Holy moly, it’s that time again! Wasn’t it just New Year’s Day?

Anyway. I thought I’d compile a bunch of Valentine-related tutorials I’ve done here for your crafty pleasure:

Top row, from left to right

• Here’s a little video how-to for a pretty stand-up gift-topper. It uses plastic canvas. Of course.

• This button-embellished notebook cover is sized for standard small spiral notebooks. And if I do say so my dang self, there’s a nice little trick for placing buttons precisely in there.

• …And if you need an excuse to acquire lots of felt colors, look no further than my Simple V-Day Sachet.


Bottom row, from left to right

• Turn some scrapbook paper and old magazines into these hanging hearts, which spin nicely with the air currents.

• If you have some scraps of fringe in your stash, turn them into these flowery greeting cards in just a few minutes.

• …Or, get a little more detailed and create a wallet shrine filled with pictures and ephemera for your loved one.

Oh, and I couldn’t resist including this little bonus: a necktie heart brooch.

Happy Crafting!

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

So, I know the holiday cheer has been light around here this year. I’m currently buried in work projects (getting ready for a big new year and all), so I barely have my tree up and will be squeeeeeeeeeeaking to the finish line on my gifts.

BUT! Mom and I didn’t want to neglect our tradition of an annual holiday podcast! So we put a little something together for you guys. It’s a little less formal than usual – we recorded some remeniscing about our favorite Christmas cookies and best-ever cookie-baking failures. We laughed a lot, and we hope it’ll make you giggle, too.

To listen to this wee show, pop over to Mom’s blog, where things are a lot more Christmas-y. (‘Tis a free show, of course.)

While I’m here, I want to say THANK YOU one million times for all your insightful and helpful comments re: CraftyPod 2.0. K and I are hard at work implementing changes from your suggestions, and we’ll have lots to share in January.

Meanwhile, I should give fair warning… I’m going to follow your many admonitions and raise the price of the show in January. So, ahem, if you want ‘em at 99 cents, now would be the time to get them.

Oh – and I totally stole these images from my Mom’s awesome blog. Hopefully, The Daugter Card will cover me. :-)

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

I’m seeing more hits on my “Holiday Crafts” category lately, so I thought I’d pull together this collection of my favorite Christmas tutorials from Christmas past:

Top Row:

• Festive Chenille Ornaments
• Make a Gift Box from an Old Greeting Card
• How to Make a Button Advent Calendar

Middle Row:

• Make Crafty Photo Frame Ornaments
• Make Yarn & Felt Folks
• Make a Graham Cracker Village

Bottom Row:

• Make Lots of Cards from Just Two Paper Punches
• Tiny Gingerbread House Ornament (from PC!)
• Japanese-Style Upholstered Ornaments

If you should make anything from these how-to’s, I’d love it if you uploaded a picture to the CraftyPod Reader Projects Group!

Happy Holiday Crafting!

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

I love a good Easter basket as much as the next gal, but I adore the idea of this simple little gift box. Sometimes you just want to give one beautiful egg or a few choice candies to a favorite teacher, co-worker, or friend, and this little presentation is perfect.

The whole thing is constructed from two kinds of felt: regular wool or acrylic felt, and Friendly Felt, which is a recycled-fiber stiff felt. Fusing the two together, you can really construct just about anything. The boxes make up in just a few minutes, and decorating them gives you a great excuse to rummage about in your stash.

This is my first “donationware” tutorial, as inspired by June. It’s a chance for you to offer a little support for the free crafty you’ve enjoyed here in the past, if you want to. The basic tutorial is here at no charge, or you can get a fancier PDF version (including the full pattern) for the price of whatever donation you’d like to make. This is an experiment in making free tutorials on this blog more sustainable, so if you enjoy the tutorial content here, I hope you’ll consider supporting it.

What do you think of this model? What other tutorials would you like to see in this format?
Incidentally, my apologies for the size of that button. There’s some mystery in PayPal’s code I can’t crack.

Materials (per box):

One 9×12 sheet Friendly Felt
One 9×12 sheet acrylic or wool felt
PDF Template
Fine-point Sharpie
Scissors
Ruler
Bone Folder
Lightweight fusible webbing
Iron and ironing board
Pressing cloth
Hand-sewing needle and thread
Craft glue
Assorted embellishments

The PDF has a full-size printable pattern, but you can also draw up your own, using your favorite drawing program. It’s really just a cross-shaped series of boxes, arranged as you see here. In my version, the top and bottom of the box measure 2″ square, and each side measures 2″ wide by 2 1/4″ tall. That’s sized to fit a US Grade A Large egg, by the way.

Step 1: Print out your pattern onto card stock and cut it out. Trace it onto a sheet of Friendly Felt with a fine-point Sharpie.

Step 2: Before you lift the pattern from the Friendly Felt, mark it where the lines go across the long side. We’ll need those marks in the next step.

Step 3: Now, use a ruler and your Sharpie to trace all the lines from your pattern onto the felt (and here’s where you’ll need those marks from Step 2). Then, go ahead and cut the pattern out along the outermost lines.

Step 4: The reason we drew in those interior lines is so that we can score them. So use a ruler and a bone-folder to firmly score the Friendly Felt along all these lines. We want these scores nice and deep, so don’t be afraid to put a little muscle into it.

