Make. Teacher Gift Box and Card Free Download

Erin Schlosser is our guest blogger today. Erin was one of my roommates at the Mom 2.0 Summit and she's been a great friend ever since! She even let me crash at her place during BlogHer. She's also half of the team behind Fresh Nest Design.

Erin made a slide show tutorial so you can see how to make this great card and teacher gift box. You can find the links at the bottom of this post for the free downloads.

Download the card here and the box template here.

CHA Summer Report. Letterpress Starter Kit

As most of you know, I've been at the Craft and Hobby Trade Show this past week checking out all of the new and exciting craft products about to hit the market. Over the next few weeks, I'll be featuring some of my favorites.

The first is the Letterpress Starter Kit from Lifestylecraft.com. This comes from the QuicKutz company and is the best (maybe only?) portable letterpress system I have seen.

They offer a wide range of plates in a few different categories: Everyday, Wedding, Baby, Holiday, and Celebrations.

I love this plate in particular. This one is from the wedding collection but really fits a whole multitude of occasions and is very versatile.

Would you like to see how it works? Amy from QuicKutz gave me a quick demo.

If you watched through the whole video you know that this product will retail for $149.99 including the Epic 6 Tool or will be $69.99 without. The plates will fit in similar machines (Big Kick, Cuttlebug). It won't be available for a couple of months but I spoke with a representative from the company and I should have one to test out for myself soon. I'm sure the Lincoln Handmade Etsy Team will put it through its paces and give you all a fair assessment of the product. I'm pretty sure you'll want to put this one on your Christmas list now.

Learn. How to Make Napkin Rings Out of Paper Towel Rolls

The guest blogger today is Nova, Glass Half Full Gal. We follow each other on twitter and have all sorts of crafty conversations! Nova's so crafty she did about 8 different crafts before settling on this one. Enjoy!

I love to reuse and recycle. Though, where we live in the country a convenient recycling program. So, I'm bigger on reusing items. I think everyone can come up with a use for empty paper towel holders. The most common is probably binoculars. My son has created them on his own quite often.

Napkin ring holders are a great craft that kids can participate in making. Hosting a family dinner or event? Crafts like this keep the kids busy while you tend to the menu and are decorative table art too!

For my summer napkin ring holders, I'm using a ladybug to decorate the top of the ring. If you have a die cut for this pattern, it will make things a snap.

Supplies:

Empty paper tower roll (this will make 7 napkin rings at 1 1/2 inches in length)

White acrylic paint

Cardstock: Black, Red

Ladybug die cut (or cut out manually)

Hole-punch (if you don't have a die cut)

Black or silver pipe cleaner (chenille sticks)

Googlie eyes (optional)

Cut your empty paper towel holder at 11/2 inch increments to make 7 rings.

Paint your napkin ring holders with acrylic paint. I prefer white, however, the color may vary depending on how you plan to decorate your ring.

Cut one black circle and one red circle for each ladybug body. I used my Sizzix Originals Circles #2 die to cut a circle at about 1 3/4 inches in diameter. I then used the smallest circle on the die to cut out two black circles for heads (about 3/4" in diameter).

Cut out a triangular section for the wings on one side of each of the red circles. Punch two holes on each wing for each red ladybug body. I used a larger hole-punch for the back and a smaller for the front. These make the black spots on the ladybug. Adhere the red body circle to the solid black body circle. I used 'sticky do' foam dimensional adhesives to give the ladybug some dimension. You can paint eyes on your ladybug head or leave black. I used googlie eyes on mine for a fun affect for the kids.

Cut a piece of chenille stick about an inch long. I folded the ends to make the tips of the antennae and then folded the piece in half. Attach to the back of the ladybug head. Attach the head to the body. Now, simply use craft glue or an adhesive of your preference to attach the ladybug to the painted napkin ring.

Other ideas you can do are to adhere jewels, or paint an initial as a monogram. Decorate with patterned designs with glitter glue. Wrap ribbon around the ring to fancy it up at bit.

I did a few of these for demonstration. The options are endless!

Nova Ordner a/k/a Glass Half Full, formerly owned and ran a Litigation Record Procurement Company for 12 years. Currently, she is a Household Manager, mother of two children and wife to a farmer. Nova is also proud to be a Team Writer for Root & Sprout. She's an optimist who sees life from the greener side. She's a Glass Half Full Gal.

