Crafty Manolo

Paper is a remarkable medium. It’s endlessly adaptable, easily colored, light as a feather, delicate, yet strong. It’s a medium Etsy artist Sarah Knight works in quite well.

This bowl, for example, is handmade from paper pulp Knight made mostly from recycled paper from an office. She’s turned printer paper and cardstock into something new and wonderful.

Once the bowl is shaped, Knight paints each one by hand. Every bowl is completely individual, even when she uses the same colors and motifs.

All that, and it only costs $35.00 plus shipping.

For decorative use only.

Oh, and be sure to check out Sarah Knight’s entire Etsy store, which features her paintings, photography, mixed media pieces, and aptly named ‘weird things’ as well as more pretty paper bowls. You’ll be glad you did.

It’s fun. It’s festive. And I’m kind of in love with the wonky shape of these pretty green bottles. Even the somewhat minimalist, crude sun on the right is making me smile… though I’m more drawn to the Klimt-esque dotted scrolls on the left.

All in all, if I were to begin painting on glass, I imagine this is what my early efforts would most closely resemble. I’m a dab  hand at painting  a wall, but fiddly things like glass bottles? Actual figurative work? Yeah, not so much. Still, even these simple efforts that are nearly as wonky as the bottles themselves have a certain charm to them. I may even try it, using the instructions found here.

But of course there’s so much more than the sun from a small child’s crayon drawing or simple motifs ripped off from famous paintings to do with glass and paint in tandem.
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via Craftstylish

In honor of Earth Day, I thought I would bring you some great ideas for recycling your refuse into glorious crafts nobody would refuse to have in their homes. First up, this kind of adorable mosaic frame is made of old credit cards. If you’ve been hit hard by the recent economic miseries and suddenly want to get rid of all your plastic, here’s a way to make it work for you again.

But what if you don’t have a large cache of old credit cards to cut up? Ah my dears, just look below the cut and find more fun crafts from around the web made of discarded items.

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via All Things Family

Between the horrible weather and the fact that today marks precisely one month to Easter, I have decided we need to talk about decorating eggs. Why? Because they’re festive and fun. What more impetus do we need?

While dyed or painted eggs are most commonly associated with Easter, there’s no reason we can’t play with them the rest of the year. Eggs are nicely shaped little canvases. And if you’re uncomfortable working with real ones, it’s easy to find faux eggs to decorate.

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