March Package Pals Link-up
It’s time for the link-up party for March Package Pals! If you missed out on the sign-ups, Package Pals is a swap Jamie at C.R.A.F.T. has been hosting a couple times a year where you get paired up with a crafty penpal and get to send and receive an awesome personalized crafty package in the mail. This time around, I helped Jamie out with the pairing & correspondence. Package Palers had all of March to get to know their partner and send something awesome in the mail – and now they get to come share their goodies! If you participated in March Package Pals, please continue on and link up what you sent, what you got in the mail or both. If not, check out the awesome packages, and think about signing up next time!
Jamie and I are super excited to see what was sent and received in the month of March!
A few things:
- Please link to the blog post about your PP, not your blog home page.
- Jamie and I will each be featuring some of the craft goodies from the linky party in the next month! (see October round up)
- This linky is only for the 100+ people that signed up for Package Pals in March.
- The linky will close in one month (May 1st), but as with all linkies, you can view ‘em for forever!
- Feel free to grab either button for your blog posts!
Click on the image below to view the link party and add your own.
Yarn Ball Shadowbox
One of the projects I made for our new photo ledge in our bedroom was this yarn ball shadow box frame.
I saw this on pinterest (if you use pinterest, follow me here!)one day, and knew I wanted to make it for our bedroom. For right now I just used navy and white yarn I had purchased for other projects, but I’m planning to add in some other colors in the future. Making the yarn balls just from yarn sounded like a waste of yarn and seemed like it would be hard for me to keep them circular, so I used some magazine pages as the centers.
I just cut some magazine pages in half 3 times (to divide the page into 8 pieces), crumpled them up into a ball, and then wrapped the yarn around them until they were covered. Once the magazine page was covered, I cut the yarn and tucked the ends under some of the yarn wraps to keep them tidy and in place. They didn’t all end up the same size, but I’m actually quite happy to have a range of sizes because it makes arranging them more organic and less like assigning colors to pixels in a grid. I found that I got a good size for the thickness of my frame by cutting the page into 8 pieces.
For now I put a heart together, but I’m excited to periodically change them out in different designs (an ‘E’ for our last name, polka dots, chevron, etc.) and add in some other colors when I have an excuse to buy some yarn in the other colors I’m hoping to bring into our predominantly navy and white room 
You can see my initial post about the photo ledge we made for our bedroom (along with several links to tutorials for the other hand-made projects I’ve made for our bedroom!) here.
DIY Photo Ledge Tutorial
Last week, I shared my finished and styled photo ledge Eddie and I made for our bedroom. Now I’m back to talk about how I made it so you can make your own!
We loved these ledges from ikea for their flexibility in changing out frames and decor, but wanted something longer (the longest ikea ones are 45″, and we wanted at least 60″). Here’s what you’ll need to make your own: Supplies:
- Lumber: 1×2, 1×3, and 1×4 in the length of your final shelf
- Primer (
- Paint ( is plenty, I used un-tinted white in semi-gloss)
- Screws (I used (6) 1.5″ #6 screws for assembly and (3) 2″ #6 screws for attaching to the wall)
- Wood putty
Tools:
- Electric drill
- Paint roller & tray
- Putty spatula (like this)
Our home depot was actually out of 1x2s and 1x3s, so we actually got a 1×4 and a 1×6 and cut the 1×6 down to a 1×2, 1×3, and some leftover with our table saw. Once you’ve got the lumber, start by priming and then painting each piece. Then clamp them together, pre-drill, and screw to assemble. You can see how the pieces go together below:
My center board was noticeably warped, so we did lots of clamping. Note that you don’t need to clamp the whole piece at once (I only have 4 clamps!). we started at one end, lined up the ends of the boards, and clamped about 6″ on either side of my screw (less on the ends, since you want to anchor the ends securely close to the edges) then pre-drilled, put in the screw, and moved the clamps.
We screwed the back (1×3) on first, and didn’t worry about covering those screws since they’ll be against the wall. When we attached the front, we made sure to sink the screws in past the face of the wood so we’d be able to cover them up.
Once everything was assembled, I sanded the wood around the screws on the front since there was a bit of tiny splintering. I then filled the holes with putty. After that dried (read your putty instructions, mine said two hours for deeper holes so that’s how long I waited), I sanded the putty even with the wood finish and painted over it.
Voila – seamless photo ledge! To attach it to the wall, we first found the studs and marked them vertically with painters tape. Then we lined up the shelf where we wanted it – cenetered over the headboard and at a height we liked. We attached the shelf to a stud on one end with the drill at an angle so the screw is below the front lip of the shelf – this makes the screw invisible from the front. We then used a level to make sure it was nice and flat, and attached the shelf to two more studs in the same manner.
Here’s the whole thing with all the decorations I have up there for now:
And here’s where you can find tutorials to the projects in that image that I’ve made myself and shared on the blog:
- Tufted headboard (part 1 and part 2)
- Table lamps from glass vases (and hidden monograms!)
- Easy watercolor trees
- Fabric covered monogram (coming soon!)
- Stenciled ‘watercolor’ canvas
- Yarn ball shadowbox
DIY Photo Ledge Reveal
Since we finished making the tufted headboard for our master bedroom, I’ve known I wanted to add something above it. I love these picture ledges from IKEA, but they only come in 21″ and 45″, and I wanted something at least 6′ long. I figured that for not much more than the cost of the IKEA ones (in lumber, at least), I could make my own giant picture ledge!