Step 5: Then, fold the Friendly Felt along all these score lines. Fold it both directions, and crease the folds. We want nice, prominent creases here, so we can locate these folds later on. Set the finished Friendly Felt piece aside.

Step 6: Now, trace the same pattern onto regular felt and cut it out. (You don’t need to draw in any of the interior lines here – just trace and cut the overall outline.)

Step 7: Lastly, trace the pattern one more time onto some fusible webbing. (Again, no need to worry about those interior lines.) When you cut out the webbing, cut about 1/8″ inside your traced lines, as shown here. You don’t have to be super precise about this. You just want the webbing piece to end up slightly smaller than the felt pieces.

Step 8: Place the Friendly Felt piece on your ironing board with the traced lines facing up. Place the webbing on top, with the paper backing facing up. Center the webbing piece over the Friendly Felt piece.

Step 9: Heat your iron to the setting recommended on your package of fusible webbing. Place a pressing cloth over the Friendly Felt and webbing, being careful not to disturb their alignment.

Step 10: Follow the package directions to fuse the webbing to the Friendly Felt. When you iron over Friendly Felt, it will actually melt a little and become very soft and pliable. That’s why a pressing cloth is so important – to protect your iron! When you’re done ironing, don’t handle the Friendly Felt until it has cooled and re-stiffened.

Step 11: Once the Friendly Felt has cooled, you can peel away the paper backing. You should see a uniform shiny coating of fusible webbing on your Friendly Felt now.

Step 12: Now, place your regular felt on your ironing board. Place the Friendly Felt piece over it, with the webbing side down. Line up the long edges of both pieces.

Step 13: Place the pressing cloth over this and follow the package directions once again to fuse the two pieces together. Once again, let the felt cool and re-stiffen before you handle it.

Check all the edges carefully to make sure the two layers have completely fused together. If not, put them back under the pressing cloth and iron them some more. You may find it helpful to flip the whole thing over and press it from the other side as well.

Step 14: In my pattern, there’s a little extra felt that wraps over the end of the Friendly Felt. It you’re using my pattern, then at this point you can fold that felt over and use a little scrap of fusible webbing to fuse it in place.

Step 15: OK, with everything fused together, it’s time to re-fold the felt where you made all those deep scores in Step 4. We’ve hidden all those lines we drew between the layers, but you should be able to give the felt a gentle bend and it’ll fold right on the score lines. (If you’re having trouble identifying where a fold is, you can hold the felt up to a light and easily see the drawn score lines. Crease the felt once again along these lines.

Step 16: We’re going to whip stitch the corners together. So first, thread a needle with a single thickness of sewing thread, and tie a good knot in one end.

Hold the box piece so that the Friendly Felt side faces down. Bring the needle up at one corner as shown here, catching one side of the box. Pull the thread all the way through so the knot can hide on the Friendly Felt side.

Step 17: Now, gently bring the two sides together, forming a corner. Pass your needle through both sides to form the first stitch.

Step 18: Continue stitching in this manner to join the corner. (By the way, I’m using contrasting thread here so it’s easy to see. You’ll want to use matching thread.)

Step 19: When you’ve sewn your way to the top of the seam, finish your last stitch so the needle is on the Friendly Felt side of the seam. Finish the thread by passing it through a few stitches here at the back side. Repeat this process to sew up the other three corners.

Step 20: One last step: there’s a small tab on the lid of the box that tucks into the box when you close it. Cut the sides of this little tab at angles, as shown here.

Now you have a little box-shaped blank canvas to decorate! All the versions you see here, I decorated by raiding my collections of ribbons, trims, lace, and ric rac. You can attach embellishments with hot glue or tacky glue. The PDF has a bunch of other ideas, too.

Poke a little Easter grass into the bottom of the box, and tuck in a pretty decorated egg.

Want the PDF version of this how-to with the full template?

Click the button below to donate, and you’ll get your copy via email. (You can choose any amount  you like, but if you don’t mind, at least $1.00 lets me cover PayPal fees and still have a few cents leftover.)

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Today, we wrap up our series on ebook gifting with a cool little box presentation. You can buy someone an ebook, put it on a thumb drive, and then tuck it into this little book-looking box as a stocking stuffer. This is a nice presentation for ebooks with a hefty page count, and ebooks with printable worksheets, like my Creating a Blog Audience.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Thumb drive with an ebook file on it
• This downloadable print-and-fold template
• Scissors (or a craft knife and ruler)
• Bone folder
• Reduced-size print-out of the cover (more on this below)
• Glue stick
• Scrap of decorative paper
• Adhesive-backed Velcro dots

First, print out this pattern and cut it out. The whole key to success with this project lies in how precisely you cut along the outline. So it’s a good idea to cut into each corner from both sides, as shown here – not around the corner.

Now, take a ruler and bone folder and score all of the fold lines that pass over the shape. (Again, careful precision makes a huge difference in your finished box.)

On the edges where the “pages” are printed, just score the topmost and bottom-most lines. Also, see the little tab on the right? Cut all four little tabs out this way, and score them on their fold lines. (Those fold lines may be a little hard to see because the “page” lines run over them.)

I should say up front here: it’s not like I went to paper engineering college or anything. I’m going to show you what I think is the easiest way to assemble this puppy. But if you’re more experienced than me at this stuff, well, knock yourself out. And then send me an email and tell me how you did it.

