Duct Tape Pencil Holder

Materials:
*Aluminum can
*Duct tape in color/pattern of your choice
*Black duct tape
*Scissors

With the end of the semester rapidly approaching, I wanted a quick and easy craft and these cute pencil holders turned out to be just what I was looking for.  I'm including a link to the post that inspired me.

Directions:
*Wrap duct tape in the pattern of your choice around your aluminum can until your can is covered in duct tape.
*Take a strip of black duct tape and wrap it around the rim of the pencil holder so that about half of the strip of tape hangs over the rim.
*At about half inch intervals, cut the overhanging portion of the tape in a straight line down to the rim of the can.  Fold the resulting pieces of tape over, sticking them to the inside of the can.

Striped Vase

Materials:
*Vase
*Painter's tape
*Acrylic paint
*Glossy acrylic sealer
*Paintbrush
*Optional: glitter paint

Directions:
*Using painter's tape, cover up the regions of the vase that you want to keep unpainted.  This probably would work better on a cylindrical vase than a curvy one like the one I chose because the tape has a difficult time fitting over the curves.
*Paint the part of the vase not covered by tape in a color scheme of your choice, then set aside to dry.
*Optional: add a coat of glitter paint.  Let dry.
*Once your vase has finished drying, carefully peel away the tape.  If you end up with some paint beneath the tape line, carefully scrape away the excess paint with something like a butter knife or a fingernail.
*In a well ventilated area, spray on a couple of coats of acrylic sealer, following the directions on the spray can.

Book Print Paper Rose

Materials:
*Double sided text (e.g. newspaper, ebook pages printed out double sided, old book, etc.)
*Acrylic paint
*Water
*Paintbrush
*Pen
*Scissors
*Wire
*Wire cutters
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:
*Select the text you would like to use for the project.  For my rose, I selected the digitized version of the book Old Time Belles and Cavaliers (one of the many books in public domain that has been digitized by Google) and printed pages from the section on my ancestor Rebecca (Smith) Blodget onto heavyweight paper. 
*Select two pages (or one page if you are using a newspaper) from your source.
*Mix acrylic paint with warm water, then brush the paint across one side of each sheet of paper.  Your paper should end up looking like this:

*Let the paper dry.  If you are in a hurry to finish the craft, try drying the paper using a hair dryer.
*Paint the other side of the pages and let dry.
*Draw petal shapes onto your painted paper like this (they are a little hard to see, but they are drawn in black ink over the text):

*Cut out the petals.
*Cut a piece of wire slightly longer than the length you would like the stem of your rose to be.
*Curl the petals a little so that they develop the shape of real rose petals, then begin gluing the petals to the wire.
*Add some adhesive to the bottom of one of the petals, then attach the petal to the wire.  Wrap the sides of the petal so that they overlap, then glue together.  Repeat for a second petal, creating less overlap than you did with the first one.
*Add additional petals by placing a drop of glue on the base of the petal and affixing to the wire.  As you go, you'll want to add more and more petals to each row.
*Once satisfied with the size of your flower, crease the tops of the outermost layers of petals.

Need a vase for your paper rose?  Come back next week to learn more about a neat technique to decorate a plain vase.

Butterfly Checkers Game

Materials:
*12" x 12" piece of wood
*24 circular wooden pieces about 1" in diameter
*Butterfly patterned paper
*Other paper in two distinct colors
*Glue
*White paint
*Paintbrush
*Scissors

Directions:
*Paint one side of the 12" x 12" piece of wood white, then set aside to dry.
*Cut out 32 butterflies.  Make sure that your chosen butterflies are not much more than an inch at their widest.
*Once the piece of wood has dried, arrange butterflies on the board in a checkered pattern, then glue down the butterfly.
*Trace around one of your wooden circular pieces to create 12 circles of each of the two colors you have chosen and glue these circles to the circular wooden pieces to make your game tokens.

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.