written by threadslinger

The month of June was quite possibly one of the most stressful months of my life. But, I did find some time to do some friend crafting. Friend crafting is the best, its when you get together with a bunch of fellow crafters and do an interactive craft. My best girl friends from college and I drew names and then painted pots for the person that we drew names for. (Most of the fun of this craft was guessing who the pot was for.) We also used modge podge and other things to switch it up, but it was a really neat project to do and super easy.

Materials needed

Paint (acrylic works fine)
Paint brushes
modge podge
magazines
lots of creativity

Directions

This craft doesn’t have a lot of “instructions” since it relies on you being creative, but I will give you a tip. You should paint your pot the base color first and allow that paint to dry before you do the decorating part. Also, make sure that you don’t leave any space unturned. You can leave sweet messages, like this one, in the pot for the person to see later and feel all warm inside.

written by marieann

I made this box out of an old shoebox, cardboard, and an old silk shirt. I wanted a way to transport my jewlery in style without worrying about a broken mirror. This is an easy project but you could make it really classy.

Supplies:
Silk shirt (or fabric scraps)
Contrasing fabric (I used black satin)
Ribbon
Shoe box (I had one with an attached lid)
Cardboard scraps
Grey tape

Tools:
Tacky glue (I prefer Aleene’s)
Scissors
Clothes Pins
Popsicle stick (or other spreader)

Instructions:
1. Cut a rectangle of fabric from the shirt material big enough to wrap around the outside of the box. If you line the fabric up just right, you’ll have button holes in the front of the box.
2. Cut a diagonal slit in the corners so that you can neatly fold the fabric toward the inside.
3. Squeeze a thin layer of glue on the outside of the cardboard of the box. Use the stick to spread the glue very smoothly.
4. Press the fabric against the box tucking the ends inside the box. Use clothes pins to hold the fabric in place as it is drying.
5. Use cardboard scraps to build compartments. Make the rectangles as wide as you want the walls of the compartment to be tall and as long as you need them to be to connect to something plus four inches. Fold each edge of the cardboard under two inches (you may need to score the cardboard). Don’t glue them at first, but be sure that they fit. Then cover them in the lining fabric.
6. Using grey tape, tape the folded flaps to the side walls. I made compartments within the compartments so sometimes you may need to glue the walls directly to other compartments.
7. Spread glue over the inside of the box. Be sure that the ends of your fabric are covering the outside fabric which is folded in the inside but does not fold to the outside. Press the fabric pieces along the inside of the box, clipping corners where needed to help the fabric lie flat.
8. Put a thin line of glue with the glue gun over the edges and press ribbon against it. This will hide your unclean ends.
9. Wrap long ribbon pieces around the box and thread thru the button holes to tie. Stuff with pretty jewlery!