Make. BlogHer Friendship Bracelets.

A lot of people asked me if I made all those BlogHer friendship bracelets by myself.  The quick answer is no.  I had a lot of help.  I took all of my supplies on a quick vacation the weekend before BlogHer.  I made some in the car on the way and then I got all sorts of relatives working on them.  Here you can see my husband separating the colors.  My uncle wanted to learn how to make one, too.  He made one for his wife. 

My cousin got in on the act.  She made several of them and I sure appreciated her work!  I personally was only able to finish about 20.  I was feeling pretty good about that considering I didn't decide to do this until a week before the conference.  I also got a family friend to make as many as she could.  She is a young teenager and loves to do it.  I offered to pay her per bracelet and she went to town!  She's going to keep making them for me so I'll have a good supply for next year and any other events I might go to.  Guess I better make some more shrinky dink charms!

Would you like a Design Mom approved BlogHer friendship bracelet?   I'll try to get one to anybody that wants one.  It will just take a while.  However, if you're a craft challenge participant for August (packets still available!), I'm pretty sure you'll see a little something extra in your packet. 

Make. Filet Crochet Table Runner.

I'm recycling some of my older craft related posts while I'm at the Craft & Hobby Trade Show. Enjoy!

I made this table runner probably 10 years ago. This was before I knew how to knit and sew. I was all about the crochet. It is the perfect size for the top of our piano, so this is where I keep it.

I graphed out the pattern on my own using an alphabet from a book and the edging was from a book also. I wish I knew what book I used. There are so many great resources out there for alphabets and filet crochet edgings that I'm sure if you want to try something like this, you'll be able to find something you like.

I don't remember how long it took me to make this but I do remember being glad when I was finished. At around this same time I made a wall hanging for my mom that says, "Families are Forever".

This is one of those things that I will keep forever. Do you have something you made that you will never throw out or give away?

Learn. How to Make a Kid T-Shirt Dress from an Undershirt.

Today's guest blogger is Mandy.  Mandy has been a craft challenge participant for a while and we've gotten to know each other through twitter.  Her blog is rather new so I hope you'll go and check it out!  She has a lot of great things on there.   

Hey everyone...this is Mandy from Id Rather Be Crafting and I'm so excited to be filling in for Christy. This post will show you one of two things:

First, I suck at laundry.

Second, (and in the vein of a Craft Challenge) if you use just a bit of craftiness, even a nasty old shirt bound for the trash can be turned into a cute dress or cover up, without using any thread!

 

 

This is the undershirt I started with....

I swear it was washed. Several times. But, as my husband is all man, it has gotten a “little” yellow around the pits. Despite that, it took only a few supplies and some elbow grease to give it a second life in my daughters wardrobe. Want to give it a try?

 

Take the nastiest shirt out of your husbands pile of dirty clothes drawer of freshly laundered undershirts and get to work. Our first step was dying the shirt. This isn't really necessary, but it does make it look less like an undershirt. Grab a box of dye from the craft store and follow the directions. Easy.

Once it is dry, throw it on your child. You will want to kind of pinch the front and back together around her side to get an idea of how tight or loose you want the dress. Also take note of where her arm pit is to make the arm hole later. I marked mine off with pins, but if you have a particularly wriggly child, I would suggest using a marker, just outside of the line you plan to cut. Then cut that bad boy all the way from the bottom of the shirt to the shoulder. Don't worry about cutting neatly, as most mistakes will be hidden as the t-shirt rolls and comes together.

Once you have your sides cut, take your scissors and make holes on the side you just cut, going from the bottom of the shirt, and stopping where you marked the arm pit. The holes should be about one inch apart from each other, and one inch in from the cut side. You will probably have to do the front then the back, but just try to make the holes line up. Then do the other side of the shirt! Once you're done, lace up the holes using either a ribbon, shoe lace, or some other scraps in any fashion you choose. If you tighten and scrunch the lacing, it will make the dress shorter – kind of like ruching.

 

 

 

For my oldest daughter, this is where the construction ended, but for my 4 year old, it was still too baggy. We ended up cutting the top of the shirt off (where the arm pit marks were) and making it a spaghetti top. I braided a few t-shirt scraps together and just poked a hole where they were placed, threaded the braid through, and made a knot on the back side to keep it in place.

