited to show us how unique each stick was and the beauty of each piece of wood.

Dads really are the best. :)

Zipper Flowers

Last week I discovered such a cool craft blog: Craftaholics Anonymous. Linda made the most fun and funky zipper flower bracelet. It was love at first sight. I had to have one.

Here's my new zipper flower bracelet! I love, love, love it!

You can get the tutorial here. I did change one thing on my flower. Before rolling it and gluing along the way, I did a basting stitch by hand and gathered it. It's a little different from Craftahoics, but it's got my own bit of flair to it. :) When it was finished, I grabbed my bead box and made a 3 strand bracelet for my new little bud to sit on. I have to say, I'm diggin the finished product!

If you're into this cute zipper thing, she has a few other zipper project tutorials on her site. (Lucky me, my mom gave me an entire gallon sized bag of old zippers. Play time!)

Seed Beads

We didn't receive any seed bead projects from our readers this month, but we hope you'll join us in next months' challenge! Below are some beautiful items I found on http://www.etsy.com/ (complete with link to seller) that use seed bead in wonderful ways. Seller's link here Seller's link here Seller's link here Seller's link here

I began using seed beads on a canvas bag I've been embroidering and I used them on this scrapbook page about my daughter's newly-discovered love of beading.

Hey, speaking of scrapbooking...

Did you notice our new links section (to the right) that puts blogs for specific craft types in to various categories? Well, under the Scrapbook and Photography Inspiration is a link to Twiddle-Scraps. Click on it (or here) and you'll be transported to a gallery of our personal scrapbook pages that you can scroll through for ideas on scrapbooking your own photos and memories. Check it out!

Blank Canvas

Canvas Bags.

Really.

They aren't much too look at.

They're sturdy.

They're practical.

They're good for the environment (as shopping bags and library bags).

They are also brimming with possibilities!

They come in a lot of shapes and sizes.

For this bag (which is little more than 7" tall) I used die-cut felt from Fancy Pants designs. I used a simple running stitch to applique it onto the canvas bag. You can't see it, but I wove embroidery floss through the braided handle to add a touch more color.

They come in a small variety of colors.

I did not want to buy a $14+ backpack for my new preschooler, so when I saw a colorful canvas bag I decided that this would be perfect for my little girl. It didn't take much convincing her. She loves it! The solid shapes are painted with regular acrylic paint and outlined with fabric paint. (Before you paint on a canvas bag, make sure you have a piece of cardboard inside the bag to prevent the paint from seaping through to the other side) The buttons are attatched with glittery fabric glue. The fluffy pink trim was simply attached with hot glue and it has held up perfectly.

And you can embroider them, paint them, sew on them, attach iron-ons, appliques, buttons... Craft with one today!

This is my new reuseable library book bag. I love it, but I'm also far from done with it. It seems like a fun project that I can add on to indefinitely and yet still use it in the meantime. It's mostly embroidery, but I'm beginning to add sead beads to add a bit of sparkle. Love it!

--C

1 Craft-3 Ways: Spring Accessories

The snow has finally melted. The grass is greening up. Flowers are blooming. Winter is OVER!!Being women, what better way to celebrate spring than by adding a few new accessories to our collections?! That's what we thought, too. I've been having a bead craving lately, and thanks to Bead Style Magazine, I found the cutest free pattern. I did have to become a "member" to get the pattern I wanted, but that was also free. It took me a good while to do this project, but in the end it was totally worth it! I love working with beads and wire instead of just the stretchy bead cord or even fishing line. There are a few basic techniques to learn such as making a basic loop, a wrapped loop, different knots, etc. (Bead Style has a great how-to basics section in the back of every issue.) It didn't take long at all to learn them, and I've been amazed at all the fun new looks I can try now. -Ang

I guess I couldn't keep away from the flowers either and used polymer clay to make a keychain for me to carry around. It was made from a simple cane pinched into a petal shape and then cut into small slices and layered around a shape of my own design made of scrap clay. I baked it and glued the two halves together, leaving a small side slit to get a photo of my family in there. The photo on the right is the best representation of the true colors. Thanks Anisa for lending me a camera! Happy Spring!   

