Easy peasy ‘gilded’ candle holders craft from Vanessa at Gerbera Designs. Some glass candle holders from the discount store, metallic duct tape, exacto knife or rotary cutter and you are in business.

Photo © Terri Mauro

School is back in session - yippee! Time to cover those precious books. Here’s an easy, step by step template for paper or paper bags from About.com. If you’re crafty with glue or sewing machine, you can also use this as a basic fabric pattern - a fabric with some spandex in it would be perfect! But don’t stop there - match the fabric or paper to your personality!

If the fear of knitting needles and learning intricate jargon such as, “Knit one, pearl two,” kept you from hooking up with the latest knitting craze, The Butterfly Loom has the perfect, no-fail, you-can-do-it product: The Magic Board. The Magic Board is a hand held, easy-as-pie weaver, made of rigid wood to produce different knitting and crocheting results without a lick of traditional knitting or crocheting involved.

Using The Butterfly Loom’s unique Wrap & Knot”© technique, The Magic Board can be used to create afghans, throws, rugs, jackets, bags, scarves, ponchos, purses and much more, with a variety of yarns – everything from Kid Mohair to Wooltops – with no knitting or crocheting experience. Available in five sizes from small to large and even rectangle shapes, the design of the board allows even the sight impaired and those with handicaps or arthritis to easily create fabulous knitted crafts with minimal effort and zero frustration.

“The Magic Board is truly addictive and just plain fun,” said owner and inventor Carolyn Jenner. “It’s unbelievable how quickly you can produce an actual knitted piece. And absolutely anyone – from children to grandparents of any age, any skill level – can use the product with great success.” Available for purchase online at www.thebutterflyloom.com, The Butterfly Loom’s web site also offers how-to demonstrations and inspirational “we-did-it” images from crafters around the world. About: Created in 2001, The Magic Board has appeared on DIY TV and on the hit show Big Brother in which 960 squares were created in 3 days and joined together to make a 9ft square Afghan.

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Posted by the Crafty Folks at Anna Bella Fine Stationery.

Yeah, potatoes! Remember making potato prints when you were a kid? It was a pretty cool way to make art. It still is. And now that you’re all grown up, you can make grown up potato prints, which are even better!

Potato prints are stamped art made from a carving you created on a cut-up potato.

You’ll need just a few simple supplies like potatoes, of course - the bigger, the better. Paint of your choice…tempera or acrylic for papers, fabric-friendly paint for cloth, latex or oil for walls, wood. Experiment! Stains and inks work well too, but result in a completely different way. You’ll need a sharp knife, possibly carving tools if you plan on getting fancy with your design. Cookie cutters make great templates, too. You’ll also need something to stamp your design onto to…paper, wood, etc. Oh, and the obvious miscellaneous things needed when painting - water, brushes, sponges.

 To begin, cut your potato in half either horizontally or vertically, exposing the flesh. Then, trace a design, similar to how you would trace a design on a pumpkin - use the pin prick method, a tool, a pencil, anything that works so that you can see your tracing. Then, carefully cut away the negative sections of the design, leaving a relief of your art. Or, you can also cut away the positive sections so that you have an outline of you art.

Dry the potato as much as possible and apply your paint with a brush or sponge. Then, you’re ready to stamp, stamp, stamp!

And sure, your potato won’t last more than a day, but you can preserve your stamp forever by stamping the design on a white piece of paper with black ink. Once it dries, you can then scan the art into your computer and use it again and again.

If you’re loving the idea of potato prints, but the thought of making them isn’t exactly spudtacular, you can hop on over to Sweet Potato Prints and purchase some of their cute-as-a-button potato print clothing for your tots! Here’s some of their fun products:

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Posted by the Crafty Folks at Anna Bella Fine Stationery.

Want to make your own lace earrings? It’s pretty simple and I’ve even found a tutorial over at Minding Prismera for you to make it even easier. It’s really just a few easy peasy steps, so there should be nothing stopping you. Oh except that the biggest of all craft killers…procrastination.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out the new Lotta Jansdotter Simple Sewing Book, you really must. I checked mine out from the library, but you can purchase a copy a jansdotter.com. The book is filled with simple patterns from a kitchen towels and aprons to a wall organizer and checkbook covers. I like the all-day tote, the wall-mounted magazine holder, the tool roll organizer, the curtain with pockets and all the bag patterns. All the projects are rated according to the level of difficulty with projects ranging from level 1 to level 4. The instructions are easy to understand and there are even patterns included in the book. I love Lotta’s simple yet sophisticated patterns and I think you will too. You can shop Lotta’s finished designs in her shop and see some of my favorites below.

I went looking for some cool ideas for making fabric flowers as embellishments for this bag I am making. So far, all I’ve done is bought the pattern and the fabric, but at least those are steps in the right direction to getting the project completed. I came across this great tutorial on Wise Craft for fabric flowers and it seems really simple and I the the fluttery effect of the flowers.