If you are intimidated about molding clay into those perfect dome shapes, this is the project for you. The paint does all the work for you without molds or hand shaping.

For the full how-to, go to the Martha Stewart Crafts blog. Thanks Laura for having me!

There are several other craft subscriptions out there, but FTM takes the cake in my opinion for having the cutest projects, great photography and tutorials.

I’m still doing the illustration work for their in-box images of the projects, and April’s were infused with jewel tone watercolor.

Pen and watercolor Illustrations by evie s. for For the Makers

For $29 a month you can have a craft party delivered straight to your door too – and get to create fun projects like the Pythagorean Pouch and the Manifold Necklace. Check them out!

It’s really simple. Using #84 rubber bands (which are the widest variety I could find), you can make simple and awesome pieces of jewelry that no one would ever think were formerly a mere office supply. You can get them at Staples – a bag of 45 bands for 3 bucks. Unfortunately they only come in beige, but I found that you can paint them with acrylic craft paint to get more interesting color. For the pieces above, just snip rubber bands into squares and thread them on your necklace cord or wire for the earrings.

You can bunch them together in a lot of ways to get a variety of different shapes.

For these, all you do is arrange the rubber band formation the way you want and pierce it with a large sewing needle through all layers. Then take a piece of jewelry wire and thread it through the holes. All these above could be strung on a chain or cord to create a necklace.

If you try this project, please let me know! I would love to see how yours turn out. Have fun!

Who knew that penne pasta was the perfect shape for making chevron patterns? Now, I experimented with different necklace bases – I used jersey fabric pretty successfully, but I settled on a knit i-cord for the strap, which let me control much better how they hang. I’m sure if used an actual necklace chain, you could also get pretty good results.

Simply paint the pasta with acrylic craft paint and string onto whatever you’d like to use as your necklace strap. If you have four rows like the photo above, you will need four lengths of fabric/chain/i-cord to attach onto the necklace base.

Large ditaloni pasta makes for great bracelet beads. Just string a few painted pieces of pasta on a strip of jersey and tie around your wrist.

When I was having doubts about using pasta, I tried to recreate the shape using fabric, stiffened with glue and rolled into a bead. Then I cut the bead at an angle to achieve the same look. I’ll probably explore fabric beads a little more, it was a fun experiment.

So what do you all think? Is this something you’ll try?

When Janet asked me a couple weeks ago to do some project illustrations for the December box of For the Makers, I jumped with excitement at the chance. I absolutely love the concept that her and Katie have come up with – a box of goodies shipped right to your door to get all crafty with. The projects and tutorials they provide are cute and stylish. Getting the box each month has been so fun – it’s like opening a little box of treasures.

Creating the illustrations was great. I can’t wait to do it next month! If you haven’t signed up yet, you can do that here. They make a great gift for the creative person in your life.

Photo courtesy of For the Makers

Yesterday I mentioned that I got a box in the mail filled to the brim with all kinds of crafty things from For the Makers. For the Makers combines DIY tutorials with hand-selected materials delivered to your door so you can discover new projects and create and share your projects with others.

Here is what I got:

I can’t wait to create with this stuff!

Simply sign up for $29 and every month you’ll receive supplies for four to six projects. They source the coolest materials and deliver them straight to your door, letting you skip straight to the fun part. They’ll walk you through each project with a fun how-to on their website but they also encourage you to explore the creative potential in each package.

The most exciting part is that once you make something, whether it’s one of their projects, or your own, you’ll be able to post it and share it with friends and fellow Makers.

This would make a great gift for the creative person in your life!

All you need is a stapler and photos. I used 4×6 photos developed from Walgreens at $0.10 each – which made the grand total of this dramatic photo wall a mere $7.50. I applied the same black and white filter on all of them to achieve a uniform look.

All you do is staple them together length-wise and hang as many as you want. Stapling them holds up really well, surprisingly. I plan on snipping off the top and bottom of the photos and reusing them in his memory book.

Imagine how amazing this idea would be using hundreds and hundreds of photos!

Here is what you need: fabric, fabric stiffener, hot glue gun, scissors

Here is what you do.

Step 1: Cut out different size circles out of fabric. I used different objects to trace the different size circles onto the fabric.

Step 2: Coat all your circles with fabric stiffener. Allow to dry.

Step 3: Cut a slit mid-way into your circle. You may also at this point wish to scallop the edges of your circle to create a look more like a petal, or trim away any frayed edges that were created when applying the stiffener.

Step4: Overlap the two cut edges that were created when you cut the slit and dab hot glue in the center to hold in place. This will create a dimensional cone shape.

Step 5: Starting with the largest size and working your way to the center of the flower, layer the different sizes and dab hot glue in the center to build your flower.

Now you can use these for pins, hair accessories, bags, pretty much anything. I used mine for a yarn wreath to hang on my front door. Let me know if you make it, and leave a comment with any questions!

Months ago I happened upon this font on dafont.com called Punched Out. It’s a free download for a set of cut-out layouts with which you can build 3-D, pixel style letters.

Just cut along the solid lines, fold along the dotted lines, put some glue on the shaded flaps, stick them together and that’s it.

I printed each letter individually on 8.5 x 11 paper. For the letter “I”, I modified it a bit so it didn’t have the handlebars at the top and bottom of the letter. I also printed out the letters in light grayscale, just enough so you could see the lines, but they wouldn’t stand out once the letter is completed. You could add your own color or pattern to them in Photoshop or Illustrator to customize them.

They make great props, and would be a cheap easy solution for a party or event. Just keep in mind, they are a bit time consuming, so you might not want to tackle a word like, Honorificabilitudinitatibus. :)