Super Easy Wooden Clothspin Gift Tags

Here's another option for fancy homemade gift tags.  It takes a bit more time to make than my fabric gift tags but it really brings out the individuality of each gift.  With some precut wooden shapes from Michael's and some wooden clothspins, you have yourself some inexpensive and super easy wooden gift tags.  So, here's how I made them.

Materials:

 - precut wooden shapes from Michael's

 - clothspin

 - tacky glue (or wood glue, whatever you have on hand).

 - various paints for paint wood  and a paint brush.

 - Sharpie pen to write the name.  You can paint it on too, but I'm just not that talented. :-)

Preferably you'll want to pick shapes that will cover the clothspin completely.  I've played around with shortening the cloths pin by just cutting of a small amount of each side, but really, it's just easier to pick different shapes.  You might get away with cutting just one side (the one that's getting glued to the wooden shape) - but I haven't tried it (if you try it, please let me know how it goes).

1.  Put a small amount of glue onto one side of the cloths pin, as shown and glue it onto the back of the wooden shape. You'll know which side the back is by where the sticker was located and let me tell you, those stickers do not like coming off. I'm just saying.  If you're wooden shape isn't completely flat, you might need to clamp it down some way while the glue dries.  I just used a hair tie to hold it in place.  Just let it dry now.

2.  Once it's dry, you can remove the clamp, and clip it onto somewhere.  It sure does make it handy to paint.  Paint to your liking.

 

3.  Write in the name and clip to gift.

Gosh, I have more pictures than I do steps.  See I told you it was easy.

Happy Gifting!

(oh, and yeah, I do realize that Christmas is two months away. :-)  but if someone can request my Christmas wishlist this early, I can start posting Christmas crafts this early. hehe.  Besides, those two months go by fast.)

And the Winners of Rad Linc Crafts First Giveaway are...

First and for most, I'd like to say thanks to the three entries of Rad Linc Crafts very first giveaway contest.  I have to admit that I was initially bummed that only three people entered my giveaway.  But, the further I thought about it, the more I realized that this is actually okay, because for my very first giveaway, I'm going to be able to give the prize to each person that entered.  My first plan was to only have two winners.  Instead, I've decided to extend my giving mood and give it to all three entries. 

So, the winners are:


Ladyaero
Jules @ Moon Cat Farms
and Digital Misfit

Congratulations to each of you.  Each of you have won 10 fabric gift tags (7 tags of your design choice, and 1 each of the 3 other designs), and a gift card holder of your design choice, with a slightly different but corresponding inner fabric (like the picture).  Please email me your address (ftcanon@gmail.com) so I can ship out your prizes. :-)

Thanks again for reading and for entering into my giveaway contest.

Rad Linc Crafts: Free Giveaway #1 - Fabric Christmas Gift Tags and Gift Card Holder

As recently promised, I'm super excited to announce my very first giveaway here at Rad Linc Crafts.  Woo hoo!  I made some of these gift tags last year and decided to make more this year.  Here's the tutorial on them. In addition to the tutorial, I just created the template for the tags that you can download here.

This year, I've decided on 4 different fabric designs.

The Giveaway is 10 of these gift tags (design of my choosing, but will be strongly swayed to the comment that you leave..  I've left them unstamped so you can add on a bit of your own touches to them.  Since, I'm in the giving mood, I'll also throw in a gift card holder (not necessarily the one pictured). I'll give them out to TWO lucky winners.

So, the rules:

1.  Make a comment on this post stating which tag you like the best.
2.  Followers of Rad Linc Crafts who comment get two entries (meaning two chances to win) everyone else, gets only one entry. Followers are not automatically entered into the giveaway, you must post a comment below.
3.  Contest officially ends Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 11:59 pm PST.
4.  Winners will be announced on the following Sunday or Monday.

Let's Do This!!!  Good luck and thanks a bunch for reading Rad Linc Crafts.

