I could not start writing this post fast enough when I saw this adorable DIY sewing-themed chess set from Stash Books. The chessboard is a small quilt, and all the pieces are made of various sewing-related items put together to represent various chess pieces. The pawns are bobbins on blocks, the knights are teeny scissors inside spools, and the King and Queen are spools + blocks, with thimbles on top. I LOVE it! [how to make the sewing themed chess set]

The items that Sue used to design this chess board weren't from the dollar store, but you could definitely find some suitable items at the dollar store. They have travel sewing kits that contain tiny spools of thread and mini scissors. You can sometimes find thread, blocks in the toy section, and tomato-shaped pincushions. You could definitely improvise your way to an awesome chess set using this one as an inspiration. Use stash fabric to sew the board, or how about Mod Podge-ing some decorative paper to an old checkerboard you find at the thrift store?

You can also find a variety of wooden items to build the set with over at Casey's Wood. They have spools, cubes, wooden thimbles, egg stands (for the bishop), and any other wooden piece you can imagine.

Project Estimate:

• Package of wooden blocks, $1
• 8 spools, about $5
• Various wooden pieces, $5-10
• Stash fabric, on hand
• Craft paint, on hand or about $.50 per color
• Stash scrapbooking paper or $1

Total: $11 and up

p.s. this is just a guess at cost because what you have on hand and what you decide to use to make the set will vary. I encourage you to work from your stash whenever you can! Use it up.

How do you store your glass bulb ornaments every year? Here's a clever idea for glass ornament storage from the Design a la Mod blog. Use a medium-large plastic storage bin and plastic punch glasses to safely store bulbs individually from year to year. Are you ready to take your holiday decorations down yet? You are now! [how to store glass bulbs]

Project Estimate:

• 1 pack of plastic party tumblers, $1
• Corrugated cardboard, on hand
• Hot glue and glue gun, on hand
• Scissors, on hand
• Plastic bin,  $5 and up

Total: $6

RIT Dye sent me a 10 pound box of dye -- their full line of liquid dyes, 25 colors! I am the proud owner of an insane amount of dye now, and you can be too! I'm giving away the same package to one lucky commenter. Giveaway details at the bottom of this post. The sweepstakes is now closed! Congrats to our winner.

But back to the tree skirt! Let me tell you how I made it.

Overdyed Patchwork Christmas Tree Skirt

Project Materials:

• Dollar store tree skirt, $1
• 8 pieces of stash fabric (at least 24" long and 12" wide), on hand
• Rit Liquid Dye, 2 colors (I used Scarlet and Aquamarine), $3.99 each
• Assorted trim. on hand
• Sewing machine, thread, scissors
• A piece of leftover gift wrap

Total: $9

For this project, we are going to use stash fabric. You know you have some! I used four different Christmas fabrics that I had on hand. You can use any fabric, of nearly any color. The beauty of using the Rit Dye is that when you overdye the fabrics, they become color coordinated. This is a great way to use up fabric you don't like anymore, or make coordinating fabric out of odd scraps.

If you don't have any stash fabric, you could use old clothing (men's cotton dress shirts would provide a lot of fabric), or flour sack towels from the dollar store.

The Rit Dye Liquid Dye line has 25 colors to choose from, but you can also mix your own color (over 500 colors, including this year's hot fashion colors) using their ColoRit Formula Guide.

Step 1: Over-Dyeing the Fabric

You need to read all the instructions that come with your dye. The instructions below are an overview of my process, but do not cover everything.

1. First, launder your fabrics if they have never been washed before. You don't have to dry them because you're just going to toss them into some dye anyway.

2. Read all instructions and determine how you are going to dye your fabric (in the washing machine, in the microwave, or in a pot on the stove). I chose to dye my fabric on the stove because it seemed like the most self-contained way to do it.

3. Use a pot that is only for dyeing or crafting (don't use it for food after you have used dye in it). I have a 5 quart stock pot in my craft stash left over from my soapmaking days.

4. Heat up water on the stove, then shake your liquid dye and add your desired amount. Remember, it is better to add less than you need at first, because you can always add more later.

5. Let it cook in the hot water until the fabric reaches your desired shade of color. Remember, when it is wet it will appear several shades darker than the final result.

