Archive for ‘Crafts’

August 13th, 2007

Walk the line

sewingmachine.jpg

Most people take some kind of home ec class where they learn to use a sewing machine. I did the same, & I basically learned how to sew a straight line, & nothing more. However, it has made it possible for me to complete the following projects:

  • Curtains, not as intimidating as it sounds. This is an inexpensive way to create custom window treatments. You can pick whatever fabric you want & then either sew a pocket on the top or just use clip rings to hang them.
  • Scarves. I’ve made a lot of these lately. It’s so nice to be able to choose any fabric I want, no matter how expensive. I wear these in my hair. I’ve seen them sold from $8 & up, & I made ten hair scares for less than $3.
  • Quilts. In my area, when someone gets married the family makes a quilt & displays it at the reception. So, I have learned to just sew strips of fabric together to form a quilt.

I can sew a straight line & that’s pretty much it. However, even that skill really does come in handy.


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August 9th, 2007

Well, I know what i’m doing this weekend

I think my all time favorite craft project was making marble magnets. I liked it so much that I even started gluing the glass marbles that you get in dollar stores, to things like salad bowls. Then I had to stop the obsession. However, today I saw instructions on how to make jewelry out of these, & the obsession is now back. I’m jonesing to get to a dollar store & get to work. (Note: The word Jonesing comes from a Gilmore Girls episode, I’m not sure if it is actually a word, or if I used it correctly. Proceed with caution when copying my vocabulary).

July 21st, 2007

Free Lamp Shade Craft

oldglobe.jpg

I was watching “Design Remix” & they had a cool idea for a free lampshade. You just need a globe that you don’t want anymore. It looks really cool if it’s a beige globe. All you have to do is pop it open along the seam like you were breaking open an easter egg. Then you have two halves, or lampshades, which should have holes drilled in the bottom already.

My only concern is whether it’s safe to use for high wattage bulbs, it probably depends on the globe. It’s a great, free, lampshade project. Besides the fact that it just sounds fun to break apart a globe.


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June 23rd, 2007

Free Wedding Favors

Wedding FavorThere are only about a million things to remember when planning a wedding.  It seems like something is either forgotten, or the budget just won’t stretch anymore.  This doesn’t mean that you have to forego wedding favors.  One of my favorite wedding favors was also a place card.  On the inside of the place card the bride or groom had written a personal note.  The note told us why we were invited to the wedding & the effect we had on their life.  It’s one of the few favors that I’ve kept. Yes it takes some work, but it’s virtually free, & definitely something that will be remembered

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June 21st, 2007

Scrapbooking Brain Freeze

I know that it’s important to preserve memories. However, I just walk into the scrapbooking store & my brain freezes. I wander glassy eyed through the aisles, completely overwhelmed by everything. Plus, there was an unfortunate incident when I was younger when I scrapbooked by cutting all of the backgrounds out of my pictures & then gluing them on the same page.

This is why I was so excited to hear about digital scrapbooking. I can just put my pictures on the computer & be good to go. The only problem is that I never seem to get around to actually ordering prints of my digital photos, (bad I know). So if something happened to my computer I would be in huge trouble & lose years of memories. Which is why I need a online backup like Idrive. They have 2GB of backup that’s easy to restore & you can backup everything from documents to MP3′s. I love their slogan which is to “save the world, one computer at the time”. It’s so true because if I lost my hard drive I would lose so many things that are important to me. The best part is that it’s free, or just $4.95 for a pro account with UNLIMITED space. Yes I said unlimited.. I will definitely be trying this out because there are just too many things that I just can’t stand to lose.