Okay, that said, make the first fold as shown here. There are three fold lines on the long side of the piece; fold the center one.

That first fold is the basis for the cover of our box. Flip the piece over and glue this fold closed with some glue stick. Then, fold up the score line that’s near the edge, as shown here.

(To be clear, though – not the fold line that’s closest to the edge. You want the one that’s just to the left of that one.)

Okay. Now give the whole thing a quarter turn, so it’s facing you with this orientation. Fold the two short sides up, and bend in the four tabs.

Put some glue on the two tabs that are closest to the cover piece we folded earlier.

Now, fold up the cover side, as shown here. (That “Ebooks are Awesome” becomes the spine of your book-box.)

Then, press those tabs to the inside to hold the sides up.

Bring the cover and spine up now, and let that fold line nearest its edge tuck into the bottom of the box, covering up those tabs.

Here’s how that looks on the outside.

We’re going to do something similar with the other long edge of the box now. Glue up those two remaining tabs.

Now, fold up the side, as shown here.

From here, it should look familiar: press those tabs to the inside to hold up the sides…

…And then fold that side piece over the tabs. Let the fold closest to the edge of that side nestle in the bottom of the box.

Do similar folds at the two short sides of the box.

Then, fold the cover and close the box! You can gently pinch the folds with your fingers to give them a sharper crease.

Print out your book cover at a reduced size (look at Wednesday’s ebook for details on that). I usually print an 8 1/2″ x 11″ cover at 25% to fit this box, but your cover may be different, so double-check it before you print.

The box pattern comes with a template you can trace onto your print-out. Then, cut it out and glue it to the cover of the box.

The same template, by the way, can be used to cut some scrapbook paper into a bottom liner. Glue this into your box to cover up all those folds and edges.

I’m using a Velcro dot (one with adhesive on it) to affix my thumb drive. It won’t hurt the thumb drive any, and it’ll keep it from rattling around in the box.

et Voila!

About the Ebook:

Creating a Blog Audience is designed specifically for crafters who want more blog readers. It takes you through a process ot evaluating your blog, and offers concrete ways to build your community online. Read more and get your copy over here.






This presentation would also be great for:

Making a Great Blog is my best-selling ebook. If you’re just starting out blogging, or you’re not happy with where your blog is now, this ebook takes you through questions and worksheets that will help you make better posts, clean your blog up visually, and help it reach out into the community. Read more and get your copy over here.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Our series on giving ebooks as gifts continues today, with a really beautiful binding method known as “perfect binding.” It’s a great way to bind ebooks that print out to 1/4″ thick or thicker, and it takes surprisingly few materials. Today, I’m binding a copy of Handwork for the Holidays, by Katie Startzman and Laura Poulette.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• One ebook, printed out (more on that below)
• Paper cutter
• 2-3 Letter clips or binder clips
• E6000 or Gorilla Glue
• Scrap of paper
• Glue Stick
• Scrap of fabric
• Scrap of fusible webbing
• Scissors
• Iron and ironing board

I printed this ebook the same way I printed Monday’s ebook – I reduced the size so I’d get two pages on each sheet of paper. (You can also perfect bind an 8 1/2″ x 11″ print-out.)

I also printed the front and back covers out on matte photo paper, which gave them better clarity and color than regular printer paper allows.

First, I cut the pages in half, so I had 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ pages.

…But then, looking at the cut pages, I noticed that this ebook has a layout with very specific parameters. See how the cute bead graphic lines up with the bottom of some pages, but is 1/2″ above the bottom of others?

Ebooks are like snowflakes – each one will print in a unique way. In the case of Handwork for the Holidays, I love the layout so much, I wanted to give it the nicest presentation possible. So I trimmed another 1/2″ off each page – some pages, I trimmed from the bottom, and the others, from the top.

…And then, I decided to trim 1″ from the right margin of each page as well. (I left some extra margin on the left side to accommodate the binding.)

Depending on the ebook you’re printing and binding, you may or may not need to do this much trimming. Take a look at the layout and see what it needs.

Anyway. With all the pages printed, stack them up in order, with the covers in place. Then, tap the binding edge of the book against your work surface to straighten it out.

Pop a couple of letter clips or binder clips onto the stack at the top and bottom to keep it in place while you’re binding. Place those clips about 1″ away from the binding edge, like you see here.

Now, cut yourself a strip of binding paper. The size will depend on the book you’re binding, but it should be the same height as your book. Its width should be enough to cover about 1″ of the front and back covers, plus the spine.

Wrap this strip around your book’s spine and press it in place to crease the paper, like you see here.

The key to this binding is a very strong, flexible glue. I love E6000 (yeah, I know – surprise!), but Gorilla Glue works well, too. I’ve also used silicone sealer.

Put a nice, thick line of glue along the spine of your book.

Here’s another angle. See the left side? There’s enough glue there. See the right side? that’s not enough glue. You need enough glue to cover the entire spine pretty thickly.

Anyway. Once you have optimal glue levels, go ahead and press that strip of binding paper over the spine. If some glue oozes out the ends, wipe it away with your fingers.

Then, move those clips so they’re covering the spine. Leave them in place for several hours while the glue sets. Overnight is even better.

Once that glue is dry, if you need to, you can glue down the rest of the binding strip with some glue stick. (Some of the E6000 will have oozed around and anchored down at least part or the strip, though.)

