Month: February 2019

felt marathon.

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Earlier this week I hung out at Rare Bird for back to back felt workshops. First, I debuted a new project: felt flower wall hangings. I’ll be teaching this class at Craftcation 2019, too! And then I was back for another College Prep Intraterm session with my felt succulent gardens project. I taught this class last year and was excited to hear that they wanted me to teach for a second time! As always, my students are amazing and I love to see what everyone creates in class! Everyone’s project turns out completely unique to their style. Look out world, we have a new cohort of felt gardeners! And now it’s time for a shameless plug: Learn to create felt blooms and succulents with me at one of my future workshops. Check my schedule on http://www.feedthefishco.com. You can also request a workshop for your private event!

mini macrame.

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Do you ever see a craft supply and think “oh I want to make something with that”? Yeah, that’s me always. I found these oval-ish shaped keyrings and immediately thought mini macrame project! Here’s a quick macrame craft that uses three things. Materials Yarn (use thinner yarn for more detailed work) Keyring (find these in the jewelry section of your local craft store) Scissors For smaller macrame projects like these, thinner yarn works best. You can include a lot more detail with thinner yarn. Bulkier yarn will yield a chunky look. You can’t get a lot of detail in when using chunkier yarn because you start out with less strands, but it still looks cute! For all four projects I used one or two knots. They all start with a Lark’s Head knot. I like to call this the luggage tag knot because this is how I loop my luggage tags on my bags. Lark’s Head Knot Cut a 12-inch piece of yarn. Fold it in half. Place the folded end under the keyring, loop …

m.lovewell.

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Paper goods and plant babies??? Dream store! On a recent work trip I found myself in Orange County so I scouted out some fun places to go frolicking. On my list for this visit: M.Lovewell. I strolled in fresh from the airport, luggage in tow. All the paper things. All the writing things. All the plants. I’ll take one of everything! I spotted some pins from my friend Angel of Design and Happiness. M. Lovewell has a workshop space in the back, too. Lots of calligraphy, macrame, and other pretty crafting happens there. I found a notebook for travel journaling, plus a few pens (of course!). In the area? You gots to visit!

macrame feather leaves.

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I’ve been seeing these feathery leaf rope things on the interwebs and I am obsessed! After some trial and error with rope and knots, I finally figured it out. Materials Single strand cotton rope (this kind of rope unravels nicely) Comb Scissors Instructions Cut one piece of rope 24″ in length. Fold in half and tie an overhand knot close to the top. This will be the hanging loop. Cut 28 pieces of rope 12″ in length. Create reef knots along the main rope. Fold a 12″ piece of rope in half. Place underneath the main rope. Place a second 12″ rope folded in half on top of the main rope in the opposite direction. Place the top folded rope ends into the bottom rope loop; place the bottom rope loops up through the top rope loop. Tighten. Secure by pulling the top two ropes at the same time; pull the bottom two ropes at the same time. Push the knot up. Repeat, alternating the direction of the bottom and top ropes, until you have …

paper marbling.

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On my last trip home I visited Makers Mess with bestie for a crafty happy hour. We learned a new thing: paper marbling! With shaving cream! First we had a quick tutorial… And then we were all addicted! We each made a whole set of stationery. The craftermath was dramatic! At the end I mixed up my remaining shaving cream and created a pink ‘funfetti’ design. Tutorial time! Materials Shaving cream (any kind; we used Barbasol) Liquid dye (any kind; we used Rit fabric dye) Eye droppers BBQ sticks Trays (big enough to fit your paper) Ruler/spatula (I recommend metal because it’s easy to clean off the dye.) Assorted paper, cards, envelopes Cups/bowls for mixing dyes Table covers (it’s gonna get messy!) Art cloth or paper towel Instructions Fill tray with a layer of shaving cream. Smooth out shaving cream with a spatula or ruler (basically anything with a straight edge). Drop in liquid dye. You can also use food coloring (as long as it’s in liquid form). Swirl around the dye with a BBQ …

bella vita.

