Crafting From the Collection: Recap

Yesterday we missed First Thursday because we took a road trip! We were invited by the Amon Carter Museum in Ft. Worth to present several crafts for their quarterly event, Crafting From the Collection. The above pic is our fabric flower piece inspired by a still life of flowers at the museum. (Some of you may remember us posting about it back in January, that scheduled date got postponed due to the "snowpocaylpse")

In preparation for the demo, we made several example pieces along with a tutorial, which will be available in our Etsy shop and our boutique.We had a great group of very crafty ladies. Everyone quickly picked up the technique and got creative.

We loved the variations on our tutorial, the creative leaves and just the awesome vibe everyone brought to the event. We hope the Amon Carter will be interested in having The WonderCraft come up again to get crafty with another great group.

Before the event started, Jen and I visited the other museums right next to the Amon Carter, The Kimball & the Modern. We loved the architecture, the collections, and enjoyed the beautiful spring weather. This steel tree sculpture ('Conjoined' by artist Roxy Paine) was particularly cool.
How are you inspired by fine art?

Get Inspired: Pinterest

I'd like to make the forecast that Pinterest is going to be the next big thing. I might be wrong, but I'm certainly enjoying 'wasting' a lot of time getting sucked down its rabbit hole. Honestly, I'm starting to look at it more than Facebook! The above image is from my "front page", all the ever changing goodies I see when I log in.

What is Pinterest? They describe it like this in the about section of Pinterest "Think of Pinterest as a virtual pinboard — a place where you can create collections of things you love and "follow" collections created by people with great taste." But for me its a cross between a visual twitter and a really pretty google image search meets google reader. The layout is great and the functionality is so easy. What I like best is that I don't have to open any new programs, or do anything special exactly, other than installing the little browser add-on which makes pinning something super simple. Without investing any time in learning to use it, I can just create inspiration boards, group products together, and keep track of the things I like and inspire me!
This image from Kim's "Ideas" board, one of my favorite boards.

Why am I telling all of you about it? Well, one of my favorite things to follow on Pinterest is the ever growing DIY segment. So many people have boards titled DIY and there are some really great ideas, how-tos, and of course more inspiration!
This from Jesyka's "I heart handmade quilts" board, also great.

And, the more people on Pinterest the wider the variety & quality of the stuff pinned thus making searching on Pinterest better and better. I just can't get enough of it! (While looking for images to use in this post, I again got sucked down the rabbit hole!)

Hearts Afire

Jen here. Thought I'd share my latest project. I was sitting at my table during the Staple! show listening to my neighbor talk about how his friend modified one of those blank Munny's by cutting out it's chest and dangling a heart from the inside. Somehow that translated into this necklace idea.

I started with a sketch. The idea for the ring around the heart was modeled after a hose clamp, like the ones you find under the hood of your car. I wanted to add texture so I thought it would be nice to make the heart out of felt.

I had intended to use brass for the ring but couldn't find it due to my recent move so I finally cut into the silver sheets I've had laying around for years. It felt good being brave enough to use it.

So I cut into the silver, drilled holes at each end, shaped it around one of my mandrels and bent the ends. I took some wire, looped it and hung some chain from the center.

I cut out the felt heart...

... sewed the edges and stuffed it with cotton.

Add some chain and there is my necklace idea pretty much how I was imagining it. Which is a rare thing, but a pleasant surprise.

Upcycled inspirations: My stash of trash

This is my small box of recyclables that I'm intent on keeping because I've just got too many crafty ideas for whats inside, I hope someday I will follow through and turn this "trash", as my husband calls it, into treasures.

For the past few weeks I've been in a major reorganization mode. I'm reading Totally Organized by Bonnie McCullough and trying to get control of my house! (especially the craft room) I've purchased big shelving and drawers from Ikea and I'm almost there. I'll be posting before and after pics at a later date. Through the process I've downsized and assembled my collection of recycleable materials suitable for crafting. Here are some pics of what is in the box:
Of course I have various paper scraps, so hard to throw away! And these candle holders, what should I do with them?

