Crafty Monday: A Crafting Challenge!

**I am updating the challenge so that we can take responses and sign ups until April 28, 2014. The projects will be due by May 16th but can be turned in earlier than that. If you plan to join, please fill in the form below! 

Yes, it is Monday. No, I didn't post anything last week. Yes, I have been very, very busy with kids and quilts. I've come to the conclusion that I will most likely be taking a bit of time off so that I can concentrate on getting my two quilts done in time for my clients - as that is what is the most important aspect of what I do! As for the block of the month and the sewing skill builder, those will hopefully make an appearance this week. I'm sorry for the delay!

But I thought I would sit down here for a bit and send out a challenge! Today as I was searching for some spices to make my slow cooker roast beef for some quesadillas tonight, I realized that my spice cabinet is a disaster. I had just returned from grocery shopping, couldn't find what I needed, didn't want to run out again, and just KNEW that my cumin was somewhere up there in that jumbled up mess. I've been wanting to redo my spices and get them organized for a long time. So I pulled them all out of the cupboard (found what I needed) and decided to do a search for spice organization.

I got a lot of really cool stuff, and of course Pinterest is always awesome, but all of it required that I either order something or run out and buy stuff. Neither of which I really wanted to do. Then I put my mind to work. I needed something to put them in on the door. That was most important. Most are already in jars and containers, and I don't show off the inside of my cupboards very often, so I wasn't concerned with aesthetics.

After a search around the house, my eyes landed on a discarded soon-to-be-recycled cereal box. Were my eyes deceiving me? Was that box the perfect size for a spice jar, yet not so wide that it wouldn't fit inside my cabinet door? Yes, it was perfect!

So I cut down the box, experimented with covering it in both fabric and spray paint (so far going with the fabric), and stapled it to the inside of the door. Voila! Yes, I will do a better tutorial on it on Friday, but guess what! I had made something from found objects in my home that served a much better use than landfill, uh...filler.

Cereal Box Spice storage in fabric

So here is my challenge to you:

Make something useful using discarded and found objects around your house! For this week's challenge (which I hope to have more soon!) it needs to be something to help you get organized. The only rules are that 90% of your item must be made from recycled or on-hand products. Anything from your craft room, tool shed, recycle bin, etc. You get it. No cheating and saying you didn't buy something when you did! Not that I think you will, but hey, gotta throw that out there.

All challenges MUST be submitted to the Flikr group by Sunday, April 13 and a description of your project including the items you used, what it is used for, and how you did it submitted to me at freckledotsquilts (at) gmail (dot) com. Please see above for deadlines and sign ups. You will still need to submit pictures to the Flikr group. Please use the form below to sign up. Then we'll vote on our favorites. The winner will have their project featured on this blog as a tutorial! If you have a handmade store online, this is also great for exposure!

Monday Crafts: A Digital Image Resource

From Sweetly Scrapped

Top O' the Mornin' to ya! Happy St. Patrick's Day! For today's Crafty Monday I wanted to introduce to you another blogger and Etsian that I think is amazing. I'm constantly looking for digital images that are free to use without a whole bunch of fanfare and such, but are also of good quality. I know NOTHING about digital imagery except that it is made up of pixels and how to manipulate some of it in a program. As far as creating it - I think I'll need a few classes and better digital drawing skills.

So I happened to stumble on Sweetly Scrapped by Emily a couple of weeks ago and I loved her stuff so much that I added it to my blog. See those little birds over there ---------------------------> Those are some of her fantastic images that she gives to the blogging community for free! Not only that, I found a new Etsy banner that I just adore. With a little big of help from an imaging program, I have all these lovely little goodies.

But that's not all. Emily also sells tags and embellishments in her Etsy shop that are just are gorgeous as her free items. I'm not a scrapbooker, will probably never be one since I have issues manipulating paper. But I have ordered some business cards and merchandise tags from her that I intend to use for a variety of things. She is very easy to work with and gives fast responses. I mean, I'm so impressed that I'm blogging about her.