 

 

 

The fun for the kids is decorating. Gather a bunch of different sized circles (using tupperware, bottles, cups, lids, etc) and put different colors of fabric paint on plates. We stuck a cereal box in between the layers and then I handed the reins to them. They turned out perfect!

After it dries, you are good to go! Make it unique with a different neck line, or fringe the bottom, or a different painting. It takes a little time, but was a great way to show my girls how to turn trash to treasure.

Learn. How to Weave a Chair Seat With Fabric.

Meet Lisa, our guest blogger for today! I know Lisa from my local knitting group. She's super funny and always has the best stories from her adventures in teaching Kindergarten. Enjoy this post from her!

My name is Lisa. I'm a teacher, knitter, quilter, and all around crafter. During the summer months, I tend to find myself neck deep in ongoing projects and I blog about them here.
A month or so ago I found a chair for sale. It was a beautiful wooden number with a rattan seat. The seat needed reworking (which I had never done) but the chair itself was sturdy and had such beautiful lines, I couldn't pass it up.
I knew I had to repair the seat, but wasn't sure how. After walking through my favorite fabric store ever, The Cosmic Cow, and drooling on a new fabric I was considering eloping with, the idea came to me. I'd incorporate the print into the seat.

• Here's what you need:
• 100 feet cotton clothesline cording (must be cotton)
• 2 yards of fabric (pre-cut jelly rolls purchased from quilting stores will work if you're not interested in taking the time to cut the strips)
• matching cotton thread
• sewing machine
• ironing board & iron
• chair

After cutting the fabric into 2 1/2 inch strips, iron them as if they were bias tape (folding the cut strip in half the long way and ironing), open the strip, fold each half in half again and iron. (you will have four equal sections after final ironing) This will hide the long side raw edges.
Next, you will wrap each ironed strip around the clothesline cord like a burrito. I found it easiest to position the cording in the center of the strip, folding the right half over first, followed by the left. Make sure to fold the beginning of each strip over to hide the short side raw edges and sew down the center of the wrapped cording using a straight stitch.
For my chair, I used the entire 100 foot strand of cording.

Below are pictures of the 'naked' chair and the different stages of weaving.

Here is the chair sans webbing. It received a good scrubbing then I stained the dowels in case any of them showed through after installing the new seat.

Prior to securing cording to the chair, I found the half-way point on the cording and marked it. I wanted to make sure I had enough for both sides of the chair.

I stapled the cording to the bottom of the dowel using a staple gun.

I wrapped the cording around the chair tightly. You can see the rope I used to mark the 1/2 way point. I decided that if I ran out of cording before finishing wrapping in one direction, I would space it out evenly. Fortunately, that didn't happen.

I stapled the cording to the chair and cut. Using the same wrapping method, wrap the chair in the opposite direction but weave as you go. I made sure to weave the upper and lower part of the seat. Pull tightly as you go. I figured the fibers would loosen the more the chair was used.

This part is not for weak fingers. My fingers began to get sore trying to squeeze as many weaves as I could into the seat. I would up getting a knitting needle and using it to help me pull the cording. The end of the needle (not the point) was great for hooking the cord when the space got too small for my fingers.

When I couldn't weave another row, I spaced the cording out evenly in both directions.

This is my favorite craft project of the summer. It was lots of fun to do. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via my blog and I'll do my best to answer them. Have fun!

Learn. How to Make a Polymer Clay Strawberry Charm.

Please welcome Jessica--our guest blogger for today! I "met" Jessica on twitter and when I put my call out for guest bloggers, she quickly replied! I have yet to try my hand at polymer clay so I have been looking forward to this tutorial. Check out her blog and etsy shop.

Well, hello there, readers! It's a pleasure to see you on this fiiiine summer day. I'm really excited to be a Guest Blogger here for Christy and I hope you're excited, too!

First off, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Jessica from Frosted Treats. I specialize in all sorts of crafts -- from scrapping, to sewing, to sculpting, and beyond. I'm from the great state of New Jersey and I blog about and (attempt to) sell my creations to support my crafting habit.

While I have been a sorta-crafter most of my life, my jump to becoming a craft-blogger started about a year ago when I got hooked on sculpting with Polymer Clay (PC). I spotted some ADORABLE mini cupcake charm necklaces and I had to know how to make them for myself! I got to work searching for tips, tricks, techniques and tutorials on how to make all sorts of goodies and here I am today.

