Sarah Jane's Craft Blog

This craft project was inspired by a recent trip to Tuesday Morning where I snatched up this Martha Stewart Craft Kit that includes a template for making spirals and stars out of paper for just $3.99. The kit includes this plastic triangle template, a craft blade (that supposedly uses standard utility knife blades) with a retracting plastic guard, and a small instruction pamphlet. The kit is designed for 12 inch square sheets of paper--the standard in scrapbook paper sizes. I was excited to try it out so I searched my stash for a 12 inch piece of scrapbook paper that had patterns on both sides. I learned that most of my scrapbook paper stash is single sided, but I did manage to find a nice high contrast piece of paper. 2-sided paper is now on my list for the next trip to the craft store. I folded the paper into a triangle and opened the plastic template. The paper fits neatly inside. Then I used the included knife to slice along the grooves in the temp...

Today's post is a total craft experiment. The folks over at Sharpie posted a tutorial for creating decorated coasters (in the style of alcohol ink ) using nothing but some Sharpie ink and rubbing alcohol dripped onto the tiles. I was curious. I wanted to know how well it worked since a lot of people have some Sharpies lying around their house (whereas alcohol ink is a much more specialized craft supply). So I thought I'd give it a whirl. The first time I tried it (outside as pictured above), it didn't work at all.  It was warm and windy outside, and I didn't color solid lines onto my tiles, instead I had produced squiggles, and they didn't run at all when I put the alcohol on them (it was such a fail that I didn't even take any photos). Fast forward to take two. This time I was working inside and I colored with the side of the Sharpie nib to get the most ink onto the tile as possible. I chose the brightest and boldest colors, and nearly filled the...

I have had these blue silk roses for a while. They were purchased with a bundle of red and white roses in the clearance section at Wal-mart. I assume they were leftovers after the 4th of July. Since they aren't exactly a natural color, I didn't know what the heck to do with them. So I decided to make some silk flower pens with them for someone whose favorite color is blue. This fall I made a whole bouquet of flower pens , but this time I'm just making a little bundle. Flower pens are easy, inexpensive, and make great gifts. You'll just need some stick pens, some silk flowers, a roll of floral tape , and a scissors. Floral tape is funky stuff if you've never worked with it before. It's available everywhere that sells craft supplies, and it's kind of like stretchy masking tape, but it's not very sticky. Line the stem of your flower up with your pen and start rolling and stretching your tape over the stem--sticky side up. It's not that sti...

School's almost out (yay!), but until then, you'll have to settle for a quick craft. But let's face it--those are really the best kind anyway. The label peeled right off of this soda bottle so it was perfect to be turned into a vase. I grabbed my alcohol ink, craft mat, and applicator (with felt) and got to work. In the photo above I had stamped my 5 colors all over the bottle once. I made a second pass and thought it had turned out pretty well, albeit a bit on the red side. So I cut some lilacs off of the bush and tested it out. What a perfect quick spring craft!

There will not be a new craft tutorial this week. Finals start the end of this week, so I'm swamped with grading, and to make matters worse, I had the plague last week...ok, it wasn't the plague, but a really nasty cold virus/influenza-ish type thing that I'm still getting over. Needless to say, I missed a bunch of school at the wrong time of the semester, so I had no time or energy for a project.  So I thought I'd share a photo I took of my lilacs last week before I got sick. If you're still in a crafting mood, here's a throwback to a project I did last spring:  Alcohol Ink Dyed Silk Flower Wreath  (Faux Gerber Daisy Wreath). See you next week with a new project (fingers crossed, knock on wood).

I have been saving bottle caps from glass soda bottles and the stray beer bottle for a while now, figuring that I could totally craft something with them, so this week I've got my first bottle cap project. First I spray painted them all black. You could leave them in all of their original multicolored glory if you'd like (or they may all be the same color if you're an especially loyal drinker). 2 coats over the backs, then I flipped them and did another two coats over the inside of the cap. Next I printed out some photos from the internet onto some matte photo paper . I chose a wide variety from personal photos in black and white and color and a bunch of graphics from google searches. I figured I'd print off a ton to see what worked best. Then I grabbed my 1 inch circle punch and punched out circles. Not all of the images fit neatly into circles, so I ended up printing off even more. Then I put a bit of Diamond Glaze ( Paper Glaze or Dime...

Last year I bought an herb garden kit that came with this little galvanized planter. I grew my chives, parsley and basil, but they always looked a bit sickly--not something I'd want to cook with. So after a year of sad looking herbs, I cut my losses and was left with a rusty planter.  It wasn't heavy enough or expensive enough for me to want to really work to get rid of the rust, so I had two options, spray paint, or trash. I opted for spray paint. I went out to the patio with a cardboard box and some oil rubbed bronze spray paint and got to work. I sprayed the inside, and then flipped it over and sprayed the bottom and a light coat on the sides. Then I set the planter on its side and sprayed each side with a nice finish coat. It was as good as new!  Now I can use my old rusty planter to store greeting cards or bills, or maybe even as a planter again.