Happy Birthday Marie!

Whats better for a party than cake or in this case cake plates? Make your own and recycle some beautiful glassware and mismatched candlesticks.

First hit the junk stores and find odd candlesticks and plates that you like. Next purchase the appropriate glue. There are a few on the market that will work very well.

E6000

Dazzle Tac

Loctite Ultra

These particular ones are designed to be shock proof, water resistant and able to stick quickly.

Spread a bead of glue on the edge of the candlestick and center the plate, let it dry completely. Viola!! Wonderful repurposed objects turned into a gift or treasure for your own table.

Please let me know if you make these, I would love to see your own creation! Enjoy the blog party! Make sure and go give some comment love to the other PEAR participants!

M & G



Recycled Sweater Sewing Kit

It's easy as pie to make a quick (and painless!) sewing kit using a felted wool sweater.

Felting Tips:

• Choose only 100% wool garments for felting (not washable wool)
• Look for colored wool (undyed natural wool won't felt)
• Throw the garment into your washing machine with hot water and soap and run it through a wash cycle
• Use two wash cycles, if necessary, to achieve the desired amount of felting (but watch closely if you are particular about how much it shrinks)
• Dry the item in the dryer on a normal cycle

To make your own sewing kit:

Use either a pocket from the sweater or sew two pieces of sweater together using a simple straight stitch around the sides and bottom, leaving a flap to fold over on the top. Sew a button to the front and cut a matching button hole in the top flap.

Pinking shears work great around the edges--no other edging is necessary! Use leftover sweater to make a point protector for the scissors and a base for needles and pins.

-M & G

Friday Favorites

Lanie has this great way of promoting other favorite sites each week. So we were feeling like highlighting some other craftiness around blogland. Thanks Lanie for letting us participate! As January has been a challenge in the areas of setting goals, following through on resolutions, internet issues and finally enduring the flu , we wanted to bring a little whimsy to our lives and share it with you!

It's Raining Yarn over at Maiden Jane

Caution it's a perfectly Constructed Party over at Collecting the Moments

A serious Studio Makeover has taken place at Ready Set Craft

A vintage Beach Coverup is in the works at Serendipity Handmade

Terrific Paintbrush Holder made with love by Made by Stephie

Thank you again Lanie J & Co for coming up with Friday Favorites. Check out everyone's blogs and leave them some PEAR love! We will feature more of the PEAR participants next Friday. Happy Craftiness everyone!

~ Marie & Gabrielle

Ribbon & Button Broach

I was so inspired by the recent Anthropologie catalog. Toward the end was this gorgeous sweater with accooordian folded ribbon sewn on the sweater front. It made me want to create one instead of buy one. But what actually happened was a broach. Here is my favorite trim married to my two favorite Bakelite buttons. After sewing the chrysanthemum of trim, I sewed the buttons in place and attached a safety pin. It took about thirty minutes and I've been wearing it with everything. Have fun!!

Check out my latest blog post at Bee Wise Bags for a great and inexpensive way to organize your trims and ribbons.

Ribbon Organizer

If you have a crafty blog, consider joining our PEAR comment love project!!!

It's Grrrr-ate!

As in "cheese-grater" great :)

Rusty antique cheese graters are one of my absolute favorite things (it obviously doesn't take much to thrill me). Gabrielle and I were chatting the other night about ways to use them for re-craft goodness. A year or two ago I had been using one of these with a magnetic clip to house a recipe card (as you can see in an old blog post of mine here). However, my new kitchen has no cupboard door handles with which to hang such a thing, and Gabrielle suggested I try this method instead. It was perfect!  (This is why two heads are better than one.)

A strand of thick jute ties the two graters together, and a magnetic clip holds the recipe card. The whole thing folds right up to hang on the wall or slide into a drawer, and since there's no lasting damage to the graters they could be repurposed into something else later on.

If you don't have jute, try metal wire.

Happy re-crafting!