Sarah Jane's Craft Blog

A few weeks back I saw a project online for laminated leaf magnets . I thought the idea of running some beautifully colored fall leaves through my laminator was a stellar idea; however, I wanted to hang them in my window instead of adding them to my clutter of fridge magnets. So, I picked some pretty leaves and got to work. These leaves were allowed to dry a day or so before I laminated them, but they were all still flexible and vibrantly colored. I arranged them in my laminator sheets with lots of space around each leaf so I'd have room to cut around them and leave a tab to punch a hole in. I ran each sheet through the laminator a few times to get the best possible seal so the leaves wouldn't turn brown. After they were laminated, I cut them out and punched a hole near the top of each leaf, then I trimmed them a little more to get the finished product. I had a heck of a time getting a good photo of these leaves. The front window I have them in stays relatively...

When we first got our dehydrator , apples were one of the first things we tried drying.  Apple chips are probably my favorite dried fruit.  You can easily dry them to the point of crispness, and they are always nice and sweet.  The only problem--buying apples in bulk has gotten more expensive over the last year or so.  I waited impatiently last fall for the prices to drop below a dollar a pound so we could bring home a big bag and get to drying, but apparently the apple crop took a big hit from the drought last year.  This year that is not the case, unfortunately the costs of everything keeps rising and apples have not really returned to their pre-drought prices.  Thankfully, Costco came through.  The 10 pound bags were finally under 10 bucks again. Their 10 pound bags are full of GIANT Red Delicious apples--which make a nice sweet chip. We started by laying out a colored cutting board.  If you're cutting a bunch of apples and you accide...

Michael's had a sale a while back on wreath forms...a long while back...like a year ago.  This grapevine wreath cost me $1.99 last fall.  I knew I wanted to make a fall wreath that I could use before and after Halloween.  So I picked up 3 bunches of different colored chrysanthemums at Walmart for 94 cents a piece and a fall inspired ribbon.  Then I picked up an assorted fall bunch at Michael's that included berries, leaves, a pumpkin and a pinecone. This one bunch was on sale for $1.49.   So for under $10 I was able to whip up this wreath.  I laid out my flowers and other items where I thought they looked nice and then glued them down with a hot glue gun.  This is my second wreath using silk flowers--however I'm no stranger to wreath making--but one thing that I've learned from working with silk flowers on wreaths is to buy bunches that have different sized flowers if possible. I wish there were even more variety in the sizes of the chrysanthe...

I've been wanting to try this project ever since I first saw it online.  What a handy and pretty way to keep old grocery bags all neat and tidy and easy to get to.  I knew immediately that I wanted to make one to keep in my car. You'll need: About 12 shopping bags An empty disinfectant wipes container Mod Podge and foam brush Scrapbook Paper or Fabric to decorate the container Start out by laying your bags flat and smoothing them out.  Tuck in the sides if you need to. I used bags from the same store so they'd be the same size and roll up more neatly, but I'm sure it will work just fine with bags from different stores. Next, fold the bag in half. After you have a stack of bags folded in half, you can start rolling them up.  Fold the handles of the first bag up so that they will stick out of the center of the roll.  Begin rolling the bags up starting at the top of the bag (handle end) and working towards the bottom.  L...

Another super quick washi tape craft: covered binder clips.  I use a lot of binder clips at my job, so I liked the idea of making them cuter.  I grabbed a handful of small binder clips and a stack of washi tape and got to work. I lined up the straight edge along one side of the clip.  Then used a small sharp scissors to trim the tape along the opposite short edge.  Then I folded the excess over the top of the clip.  I repeated the process on the opposite side. I started out using a regular sized scissors but switched to a small one when I realized I needed to get a closer cut to the binder clip.  After that switch, the project was a piece of cake. I even had one teeny-tiny binder clip that was the same width as the washi tape--covering a set of those itty bitty ones would be ideal; however, as binder clips go, though, they are pretty darn useless. Now I have a full variety of patterned binder clips to make me smile while I'm working. ...