I hope you head on over to her shop Sweetly Scrapped and visit her blog and website. 

Crafty Monday: Make a Sewing Basket

In our Sewing Thursday series we're making pockets from samplers intended for a sewing basket. But what if you don't have a sewing basket or something nice to hang your pockets from?

Let's make one!

To make your sewing basket you will need:

Materials: 

1. Popsicle sticks (about 400 or so. Just get a big box of them. You'll use them again.)
2. School Glue (I used the Glue All type)
3. A wooden block or knob for the top (you can find these in the wood section of your craft store or you can get really inventive and use other items. Just make sure you can glue it to your box.)
4. A large piece of paper

Crafting Time: Approximately 3-4 hours

I wish I could take 100% credit for this idea, but I can't. I got it from the Big A** Book of Crafts by Mark Montano. I did, however, make it and will suggest some changes varying from his instructions, as they were slightly confusing and a little vague. I haven't re-made the basket yet because my kids discovered my sticks and glue and went to town, but I have marked these suggestions in red if you'd like to try them and see if they will work. 

To begin working your basket, make an octagon from your paper with 5.5" outside edges. There were instructions in the book on how to do this by folding a piece of craft or newspaper, but they were confusing to me. I'm not a paper crafter, so it was hard to figure out and I ended up cutting the wrong side or something. Anyway, you can see where I taped it back together. If I'd followed THESE INSTRUCTIONS I may have had more success. 

So if you successfully wrangled your base out of paper, it's time to lay out the sticks. Start by laying four sticks on opposite sides. 

first layer, make sure your angle are even

Then lay four more sticks on the remaining sides, overlapping the ends. Place a dab of glue on the ends of the sticks to attach them once you think they're fairly even. *Start with the sticks facing in along the fold lines of the octagon so that they meet in the middle, then lay your sticks around the edges. The book has you do this at the end, building your bottom after the basket is made. I think by laying them first, you'll have a better chance at getting them even. 

Suggested layout

Now start building up your layers by gluing the sticks on opposing sides. Kind of like building a log cabin where they are layered in a criss-cross manner. 

building up the layers

This will take you a while. I suggest turning on a good movie or audio book and getting into a rhythm. Work until your basket measures the height you want it. For our pockets, we'll need about 7-8". However, I only made mine about 5" tall for the demonstration.

When you've reached the height you want it, start layering your sticks so that they are offset by about 1/8" and moving toward the inside. As you glue these next layers, your sticks will start to have longer ends and you'll need to move your glue areas in a bit. This creates a nice structural effect on the basket and makes the top look like a very nicely carved piece of wood. It also creates a nice lip to hang things from. *You could get even more creative here and make your sticks look like the top of a vase, moving them first in, then back out. 

Start offsetting the sticks toward the inside

Another view of the offset toward the inside

Now to build your lid. Without gluing it down, add a layer of sticks to your last layer. Glue another layer of four sticks to this layer and start building up, continuing to offset your sticks inward and making the top smaller. *Put a piece of paper, a pencil , or some other object between the layers of the main basket and the lid once they have dried slightly so that you can see where it begins and ends. 

Work your lid until you have an area small enough to lay your sticks across it in a straight line. I found that with the 1/8" offset, this took about 4 more layers than suggested in the book. Remove the top from the basket and finish on another piece of paper or newspaper.

*Lay your sticks so that you have a square. 

*Lay sticks on top of each other to even out the layers and create an area where the ends of the sticks will overlap the edges and have something to grab onto.  

Make a layer straight across the top,closing up the hole. 

To finish the top, glue the wooden block or your chosen handle to the top and allow it to dry. 

To make the bottom as described in the book, lay sticks along the folded edges of your paper and glue to the empty area under the second layer of the base. If your main basket is dry enough and you're feeling adventurous, you can flip it over and go without the paper.

Lay the sticks from one side all the way across to the other side. Fill in the opposing sides laying sticks in the opposite direction. Add a layer of sticks from two of the remaining sides going across the first layer and filling in the empty triangles, then fill in the remaining two sides as you did previously. 

