Tiny Pincushion

Surprised to finally see a new post? For several weeks I've been preparing for a move, then packing, moving, and unpacking until I can no longer bear the sight or the smell of a cardboard box. I've also been sick the entire time, so my energy level is pretty low right now. But the crafting must go on, so I'm glad I've been saving up this little project for when I need something quick, easy and oh-so-cute.

I've seen tiny pincushions in several places, but Jess over at How About Orange has provided a great tutorial that will have you cranking out these babies in no time. And in honor of Jess, I made mine orange!

For my pincushion, I used a screw-off cap from one of those new-fangled re-closeable beer cans. I found it on the ground at the Shrimp Festival a few months ago, and immediately pictured it as a pincushion bottom. It's just over 1-1/2 inches in diameter and 1/2 inch deep. The finished pincushion is approximately 1-1/2 inches high.

5-Minute Gift Box from Recycled Product Packaging

I will occasionally save product packaging to be used in craft projects, if it looks like it has the potential to be pretty without a huge effort. I've been hanging on to this silver box forever, waiting for inspiration to strike, and today it did, in the form of copper-toned metallic cardstock scraps. I've had a stash of these scraps for a few years, left over from a stamp camp I co-hosted a while back, and I realized that I like them much better when placed next to silver metallic. For this box, I simply embossed the copper cardstock with my Cuttlebug, cut some pieces just large enough to cover the text on the box, and glued them in place. A white sheer ribbon completes the look. Just be careful when dry-embossing metallic cardstock, because the surface has a tendency to crack.

Tip: Blade and Needle Disposal for Crafters

If you go through as many x-acto blades as I do, then you have probably thought about how you can best dispose of them. A blade is one of those items that I never throw directly into the trash. I don't think they're safe for me or anyone else who may be handling the bag at some point, and I'm not aware of a recycling source for this sort of thing. I used to collect used or broken blades in a film canister for eventual disposal, but I don't buy film anymore. However, medicine bottles work even better.

Of course, I had to turn this "medicine-bottle-turned-blade-receptacle" into a craft table accessory. I tried to remove the label from the bottle, but with very little success, so I just covered it with a strip of scrapbooking paper, using gel medium as my glue and as a topcoat to protect the paper.

This also works well for disposing of broken sewing machine needles, and many medicine bottles have child-proof caps, which is a nice feature for those of you with small children.

How-To: Boxes from Recycled Greeting Cards

I promised months ago to post a tutorial on how to recycle greeting cards into tiny boxes, and finally managed to photograph one tonight while I was making it.

Before we get started, I have a couple of tips for box-making success. First, try to use a ruler that measures in sixteenths of an inch. You'll be able to measure more accurately. I don't have one, but I've made enough of these that I can estimate 1/16" fairly easily. Second, look for greeting cards that have a matte finish. For the box pictured here, I used a card with a glossy finish, and you can see cracks in the surface where I made the creases. A matte finish is less likely to do this, and will result in sharper edges and less cracking.

OK, first select a card and determine the largest size square you can cut from the front. You can go smaller than that if you like, but for your first box it's easiest to work as large as possible.

Next, on the reverse of your card front, draw your square, then place your ruler from corner to corner and draw an X in the center. This will mark the exact center of the square. On the back of the card (the blank area or the space where the greeting is), draw a square that is 3/16" smaller than your previous square. Mark the center.

Cut out the squares with scissors or a rotary cutter.



Beginning with the square you cut for the box top, fold all four corners to the center X and crease the folds.



Fold each straight edge toward the center, crease, and unfold.


Note the crease lines in the photo at left. It's important to complete all the folding steps above so that you make the correct cuts in the following step.



Using sharp scissors, cut from point A to point B. You'll be cutting through 2 layers of cardstock. Then cut from point C to point D. Repeat these cuts on the OPPOSITE edge of your folded card. IMPORTANT: You're only cutting on 2 sides, NOT 4.


Fold out the 2 sides you cut, as pictured at left.


Fold up sides 1 and 2 so that they're vertical.

Fold sides 3 and 4 over to hold sides 1 and 2 in place. If the little pointed sides don't stay down by themselves, glue them in place.

