My scraps are about 1.5"x6"-7" each & I just started tying them randomly around the form by color. Even with the "finished" product... I think I will keep adding scraps as I come across fabric re-uses, just to fatten it up.
Using the strips of scraps from my Spurs t-shirt project, I made a wreath. I used a wire wreath foundation that I had on hand, but you can use anything else that allows you to tie on the scraps. My scraps are about 1.5"x6"-7" each & I just started tying them randomly around the form by color. Even with the "finished" product... I think I will keep adding scraps as I come across fabric re-uses, just to fatten it up. I had originally intended to stretch the banner across the wreath from side to side, but as I started making my banner flags to match the size of my stencils I just went ahead & kept them separate. Maybe later on I'll do smaller letters on for the wreath & stretch the banner some place else, but for now, I like this arrangement.
Go Spurs Go!
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I really needed to do something with all my old Spurs t-shirts that I don't wear or don't fit into anymore. So I decided I would cut them up & make a patch work maxi skirt. I also included some other t-shirts that I don't wear that I thought would go nicely with my black, white, gray and pink theme. I decided on a 16" square for all my pieces. Some shirts proved a bit small for 16", but I made it work. Now...just cutting everything up took a while, but left me with a bunch of usable scraps. I cut the shirt bottoms into strips about 1.5"x6"-7", and will use the sleeves to make small drawstring bags. I anticipate 3 projects from this reincarnation.
I'm re-posting this tutorial for using one-step crackle and antiquing glaze. Amanda used it on a flower pot with decoupaged scrapbook paper - I'm always saving pretty pictures out of magazines for projects just like this! Really the only new supplies you need (if you don't have them already) is some decoupage glue, one-step crackle, craft paint & glaze medium & UV Resistant clear coat (can be skipped if your finished project is an indoors item). Then just start gathering stuff around the house & tearing up old magazines, newspapers, tissue paper or what ever! I have all kinds of crap I could dress up with this technique. http://craftsbyamanda.com/2012/09/vintage-crackled-flower-pot.html Links to Supply Information:One Step Crackle http://www.decoart.com/cgi-bin/Products.cgi?One_Step_Crackle Staining & Antiquing Medium http://www.decoart.com/cgi-bin/Products.cgi?StainingAntiquing_Medium Acrylic Craft Paint (any brand will do) http://www.decoart.com/cgi-bin/Products.cgi?Americana_Acrylics UV Resistant Clear Coat
http://www.krylon.com/products/uvresistant_clear/ I played around with the tassels & flowers in different arrangements. I liked the tassels on the bottom of each flag best because I thought it allowed the Witches to show off more. Here was my testing wall: The tassels are hand stitched on the back of each flag. The flowers are also hand stitched onto the binding tape. it was a labor of love but, I love this project! It came out exactly how I wanted it to & it's definitely something that I will use year after year.
Happy holiday crafting! Are you starting to see where I'm going with this? :o) Tomorrow you will see the completed project. Here's the supply list for this last piece of the puzzle. Materials:
Step 2: Cut out your Witches. I started by marking my Witches up with 1/4" lines to cut on (later I went in & decided to cut them down closer). I used my trusty clear grid ruler & disappearing ink marker. Then I cut those out with pinking shears. Step 3: Pick out your colors or facing fabric. I'm not into the whole orange & black halloween, so I use multiple colors to decorate. It all works out in the end. I've got orange, gold, green, copper, purple, blue & midnight blue all mixed in there somehow. Step 4: Now cut out all your fabric. I used black broadcloth to back mine (so cut 6 of those). Cut out 6 of your front facing fabrics (my were multi-colored). I made a simple 8"x10" triangle template & then added my seam allowance before cutting them out - 1/2" on the sides and 1" on the top (to allow for binding tape). Step 5: Sew your pennant flags together. Start by sewing your facing fabrics to the black broadcloth (right sides together). Start at the mid top, stitch around & end back on the top leaving an opening to turn. Finger-press open all your seams, clip your corners & turn your flags right side out. Press. I put one little stitch in the bottom point of my flags. That give me a little wiggle room for turning it out & making sure I get enough of my face fabric to show in that little point. PS - I ended up clipping the seam allowance even closer than this shot shows. Step 6: Lay out your pressed pieces with the Witches on top. Figure out your design (if all your flags are different like mine). Pin them down & get ready to head over to the sewing machine again. (I'm a messy Crafter & I don't care who knows it!) Step 7: If you've never done so, say hello to your zipper foot :o) Set it so that you can easily see the edge of the applique Witch fabric. I used ivory thread & bobbin to blend in with my Witches, and I stitched in between the lines on the pattern so my stitches would be discrete. I wanted the fray edge look, but not the stitches. Step 8: The binding. I used 1 yard of black fleece binding, but you can use any binding tape, or cut your own. you don't even need tape, you could just tack the flags to a piece of ribbon, but the weighter the fabric, the better for holding the shape when it's all done. Start with the center point of your tape & work your way out. Place each flag the same distance away from each other & pin them down. Then take it to your sewing machine (still using the zipper foot) & stitch the entire thing (now you know why I didn't have a step in there to close up the openings in to top of those flags - this will get'er done here). Wanna see what it all looks like together? You'll have to wait until tomorrow!
