Contents:

• Misc. Tutorials
• Home Decor Tutorials
• Christmas Tutorials
• Ideas, Inspiration, and Photos

Misc. Tutorials:

• Cork Dork: 10 Cool Things to Do with Leftover Wine Corks: Dr. Vino
• Wine Cork Craft Project Instructions: WineIntro – this site has multiple craft ideas for corks!
• How to Reuse Old Wine Corks: WikiHow – this site has 14 great ideas!

10 Uses for Wine Corks: ThisOldHouse - click on the photo to get all 10 tutorials!

Cute Little Cork Stamps: CraftChi

DIY Create Wine or Bottle Stoppers From Old Crystal Knobs, Billiard Balls, Finials: Many Shades of Shabby

Business Card Holders: AnotherWineBlog

Reuse Wine Corks to Make Fun Place Cards: Instructables

DIY Wine Cork Placecard Holders: CasaSugar

Wine or cider mulling spice bags (and recycling wine corks): Eating Well Anywhere

Recycled Wine Cork Keychain Favors: CraftZine

Make a Wine Cork Man: CraftersLoveCrafts - why NOT!?

Cork Trolls: FamilyFun

Home Decor Tutorials:

Wine Cork Corkboard: WineIntro

How to Recycle Corks Into a Corkboard: WikiHow

How to Make a Wine Cork Bulletin Board: eHow

Wine Cork Corkboard: HowStuffWorks

Corkboard: WineIntro

Wine Cork Trivet (hot plate): WineIntro

DIY Wine Cork Trivet: Care2

Wine Cork Trivets: CraftersLoveCrafts

Cork Trivet and Coaster Set: Design Sponge

Make a Wine Cork Wreath: FrugalLiving.About

Christmas Tutorials:

Cork Ornaments: AllThingsChristmas

Make Christmas Tree Ornaments from All Those Cork Wine Stoppers You’ve Been Collecting: Indie Fixx

Wine Cork Angels: CraftersLoveCrafts

Ideas, Inspiration, and Photos:

Cardinal Birdhouse with a Corky Roof: TheCraftyWino on Etsy

Wine Cork Coasters Set of Two: TheCraftyWino on Etsy

Corky Chalkboard/Message Board: TheCraftyWino on Etsy

Cork Furniture Art: GalleryOfFunctionalArt - lots of chair and other furniture ideas for corks!

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

However, I did have a VERY different image in my mind of how these would come out- a lot less frills for one! Oh well

I’m going to say this now – this basket will take you a long time. Don’t expect to finish it in an hour. Set aside an entire day to dedicate to making this! That leaves room for mistakes and learning.

You could probably make one quickly if you didn’t use satin fabric, which I used. Sewing satin fabric takes FOREVER to pin and sew. It probably didn’t help that it was the cheap costume satin fabric that frayed like crazy.

It was very difficult to find any tutorials for covering a basket in fabric. The ones that I did find weren’t detailed enough to figure out, and when I tried them, I felt like they looked sloppy.

Earlier, I wrote a post: DIY Flower Girl Basket Tutorials – which has a lot of other different ideas and tutorials for flower girl baskets. If you don’t like mine, check out all of the other ones!

I got the basic idea for covering my baskets from a Waste Basket Cover tutorial from Craft and Fabric Links

I had to alter my pattern a little bit, because the pattern that I used on their site didn’t really make sense for an actual basket. Real baskets have all sorts of bumps, so they aren’t smooth.

Let’s get started, shall we? Be prepared for frustration! Nah, it’s not that bad – once you figure it out!

Materials:

• 1 Basket of your choice – I got mine for 50% off at JoAnn’s, costing me $3.50. I’m sure you could find one even cheaper at a thrift store, but I needed to make sure that both of my baskets matched. Also, my fiance wanted HUGE baskets instead of the normal smaller ones – lucky me! It might have been easier to cover if I had to work with less fabric.
  
• 1 yard of fabric – You probably won’t use it all – but it’s nice to have extra fabric if you totally screw it up! I picked up some white costume satin fabric at Wal Mart for $1.50/yard.
• 4″ wide contrasting ribbon – I got Offray brand dark red ribbon.
• 1.5″ wide ribbon to wrap around the handle – I got 1.5″ x 12 feet of ribbon and used it all on one basket.
  
• Fray Check – available at any sewing supplies store
• Hot Glue Gun
• Sewing Machine
• Needle
• Compass
• Pins
• Iron
  
• Thread
• Sharp Sewing Scissors or Rotary Cutter
  
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Scrap Paper
  

IF YOU NEED TO SEE BIGGER PICTURES FOR DETAIL, SIMPLY CLICK ON THE PHOTO. THEN CLICK “ALL SIZES” ABOVE THE PHOTO.

