From the category archives:

Tutorials

Video! How to Make a V-Day Gift Topper (using, I might add, plastic canvas!)

February 3, 2010

How to Make a Valentine’s Day Gift Topper from Diane Gilleland on Vimeo.

I’ve been hemming and hawing over whether to post this or not. I’ve been hiking the video learning curve lately, and hope to produce a nice number of video how-to’s this year.

But, Man! Video is challenging! (Compelling, but challenging.)

So… I finally decided to [...]

Read the full article →

How to Make a Simple V-Day Sachet

January 26, 2010

I should say: I’m not much for Valentine’s Day itself, but the crafts are always pretty. I was playing around with felt recently and came up with this simple, non-frilly sachet. Easy to whip up if you need little gifties.

You might have everything you need to make these in your stash: two 6″ squares of [...]

Read the full article →

Tutorial on CRAFT: Project Keepers

January 26, 2010

Yay, I was super excited to see that my new project is up on CRAFT this morning!

I designed these Project Keepers as a way to neatly store all my projects-in-progress. They’re a super simple construction – a little like an envelope pillow, so small items can’t fall out. And they come with a hangtag so [...]

Read the full article →

Video! Google Reader Tricks for Craft Bloggers

January 22, 2010

Google Reader Tricks for Craft Bloggers from Diane Gilleland on Vimeo.

So, lately I’ve been talking to a lot of bloggers, and discovering that many of them don’t know about all the cool things Google Reader can do to help you organize all your crafty blog reading.

I freaking love this tool, so I made this little [...]

Read the full article →

My continuing mission to bring plastic canvas to the people…

January 21, 2010

There are many reasons to love CRAFT, but one of my biggest is that they let me do stuff like this. Check out my tutorial over there for this crafty storage box.

…Why yes, it is made of plastic canvas! But I added some fabric inserts to change up the look.

Also, days and days of cold, [...]

Read the full article →

New Tutorial on CRAFT: Dimensional Felt Ornament

December 14, 2009

Let me just interrupt my week of Vintage Christmas Awesome to show you a new tutorial I have up on CRAFT right now.

These ornaments are made from a combination of Friendly Felt and regular felt. They’re easy to construct – a little sewing, a little gluing. Click over here for the how-to!

var addthis_pub = [...]

Read the full article →

How to Weave a Cover for Your Splendid Notepad

November 12, 2009

So, yesterday, we learned to make a notepad from a cardboard box. Today, let’s fancy up the cover a little by adding some weaving.

You can start weaving your cover right after this step in the notepad-making process…

Now, most weaving project begin with a little measuring and figuring. I’ll try to keep this part as loose [...]

Read the full article →

How to Turn a Cardboard Box Into a Splendid Notepad

November 11, 2009

I kid you not: I first made this project, from start to finish, in a dream. (Which was pretty great – I mean, it’s so hard to find crafting-time during my waking hours. Wish I could manage to craft in my sleep more often.)

Anyway. I like these simple notepads – they’re a fun way to [...]

Read the full article →

Two New How-To’s

November 5, 2009

Ooh! I’ve had a couple of felt-y projects published over at CRAFT, and wanted to share.

They’re in the midst of a Super Crafty Kidz month – lots of projects for kids aged 8 and up.

Up top there is a felt photo frame you can clip to a backpack. Starring Cedric Diggory. (Just kidding.) The how-to [...]

Read the full article →

How to Make a Stiffened Fabric Flower Brooch

October 28, 2009

Yup. I’m still messing around with fabric stiffener. Here’s the latest result – a cool little dimensional fabric flower brooch. Suitable for crocheted hats, handbags, lapels, and scarves!

…And they’re pretty easy to make.

If you like, you can download my template for the flower shapes here. Or you can design your own.

Then, use my templates or [...]

Read the full article →

How to Make a Button-and-Wire Brooch

October 15, 2009

I’m still noodling with buttons and wire over here… and this is the latest result. I like how the design can take on a “shooting star” effect, or resemble a little flower vase.

This isn’t a complicated project – please don’t let the number of photos here fool you! I was just trying to be thorough.

You’ll [...]