Now, we need to cover up that binding paper! Here, I’ve taken a strip of linen fabric and ironed fusible webbing to the back. (If you’re unfamiliar with this stuff, you might take a look at this tutorial I did a while back.)

The webbing is slightly tacky once it’s ironed to the fabric, so you can easily position it on the book and press it in place with your fingers. First, I positioned it over the front cover, and then wrapped it around to the back. I trimmed off some excess at the back.

Then, I used scissors to trim the fabric to the edges of the book.

…And with a quick press of my iron on both sides, the fabric is now fused to the cover. Nice, eh?

About the Ebook:

Handwork for the Holidays is a beautiful collection of gift and decor projects, with some knitting, some sewing, and some paper craft. You can read my review here, and score your own copy here.






This binding would also be great for:

Stitch Village, by Joan Gorman, is a lovely collection of sewing and embroidery projects, complete with patterns and stitching templates. Joan’s designs are so whimsical and charming. My review is here, and you can get a copy here.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Today’s project in our ebook-gifting series a simple-but-pretty felt envelope. You can easily buy your favorite crafter an ebook, save it onto a CD, and then package it in one of these cuties.

Today, I’m making these for two of my favorite food ebooks: Hitchhiking to Heaven Prizewinning Recipes, by Shae Irving, and (Not So) Sweets, by Pam Harris (aka my Mom). I had fun picking out jam-like colors for one, and sweet pinks and whites for the other.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Two sheets of felt in colors that coordinate with your ebook’s cover
• One ebook, saved to a CD
• One print-out of the ebook cover (more on that below)
• This awesome downloadable pattern
• Two buttons, at least 3/4″ in diameter
• 10″ length of 1/8″ wide ribbon or ric rac
• More ric rac for trim (optional)
• Scissors
• Tacky Glue
• Embroidery floss and needle

So, download the pattern and follow its instructions to cut out the pieces. You’ll need one front, one back, one flap, and one cover window.

Next, you’ll need to print the cover of your ebook at a smaller size, so it fits on the envelope. I usually print an 8 1/2″ x 11″ cover at 25%. Look at your printer dialog box for a “Scale” capability, like you see here. You might also want to print it on some card stock or photo paper, so you get the cleanest version possible.

(Alternatively, you could print the cover full-size and shrink it on a copier.)

Cut the cover out so it’s about 1/4″ smaller on all sides then the felt Cover Window piece.

Then, lightly glue the cover to the center of the envelope front. (The front, by the way, is the taller of the two envelope pieces.)

Put a little glue on the cover window, and then press it lightly over the cover piece, making sure everything’s centered.

If you like, you can add a little embroidered embellishment at this point. I’m doing a simple running stitch here, but if you’re into stitchery, you could do all kinds of other stitches.

Now, we need to sew on the two buttons that form the closure. Take the envelope flap and lay it over the envelope back, matching the top edges. Position one button on the center of the flap and the other on the center of the envelope, about 1/4″ under the flap. Stitch these buttons securely in place.

Set the flap aside for a moment. Pin the envelope front and back together, matching the bottom edges and sides. (See how the front piece will stick up a little at the top? That’s what you want!)

Sew the pieces together along the two sides and the bottom. I’m hand-sewing with a whip stitch here. You could also pop these onto your sewing machine, if you wanted to do it faster. My pattern has a 1/8″ seam allowance built in, so just keep your stitching 1/8″ from the edges of the felt.

Now it’s time to add the flap. Line it up with the top edge of the envelope front (the part that’s sticking up).

Stitch the flap to the envelope front. Be careful not to catch the envelope back in your stitching – you don’t want to sew your envelope shut!

To finish off your closure, just put a little bead of tacky glue under the button on the flap…

…And then press the end of a strand of ribbon into that glue. Let it dry for an hour or so.

Now you can wrap the ribbon around the buttons to close your envelope! For the pink one, I used some narrow ric rac instead. You could also use some yarn.

If you like, you can also add some other embellishments. I like to glue a ric rac border to the cover window. But there are approximately one bazillion other crafty possibilities (give or take).

I like to slide my CD in, still in its paper envelope. (The pattern is sized for this). You can certainly put the CD right into the felt envelope, but I’m probably over-paranoid about scratches. Anyway, go ahead and slide in your CD, with or without a paper sleeve. And that’s it!

About the Ebooks:

(Not So) Sweets, by Pam Harris, is a collection of delicious dessert recipes for people who can’t eat sugar. (I can say “delicious” with authority, as I have eaten them all.) Learn more, and get your copy, here.




Hitchhiking to Heaven: Prizewinning Recipes by Shae Irving is a gorgeous collection of jam and jelly recipes, combined with all kinds of helpful tips and tricks. You can read my review here, and score your own copy here.








This presentation would also be great for:

Social Media for Your Crafty Business (by me!) is a good starter book for crafters looking to jump into marketing on Twitter and Facebook. You can read more and order a copy over here.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Today, we’ll continue our series of tutorials for turning crafty ebooks into awesome, wrap-able gifts. Here’s a slightly more traditional binding method. It’s great for ebooks with a heftier page count, and ebooks that benefit from a full-size format. Like my Weaving Un-Loomed ebook.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• An ebook, printed out (more on that below)
• 3-4 letter clips, or 5-6 binder clips
• Ruler and pencil
• Needle and buttonhole thread (available in sewing stores)
• Cork trivet (or other padded surface)
• Awl
• Card stock for back cover (optional)
• Bone folder (optional)
• Tacky glue

So, first, you’ll print out your ebook. I like to print mine two-sided, so I use fewer sheets of paper. Your printer very likely can do this, too.

