How to sew cases, bags, and buckets

Check out these instructions for making things that hold other things. Maybe you know somebody who needs a handmade gift?

iPad or Kindle cover tutorial at Craft Buds
Pleated tote bag PDF from The Long Thread
Geometric DIY painted totes from Collect & Carry
Round fabric storage buckets by Film in the Fridge

Find even more things to make at Sew 4 Home, like this laminated tote with a zippered pocket or a round pillow that reminds me of peppermint candy and grandmas.

Origami paper stars for garlands or gifts

Making paper Christmas decorations is one of my favorite things this time of year. I found instructions here for making an 8-pointed origami star and tried it out. Lovely!

You can make garlands with them. (The back sides aren't as pretty, so hang the garland against a wall or put two stars back to back.) Or hang individual ones on a Christmas tree.

Or make paper stars to use instead of traditional bows on gifts. If you skip the last step in the tutorial, the back side is flat and easy to tape to a package. These will lay flat for packing presents in a box, and then you can fluff them up again when you put the gifts under the tree.

Nice wallpapers for artists and makers

I love these hand-lettered desktop wallpapers by Mary Kate McDevitt for We Make. They're sized for various screens and devices. Choose from the best color in the world, orange, or the second best color in the world, blue, right here.

Customize and print a free holiday card

Hope you had a lovely break! I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that Christmas lights have popped up all over the neighborhood. My brain still thinks it's October.

But I'm seeing lots of designerly Christmas printables appear around the internet, including this fun, free holiday card from Love vs. Design. Download the PDF, type in your own text, and print. You can select a flat or folded card, and get some "ugly sweater" gift tags, too!

Apple sweet potato juice

I'm off the rest of the week for Thanksgiving, but first I wanted to show you my new favorite orange thing: apple sweet potato juice. It's been affectionately dubbed "Jess Juice" by Alex, who has been experimenting with his juicer (this model). The fact that this fall drink happens to be my favorite color is just a bonus. The apple is tart and refreshing, and the sweet potato gives it creaminess and mellows it out to something nearly dessert-like. A sprinkle of cinnamon on top makes it perfect. The recipe is just two big apples and two raw sweet potatoes. Adjust the proportions to your liking, of course.

Have a happy Thanksgiving, all!

Handmade holiday gift ideas

The long Thanksgiving weekend coming up might allow some time for making handmade Christmas presents. Here's a sampling of tutorials from the DIY category, in case they spark ideas for making your own holiday gifts. Above:
Pantone chip magnets
Ampersand shrink plastic necklace
Iron-on tote bag downloadable design
Freezer paper painted scarf

Easy beaded hoop earrings with printable tag
Mid-century clock bottle cap magnets
Paper pendants, geometric or pie chart versions
Simple stitched vinyl wallets

Homemade fabric designs using sun printing
No-sew modular felt coasters and trivets
Origami gift card holders

Style quizzes: 80s hair, first ladies and more

Completely frivolous Friday afternoon fun: taking fashion quizzes at MyLifetime.com. Find out if you're a fashionista. Do you know what a minaudière is? I think I've seen them on petite girls at the gym, encased in stretchy yoga pants and bobbing up and down on the elliptical.

You might also want to know what your 80's hairstyle should be. Or which first lady is your style twin. Hilary Clinton, let's go shopping, girlfriend.

Free Thanksgiving printable invites and tags

If you want to get fancy this Thanksgiving, the generous designers of the interwebs are offering lots of free printable invitations, tags, and place-setting goodies. Find a whole suite of stylish geometric printables, like these wine bottle labels, at Sarah Hearts.

Get Alma's printable Thanksgiving party invitations at Nicole's Classes. These pretty designs come in a dark version and a light version, in case your printer isn't feeling too ambitious.

Jordan of Polkadot Prints has created an elegant Thanksgiving set of tags. Thanks for sharing your time and creativity, designers! I know it takes a lot of time to make things to give away, and we appreciate it.

Young House Love: a bushel of DIY ideas

A review copy of Young House Love just arrived. It's John and Sherry Petersik's labor of love, stuffed with 243 marvelously doable project ideas for the home. You might be a reader of their blog by the same name. Those two are funny, warm, and completely endearing. So is the book.

Each project gives you a heads-up on the cost, time involved, and how much sweat you'll work up while attempting it.

I loved this idea: take apart a couple of inexpensive Lack tables from IKEA and assemble them into a shiny headboard.

Turn plain canisters into periodic table glassware with a fun etching project.

Get ideas for things you can use to make an interesting backsplash in your kitchen (removable for renters, if needed). I should do this. Our wee kitchen has only painted walls where stuff gets splashed Jackson Pollock-style.

Some projects from guest contributors are sprinkled throughout the book, too. Hey, there's our door.

You can buy the book here at Amazon. And to see what happens to your house when you make a book, check out Sherry and John's awesome behind-the-scenes post!

Free font: Manteka

Manteka is a squarish, all-caps typeface by Eduardo Araya. You can download the TrueType font here for free. (Find the link under the t-shirt image.)

Thanksgiving printable cards

Download a sheet of three thank you note designs by Oana Befort at Sincerely, Kinsey. Oana generously shares lots more freebies at her own site. Here's a sampling!

Waste time with Draw a Stickman

Folks trying to kill time before the weekend kicks off might like to Draw a Stickman. Follow the instructions in this little animated game and make your very bad drawings come to life. It's cute.