Instructions:

Step 1: Make a pattern for the outside of the basket – make sure you label everything!

• Measure the circumference at the top of the basket (measure around the top, close to the upper edge). This measurement is “A.” Write these down!
• Measure the circumference at the bottom of the basket. This measurement is “B.”
• Measure the height of the basket, including some overlap on the inside. How far you want your fabric to overlap is up to you. I have a big overlap in one of my baskets, and a tiny overlap for this specific tutorial. This measurement is “C.”

• Add 2″ to A
• Add 2″ to B
• Add 1/2″ to C

Basket Measurements

• Now, adjust your “A” and “B” measurements.
• Divide “A” by 4, and round UP to the nearest 1/4″. Write down that number. (For example, my basket’s upper  circumference was 36″. I added 2″, which brought it to 38″. 38″ divided by 4 is 9.5″. No rounding was needed.)
• Divide “B” by 4, and round UP to the nearest 1/4″. Write down that number. (For example, my basket’s lower circumference was 27″. I added 2″, which brought it to 29″. 29″ divided by 4 is 7.25″. No rounding was needed.)

• Take your scrap paper, or any 8.5″ x 11″ sheet, and draw a line across the top of the paper that is equal to your “A” measurement.
• Draw a new line across the bottom of the paper. The line should equal “B”.
• The distance between “A” and “B” should equal “C”.
• “A” and “B” should have their centers aligned.
• Draw two lines, connecting the ends of “A” and “B”. (For example, my top line was 9.5″. My bottom line was 7.25″ and the two lines were 7″ apart, because my “C” was 7″.)

This photo is upside down, but hopefully you get the idea!

• Do the same as you did for the outside for the inside, except for “C”.
• For measurement “C”, only measure to the top of the basket, with no overlap. Then, continue to follow the above instructions for “C”.

• For the bottom and inside circles, measure the diameter of the bottom of your basket and add 1/2″.
• Using a compass, draw a circle the diameter you measured in the step above (plus the 1/2″). If you do not have a compass, draw a horizontal line across the center of the paper. Draw a vertical line down the middle of the paper. Draw an “x” where the lines intersect. Take a ruler and lay it so that it runs next to the “x”. Draw dots of equal distances from the “x”. The distance apart should be equal to the diameter and the “x” should be in the center of the dots (the dots are equal distance from the “x”). Do this several times, pivoting the ruler through the “x” a small distance each time. Connect the dots and you have a circle!

All three Pattern Pieces

Step 2: Pin your patterns to your fabric pieces. If using satin, make sure that you use LOTS of pins!

• You will need 4 fabric pieces from the outside pattern, 4 fabric pieces from the inside pattern, and 2 fabric pieces of the bottom circle pattern.
• To save a ton of time, fold your fabric in half twice, so that you can pin the patterns on all 4 layers at once.

I attempted to show the 4 layers of fabric per each pattern piece

All pinned and ready to be cut!

Step 3: Cut out all the pieces! I recommend a straight-edge and a rotary cutter. It cuts down the time significantly.

Cut out the fabric pieces

Step 4: Iron all of your fabric pieces individually so that they have no wrinkles. Make sure you’re using a low heat setting for satin fabrics.

Iron the fabric pieces

Step 5: Pin two of the outside fabric pattern pieces right sides together on one side. Do the same for the second pair of outside fabric pattern pieces. The inside fabric pattern pieces are also done in the same way, as shown below. Sew where you have pinned. ALL SEAM ALLOWANCES ARE 1/4″. This will make your 4 outside and inside pieces become 2.

• Then, take the 2 inside and 2 outside pieces that you now have, and pin those right sides together. Sew. You should now have 2 fabric pieces TOTAL, including the inside piece and the outside piece, excluding the circles. Before you go any further, make sure that the inside and outside pieces fit on your basket.

Pin the fabric pieces

Step 6: Pin each circle to the bottom of your 2 pieces, and sew. This will give you an outer bowl shape and an inner bowl shape.

Pin the circle to each of your pieces.

Just another view of one - ignore my Hershey wrappers in the background, lol. Crafting makes me hungry!

YOU HAVE FINISHED THE DIFFICULT SEWING PARTS! CONGRATULATIONS! Isn’t it a PAIN!? Especially with satin!!! The circles always took me FOREVER and the pins kept slipping! Grr!