Read the full article →

How to Make a Felted Sweater Trivet

October 7, 2009

When Mom and I did Felt Day last week, I dug out a bunch of my precious hoarded felted sweater scraps. I really wanted to use them somehow. Then, I got to thinking: “What if I made yo-yos?”
…Aaaaaaaand this project was the result. Hope you like!

I’m using pieces of several lightweight wool sweaters here. If [...]

Read the full article →

Kanzashi How-To Video!

September 16, 2009

Kanzashi-Making, by Sister Diane from Diane Gilleland on Vimeo.
A little fun news on the Kanzashi front this week – Woman’s Day has a project excerpt from my book in the current issue. (Page 28, to be exact.)
They also asked me to make a Kanzashi demo video for their website, so I thought I’d share it [...]

Read the full article →

How to Make Stiffened Fabric Jewelry

September 15, 2009

This project is a real example of crafty serendipity. I’ve been noodling with this stiffened-fabric idea since June, but with one thing and another and another, haven’t gotten around to posting it.
When I finally went to photograph this tutorial, I realized the season was changing, and I’d need to switch from the summery fabrics I’d [...]

Read the full article →

How to Weave a Ric Rac Lampshade

August 21, 2009

I’m hard at work finishing up the next ebook in the blogging series right now, so I’ll just pop in here to share a new tutorial I have up on CRAFT.
This lampshade project is, in fact, a little off-loom weaving project. You turn the shade itself into a simple loom, and then weave in various [...]

Read the full article →

Embroidery + Metal?

August 10, 2009

Here’s something I’ve been noodling around with lately – embroidered metal discs!

Wait – what?

I bought a bag of these perforated beading discs a while back, intending to make some beaded pieces a la Miriam Haskell.

Only I never quite got around to those, and eventually a different light bulb went on over my head. I could [...]

Read the full article →

How to Make Cute Candy Sachets

July 15, 2009

Here’s another guest tutorial – this time on Dabbled. (I’m one of several bloggers covering for the uber-talented Dot while she’s on vacation this week.)

This little drawer sachet project came to life when I was noodling around with some woven squares. I was using some variegated Sugar n’ Cream, which wove up to look a [...]

Read the full article →

How to Make Loopy Felt Flowers

July 10, 2009

Another thing for your Friday: I did a guest tutorial over at Craft Leftovers today. It’s a fun, simple project – these loopy felt flowers! Go take a look!

(Although, Pushkin asked me to add this public service message: “Please don’t use these flowers as cat hats. That’s just wrong.”)

var addthis_pub = ’sisterdiane’;
var addthis_language = ‘en’;var [...]

Read the full article →

How to Wire a Button Letter

June 11, 2009

I was teaching a button pendant class at a wonderful local shop called All My Favorite Things over the weekend. And in chatting with the shop’s owner, Melanie, I stumbled onto this fun little idea.

You’ve likely seen this style of button necklace. Well, this project replicates that kind of stringing, only with wire.

Wanna play? Get [...]

Read the full article →

How to Make a Quilted Pendant

May 13, 2009

Ever since I did the fabric postcard tutorial for CraftStylish last week, I’ve been obsessing over this pendant idea. Seemed to me that if you just shrunk the postcard project a little, it would make a really cool pendant. I like the result!

Here’s how I made it:

Just as with the postcards, I’m using Friendly Felt [...]

Read the full article →

Let’s make fabric postcards!

May 1, 2009

Wait – it’s Friday. And it’s May. How did that happen?
Here’s my latest tutorial over at CraftStylish. This month is all about Wedding and Celebration crafts, so I made a cool fabric postcard party invitation.
I’ve often been intrigued by the fabric postcards I’ve seen in mixed media magazines, but they’re always so heavily-layered with fabrics [...]

Read the full article →

How to Make a Paperback Picture Frame

March 26, 2009

This little project was born on a recent trip to the Goodwill Outlet, locally known as The Bins. I stumbled onto a huge pile of paperback books with nice, lurid covers, and thought they’d make great picture frames.

Here’s a view of the inside:

So, here’s how to whip one up:

Start by measuring the book. Then, use [...]

Read the full article →

Feeling Mend-y?

