Recycle: Pencil Holder {Tutorial}

If you happened to find some paper cores or paper tubes from your kitchen, toilet, badminton court, craft room or writing table, please don’t throw them away, … recycle them into these yarn wrapped pencil holder and get back to school!!!!

There are many sources that you can get the paper tube for free, just to point out a few….. from your cling wrap, aluminum foil, or kitchen paper towel in your kitchen; toilet paper roll; shutter cock tube after your badminton match; yarn tube, fabric roll tube found in your craft room; even thermal paper roll of the fax machine!!! Turn the trash into treasure and help mother Earth in reducing the dumping load. I got mine from the raffia yarns I made for the recent crochet straw projects, i.e. beach bag, sun hat and the daisy brooch.

I made them for a recent charity event and all of them were sold during the pre-sale. Many came back to me and asked for more…. so I made a “come back” but in a DIY way. This is so simple to make and if you have the materials on hand, it costs nothing!!!!

Let’s get to the how-to after the jump…..

…..

| Click Here To Continue Reading…… |

Get Ready For The Charity Event!!!

Keep your keys cozy in the Owlly belly, pull the leaves to stow and hang.

Qty: 20 only

…..

| Click Here To Continue Reading…… |

Tutorial: How To Draw Hexagon For Quilt Block

I can’t remember if I learned this during primary school, but I definitely remember the way my mum taught me while making hexagon quilt blanket for us… using a compass to draw…. My first lesson to sew a hexagon flower quilt block is to draw this cardboard hexagon templates. Till today, I still hear my mum’s voice mumbling in my ears….

“a perfect hexagon flower quilt block comes from precised hexagon templates”…..

Until I was a little older, I learned to use an angular ruler to draw hexagons in my formal education, like divide the 360° into 6 part in a circle etc…. But, I still love my mum’s way, with just a simple tool, a compass…. so straight forward and fool proof!!! If you are using computer aided software to generate hexagon template, this is one of the simplest methods…. just replace the compass with circles.

Draw your own size of hexagon template by using this tutorial to make your hexagon quilt. …..

| Click Here To Continue Reading…… |

New Plan For Turtle Pattern

Still remember this turtle pincushion which I designed and made in March 2009? Now, I have a new plan for it!!!

For over the pass 6 months, I have received about 100 requests (via email and comment) for this Turtle Pincushion’s pattern. The request came in since I put up a “pattern available by request” update at that post in July 2009. I have sent them all out directly to the requester’s mailboxes till recently, before I was being attacked by the deadly virus and caused a deadly crash to my laptop.

Due to that crash, I have lost most of the requestors’ emails and all my records went haywire. If you wrote to me and I haven’t replied with the pattern, I am sorry…. As an apology, I intend to make a step by step tutorial of how to sew it, and I will enlarge the size and add extra features. See the photo above, those white bits at the background is the paper pattern I have expanded, go guess how big it will be Together with the tutorial, I will make the pattern available for free download. Till then, please be patient and enjoy my other tutorial and free pattern while I get it blewwwwww up. Do either 1 or all of the followings and updates from Craft Passion will be sent to your screen directly, giving you peace of mind for not missing anything out:

1. Subscribe to my Feed, or
2. Subscribe an Email update, or
3. Join my Facebook page, or
4. Follow me in Twitter

What’d other made with my free pattern I sent to them? …..

| Click Here To Continue Reading…… |

Tutorial: Tube Box

I have been experimenting of how to make a sturdy tube box to store the Kanzashi Christmas Tree. The box must be strong enough to be able to withstand all the rough handling during shipping and reach the winners’ hands in good condition.

I used cardboard, folded 2 layers, no, not strong enough!

I used a thick cardboard, no, I couldn’t fold it in round!

I shopped around but all I saw were rectangle boxes and they are rather huge for the small tree I made, which means I have to include more bubble pack in the package, no no I don’t want that either!

I want it to be light weight yet strong….. I was grumbling to my technical staff about it during a casual talk while they were having their tea break. The chief showed me a UPVC pipe and said: “Use this!”. Yes, it is the perfect material that I want, why I never thought of it!!! More brains is always better than 1 as long as we are not the cooks and won’t spoil the soup lol!!! …..

| Click Here To Continue Reading…… |

Sewing Tutorial: Kanzashi Christmas Tree

Congratulation to the 3 winners who won the Green, Red and White trees during the Kanzashi Christmas Tree Giveaway Draw recently!!! For those who didn’t win or missed the boat, don’t be disappointed, here is the tutorial with complete step-by-step photos and even videos to guide you all the way to make the Christmas Tree!!!

Though it looks tedious but if you get your hands on it, it is pretty simple!!! Try it out!!!!

The Christmas Tree is made from 2 types of Kanzashi fold (or TsuNami) petals, round tip and pointy tip. Watch these 2 videos which I made to show you how to fold it. Perhaps you need to practice first before you can get a perfect fold for a start. Trust me, it is not as difficult as you see and think

I also prepared a pattern drawing for all the cut-out materials you need, you can download it here! …..

| Click Here To Continue Reading…… |