Karen and I have been friends since 1995. Her 40th Birthday party was last weekend. A month or so ago, she asked me if I would want to help her make a pinata of the Portland Oregon sign for her party. I think my exact words were “hells yes”. We had made plans to meet two weeks before her party, but she was sick and we didn’t meet. Then I was on vacation the weekend before the party. I have to admit, about this time I...
Read MoreWhile gearing up for the craft fair season before the holidays, I knew I wanted to make a large ring holder as a display for my felt flower rings. I created this wine cork tutorial last July. I knew I didn’t have the time needed to make another ring holder like I did previously. Under a time crunch, I opted to use glue. This holder is 2 feet by 8 inches with a total of 104 corks. I started by putting all of corks into the...
Read MoreBuying Jump Rings can get expensive really quickly if you use a lot of them in your work. Making them yourself is fast and easy. It does require some equipment, but the small investment you pay in tools will save you lots of money in the future. Besides, these tools are very versatile and you can use them in lots of different crafts. Materials A: ‘C’ Clamp Vise – I bought mine for under 10 dollars at a swap...
Read MoreWhen I started making felt flower rings a few months ago, I quickly realized that I would need holders for my rings. The first thing I did was go into my art room to see what I had laying around. I stumbled upon a bag of wine corks that my cousin had sent me in my birthday package with a note saying “I figured you could do something cool with these”. Finally I had the perfect project for these recycled wine corks....
Read MoreI’ve been a bit obsessed with felt flowers for the last few years. It started when my sis asked me to make her wedding bouquet and 3 bridesmaids bouquets. I posted a tutorial on how I made her bouquet that you can see here. I’m so glad I got to create something so important for my sis’s wedding. It was such a wonderful labor of love. I’ve gotten so many comments on that post asking how to make the actual...
Read MoreAs I first blogged about over on Handmade in Portland, my sis asked for reusable sandwich bags for Christmas. You can read my post about the research I did to decide on the materials and the pattern I wanted to use. I did use this tutorial by French Sleep Deprivation Study for my bags. It’s a really great tutorial and I highly recommend it. The only thing I really changed was adding a 5/8 inch seam allowance all the way...
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