St. Jude’s Ranch for Children creates new chances, choices and hope for children and families who have been abused, abandoned and neglected. Their mission is to break the cycle of child abuse and have been fortunate enough to provide help and hope to children and families who need their services the most.
Over thirty years ago, St. Jude’s Ranch for Children thought up a great idea, the Recycled Card Program, as a way to thank their donors by turning the previous year’s holiday cards into new cards for the upcoming season. The children at St. Jude’s participate in making new cards by removing the front portion of the old cards and attaching a new back made of recycled paper. These cards are then sold with proceeds going back to the Ranch.
This is an awesome way not only to help a worthwhile cause, but also to get rid of the holiday cards you keep around because Miss. Manners says it’s the nice thing to do, regardless of the fact you’ll most likely never pull them out of storage again.
Donate Your Old Holiday Cards To…
St. Jude’s Ranch for Children
Recycled Card Program
100 St. Jude’s Street
Boulder City, NV 89005
Sure, it may seem a little weird at first to be making bird feeders just in time for the end of fall and the beginning of winter, but it’s right around this time of year where birds’ food supplies dry up. Why not made a decorative, fun and practical bird feeder from gourds that you’re done using? It’s sure to be a huge help to the birds in your community and it will also provide smaller birds protection from other predators.
Dried gourds can be purchased from gourd farms, or any other type of farm may also carry them. Your local supermarkets will also carry them, but hurry, because they tend to disappear right after Thanksgiving!
You will need:
- 9-to-15-inch bottle gourd, dried
- Pencil
- Paper
- Craft saw
- Drill and 3/8-inch bit
- 4 sturdy twigs
- Waxed twine
- Upholstery needle
How To:
1. Loosen dried gourd seeds by slapping the gourd with your palm. Draw the shape of a window opening on paper, and cut it out, trace it onto the gourd’s surface four times.
2. Use a craft saw to cut along tracings. Shake out gourd seeds. Drill a hole beneath each opening, and find twigs that will fit snugly inside them; insert twigs. Drill two holes, one on either side of the gourd’s neck. Thread twine through holes with an upholstery needle; loop over tree branch.
3. Hang feeder under some sort of shelter, so that the seeds stay dry and don’t become moldy. You may also like to drill two holes on the base of the gourd to encourage water drainage.
When you’re done, just fill the gourd with different bird foods like black-oil sunflower seeds, suet, peanuts, cracked corn, peanut butter, thistle, fruit and shelled sunflower seeds.
Now that the spooktacular night of Halloween is coming to an end, you’re probably wondering what to do with your leftover pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns. Jeweler Eddie Borgo needed a housewarming gift for designer-friend Victor Glemaud and decided to create a festive centerpiece–a bejeweled pumpkin.
Thanks to Vogue, you can find out exactly what you need to create your very own Eddie Borgo-inspired bejeweled pumpkin. This is a great way to keep the Halloween spirit in your house until you’re ready to start decorating for the holidays and is also a really fun crafts project.
You will need:
- Pumpkin
- Carving knife and spoon
- Jewelry studs (Borgo recommends StudsandSpikes.com or M&J Trimming)
- Krylon matte black spray paint
1. Pick your pumpkin at the local market. Borgo likes his medium-size, symmetrical, and round.
2. Empty out the seeds and pulp and begin to carve the face.
3. Try to accentuate the cutout shapes by studding around them, pushing the spikes into the shell of the pumpkin. Borgo likes to start with the eyes, followed by the noise; the mouth comes last.
4. After the face is completely studded, use Krylon matte black spray paint over the whole pumpkin to make it deep, deep black.
And that’s all there is to it!
If you’re a crafty person who prides themselves on crafting amazing and unbelievable homemade wares, or if you just like to dabble here and there moving from one craft project to the next, you will find the perfect place full of like-minded folks just like yourself at Bust magazine’s annual Holiday Craftacular! It is the biggest, best and most highly anticipated craft fair in New York City and has also made a huge dent in the crafty scene of London.
On December 6th crafty people of all sorts will gather at the Bust Holiday Craftacular featuring over 200 vendors, DJ’s, an assortment of delicious treats and much, much more! There will also be special goodie bags for the first 500 attendees and amazing raffle prizes! Best of all, if you’re in the NYC or surrounding areas, it is beyond affordable to mix and mingle with your crafty counterparts since admission is just $2!
If you want to be a vendor at the Holiday Craftacular, apply immediately to make sure there’s a space for you. A vendor table is $250 and you must apply by November 2, 2009. Click here to apply and get your craft on at Bust’s Holiday Craftacular!
Everyone is familiar with the traditional Easter basket, but some take it to the next level, putting their passion and talent for crafts behind it and coming up with a truly sensational looking basket. Here are some of the best Easter baskets of the year.
Have a basket of your own that you’d like to show off? Link it in the comments!
For those of you who have old baby furniture stowed away in storage that you swore you would give away to charity, GoodWill, or to expecting parents but never got around to it, fear no more! There is now a way to not only keep furniture you spent good money on maybe years earlier, but actually reuse it and get a lot of use out of it now.
If you have an old baby changing table, Better Homes and Gardens has a wonderful idea to work it back into your everyday life without even hinting towards what it’s purpose used to be.
Take your ordinary baby changing table, get a little creative with it and apply your own, personal taste. The table’s waist-high height, size, and shelves makes it the perfect object to make over into a drink cart. The exterior can be polished, painted, and decorated and it’s shelves give perfect space for bottles, glasses, and snacks. Attach some wheels to the bottom and you’re good to go for your next entertaining event or relaxing night at home.
If you’re not the type to have a drinking cart or don’t have a need for one, your changing table can also be remade into a decoration piece or microwave stand for your kitchen. The possibilities are virtually endless.
Have fun!
