We came across this gorgeous Doily/Lace Lamp from Dos Family and couldn’t help but share it with you! Using only a few supplies, including doilies, a balloon and wallpaper glue, you can create a chic and timeless decoration for your home! To see the tutorial on how to make this doily lamp, CLICK HERE.

Note: we would suggest using an LED light instead of a regular light bulb.

CLICK HERE to check out our great selection of doilies!

I am a huge fan of pennant banners. I have used triangles, circles, and traditional pennant shapes. By simply mixing up the materials and themes you can make one for any occasion. When I saw the Darice Chipboard Alphabet Letters I knew that they were meant to be on a Valentine’s Day pennant banner.

Supplies:

• Natural Burlap Fabric Piece – 22 x 35 in
• Mod Podge – Gloss
• Martha Stewart Crafts Glitter Multi-Pack 24 Count
• Darice Chipboard Alphabet Letters – 3 in
• Twine
• Foam Brush
• Scissors
• Hot Glue Gun & Glue

I grabbed 4 of the chipboard letters and spelled out “LOVE.” I love the shapes and style of these letters so much.  I spread Mod Podge over the fronts of the chipboard letters and sprinkled some red glitter until they were completely covered. Once it was dry I added another layer of Mod Podge to seal in the glitter.

Then I cut out four pennant shapes out of the burlap. For the most part, I just eyeballed how big I wanted them to be and cut away. They measure about 5 inches across and 7 inches down. Once I had a rectangle shape, I cut an inverted “V” into the bottom of the pennants.

I attached the glittered letters to the middle of each burlap pennant with hot glue. I also attached some twine to the tops of the pennants. I folded over the tops of the burlap just slightly so it would wrap around the twine and then I secured it by hot gluing the twine to the burlap. Just make sure that you evenly space each pennant as you’re gluing.

Now all that’s left is finding a place to hang up your new Valentine’s banner. Make sure to leave enough twine on the ends so you can securely hang it.

I love how the sparkly red letters look against the rustic natural burlap. It’s the perfect mesh of old and new!

It’s such a simple project but makes a huge statement in your home. If you like, you can mix up the colors to match your home’s style and décor. The burlap is easily paintable and the glitter comes in an array of colors. The possibilities are endless!

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Thank you to Courtney from A Diamond in the Stuff for this guest post! 

Supplies:

• Core’dinations 12″ x 12″ Paper – WhiteWash Collection – Color: Barn Siding  – Pack of 20 Sheets (available through our customer service department at 1-888-552-7238)
• 10” Straw Wreath
• Poly Satin Ribbon in Ivory
• 6″ White Sparkle Tulle
• Hot Glue Gun & Glue
• Spray Adhesive
• Martha Stewart Fine Crystal Glitter

I used my paper trimmer to cut the 12″ x 12″ sheets into four equal 6″ x 6″ squares.  I then made a template of a circle on each one (I traced around a CD, but it doesn’t need to be exact by any means).  I then tore out the circles by hand.  Because the paper has a color core, it gives a great antique look when torn.  For an even more antiqued look, sand the circle to distress it and reveal more of the Core’dinations ColorCore center.

To turn these imperfect circles into flowers you want to start at the outer edge and carefully rip them into a spiral.  It is helpful to keep the size of the spiral consistent, so you might want to pencil in the spiral shape before you start tearing.  This process took a while, but it’s an easy one to do while you catch up on some TV.

Next you can start rolling the roses.  Start rolling the flower beginning with the outside edge.  Roll as tightly as possible, keeping the bottom edge aligned at all times.  You can either roll the white or the deep red side toward the inside.  I did both and mixed them up.

When the flower is rolled completely tight, carefully pinch together, then let it go and it will spring into shape. 

You can experiment with how much you want it to open up and manipulate it to how you like.  When you get the rose to its desired size, hot glue the base together.  For more rolled paper rose techniques, click HERE.