March 25, 2009

…Coming to you from a low-grade fever today. Bleh. But I did want to share that I have a little mending tutorial up on the CRAFT blog this week.

That pink polo you see there has been in my closet for a while now. Perfect color, perfect thing to throw on all summer long. Only last [...]

Read the full article →

…And one more Buttony Post

March 24, 2009

So, Button Month on CraftStylish is just winding down. Here’s my latest tutorial: customizing plain white buttons with paint. I tried four different kinds of paint, and put them all through a washer-dryer test. You can see the results over there.

In the process, I discovered a freakin’ wonder-product: Sharpie Paint Markers. I’m working on a [...]

Read the full article →

Every month should be Button Month.

March 17, 2009

The Buttony Goodness continues over at CraftStylish!

This is my most recent tutorial there – making Singleton Buttons. They’re a very old form of fabric-covered button, which requires only a plastic ring and a needle and thread. I love the possibilities of these babies – for one thing, an awesome way to make use of those [...]

Read the full article →

Button-y Goodness, all month

March 8, 2009

Hello, Friends – hope you’re having a nice weekend.

Wanted to let you know that March is Button Month on CraftStylish (in honor of Susan’s new book). A whole month of button-related crafts – Woo!

I’m focusing my tutorials over there on making various styles of buttons this month. The first one is this Dorset Crosswheel [...]

Read the full article →

The Valentine Post (you know, ’cause it’s…)

February 13, 2009

Okay, so Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone. I don’t do too much to celebrate this particular holiday – especially since I stopped eating refined sugar a few years ago. But I do have a couple little goodies to share:

First, up top there is my CraftStylish tutorial for this week – button-embellished covers for spiral notebooks. I [...]

Read the full article →

If I can make this quilt, anybody can.

January 24, 2009

Here’s this week’s CraftStylish tutorial – making a dead-simple quilt from two thrifted sheets and a blanket.

This is not only a recycling project, it’s a very easy intro to quilting. I made this one over the course of one and a half Audrey Hepburn movies, without a lot of work-space or a fancy sewing [...]

Read the full article →

Make a Journal from Stash

January 16, 2009

My Week of Rather Minimal Blogging continues!

My newest tutorial just went up at CraftStylish – this time, I made a recycled blank journal with a woven cover. It’s based on my Cardboard Loom tutorial. I’m pretty happy with how it came out – go take a look and let me know what you think.

…And [...]

Read the full article →

Warm Hands! (Cold Heart Optional)

January 3, 2009

I’m a little slo-o-o-ow getting back to the blogging – I’ve spent this week catching up on all the gatherings that got postponed during Arctic Blast 2008. I do have piles of things to share, but need to re-set my office before I can bust out the photo rig.

All those lame excuses aside, here’s [...]

Read the full article →

Tutorials of Christmas Past

December 4, 2008

So, it’s another one of those deadline-smashup weeks, and I don’t have much time to blog. But Hope had a great suggestion – why not link back to some holiday tutorial things I’ve done in the past? It’s been a whole year – maybe it’ll all seem new to you again!

First up, we have these [...]

Read the full article →

Resource Roundup #9

November 22, 2008

A couple quick things for your Saturday:

My tutorial this week on CraftStylish is for these photo frame ornaments – a great way to use up scraps of felt and trims, and a cool little gifty as well.

(That adorable baby is my nephew, who is just as cute now at age 10 as he was in [...]

Read the full article →

Spreading the PC gospel…

November 1, 2008

This is a big week! I have a plastic canvas project tutorial up on CraftStylish. (And you thought the ol’ PC would never amount to anything.)

I made this little gifty box from the teeny-tiny 14-count stuff, and stitched it with pearl cotton embroidery floss – so it really doesn’t even look like plastic canvas. I [...]

Read the full article →

How to use up necktie scraps

October 3, 2008

Hey everyone – I have a new tutorial over at CraftStylish. This one takes the leftover scraps from my Recycled Necktie Scarf and turns them into a Quilted Necktie Cuff. I’m happy with how it came out – very silky and pretty. Hope you like!

var addthis_pub = ’sisterdiane’;
var addthis_language = ‘en’;var addthis_options = ‘email, favorites, [...]

