Winter Themed Decorated Journal

Materials:
*12 Andes Peppermint Crunch wrappers (or other wrappers to use as a background)
*6 Andes Creme de Menthe wrappers (or other green wrappers)
*Silver duct tape (or silver candy wrappers)
*Small scrap of brown paper (or brown candy wrapper)
*White scrap paper
*Hole punch
*Glitter glue
*Notebook
*Glue
*Tape
*Scissors

Directions:
*Arrange the Andes Peppermint Crunch (or other background) wrappers across the cover of the journal and glue down.  It's okay if the wrappers don't cover the very bottom of the notebook because the silver duct tape will take care of that.
*Take the green wrappers and flip them over so that the green side faces down.  Tape the wrappers together in a rectangular formation and tape them together, then cut out a tree shape from the green rectangle.
*Cut out a trunk for the tree from the brown paper (or brown candy wrapper) and glue to the tree.
*Position the tree near the bottom of the journal and glue down.
*Cut a strip of silver duct tape long enough to cover the bottom of the notebook.  Trim the top of the strip to make it look like uneven ground.
*Adhere the duct tape to the bottom of the notebook.
*Punch out a number of white circles, then arrange them along the cover and glue down.
*Add a dot of glitter to each of the circles.

Another Decorative Tree

Materials:
*Yarn
*White paper
*Glitter glue
*Scissors
*Foam tree
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:
*Wrap yarn around the foam tree, gluing it down as you go.
*Cut quarter sized circles from a sheet of white paper, fold into fourths or eighths, and cut out small shapes to create snowflakes.  Alternately, if you have a die cutting machine you could create paper snowflakes that way.
*Arrange the snowflakes on your tree in a pattern that you like, then glue them down.
*Add dabs of glitter glue to make your tree sparkle.

Like this idea?  Check out my decorative tree from last year if you haven't yet.  Also, here are some links to my handmade stocking, hand towel advent calendar, and ornament posts from last year in case you are interested.

Snow Globe Card

I got the idea for this card from this video tutorial.

Materials:
*8 1/2" x 11" sheet of cardstock in a color of your choice
*8 1/2" x 11" sheet of cardstock in white
*Green cardstock
*Gold scrapbooking paper
*Cardstock scraps in a variety of colors
*Plastic gift bag or other heavy weight clear plastic
*White glitter
*Mounting squares or double sided tape
*Hole punch
*Scissors
*Pencil
*X-acto knife
*Glue

Directions:
*Fold cardstock sheet in the color of your choice in half.
*Open up the card.  On the left hand side, select the spot where you would like the snow globe to be and draw or trace a circle about 3" in diameter.
*Cut the circle out using an X-acto knife.
*Grab your clear plastic bag (for directions on how to use the packaging from a sticker pack or another sort of clear plastic bag with words on it, see below).  Pour some glitter into the bottom.  Fold over the top of the bag and seal it using mounting squares or double sided tape.
*Place your clear bag with glitter over the circular hole.  Center it, then tape it in place. 
*Cut out a piece of gold cardstock to make the base of your snow globe, then tape to the front of the card below the circular hole.
*Cut the white cardstock in half.
*Cut a tree shape from the green cardstock small enough to fit inside the circular hole, then tape to the white cardstock at the same location on the white cardstock as the circular hole is on the cardstock in a color of your choice.
*Use a hole punch to cut circles from the cardstock scraps.  Arrange the circles on the tree, then glue in place.
*Tape the white cardstock to the cardstock in a color of your choice such that when you close the cars the tree shows through the circular hole behind the plastic filled with glitter.
*Shake your card and watch the glitter shower down upon the tree.

Directions for using sticker packaging:
*Take your sticker packaging and determine whether the printed writing is on the inside or outside of the plastic.
*Take a dry erase marker and begin covering the printed text with marker, erasing as you go.  The text should rub right off.
*If you cannot get all of the dry erase flecks out once you have erased all of the text, rinse them away with water, then set your plastic aside to dry.

