Quick project: turn your pins into magnets

I have a little collection of pins I've picked up here and there, which spend their time sitting in a drawer. My pin-wearing days are far behind me, and I don't have a corkboard or anything to attach them to. But I do have a fridge, and a magnetic panel on my craft desk, so I decided that if I changed my pins into magnets, I could stick them somewhere that I would be able to see and enjoy them.

Start here: magnets and pins!

This is a pretty straightforward project, and very easy if you have access to small wire clippers and pliers. Start with your pins and some magnets. These ones are 3/4" across and I got a package of eight for about $2.

Step 1

Use your pliers to grab one end of the U-shaped catch on the back of the pin. Bend it open, kind of like straightening a paper clip. I couldn't get a photo of this step, but you want to bend it until you get it looking like the picture above.

Step 2

Next, use your wire clippers to snip this bent piece off, as close to the flat back of the pin as possible.

Step 3

Also Step 3

Then, use your pliers to grab the hinge part of the pin. Pull the pin out (you may need to wiggle it a little to get it out). Dispose of your sharp pin parts somewhere safe!

Step 4

Now just put some glue on one side of your magnet, and stick it to the back of your pin. I used Elmer's Glue-All - you can use something stronger, or you can actually just skip the glue all together, since the magnet will hold onto the pin.

Another set of pins that I turned into magnets. These are a bit smaller,
so I used some smaller magnet pieces that I had already.

Wait for the glue to dry, then enjoy your new magnets!

Handi-hour

The Renwick Gallery has the best of all museum after-hours events: Handi-hour. It combines some of the best parts of being a kid (unlimited craft supplies) and being an adult (having a couple beers after work), plus snacks, a scavenger hunt, music, and getting to hang out with a museum's collections after everyone else leaves. Tonight was my second Handi-hour and it was even more fun than the first one, since we got there early enough to get good seats and lots of supplies.

My coworker's coaster

My coworker's coasters

This time the crafts were tile coasters and felt coffee cup sleeves, although as usual you were free to make whatever you wanted, and lots of people did. I stuck to the suggested projects this time and spent the evening making a coffee sleeve. It's enormous, but it actually fits perfectly on my water glass, which is now very pretty and floral.

Then I came home and spent over an hour trying to fix a mistake in my scarf and get all my stitches back on the needles. One of my stitches is dropped and a few are twisted, but all are currently accounted for and I'm hoping that tomorrow I'll have time (and patience) to get everything going in the right direction again. And then once I do, I'm taking a crochet break.

Crafty Bastards 2011

On Saturday I went to Crafty Bastards, which is the annual DC craft fair. My first and only other trip to Crafty Bastards was in 2008, and I wasn't that impressed then, because it seemed like it was mostly mustaches and bicycles and octopuses and owls as far as the eye can see. Not that there's anything wrong with that, necessarily, but it's not really my thing, and I didn't feel inspired to buy or make anything after that visit.

Crafty Bastards has grown in the past three years, and this time there was a much larger variety of vendors, including a few of my favorites from the Ballston Arts & Crafts Market like Yummy & Company, Katharine Watson, and Ashley Buchanan Jewelry. A few other vendors that made me wish I had tons of talent, or cash, or both:

• Fernworks: resin jewelry and paintings. I especially love her amazing, ethereal hand-painted resin jewelry: beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
• Seeing in Fabric: "paintings" made from fabric scraps and machine and hand embroidery.
• Inedible Jewelry: teeny tiny food! I remember them from the first Crafty Bastards I went to as one of the more unique and fun vendors.
• The Oak Leaves: incredibly teeny clay buildings. Something about these was really fascinating - they're just unpainted little houses, but they seem like tiny homes.
• My Paper Crane: cute plush food. As with real donuts, the only donuts left by the time I got to their stall were the cream-filled and crullers.
• Zooguu: plush toys. I love the squids!
• Tasha McKelvey: pottery and ceramic jewelry. Her little bird bowls are wonderful.
• Cotton Monster: plush monsters may be a staple of craft shows, but these are really unique. There's something definitely creepy as well as cute about these guys.
• NeedleNoodles: I was so excited to see NeedleNoodles and her little guys in the flesh (or in the yarn)! I hadn't seen her squids before but I loved them - might have to buy the pattern.

So, yes, definitely worth the trip, despite the drizzle and the cold weather. The only thing I bought was a falafel sandwich from Amsterdam Falafel (yum) but I saw lots of things that inspired me, and lots of vendors whose sites I'm bookmarking for Christmas shopping ideas.

Favorites from the Ballston Arts & Crafts Market

I finally made it to the Ballston Arts & Crafts Market today. It seems like every year, I become aware of it just in time for the season to end (even though it runs from April to October), which, as I realized today, was my loss. It's a small market but I was impressed with the quality and variety of things people were selling.

I especially loved this ceramic kitty from Red & Main because it looks like my real-life kitty. I was tempted to buy it, but unfortunately before I acquire more cute things I need to acquire more flat surfaces to put them on.

I also really liked Katharine Watson's block-printed cards and textiles, Yummy & Company's clay jewelry, Motherbored's recycled computer part pendants, and Ashley Buchanan's hand-cut metal necklaces and earrings.

While I'm on the subject of cool handmade things I've seen recently, I should mention Uncanny Jewelry, whose earrings and necklaces I saw at NOFO last weekend during a trip to Raleigh. I've seen recycled can jewelry before but nothing as pretty as what she makes.