Buying art can be expensive, but if you have a picture frame and scrapbook paper you can create fun affordable art.

This is a personalized piece by creating my name using the alphabet instructions. Great for a baby’s room! The possibilities are endless though with origami-club.com’s great diagram or animated instructions. You could make flowers or animals or even landscapes.

How to make it?

The frame is a 6 3/4 x 4 3/4 from Ikea. The letters were made from 2 x 2 squares. After making the letters I taped them to the background to hold them in place and put the frame back togehter.

Get ready for Lunar New Year with these fun paper crafts!

Origami tiger from Origami-club.com

Red tube firecrackers from Kaboose

*Images are from their respective sites.

This is one project I wish I had thought of myself.

I saw these adorable heart-shaped paperclips from How About Orange… last year. The best part is you can do it yourself bending the paperclip at the midpoint.

Visit the original blog post for the photo tutorial.

Perfect for Valentines day!

I recently re-painted my son’s bedroom. In the process, I was able to caulk up existing nail holes and pretty much start from scratch as far as wall hanging placement.

I decided that for his name wall hanging, instead of nailing the letters to the wall, I would adhere them to the wall with some glue dots that I found at the craft store. The great thing about these dots is that they are strong enough to secure the wood letters to the wall and are removable (with no damage–yet anyways!–to his newly painted walls).

These glue dots have been a great find for my decorating purposes, especially when I change my mind about placement…no ugly nail holes to contend with!

One of my first Amigurumi's - mama and baby turtle

As a newbie knitter I had learned about craftser.org, a forum for crafters to share their FO (finished objects) and patterns. While browsing I fell in love with these little crochet animals called amigurumi.

I immediately wanted to learn how to crochet and went about searching for online tutorials. I quickly learned how to sc, increase and decrease. But the most useful tutorial I found was this one on making a magic ring.

A magic ring is used to start the circle and allows you to pull the tail tight so that you get a nice clean top without holes.

Some of my other favorite tutorials are at these sites:

- hooksandneedles.com

- lionbrand.com – learn to crochet

If you’re wondering what amigurumi look like there’s a ton of adorable ones in the Flickr amigurumi group!

I gave my son a bath the other day and noticed that the hoodie towels that he’s been using ever since he was born were getting a little small. They would probably be okay if the weather were warmer but since we’re just at the beginning of winter, I thought he could use some larger, warmer towels so I decided to make a couple for him. Here’s how to make some toddler towels:

1) Find some towels of your own that you don’t use often.

2) Cut the bottom portion off (the vertical length) and used that piece for his hood (cut out a triangular piece). TIP: If you’re using various towels, you can swap out the hood pieces for a contrasting effect.

3) To cover the fraying, I cover the cut edges (on both the hood and the side of the towel) with ribbon or you can roll hem.

4) Sew the hoodie to one of the top corners of the towel.

5) You’re done! Your little one has a new towel!

I once gave a friend a birthday card that said, “A fun party is one where you leave with your underwear on your head, but a GREAT party is when you leave with someone ELSE’S!” Ok, so this tip isn’t about underwear but it is about parties and head-wear.

This was a last minute addition to my little girls birthday decorations. It didn’t even occur to me to have a birthday hat for her until the afternoon of her birthday. Luckily I had everything on hand to whip one up!

Here’s the lowdown:

1. Cut a half circle out of 12×12 cardstock. The half circles radius should be at least 6 inches.

2. Roll into a cone and mark the front center and where the edge overlaps.

3. Use a pencil to write/draw a message on the front where you marked the center. In my case I made a big 1 and BIRTHDAY underneath. I added a little glitter to the number to make it stand out.

4. While waiting for the glitter to dry, make the topping ribbons. Two types of ribbon in various colors will add a lot of interest to the hat. Cut about 6 strips into 4 inch lengths. Tie in the middle and then tape the tails to the inside center so that it will stick out of the point.

5. Use glue or double sided tape to hold the hat together. Place a heavy object inside the hat, with the glue/taped side down to secure.

6. Punch two holes on the sides for securing the hat on the wearer. I used ribbon but think elastic would have been a better choice.  Attach the string through the holes.

7. Using double sided tape, tape a 1/2 inch width ribbon to the rim of the hat.

These would make great New Years Eve hats too!

While I was digging through my holiday decorations box, I came across some old Christmas cards that I had received last year. It sparked an idea for a decoration for the vertical window next to my front door. This is a quick way to spruce up any window, wall or staircase. All you need is ribbon, tape and holiday cards!

Here are the easy steps:

1) Normally, holiday cards are bi-fold so I just cut the back off and just work with the front of the card (which has the nice holiday picture on it!). If you’re hanging them horizontally, don’t cut the cards! Just hang the cards by the fold (the ribbon will be inside the card) and keep in place with tape or a staple!

2) Adhere the cards – in any arrangment – to your ribbon. Your ribbon length will be dependent on where you hang it. Mine runs the length of my vertical window. Card hangings along the staircase will take up more ribbon (and cards). Additionally, I wanted any visitors to be able to see the holiday card pics from outside, so I paired up the cards (with similar sizes) and just taped them back to back.

Again, if you’re hanging them horizontally, just hang the cards by the fold (the ribbon will be inside the card) and keep in place with tape or a staple.

TIP: If you hang the cards vertically, you’ll want to be sure that the ribbon can support the weight of the cards. In my case, I just double knotted the ribbon that I tied to the rod to make sure the ribbon doesn’t unravel.

One summer I worked in the Wrap and Send department of what was then Dayton’s (now Macy’s). It was a fun job because one of my best friends worked there along with a handful of other high school students. What was better then hanging out with friends and wrapping presents in pretty paper?

While I already knew how to wrap gifts (my mom use to make my sister and I do all the holiday gift wrapping!) I did learn a few great tips to make the gift look spectacular. With the upcoming holidays here are some tips to make your presents pop:

Instead of taping the paper closed in the middle of the bottom of the box, tape it to the edge. Its one step to fold the paper over and tape.

Then after wrapping the gift define the edges by running pinched fingers along the sides. This gives the gifted a “finished” look.

A little ribbon goes a long way! Make a bow first and then tie it on with a second piece. By making the bow first you don’t have to wrestle with the ends to make them face the right way. Ribbon with wire works best since you can shape it and “curl” the tails.

When I was working at the ad agency, I had the opportunity to work with the New Business group which was responsible for finding new clients and pitching our great advertising ideas. I remember during one project, we wanted to find a really creative way to reveal some objectives and someone mentioned fortune cookies. The only way to do was to make some real fortune cookies. Being the young and naive account executive, I volunteered for this task. And fortunately for me, I pulled it off!

This project got me thinking about making an easier, non-edible version that could also incorporate a lot of colors. Using the same concept as the cookie recipe, I figured that all I would need are felt, thin wire (for shaping), ribbon and a glue gun. Let the fun begin–here’s how to assemble your “cookies” (no baking required!):

1) Cut felt circles. I recommend 4″ and higher depending on what you plan on putting in it.

2) Cut thin wire and glue along the center of the felt circle.

3) Cover the wire (while the glue is still hot) with ribbon.

4) Bend the circle to form a fortune cookie shape!

5) Insert paper, candy, ribbon, etc.

This project is great for parties! Suggestions for its use:

1) Drawing names for Secret Santa

2) Writing down clues for a party guessing game

3) Putting in a few pieces of candy for party favors

4) Name place holders for the dinner table

5) Fun, colorful decorations (put in a large bowl)

6) Unique Christmas tree decorations with family members’ names inside