Category Archives: Crafts

DIY mini hang tags

December 23, 2014 alaskaknitnat Leave a comment

Recently I was commissioned to sew 10 coin purses out of vintage kimono silk remnants. Part of providing the service of craft is the presentation. Sure, I could have delivered the purses in a plastic grocery bag, but the buyer is more impressed when she receives them as though they are a gift. It’s remarkable how much a tiny hang tag on your product gives it a professional finish.

I have yet to order Alaska Knit Nat hang tags. I just don’t feel like ordering large quantities and I worry they might not turn out right and I’d have spent money on something I won’t use.

Here’s a way to create your own hang tags in small quantities that is super inexpensive.

DIY mini hang tags | Give your products a professional finish with affordable homemade hang tags. Tutorial from Alaska Knit Nat

First, log in to Canva.com. If you aren’t familiar with it, it’s a fantastic, free site where you can create pretty graphic elements from Facebook posts to business cards. It’s like graphic design for dummies.

Continue reading DIY mini hang tags →

Crafts, Holiday

I’ll have a glue, glue Christmas — #10: Pompom ornaments

December 16, 2014 alaskaknitnat 2 Comments

I recently assessed my yarn stash and quickly came to the conclusion that I have way too much. I’m running out of time to knit and crochet presents for my loved ones and I need to taper down my yarn inventory. Enter the pompom. This perky accessory harkens to my younger years when my clothes were adorned with rick rack and I coveted Tinkerbell peel-off nail polish.

Pompoms are making a comeback in a big way. Plus, they eat through yarn stashes quickly. This was a great way to decorate my tree and it requires barely any skills. I highly recommend using fabric scissors for this project; otherwise you might find yourself getting callouses in the crotch of your thumbs.

You’ll love the trick to making these ornaments. Look no further than your kitchen utensil drawer.

Pompom ornaments — No. 10 in Alaska Knit Nat’s DIY Holiday Craft Guide

What you’ll need:

Yarn
Large serving fork
Sharp scissors

Directions:

Cut a piece of yarn about 16 inches long and fold it in half. Run it in between the middle prong of the fork and hold it securely against the handle. Take up to four strands of yarn at a time and loosely start wrapping around the fork. Do this till you’ve got a whole lotta yarn on there. The more strands you use at a time the faster this will go. Cut the yarn when you think it’s enough. This may take some tinkering.

Use the yarn you originally placed between the prongs to tie around all the wrapped yarn. Another person’s finger comes in handy, but it’s possible to do this alone. Tie a double knot and slip your uncut pompom off the fork.

Cut apart all of the loops, being sure not to cut the original strand of yarn as this will be what you’ll hang the ornament from.

Pompom ornaments | #10 on Alaska Knit Nat's DIY Holiday Craft Guide

Trim your pompom as you deem fit. Repeat till you’ve run out of yarn or have worked up an appetite for some microwave nachos.

Crafts, Holiday, Paper

I’ll have a glue, glue Christmas — #9: Paint chip gift tags

December 14, 2014 alaskaknitnat Leave a comment

The older I get the less I despise big box hardware stores. Every time I get dragged into one by my husband I treat it as a mission to think of cool ways to reuse hardware supplies. This craft is perfect for the holidays, and free too.

Paint chip gift tags — No. 9 on Alaska Knit Nat’s DIY Holiday Craft Guide

What you’ll need:

Paint samples from the hardware store (you can usually get about 3 tags per paint chip)
Scissors or a gift tag-shaped paper punch
Tiny hole punch or large needle
String

Directions:

Cut out the paint samples in the shape of gift tags. Poke a hole in one end and run a six-inch piece of string through the hole. Tie the ends of the string together. Elaborately wrap a gift and add the tag as a finishing touch.

Crafts, Holiday, Sewing

I’ll have a glue, glue Christmas — #8: DIY Heart Shirt

December 13, 2014 alaskaknitnat 1 Comment

Each year I try to give my two sisters equally awesome handmade gifts that follow a similar theme. I usually make something for myself so we can all dorkily match. Last year was a winner: shirts with giant cashmere hearts.

DIY Heart Shirt | #8 in Alaska Knit Nat's DIY Holiday Craft Guide

This is a low-skill craft. It requires hand sewing, but nothing complicated. I turn to my local thrift shops for blank sweatshirts and cashmere sweaters. Any tight-knit sweater will work if you aren’t able to find cashmere. Mohair or angora might be fun. Be sure to wash and dry your sweater on the hot setting a couple of times to ensure it is completely done shrinking. If you sew on a fresh sweater when you wash the final product the heart will shrink and cause the shirt to tear and bunch up where you sewed it on (I know from disappointing experience).

DIY heart shirt — No. 8 in Alaska Knit Nat’s DIY Holiday Craft Guide

What you’ll need:

A blank sweatshirt
A sweater you don’t mind massacring (cashmere recommended)
Embroidery thread of contrasting color
Embroidery needle
Double-sided fusible, lightweight interfacing or Stitch Witchery

For the full tutorial, click here.

