Category Archives: Crafts

Honey Bear Bottle Crafts – Recycling Craft

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After you look at these clever honey bear bottle crafts, you’ll never throw out a honey bear bottle again. The thought of plastic in landfills and floating in our waterways gives me the shivers, that’s why I really like these recycling crafts projects.

honey bear bottle crafts - recycling crafts

I think these are all beary good ideas!

  1. Honey Bear Bottle Bubble Favors - what a great party giveaway.
  2. Gold Leaf Honey Bear Bottles – these are pretty enough to keep for yourself, but wouldn’t they make a nice gift?
  3. Honey Bear Bottle Lamp – it gives off soothing light, perfect for a baby’s room.
  4. Honey Bear Candy Favors – another great party giveaway
  5. Honey Bear Get Well Kit – yes, this isn’t a recycled bear, but I thought it was a good use of a new one. If someone gave this gift to me, I’d perk right up!
  6. Honey Bear Bottle Opener – use the honey bear as a mold to create something practical. Maybe you can use this idea and mold bears for some other purpose. Garden bears?

Jester Hat Pattern – Knit, Crochet, or Sew a Jester Hat

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April Fool’s Day is just around the corner. It’s not really a day one thinks to celebrate in any particular way, other than playing a few minor jokes on friends and family. Why not make it more celebratory? There’s a jester hat pattern below ready for you to knit, crochet, or sew for yourself or someone else. Have a little fun, why don’t you?

jester hat pattern

Here is a guide to the FREE patterns above:

  1. Jingle Jester Baby Hat (knitting)
  2. Silly Court Jester/Elf Hat (crochet) – Ravelry link
  3. Fleece Jester Hat (sewing)
  4. B14-28 Hat (knitting) – Ravelry link
  5. Jester Hat (sewing)
  6. Jester Hat (crochet) – Ravelry link

Need a few harmless practical jokes to play? Here’s a few I’ve culled from the WWW.

  • Add a few drops of green or red food coloring to a carton of milk.
  • Superglue a few coins to the sidewalk or any spot that has a lot of people walking around.
  • Go into your spouse’s closet and steal one of each of their shoes. Watch them frantically try to find a match.
  • Balance a small disposable cup of water on the top of a partially open door and then wait for the splash.
  • Purchase some realistic-looking insects and place the creepy crawlers in ice cubes, socks, shoes, food, etc.

The point is to have fun without being mean or doing harm. Use your imagination!

Summer Crochet Patterns for Women

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Well, it’s time to start thinking about what you’re going to crochet for summer. Here are six summer crochet patterns I like. I’m a big fan of Linda Permann’s designs; three of the patterns below were designed by her. I hope there is a pattern here that you like.

Summer Crochet Patterns

I’ve listed links below to the crochet patterns.

28-9 Cotton Smile Vest

Chanson En Crochet

Orchid Lace Top

Pretty Petals Top by Linda Permann

Traveling Tank by Linda Permann

Gidget Tee by Linda Permann

I’m eager to crochet something in red, and I really like the Gidget Tee. I’ll have to think about what colors to choose for that pattern. What do you plan to crochet before summer arrives?

Upcycle a Canvas Tote and Tablecloth into a Pillow

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Why don’t you upcycle a canvas tote (or two) into a pillow? If you’re like me, you have a few canvas totes tucked away in a closet or drawer. If you don’t have a tote to upcycle, upcycle a tablecloth that has a pattern you like. I’ve re-purposed a tote and tablecloth for this pillow project.

Upcycle a canvas tote

Since the canvas tote was picked up in Amsterdam, the front of this pillow is a bit risqué; however, the other side is very tame. Each side of the pillow has its own personality!

My pillow form was 18×18 inches wide. After cutting the tote, I was left with a 14×14 inches wide image; therefore, I had to widen the sides to match the width of the pillow (plus 1-inch extra for 1/2-inch seams). I followed a great tutorial for adding sides to a square and mitering corners (picture-frame style). All corners of the pillow match – a miracle! The tutorial is very helpful!

Upcycle a tablecloth

I recycled a tablecloth to make the back of the pillow.

I love this tablecloth fabric, and its colors match those on the other side. Normally, I would have sewn a zipper into the bottom seam, but I did not have a zipper on hand that was the right color or length, so I sewed up the seam by hand. Here is an easy to follow tutorial for adding a zipper to a pillow cover. Zippered covers make cleaning so much easier.

