I started this gravel art project six years ago and finished it one year ago. I’m finally getting around to blogging about it. The project didn’t have to take five years to make, it just got set aside often to finish other projects, such as my kitchen remodel. It does, however […]
I learned how to cross-stitch in my preteens. I didn’t stick with it for long because I found it tedious. My mind wandered out of boredom, and soon I’d discover that I’d made a mistake five stitches back, and I’d have to pull it out and start again.
And the cutesy-folksy cross-stitch […]
Years ago, when I embarked upon my quest to discover the types of flowers that last the longest in a vase, I also discovered that some fresh cut greens look just as beautiful as flowers and last even longer. A lot longer.
Case in point: The photo below of […]
Ten years ago, I made a bath mat out of wine corks. It took 175 corks, but I still had tons of them left over. No, I didn’t drink a ton of wine. In fact, I don’t drink alcohol at all. I gathered them from
Many years ago, I bought white flannel-backed vinyl by the yard at Walmart with the intention of making a scallop-edged tablecloth for my round pedestal table. Fast forward past two moves and the sale of that table, and this fabric remained rolled up in a closet. I […]
When I originally made this, sunburst mirrors from the 1960s-1970s were making a comeback in a big way, and I’ve yet to see their popularity fade. Sunburst mirrors are ubiquitous, and rightly so. They’re usually gold or silver, pricey, and generally designed to make a big statement on a wall.
This one […]
I wanted a big, bold clock to make a statement on my wall, but I couldn’t find anything like what I imagined, so I made my own. I started with a $7 Snudda Lazy Susan from Ikea (now $13). And — surprise — I got two clocks […]
I removed this old, scratched, chipped mirror from an ugly plastic frame (which I turned into a bulletin board). Even though the mirror had seen better days, I couldn’t just throw it out. Despite it’s flaws, I loved the shape and thickness of the mirror. I wanted to […]
When I needed cloth napkins for my Easter table setting, I couldn’t find any that looked good with the color palette. But I had the ideal fabric on hand. So I examined the perfectly mitered corners on my Williams-Sonoma napkins and figured out how to […]
I have a love-hate relationship with cut flowers. I love how beautiful they look and smell the first couple days. Shortly thereafter, love turns to hate. That’s when the wilting and stinking phase kicks in.
Worse, my former roommates never changed the water, and they kept the poor, dying blooms around long […]
Happy New Year, everyone! This is a project I finished more than two years ago. I finally got around to blogging about it. I hope you like it. A Crafty Nest reader, Josie, emailed me quite a while ago asking for uses for leftover tiles. Subway tile […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
I have a history with tile mirrors. The house in which I grew up had a rustic fireplace with 1970s tile mirrors glued to the wall above it. Painted in the center of the grouping of mirrors was a tall ship. It had a face. I swear I could see eyes […]
When I discovered that my matchbooks fit perfectly into this old unfinished cigar box, I knew it was a DIY matchbox in the making. I wanted to step up the fancy in a subtle way, so I could leave the dingy box out in plain site. I like showing off doilies […]
I adore this “bird cage” illustration by Emma SanCartier. And I wanted to make this small piece of art stand out. I could have mounted it in an up-sized frame with generous matting. I decided to make a frame-within-a-frame instead, mostly because I already had all the […]
I own blue and white dishes. Normally this isn’t a problem — until I try to find a cute tablecloth that looks good with my dishes. Apparently, blue as a kitchen or dining color has been out for several seasons. The market is flooded with red, green, and aqua.
Instead of waiting […]
This is the third and final post in my Victoria magazine series. As I mentioned in my last post, hats were commonplace in Victoria magazine. In fact, every issue included at least one woman wearing a hat. Below are some of Victoria’s […]
For the record, I’m against sealing my wine cork bath mat. I mean, corks are exposed to the moisture of wine for decades and seem to hold up fine, right? But several readers insisted cork needed to be sealed, so I did some research on sealing cork. […]
I am evidently on a hot-glue kick lately. This bath mat requires just three materials: shelf liner, hot glue, and 175 wine corks. How did I gather 175 wine corks, you ask? Working at Sunset magazine had its perks. With all the wine tastings in that office, […]
Whenever I speak to my dad on the phone, he always asks, “Miss me?” This past month I’ve been getting concerned emails, so apparently some of you missed me — or at least my weekly blog posts. I’ve missed you too. I think I just needed a break. But I’m happy […]
My friend Julie inspired this idea. She framed some fall leaves in a large clear acrylic frame. I loved its simplicity. These Coach picture frames that I received as a gift years ago were perfect for spelling out a word.
I had five frames, but I was set on […]
Our new guest nester, Maria Romvari, transformed this corner of her house for her Hungarian blog A Hoover-gáton is túl, and she’s sharing her tutorial with us! Maria used ordinary thrift store items — side table, vase, and mismatched frames — totaling $10.67 to create this stunning vignette. […]
What a difference a little color makes! I decided my white sunburst mirror that I made in 2007 was a little boring. It only looked good from an angle, where the shadows would emphasize the shapes. Straight on, it looked more like a plain white circle. So I […]
What can I make with an old picture frame that’s missing glass, a free fabric sample from FabMo, and an 8- x 10-inch LoRan magnet board that my friend Chris gave me? Another friend, Kristi, had an idea: a mini magnetic board.