6. Rinse fabric out in cold water until rinse water runs clear.

7. I laundered mine in the washing machine (cold water) after this.

Step 2: Sewing the Tree Skirt

It's been awhile since I designed a sewing project for you! If you are afraid of sewing, this is a great beginner project (you only have to sew straight lines, and no finishing needed!). If you refuse to sew, you can do this project, but just use hot glue or fabric glue to attach the fabric pieces to the tree skirt. Cover seams with ribbon or ric rac.

The basic process for sewing the skirt is sewing fabric "pie pieces" to a piece of stabilizer -- we are going to use the dollar store tree skirt as a base to sew our fabric on top of. This will provide a template to keep the tree skirt, well, looking like a tree skirt, and it will also add body to the tree skirt so it's a double layer of fabric. The process is similar to the one I used for these crazy quilt blocks. The good news is, felt is easy to sew on!

Make the Pie Piece Pattern

First, let's make a template for our pie pieces.

1. Fold your dollar store tree skirt into half, half again, and half again. This will give you a shape that looks kind of like a pie piece, and should be roughly 1/8 of the circle of your tree skirt.

2. Using a piece of scrap wrapping paper (I used thicker kraft wrapping paper from the dollar store), Cut out a paper pattern for your pie piece.

3. You need to cut 8 of these pie pieces. Some of my fabric was too narrow for these pieces, so I folded the paper template in half so it looked like a 1/16 piece of pie.

Whatever the width of your pie pieces, you need enough to add up to one complete pie!

I ended up with 6 regular pie pieces, and 4 skinny pie pieces. I ended up needing another little skinny piece at the end of the skirt, too... so it was a 1 & 1/16 pie!

Sew the Pie Pieces to the Base Tree Skirt

1. Lay your dollar store tree skirt base out flat on your work surface. Lay your first pie piece down, right side UP on top of the skirt, matching edge to edge. Sew a seam down the edge of the tree skirt.

Because our tree skirt has a deconstructed look, we are just going to leave the seam and raw edge of the fabric exposed.

2. From now on, we are going to be laying each pie piece face DOWN on top of the previous piece, and then sew the new seam, then flip the new pie piece over. And repeat until the skirt is completely covered with fabric pie pieces.

This is what it looks like after you have flipped the pie piece over so the good side is showing.

Because the burlap pieces were so stiff, I flipped them over, then sewed them down before sewing the next piece on. You can see the red thread showing from where I sewed it down. I thought it looked cool.

3.  At the end of the skirt, when you've sewed all the pieces on, sew a final seam down on the edge of the tree skirt.

4. I also folded the "waist" part of the skirt over and sewed a topstitch just to make it look a little more finished, but you don't have to do that. You can leave it as is, or trim it with pinking shears.

5. You can also topstitch around the bottom hem of the skirt if you like.

The skirt looks pretty good just like this, but I was so excited that the project worked exactly like I imagined (no craftfails!) that I kept going and added a bunch of crazy trim.

Whenever you do get done with the skirt, be sure to iron it!

I added a little machine embroidery, too. I added a couple lines of decorative stitching, and also "Merry Christmas 2001."

I added crazy stripes of ball fringe. All in the name of stashbusting, I assure you!

My little model helped me get the right shot.

I had to go to my husband's office to use their Christmas tree to get a shot of the skirt in action. (We don't have our tree yet!). This one looks like a 1970s craft book, I think!

Dyeing this Christmas fabric was just the beginning. I have been dyeing everything that isn't nailed down since I did this project. I have dyed tea towels, t-shirts, doilies, and some PJ pants (they were so loud before I dyed them - turquoise with hot pink peace signs! I would have LOVED them in 4th grade.)

Dye Resources:

• RitDye.com - tons of craft projects and dyeing inspiration there.
• Rit Dye Color Community on Facebook

Rit Dye Liquid Dye Giveaway!

Our giveaway is now over! Congratulations to our winner:

So, who wants to try their hand at dyeing stuff? Thanks to my sponsor Rit Dye, I am giving away the ENTIRE LINE of Rit Liquid Dyes!

One lucky reader will win 25 bottles of Rit Dye - 1 in every color available.  To enter, answer this question: What would you like to refashion using Rit Dye?

1. You must comment on this post to enter to win.

Giveaway open to United States residents only, 18 and older. Ends on Thursday, December 15th, 2011 at 11:59 PM. Full rules here.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Rit Dye. All opinions are 100% mine.

Make an everyday lunch a little more exciting by turning a plain brown lunch sack into a cute gingerbread house. These bags are great for lunch, but they are also a great way to inexpensively wrap holiday gifts. Your kids can get in on the action and help you, too! There's a job for all ages in this project, from drawing and coloring, to sticking embellishments onto the house.

