12 Earth Day projects to make

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Juliet Tiu

Since it’s Earth Day, I’m rounding up some past projects that highlight recycling or reusing. The projects range from very easy to more involved. I hope you try some out!

An Accordion Spine Journal with reused envelopes for pages

Tutorial: Accordion Spine Journal

Reusing a Gift Bag

Reusing a gift bag by embellishing over a logo

Recycled Cereal Box Notebooks

Recycled Cereal and Product Cardboard Boxes

Any cardboard box can become a fun notebook cover.

Newspaper Seedling Pots and a Cardboard Tray

recycled cardboard garden tray - handle placement

Make a tray to hold all your seedlings.

DIY Barrel Composter

Food grade plastic barrel becomes a composter.

Mini-Envelopes from magazines

Use pages from a favorite catalog to make mini envelopes

Upcycled Paper Bag envelopes

Make envelopes from a paper bag

Magnetic Pin Holder from a mint container

Mint tins can be handy containers

Bottle Cap Art

Bottle caps can be fun little frames

Upcycled Sweatshirt Throw Pillow

Upcycled Sweatshirt Pillow

Reusing Wine Bottles as water carafes

Reuse wine bottles as water carafes

and, I reused a grocery bag as gift wrap in this gift wrapping post.

A simple brown paper bag can be a nice gift wrap.

Enjoy your time creating and making!

Chinese New Year: Crafting mini {Red} envelopes with free printable

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Juliet Tiu

Crafting envelopes from old magazines and calendars

My obsession with making envelopes from old magazine and calendar pages

I’ve always had a love affair with paper, especially making envelopes from old magazine and calendar pages… even wallpaper scraps. And, I actually use them to mail letters! In college, I would take junk mail envelopes, open them up and use them for templates. Every envelope was different; I didn’t care if the picture was tilted, or if there was text. The envelopes were that much cooler.

Recycling / upcycling my Crate and Barrel and Anthropolgie catalogs into mini-envelopes

Since it’s Chinese New Year’s Eve, I pulled out red envelopes for the kids. I was inspired to make a few mini envelopes… from some favorite catalog mailers. (Crate&Barrel and Anthropologie, I love your layouts.)

Here, I’ve carefully opened up my red envelope to figure out the shape and to make a template on a blank piece of paper.

I also put together a Mini / Red Envelope template that can be downloaded here. Just print on cardstock, cut, and follow directions.

Sometimes you get cute envelopes from unexpected pages. It’s all template positioning – trial and error.

Before I cut out my envelope shapes, I used a silver marker to go around my template. It made a nice edge on the finished envelope. I also tried a colored permanent marker.

Like I said, I thought I would make a few envelopes, but I got carried away. (Yes, a die-cut machine would probably be more efficient but where’s the fun in that?) Guess I better figure out who to send these to.

Finished size is approximately 4 inches x 2-3/4 inches.

I wonder what else I could cut up to make envelopes? *grin*

How to use an easy hexagon cutting template for fabric shapes

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Juliet Tiu

I’m smitten with hexies, fabric cut in the shape of a hexagon. They have been a big trend in the sewing and quilting world for probably four years now. You can even buy precut fabric hex shapes at the fabric store, in-person and online. People are using hexies in their sewing projects like crazy! Just do a Google image search or Instagram search and you’ll see. So, I bought this cool template to try my hand at hexie shapes – an EZ Quilting Tool 5″ Hexagon acrylic tool by Simplicity.

Let’s try cutting a 2″ finished hexagon. I’ll use paper to demonstrate.

1) Cut your fabric in a strip to the width you want. (1/2″ is added for your seam allowance.) Place the template over your strip of fabric, all the way to the edge, and using a rotary cutter, make cuts at the edge as shown by my dotted lines.

Note: I’ve heard that the smaller rotary cutter is much easier to use. Guess I’ll have to run out and get one of those too.

2) Flip your fabric over, and line up your cut edge with the template at the desired size. Now cut the other side of your hex shape.

