Colorful Cat (or Other Animal) Storage Jars

Materials:
*Empty jars (e.g. pickle jars)
*Plastic animals
*White acrylic paint
*Acrylic paint in colors of your choice
*Paintbrush
*Hot glue gun

Directions:
*Carefully glue plastic animals to the lids of the jars using your hot glue gun.
*Paint the lids and the attached animals white, then let dry.  Depending on the color of your animals, you may need to use multiple coats.
*Once dry, paint the lids in colors of your choice.

Tip: For a smoother, more even paint job, you may want to try using spray on paint instead.

Monster Bookmarks and Heart Bookmarks

 

Monster Bookmark

Materials:
*Patterned paper
*Paper scraps in white, black, and a color of your choice (for the monster's eye color)
*Template
*Glue
*Scissors
*Pencil
*Hole punch (optional)

Directions:
*Resize template to the desired size and print.

*Trace the monster's head (the parallelogram in the template I posted below) onto the back side of the sheet of patterned paper and cut out the shape.
*Fold along the solid lines pictured to form a square, with the patterned side of the paper facing outward.  You will now have two triangular flaps that form a square.  Glue down one of the flaps.
*Cut out teeth and eyes for the monster following the template.  Create the monster's pupils by using a small hole punch to create two small black circles.  Glue together the pieces of the monster's eyes.
*Glue teeth to the unglued flap, then carefully glue down the side of the side of the side of the unglued flap.  It is important that you only glue down the very side of the strap, since otherwise the bookmark will not fit on your book correctly.
*Glue on the monster's eyes and set aside to dry.

Heart bookmark

Materials:
*Patterned paper
*Old envelope
*Heart template
*Pencil
*Scissors
*Glue

Directions:
*Resize template to the desired size and print.

*In the corner of your envelope, trace the large heart and cut it out.  Do not cut the sides of the envelope, only the top of the heart as the sides are what holds your bookmark together.
*Trace the smaller heart twice onto the patterned paper and cut out the resulting hearts.
*Glue one heart to each side of the heart cut from the envelope and let dry.

Duct Tape Bag / Purse

Need a new tote bag or purse?  Make one from duct tape.  I'm including a link to the post I worked from, in addition to my own, slightly modified instructions.

Materials:
*Duct tape in a variety of coordinating colors
*Fabric (as wide as and twice as long as you would like your bag to be)
*Scissors
*Three different but corresponding types of ribbon

Directions:
*Lay fabric pattern side down on your work surface.
*Tape down the corners of your fabric with duct tape so that the fabric won't move while you're applying duct tape.
*Cover the fabric in diagonal strips of duct tape, like this: 

*Overlap neighboring duct tape strips by about 1/4" so that when you peel your duct tape covered fabric off of your work surface, the strips won't separate.
*Once you have covered the fabric in duct tape, carefully peel it off of your work station and trim off excess duct tape.
*Cut a strip of duct tape in a color of your choice as wide as your bag and tape it over the top edge of the bag.  Repeat the procedure with the bottom edge.
*Fold your bag in half, duct tape side facing out, and tape the sides together.  Trim off any excess duct tape.
*Optional step: fold the bottom corners of your bag inward, taping the corners down on the inside of the bag (it's hard to explain and my pictures did not come out well, so for slightly more detail regarding this step see here).
*Braid together three strands of ribbon so that you end up with something like this: 

*Wrap tape around the ends to secure them together, then tape to the inside of your bag to make the strap.
*Note: there are a number of alternative options for the strap.  Here's a video tutorial that shows you how to make plain or braided straps from duct tape and here's a tutorial that shows you how to use rope and duct tape to make a strap.

Felt Owl Pal

Materials:
*Sheet of felt in the color of your choice for the owl's body
*Felt and/or fabric in colors of your choice for the owl's wings, belly, beak, and eyes
*Embroidery floss
*Needle
*All purpose adhesive
*Stuffing
*Chalk
*Scissors

Directions:
*Print out an owl template.  Here's the one I made for my owl:

*Cut out the pieces of the template.  Using chalk, trace the pieces onto the chosen felts and fabrics.  You will need two copies of the owl's body, two large circles for the owl's eyes, and two small circles for the owl's pupils.
*Using a running stitch (or perhaps a blanket stitch if you are making your owl's belly from felt), sew on the owl's belly, then sew on the owl's wings.
*Using a blanket stitch, sew together the owl's body, leaving an opening large enough for you to add the stuffing.  Insert stuffing into your owl until it reaches the desired fullness, then sew closed.
*Glue on the owl's eyes and beak.  Now you have your very own owl pal :)

