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Old Picture Frames: What Can I Do With Them?

Katar — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:00:37 +0000

I have TONS of old picture frames – TONS. I am pretty set on making sure my frames in each of my rooms match. A lot of times I just spray paint the old frames so that they are all the same color – so that usually works out! However, I have frames with missing glass, latches, and huge chips. There’s a ton of stuff that you can do with these – which brings me to the purpose of this post!

Click on the photo to go to the tutorial.

Misc. Tutorials:

Jewelry Holder: WindHula

Jewelry Holder: Creatively Green

Craft Show Displays: Crafterella

How to Make a Serving Tray from a Picture Frame: The Artful Crafter

Bow Frame: Forrest and Abbie

Fabric Photo Mats: I Love to Create

Pretty Pinboards: Shabby Nest

Dry Erase Calendar: Thirty Handmade Days

Framed Pine Cones: Craftojholics Anonymous

Solar Herb Dryer: CraftZine

Christmas Tutorials:

Prudent Baby Easy Advent Calendar: Design Sponge

If you know of ANY other examples or tutorials, please comment below so I can add them to this list. Thanks!

Leaves and Tree Branches: What Can I Do With Them?

Katar — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:00:28 +0000

I am all raked out.

I’ve recently raked leaves at a park for community service, at my parent’s cottages, at my fiance’s parent’s house, and of course, at our house (which took several hours and basically an entire weekend!)

Our house right before Halloween

Our neighbor's lawn - it's hard to tell from the photos, but those leaves were piled inches high!

This weekend, we even went back to my fiance’s parents house to finish up the raking job that we started! There are TOO MANY LEAVES! So what can we do with these leaves, you ask? Sure.. you’ll probably use yard waste recycling, but why not pick out the awesome ones to craft with!? I’m sure while you’re raking, you’ll find some tree branches mixed in along the way, so put them to good use as well! Here are some tutorials:

Leaf Tutorials:

Make a Fall Wreath: Gingerbread Snowflakes

How to Make a Leaf Wreath with Autumn Leaves: eHow

Fall Leaf Candle: Gingerbread Snowflakes

How to Make Roses from Maple Leaves: Haha.Nu

Playing with Gourds, Dried Leaves and Mod Podge: Gingerbread Snowflakes

Tree Branch Tutorials:

Tree Branch Curtain Rod: DIY Ideas

If you know of ANY other examples or tutorials, please comment below so I can add them to this list. Thanks!

Wire Hangers: What Can I Do With Them?

Katar — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:00:10 +0000

Spoon gets all of his work shirts dry cleaned every couple of weeks, and when we get them back, there’s a white wire hanger on each one. We have accumulated more wire hangers than the clothes we have, so I started thinking about what could be done with them.

So far, all we’ve done with them involved cutting them and bending them to make stakes to hold down our Halloween decorations into the ground. They worked really well and none of our stuff blew away. Yay!

But hey – I still have a TON left, and more are coming. I did my homework – here are some fun and awesome things that you can make or do with your wire hangers. Yay!

Click on the photo to go to the tutorial.

Contents:

Home Decor Tutorials
Hanger Cover Tutorials
Mobile Tutorials
Toy Tutorials
Baby Shower Tutorials
Valentine’s Day Tutorials
Easter Tutorials
Halloween Tutorials
Christmas Tutorials

Home Decor Tutorials:

iPod Dock from a Metal Hanger: Instructables

Hanger Lamp: Instructables

Make your own vintage Wire Basket out of Coat Hangers: Associated Content

Tissue Box Hanger: Instructables

Tissue Paper Butterfly: San Diego Zoo

Wire Hanger Lamps: Cut out and Keep

Coat Hanger Wine Rack: Guardian.co.uk

Wire Coat Hanger Toilet Roll Holder: Instructables

Lion Face: San Diego Zoo

Wine Glass Dryer from Coat Hanger: Instructables

Simple Book Light: Instructables

Ergonomic Laptop Stand Made from a Coat Hanger: Instructables

Dream Catcher: San Diego Zoo

Multi-Purpose Clothespin Hanger: Instructables

Make Your Own Razor and Shaving Brush Stand: Instructables

Recycled Wire Hanger Yarn Dog: Thrifty Fun

Denim Jeans Windsock: Craftbits

Wire Hanger Book Rack: Someday Crafts

Hanger Cover Tutorials:

Yarn Covered Hangers: Exploring Womanhood

Handsome Hangers: Family Fun

Braided Coat Hanger: All Free Crafts

Stylish Cardboard Clothes Hangers: Instructables

Coat Hanger Cover: Craftbits

Personalized Wire Hanger for Baby Clothes: Instructables

Mobile Tutorials:

DIY High Contrast Baby Mobile: Instructables

How to make a stable Airplane Mobile: How Stuff Works

Pac Man Paper Mobile: Instructables

Whale Mobile: Enchanted Learning

3-D Fruit Craft: Enchanted Learning

Butterfly Mobile: Craftbits

Toy Tutorials:

Make a Whirligig in a Box: ThinkingFountain

Baby Shower Tutorials:

Baby Shower Room Wreath: Craftbits

Baby Shower Announcement Wreath: CraftBits

Baby Shower Baby Towel Pram: Craftbits

Valentine’s Day Tutorials:

Wire Hanger Fabric Wreath: San Diego Zoo

Key to My Heart Hangup: Craftbits

Easter Tutorials:

Baby Bunny Baby Basket: Craftbits

Halloween Tutorials:

Making Halloween Corpse Hands: WetCanvas

LED Spiders: Instructables

Wire Hanger Pumpkin: San Diego Zoo

Ghost Halloween Decoration: Cut Out and Keep

Recycled T-Shirt Door Witch: Craftbits

Fall Scarecrow Decoration: Family Crafts

Bat Mobile: Family Fun

Butterfly Wings: Cut out and Keep

Halloween Fairy Wings: Knitting

Fairy Wings: Cut Out and Keep

More Fairy Wings: Cut out and Keep

Bat Wings: Cut out and Keep

Wire Hanger Bow: Instructables

Christmas Tutorials:

Wire Hanger Christmas Ornament Wreath: eddieross

Glow Ball Ornament: Instructables

Recycled Coat Hanger Christmas Tree: All Free Crafts

Coat Hanger Christmas Tree: Kaboose

Christmas Card Mobile: How Stuff Works

How to make a Christmas Coat Hanger Wreath: Do It Yourself

Make a Christmas Wreath: Little House in the Suburbs

Wreath from Recycled Bags: Craftbits

Wreath from Fabric Scraps: Craftbits

Coat Hanger Christmas Wreath: All Free Crafts

Candy Wreath: Family Crafts

Pine Cone Wreath: Family Crafts

Wire Santa Mini Wreath: Family Crafts

I <3 the vintage wire basket. I must try it!

And, OMG – the corpse hand is genius. I mean.. how freaking creative! I will definitely mess around with that project for next Halloween

If you know of ANY other examples or tutorials, please comment below so I can add them to this list. As I’ve said above, I have hangers coming into the house every week, so I need to keep up with them in crafts – thanks!

Photo Credit: SilverFuture on flickr

DIY Halloween Pumpkin and Gourd Decoration Tutorials

Katar — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:00:14 +0000

It’s October 22th – almost a week before Halloween, and the PERFECT time to carve your pumpkins and dry your gourds! You can do so much more than carve a simple face.

When moving into my house past this past May, I noticed that there was something odd growing. I wasn’t sure if it was a weed, so I let it keep growing. Surprisingly, it produced one mini pumpkin (gourd), and I’m attempting to dry it! I looked up ‘how to dry gourds’ on Google, and found so many different results of what to do and not to do. I’m really confused about the whole process. For now, I’m hanging it up in my garage and seeing what happens. Anyone know how to dry gourds for real? I want to keep the seeds, too! Anyways, back to the real post subject.

I’ve collected several tutorials that I thought were interesting ideas for both pumpkins and gourds.

The first section will focus on carved pumpkin and gourds, and the second section is a whole bunch of ideas for no carve solutions.

General Tutorials:

Contents for Carved Pumpkin and Gourd Tutorials:

Non-traditional Carving Tutorials

Contents for No Carve Pumpkin and Gourd Tutorials:

Ribbon Tutorials
Object Attachment Tutorials
Painted Tutorials
Picture Tutorials

Inspiration, Ideas, and Photos

Carved Pumpkin and Gourd Tutorials:

Non-Traditional Carving Tutorials:

Good to Glow Haunted House Pumpkin: Parents

How to do a Halloween Miniature Scene: That Artist Woman

Mummy Pumpkin: Ladies Home Journal

Geometric Pattern Pumpkin: Parents

In a Twinkling Pumpkin: Parents

No Carve Pumpkin and Gourd Tutorials:

Ribbon Tutorials:

: No Carve Pumpkin Decorating: Delish

: Striped Pumpkin Tutorial: Ulixis Crafts

Object Attachment Tutorials:

Vinyl Pumpkin Decorating from OhMyCrafts on YouTube

This Aint Your Ordinary Pumpkin: Kari and Kijsa

More Pretty Little Pumpkins: The Shabby Nest

Pumpkin Costume: Dollar Store Crafts

Dried Leaves Gourd: Gingerbread Snowflakes

Stickered Mini Pumpkins: Cheeky Magpie

Painted Tutorials:

Doodle Pumpkin: The Swell Life

Setting Pretty Painted Mini Pumpkins: Parents

Spooky Spots: Parents

Let's Make a Pumpkin Penguin: WyldHare

Cuddle-able Scarecrows: Gingerbread Snowflakes

Bloody Pumpkins: The Swell Life's Blog

Creepy Spiders: Parents

Going Batty Pumpkins: Parents

: Easy Stripe and Polka Dot Pumpkins: The Swell Life’s Blog

Boo in the Face Eyes Pumpkin: Parents

Spray Painted Pumpkins: Crafty Crafty

: Painted Party Pumpkins: Sunset

: Paint Drip Pumpkin: Diary of a Crafty Chica

: Breast Cancer Awareness Pumpkins: The Swell Life’s Blog

Make Your Own Ghost Gourds: Cathie Filian

Picture Tutorials:

The Picture Perfect Pumpkin: CraftZine

: Polaroid Pumpkins: The Swell Life’s Blog

Inspiration, Ideas, and Photos:

Am I insane for spending hours to get pictures and links all set up? YES. In general. And NO – because I use my blog as a reference for myself as well. I can reference back to these tutorials and ideas for the rest of my life – without having to search ever again! YES! That’s why, if you have any awesome tutorials, ideas, or comments for pumpkins or gourds – let me know so I can keep a running list! Thanks so much!

Photo Credit: nep on flickr