Tutorials & Patterns

I have an Etsy store for my more elaborate tutorials and patterns:


Here are some FREE tutorials and other instructive posts I've written that I thought you might find useful:

Cowboy Hat to Tophat
Simple steps to reshape an old felt cowboy hat into top hat.
Bic Pen Bullets
Make these easy bullets in minutes with Bic pen caps or other pen parts.
gRabbits - Plastic Bag Dispensers
These quick and easy storage containers for your plastic shopping bags are made with the tubes from toilet paper or paper towels.  Great for use by small trash bins, in the car, or for camping.
Super Simple Hair Flowers
Make these easy hair flowers in seconds with artificial flowers, buttons and bendable hair pins.
Snowman Bottle Covers
Great as Christmas gifts for parties, these snowman bottle covers dress up an ordinary bottle.  They are made using white towels, scraps of polar fleece, elastic, beads and chenille stem for the arms and carrot nose.
Valentine's Day Cards
Let you kids stand out next Valentine's by making these stash buster Valentine's Day Cards.  We made some with printable cardstock, pom poms and google eye.You can print out the PDF to make your own.
Cushion Critters
Make you own Pillow Pet Clone with this simple pattern for a LOT cheaper than buying the original.  And, they will be more special.
Dyed Pistachio Shells
Make you own dyed Pistachios with leftover Easter egg dye or Kool-Aid.  Great for adding to jewelry or other decorations.  Check out my Pistachio Hair Falls for another great way to use them.
Clothes Pin People
My daughter designed these tiny dolls using clothes pins, fabric scraps, twist ties, tape and a marker.  Great easy nondestructive project for young kid requiring no glue.  They can be changed or taken apart easily.

Many of my projects are inspired by tutorials written by others.  Here are some projects that use ideas from other places.:

Juggling Eye Balls
These balls that look like giant eyeballs are made simple with rice and balloons. You can find the tutorial at michele made me. She was inspired by the tutorial at OSC Tutorial.
Skull Bird Earrings
These skull bird earring were made after finding a tutorial to make tiny greenhouses ornaments at michele made me.
Reshaping Old Felt Hats
I found an awesome video tutorial on youtube for making over a dusty old felt hat.  In this Buster Keaton Hat Tutorial, he reshapes a cowboy hat into a  pork pie styled hat.
Pistachio Hair Falls
Bellygoddess inspired my pistachio falls by showing us how to braid cowrie shell hair falls using yarn.
Acylic Dread Falls
I was inspired to try my own synthetic dreads by following a tutorial on making acrylic dreads that shows how to make them with acrylic yarn.  I've explained here how I changed the instructions to fit my own style.
Peyote Snakeskin Bracelets
I made these peyote bracelets over 10 years ago, but there are tutorials for learning this stitch all over the net.  Search for your own or try this Video Tutorial or this Text Version.  Soon, I will have the patterns available on Etsy.com.
House Elves
Ghillies Poppet Pattern is a wonderful pattern/tutorial we used to make adorable house elves
Cornish Pixies
Shrinking the same pattern for Ghillie's Poppet we used for the house elves, we were able to make some tiny Cornish Pixies.
Mav Gun Mods and Paint
Why not take a trip over the the NERF forum or youtube for some ideas on how to Steampunk a toy water or dart gun.  They also have tutorials for modding your NERF guns to increase fire power and to improve and add custom features.
Ladybird House
Mich in LA wrote a great tutorial on making some tiny house pendants or ornaments using metal tape.  This tutorial inspired me to try my own house ornaments with the secret compartment inside out of cereal box cardboard.
Crazy Quilt Binder Cover
We'd been wanting to try Teesha Moore's Fabric Journal Tutorial on Youtube for a long time.  It inspired us to try one, but mom took her own path and created this binder cover, instead, using a different crazy quilt technique.
Poly Clay Pen
When making the binder cover above, we decided we needed a matching pen.  That is when we came across this video tutorial by Craftygoat for covering plastic pen barrels with Polymer Clay..
Duct Tape Dress Form
I found a tutorial at Thread Magazine for making a Body Double Duct Tape Dress Form that I had to try.  I tell how I altered the project to suit supplies I had on hand here.
Poly Whip
Bernie46 shares many informative indepth videos on Youtube.com for making a 12 plait whip.  I'm so glad I tried this project, even if I didn't use leather.  Our costume whip turned out great, and even cracks!
Tablet Weaving
If you like braiding or macrame, tablet weaving is a great project to try that won't cost you an arm and leg to get started in.  Although the tutorial I used to try it is no longer available, just searching the net will give you many great resources.

Thanks for looking though the tutorial list. Hope they are as inspiring to you as others tutorials have been for me. I will ad more as I find them.