(I'm so mean) Welcome to Part 2 of my feature Halloween craft. My little run-in with that tassel DIY inspired me! I've made a batch of mini tassels from wood cups & fabric scraps. These are sooooo easy! Materials:
Step 2: Draw up the end of the hemp cord & tie it around the center your fabric scraps. Make a couple knots. Step 3: Drill your candle cups. The cups come with a small hole, but if you use a drill bit (anything larger than the hole) to open it up, it makes it easier to draw your cord through. Step 4: Paint your cups. I used nail polish to do mine. I put the cup on a 1/8" dowel that has a rubber band wrapped around it about 1" down (it keeps bead & the cups from sliding down the dowel) to paint & then let dry. I dried mine overnight. My cups are copper with splashes of green, green glitter, black & purple (yes I have all those colors in nail polish) Step 5: Pull your cord through the hole & make a knot (or two) on the outside. Make sure your know doesn't slip back through the hole. That's it. Done. If you want to hang your tassels, just knot together the ends to form a loop & hang them. For my use, I put a 2nd knot about 1/4" up & trimmed off the excess cord... you'll see why when we get to the end. Stay tuned!
This is part 1 of a series of my 2012 Halloween feature craft. This piece involves making some layered flowers with melted edges. There are several tutorials on the web for making these, so I guess mine will just be one more :o) First gather the things you need:
Step 1: Cut out some crappy circles - I mean crappy. Don't make them nice & neat, make them so that you're not even sure they qualify as a "circlesque" object. Make them all different sizes (mine vary from about 2.5" to .05") Step 2: Melt the edges of your circles over the candle flame. I like a soy candle because the flame stays lower & there's no residue smoking up from it. It's much easier to manipulate... soy candles just make a craft friendlier fire. I like to lay my circles out on the scissors & gently move it around the flame. You need to hold it with something because it will get crazy hot. Synthetic fabric will burn & catch fire if you're not watching it, so keep your fabric moving. PS - you will have some jumpers. Just plan to loose a couple to the wax :o) Step 3: Stack them up & pin them in place. I made a mix of all kinds because I wasn't sure how I wanted to stack them. They all stacked a bit differently Step 4: Stitch them together. I like to stitch a little "X" in the center - then I begin with my beads. For these flowers, I didn't want the center to draw too much attention, so I used beads the blended in. I strung 3 beads to make a bridge & then added one bead to each side of the bridge - 5 beads per flower. Tie your knots off to the back. To knot the back, put your needle through some fabric, loop the thread around it 3 times, then pull you needle straight. The 3 loops will scrunch down & form a knot. Here's my batch of dark flowers... stay tuned to find out what I'm going to do with them.
This is a great way to use up little ribbon & fabric scraps! I love this tutorial - I'll be making tassels for everything now.