Rainbow Spring Butterflies

Materials:
*Fabric
*18 gauge wire
*Brown or black pipe cleaners
*Wire cutters
*Round nosed pliers
*Flat nosed pliers
*Scissors
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:
*Print out several pictures of butterflies to use as templates for your butterflies.
*Following the picture, bend the wire to make wings.  18 gauge wire should be malleable enough to bend with your fingers, but if you are looking to add intricate detail (such as the detail in the wings of my purple butterfly), you may need to utilize pliers.  I made four separate wings for each butterfly, but you could also construct two wings from wire or the entire butterfly from a piece of wire to simplify the process.
*Turn your fabric pattern side down.
*Glue the wire frame to the fabric.  If you are putting the butterfly together in multiple pieces, make sure to leave space between the pieces when adhering them to the fabric.
*Once the adhesive has dried, cut out the butterfly's frame, leaving about 1/4" of excess fabric around the edges.
*Glue down the excess fabric so that it covers the exposed wire.  To glue, cut the edge fabric into segments.  As you near a rounded area or point in the frame, cut the segments into smaller and smaller pieces.  For example, if you had something like the wing depicted in the picture below, you might wnat to cut the fabric along the black lines before gluing the fabric down.  Cutting the fabric into small pieces enables you to go around corners without getting bunches or bulges in your fabric.

*Once your wings have dried, arrange them to form the butterfly, then glue them together.
*Add a pipe cleaner to create the butterfly's body.
*Once your butterflies are done, you can stick them to a wall or bookshelf, or make a butterfly garland like the one pictured below:

Goal Board and Goal Journal

     I often find myself with many things that I want to accomplish and a limited amount of time.  Rather than inspiring me to work harder or more efficeintly, having so many things that I want to do and so little time can leave me feeling overwhelmed and paralyzed, which makes it more difficult for me to acheive anything that I want to.  To help me break out of this rut, I decided to make myself a goal board and a goal journal.  In this post I have included instructions for making the goal board, some ideas for decorating a goal journal, and some tips that I have found have made it easier for me to follow through with my goals.  At the end of the post I will talk a little about my goals and my progress and if you have your own goals you are working on that you would like to share, please post them in the comments below.

Materials for the goal board:
*11"x14" or larger picture frame
*Fabric
*Ribbon
*Miniature clothespins
*Paint
*Glitter glue
*All purpose adhesive
*Scissors
*Cardstock

Directions:
*Brainstorm a list of goals that you would like to accomplish. 
*Type up your list of goals and print them onto the piece of cardstock (or hand write them if you prefer).
*Cut the cardstock into rectangles so that each goal is in its own rectangle.  Set aside.
*Paint or otherwise decorate the clothespins as you wish.  For mine, I painted the clothespins white, then aftet the paint dried I added a couple of layers of purple glitter glue.  Once your clothespins are finished, set them aside.
*Choose a fabric that you find visually appealing, perhaps one that you find motivational.  Lay your chosen fabric pattern side down on a clean, flat surface.
*Take the cardboard backing out of your picture frame and place it on top of the fabric (alternately you can use foam board if your frame does not come with cardboard).
*Run all purpose adhesive along the edges of the cardboard on the portion facing upward and adhere the fabric to the cardboard. Make sure to pull the fabric as tight as you can while gluing so that you won’t end up with bunches of fabric on the front side. Let the adhesive dry.
*Cut two lengths of ribbon slightly longer than the width of your fabric covered cardboard.
*Flip the fabric covered cardboard so that the fabric side is facing up.  Align the ribbons across the board in a manner you find pleasing, making sure to leave enough room between the ribbons and between the ribbons and frame so that you will be able to hang the goal cards from the ribbon.
*Glue down the edges of the ribbon, adhering them to the cardboard.  Let dry.
*Once dry, slide the cardoard backing into the picture frame.  Hang your goal cards from the ribbon using your decorated miniature clothespins.

     A goal journal can be a great way to keep track of the progress you have made and a way to hold yourself accountable for acheiving your goals.  For example, I may not feel like eating vegetables every day, but knowing that I will have to write down that I have not met that goal if I don't has so far kept me on track.  Below are some suggestions for ways in which you can decorate a plain notebook to make it into a goal journal.

