Boxes and Trivets with pressed Flowers

The papier-mâché boxes are painted with craft paint and decorated with pressed flowers and leaves which are glued on using medium glue lacquer.

1. Paint the lid of the box or the trivet with craft paint in a pastel colour.

2. Apply a generous layer of medium glue lacquer to the area on where you will apply the flowers. Lay the flowers on the glue lacquer. Spread glue lacquer on top to coat the flowers. Let it dry.

3. The trivet’s glass plate is then glued onto the flowers. Use a glue gun or just glue. Assemble the box lid and glue with a glue gun.

See more examples

A Crocheted Necklace from Beading Wire with Silicone Stop Rings

This necklace is crocheted from beading wire with silicone stop rings threaded onto the wire randomly as you go along. Five crocheted pieces of beading wire have been crocheted to make this necklace. The five necklaces are assembled into one necklace in a magnetic clasp.

1. Thread the silicone stop rings onto the beading wire. Do not cut off a piece of the beading wire, but leave the beading wire still on the roll. Feel free to choose the number of silicone stop rings.

2. Cast on a stitch at the end of the jewellery wire.

3. Crochet five or six chain stitches before pulling the first silicone stop ring along the wire towards the nearest stitch. Then continue crocheting.

4. Continue crocheting following the illustrated process until the stretched length of the necklace measures approx. 65cm. Crochet a total number of five pieces of beading wire.

5. Assemble the ends of the five pieces of crocheted beading wire in a knot and cut off the excess.

6. Add a blob of glue inside both hollow end caps of the magnetic clasp. Push each end piece of the crocheted necklace inside the end cap and hold in place until the glue has dried.

Junk mail typography collage art

I made this awesome re-arranged typography wall art with two junk mail postcard sale mailers. This is what you need to make this junk mail wall art plaque! This tutorial will showcase each step I took to complete this art piece.

Materials:

- Substrate of your choice: cradle board, canvas board, illustration board, plywood or wood

- Cardstock

- Cutting tools

- Ruler

- Mod Podge tools: Brayer and Squeegee

- 1″ SQUARE shape paper punch

- 2 Crate and Barrel postcard mailers

- Any Mod Podge, I used Mod Podge Paper and Mod Podge Gloss

1. Cut 25 pieces (1″ squares) of the red and white section only.

2. TIP: I taped a piece of cardstock to my cutting mat. This type of mat has measurements printed on it, so it is easy to make accurate lines (see photo). I made two straight lines: one vertical and one horizontal; this made my layout easy to place . . . I knew I needed 5 rows of 1″ squares across since I was working with a 5″ x 5″ block. I used Mod Podge Paper to mount the squares in place . . . then let dry for 15 minutes. Then, I cut the mounted pieces at 5″ x 5″.

3. Decoupage the FRONT with the re-arranged 1″ square blocks. *TIP: I used a brayer that had some dried Mod Podge from previous projects, because when I run it over the paper it will give it a aged, rustic look and scuff it up. If you don’t want that look, use a clean brayer. Next, I decoupaged the back with a random piece of printed cardstock.

4. I decoupaged the sides with 3/4″ white cardstock.

5. Attach hanging hardware to the back. TIP: I find for something small like this a triangle hanger is easiest! All, you do is find the center, mark it with an AWL, then insert a screw. . . Then I attached two bumpers to the bottom.

Project completed! Ready to hang. Wouldn’t it be fun to try this on a huge scale?

Use paper scraps to make wall art

Something that every paper crafter has after a completed project is a pile of scraps. I'm no different and let me tell you my pile of scraps can get quite out of hand! To put it to good use, this solution is really simple, uses up a lot of scraps and can be made leisurely over a long period of time.

Materials:

- Scraps of card stock paper

- Scissors

- Glue

- Canvas

- Pencil

Steps

1. Lightly draw a spiral that starts a little off center and gradually expands throughout the canvas. Don't worry about making the spaces between each spiral even. Just gently move your arm around and around and it will come naturally. If you feel you need it, practice on a scrap piece of cardboard or on the back of the canvas.

2. Cut out scraps of paper in the shape of a leaf that has a flat end (my scraps where about 1" (2.5cm) wide and varied in length. Fold 1/4" (6mm) of the flat end over to form a tab. Cut off the corners of the tab as seen in the scrap on the right hand side in the photo below.

TIP! Don't cut all your scraps at the same time and at the same length or width. Variety makes this more interesting. The spacing in the spiral may vary in different sections so cut your pieces as you decide where to place them. I made sure that my "leaf" shapes where at least 1-2" (2.5-5cm) past the line of the following spiral mark. Remember these are just scraps so if you cut one that is too short or too long, it's not a big deal.

3. Glue the scraps to the canvas by lining up the edge of the folded tab over the pencil markings of the spiral. Make sure that you cover the pencil markings as you add paper to the canvas.

