Best of: Leather DIYs

Image via Words for Young Men

There's no doubt that leather is a classic, and it's not surprising that we've seen a large number of leather projects over the past year. Leather can be incorporated into any design from ultra modern to vintage-inspired and when cared for, leather will only get better with age. Here are a few of my favorite modern leather projects...

Made & Found: Structured Alpaca Cowl

With all the cowl making Catherine has been doing this past year, I finally got motivated to knit one for myself. Take forever, right? I buy nice yarn with every intention of making something, but then I let the skeins sit on my dresser for weeks. Ok, months. Catherine finally gave up asking me if I had started the hat I was supposed to be working on in October. I think because I flipped it and used the hat yarn for my cowl...

Book Report Inspiration: Handmade Valentines

I planned on making some anti-valentines, but after reading Valentines, Ted Kooser's lovely book of Valentine's Day poems, I decided to make some sweet valentines. Just so we're all on the same page: in 1986 Ted Kooser decided to write a poem on a postcard and mail it to some friends for Valentine's Day. It was a hit, so he made it a yearly tradition. Eventually his list of postcard poem recipients reached 2,600 people. Valentines collects these postcard poems. I know poetry can be a terrifying prospect, especially when it's concerned with L-O-V-E. But Kooser's poems are not overflowing with flowery, gushy sentiments--they're sweet, sometimes silly, and fun...

Made & Found: Weirdo Valentines

Just kidding. Please don't.

I decided I was going to kiss off on the traditional cutesy valentines cards this year, so I made some weirdo black and white valentines...you know, because I'm kind of a weirdo sometimes. I selected sentiments from conversational candy hearts and applied my Addams Family filter (minus black roses and pictures of scabs) to create these creepy (but sweet?) endearments...

Handmade Home: another handmade valentine

Get ready for another handmade valentine...

Made & Found: Accordion Booklets

I checked this book out from the library before Christmas with the intention that I'd make some sweet books as Christmas gifts. Well, that didn't happen. Big surprise. But I still wanted to make use of the treasure trove of handmade book knowledge contained within, so I turned to Chapter 2 and got to work...

Book Report Inspiration: Safeguarding the Written Word

Christmas clean-up has finally begun here. It pains me to defrock the Christmas tree, but even though it still smells quite like the noble fir it is, the branches are turning brittle. It's time to let the tree go. Sigh. There are also ornaments and decorations, wrapping paper, and boxes to be dealt with. We've accumulated SO MANY boxes. Some are destined for cardboard cat cottages (or villages in progress) and others will be deposited in the recycling bin, but a few lucky boxes are going to be repurposed for storage. This quick project is a good accompaniment for my annoying desire to organize everything in January. New year, new organized life? We'll see...

Top Five: New Year, New Life!

Well, sort of. I should say I'm not much for New Year's resolutions. (Immediate sidebar: One year, I resolved to give up refined sugar. Not altogether--gosh, no. I could never. But I was so addicted to sugar that I'd get crazy cranky when I didn't have my sugar fix. I did give it up for several months-- and then I visited Mom in Tacoma and had a total sugar relapse, which she completely enabled. Rude. Anyway, I'm a sugar fanatic again and will probably attempt to go cold turkey this year, but that's not my NYR.) Like Liz Lemon (a great way to start a sentence), I plan on taking charge of my life. Minus that pesky obstacle, please...

Christmas Report: Last Minute Wrapping Inspiration

Today I'm ceding my "Book Report" post to offer some last minute Christmas wrapping inspiration. A couple weeks ago, I showed you how to make tassel gift toppers from ferns and fir trees, but the other ribbon and bow replacement I'm using this year is inspired by the leather laces from my cowboy hat band DIY...

Best of: Party DIYs

Image via Bippity Boppity Boo

Since we're deep into party season, I thought now might be a good time to collect some DIY party staples. These projects will serve for Christmas or New Year's Eve parties, can be fancy-pants or super-casual, adapted for kids or those picky adults. Plus, they're guaranteed to add fun on fun on fun to any gathering. Party on, Wayne!

Made and Found: Foraged Tassels

I love bringing the outside in. The fact that December means we're allowed to put a six foot noble fir in our living rooms is pretty much my favorite thing ever...