If you add a […]
Why anyone would paint over window panes is beyond me. But that’s exactly what someone did to this window that I bought at a salvage yard for $20. It took a couple hours to scrape away all the stray paint and caulking, but the effort was totally worth it, considering I […]
My sister Christy came up with this super easy idea, and I love it. Even better: I had all the supplies on hand. No, I don’t drink wine, but I have plenty of friends who do. They saved their corks for a big project I have planned. I could spare a […]
I am sorry for the suspense regarding my toolbox dresser project. I haven’t made much progress on it yet. In the meantime, I decided to make a starburst mirror. This project was a cinch because I learned from the mistakes I made on my sunburst mirror. The basic […]
First rule in government spending: Why build one when you can have two at twice the price?” Any guesses what movie that line is from? (Answer at the end of this post.) I loved these salvaged window frames so much, I bought both of them. This one was […]
One of my friends referred to this as the “ugly mirror.” Another friend said, “Whatever you paid for it, you paid too much.” I get more excited about a project when I hear comments like that because I think, “Just wait till they see what I do with it. Mwahaha!” For […]
Happy Earth Day everyone! I found these artichoke plates at a thrift store while hunting for dishes with which to make cake stands. I loved the flower shape of them so much that I bought them all. I have plans for the rest, but these three were […]
Two drawers were left over from my modular bookcase project. I didn’t think they’d be useful for anything but firewood. But upon closer inspection, I began to appreciate the aged beauty of the wood — even the smattering of white paint. Combining the drawers into one shadowbox — […]
I am not an artist, so please excuse my painting skills. During my undergrad, one of my color class assignments was to copy an impressionistic painting on a wine bottle. It was the perfect assignment for a novice painter such as me. On a wine bottle, you can’t see the entire […]
I am redecorating my living room. Red has been lovely, but the colors of the sea are calling me. I like Ikea’s Fjädrar inner cushions (which are 20 x 20 inches), but none of Ikea’s pillow covers go with my new color scheme. So, using […]
I’m fed up with ugly tissue boxes. Even the semi-cool ones never match my decor. I used to buy the white tissue boxes from Target, but they discontinued them. So I took matters into my own hands. I found this wooden tissue box cover at a thrift store for a couple […]
My friend Heika DeHart beautifully transformed her daughter’s bedroom. One of her handmade projects in that room were these stencils. And she’s sharing how she made them. She writes, “This was a simple, inexpensive project. I thought it would be sweet to have silhouettes of my daughter hanging on her wall but […]
I saw this interior window frame at a salvage yard and coveted it for a few months before finally buying it. Instead of the opaque Plexiglass it came with, I inserted mirrors. I love mirrors because they can make a small space feel airy and bright. This one offers an added […]
I noticed this stash of cupboard doors at my local salvage yard. The white one was the perfect size to make a serving tray. The old drawer pulls — also found at the salvage yard — made ideal handles. Their swirly shape gave me the inspiration for the pattern I painted. […]
Last year, I asked for suggestions on ways to display my postcard collection. Everyone had great ideas. But this postcard “tapestry” idea came to me, and I had to try it. It would also work well for photos or Christmas cards. You can easily rotate in new ones whenever you like. […]
This one was my friend Kristi’s idea. While window shopping one day last spring, we saw a glass cake stand in a jewelry store window. She said, “You could make one of those.” I spent the next couple weeks scouring thrift stores for plates, candlesticks, vases — anything I could find […]
Instead of chucking these old mismatched frames that I accumulated from thrift stores, I painted them all the same color, attached magnets, and gave them a whole new life. If only I could give this 1980s fridge a new life — in the junkyard. But because I’m renting my apartment, I’m […]
Do you have drawer pulls, pants hangers, and photos (or your children’s artwork) lying around? With a few supplies, you can hang them on the wall in minutes — and easily swap them out when the fancy strikes. The best part is drawer pulls look like antique picture hangers — for […]
Ever since I saw it hanging on Vanessa’s wall in a photo of her home, I adored Ikea’s plastic Ung Drill picture frame ($25), but the cost of replacing the glass with an oval mirror was prohibitively expensive. Then I found this carved […]
I found these shutters at a salvage yard. I loved their shape, but couldn’t decide what to do with them. Then it occurred to me that shutters were the perfect way to cover a bulletin board (which can look messy). It hangs right inside my entry — a great place for […]
My great-grandmother lived to be 93. And she loved to tat. She made me and my siblings dozens of doilies, collars, and hankies over the years. Her tatted doilies are so beautiful that I hated to see them packed away in a box in my closet. But I wasn’t about to […]
This is the easiest project I’ve attempted yet. It all started with an Ikea plant glide and furniture nails (which come in myriad colors and sizes). This clock is full of possibility. You could also glue on numbers or wood pieces, apply chalkboard paint,
