For those who like to make their own clothes, but can’t afford a store-made dress form, deck yourself in duct tape and you’ve got an inexpensive alternative. Threads magazine gives four easy and fun ways to create your own dress form using either papier-mâché or duct tape. They say you can complete this project in as little as two hours, using no more than $15 in materials. I’ll be trying this in the weeks to come, so check back to see my cloned dress form.

So maybe my craft room doesn’t look like this but it works for me. My husband and i live in a 2 bedroom apartment which we love! We actually sold our house that was too much maintenance to move into a more manageable space. (I know it sounds crazy but, i’ll tell you that story another time) At the time we also had no plans of starting a family. I had the entire spare room all to my self and my crafty mess. But when we found out we were expecting i had to do some switching around. This is what i came up with.

By day it is a changing table with her goodies on it.

and by night (or nap) it is my craft table.

I absolutely love the tile top for all projects, especially cutting fabric. You can just get your scissors right in the groove to get a straight cut. The table is so easy to clean too. Get yourself one! My dad got this one at a yard sale. I painted it turquoise my new favorite color and looks great in Lucy’s room. What I love about this set up is it forces me to clean up when I’m done.
I use the little drawers for her things, but kept one for me, to put my sewing things in.

Some of my fabrics i have no idea what i’m going to make with them. I used the one on top to line my diaper bag. Don’t you love the $1 bin at Walmart??

And of course my trusty freezer paper and fabric paint. Tulip glitter one of my personal favorites. Gotta have some bling!

And last but certainly not least my sweet knitting. This is my bag i take everywhere with me. Pictured here next to the couch where i like to knit, while i’m talking with Brian or he reads to me. I have some knitting rules i follow. I always knit while i’m with people. I’m usually working on such easy projects, that if i’m alone i just can’t bear to sit and knit by myself. I also try to finish each project before starting a new one. This is my current project, another bag for the craft fair. The first bag is peaking out. I’ll post that soon. It turned out super cool. Also, if you have never tried Denise interchangeable knitting needles you MUST! i’m hooked. I’ll never knit with anything else EVER. Just ask, Erin, Deaven or Jen. They know what i mean!

Also for more ideas on setting up your craft space take a look at what whip up had to say

As an avid scrapbooker, I’m always buying scrapbook albums on sale or receiving them as gifts. In the end, I always end up with lots of empty albums and I can never decide to just keep them for future layouts or use them for other things. I came up with a great idea to use a scrapbook album for CD storage, that keeps the CDs out of sight, and the scrapbook looks great sitting on a bookshelf or entertainment unit.

Closed…it looks just like a regular scrapbook album:

Opened…its a storage secret – lots and lots of CDs:

I started with an empty scrapbook album, an empty page protector and 2 pieces of scrapbook paper (for each page of CDs). I folded each of the 12×12 papers into quarters and then opened up. I put the papers into the page protector with the right sides facing out, and I sewed along the folds using my sewing machine. This separates the page into 4 pockets. I then used a ruler and a scalpel to cut about a half inch below the horizontal stitching, creating pockets to slide the CDs into. And there you have it – quick and easy CD storage that matches your decor, takes about 5 mins to make (per page) and holds 8 CDs.

This is a great project to get rid of some scrapbook paper you have laying around, as well as embellishments if you want. I chose to keep mine simple, but you could jazz the pockets up using embellishments, ribbon, colored thread…the options are endless!

I love making something new from something old. We found this dress in Jen’s attic in her husbands costume collection. I loved the green and said it would make a great bag. Donnie (her husband) just mentioned joking that her birthday was coming up. So I decided to make her a bag.

I just love the detail in the top part of the dress. I decided to use the elastic section at the top of the dress and just detach the sleeves. The dress was so long i used the rest of it to line the bag and one of the sleeves for a pocket on the inside. It turned out pretty cool. I loved it. I’ve got some of the dress left over I might just make one for myself. It seems all i want to make from old clothes are bags. What have you made from old clothes?

We had a planning meeting with the girls involved in our craft ministry at Grace Church. So many great ideas for this year. One of our big projects is a Craft fair, April 21st. We will be raising money for our missionaries in Mexico, the Donohues. They have a ministry called Cuirim Outreach. The use Celtic Monastic tradition there, focusing the day around work, study and prayer.