Crafts

I’ll have a glue, glue Christmas — #6: Felt tree garland

December 11, 2014 alaskaknitnat 4 Comments

There are vastly different ways to trim a Christmas tree. Some prefer the all-white glitter tree, while I love bright colors and a homey hodgepodge of ornaments and garlands.

As I was preparing to trim our tree last week I opened our ornament box and was delighted to find a felt garland I’d constructed last year. I had forgotten about it and it kind of made my day to place it on our tree this year. I love popcorn garlands, but they get pretty messy and i have a toddler who is fascinated with the tree and eating things, so I imagine it wouldn’t last long.

This craft is cheery, colorful and easy. It does require the use of a sewing machine and some monotonous cutting. I recommend putting on “A Christmas Story” or some other holiday film you have memorized and cut out your felt while watching it. Mulled wine could be included, if desired.

Easy felt tree garland: No. 6 on Alaska Knit Nat’s DIY Holiday Craft Guide

Craft felt in many different colors (about $5 at Walmart)
Fabric scissors (optional but extremely helpful)
Sewing machine

Directions:

Fold a piece of felt in fourths and cut out 1-inch circle-ish shapes. Repeat with other felt colors until you have about 300 hundred (I really didn’t count. I just cut out circles until I was sick of it.)

Place all your circles in a bowl and set next to your sewing machine. Start sewing across the diameter of a circle with a straight stitch. When you get to the end of the circle, start sewing through another circle. Repeat this until you’ve run out of circles. You’re basically just lining up the circles side by side and sewing a seam through them to keep them together. I didn’t follow a color pattern, I just sewed them randomly. It doesn’t matter what thread color you use, but I imagine gold thread would look neat. I used white. It’s ok if there are gaps between the circles. If you run out of thread mid-garland, just rethread your machine and sew across the most recently sewn circle.

Wrap your garland around your tree. If it’s too short, make more circles and take your garland back to your sewing machine.

Crafts

I’ll have a glue, glue Christmas — #5: DIY Kitschy desk caddies

December 10, 2014 alaskaknitnat 2 Comments

Number 4 on my holiday craft guide was all about recycling. Today’s cheap craft is about upcycling. Instead of making planters, we’re going to make planters into something else.

Last week at the thrift store I found a couple of vintage ceramic baby planters. I’m sure you’ve seen them collecting dust somewhere. They are usually hideous with a thick layer of dirt crust inside.

DIY Kitschy Desk Caddies | #5 on Alaska Knit Nat's DIY Holiday Craft Guide

Metallic desk stuff is all the rage right now. I’m jumping on the golden bandwagon. This craft took very little time and even I was impressed with how well they turned out.

You need no artistic ability, just minute index finger strength. Use them to hold pencils, cell phones or place them in a kitchen to hold rubber spatulas. The world is your kitschy oyster!

A great place in Anchorage to find a vintage ceramic planter is The Packrat on Fireweed or Lazy Dog Antiques on Karluk. They are usually reasonably priced (about $10) but I lucked out at the Bishop’s Attic and found two for $2 apiece. But really, you could take soup cans and spray paint them gold and you’d probably mildly impress your significant other on Christmas Day.

DIY Kitschy Desk Caddy: No. 5 on Alaska Knit Nat’s DIY Holiday Craft Guide

What you’ll need:

A ceramic planter/figurine from the thrift store
Metallic Spray paint
Glossy finish spray (optional)

Directions:

Wash your planter with hot water and soap and scrub away as much dirt as you can. This isn’t a huge deal because you’ll be spray painting it anyway so any super crust will be hidden.

Once the planter is dry, set on newspapers in your garage and apply a thin coat of spray paint. Spray the inside of the planter too. Let dry and apply another thin coat, being sure to spray any missed areas from the first coat. Once dry apply an optional glossy finish spray. Props to my graffiti artist friend, who shall remain anonymous, for lending me some of his stash.

DIY Kitschy Desk Caddies | #5 on Alaska Knit Nat's DIY Holiday Craft Guide

Revel in the cutest, shiniest thing you’ve probably ever made.

Crafts

I’ll have a glue, glue Christmas — #4: Soda bottle kitty planter

December 9, 2014 alaskaknitnat 3 Comments

All right, now it’s time to start making some crafty gifts that hopefully don’t suck. I’m so over homemade bath salts, soup in a jar and t-shirt pillows. Let’s shake it up a bit and give the gift of creative recycling.

My best friend Kelly and I made kitty planters last spring out of 2-liter plastic soda bottles. Somehow, despite my brown thumb, I’ve managed to keep it alive. This craft is easy, not too time consuming and cute as hell. It requires minimal artistic ability, which is a big plus for me.

DIY Soda bottle kitty planters: No. 4 on Alaska Knit Nat’s DIY Holiday Craft Guide

What you’ll need:

one, two-liter soda bottle
scissors
permanent marker
acrylic paints in black, white and pink
paintbrushes
glossy finish spray (optional)
small plant
extra soil for planting

Click here for the full tutorial.