Sculpting with PC requires patience, persistence, and a steady hand. Today I'll be walking you through a project that's a great way to get started on your PC hobby (addiction). Let's take a look at a cute lil strawberry charm.

Let's gather our supplies. Polymer clay comes in many brands, all of which have their ups and downs. I use Sculpey III as it's inexpensive and it comes in a multitude of colors.

I have Red Hot Red (583) and Leaf Green (322) for this project. PC normally costs about $1-3 per brick, depending on the brand. Sculpey is the least expensive. I also gathered a thick needle, an eye pin, a tooth pick, and a paint brush with a rounded bottom. Make sure your work surface is clean and flat. I use a plate of glass salvaged from an old cabinet for my work surface. Also, make sure your hands are CLEAN. I keep baby wipes on hand for a quick clean between colors. Clean your hands and tools whenever you switch from one color to another.

Also, I invested in some Translucent Liquid Sculpey (TLS).

This will be the most expensive part of your PC habit. It runs about $7-8 and can be found in most stores that carry PC. It's an invaluable tool, trust me. This stuff is what keeps your pieces together so that you won't have to smush them all together and have your colors mix. A dab'll do ya, so this bottle lasts.

Now that we have our tools, let's get busy!

Shape your red piece into a sort of bullet shape. Blunt, rounded bottom with a wider top that's flat-ish. A strawberry shape.

Take your needle and make little indents to be your "seed" designs. I usually put my marks in a sort-of "checker board" pattern and space them out around the whole berry. Set your berry down and grab the green.

Now take your green and cut it into 4 equal-ish portions. The leaves don't need to be completely uniform.

Take one green portion and shape it into a little pellet.

Flatten your piece between your fingers.

Pinch the ends a bit to give it a nice leafy-shape.

Grab your needle again and scour in some leaf marks. Make one long stroke down the middle and then some marks fanning out. Go through this process again for all of your leaves. Set them aside for now.

Take your paint brush bottom and poke an indent into the top of your berry. Round it out and make it look nice and natural. Your leaves will be sprouting out from this indent.

Using your toothpick, drip a bit of your TLS into this indent.

Dab some TLS on the backs of your leaves, also.

Start placing your leaves on your berry, but be careful not to smush them down too much and distort your markings. The TLS will act as glue once the clay is baked.

Here's my berry! Now to turn it into something you could hang from a necklace or bracelet.

Cut your eye pin down so that it's small enough to fit into your berry without poking through the sides.

I usually bend the end of my eye pin at a 45* angle so that it won't pull out of the berry while it's in use.

Stick your eye pin into the top of your berry and push it all the way down.

Another way I keep my pins from pulling out is to dab a little TLS around where the pin meets the berry. This will turn clear when it's baked and will again act as glue.

And there you have it! Take a look at the packaging of the PC to see how long to bake your piece for. Normally its 275* for 15mins/per 1/4 inch of thickness. Be sure not to over bake your piece, it will burn and discolor!

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial! I hope this little project will help you dive into the fun of sculpting with Polymer Clay! Please post photos of your creations, I'd love to see them!

The Benefits of Joining a Craft Group

I met Lisa when I formed the Lincoln Handmade Etsy Team.  She is such a great addition to the group and does an excellent job of keeping us motivated and on task.  She takes her role of dictator very seriously.  Lisa is the person behind Oobbles. 

Thinking of joining a craft group?  Have you seen all the teams on etsy?  They have hundreds!  Some are grouped by location and meet in person, some are grouped by subject/craft and meet only virtually.  I am a lucky member of two such groups- Etsy Hookers and Lincoln Handmade.

I joined Etsy Hookers first, right at the beginning of my sojourn with etsy.  My main craft is crochet and so I went looking for a crochet team!  Etsy Hookers is great because they take their team seriously.  They maintain a ning forum, a group blog, and a flickr pool.  In addition to all of that, they have regular activities like chat and promotion threads, crochet contests and a hooker of the month.  I love that this group is so active and has so many different ways in which to participate.  They are a really nice group of people and are always willing to help out when you have a question or just want to chat.