Once you have all of your roses assembled, line them up on a piece of newspaper or a drop cloth and lightly spray with the spray adhesive.  While the roses are still tacky with the adhesive, sprinkle them with the Martha Stewart Glitter.  I love, love, love Martha glitter so I used a heavy hand.  Obviously the glitter is not necessary, but even if you don’t glitter them, you will want to give them a little spray just to keep the roses in place.

Next, while your roses dry (about 15 mins) wrap your straw wreath with the satin ribbon.  I like the one I used by Darice, because it is not slippery – it is more of a floral ribbon.  Hot glue the ribbon into place.  Warning- the wreath will shed some, don’t be alarmed.  The ribbon will keep it from continuing to shed. 

Start to assemble your roses onto the wreath.  This part is like a puzzle.  I just kept fitting them in and once I found a spot I liked, I hot glued it in.

Continue to place roses until you have the desired fullness.  You will be surprised by the weight of the overall wreath (that’s a lot of heavy cardstock!).  Overall I used about  75 roses on a 10” wreath.  I added a white tulle bow to hang and finish it off beautifully!

Voila!  This wreath is not only perfect for Valentine’s Day but versatile enough to stay up all year-round!

Completed Canvas

Artograph projector

Supplies:

• Artograph Projector
• Porcelain Paint Well
• Darice Short Handle Flats
• Darice 16×20″ Prestretched Canvas
• Studio 71 Acrylic Paint
• Pencil and Image of Your Choice

Image projected on canvas

 Use a pencil to trace the image.  If you want to get really creative, you can use watercolor pencils to trace the image.  Use colors that coordinate with the paint you intend to use.  The watercolor pencil lines will blend in with wet paint.

Image traced on canvas

First stroke on canvas

Partially painted canvas

 The Artograph is truly an awesome tool and the possibilities are endless!

We would like to thank everyone who entered our Get Organized giveaway and showed us a picture of their {messy} craft space!  We loved seeing all of the work spaces and it was very hard to pick just one winner…so we picked our top 5 spaces that we thought needed the most organizational help (in no particular order):

                           Rise’ St Arno’s photo submitted through Facebook:                       

Amanda Haynes’ photo submitted through Facebook: 

Virginia Burnett’s photo from Dare’s Designz’s: 

 Cathy Derouche’s photo from Cathyplus5:

 Maria Soto’s photo submitted through Facebook:

We then turned to random.org to pick the grand prize winner.  And the winner is…AMANDA HAYNES! Amanda will receive $150 worth of storage products to help get her craft space in order.  The other four ladies deserve an honorable mention and will also receive a storage gift to help get them started on the road to organizational recovery.

My messy craft bin in need of organization

Worse, I have discovered that I have accumulated a lot of duplicates.  Case in point:  I counted 14 different orange colored pencils in just the single supply tub I’ve been showing on these posts.  FOURTEEN!  Aside from the amount of money I’ve wasted buying things I already owned–I’m trying not to think about that–why would I ever need that many different orange colored pencils?!

Yep, fourteen!

Clearly, when it comes to colored pencils, out of sight means out of mind to me.  So I decided that I need to keep my colored pencils in view on my desk.  There are some great multi-compartment desktop solutions, like the Storganizer, but I wanted to stick with smaller, individual containers that I can rearrange at will depending on my current project.  Darice makes these cute See-thru Storage Paint Cans in two different sizes, and the larger one is perfect for pens, pencils, brushes and the like.

My messy bin of supplies is now neat and accessible!

You can decorate the cans if you want–I recommend making liners that you can switch out when the mood strikes–but I’m leaving mine undecorated for now.  I already have some brightly colored plant pots on my desk, and the colored pencils, brushes and other supplies provide just enough additional color without making me crazy.

Next week, we’ll discuss other storage solutions, including larger and specialty organizers. (And I’ll show you where all of those duplicate colored pencils ended up!)  And remember, whether you have a whole craft room in need of reorganization, or simply a small box like this…

… you can share a picture of it to be entered into our GO Giveaway contest to win a $150 storage & organization prize package!  The contest deadline is 9am on Tuesday, January 10th.  For directions on how to enter, visit this post.