Keyboard innards from our Robot Challenge. Glass bottles that had cool shapes.


The remains of ribbon spools and of course toilet paper tubes!

What am I planning to do with all this junk? I can't get rid of it because I have so many ideas to upcycle it!

My favorite is this:I saw this a while back and started keeping all my Dublin Dr. Pepper bottles, but then there were way to many so I am now limited to the bottles I have until I actually do something with them. Find the instructions here.Bottles also look great with a few coats of brightly colored spray paint, find more ideas at Someday Crafts.
I've been wanting to make tiny flag buntings with my little paper scraps, maybe color them with water color or paint, write a message on them, cute! This one I found on Etsy.This is the coolest thing to do with the keyboard insides, instructions here. Or I was thinking of making a journal cover.... I made these coasters a long time ago with the ribbon spools and foam sheets that already have adhesive on the back, simple and fun! So, of course, now I have to keep all my ribbon spools.
Some of you may remember my post from last October, showing what to do with toilet paper tubes, now I can make a huge one!

But what should I do with those candle holders?

Do you have a bin of "trash" that you can't part with for crafty hoarding reasons? My advice is keep it limited to one box, and only add to it after you've taken something out, that way it won't overtake your whole closet. And someday make something with all that stuff! Let us know if you have.

DIY day: Makin' Fascinators

Today Beth H and I got ready for an upcoming crafty party we're hosting for some girls. They chose a fun craft of making flower and feather fascinators. We spent a few hours getting girly and crafty with feathers, flowers, ribbons and our trusty glue guns.


We promised hair clips, head bands, necklaces & bracelets. Beth and I started off by making a few hair clips with fake flowers and feathers, trying a couple different clip types and attachment techniques. Not to mention some important trial and error.
Above is my first attempt at a bracelet, it was too big so I turned it into a headband, which worked much better. This purple bracelet is H's successful go, a very cute corsage!
Our necklace design was simple and it inspired me to make a cute "flower child" style headband, see below.
Do y'all think we should make these into kits? Let us know how you are keeping crafty this summer!

Book Review: Flowers Chic & Cheap

Flowers Chic & Cheap by Carlos Mota is a fabulous new how-to book on decorating with flowers. As a gardener & lover of cut flowers & giving homegrown bouquets, I was really intrigued by the title. The cover, featuring a cute vintage, polka dot teapot with 2 peonies in it, hints at the many pretty, yet fun & carefree, decorating ideas that await you inside this book.

The author, Carlos Mota, editor at large for Elle Decor, is a man who displays impeccable taste, yet a very down-to-earth approach to decorating. For instance, in the introduction, he reminds readers not to overlook the humble soup can or beer bottle when choosing a vase for flowers. My thrifty side really appreciated his acknowledgment that expensive vases are not necessary, as we all have pretty & useful vessels already hanging around our homes!

Each arrangement idea is presented in a very clear & easy-to-follow fashion, kind of like a recipe. The basics on care & feeding for your cut flowers are covered, as well as discussion of decorating with other botanicals like branches and fruit (and even silk flowers), different flower combinations that work well together and tips for arranging them in various types of containers & situations, including lots of lovely table settings. The styling ideas covered in the book are fantastic, ranging from super simple, such as a grouping of herb branches in green beer bottles left after a party, to more dramatic (yet still quite easy to pull off) arrangements such as a gorgeous sunflower collection inspired by Van Gogh and a formal arrangement that looks like something out of a painting by the French master, Fragonard. That's the thing that I most love about this book: the reminder to look for beauty & inspiration all around us. Mota encourages us to find ideas for arrangements & color schemes in art that we love, favorite locales, and even the cherished items we've collected in our homes.

Several of Mota's arrangements are a new (to me, at least) take on bouquets, using water tubes & moss instead of the traditional vase full of water. One such unusual, yet surprisingly beautiful, container he uses is a hollowed-out egg. Don't know if I'll ever get around to trying that, but it is a really cool idea! I love Mota's "no rules, anything goes" attitude. Another unconventional container he favors: baby shoes. How cute would that be for a baby shower?! Those arrangements would truly be gifts that kept on giving.