Quirky fall wallpaper freebies

Download non-traditional fall wallpapers for desktops and iPhones from imm Living, a design company based in Toronto. Nothing says autumn like cats and unicorns. Grab them here.

Make pie chart paper pendants

If charts, graphs and metrics are your thing, you might enjoy crafting some pie chart pendants. They're made entirely of paper. Oh, and a little glue, thread and a jump ring if you want to get technical. Which you probably do, if you're the kind of person who likes pie charts.

With a punch (I used a 1" circle), cut out about 12 circles of cardstock. You can add as many circles to the pendant as needed to get the thickness you want, of course. The ones I made are 1/8" thick.

Glue the circles into a stack one at a time. Be sure you get the glue all the way to the edges, and use just a small amount so things don't get messy. Stop adding circles to the stack when the pendant is half of the desired thickness.

Double a small length of thread and tie it to a jump ring. Make sure the opening in the ring isn't covered by the thread. Glue the thread to the paper stack with the ring sticking out, then keep adding layers on top until the pendant reaches the desired thickness.

Cut some wedges of colored paper for the top layer and glue them on. When all the glue is dry, the paper pendant will be very hard.

To seal it, you can brush it with polycrylic or Triple Thick. To make a shiny, glass-like surface, try some Mod Podge Dimensional Magic, Aleene's Paper Glaze, or Diamond Glaze. Test the products first on a scrap of paper to make sure colors won't bleed.

The little DIY color-blocked necklaces are cute and light-weight. Just don't wear them in the shower!

"Go Vote" illustrations by artists

Americans, did you do it yet? To help with motivation, GoVote.org has a gallery of hundreds of illustrations from artists nationwide. You can even update your Facebook cover image with this one. Enjoy! The illustration above is by Yours, Roxanne.

Dog collars and leashes at JCP

Here's a bit of design work from months ago. I just got samples in the mail. My client L.L. Lily was approached by JC Penney to produce some exclusive dog collar sets, and I was contracted to create designs for the woven ribbon that goes on them. "Something Ellen deGeneres would like" was the instruction. (Apparently Ellen would have a hand in picking the designs, being the official JCP spokesperson.) Um... I have no idea what Ellen's taste in dog collars is. And I have no idea if she ever saw them, but these two options were selected: retro-style greetings and a basic stripe.

The "Hey" design is my fave. It's what I hope dogs are thinking when I pass them on the sidewalk. Instead of, "I would bite you if only my leash was long enough."

The collar and leash sets come with 6' leashes and adjustable collars in sizes S (9"-15"), M (12"-18"), and L (14"-21"). Rumor had it they would be in 600 JCP stores as of Nov. 1. I see they're available online, too.

DIY ideas for blank walls

Blank walls are always a challenge, unless you've got an interior designer, artist friends, or buckets of money. I've collected some wall art ideas here on Pinterest that require varying amounts of skill to execute. If you've got a wall that needs some help, maybe something will spark an idea. I won't blame you if you don't attempt the one that requires 350,000 Post-it notes.

DIY postcard wall art

I made something new for the living room: a big collage of postcards mounted on foam board.

This boxed set of 100 vintage Penguin book cover postcards was on the clearance table at Anthropologie a couple weeks ago. I had to have it. I love books. I love the cover designs, and I love the color palette. They were too good not to display somehow. You can also get them here from Amazon.

I decided to lay out my favorites on the biggest piece of foamcore I could find at my local art store (30"x40" for $5). It seemed more interesting to give the collage a 3D look with postcards coming forward at different heights. So I cut some small pieces of foam board and stacked them to create "risers" for some of the cards. I used one, two, or three layers to vary the depth.

I stuck the foam pieces together and attached the postcards to the board with double-sided ATG tape I had on hand. It was better than wet glue which could warp the postcards.

I could have measured and cut the foam board to the precise size before sticking on the postcards, but I wanted to be certain of having a perfectly trimmed edge that was flush with the cards. So I opted to trim the board after seeing where the postcards ended up (keeping the 3D ones aligned was a bit tricky). Starting at the top left corner and working down, I stuck all the postcards onto the board except for the right-most column and the bottom row. Then I marked where the edges of the last cards would end up and cut off the excess board with an X-acto knife on a cutting mat. I aligned the last postcards with the edge and attached them.

To keep the large foam board from warping and to make a way to hang it on the wall, I hot-glued it to wooden stretcher bars. This frame had an old canvas stretched on it that I removed so I could reuse it. You could also buy wooden stretcher bars for a couple bucks each at an art store; they come in any length you could possibly want and have slotted corners for snapping them together (details here). The frame can be smaller than the foam board; mine happened to be the same height.

I added a sawtooth hanger to the top. One was enough because it's a pretty light-weight piece. You could also use picture wire or any hanging method you like.

I added self-adhesive felt pads to the four corners to protect the wall from scratches.

The book titles are very interesting. "An Intelligent Woman's Guide"? Is it different than the guide for men? Is there another guide for non-intelligent women?

Yes, there must be a pony! I haven't heard of this novel, but the title makes me happy. Oh, I just searched and here's where it comes from.

I hope visitors enjoy reading the book titles as much as I do. Soft Fruit Growing, Scootering, Explosives, and Aircraft Recognition all sound like very useful manuals and could make a person quite well-rounded.