Glitter Ornaments

Materials:
*Clear plastic or glass ball ornaments
*Glitter glue or glitter and glue

Directions:
*Remove the metal top from the ornament.
*If using glitter glue, pour a small amount of glitter glue into the ornament and move the ornament around until the inside of the ornament is coated in a thin layer of glitter glue.  Make sure not to use too much glitter glue or it will take a long time for the ornament to dry and the glitter glue may roll off the sides, thus leaving gaps.
*Once the ornament has dried, put the metal top back on the ornament and hang on your tree.
*If using glue, pour a small amount of glue into the ornament, then slowly roll the ball around until the inside of the ball is covered in glue.  Don't shake or bubbles may form in the glue.
*Let some of the glue drain out of the ornament until only a thin coating of glue is left.
*Pour glitter into the ball and move the ball around until the inside is coated in glitter.  Pour any excess glitter back into the container.
*Set the ball aside to dry.  Once dry, place the metal top back on your ornament and hang on your tree.

Photo Advent Calendar

Materials:
*Photo frame approximately 8" x 16"
*10" x 20" piece of fabric
*Ribbon in two different colors
*6 sheets of Christmas themed patterned paper
*Glitter glue in two colors
*24 mimi clothespins
*All purpose adhesive
*Mounting tape or mounting squares
*Printed numbers or number stickers
*Scissors
*Computer with printer/scanner
*Photo paper

Directions:
*Lay fabric face down on a flat surface and place the glass from the photo frame on top of the fabric(if you would prefer not to use the glass for the base of your calendar, you can use cardboard or foam board instead).
*Run all purpose adhesive along the edges of the backside of the glass and adhere the fabric to this.  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.
*While the adhesive is drying, cut four 1.25" x 1.75" rectangles from each sheet of patterned paper.  You should end up with 24 rectangles in total.
*Affix numbers to the rectangles such that each rectangle has a unique number from 1 to 24.
*Find 24 old Christmas photos and, if not already digitized, scan them into the computer.  Crop the photos into squares, then shrink each square to 1.25" x 1.25". 
*Import the photos into a word processing program and arrange the photos such that there is half an inch of white space above each photo.  Print out the photos and cut out 1.25" x 1.75" rectangles consisting of the photo squares and the half inch of white space.
*Decorate the white space on the photo rectangles with glitter glue, then set aside to dry.
*Cut four lengths of ribbon about 9.5" in length.  Clasp 6 clothespins on each length of ribbon.  Place one ribbon on the fabric covered glass about 1" below the top.  Glue one end to the back of the glass, then pull the ribbon tightly across and glue the other end.
*Glue successive ribbons in the same fashion about 3.75" to 4" below the previous ribbon.  Set aside to dry.
*Once the adhesive on the ribbons has dried, place the fabric covered ribbon back inside the frame.
*Once the glitter glue has dried on the photo rectangles, adhere using mounting tape numbered pattern paper rectangles and photo rectangles together so that one side of the resulting rectangle depicts the patterned paper and the other side shows the photo.
*Attach rectangles to the ribbons using the mini clothespins with the number side facing out.  Turn each rectangle over to display the photo when the designated day in December arrives.

Duct Tape Wallet

If your old wallet wears out, or your wallet gets lost or stolen, instead of buying a new one try making one out of duct tape.  If you already have duct tape at your house it's a very cost effective solution.  Here's a link to the video tutorial I worked from when making my duct tape wallet.

Materials:
*Duct tape
*Scissors

Directions:
*Cut four strips of duct tape about 8.5" in length and overlap the pieces slightly, sticking them together with the sticky side facing up.
*Cut four more strips of duct tape about 8.5" in length and lay these strips over the four strips already stuck together, with sticky sides touching.  This will form the duct tape "fabric" of your wallet.
*Fold your "fabric" in half (the hot dog way) and trim off any uneven duct tape edges. 
*Take a strip of duct tape that is 9"-10" in length and cut it in half.  Use each of the pieces to cover the edges of the top part of the wallet.  Trim off any excess duct tape.
*For the pockets, cut off three 16" strips of duct tape. 
*Take two of the strips and stick them together to form the material for the pockets.
*Cut the third strip in half and use it to cover the edges of the pocket material.
*Cut the pocket material into four equal pieces and arrange the pieces on your wallet as you would like the pockets to be arranged.
*Tape the edges of the pockest down.  Make sure not to tape too far over or otherwise you won't be able to fit your ID's, etc. into the wallet.
*With the pockets facing outward, tape the sides together.
*Fold in half with the pockets facing in toward one another.  Now you have your duct tape wallet.
*If the wallet won't stay folded, set it under a heavy book for a little while.

