Next Project to Try: Homemade throw pillows

Last weekend online I came across a fun and easy set of pillows for Valentines Day. I cannot, for the life of me, find them again. I need to get better about bookmarking stuff. Anyway, once I finish my gift for my almost 3 year old Rosalie, I will get started on Valentine's felt pillows. Here's some ideas for me to think about before starting.

I also want to add homemade tags to the pillows. GwennyPenny.com has an amazing tutorial on how to make them. The directions are so simple that I'm sure that even my non-sewing self could get it figured out.

Recycled Jars for Craft Storage

I love jars as a way for craft storage, but why buy them when I throw them away each month after I use the foods that come in them. The only problem has been that I don't want my craft supplies smelling like spaghetti sauce. At the same time, I love my wallflowers, but when the refill is empty it still smells good. Here is an attempt at "going green".

Start with pasta sauce jars and wallflowers. When empty, wash jar thoroughly and use Goo Gone to get rid of the sauce label.

Hot glue scrap fabric and ribbon on lid and fill it with used wallflower refills. I stick it in the china cabinet for a couple of months. You only need one wallflower refill but my stash is multiplying so right now each of my jars has quite a few refills sitting in it. They don't need to be the same scent.

Take out wallflower refills, use them in another jar. Voila!

PS: Around Christmas every year Bath and Body Works sells the wallflower pack of 2 refills for $5. I always stock up then because the regular price is $12.50. My current favorite scent is Island Margarita

Guitar Pick Wine Charms

After making the wine box for a friend’s birthday, I decided it was time to try my hand at wine charms. At Hobby Lobby I found a package of 10 guitar picks, with holes, in the charm section. I also found a package of 8 leaves, that looked just like grape leaves. Every few weeks, all of the charms are 50% off at hobby lobby, so keep your eyes open for deals on this craft.

Materials:
20 gauge wire

Wire cutters

Needle-nose pliers

Seed Beads

Charms (1 charm per wine charm)

Jump rings

Directions:

Attach a jump ring to your charm if it does not already have something to dangle from. Cut a 7inch piece of wire. Create a swirl on one end of your wire, using needle nose pliers, big enough that the beads and charm will not fall off. Bead your wire with your charm in the middle leaving about an inch and a half of wire. Create a swirl on the other end of your wire big enough that the beads and charm will not fall off. Bend your creation in to a circle. Repeat these steps for as many wine charms as you wish to make. Voila!

If the charms you are using in a set are all the same, you should use a different color of bead on each charm. Example: One charm with all green beads, another charm with all blue beads. The color of bead will be the distinguishing factor between glasses of wine. If the charms are all different within a set (such as the guitar picks each being different) you could choose to make all of the beads the same color, or even choose to not use beads at all.

Don’t forget pretty packaging. I used candy wrapping plastic bags that I found at Michaels. Cut short, folded over, and stapled on some scrapbooking paper as a sort of label. These small labels were a great way to use up some of my pretty scrap paper. My favorite technique for embellishing today is chalking with ink and a cosmetic sponge, which I used on my labels.