Tutorials

How to Make a Feather Tree

Feather trees were a late-19th century German invention- a creative alternative to wasteful, messy, and exceedingly flammable real Christmas trees from the forest. They were most popular in the ye...

Nostalgic Cotton Batting Santa Ornaments

If you have ever wondered how to make spun cotton figures from scratch, this is a great introductory project to the nostalgic art of spun cotton. For these small-scale antique style spun cotton dol...

How to Make Nostalgic Waxed Moravian Stars

  If you long for a simple, old fashioned Christmas like the ones from long ago, this is a wonderfully nostalgic craft to learn.  These traditional Moravian stars are made from strips of paper wov...

Making a Miniature Book Nook: Cozy Apothecary

As we enter cozy season, I've been very drawn to doing crafts in a small scale.  Today's project is not really a tutorial, but a creative exploration. I'm working on a tiny room box filled with mi...

How to Make a Foraged Witch Broom for Halloween

This is a super easy project, and nearly free!  Treat yourself to an autumnal nature walk, and bring along a bucket or a box and some snippers to collect some items.  The materials you collect wil...

Victorian Figural Ornament Made with Roving and Cotton Batting

Hi ho, and Merry Christmas!  Earlier this year I shared a start-to-finish spun cotton snow baby figural ornament tutorial using cotton coil or medical cotton.  Today, I'm doing a version using rovi...

Vintage Craft: Pine Cone and Felt Victorian Carolers

These pine cone and felt carolers are part of my vintage craft series: wonderful projects found in vintage craft books brought to life!  I collect vintage craft books, and flipping through them I a...

Braided Bread Dolls with Hard Boiled Egg Faces

Today I am creating a pair of lovely braided bread dolls inspired by a baking project I did with my mother when I was small. I can't remember now what kind of bread we used then, but I do remember...

Beautiful Acorn Ornaments with Pine Cones and Glitter - DIY Christmas Craft

To welcome the fall season I thought it would be fun to share my technique for making these sparkling and gorgeous acorn ornaments!  I made and sold these in my shop for years, and they were a bes...

Fall Pumpkin Crafts: Turn a Pumpkin into an Autumn Fairy!

In the spring I made crepe paper flower fairies to welcome the season, and so with fall approaching I thought I would do a variation using pumpkins!  I think they would make such a darling centerp...

Simple Craft Project: Make a Delightful Pipe Cleaner Heart Garland!

  This is a wonderful low-tech, minimal-supply craft project that has a beautiful end result! By simply forming old fashioned pipe cleaners over a template, you can make a lovely chain of linked h...

Make a Halloween Fairy Pumpkin!

  I have been making Halloween fairy gardens for a few years now.  It's incredibly satisfying to watch the neighborhood kids ooh and ahh over the little village of pumpkin houses and miniature deta...

How to Make Sisal Bottle Brush Trees - From Scratch! DIY Craft Tutorial

Published July 14, 2017 Here's a fun craft project for Christmas: How to make sisal bottle brush trees - from scratch!  In this tutorial I'm using green sisal fiber, some floral wire, and a couple...

Macrame Plant Hanger - Craft Tutorial with Easy Macrame Knots

  This macrame plant hanger uses simple knots to create, and makes a great statement piece! The finished plant hanger is just under 5 feet long. It has some cool chunky wooden macrame beads, and a...

Basic Macrame Knots: Simple Square Knot Tutorial + Adding Beads

 If you lived through the 1970s, you might remember this!  One of the most basic macrame knots is the square knot, and it's actually very versatile.  This tutorial shows how to tie square knot in ...

Christmas Craft Tutorial: Make a Retro Cake Pan Diorama!

These cake pan dioramas are a fun way to display small ornaments or figurines.  I have some little wooden ornaments, pine cone elves, and putz houses that are sometimes hard to see if I put them w...

Make Minty Bleached Bottle Brush Trees for Christmas!

In this tutorial I am sharing my technique for bleaching bottle brush trees. You will need to use craft trees made of sisal, which can be harder to find than plastic or pvc trees.  I use simple ho...

DIY Snow Globe Ornaments - Fun Christmas Crafts

  Published November 2, 2016 These DIY Snow Globe Ornaments have a great vintage style, and are so fun to make!  There are three style of glass ornaments: a globe, dome, and bell-shaped cloche.  Y...

How to Make Spun Cotton Pumpkins! DIY Fall Craft Tutorial

This is such a fun fall craft project!  In this tutorial I'm using 45mm spun cotton balls to make adorable little pumpkins.  It's quite simple, and they are so pretty.  I think they would make lov...

Mossy Fairy House DIY Tutorial

This is a darling cottage-style mossy fairy house.  It's simple to make using a paper mache house as a base.  After wrapping it in sheet moss, I'm putting on a rustic roof made out of corrugated c...

Simple Paper Flowers DIY Tutorial

These simple paper flowers are made out of one-size petals applied to spun cotton eggs.  They look like little wild roses or spring blossoms.  These are the type of blossoms that I use to make my ...

Tutorial: DIY Concrete Flowers

  This tutorial is from a few years ago, but it's a goodie!  These concrete flowers are inexpensive to make, and look stunning when they're done.  They look like carved stone, and are really elega...

Tutorial: Spun Cotton Quail Eggs

I love the look of quail eggs, and I love all things made of spun cotton, so here I'm combining the two! These spun cotton quail eggs would make the most wonderful spring decorations. They would b...

DIY Advent Wreath with Painted Rocks

This is a really simple and rustic DIY advent wreath centerpiece, and it costs next to nothing to make.  You'll need a good assortment of rocks, and smooth ones work the best.  Beach stones or riv...

How to Make Spun Cotton Mushrooms

Here's a great way of making whimsical antique-style spun cotton mushrooms with loops for hanging up as ornaments. These would look adorable on a woodland Christmas tree, and make super unique gif...

Paper Oak Leaves and Acorns Tutorial

For this year's fall decorations I wanted to expand on the style of my Paper Bag Pumpkins with their muted colors and rustic, crinkly texture.  I'm really on a Kraft paper kick right now.  I love ...

Tutorial: Paper Pumpkin Luminary Halloween Decorations

During the daytime, these paper bag pumpkin luminaries make great halloween decorations with their neutral colors and rustic textures.  At night though, they take on a whole different look, flicke...

Tutorial: 5 Minute, No-Sew Lace Lavender Sachets

For this project I'm using vintage lace trim to create simple lavender sachets.  You can also use lace fabric cut into strips.  It's a good opportunity to use scraps and remnants of things you hav...

Paper Flower Tutorial: Storybook Paper Roses

I originally did this tutorial for 100LayerCake.com, and it remains one of my favorite projects.  Here I'll share the original post, plus some extra photos and details about how I make paper roses...