Make a geometric origami garland

If you like folding paper, here's a pretty origami garland to try. Each "bead" takes half a sheet of origami paper. (Preferably a different color on each side.) It's time consuming, but I love how it looks. It's a good, repetitive activity to do while watching Christmas movies you've seen a hundred times.

Learn how to make it from Daily Origami's YouTube video tutorial. The design is by Toshie Takahama.

I didn't have a long enough needle to string them, so I used a piece of thin wire bent double at the end to form a hook. I poked holes in the ends of the beads first with a real needle, then used my make-shift needle to pull the thread through.

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How to sew cases, bags, and buckets

Check out these instructions for making things that hold other things. Maybe you know somebody who needs a handmade gift?

iPad or Kindle cover tutorial at Craft Buds
Pleated tote bag PDF from The Long Thread
Geometric DIY painted totes from Collect & Carry
Round fabric storage buckets by Film in the Fridge

Find even more things to make at Sew 4 Home, like this laminated tote with a zippered pocket or a round pillow that reminds me of peppermint candy and grandmas.

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Origami paper stars for garlands or gifts

Making paper Christmas decorations is one of my favorite things this time of year. I found instructions here for making an 8-pointed origami star and tried it out. Lovely!

You can make garlands with them. (The back sides aren't as pretty, so hang the garland against a wall or put two stars back to back.) Or hang individual ones on a Christmas tree.

Or make paper stars to use instead of traditional bows on gifts. If you skip the last step in the tutorial, the back side is flat and easy to tape to a package. These will lay flat for packing presents in a box, and then you can fluff them up again when you put the gifts under the tree.

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Make pie chart paper pendants

If charts, graphs and metrics are your thing, you might enjoy crafting some pie chart pendants. They're made entirely of paper. Oh, and a little glue, thread and a jump ring if you want to get technical. Which you probably do, if you're the kind of person who likes pie charts.

With a punch (I used a 1" circle), cut out about 12 circles of cardstock. You can add as many circles to the pendant as needed to get the thickness you want, of course. The ones I made are 1/8" thick.

Glue the circles into a stack one at a time. Be sure you get the glue all the way to the edges, and use just a small amount so things don't get messy. Stop at the half-way point.

Double a small length of thread and tie it to a jump ring. Make sure the opening in the ring isn't covered by the thread. Glue the thread to the paper stack with the ring sticking out, then keep adding layers on top until the pendant is the desired thickness.

Cut some wedges of colored paper for the top layer and glue them on. When all the glue is dry, the paper pendant will be very hard.

To seal it, you can brush it with polycrylic or Triple Thick. To make a shiny, glass-like surface, try some Mod Podge Dimensional Magic, Aleene's Paper Glaze, or Diamond Glaze. Test the products first on a scrap of paper to make sure colors won't bleed.

The little DIY color-blocked necklaces are cute and light-weight. Just don't wear them in the shower!

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DIY postcard wall art

I made something new for the living room: a big collage of postcards mounted on foam board.

This boxed set of 100 vintage Penguin book cover postcards was on the clearance table at Anthropologie a couple weeks ago. I had to have it. I love books. I love the cover designs, and I love the color palette. They were too good not to display somehow. You can also get them here from Amazon.

I decided to lay out my favorites on the biggest piece of foamcore I could find at my local art store (30"x40" for $5). It seemed more interesting to give the collage a 3D look with postcards coming forward at different heights. So I cut some small pieces of foam board and stacked them to create "risers" for some of the cards. I used one, two, or three layers to vary the depth.

I stuck the foam pieces together and attached the postcards to the board with double-sided ATG tape I had on hand. It was better than wet glue which could warp the postcards.

I could have measured and cut the foam board to the precise size before sticking on the postcards, but I wanted to be certain of having a perfectly trimmed edge that was flush with the cards. So I opted to trim the board after seeing where the postcards ended up (keeping the 3D ones aligned was a bit tricky). Starting at the top left corner and working down, I stuck all the postcards onto the board except for the right-most column and the bottom row. Then I marked where the edges of the last cards would end up and cut off the excess board with an X-acto knife on a cutting mat. I aligned the last postcards with the edge and attached them.

To keep the large foam board from warping and to make a way to hang it on the wall, I hot-glued it to wooden stretcher bars. This frame had an old canvas stretched on it that I removed so I could reuse it. You could also buy wooden stretcher bars for a couple bucks each at an art store; they come in any length you could possibly want and have slotted corners for snapping them together (details here). The frame can be smaller than the foam board; mine happened to be the same height.

I added a sawtooth hanger to the top. One was enough because it's a pretty light-weight piece. You could also use picture wire or any hanging method you like.

I added self-adhesive felt pads to the four corners to protect the wall from scratches.

The book titles are very interesting. "An Intelligent Woman's Guide"? Is it different than the guide for men? Is there another guide for non-intelligent women?

Yes, there must be a pony! I haven't heard of this novel, but the title makes me happy. Oh, I just searched and here's where it comes from.

