DIY Crate and Barrell Spin Vase

This DIY cost almost nothing to make and the glossy see-through look makes the flowers look fresh.

I spotted this project on Dollar Store Crafts and the tutorial is on The Budget Decorator

Items I used were

• Empty clear glass jar 
• Hot Glue Gun & Glue Sticks (I used 3 1/2 sticks)

This is simple enough that an older child (with supervision) could make one and pick out some flowers to put it - the above bouquet was only $4 at our local Kroger.

You could use any clear glass container and a different shape could give it a more exotic looks, but I used an empty salsa jar with the label soaked off and then dried.  

I plugged in the glue gun and I started at the bottom of the jar about an inch up and held it in my left hand and the glue gun in my right and tilted it slightly on a desk and pressed the glue gun against the glass and pulled the trigger and started turning it applying the glue horizontally around the circumference of the jar until I got to the top.

Once the glue dried I finished applying the glue around the bottom of the jar and it was done.

After completing and seeing the results, I think it looks better where the glue was only lightly applied (at the bottom)  instead of more heavily (middle to the top).


Happy Crafting:)

Linking up to:

DIY Party at DIY Showoff

TWISTED STONED FLOWERS FROM SCRAPS

Make pretty flowers with from scraps and dollar store decorative stones.

This is super simple, quick and easy.  You can use them to create a statement necklace, barrette, pin...anything you like (I haven't decided yet what I want to do with them).

Items used:

• Soda Can
• Paper
• Paper
• Pen or Sharpie
• Scissors
• Scrap of felt or other sturdy fabric
• Ruler or seam gauge (optional)
• Scraps of fabric
• Decorative stone - small 
• Hot Glue Gun

Use a soda can or other circular object to draw a circle on a piece or paper.  Cut out and use a template. Place circle on felt, draw around it with a pen or Sharpie then cut out.




















I measured off 1 inch of a piece of scrap fabric that was 22 inches long, cut then tore as I wanted a jagged edge - what you use is up to you.  Total I used 2 pieces of 22 inches of fabric for this item.

Use glue gun to glue down fabric and start twisting.  Dab a bit of glue on top of the fabric and glue down the stone.  Twists fabric, dab glue, push down and repeat all the was around the flower, twisting as you go.

Keep on dotting glue at intervals and tacking down - if you run out of the scrap, add another piece of the same or contrasting fabric that you would like or trim the edges and use as is.  I added another length of fabric and trimmed on this one.  On the yellow flower, I dotted glue on the fabric and glued down even after I had gone beyond the circle.

Denim Flowers Barrette

Upcycle an old pair of jeans scraps into a flowerly barrette. 

Items used:

• Jeans scraps (5 12 x 12 inches square pieces)
• Scissors
• Pen
• Cardboard
• Needle and thread
• Hot Glue Gun 
• Barrette blank

The scraps were taken from one of the legs of this pair of scraggly old jean.

The principal for making the flowers here is the same as the rolled paper flowers here:
http://craftsandcreationswithkathy.blogspot.com/2009/12/rolled-flowers.html

For the two outer flowers, I cut 2 12 inch x 12 inch squares from one of the legs and stacked them on top of  each other, right sides up, flipped them over and on the wrong side of the fabric drew a spiral like the one below on where the spirals were about an inch wide.   For the center flower, I only used one layer of fabric.
















I then cut out the spirals and rolled them starting with the inner spiral outward and would stitch the layers loosely with a needle and thread. Here is the bottom view of the rolled flowers.

I put the barrette blank on a piece of cardboard and drew around it with a pen, making it slightly larger than the barrette and then cut it out.

I put the flowers with the 2 layers on each end and the one with 1 layer in the center, scrunched them together then glued the bottom of the flowers to the cardboard.

I then glued the cardboard to the barrette blank.

FELT YO-YO FLOWERS WITH MILK CAP COVERED BUTTON

This was inspired by a tutorial for making felt flowers at the following site:

http://zakkalife.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-to-make-felt-yo-yo-flowers.html

As I wanted my to be more 3-D with a Dr. Suessish cartoon like quality, I added a milk cap fabric colored button for the center.

Items used:

• 2 pieces of felt
• sewing machine or needle and thread
• scissors
• pen
• hot glue gun and glue

You start out by main basic yo-yo by starting with a circle. I used a margarine lid and this circle is little over 5 inches in diameter.

Based close to the edge all the way around and be sure to leave enough thread at the end to be able to pull to gather the stitching - I stitched about 1/2 in from the edge, but for a regular yo-yo you would want to stitch even closer to th edge.

Gather up the stitching and then flatten out to make a circle.

Cut small wedges around the edges about 1/2 inch or so apart.

To make the fabric covered milk cap button use a small glass or can that it about 3 inches around and draw a circle on the felt the same and repeat the first 3 steps above, putting the milk cap in the center and drawing the fabric up around it and then stitch the the bottom shut.

Use a hot glue gun to glue the button to the center of the flower.

Broken Keyboard Desk Tray to Garden Sign

The keyboard tray broke off of our computer desk about 2 years ago and like with most things, I held on to it until I came up with a craft application for it and when we decided have a mini flower and herb garden outside our door I decided turn the tray into "Our Garden" sign which functions as a decoration until the plants start growing and a barrier so the fella that mows our lawn doesn't mow over the budding plants (like he did last year).

Here is they keyboard tray before, but any old piece of wood could be used.

Items used:

• Piece of wood
• Colored spray paint (we used green)
• Clear gloss spray paint
• Acrylic paints
• Fabric paints
• Paintbrush
• Wire lawn edging (from the Dollar store)
• Newspapers or trash bags (to put down when spray painting)

First, my son put down trash bags outside then layed the board flat and spray painted the front with of the board (it started raining before it dried and had to set it upright under the awning is the reason it is photographed upright).

After it was dry, I used acrylic and fabric paints to paint the flowers on the board and wrote "Our Garden" freehand on the front.

My son then took the decorated board outside and used the clear spray paint sealant on both sides and the edges, allowed that coat to dry then put another coat on and allowed it to dry.

After the clear coat was dry and I put in the plants, I put the sign out in front of our mini garden, firmly placing the edge that had attached to the desk in the ground and secured the other side by putting in the dollar store decorative wire eding about 3 inches behind the sign.

The total cost out of pocket was under $4 as I had everything on hand except the wire edging from the dollar store ($1) and the clear gloss spray paint ($2.77 from Walmart for 1 can and it is still almost full and can use for other projects).

Blooming Tote Bag - version

Just because making fabric and felt flowers is addictive and I need something to put them on. All of the flowers that I made on this are put together using hot glue. The frog at the bottom is a scrap left over from another project, as are the artificial flowers.

BLOOMING TOTE BAG

For Earth Day Walgreens gave out tote bags with a purchase I got the tote bag below. It was a little too plain for my tastes so I decided to turn it into a blooming tote bag covered with flowers. This is what it looked like before: Some of the flowers I have made with links to tutorials at the following: http://craftsandcreationswithkathy.blogspot.com/2009/05/fabric-flowers.html http://craftsandcreationswithkathy.blogspot.com/2009/05/felty-flower.html http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/sunflower_facinator Others are misc. creations and a few of the flowers and the leaves were left over from my "Spring In A Jar" project. Some of the felt flowers were made using 9001 glue, others were hand-stitched. All of the flowers were attached to the bag with a hot glue gun. Items used:

• Tote bag
• Fabric or felt (to make the flowers)
• Artificial flowers
• 9001 glue
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• Needle
• Thread
• Scissors