Duct Tape Rose Ring

Materials:
*Duct tape in two colors (one color for the flower and one to wrap around the ring band)
*Cutting board
*X-acto knife
*Ring base
*Ruler

Directions:
*Center a 12" strip of duct tape on your cutting board so that it falls directly between the 4" and 6" marks.
*Using a ruler to keep your cut straight, cut the strip of duct tape in half lengthwise.
*Cut the duct tape strips widthwise at each 1" mark.  You should now have 24 duct tape squares that are approximately 1"x1".

*Wrap some duct tape of the color that you plan on wrapping around the ring band around the center of your ring base, then take a thin strip of duct tape at least the same width as the roll of duct tape and center it around the ring base, taping the ends together.  You will now have a duct tape protrusion on the ring that should look something like this:

*Wrap a couple of pieces of duct tape around the duct tape protrusion.

*Take a piece of duct tape in the color that you plan on using for petals and fold it over the protrusion.
*Peel one of your duct tape squares from the cutting board and fold it not quite in half diagonally so that it looks like the duct tape piece circled in red:

 

*Fold it again so that you end up with a triangle that looks like these:

*Attach the sticky part of the duct tape triangle to the duct tape protrusion on the ring base to form a petal.
*Continue folding duct tape triangles and attaching them to the protrusion until you have a flower large enough for your liking.
*Optional: wrap duct tape around the ring band.  If you do want to cover the ring band in duct tape, make sure to get ring bands that are at least a size too large for you because when you wrap the duct tape around the ring it will become a much tighter fit.

Duct Tape Covered Letters

Materials:
*Foam board
*Letter templates
*X-acto knife
*Pencil
*Duct tape in various colors/patterns (can use patterned paper in place of duct tape if you don't have duct tape in numerous colors/patterns)
*Scissors

Directions:
*Trace letter templates onto the foam board.
*Using your X-acto knife, cut out the letters.
*Cut out a strip of duct tape and place the duct tape strip over one of the letters.  Trim excess duct tape, leaving some to wrap around the edges, if desired.
*Repeat until the letters are covered in duct tape
*If you are using patterned paper in place of duct tape, trace letter templates onto the patterned paper, cut out the paper letters, and glue to the foam board.

Bonus: Duct Tape Decorated Box

Use your leftover duct tape scraps to decorate a box.  Cut the excess duct tape into small pieces and arrange on a jewelry box.



Candy Wrapper Decorated Journal

Instead of throwing away your candy wrappers from Halloween, use them in a craft.

Materials:
*Spiral bound notebook
*20 Tootsie Roll wrappers (or similar wrappers)
*White paint
*Paintbrush
*A brad
*Iron
*Glue
*Scissors

Directions:
*Iron candy wrappers on low heat (only if you are using waxy wrappers like Tootsie Roll wrappers) to flatten them out.
*Snip off the ends of the wrappers and set aside.
*If your wrappers are somewhat transparent and you have a dark colored notebook, paint the backs of the wrappers white so that the notebook cover won't show through the wrappers.  Set wrappers aside to dry.
*Arrange the wrappers on the cover of your notebook in a pattern you find pleasing, then glue the wrappers to the notebook cover.  Set aside to dry.
*If your notebook cover starts warping from the glue, set the notebook underneath a heavy book until it dries.
*While the notebook is drying, gather up 20 of the wrapper ends you set aside.  Using your scissors, round the edges on one end.
*Carefully poke holes in the square ends of the wrappers.  Arrange the wrappers in an appealing color pattern, then slide onto the brad.  Fan the wrappers out to form a flower shape, then fasten then ends of the brad closed.
*Glue the flower to the notebook cover.