I also decided to print everything but the front cover onto regular paper. I printed that front cover, then, onto some matte photo paper, so it would be heftier and look nicer. (You could also use card stock.)

Set the cover aside for the moment. We’re going to work with the pages first.

We’re going to use a stitched binding technique to bind the left edge of all these pages together. To begin, clamp the stack pages together. (This is your last chance to make sure they’re in the right order, too!)

I like to use letter clips for this, because they’re nice and wide, but if you don’t have any, binder clips will work just fine.

See how the clips are placed? At the top and bottom, about an inch away from the edge we’re going to bind. (In fact, I’m going to refer to this edge from here on out as “the binding edge.”) So far, so good.

Now, use a ruler to draw yourself a guide line 1/2″ from the binding edge. Then, make a mark 3/4″ in from the top and the bottom.

If I were a precise, traditional book binder, I would tell you to make an evenly-spaced row of marks along this guide line, between those top and bottom marks. But instead, I’ll tell you to eyeball it. Make a series of marks that more or less divides the area between the top and bottom marks up into equal parts. You should have an even number of these marks when you’re done. (In my sample, here, the marks are very roughly 2 3/4″ – 3″ apart.)

(I know, I know, traditional book binders – a travesty of loose measuring! But frankly, it works fine and I am measure-phobic.)

Anyway. Get yourself a cork trivet, or some cardboard, or something else you can safely press a sharp awl into. Place your clamped book on this surface, and push your awl into the paper at each of the marks you made. Gently push and twist, and after a few minutes, you’ll poke your way through the entire stack.

See what I mean? Awls are dang sharp.

Once you’ve made all the holes, then you’ll use them for your stitch binding. I prefer to use “buttonhole thread” for this process. It’s a very strong thread with lots of nylon that resists tangling. I’ve tried to do this binding with regular sewing thread, and wasn’t as happy with the result – it tangles too much and tends to rip the paper.

Cut a nice, long length of the buttonhole thread – I use three arm’s lengths – and thread it onto a needle. Don’t tie a knot.

I have a tutorial over on CRAFT that will walk you through the stitch-binding process. Start at Step 8, and go from there.

When you’re all done stitching, you’ll have a nice, strong, flexible book to page through! So now we can add a cover.

So, I have my front cover that I printed earlier. Since many ebooks (including mine) don’t really have a back cover, I’m making one by cutting an 8 1/2″ x 11″ piece of coordinating card stock.

Score the front and back covers 1/2″ away from the binding edge. I’m using a bone folder here, but if you don’t have one, you can use a very light stroke with a craft knife.

(But get yourself a bone folder next year. One thousand and one uses!)

Place your back cover face down on your work surface. Put a line of tacky glue along the binding edge, between your scored line and the edge of the card stock. Place the bound book pages onto the back cover, lining up all the edges, and press them lightly with your hands.

Then, put a line of glue on the bound book, inside your stitching. Press the front cover over the pages, lining up all the edges.

Now it’s time to clamp everything tightly while that glue dries. You’ll need clamps evenly spaced along the spine of the book, like you see here. Leave it to dry overnight.

The next morning, you might want to glue a CD envelope inside the front cover, so you can give the ebook file along with the printed version. (This was a plain old CD envelope from the office supply store. I dressed it up by gluing a piece of scrapbook paper over it.)

About the Ebook:

Weaving Un-Loomed takes you through five weaving projects you can do using very simple household materials. It’s a great book for any crafter who’s ever been curious about weaving. You can read more, and score your own copy, over here.






This binding would also be great for:

Card. Paper. Ribbon, by Kristin Roach, shows you awesome things you can do with wadded-up wrapping paper, used greeting cards, and used curling ribbon (which, incidentally, you may have a lot of soon). Read more and score your copy over here.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Last year, I didn’t talk much about crafty ebooks during the holidays, because let’s face it – as cool as they are, it can be hard to give them as gifts, since there’s not really anything tangible to give.

…Which got me thinking: what could you do to make them tangible – and crafty? So I came up with a whole bunch of cool ways you could buy someone an indie crafty ebook as a gift, and also turn it into something really cool to wrap up and put under the tree.

Today, we kick off a week of tutorials for making great gifts of crafty ebooks. Hope you enjoy – and support independent self-publishers!

Today’s project is extremely simple – print, cut, punch and you’re done. It’s a great binding method for ebooks that would be handy to carry in your craft bag, like Carina Envoldsen-Harris’ Stitching Borders and Beyond.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• One ebook, printed out onto heavy paper or card stock
• Double-sided, heavyweight scrapbook paper
• Paper cutter (or ruler and craft knife)
• Glue stick
• Three-hole punch (or standard hole punch)
• Two 1″ binder rings (available at office supply stores)

A couple notes on printing your ebook:

Stitching Borders and Beyond is designed to be an 8 1/2″ x 11″ book. But since I wanted to make a book that I could easily carry, I opted to print it smaller. Many brands of printers have this capability built in!

