Tag Archives: crafts

At Home with the Studio: Craft Books on hoopla

Posted on by

Since we are all likely home more and having to find ways to get creative with our time I have rounded up some books from our free service, hoopla, to help with projects that you may have been putting off or that suddenly are very relevant to you! Whether it’s that sewing machine you are dusting off or making your own soap so that you are sure to never run out we’ve got you covered.

 

Easy Home Sewing Projects
By Charlie Moorby

Available on Hoopla

There’s something for everyone in this bright and inspiring collection of home sewing projects! Whether you’re moving into a new home, redecorating an old house, or just updating a room, you’ll find quick and easy projects here to make your living space simply beautiful. Designed to let you give your dwelling a speedy fabric makeover, this book offers inspirational ideas for every room. Transform the heart of your home with bright kitchen accessories, or create the perfect table linen setting. Create a bold boudoir with bright bedroom designs, make tactile toys for the nursery, or revamp your home office with a functional organizer. And don’t neglect the deck, with lovely al fresco accessories and more. 101 Home Sewing Projects is guaranteed to stir up your creativity with clear step-by-step instructions and gorgeous color photography.

 

Mending Matters
By Katrina Rodabaugh

Available on Hoopla

Mending Matters explores sewing on two levels: First, it includes more than 20 hands-on projects that showcase current trends in visible mending that are edgy, modern, and bold-but draw on traditional stitching. It does all this through just four very simple mending techniques: exterior patches, interior patches, slow stitches, darning, and weaving. In addition, the book addresses the way mending leads to a more mindful relationship to fashion and to overall well-being. In essays that accompany each how-to chapter, Katrina Rodabaugh explores mending as a metaphor for appreciating our own naturally flawed selves, and she examines the ways in which mending teaches us new skills, self-reliance, and confidence, all gained from making things with our own hands.

 

An Almost Zero Waste Life
By Megean Weldon

Available on Hoopla

What is zero waste living? Although the practice has been around for generations out of necessity, it is making a comeback as concerns grow about the fate of our environment. To put it simply: it is attempting to send no waste to landfills. Although you may have read or heard about “zero waste,” “sustainable,” or “green” living, the concept can sometimes seem too complicated, the author’s tone a bit self-righteous, or riddled with advice geared for people with 5 acres of land in the country with dreams of raising livestock and homesteading. This is not that book.

Can a “regular” person do this? Absolutely! Zero waste isn’t necessarily about zero, but more about changing or altering the way we see the world around us, how we consume, and how we think about waste. It’s about making better choices when we can, and working to reduce our overall impact by reducing the amount of packaging and single-use plastics we bring into our life.

 

Handmade Soap Book
By Melinda Coss

Available on Hoopla

In a world filled with pollution and chemicals, this book shows you how to create your own soaps and bathtime luxuries using only natural ingredients and very little specialist equipment. Create the perfect gift for family and friends, kids and grown-ups. This book features a huge range of tempting ingredients, such as peach, peppermint, ylang ylang, cinnamon and chocolate, and includes recipes for shampoo bars, body splashes and bath creams. The simple, sumptuous and easy-to-follow recipes and luscious photography will be an inspiration to anyone who cares about what they put on their skin.

 

Start Your Own Etsy Business
By Jason R. Rich

Available on Hoopla

Whether you’re a master crafter, a carpenter, a jewelry designer, or have become passionate about making the best home décor in town, now is the time to go from hobby to full-time business owner. And with million shoppers ready to discover your unique offerings it only makes sense to join the largest, most successful online community of creative entrepreneurs on Etsy. Our experts have teamed up with successful shop owners to provide you with Start Your Own Etsy Business, an easy-to-understand, comprehensive blueprint that takes you through setting up, branding, marketing, and managing your store. Plus, gain worksheets, templates, resource lists and tips designed to go from passion to profits. If you’re ready to share your passion for your craft with millions around the world, this guide is for you.

