Toilet Paper Roll Printed Textiles

I bought this HUGE bolt of fabric.  If that’s what you call it.  I used it to make curtains about 5 years ago and now I am left with this crapload.  I was thinking about selling it in my garage sale, but I think I can find other uses for it.  Like make prints using toilet paper rolls!  Imagine the possibilities once the paint is dry.  I was inspired by THIS blog post.

What you need:

Fabric

Fabric paint

Toilet Paper Rolls

Paint Tray

Iron

Sturdy Surface

Directions:

1.  Make sure the fabric you are using is clean (free of cat fur – mine was not).

2.  Lay it on a table, make sure you have something behind it, like mat board, in case paint seeps through.

3.  Drop paint on the paint tray and flatten it out with the end of the toilet paper roll.  This was my practice round so I smushed my tp roll like a petal for one part.  Then practiced with circles.

4.  You can use multiple colors too.

5.  Let the paint dry for a few hours at least.  Then use it however your imagination wills.  This is one of the cool things you can use with toilet paper rolls.

Polka Dot Homemade Cards

I attempted to go to pick up a card yesterday at Zandbroz, a downtown unique store.  I totally forgot that there was a St Patty’s Day parade going on.  Luckily, I realized this before I got too close because it would have been a headache getting out of there.  So I didn’t get to pick up my card, so I decided I would just make one.

I always have random envelopes laying around, which is a requirement for card making.  Everything else can be improvised.  I just found some art paper, then pulled out all of my stamps, ink and other such materials that I could use for a card.

I decided to create a texture on white paper instead of using a printed paper.  I pulled out some bubble wrap and made the background as my jumping off point.

The rest of the stuff just sort of fell into place.  I created some flowers from my homemade paper.  Used some wire from my jewelry making for the stems.  Jewelry to come in the future.  Then some ribbon that I had laying around finished it off.  Turned out beautiful, I think.  I like that you can use just random materials to create a beautiful project.

What other materials besides bubble wrap could you use to create a texture for cards?

1.  Foam

2.  Doilies

3.  Tree bark

4.  Leaves

5.  Flowers

6.  Loofah

7.  Fabric with texture or denim

8.  Eraser on end of pencil

9.  Screen Mesh

10.  Old carpet scraps

11.  Corncobs

12.  Lace

13.  Buttons

You get the picture.  There is inspiration everywhere.  You can make your own card with just about anything laying around!

Homemade Catnip Mouse

I have a fun 30 minute project for those of you who have cats.  Or for those of you who have friends with cats.  Or those of you who just like to surround yourself with cat stuff yet you don’t have cats.  How can you NOT have a cat, or ten?  My cats have probably 50 cat mice, toy wands, cans of catnip.  Why not make some more?

 

This is what you will need:

Fabric

Catnip

Scissors

Needle and thread or sewing machine

Yarn for tail

Instructions:

1.  I used drapery fabric because I had it laying around.  Fold a 6 by 12 inch rectangle in half.  Draw a rough estimate the shape you will want.  I kept the uncut edge at the bottom of the half circle so I wouldn’t have to sew it.  Cut it out.

2.  Refold, then sew around most of the half circle except for about an inch or inch and a half.  You will need to pull the insides to the outside.  The seam should be inside the mouse.

3.  Use a funnel to stuff the catnip into the mouse.  Make sure the cats leave you some.

4.  Tie a knot on one end of the yarn.  The knot will go inside the mouse so it won’t easily be pulled out.  Tuck the remaining ends of the mouse butt inside of the mouse and hand sew it together.  Make sure to stitch the tail in also.

5.  Let loose for cats go to wild.  And they do.

T-Shirt Yarn

What can you do with a crap ton of holy (hole-y) t-shirts that you can’t wear anymore without looking like a hobo?  You make t-shirt yarn!!  And it is so easy.  Here are the steps on making your own t-shirt yarn.

What you will need:

T-shirts

X-acto knife or scissors

Straight edge

Hard surface that you can cut on (I cut over card stock)

1.  Find t-shirts.  I found that shirts with a silk screen print doesn’t curl as easy in the final step.

2.  Fold the shirt like below.  The top half is about an inch shorter at the top than the bottom half.

3.  Cut the bottom inch off the shirt (actually the right side) – but it is really the bottom of the t-shirt.  A scissors worked better than a x-acto knife I found out.

4.  Next you will cut 1 inch or 1.5 inch slits starting from the right, moving to the left.  Cut only up to the top edge, leaving that 1 inch gap uncut.  (see below)

5.  You will end right below the sleeve/arm pit.  You will cut all the way across here.

6.  Lift up the side of the shirt that was left uncut.  Spread it open over your forearm.

7.  You will start cutting into one long strand of yarn now.  Starting on the right side, closest to your fingers.  Place the scissors on the outer side and you will cut a diagonal slice to the first cut.

8.  Then you will continue to cut diagonal, the most right bottom cut, to the next top cut.  Stay parallel to your first cut.

9.  Continue all the way to the left.  The last bottom slit on the left side you will have to end the cut on the outermost edge. Similar to how you started, just reverse.

10.  That was your final snip.  You have one long strand of yarn now.  You will have to stretch it so it curls.  Start on one edge and lightly stretch it so the fabric naturally curls.