Chicharon Adventures Turns Two! Fabric Stitched Piggy Card

As I have mentioned before (around this time last year), my cousin and friend have a clothing company named Chicharon Adventures.  Well, this past weekend they celebrated their 2nd year anniversary.  This past year seems to have just flown by, and a lot of good things came their way (collaborations with stores, bands, an awesome new look, and even more cool designs)... proving to be yet another successful year for them.  I'm quite proud of their accomplishments and wish them further success in the future.  Since, I couldn't make it to their anniversary bbq this past weekend, I decided I'd make a card to send to them.  I made a card last year too.

Anyway, here's what I came up with. It's a the fabric CA pig, machine stitched onto a card with hand embroidered details.  Here's what I did.

Materials:
- card stock and /or blank card.
- CA pig or other design that you want to put in a card
- heat n bond fusing material
- fabric
- dmc thread and needle
- button for the nose

1.  Adhere fusing material to fabric. Cut a small piece of the fusing material. Keep the protective paper on one side, and iron together.  Cut the fabric if you'd like.

2.  Transfer the pattern onto the fabric.  I just drew it on.

3.  Cut out the outline of the pattern. Remove the protective paper from the fusing side, and iron pattern onto card stock.

4.  With a sewing machine, sew the outline of the pattern using a zig-zag design.

5.  Put some tape on the back so the thread doesn't come undone.

6.  Use a needle and pre poke holes near where you'll be embroidering, for instance the eyes.  A few holes on the bottom side of the eyes and a few holes on the top side of the eyes were sufficient.

7.  Thread the dmc thread and sew thru the pre poked holes so the eyes look like they should, on the right side of the card.  Don't worry to much about the wrong side of the card, because it can be covered up. Embroider the other face details.

8. Place the button on the card at correct location and make marks for where the button holes are.  When buying the button, remember to get a button with 4 holes.  Use those marks to pre poke the button holes.

9.  Attach the button to the card using only vertical lines for attaching the button.

10. On the wrong side of the design, tape down the dmc thread so it doesn't come undone. 

11. Cover the wrong side with a cut out piece of card stock.  Do the same to the other inner face of the card.

12.  Write your message, place in envelope and send it off. :-)

Happy Anniversary, Chicharon Adventures.

DIY No Bag Microwaveable Popcorn

Upon my last inspection of store bought microwaveable popcorn, I noticed that there was a lot of ingredients of which I had no clue what they were. I kept thinking, why do they make the simplest things so complicated... I mean, it's just corn that's popped, or at least it should just be corn that's popped.

Anyway, I did a google search on diy microwaveable popcorn and found that many people has had success in making popcorn using paper bags with kernels in it. This was great, and I thought to myself, once I get a paper bag that I can use, I'm gonna try it. Well, I did finally get a paper bag and I tried it, and it worked, but I had a lot of unpopped kernels -- must have taken it out too soon. I didn't attempt stapling the bag because I just don't believe it's a good thing to do. (Even if Alton Brown's staples didn't spark -- not a chance I'm willing to take), but it worked with a couple of folds on top. Anyway, this worked well enough but I wanted a better way to make microwaveable popcorn without having to wait for a paper bag to come my way (sure, I could just buy them but I just didn't want to).

So I decided to do some more google searches. And voila, amidst all the comments I read thru, someone suggested using a glass bowl with a plate on top. How simple was that... and I had both of those items... yay me! Well, I decided to give it a shot. I don't really think you need a tutorial on this, but I'll give one anyway.
(Note: all the measurements are guesses as I didn't really measure anything)

Materials:

- Glass bowl (big mixing bowl is good)
- Plate
- Popcorn kernels (1/4 cup or so)
- Olive oil (1/2 tsp or so, optional)
- Salt (a pinch or two, optional)

1. Place the popcorn kernels, olive oil and salt in a bowl. I mix it a bit but I don't think it's necessary to do so.

2. Place the plate on top of the bowl, and place the whole thing in the microwave.

3. Microwave til you hear 3 sec before pops.

4. Remove bowl from microwave... be careful as the bowl and plate will be hot. (use oven mitts). You may actually want to put the popcorn in a different container before eating so you don't accidentally touch the glass and burn yourself.

5. Eat. Enjoy. Make more and start the movie. :-)
Variations:
- Try adding garlic powder, parmesan cheese, cayenne pepper as possible toppings... these can be added after the popcorn is popped.