Sarah Jane's Craft Blog

A few weeks ago I went to the State Fair for the first time in a few years. I knew I needed to bring a purse, but I wanted to bring something smaller than I normally carry. I had the perfect small cross body purse, but my wallet was too big for it. I ended carrying my cash in my pocket and everything else I needed in my purse (cell phone, car keys, ID, etc...). So after I got home I decided to make a mini-wallet out of some duct tape. I wanted it just big enough to fit my driver's license, a credit card or two, and a bit of cash. You could stick it in your pocket or in a small purse or larger phone carrier. After a couple trials, this is what I came up with. From my past duct tape projects , I knew that using a rotary cutter and a cutting mat is the easiest way to work with duct tape, so I grabbed those and some coordinating duct tape, a piece of thin cardboard from a food box, and some adhesive hook and loop circles . I cut my box (one side of an Emerald nut 1...

Have you noticed that the more realistic they make Mr. Peanut , the creepier he looks? Maybe it's just me, but I had a holiday nut tin with Mr. Peanut in a sweater printed on it's lid that just had to get covered up. The tin was a great size and had a lid that fit perfectly (not so tightly that you have to pry it off but not so loose that you're worrying about it popping off), so I knew I wanted to recycle this bad boy into something amazing. A while back I refashioned another holiday tin into a decorative storage tin . It worked perfectly, so I knew I wanted to do something similar. I grabbed a can of oil rubbed bronze spray paint  and a cardboard box to catch the spray and I got to work covering up the slightly creepy peanut. I made several light passes at the tin and let it dry before coming back and making several more passes. Then I turned the tin and repeated. The key to good spray painting is lots of light coats. The impatient person in me hates th...

Totally true confession: It took me three tries to get this project right. What started out as a quick easy recycle craft to decorate a dishwasher pods container turned into three different attempts and a trip to the store to buy more black tape. But, in the end, I was completely satisfied with how it turned out, so I guess it was worth the trial and error. And of course it means I can show you the best of my different attempts so you can do it in one attempt (hopefully)  if you try it.  As awesome as duct tape is, it's not terribly forgiving--sticky, yes; strong, yes; water resistant, yes--forgiving, not so much. Based on my previous experience working with duct tape, I knew that my best bet was using a rotary cutter and a cutting mat and and making sheets of duct tape. Rotary cutters work wonders on duct tape. Since you're cutting from the non sticky side, they roll right through the tape, cut a nice straight line, and you don't have to deal with the it stic...

This week's project was inspired by my roll of aluminum tape . I used this tape in some embossing projects a couple weeks ago, so I thought I'd try out another possible use for the tape--faux stained glass leading. I picked up a few boxes of Memory Glass  on the cheap at Tuesday Morning a couple of years ago. I used them to make some sun catchers with embossing powder a while back, but hadn't used them for much else. This project was perfect for these little glass slides. So I grabbed some alcohol ink , my applicator , and my craft mat and got to work. I dotted my applicator felt with a few different contrasting colors of ink and got started stamping. You don't need to put that much ink on your felt for such a small square of glass...I went a little overboard, but you get the idea. I stamped the glass a few times to cover the whole square with ink and it looked like the photo above. It's sort of blurry and water color-y. When working wi...

If you've been here before, you know I'm always looking for new surfaces to use alcohol ink on . So, when I was cleaning out my drawer full of gift bags and found these two white ones, I knew I had to try inking them. I found two used white gift bags in my stash...I'm sure at least one of them is from our wedding (10 years ago), so it was definitely time for it to have a new life. Then I grabbed my craft mat to keep my table clean (parchment paper would work well too) and some canned air to go along with my alcohol inks. I started out with the bag that was a little less glossy (more of a satin finish). I squeezed a stripe of sailboat blue ink onto the bag and sprayed it with a burst of air. The ink didn't spread much, but more than it would on say a sheet of cardstock paper, so I knew there was potential for the project. I continued to put stripes of ink on the bag and blow them with canned air. I had a little pooling on the crease of the ba...