Category Archives: crafts

crafts, holidays, Home and Family, Homemade Madness, Just me, Spoons

Making all the things… Part Two.

October 15, 2016 Savvy Spoonie Leave a comment

Back again after an interlude of extreme involvement in the art of forging metal into pretty shiny things. I am not sure why I am utterly entranced by this process but it makes me feel as though I have come home. Perhaps it’s the fact that all the problems that arise are so easily fixed with a reapplication of heat or a polish here and there. Whatever the reason, I am basking in the sheer joy of turning sheet metal and wire into pendants and bracelets.

Of course, not every will want pendants or bracelets for the holidays so I am back with another handmade gift suggestion list. Last time we focused on college age people, so let’s look at tweens and teens this time around.

Easy Sharpie Tie Dye

sharpie-shirt-last-step — Image from DIYPROJECTSFORTEENS

I love the look of tie dye but I have always been intimidated by the actual process of it. After some savvy internet research I discovered a simple way to create tie dye decor.

For gift giving the possibilities are vast. You could purchase small canvas bags and create personalized tie dyed lunch bags for your kids. Go bigger and you’ve got overnight bags, beach bags, sport totes, etc.

You can certainly make gorgeous shirts for not a whole lot of money with this technique. Hanes has a crazy sale going on and their shirts are soft, durable, and come in light colors that would be easy to tie dye over. You could even check out their sweat pants sale and tie dye up some super comfy lounge wear for the cold holiday season.

Finally, make some small zippered coin purses/dice bags/make-up bags with tie dye decor for a cool stocking stuffer.

DIY Bleach Design

On the opposite end of the DIY shirt spectrum we have bleach. A good friend of mine taught me this technique and it’s fairly simple. You choose a stencil, leaf, shape, etc, that you like. Lay a dark shirt flat on cardboard and place the stencil on it where you want the negative of the shape to be on the shirt. Spray with a bleach spray and toss in the laundry to rinse. You may want to scrunch the fabric around the shape or stencil to get a more even look.

If you want to take this idea to the next level and add additional materials, like fabric paint, the folks over at By Hand London have posted a DIY Galaxy Shirt idea.

Once again, Hanes is a great resource for well made and comfortable shirts, this time in a variety of dark colors, to assist you in making your teen or tween (or anyone really) a well made hand decorated shirt worth wearing.

Duct tape is your new best friend

You can do nearly anything with Duct Tape. As we are approaching Halloween I felt a DIY Halloween Candy Bag was a good image example for duct tape madness. Before you dive in I suggest a visit to diyready.com for their basic duct tape fabric tutorial video. You don’t have to master making sheets of duct tape to make a project, but you do if you want to make a duct tape project easy.

A few ideas for gifting with Duct Tape:

2015_laurdiy_necklace_2 — Source: Duck Brand

Make a Duct Tape necklace as a cool stocking stuffer, or assemble the necessary parts for said necklace, slip them into a small gift box with several small rolls of colorful duct tape and printed out directions and gift your teen/tween with a duct tape necklace kit.

Owl Tote Step Out Final — Source: Duck Brand

You can go a little bigger and create this stunning Owl tote bag. (Remember, it’s a sew free project!)

If you are looking for a fun gift for your technology lover (That doesn’t cost a small fortune) try your hand at a DIY tablet cover.

Does your tween or teen have a younger sibling? They can make these charming Duct Tape and sponge boats for the bathtub and gift them with something they made themselves, in addition to a great deal of bath-time fun.

I could do several months worth of blog posts on the power of duct tape. I strongly suggest you check out the Duct Brand websites craft section or just google “duct tape diy” and your browser will be filled with hundreds, if not thousands, of ideas ranging from fashion accessories to waterproof beach totes to wedding dresses.

Friendship Bracelets: Fun and Easy Accessories

Whether you are making them for your teen or giving your teen handmade gift ideas, the friendship bracelet is a time honored gift. Once again I’ll turn your attention to DIYReady.com. They have assembled 19 different styles of bracelet for your imagination to feast upon.

DIY Sites of Interest

The world of DIY is vast and there are so many people putting together lists of ideas for your holiday crafting. Here are a few of the sites I have found the most useful.

Boys often get the short end of the DIY stick. DIY Projects for Teens has a post devoted to them. From splash bomb trebuchets to skateboard shelves these project ideas are sure to delight your kiddo.
Moms and Crafters have a number of good DIY posts for both boys and girls, with one focusing on teens.
Craft Forest is filled to the brim with great DIY ideas, including the good old standby – the marshmallow shooter. However, they peg the meter of coolness with a DIY Lightsaber tutorial!

There’s more to come! Younger kiddos are next. I hope you enjoy some of these project ideas and have fun getting started on your handmade holiday!

crafts

Yarn is a sick person’s best friend…

October 10, 2009 Savvy Spoonie 2 Comments

I have finally been struck with the cold that plagued by family all week. As I sat on the couch making my way through the first season of 30Rock (which is funny as hell and my new addiction!) I began to feel that guilty itchy sensation that comes with doing nothing all day long while those around you pick up your slack. Since the headache and fever prevented any physical exertion I dug out my crochet needles and yarn and worked up some much needed winter hats for the kids.

I crocheted Otter’s first even though I was fairly certain he would never use it. He can’t abide restriction and finds hats, gloves, and coats to be the most opressive objects ever presented to him. Surprisingly he took to his new hat rather well. It seems watching me make it all afternoon turned it into something cool instead of something irritating. He couldn’t wait to try it on and didn’t want to take it off.

Once Monkey saw Otter’s hat she demanded one “exactly like it but with a poof ball.” We settled on candy cane stripes for her colors and I did my best with a poof ball on top. She seems quite pleased with it. Now I am wondering how hard it would be to make matching mittens…

crafts, Law

Mixing cardstock and the practice of law…

May 4, 2009 Savvy Spoonie 2 Comments

I never thought my addiction to scrapbooking would be a useful problem solving tool in my law practice but today, it was.

Tomorrow I have clients arriving to formally execute my first Last Will and Testament. After agonizing over the legality of it all and insuring that nothing is getting past their wishes, I sat at my desk staring at the neatly typed language and feeling sad that word processing has taken the fanfare out of trusts and estates. I remembered my T&E professor gently reminding us that our clients would likely only ever commission one will, and that we should make a big deal out of it, take our time with the formal execution, and go through a little drama with the finalization of the document.

Now, larger firms can afford to send their wills out for fancy binding, but I charge my clients about a fourth of market cost for a will, so I really, really can’t.

Which is why I suddenly found myself in the scrapbooking aisle of Hobby Lobby eyeballing a lovely grey linen cardstock and a watermark stamp pad. Hmmm….

It turns out the fancy binding the larger law firms pay for can be mimicked by some heavy high quality card stock, a little bit of glue, and some time. Add to that a custom watermark on each page and suddenly my clients are getting the custom touch the ABC’s firms give them, for about two thousand dollars less. Who knew my scrapbooking addiction would be such a help to me in my new venture?

I am sure, like all my scrapbooking experiences, this particular project will only evolve with time. I am already imagining having my logo made into a custom stamp and watermarking all my legal documents with the office logo. But really, for the first will ever, I have just produced a formally bound, professional document, with a little bit of flair.

It looks nothing like a term paper, it looks nothing like a word document. It’s printed on 24 pound linen paper, and bound with thick linen cardstock. I even designed a case for it, so they can tuck it safely away in their safe deposit box.

Best of all, I got to use glue and paper cutters in the practice of law. My creative side is beaming with joy.