Welcome to Craft Meister. I call it a Sammelsurium (German for hodge podge) of craft ideas and instructions.
A Meister is the German word for master and I believe that I have mastered the art of creating things. I like to come up with original and unique ideas to create my crafts. Rather than throw things away I try to recycle items and see if I can come up with a new and original use for them. You will be amazed what you can create with simple items you have already in your home.
My inspiration comes from everything around me. Often I try to use an idea intended for one material in a totally different medium. There are no rules only creativity explored.
cheese box
- I only used the bottom of the container as the top has a piece of paper (label) glued to it and that often has wrinkles in it and I wanted a smooth surface.
- After basecoating the bottom, I used a penny to draw a circle for the eyes. Then I looked through my various stencils and used bits and pieces of those to create the face. The finishing touch was the use of dimensional fabric paint to accent the mask.
 sun mask |
 round mouth mask |
 leaf mask |
 brown eyes mask |
 black mask |
 beans mask |
Next I have been exploring other means of coating the card board. Instead of paint and I used different beans. At the local bulk store I selected the beans by the colors.
- I quickly drew the eyes and the nose and the mouth on the basecoated lid of the box (this time the lid was the perfect medium as the beans were covering up the wrinkled label) and heated up the glue gun and set to work gluing individual beans in their places. When done I used fabric paint to outline the gaps to give a mosaic look. To finish it I put a couple coats of gloss varnish on.
- For the frame I used wood corners. Instead of putting the frame together the usual way, I reversed it, so that the ‘usual top’ is now on the bottom and the mitred corners point outward rather than inward. I attached a small eyescrew to the top corner and then suspended the mask with nylon fishing line.
first posted on my website on November 13/1998
garbage can lid mask #2 - front view
Late in 2003 I decided to create another garbage can lid mask. This time I used pale blue Rubbermaid garbage can lid. I had no design in mind and just went with the flow. This time I have now a digital camera so I could show the progression of my work.
mask #2 - primed lid
mask #2 - initial design
mask #2 - next level
mask #2 - finished painting
garbage can lid mask #2 - side view
The painted mask looked ok, but it lacked character. So I applied one coat of water-based varnish. That was better, but still nothing spectacular. So I mixed some black paint into the varnish and rubbed it on the mask, wow now that gave it character. I am very pleased with the result.
This mask has a much more feminine look than my first one.
Tags: mask
One day the local hardware store had a garage sale and we found that we could get only garbage can lids without the cans. Our lids seem to always crack, probably because of our climate. We bought two kinds of lids and one kind fit and the other didn’t. Now hubby asked if he should throw out the useless one as it had only cost us $1. I told him to hold on as I would probably come up with an idea for a use for it.
Inspiration struck and here is the finished result my Rubbermaid garbage can lid mask. Basically I just used the lines on the lid for the features of the face. After basecoating the black lid is painted the design with Acrylic craft paints and seals it all with a coat of varnish.
Check out the second mask I made. It turned out to be much more feminine looking.
garbage can lid mask #1 - front view
garbage can lid mask #1 - side view
Tags: mask
finished stand
I always have a hard time taking clear pictures of my necklaces. That is until I came across these instructions.
I took the picture of the pattern and imported it into Photoshop and then recreated one half of the template. Here are the instructions with the dimensions to make the template and then the printable template. Print it at 100% and if there is any clipping (too large to print) just draw in the lines afterward.
 instructions template |
 print template |
At first I could not find any cardboard that was wide enough to make the stand and cut it in 2 pieces, but that was not good. Eventually I found a piece big enough, but too thick to bend. So I only cut out the center part of the template and glued the 2 pieces to the back of it.
Then I realized that it was just too wide and the sides that bend backward were not sticking at the top. So I measure up 5 inches from the bottom on the side and cut toward the center line and next cut towards the top and removed the top part. My changes are marked by the yellow lines and the scissors on the template. As you can see from the following pictures it worked.
I had some suede like fabric that I used to cover the whole stand. I used iron on bonding/glue material and it worked quite well.
 back of stand |
 front of stand |
 back of finished stand |
originally posted on January 3/2009 on the old site
Tags: necklace stand
I am happy to report that my printable 2010 calendars were included in a list of other printable calendars at at Hongkiat.com. It is great to have access to others all in one place.
Dodecahedron Cube Calendar
Vertical 1 Year Desk Calendar
Horizontal Monitor calendar
Also check out all my other calendars
These unique calendars are made from a plastic CD case with the CD holder part removed. I made 2 versions.
- CD Case Standup Calendar
- CD Case Wall Calendar
- a desktop version to stand on your desk or table
- a wall hanging version to hang on the wall
Here you can find instructions on how to take the CD case apart and assembling for desktop.
I printed the pages on double sided brochure paper from Staples. The paper is not as thick as photo paper, but sturdier than regular paper.
- CD Case Wall Calendar - back view
- CD Case Wall Calendar - open
- CD Case Wall Calendar - hanger
I sell both version as the printed calendar in the CD case or only the pages.
- Printed Pages (printed double sided) $9.50 + S&H
- Printed Pages (printed on photo paper, one side) $12.50 + S&H
- CD Case and Calendar Pages (printed double sided) $13.50 + S&H
- CD Case and Calendar Pages (printed on photo paper, one side) $17.50 + S&H
- Shipping inside Canada: $2.00
- Shipping to US: $3.00
- International Shipping: S5.00
Custom Calendars
You will have to email me the 12 photos (13 if you want a cover image) you want me to use for the calendar and I will put them in place of the current pictures in the calendar.
