Sarah Jane's Craft Blog

Happy almost 4th of July!  To celebrate, I thought I'd make a cute centerpiece out of my favorite part of the 4th--Fireworks!  I started out thinking I was going to use toilet paper tubes or paper towel tubes to make my Rockets, but I didn't have any dowels laying around the house that would work--all I could find was 5 (yes 5--beats me what happen with the other one) nice round Chinese takeout chopsticks .  So I figured I'd make some smaller rockets.  I happened to have a couple of cardboard tube rolls from tinfoil boxes (probably from nonstick reynolds wrap --that stuff is awesome).  They are a little narrower in diameter and thicker than toilet paper tubes and paper towel tubes, so I thought they'd pair nicely with my chopsticks. For this project you'll need:  Cardboard tubes Dowels of an appropriate length to match your cardboard tubes (I used chopsticks) Scrapbook paper in festive colors Scissors Mod Podge and a foam brush for ...

Ever since I got my Speedball Carving Kit , I knew I wanted to make eraser stamps.  Truth be told, you could probably make these stamps with a craft knife too, but since I have the carving tool, I used it. I picked up a 3 pack of these nice flat white erasers at the Dollar Store. I drew designs straight on the stamps with a ballpoint pen. I did print out some tag examples and shape patterns off of the internet so that I got the angles right.  I traced right around the hexagon one.  When you're carving, it's a good idea to do it on top of some paper (I have parchment above, but newspaper or a paper plate would work too) to catch all your little eraser bits.  Go around the lines with your smallest carving tool, and then carve away the rest with a larger bit.  When I made the triangle and hexagon stamps, I wanted to make them out of one stamp--so I used a regular scissors to cut the rough shapes out (I didn't know if it would work, but low and b...

When I left off, I had just crafted some great stamps made out of fun foam from the dollar store glued onto cardboard.  The leaf shape and the circle shapes proved the concept, but after I saw how they stamped, I knew I needed to make some geometric background patterns. I started out with some strips cut on my paper cutter--half inch and quarter inch. I glued them carefully onto cardboard--eyeballing them as parallel as possible (hey, the end result will look imperfect even if I measure, so why not, right?).  Next up, the ever popular chevron.  I tried just free-hand cutting the shapes, but they were very uneven.  I thought for sure I'd have to measure or print out a pattern...then I had a pretty genius idea (ok, just clever, not really genius). I cut my long narrow rectangle shape, folded it in half, then  cut at an angle.  I then made cuts at the same angle about the same distance apart (again, I eye balled it because I'm impatient and ...

I found this lovely pack of Fun Foam from Dollar Tree in my craft room.  I don't even remember when I bought it, but I knew exactly what I wanted to make with it first: homemade stamps. I cut up some spare cardboard from a box (the non corrugated kind would work even better, but use what you've got). Then I used a scissors to cut out some shapes.  Then I used some tacky glue to glue them onto the cardboard.  Super easy! Next I thought I'd try out some paper punches.  The dollar store fun foam is very thin, so I figured it might work.  I could only fit the fun foam into one of my paper punches--the circle, so I punched out four circles and made a single stamp and a grouping of three the same way as I made the leaves. After the glue dried, I tested out the stamps.  They create rustic impression--a bit imperfect. I immediately got some ideas for other designs (which you'll see in my next post). These are so much fun to make--very chea...

The best part of camping is the campfires. Who doesn't love making s'mores and roasting hotdogs over a fire? Sometimes the fires are a bit difficult to get going though. If it's a bit breezy or if your wood is a bit wet or even if you're just in a hurry, getting a fire started can be a real pain. We use fire starters most of the time when we're camping.  We've tried lots of different kinds (including the store bought variety). Of all of the homemade ones I've tried, these pack the most bang for their size. They are also very easy and inexpensive to make. To make your own Cotton Rounds Campfire Starters you'll need: Quilted Cotton Rounds Wax Something to melt the wax in--I used a tinfoil pie tin Your stove top or a hot plate Tongs Cooling Station--I used a cookie sheet lined with nonstick tinfoil I bought a pumpkin candle on sale at Wal-mart a while back.  It is a lousy candle.  The wick burns faster than the wax, so the wa...

I bought this awesome swirly grosgrain ribbon from Michael's in the Dollar Bins last year.  I thought it was cool, but I had no idea what I'd use it for.  Bookmarks are perfect. I've been on a reading binge lately (all fluffy YA novels--delightful summer reading), so I knew I'd put them to good use. I started out by measuring the lengths on a trade paperback and a mass market paperback to get a couple of different sizes.  I wrapped them around each sized book and just snipped them when the ends met.  The next time I make these bookmarks, I'll probably cut them just a bit shorter to allow for the stretch of the hair tie. I folded over the raw end that was going to get a button later and double stitched it.  Then I moved on to the side with the hair tie.  I folded over about an inch of ribbon and pinned the hair tie in place.  Then I sewed with the presser foot right along the pin.  Then I pulled the pin out and sewed again with the p...

The first time I visited the Iowa State Fair, I saw someone wearing a neck cooler. I thought, I'm uncomfortably warm (as it almost always is at the State Fair), I want one of those. I started looking online for instructions and found that I needed a specialty item to make them work: water absorbing crystals. I didn't really want to buy them in bulk on Amazon when I had no idea if I'd like the neck coolers or if they'd really store water the way they said they would. Fast forward a few years, and a post from a fellow blogger reminded me of making my very own neck coolers. She said she got her crystals in a little packet at Michaels. So I did a little searching online this time and found out that the crystals are available in a lot more places now. Miracle Grow is selling these Water Storing Crystals for use in potted plants....and they are for sale anywhere that sells planting supplies. I picked up a bag at my local Wal-mart and dug out my little sewing machine. Fo...