Desk Bag: What a neat idea!

I finally took the time today to read through my Google Reader which is filled with blogs I follow. As I am scrolling through, I did a double take when I saw Sandra from Sugar Cubes and Spice Cake post on back to school desk bags.

I don’t have any kids, but one look at the bag gave me an “ah ha” moment. Wouldn’t these make great take alongs to cropping events?  I know that I personally don’t seem to have enough space for all my table top items, roller carts, and other stuff. Couldn’t you just picture making one of these to slip over your chair to hold extra pens, a ruler (which I always lose), craft magazine, etc.

Here are some of the other bags that Sandra has created:

You can find the tutorial here to create a bag of your very own.

If you decide to make a bag, please post a comment on this post along with a link. We would love to see your completed masterpiece.

Happy Crafting!

Creativity Bug ~ Sue

Tuesday Tutorial: Decorative Candles-I did it!

A while back,  my sister Sue posted about creating decorative candles and  I knew I had to try one of the techniques. I have seen these picture candles using tissue paper all over blogland and just never got around to trying it. Well, let me tell you, it took me longer to take the pictures than it took me to create the candle. I love it!

So, just a little something about my crafting style. I am the sister who's motto is "it's good enough." My workspace does not have to be perfect (or uncluttered), things do not have to be exactly the way they should be, they can just be good enough. Case in point. I knew I had white tissue paper. Where? It's in the recycle bin. Yes people, I grabbed crumpled up white tissue paper from the recycle bin to do this project. I figured if it would fail, no harm no foul.

Here are the steps I took to complete this quick project:

1. Remove crumpled up white tissue paper that was included in my daughter's pajamas from recycle bin

2. Search for a decent picture of my family from my laptop

3. Cut and paste picture into Word so that I can crop and make my picture the size I need. No fancy photo program for me. Just use what I've got

3. Tape crumpled tissue paper (with masking tape because I can not find regular tape) to a white piece of copy paper

4. Print photo (Hooray, it worked)

5. Run into my basement and find small white candle that has already been used (why use a new nice candle if this project is going to H-E double hockey sticks in a hand basket)

6. Cut photo from paper and place on candle with push pins

7. Take heating tool and heat photo to candle

Done and it's beautiful!
Creativity Bug ~ Sandy

Tuesday Tutorial: Tea Light Flowers

Many of you may have already seen this project on other blogs called “tea light lollipops”. I did a little change to the original and decided to call them “tea light flowers”.  They are pretty easy to make, require only a few supplies, and make great favors for bridal showers and ladies luncheons.

Supplies:

Popsicle sticks or lollipop sticks

Green marker , paint , or stain

Tea light

Small plastic baggies

1 ¼ or 1 ½ inch circle punch

Tag or tag punches

Ribbon

Ink

Stamp

Glue gun

Double sided tape or tape runner

Green cardstock

Colored cardstock (of your choice)

Step 1:  Using a marker, paint, or green stain color the popsicle sticks.

Step 2:  Using glue gun, glue popsicle stick to the back of tea light

Step 3:  Punch out a green circle using circle punch and glue it onto the popsicle stick to cover

Step 4:  Using store bought tag or punched out tag, stamp image or saying using coordinating ink

Step 4:  Place tea light/popsicle stick into small plastic baggie, fasten with ribbon, and add tag. 

This is where most of the other how-to’s stopped. I went one step further, because it just looked a bit plain to me. I made what looked like a lollipop into a flower.

Step 5: (optional) Punch or die cut out a flower from cardstock or pattern paper. Make sure the flower is at least 3” in diameter. Using double sided tape or tape runner, attach to the underside of the tea light.

These were so quick and easy to make that I was able to complete a dozen in just a few hours. We are selling them next month at a library craft sale and sure hope they will be a hit. Our biggest problem is that we aren't sure how much to sell them for. The supplies comes to $1 per completed flower and don't know if asking $2 or $2.50 is expecting too much or not enough.  Please post a comment to let us know what you think concerning pricing.

