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Showing posts from March, 2014

Alcohol Ink Bookmarks

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Well, I'm finally moved all downstairs. So my first project in the basement craft room is with alcohol inks (of course it is). I loaded up my homemade applicator with a piece of felt and dripped some dots of ink onto it. Next I set up a transparency film (overhead projector film which I actually picked up at the pay by weight thrift store) with the piece of tissue paper it comes with underneath it so I could see what I was doing. Next I just started stamping away.  I added and changed colors in sections so that the sheet would change color and mix together throughout, and I would end up with very different colors once I cut the sheet up into bookmarks. Below is the sheet after I stamped and stamped my little heart out.  As you can see from the photo above, the ink will look water-colorish sometimes.  If you want it to look blended like that, stamp it less.  If you want it to be more stippled as it is below--keep stamping.  It changes as you go.  Just stop when

The Very Best of Sarah Jane's Craft Blog

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This week's usual project post has been interrupted by the Big Craft Room Move of 2014 (makes it sound epic doesn't it?). This last week was spring break for me, so I took it upon myself to start a big project that I have been wanting to start for several months.  I decided that it made more sense for me to set up all of my crafting stuff in the basement where I'd actually have room to do projects. Previously, all of my crafting supplies were in the upstairs guest room.  They were spilling out of the closest, and the room was always disheveled from me grabbing supplies and not getting them put back in their spot in the closet.  There wasn't enough room there to do any projects upstairs, so everything was hauled down a level to the kitchen table, where another mess was often created.  I'm hoping that leaving all of the supplies in one area with table space will allow me to have only one messy area--and no one cares about an unfinished basement being messy (right

Crafting Revisit: Tissue Covered Fried Onion Container

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A while back I covered one of these French's Fried Onion Containers in tissue paper.  The project turned out so well that I thought I'd make another one to store crafty bits and pieces.  For full instructions, see the original post here . The whole project is pretty easy.  Simply cut 2 rectangles of tissue paper to wrap around the container (I used a rotary cutter to do this).  Then carefully apply the tissue paper to the container using Mod Podge. I apply a second coat for durability and to cover up any oddities and overlaps from the first layer.  Be careful when applying the Mod Podge to the tissue paper for the second layer as the tissue paper is wet and can tear.  Waiting a little while between layers is your best bet.  Then when you're all finished, add a coat or two of Mod Podge to the top to seal it all up. After the container is sealed and dried, it's quite flexible and durable and ready to store whatever you need to.

As Seen on Pinterest: Baking Soda Oven Cleaner

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All over pinterest there are DIY recipes for cleaners made from inexpensive household products.  Baking Soda is one of the most popular ingredients (that and vinegar). I have seen a couple of recipes for oven cleaner made with baking soda, but recently I saw one that called for just baking soda and water  That's it. Nothing else. I figured it couldn't possibly work, but since it was so easy, I had to give it a whirl. This cleaner is billed as being able to clean your oven door and window to a clear shine.  All you need to do is cover the door in baking soda and water paste, let it sit for 30 minutes, and wipe it off. So I sprinkled baking soda all over the door and then I tried to use a wet dish brush to make the paste (so as to get a little scrubbing in even though the instructions didn't call for it), but there wasn't enough water on the brush to work.  So I got a paper towel wet and squeezed it out onto the baking soda a couple of times and then us

Tinting Jump Rings with Alcohol Ink

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So I bought some cute skeleton key charms from the dollar section at Michael's a couple of weeks back and I knew I wanted to make some necklaces out of them, but two of the keys were gold and my jump rings were silver.  Almost all of my jewelry is silver, so I wasn't about to go and buy a new set of jump rings just to make one necklace, so I used some alcohol ink to tint the silver rings gold.  I used some gold and a little bit of yellow/orange ink.  I dotted on my application block as normal and dabbed  it all over the rings.  Then I flipped them over and did it again. It worked like a charm except that the rings would sometimes stick to the felt. When I was all done I dropped them onto some white cardstock so it would be easier to see the color they turned out.  I was pretty pleased that I didn't need to run to the store, and I look forward to coloring them in other colors just for the heck of it now that I know that it works (like purple!).

DIY Shrinky Dinks and Alcohol Ink

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So I've made a few projects with out of DIY Shrinky Dink plastic made from number 6 plastic containers (the containers I'm using are from the local grocery store's bakery department), and I've made a few projects with alcohol ink . This time, I used alcohol ink to decorate shrinky dinks. Have I exhausted all possible projects with these two media--not even remotely. They are both so easy and fun to work with.  I promise that they'll be back again. If you want to make your own decorated plastic pendants, you'll need to start with some number 6 plastic.  I cut apart the container using an electric scissors  to keep my lines as straight as possible since I was making squares and rectangles.  I punched holes at the top of each piece of plastic with a regular hole punch so the plastic could be strung up after it was shrunk. I laid the plastic pieces out onto a cookie sheet lined with foil (it's never stuck before, but just in case).  I preh