Step 7: Glue the inside bowl (lining) to the basket with your glue gun. You’re probably going to be glue happy (I was on my first basket), but that is BAD! The basket will look more naturally covered if it isn’t glued everywhere. Also, if there is TOO MUCH glue, the satin gets stained and can’t be fixed! Here are my suggestions:

• Make hot glue dots on the outside border of the inside bottom a couple inches apart. Since hot glue dries pretty quickly, you’ll want to do this kinda fast.
• Make sure that the wrong side of your lining is facing down, and secure the circular part to the bottom. Be sure to work quickly!
• If you lay down your circle and it’s totally off, you can gently pull up the fabric and re-glue. I had to do this a couple times. Satin is hard to set perfectly and it’s always moving around!
• After the circle part is down, make hot glue dots at the top of the inside. Glue a few dots and position the fabric in an area, and then keep going around the inside top until all of the lining is glued.
• ONLY glue the edges of the bottom circle and the top of the inside lining. It looks so much more natural letting the fabric form on its own.

Glue the inside bottom circle first.

YAY! The inside is GLUED!

Don't worry about the frayed top - we'll be covering that up with the outside bowl.

Step 8: Now that the inside is all glued in, take the outside piece, and fold the frayed edges onto the wrong side, hot gluing them in place section by section. Hopefully the photos below do a better job of explaining this!

Glue the top edge

Fold over a small amount of fabric onto the glue.

Step 9: Once you finish gluing around the entire top, insert the basket and glue the top edge to the basket. You should be covering the frayed edges of the inside part the best you can. Please check out the photos to see what I mean.

Glue the outside on

Don't worry about glue spots or bare spots - we'll fix them!

We'll fix that one too!

Just another view

Step 10: So – we gotta do something with those bare spots and glue spots. This is a flower girl basket, so what better thing to cover them up with than flowers? To make flowers, decide how many you want to cover the inside and outside of the basket. I wanted 6 for the inside and 6 for the outside. For the inside flowers, I cut out strips of 1.5″ x 8″. For the outside flowers, I cut out strips of 1″ x 8″ (This DOES make a big impact on size!) Once they are cut, be sure to use some kind of fray stopper ALL around the edges, so that they don’t fray like mad! I used Fray Check.

Cut out strips and use Fray Check!

These are really uneven - BAD! I wanted to use red fabric for the outside flowers

Step 11: While you’re waiting for your strips to dry, now is a great time to whip out your ribbon and start doing the handles. I thought this would be really fast and easy, but yeah, it’s not as easy as it looks! First, glue the end of the ribbon to the bottom of the handle. Then, wrap the ribbon around that point twice, and glue it again. Now that you have an anchor, you’re now ready to wrap the ribbon around the basket. It’s easiest if you take all of the ribbon off the roll, and make sure that you do a very tight and even wrap. Once you get to the middle top of the basket, glue it in place and cut the ribbon. We’ll fix how the top middle looks later on.

Glue the ribbon on as close as you can get to the bottom

This is what it should look like after winding the ribbon around the bottom twice

Once you get to the middle, glue it in place and cut the ribbon

Chop!

An example of how close and even I winded the ribbon

Do the same thing to the other side of the handle, and glue and chop in the middle.

To do the second weird handle piece, I secured the base in the same way, and went up to the top of the little handle section. I went around the top part of the section twice, folded in the frayed edge, and glued it down.

View from Outside

View from Inside

Another View from Inside

Another View from Inside

First side done! Make sure you glue it down as flat as possible, and on the inside to hide it better

Second Side Done!

Step 12: Now to make the top middle of the handle look awesome while covering the frayed ribbon. Take your 4″ wide ribbon, fold it to the wrong side and glue it down so it doesn’t fray. Wrap the ribbon around the handle and decide how much ribbon you will need. Cut the ribbon accordingly. Glue the frayed part to the underside of the middle top handle.

Fold in the start of the ribbon and glue it down so it doesn't fray.

Glue the frayed side to the underside of the middle part of the handle

Just another view

Then, wrap it around and glue it down. It now looks like a finished edge! All done with this part!

Step 13: Once they are dry, take a needle and thread of the same color as the fabric, and weave your needle in and out of one long side of the strip. Once you reach the end of the strip, pull the thread, which will scrunch it up into a flower! Make sure to secure it by sewing up the bottom a few times and knotting it.

Weave your needle in and out of the strip - don't forget to knot the thread at your starting point!

Pull the thread when you get to the end of the strip

Flower!

Secure your flower by sewing through the bottom a few times and knot it

Houston, We Have Flowers.

Tobor stepped in for inspection

Step 14: Now for the fun part – gluing on the flowers! I covered any wood that was showing in hot glue, and then put the flower on it, making sure that I have every spot of showing wood covered.

First flower ON!

And 2!

I also placed them on the seams of the sides to cover up a glue mess.

