I'm Back! And With a Tutorial!

Oh my! It's been a long time. I guess the big reason I fell off the face of the Earth was that I got a new job and then met someone knew and was spending all my time with him instead of posting on my blog. (It didn't stop me from crafting away though hahaha)

I have been doing some "Fall Cleaning" (kind of like Spring Cleaning, only in the fall) of all my craft supplies. I didn't realize how much stuff I had and how long I had had some of it for. I found my stash of ribbons and realized I didn't really have any where to store them. Then I remembered seeing ribbon storage boxes at Target during Christmas time. It's not quite Christmas time (even though so many places already have their Christmas stuff out, Hobby Lobby even had theirs for 40% off this week) so I decided to make my own out of some stuff I had around the house.

Handy Ribbon Storage Box: A Tutorial

What you'll need:
- Old shoe box (or similar box with lid)
- Paint/paintbrush (or you could Mod Podge your favorite paper on it)
- Scrapbook paper
- Dowel rods (Wal-Mart sells them cheap, that's where I got mine when I made some fairy wands for a friend)
- Box cutter
- Hot glue gun
- Pencil
- Ruler

First you will need to measure out the rectangle that will become the opening. I left about a half inch of space around each side.

Then you will cut the rectangle out with the box cutter.

 After the rectangle has been cut out, you will paint the box. I chose white just to cover up the "Sperry" logo. When I started to paint the lid I realized that this was going to be a very long process so I scrapped the idea and covered the lid in paper. I actually like it much better than if I would've left it all painted. I covered the lid just like if I was wrapping a present. I taped the edges to the inside of the box and it still fits perfectly on the box.

Next you will insert the dowel rod. The dowel rods I had were about half an inch too long so I took my box cutter and tried sawing through the rod. I realized about a millimeter into the rod that sawing through it would be way too hard with my box cutter so I scored the rod and was able to break it where I had wanted. Another way (probably safer?) would be to take some scissors to it.

After getting the right size to the dowel rod, I placed it in the box and marked where I wanted it to sit on the sides.

I then used hot glue to make a U shape on the side where I wanted the dowel rod to sit. This acts as a cradle to hold the rod in place so it stays organized. Do this on both sides of the box where the rod will sit.

Once the glue dried I was ready to put my ribbon on the rob and into the box!

I hope this tutorial helped you organize your ribbon stash like it did me! You can also use this to store your holiday ribbon or other gift wrapping ribbon!

Until next time, happy crafting!

Mason Jar Bank

So I was cleaning out the area where my new sewing space/office will go and I found a whole bunch of change. I kept thinking to myself where am I going to put all this change???? Well I had a few mason jars just laying around so I figured I'd make one out of those. This is also a super cheap craft, mason jars are only about $2.00 at Hobby Lobby!

For this project you will need:

-Mason jar with lid
-Cutting tool that can cut through metal
-Marker (not pictured)
-Sand paper (not pictured)

So first you take the insert of the lid and measure the largest coin you will be placing in the bank (I used a dollar coin) and measure an opening on the lid so that the coin would fit if there was a hole there.

Next use the cutting tool (I used a box cutter/razor blade, and it took quite a while to cut through the lid and left it not so pretty looking) to cut out the outline of the opening. Once the hole is cut take sand paper and sand down the rough edges.

Next replace the lid and add your coins! Congratulations, you have just made an easy mason jar bank! Keep it by the washing machine to catch all that loose change or by the door for end of the day filling! I know this tutorial sounds silly but hey maybe someone will get some use out of it, and I had fun making it!

Until next time, happy crafting!

ABC party!

So first off happy Labor Day!! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, mine didn't have enough crafting hahaha. It did have a lot of organizing. I started to move into my new crafting space/office. It's very exciting!

I did have the pleasure of making Anything-But-Clothes costumes for Dave and me for a party on Saturday! Dave had the most awesome idea to make our costumes out of play money (I was thinking of making them out of different color trash bags, his idea proved to be much better).

I made the clothes out of a black garbage bag first and then we taped fake money from Dollar Tree. Over all they cost us a total of like $4.00! The hard part was the crotch in the shorts. It took a lot of tape and garbage bag haha. We taped the dollars like roof tiles right on to the bag!

Other people at the party had duct tape outfits and another couple had costumes made out of paper bags.

Until next time, happy crafting!