Above is a shot of my Hewlett-Packard printer’s dialog box, so you can see where the option to print two pages to a sheet of paper appears (near the bottom). Your printer may have the option in a different place, of course. Fiddle around with the settings until you have things where you want them – just print the first page while you’re testing, so you don’t waste paper.

I also opted to print the ebook onto card stock instead of paper, so it would be nice and sturdy in my craft bag.

Once you’ve printed your ebook, you can cut the pages apart with a paper cutter. So my pages are now 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″.

Take a look at the layout of the ebook. If you have a generous margin on the side, you can bind it on the side. If there’s a more generous margin at the top of each page, then you can bind it at the top.

Stack all the pages up in the correct page order. I also decided to cut two cover pieces from heavyweight scrapbook paper. I cut these slightly larger – 5 3/4″ x 8 3/4″, so they’d be distinct from the rest of the book – and, so that if I flipped the book open to a particular page, I’d be able to easily find the cover to close it later.

I then trimmed the printed book cover down a bit and glued it to the front cover piece. (Again, leaving a wide side margin for binding.)

If you have access to a three-hole punch, the next step is super simple: just adjust the punch to make holes where you want them, and punch each page.

If you have a regular old one-hole punch, you can still make that work. I usually punch the holes in the top sheet, and then use this sheet as a guide to punch each remaining sheet.

Lastly, stack all your pages up again. (Make sure they’re still in the correct order!) Pop a binder ring through each of the holes and snap it closed. And you’re done!

See how nicely the double-sided scrapbook paper works out?

About the Ebook:

Stitching Borders and Beyond is an adorable collection of embroidery patterns for decorative borders you can stitch onto clothes, household items, and anything else that strikes your fancy. There’s clear step-by-step instructions for each component stitch, plus patterns. You can read my review here, and score your own copy here.




This binding would also be great for:

Small Stitches Booklette, also by Carina Envoldsen-Harris, takes you through 11 innovative embroidery stitches, and shows you lovely ways to use them. Read my review here and get your copy here.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

It’s not like I had the time, really, for another ornament tutorial. But somehow I got all fixated on the idea of chenille stems, and this happened.

Actually, it’s a really quick and easy little ornament (not counting glue-dry time). You could use these on your tree, or as garland, or gift tie-ons. You could make a whole mess of them at once, and it’s a nice craft for older children, family groups, or holiday craft nights.

Anyway. First you need three 12″ chenille stems. Bend them all up according to this handy little video. (Sometimes it’s a lot easier to show something in motion than in still photos, you know?)

Once you have three petal units bent, then cut yourself three circles. (I know there are only two pictured here, but bear with me.)

You’ll need two circles of fairly stiff cardboard. If you plan to make a two-layer flower, then you’ll also need one of regular card stock. My circles here are 1 1/4″ in diameter, but that’s not like a law or anything.

Get yourself some tacky glue, and put a nice, thick puddle in the center of one of your cardboard circles. Keep it away from the edges, but be pretty generous with it.

Next, place your three petal units into the glue. You’ll have plenty of time to arrange them just so while the glue stays wet.

Then, put a little more glue over the center and add the card stock circle. Make sure everything’s centered in relation to everything else.

Now, this whole thing needs to go under a heavy stack of books for a while, to press the shape nice and flat. But there’s one important key…

…Make sure the weight you place on your flower is balanced. If you’re making lots of these ornaments at one time, this won’t even be a problem – just spread all the ornaments out under the books.

If you’re only making a few at a time, however, you may find that the books can’t lay flat over the ornaments – the thickness of the ornaments throws the books off-kilter, like you see above. This will result in off-kilter ornaments!

(Not that this has happened to me or anything.)

…So, just place a little something under all four corners of your books to help them stay nice and parallel to the table top. If you live in a house with thousands of tea bags, like I do, then that’s a natural choice. You could also use magazines, or junk mail, or whatever you have on hand.

Leave the books in place for an hour or so while the glue sets.

Then, remove the books and add a second layer of chenille to the top. (How do you get a smaller flower? You just lop off 1/3 to 1/4 of each chenille stem before you bend it into the petal unit.)

Add a little more glue to the center, and then press the other stiff cardboard circle over the top. (Again, make sure things are centered.)

…Then it’s back under those books for several hours or overnight.

After that, you can get out all your crafty bits and bobs to decorate the center. I used some scrapbook papers, cut with punches and scissors. I also used some buttons (yay!), ric rac, and sequins. You could also use yarns, felt, pom poms – lots of possibilities!

Lordy, these are fun and addictive to make!

And if you make some, I’d love it if you shared a photo in the CraftyPod Reader Projects Flickr Group!

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

I got the inspiration for these ornaments a couple years back, when I saw this post on Zakka Life. I was also inspired by Oshie, an old Japanese craft in which you use small pieces of silk and paper to make padded shapes, which fit together into a particular images. You can see some stunning examples here.

My version is greatly simplified from the traditional craft, but I love the tailored quality these things have! And, due to the whole Kanzashi thing, I have vast stores of tiny fabric scraps. This project is an excellent way to use those up.

So, wanna make one? Here we go. First, you’ll need some thick, fairly rigid cardboard. Thick chipboard or mat board work well here. Corrugated isn’t a good choice – it can bend too easily.

I made you guys a downloadable set of four design templates, so feel free to use those or make up your own design. To get started, trace your shape onto the cardboard two times. See the dividing lines on the shape? Transfer these to the cardboard as well.