The inside of the basket is complete

Step 15: I can’t figure out how to make bows for the life of me. I know, I should be able to! I had to buy two pre-made bows for each basket. I glued those onto the outside of each handle, and glued the flowers I made in between them. I put one flower on the middle seams of the outside, and then eyed the placement of the other flowers.

Offray My Moments Bows

And glued

FINISHED!

Here is a look at the FIRST one I made, which has a different inside and slightly different outside, but I couldn’t replicate it in this tutorial because it actually was the “messed up” one. I kept cutting fabric and adding fabric until everything fit around the basket – so I have no idea about the measurements on it! I love it just the same though, it just has a slightly different inside/outside!

If you have ANY comments or questions, please let me know! I hope that this tutorial was easy to understand, but I can definitely see how you can get confused! I’d also LOVE to see flower girl baskets that any of you have made or if you have a tutorial of your own. Thanks!

]]> http://redthreaddiy.com/blog/2009/12/diy-flower-girl-basket-tutorial/feed/ 3 http://redthreaddiy.com/blog/2009/12/diy-soap-making-tutorials-and-techniques-from-the-soap-queen/ http://redthreaddiy.com/blog/2009/12/diy-soap-making-tutorials-and-techniques-from-the-soap-queen/#comments Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:00:28 +0000 Katar http://redthreaddiy.com/blog/?p=705 I’ve always been interested in making soap – but had no idea how to go about it.

Soap Queen is an AMAZING blogger that I’ve discovered recently, and wanted to share some of the tutorials that she had on her blog on mine! She has so much talent and has an excellent product offering. Her soaps would make EXCELLENT and UNIQUE Christmas gifts!

Simply click on the photo to go to her tutorial. Enjoy – and be sure to subscribe to her feed if you’re interested in making soap!

Contents:

• General Soap Tutorials
• Food Soap Tutorials
• Fall Soap Tutorials
• Halloween Soap Tutorials
• Thanksgiving Soap Tutorials
• Christmas Soap Tutorials

General Soap Tutorials:

Lucky Star Soaps: Soap Queen

Soapylove Technique Post: Embed Problems: Soap Queen

Fiery Energy Bar: Soap Queen

Recipe for Oatmeal Melt and Pour Soap: Soap Queen

Food Soap Tutorials:

Fluffy Frosted Soapy Cupcakes: Soap Queen

Fall Soap Tutorials:

Stenciled Glitter Soap: Soap Queen

Glitter Cut Out Soaps: Soap Queen

Flexy Fast Fall Pumpkin Soap: Soap Queen

Pumpkin Puree Cold Process Soap: Soap Queen

Fall Soap Favors: Soap Queen

Halloween Soap Tutorials:

Tattooed Soap: Soap Queen

Thanksgiving Soap Tutorials:

Gobble Gobble Soapy Family Project: Soap Queen

Christmas Soap Tutorials:

Christmas Tag Soap: Soap Queen

Glittered Sparkle Soap Kit: Soap Queen

I need to gather materials, and soon! What great ideas!!!

Making your own ring bearer pillows will be so much more personalized than buying a mass-produced one. It will be a lot cheaper too! You want your wedding to be original, right?

Lucky for me, I have two ring bearers, so I get to make two! Yay!

Here are some great tutorials that I’ve come across in my search for making my own. When I get around to making my own, I will be sure to post my tutorial and plenty of photos! For now, just click on the photos below to go to a tutorial that interests you.

Tutorials:

• DIY Ring Pillows: Martha Stewart Weddings – this link has a collection of 17 different ideas!

My DIY Ring Pillow: Wedding Bee

Ring Bearer Pillow How To: Sewing.Today

Wedding Ring Pillow: LilBlueBoo

Ring Bearer Pillow: Apple Bride

Ribbon Ring Pillow: Martha Stewart Weddings

DIY Project Ring Pillows: Wedding Bee

Ring Bearer Pillow - a DIY Tutorial: 12K Wedding

How to Make a Something Old Something New Ring Pillow: CraftStylish

How to Make a Ruffled Pillow: Kelly and Olive

How to Make a Ring Pillow with Vintage Lace: CraftStylish

Monogrammed Felt Pillow: JCarolineCreative

Inspiration, Ideas, and Photos:

Wedding Ring Pillow: Eleen

My DIY Ring Bearer Pillow: Bridgettes Detroit Wedding

My DIY Ring Bearer Pillow: Bridgette's Detroit Wedding

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

And hey – fabric flowers and bouquets will last forever, so you don’t have to pay a bunch to get them preserved! They also won’t die in 2 days! So, in reality, I think fabric and paper flowers are a lot more awesome anyways!

Did I mention I’m allergic to flowers anyways? This is a bonus!