4. Continue until you feel you're done or until all the pencil marking are covered. I decided to stop where I did because I felt like I didn't need to fill the entire canvas (although that was my initial thought).

To finish off the piece I thought of erasing the pencil markings. It didn't work. The small part that I tried got smugded and looked awful. The drawn spiral now seems like part of the piece and I feel like it'd be missing something if I got rid of it.

TIPS!

- Take your time

You probably won't have time to do this in one shot. Place a basket in front of your canvas with scissors, some scraps and a small bottle of glue and add pieces whenever you have a few minutes. It doesn't have to be a one afternoon project—it really can be something that evolves over time. For the curious—my piece was made over a couple of days at a crazy pace. I only did that because I was on a deadline, otherwise I would've taken my time with it.

- Spread out your favorite pieces of paper

If you are doing a multi-color or multi-pattern version of this make sure to spread out the scraps of one sheet of paper throughout the piece. It'll give the piece a bit more balance. It helped me to squint to see where I was missing paper of a certain color.

- Make tiny versions of this to place inside of shadow box frames or for the front of an abstract card.

- Use only one color of paper in different shades for a monochromatic look.

- Make your cut out shapes with a rounded tip (like petals) for a softer look.

Source: http://alittlehut.blogspot.ca

Shelves made with paint bucket

Clean and remove label of the bucket, cut the top part (using a saw or an electric saw...be careful).

Paint the outside with a paint for plastic.

Make two holes for the screw and strengthen the back with a piece of wood.

Fix in the wall with with screws and plugs.

Mini Copper Planters

Materials:

- Copper cap fittings (in the sizes of your choice)

- Bottle of Ketchup

- Mini plants/blooms

The copper caps really don't require much attention other than a good cleaning, which admittedly, is a bit of a strange process. First, gently hand wash them with mild soap.

Now this is where it gets weird: To get most of the tarnish off of the copper in the simplest way possible, lather the outsides of them with ketchup. Yes, you read correctly. The vinegar in ketchup has just enough acidic properties to give the copper a good cleaning. Let it sit for about a half an hour, then rinse. It's surprising what a difference it makes. All that's left now is planting, and voila!

What do you think? Do you have any creative uses for copper around the house?

In the Mood for a Mood Board

First, you need an old picture frame and a junk lamp. Make sure the frame is solid wood and sturdy (you don't need the glass) and that the base of the lamp unscrews. Pick off all the paper and staples and nails from the frame and untwist the lamp base from the lamp. Just snip the cord with scissors to get it all apart. Now cut a little piece of dowel and drill small holes in both ends.

You need a long skinny screw and a washer to keep the screw from slipping through the hole in the lamp base. Stick the screw and washer up through the bottom of the lamp base and screw that bit of dowel onto the top.

Now the dowel is attached to the base.

Drill a very tiny hole through the frame like this.

And screw the frame onto the dowel.

And add some eyes and wires. And spray paint it.

Now clip all your hopes, dreams, and desires to it. You're done! So make some more! One for every room of the house. One to hang your jewelry on, too. And now you can actually begin the planning process of how you will get inspired to organize your life for the new year, a project you couldn't possibly have accomplished without first building a mood board.

Easter Animals made from Pipe Cleaners and Silk Clay

The pipe cleaners have been shaped into bodies and silk clay eyes, beaks and noses etc. have been attached. The animals have been fixed onto a stand made from foam rubber.

1. Crumple up and squeeze together a pipe cleaner. You may let legs and ears stick out.

2. Roll small white and black silk clay balls for eyes. The white ones should be larger than the black ones. Also roll or shape a beak or a nose and attach these parts onto the pipe cleaner animal without using glue. Silk clay has the consistency which makes this possible, before drying.

3. If you wish to use these Easter animals as a decoration for hanging, then attach a piece of elastic beading cord or a piece of string onto the heads. If they are to be used for standing, form a small ball from silk clay and attach this between the pipe cleaner and a cut-out foam rubber circle or stand.

Autumn Lunch Bag Trees

Mod Podge, yarn pom poms, and trash. Yay! They're little Autumn trees made out of old crumpled lunch sacks.

First, cut off the bottom of the bag, then cut it open so it's a flat rectangle. Next, cut slits where I drew the dotted lines.

Now brush the entire surface with a layer of Mod Podge. I watered it down just a tiny bit.

Now sort of bunch it up in the middle. And separate out those strips at the top where you snipped it. Gently start twisting.

And twisting. Twist the trunk. Twist the branches. Twist the roots.

Keep twisting until it looks like a tree.

Let the Mod Podge dry. You can snip the roots and branches with scissors if you want them a bit shorter.

Plop some yarn pom poms into the trees. Add a dab of Mod Podge on the branches to hold them in place. And then photograph them all over your house.