Today we have craft ideas using wine corks and paper towel tubes as well as other tips, projects and requests. Hope you enjoy them.
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Outdoorsy looking lamp shades are a fun way to celebrate the great outdoors from the comfort of your easy chair! The fringe at the bottom is from a popular mega center and is hand stitched on to secure it.
I save my junk mail and trim it for deco hole punches, like you see hanging down the shade. They are tiny leaves that I carefully strung and then crocheted a chain stitch to make the cord which could be used for any number of things - like gift wrap.
The 2 bigger leaves, I found in my craft stuff and tied them to a plain cord by their stems. There's another crocheted cord that's harder to see that I handcut the small pink suede flowers by hand then strung on cord and crocheted.
There's also a piece of green glass junk jewelry clipped to the top that was once part of a pair of clip on earrings.
The stamps I used came from a dollar store and were like a foam stamp pad and the paint is rubber stamp ink pads of various colors.
The leaf/berries at the top with stems is another dollar store find and was intended for use with a candle. The possiblities are endless when you decorate with nature!
Collect various branches or smaller limbs and spray paint them black or your choice of colors and secure upright in a flower pot suited to its size in cement.
It may be used to display your favorite objects that would become weather worn if left out during the off season.
Do you have a special occasion coming up? Does your sweetheart have hay fever? The perfect solution for you: Make him or her some duct tape roses. Not only are they very pretty, but they will be nice looking in your favorite vase for a lifetime!
Items Needed:
Duct tape (any color)
Duct tape (dark green)
Scissors
Drinking Straws
Instructions:
Cut several squares of duct tape, about 2 inches X 2 inches.
With the sticky side up, fold one top corner down on itself. Leave a sticky edge on the side and bottom.
Take the opposite top corner and fold it down, leaving only a sticky edge on the bottom. (Do steps 2 & 3 with all your squares.)
Take one of the pieces of folded duct tape and roll it, sticky side in. This tightly rolled "pedal" will be your center.
Take the remaining "pedals" and loosely stick them to the center. (If you run out of "pedals" that you have folded already, but do not feel your rose is big enough, just make additional "pedals" to stick on.) Stop when you are satisfied with the look of your "rose".
Take a piece of the dark green duct tape that is the same length as your drinking straw and roll it onto the straw. This is your "stem".
Take a rectangular piece of the dark green duct tape and attach your "stem" to your "rose".
Even though this craft is difficult, my 5 year old had a great time making a rose (with minimal help). The rose didn't turn out perfect, but she felt it was beautiful and felt a great sense of accomplishment.
This would be a wonderful activity to do with young adults.
I'm getting married in October, and I'm also helping my aunt throw my bridal shower. We are also on a tight budget, and when it came to the bridal shower gifts we had no ideal what to give to all of my guests (approximately 100 guests invited.) We thought about candles or a cookie cutter to give to everyone, but then we still had to include the price of gift wrap. My mom then remembered the cinnamon Christmas tree ornaments that someone gave to her. Let's just say that we made 100 cute cut-out ornaments for around $6.50. I hope this helps everyone!
Cinnamon Ornaments
3/4 to 1 cup applesauce
1 (4 1/2 oz.) bottle ground cinnamon
Mix the ingredients together to form a stiff dough. Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters.
Make hole for ribbon. Carefully put on rack to dry. Let air dry for several days, turning occasionally.
Layer flowers and tiny plants and leaves from your yard or from a nature walk in between strips of clear tape (my example shows a narrower size but wide shipping tape works well, too.) You can use as gift wrap or trim or to bring interest to a boring or plain spot in your house. Even small plants with the roots intact can be used -- especially interesting in a window so the light shines through!
My previous entry was about my daughter's wedding dress... This one is about my 5 year old grandaughter's wedding dress. She wanted a wedding dress too because her Aunt was getting one. So I made her one to wear for a halloween costume. What a Cutie! Grandma is in the picture with her. No real tips except do what you can to make your grandkids happy!
I am presently working on a 100 other uses of cereal boxes but I will just give you the best one of them.
Make Your Own 3D Stage
Steps
1. You must make a clean straight cut so that the one side will open to decorate the entire stage area. You will only look through this part to see the stage.
2. Your box is open so now you want to think about what scene you want to set. Mine? It is a far off snow capped mountain coming towards the viewing area a far off flowering field, getting closer a part of a river with rocks ripples and everything. Nearest a rocky bank.
