Project Twofer!

I have a teeny weeny itsy bit of an issue with kids' crafts. You see, there's only so much room on the fridge for all the macaroni mosaics and fingerpaintings. I love these things, but I also love projects for kids that are actually functional in some way.

Well. Today we have two projects you can do with the kids that--GASP--won't end up in the garbage next week!! One is just for funsies and the other would make a great end-of-the-year teacher gift.

First, some cutie-pie felt hairclips:

And then a fun silk flower pen bouquet:

Both projects after the jump!

Craft Hack: Ballard-Inspired Newsprint Dress and Accessories

It's time again for a knock-off tutorial! This week, I'm hacking Ballard's Newspaper Dress ($299-ouch) and the Newspaper Shoe, Glove and Handbag Prints ($89 each). I've since seen a few tutorials for the dress (one used old dress patterns instead of newspaper and it's CUTE) but I've not seen an for the shoes, gloves and purse. WELL. I felt they were even more interesting than the dress, and I originally intended to omit the dress entirely.

Long story short, I hacked them all! And for the first time ever, I've made a printable PDF template. Wheee!

Tutorial after the jump.

Just a thing I made

So I got an enormous amount of traffic on this post back in December, along with a ton of emails about where I got the wooden panels I used. As I said then, probably the best (and easiest) bet would be to get some cheapo MDF and cut it to the desired shape and size. I lucked out and had three panels like this and only used two on the December project. SO. I had one more panel, and I finally used it.

This particular Roman numeral has special meaning to me. It means 1997, which was the year Spence and I got married. Totally romantic, right? I KNOW.

Forgive the crooked photography. The dog likes to lean against me anytime I'm standing still and he weighs a ton...