Favorite Photos Rainbow Tote

Materials:
*2 6"x6" fabric squares in each of the following colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple
*Iron on transfer paper
*White fabric
*Iron
*Color printer
*Sewing machine
*Fabric in a color/pattern of your choice for the inside of the bag, the handles, and the straps
*Scissors
*All purpose adhesive (optional)

Directions:
*Sew together three squares, one red, one orange, and one yellow.
*Repeat with the other three squares in those colors
*Repeat twice more, this time using the blue, green, and purple squares.
*Sew together one of the strips of red, orange, and yellow and one of the strips of green, blue, and purple.
*Repeat with the other two fabric strips.
*Following the directions for your iron on transfer paper, print out your photos and iron them to your white fabric.
*Cut out the photos, leaving a white border around them and arrange the photos on your rainbow fabric pieces in a pattern you find pleasing.  Sew or glue down your photos, being mindful of where the seams will be sewn together and of where the handles will go.
*Cut out a piece of fabric equal in size to the rainbow fabric pieces.  Position the fabric pattern side down, then align the one of the rainbow fabric pieces on top of other fabric with the colorful side facing up.  Sew together the two fabric pieces.
*Repeat the procedure.
*Cut out two strips of fabric about 1 yard long and 1" wide.
*Fold over the edges slightly and sew down to prevent fraying.
*Sew or glue the handles to the bag.
*Fold over a bit of fabric at what will be the top of the tote bag and sew down.  Repeat for the second fabric piece.
*Cut out two strips of fabric about a yard in length and 1" in width.
*Fold over the edges slightly and sew down to prevent fraying.
*Place the fabric pieces one on top of the other, with the rainbow side facing inward.  Sew together the sides of the bag.
*Cut two strips of fabric about 2"x12" and sew together, pattern side facing outward.
*Turn the tote bag fabric inside out and sew the 2"x12" rectangle to the bottom of the bag.  This step can be a bit challenging, so take your time with this step.

Note: there are other, perhaps easier ways to make a bottom for the tote bag (see here for one example). 

Royal Plant Pots

When Brian and I got our plants, we gave several of them royal titles, so when it came time to decorate their pots, I decided to make ones fit for royalty.

Materials:
*Gold acrylic paint
*White acrylic paint
*Paintbrush
*Rhinestones
*All purpose adhesive
*Clay plant pot

Directions:
*Paint the clay pot with a coat of white paint, then set aside to dry.  If needed, add another coat of white paint.
*Once dry, paint with gold paint and let dry.  If necessary, add a second coat of gold paint.
*Glue rhinestones to the rim of the pot.

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.