May Your Life Be Like A Basket...Useful...Bountiful...Beautiful...

Basketmaster's Weavings is about my passions, much of which revolves around basket weaving. I weave with reed and I love teaching others to weave. Many of the patterns and styles that I show in the blog are geared to the beginning weaver, or even the brand new weaver. If you have been thinking about wanting to learn to weave, then this blog is for you. Throughout the blog and videos I take you step by step through each and every process of weaving. I want you to be successful in weaving the very first time you try. For the intermediate and advanced weaver, my wish is that you take ideas that I show, mix them up a bit, and incorporate them into your own beautiful creations.

Happy Weaving and Baskets of Blessings to all my visitors,

Nancy

You may find my YouTube Videos Here.

Listen to Basketmaster's Making our Home a Haven Podcast.



Showing posts with label Crafts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crafts. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

What is a Mug Rug? Let Me Show You!

Hi Friends,
Have you seen these little cuties floating around the internet lately?  I love these things!  They are called a mug rug.  What is a mug rug you ask?  A mug rug is like a mini quilt that is somewhere in size between a coaster and a place mat.  Most I've seen are rectangular in shape but I've seen heart shaped and flower shaped ones as well.  They are made to set your beverage on as well as a crumbly baked good.  You are encouraged to eat off these sweet mats!  I think this is just a nice little touch as I sit quitely with my coffee and spend time with our Lord.
If you are a scrapbooker, you probably know what ATC's are.  IMHO, this is the ATC in the sewing world except sizes vary unlike the ATC's.  These mug rugs are embellished lavishly and traded in sewing and quilting circles.  One of the best parts is that they use your scraps!  I'm going to encourage you to google mug rugs and you will see the beautiful work quilters have done in making these.  Some are true mini works of art!

Let me tell you how I made my mug rug.
I found my favorite size to be 5 1/2" x 11".  I like this size where the length is double from the height.  The binding you see around the edge is the backing of my mug rug just wrapped around to the front.  You could finish the edge in bias tape or with another binding, but I find it is super easy to just wrap the backing around to the front side, fold it under so there is no raw edge, and stitch.  There is a piece of batting 5 1/2" x 11" sandwiched between the front and back.


I made my mug rug just last night and it took about an hour.  The only real embellishing I did is I stitched this little phrase with my sewing machine.


Here is the back side of my mug rug.  I cut the backing one inch wider than the mug rug so that I could wrap it around to the front and fold under my raw edges. 

So my top fabric I did first and pieced the pieces together and then squared it up to a size of 5 1/2" x 11".  I cut a piece of batting 5 1/2" x 11".  I cut the backing 7 1/2" x 13".

Here was my first attempt at making a mug rug.  This was leftover fabric from my son's curtains that I sewed several years ago.  The fabric is printed to have this pieced look to it.  This mug rug happens to be 5" x 10".  That is when I decided I wanted my next one to be just a bit larger.  This will be great for his room though. 

Have you tried to make one of these?  Send me a picture if you have.  What else are you sewing, weaving or crafting these days?  I'd love to hear!
Blessings,
Nancy

Thursday, October 21, 2010

A Fun Use for Extra Wire Handles

Hi Friends,
This project came across my e-mail and I want to share it with you.  You know I like crafting of all sorts, but I thought even all of you basket weavers would enjoy something different that you can do with your supplies.

If you teach classes like me, you may have a surplus of an item.  I'm always ordering extra handles for my classes.  I want to have extra handles on hand because someone always says they would like a kit to make the same project again at home.  Soooo..... if you have some of these sweet wire handles, these are the ones that you get with the eyes and ears, also sometimes called spool handles, you can do a fun craft project with them.  These happen to be three inch handles.

Here is the link to the project that comes from Crafts 'N Things.
Enjoy!
Nancy

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Make Your Own Reed Diffuser




Have you seen the reed diffusers? They are sold many places these days and some are quite costly. They're reed! Good ol' basket weaving reed! You can make your own for pennies in comparison to what they cost in the stores.

Just use #6 round reed and cut to the desired length. You can use your scraps here. Place in a narrow mouth bottle. My bottle is from a vinegar and oil set that I got at Walmart. You can also get potpourri oil at Walmart as well. Mine is a potpourri gel that I got at a home candle party that I went to. Just fill the bottle with the potpourri fragrance, insert the reed and tie on a pretty ribbon. I also hot glued a small flower embellishment to mine. I made several of these to give as gifts and they are always greatly appreciated.

