Living Crafts Blog » Woodwork

Carve Crochet Hook from Twig

Living Crafts — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 21:12:31 +0000

We found these oh-so-cool handmade crochet hooks on pinned by Marta McCall.

And a tutorial at Stramenda.

Have you ever made your own hooks or needles? We’d love to see them!

Strega Nona Wooden Playset

Living Crafts — Sun, 15 May 2011 15:26:07 +0000

Check out this beautiful wooden play set by Crunchy Family Rising, inspired by the Strega Nona story book.

If you want to make your own wooden play sets, please find complete instrusctions in the Living Crafts Winter 2011 issue. It has instructions on how to make the play set for The Mitten story.

Winter 11 issue with complete instructions for making The Mitten story book wood figures

Log Table Tutorial

Living Crafts — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:58:36 +0000

Design Sponge does it again with a great tutorial for making your own log table. I prefer shorter rounded legs, but these metal ones give it a great modern look.

Tree Branch Pencil Holder

Living Crafts — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 21:06:34 +0000

This beautiful pencil holder, designed by Tonya Gunn, who owns Natural Earth Farm with her husband, was published in our Spring 2009 issue, complete with step-by-step instructions.

The original one featured in Spring 2009 issue is slanted.

To buy one of these pencil holders visit Natural Earth Farm’s Shop.

I recently I asked Tonya to make a bigger one to give as a holiday gift.

Tonya also made a log style to giveaway with a Lyra pencil set and drawing supplies from Palumba Toys!

Here’s our Giveaway courtesy of Palumba Toys:

Lyra Rembrandt 36 assorted colors

Lyra Pencil Sharpener

Pack of Premium Drawing Paper (75 sheets 9.5″ x 12.5″)

Small Painting/Drawing Board – 11.5″ x 15″

The winner will receive the above package valued at $85 from Palumba Toys, plus the above Birch Log Pencil Holder from Natural Earth Farm, valued at $25.

To enter drawing please leave a comment before Sunday (January 21, 2011) 8 p.m. EST. The winner will be announced on Monday.

Our winner for this giveaway is Molly: “i could probably make the handy little pencil holder but who’s got time with all the fantastic kid crafts we see? it’s a lovely set. thank you for offering!”

Helping Tower Tutorial

Living Crafts — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 22:50:40 +0000

This wonderful wooden Helping Tower by Anna White is a great treasure for those of you with little ones at home, helping in the kitchen and doing crafts together. The tutorial comes with detailed instructions and mechanical drawings.

Wee Folk Art – The Mitten

Living Crafts — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 15:29:10 +0000

The lovely folks at the Wee Folk Art are giving away 5 years of Living Crafts magazine starting today! The giveaway includes 3 years of back issues, along with a 2-year subscription which starts with the current Winter 2011 issue, featuring their own article. The mother-daughter duo’s article includes a complete tutorial for a beautiful hand-sewn felt mitten and a set of woodland animals, exclusively designed for Living Crafts, based on the children’s classic fairytale, The Mitten by Alvin Tresselt.

Please visit Wee Folk Art blog and leave a comment to enter, until Monday, December 20, 9:00 p.m. EST.

Once you make the wooden animals from this article, you’ll be ready to make any wooden figures for your children. Here are some of the photos from their project:

Wooden Tops

Living Crafts — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 16:08:11 +0000

by Fiona Duthie

These wooden tops are easy to make and fun to use! Make them with your children by putting them together but letting the kids do the coloring and painting (or help them complete the entire process). Over the years, my children have spent hours and hours with these toys, making up games with the tops as characters and seeing how long they can keep them spinning.

Materials:

2.5″ wooden wheel
wooden dowel 3/8″ wide x 3″ long
wood glue
optional: watercolor paints, pencil crayons

You can use any size of wooden wheel for these tops. Adjust the dowel size to the hole in the wheel – it should be a tight fit.

Wooden wheels are available through many crafts stores and online at specialty woodworking shops such as:

stockade.ca
leevalley.com
woodworker.com

Cut 3/8″ dowel into 3″ lengths. Sharpen one end with a pencil sharpener. The tip should be a little flat at the end – not completely pointed as for a pencil. Lightly sand the flat end of the dowel to smooth the cut edge. Push the dowel through the hole in the wheel. The closer the wheel is to the point, the more evenly it will spin; the further away, the more wildly. If your dowel is a tight fit, you can test it in different spots to get the spin you would like. Once you have the placement, remove the wheel, apply a small amount of wood glue inside the wheel hole, and push the dowel through to that placement point. Wipe away any excess glue with a damp cloth and leave to dry for an hour. If desired, paint the surface with watercolor paints or color with pencil crayons. Let the spinning begin!