Every summer kids from our youth group go down there and help out with whatever they have going on. This past summer they built a childrens cafe. Many of the kids that live there are home all day by themselves while the parents are at work. Sometimes they don’t have food. Cuirim outreach wanted to provide for them in this way by giving them a free meal and a place to come and play. I just got an email from Brian Donohue on their current projects :

This month we are working on finishing the children’s cafe. We are currently serving 40 kids MWF from 11-2. We still need an oven and a frig. I was working with the Mexican importation officials yesterday trying to get permission to cross large quantities of food for the children. We have been receiving free food from Tucson but cannot drive it across with out special permission from the head honcho. We have a place we would like to purchase to start a second cafe. We may put a deposit down as early as next month. We had a small house built for our family just across the border in the Arizona desert. Kirsten is painting this week. We hope to move in at the end of the month. We have almost finalized our summer trips. We have seven groups lined up from June-Aug. We are wrapping up the shoe drive for the season. We received about 3,000 shoes.

We have had a full winter. We miss being in VA this time of year. God has blessed us with lots of visits from our families. The needs here are great and we are privileged to be the ones who get to be “bridges of blessing”.

Please send us pictures of the craft fair.

Brian

The money that we raise will be for these projects, but we also wanted to give the Youth a chance to raise some $$ for their trips too. So we are encouraging them to make things to sell at the fair. We will be having some classes to teach them skills to get them started on their projects. So far we thought we would do a card & beading class and stenciling class.

We are also encouraging them to have their services available for sale (like mowing or babysitting) for the silent auction. We are looking for more ideas of things we can teach them in a night or afternoon that we can complete that night or shortly there after. The boys are the hard ones. Some of them are into making hemp necklaces but, it’s hard to find a boyish craft. Any ideas?

This idea is genius. And that’s why I heart Martha Stewart. With January inspiring ways to make your life more organized, here is a way to keep your busy self going in the right direction, on the right day, at the right time. The instructions are simple (just using variant shades of white and black chalkboard paint) and she even gives a pattern so you’re not left wondering which square to paint what. Click here to paint your own chalkboard calender.

Adding a 3D element to your homemade cards is a great way to make them look unique and stretches your creativity.

Try adding a fake flower, using a brad as the center of the flower.

Another idea is using paper folding techniques to add dimension. The cupcake paper is simply folded in a fan shape and glued on. It adds a different look to the card than you would expect.

Other 3D elements you can add include ribbons, yarn, twine, foam cutouts – the possibilities are endless! Try to go outside your regular train of thought and I’m sure you’ll be pleased with the results, and your recipients will be as well!

Why not start working on gifts for next Christmas now? A few ideas to keep in mind are:

1. Blank scrapbooking calendars - Date a blank calendar for 2008, and at the end of each month create a themed scrapbook layout for the top of the calendar page. For example, February could be a Valentine’s theme, and July could be all about summer fun. This would be a great gift for anyone who would love a year full of memories to keep forever!

2. A themed card gift set – Make a 2008 dated calendar and fill in all the birthdays / anniversaries / celebrations that you think will be celebrated. Throughout the year, make a card for each of the dates recorded (for example, if you have 6 anniversaries, then you’ll need 6 anniversary cards). Give both the calendar and cards together with a nice pen, and you have a great gift for someone who is super busy or tends to forget those important dates.

3. A square a month afghan – sew, knit or crochet a different square for each month of the year. They can be themed or not, but I would suggest making each month different. In December, attach all the squares together for a unique throw that will surely be a conversational piece.

These are just a few ideas to get you started on next year’s Christmas gifts, which will be easy on both the pocketbook and stress level by being completed throughout the year.

Before you decide to toss all those Christmas cards sent to you, save them and use them as gift tags for next year. It doesn’t require a crafty-hand, just a pair of scissors and a hole punch.

Cut around specific shapes, or take a decorative backdrop and cut shapes in it. Punch a hole in the top for tying them on and cover any writing on the back by gluing a piece of paper over it. You can even embellish them with glitter, sequins or ribbon.

It doesn’t take any time at all, and you’ve turned those beautiful Christmas cards into beautiful gift tags for next holiday season.