Crafting 101

It’s hard to believe, but August is over! I hate that I wasn’t able to post as many knick knacks as I could, but I hope that I’ve at least helped to steer you in the right direction for finding things out there for you to do.

September is an entirely different month! Wow! It’s the beginning of another school year for many, including us! I have two in school, one third grader and one first grader. Next year, I’ll have a preschooler! They just grow up quick!

In honor of school starting, we are going to honor teachers, secretaries, administrators, PTA presidents and the like by making bags all month. Teachers are always in the need for a bag to carry supplies to and from home to work, PTA presidents and other PTA members have papers to carry from meeting to meeting, principals are always bringing work home. So bags are perfect!

I will differ up my posts, some I will show you have to make a certain bag, other posts will be instructions that others have posted out on the web on making bags. There are so many bags out there, the possiblities are endless! The bags will either be sewn, crocheted or knitted or put together by some other means. I hope to keep you on your toes!

I hope you will join me in making bags during the month of September. As always, I’d love to see what you’ve been doing so feel free to send me pictures of your work. TTFN!

My apologies for not writing! Life got away from me and we had company and then school is about to begin…EEK! But I am back and here’s another knick knack that is lots of fun and easy and quick!

Have you ever thought of doing something neat with some old coke bottles? What about any type of glass bottle that we have lying around? Want a good reason to recycle? This idea is from ThriftDeluxe.com which is a website for do-it-yourself folks like us.

You simply drink or eat the contents of the bottle/jar, wash it out well and dry, then pour some paint in it, rotate the bottle so that the paint is covering it, then pour excess paint back into your jar. Be sure to rotate the bottle every five minutes or so as it dries to make sure it is all covered. Pop a flower in the bottle and you’ve got a cool looking vase!

Now, the website is British and the paint they recommend is PVA, but I’m not sure what kind of paint that is, but I would think that most craft paint would work for this type of project. Be sure and read the label on the paint to see if it would or not. The cool this with this is you’re painting the inside of the bottle, not the outside so you can still see the logo or if you have a clear jar, you can see the paint. Be creative and you could create all sorts of designs on this! Have fun!

Today is a fun type of a knick knack. It’s acutally all about taking old knick knacks and turning them into new ones. Frugal Village does a great job of teaching you how to take old items around the house and turning them into new ones to cherish more and more over time.

This is one of the things the writer over at Frugal Village did with some old egg cups and some old candles melted down with some new wicks put in them. I have plenty of candles that just have a little bit of wax left in them, all I need to do is melt them down and put them into smaller jars or other small dishes. You can keep these for yourself or give them as housewarming gifts.

Have a great day! See you tomorrow!

I don’t think that I’ve had any of my knick knacks dealing with crocheting. Sometimes crocheting is the easiest way to rack up some knick knacks quickly. You can make tissue box covers, pin holders, eye glass cases, wall hangings and more.

One thing I found was yet another thing to put all your knick knacks in (or all your yarn!).  You can get the pattern here and it looks like something that can be whipped up in a couple of days. I have had a couple of friends make their own baskets to hold things just because you can make them any size you’d like and make them to match or mix and match, however you’d like to do it.

Now, if you are like me and need something to hold all those dishcloths or snowflakes or other Christmas gifts, this would be the perfect thing to make. But if you’re also like me, you’ve got so many baskets if you make another one, your husband is going to divorce you! LOL! Enjoy the rest of your day and tune in tomorrow for another knick knack!

Today’s knick knack is kind of neat. It uses items that we all have laying around the house and have no idea what to do with. It’s called a Greeting Card Storage Box. I wasn’t able to find a picture of one of these made, but it sounds pretty easy to do and looks neat too. You’ll need a shoe box, all those greeting cards you have laying around plus some paint and glue.

From their website: “Paint the outside of the shoe box with the desired color, red or green would be great for Christmas cards (you can also use a paper mache box available at most crafts stores). Let the paint dry.

Cut out the picture or scene on the front of several greeting cards. Arrange the pictures or scenes on the sides and top of the shoe box to cover as much of it as possible. You can also try to create scenes with the pictures. Glue them into place and let the glue dry completely.