Carefully cut them out, making sure you don’t bend the cardboard in the process. The easiest way to prevent bending is to always cut in to corners, not around them.

(If you wanted to be fancier than me, you could also cut your shapes out with a craft knife and ruler.)

Cut one of the two shapes into sections along those dividing lines. Leave the other intact. And then, number the sections identically on each shape, as you see here. This will help you keep everything in the right order later on.

That may seem like a silly idea with this tree shape – after all, it’s pretty clear which part is which. But with a shape where all the pieces are nearly identical, this numbering scheme makes a huge difference.)

OK, now to “upholster” each of these pieces. Start with the cut-apart sections. Trace one onto a sheet of craft foam. (You can get this stuff in the kids’ section of most craft stores. One sheet will make a lot of ornaments.)

It’s important that the craft foam be exactly the same size as the cardboard. So stack the two together, and if your foam sticks out at the edges anywhere, like it’s doing here, trim away the excess.

Now it’s time for fabric. Cut a piece that’s about 1/2″ larger on all sides than the cardboard/foam pieces. You don’t have to be super-precise about it, as long as there’s roughly 1/2″ on all sides.

You’ll need some masking tape for the next step. (Good old masking tape!) Cut yourself a whole bunch of little pieces, and spread them out where you can grab them easily. I usually take about a 3″ strip off my roll, cut it in half lengthwise, and then snip each half into a bunch of smaller tabs. You’ll need some larger and some smaller, like you see here.

Also, place your fabric piece face down. Center the craft foam over that, and center the cardboard over the craft foam.

Begin the “upholstery” process at the corners. Gently stretch the fabric over one corner of the cardboard – be careful not to pull the fabric so tight that you bend the cardboard. Tape the fabric to the cardboard with the masking tape, burnishing it down firmly with your fingers.

I like to pull all the corners to the back first and tape them down. That gives you nice, smooth fabric coverage.

With the corners down, then pull the fabric around the sides of the shape and tape it down wherever needed. Some shapes need a lot of tape, and some don’t. Just make sure that you’re getting the fabric pulled nice and smooth over the front of the shape.

When you’re done, you should have something that looks like this. Be careful not to let the tape wrap up over the sides of the shape – you’ll want all the tape hidden.

Just a quick note: some shapes will have sharper corners, like this one. Occasionally, you may need to trim away a little excess fabric in order to tape it down smoothly. And, if you’re taping in tight spaces like this, keep plenty of smaller tabs of tape on hand.

Repeat this process to “upholster” the remaining pieces. (I have no idea why I feel so compelled to put that word in quotation marks.) As you work, keep these pieces laid out in their numeric order, so you know which ones go where.

Next, cut another piece of fabric that’s 1/2″ larger than the intact piece on all sides, as you see here. You’ll follow the same process to stretch and tape this fabric around the cardboard. Wherever you have an inward-facing corner, like you see at the tree trunk above, clip into the fabric a little.

(Just to clarify a point: this backing piece doesn’t have any foam padding. You’re just covering the cardboard with fabric.)

With your fronts and back all covered, it’s time to assemble the ornament. Place the back piece with its fabric side down. Then, put some tacky glue on the back of each “upholstered” piece, and then place it on its correct section of the back piece.

When you glue the topmost piece down, slip in a little folded piece of 1/4″ wide ribbon. That acts as a hanger. (Or, if you have no ribbon, use some yarn or a bent piece of wire.)

When you have the whole thing assembled, it’s time to put it under a stack of heavy books to dry. (The pressure will make all the pieces lie nice and flat.) If you have a little glue oozing out at the sides, like you see here. wipe it away with your fingers before you put any books over it.

Leave your ornament under those books for a few hours or overnight. And you’re done!

There are so many cool ways to interpret this project. I love using fabrics with metallic accents, because they look a lot like Japanese washi paper.

Here’s one where I “fussy-cut” my fabric to take better advantage of the leaf design.

…And here’s one covered with some beautiful dyed silk Pat sent me. It has such a pretty luster to it.

(Incidentally, the wreath is probably the most challenging shape of the four I designed, due to all the curved edges. I’d recommend making one of the other shapes first. Also, if you make a wreath, I recommend not cutting two identical cardboard shapes at first. Instead, cut one out, cut it into sections and “upholster” it, and then re-assemble them. Trace around this re-assembled wreath to get your backing piece.)

If you make one of these, I’d love to see! Will you post a photo to the CraftyPod Reader Projects Flickr Group?

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Yup, I’m pretty excited about this tutorial. Because I want you all to experience the wonder that is plastic canvas, I figured out a very simple way to make this tiny gingerbread house. It’s about 2″ square, and just as cute as it can be.

If you’re new to plastic canvas (heh heh), you might take a gander at this past tutorial and this one to glean some basics on handling your canvas and yarn.

So, if you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’ve likely seen this photo. For this project, I’m using 10-count plastic canvas – the stuff in the middle. You can also use 7-count, but your house will end up larger.

(If you can’t find the 10-count in your local craft store, you can also get it online.)

I don’t want you to get too hung up on making a formal pattern here. I’ll show you the pieces you need to cut, and you can decide on the final size. I usually cut my front/back piece first, and then use it as a measuring guide for the rest of my pieces.

