The Crafty Month of March in Review

March is National Craft Month

March is 'National Craft Month', a month which also includes National Crochet Week. 

This is the perfect time to look at some handmade crafty creations, including DIY projects and tutorials, and read some articles about the art of crafting to get you in the mood for creating.

 

To Craft means to make or produce something skillfully.

Craft in Green for St. Patrick's Day

Crafting for holidays is quite often a popular endeavor.  Since the month of March includes the St. Patrick's Day holiday, crafters enjoy the opportunity to 'Craft in St. Patrick's Day Green'. 

St. Patrick's Day Octopus on eBay

Craft Ideas for National Craft Month

• If you check out the Craft Section here on Review This, you will find many articles with crafts to try for all the other holidays during the year from Thanksgiving to Valentine's Day and throughout the year right back to the Fall Holidays which begin with Halloween!

• Or try out one of these DIY Craft Books with projects and gift ideas for a large variety of holidays available on Amazon.

• A fun example is the one for the next nearest holiday – Easter.  DIY Projects & Gift Ideas for Easter is filled with amazingly easy guided gift ideas for beginners to the more experienced (with pictures!) and is available in Amazon's Kindle Store. 

Handmade gifts are such a joy to create, give and receive and this book will give you lots of crafty ideas.  There are homemade Easter crafts in the popular areas of Easter Eggs and Easter Bunnies and fun DIY Easter food, to name a few of the projects available in this book.

Time to Get Crafting...

Golden Bunny Girl on eBay

This sweet bunny girl in gold is all dressed up for Easter in a pretty dress. Bunny rabbit in crochet is hopping by to remind you that if you love to craft, but find life getting in the way and your crafting time getting put on a back-burner, circle the month of March on your calendar and use National Craft Month as a reminder to restore your creative self!  

Crochet crafter Wednesday Elf uses National Crochet Week in March as her reminder.

If you are a crafter and have a DIY tutorial to share with those of us who love hand-crafts, please feel free to share a link with us in the comments section. 
 

Wednesday Elf on Etsy
Follow Wednesday Elf on Twitter
Crochet Blog by Wednesday Elf

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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Garden Decor Project: Make a Mosaic Pot

Mosaic Pot by Mickie_G

A few summers ago, I made the mosaic pot you see to the left at a workshop sponsored by Aldridge Gardens in Hoover, Alabama.

Ever since I was a child, I have loved creating crafts that involved tile. I remember my mother taking me to the hobby shop every year just before our annual summer visit to my grandmother. My mom knew that if she let me pick out a craft kit, I would not get bored. More often than not, I chose a mosaic kit.

I still remember the 6" circular dish I made with prayerful hands in the middle. The kit came with enough 1/4 inch square tiles for me to play with the design if I did not want to make one just like the example on the box lid. I usually I ended up choosing a checkerboard pattern.  These mosaic craft kits filled my days with much happiness and gave my parents a vacation from entertaining me, I imagine. But enough reminiscing!

I won't go into how I made the mosaic pot shown in the images on this page, but I will share with you some things I did learn about tile covered pots:

• Do not leave your mosaic pot outside during the winter months as the freezing temperatures will cause the pot to break and the mosaic pieces to fall off.

• If you use broken dishes or crockery, it is best to use totally flat pieces if you use larger, broken bits.  It is easier to rub off the grout if there are no sharp points that are higher than your decorative shards. You can see in the photo below that I used some broken pieces from a plate. I should have trimmed the sharp points on the edges off. 

• To break up dishes and crockery, put them between several sheets of newsprint before you break them up with a small hammer. 

• If you want to preserve the pattern as it is on the dish, use duck tape on the back of the dish before you break it into pieces.

• Try to fit the "tiles" close together as possible but still leave enough room for the grout. I think I left too much space so there is a lot of grout space. 
• Wear a mask to mix up your dry grout and powdered mastic. This is a MUST!

• Gloves for your hands are another must when rubbing in the grout. Surgical ones work best. 

Close up of my mosaic pot. 

 
I used glass globs and a broken dish. 
Can you see the buttons, too?

I am a "keeper" of useful things and a recycler of the broken and chipped, so I have a stockpile of broken dishes and pottery. However, I do not have the supplies like the grout and ceramic tile adhesive for making a mosaic piece.

Here is a video by "DIY Maven" that I discovered on YouTube that shows a very similar and easy process for making a mosaic flower pot.

There are several articles on Squidoo that might whet your appetite for making other types of mosaic crafts. Unfortunately, there are none about how to make a pot like mine. How To Mosaic: Art For Your Garden is a good introductory article to the craft of mosaics. 

If you like the idea of a "kit", I found several mosaic craft kits for children available on Amazon. Here are a few links for you: Kits for ages 14+; kits for ages 8 to 13; Kits for ages 5-7 years; Kits for ages 2 to 4. Most of the kits for young children use foam pieces and no grout. That is a good thing.

Keep your hands busy, y'all!

Photos: Mickie_G - all rights reserved.

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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A Craft Project that eases my fear of Spray On Glue!

I have always been afraid to try aerosol adhesives! Yes, I am a chicken when it comes to paying good money for something that I have no idea how to use -- also, I have heard "glue everywhere!" horror stories from my friends who have tried using such products and I was definitely scared off. Even my own daughter tried using a  good name brand  spray adhesive for a design project when she was in college and told me in precise detail why she would never use a spray glue again. 

(*Always follow manufactures's suggestions on the safe usage of their products! Click 3M: Tips and Techniques to read about how to use a spray on glue.)


Today, however, I am inspired to give spray on glue a try. "Why?" you are asking. Well, I recently read an article that gave me inspiration for a project that would put this sticky product to a good use.

How I Made My Retro-Style Bulletin Board for My Craft Room  written by a Review This! contributor, decoratingforevents, showed me in excellent photographic detail how to create a bulletin board for my own home office. One tip I found especially helpful was to use "re-positionable" spray-on glue. That tip totally made good sense for someone like me who is very often a crafting klutz.

Lensmaster Decoratingforevents also found some very attractive retro-fabrics that took me back to the 50's and 60's. (Who would have ever predicted that the futuristic designs of that bygone era would EVER come back in fashion?) Another reason I like this bulletin board project: the author used a Glue Gun! As as a Glue Gun Slinger  that made me very happy, indeed.

Now, I am off to drool over the fabrics that decoratingforevents found on Amazon to see which one I can use to pull my "office" together with my own retro-style bulletin board. I just might purchase some spray adhesive, too.

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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