Felted birds

Spring is near, birds are coming back!

                                 

Spring is near (I do hope so, although  snow is forecasted in Zagreb for this week), birds are coming back soon. After black/grey/brown season,  bring some colors in your life.  I had so much fun making these birds and new ideas hot to use them were popping in with each new bird. I made decorations,  brooch, garnish for my purse, key charm, just with little customisation.

Read more in the tutorial: How to make felted birds

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Flower made from egg cartons

There are a lot of discussion on internet whether it is OK to put other people's craft on your own blog or not. I feel sometimes I just need to pay tribute to some authors, this time I can't resist to this work of Jane LaFazio. She made this beautiful flowers from egg cartons and published also a tutorial how to make the flowers.

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How to personalize (almost) everything

Letters come in many shapes, sizes, colors. There are number of letter types as well. I am familiar with Latin and Cyrillic,  unfortunately not with others. But any of them are great to personalize gifts,  decorate home, design jewerly, there are endless possibilities, why not to use them.

Letters on thousand ways

Find below few beautiful examples - some of them I made, some are done by creative crafters community:

 I refurbished old and ugly  secretaire desk and personalized it with names and  topics we love. In one of my future posts I'll publish tutorial how I did it.

For this sign you can find tutorial how to make it on my blog.

For this interesting pillow read how-to.

Letters on lamp ? Fabulous! 

And here is something for our grandparents.

 This little pad could be a great Christmas gift.

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Gift wrapping for Christmas, birthdays, wedding, love

Holiday season started and these days we are thinking more and more about the  New Year's Eve and Christmas. And, of course, gifts for our family, friends, loved ones. I am always much more excited to see if I chose the right gift, whether it brought joy to my loved ones, than looking forward to unwrap mine.

Wrapping gift is almost as important as buying/making them. If you don't have time or inspiration to make something by yourself, at least you can try to be original with wrapping. It is easy to buy, but investing our creativity, imagination and time we show that we do care for others giving them a part of ourselves.

Recycled material is something I prefer. Here are some examples (and tutorials) how to wrap gifts with the material you can easily find at home.






Newspaper bowl gift wrap

Shirt sleeve for wrapping

Paper bow

Recycled burlap and paper gift wrap

Furoshiki

I 've always loved book stores and at least once a week I spend some time in one of them, reviewing what is new, particularly on the shelf with crafts books. Few month ago I accidentally came across a book about furoshiki and was honestly thrilled with it. It is 

the art of Japanese cloth wrapping and has been a part of daily life in Japan for centuries.  It originated as a way to bundle clothes  for easier transport, and evolved into the art.    Official Furoshiki site     offers  comprehensive tutorials on how to wrap different items such as wine bottles, books and more.   Some of examples follow:

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Chalkboard everywhere

 Last few weeks I became a 'chalkboard' freak. Refurbished kitchen using chalkboard paint, then made a frame for notes (you can find this tut in  my post here) , painted inner sides of desk's doors. And found this awesome  tutorial how to make chalkboard wrapping paper . I love the possibilities chalkboard gives me - I can change the images, text, chalk colors, and get renewed interior. 

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DIY shabby chalkboard frame

A couple of weeks ago I got few wooden picture frames from my neighbor and decided to make chalk board. Yes, we all have mobile phones, send text messages and emails, but I recognized the advantages of the  old-fashioned chalk board near the entrance door - hubby can't have excuse now: 'I forgot my glasses, couldn't read the message.' And one of the wooden frames was ideal for that.
On the photos you can see the final result, and tutorial how I made it find after the jump.

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Hanger out of pockets

Few weeks ago I was cleaning a closet - what to keep, what to throw away, what to pack for the charity. First decided to get rid of the old linen jacket I haven't worn in years. At the last momment, I got the idea to use the pockets for a hanger. This is tutorial how I did it. Now I am searching the closet for some other old things with pockets to  make another hanger. The real challenge is to convince my hubby to get rid of old stuff.

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Paper basket

I've been very busy lately, working simultaneously on few projects. I am taking photos to use them in tutorials, hope this will be done soon. One of my 'projects' is also tidying up  the closets.  I found this interesting recycled paper basket on Design*Sponge. I am planning to make some, when finish other on going tasks, to make  better order in my closets and on shelves. Hope my hubby won't freak out, as usually, when I am reorganizing the house.

Find tutorial here.

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