Sarah Jane's Craft Blog

Well, it's official, the holiday season has begun. Start it out right by checking out my collection of DIY Christmas ornaments .  

After last week's domino project , I had an urge to work with dominoes again. I decided to try out the plastic wrap application method to see if it would work on dominoes. So I set out a craft mat and a sheet of plastic wrap and got out my inks . I selected a veritable rainbow of alcohol inks and dripped them all over my sheet of plastic wrap. When the plastic wrap was filled with ink, I dropped my dominoes onto the ink and wrapped the edges of the plastic around the dominoes. When I do this again, I'll try to make sure to have enough inked plastic to wrap around all of the dominoes. Some of my dominoes were inked on the backsides and some weren't. I let them dry for several days before unwrapping them, but they're usually dry after being left for 12-24 hours (depending on humidity levels and how much ink was used and how porous the surface is, etc...).  Between the rainbow of colors and the ink getting a bit smooshed when I moved my pack of dominoes off to the side o

I've had an application technique for alcohol ink floating around in my head for awhile. I've seen ink applicated in rainbows with foam brushes and makeup sponges, but I always thought it wouldn't look as pretty when I tried it myself. I've used foam brushes to apply ink to the edges of tiles and in other areas where I want a solid color, but I hadn't tried striping the ink. So I got out some dominoes and a foam brush so I could test this striped application method. I chose some colors that I thought would look nice next to each other. I added an orange when I had space for more ink on my foam brush. I used the tip of the inks to draw a line of ink on the foam brush and just stacked the lines of ink on top of each other. I couldn't really see the ink (except that hot pink raspberry color) on the foam brush, but I could tell where it was wet. I took a picture of the inks before I painted them on the dominoes so I could remember what colors I used: Sunset Orange ,

It's early, but some of my neighbors hung their Christmas lights today. I can't say I blame them, it was 75 degrees here this weekend (which is pretty atypical for November). But of course they didn't just hang them, they turned them on! So, I knew it must be time for me to at least start thinking about Christmas crafting. At last year's family Christmas, my Mom set out a few boxes of stuff she was going to take to the thrift store, and I saved this set of three ceramic elves that we put out every Christmas when I was growing up. One of the elves had a broken hat and chipped ear. The other two were pristine in all of their slightly sloppily painted 1970s glory (that's a guess, I have no idea how old these bad boys are).  So here's a look at the damage. One pointy hat broke off at it's tail. The same elf also had some damage to his ear. Upon closer inspection, I determined the bottom of this figurine was much less stable than the other two elves--hence the br

Still in a Halloween haze? Well, as you transition into the Thanksgiving season, check out my fall crafts collection . Some of my favorite Thanksgiving appropriate crafts are highlighted below. How about a recycled Christmas Cookie Tin spray painted and decorated with scrapbook paper. The classic pen bouquet done in fall colors! Dollar store Jar/Altar candles covered in cute Thanksgiving napkins with mod podge. I enjoyed making this tissue paper transfer plaque ! I had a ton of fun making these decorative Thanksgiving tiles with alcohol ink and some vinyl decals. And a recent craft that's still Thanksgiving appropriate: Alcohol Ink on Laminating Film Sun Catchers.