Crafting 101

So, I was browsing the internet trying to figure out a neat project for my girls to do. See, they have to bring a flower in to their teacher’s for Teacher Appreciation Week. Instead of just going to buy one flower, I like to make them something about flowers or with fake flowers, basically something that lasts longer than flowers. So this year, I decided to have the girls make them flower pots!

This is a good project to reuse coffee cans or old pots or instead of throwing those vegetable cans away, make them into decorative flower pots. This is also a great project to use up all those leftover scraps of yarn or ribbon or buttons! We got rid of a lot of buttons that I got out of a random craft box off freecycle one time. I knew that I’d never use the buttons on projects, so this was a great way for them to get used up.

We used one large coffee pot and one smaller flower pot I had that I didn’t like anymore. We got out the hot glue gun and my girls went to town. After they finished decorating them, I filled them with soil and we put some pretty flowers in them. Now, I didn’t mess with poking holes in the bottoms and worrying about drainage just because they will probably keep these inside on their desk and I didn’t have anything to put under them. But if you were going to plant outside plants or herbs and such, punch holes in the bottom and put a layer or rocks on the bottom before putting the soil on top. That’ll help with drainage. I’m going to start keeping my cans as I use them, wash them out and make some decorative flower pots. Anyone would love these to line their porch or deck!

Did you make one? Have suggestions or ideas? Leave me a comment!

I always like helping friends out so I’m posting about two friends I have from my Tuesday Night Knitters group. Christina and Nancy have created their own business making things out of glass. Their company, TG Designs, is new and getting it’s foot in the door. They have been doing shows to sell their work and it’s some really good work too!

I posted this photo because it’s one of my favorite pieces that I saw on their blog. I’m into stripes right now for some reason and I just like it. They have more pictures of what they’ve made here.

If you know of someone getting started with a business, leave me a comment and I will check them out. I’m all for spreading the word!

Everyone loves a fun and simple project to do in Sunday School class or for Vacation Bible School. You can make these as crosses or use the same technique for making other letters too.

Making a simple cross

Materials:

Two popcisle sticks (they can be the same size or two different widths)
Yarn cut to about a foot in length
Markers or other things to color or decorate it with

Directions:

Place the popcisles one on top of the other to make a cross shape (or your letter shape). Leaving a short tail of two or three inches, hold the yarn in the back of the cross. Take your yarn and go across the sticks at an angle, come up the back and come across at the opposite angle, then come down over one side of the cross and then the other side of the cross. Repeat this pattern until you have two or three inches of yarn left. Make sure you pull the yarn tight then tie it off in the back with two knots. Cut your yarn to prevent it from dangling.

Once that’s done, the cross can be decorated however the child wishes. My daughter decided to draw two sad faces on her cross! Silly girl! This project took a few minutes per child. They enjoyed making them! Have fun!

Ever since I made candles at Christmas, I have been hooked! Through some gracious friends providing me with empty baby food jars and finding old candles on freecycle, I have started up again. I wanted to see if I could fix some mistakes that I made at Christmas so I found a very helpful website called CandleTech.com. The website gave some hints on how to cover up the hole the wax sometimes makes in the middle and gave wise tips on the wick and how to keep them straight and out of the way. I will try and get a picture of some of the ones I’ve done. My plan is to make them and decorate them and sell them in my etsy store. I don’t have anything posted for sale yet, but I’m working on it.

So do you like making candles? Have any tips or tricks you’d like to share? I’d love to post them if you’ve got them. I want to do the best I can and make some pretty ones. Have some neat links? Feel free to post them in the comment section! TTFN!