Isn’t she lovely? I call her Beatrice. I have a friend whose dog is called Jack (same name as my son), so I figured I should name my fake pet after her daughter.

Crafts, DIY, Holiday

I’ll have a glue, glue Christmas — #3: DIY Festive Door Decoration

December 8, 2014 alaskaknitnat Leave a comment

Our front door is a sad, sad sight. It’s what I imagine the Crooked Man of nursery rhyme’s front door would look like. At Halloween, it must look so haunted because not once in the five years we’ve lived here has a single child trick-or-treated.

It’s beyond improvement, which is why I never bother to add holiday decorations; but when we were at Lowe’s yesterday picking up a Christmas tree, this hastily scrawled sign caught my attention:

DIY Festive Door Decoration | No. 3 on Alaska Knit Nat's DIY Holiday Craft Guide

More specifically, “FREE” caught my attention. Now, what could I use pine boughs for? I’d already utilized them for our Thanksgiving table décor, so I thought why not shoddily assemble a front door wreath-type thingie?

DIY Festive Door Decoration | No. 3 on Alaska Knit Nat's DIY Holiday Craft Guide

It cost me zero dollars and took five minutes to make. It took me 15 minutes to affix to our front door because I couldn’t find a single nail in our garage, but I worked it out. I don’t anticipate it lasting through Christmas, but it certainly adds cheer to our depressing entryway.

DIY Festive Door Decoration: No. 3 on Alaska Knit Nat’s DIY Holiday Craft Guide

What you’ll need:

2-4 pine boughs
Twist ties (I used the long ones that held together our Christmas lights)
Pretty ribbon
A small nail
Hammer

Directions:

1. Trim off any excess or dead branches at the base of each pine bough.

2. Arrange the boughs like a big fan.

3. Tie the boughs together using a couple of twist ties.

DIY Festive Door Decoration from Alaska Knit Nat

4. Cover up the twist ties by tying ribbon around them. Form a large bow out of the ribbon.

5. Hang up on your front door.

DIY Festive Door Decoration | #3 on Alaska Knit Nat's DIY Holiday Craft Guide

Crafts, Holiday, Paper

I’ll have a glue, glue Christmas — #2: free wrapping paper

December 7, 2014 alaskaknitnat Leave a comment

I just received a huge box from my mother-in-law and it included wrapped presents and several yards of crumpled up craft paper.

Free wrapping paper | DIY Crafty Holiday Guide from Alaska Knit Nat

No more packing peanuts, thank goodness! When I see all this paper, I instantly think, “What can I make out of this?” It seems a waste to toss it. So I flatten it out, roll it up and use it as wrapping paper. Yay, free!

Crafts

I’ll have a glue, glue Christmas — #1: DIY Photo Christmas Cards

December 5, 2014 alaskaknitnat 1 Comment

It’s that time of year again where I scramble to find affordable and meaningful gifts for my family and friends. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m cheap, but I definitely don’t have the means to purchase nose-hair trimmers willy nilly.

I turn to my thrifting and crafting skills during the holidays. I thought this year I’d share a couple of my moneysaving ideas each week until it’s crunch time and you’re desperate for ideas on how to glue random trash and recyclables together in your house and stick a bow on it — we’ll get there together.

So here we go.

Alaska Knit Nat’s DIY Holiday Guide 2014

#1: Make your own photo cards

I always have those friends who mail out holiday cards with professional family photos arranged on glossy photo paper with a side banner that reads in hipster calligraphy, “May your days be merry and bright.” Yes, I’m jealous of them. Yes, I want to copy them but without spending a lot of money. Yes, I want to mail mine out perfectly on time too.

Here’s how you can create your own family photo card with an awesome font on the side for a fraction of the cost.

DIY Photo Christmas Card | A DIY Holiday Guide from Alaska Knit Nat

What you’ll need:

Digital photos of your family. Instagram and phone photos would work too.
Blank 5×7″ notecards, like these
Glue stick
Internet access

You don’t have to be a graphic designer to make your own photo cards. Just visit canva.com. It’s like graphic design for dummies. Create an account for free and you have access to tons of banners, frames, fonts and digital doodads that are predesigned and ready for you to arrange into myriad media. Just today Canva added a Christmas Card category where you select the template you like and upload your photos. You can get a little more technical and design your own. Most of the graphics are free.

I spent about an hour tinkering around with a design and finally settled on this one:

Next, save your design as a PDF. Then upload your photo collage to any online drugstore photo processor. I prefer Walgreens because not only is it a block away from my house, but there is always a coupon code floating around the internet that works. *Note: I did have to change the PDF file to a JPG in order to upload it to Walgreens’ site. If you originally save it from Canva as a JPG it may not be high quality enough to print since it’s saved much smaller than a PDF.

Print one tester photo and see how it turns out. If it’s to your liking, print the number you need.

Then, glue your photo to the front of your blank card.

DIY Photo Christmas Card | A DIY Holiday Guide from Alaska Knit Nat