11.  Finally, just roll it into a ball until you are ready to knit with it.  A scarf made out if this yarn would be super soft and warm!  If you do not have t-shirts laying around, check out a thrift store.  They probably receive a lot of shirts they cannot sell because of bleach stains or maybe some small holes.

Homemade Paper Hearts

The blog about paper butterflies was a popular post.  I was wondering if we could make anything else sort of like that.  And I came up with paper hearts.  It basically follows the same steps as the paper butterflies, but you just need half of the butterfly and you just pinch the bottom and round the corners.

I wanted to use red magazine pages, since hearts are red.  You can make these of any size.  It is actually much easier to hang too.

What you will need:

Scrap Magazines

Scissors

Glue

Ribbon

You want to follow the same instructions from the DIY Paper Butterflies.  They are created almost the same way with one less step.

1.  Cut a diamond shape from the magazine, then fold the pages like a fan.

2.  Fold it length-wise, then put a line of glue down the center of the heart, add ribbon on top of the glue, then press together for a moment until the glue adheres.

3.  Fan out the “fan” a bit in order to round the tops of the hearts.

4.  Hang where ever you wish.

Make sure to cut different size hearts, and hang them at different heights for interest.

The picture above is blurry because my kitties thought it would be a fun toy.

One of my friends borrowed me her sewing machine!  I look forward to creating lots of cool things while I have it.  The first thing is t-shirt bags.  Hope you will check in again soon!

Coming Up

My first year flower/rose gardening has proven to be a difficult feat.  Trying to fix your soil so your roses survive and keeping them cool is definitely a lot of work.  Weeding too is a full time job.  But in the end, I enjoy walking over to my garden and seeing all of the beautiful blooms.  I am in the process of removing some of my yard that is too narrow to use for anything.  It will save me gas and horrible fumes of our lawn mower.  I want to put in quite a few drought resistant plants because if next year is like this year, and a lack of rain our garden will not survive.

Other than gardening, I have a few other projects coming up.  We will be canning some pickle spears today.  With our CSA, we received quite a few pickling cucumbers and we LOVE pickles.  We have never canned pickles before so this will be something that we will be learning.   We have canned lots of Jam, apple pie filling, and stewed tomatoes so it is about time to can new stuff.

My husband is also going to learn how to brew his own beer.  This is something he has wanted to do for a long time.  Yesterday he brought home all of the tools that he needed to do that.   I will post on that also, in case you are interested in trying something like that also.

I also want to make some cranberry infused vodka.  I figure cranberry flavor is something that will go with many types of drinks and I have some frozen cranberries that I need to use.  Plus, starting this now, will give me time to have it ready for Christmas so it can be a good gift.  I have started thinking about Christmas gifts already and what I will make/buy.  I think a lot of my posts can be made into gifts somehow.

I also have a fun project with magazines that I want to try.  I have an abundance of magazines hanging around our home so this will help use some of those up.  If only I can find stuff to do with my Christmas wrapping paper.  I still have about 5 bags of it.  This is wrapping paper that I saved from being thrown into the landfill, not new paper.

I will be busy lady if I complete all of these projects.  Hopefully you come back and check out my blog again.

DIY Paper Butterflies

I love creating projects out of magazines.  Who knew how versatile they could be.  I found these butterflies on Pinterest.   I had to try them.

What you will need

Magazines

Scissors

Glue

String

What I did, was found that colorful pages make beautiful butterflies.  I tore out several pages I liked.  I centered the most colorful part of the magazine page for the butterfly wings.  I folded once, then again.  Then cut a triangle.  I opened up the diamond shaped magazine clipping.

Make a fan, starting from the inside, working your way out.  I put a dab of glue inside each fold to keep it together.  It didn’t take long to dry.  Then I opened up the wings a bit.  You need two “fans” to make a butterfly.  Glue them together then spread them open to your liking.

I think this would make a very cool nursery mobile.  Or you could make several of these and put them inside a large shadow box and hang it on the wall as art.  There are a number of things you can do with these.  Fold small butterflies and attach them to homemade cards, hang them on the inside of the windows or make a kitty toy with them.  The options are endless.

DIY Beads

It has been a while since I have posted a DIY project.  I made some concrete planters that I am thinking about posting but they didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped.  Stay tuned for that post.  The project that I made today brings back wonderful memories with my grandmother.  She showed me how to do this about 20 years ago.  It is a great project to use all of those “to be recycled” magazines.  You might as well use parts of it for these beautiful beads.

 

What you will need

Magazines

X-acto knife

Straight Edge

Glue

Toothpick

Pick pages from the magazine that have colors you want in your beads.  I wanted muted colors so I picked pages to reflect that.  Another tip is using sturdy pages.  The front or back covers of magazines are ideal.

Cut them into long narrow triangles using the x-acto knife and straight edge.

Using the toothpick start wrapping the wide end of the triangle snug against the toothpick.  I wrapped it around 3 or 4 times before I removed the toothpick and continued twisting with my fingers.  Once you are to the end of the narrow part, put a dot of glue and hold for a moment so it doesn’t unravel.

It probably takes me about a minute to make one bead.  It is so worth it.  Look how beautiful they turned out.  You can use these beads in jewelery or even string them together using ribbons and make garland.  You can pick colors that go with whatever holiday you wish.  Red and Green for Christmas or pastels for Easter.  You can also use scrapbook paper because it has a thickness that is perfect for this project.