Halloween Tree

The Tree:

Materials:
*Black wire
*Styrofoam base

Directions:
*Determine the height that you would like your Halloween tree to be.  Cut six lengths of wire about an inch longer than the desired height and twist the wire pieces together.  This will form the trunk of your tree. 
*Note: the trunk may seem rather narrow after the initial step and you can add more wires if you would like a thicker trunk, but once you start wrapping wire around for the branches your trunk will become wider anyway.
*Cut another length of wire about as long as the six lengths of wire you used to form the trunk. 
*Begin wrapping the wire around the trunk and continue wrapping until you reach the height at which you would like the highest up branch to be.  Bend the wire to form a branch.
*Take a second piece of wire and wrap it around the trunk until you reach the location of the branch, then twist the branch and the new piece of wire together.  If you would like the branch to fork, bend the ends away from each other before twisting and make sure not to twist them together.
*Depending on how thick you would like your branches to be, you may want to add a third, fourth, and maybe a fifth piece of wire to the branch.
*Continue creating branches in the manner in which you made the first branch.  As you go, the trunk will become thicker and you may find the need to cut your lengths of wire a bit longer to make branches of the desired length.
*Once you have constructed your tree, stick the end in a piece of styrofoam which will hold the tree up.

Decorating the base of the tree:

Materials:
*Foam
*Gray paint
*Glue
*Dried grass
*Small Philip's head screwdriver, butter knife, or some other implement that can be used for carving letters.

Directions:
*Glue dried grass all around the base of the tree.
*To make the gravestones, cut a thin piece of foam board into the shape of a tombstone.
*Use the Philip's head screwdriver to engrave the stone and add cracks and other marks to it.
*Paint the stone gray and let dry.   
*Once it has finished drying, glue it to the styrofoam base.

Ornament ideas
Bat:
Materials:
*Black pom pom
*Black felt
*Googly eyes
*Chalk
*Scissors
*Thread
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:
*Find a template for bat wings such as this one and resize the wings so that they are about 1 1/2" wide.
*Trace the wing pattern onto a piece of black felt and cut out the wings.
*Glue a pom pom to the center of the wings to make the bat's body.
*Glue two googly eyes to the pom pom to make the bat's eyes.
*Attach a piece of string to the bat so that you can hang it from your tree.

Ball ornament:
Materials:
*Round bead of your choice
*Head pin
*Thin wire
*Pliers
*Wire cutters

Directions:
*Loop a piece of wire and slide it onto the head pin.
*Slide the round bead onto the head pin.
*Wrap the piece of wire around the round bead.  When you reach the top of the bead, wrap the wire around the head pin just above the top of the bead a few times, then trim off any excess wire.
*Use pliers to bend the head pin into an angular shape.

Cat:
Materials:
*Black clay
*Gold glitter glue
*Glue
*Thread

Directions:
*Mold clay into the shape of a cat, then bake in the oven according to the directions on the clay package.  Remove the finished clay from the oven and let cool.
*Once the clay has cooled, give the cat glittery eyes using gold glitter glue.
*Attach a piece of string to the cat so that you can hang it from your tree.

Candy ornament:
Materials:
*Aluminum foil
*Permanent marker in a Halloween color
*Small round bead
*Scissors
*Glue
*Thread

Directions:
*Color a rectangle of aluminum foil using your permanent marker.
*Glue your round bead into the center of the aluminum foil rectangle on the uncolored side.
*Take two opposite sides of the aluminum foil and slide one piece over the other, closing the bead inside.
*Twist the ends of the aluminum foil.
*Attach a piece of thread to the candy so you can hang it from your tree.

*Looking for some more cool Halloween decorating ideas?  Check out my creepy doll Halloween decoration, fuse bead Halloween magnets, and Halloween curtain blog posts from last year. 