You can draw cutting lines on your canvas with a fine-point Sharpie, or just cut freehand. One sheet of canvas will make a handful of these ornaments.

The only crucial bit is that your front/back piece needs to be an odd number of squares wide. That’s so you can form a peak at the center, like you see here.

My side pieces are the same height as the front/back walls (minus the peaked roof part), and as long as I want my house to be.

For the roof, I take the length of the side wall and add two squares, so my roof hangs over a bit.

Once you have all seven pieces cut, then it’s time to stitch ‘em! I’m using good old Continental Stitch here, and two strands of pearl cotton embroidery floss. For this size canvas, I like a crewel embroidery needle, even though it’s sharp and needlepoint needles are usually dull. This size fits through the canvas holes nicely.

I’m pretty informal about it, though – I don’t work in rows. I just fill in the most important details first, and then fill in around them.

So, for the house front, I first stitched in the door where I wanted it, and then filled in the brown. (If your door is an odd number of stitches wide, you can give it a curved top like this.)

Now, on the side walls (and the back), I left some areas un-stitched. These spots are where I’ll put some tiny shutters in a moment.

(Again, I stitched this informally, filling in the outline first, then figuing out where I wanted those pink windows to be, and then filling in around the shutter spaces. Longtime needlepointers may find this method rather gauche, but it works for me.)

Here are my little shutters, which are just three squares wide. I stitched their centers, and then covered all the edges with overcast stitch.

You can glue them right to the base pieces with tacky glue, being careful not to let excess glue ooze through and stick your project to the table. (Not that this has happened to me or anything.) Give the glue an hour or so to dry before you proceed with the rest of the project.

So why am I leaving un-stitched areas to glue these things to? Well, plastic canvas, once stitched, is pretty thick. By leaving the space under the shutters unstitched, I’m creating a little recessed area. That makes the whole thing nice and flat when it’s glued together.

You can stitch up your roof pieces in any design you like. Set these aside for the moment, because we’re going to assemble our little house first.

Here are all the pieces we’ll be assembling first. Lay them out in this configuration, with the base in the center.

We’ll be joining these pieces with a whip stitch. First, you’ll sew the bottom edge of each front, back, and side piece to the base piece.

If you have a long enough strand of floss, you can do all four seams as one continuous seam that travels around the square. (Does that make sense? The next photo might help.)

Here’s what that looks like when you’re done.

Then, you just fold up the walls and whip stitch at the four corners. Here’s where things can get a little fiddly in places….

To end a seam, you’ll pass your needle under the back of some nearby stitches and then cut the floss. Sometimes, manouvering through these stitches will be challenging. Two important tricks to remember:

• You can always pass your needle right out through the wall of the house if you need to.
• Needle-nose pliers really help push or pull the needle through tight spaces.

Anyway. Now we’ll add the roof, which is way easier. Just whip stitch the two pieces together in the center and then finish the edges with overcast stitch.

Now, bust out your tacky glue again and put a fairly generous bead along the entire roof line.

Then, press the roof in place. If any excess glue oozes out, don’t worry too much – we’ll cover up this join in a minute.

Press the roof down for a minute or so while the glue sets, and then leave it to dry for an hour or so.

You can, of course, needlepoint all the decorations into your house, but I thought it would be much simpler to glue them on. So I dug into my Bag of Assorted Sparklies. (Tweezers make tiny sequin-handling so much easier.)

Then I grabbed out some tiny ric rac and glued a strand over the point where I glued on the roof. You only need to do this at the front and back – the sides won’t show at all.

I just cut the strand a little too long, as you see here, and then glued it in place. When the glue dried, I cut away the excess.

And if you want to add a hanger, just take a stitch through the peak of the roof at the center, and knot the floss in a loop.

If you make one of these, I’d love to see! Will you add it to the CraftyPod Reader Projects Flickr Group?

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

My friends, I am soooo ready to think about Christmas.

…Which is why I’m so freaking excited about this magnetic advent calendar project! (It’s a collaboration between my Mom and Fanie.)

The whole thing is based on a four-sheet pack of printable magnet sheets. First, you pop over to Mom’s blog post, and download her two-page PDF Christmas tree.

Then, head over to Fanie’s post, where she has a gorgeous set of hand-drawn ornaments you can print onto your other two sheets of magnet. Then, just cut and assemble everything on your refrigerator door. Each day of December, you can add another ornament to your tree!

(Mom mentioned in her post that this advent is designed for kids – which is why I’m glad she’s bringing me one soon.)

What’s especially cool is, Fanie made the ornaments in two versions – a full-color one and one without color, so you can bust out your Sharpies and color them yourself.

Wait – there’s something even more cool – these two ladies are offering up the whole thing for free. What an awesome gift to the community! I hope you’ll show them some love back.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

So, Halloween is just a couple days away. If you’re stressing out because you haven’t done a lick of decorating, relax. You can totally do this little project.

(My Mom made the pumpkin pie. I’m eating more of it as I type this, NOM NOM NOM.)

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Man, I had the best time making these little guys!

Over on CRAFT, you can get my tutorial for these skeletal Halloween place card holders. Wondering what the heads are? They’re tiny hardshell gourds (also called “jewelry gourds”).

Oh – and there’s a witch-y variation. Plus, pipe cleaners! Any craft involving pipe cleaners is A-OK with me.

Why are you still hanging about here? Go check them out!

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!