Sewing Challenge #4

When faced with a challenge such as this, sometimes it's best to stick with what you know.  And that's exactly what Elaine from ElaineZelkerPhotography did when she created her project from this hod podge of crafting materials that I sent her: 

She received the top half of Goodwill T-shirt, a "junk load" of pop tabs and a couple of pages of maps. And artfully, this trash was turned into treasure when Elaine created this photoboard:

She adorned an an old frame with origami flowers made from the maps, then used and old medicine cup, some of the T-shirt and the pop tabs to create a pin cushion to house pins for future pinning.

The pop tabs were simply hot glued but she did sew some map strips onto the T-shirt which acts as the photo board backing. These strips easily hold pictures in place:

Sweet way to upcycle a bunch of stuff that someone else might just cast aside, right?

An Old Globe that Can Hold Just About Anything

You can tell when it's craft fair season from the types of posts I write.  This one is a little something that displays my soda can butterflies.  Although, now I'm finding that people are noticing the display piece more than butterflies, hmm...   At any rate, it is a fabulous little piece and it really could be used to house just about anything around the house.  Before I used it at a craft fair for the first time, it sat on my kitchen counter collecting receipts.  You could use it to collect mail, too.

Here's how I made it.  First gather your supplies:
1.  The Southern hemisphere of a globe (I picked up a globe from Goodwill that had a smashed stand, it's cardboard and easily pops apart along the equator)
2. Adhesive (I used silicone because it leaves a nice thick bead that would cover more surface area of the round globe but exopy would likely work as well) 
3.  Something to use as a stand (mine is a smaller urn style planter, but you could use a larger candle holder - just use whatcha got)
4.  Finishing tape (I'm using a foil tape that is used to finish the edges of stained glass but you can use that scrapbooking tape as well)
5.  Old Maps (or newspapers or magazines)
6.  Decoupage glue and a foam paint brush

This one really doesn't need all that much explaining so I thought I'd try to do in one step, here goes:

To use this as a planter, I popped a round Chinese food takeout lid into the bottom of the globe.  It provides a nice flat surface for the plant to sit on and catches any moisture from the plant.  I recommend removing the plant to water it and letting it dry in the sink a bit before returning it to the globe.

How will you use yours?

Weekend Wrap Up for the Traveler in your Life

If you have someone in your life who loves to travel, you can't resist this gift wrap idea made from an old map, t-shirt and a soda can!

Here's what you'll need; an old map, aluminum from a soda can, scissors, a hole punch, a marker, crazy glue and strips cut from an old t-shirt

Once you've wrapped your gift in an old map, tie a curled piece of the t-shirt around the box.  Instructions for prepping the t-shirt strips can be found on my YouTube channel and you can always pick them up in my Etsy shop! Back to it, here's where we left off before the shameless plug:

Now for the name tag.  I've used an old soda can to fashion a gift tag that resembles a luggage tag.  Cut two rectangular shapes of the same size.  On one of them, draw a 1/4" margin on all four sides of the back side of the can. 

Then fold the can over and pinch in the center as shown below, make and X shaped cut where you pinched it.  This will give you the room you need to insert your scissors and cut out the center of the "frame."

Once you've cut your frame apply a thin layer of super glue (I love this super glue that you apply with a brush) and adhere it to the other rectangular piece of aluminum, trim the edges and punch a whole.

Now simply use a sharpie to name your recipient and tie it to the package.  You can even add a really big loopy bow made from extra strips of t-shirt that would resemble the shoelace bows that people make to identify their luggage among the sea of bags on the carousel.