3) You’re done! You can continue cutting down the fabric strip by just lining up your template edge with the corner…

…You’ll have cute triangular pieces to add to your scrap bin. (And I’m sure all the avid sewists have scrap bins.)

Short of owning my own die-cutting machine, I can make all sorts of sizes with this simple tool. *grin* And, it stores very easily.

Stay tuned for a pillow project that uses the hex shapes in an applique. THANKS!

Easy DIY Photo Card Stationery

Posted on February 2, 2013 by Juliet Tiu

How are we in February already? And, how am I so behind in sending out thank you notes from the holidays? Am I the only one who falls behind? (Probably, because I’m the nutty girl who wants to make everything herself.) But these… these are way cool. I’ve thought about doing this for a while now.

The possibilities are endless with your camera, willing family members (i.e. children), blank white boards or cardboard, Sharpies and blank cards. I took about 10-15 pictures of the kids and picked my favorites. Uploaded and printed them out at the photo center for very little cost. If you print them glossy, you get the coolest effect.

I love my Sharpies. Use them and turn these blanks…

… into any card you want! For 4″ x 6″ pictures, you could purchase empty photo card frames. I have extra cardstock laying around so I just cut it to size for my blank cards. (See first picture.) They measure at 4-3/4″ x 6-3/4″. I get weird when it comes to the borders… I don’t like them too wide.
And to stick them on the card, use double stick tape or glue dots. If you want to get fancy, use photo corners or with an X-acto knife, cut slits on a diagonal at each corner and feed the corners of the photo through.

Don’t limit yourself to just saying “Thank you.” You can split it up like, “Cool! Thanks a bunch!” Or “Happy / Birthday”.

My daughter thought the pictures “freakishly” looked like the words were already printed on the boards.

Yes, I could’ve printed the cards out at the photo center as folded cards (for a whole lot more money), but what’s the fun in that? Enjoy… let me know if you’ve done this or if you might try it!

Making a Magnetic Pin Holder

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Juliet Tiu

More decoupaging. This Altoids mint tin was stashed in a box waiting for its next life. Yeah, yeah, on the brink of hoarding here, but I LOVE recycling, or upcycling. Maybe this could hold some paper clips, safety pins, or thumbtacks if you’re not into sewing.

Here’s what I did to make this fun little box. I took an old refrigerator magnet (an out-of-date freebie sheet magnet), cut it to size and stuck it on the tin.

I dug up some scrap fabric and traced around the lid. Then I just cut around my traced line to make sure the fabric would completely cover the lid.

I lightly brushed Mod Podge on the top of the lid and flattened out the fabric. When the lid was dry I decoupaged two opposite sides down to cover the entire lid… like pick the front and back, or the other two sides. It’s the corners that demand your attention. I treated the corners like I would wrapping a gift box lid – nice, neat hospital corners. Then I “Mod Podge-d” the heck out them so they’d stay down.

Used my sharpest craft blade (X-Acto knife) and trimmed around the lid when everything was dry. I let it dry for 24 hours (Mod Podge paranoia). Tip: Take your time with the cutting and trimming part. Mod Podge gets all crispy and tough to cut through. PLEASE be careful.

And here it is! My own little magnetic pin holder.

Look! The pins stick to the top!

Those are a couple of my other pin holders. Vintage, eh? I’m so looking forward to having the magnetic one next to my sewing machine… pins won’t get away from me so easily now. Maybe this means I have sewing projects coming up?? *grin*

Favorite Posts from 2012

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Juliet Tiu

Hi everyone. Hope you enjoy this look back at some of my tutorials and recipes from the year. (~~I hope the links all work back to the original post! ACK! Might need to work on this still.~~ The pictures aren’t linked, but the posts are all listed underneath.)

This year did not fail to amaze me… the good and the bad. But sharing ideas and meeting many of you near and far has been such a highlight of my year. I’m thankful and humbled by your continuing readership and friendship. May 2013 bring all of us peace. Blessings to you, friends!