I do suggest laying these first though, as described above. I actually think it would make more sense to lay out the bottom of the basket first, layering the cross members along the seam lines, then laying sticks in one vertical and horizontal layer, then repeating in the opposing directions so that you have a base to work from. I think that making the square would allow for more precision in making sure that the edges and angles were even. 

See how there were gaps between the sticks with this method? :( 

I had to make accommodations for the gaps by layering a couple of the sticks off center. 

Also added additional sticks for the cross members so I had something to attach the sticks to

And now you have a sewing basket! If you follow my suggestions or have a better way of doing this, please comment below or upload some pictures to our Flikr group. You could also paint it. I like the wooden/wicket look of the basket, but I may paint it white. Show me your baskets!

Crafty Monday: Art Room Organizers

Good Monday morning! I try to stay cheerful about Mondays. They get a bad rap most of the time. But I always believe that without Mondays, we would not have the rest of the week to look forward to! Since we do have a Monday, and we show you some pretty cool crafty stuff on Mondays, let's say happy Monday and start on our Crafty Monday project.

Collaged Storage Box 

Along with trying to expand a tiny closet in our bedroom, we're also trying to refurbish a sunroom at the front of the house that is the kids' playroom. They have toys everywhere in there, and I still haven't come up with good storage solutions for all of the toys. It is also exposed to everything because we have giant windows (non-insulated mind you. What WERE they thinking?) and it faces the front of the house. While the geography of the sunroom is completely wrong (faces North with a west and east sidelong glance, should face south) there are a few things we can do with it. Mainly, I've been wanting to change it into an art room capable of doing double duty as a playroom. Art and play go together in my mind!

Right now my kids don't have a centralized place to express their creativity. We use the dining room table, the coffee table, floors, and whatever other space they can find. The same with the art supplies. They're in various places around the house and to actually do a project we have to hunt things down. So I've been organizing some thoughts on a Pinterest board for this project and came across one the other day that was simple, fun, and with a few tweaks could prove awesome.

Follow Freckle Dots (Tammy Lyons)'s board Building a craft room on Pinterest.

Of course, we're going to put up some curtains in this room, which I'll probably hand paint because I'm totally hooked and hubby bought me paints and brushes for Valentine's Day. But we also need storage in there.



This simple organizer was made using paper towel tubes and a shoe box. Her shoe box was very pretty on its own, but I didn't actually have a shoe box available. I had a juice drink box. I also didn't have very many paper towel or t.p. rolls because my husband found my stash and they hit the trash bin. (Bad husband. Bad.) Still, we were having an "ice day" here in the south, the power was out, and the kids were bouncing off the walls.

Supplies

I gathered up the box that I had and scrounged around for containers. I'm always saving back plastic containers of some sort. I also grabbed the Mod Podge, some brushes, old magazines, scrapbook paper, an old calendar, fabric scraps and the kids.

Scrap Supplies

I had to make my box work a little better for our purposes. It had a rather large hole in the bottom of it where the flaps came together. To "fix" it all I did was cut off the top flaps with a box cutter and fill in the hole with one of the flaps. I hot glued it down and I had a sealed bottom.

box

flaps cut off

flap that fit

glued that sucker in there

Scrapbook paper went on first

More collage

And more

And more

Collaged container with fabric, magazine pictures, etc. 

Collaged container

Beginnings of the organizer! 

We spent the afternoon cutting, pasting, collaging, and having a great time. In the end, we had a very unique pen/pencil/marking utensil organizer. We didn't do anything extravagant, but it was fun and we expanded on an idea that someone else had. You could decorate your box with all kinds of great things, even just plain fabric and paints. Hot glue or white glue could be used in place of Mod Podge. It's an awesome way to recycle and create a piece of art - for art. 