My next project is to sew a smaller pillow with more of the recycled tablecloth material and red corduroy fabric. I’ll also add piping. I’ll let you know when that’s done.

If you recycle a canvas tote into a pillow, share a link in the comments section. I’d love to see what you’ve done.

How to Make and Dye T-Shirt Yarn

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how to make t-shirt yarn

I followed this tutorial at Craft Passion for making t-shirt yarn. I want to emphasize a few points.

  • T-shirts must have seamless sides. Women’s t-shirts, for the most part, have seams because they are made to fit a woman’s curves. This means when you’re searching for t-shirts to transform into seamless yarn, you’ll most likely have to use men’s t-shirts.
  • The bigger the t-shirt the better – more yarn for you!
  • You’ll only get variety in color if you dye white shirts. Men’s white t-shirts are the easiest to come by.
  • Dying t-shirts takes some time if you’re making a lot of colors. You have to dye and then wash the material. Providing a first washing will prevent horrible color bleeding later.
  • I practiced on a shirt with side seams before I began cutting on a t-shirt with seamless sides. If you practice first then you won’t waste a good shirt.
  • See the Craft Passion tutorial for other helpful tips.

Dying the T-shirts

Fabric Dye for Cotton

I found dye at JoAnn on sale (see brand above). It made really beautiful colors that kept their intensity after washing. If you choose this dye, you’ll need salt to add to the washing machine when you create the colors. Since I was doing small loads, I reduced the amount of salt used. Make sure you have a least a carton or two if you’re going to use this brand.

Tips:

  • Cut away the portions of the t-shirt you don’t need before dying. It’s best not to reduce the material to yarn – if you do that, you’ll have to hand dye. That will be time-consuming and messy.
  • Dye lighest to darkest in your washing machine. Then you won’t have to rinse out the machine in between dyes. I ran 5 colors (beginning with yellow and ending with purple); therefore, at the end my machine was quite colorful. That’s easy to fix – run a large load of water and a cup of bleach. Wipe down any exterior components with a mixture of water and bleach (or use a cleaning product that has bleach).
  • Dye then dry. I hung the material to dry. Keep colors away from each other. I chose this option because I was doing so many colors. If you’re doing one color and a bunch of t-shirts, use the dryer.

  • After the material is dry, wash, and then dry.
  • Once the material is dry, you’re ready to make yarn.

I plan on using the t-shirt yarn I’ve created to crochet a colorful rug to put in the kitchen or in a bathroom. Visit later to get the pattern. As of July 16, 2012 – completed rug pattern available.

Easy Knitted Sweater Vest for Spring

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This pattern is from Knit Tricks by Rebecca Wat. It is the second vest I’ve knitted using a pattern provided in the book. You can see the first vest I knitted here.

I altered the instructions a bit and did something different with the neckline. I did not like the droopiness of the original neckline, so I gathered it with a cord of similar color and added wooden beads to the end of the cord. I like this finished look. Also, this makes the vest easy to get on and off, and I can adjust how taut I want to cinch the top.

I used 4 skeins of Naturally Caron Joy! for the knitted sweater vest. The color is Aquatica (0007). I really like this color blue. This yarn is soft and light, and it blocked so nicely. I used #8 circular needles (28 in.). The vest is made of two rectangles (alternating several rows of garter stitch with a few rows of stockinette) stitched at the sides to create holes for arms and neck.

Blanket Stitched and Stuffed Paper Valentines

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Stitching on Paper

Materials for Stuffed and Stitched Paper Valentines:

  • Scrapbook paper (with a printed design on both sides)
  • Scissors
  • Embroidery thread (do not separate – use all 6 strands)
  • Embroidery needle (a thimble may come in handy too)
  • Ribbon
  • Glue gun with glue sticks
  • Polyester fiber fill
  • Heart shapes template

Create stuffed paper valentinesInstructions:

  1. Use the template to cut out hearts. One sheet of scrapbook paper should allow you to make 3 stuffed hearts, one large and two small. You’ll cut out two large hearts and four small hearts.
  2. For all: place two heart shapes together and proceed to blanket stitch around the edges. About 1.5 inches from completing the round, take a bit of fiber fill and stuff the heart. Don’t over stuff. Make sure filling reaches all areas of the heart. When you’ve completed stuffing the valentine heart, continue with blanket stitching on paper to the end.
  3. Use ribbon to make bows and attach the bows with hot glue.