I had a lot of fun making these little paper gingerbread houses. In a lot of ways, they are more fun to decorate than real gingerbread houses.

I tried out some of Aleene's Dry Adhesives products on this gingerbread house. Aleene's Dry Adhesives come from the maker of Aleene's Tacky Glue (my favorite craft glue), and are just what they sound like - glues that you can use that are not wet or messy. I especially like this type of glue when I am crafting with small kids (read: my three boys) who are likely to get wet glue all over the place! Aleene's Dry Adhesives come in all different forms, including Tacky Dots that come on a roll, Tacky Line Rolls - a continuous line of dry adhesive that you can cut to your desired length. There are a lot of other Dry Adhesives, but the Tacky Dots and Tacky Line are what I used for this project.

The Tacky Dots are the ideal adhesive for attaching shrinky charms in this project to paper. They are small enough to use with very small charms, and they have a strong stickiness that stays attached to the slick plastic and the paper.

Project Materials:

• Brown paper lunch sack, 10 for $1
• Contrasting paper (scrapbook or construction paper), on hand or $1 and up
• White paint marker, on hand or $1 and up
• Colored pencils, on hand
• Permanent markers, on hand
• Shrinky plastic or recycled #6 plastic, on hand or $5 and up
• Aleene's Dry Adhesives: Tacky Dots Small Dot Roll ($5.99) and (optional) Tacky Line Rolls ($6.99)
• Ribbon, on hand or $1
• Hole punch, on hand
• Scissors

Total: $6.99 and up for 10 houses ($.69 each)

Make it for cheaper: Replace the shrinky plastic with foam Christmas stickers ($1). This will also eliminate the Tacky Dots, which are used to adhere the shrinky plastic charms to the paper. If you don't have a white paint marker, you can use white acrylic paint and a paintbrush. Total: $2

Lunchsack Gingerbread House Gift Bag Instructions:

Part 1: Make the Shrinky Charms:

You need:

• Shrinky plastic sheets (I used Shrinky Dink Ruff & Ready) OR recycled #6 clear plastic
• White paint marker
• Permanent markers
• Colored pencils
• Scissors
• Piece of brown kraft paper (or a paper bag) to lay charms on
• Your oven or toaster oven (set to 325 F or according to package directions)
• (Optional) Christmas clip art to trace

Before you begin: If you are making your own shrink plastic, you will need to condition your recycled #6 plastic by scuffing one side up with sandpaper. Also, for this step, print gingerbread candy clip art out so you can trace it, if desired.

Shrink plastic charms BEFORE

1. Draw or trace your gingerbread house charms on the shiny side of the shrink plastic with permanent or paint marker. Add background color by using colored pencils on the rough side of the plastic. You can color lightly, because they will get darker when they shrink.

Note: you want to draw the objects at least 3 times larger than the final product should be. My gingerbread man started out about 4" tall and shrunk down to about 1.25".

The paint markers work great on the shrinky plastic! I wanted white "frosting" on my gingerbread man, so I used a white paint marker on the shiny side of the plastic, and colored the back of it with brown colored pencil (I made sure to leave an extra brown outline around the outside of the white paint marker line)

2. Cut the shapes out with scissors, and place them on a piece of kraft paper to bake in the oven.

3. Bake according to package instructions (or, in a pre-heated 325 F degree oven for 3+ minutes). Remove from oven and allow to cool (gently flatten if needed, while plastic is still warm.)

Shrink plastic charms AFTER

Check out the cute little charms!

This is a great step for kids - have them draw their own candy and gingerbread. Or, if they are too young to draw them, let them color the back side of the items once you have drawn them.

Part 2: Draw the Gingerbread House

You need:

• Brown paper lunch sacks
• White paint marker

1. Have fun drawing a door, windows, trees, bushes, swirls, dots, and any other gingerbread house features on both sides of the bag. Leave at least 3 inches at the top of the bag so there is room for the roof.

Kids about age 5 and up can draw their own gingerbread houses.

Step 3: Attach Charms to Gingerbread House

You need:

• Gingerbread lunch sack
• Various shrinky charms
• Aleene's Dry Adhesives Tacky Dot Roll (Small Dots)

1. Place a single shrinky charm on a Tacky Dot to stick it, peel charm off plastic, and stick on your desired spot on the gingerbread house.

