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Free Art & Craft Project Ideas

I'm a do it yourself kind of gal. As I take on art & craft projects and home repairs, I'll be selecting a few to post on this page. I'll be including free holiday and Christmas crafts and ideas with detailed instructions, as well as links to other sites with great patterns and instructions. Many of these crafts and projects make use of recycled materials. Please check out the Resources page for information on where you can get both new and recycled online supplies. If you're local, I've included some of my best sources for recycled and vintage materials.

For the most part, the projects, how tos, and art & craft ideas are free, but please obtain written permission before reprinting any of my instructions and photos. If you like the ideas either bookmark or link to them.

Free Art & Craft Projects and Ideas

How to Make Hang Tags

Tea Staining Hang Tags Tea staining remains a popular aging technique. On this page are step by step instructions to make your own hang tags. The staining technique will work on regular paper as well.

Quilt YoYo Flower Button Hang Tags I had great success with the yoyo flower hang tags. They are fairly easy to make. Finding a vintage yoyo quilt is ideal. You can often find them at garage sales, estate sales and flea markets. I have made the yoyos using scrap material.

YoYo Quilt Besides being a great way to use up scrap fabric, YoYos are useful for many projects. Since many sites give instructions for yoyos, I'm not going to write my own, but give you a link to another site.

Magnets

Vintage Photos Refrigerator Magnets

Ornaments & Free Christmas Crafts

Victorian Christmas Ornaments These beautiful ornaments are made from wood discs, Victorian images, gold tone garland and hook and glitter (of course).

Relish Fork Tassel Ornaments These little tassel ornaments go well with the Victorian Christmas ornaments. This is a great way to use up some of your old trims and other embellishments while making a great decorative and useful item.

How to Alter a Domino Instructions for altering a domino using a vintage image.

Do It Yourself Projects

Rewiring a Lamp Although this was not written by me, I think this is a great page with detailed instructions and excellent photos on how to rewire a lamp.

How to Embellish a Lampshade This page includes step by step instructions on how to embellish a shade with chainette, trim and various other things.

How to Make a Repurposed Lamp This is my own quick youtube video on how to make a lamp from re purposed/recycled materials. Grab your flea market, garage sale and/or estate sale finds and make a lamp.

How to Make a Lamp out of a Candle Holder This is another youtube video of mine. This shows up close how to wire a lamp. It shows an underwriter's knot. An underwriter's knot keeps the cord inside the insulated socket if someone accidentally pulls on the cord.

Painting Old Furniture and Paint Primers This is a discussion about using primers on painted furniture. In particular, I'm discussing the use of paint primers in refurbishing old painted furniture that you can find at garage sales, estates sales and flea markets.

Recipes

Sue's Flax Seed and Walnut Pesto

I try my best to give detailed instructions and photo. If I have made mistakes, please feel free to email me, so that they may be corrected. Please read and follow any safety precautions for the tools and materials you use for these projects.

Slap my Granny Apple Butter Recipe

We're up to our ears in apples. I'm in the process of making apple butter. The name is from my friend Kristie, who exclaimed "Makes me want to slap my granny" after tasting some of my apple butter.

Mulled Apple Cider Jelly

Treat yourself to a wonderfully tasting jelly and at the same time fill your home with mouth-watering fragrances. This is just a slight modification on your typical apple jelly recipe.