Southwest Maker Fest 2016

Southwest Maker Fest on Saturday had interactive booths, workshops, stilt walkers, craft projects, artists at work, and all kinds of fun stuff.

Since lunchtime was pretty hectic at downtown Mesa restaurants last year, a couple of food trucks were standing by: Burgers Amore (which I was introduced to at Fan Fest) and Queso Good (which I tried at Phoenix Comicon).

I wish I had gotten a shot of the inside of the IDEA Museum, where my workshop was (I had my hands full of craft supplies at the time), so you could see all the delightful creative chaos of the projects going on in there.

Upcycled Travel Journal Workshop

For my workshop, I made the project a little less open-ended this time, because too many possibilities can stress some people out.

I showed how to make travel journals out of 2 envelopes folded and bound together.

Some people chose to keep the books blank for their next trip. One attendee covered his pages with red tape; another wove plastic bags together using a plastic-yarn technique they were teaching at another booth and threaded that into her journal.

Both adults and kids got to have fun making stuff, and that was really the point.

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February 8, 2016

Upcycled Cards

I cut up a card from my mother-in-law.

It wasn’t anything against her – she writes the sweetest little notes. I just happened to see it when I was thinking about cards for the Love Letters project, and I decided the balloons on the front were just the right colors to be upcycled into Valentine’s hearts.

So the card got cut up to make more cards. I’m pretty sure my mother-in-law would approve.

Have you found any interesting things to repurpose lately?

PS If you wanted to participate in the Love Letters campaign, making cards for housebound seniors, you have until 2/10 to mail them in. Sign up at dosomething.org/loveletters for details.

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January 25, 2016February 8, 2016

Love Letters on Wheels

Did you make construction paper Valentines as a kid? Well, I just found out about a great reason to dust off the Fiskars and start cutting out paper hearts again.

Meals on Wheels will be delivering handmade Valentine’s Day cards to housebound seniors, as part of their Love Letters campaign on DoSomething.org. While the card-making part of the campaign is definitely targeted to kids/teens, I don’t see any reason we can’t all channel our inner child and join in too. (Someone who’s 90 probably sees the rest of us as kids anyway.)

Sign up at DoSomething.org/loveletters for guidelines and a list of participating locations with mailing addresses, and then make your card(s), ~~put them in envelopes (if you don’t have enough on hand, here’s how to fold your own envelope)~~, and mail them in by February 10.

A volunteer used to deliver Meals on Wheels to my grandpa and even bring treats along for the dog – making both of their days.

If you’re outside of the US and Canada, I bet there’s a nursing home or senior center in your area that you could deliver handmade cards to.

I think this is a beautiful way to spread some love.

[UPDATE: Cards don’t have to be in individual envelopes.]

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October 22, 2015October 22, 2015

Leaf Love: 7 Fall Craft Ideas

Whether or not the leaves change where you live, you’ll fall for these projects!

Embellish Leaves

Try applying paint or glitter directly to leaves. You can use leaves that are green or autumnal, real or silk, dried or pressed – you can even print your own!

1. Gold-Painted Leaves: Gold paint against richly-colored fall leaves is just gorgeous! A single painted leaf or small grouping of them in a simple frame would be lovely.

2. Hojas Pintadas / Drawn-on Leaves and Wreath: You could also go with an earthier palette and use ultra fine tip sharpies or paint pens where you wanted more detail. Once you have a stack of patterned leaves, you can gather them into a fall wreath.

3. DIY Falling Leaves Garland: All you need is some glue and glitter to make your leaves sparkle! Then hang them from a ribbon to create a garland, sprinkle them across a table, or display them in a glass jar. If you wanted to use real leaves instead of silk ones in your garland, you might want to skip punching a hole in favor of tying the ribbon around the leaf stems or attaching with clothespins or hot glue.

Leaves for Embellishing

Use real leaves (any color) to stamp, shape, or decorate.

4. Stamped Leaf Mandala Journal Page: Use leaves as stamps for your journal pages to remind you of the local flora. Stamped leaves in different colors can form the basis of a pattern like this mandala.

5. Leaf-Imprinted Clay Necklace: Press a small leaf into clay to make a one-of-kind pendant.

6. Sand-Cast Birdbath in a Leaf Shape: This is the most involved project on the list, but the step-by-step instructions make it look totally doable. A large leaf becomes the form for a concrete birdbath. You could also skip the pedestal-making steps and create an oversized leaf-shaped bowl, which would be a fantastic base for a fall centerpiece.

7. Foliage Pumpkins: Decopauge ferns or fall foliage on white pumpkins for an alternative to the traditional orange jack-o-latern. (original project, left photo)

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Photos via respective sites.

August 3, 2015March 1, 2022

DIY Quilling Tool

Sometimes you have to get creative to get creative. Like with our monthly CraftHack meetups – they’re free, so that pushes us to be resourceful when it comes to providing materials and supplies.

Robin Corey volunteered to do last month’s demo on paper quilling, a technique that involves winding strips of paper around a tool to get spiral shapes.

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While you can buy a quilling tool for around 8 bucks, ordering 20 for a free class would get pretty pricey.

She found a super solution buried in her Pinterest boards: make your own from a cork and a tapestry needle. Basically, stick the needle in the center of the cork and glue it, cut off the top with wire cutters, file any sharp edges, and you have a super inexpensive tool that makes winding strips of paper for quilling easy.

She made about 20 of them for less than the cost of buying just one, and we all got to take one home for future projects.

PS If you live in Phoenix and like to make stuff, make sure you’re planning to come to Craft Camp this Saturday!
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