Last week, I redid a wall in my house to maximize my display capabilities. In the process, I also created shelves out of old 45 records: This week, I’ll show you how ridiculously easy it is to make your own shelves. If you don’t have old 45s, that’s a total Read more…
I love books. I love them so much, in fact, that I asked my husband if our wedding cake could be made to look like a stack of books. (Spoiler alert: He said yes. A really long time ago. It was a little bit epic.)
Anyway, given my love for books, it’s probably no surprise that I love book crafts, especially ones that do not take 72 hours and involve all 1,049 pages of War and Peace. Happily, this week’s project is all about the covers of the books, which you can easily liberate from the pages and upcycle into a super cool organizer for your mail, your bills, your files, or whatever else you need to keep track of. You’ll be so happy with the results you might even want to make me a cake! (Spoiler alert: I won’t stop you.)
As much as we adore our near ones and dear ones, sometimes the people we love give us things that are not to our taste, and by “not to our taste,” I mean hideous, awful things we wouldn’t display in a syphilis-ridden bordello. Of course we say thank you anyway, and basic courtesy dictates that we showcase our gifts when the gift givers come over, which is why it can be handy to have rotating display space somewhere in the house. This week, I’ll demonstrate how to take an old jewelry box and upcycle it into a rotating display cabinet for genuine treasures, which can be quickly swapped out for the duds when the doorbell rings. Because it is possible to preserve both good taste and good manners, I swear.
Last Christmas, I received an insanely gorgeous leather photo album, and by “gorgeous,” I mean expensive. (And gorgeous.) Staring down at the leather, I felt so guilty that I almost blurted out the awful truth: I don’t use photo albums. Ever. Even the gorgeous ones get banished to the closet, where they languish in the dark – or did, until the guilt became too much for me. When that happened, I sat down with a photo album, and I didn’t let myself get up until I figured out a way to make practical use of my gift. I’m pretty excited to share my solution, because what better thing to do with an expensive photo album than use it to store expensive art markers?!
Let me say up front that I am not the world’s foremost expert in the polymer clay arts. Where clay is concerned, I may, in fact, be the world’s hindmost ignoramus – but that’s not altogether bad, because at the back of the line, we do things quick and dirty! This project requires no special tools, no experience, and absolutely no expertise, so grab some clay, and let’s go!
Like most of us, I have been making holiday gifts by hand for more than a decade, which means that I’ve baked, burned, sewn, sworn, crocheted, ripped up, stamped, smudged, and scrapbooked my way into a mid-December coma more times than I care to remember. This year, however, I have come up with a ridiculously simple project that couldn’t drive me crazy if it tried. It’s cheap, it’s easy, it’s customizable, and best of all, it makes a great excuse to haunt the local antique mall!
Between Father’s Day, graduations, and weddings, the month of June can push our present-making abilities to the edge. Hell, some people even have the nerve to have BIRTHDAYS in June! Once in a while, even the craftiest among us does not have time to put together a handmade gift, but with this easy tutorial, you can still personalize your presents – with style! (more…)
I don’t know what it is about the mating habits of T-shirts, but they seem to multiply faster than rabbits. Possibly even faster than bacteria. I could abandon my relatively comfortable life and embark on a quest to educate the humble T-shirt on various methods of contraception, but instead I’m going to cut them up and do a three-part series of upcycling tutorials. Way easier and probably way less awkward.
This simple, versatile project takes an item found at every thrift store in America – the ubiquitous candle holder – and gives it new life as a cool piece for storage and display!