It is actually a ledge with a lip (just like the IKEA ones), which you can see a bit better from this angle:
I filled it with a combination of things I already had around the house and a few projects I made just for this ledge. I’ll be sharing tutorials for making the ledge and a few of the projects you see here over the next few weeks, and I’ll update this page with links to those tutorials.
- Photo ledge
- Tufted headboard (Part 1 and Part 2)
- Table lamps from glass vases (and hidden monograms!)
- Easy watercolor trees
- Fabric covered monogram (coming soon!)
- Stenciled ‘watercolor’ canvas
- Yarn ball shadowbox
I love how flexible decorating this shelf is! Other than the projects I made just for this ledge, the accessories will probably rotate and change out.
The card above is one I made for Eddie for Valentine’s Day last year. Our bedroom was pretty much only navy and white, but I’ve been wanting to add in some lighter blues, greens, and purples so this has been a really fun place to start doing that. I’ve got some fun fabric set aside for decorative pillows for our bed too
What you can’t see very in these photos is that my ceilings are 10′ tall, and even the highest things on this ledge only come up to maybe 7.5′, so I need to add some hanging art over the ledge at some point too. Lots of work left to do in our bedroom, but this shelf is a big step in bringing in some fun art
Wire Bracelets
I’ve been traveling for work a lot lately, and love bringing little projects to work on while I’m flying. On a recent trip, I decided to try making some personalized bracelets for the girls in my small church group (idea from here).
I used 18 ga wire for these, which I think was about perfect. Making the names turned out easier than I thought – I just used a combination of flat and round pliers to bend the wire into the names. For most of them, I sketched the names out on paper to test out how I wanted them to look. Surprisingly enough, security didn’t give me a hard time for having the pliers in my purse on either trip, but I have plenty of pliers so I was willing to lose a couple pair before I tried taking them on the plane. Having pliers in my purse even came in handy around the office the next couple days in a couple random instances – I might start carrying them around more often
After forming everyone’s names, I hammered them a bit flatter (with a jewelry hammer and block like these) to make them a little more durable, and then bent them slightly to fit better as bracelets. I finished them off by attaching them to some chain and a lobster clasp with 4mm jump rings. When I gave them out, I brought some extra chain and pliers so I could shorten/lengthen as needed, and ended up turning one into a necklace, which also looked great!
March Package Pals!
I don’t know about you, but getting real mail (i.e. not bills or junk) completely makes my day! How would you like to get a personalized package in the mail from a new crafty friend? Then you should sign up for this round of package pals!
Here’s the Package Pals (PP) timeline and info:
- Sign up using the form below, by Monday, Feb. 25th. The first 100 people will be included in the March Package Pals (PP)!
- We will pair you with one other crafty person. You will each send and receive one crafty package in the month of March.
- We will send each of the 100 PP’s an email by Friday, March 1st, letting you know who your package pal is.
- Send your PP a crafty package by March 31st, 2013!
- We will have a linky party set up on April 2nd for everyone to share their package pal goodies!
- You can chat with all PP’s (and me) on twitter with #packagepals
Tweet something like this: I just signed up for @stars_sunshine & @thecraftblog #packagepals. Crafty snail mail is my favorite thing You should sign up too!–> http://bit.ly/ZlsXVo
- You do not have to have a blog to be a part of package pals.
- PP is open to everyone everywhere in the world! Please note, if you are outside of the US, you will possibly have to ship a package outside of your country. *I will do my best to pair people in their country of origin, but I can not guarantee it.
- If you have more questions, check the FAQ and then if you’re still not sure…email me at starsandsunshineblog at gmail dot com.
Here are some crafty ideas that are easy and inexpensive to ship from me and Jamie @ C.R.A.F.T.:
- lacy clay bowl
- map frames
- dino photo holder/magnets
- pillow cover
- a hex nut bracelet
- personalized coloring book
You could even send your package pal crafting supplies for a certain project on their to do list or general fun crafty things like bakers twine
Here’s a spunky button to add to your side bar if you have a blog and decide to participate in the March PP!——-
Signups are now closed!
Package Pals
I have some exciting news – I’m going to be helping out with Package Pals hosted at C.R.A.F.T. this time around! Package Pals is a swap where you’re paired with another crafty person and get to know them and send/receive some crafty goodness in the mail! I’ve done the swap twice – you can see info about the first package I made/sent here.
Signups open this Friday (come back here to sign up then!) and there will be more information here then, but here are the main details:
- Signups will open here and at C.R.A.F.T. this Friday, February 22. They’ll be open until 1 March, or until 100 people sign up.
- We will pair you with one other crafty person. You will each send and receive one crafty package in the month of March.
- I will send each of the 100 PP’s an email by Friday, March 1st, letting you know who your package pal is.
- Send your PP a crafty package by March 31st, 2013!
- We will have a linky party set up on April 2nd for everyone to share their package pal goodies!
- You can chat with all PP’s (and me) on twitter with #packagepals
Tweet something like this: I’m going to sign up for @stars_sunshine & @thecraftblog #packagepals. Crafty snail mail is my favorite thing You should sign up too!–> http://bit.ly/TFcs2Y
-
You do not have to have a blog to be a part of package pals.
-
PP is open to everyone everywhere in the world! Please note, if you are outside of the US, you will possibly have to ship a package outside of your country. *I will do my best to pair people in their country of origin, but I can not guarantee it.
-
If you have more questions, check the FAQ and then if you’re still not sure…email me at starsandsunshineblog at gmail dot com.