On the left side trees cover the entire panel with just a little area where the river flows on a snake like angle. The other side from the viewer point a rocky hill the snaking river and the continuation of that far off flowering field that runs into the mountain which I'm declining to leave a few inches of blue sky above it.
Oh the top is the has blue with clouds The forest side, the trees extent a tiny bit over into the sky.
Now comes the real fun part, adding the 3D stuff.
I cut out several deer pictures and glued them to poster board of the same size but folded at the bottom enough so they can be glued or stapled I have an eagle flying up in the blue and few clouds near suspended with the wire from a garbage bag tie.
By the woods, I have several people standing by the forest looking at the eagle or in that direction. I used real stones for river rocks.
I am thinking of setting a turtle or a bird on one of those rocks.
And last, at my end, I want to find the back of a human or maybe even an animal which will represent me, the viewer.
When you're done and close it up, make sure no light comes in because it ruins the effect. Secure it with duct tape then decorate the entire outside of the box with whatever you think that is suitable. Me, I use old calendar pictures.
I guess you could call this a shoe box scene or a diorama but what did it cost me to make?
Well, eating a box of corn flakes
Mucho looking through old calendar pictures and magazines I have kept forever
a little duct tape
a few staples
a little glue
a few free outside stones.
A touch of paint for the snaking river
THE VERY GOOD EXERCISE OF MY IMAGINATION and a lot of satisfaction.
Oh, one last thing when you make these scenes View them with just the light coming from your background. To light up the inside of the box would expose the imperfections. You see, this picture is to stimulate your imagination again, making you part of it like a dream.
You want reality? It is always right outside that decorated CORN FLAKE BOX. So Eat Up Them Corn Flakes And Give Your Imagination a Workout
Cut them into 2 inch rounds and make napkin holders out of them. Cover in pretty scrap fabric and decorate with ribbon, flowers, etc for that special touch.
You can put little toys, candies or whatever in them. Then roll up in colored paper and tie the ends with ribbon. A gift!
By trish
A Sword
Make a "Star Wars" sword. Take 2 or 3 rolls together and cover with wrapping paper, or whatever design you want. Add a plain color to the bottom of the "sword".
By Crystal
Favors
They can be used to make individual place favors. Our UMW group did this for a holiday meeting. Fill a toilet paper cardboard tube with cosmetic samples, sample sized lotions, candy, etc., Next, roll neatly in a tissue paper "square" that is 2" longer on each side than the length of the cardboard. Then roll again in a colorful netting that is the same size as the tissue paper. Twist each end of the tissue paper and netting and tie with a scrap of pretty ribbon. We did ours in holiday colors with gold ribbon and the cost was minimal but the impact was huge! Everyone loved them, and I have kept mine so I can replicate them in the future.
By Ronsan
Electrical Cords
I use toilet tissue and paper towel rolls for many things. But the one I use most, is putting different size electric cords-curling irons, hair dryers, irons, extension cords in them. You can cover them with contact paper to make them a little firmer or leave them plain. When they get soft or lose their firmness, get a new one.
By DEE
Nutcracker Ornament
My friend, Mary Lacaze, made this cute nutcracker ornament for Christmas from a paper towel roll, a tongue depressor (for the nose), round clothespins for the arms some scrap sewing trim and fake fur. You can set it up to display, or if you have a large tree, hang him on the tree.
Cut into 2 inch sections, paint in bright colors, cover with sticky backed plastic and use as egg cups! (They are exactly the right size for an egg to sit in!)
Nursing homes use sturdy empty paper towel holders for various patient assists with physical therapy. One is have everyone in a circle and they can bat balloons around and exercise they don't ordinarily get in their wheelchairs.
As kids, we used empty paper towel rolls for megaphones. We had to take turns with it, or we'd fight for it. Which usually ended up tearing it up. Same goes for the empty rolls that rolled Christmas paper came on. These can also work as a paddle, we learned the hard way with! loll
Very cute Nutcracker! I also loved the idea about putting the samples inside the rolls and wrapping as gifts. Clever!
I use them to make rain sticks! Just take some aluminum foil, make a long snake like shape, as long as the roll, by twisting the foil. Take some paper and trace around the end of the roll, do this twice. One for each end. Tape or glue the first side on, put in the aluminum coil, add some rice or small beans, glue the other end on, cover the stick with paper and then decorate! My daughter really loved this craft and it was fun making it!
