Tuesday, February 4, 2014

DIY Secret Book

/ / DIY Hollow Book / /

{Guest Post By Madi}

 
Hello Blog Friends!
Welcome to Beth's Craft Shack's first guest post! My friend Madi from The Literary Maidens Blog is here to share how she made a hollowed out book. Keep reading for a step-by-step tutorial.
 
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 I'm so excited to be here! Let's get started!
Here's what you will need:
  • An Old Book (I used an old discarded library book that I got for fifty cents).
  • A Ruler.
  • A Pencil
  • An Eraser (or you could just use the one at the end of your pencil. I just like using my big one)
  •  A Box Cutter/Exacto Knife (most people find it easier to use a box cutter, but if you don't have one on hand I'm sure the Exacto Knife will work fine).
  • Liquid Elmer's Glue.
  • A Small Paint Brush (I just used an old eyeliner brush. It worked great! Just make sure it's clean before you start your project if you decide to go that route).
  • A Small Container To Make Your Glue Solution (I opted for an old Hormel bowl).
 

                            

Start with your book. Open it up to the page that you want to cut (leave a few pages, I'll tell you why later)
Next, get your ruler and draw a line the width of your ruler on all four sides.

When you're done it should look something like this.

Get your handy-dandy eraser and erase the lines in the corners, leaving the box in tact.

Like So.

Now t's time to mix up your glue solution. Mix seventy-five percent glue and twenty-five percent water. Stir it all up.

Next, lay the book on its spine so that you can easily paint the glue on without it dripping on everything.

Slather your glue on all four sides so that everything stays together while you're cutting. This also gives your little hidey hole the consistency that it needs to hold all of your little goodies.

Next glue the back page to the back cover.

Close the book and let the glue dry COMPLETELY. You'll want to use something to keep the pages that you have set aside from the rest of the book apart from your glued pages so that they don't get glued with the rest of the book. I used my eraser and ruler, but you can use whatever you like. I know that someone said that post-it notes work great. I also ended up stacking up a couple of heavy books on top of it while it dried.

Once the glue is dry, you're ready to start cutting. Take your box cutter and start cutting along the lines that you drew earlier.

This is where the fun starts.

Getting all of these pages cut out is a very long and tedious process. Get your favorite Pandora station going to keep you going strong.

Just keep swimming . . .

Voila!

Once you have all your pages cut out, use your glue solution on the inside pages. I also did another coat on the outside because all of the cutting and tearing had dismantled a few of the pages.

Now put a layer of glue on the top page.

Close the book and let the glue dry COMPLETELY. Stack a few books on it to make it dry as tight as possible.
 

Once it's dry, cut out the top page.

And there you go! You have a very sneaky place to hide a cash stash, candy from the little ones in your home, or anything else that you can think to stuff in there. I hope that you found this helpful! If you decide to take on a book craft, comment! We love hearing from y'all! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to visit my blog by clicking here  for more book related stuff!
 
 

Monday, January 20, 2014

DIY watercolor bookmarks

Today I'm going to go over what I did to make these water color bookmarks! Here's what they look like:
They are super easy, and would make a perfect little treat for anyone who loves to read! It would also be a good idea if you need to get treats for a large group of people and don't want to spend a lot of money. 
Here's what you'll need:
• paint chips (your choice of color)
•paint (I used craft paint)
• a paint brush
• some foil of a paper plate to put squirt your paint onto
•something to go under everything so you don't get paint on anything! (I used this vinyl Texas tablecloth!)
 
Oh and don't forget your root beer! 


After gathering up my supplies, I squirted just a little bit of each color I was using (red, green, blue, and white) I decided to paint the stem first. 
Pretty simple. I just drew a line and a few leaves. The less perfect, the neater it looks, in my opinion. Since the store I got the paint from didn't carry a lot of color choices for paint, I mixed the red and white for my pink flowers.
Next I just painted on the flowers. 
You could leave it like that, but I decided to add another stem and flower.
And that's it! Just let it dry. Super fast and easy, and I think they're so cute! Here's after they all dried.
Hope you enjoyed and happy crafting!


Beth


Saturday, January 18, 2014

My scrapbook beginnings!

So I have been wanting to get into Scrapbooking for a while now, 1 because it's crafty and super cute and, 2 because it gives me a reason to buy those cute Scrapbooking pages from hobby lobby (yes, I'm a compulsive hoarder, but that is a topic for another day and another type of blog) Today, I finally pulled the trigger! I ran up to the Walmart and bought the cheapest album they had (because of my tendency to quit things. I know- bad bad bad) and got a bunch of those cute papers from Hobby Lobby, and I started scrapbooking! I wanted to post my first page here to show everyone. This is by no means a tutorial on how to scrapbook, in fact, I'd love any tips you could give me! I'd like to post more about my scrapbooking journey on later dates, so let me know if you'd like it.
I decided to use a picture of my dog and I, because I love her and also because that was the best picture I could find at the moment. Next time, I'll hopefully be able to print out more photos to use! So there it is. Happy crafting! 


Beth

DIY Valentines

 So I've been seeing these super cute Valentine cards all over Pinterest the past few days, and I knew I had to give some to my 3 year old class! Here's what they look like:
I believe someone is selling them on Etsy, but I decided I could do it myself and save a few bucks. Hope you enjoy the tutorial!


Supplies you'll need:
• Kraft colored notecards
• Googly eyes 
• A heart punch (or awesome heart-cutting skills)
• Paint chips (you could use any type of paper, but hey! Paint chips are free, right?)
• Scissors
• Glue

So to start off, I took one of these plain, kraft cards.

And I cut it on the fold so that I had two papers.
If you want, you can leave it like this. I, however, wanted them smaller, so I cut them in half again.
Now you're ready to start punching! I used two hearts and stacked them on top of each other and then glued them.
I glued the hearts in the center of the paper, then one googly eye above the heart. I chose to free hand the word "you" at the bottom, but I think stencils or letter stickers would look great! Again, here's the finished product!
Hope you enjoyed, and happy crafting!

Beth