Oh hey! Costco has 400 sheets of tissue paper right now for around $5!!! Check out the Christmas aisle. You CAN’T beat that! I have only seen packs of white though – if you are looking for that color.

I hope the links below help you out as much as they helped me. Click on the photos or links to go to the tutorial. Enjoy!

Misc. Tutorials:

• Paper and Fabric Flowers: Martha Stewart – There are 32 ideas in just this link alone!
• I haven’t seen the book yet, but I’m so excited to know that a paper flower book exists! Check out CraftZine‘s review of Make Your Own Paper Flowers by Klutz

Fabric Flower Tutorials:

Rose Petal Tee: The Storque - scroll down to get the 'how to' for the flowers only!

Flower Collar Tutorial: KatieDid

How to Make a Stiffened Fabric Flower Brooch: CraftyPod

Super Cool Fabric Flower Hair Clip Tutorial: LuBirdBaby

Fabric Flowers: Make it Do

Necktie Daisies: Craftster

Fabric Rose and Peony: Martha Stewart Weddings

Ribbon and Fabric Flowers: Martha Stewart Weddings - I made a bunch of the fabric flowers - they are easy to do and make cute embellishments on several different things!

DIY Fabric Rosettes: Susie Harris Blog

Large Layered Flower Pin How To: My Mama Made It

Paper Flower Tutorials:

How to Make Crumpled Flowers for Scrapbooking: Scrappin' Out Loud

Mexican Paper Flowers: Mad in Crafts

DIY Paper Flowers: Creature Comforts

Calla Lilly and Chrysanthemum Swizzle Sticks: Martha Stewart - I LOVE the Calla Lilly. It is extremely simple, and I made some with satin fabric. They look REALLY elegant!

Paper Flower Bouquet Tutorials:

Crafted Bouquet: Martha Stewart Weddings

Paper Flower Pom Pom Decoration Tutorials:

• Paper Flower Pom Poms: Martha Stewart

Paper Flower Centerpiece Tutorials:

How to Make a Paper Flower Centerpiece: CraftStylish

DIY Tissue Paper Garden Centerpieces: Once Wed

Paper Flower Centerpiece: CraftZine

Flower Arrangement Centerpieces: Rachael Ray Mag - although this isn't a tutorial for paper flowers, isn't this a great idea for a centerpiece WITH paper flowers?

Inspiration, Ideas, and Photos:

Wedding Crafts - Brides and Bridesmaids Bouquets: Mad in Crafts

Wedding Table Centerpieces Using Paper Flowers: Stjudescreations

Spyrograph Wedding: Design Sponge - haha! They are using the same vases that we are for our centerpieces! I really like this setup, I think I'll try to implement this!

If you know of ANY other examples or tutorials, please comment below so I can add them to this list. I would be so happy to find more tutorials to test out for my wedding. Thanks!

I REFUSE to buy one! It’s dumb! I got some awesome baskets at Joann for $3 each (I’m having 2 flower girls) and I am going to revamp the heck out of them! They will be 508,432 times awesomer than the $50 ones, and I bet I’ll end up paying less than $10 for the materials, for BOTH!

Anyways, if you feel the same way I do, I’ve gathered a bunch of tutorials for making your own from scratch, or revamping a plain ol’ basket like I’m going to do. I’ll be sure to post my outcome and tutorial when I finish them, so you can see what I did! Yay!

Update: I finished the flower girl baskets and wrote a tutorial! Click on the photo to see what I did!

DIY Flower Girl Basket Tutorial

Tutorials:

• Flower Girl Basket: Wedding Papercrafts
• Free Waste Basket Cover Sewing Pattern: Craft and Fabric Links – this is the pattern that I used to cover my basket. It does have its flaws, but should give you a great start! When I post my tutorial for covering a basket, I will go into more detail.

Woven Felt Flower Girl Basket: Felt Cafe

Decorating Basket Ideas: Save-on-Crafts

Design a Flower Girls Basket Covered in Petals: Save-on-Crafts

Wedding Basket: Save-on-Crafts

A Basket for my Flower Girl: The One NY

Girls Spring Mini Tote Tutorial: Betz White

Craft a Beach Basket for your Flower Girl: Bridecraft

Flower Girl Baskets: Pash Weddings

DIY Flower Girl Basket: Once Wed

Flower Girls Paper Basket: Martha Stewart

How to Make a Sunflower Flower Girl Basket: Crafty Shops

Modern Flower Girl Basket: ModernZebra

Flower Girl Basket: Apple Bride

And if ya don’t like the tutorials, here are some photos for inspiration. You’re crafty, so you can probably figure out how to do the ones below pretty easily! Just in case, you can click on the photos to ask the source questions or purchase the basket