Flowers Chic & Cheap has wonderful decorating ideas for every room of the house, every season & every occasion. It's a beautifully-photographed book that will make you want to liven up your home with flowers a lot more often. I know I plan to!

full disclosure: Crown Publishing sent me a review copy of this book. But that didn't influence my opinion; I honestly love it & highly recommend it! - Beth H

Pixel Pop!

This Friday we're participating in an awesome event merging fashion, crafting, and music!

We've planned a super fun craft that anyone can do. Our free craft will be Super Hero cuffs that you can make from old tee shirt sleeves! To embellish those cuffs you'll be able to design, cut out, and iron on bright felt flocking (the soft stuff you find on a lot of tee designs).


Jen made this awesome lightening bolt cuff and it was featured along with Beth A's hoodie on Keye TV! Here is the video.
You'll also be able to craft a sweet hoodie like these, simply design and cut out any shapes you want and we press it on. Start brainstorming now so you can make some cool stuff with us tomorrow!
Beth H made her paintbrush go all the way over the shoulder, very original!


Jen's bobcat on her shoulder is my favorite though, she's so talented!

So come on out, we'll be crafting, selling stuff out of our pop-up shop, and generally having a fun-tabulous time! Doors are at 9:30pm Friday July 16th at the Mohawk, see you there!

Wedding Bonanza

Beth A here, writing from California. I'm out here for the first two of 6 weddings I'm attending this summer. Two of my friends were married last weekend and two more this weekend, and so inspired by all these weddings I thought I'd post about some of my favorite DIY wedding crafts and tips.


First, an easy and great way to add color and flowers without the cost of real flowers, tissue paper flowers add a great pop to any celebration. We even used these to decorate our booth at the Renegade Craft Fair. The how-to is available from the Martha Stewart Weddings DIY blog here.I'm also really inspired by this wedding blog called Once Wed and their DIY projects, especially this cute centerpiece idea:

What WonderCraft DIY day would be complete without a t-shirt craft? Here are some beautiful flowers made from old t-shirts, tutorial and kit available from Alabama Chanin. This is the next craft I'm going to try out for sure! We've still got so many scraps to get through...

Renegade Re-Cap: It rocked and I bought some awesome stuff!

Last weekend's utterly amazing Renegade Craft Fair (in Austin for the first time ever!) was jam packed with awesome vendors and had a huge turn out to boot! None of us knew what to expect and we were blown away with the rush on Saturday morning. The organizers told us that 1500 people came through the doors in the first hour alone!

By Sunday evening, the crowd had dwindled, we'd run out of "timber" for our "Trick Out Some Timber" craft (luckily people still loved trying the image transfer onto cardboard). Around 6pm I took the opportunity to run around the fair to do my shopping and here is what I bought:


Two heart shaped bracelets from Verameat (I love hearts... I mean Paired Hearts represent!)
And two cutie onesies from harrilu. The toaster is in homage to my pup Toast and I thought the kitten was just adorable. I also ordered a custom clutch from Jenny N. Design, can't wait to receive it! -Like this but with a different leather:

My husband came and bought:


A cool tee from KDS Clothing, and a rad Tortoise poster from Empire Press.

Our booth was rocking it too, here are a bunch of pics to prove it:

Pre-opening, I'm up on the roof to do some cleaning & decorating.

From the time the doors opened on Day 1 until they closed on Day 2, our interactive area was hoppin'!

We showed guests how to "Trick Out Some Timber" with a simple image transfer technique, & then use decoupage &/or picks from our stash of cool ribbon, trims, buttons & baubles to give it some unique flair.

Here comes the Minor Mishap Marching Band!

A steady stream of shoppers enjoyed browsing the handmade goods inside Stella's Boutique (at times it was shoulder-to-shoulder in there!), & we had our famous design-your-own pinback buttons station just outside the door.

A big "thank you" to everyone who came out! We had such a fabulous time spreading the crafty love & made lots of new friends. Can't wait for Renegade Austin 2011! {Oh yes, I think it's gonna happen!} : )