This step is good for kids of all ages, although you might need to help smaller kids adhere the Tacky Dots. Just hand them the ready-to-stick charm and let them decorate the bag.

Alternately,

Skip the Shrinky steps, and use foam Christmas stickers to decorate the house.

Step 4: Assemble the House

You need:

• Piece of scrapbook paper for roof
• Tacky Line Roll -OR-
• Hole punch and Ribbon (about 12" long)

1. Cut Roof paper about 1/2" wider than paper bag. For instance, my lunch sacks are 5" wide, so I cut a piece of paper that measured 5.5" square.

2. Fold roof paper in half.

3. Put a line of Tacky Line Roll along the bottom edge of roof. Attach to top of paper bag (I filled, trimmed and rolled my paper bag down before I attached the roof).

4. If your gift is already inside the bag, repeat with the other side of the roof.

Alternately,

Instead of gluing the roof on, you can punch 2 holes about 1-2" from each other in the roof and the paper bag. Thread ribbon through to tie the bag closed.

Thanks to Aleene's Dry Adhesives for sponsoring this post. If you would like to purchase this product, you can visit the Aleene's website: Aleene's Dry Adhesives.

Disclosure: I was provided this product to try, and compensated for my post. Opinions are my own.

Remember that silk screen kit that I used to make screen printed Christmas cards?  I've been having so much fun with it, and I just can't stop printing designs on things around the house!  Most recently I printed a fleur de lis motif on a pre-made pillow cover that I picked up at Dollar Tree, and I love how it turned out.  The pillow cover is stuffed with an old pillow that used to match my decor, but since we've gotten new furniture, it no longer really fit in the room.  Now it looks just perfect sitting at the end of my couch!  I wrote about it over at Decor Hacks, and I even shot a video to go with it!  Head over there to check it out, and if you are a YouTuber, make sure you subscribe to the Decor Hacks channel.  [how to make a no-sew silkscreened throw pillow]

Project estimate:

• Simply Screen kit, about $40
• Paper, on hand
• Permanent black marker, on hand or $1
• Pillow cover, $1 and up
• Cardboard, on hand
• Repositionable spray adhesive, on hand
• Old pillow, pillow form, or polyfill, on hand

Total: about $40 and up

One of the perks of my job is getting to try out cool new craft toys. This week, I got my hands on the new Martha Stewart Craft Station by EK Success. The Craft Station is a multi-use tool that can be used as a cutter, an embossing table, a light table (for tracing), and the cutting arm has a guide that can help with lining up stamps or other media. It currently retails for $164.99.

The kit includes the table, which is the main tool, and also several tracing templates with scrollwork, letters/numbers and sentiments (such as "Just Married"), a small embossing template, tools for embossing and cutting. One thing I appreciate about Martha Stewart's craft lines is that instead of creating single-purpose tools, she and her team develop products that have multiple uses and can be used in many different ways.

This tool does several different things, but I was most excited to find out that it is a light table (which means, the surface lights up, which helps when you want to trace something). There are also many crafty uses for light tables (check some out at Filth Wizardry: light table crafts -- although... you might not want to get too rough with the Martha Stewart light table!)

I am a complete newbie to light tables (beside my stint as a high school journalist - we actually pasted up our newspapers manually back in the early 90s), and have never used a light table for crafting at all. In fact, I am pretty green to fancy craft supplies, and have never used an embossing tool either. I have used a paper trimmer quite a bit, though!

Tracing with the Templates

As you can see, the light table makes it really easy to see through a piece of scrapbook paper. I traced a variety of the items on the templates, including some of the scrollwork, and a couple of phrases. The templates have small calibration lines next to every template to help you keep everything lined up perfectly.

I decided to test out the tracing templates with a regular piece of scrapbook paper and the only pens I could find -- Sharpies. I imagine you will get a slicker result if you use calligraphy pens. (Anyone a paper and pen nerd? What pen would you use for this project?) I was just testing out the process of tracing, so I wasn't as concerned with the pen choice. It was easy to see the scrolls through the paper on the light table, and fairly easy to follow along even though some of the scrollwork is really elaborate. The final result looks pretty good. The station would definitely make a cinch of creating fancy-looking hand-drawn cards.

I tried layering several of the scrolls (yes, it's a bit much), and I got so intent on following one of the scrolls that I forgot to adjust the template and oops, I scrolled right through the "Just Married." You can read a little more about that over at my CraftFail post: The Scrolls are Out of Controls.