Inspiration, Ideas, and Photos:

Flower Girl Basket: Yummacious

Flower Girl Basket: Skully Bride 808

Red and White Collection Flower Girl Baskets: Where Brides Go

Beautiful and Bold Flower Girl Basket: Where Brides Go

Lasting Radiance Flower Basket: Where Brides Go

Allure Flower Basket: Where Brides Go

Flower Girl Basket: Wrap With Us

Flower Girl Basket: Craftster

Flower Girl Basket: Craftster

October Wedding Flower Girl Basket: Craftster

Flower Girl Basket: Craftster

A Simple Flower Girl Basket: Craftster

As far as tutorials go, I’ve posted all of the ones that I could find. I am really interested in finding a fabric-covered basket tutorial. I hope that this post has helped you, however! If you know of ANY other examples or tutorials, please comment below so I can add them to this list. Thanks!

So… I gotta pick a pattern for my wedding dress. I’m making it myself. The thing is – I can’t find the “perfect” one.. There’s something I hate about every one I find, but I’ve come down to these:

• I like the back part with the buttons, but I think the bottom part is too plain and I hate the weird veil. I refuse to wear a veil! I do NOT like them. As for the top, I’m unsure of how it will actually look, so I am still pondering it:

Vogue Pattern V2788

• Simple, but still not the one:

Vogue Pattern V2717

• I kinda like this one, but I’m thinking the bottom part is TOO dressy… and I want straps (which can be easily accomplished) but.. I dunno. It just doesn’t seem right. I LOVE the bottom, but I don’t know if it’s “too” bulky, you know what I mean?:

McCall's Pattern M5321

• Again.. I don’t know. This one seems a little less bulky, and I like the design. I COULD wear red as the band and add straps and awesome looking buttons to the back:

McCall's Pattern M5807

• And these ones look like plain ol’ lingerie of some kind. Actually, they ARE! I just found that out, LOL. So this one is totally out – but I wanted to share it for some reason anyways:

McCall's Pattern M4109

• I’m looking  at Pattern C here – although I wouldn’t want a halter top. Totally fixable:

McCall's Pattern M4776

• Hm… Simple! But too simple? I hate the weird shawl things, so ignore those. I’m looking at the top middle one:

McCall's Pattern 4450

• I enjoy the layering on this one. Layering looks awesome! But, I want a different type of layering, and without weird sleeve things, and a little bulkier:

Burda Fashion Pattern 8057

Suggestions? Anyone? Got a wedding dress pattern website for me? I can’t seem to find pattern sites that aren’t just full of spam besides McCall’s, Vogue, and Simplicity. I want more options! please…

Well.. that’s my rant of the moment. I really want to just find one today, order it, and start on it.

I will figure out what attributes I like best on each style, and totally combine them to configure the perfect dress. Wish me luck!

I also want to make all of my bridesmaid dresses – so I gotta find a pattern for that too. I’m thinking about having everyone take a vote! oh yeah! mmk. back to the search!

Plastic Bottle Tutorials:

• Acorn Bird Feeder: Design Sponge
• Self-Watering Plant Container out of a 2-Liter Bottle: Instructables
• Christmas Star Ornament: EspiritCabane
• The Giving Tree: Growing Up Creative

Salad Dressing, BBQ Sauce, or Drink Bottle Tutorials:

• Glow in the Dark Mod Podge Monsters for Halloween: Cathie Filian

Detergent and Bleach Bottle Tutorials:

• How to Make a Piggy Bank: Family Crafts
• How to Make Exercise Weights: About
• Detergent Bottle Vase: Happy Mundane
• Detergent Bottle Jack-o-Lanterns: About
• Bejeweled Black Cat Made from a Laundry Detergent Bottle: Crafting a Green World
• Detergent Bottle Snowman: About

Milk Carton Tutorials:

• Faux Bois Bookend: TenthMuseStudios
• Mold for a Candle: CraftBits
• Milk Carton Bird Feeder: Kaboose
• Birdhouse or Birdfeeder from a Milk Carton: ZiggityZoom
• Recycled Milk Carton Truck: Origami Mommy
• Milk Carton Puppet: Instructables
• DIY Milk Carton Organizer: Maya Made
• Scratch Art Desk Organizers: The Knack
• Milk Carton Wallet: Family Fun

Milk Jug Tutorials:

• Harriet the Heifer Milk Jug Craft: Family Fun
• Milk Jug Piggy Bank: Free Kids Crafts
• Recycled Milk Jug Pinatas: Cathie Filian
• Various Gardening Tools: Better Homes and Gardens
• Milk Jug Plastic Bag Holder: Craft of the Day
• Reusable Lunch or Sandwich Containers: Family Fun
• Milk Jug Containers: Vanilla Joy – I can see myself actually using them for this – simple, yet so useful!
• Milk Jug Easter Baskets: Kaboose
• Milk Jug-o-Lantern: KinderArt
• Monster Jug Heads: Family Fun
• Eerie Luminarias: Better Homes and Gardens
• Halloween Skeleton Decoration: Prairie Webs

Milk Bottle Tutorials:

• Milk Bottle Snowman: HowStuffWorks

Glass Wine Bottle Tutorials:

• Recycled Wine Bottle Torch: Design for Life
• Chocolate Covered Witch Warts for Halloween: Can’t Stop Making Things Blog
• Wine Bottle Vases: Design Sponge

Misc. Glass Tutorials:

• Faux Porcelain Project: Design Sponge

Glass Jar Tutorials:

• Hanging Jar Lanterns: P. Allen Smith
• How to Select the Right Size Lampshade for a Canning Jar Lamp: The Artful Crafter
• Glass Marble Flower Vase: addicted2decorating
• Recipes in a Jar: Craftbits – this page has multiple recipes, scroll down to the bottom!
• Cookies in a Jar: Bakerella
• Glitter Globe: TheLongThread
• Making Canned Halloween Monstrosities: I Make Projects
• Halloween Jars: TheLongThread
• Jack-o-Lantern Jars: Me and My Insanity
• Jar-O-Lanterns: Martha Stewart
• Recycled Jar Jack-O-Lanterns: Instructables
• Halloween Snow Globes: I Love to Create Blog
• Wedding Crafts – Baby Food Jar Lanterns: Mad in Crafts
• Thankful Jar: Poppies at Play
• Snowman Candy Jar: FamilyCrafts.About

Inspiration, Ideas, and Photos:

Milk Carton Fun: DebbieDee

Milk Jug Chandelier: PZRServices

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

Photo Credit: ohdearbarb on flickr

Misc. Tutorials:

Pac-Man Crochet Pattern: Fluff of Fluff

LED Pac-Man Bike Wheel Images: Instructables

Accessory Tutorials:

Pac-Man Wallet: Cut Out and Keep

Pac-Man Ghost Hair Pin: DIY Glory

Shoe Tutorials:

Pac-Man Shoes: Craftster

Home Decor Tutorials:

Pac-Man Pouf: Instructables

Pac-Man and Ghost Perler Bead Magnets: CraftingWithCatHair

Pac-Man Quilt: Craftster

Pac-Man Mobile: Craftster

Pac-Man Paper Mobile: Instructables

Pacman and Ghosts Dishcloths: Tea and Cakes

Pac-Man Ghost Bean Bag Chair: Cut Out and Keep

Food Tutorials:

Pac-Man Cookies: The Decorated Cookie

Halloween Costume Tutorials:

• How to Make a Pac-Man Costume: eHow

Pac-Man Costume: g42.org/xwiki

Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man Costumes: Coolest Homemade Costumes

How to Make Your Own Pac-Man and Ghost Costumes: Pachax

Ms. Pac-Man Hallowen Costume: Coolest Homemade Costumes

Pac-Man and Blinky Costumes: Coolest Homemade Costumes

Ms. Pac-Man Costume: Disney Family Entertainment

Pac-Man Costume: Coolest Homemade Costumes

Pac-Man Costume: Halloween Forum

Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man Costumes: Coolest Homemade Costumes

Giant Pac-Man Fancy Dress Outfit: Instructables

Playable Pac-Man Costume: MakeZine

Inspiration, Ideas, and Photos:

• Pac-Man Pumpkins: Instructables
• Check out all of the threads tagged with ‘pacman’ on Craftster!

Pac-Man and the Lotus Elise: The Pug Father on flickr

Pac-Man Couture from Giles Deacon: IfItsHipItsHere

Miss Video Game: Joystick Division via 3Wishes.com

Pac-Man Magnet Set: spooons on etsy for $10

Pac-Man Ghost Hats: Technabob

Pac-Man Wedding Cake: The Domestic Scientist

Edible Cupcake Cover: Pac-Man: SugarRobot on Etsy

Pac-Man Cupcakes: Hello Naomi on flickr

Pac-Man Beads: Sarah Hornik on Flickr

Ms. Pac-Man Bobby Pins: PixelParty

Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man Brooch Set: Magpie Moments

Pac-Man Stuffies: Craftster

Inky Ghost Button Bag: HoboCampCrafts on Etsy

Pac-Man Scarf: ShopFatal

Pac-Man Canvas Belt: TruffleShuffle

Pac-Man Quilt: Craftster

Pac-Man Ghost Made from Recycled Ikea Dresser: Geek Alerts

Pac Man Tree Skirt: Technabob

I <3 Pac-Man.

