Tag: how to

Craft Projects

Mod Podged Candle Holders

Jessica Smith

Today I’m sharing another project I made for the upcoming Trash to Treasure Fair in November. Using pages from an old book and the remainder of my burlap fabric scraps, I turned two shot glasses that my mother-in-law’s work was going to throw away (not sure why they have shot glasses…) into adorable candle holders.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • Pages of a book (or any paper) cut into little pieces
  • Mod Podge
  • Fabric
  • Hot Glue
  • Needle and Thread
  • Buttons
  • Ribbon
  • Glass

To start this project, I cut up three or four pages from an old dictionary into little pieces of paper. I had no rhyme or reason for the shape of the paper, just random shapes.

Once my paper was small enough, I started to Mod Podge it to the glass. I put a thick layer of the podge down, then placed strips of paper on top. I smoothed out the paper as I went along to remove any bubbles between the paper and the glass. Once each glass was covered, I placed a layer of podge on top.

I let the candle holders dry for a bit before adding embellishments. They weren’t dry completely, but I didn’t mind since I wanted the stuff I was adding to stick right on top.

At this point, I flipped each glass upside down and added a slim, pink ribbon around the bottom with small dabs of hot glue.

With the pink ribbon added to each glass, I set both candle holders aside to create two oversized flowers. I cut out five petals for each flower, using scraps from an earlier project.

To connect the petals, I folded each petal at the flat edge in an accordion-style fold: down, up, down, up, down.

Then, I sewed through each of the folds. Once I had stitched my way through one petal, I went on to the next, adding petals until I was out.

When all five petals were connected, I looped the needle and thread back through the first petal to finish off the flower.

With the flower complete, I selected a flashy button to add to the middle. I added it to the flower with hot glue, then hot glued each flower to a candle holder.

OHMYGOSHSOCUTE. If these don’t get snatched up at the fair, I might not be so upset.

I like how large the flowers are on the glass, the pink ribbon “leaves,” and the randomness of the dictionary scraps. These might be my favorite candle yet. Now I just need to remake them with aqua ribbon instead of pink ;p

Craft Projects, Jewelry

Basic Necklace Tutorial

Jessica Smith

I said months ago that I’d do a few tutorials on how to make jewelry. Well, today is my lovely coworker Rachel’s birthday (happy birthday, Rachel!!!) and I make all of my female coworkers jewelry for their birthdays. So I took the opportunity to take a few photos as I made her necklace — don’t worry, I already gave it to her so this isn’t a spoiler — so you all can see what I did. This tutorial is very basic and all of the supplies (minus these specific beads) can be found at Michaels, JoAnn’s, Hobby Lobby, etc.

First and foremost, you’ll need beading wire, crimp beads, a clasp and beads. You can use crimping pliers (mine are blue) or flat pliers (mine are purple) for this project (top left photo).

Step One: Cut the wire to the length you’d like it to be. Add a few extra inches for wiggle room.

Step Two: Place a crimp bead on your wire followed by your clasp (middle left photo). For this necklace, I used a toggle clasp and a gun metal crimp bead to match it. I love toggle clasps way more than the regular lobster class. They add that extra something to necklaces.

Step Three: Send the wire back down through the crimp bead so the wire makes a closed loop around the ring of the clasps (bottom left photo).

Step Four: This step has two options, depending on which set of pliers you choose to use. Pull your crimp bead close to the clasp, so only 1 or 2 mm of wire is showing. That gives the clasp a little wiggle room on the necklace, which I’ve found to be helpful when using toggles.

When your crimp bead is where you want it, grab your pliers. For crimping pliers, smash the bead with the top notch of the pliers to flatten the bead. Proceed to the second notch and crimp it again. This step puts a fold into the crimp bead. Finally, move your crimp bead back up to the top notch and crimp it again. This will round out the bead so it looks smooth along the wire (right photo).

If you have flat pliers, you can definitely just smash the crimp bead. It performs the same function as a crimp bead that’s been secured with crimping pliers, it just doesn’t look as nice. That doesn’t mean it looks bad, though. I used to do that with all of my necklaces until I bought the crimping pliers.
Step Five: Once your bead is crimped, it’s time for the fun part. Pick out your beads! I chose white plastic beads (top left photo) for Rachel’s necklace that I found at a thrift store. Gotta love recycling beads 🙂

Step Six: String your beads along the wire however you please (top middle photo). I know a lot of people like to use necklace organization tray, which allow you to place the beads how you want them on the necklace to see how it looks. Honestly, I just wing it. I think it’s more fun that way.

Step Seven: When all of your beads are strung, place the crimp bead onto the wire, followed by the second part of the clasps. Like the first time, re-loop the wire through and crimp your bead (top right photo). That will secure all of the beads on the wire and the clasps on the end.

Step Eight: Rock your new creation (bottom photo)!

Happy birthday, Rachel. I hope you like your new necklace and that your day is fantastic!!

Craft Projects

Dictionary Box

Jessica Smith

Remember the goodies I got from the thrift store a few weeks ago?

I finally finished my project with the old Webster’s Dictionary and am so excited to share it with you.

I’ve seen things online about turning book into boxes. Some remove the guts of the book completely and some leave the pages for added effect. I decided to try this project out for myself using the dictionary I bought at the thrift store for like $2.

The first thing you want to do is decide what size, how big and how deep you want your box to be. Trace the shape on the first page of the book to mark where you will cut. Tip: Leave a thick enough edge so your box has sturdy walls.

Using an exacto knife/box cutter, start slicing along the lines. 

Keep going until you reach a good depth for your box. This part of the project took me hours. My dictionary had more than 1,000 and super thin paper, so it ripped easily. I had to do break it up and do the page removal over several nights because it was frustrating at times to remove the paper. In the end, I cut out about 1,200 page, leaving a few hundred at the back of the book. You can cut all the way to the back cover if you’d like. I stopped at a page with proofreading marks because I thought it would look cool as the bottom of the box.

Once all of your pages are removed, use mod podge to harden the frame of the box.

I did this part of the project at our kitchen table, so I put a cardboard box underneath so nothing got onto the table.

I started at the back of the book because I left some pages in. I mod podged each page at the back until I reached the section of cutout pages. From there I lathered the mod podge on pretty think around the edged of the book and this inside of the box.

Once it’s dry, your book box is complete!

Too cool, right?

I plan on trying this again, but instead of using the knife, I want to drill a hole in the middle and then jigsaw out the pages. Not 100 percent sure that will work, but if it does it would save so much time!