Repeat all steps for the box bottom. The top and bottom may fit very tightly together, depending on how carefully you cut and measured, or on your folding technique. Take this into account for your next box, and cut the box bottom smaller or larger accordingly. Be warned, these are addictive!

Reduce Reuse Recycle

I've been saving this orange polka dot magazine ad for months, not really knowing what to do with it, but knowing that inspiration would come to me eventually. When I discovered a used cd in my pile of magazine tearouts, I thought it might make a good base for my polka dots. So I chopped up my ad, added some black strips cut from another magazine page, and here you have... well, a cd with orange spots. This might become a cover for a round book.

Visit my other blog to see how I've started repurposing old clothing.

Inspire Me Thursday - Limited Palette

I'm having some Famous Artist ATC fun today, using a limited palette of blue and gold for this week's Inspire Me Thursday challenge. I've always loved Vermeer's The Girl with the Pearl Earring, so here she is on a background I made a couple of weeks ago by dropping ink onto a wet piece of glossy cardstock, then pressing it against another sheet of cardstock while still wet. I probably need to give this butterfly some antennae, if I can manage to keep them from tickling the girl's chin.

I tend to make a lot of backgrounds, but then I don't want to cut up my favorites, so they never get used. Today, I bravely chopped them up to save them from a life of boxed-up boredom.

For the second ATC, I used a map of Amsterdam, which just happened to show the location of the Van Gogh Museum. How convenient! Of course, I couldn't resist the sunflower or the tiny piece of Starry Night. Here, I've used some of the same blue and gold background as above.

I'm finding that, more and more, I'm using recycled bits of stuff in my art, such as magazine images, silk flowers, and maps. Junk mail comes in handy as well. When your art supply budget shrinks, you can't beat free materials!

Recycled Greeting Card Boxes

I'm always tinkering with quick and easy craft projects, but it seems that every year around this time, they take over my work area. Sometimes it's because I feel like I haven't accomplished anything all summer and I'm in a rush to make a lot of things, but usually it's because I'm already thinking ahead to all the fun stuff I want to make for the holidays. Today, I amused myself with these greeting card boxes. These are fun and easy to make, and they cost absolutely nothing! This is a great way to recycle all those greeting cards you receive for birthdays and holidays. They can be used for party favors, tree ornaments, or gift boxes. You can also keep your favorites and use them, as I often do, to store small things in your studio. Once you make a few of these, you'll start examining all the cards you receive for their box potential. I'll post directions as soon as I have a chance to take some step-by-step photos.

Bottle Cap Charms - Works in Progress

I've been experimenting a bit with "supplies" that would ordinarily go in the trash, and I wanted to share my preliminary results with all those kind beer-drinkers who have so generously donated their bottle caps for my art projects.

These caps were first flattened with a hammer, then painted with acrylic paints. After the paint was dry, I pressed the caps into a Versamark ink pad, then coated them with antique gold embossing enamel, heated until the granules became very liquid, and pressed rubber stamps into the hot surface. I'm not sure yet what I'll do to these next (if anything), but after I'm satisfied with the way they look, I'll coat them with a clear sealer, drill some tiny holes for jump rings, and maybe add some dangling beads to the bottom to give them a little more weight.

That's a piece of bleach-discharged black velvet in the background - another project for a future blog post!

Daring Cardmakers - Tagged

This week's dare over at Daring Cardmakers was as follows:

"Everything we buy has packaging, some of it excessive, some of it beautifully designed. Tags, labels, stickers... all sorts of bits and bobs that we can recycle onto cards.I dare you to make a card using a tag, label, sticker or anything else you can find, that's from packaging and would normally end up in the bin. Of course you can ink it, change it, distress it and add anything else you like! If you're feeling brave, I DOUBLE DARE you to make it a card for a man!"

I've been saving this tag from my new Crumpler camera bag -- it was just too cool to throw away. So when I saw the dare, I was reminded that sometimes it's a good thing to be a "bits and bobs" packrat. If you look closely, you'll see that the robot is made of Crumpler bags. I wouldn't call this a "manly" card, but since it's designed for a boy, maybe that counts. This was actually a triple dare for me, because I challenged myself to not use rubber stamps, which I always use on my cards.

For this card I simply corrugated a piece of silver metallic paper, punched holes in another, added a border around my tag, and applied eyelets and soft wire to my laser-printed greeting.