Have you heard of Kraft-Tex? It’s a paper product that functions as fabric. You can paint, cut, sew, emboss, stamp, and draw on the material. I’ve just recently learned about Kraft-Tex, and I bought a starter kit — ten 8.5×11″ sheets with five colors — to give it a go. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1617454710/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
Several crafty friends and I got together last week for some Shrinky Dink fun. Do you remember Shrinky Dink-ing? Shrinky Dinks are sheets of plastic that you can craft on, cut out, put in the oven, and shrink the pieces down to a much smaller size. I’ve used them for jewelry and ornament making. Cindy, Kathy, and I worked on pieces that will either be thrown away due to our crapsmanship or eventually made into jewelry. Here are a few sneak peeks!
One of my favorite holiday crafts were some gelli plated earrings. They were so easy to do, very inexpensive, and loved by all the recipients. I bought Shrinky Dink materials at Hobby Lobby and then gelli plated over one large sheet using acrylic paints. I then made assorted marks with paint, a cork, and the edge of a credit card. Finally, I cut them into assorted shapes, used a corner punch to round out each corner, and added a hole with a regular-sized hole punch.
I followed the directions on the Shrinky Dink package to bake and shrink each earring. I used a metal one-cup measuring to flatten each one down once it came out of the oven. To finish, I added a jump ring and earring hook to each, and paired the earrings up into matching sets.
Here’s Princess M modeling a rectangular pair. Now I have an incentive to get my ears pierced!
I’ve recently been experimenting with decorating paper and using it to make hand-rolled beads. It’s an easy process and lends a distinctive crafty (do I mean crappy?) touch to a necklace. Read the rest of this entry
I’ve been spending hours and hours lately in the hospital with a sick friend, so my cooking and crafting time has been limited.  But about a month ago, a few girlfriends and I had two crafting days to make some door prizes for an upcoming conference.  We were looking for inexpensive ideas that our conference participants (mostly women) would like.  Necklaces made from washers seemed just the ticket. Read the rest of this entry
crapsmanship 