DIY and handmade craft ideas

Up for an indie recycling art show?

San Francisco’s 5th Annual Altered Barbie Show, “Out of the Box: Reclaiming and Recycling Barbie,” features 75 artists and vendors celebrating Barbie’s (and Ken’s and Skipper’s) second life. The art show, which runs Aug. 1-19 at Age Song (580 Hayes St. at Laguna in San Francisco) and Market Street Gallery (1554 Market …

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Vinyl Sign Jotters

Leslie Herger of Comfortable Shoes Studio upcycles colorful and funky vinyl signs into one-of-a-kind covers for her delightful — and very reasonably priced — handmade jotter notebooks. She gets her sign vinyl from a grocery store chain where she works her day job and says that businesses are typcally more than happy to give away the signs.

“I’ve found that …

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Indie Emporium Tulsa

Indie Emporium is happening this October 26th/27th in beautiful downtown Tulsa. The show will feature the hippest craft vendors, a fashion show of all handmade clothing and accessories, make-and-take crafting stations, a fine arts gallery space, workshops and demos led by fabulously crafty people, and much more.

The event is inspired by the current handmade revolution. To find out how …

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Alien or Mermaid?

I am still trying to work out if this mermaid from wawaya.etsy.com is ugly or cute but one thing it can be described as is original. wawaya.etsy.com

If your a collector then this handmade doll $18.00 will make a great addition.

Check out wawaya.etsy.com for more original handmade designs.

…

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Perfect Wire Spiral

by Jewelry Making Editor

Artbeads.com shows us how to make the perfect wire spiral with these full instructions.

Once you have it perfected check out this Spiral Wire Ring Project.…

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Potter’s Snitch Needles

I admit it, I’m a Harry Potter fan. I have all the books, (I’m almost finished with the last book – don’t tell me the ending!!!) all the DVD’s and have seen all the movies in the theater except this last one due to my son’s wedding. I have also bought the [tag]Charmed Knits[/tag] book by [tag]Alison Hansel[/tag].

But, this …

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Vintage Fabric Stores

Why use vintage fabric you ask? vintage fabric gives your craft projects an unique story and an original flare that just can not be replocated with modern day prints.
Â Vasiliisa is a indie vintage fabric store on etsy.com Â VasiliisaÂ has a small assortment of vintage fabrics including fairy tale fabric to large and bold childrens prints.

If vintage …

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Designer Bags from Recycled Sweaters

[tag]Fittner Knitter[/tag] has a great site full if interesting items. This page however, fits in with my current recycle theme of the past few days.

Cindy writes “These bags are made from 100% [tag]recycled wool[/tag] sweaters. No patterns were used so no two bags will ever be alike.
After felting each sweater, I just took a pair of scissors to …

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Guardian Angel Survival Kit

Craftbits.com has a cute little gift thats sure to be a hit amongst your friends.

The Guardian Angel Survival Kit is easy to put together and is perfect for last minute quick gifts.

Some of the things you will need for the Guardian Angel Survival Kit

Guardian Angel – Because everyone needs one.
Pencil – To write down your days …

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Finding Recycled Yarn on the Internet

Picture courtesy of KnitWit site. Have you tried to recycle yarn? Have you bought a sweater at a resale shop and tried to take it apart to reuse the yarn in your project and pulled your hair out in the process?
If you have attempted this and decided it isn’t something you want to do, might I suggest looking at …

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Baking with Blue Jeans + Procrastinators Wanted

Old denim has been repurposed into many crafty things, but these simple pot holders by Canadian crafter Lise Farynowski caught my eye (OK, they actually caught the eyes of ReadyMade editors as they were sorting through the entries of their latest monthly readerâ€™s challenge, aka the â€œMacGyver Challengeâ€). See Liseâ€™s instructions to create a pair of your own.

And for …

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More Indie Craft Events

For a full list of Indie Craft Events please visit the archived posts on our main page.

Here you will find all the posts relevant to indie crafts before this blog was created.…

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Recycling Yarn

Purchasing quality yarns for your project can become costly. Many knitters have become resourceful in obtaining yarn for their projects by purchasing knitted items from thrift stores, yard or tag sales, or estate sales and reusing the yarn.