Ideas for decorating a goal journal:
*Look for or create images that represent your goals that you can use to adorn the cover of your journal.
*Place an image of yourself in the center of the journal cover, with your goals in thought bubbles (as shown above).
*Display your goals in a scene.  For example, if I had wanted a different way to represent my goals pictorially, I could have made an image of myself in a graduation gown hula hooping while holding my novel in one hand and craft supplies in the other.
*Create a collage on the cover using the images you found.
*Write up a list of words related to your goal and make a word collage for your cover, either by printing the words in different fonts or by cutting out the letters for the words from magazines and grouping the letters together to form words.

Tips:
*After coming up with an initial list of goals, write down concrete ways you can achieve these goals and use these concrete steps as the goals you strive toward.  For example, if you want to write a novel, set the goal of allotting a certain amount of time per week or a certain word count per week.  Breaking up your long term goals into smaller, more achievable goals may help you to see the progress you are making and allow you to "check off" goals eariler on, which can make a huge difference as to whether you will stick with your goal.  So while it may take you a long time to write a novel if you are only able to write 2,000 words of it per week, being able each week to achieve the goal of writing 2,000 words gives you something that you have accomplished, rather than having to wait 25+ weeks for the completed draft to have completed a goal.

*If you think that some of the goals you want to achieve will pose a significant challenge to you, make sure to add some easier goals to your goal board as well.  This way, even if you end up getting stuck in one area, you will have other goals you can achieve and it may help you stay positive and motivated.

*Along the lines of the previous tip, focus on the positive.  No one is perfect; we all will have a day or a few when we are sick or busy or burned out and just cannot achieve a particular goal.  Rather than obsess over your missed goal, reflect on the goals that you have achieved and let these successes inspire you to keep going.

My goals:
     When thinking about what I needed to work on, I found four areas of my life which I wanted to focus more attention on: my master's thesis, my novel, my craft blog, and my health.  I came up with seven smaller goals that relate to these four areas of my life: spend at least two hours a week on work for my master's thesis, devote at least two hours per week to revising my novel, come up with a title and cover for my novel, make at least one craft a week (sometimes I make multiple crafts in one week, so I don't always need to make one each week to keep my blog supplied with crafts), create a flyer for my blog, hula hoop 15 minutes a day, and eat a serving of vegetables a day. 
     So far, I have managed to meet the five daily and weekly goals consistently.  I've had the most success with revising my novel and have devoted over five hours to it this week so far, much more than the two hours I had budgeted.  My ongoing struggle has been eating vegetables.  I am not a fan of them and have been forcing myself to eat carrots each night for the past couple of nights simply to achieve this goal.  If anyone has any tasty ways to incorporate vegetables into meals, please share :)
     Do you have any goals you are working on?  How are things going for you?  Let me know in the comments.

Rainbow Twist Dangle Earrings

Materials:
*20 plastic crystals (10 different colors, two of each color)
*10 head pins
*18 jump rings
*2 ear wires
*Wire
*Wire cutters
*Flat nosed pliers
*Round nosed pliers

Directions:
*Arrange the 10 crystal beads in the order in which you would like them to appear on the earrings.
*Cut one head pin in half using wire cutters, then pick up the half containing the pin's "head," setting the other half aside for later.
*Take one crystal bead in the color that you would like to have at the bottom of your earrings and slide it onto a head pin.  Trim the length of the head pin until you are left with only enough length to form a loop.
*Using your round nosed pliers, curl the metal to form a loop.  Slide a jump ring through the loop, then close the loop using the flat nosed pliers.
*Take the other half of the head pin and curl one end to form a loop.  Attach the pin to the jump ring that the other half of the pin was affixed to.
*Slide a crystal in the color that you would like to have second from bottom on your earrings onto the head pin.  Trim the length of the head pin until you are left with only enough length to form a loop.
*Curl to form a loop, then attach the pin to another jump ring.
*Take another head pin, snip off its "head," and cut in half.  Take one of the halves and curl the end, then attach to the jump ring.  Add a bead, trim, curl, and attach to a new jump ring.
*Repeat the above procedure until you have a chain of alternating crystals and jump rings.  With the last bead, rather than attaching the end to another jump ring, attach it to an ear wire.
*Take a piece of wire and curl one end to form a loop.  Create a spiral shape by twisting the wire around the round nosed pliers.
*Stretch the wire as you go to elongate the spirals.
*Once you have the required length of wire twisted into a spiral, separate the spiral section from the remainder of the wire using round nosed pliers.
*Attach the loop at the top of the spiral to the ear wire, then wrap the spiral around the crystal chain.
*Following the above procedure, create your second earring. 

Here's a picture showing how long these earrings end up being.  If these earrings are too long for your liking, try using fewer beads and modify the directions accordingly.