October 2010

Grocery Bag Makeover

Make a quick gift bag out of a paper grocery bag. A few cuts, folds and staples will transform a grocery bag into a fun gift bag in minutes. I added a stenciled design, but you could leave it plain too…

Off The Cuff

I’m still working with those old clothes – turns out a shirt cuff can double as a quick wrap for a gift of wine. Just cut off the cuff and button it on a bottle of wine. Tie a gift tag onto the button…

A Better Sweater

The cuff of an old sweater is cut and sewn to fit a glass candle holder – an oak leaf adds a natural element. To make this, I cut off the cuff of an old sweater, made a vertical cut to open it up and wrapped it around to fit the circumference of a glass candle jar…

Decorating For Fall With Old Clothes and A Coffee Bag

My husband was clearing out some of his old clothes to donate to charity and a few things caught my eye. Now those things are hanging in our dining room …

Poison Gift Bag

To wrap a few treats for Halloween – try making this simple canvas gift bag. I cut two rectangular pieces of canvas – roughly 8″ x 10″ in size and sewed the three sides together using the serge setting on my sewing machine…

Junk Drawer Pumpkins

This project is great for little ones – there’s no carving involved. A small pumpkin is given a face with the addition of a few screws, a button, slices of cork, rubber bands and plastic bread bag clips…

Spider’s Nest Pumpkin

A white pumpkin is cross-sectioned to reveal a creepy spider’s nest. To make this pumpkin, I sliced off approximately 1-inch from two opposite sides, cored the center, screwed black drywall screws around the edge of the openings, placed a plastic black spider inside and stretched fake spider webbing over the screw heads…

Plaid Pumpkin

This pumpkin had a ribbed surface. Following the natural lines in the skin, I cut out the recesses, cored the inside and pulled a strip of tartan fabric through the openings. An LED light illuminates things from within…

Black Lace Screen Door

I cut a sheet of black lace to fit perfectly against the screen panel in my front door. A quick Halloween trick that thrilled my kids like crazy…

Black Lace Candles

Simple glass votives are wrapped in black lace trim to create dramatic lighting…

Plastic Bag Flowers

A plastic bag is cut into strips to create this plastic bag bow – a green way to wrap a gift. Ready for giving – a bottle of wine is placed in a simple linen bag and wrapped with my easy to make bag bow.