How to Make Christmas Crackers

Dear Chicago House,

When I was in the UK a few weeks back I saw loads of boxes of Christmas Crackers..sadly they were too bulky for me to carry back to the US. They are traditionally used as a festive table favor..you choose a partner to pull your cracker, the winner is left with a trinket, paper hat and lame joke!

You can occasionally find them in stores here...but this year I have not had the time to hunt them down...so...I thought I'd have a stab at making my own.

How to make Christmas Crackers.

What you need 

• Nice thick festive paper. I used scrap booking paper which was the perfect size to produce 2 crackers
• Toilet roll
• Double sided tape
• Scissors
• Ribbon
• Small gift to place inside cracker

Start by cutting your paper to size. Each cracker requires a piece of paper 12" by 6"

Fold as illustrated above .
Your paper will now look like this.

Fold the paper in on itself and  carefully snip triangle shapes as shown.

 Do both sides

Using double sided tape stick paper to a toilet roll, starting at one edge.

Add more tape to finish the ends

Add you gift, joke, paper hat or what ever takes your fancy and seal ends with some pretty ribbon. I curled my ribbon with scissors.

Merry Chritmas!

Love from

Creative in Chicago

XX

Categories: Christmas, Craft Projects, Crafts Project, DIY, How to, How to's

DIY Coastal Art: A Fun Octopus

Dear Chicago House,

I watched a video the other day about an octopus that has been taught how to take photographs ( check it out here)

It inspired a sudden desire to draw an octopus but I took it a little further.

Want to make one of these yourself?..read on!

DIY Coastal Art: A Fun Octopus.

You will need

• A piece of stiff cardboard - used the back cover of a notebook 
• School glue- I used Elmers
• Heavy duty foil
• Shoe polish
• Oil Pastel sticks ( optional)

1. Start by sketching out a basic octopus shape...I kept things simple
   
2. Squeeze the glue straight from the bottle onto your design. Some of my dots bled but I thought it added to the design.
   
3. Let to glue dry completely, I left mine overnight. The take a piece of heavy duty foil and stick into onto your cardboard. I used a glue stick but any glue would work.
   
   
   Now you need to really work the foil around your design elements. I used a q-tip and my fingers. Once you are happy wrap the foil edges around the board.
   
   
4. Next apply several layers of black shoe polish using a soft rag
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   I also added a bit of subtle color using oil pastel stick..here it is before I blended it it.
   
   
   

It made a nice addition to the coastal theme shelf I have in my home office

Enjoy!

Love from Creative in Chicago

XX

Categories: Art, Arty Farty Friday, Beachy, DIY, How to, How to's, Tutorials

DIY Decorated Easter Eggs

Dear Chicago House,

You know by now how much I like color and spotting the first colorful peep of a daffodil in the garden this morning was something to celebrate...is Spring finally on it's way?

Just in case the daffodil is a big Spring false alarm here is something colorful you can make for your Easter table.

Painted Easter Eggs

I made these with sharpie markers and they took me all of five minutes, you can't really go wrong, a few squiggles here and blobs of color there and hey-pretso a pretty egg.

Now Miss Chicago teen took a little longer on her egg and used watercolor paints...but take a look at this beautiful Rose Egg

Happy Easter!

Love from

Creative in Chicago

XX

P.S. For more Easter Egg decorating ideas check out these posts

Polymer Clay Decorated Easter Eggs

Pattern Dyed Easter Eggs

Categories: Craft Projects, Crafts Project, decorative accents, DIY, Pretty, teenager, Tutorials

Driftwood Fish Tutorial

Dear Chicago House,

After Sally the Seahorse had her 15 minutes of fame on an episode of "unlivable" on the FYI network a few weeks ago, I was inspired to once again dabble with my stash of lake Michigan driftwood.

This time I have created  a driftwood fish

Well actaully that's incorrect,  I have made a pair a sweet pair of driftwood fish ... let call them Freddie and Felix.

and they are oh-so-easy to make and make a great decorative accent to any beach or coastal themed room.

You will need

• A selection of driftwood...or any sort of sticks really
• Cardboard - I used the cardboard from an old Amazon box
• Hot glue gun

Start by sketching out a general fishy shape on your cardboard. You don't have to be detailed at all for this. Cut out your shape.

Start laying your driftwood on your fishy shape, it helps if the wood slightly overlaps your shape. Once you are happy with how everything is looking fire up your glue gun and stick away.

I added an eye to each of my fish ..it was a old cork I picked up when collecting my driftwood.

Enjoy!

Love from

Creative in Chicago

XX

Categories: Art, Beachy, Craft Projects, Crafts Project, decorative accents, DIY, How to, How to's, Tutorials

Driftwood Fish - DIY

Dear Chicago House,

I have been down to my secret beach again and collected another bag of driftwood. Look what my treasure scraps turned into this time. Driftwood Fish!

They were so easy and fun to make.

All you need is a white sharpie paint marker

Add a dot for a eye and then any sort of pattern you like. Some of my driftwood pieces had a fishy sort of shape to start with but others not.

Miss Chicago teen got in on the action and created Jaws

I liked the mouth she drew so much I borrowed it

I thought I'd frame them as a collection but I'm note sure this works so I have held off on getting the hot glue gun out.