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Last weekend I had a Feed the Fish co Valentine’s pop-up at Bella Vita in Oakland. I set up a my 4-foot table with pennants, wall hangings, and flower crowns. And I brought lots of Love Day goodies. I met a few fans and made new crafty friends! Mimi from Hello Shiso was there – she creates the cutest clips! And Alina from Petals Poured Candles – she makes soy candles in so many scents! If you haven’t been to Bella Vita, you need to visit! The owner, Jennifer, curates the most fun items for her shop. Clothing, accessories, lots of gift ideas, and things for the littles…. Lots of local love happening here! Check out the dreamy inspo wall, too! Thank you to Jennifer of Bella Vita for inviting me to spend a Saturday in the shop, to all the supporters of local who braved the cold and the rain to shop small, and to my crafty lady constituency who always comes to see me at my crafty events! Feeling all the love!

dear ball-entine.

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Happy Ball-entine’s Day! For my work’s fourth annual Hearts & Crafts gathering we made Valentine’s surprise balls! We had lots of treats set up – some for snacking… …and some for including in the surprise balls. We also had animal erasers, confetti packs, trinkets, stamps, and stickers (all the small gift items!) for everyone to choose from. Plus ribbons and washi tape to embellish the outside of the surprise balls, too. Let’s make surprises! Materials: crepe streamer paper glue stick treats (toys, candy, anything!) scissors Optional: paper strips markers/pens stickers confetti pom poms ribbon How to: Start with 4 feet of crepe paper. Fold accordion style and cut in half lengthwise. You’ll need more than this, but it’s easier to work with shorter pieces. Wrap surprises with crepe paper strips, starting with the largest surprise object. If creating a shape other than a sphere (a heart, for example!), place a template (you can use thick card stock or cardboard) inside the ‘ball’ to help guide the shape. I find that it’s good to use bulkier …

i heart you.

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For all you lovers: watercolor hearts! Here’s a simple Love Day DIY! Materials: watercolor paint watercolor paper paint brush water scissors brush pens Brush water directly onto paper in a heart shape. Drop or brush on some paint while the paper is wet. Drop or brush on another color if you want colors to blend. Allow to dry. You can keep your watercolor hearts as is (I intentionally started with postcard size paper in case I wanted to use some as notecards), or cut out the heart shapes. I personalized some of the hearts for Galentine’s gifts. These would be fun as treat labels, too, for a Valentine’s parrrtay. Yay!

a box of love.

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I love creating and sending surprise gift boxes to my family for different holidays or just because. Here are some fun ideas for a Valentine’s surprise box! These postcards by 3 Fish Studios are perfect for sending hugs all around California to my family. And pretty much anything from the Target “dollar” section – Heart dishes? Yes please! These would be great for trinkets, holding keys, or an air plant. And now for the sweets – Valentine dates (get it?), heart-shaped cookies, love crunch granola bars, Chocolove chocolate bars, and a long-time favorite – seasonal heart-shaped Junior Mints. It’s fun to scour the snack aisle to find themed goodies. Other cute prizes: temporary tattoos and squishy happy faces for the kids. And to bring it all together: stickers for the box and the packaging. The goal is to pack the parcels so they ship safely. I like using photo boxes – they are study and can hold a lot of stuff – and I like to fill them with crepe party streamers (you can also tissue …

confetti of love.

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My most favorite crafting holiday is just around the corner! So, it’s Valentine’s confetti time! For this project you will need: A cross-cut paper shredder Paper in shades of red, pink, and white – 65 lb paper works great! Assorted confetti Dried flowers Washi tape Containers or clear bags Scissors Large sheet of paper Prep all of the ingredients. For this mix I chose gold and neon pink hearts and gold hexagons. I also found ‘XOXO’ confetti at Target this year! (And these cute heart dishes!) Trim the dried flowers to remove the stems. Shred your paper. You don’t really need to ‘mix’ the confetti. Just make sure you evenly distribute/scatter the ingredients all over. I like to combine my confetti on a sheet of paper (versus a mixing bowl) for two reasons: (1) The heavier confetti bits tend to drop to the bottom and ‘stick’ to ceramic bowls – nothing sticks to the paper! and (2) It’s easier to pour the mixed confetti into containers by folding the paper in half and using it …