Crafty Monday: Painting Curtains

Last week I wanted to blog about my adventure in expanding my overly small bedroom closet. My closet is in the smallest bedroom of the house. Inside the closet, is a fireplace. No, not the front of it, but the entire back of it. It is actually a faux fireplace which faces my craft room. Made of marble, concrete, and plaster, it's not something that can be removed to make closet space without contractor! So I needed another solution.

Total Closet Size

It didn't work out as planned, but I DID get a few things done to it. The big plan was to move the closet rod to the outside of the closet and hang the clothes in front of it. I didn't really want a big metal rod hanging there with all of the clothes out in the open. The serenity of my bedroom is something I thoroughly enjoy, but this was not conducive to that serenity. So I was also going to put a curtain in front of the clothes. Simple, right? Well, as I explained in the previous post, it wasn't all that simple because I didn't allot enough time, nor did I have all the proper materials ready. *Sigh* This is the bane of many DIY projects.

But I DID have a plan, and I wanted to finish it. First of all, I needed curtains. So what does a crafty sewist do? Ah, yes, I'll make them. And I did. I measured top to bottom and used a 60" wide piece of off-white cotton lining I had bought to reupholster a couch. (Couch left, meaning I had 10 yards of this stuff available.) I cut and sewed them, making a simple header style curtain that could have grommets.

Then I started looking at all of these beautiful curtain panels online. You know, the ones that cost well over $100 each? They were embroidered and woven with beautiful scenes. My plain white curtains just didn't measure up. I decided to paint my curtains. I played it smart this time, though, and made a sampler to try out some techniques.

Cherry Blossom Test Panel

Using the "make cherry blossoms with a soda bottle" pin as inspiration, I tried using the method they had. Ok, soda bottle didn't work out so good. The ones I had, made flowers with spaces way too wide between the petals. So I took out my paint brushes and made little circles with them. Then I added some other colors to the branches and flowers, to see what I like best. Getting a little input from the husband, we went with the pink blossoms lined with a dark pink shade. Now I also had a painted panel I could frame and use to decorate the room! Yay, me!

A couple of days later I laid out my curtain panels and began to decorate them like I had the test sample. Not only was it fun, but I felt really good with paint on my hands and the smell in the air. I used acrylics with a little bit of water. The paint did seep through the fabric a bit, but I had covered the table with some craft paper beforehand. Once it had dried, I pulled it up. It stuck just a little bit, but no big deal.

Here are some progression pictures for you:

Creating the branches

Branches done, ready for blossoms

Painting on blossoms

More blossoms

Shading the blossoms

I love how they turned out! I put one across the bed to let it continue to dry, and instantly decided I needed a quilt that matched. One thing leads to another, and I have plans for my first painted, whole cloth art quilt. I love DIY.

Crafty Monday: Time Management Fail

Right here should be a really awesome blog post about making a closet in a weekend. Yep, that's what I had planned. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. Things just didn't come together, I didn't have the right materials, and I spent my Saturday doing something else. Not that I would've done anything differently on my Saturday, but it was just one of those projects where I had an idea, thought it would work, but nothing. Nada. Zip.

I got one part of it done, but it took me most of the day on Sunday. By the time I wanted to finish it, Sunday was nearly over. We were also dealing with two sick children. I also run a charity similar to Warm Up America, but I try to keep it local. It's called Warm Up the Boro and if you're interested, please stop on by our Facebook page and check us out. I spent most of the morning handing out hats and scarves to those that didn't have any at our local soup kitchen. It was so much fun, and such a blessing. Little kids walking out with warm hats that they didn't have previously, and adults that wore theirs the entire time they were there. Even here in South Georgia it's been very cold and the wind chill has been killer. It took a year's effort and many donations to make it happen, but it did. If you follow anything about knitting, you probably saw the scarf on the statue last week? I think that should be up for "Best Possible Use of Yarn Bombing EVER!"