What do you think?

Love from

Creative in Chicago

XX

p.s Check out some of my other driftwood creations - Sally the driftwood seahorse and my driftwood orb

Categories: Beachy, Craft Projects, Crafts Project, DIY, How to, How to's, Treasure, Tutorials, Wood

Tutorial: Shelll Napkin Rings

Dear Chicago House,

Here is another easy project to glam up a coastal table setting - DIY Shell Napkin Rings

You will need

• Small shells
• Drill (optional depending on your shells)
• polyurethane spray
• very thin elastic

To make this project super easy try to collect shells that already have holes in them. Once you start looking it is surprising how many shells nature has already prepared ! If you can't find any "nature drilled" shells you will have to drill them yourself.

This is a good video which shows you how.

Before constructing your napkin rings lay all of your shells on a piece of cardboard in a well ventilated area and give them a spray with polyurethane, This seals the shells and makes the colors more vibrant.

Once dry you can start threading your shells onto lengths of thin elastic. Knot ends of elastic together when you have reached the desired length.

Love from

Creative in Chicago

XX

Categories: Beachy, beads, Decor, decorative accents, DIY, Pretty, Sewing, Tutorials

Fabric Covered Magazine Files: Tutorial

Dear Chicago House,

One of my favorite things about living in Chicago is that I can nip to an Ikea in 25 minutes.

On my last visit, I picked up a couple of packets of FLYT magazine files with the objective of injecting a bit of organization into corners of home chaos. They were cheap, functional but a little bit boring... so I transformed them into these!

 Gorgeous fabric covered boxes

Now I know you are just dying to rush out and make you own, so to make it easier here is is a step by step photo tutorial:

How to cover IKEA FLYT magazine files with fabric

What you need

• Fabric of your choice. I used two patterns 
• Glue- Tacky Glue works really well
• Parchment paper for template

 

Love from Creative in Chicago XX

Categories: Craft Projects, Decor, DIY, Holiday Projects, How to, How to's, Sewing

A bling pencil pot for my office

Dear Chicago House,

It seems I never have enough containers to keep my pencils so this week I rustled up a little something for my desk

Welcome to a bling pencil pot! If you think you have seen one of these before, you are right check out another one here.

 
Want to make one?

It is easy, here is what you will need.

1 clean can
Decorative vase fillers - marbles
Nail varnish
a sheet of white paper
Modge podge
Hot glue gun

1. Start by painting the backs of the marbles with your choice of nail varnish, I picked two blue (to compliment the decor in my office) but any colors will work
2. Cover the tin can with white paper, inside and out sticking it with Modge podge
3. Cover the can with your tinted marbles - use a hot glue gun

Love from

Creative in Chicago

XX

Categories: beads, Craft Projects, decorative accents, DIY, Pretty

How to make a roman blind from a cellular blind

Dear Chicago House,

You remember the horror of your window treatments when we moved in right? They quickly got ripped down but I did leave in place a few of those cellular blinds. They are functional but rather bland so I thought I'd try a spice one up and make a custom roman blind with NO DESTRUCTION to the cellular blind. How great is that, particularly if you are in rented accommodation and want to make the place more "your own". Or if you are a decorator and you tire of a fabric..you know how that goes.

So we have gone from this...

 to this

So how do you make a roman blind from a cellular blind? Here is how

What you need

Tape measure
Scissors
Light weight fabric
Scrap fabric strips
Thin wooden dowels (Jo-Anns)
Saw
Velcro tape
Hot glue gun
Light weight thread or string
Two magnets

Sewing the blind

1. Measure your blind
2. Add 5" to the width and 10" to the height. Cut out a piece of fabric to these dimensions.
3. Hem all sides so that you final fabric is 2" wider than the cellular blind and sew a strip of velcro across the top of the fabric.
   
   
   
4. Using a hot glue to stick the other half of the velcro to the top of your cellular blind.
5. Cut your dowels so they are about 1" less than the width of your fabric.
6. Wrap them in strips of scrap fabric (I used old curtain lining) and sew the sleeve into place using a zipper foot. The dowel should extend past the end of the sleeve by about 1"
   
   
7. Work out how many fold you'd like your blind to have and measure position the dowels on the back of your fabric so they are evenly spaced. Pin into place then sew, again using a zipper foot ...this is the trickiest part of the whole project.Snip any excess fabric away from the dowel sleeves.
   
   

Congratulations you now have a roman blind ...now to hang it!

Hanging the blind

1. Attach the fabric to the top of the cellular blind using the velcro you have already glued up there.
2. Take a look at the side of the blind and see which cells lie closest to your dowels. Mark these cells with pins and then pin the fabric out of the way to give you space to work.
3. Cut lengths of lightweight string about 15" wider than your cellular blind. Tie one piece around a small magnet. Insert into one of your marked cells then use the other magnet to pull the thread through the blind until it pops out of the other side. Repeat for all your marked cells.
   
   
   
4. Unpin the fabric and tie the thread you have just threaded to the dowels.
   
   
   

And you are done!
The blind is fully operational using the mechanism from the cellular blind.

Love from

Creative in Chicago

XX

Pin It

Categories: DIY, How to, Tutorials, Windows