Embossing With the Craft Station

I didn't stop with too many drawn scrolls! I also added some embossing to this "Baby Boy" design. I found that the embossing template was very easy to use with the included embossing tool. As you can see, I lined it up with the drawn scrollwork. The light table made this easy. This is my first try with embossing ever, and it looks like I knew what I was doing.

To emboss, you turn the paper over (so the front is face down), on top of the embossing template. Line it up, and gently use the embossing stylus to impress the paper through the embossing template. When you are done, turn the paper over so you can see the right side, and you will see a raised area where you embossed.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• One tool that does multiple things
• Replaces several other tools
• Well-made and well-designed
• Includes tools and templates so you can use it as soon as you open the box

Cons:

• It does a lot of different things, so there is a learning curve
• Has a higher price tag

The Verdict

The Martha Stewart Craft Station is a cool tool, especially if you are an avid paper crafter. You can use the Craft Station in place of many different tools, and if you buy it instead of all the various tools it replaces, you will probably save some money. Additionally, the Craft Station seems to be made with extreme care and up to exacting standards. It is a tool you will keep around for years to come.

Because I am not a hard-core paper crafter, I don't know if I would splash out on this particular item, but that is just a personal preference. You already know if you are interested in a tool that does all these things! If so, this is a worthy addition to your crafty toolshed.

If you'd like to buy it, consider clicking on my Amazon Affiliate link to help us bring you more reviews and quality posts: Buy Martha Stewart Craft Station at Amazon

Disclosure: EK Success sent me this product to try out, with no other obligation or compensation. Final link is an Amazon Affiliate Link.

Silkscreen printing is something that has long been on my crafty bucket list.  I've wanted to try is for as long as I've known what it was!  So when I was offered the chance to try out Plaid's new DIY Simply Screen kit, of course I jumped at the opportunity.  Then there was the question of what to make with it.  I love the idea of easy-to-mass-produce Christmas cards, and found myself wondering if I could design a card that I could screen over and over again.  And so, I got to work experimenting with the kit.  Tutorial and review after the breakdown!

Project estimate:

• Simply Screen kit, about $40
• Sharpie, on hand
• Paper, on hand or $1
• Masking tape, on hand or $1

Total:  about $40 and up

Draw a simple design and go over it with Sharpie to make the lines dark and bold.  This will be the black outline around your design.

Using a light box (if you don't have one, a sunny window works), trace inside of any areas that you want to be filled with color.  If you are using multiple fill colors, trace on a separate sheet for each color.  Take the traced shapes off of the light box and fill them in with black marker.  (Don't color them in while the outline portion of your design is underneath to avoid the chances of ink bleeding through onto it!)

Use the Simply Screen kit to transfer your artwork onto screens.  The box itself becomes the enclosure for exposing your screen and includes a lightbulb and cord.  The process is pretty easy; you just place the artwork into the screen (with no need for transparencies or for reversing lettering), tape it down in the box, and turn on the light.  About 25 minutes later, you soak the screen in water, and as you gently scrub the design appears on the screen.  For more details on the screen printing process and my experience, read the review following this tutorial.

Cut a piece of paper to the size of your card.  (For the sake of photography, I used white paper so that you could see the images more clearly!)  When you print your image, start with the fill.  Center the screen so that the design will be in the middle of the front of your card.  To make sure that the screen stays put while you apply the ink, tape down the paper, then tape the stencil in place over it.  Wait for it to dry completely before you go on.  (I dried mine over a heater for about an hour.)

Line up the outline screen over the fill.  (See the gold peeking through the screen?)  Tape everything down again and apply black ink.

The great thing about this project is once you have made the screen, you can use it over and over and over, on anything you want!  It's pretty quick and easy to apply the ink to the screen so it really is ideal for mass production.

About the Product

The Simply Screen kit was a bit of a bear at first, and I had some issues when I initially started playing with it.  My designs just wouldn't come out crisp at all.  After reading some suggestions that simple designs seemed to work best, I tried a couple of different line drawings.  My first design was a Santa hat drawn in a rustic fashion, hoping that if I aimed for imperfect lines I would get better results.  It came out alright but it wasn't what I had hoped for or expected.  Honestly, even after I got some measure of success with the hat design, I was pretty frustrated.

I thought perhaps I was doing something wrong, so I persisted, learning from my previous trials and getting a little bit better results with each attempt.  When I ran out of the screens that came with the kit, I dove into the refill pack that they sent as well.