I have two sewing machines both of which have a variety of stitches for fancy work. In order to better see what each stitch looks like on fabric, I make a sample of each stitch on a plain piece of medium weight fabric. One for each machine. I keep them with the machine for reference. I also write the number of each stitch next to it using a pen.
Once, I had to think of a quick birthday present for a young girl I had never met and didn't know what she wished for. Also time was short. Cash was the obvious solution, but a paper money bill in a birthday card is somewhat boring for young kids, so this is what I did:
I fancied up an old cigar box by covering it in a scrap of beautiful fabric with some gold patterning, "gemstones", buttons and anything gold and shiny I could find. I lined the box with a scrap of blue velvet and then I just filled the box with loose change and used a gold ribbon to tie the box shut. The embarrassment I initially felt by not having a "proper" gift for her soon dissipated: the little girl was so happy for the gift that she spent all afternoon counting and recounting her "treasure". All in all it was not a lot of money, but for younger children it is often the number and not the value of the coins that makes them feel "rich". After spending the "treasure", the box can be reused as a beautiful jewellry box.
This idea can easily be adjusted for boys. Just cover the box in "boyish" wrapping paper or fabric and put for example matchbox cars or baseball cards inside instead. This is a cheap, quick, but personal way to make a lovely gift for someone.The variations are endless....
When you buy a new shirt with buttons, put a dab of clear nail polish in the center of each button on the front and back. The nail polish will seal the threads and the button will stay on much longer.
My kids are grown, in fact, I am a greatgrandmother. When my kids were school age and younger, I made a lot of their clothes. Some leftovers went into quilts. But once I made shirts for the three boys, bought same type of material in different colors. Had lots leftover so I decided to make myself a blouse, The back was white, the front was light blue on one side and dark blue on the other, the yokes, were red and yellow, the sleeves were green, and the collar was brown. I called it my clown shirt. I could wear it with anything. I wore it till I actually wore the collar off of it. I loved that shirt.
Make wine cork wreaths - hold the corks together using straightened paperclips and bend into a round shape. Add tiny ribbon bows between each cork or one large bow on top as a hanger. Make great gifts!
By Valerie
A Bulletin Board
Cut them in 1/2 length wise and glue them next to each other and you've got a message center. Thumb tack notes to it.
By Jay
Finger Puppets
You can paint them and then paint faces on them. Add hair and then attach, with glue, a piece of wrap around velcro to back side of wine cork. You can then attach this to your finger to use as a finger puppet. Add doll clothes to your fingers or even attach clothes to base of cork for more details. They make cute dolls.
Here's a new one I just ran into:
Fiber Drum Necklace
This shows you how to fabricate wine corks into little drums to use as beads in a necklace. Requires small pieces of leather, thread and cork.
While helping to clean up after my nephew's wedding, I gathered all the wine corks. Later at home I made them into a hot pad or trivet. I just arranged them in a single layer in rows, turning them so the top was up and the next one the top was down, as they are fatter at the top, turning them help equal that out, till I found what I thought looked good and then hot glued them together. Glued a ribbon around them, so it made a loop at the top to be hung up if they wished. Wrote on the back of it with a Sharpie permanent marker their names and wedding date & my name. I hope that gives you another idea.
How can I put a copy of seashells onto my formica bathroom sink. I want to mosaic it but I am not that great of an artist I am. I do have black and white drawings.
I am looking for directions or patterns for sewing for elderly shut-ins. Such things as bags for walkers and wheelchairs. Also, lap robes or anything else you might think would be useful to them. I would appreciate your imput.
Other than recovering old checkbook or pocket calendar covers, is there another use for these? I don't carry the checkbook with me anymore and date books are replaced with my PDA.
I am look for ideas for wind chimes, garden decor, kids outdoor art, garden ideas for toddlers and any kind of kids projects that can be made for indoors or outdoors.
My daughter Katie and I would like to make crafts items to sell at local craft shows. We have some ideas but would like more. Does anyone know of some good websites for free craft patterns and ideas? Thanks!
I cannot find step by step instructions on how to make a rug out of unmated socks, i seen this in an old book years ago it was really simple, but cannot find it now.
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