*Also, here's a cute printable Halloween door hanger that I hang up on my front door every Halloween.  To make it more durable than the standard printable craft, cut out a piece of a cardboard cereal box to insert between the two sides of the hanger and adhere in place using double sided tape.  Then laminate either using a laminating machine or by covering the hanger in packing tape.

Three Cheap and Easy Halloween Costume Ideas

     Halloween is rapidly approaching.  If you are looking for a Halloween costume for yourself or for your children but don't have a lot of money to spare, here are a few costume ideas that are inexpensive and require little time to construct.

 

Zombie

 

Materials:
*Light colored shirt
*Scissors
*Red food coloring or red marker
*Leaves
*All purpose ashesive
*Red undershirt (optional)

Directions:
*Take your light colored shirt and cut holes in it to make it look ragged and torn.
*Take the shirt outside and rub in the dirt or grass to make the shirt look dirty.
*Using red food coloring or a red marker, color around the holes to make it look like you have been bleeding.  Add some splotches of food coloring or marker to other places on the shirt as well.
*Glue on some leaves.

 

The Paper Bag Princess

 

If you have never heard of the Paper Bag Princess before, she is a character from a children's book by Robert Munsch.  For more information about the book, see Amazon or the book's Wikipedia page.

Materials:

*2 paper bags
*Cardboard cereal box
*Gold permanent marker or paint
*Scissors
*Tape

Directions:
*Take one of the bags and cut along the side seams, then cut out the bottom of the bag.  Discard the bottom of the bag.  Your paper bag should now be in two pieces.
*Take the second paper bag and cut about halfway up the side seams, starting from the opening of the bag.
*Slide the two halves of the first paper bag into the second paper bag and adjust until the two bags are the appropriate length to fit the intended recipient of the costume.  Tape the bags together.
*Cut out arm holes.  If the slits along the side seams of the bag do not reach the arm holes, cut the slit up to the arm holes.
*Cut out a neck hole.  Add slits going diagonally from neck hole to the corners of the bag so that the costume will slide over the head of the costume wearer.
*Once the costume recipient is wearing the costume, she or he may find it helpful to tape the sides of the costume together.
*To make the crown, take a cardboard cereal box and cut out the front side.  Only the front piece is needed for this project.
*Flip the piece over so that the side with the pictures faces the table.
*Draw a rectangle as long as the cereal box is tall and add triangles or other shapes resembling the spikes of a crown to it.
*Color the crown shape gold using a permanent marker or paint.
*Cut out the crown and tape the ends together.

 

Decade costumes

 

(Photo taken by Rachel Hirsch)

     This one isn't really a craft, but it is a great idea for an inexpensive costume.  Start by searching your own closet.  Do you have any wardrobe pieces that resemble clothing from a decade or so ago?  It turned out that I had 70's attire right in my closet.  If you can't find anything that works or don't have anything that you want to wear for a decade costume, check out your local thrift shops.  You can usually find tons of great clothing items from previous decades there.

Halloween Witch Costume

 

Basic Cape

Materials:
*1-1.5 yards of fabric in material suitable for a cape (the amount will vary depending on the desired length of the cape).
*6 feet of ribbon
*Sewing machine
*Thread

Directions:
*Obtain cape fabric of desired length. 
*Fold the sides of the fabric down about half and inch or less and sew so that the edges of the cape will not fray.
*Repeat the above procedure for the bottom of the cape.
*Take the ribbon and lay it across the top of the cape.  Fold fabric over it and sew the fabric, making sure not to sew the ribbon.
*Once you have finished sewing the top of the cape, adjust the ribbon until you have the desired length for tying on one side, about 6 to 8 inches.  Sew the cape material closed over this part of the ribbon.
*Compress the fabric around the ribbon until the fabric covers about 1 1/2 feet of the ribbon, perhaps less if the person you are making a cape for is small.  Sew the cape fabric closed over this part of the ribbon.  You should have several feet of ribbon hanging out one side of the cape. 
*Trim the length of ribbon down to 6 or 8 inches.

