Hands Occupied

Colorful knitting, crochet, latch hook and macrame from craft book author & designer Heidi Gustad.

Back to School

How to DIY the Perfect Book Cover

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Last week I shared how to make my new favorite accessory, a DIY pencil clutch. In that post, I outed myself as a huge school supply nerd, revealing how much time I spent as a kid preparing and decorating school supplies for the coming year. Today’s tutorial shares my go-to method for covering textbooks (or any book), ideas for custom cover designs, and how to reinforce the covers to survive a year in a bumpy backpack.

DIY Pencil Clutch

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A couple years ago, I made a clutch using rulers and felt that I am still pretty excited about and use all the time. Since I can’t get enough of all things bookish, I recently got the notion in my head to take the school supply clutch concept to the next level with pencils and a slightly different structure, and I think I might love this one even more!

Yarn Swatch Wall Art

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Since I apparently can’t get yarn off my brain at any given time, today’s DIY wall art idea is inspired by the yarn swatches you’d knit to test the gauge of your yarn before casting on a new project. This would make a great gift for any knitting lover in your life – it’s back to school time, does your kid’s teacher have a yarn addiction? Or maybe their librarian… ;)

Vintage Poster Library Tote

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My new favorite source for vintage images is called Vintagerio. It’s also my favorite place to spend hours drooling over and getting inspired by vintage ads, propaganda, vintage greeting cards, foreign vintage art and illustrations. Vintagerio’s incredible collection of thousands of high quality vintage images is perfect for vintage lovers and DIYers looking for images to craft with. The best part is that their library includes a lot of images I haven’t seen a million places before. Today, I’m sharing just one idea for how to use a vintage image in a DIY, but the possibilities are endless.

Reading Rainbow & DIY Summer Reading Log for Grown-Ups

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Last week’s Reading Rainbow Kickstarter launch made quite the splash. It ushered my beloved childhood TV show back into the zeitgeist, and apparently, into my creative brain. Between that and the imminent start of summer reading, I have got books on the brain!

Glitter Polka Dot Notebook

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There are some new glitter-friendly stencils at Michaels these days, designed by my good friend (and all around really great lady) Amy from Mod Podge Rocks! They are peel and stick stencils, do you don’t have to worry about leakage under the stencil as you use them. I whipped up this polka dot notebook in no time, and I’m looking forward to gifting it to a creative friend who loves sketching as much as I love DIYing.