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

Photo Credit: astillero on flickr

Contents:

• Tutorials
• Accessory Tutorials
• Home Decor Tutorials
• Wedding Tutorials
• Halloween Tutorials:
• Inspiration, Ideas, and Photos

Tutorials:

• Making Handmade Paper: PioneerThinking – found by Self_Inflicted_DIY
• How to Make Handmade Paper: Cathie Filian
• Shape Book Tutorial: Cheeky Magpie
• Page Turner Sculpture: Kari and Kijsa
• Altered Book Techniques: JenMinnis
• Create Your Own Altered Art in 60 Minutes: Creativity-Portal
• Look through ArtE-Zine to find a TON of ideas and photos. Tutorials are mixed in.
• Altered Book Tutorial: Karen’s Whimsy
• Altered Art Tutorials: SacredArtImages
• How To Make an Altered Coffee Filter Book: EweNmePrintables
• Make an Altered Book with Coptic Binding: Altered-Book
• Altered Book Tutorial: Knol
• Altered Book Tutorial: Stampin’ Mama
• Altered Book Tutorial – Gluing Pages and Cutting a Niche: 1st Floor Flat Blog

Accessory Tutorials:

• Old Books into Cool Handbags: Blisstree

Home Decor Tutorials:

• How To Turn a Book Into a Picture Frame: WikiHow – found by FatBottomBags
• DIY Invisible Floating Bookshelf: LifeHacker – found by TheKatzer
• Plant Holder: Altered-Book
• How to Alter a Board Book (Frame): Creativity-Portal
• Altered Book Safe: Craftbits
• How to Make a Headboard Out Of Books: Curbly – found by FatBottomBags
• A Murder of Crows: Can’t Stop Making Things
• What Crows Hath Wrought Frames:  Can’t Stop Making Things – These are awesome frames for your Murder of Crows prints
• Make a Book Clock: Ruffles and Stuff – this is amazing! Go to Ikea to get a clock to alter for $3!
• Book Page Wreath: Someday Crafts – beautiful. simply beautiful.
• Old Books Become New Wall Storage Folders: Gingerbread Snowflakes

Wedding Tutorials:

• Altered Antique Book: Craftbits

Halloween Tutorials:

• Making Creepy Books: Dave Lowe Design’s Blog

Inspiration, Ideas, and Photos:

• Absolutely Nobody Wants This Book: BookShopBlog – This is a MUST READ! There are a ton of shops, ideas, and photos listed that should inspire you to do something awesome with your books!
• entre lineas + kat macleod’s north carlton: Design Sponge
• Bittersweet Art of Cutting Up Books: DarkRoastedBlend
• The Altered Book – A MUST READ website as well! Tons of ideas, photos, techniques, and tutorials mixed into one!
• Artful Journey – Altered Book Ideas!
• Altered Books Gallery: Karen’s Whimsy
• Etsy Seller CaramBatack uses pages of books and turns them into art!
• What about taking the pages and decoupaging things? Little wooden boxes, frames, etc?? – FabulouslyFierce
• I have also seen people stack them and somehow fasten them together so they look slightly spiraled and using them as a base for end tables – WickedBadNaughty
• You could make new paper! Shred a bunch of pages, put it in an old blender with some water, and WHIRRRR!! Get a screen or some cheesecloth and poor the goopy mess over, and when it dries, fancy paper! I’ve also always had a hard on for those hollowed out books they have in mystery movies. – Smarmy
• How ’bout…glue the pages together and to the back cover, then hollow out the center and make boxes?? – Lily_Lazer
• You could make secret boxes out of them…or make purses with the covers (if they are hardcover)…use the pages for origami – RuJuBags
• Book Sculptures – Spooons
  
• Hmm… why don’t you take a page, use paints, paper etc etc, make collages and frame them and sell them? :] – NeonFaze
• I ordered something from Etsy a long time ago, and one of the extras she sent me was a bookmark she had made, and she had on it the definition of apple cider that she’d cut from a dictionary. I thought that was really neat. There are sooooooooooooo many things you can do. It would take forever to use up just one book! – MeanLook
• You could take parts of the book, dress patterns, newspaper etc and binding to make journals – DingoGirl66

Whatever you decide to do, you BETTER recycle them! I HATE people who just throw stuff out. It’s just going to go into a landfill and that just sucks. So recycle them somehow – donate them to a library (via Indiscretion), go to your recycling center, and if they are sellable, list them online! Or ELSE!

Once I get the courage and energy to attempt to conquer one of these altered book projects, I will post the result here.

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

Photo Credit: AustinEvan on flickr