Using watered-down glue, paint over the box to seal it. You should use approximately 1 part glue to 1 part water. You can also use Mdoge-Podge or any other decoupage medium. Apply 2 - 3 coats, making sure each coat dries completely beefore adding the next.”

Sounds neat, huh? I hope to try and make one of these, but I have to wait until later in the year when I get all the Christmas decorations out. That’s where all my cards are! If you make one of these, send me a photo and I’ll showcase it here on the website.

See you tomorrow!

I thought I’d send an update on my socks that I’m knitting for Ravelympics 2008. In an earlier post I mentioned how we were camping and we decided to stay a few days later than we expected so I haven’t been able to post much especially since we spent lots of time at the beach!

Anyways, here’s a snapshot my husband took of me knitting my socks. I do my socks two-at-a-time so I can get them both done quick, but I don’t think I’m too quick!

I’m finished with the cuff and I’m about ten rows into the leg of the sock. I have to go a total of nine inches from the top of the sock and I’m about 3 inches down. I’ve got until the 23rd for sure to be finished so hopefully I will get them done! It might be an all-nighter!!

Tomorrow I will have a new knick knack for you to try out.  I hope that you are finding the posts of various knick knacks to be helpful and fun. I’d love to see any photos that you have if you’ve made anything.

Hope you are having a great weekend! Tune in tomorrow for a new item!

With my website, I’m able to see where all my traffic comes from and I love to see how people have come across my website. In doing this, I found a link to one of my free patterns out on the web! I was excited!

The pattern is the Learn Your Stitches Dishcloth and the link was posted on Clothmakers Crochet Cloth Links. The dishcloth pattern was one I wrote to help those learning to crochet use three basic crochet stitches to make a simple dishcloth. You can get creative with it and use more than one color to have stripes or use a variegated yarn for fun!

Thank you so much to the owner of the blog! I do appreciate you adding my dishcloth link being added. I also want to thank all my friends at Ravelry.com and at stumbleupon.com. Thanks a million for your support!

So today I am writing to from our campsite that we go to each year just to get away. Now you might be thinking how can she be getting away from everything if she is writing to her readers? Good question! Simply put, I just have to write about a cool knick knack that in no way is craft related, but has everything to do with technology. It’s called the iPhone.Yes, I am one of the hundreds of thousands of people who own an iPhone and one of the reasons they are so cool is I am here camping in the middle of no where and I can still write a message to all my readers. I can also check e-mail and surf the Internet and give friends a ring if I so feel inclined.

Now the whole reason for this post is not to brag about having an iPhone (though it is cool) but to mention that although I’m trying to write about all sorts of crafty knick knacks this month, I just wanted to say that knick knacks aren’t just for the arts and crafts sector of the world, but they encompass every aspect of our lives whether we want them to or not.

Tomorrow I return to my regularly scheduled program.

Knick knacks come in all shapes and sizes and uniqueness. In my surfing the last few days, I’ve come across all sorts of items and this is one that I think I will replicate for Christmas gifts.

I came across Lani’s blog at http://crossrhodes.com/ and found these really cool clocks that she made for relatives and friends for Christmas. You can view her entire post here. I think these are a fantastic idea! You use clocks that you can find at your local Wal-Mart, Michael’s, Target and other discount stores. They don’t cost much, find some neat scrapbook paper, have your pictures and add whatever embellishments you want to and then you’ve got a cool clock!

These are projects that can be done early for Christmas, they are fantastic Mother’s Day or Father’s Day gifts and I’m sure grandparents would love them too!

If you have a knick knack that you’d like featured here during the month of August, be sure to leave me a comment and I’ll be happy to showcase it here!

I have found a cute knick knack for everyone to make for the love of their life or you can adapt it to fit any occasion!  Check out idodiy.blogspot.com for lots of cool creations that she’s done with paper, but this is one that I thought was good to do with felt.

Not only could you do a project like this for Valentine’s Day, but it’d be perfect for Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and any holiday or special occasion in between. My kids would love making these for the grandparents and if you printed out a picture of the kiddos to put in the middle, you could make a nice frame out of it.

This project just needs scraps of felt, some embroidery yarn, a needle and some glue to help keep the items in place while you stitch them. You can use sequins and buttons to embellish it as well. Have fun!