I hope visitors enjoy reading the book titles as much as I do. Soft Fruit Growing, Scootering, Explosives, and Aircraft Recognition all sound like very useful manuals and could make a person quite well-rounded.

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How to add clasps to friendship bracelets

I used embroidery floss samples this weekend to make a few friendship bracelets. For the first time, I might add. When I was a kid, shoe pins were all the rage instead of bracelets at my school. I've never made a knotted bracelet before, but since little girls can do it, it would be embarrassing if I couldn't figure it out, right?

Purl Soho's tutorial and Friendship-bracelets.net taught me everything I needed to know. Check out the gallery here for some amazing work. That site has 23,000 patterns. Holy smokes!

I wanted my bracelets to be easily put on and taken off without having to tie them in the traditional way. None of this "leave it on until it falls off" business. That's probably friendship bracelet blasphemy, but so be it.

I like a more polished finish instead of ratty dangling threads. I went to my local hobby store and got some jewelry clasps which are easy to add.

For wider bracelets (10+ strings), a wide crimp connector can work well. A narrower fold-over crimp-head clasp can also do the job. If your clasp doesn't have an attached jump ring, you might need a couple of those, too. And finally, a lobster clasp or a spring-ring clasp will hook the whole deal together.

To use the wider clamp version, cut the loose threads off both ends of the bracelet.

Add a little glue to hold the threads together at the end and work it in with your fingers. I used Aleene's Tacky Glue. After the glue dries for 5 minutes or so, push the end of the bracelet inside the clamp. Then press the metal closed with a pliers. The clamp has tiny teeth that dig into the thread so it won't come apart.

Use a couple jump rings if needed and add the clasp of your choice.

Or, try a fold-over crimp clasp. Cut the loose threads off your bracelet, leaving about a quarter inch. Roll some glue around with your fingers until the loose threads are twisted together. When the glue is dry, trim off any excess length and insert the end into the clasp. With a pliers, fold over one flap of the clasp, then fold the other on top of it and squeeze. Add the closure of your choice.

You can get these jewelry findings at bead stores or all over Etsy.com in the supplies section.

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Make glow-in-the-dark Halloween art

I tried out some Glow-in-the-Dark Mod Podge for this Halloween DIY project. In daylight, prints look normal. In the dark, they glow! At least for a little while. The Mod Podge coating on these needs charging up in light. I was a bit disappointed to see that the glow fades in five minutes or so. But hey, it's a fun five minutes.

And I must confess that the photo above is fake. Sorry! It's like I've turned my blog into the National Enquirer. My auto-focusing camera refused to snap pictures at such low light, so I carefully Photoshopped a simulation. I considered adding an alien monkey boy to the image, but opted for realism. The glowing areas on the prints might look slightly more brush-strokey in real life, but this is pretty accurate.

If you want to try making your own glowing prints, you'll need white cardstock, a brush, Glow-in-the-Dark Mod Podge, and a printer or black Sharpie.

Brush a piece of light-weight cardstock with 5 or 6 coats of Mod Podge, letting each coat dry in between. The paper ends up glossy and sort of leathery feeling. It still looks white, but you can see brush strokes if you hold it in the light at the right angle.

Then print out black-and-white images on the treated paper. The areas covered by black toner won't glow since the Mod Podge is masked.

I used the vampire bat and spider from Clip Art Etc., a great resource for vintage clipart.

You could also try a black Sharpie, or glue on black paper cutouts. Or brush a canvas with Mod Podge and then paint a black design on top.

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How to make an infinity scarf the lazy way

Scarves are everywhere, which makes me want to resist them since everyone is doing it. But they're so comfy and nice and make you feel like you're wearing a cozy blanket. If you close your eyes, you can pretend you're still in your bed. Plus you can wear old jeans and a worn out t-shirt, and as soon as you add a scarf, your surprised friends will tell you how nice you look. At least that's what happens to me.

So I went to buy couple more at the mall, but was not impressed with $20+ price tags. Instead I found seller FABULACE on Etsy and bought a couple pieces of knit jersey for about $3 a yard. The piece I cut up for this scarf was 1 1/2 yards long by 60" wide, so that's enough to make two scarves!

There are a million infinity scarf tutorials on the internet, but the ones I saw all involve hand sewing where the loop joins together. That's for lovely people who are patient and care about doing a really nice job. This thing will get all wadded up around my neck, so I'm thinking no one will see that I sort of cheated and did not care about doing a really nice job.

I cut a rectangle of fabric 22" wide by 1 1/2 yards long.

I folded it in half lengthwise with the right sides together. I sewed along the open edge to create a long tube.

Then I turned the tube right side out.

To join the open ends together to form a continuous loop, on one end I turned the raw edges to the inside about 1/2". I stuffed the other end of the scarf inside the opening and pinned them together, then sewed along the pinned edge.

Keep the seam behind your neck or hidden under a loop of fabric, and nobody will be the wiser.

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