How do you decide if a knitted item is worth taking apart for the yarn? The [tag]KnitWit[/tag] site has a whole page …

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Wine Cork Placecard Holders

The online shop Bright and Bold, which offers mostly modish home dÃ©cor accessories and other fun things you didnâ€™t know you needed, offers this set of reusable wine cork placecard holders. Based on the pristine appearance of these resin corks, they havenâ€™t actually touched a staining Merlot, and therefore arenâ€™t recycled, but think how easy it would be …

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Ipod Fertility Pouch

Â Fertility or rather infertility is nothing to be laughed at but you have to have a giggle

over these IPod pouches from Stitchpixie.com with straggling sperm trying to reach the egg.

If you don’t have an Ipod never fear stitchpixie has a whole store category dedicated to fertility.

…

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Knitting Needle Bracelet Tutorial

Not that I am a fan of destroying vintage knitting needles and creating jewelry with them, but here is a blog showing how one person obtained the same look as a jewelry designer I wrote about, Liana Kabel.

Jodie lives in Australia, doesn’t knit but is an avid crafter. Her blog is full of craft projects and ideas.…

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Cucumber Melon Soap Recipe

by Bath and Body Editor

Rachels Recipe Board is a msn group that has a wonderful Free Cucumber & Melon Soap Recipe

There are lot’s of ingredients, so its not for the frugal soap maker or the beginner but it’s a great recipe and well worth trying if you have all the stuff already in your supply box.…

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Go Green! Contest

OK, crafters: Let’s make sure the crafting world is represented in the “Go Green!” Contest presented by Instructables, Popular Science and TreeHugger.

An overview of the contest: “We want to know how you’re reducing your environmental footprint, and hopefully saving some cash in the process! Are you modding your gear, simplifying your life, or building something awesome? Tell …

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A Minor Thread

A Minor Thread is a great little online boutique store with only a handful of products but the totes are unique and follow a very modern style.

Charlie wright designs her bags using reclaimed and vintage fabricsÂ and states the A Minor Thread or (AMT) is a tiny label with big ideas.

Currently some of the totes are marked down …

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Potato Chip Bracelet

by Jewelry Making Editor

This is a real potato chip bag shrunken down to fit as a bracelet. Its been melted to the point where it feels like thick plastic in the oven. We used to shrink potato chip packets and make keychains when we were kids, much to mums dismay as her oven trays were left melted sticky messes.

Unfortunately chip packets no …

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Mug and French Press Jacket

What a cute mug jacket. It can also be used on a [tag]French Press Coffee Maker cozy[/tag]. This cute little jacket was designed and knit by MK Carroll.
[tag]MK Carroll[/tag] lives and writes her blog in [tag]Hawaii[/tag]. She has many free patterns on her blog as well as patterns for sale. She is part of the [tag]Aloha Knitters Group…

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The Rebirth of Crayons

Just when I thought there was nothing more striking than a brand-new box of crayons, in walks these recycled crayon beauties I found at starkeyfeather’s etsy shop. They’re made from melting down the leftover little nubs that are typically banished from the crayon box, and then formed in molds to create their soap-like appearance. The trouble is, they’re much too …

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How to Block

Yesterday I wrote about where knitters block, today I’m giving you websites with tips on how to block.

[tag]Kim Werker[/tag], editor of [tag}Interweave Crochet[/tag], has a great tutorial on [tag]spray blocking[/tag] using a blocking board. Kim is showing how to block crochet squares, but the idea transfers to any knit project as well.

Another great article is at [tag]Knitty[/tag]…

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Lush Bath Jelly Recipe

by Bath and Body Editor

Lush is a luxurious bath and body store that will draw you in just with the aroma flowing out the door. Unfortunetly Lush is not in everyone’s price range and as a result recipes are sort out all over the internet.

ThisÂ Lush Bath jelly recipeÂ is easy to follow and a very close match to Lush’s own …

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Where do you Block?