If you want to print your own calendar once I have it created for you as a PDF file, you only pay the setup fee.
- The setup fee is $40.00
- Then the cost for each calendar is the same as above
Please contact me to order your calendar and I will get back to you with my PayPal info.
MoonTime Calendar Front
Celebrate your Womanhood
This calendar is only for the female sex. Sometimes it is handy to keep track of your periods. This cute little booklet will keep it all in one neat compact place.
This is a great gift for a young girl just starting on her way to adulthood, helping her celebrate becoming a woman.
I bound it between 2 5¼ inch black floppy disks with plastic binding. I created the image for the front cover especially for the calendar. It has 9 printed calendar pages inside, 5 years per page.
I created the inside pages in MS Word and MS Publisher, as I was experimenting around. I find that I have more control with Publisher.
- MoonTime Calendar Back
- MoonTime Calendar Inside
If you are interested in buying a calendar, I sell it for U$10.00 shipping is included for Canada and the US. For other countries there is an extra charge. Contact me with your shipping info. I accept Paypal.
Tags: floppy disk, for sale, moon-time
homemade stress balls
I found this recipe at the rec.crafts.misc newsgroup. Today, Sunday February 22/98, I tried it out and made some for my kids. My 19 year old twins liked them as much as my ten year old. They liked to squeeze them and they also used them to practice juggling balls or just to throw them back and forth. (Due to the fact that I made those stress balls so long ago, before digital cameras, this is the only picture I have of them).
I made mine without any eyes or feet and without cutting the balloons to let the other balloon layers show through. They were easy to make and lots of fun. For the green one I used a ballon (never been blown up) that I had lying around for the outer layer. The other layers and the red ball were made with ballons I bought at a “Dollar Store”.
Here is the listing from the newsgroup: “A great and wacky gift for someone who has everything, or for people who you don’t want to give something really big to. These squishy balls feel great to squeeze and you can make them into people too, by adding faces. You could even try to make them look like the recipient, e.g. hair colour, glasses etc.
Materials
Dough
- 1/2 cup salt
- 1 cup flour
- 1 T oil
- 1 t cream of tartar
- 1 Cup water (or you can use bought playdough instead)
Other
- Balloons – 3 or 4 for each ball
Optional
- Plastic Eyes
- Felt
- Pipe cleaners
Instructions
- Mix dough ingredients together it a pot and heat until doughy, stirring all the time. This should only take a few minutes. Remove from pot, knead till smooth then leave to cool for about 1/2 an hour.
- Now comes the fun part! Take 3 or 4 balloons and cut most of the neck off each one, so you just have the round bit. Now take a ball of dough about 2 or 3″ across. The more you pack into one balloon, the less squishy it will be.
- Stretch one balloon over it. This can be a bit tricky. Now quickly (before it all oozes out again) put this inside another balloon, hole first (so that the second balloon covers up the hole in the first one). Put this inside another balloon in the same way.
- After you put the last one one, use your nails to pinch up a little of the LAST balloon only, i.e. go only through one layer. Then snip this using scissors to make a round hole. Do this several times all around the ball so that the previous colour shows through and makes polkadots.
- You are now ready to add a face, legs, whatever with a glue gun if you want to. Or you can just leave it plain so it’s easier to squish.
Hints:
- If you use water bomb balloons and a ball of dough about 1 to 2″ across, you can make quite a bouncy ball. The more taught the balloon is, the bouncier the ball.
- If you want to make it into a face to sit on your desk, try gluing it to an old film canister lid to help it stand up. “
Note: It is now the end of 2009 and I vaguely remember that I once read that you can also make the stress balls by filling the balloons with flour.
Tags: stress balls
In the fall of 2006 I came across this calendar design on the Canon website.
After looking at my 2 page vertical calendar for a few months, I decided that if would be more convenient to have it all on one page. The following design is based on the 2 page design, but condensed onto one page. I created it in MS Publisher.
- Vertical 1 Year Desk Calendar
- Vertical 1 Year Desk Calendar Template
This year I had decided not to update the calendar for 2010, that is, until I realized that it is a great calendar.
- Link to is the PDF file. Print it at 100%, rotated to portrait orientation
- If you would prefer the publisher file, please email me
Tags: Calendar
Dodecahedron Cube Calendar
After receiving a number of emails if I was going to create 2010 calendars, I decided it was time to get to work.
How to Print the Calendar
- The finished calendar is about 3 inches
- Use card thickness paper not office paper to print on
- The template is created to print at fit to page on US lettersize or A4 paper. A4 paper calendars will be a little smaller than those printed on US lettersize paper due to the fact that the paper is narrower.
Calendar Template Colors
2010 Calendar Gallery
2010 Calendar – Sun-Sat
- To download the template right click on the link below and save the link to your computer or
- Left click and then right click on the image and save link/target to your computer
- Black & White
- Bamboo
- Bright Flowers
- Clouds
- Marble
- Dark Abstract
- Light Abstract
- Stone
- Sunset
- Weave
- Wood
2010 Calendar – Mon-Sun
Tags: dodecahedron
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