Blog2020-08-16T00:13:47-07:00

DIY Easter tree, egg ornaments & garland

My grandmother and great-grandmother were both crafty. My great-grandmother specialized in tatting, crochet, and ribbon roses. My grandmother dabbled in many handicrafts, including painting china, sculpting clay roses, découpaging, quilling, welding, and making 3D pictures (I’ll teach you the latter someday). She even made adorable […]

April 7, 2012|Holiday Decor|

Crafting with the Cameo: DIY embossed numbers clock

Can you believe it? I finally took my Silhouette Cameo out of its box and fired it up last week. I seriously don’t know what took me so long. I have lots of projects I want to try, but I decided to start with this square clock […]

March 27, 2012|Clocks|

How to rewire a table lamp

I loved everything about an old table lamp that I bought on Craigslist except its lampshade and old brass hardware. I took care of the lampshade, so now I needed to rewire it and paint the brass base. When I found an eBay store that sells […]

March 15, 2012|Lighting|

DIY painted lampshade + finial

You probably remember this lamp. Its first makeover was four years ago. Frankly, the fabric-covered lamp shade was a disappointment, and brass just wasn’t my thing. I still loved the white lamp base itself, so I decided to spray paint the brass base, rewire the lamp with nickel-plated hardware, and […]

March 15, 2012|Lighting|

DIY coffee filter snowball wall light

Lately I’ve been working with wire and wire mesh. First I made jewelry holders, then a jingle bell ornament, and now this decorative light fixture. I call it the Snowball light because it reminds me of the giant snowballs that terrorize Scrat, the acorn-obsessed saber-toothed squirrel in the movie […]

January 21, 2012|Lighting|

DIY chicken wire jingle bell ornament

When I blogged about my wire mesh jewelry holders with beads, I mentioned that I planned to make a Christmas ornament out of wire. Here it is. But instead of ¼-inch hardware cloth, I went with chicken wire. Apparently, it’s called poultry netting these days, but my family raised chickens […]

December 7, 2011|Holiday Decor|

DIY recycled Christmas card advent calendar

Remember when I told you three years ago that I was going to make an advent calendar the same way I made my hanging postcard collage? Well, I finally did it! Apologies for posting so late in the season. You probably already made or bought an advent calendar this year. […]

November 30, 2011|Holiday Decor|

Maria’s DIY frosted glass jar

Maria Romvari, a former guest nester, returns for another tutorial! I mentioned glass etching in another post recently, and it reminded of these instructions that Maria sent me a while ago. This is the frosted glass spray paint method. You could also […]

November 16, 2011|Tabletop|

Carol’s DIY decoupage plates

Last week, I blogged about Carol Endler Sterbenz’s new book Homemade: The Heart and Science of Handcrafts. This week, I’m honored to welcome Carol as a guest nester! This decoupage plate tutorial is just one of the many fabulous projects in her book. Carol writes, “Of all the […]

November 9, 2011|Kitchen & Dining|

Book review: Homemade by Carol Endler Sterbenz + a giveaway

When I first picked up Homemade: The Heart and Science of Handcrafts, I was skeptical that a 773-page craft book with a retro cover and no color photographs would be worth my time. Then I started reading it. I’m happy to […]

November 4, 2011|Reviews & Opinion|

Craftiness with X-Acto knives + a giveaway

I have been using standard X-Acto knives for decades, but X-Acto sent me a few of their latest craft knives, and I like them even better. Especially the fat pink Designer Series #11 craft knife in the photo above. In exchange, they asked me to […]

October 29, 2011|Reviews & Opinion|
Crafty Nest Pinterest widget

Crafty Nest is Undergoing Reconstruction

Why are many posts missing? Where are my comments? You might find yourself asking these questions as you explore this blog. The fact is that my old site broke beyond repair. I’m working as fast as I can to manually rebuild Crafty Nest post by post. I’ll eventually copy over all your comments too. Please be patient with me as I tackle this massive undertaking. Thank you for visiting!

Archives

Go to Top