The post that should've been here, that isn't, should be by next Monday. I did put forth good effort. But, things happen I guess. And it gives me fuel for tomorrow's Knitting Tuesday post. :) 

Crafty Monday: Recycle Plastic Thread Spools

The Internet is full of functional and crafty reuses of vintage wooden thread spools. Let's admit, these things are cool. We certainly don't want to throw them away because they are vintage. And they don't make them anymore. Now we have plastic thread spools. But what do we do with them?

I hate throwing them away because they take up room in landfills and leave a horrible carbon footprint. To put it lightly, my 4x great grandchildren could come across a discarded thread spool in the remote future. Hopefully people are still sewing by then and they will know what it is. Or at least have some idea what it is. But it will be in near perfect condition without any signs of disintegration. Wow. Ok, now back to the post. 

So I need to put those things to good use NOW. I was on Pinterest the other day (surprise, surprise) and came across a post where someone was selling fabric covered vintage wooden spools. I thought, now why can't I make something like this with the plastic ones? And how would I do it? 

Answer: Decoupage. 

I really love decoupage. It's quick and always turns out great. Well, almost always. 

So here's what I did: 

Materials: 

scrap of fabric (hey! great way to use up scraps too!)

Mod Podge or something homemade

scissors

thread spool

foam brush or paint brush

Directions: 

1. Measure the inside distance of your spool. Mine was about 1 1/8 
   
2. Cut a piece of fabric the width of the spool
   
3. Wrap the fabric around the spool and trim so that it overlaps by about 1/2". You could also wrap a fabric tape around the middle making sure it overlaps and cut your fabric to that size. 
   
4. Using the foam brush, apply Mod Podge to the spool
   
5. Smooth your fabric over the top of the Mod Podge and pull it around. Apply a little more Mod Podge where the strip overlaps to secure it down. 
6. You can choose to let it dry or go ahead and cover the fabric with another layer of Mod Podge. I just did mine, because I'm not real patient. 
   
7. Let everything dry for a few hours. 
8. Go back, marvel at your new creation, and then use it as a decoration is your sewing room. Hang it from some jute cording or ribbon to make a banner. 
   
   
   

I only had the one to use, because sadly I have been throwing mine out. Now that I see their potential, I'm thinking of other uses for them. Like wrapping unused elastics around them and securing with a pin. Ribbon, binding, cording, piping, and so many other things that end up scattered around in piles or boxes could also be wrapped onto these. They make adorable decorations, too. As a quilter, I generally have many empty thread spools at the end of a quilt. You could also Krylon paint the spools to make them look more like wood or any color you want before adding the fabric. You could use scrapbook paper instead of fabric! The possibilities are unlimited. 

If you make something, would you please consider uploading it to our Flickr group? I'd love to see your creations, as I'm sure many others would too! 

Upcycling Recycling Sweaters

There are hundreds of blogs out there that focus on how to reimagine common everyday items into new practical purposes, most with the intent to keep stuff we throw away out of landfills or to clear out thrift stores. Some of my favorites focus on clothing. It seems one of the tend on Pinterest is to use sweaters (this of course comes after tee shirts and Anthropologie re-dos. What is it with that place anyway? Sure they've got great clothes but is it a price thing? Why not Tommy Hilfiger or something? Can someone explain this?).

It seems the unassuming wool sweater, designed to keep us warm and fashionable throughout winter months and frigid temperatures, also has a day job as a multi-purpose, do-it-all, DIYer's dream come true. From leg warmers to arm cuffs, dog sweaters and beds, purses, scarves, stockings, and mittens there is little that you CAN'T do with a sweater.

Of course, Pinterest fails undoubtedly abound, and it's useful to pay attention to details. However, with a little thought you can probably figure out most of these projects by yourself. It helps to have ideas, though. So the next time your local thrift store has a "fill a bag for $5" promotion or a really awesome sale on sweaters, grab up a whole bunch and squirrel yourself away for a weekend. It's faster than knitting it all individually and you could have done really great accessories. Follow the Pinterest board below for great ideas!

Follow Freckle Dots (Tammy Lyons)'s board Upcycled Sweater Crafts on Pinterest.