It was actually a lot easier than I imagined it would be and I love the finished look!

Supplies:

• 6 x 6 inch Darice Cork Squares with Mounting Squares - I used 3 packs
• Foam Core Board
• Frame
• Paint
• Compass Cutter Tool
• X-Acto Knife
• Fabric
• Straight/Push Pins
• Hot Glue Gun
• Scissors
• Staple Gun

To begin, you will want to remove the glass from the frame.  This step was done for me since I had trashed picked mine from a neighbor–I love that the rescued frame makes this project a little “green,” too!

Depending on the frame that you chose, this is where you should paint if you desire.  I used three coats of Sherwin Williams latex wall paint to cover my frame, allowing about 20-30 minutes between coats for drying time.  I let it sit for another 3 or so hours to make sure all of the nooks and crannies were dry.

Next, I measured my foam core board and used a t-frame ruler to cut it with an X-Acto knife to perfectly fit it into the back of the frame.  I left about a millimeter of space around the perimeter so that it would not be too tight to fit into the frame once I wrapped it with fabric.

Next, I laid the cork squares down on the foam board using the included mounting tape that came with the cork.  It is important that you use either mounting tape or some kind of double stick adhesive.  Cork is obviously very porous and therefore not ideal to use with glue or a glue gun (this equals a mess). Once you have the foam board covered entirely with the cork squares, once again use your X-Acto knife to cut off the excess cork that is overhanging the side and bottom.

Now, you are ready to add the fabric.  I used a technique that I found to be very easy and almost foul-proof.  I laid the foam board cork-side down on the backside of the fabric, being careful to lay evenly on the pattern so it wasn’t traveling diagonal down the board or skewed to the side.  Once I was comfortable with the placement, I used straight pins to hold it in place on the foam board.  I moved around the board, making sure it was pulled nice and tight.  (These colored top straight pins also looked cute as push pins when I was finished).

Once it was completely pinned, I did one last check to make sure that: (1) It fit into the frame and (2) the fabric was lined up evenly with no bumps or gaps.

Once I was good to go, it was time to get permanent.  I removed the pins one at a time and hot glue gunned the fabric onto the back of the foam board, going around the edges only.

Finally I placed the fabric-covered board into the frame and secured it by going around the back perimeter with a staple gun.

I simply hung the frame on the wall, and my new fabric-covered corkboard was ready for organizing notes, photos, and all of those other little pieces of paper.  No more clutter in my kitchen!

Rolled Fabric Roses Bib Necklace by Jenny Barnett Rohrs of CraftTestDummies.com

Bold is IN- and you’ll make a statement with this stunning bib! I used black stones, but you could use any color that matches your outfit.

You will need:

• (6) Scraps of Silk (each 1 ½ x 18 inches)
• (2) 6 x 9 inch Pieces of Felt
• Cuttlebug Embossing Machine and Nestabilities Dies (optional)
• Large Black Oval Faceted Sliders
• Medium Black Oval Faceted Slider Beads 
• Black Rectangle Faceted Slider Beads
• Black Diamond Shaped Faceted Slider Beads 
• 12 inches of 5/8 inch Black Ribbon
• Signed Sealed and Remembered™ Black Chain Necklace
• 7.25mm Black Chain Maille Jump Rings 
• Darice Dual Temp Hot Glue Gun 
• Glue Sticks 
• Needle and thread
• Scissors
• Darice 3-in-1 Jewelry Pliers 

Start by making 4-6 fabric roses (click here to see the original flower tutorial):

I don’t like to cut with scissors, so I start by ripping strips of fabric- plus, i like the raw, thready edges. But you could use scissors, a rotary cutter, or even pinking shears to get different looks. Experiment! Then cut some circles (or flower shapes) from your felt. I made a number of 2-4 inch shapes with my Cuttlebug because it’s so fast and easy, and the Nestabilities cut the stiffened felt beautifully. I like the stiff felt because it makes such a nice base for your flowers!

Start by gluing your jewel or rhinestone into the center of your felt circle. (I think these ones by Darice are amazing!) Next, trim the end of your fabric strip at an angle.

Next, place a dab of hot glue next to the jewel and press the point of the fabric strip into it. Let it cool and set up a bit. When it’s secure, start twisting the strip. Add a dab of glue every quarter inch or so, and press the twisted fabric into the glue.

 Continue until the felt is completely covered. To secure the ends, just flip the flower over, trim the excess, and glue the ends down on the back:

When the flowers are finished, arrange them on your second piece of felt in a teardrop shape, as shown:

Hot glue your roses down onto the felt, and add extra marquise gems to fill in some of the gaps, if desired. When it is cool, use your scissors to cut the shape out.  Then hot glue the ribbon to the underside of the pointy end of the teardrop. 