We’ve posted many different organizational posts here on Crafts Unleashed, but this great “Studio Sneak Peek” post from Jenny at Craft Test Dummies remains a reader favorite.  Jenny has a lot of space, but she works with many different mediums so she has a lot of craft supplies to store. Here’s a look at just one corner in Jenny’s inspirational studio:

If you’re ready to make your own crafting space more organized and efficient, check out our Tips on Getting Started post from earlier this week… and make sure that you enter our GO Giveaway while you’re there!  (The $150 prize package would definitely help you begin to restore order to your personal craft stash!)

Yes, I said that this is the fun part… because if you’re anything like me, you’ll find a few things that you forgot you even had.  It’s like finding a bonus craft supply order in your mailbox!

My Fun Finds: A package of barely-used Crayola Gem Tones that dates back to my high school days, more charcoal pencils than I care to admit, and a great metallic silver pencil.

The Sorting Test: 2 Key Questions

Fun aside, there is definitely some work to be done, too. Know how the experts tell you to go through your closet and organize your clothes into Save, Fix and Toss piles?  You will be doing something similar with your crafting supplies.  Set aside a spot for each of your organizational sections, a trash bag, and 2 additional piles:  Things to Fix, and Things to Donate.

Bonus tip:  Set a pen and a “Craft Supplies I Need to Buy” list next to the trash bag. Lists like these keep me from sitting down in a month to work on something and discovering that I don’t actually have that gorilla glue I was planning to use anymore.

Go through your stash and assign each item to a pile.  If an item could possibly fit into two different organizational sections, put it in the pile that you think you will use more often. (You can always move it later.) As you sort your craft supplies this way, make sure to ask yourself two key questions about each item:

1. Is this item in good working order?
2. Is it still useful for my crafting needs?

Some of the items that failed the test questions.

If a craft supply or tool is not in good working order, you need to decide whether it is worth fixing or needs to be thrown out. Place broken but fixable items in their own pile–you’ll want to deal with those as soon as the sorting is finished. Some things, like the broken pencils above, will simply need to be sharpened or cleaned up. You should properly dispose of anything that is in such poor condition that it is dangerous or unusable.

The permanently stiff paint brush is at the end of its useful life and needs to be thrown out. The X-Acto knife will get a replacement blade.

Items that fail the personal usefulness test are a lot trickier. If they are items that you couldn’t easily replace or might occasionally use, store them appropriately. I have one box in the back my closet that contains these types of tools and supplies, and I taped a list of its contents on the outside of the box to remind me what’s inside. I’m putting a few other items in a separate box with a deadline for using them.

If the item in question is usable but belongs to a project that you have abandoned and cannot be repurposed, don’t be afraid to get rid of it. Offer these items to a fellow crafter, consider selling them singly or as a destash lot on Etsy, or inquire with your local art teachers and after-school community groups to see if they can use them as supplies.

The Crayola Gem Tones crayons are on a short leash: If they don't inspire me to use them within 6 months, they're gone!

Once you have everything sorted, get to work fixing those items that are broken but salvageable. Sharpen your pencils, clean your tools, and get everything ready to be organized… tips for that will come in the next post!

Remember, we’re giving away $150 worth of storage and organization solutions in our GO Giveaway! You could win… find out how to enter here.

Here are a few tips on getting started, followed by details on our $150 GO Giveaway for one lucky crafter!

Craft Supply Organization:  First, Make a Plan

It can be tempting to just dive in, but even a little bit of planning will help you in the long run.  Having an action plan gives you a feeling of capability–and also keeps you from wasting your effort on an organization system that won’t work for you.  So before you begin your organization project, ask yourself the following questions:

Question #1:  What kind of space do I have available?

Some crafters are lucky enough to have a whole room to devote to crafting, while others can only dedicate a shelf or two. Knowing how much space you have to work with will help you figure out how best to use it.

Just one of my many craft supply tubs in need of organization.

Question #2:  Where do I expect to find the craft supplies that I need?

This question is the most important one in terms of figuring out how to best organize your supplies.  If you expect to find your acid-free paper in an organizer along with all of your other scrapbooking supplies, then you probably want to organize your supplies mostly by craft.  However, if you expect to find all of your papers together, no matter whether they are meant for scrapbooking or watercolor painting, then you may want to organize your supplies by item type instead.