A bonus craft you can see in my photo of the reed diffuser. This photo is taken in my bathroom. I got some pretty, smooth glass blue rocks and used a clear epoxy to glue them to the wall in my bathroom. The blue rocks and epoxy also came from Walmart's craft department. I like the pretty bling it adds in there.

What other ways do you use up your scrap reed?

Baskets of blessings to you all,

Nancy

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Altered Paint Pails


Hi Friends,
I have some scrapbooking fun today. I made these altered gallon paint cans. The top photo holds my snacks as I go to scrapbooking crops. I can also use it as a trash can if needed to hold my scraps, hence the name scraps and Snacks. The bottom photo shows my prize pail. I use it to hold small prizes or to hold names when we do drawings.
Enjoy!
Nancy
This Post Links To These Fun Blogs:

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Menu Board using Vinyl and the Cricut


Good Morning Friends,
Today I would like to show you something I made. It is my menu board that hangs in my kitchen. It's a dry erase board that is magnetic. I can write the menu for a specific meal on it or sometimes I write the meals for the week. What is handy is the magnets that can hold recipe cards so they are in easy reach when I'm ready for them.
Sometimes the kids will write what they WANT to have for dinner even if it is not in my plans!
The butterflies and letters were cut with the Cricut out of vinyl and I used the Storybook cartridge.
I hope you enjoy it!
Blessings,
Nancy
This post links to:
Women Who Do It All
Someday Crafts
Trendy Treehouse
Roots and Wings Co.
Creations by Kara
Make It From Scratch
Fireflies and Jellybeans
Tidy Mom
Just a Girl

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Happy 40th Annual Earth Day and a Free e-book

Good Morning Friends and Happy Earth Day!  Did you know Earth Day has been going on for 40 years now?  I didn't until this morning.  What are you doing to help save our earth?  Around the Jacobs' house here we have the energy saving lightbulbs in most of our lights.  I have re-usable bags in my car.  My husband's old t-shirts get cut up and become great soft cleaning rags.  Old bath towels get put in with the camping supplies and used when we are camping.  I cut the front and back panels off of cereal boxes and use them for chipboard with my paper crafting.  (They are not acid-free so you probably don't want to use cereal boxes around your photos, but they are great for cards and other paper crafting projects)  Remember I told you my house was on a diet HERE?  So we are trying to reduce, reuse, and recycle what we can and shop from home before buying new.  I'm a big fan of going to garage sales and shopping at thrift stores.  I'm sure you've heard, 'one man's trash is another man's treasure.'  It is so true. When I quit working to stay home with the children, I have ALWAYS felt that it was Mike's job to make the money and my job to SAVE the money.  It has amazed me over the years how God has provided us with exactly what we have wanted or needed at thrift stores or garage sales. 

FaveCrafts has put together another free e-book full of recycled crafts.  Some of these would be great crafting projects for children.  My favorite is the altered cd ornament with beads.  That reminds me, I have a stack of old silver cd's that I'm going to hang in my fruit trees in a couple of months to keep the birds from picking the fruit.  I'll be using fishing line to hang them so they spin in the trees.  They'll catch the sunlight and glimmer actually looking very pretty but it does the job to keep the birds from eating the grapes and cherries off the plants.  I'm getting off track here.  You can download FaveCrafts free book HERE.


What are you doing to reduce, reuse, and recycle?  Let me know!
Blessings,
Nancy

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Five Super Crafting Free e-Books

Hi Friends,
Just sharing some news with you that FaveCrafts has 5 free crafting e-books out currently for download.  I'm not getting anything from FaveCrafts for promoting them, I just like their style and the crafts have a good fit with me so I just want to share them with you.

This first one is full of Easter Crafts and Recipes.
http://www.favecrafts.com/master_images/Holiday/Easter/Easter-Craft-Ebook2010.pdf


The second is Easter crafts from around the blogosphere this year.
http://www.favecrafts.com/master_images/Holiday/Easter/Easter-Crafts-Blogger-Edition-eBook2010.pdf


This next one is Low Cost Kitchen Crafts.  It has ideas for hot pads, dish clothes, aprons, table runners, refrigerator magnets and much more.
http://www.favecrafts.com/master_images/Decorating%20Ideas/Low-Cost-Kitchen-Craft-eBook.pdf

Crafts for Mom is an e-book full of ideas for the young and young at heart to make for our mothers.  It has a lot of card ideas as well as gifts for giving.


This last e-book is Easter Crafts from bloggers and it is their 2009 edition.

I find the ideas in these books fun and inspiring.  Even if I don't make the crafts exactly as written, they get my creative juices flowing.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
Blessings,
Nancy

Monday, March 29, 2010

Crochet lace rim makes a Sweet Easter Bowl



Here is a fun way to bling up a plain plastic bowl.  The bowls were $1 at Target.  The varigated yarn is in pretty Easter colors and can be purchased at Michaels. 
I used my Crop-a-dile to punch 3/16" holes all around the bowl  This bowl had ridges.  I punched a hole at each ridge and a hole between each ridge.  This way they were evenly spaced out.  It ended up I had 60 holes around my bowl each about 1/2" apart.
I created my own lace crochet pattern.  I'm not a crochet pattern writter but I will describe it the best I can.
I used a size G crochet hook because that was the largest hook I had that would still fit through the holes. 

As I went around the bowl the first time through each of the holes in the bowl, I did a single crochet and a chain 1.

The second row around I did a single, double, single in every other chain 1 space.  In the alternate chain 1 spaces I did just a single crochet.

On the thrid round, in every other single space I did 5 double crochet stitches to make a scallop.  I attached each side of the scallop down with a single crochet.

On the fourth and final round, I did a chain 4 then a single crochet into every other stitch around the entire bowl.



There are 6 ladies in my crochet group so I've got 6 little bunnies in the bowl.  I'm thinking they will enjoy seeing what I created all on my own.

I'd love to see what Easter creations you are working on.  Please leave me a comment so I can see your work.
Blessings,

Monday, March 8, 2010

Beaded Doily Coaster

Hi Friends,
My in-laws were visiting this past weekend. My mother-in-law is an amazing beader. I've taught her how to weave some baskets throughout the years and this weekend she taught me to do the above beaded coaster. It is just the right size to sit my cup of coffee on in the mornings so you get an idea of its size. Took me about 4 hours to make.
Beading is one of those few crafts that I've not yet gotten involved in doing. I keep telling myself I CAN'T start another hobby!
Have a wonderful day!
Nancy
This Post links to:
Sumo's Sweet Stuff
Skip to My Lou
The Girl Creative
A Soft Place to Land
My Frugal Family
Lucky Star Lane
Today's Creative Blog
Someday Crafts

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Paper Crafting Easter Tree Ornaments

Good Morning Friends,
I've been having fun using my Cricut machine to make some ornaments for my little Easter tree.
You could use any die cutting machine or cut some out by hand. The key is that they need to be basically symmetrical images on the left and right sides.

Cut out five of each shape from double sided cardstock and stitch all five images together with some heavy thread. Then fold the top two pieces toward you and the bottom two pieces fold away from you to make a 3-D ornament. I then added a few beads to the top and bottom on the string for embellishment.

Here is my finished Easter tree that I put together just using six branches with tiny flowers that I got at Hobby Lobby. For the hanging eggs, I drilled holes in the tops of plastic eggs and threaded a ribbon into the eggs for a hanger.
Have a Blessed Sunday,
Nancy


This post links to:


DIY Day @ ASPTL

giveaways
Bird Crafts Party

Read more: http://birdcrafts.blogspot.com/2010/03/easter-link-party.html#ixzz0iv0eUNXi

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Free Crochet and Knit E-Book

FaveCrafts has done it again. This time they've teamed up with Red Heart and have put together this great e-book for crocheting and knitting. I'll have to show you some of my crochet work that I've been doing lately. I just need to get busy and photograph it. Anyway, be sure to download your free e-book HERE. This e-book has 21 crochet afghan patterns and 4 knit afghan patterns.
Enjoy your day today. May you find a little time to do some weaving or crafting.
Nancy

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Altered Composition Notebook



Good Morning Everyone!
I wanted to take just a quick moment to share with you my gardening journal that I have been using. I take short notes as to what I plant and when. I also include where in the garden the plants are located and how well they produced. Coming up this will be my third year for it and I've already written that I started my tomato and pepper seeds. It was just a simple composition notebook that I covered with patterned paper and then added 3D embellishments. I made the yo-yo flowers as well as I crocheted the butterflies. I've added pebbles, beads, rick-rack and chipboard. Surprisingly everything has stayed attached very well over three years now. It is a notebook that makes me smile.
Baskets of Happiness,
Nancy
I'll be linking this post at:

Sumo's Sweet StuffMaking DIY Day @ ASPTLPhotobucket
BCD Show and tellMaking your home sing Mondays

Grab a cup of coffee and take time to enjoy some posts from the past

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