Hat

 

Original hat:

Decorated hat:

Materials:
*Plain, basic witch hat
*1/2 yard of fabric to decorate the brim of the hat
*1/2 yard of fabric to decorate the cone of the hat
*Ribbon
*Fabric flower
*Sewing machine
*Thread
*Fabric adhesive
*Scissors

Directions:
*Take the witch hat and carefully cut the thread holding the cone of the hat to the brim.
*Cut out a cirle of fabric about half an inch wider than the brim of the hat.
*Carefully pin down the fabric, wrapping the excess fabric around the edges of the hat.
*Sew the fabric in place.
*Carefully cut out a circle of fabric on the inside of the hat and sew in place.
*Cut the thread holding the cone of the hat in its cone shape and fold out the material.
*Measure out a piece of fabric about 1/4 of an inch wider than the hat material all the way around and pin it in place, then sew the fabric onto the material.
*Turning the material inside out, fold the ends of the material back together so that it forms a cone shape again and sew together.
*Carefully glue the cone of the hat to the brim of the hat using fabric glue.
*Trim with ribbon and add a fabric flower if you wish.

 

Shoes

 

Materials:
*Pointy toed shoes
*Scrap squares of the material used for the hat
*Ribbon
*Glitter
*Glitter bond
*All purpose or fabric adhesive
*Spray-on acrylic coating in gloss finish (optional)

Directions:
*Spread newspaper across your designated work area
*If using a spray-on acrylic coating, stuff the inside of the shoes with leftover newspaper so as to prevent the coating from sticking excess glitter to the inside of the shoe.
*Create a design on the shoes by brushing glitter bond on in the desired pattern, then pouring glitter over the shoes.
*Let shoes dry for the recommended amount of time given on the glitter bond bottle.
*If you chose to, spray shoes with the acrylic coating.  Let dry.
*Take a square of fabric and fold it up like an accordion.  Glue the layers of the accordion together in the middle, then glue a piece of ribbon around the middle of the accordion.
* Spread out the edges of the fabric to form a bow shape.  You may want to use scissors to round out the ends a bit.
*Create a second bow using the same procedure as for the first one.
*Adhere the ribbons to the shoes.

Glow in the Dark Furry Eyeball Wreath

Materials:
*Foam wreath
*Black faux fur
*12 glow in the dark ping pong balls
*Black, red, blue, green, and purple permanent markers
*All purpose adhesive
*Scissors

Directions:
*If not already in strips, cut faux fur into strips and wrap around the wreath.  Glue down the fur using all purpose adhesive as you wrap it.  Let dry.
*While the wreath is drying, use the permanent markers to decorate the ping pong balls to look like eyeballs.
*Arrange the ping pong eyeballs in a manner that you find pleasing, then glue them to the wreath.

This is what my wreath looks like in the dark. 

Design Your Own Board Game

     A couple of years ago, Brian and I made a Halloween board game.  While it would be impossible to give exact directions on how to make a board game since there are so many different things you can do with games, here are some tips to help you get started, using Brian's and my board game as an example.

Materials I used:
*Photo paper
*Camera
*Paint (computer program)
*Microsoft Publisher
*Mounting squares
*Grocery store pizza box
*Printer paper
*Cardstock

Directions:
*Choose a theme.  Brian and I decided that we wanted a spooky Halloween game.
*Determine the object of the game.  What is it that a player will have to do to win the game?  For our game, we decided that the winning player would have to escape from a ghoul infested cemetery.

*Start thinking about the layout of your game board.  What will the path look like?  Will you have any special squares?  Brian and I have squares that require players to draw a card, that instruct players to take a particular shortcut, that turn players into monsters, and that turn players human again, among others.  We had special "open grave" squares that if a player landed on one, she or he would lose a turn.

*Many board games involve cards.  If you would like to include a deck of cards in your game, ask yourself what type of tools your cards will afford players.  What can they do to aid a player and what can they do to thwart a player?  In our game, we have cards that require players to move forward or backward and to move to special squares, we have cards that will turn a player into a monster, and we have cards that will turn a monster player human again.