 

At Home with The Studio: How to Make Paper Flowers

Posted on by

I love the idea of fresh bouquets, but I don’t like that they often fade quickly and that you have to remember to change the water. Paper flowers solve both of those problems! I’ve had a great time creating some different looks with paper flowers to make a cheerful bouquet.

These are very simple to achieve, and don’t require much in the way of supplies.

 

Materials needed:

  • Construction paper in 2-3 colors
  • Glue or glue stick
  • Scissors
  • Paper straw
  • Hot glue gun and glue
  • Hole punch

 

Directions:

  1. Cut 5-6 identical hearts out of the main color you’d like your flowers to be. Five is enough, but 6 will give you a fuller look.
  2. Cut the same number of smaller hearts out of your secondary color.
  3. Cut out a small circle. If you are only using 2 colors, I would suggest making this the same color as your smaller hearts. If you’re using a third color, use it for your circle. I have a circle punch that is just right for this (about 1”), but you could also trace the lid of a glue stick, and it would be the perfect size.
  4. Glue your smaller hearts onto the bigger hearts. Line up the creases at the top.
    Tip: If you traced your hearts on the paper before you cut them out, make sure to put the side with the pencil marks on the bottom.
  5. Use your hole punch to make a hole near the bottom point of each heart. Make sure to not get it too close to the edge, because you don’t want it to rip.
  6. Test your flower by fanning your hearts out while making sure that all of the holes you punched line up. If you feel like you need more or fewer hearts to get your desired look, you can add or remove as needed at this point.
  7. Put down one of your hearts. Then put a small amount of glue on the bottom of just one side of another heart. Place it on top of the first heart at the angle you want. Continue to do this until you get all the way around.

    Tip: Make sure you only put glue on the underside of the hearts – if you try gluing on the top, any extra glue will really show as it dries. Try to keep the glue only in the space where the arrow is in the above picture. Also, keep checking to make sure that your holes are lined up!
  8. On the final one, you will need to put a small amount of glue on both sides of the heart’s underside.
  9. Place your flower upside down on the table. Place your straw in the hole and hold it flush to the table. Use hot glue to glue around the base of the straw to hold it in place. This will keep the straw from poking through too far at the top.
  10. Once dry, flip your flower over and use another small ring of hot glue around the outside of the straw. Stick your small circle on it.
  11. You’re done!

 

There are a lot of variations you can do with this! In the picture below. I used identical hearts and did everything exactly the same until step 5 – when I switched to punching the holes at the top of the heart. I then followed the rest of the directions exactly. This gives you spikier looking flower, and a kind of swirl effect in the middle.

You can also do it with just one color for the petals, and a second color for the circle, like the light blue one in the picture below.

Or, you can switch to gluing the smaller hearts to line up with the bottom points of the heart, like the pink and yellow one above.

These are really fun and fast to make! I hope you enjoy it enough to try out a few variations and make yourself a whole bouquet.

 

A Making Journey with Kanopy

Posted on by

Have you heard about, or even been to, our makerspace, The Studio? Undoubtedly you know about all of our kits, equipement, and resources available for free through the library (if not, check it out). You might not be able to visit The Studio right now but you can explore the world of makers, crafters, and DIY aficionados through Kanopy from the comfort of your home. So grab your library card and let’s go on a making journey! 

Maker: An Exploration of the Maker Movement in America

Available on Kanopy

From the producers of the internationally acclaimed Design & Thinking, MAKER is looks into the current “Maker” movement in America – a new wave of Do-It-Yourself and Do-It-Together culture fueled by passion and powered by the advent of new technologies.

Running time: 66 minutes

 

A Time For Making

Available on Kanopy

Nine artisans on secluded Gabriola Island in Canada reveal the differences between mass manufactured and authentic locally handmade crafts through intimate portraits of their work and lifestyle.

