Pantyhose never die!

Chris from Canada wrote:
If you have a pair of pantyhose, knee highs or lightweight leotards that are about to be tossed, wash them and cut out any good sized bits that are undamaged. This fabric can be sewn into tubes and used for mini stockings, dance leotards, hats, scarves, swim suits, sleeveless tops, long undies etc......... or any mini clothing item that calls for a thin, stretchy, fine knit fabric that can be made with minimal shaping.
NOTE: Pieces of this stuff also come in handy for applying wood stains and acrylic finishes, applying and buffing mini-furniture wax and giving a soft sheen to items made from polymer clay.
Thin tights are good for straining off liquids such as paints. They can be used to hold house parts together until the glue dries. This is stretching things a bit, (heh, heh) but think about storage...lots of stuff fits in those legs! They can be tied to a hanger, hung on a rod, ....
Don't forget to wrap a leg over your vacuum nozzle when you are dusting your craft space, so your little bits are not sucked up into oblivion!

Handbag Heaven

Tanya shared this wonderful project:
The bags are made from plastic spools like the ones you get in a sewing kit from Dollar Tree or any other dollar store. The first ones I made, I covered with fabric, but the other two are covered with a designer paper that I printed off the internet. First I used Tacky Glue to glue the fabric and paper onto the spools. Next I cut two circles the size of both ends of the spool from cardstock or some other type of thin cardboard. I then glued the two circles to a piece of paper or fabric for the bag I am working on and cut around the circle. Once dry glue the circle pieces face up to each of the ends. Next glue on your straps. I used thin ribbon. Lastly add tiny jewelry findings, nail art or whatever you choose to embellish the bags.

Glassworks

Chris from Canada wrote:
Remember those glass serving plates and trays made from all different colours of glass put together that were so popular as wedding gifts in the 60's and 70's? Well, here's a way to duplicate that look using (what else) items most people trash.

Last spring I was looking at a photo album trying to get some ideas for something different and retro to make for swaps, when I noticed my 70's glass plates in use in a family photo from 1975. I was thinking about about attempting these in miniature using small chunks of plastic melted into a mold when I remembered as a small child having used torn squares of tissue paper glued to pickle jars to make vases. I also remembered how pretty they looked when the sun hit them, and so the plates came to be.

First I made a plate blank by brushing two thin, even layers of Sobo glue (used because it's clear, dries just a bit flexible and happened to be handy) onto a piece of plastic wrap. When that had dried, I sandwiched the plastic wrap between 2 layers of white paper, and used a large hole punch to make circles. Mine were 7/8" and 3/4" in diameter. (Scissors work too, but I'm lousy at cutting circles out by hand.) I then took the circles and placed them on a piece of craft foam with the plastic wrap side down and gave them another coat of glue. Then I pushed them down into the foam with the blunt end of a marker to make the plate shape and let them dry in the foam, as you do with mini rice paper flowers. (I let them dry overnight because by then it was nearly 11 pm, but I am sure they would have been dry in 10-20 minutes.)

The next day, I tore some scraps of 3 colours of tissue paper that had come wrapped around swap items into teensy pieces about 3/16" square. One piece at a time, I dipped them into a 50/50 water-glue solution then smoothed them (with the colours chosen randomly) onto the plate blanks, which were still in the foam, using a paintbrush and a wet pinkie finger to remove any wrinkles. The overlaps and odd shaped bits became part of the design. When they looked good, I let them dry for a few minutes, then removed each one in turn from the foam, trimmed off and smoother any ragged edges, and placed it back in the foam. Finally, I brushed on two (3?) coats of glue, and when everything was dry, removed them from the foam and peeled off the plastic wrap, revealing some really groovy retro glassware.

Needling Ya

Chris from Canada wrote:
As there are only days before Christmas this is a super- quickie, and surprise(!) even seasonal, for anyone who has even the smallest branch cut from a live evergreen inside, especially if you want fillers, smaller plants or work in the smaller scales.
Before you vacuum up the last of the needles from your Christmas tree, or toss the evergreen branch along with the rest of the stuff in the arrangement your Aunt Beatrice sent you, save a handful or two of the needles. When completely dry, they can be used in mini flower
arrangements as fillers or as stalks for spring flowers (a tiny touch of craft paint on the tip creates a flower bud). For the truly brave, bunches of 7 or more Scotch pine needles, trimmed to the desired lengths at the blunt end and arranged carefully, make a 1:12 non-
flowering yucca plant, or any other plant with straight, spiked leaves.

Granny Rat

Chris from Canada posted this picture on the Camada Minis group. She completed the project following the directions Leslie Shepherd wrote on her About.com site. Love the feather boa Chris!
See other mice and rats along with Leslie's instructions on the Minitreasures wiki:
http://minitreasures.pbworks.com/w/page/20981795/mice

Pharmacy Bottles Pegged!

hris from Canada writes:
I've been trying to gradually sort out some of my unsorted stash and recently I found a small baggie containing my failed attempts to shape the tops of these pegs with a craft knife, sandpaper and even my Dremel tool, as well as a handful of untouched pegs in colours like electric blue, hot pink, glowing orange and a sickly lime green.

I didn't want to trash them, and wondered if they could be softened with a candle flame, then pulled and shaped like some clear plastics. It must be the coloring agent used, but before they softened, the heated part burst into flame then immediately burned out, leaving the heated part soft, but also permanently blackened. This definitely had possibilities, so I reheated the end (it didn't ignite this time) and when it was soft, mashed it down onto the edge of my kitchen sink (stainless steel), forming what looked like a stopper on a bottle. I was short of time so played around with this idea only a few times, including heating the pliers holding the peg (not the peg itself) to shape the middle. The picture above shows two of these experiments with an untouched peg. These could be used in a pharmacy, bathroom, witch's kitchen, doctor's office, lab etc......

Pinned!

Chris from Canada writes:
This is an idea that I came up with a few years back to use those strong, but very often defective, sewing pins with no point, that comprise a large percentage of the pins sold in plastic boxes at Dollar Store-type outlets.
These pointless pins make good hinge-pin replacements for doors, trunks, storage boxes etc... when the original pins grow wings and fly away. Just trim the length with wire cutters to fit, allowing for a bend at the end if it is needed to secure the pin.
And if you need some tiny nails, try cutting the tip off at an angle and they can replace any dollhouse nails which may have joined the Great Pin Escape. (If you want the heads to be a brass or gold colour, apply a dot of gold paint or nail polish.)
These pins are also excellent to use without trimming if you are connecting sections of foamboard for a structure: If a pin goes in crooked by accident it is unlikely to stab a finger hard enough to draw blood!

*** just a safety reminder - always wear glasses when cutting pins or wires! Those little pieces fly everywhere!