I'm Creating!

Coming soon to Caitlin Crafting:

How I turned a pair of jeans into a purse

and

How to make jewelry out of keyboard keys

Autumn is Falling All Around!

My poor coffee table has turned orange, gold, and yellow.This past month I've become obsessed with Dollar Tree and the sheer amount of crafts I can create for cheap-cheap-cheap!

((As an aside, www.dollarstorecrafts.com is an a-maz-ing source of inspiration!))

I've created flower hair accessories for care packages sent off to Korea and Arizona much like this one I created tonight:

Items Needed:

• Faux Flower ($1 at Dollar Tree!)
• Hot Glue & Hot Glue Gun
• Hair Accessory (headband, hair scrunchy, bobby pin, barrette-- or even a pin, making it a brooch!)

To create:

1. Remove a faux flower from its stem; completely take it apart
2. Using the hot glue gun, glue the flower petals together in the center
3. You have options in the center: glue down the original center of the flower, or a grouping of beads, make a ribbon bow, whatever makes you happy! Pictured is the original flower center.
4. Glue (or even sew) your flower to your hair accessory or pin

These flowers are so easy to make, so pretty, and so customizable!

Wear a lot of purple? Make a purple flower!

Want to make a bigger statement? Add in feathers, beads, ribbons as fascinators!

In addition, these flowers can be used to create a lovely Fall wreath with a little creative ribboning.

To create a wreath, such as the one I created tonight pictured above, I found and used a tutorial here. I was able to create this wreath for $6 at Dollar Tree plus the cost of a wreath form ($3 at Michael's)

Take a Vote, Choose the Style!

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Nothing is attached. All pictures taken by creative folding and placing.

I personally prefer 4, 5, and 6.

2 is meant to be more lacy-leaf shaped, but creative folding can only get me so far.

I actually also like it plain.

Spring Has Sprung- Scrap Fabric Flowers

Need a use for scrap fabric? Make flowers!

These flowers can be used to embellish sweaters and shirts, or put on pin backings for convenient flower-brooches. The one pictured will be used on Belle’s capelet in a production of Beauty and the Beast- starring my little brother as the Beast himself!

For now I have only a few pictures for illustration. When I make more I will update with more illustrative pictures. The thing is, these roses are super easy to make and for that reason it is super hard to explain this how-to in step fashion. I recommend making them out of light spring-time colors to add a splash of color to your day.

Needed:

• Scrap fabric
• Hot Glue Gun + Hot Glue Sticks
• Scissors

The First Step

. . . is to cut out at least 9 petal shapes from the scrap fabric. A good size is about an inch wide by an inch tall- but eyeballing it is perfectly acceptable.

9 petals will make one good sized rose.

The Second Step

. . . is to take one petal and roll it into a tall cylinder, using hot glue at the bottom to hold the roll. This will serve as the middle petal of your rose.

The Third- and Fun- Step

. . .is to hold the rolled petal in one hand, upright. Place a tiny line of hot glue down the side, at the bottom of the roll and pinch just the bottom of a second petal into the hot glue line.

Repeat this process on the other side. The pinching adds definition to your petals, and just gluing the bottoms means you can artfully fold the petals when you complete your project. For the next petal, try gluing it where the last two overlap.

From here it’s all on you. How do you want your rose to look? Add more petals for a crowded look or fewer petals for a young, tiny rose.

If you'd like to add this rose to a pin backing, or to a garment, you may find the bottom is too pointy. Cut out a circle of scrap fabric. Using a pair of good scissors, cut the point off and use hot glue to attach the now flat bottom to the circle of fabric. This bottom circle can now be used as a base for attaching the rose to projects.

Side Project:

You can also pre- pinch your petals, by adding a dot of glue at the very end and pinching it together. Create layers for a flatter flower by gluing four petals together at the very point, the gluing more petals pressing into the center gluing point. Then add the cylindrical petal at the last, cutting or folding it in such a way to make it smaller.

In the picture below, I've rolled the cylinder then cut it in half before folding over the top and pinching the entire thing into a dab of glue at the center to cover where each petal was glued in.

Please ignore the random glob of hot glue in the middle of the flower.

This method is far more difficult for me for some reason.

I recommend the rose pattern as the easier one to follow.

Making Pretty Things

I have about a dozen posts languishing in Word, waiting for witty how-tos or clearer pictures.