Read the full article →

It’s still a craft blog…

September 30, 2008

. . . Just to prove that I DO still make things once in a while, go check out my tutorial for making these flower greeting cards over at CraftStylish!

var addthis_pub = ’sisterdiane’;
var addthis_language = ‘en’;var addthis_options = ‘email, favorites, twitter, stumbleupon, delicious, digg, google, reddit’;

Read the full article →

Two Quick Notes

July 11, 2008

A couple bits o’news to take us into the weekend:

Woo-Hoo! I have a new tutorial up on CraftStylish! This time, it’s making and using cold porcelain, which is an awesome air-drying clay you can make in your kitchen and then use in all kinds of jewelry and embellishment projects.

Kalmbach Publishing is having an online Open [...]

Read the full article →

A Sharp Little Idea (get it?)

July 7, 2008

My pins and needles really take a beating, and I’ve noticed that they’re all dulling a bit. So I thought I’d try to make a pincushion that’s also a sharpener.

This is based on those little strawberry-things that dangle from the tomato pincushions. They’re filled with metal filings, and you poke your pins into them to [...]

Read the full article →

News of this and that…

June 25, 2008

Several things to share today . . .

I have a new tutorial up on CraftStylish today – this one shows you how to make a simple cardboard loom and weave on it. Very easy, cheap, and versatile. Go check it out!

—————————————-

Beth and Patrick of Eucalyptus Handmade have developed a very cool widget for Google Desktop [...]

Read the full article →

All kinds of news…

June 19, 2008

I have all these bits of news to pass along today, so here’s a patchwork kind of post:
——————————————-
I have a new tutorial up on CraftStylish! This time, it’s Embroidered Greeting Cards. That’s what they look like, up top there. Stop on by and let me know what you think.
——————————————-
Lee is having a big blowout sale [...]

Read the full article →

How to Make Playing Card Notebooks: Bound Books

June 18, 2008

Here’s the second style of playing-card notebook: a simplified stitch-bound style. This style takes a little more rough handling than the accordion, due to the introduction of good old E6000 at the spine. Anyway, here goes:

You begin with two playing cards, and a lot of small pieces of paper. The paper should be about 1/2″ [...]

Read the full article →

How to Make Playing Card Notebooks: Accordion-Style

June 18, 2008

Here’s what we made at Church of Craft this month. I collect interesting playing cards, tarot cards, and loteria cards, and as it turns out, they make dandy covers for little notebooks. We made books in two styles, so I’ll do two separate how-to posts. Here we go . . . .

Style #1: Accordion Books

I [...]

Read the full article →

How to Make a Cool Button Pendant

May 19, 2008

Here’s what we made at Church of Craft yesterday: Button Pendants. They use good old plastic canvas as their base, which means they can easily be converted to pins.

Speaking of which, Susan has two great button projects in Bead Simple that using those plastic canvas rounds. (That’s Page 147 and 213, for you book [...]

Read the full article →

Beads and Buttons

May 2, 2008

Okay, beads first: I wanted to let you know that Susan has been adding how-tos to her Bead Simple website. You can see two video tutorials there – one for making a Solo Earring, and the other for making the necklace from the cover of the Bead Simple book.

While you’re there, you can also download [...]

Read the full article →

How to Coil a Basket

April 19, 2008

This is a cool craft indeed! I’m going to give you the basics here, and some ideas for jumping-off points. Let’s get right to it!

So, get yourself a package of cotton clothesline at your local variety or hardware store. I buy a 50-foot pack locally for about $2.50. When you cut this stuff, the ends [...]

Read the full article →

Tutorial: Handwoven Greeting Card

March 15, 2008

Hot on the heels of my weaving podcast, here’s a little how-to for weaving on a greeting card. If you’re a DIY Alert user, well, you may have seen this one before. But, what a great opportunity to share it!

So, you begin with a blank card – and for this project, it’s best to use [...]

Read the full article →

How to Crochet a Wire Flower Pendant

February 16, 2008

Here’s something I’ve been noodling around with lately – crocheting flowers in wire. Once you get started on the whole wire crochet thing, the challenge becomes really compelling.

