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Piece of Craft: Minimalist Wall Art Ideas

I’ve talked about Alisa Burke on many occasions while blogging for Piece of Craft. Just to reiterate, Burke is a freelance artist and crafter.  She wrote my favorite crafting book of all time, Canvas Remix, gives classes (including online workshops, check them out!), has had her artwork featured in a variety of galleries, and has an amazing blog that I check multiple times a week.

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A crafting drill. Photo by Faith Breisblatt.

Piece of Craft: Essential Crafting Tools

It could just be me, but sometimes when I’m working with different materials, I feel very confined to them, like I can’t use any outside tools when obviously there is an endless amount of things to use.  For example, if I’m making a necklace and found a cool rock or something I want to use for a pendant, I used to literally have no idea how to create a pendant.  Sometimes I would try wrapping it in wire so it would hang from a chain or string, but I’m not skilled enough with wire to make something like that look nice.  Instead, I could have used a drill here, which sounds like such an easier solution than what I could find at the time. Drills are great because they’re actually easy to use and as long as you have the right drill bits for the piece of material you’re attempting to drill through, you’re golden and will have made an awesome hole fit for your creation. Another tool I’ve come across in the past recent months is a glass cutter. If you ever want to work with glass at all, for example to cut a hole, this is an awesome tool.  I’d be a little weary if you’ve never used one before (and please, for all these tools, be careful!) but it isn’t too hard to use as well. In my opinion, there are a few must haves for any crafter.

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On the Start Screen for the new Windows 8, you can get a glimpse of recent e-mails, what's next on the agenda, the weather, and more. Photo from Christina Bonnington/Wired

Tech Devil: Mobile and Desktop OS Unity

Almost two weeks ago, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Microsoft announced the release of their Consumer Preview for Windows 8. Windows 8 is their newest update to the Windows operating system and brings a large number of changes.

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See-through leggings aren't pants. Photo from sweetandmade.blogspot.com.

Broke's the New Black: ASU’s Fashion Faux Pas

A quick walk around campus reveals a number of fashion faux pas, and far too often. I’d like to highlight these funny-but-too-familiar things that we see consistently.  Here’s a list of ASU’s most common fashion faux pas: Wearing a backpack and carrying a purse I see it every day: a girl carrying a backpack, but also feeling compelled to carry a purse.

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A watermark T-shirt. Photo from u-createcrafts.com.

Piece of Craft: Watermark T-shirts

As most of you know already, I’ve been making random things for a long time.  I love crafting so much and I think I’m very lucky to have so many friends that support this by admiring my work, asking me how to make various things, and sending me links and tutorials to things I should make.  Honestly, many of my ideas for posts or projects even come from my friends, whether close or simply an acquaintance that finds a great idea that they want me to try.  Today’s post is no exception. Dying shirts is almost customary -- it’s nothing new.  But when you add something special and unique to dying a shirt, that’s when I take notice.  A friend of mine sent me a link to a blog called U-Create, which features a variety of creative and crafty projects.  In one particular post, the author, a college student herself, discusses a way to make watermark tees using any T-shirt, dye and Elmer’s glue. For this project, you first wash your shirt (just rinsing it in a sink works) and then lay it out on a flat surface.  Then, use the Elmer’s glue to write, draw, whatever you want on your shirt.  This could be anything from poetry, song lyrics and quotes to pictures or abstract designs.  Once done with this step, let the shirt dry completely. Once dry, you’re on to the dying process.  Create a sort of dye bath using a bin, cool water and however much dye you want to use.  Remember, the darker the dye bath, the darker your shirt will be.  Place your shirt in the dye bath and, once you feel it’s done, lay it flat to dry. Once your shirt is dry, let it soak in cool, soapy water for about 15 minutes.  This allows for the extra dye to soak out.  Then put it in the washer and dryer.  Once dry, your shirt is ready to wear! I would suggest doing a bunch of shirts at a time -- then you have a bunch of new shirts to wear! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to e-mail me at fbreisbl@asu.edu.

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