Instead of being disciplined and actually getting them posted, I've moved on to yet more crafty callings.

Culling through the pages at www.oneprettything.com has kept me occupied in these days of not having a job and lacking funds for the crafting I suddenly have ample time for. I'm on page 57 and have bookmarked about 20 crafts. I have five in the works for easy Valentine's gifts using my ribbon scrap stash.

Crafting may not save my sanity or find me a job (Can I put "Makes something from nothing" as a skill?)- but it certainly is entertaining discovering exactly what I can and cannot do.

Hint: I cannot sew in a straight line to save my life. Luckily I'm just crafty enough to cover the mistakes with ruffles. :)

Rachael Ray and Kevin Christiana: Saving Stained Clothes

Okay, I'm sharing these techniques Rachael Ray covered on her show "Fifteen-Minute Meal" but I'm not sure I'd ever use them simply because these aren't the kind of materials I have laying around.

The first viewer was a teacher who threw out half her wardrobe because of errant pen marks and marker streaks on her shirts. I've been there. I have a pair of pants that has a bright blue sharpie mark down the right leg I refuse to give up.

Kevin Christiana to the rescue! He says to take a design- a rose, a vine, something you like and get it xeroxed. Lay the paper ink down on the shirt, over the pen stain and then paint over the back with turpentine. As you paint the back, the design will show through the wet paper. Let the turpentine dry- Kevin says 10 seconds is all it takes- then peel back the paper. Insta-stain camouflage. If only I had turpentine hanging around, then I'd feel okay about trying this out.


The second viewer was a young girl who spilled grape drink on her dress. Kevin recommends tie-dying it with the same thing that stained it, in this case grape drink. He made up a packet of grape drink mix in a pan and then rubber banded the dress into a tube shape at random points. He says to leave the dress to saturate for thirty minutes, let it dry, rinse it, and then do it again. He also showed the audience that you could do it once with grape, let it dry, rubber band it a different way, and then use tropical punch.

It's an interesting practice and something younger peoples will enjoy, but again I don't have grape drink mix hanging around.


There was also a viewer who had a cigarette burn hole in her trench coat. He used Mighty Mend it to create pleats and such to cover and convert the hole. No mighty mend-it, no try.



Back to fusing plastics, I guess. :)

Fusing Plastics 101

Caitlin's Comprehensive Craft lesson

Fusing Plastic: The Basics

We’re going to start easy. These directions can be modified to suit more difficult projects later.

You will need:

• Two plastic shopping bags- Wal-Mart, Target, etc

• Two pieces of paper at least as big as the bags flattened out

• A pair of scissors

• An iron

• A flat iron-safe surface

• A well-ventilated working area (Just in case )

1. Lay one of the shopping bags flat on your ironing surface.

2. Cut off the two handles as well as the bottom seem

a. NOTE: If the shopping bag has print on it (and most do!) flip it inside out! The dye will melt and do funky things to your project otherwise.

3. Repeat step 1 & 2 for the second bag

4. Lay bag one on top of bag two, fold in half.

a. NOTE: The decided thickness is eight layers of plastic. Each bag is two, the both folded in half- it all equals eight layers. Eight seems to be strong enough without being too thick.

5. Place one of the pieces of paper on the ironing surface. Place the folded plastic on top and cover with the remaining paper.

a. NOTE: Make sure the plastic is covered completely by the paper! Plastic directly on your iron is NOT.GOOD.

6. Heat your iron. You want it above polyester but below rayon. For my iron, this falls right before the “steam” level.

7. Run the iron over the paper that’s over the plastic for TEN SECONDS. Keep the iron moving and make sure to hit all parts of the plastic.

8. Flip the paper, keeping the plastic in place. An alternate method is to lift the top paper, peel the (hot) plastic off and just flip the plastic over before replacing the top paper.

9. Repeat step 7 after flipping the plastic

You’ll need to flip it-iron it multiple times. For me it takes about seventeen-bazillion flips for a good finish.

You’ll know it’s too early to flip if the plastic is bubbly, or wrinkly; if it crinkles when you touch it, or if the ends separate.

The final product should be smooth and relatively tough. It may still be wrinkly, but they will be flat and sturdy.

This information was gathered by reading/watching:

http://www.tubbybundle.com/blog/plastic-bag-craft/

and

http://etsylabs.blogspot.com/2007/05/long-overdue-fusing-plastic-bag.html

and by a boat load of trial and error!