With some practice, you can convert many different crochet flower patterns into wire. It’s stiffer stuff, obviously, so you may want to keep to the simpler patterns. But [...]

Read the full article →

How to Make a Celebration Candle

December 26, 2007

Happy Day After, everyone. Are you as loath to return to reality as I am today?

Here’s one last holiday tutorial from DIY Alert – a Celebration Candle. Appropriate thing to make as we head into New Year’s.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was just incredible – so many planets aligned. I’ll have [...]

Read the full article →

How to Make Salt Dough Cookie Ornaments

December 18, 2007

Whew! This week’s tutorial just went up on DIY Alert, and by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin, I might add. It’s for Salt Dough Cookie Ornaments, a great project to entertain home-on-holiday-break kids and visiting relatives.

This project also harkens back to CraftyPod #54: Make Your Own Clay.

Hope you enjoy!

var addthis_pub = ’sisterdiane’;
var addthis_language = ‘en’;var [...]

Read the full article →

How to Give New Life to Old Wrap (and Other Stories)

December 10, 2007

I’ve been fighting with (and getting my butt kicked by) a little cold or something the past few days, so I’m just now catching up on things. Here are a couple tibits for blog-land. . . .

This week’s tutorial on DIY Alert is a fun way to re-use old wrapping paper and make it into [...]

Read the full article →

How to make a Ric Rac Ornament

December 3, 2007

New tutorial just went up on DIY Alert – this time it’s this Ric Rac Ornament. I’m really happy with this little guy!

This was my inspiration – from BHG’s Holiday Decorations You Can Make. Awesome book, from which I’d love to share about 400 more cool things with you.

I’m still hoping to find the [...]

Read the full article →

How to make a Pinecone Bird Feeder

November 26, 2007

New tutorial up at DIY Alert this week: Pinecone Bird Feeders. A time-honored project, great for both kids and your local birds. Enjoy!

var addthis_pub = ’sisterdiane’;
var addthis_language = ‘en’;var addthis_options = ‘email, favorites, twitter, stumbleupon, delicious, digg, google, reddit’;

Read the full article →

Fusing Fabric: a Tutorial

November 21, 2007

Pssst . . . new tutorial just went up at DIY Alert — Fused Fabric Greeting Cards. This was a topic we covered way back in CraftyPod #38, but if you like your how-to’s visual, there you go!

var addthis_pub = ’sisterdiane’;
var addthis_language = ‘en’;var addthis_options = ‘email, favorites, twitter, stumbleupon, delicious, digg, google, reddit’;

Read the full article →

How to Make a Paper Mosaic Greeting Card

November 10, 2007

Church of Craft is tomorrow, and waaaay back in August, I decided we’d be making Paper Mosaic Greetings Cards at this meeting.

It took me a while, though, to figure out a good approach to paper mosaic. Church of Craft projects need to be accessible to people of all levels of crafty skill, and while [...]

Read the full article →

How to make a gift box from an old greeting card!

October 29, 2007

I was teaching a card-making class over the weekend, and the nicest woman ever said to me, “Have you tried making boxes from your old cards?”

Well, I hadn’t, so she showed me the coolest method for converting an old greeting card into a spanking little gift box. And not only that, at the next [...]

Read the full article →

Kind of a half-baked idea, but still…

October 22, 2007

I’ve been fascinated with those recycled magazine bowls for a while now. And I saw a little Japanese craft book recently (No ISBN, sorry) that even had magazine pages woven into baskets. What a great resource — old magazine pages!

Then, Patricia put up this excellent tutorial for making the bowls. Looking at that, I started [...]

Read the full article →

Glove Monster Tutorial

September 20, 2007

Okay, here’s the how-to for a Glove Monster. This is a guideline, really — your monster will emerge out of your gloves on its own. Do not attempt to stop it.

The gloves I’m using come from my local Fred Meyer chain store. They’re knit, with no leather or reinforced patches on them. They’re about a [...]

Read the full article →

How to Make a Washer & Yarn Pendant

September 6, 2007

I was rooting around in my “projects under consideration” box this morning, and found these pendants I made a while back. They use ordinary hardware store washers and leftover worsted-weight yarn, and they’re easy to make. I think they’d look cute with cool-weather clothes.

