Ikea Hack - Tiger Tray Tutorial

When my friend Erin recently brought this fabric to craft night I swooped it up before anyone could say RAAWWWRRR. Me and tigers, we are besties. It is also a little known fact that tigers make everything better. Whether it be terrariums, hoodies or serving trays.

A Love Jar

In our house we do a lot for Christmas, but I don't really get into the other holidays so much.  I thought it might be fun to do something for Valentine's day this year, so I made this little Love Jar.  First I'll show you how I made it and then I'll explain some different ways to use it.

I love Aleene's dry adhesives because there's no messiness.  Plus, they worked great to get my fabric to stick to the glass.  I pulled out some scrap fabric to use for the project.

I used the double stick sheets to make my letters into stickers.  I peeled off one side, added the fabric, and then drew the letters backwards on the back to help me cut them out. 

After cutting them the letters were basically stickers.  I peeled off the back and stuck them on the jar.

I used the tacky line roll for the lace that I ran around the jar.  Then I cut little triangles from the extra fabric and placed them on the lace like a pennant banner.

So, what do you do with a love jar?

I figure you could use it as a valentine mailbox, placing notes to each other in it.  Or you could fill it with candy and gift it.

But I think I'll fill it with little treats and let my boys take one when they've showed love by doing something good.  That way Valentine's is more about sharing love than crushes (which my boys are disgusted by at this age).

Now off to buy some candy :)

Embellished Harajuku Thank You Cards (tutorial)

I'm in need of a few thank you cards. Since I'll be sending these thank you cards to fellow crafters it felt wrong to just send plain old store bought ones, even if they did picture kids from Harajuku.

As if the kids from the pages of Fruits were not funky enough I thought I would add a little sparkle and texture to their outfits. I raided my stash of I Love to Create products and scrap crafting bits and this is what I came up with. I kept thinking about this kitschy postcard my parents sent me from Spain as a child where the Flamenco dancer's dress was actual fabric. I loved that card.

SUPPLIES
Cards
Scrap Fabric
Variety of Aleene's Tacky Glue Products
Tulip Fabric Paint
Stamp
Tulip Fashion Glitter
Tracing Paper
Scissors
Paint Brush
Scrap trim, ribbon and yarn

I made several variations of these cards, but this guy was my favorite. The first thing you want to do is pick your card based on the outfit. You don't want anything too complicated.

Place your tracing paper on top of your card and trace the portion of the outfit you are going to replace. In the case of this strapping young sailor I decided to give him a new top.

I used Aleene's Tacky Double-Stick Sheets for adding clothing to the cards. I estimated the size of fabric I needed and added the adhesive to the back side. This acted as fabric stiffener. Next, I cut out the sailor top from the tracing paper and used it as a pattern on my piece of fabric. Once I had the fabric the shape of the shirt I removed the second piece of adhesive and attached it to my card.

I happen to pick up a stamp that said 'Thank You' recently so I decided to test it out. I painted the stamp with Tulip Fabric Paint and added the logo to my sailor's new fabric shirt.

I could have stopped here, but the glitter was calling my name. I applied a little Tacky Glue to his cuffs and collar then sprinkled on the Crafty Chica glitter.

All that is left to do is write out the actual thank you notes and mail. These are postcards so if you get a letter with a speck of glitter on it you can blame me!

Shoebox Veggie Patch

Veggies are a hot topic around our house. We have a vegetable garden that the kids help plant, farmers markets are a regular pit stop for our fam and we recently joined a CSA so we have a giant box of veggies delivered to our doorstep weekly. A pretend veggie patch that the kids can pick carrots from whenever the whim hits them seemed the perfect I Love to Create project.

SUPPLIES

Orange Paint (I mixed yellow and red Crafty Chica Paint)

Paint Brush

Wooden Blanks shaped like carrots

Green Ribbon

Crop-o-Dile (or drill)

Green Paper

Aleene's Tacky Double Stick Sheets

Brown Paper

Scissors

Shoe Box

If you ever go down the wood craft aisle at the craft store you will notice that almost any shape you can imagine is available in raw wood form. I happen to have some that looked carrots. Paint your forms with orange craft paint. I applied a couple of coats. Allow to dry completely.

While your paint is drying you can prepare your shoe box. The "dirt" inside your box is going to be brown paper. I had to cut my paper to fit inside the box.

Once your paper is the right size fold in half without creasing. You will do this to all of your paper until you have enough to fill your shoebox. I used Aleene's Tacky Double Stick Sheets to adhere the sheets together at the bottom. I also stuck the last two sheets to the inside of the shoe box. Don't put the glue sheets up too high on the paper as you want the kids to be able to stick their faux veggies between the sheets.

Once my mounds of paper dirt were in place I needed to add grass. I again used my Tacky Double Stick Sheets to attach two rows of green paper that I had cut in a jagged pattern to resemble grass. You could also use Crafty Chica paint and just paint the box green. Do all 4 sides.

By now your carrots should be dry. Using a Crop-o-Dile or a small drill put a hole in the center of the wide end.

Using green ribbon tie pieces through your holes so that they look like the tops of carrots.

All that is left to do is fill your veggie patch with carrots. You could also make beets, parsnips, onions - any root veggie really.

Tallulah and Baxter spent the afternoon pulling and replacing carrots in their new veggie patch. We read "Growing Vegetable Soup" and I talked to them about how some plants grow on bushes and other under the ground like their new carrots.

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Learn new crafting techniques! Cool2Craft TV Monday February 20, 2012

It's super cool! Cool2Craft TV February 20, 2012: Jewelry - We love to create jewelry and we have some fun new projects to share with you this week! Tiffany Windsor is creating Stamped Newspaper Earrings with Aleene's Double Stick Tacky Sheets, EcoHeidi digs into the vintage Aleene's Big Book of Crafts to create a Bread Tags Charm Bracelet, Savannah Starr is crafting a Chunky Triple Bracelet with tissue paper and Aleene's Tacky Glue and Candace Jedrowicz doubles up with a Tissue Box Pendant and Coffee Cup Rim Bracelet. It's a terrifically tacky and creatively cool show! 

It’s easy to watch the Cool2Craft TV Channel right from your computer. Airing Monday February 20, 2012 9am Pacific/10am Mountain/ 11 am Central/ Noon Eastern. Go to http://cool2craft.com and find the Livestream player and chat box. See you Monday! Visit us on Facebook! Craft on!