Two Years of Crafts

     Time to celebrate, since today marks the two year anniversary of my craft blog!  Dance party time!  (If you're off-put by my taste in music, feel free to substitute your own song of choice instead.)

     It's hard to believe another year of crafting has gone by!  This year I've pushed myself father, tried some crafts that were outside my comfort zone, and I feel like the results have been good.  I sewed my own Halloween costume, experimented with duct tape, and melted a lot of crayons, among other projects.  I've made so many crafts that I've liked, which makes it tough to pick favorites, but I really liked my felt owl pal and my zombie and non-zombie pom pom creatures.  

     Of course, this post would not be complete without some statistics since I am rather partial to numbers: my blog has received 8087 views all time, 5655 from this year, which is more than double the number of views it received last year!  Fuse bead decorative bowls are still my most viewed craft, but now with 615 views all time and that blog post gained almost three times as many views this year as it did last year.  The most popular of the blog posts I've written this year is design your own board game, which received 205 views this year.

     Now for the moment you have all been waiting for: the winner of the prize package is Lauren from Old Town.  Congratulations, Lauren!  I am immensely grateful to all of you who have been following my craft blog and everyone who has taken the time to look at my blog posts.  I hope my blog has benefited each of you in some tiny way, be it providing you the creative inspiration you need or just giving you something fun to look at when you're bored.  Here's to hoping for another great year of crafting!

     So, what do you think?  Which blog posts have you enjoyed most?  Let me know in the comments or email me at hathaway.amber@gmail.com. 

Freezer Bag Pencil Case and a Contest Reminder

Want an inexpensive but stylish pencil case?  Add some duct tape to a freezer bag.  Thanks to my fantastic second mom for this neat craft idea :)

Materials:
*Duct tape
*Freezer bag
*Scissors

Directions:
*Cut a strip of duct tape slightly longer than the width of the freezer bag.
*Fold the strip of duct tape over the bottom of the bag so that half of the strip of tape covers the front side of the bag and half covers the back.
*Cut off any excess duct tape sticking out, being careful not to cut the bag's seams.
*Cut a strip of duct tape slightly longer than twice the width of the freezer bag and wrap around the top of the bag.
*Continue adding strips of duct tape until you have covered the whole bag.

Contest Reminder

     If you would like to be entered to win a nail polish splattered picture frame and a pair of duct tape earrings (both pictured below), please send your name and address (if you don't live nearby) to hathaway.amber@gmail.com before August 25th.  The winner will be announced on my anniversary blog post on August 25th.

Victorian Inspired Accessories Holder and a Contest

Materials:
*Wooden letters
*1" thick board wide enough and long enough to accommodate your letters and the knobs (my board was 1' x 2 1/2')
*Wood glue
*Patterned paper
*Gold spray paint
*5 2" long screws
*Phillips head screwdriver
*All purpose adhesive
*White air dry clay
*Rose mold
*Scissors or an X-acto knife
*Photocopier or pen and several sheets of paper
*Measuring tape

Directions:
*Photocopy the letters or trace the letters around the ridge that sticks out the most.  This will serve as your template for the patterned paper.
*Arrange the letters on the wooden board, then glue them down using wood glue.  Let dry for 24 hours, or whatever amount of time the glue bottle requires.
*In a well ventilated area, lay down copious amounts of newspaper, covering your entire work space.  Lay the board on top of the newspaper and spray with gold spray paint, following the instructions on the can.  Let dry.
*While the board is drying, cut out the letter templates and trace them onto patterned paper.  Carefully cut out the letters using scissors or an X-acto knife.
*Once the gold paint is dry, adhere the paper letters to the wooden letters using all purpose adhesive.
*About 1" or so below the letters, use your measuring tape to divide the board up into six equal sections.  Lightly mark the endpoint of each section except for the last one (which ends at the end of the board) with a pen.  You should have five marks.
*Screw in screws at the five marks.
*Cover the screws with clay, sticking a ball of clay onto the top of each screw.  Use your mold to mold it into a rose shape.
*Set aside to dry, following the drying instructions on the clay packet.
*There are numerous ways you can hang up your accessories holder.  If you plan to hang it on the wall, attach mounting brackets to the back and hang up.  To hang on a doorway, you can use strong magnets if your door is metal or strips of velcro otherwise.

Contest

The two year anniversary of my craft blog is rapidly approaching, which means it's time for another craft giveaway.  The prize package includes a pair of duct tape feather earrings and a nail polish splattered picture frame.  To enter the contest, email me at hathaway.amber@gmail.com before August 25th your name and your address (if you live far enough away that I would have to ship the prize to you).  Also, if you only would want one of items in the prize package, let me know so I can hold a separate drawing for the item you don't want, should you win.  The contest is open to anyone in the United States.

Back to School Wardrobe Refresher

Save money on your back to school shopping by revitalizing clothes you already have.  Below are several ideas to revitalize old clothes and fix broken clothes.

T-shirt to Tube Top

Before

After

Materials:

*T-shirt

*Sewing machine or needle and thread

*Scissors

*Chalk

*Tube top that fits you well

*Ruler

Directions:

*Turn the T-shirt inside out and lay it out on a flat surface.