You start with a washer — I’m using a 7/16″ one here, [...]

Read the full article →

Add some beads to your spool-knitting! Right Now!

August 21, 2007

Here’s how my brain works: faced with a pretty steep to-do list today, I woke up with a brainstorm for spool-knitting with beads. And couldn’t get anything else accomplished until I’d explored it fully. At least I could justify my obsession as blog-fodder.

My brainstorm can be seen above: I’ve been puzzling over how to [...]

Read the full article →

How to Make a Make-and-Take

July 21, 2007

So, here’s why there haven’t been many posts this week: I’ve been prepping for a big crafty event that happens on Sunday. Portland’s Museum of Contemporary Craft has moved to a splendid new building downtown, and they’re having a block party to celebrate. (Read Susan’s excellent post about it for more details.)
A bunch of us [...]

Read the full article →

How to Make a Wallet Shrine

June 20, 2007

Our Church of Craft project this month was Shrine Wallets. Since I forgot my camera this time, I’ll offer up a tutorial instead.
These are based on Mexican Shrine Wallets, which are small, tri-fold pocket shrines. Unfolded, they reveal pictures of saints, a miniature rosary, and a printed prayer folded up into a pocket. There’s a [...]

Read the full article →

Simple metal-edged gift tags

May 19, 2007

A very simple little craft project today, to entertain me as I cope with a mild case of food poisoning. (So much for the rice place downtown. . . .)
Recently, Susan and I visited Michaels to check out the new Martha Stewart Crafts line. I was duly delighted by the clean design and lovely packaging. [...]

Read the full article →

I used to drink out of my bracelet.

May 8, 2007

Tiffany Threadgould wrote the greatest article for CRAFT 03 about turning plastic soda bottles into all kinds of useful things. I especially loved her Photo Cuff bracelets.
Ever since that article, I’ve been eyeing the plastic bottles in my recycle bin, and last night, lightning struck. Here’s my bottle-bracelet variation, using felt!
A 16-oz (500 ml) water [...]

Read the full article →

Ojos with Mom

April 11, 2007

Craft Day with Mom yesterday! Woo!
This time, we worked on Ojos De Dios, or Godâ€™s Eyes. Many of you know them as a kind of Girl Scouts / Summer Camp craft. But theyâ€™re actually pretty interesting.
Hereâ€™s a bit of their history, from Historical Folk Toys.com:
â€œThe Ojo de Dios is a symbol of the power of [...]

Read the full article →

Fringe-y Goodness

March 15, 2007

I’m getting ready to do a little craft segment on the local morning show on Monday, and this is my project: Fringe Flowers. They’re a hybrid of something I talked about during the Lets Make Flowers episode of the podcast.
I’m really digging these — they’re so simple to make, and they yield a cute flower [...]

Read the full article →

A little Plastic Canvas Love…

March 7, 2007

It’s a busy week, so I’m delinquent on posting. But I was thrilled to have a little article about plastic canvas posted over at Whipup this week, and more thrilled by the response it got.
And so, I’d like to share a little tutorial with you. This originally appeared in the marvelous CROQ. It’s a plastic [...]

Read the full article →

Spool Knitting! Why do I love it so?

February 28, 2007

I’ve been a little obsessed with the idea of spool knitting lately, having first seen it in action in the wonderful 200 Braids book. This type of knitting, sometimes called corking, is familiar to Girl Scouts and schoolkids the world over, and yields thin, hollow tubes of knitting. They can be used for trim, of [...]

Read the full article →

Crochet with Wire & Beads

January 18, 2007

I’ve had so many requests for the instructions for our last Church of Craft project, I decided to post a little tutorial here. I am by no means an expert, though! You can also find great info here.
But let’s get started . . . . First, you need supplies:
- One spool of 28 gauge [...]

Read the full article →

Tutorials

Search CraftyPod

Categories

Recent Posts

I also write for:

Stuff I Publish:

A Few Fave Blogs:

Crafty Podcasts

Pages

More Stuff I Publish:

Archives

Podcast Feeds