*Once you have outlined a basic concept for your game, it's time to start thinking about the mechanics and the graphics of your game.  Will players roll dice to determine their movement, or is there some other mechanism you would like to use to determine the distance players travel?  What kind of images will you use on your game board and on your deck of cards (if you are including a deck of cards)?  What will you make your tokens out of?  What are the maximum and minimum numbers of people who can play your game?  Brian and I used a die in our game and we used images of tombstones and other cemetery related imagery.  We used paper tokens; the human ones Brian drew and the monster ones we printed from this site.  Our game is designed for 2-4 players.

*Now it's time to start designing your game.  How you go about it is really up to you.  Brian and I designed all of our graphics in Paint, with the exception of the grass and the rocks.  We photographed the rocks and the grass that we used as our board game.  After creating all of our images, we put the game board together in Microsoft Publisher and we used Microsoft Publisher to put together the images on the cards as well.  We then printed the game board onto a couple of sheets of photo paper and adhered it to cardboard obtained from a grocery store frozen pizza box.

*Write up a set of rules for your game so that others can understand how your game works.  This may also help you tie up some loose ends that you may not have thought about before.  For example, you may want to write down a note about whether two players can occupy the same space at once and if not, what happens when two players land on the same square?

If you would like to see Brian's and my game in action, check it out here or on YouTube! 

Stylish Storage Containers II

Need some ideas for creative storage containers?  Here are a couple new ones and if you're still looking for more ideas, see my original post last fall, Stylish Storage Containers, which contains five more ideas.

Duct Tape Oatmeal Canister



 

     I needed a container to store my duct tape in and realized that an oatmeal canister would be the perfect size. When figuring out how I wanted to decorate my container, I figured that nothing could be more appropriate for this canister than duct tape. 

Materials:
*Empty oatmeal canister
*Duct tape in various colors and patterns
*Permanent markers
*Scissors

Directions:
*Wrap five pieces of duct tape of varying colors and/or patterns around the canister.
*For the lid, cut out a little rectangle of duct tape.  Place it on the lid so that the bottom corners of the tape are touching the edge of the lid.
*Cut out another rectangle of duct tape and place it so that one corner touches the lid in the same spot as one of the corners of the first piece of duct tape and the other corner touches another part of the lid.
*Repeat the procedure until the entire lid has been covered.
*Add a piece of patterned duct tape or some other adornment to the center of the canister to cover up any gaps in duct tape.
*Use a permanent marker to conceal gaps in the duct tape around the edge of the lid.

Geometric Holographic Pen Bucket

 

     I've always been fond of holographic paper.  These days it reminds me of the Give Yourself Goosebumps books that I adored when I was a child.  When I found holographic paper at my local JoAnn Fabrics store, I knew that I wanted to incorporate it into my crafting.  Here's my second craft project using holographic paper:

Materials:
*Empty, clean ice cream container
*Five sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 self-adhesive holographic paper in varying colors and patterns
*Scissors

Directions:
*Cut three strips from each paper about 8 1/2" in length and 1" wide.
*Cut these strips into triangles.
*Adhere the triangles to the container in a pattern you find pleasing.

Tie Dyed Sheet

Materials:
*Fabric dye
*Rubber bands
*White or light colored sheet.

Directions:
*Divide the sheet into sections using rubber bands.  You should end up with something that looks kind of like this:

*Prepare dye solution in your sink according to the directions on the dye bottle.
*One by one, dip each section of your sheet into the dye solution, holding it in the dye for about 3 seconds.  This part can get very messy, so you shoud probably wear clothes that you wouldn't mind staining.
*Rinse the sheet under warm water, then throw in the washing machine with the rubber bands still on.
*Once the sheet is done washing, remove the rubber bands and set it out to dry.
Note: you can use the remaining dye in the dye bath to tie dye other things like T-shirts, towels, etc using the same method.  I tie dyed a T-shirt using the excess dye.

Fun Fractal Origami Paper

Brian created a program to generate the Mandelbrot fractal and I saw so many cool images that I couldn't help but want to use them in my crafts.  I ended up using the images to make origami paper.