To prepare that black chain to attach, cut it apart as shown:

Sew the shorter length of chain to the top of the roses portion using needle and thread. Sew the longer part of the chain to the lower portion of the bib, leaving a 4-link “dangle.” Use a coordinating 7.25 mm jump ring to attach both loose pieces of chain in the back, and re-attach the lobster claw clasp before closing the jump ring

To finish it off, open a jump ring and slide on the extender that was left over from the chain. Now, put on your piece and determine how you’d like it to hang on your body.  (I just tried it on and pinched the ribbon where I determined that it was the right length.) Fold the ribbon over, slide on the jump ring, and use a few stitches to secure. You’ll still have some flexibility with the extender to accommodate different necklines.

And there you have it – a unique, bold and beautiful statement piece!

How cool are these robots?!

Source: Crafty Pod 

Placemat for him--with napkin pocket!

Source: Etsy Seller Kapricholandia

Adorable blocks--and baby!

Source: Roots and Wings Co.

Pretty and crafty canvas box

Source: Craftzine Blog

A fully functioning toy dump truck!

Source: Seven Thirty Three

We think it’s time to take the “granny craft” connotation out of plastic canvas!  What modern twist do YOU think you could give to plastic canvas?

ConsumerCrafts has a large selection of plastic canvas in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes.  While you’re there, don’t forget to check out our yarn and needle categories.

To do this project, you’ll need:

• Yudu Personal Screen Printer & accessories
• Blank Emulsions for screen
• Silver Metallic Yudu Ink
• Cricut Expression
• Holiday Cakes Cartridge

Here’s how I did it: using the Cricut Cake Holiday Cakes Cartridge, I found one that of the images on page 57 of the manual  had some great snowflakes as a layer.

So, using my Cricut Expression, I cut out the snowflakes using the “fit to page option” (which cut them at 9-1/4″) and placed the snowflakes here and there on the light table of my YUDU to be burned into my screen, making sure to really use all of the entire space of the emulsion screen.

Once you’ve burned the image into your screen, washed off the unexposed emulsion, and dried the screen, you’re ready to print (follow the directions in your manual.) I used the Silver Metallic YUDU ink for this project. Removing the protective paper from the sticky part of the platten, place your linen down on the sticky platten.  Protect any exposed areas of the platten from the ink with some extra scraps of fabric, and screen print the snowflakes all over your table runner or napkins.

Once you’ve finished make sure to heat set the ink with an iron set on high for at least two minutes, to permanently set the ink. A quick and easy way to decorate for the Holidays with the YUDU.

Using one of their available screens, you apply an emulsion sheet with water and let it dry in one of the housing spaces within the YUDU. To speed up the drying process, there is a fan inside the machine.

Once dry, you expose the light sensitive emulsion screen to any design you choose and “burn” the image into the screen. Once you rinse away the unexposed parts of the screen and dry it off, you’re ready to screen print.

Using any of the inks – which can be mixed to achieve different custom colors – you print right onto any object that fits under the screen. Fabrics, paper, anything up to about a 2 ½ inch thickness.

The YUDU inks are water soluble so if you’re not happy with your first print out, you can wash the ink off and go at it again. The screens can be cleaned free of any emulsion with the available emulsion remover and be reused, or you can save your screen with the design for printing at another time. When you’re all done you can put up to two screens in the machine for easy accessible storage.

Make sure you check out ConsumerCrafts.com for a full selection of Yudu Accessories, too!

Supplies:

• 10” Grapevine Wreath
• Darice Pom Pom Maker Set
• 3-5 Colors of Yarn
• Tapestry Needles
• Craft Wire - I used 26 Gauge Brown
• Assorted Miniature Flocked Deer

Begin by choosing how many colors of yarn – I wouldn’t recommend too many colors.  I chose three pretty colors that were perfect for a fall wreath.

Choose your pom pom size- The Darice pom pom maker set I used came with three tool sizes – small, medium and large.  I used a combination of all three.  (There is a review and a video tutorial on how to use them HERE.) I did feel the medium was the easiest to use.  It was kind of hard to get the fullness I was looking to achieve with the large.   To fill my 10 inch wreath nice and full, I made around 40 pom poms total.  Bonus: this was the perfect time to catch up with my DVR!

The Darice pom pom makers were very easy to use once I got the hang of it.  It only took a couple before I was cranking them out.  Basically, you wind the yarn through the notches on the plastic, then wrap like crazy around the middle.

*Hint* the thicker you wrap = the fuller the pom pom.  Tie off ends that you had notched and use sharp scissors to cut up the side of the plastic. 

Remove and “puff” out.  So easy, I had my 9 year old doing quality pom-poms too.

Attach pom pom’s one section at a time by tying onto the wreath using the longer yarn pieces that you used to tie off the pom pom.  On some of mine, these weren’t long enough so I poked craft wire through the pom pom and attached to the wreath by twisting the wire.

Once the wreath is at your desired fullness, you can add your flocked deer.  I did this by poking the back of them with the tapestry needle threaded with craft wire.  I pulled the wire through and wired them into the desired place on the wreath.

