Month: April 2008

Paper Beads

Paper Beads

Links of entry

I always loved paper beads, but never knew what to do with them. Then one day I created an artist book (more to follow in a later entry) and – eureka! – I found a use for those paper beads: I wanted to use them on the fibers embellishing the spine of my book (see photo). For those beads I used an advertisement flyer from a furniture dealer with lots of sofas in matching colours. They just had the right size for the beads ;-)
To make the beads I used those instructions on how to make paper and fabric beads.
It can also be used to make the fabric beads I mentioned before.
Later on I found an entry at craftster: A bowl made out of paper beads! I stood there in awe!
But I think that I never will make such a bowl – it’s all a question of having or not having patience ;-)


Links:
Instructions on how to make paper and fabric beads

craftster.org: A website with sooo many craft ideas, inspirations and tutorials
A bowl made out of paper beads

Here at unikatissima:
Making Fabric Beads

Crocheted buttons

Crocheted buttons

Links of entry

I find it often difficult to find the right buttons for my needlework. At Univers du crochet d’art I eventually found an instruction on how to crochet (and embroider) buttons. It is written in French, but the tutorial is illustrated so that I could easily understand what to do.
On the photo you see my self-made button, it is worked in crochet and then embellished with embroidery.

Addendum of June 23, 2010: The Univers du crochet d’art moved and I didn’t find the instruction there and nowhere else in internet.
But there are many instructions for crocheted buttons, you simply have to choose another one ;-)


Links:
Univers du crochet d’art: A french website on crochet
Page moved to: A french website on crochet

Crocheted buttons (French) (with explaining pictures)
The link doesn’t work anymore, try the Google search result for ‘crochet button’

Miniature Book

Miniature Book

Links of entry

The title of this entry isn’t fully correct: the instruction is named ‘How to Make a Miniature Book from a Sticky Note Pad’, but I felt it was too long ;-)
The tutorial itself is great!
Unfortunately I didn’t have time yet to try it out, but I will.
I really will ;-)


Links:
Studio 3D: A website with great instructions, I found it while looking for tutorials on how to make books
How to Make a Miniature Book from a Sticky Note Pad ;-)

Tapestry Crochet

Tapestry Crochet

Links of entry

Finding these instructions on how to crochet with two colours was immediately trying it out ;-))
And it worked!
On the photo you can see my UFO (unfinished object) on this technique (yes, it is still unfinished, I only said that I tried it ;-))).


Links:
Tapestry crochet for right-handers
Tapestry crochet for left-handers (a service I have never seen before!)
More crochet instructions (also on tapestry crochet)

Faux Leather Background

Faux Leather Background

Links of entry

I decorated the self-made candle holder on the photo with the Faux Leather Background technique and found it great. This technique can as well be used when making cards.
On the net I found different tutorials on how to make Faux Leather Backgrounds using the masking tape technique. One of them is the tutorial on the Faux Leather Masking Tape Background Technique by Trish Bayley.
A very good german tutorial can be found at artefaktotum at ‘Techniken’ – click ‘Faux leather’ there.


Links:
Trish Bayley: an Art Blog with among other things an interesting technique zone
Faux Leather Background Technique

artefaktotum: The website of an dedicated stamper, with great tutorials (in German)
artefaktotum’s techniques overview (see ‘Faux leather’ there)

Paper folded bracelet

Paper folded bracelet

Links of entry

Of course you don’t see the bracelet on the photo, but my first and only attempt to make such a bracelet.
Better look at the photos in the tutorial on how to make a Starburst wrapper bracelet at craftster.org.
After I’ve finished the little piece on the photo I had enough – it’s such a fiddly work ;-)
If you like this technique, try the tutorial on how to make a wrapper purse!


Links:
craftster.org: A website with sooo many craft ideas, inspirations and tutorials
Starburst Wrapper Bracelet
Chip Wrapper Purse Instructions

Extract Dye From Plants

Extract Dye From Plants

Links of entry

At eHow you can find a lot of instructions on how to extract dyes from plants or parts of plants and so forth.
One instruction is e.g. ‘How to Extract Dye From Leaves and Grass’.
I tried some of them with different results, some worked better then others.
But unfortunately I didn’t record what I did, so if I needed some dye today I had to start from scratch.
That way everything stays interesting for me ;-)))


Links:
eHow: A website with how-tos galore
How to Extract Dye From Leaves and Grass
Search results for ‘extract dye’ at eHow

Self-made Lamp

Self-made Lamp

Links of entry

This isn’t a real instruction but more of an inspiration. At Atelier Verena you can follow a class about recycling. At her website, Atelier Verena describes how to make your own recycled lamp (last item on page): glue two terracotta pots together, wrap them with fabric, use some fabric stiffener and paint it with acrylic colour.
I haven’t done it yet, but I think that you also can wrap the glued pots with paper mache or plaster of paris and do some kind of collage or decoupage or glueing interesting tissues an it and so forth.


Links:
Self-made Lamp (last item on page)

Designing a Celtic Knot

Designing a Celtic Knot

Links of entry

No, this is no April Fool’s joke ;-)
With this instruction you can construct your very own Celtic knot, a pattern I used to find too complicated to design of my own.
The image shows a Celtic knot I created some time ago, but I still like it.
I have nearly forgotten about this technique, but now that I rediscovered it, I have several ideas how to use it more often.


Links:
Designing a Celtic Knot
The original site doesn’t exist any more and is now only available through webarchive: Designing a Celtic Knot (Constructing a Celtic Knot)