Running time: 59 minutes

 

Craft In America Series

Available on Kanopy

A three part series, Craft in America explores the vitality, history and significance of the craft movement in the United States and its impact on our nation’s rich cultural heritage. Capturing the beauty, creativity and originality of craftsmanship, the film highlights artists and explores the inter-relationship of what they do, how they do it and why they have chosen a life of creating art.

Running time: 170 minutes

 

Handmade Nation

Available on Kanopy

Handmade Nation documents the new wave of art, craft, and design that is capturing the attention of the nation. It is the feature film debut of director, author, artist, and curator Faythe Levine. Levine traveled to 15 cities and covered more than 19,000 miles to interview artists, crafters, makers, curators, and community members. Today’s craft world has emerged as a synthesis of historical technique, punk culture, and the DIY ethos, also influenced by traditional handiwork, modern aesthetics, politics, feminism, and art. 

Director Faythe Levine captured the tightly knit community that exists through websites, blogs, and online stores that connect to the greater public through independent boutiques, galleries, and craft fairs. Interviews were conducted on-location in artists studios, homes, boutiques, offices, and craft fairs, giving the public an exclusive and rarely seen look into the lives of these creative individuals. 

Running time: 66 minutes

 

At Home with The Studio: How to Make Pop-Up Cards

Posted on by

We’ve missed creating new things with you at The Studio! Since we cannot host programs or provide make-and-take projects at this time, we wanted to share a DIY that you can make with supplies that you likely already have around the house. 

Since Mother’s Day is only a week and half away, and Father’s Day is not long after that, we thought we’d share how to make a homemade pop-up card. 

This card is almost infinitely customizable, so don’t limit your ideas to just your mothers and fathers! These would be a great idea to send to friends to connect with them while we are all sheltering at home, or to celebrate any milestone you want.   

You only need a few supplies to get started. 

Materials needed: 

  • 2 pieces of heavy construction paper or cardstock
  • Small pieces of various colors of paper, depending on your theme
  • Markers, crayons, or glitter pens (whatever you prefer for writing your message)
  • Pencil
  • Glue or glue stick
  • Scissors
  • Ruler
  • Stickers (optional)

Directions:

Plan what items you would like to have pop up from the card. You could draw hearts, balloons, gift boxes, animals – you name it! You might even want to start with a silly pun like we did (You’re whale-y awesome, I love you a latte, You’re dino-mite, Thank you berry much, etc.) and use that to decide what item you’d like to have pop up. If you’re not comfortable drawing or creating freehand shapes, you could even put stickers on a piece of construction paper or cardstock and then cut around it. Once you’ve decided, cut your shapes out of the small pieces of paper, and color if you wish.

Take the piece of paper that you want to be the inside of the card. Measure your card and your pieces.

You want to make sure that any lines you use to cut will be small enough to be covered by your design, and also that you don’t cut so deep that your design will hang over the edge of the card when it’s folded up.

Here, we put small lines that would fit within our design, and then used a ruler to draw lines straight out from there. To get a more dimensional effect, we made the lines for the dinosaur 1” long and the lines for the volcano ¾” long. This will make the dinosaur look closer when you open the card.

Push the cut areas forward and crease.

Open the card and glue your item to the bottom half of the cut piece. Repeat as needed.

To add even more dimension to this one, we added a decorative cut to a piece of green construction paper and folded it over. Just glue down the flat piece.  Add your message.

This leaves you with a card that has notches in it, so to cover that up, use your second larger piece of construction paper to glue to the outside. Make sure you don’t put glue on the pop-up pieces!

Decorate the front in coordinating items and add your inscription on the inside. 

 

Here are a couple of other cards we made using the same method.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are a lot of other ways to make pop-up cards that would also be fun to try. One easy way is to cut out 4 of the same size and shape items and layer them by just gluing in the crease. 

We also made a simple and fun card by tracing a child’s hands onto construction paper and cutting them out. Then we cut a strip of construction paper, folded it accordion style, and then put one letter per fold, so the final card reads “I love you this much.” 

For more pop-up card inspirations, visit our Pinterest Pop-Up Card Inspiration board!