Made and found: Christmas decorations!

As soon as December hit, I swapped out my fall decorations for a little indoor winter wonderland. We're experiencing some abnormally chilly weather in the Pacific Northwest. It's going to be in the 20's for a few days (believe me, that's cold for here). I've done enough crafting in past few winters, that I have a pretty solid base of decorations to start with. Take a peek!

Made and Found: Foraged Thanksgiving Centerpiece

Happy Thanksgiving, friends! Now that I've said that, I'm probably going to completely negate the sentiment with the following statement: I've never been much of a Thanksgiving person. I always considered it one of those holidays manufactured to celebrate the subjugation of Native Americans as well as our rampant consumer culture. Oh yeah, I'm that type. Plus, for the longest time, I hated turkey. So you can imagine how fun I was at Thanksgiving dinner!

Best of: Wintery Wreath Making

This week I gathered some materials from the woods and fashioned an autumn wreath. I prefer my wreaths a bit wild, so I incorporated some foraged wolf lichen and a couple other lichens that I can't identify off the top of my head. I also allowed the branch tips to stretch out as they saw fit: wreath trends! Monika termed this technique witchy. Fine by me...

Top 5: Knitted Projects from The Purl Bee

Catherine's seed and moss stitch cowls. 

Truly, Catherine is the knitting-est of the sisters. I mean, Monika and I are adept knitters, but Catherine is the one who puts in the most time and has the greatest ambitions. She's made actual clothes! Like if the apocalypse came tomorrow and the internet disappeared, she would still know how to make socks and sweaters. Inconceivable! So, even though I realize her knowledge is far greater than mine (a fact made quite clear to me through Catherine's eye-rolls every time I admit to forgetting how to SSK), once autumn arrives all bets are off. I'm overtaken by the feeling that I should have a knitting project in my lap every time I sit down, and I start hunting around for yarn and potential knitted projects...

Made & Found: Mini-Mourning Wreaths

After making my crepe paper crow mask, I was left with two rolls of black crepe paper streamers. I couldn't just let them languish in a craft supplies box somewhere. Not when it's Halloween and there's still time to make a last minute decoration. I mean, come on. So, I rallied my crepe paper, glue stick, and an old cardboard box to make some mini mourning wreaths. OK, I know it's a bit morbid--no one has died--but it is Halloween...

Book Report Inspiration: Printable Halloween Bookmarks

I have a confession to make. I'm bad about bookmarks. I use gum wrappers and old post-its, sometimes pencils or unused kleenexes, and those fake American Express cards that always come in the mail. But wait. It gets worse, dear readers. I dog-ear pages. All. The. Time. There are only things that will deter me from my normal course of action: if the book is borrowed (then it's a post-it or gum wrapper for sure) or if the book is very old or delicate. But otherwise, all bookmark bets are off. It would seem I have no respect for the sanctity of the printed word. It's a bleeding shame. 

Book Report Inspiration: DIY Crow Carnivale Mask

Assembling images for "The Cask of Amontillado" post last week plunged me deep into two subjects: crypts and Carnivale masks. Of course crypts are right up my alley, and looking at ossuaries and Parisian catacombs fit my morbid tastes quite well...Carnivale masks were a different story altogether. They freak me out in a way that chandeliers made of skulls and femurs will never do. But because "Amontillado"is set in Venice during Carnivale, and both Fortunato (the victim) and Montresor (the victor!) take part in the festivities and don masks, I couldn't just forgo the masked bit...

Book Report Inspiration: DIY embroidered notebook

Reading and writing have always been linked in my mind, so it seems natural to think about books and notebooks together. Growing up, I always had a notebook filled with stories and ideas, possible character names, settings, and quotes I loved from movies and television shows (many of which were from The X-Files and, as you might imagine, totally badass)...

Book Report Inspiration: Personalized leather key fobs

There's no way around it: tooled leather detailing seems quintessentially Western. And for my final post on True Grit and Western inspiration, I decided it was high time I used the leather key fobs I've had in my craft box since last Christmas (when I tried to dye them using regular fabric dye which, by the way, does not work). Since I utterly lack the skillset and patience required for hand-tooling with awls and hammers and whatnot, I short-cutted using my wood burning tool...