Don’t be afraid to combine approaches!  If you mostly make jewelry, you might keep your jewelry supplies in one location while the rest of your crafting supplies are mixed together on a different shelf.  If you store all of your papers in a tiered paper organizer, you can still mark the shelves so you know to keep the acid-free scrapbooking papers together on the top 3 rows.  Many people organize tools and other multi-use supplies in a separate location from their other crafting supplies, too.

The key is that there is no “wrong” or “right” way to organize your craft supplies. If a particular system works for you, it’s the one you should keep using!

GO Giveaway: Get Organized with $150 of Organization & Storage Products from ConsumerCrafts!

Working on getting your craft supplies organized in 2012? Show & tell your biggest storage or organization challenge, and you could win a $150 prize package to help you get started on a solution! We will choose a winner from all submissions we receive by 9am on Tuesday, January 10th. Share your submission one of three ways:

• Comment here with a link to your blog post
• Comment here with a link to your photo and description on Flickr, Photobucket, etc.
• Share your photo and explanation via Facebook

Christmas ribbon hair bows are perfect for holiday gifts or to put the finishing touch on a holiday outfit.  Create many different sized and style bows depending on age or occasion.  Large loopy bows look gorgeous for holiday pictures.  Or two small matching little bows are perfect for little girl’s pig-tails.

To make Christmas hair bows you will need:

• Mini Bowdabra
• Hair Bow Tool & Ruler (comes with Interactive Hair Bow Making CD)
• Bowdabra Bow Wire
• Assorted Ribbon
• Assorted Hair Bow Clips
• Seamstress Tape
• Fray Check, Lighter, or Clear Nail Polish for sealing the ribbon

Instructions:

1. Begin with Bowdabra Bow Wire, Mini Bowdabra, Hair Bow Tool & Ruler, and Interactive CD.

2. To make bows place the Hair Bow Tool & Ruler onto the Mini Bowdabra.  Cut a piece of 18″ Bowdabra Bow Wire and fold it in half and place it into the Mini Bowdabra.

3. Next, using the ribbon length chart in the Bowdabra Interactive Hair Bow Making CD cut the ribbon for the hair bow style you would like to make.  The first bow I made was a Basic Bow with 6 loops.  I cut the ribbon according to the chart and then followed the instructions for making the hair bow.

4. Finish the bow according to the CD’s instructions.   I made a large bow so the hardware I chose was a 2″ french hair clip that I attached to the bow using the Bowdabra Bow Wire.

5. Create small pigtail hair bows for the holidays.  Use the Bowdabra ruler to create smaller size loops.  Using the ribbon length chart on the Bowdabra Interactive CD cut the ribbon to make small 3″ wide boutique bows.  Add a ribbon tail to the top of the bow.   I made two matching boutique bows with a ribbon tail on the top.

6. Attach small alligator clips to the hair bows using the Bowdabra Bow Wire.

7. Design two bows, one on top of the other for a large full bow.  Cut ribbon for a 4″ wide Quad Loop Pinwheel Bow and a 3″ Boutique Bow.  I used two holiday colors to coordinate with one of my daughter’s Christmas dresses.

8. Attach a hair clip to the bow using the Bowdabra Bow Wire.  Clip the extra wire away.

9. Once the hair bows are attached to the hair clips the bow can be complete.  However, you can add a finishing ribbon to the center of the hair bows to cover the wire.  The Interactive Hair Bow Making CD has an entire chapter on how to finish hair bows.  I added finishing ribbon to all of my bows but the large red one.  The large one I thought looked nice with a touch of gold wire in the center.

I hope this tutorial has inspired you to purchase the Hair Bow Making Tool & Ruler along with the Mini Bowdabra to create your own hair bows for the holidays.  The Hair Bow Making CD provides over 500 interactive pages for making 70 different hair bows.  The CD has 12 chapters and covers hair bow making from beginning to end. 

Happy Holidays! ~ Sarah Forhan