Materials:
*Printer paper
*Fractal image
*Printer
*Scissors

Directions:
*Select a fractal image.  You can choose one of the ones I've shared below if you would like, or you can choose one of your own. 
*Print the fractal image onto a sheet of ordinary thickness printer paper.
*If you would like double sided origami paper, print a block of color on the other side.
*If the paper begins to wrinkle, place it underneath a heavy book for a little while to flatten it back out.
*Cut out the square containing the fractal image.  Now you have your own patterned origami paper.

Here are a few origami creatures I made using my fractal origami paper.  I found the directions for the butterfly here and the swan here.  The site I got these instructions from has instructions for all kinds of cool origami creations.

Here are some cool fractal pictures to use for your origami paper:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Growing Alum Crystals and Treasure Chest Display

Alum Crystals

Brian and I have been experimenting with growing different types of crystals.  We started with a dollar store crystal kit, then tried growing table salt crystals.  Neither of these crystals grew as well as we had hoped they would, but then we tried growing alum crystals and they came out pretty well.  I'm including a link to the video I worked from in addition to my own, slightly modified directions. 

Materials:
*1/2 cup of hot water
*2 1/2 tablespoons of alum (a pickling spice available in most grocery stores)
*7-10 drops of food coloring (optional)

Directions:
*Add alum to the hot water and stir until it dissolves.  If you end up with a little bit of alum that won't dissolve it probably will not make a difference, but you can always heat up the solution a little more and the remaining alum should dissolve.
*Add food coloring to the solution.
*Let the solution sit undisturbed for some time.  I made my solution before bed and let it sit overnight and observed crystals forming by the next morning. 
*Let the crystals sit in solution until they reach the desired size.  If they do not grow as much as you would like them to, you can remove the large crystals from the solution, heat up the solution and dissolve any remaining alum, and then place the large crystals back into the solution once it has cooled.
Note: Food coloring may hinder the growth of crystals some, so if crystal size is more important to you than color, you may want to leave out the food coloring.

Treasure Chest Display

This craft can serve as an excellent way to display your alum crystals, but there are many other possible uses for it as well.

Materials:

*Jewelry box

*Gold paper

*2-3 sheets of paper with wood pattern

*Round hole punch

*Rhinestones

*Faux pearls

*String

*Glue

*Scissors

Directions:

*Cut out a rectangle of wood patterned paper equal to the size of the bottom of the jewelry box.

*Punch out gold circles and glue them to the wood patterned rectangle to make it look like the floor of the treasure chest is covered in gold coins.

*Add rhinestones and strands of faux pearls as you wish.

*Remove the jewelry cushion inside the box and set it aside.

*Cover the inside and outside of the jewelery box and lid with wood patterned paper, except for one side on the lid and one side on the box where you will be hinging the lid to the box.

*Cut two strips of wood patterned paper and use them to connect the lid to the box.

*Cover the rest of the inside of the box with wood patterned paper.

*Place the jewelry cushion back inside the box.

*Place the decorated piece of paper on top of the jewelry cushion.

*Arrange your alum crystals inside your treasure chest display. 

One Year of Crafts

     Today marks the one year anniversary of my craft blog.  To commemorate this anniversary, I decided to make some scrapbooking pages showcasing the crafts I've blogged about this year.

     Looking at the pictures, all I can think is that those are a lot of crafts.  I can hardly believe that I made all of them.  I'm pretty sure the number of craft projects I've made this year has far surpassed the number of crafts I've made in any other one year interval, which is awesome.  My personal favorite crafts were Melted Crayon Art 2.0 and Remaking Childhood Crafts.  My second melted crayon project came out sparkly and pretty and makes very nice wall decor and remaking the pages from my childhood book really pushed me in my papercrafting.
     Now for some statistics, just because I'm a math geek.  My blog has received 2,432 views this year.  My most frequently viewed craft was Fuse Bead Bowls, viewed 161 times, followed by Memento Board, viewed 117 times.  Last month I had a record number of blog views, 369 views in one month. 
     Now for the moment you have all been waiting for: the winner of the prize package is Katie H. from Veazie.  Congratulations, Katie!  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 that the next year will prove to be as awesome as this one. 
     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.