Lo and behold!  It wasn't me after all, it was the screens!  Using the screens from the refill pack, I got clear, crisp lines, and the problems I had been experiencing disappeared.  I did a complete 180 on my attitude toward the kit.  However, there are still a few things I did in my experiments that helped, things that aren't in the kit's instructions.  If you do use this kit, here are some additional instructions I would recommend:

• Make sure that your image fits entirely inside the box laying flat.  Trim the paper if needed.
• When you put the image and screen into the box to expose it, tape down the top edge of the design inside the box.  (I used painter's masking tape to avoid damaging the box or the paper.)  Then use the squeegee to press the image firmly to the screen, dragging from top to bottom.  Tape the bottom edge next, then the two sides.
• The directions tell you to scrub the emulsion off in the tray provided with the kit, which has a textured bottom.  I found that when I scrubbed in the tray, it was difficult not to have the pattern of the texture show through.  Instead I tried scrubbing against the flat bottom of my kitchen sink, and it worked fabulously!
• You will notice that there are two sides to the screen; the side with the emulsion and the side with the screen.  When you are scrubbing the screen to reveal the design, flip it frequently.  Scrub very gently when you are working on the emulsion side to avoid removing any areas that are supposed to stay; you can scrub considerably harder on the screen side.

There definitely is a learning curve with this kit, but it's far cheaper than a Yudu or other screen printing kits I've looked at.  As long as you don't end up with a bad batch of screens, it's a really nifty idea with lots of possibilities.  If you are intrigued, you can pick one up for yourself at Hobby Lobby.  Now that I have it figured out, I want to screen print on everything!

Want more ideas for what to do with this kit?  Check out these other Simply Screen projects:

Disclosure:  This post is part of a sponsored campaign on behalf of Plaid Crafts and Simply Screen.  The screen printing supplies for this project were provided by Plaid Crafts.  All opinions are 100% my own.

It all starts with a one dollar wooden frame! Ashley from Lil Blue Boo made a bunch of pint-sized silkscreens so she could add tags to the garments she makes and sells. She was nice enough to share the entire process of building the screens, and I was completely fascinated! I thought you might be too. Although all the components for this project can't be found at the dollar store, it all starts with the dollar frame! Use these little screens for making custom t-shirts, greeting cards, fabric, and more. [how to make mini silkscreens]

Project Estimate:

• Flat wooden frame, $1
• Screen printing fabric sheets, $27
• Binder clips, on hand or $1
• Waterproof wood glue

Total: $28 and up

Obviously if you are making one, you should be making like 30 of them. They cost Ashley about $2 each, which is a huge bargain if you want to make mass-produceable designs.

Over at Condo Blues, Lisa created a fun chandelier out of 15 stemmed glasses, inspired by a high-end designer chandelier. Not only did she create this chandelier project, but she made it sound darn easy. I am tempted to try to make one of these, but since I have three young sons, I'm thinking I should wait a few years on this project. This project will cost you a bit of cash, but just think of all the money you will save compared to the $6000 inspiration piece! [how to make a glassware chandelier]

You can find stemmed glassware at your dollar store or thrift store, or round up some unused pieces from your china cabinet. You'll enjoy them a lot more as a chandelier!

Project Estimate:

• 15 wine glasses, $15
• 1 sturdy curtain ring, $1 and up
• Fishing line
• Jeweler’s crimp beads, $2 and up
• Needle nose pliers (for crimping the beads shut), on hand or $1
• A hanging lamp kit, about $5 at IKEA
• Small lamp shade, $1 and up
• Heavy cord or zip tie, 0n hand or $1

Total: $24 and up

Why relegate those old family photos to a shoebox in the back of the closet?  Put them on display with this creative idea from Jenn at Rook No. 17.  She made a set of free printables that you can use to recreate this wonderful family tree wreath!  Rather than using the original photos, she made copies of them instead, keeping the heirloom prints safe and intact for the enjoyment of future generations.  This would make an excellent gift for parents, grandparents, or family historians.  Or make one featuring both sides of a newly-joined family as a wedding gift!  [how to make a family tree wreath]

Project estimate:

• Canvas drop cloth, about $5 and up
• Wreath form, $1 and up
• Freezer paper, on hand or $1 and up
• Leaf template, free
• Wire, on hand or $1 and up
• Sewing notions, on hand
• Printable  photo frames, free
• Cardboard, on hand
• Scanned or photocopied family photos, on hand
• Distressing ink, on hand or about $2 ad up
• Glue, on hand

Total:  about $6 and up