How to make illuminated Easter eggs

I'm kind of in love with those little battery operated tea lights. I used them to make illuminated large crystal Easter eggs featured over at Craftside. I made this set with smaller plaster Easter eggs that have a glitter surface.

I decorated the base of the tea light with a strip of washi tape.

 I tried several different ways to drill the hole in the bottom of the plastic egg. I cracked a few. The best way I found was to use a cone shaped sanding bit on my Dremel.

I used a bit of hot glue to attache the eggs to the tea lights so they would stand straight up.

How to make a double loop bead bail for a side drilled hole bead

I have had these beautiful sick green colored beads for so long but couldn't figure out how to make a pair of earrings with them because the holes in them went sideways and I don't really like wire wrapping. Well, I finally figured out a way to hang them and I thought I'd share it with you.

Here are some of my first attempts that I didn't like.

1. I tried to use a giant jump ring, I couldn't make it symmetrical and I chipped a bead doing it.
2. I tried the wire wrapping but just convinced myself I didn't like it.
3. I tried a loop on each end and thought maybe I would hang a chain but still thought that would be too big/fancy.
4. My success!

Here is how I made what I am calling a double loop bead bail.

I threaded a piece of wire through the bead.

Then I bent the wire around the top of the bead and bent the two ends up to run next to each other.

 Then I slid a small white bead over both wires and bent them out in opposite directions.
I then formed loops with both wires so that they aligned next to each other.

 I trimmed each wire loop so that it wrapped around twice.
All that was left to do was link them onto the earring wires.

For more great jewelry making inspiration check out one of my all time favorite inspiration books

1000 Jewelry Inspirations
by
Sandra Salamony

A visual catalog for jewelry, bead artists, and crafters for hundreds of ideas at their fingertips to inspire their own projects.

1,000 Jewelry Inspirations is a stunning showcase of contemporary jewelry pieces that will feed the creative appetites of crafters and jewelry makers everywhere. Become inspired by this feast of color, sparkle, texture, dimension, and clever, creative use of materials. From simple and elegant to beautiful and elaborate “bling”styles, over 1,000 full-color images will be at your fingertips to inspire your own creative projects. An exploration of jewelry-making techniques will help even inexperienced jewelry makers on their way to making beautiful jewelry.

What you’ll find:

Beads and Baubles

Paper and Mixed Media

Polymer and Precious Metal Clay

Vintage and Repurposed

Fibers and Fabric

Wire and Metal

How to make a bunny bookmark with an Annie's Macaroni and cheese box

This is just a cute and simple fun way to make a recycled bunny bookmark with the tab from the box of Annie's Macaroni and cheese. These could be a cute Easter project to use in a bunny story book.

Simply cut the side tab out along the corners of the box. Then very carefully with an x-acto knife cut the perforated lines on the box. Yup, that simple. And as you can see the little bunny ears stick out above the top edge of the book and look so cute!

 I will be making some projects from this super cute The Paper Hat Book: Super Hats for Super Kids book that include a lot of recycled materials like food boxes and pother pretty packaging.


Hats are pure fun and the perfect item to cap off any costume or ensemble. The right headgear ensures complete transformation, especially on the head of an imaginative child.

The Paper Hat Book offers creative families 20 fantastic paper hats, all of which can be created quickly and easily from readily accessible papers: shopping bags, newspapers, comics, recycled story books, magazines, packaging scraps, and junk mail!

Artist and designer Alyn Carlson creates hats that are perfect for birthday parties, playdates, costumes, and everyday dress up. Each hat can be styled to perfectly suit the wearer by merely selecting the right paper and colors. The hat themes range from Floral Flappers to Viking Warriors, and from superheroes and pirates to beautiful butterfly hats.

Alyn Carlson is an artist, designer, stylist and part time chicken rancher living in a converted church who believes in setting the table for the muse. Always in search of the line, font, pattern, seed, flavor, musical note to be placed at the right time in the right place. As a paper artist, her extraordinary hats, suitable for children and adults for a garden party, whimsical wedding, a paper-lover's birthday party or just-because, have been featured in countless blogs and in the current issue of Uppercase Magazine. Alyn is also featured in the best selling Design Sponge book.

Fancy Shamrock Crochet pattern from the book The Complete Photo Guide to Crochet 2nd Edition

I love crafting for holidays and it's never to soon to start making little embellishments like this fancy shamrock for the book The Complete Photo Guide to Crochet, 2nd Edition for St. Patrick's Day.