If you decide to make this project, please attach a link to your blog or FB post in the comment section below so that our followers can admire your work.

Happy Crafting!

Creativity Bug ~ Sue

Tuesday Tutorial: Poofy Paper Flowers

Hello and Happy Tuesday! We are starting a new feature on Tuesdays that will include tutorials and trash to treasure ideas.  Hopefully my creative other half (sister Sandy) will have the time to post a few tutorials of some of the trash to treasure items she has created for her home.

Today is a tutorial on making what I call "poofy" paper flowers. The idea is inspired by Teresa Collins, which I saw demonstrated on YouTube by 217Creations in her video called How to Make a Folded Teresa Collins Flower.

The supplies you will need include:

stapler
glue gun
tulle
5 of the same sized paper flowers (2 inches or larger)
gems, buttons, etc

Step 1:  Take one flower and fold it in half (you will do this to all but one flower)

Step 2:  Fold the flower in half once more

Step 3:  Staple folded flower #1 to folded flower #2 slightly overlapping

Step 4: Staple folded flower #2 to folded flower #3 slightly overlapping

Step 5: Staple folder flower #3 to folded flower #4 slightly overlapping

Step 6:  Fluff the stapled flower parts to "poof" up

Step 7:  Take a 6 -8  inch piece of the tulle, fold it in half, push down in the center with your finger, and staple

Step 8:  Glue tulle to stapled flower

Step 9:  Glue remaining flower on top of tulle/stapled flower and bend petals for dimension

Step 10:  Glue gems, buttons, etc. to create center of flower.

You can add Stickles, spray flower or tulle with Glimmer mist, etc. Be creative and add your own style and flair!

These big poofy paper flowers would be a great addition to gift packages as a topper, embellishments for cards, picture frames, or scrapbook pages, or can be used on other paper crafting projects.

Later in the week, I will make a post and show you a few completed projects that have poofy paper flowers used as embellishments.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial!
Creativity Bug ~ Sue

Teacher Appreciation Gift

The week of May 2 through May 6 is Teacher Appreciation week.

In honor of all the wonderful men and women that take care of our children every day by nurturing them, educating them, and allowing them to grow mentally and creatively, I say "THANK YOU!".

You can say "thank you" too by showing them a little appreciation this week, which is why I am demonstrating how to make a flower pot pen holder that is both easy and inexpensive (using Dollar Store finds) to create.

Supplies:

twine
flower pot
Bic pen
flower bundle
floral tape
bag of dried beans
glue gun with glue
ribbon (optional)
paint (optional)
gems (optional)

Step One: Cut the flower tops off of the flower bundle leaving a bit of stem. Remove the bottom cap from the Bic pen.

Step Two: Fill the open bottom of the Bic pen with a generous squeeze of glue from a glue gun and press (firmly) flower top into opening. Set in a tall empty glass to dry.

Step Three: Wrap the pen body from top to bottom and then back up to top with floral tape.

Now your flower is complete!

Step Four:  Using glue gun, slowly add glue around top of flower pot and begin to wrap with twine. Continue to do this until entire pot in covered.

Step Five (Optional): If you want to dress up your pot more, you can paint the twine and pot using spray paint or acrylic paint. You can also add ribbon around the base or glue on sparkle gems.

Step Six:  Fill the flower pot with dried beans just shy of the top.

Now your pot is complete!

Step Seven: Stick the flower pen directly in the center of the flower pot.

Have your child make a handmade card to present to the teacher along with the gift.

Hope you enjoyed this project! If I have time, I will make a few flower pot variations and post later.
Creativity Bug ~ Sue

Heart Shaped Clips

Want to add a cute heart clip accent to a card, scrapbook page, papercraft, etc. without spending a lot of money? All you need are a few large paperclips.

With a little bend like this:

You get a special heart clip that looks like this:

I wish I knew who to give credit to, but this has been in my saved files for a really long time.

Can't wait to hear or see what you make with these clips.
Creativity Bug ~ Sue