See this DIY post from Addicted 2 Decorating: http://www.addicted2decorating.com/crafty-tute-tuesday-burlap-ribbon-tassel.html Sometimes garden art comes out of necessity. My need was to get rid of a 10+ year collection of nail polish. Over the last few years, I've veered away from having my nails painted all the time, and when I do paint, I now buy all the harsh-chemical free brands. So how am I going to dispose of all this old nail polish? I can't just throw the bottles away into a landfill (that's not very earth friendly), and I can't put them in the recycle bin until they're empty. So how can I empty them? Sure I've used my nail polish to paint wood beads a number of times, but I don't think there are enough beads in the world to use up all my bottles, plus, painting beads takes forever! I need something faster. So one day while watering my plants in the front garden, I was struck with inspiration. How about I paint these ugly grey cinder blocks? So that's what I did. Believe it or not, I painted 4 blocks & I STILL have nail polish to spare - guess I need to go buy some new blocks. I did this last month in the blazing 100+ August heat of South Texas - the bad side, it was frickin hot - the good side, it was dry enough to let the nail polish fully cure over night. Here's how I did it. SUPPLIES: Plain grey cinder blocks or bricks (mine are single hole blocks) Ton's of old crappy nail polish HOW TO: Tilt your block up on to some rocks - drizzle & swizzle nail polish one side at a time - let dry. Done :o) On my first block, I started out by drizzling on layers of color on the top. As I got more & more into it, I preferred to work on the sides first. I think the best results came when I dumped a bunch of paint on the side, then brushed it out with the brush to create a painted, solid color background. Sometimes I painted the background with a few colors. Then I went over the background with drizzles. Originally I started out trying to coordinate all may blocks colors - reds with reds, pinks with pinks, oranges & bronzes... I quickly realized that my color palette of polishes were not enough to do 4 sides and a top using the same 3-5 bottles/colors, so I just went all out & did each side different. It's hard to say how many bottles it took to do one block because I would save certain "pop-out" colors (like white & turquoise) to drizzle on each one for more interest. If I had to guess, I'd say I used 5-10 bottles per block. Here they are all done. Obviously I haven't planted the centers of them all (hence the pots on top). I quickly realized that my sage was not happy with me that I decided to transplant him in the middle of August! He quickly flipped me the bird & said - I'm not growing any more lady - it's too frickin hot! He's still alive & I have hopes that we will get some cooler weather & some autumn rains soon - then maybe he will forgive me & begin to fill out again. Happy Crafting! PS. I did end up painting some beads & bead disks as well. I just couldn't help myself.
Do you travel? Do you have shoes? Do you have old t-shirts? Wanna make a shoe bag from your old t-shirts? Of course you do! I make my cute old t-shirts into grocery bags, but what do I do with the ones that are not so fashion forward? Well, now I know - shoe bags! My husband and I participate in a walk for Parkinson's disease every year & they always want to give us event t-shirts, but I don't really want to wear them. So I take them & make little baggies with the sleeves & rags with the body or what ever - well I finally turned my brain on. So without further ado - here's the how to... SUPPLIES:
INSTRUCTIONS: Use a 10" x 14" of cardboard (or paper if you want) as your pattern. Turn your t-shirt inside out & lay your pattern on top (make sure to keep any design elements within the cardboard pattern). Cut it out and pin the sides and bottom. This pattern allows for 1/2" seam allowance on 3 sides and a 1" - 1.5" hem on top (your preference). Sew the sides and bottom with a straight stitch (you can also use a straight stretch stich on your machine, but I just used a regular one). Fold your top hem over 1/4-1/2 inch, then again 1 inch - press & pin. Stitch on the bottom edge of the hem to form a casing - ALL THE WAY AROUND - don't leave an opening - your going to cut a slit for you rope. To get those fancy corners, pull apart the front & back of the bag & lay it out so that your left & right seams are face to face. The bottom of the bag will not lay flat anymore, so at the corners you want to finger press them seams together, & stitch across about 1"-1.5" in from the point. I exaggerated my image below to illustrate (sexy no?) :-) After everything on the bag is stitched, turn it right side out. Cut a tiny slit in the front of your bag hem line - through only ONE layer of fabric. Tie a knot on your cord, attach a safety pin (circled below) and feed it through the hole, around the hem casing & back out the hole again. Tie the two cord ends together. DONE! No more stinky, dirty shoes touching your clothes in your gym bag, yoga bag, overnight bag, suitcase, trunk of your car, or just use it to hide the flip flops in your bottom desk drawer.
Happy Crafting! |