-Cami

Okay, so I'm not an accessories person.  I don't wear jewelry... I don't even wear my wedding ring.  I toiled over ideas of what to do for this craft for a long time.  Then I saw my niece with a cute headband on when she was swimming.  I thought it would be fun to wear a headband since I always put my hair up anyway.  It would give me a little bit of style.  I found a tutorial on Chocolate on my Cranium that was super easy! -Anisa

Getting Your Own Work Out There

There are so many opportunities to publish the crafting or scrapbooking that you have done or share your ideas with companies or publications that may or may not be willing to offer you compensation.

Here are a few links, listed in a frustratingly random order:

Lotus Paperie design team opportunity

Scrapbook Design Team Scrapbook Design Team

This link will get you information on how to submit to any of the following publications: Scrapbook Trends magazine, Bead Trends mag, Simply Handmade mag or Cards mag.

Bead Style magazine link

Threads sewing magazine sewing challenge

Creating Keepsakes magazine's latest Calls for Submissions list

Crafts 'n Things accepts entire crafting articles here

It's not hard to do. May be it takes a bit of courage. Go for it! I've been trying to get Anisa to submit her scrapbook pages for years.

(or you could get a photo of your work on here by sending us a digital image through email by April 24th! twiddlethumbs@rocketmail.com. See right sidebar) --C

Bird-days

Anisa mentioned the other day that she wanted to do some cards. That got me thinking. I have lots of stamps which I mainly bought to do cards. Then I got the itch to do some stamping. So, thanks Anisa for helping to inspire me to make what is one of my favorite cards!

I made the scalloped circles with my Cricuit, but I'm sure you could find a stencil/template to do the same thing. Better yet, you may even be able to find them precut somewhere. The pink scallop is attached to the green one with a brad. Swivel open to write a "bird" day greeting!

Supplies: Card stock: Provo Craft; Patterned Paper: from my stash; Stamps: Happy Spring (Stampin Up); Ink: Pink Passion (Stampin Up!); Marker: Pink Passion (Stampin Up!) Idea: paper trends magazine march/april 2008

I also have spent a little time beading. My friend and I actually made the colored beads on this necklace with sculpy clay and polished it with sparkly nail polish. It was a very simple necklace to make even with having to make our own beads.

Christmas Crafts

Here are the Christmas craft gifts that I made. I made this Coke apron for my Sister-in-law, Sydney who has a Coke kitchen. Cami helped me make this necklace and earrings for my beautiful niece, Natisha.

I don't usually make Christmas gifts, but this was really fun!

-Anisa

Family Tree

During this time of year our hearts turn to our families and when I saw these simple, excellent trees (just $5!) at IKEA, I instantly knew what I wanted to do with them!

I started out by making a family tree for myself, but then I realized that my mother-in-law would absolutely love this and I set out to make one for her first.

I began by drawing the leaves on regular white card stock in waterproof ink. Since I did it free hand, I had to re-do a lot, but for just 18 leaves it wasn't a big deal. Then I wrote the name and birth year of each person on the family tree (using the waterproof pen).

I also made a plaque with my husband and his siblings for the trunk.

Next I used water colored pencils (3 of them) to color in the shading on leaves. Watercolor pencil marks can be washed over with water on a brush to blend the colors and I used this technique. After the leaves were dry, I pressed them into a clear embossing pad and used Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE) and a heat gun to give the leaves a gorgeous shine as well as make them stronger.

To hang them on the tree, I used a box cutter to cut small grooves into the plastic coating on the tree. I looped wire through a small hole on the leaf stem, added some beads and tied a simple square knot at the back. I set the wire loops into the grooves and added some super hold glue with a really fine tipped tube. Voila! A family tree! (now, how am I going to wrap this thing?)

--C

Early Gift Craft

Angie turned me on to this simple necklace design that would make a great Christmas gift for any female on your list. If you are even mildly interested in trying to make jewelry, this is a great beginner project. Necklace can be worn as one large strand or doubled up. Here's the simple formula: 2.5 inches of seed beads, medium-sized complimentary bead, the large bead, then the medium-sized bead and repeat. Supplies I used:

• .30mm silver colored beading wire
• 2 7" strands Blue Moon Natural Elegance ceramic beads. (These beads are just barely larger than a dime and it came with the complimentary medium-bead though I did have to add four more from my stash.)
• 2 crimping beads

I repeated the pattern 12 times which left me two large beads with which to make matching earrings.

To finish off, I tied a square knot and put crimping beads on either side. I threaded the extra wire back through the beads for an inch or so.

--C