Need some more inspiration?  Here are a couple more wreaths that inspired me:

Nature’s Heirloom Fall Pom Pom Wreath

The Yokoo Soopa Pompom Christmas Wreath by Urban Outfitters

And don’t forget that we also have a tutorial on how to make a Pom Pom Garland, too!

From Scissors.Paper.Wok. Blog

You’ll need:

• Shrink Film
• Permanent Markers
• 1/8 hole punch for the holes
• 3″ circle punch for the buttons
• Heat Tool (optional)

The full tutorial is in the link above- but it’s really simple. I bet you can even stamp on the shrink film using alchohol-based markers like PrismaColor markers, and then make your buttons. I might add a quick coat of Krylon triple-thick after they’ve been shrunk down just to make sure the image won’t rub off over time.

What kind of buttons would YOU make?

Materials Needed:

• 12 x 15 inch dark brown luxury fur (2 sheets)
• 12 x 15 inch black luxury fur
• D-Rings or Key Rings
• Black Belting or 2.5″ Black Satin Ribbon
• Sewing Machine or Hand-Stitch

Instructions:

1. Begin with two sheets of the brown luxury fur and one sheet of the black luxury craft fur.

2. Cut two matching brown sheets of fur for your messenger bag.  Cut the sheets a little bit bigger than the size of the bag to account for your hems when you stitch them together.  Cut a pocket from the black fur.  Finish the edges of the pocket by folding a .5″ hem along all the sides.  Sew the hems and then attach the pocket to the front fur piece.   Place the two brown pieces together (fur sides facing in) and sew the sides and the bottom.  Inside out the bag.

3. Sew a finishing hem along the top of the bag.

4. To attach your purse handle first sew either D-Rings (or an easy alternative is key rings) along the inside edge of the purse.

5. Attach either cotton belting, cording, or satin ribbon through the d-rings.  Sew the ends to the sides of the belting to complete the purse handles.

6. Your messenger bag is complete!

Consumer Crafts sells a large selection of Darice Luxury Craft Fur in both large 12X15 inch pieces as well as 9X12 inch sizes.

They sell the large size in three different colors: black, white, and brown. The fur is a soft, thick pile perfect for plush animals, hats, capes, and coats.

They also sell the smaller 9X12 pieces in the following colors:

• black
• pink
• yellow
• fawn
• red
• dark brown
• kelly green
• pink
• silver
• white
• orange

There is literally a color for every occasion! The craft fur is 60% Acrylic, the backing is a stiff 4o% Modacrylic and it is 100% Polyester.

Here is a back view of the fur.

If you have never worked with craft fur before there are several things that you need to be aware of before sewing or cutting it.  Before cutting or sewing the craft fur you have to identify the nap of the fur.  Run your hand over the fur to smooth it and lay it flat.  The direction that the fur lays smoothly is the direction of the nap.  The direction of the nap of the fur is very important because you have to be mindful of it when you are cutting out your pattern.  You want to cut the pattern pieces out in the direction the nap should be going.   For instance, you wouldn’t want one side or your plush animal having fur going in an upward direction while the other half of the plush animal has fur going in the opposite direction.

When cutting craft fur never cut through the fur but rather just cut through the backing.  Use very sharp scissors to carefully cut the backing while leaving as much of the fur as you can in place.  If you cut the fur, as well, you have bald spots in your design.  When laying out your design pattern use chalk to trace your pattern on the back of the craft fur.  The chalk works to mark the stiff backing of the fur and it is easy to view when cutting.

When sewing the fur try to pull the fur away from the edge.  Sew slowly pushing the fur back towards the inside of the project and away from the edge of the seam.   If fur does become trapped in the seam once you have stuffed and formed your plush animal use a small embroidery crochet hook or yarn needle to pull the trapped fur fibers loose from the seams.

Craft fur is a very versatile material and can be used for many different projects.  Craft fur is amazing for plush animals, winter hats and mittens, fur fashion accessories, or adding extra style to shirt or sweater collars for a whole new chic look! Perfect for Halloween costumes, too. What will YOU make with Craft Fur?

Materials:

• White cotton Tote Bag (natural color works, the color of the paint change slightly)
• Tulip fabric spray paint
• Tulip fabric markers
• Any extra embellishments you’d like to add

How to make your own book bag tote:

1. Prepare work area by covering with plastic. Make sure you were your paint clothes as this will stain if you get it on your clothing.
2. To leave a white area for text, cover area with packing tape and then spray.
3. Using the spray paint, layer colors as you’d like, first on the front, let dry and then on the bag.
4. Once the spray paint is dry, remove tape. Decorate with markers as desired. Let dry.

That’s it – you can create all kinds of personalized tote bags with this fun paint!

A few extra ideas:

• Use fabric scraps that you paint to create fun embellishments and add ons. Glue them on using a fabric glue.
• Mix and match colors, experiment with how close or far you hold the sprayer, and even try using stencils to create some neat effects to your pieces.
• Use these same paints on all kinds of clothing or fabric items.
• Make sure to always use the spray paints in a well covered area so as not to damage furniture or clothing with paint sprays.