There are many benefits to being a member of a large virtual team- communion with like minded folks- the power of a big team for promotions and more.  But one thing they usually lack is the ability to meet in person.  That was a big reason I joined Lincoln Handmade when it formed in 2008.  Lincoln Handmade is a group that is made up of many different personalities and crafts and what binds us together is our love of creating (and I think our love of talking!).  We have a regular monthly meeting where we get together to discuss our etsy shops, new crafts we're working on, and fun get togethers we'd like to have in the future.  We've already had some great ones, as you can see from the photos!   If you'd like to see more, check out our flickr pool or our new facebook page!

Guest Bloggers and Craft Challenges.

I'll be at BlogHer and the Craft and Hobby Association Trade Show over the next several days.  To keep you all occupied, I've got several guest bloggers lined up with some really great tutorials and guest posts!

Before I go I wanted to leave you with some reminders.

• Christy's Craft Challenge is back on!  I enjoyed taking a break this month but I'm ready to get back to craft challenges.  You can buy your packets for August (or get a 3 month or 1 year subscription!) at my etsy shop. 
• You have until August 2nd to purchase the packet for that month.
• The challenge packets will be sent out by August 5th.

Want to keep up to date with what is happening at BlogHer and the CHA trade show? 

Follow me on Twitter or join my Facebook Fan Page. 

I'll have some special goodies available just for my facebook fans.  You won't want to miss out! 

BlogHer Outfits

I received my clothes from IGIGI.com.  Let me just say that the pictures do not do them justice.  The fabric is wonderful!  The fit is great.  Let's just say, I'm super impressed.

The other day I went over to a friend's house for some "styling".  I needed a little help picking out some shoes and jewelry.  I wasn't able to try on the jewelry (I forgot my necklace extender so it didn't look right without it) and I wasn't really concerned about shoes for the black dress so I didn't bring them. 

*Please excuse the photos as my camera has a bit of a learning curve*

Here is my outfit for Friday. 

 

This is my outfit for Saturday.

My Thursday outfit hasn't been photographed yet.  You'll see it soon! 

What do you think? 

Want your own IGIGI clothes?  They are having a special sale in July.  20% off your purchase.  Use discount code "MYFRIENDS" at checkout. 

Dish Rag Tag III

For the past couple of years I've participated in Dish Rag Tag.  It is a knitting relay race and all you have to do is knit a dish rag.  The cotton and usually a few small goodies arrive in a box and you knit that dish rag as fast as you can.  This year a pattern is going to be provided.

The first year I was a team captain and our team won!  It was super fun and I'm still in contact with some of my teammates.  I've been super impressed with the way Emily at Yarn Miracle runs this event.  It is so well organized.  To pull something like this off, you have to be!

  

One of the years my dish rag tag box showed up the day I was going to the American Idol concert (Jordin Sparks' season).  I knit faithfully and even got it documented on the red carpet! 

 

Sign ups for Dish Rag Tag III are happening starting August 1st and will close when full or on August 7th.  Save the date!  I haven't decided yet if I'm going to participate or not but it is great fun and I'll cheer you all on should you choose to do it! 

Learn. How to Make Shrinky Dink Logo Charms

I shamelessly stole this idea from Crafterella. She made some to use as tags on her etsy shop items and I loved them! I asked her how to make them and if I could share the tutorial with all of you.

I decided to make these charms to put on some friendship bracelets I'm planning on handing out at BlogHer. Will you be there? Do you want a bracelet? I'm hoping to have about 100 to give away. We'll see how long my hands hold up.

Supplies:

• Shrinky dink plastic
• inkjet printer
• paper punches

The first thing I did was put my logo in a word processing document and made it the size I wanted (just over 1 1/2"). I repeated the design as many times as I could over the page.

You'll also want your picture to be reversed. I did this by going into the tools section and choosing "rotate". One of the choices is flip horizontally. That's what you want to do.

Before you print, change the properties on your printer. You want to use the "draft" option. It uses less ink and will prevent smudging.

Be sure to print on the "fuzzy" side of the plastic.

Next you'll want to punch out your circles. I used a 1 3/4" circle punch. Then I used a 1/16th" punch for the small hole on top.

Follow the instructions on the shrinky dink package for baking. Mine went into a 325 degree oven for about 90 seconds.

Here you can see a before and after. They shrink up rather nicely and ended up being about the size of a thumbnail.

I really love the way they turned out and I can't wait to pass out the bracelets at BlogHer!

Hope to see you there!