*Using a ruler, draw in chalk a horizontal line running just underneath the armpits of the shirt.  Make sure before you cut that this will not interfere with any part of an image or saying that you want to have on the tube top.  If it does, try laying the tube top atop the shirt and centering it so that it will include all of the image that you want, then trace around the shirt as described below.

*Carefully cut along the line, discarding the top portion of the shirt.

*Turn the shirt right side in.  Fold about a quarter of an inch of the fabric at the top toward the inside of the shirt and sew down so that the top of the tube top will not fray.

*Turn the shirt inside out again and lay flat.  Place the well fitting tube top on top of the shirt, lining up the top of the tube top with the top of the shirt.

*Trace around the tube top, leaving about 1/4" of space between the tube top and the piece of chalk.

*Cut along the chalk lines, then sew together the two sides of the shirt.

*Turn the shirt right side in.  Fold about 1/4" of fabric at the bottom of the shirt toward the inside of the shirt and sew down.

Here are some common garment issues and some ways to fix them.

Pants Zipper that Won't Stay Up:

Materials:

*Small key ring

Directions:

*Take the key ring and wind it through the zipper like so:

*Zip up the zipper, then loop the key ring over the button like this:

*Button your pants as you would normally.  The key ring should not be visible, as is the case with these jeans:

Falling off Jeans Buttons:

Here's what I did when the button on a pair of my jeans started tearing away from the fabric:

Materials:

*All purpose, fabric safe adhesive (such as Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive)

*Small piece of scrap cloth

Directions:

*Glue the button and the part of the denim the button has torn away from back together. Set aside to dry.

*For added stability, glue a small swatch of fabric behind the button so that it covers both the back of the button and the surrounding denim, like this:

Fading Clothes:

Before

After

Materials:

*Fabric dye

Directions:

I wrote a blog post last July providing stove top dyeing instructions.  This time around I tried dyeing my jeans in the washing machine using the Rit dye washing machine instructions, which can be found here or on the back of the bottle of dye.

Torn Lace Trim:

Before

After

Materials:

*Stitch ripper or sharp scissors

*Sewing machine or needle and thread

*New lace trim (optional)

Directions:

*Carefully remove the stitches holding the lace to the shirt.

*If the fabric is sturdy enough, you can resew along the previous seam. Otherwise, fold the fabric over until you will not be sewing along the area where the original stitches were and resew.
*Sew on new lace, if you wish.

Looking for more ideas?  Check out the apparel and accessories portion of my blog.

Photo Cube Puzzle

Materials:
* 8 wooden blocks 1 1/4" x 1 1/4"
*12 photos 2 1/2" x 2 1/2"
*Photo safe adhesive
*Scissors
*Ruler
*Pen

Directions:
*Arrange the eight wooden blocks into a cube with dimensions 2 blocks x 2 blocks x 2 blocks.
*Select a photo and carefully divide it into four 1 1/4" x 1 1/4" squares.
*Cut out the squares and glue them to one face of the cube so that the pieces line up to form the original image.
*Repeat the process for another photo and glue the pieces to a neighboring face of the cube.  Make sure the first and second pictures are facing the same direction.
*Repeat the process for another photo and glue the pieces to the top of the cube.  Let dry.
*Once the three faces have dried, carefully flip the cube upside down.  Repeat the above procedure for the remaining sides of the cube.  Let dry.
*Turn the cubes so that the photo covered sides face toward the center of the cube.  One quick way to do this is take the top and bottom halves of the cube and swap their positions, then take the left and right halves of the cube and swap them, and finally take the front and back halves and swap them.  You should be left with a blank cube.
*Cut up and glue pictures to the blocks following the above procedure.
*Now you can swap between the two photo cube arrangements.  It's like having two photo cubes (although you can only use one at a time).

Nail Polish Splattered Picture Frame

Spruce up a cheap picture frame with a splash of nail polish.  Here's a link to the post that provided me with this idea.

Materials:
*Nail polish in various corresponding colors
*Inexpensive picture frame
*Painter's tape (optional)

Directions:
*Completely cover your work space with newspaper.
*Tape up any portions of your picture frame that you would not like to get nail polish on.
*Have fun splatter painting.  Once the paint is dry, you can peel off any painter's tape you applied to the frame.
*If you end up with paint in an unwanted spot anyway, clean it off with a dab of nail polish remover.

Duct Tape Sneakers

Have an old, grungy pair of shoes that you're not yet ready to give up on?  Decorate them with duct tape. Here's a link to the post that inspired me to try decorating my shoes with duct tape.

Materials:
*Old Sneakers
*Duct tape in the colors/patterns of your choice
*Scissors
*X-acto knife

Directions:
*Cut off strips of duct tape and adhere to the portions of the shoe that you would like covered.
*Carefully trim off any excess duct tape with an X-acto knife
*Use smaller pieces of duct tape around the curvy parts of the shoe so that you don't end up with bulges and creases in the tape.
*To cover the toe of the shoe, take a strip of duct tape and set it across the toe of the shoe.  Carefully cut the tape to the appropriate shape, making sure not to stick the tape to the shoe all the way.  Otherwise the tape will bunch together in places and it may be difficult to unstick the pieces.
*Peel the duct tape off of the toe of the shoe.
*Excluding the flat top part, make incisions about 1/4" deep every 1/4" along the piece of tape.
*Line up the flat top part with the top of the toe of the shoe and stick down.  Slowly press down the other parts of the tape, which will overlap slightly.