F A N C Y  S H A M R O C K

Skill Level: Intermediate

Ch 6, join with a Sl st to form a ring.

Rnd 1: Work 18 sc in ring, join with Sl st to first sc.

Rnd 2: Ch 1 (counts as first sc now and throughout), skip first

sc, 1 sc in each sc around, join with Sl st to beg ch-1.

Rnd 3: Ch 1, skip first ch, 1 sc in each of next 5 sc, [ch 10,

1 sc in each of next 6] twice, ch 12, join with Sl st to beg ch-1.

Rnd 4: Ch 1, skip first ch, 1 sc in each of next 4 sc, [22 sc

in next ch-10 space, 1 sc in each next 5 sc] twice, 24 sc next

ch-12 space, join with Sl st to beg ch-1.

Rnd 5: Ch 1, 1 sc in next 4 sc, *[ch 4, skip 2 sc, Sl st next

sc] 7 times, sc in next 5 sc, rep from * once, [ch 4, skip 2 sc,

Sl st next sc] 8 times, join with a Sl st to beg ch-1.

Rnd 6: Ch 1, skip next sc, 1 sc in next sc, [5 sc in next ch-4

space] 7 times, skip next 2 sc, Sl st in next sc, ch 18 for stem,

1 sc in 3rd ch from hook, 1 sc in each of next 15 ch, Sl st

in next sc on Main Motif, [5 sc in next ch-4 space] 7 times,

skip next 2 sc, 1 sc in next sc, skip next 2 sc, [5 sc next ch 4

space] 8 times, join with a Sl st in first sc, end off.

More about the CPi book:

The Complete Photo Guide to Crochet, 2nd Edition

*All You Need to Know to Crochet *The Essential Reference for Novice and Expert Crocheters *Comprehensive Guide to Crochet Tools and Techniques *Packed with Hundreds of Tips and Ideas *Step-by-Step Instructions for 220 Stitch Patterns

By Margaret Hubert
This is a comprehensive reference book on all aspects of crochet.
This book provides a reference for all methods, including Tunisian, intermeshing, broomstick lace, hairpin lace, and freeform crochet.
Includes step-by-step instructions for all the basic stitches and swatches of 100s of stitch patterns with completeinstructions. Now with:

• 15 all new projects
• 20 new stitch patterns (220 in all)
• Expanded basics
• Hundreds of tips and ideas

Margaret Hubert designs for yarn companies and book and magazine publishers including Crochet, Interweave Press, Quick and Easy Crochet, Crochet Fantasy, and Belle Armoire. She teaches at yarn shops, retreats, and national gatherings and rarely misses a national conference in the needle arts field. Among her specialties, she is a master at freeform crochetand knitting. She is the author of many books and currently resides in Pawling, NY. Visit her online at http://www.margarethubertoriginals.com and http://margaretshooksandneedles.blogspot.com.

How to make a recycled wine crate footstool

I am always looking for fun ways to use my fabric stash and create pretty storage in my home. Today's recycled wine crate foot stool project does just that!

The cushion top is made with Foamology Twelve Piece Design Foam  and 12 of my favorite quilt fabric pieces along with some scrap wood, buttons and 4 wooden ball feet.

My wine crate wasn't the exact size of the Foamology Twelve square Foam  piece so I made the lid a bit bigger. I didn't know exactly how much extra puffy the foam would be with the fabric on it so I decided to cover it first before I made the frame lid.

I wanted to fussy cut some of the fabric to include images and text so I made a velum template.

Once my foam was covered I measured it and cut some strips of wood to make the frame and a piece for the lid base.

 I glued the frame together and made sure it was square with my quilt ruler and the lid base as a guide.

Then I put the cushion into the frame and glued it down to the lid base holding it secure with a c-clamp on each corner.

I glued dice on the underside of the lid in each corner so that the lid would not slide around.

To embellish the cushion frame I cut the shanks off of a variety of buttons USING EYE PROTECTION!!!!!! as the shanks can go flying even if you are holding the button with the shank side down.

 I made 4 rows of buttons to make sure I had a nice variety for each side. All that was left to do was glue the buttons around the frame border and the ball feet on the bottom of the wine crate.

 If you like making things with fabric the book

1000 Quilt Inspirations: Colorful and Creative Designs for Traditional, Modern, and Art Quilts

is a great resource for tons of ideas: