#CraftySaturday

I spent my Saturday afternoon completing a few projects I've had on my mind for a while. I re-covered the seat of my desk chair by changing the fabric from an overly floral pattern to a new minimal cream on cream geometric pattern. I successfully attempted to make the tassels out of tissue paper that have achieved fame on Pinterest as of late (details on those at the bottom of this post). And, the project I'm most proud of, I strung up some handmade stars to fill the empty wall space over my bed (and added the tassels for now).

The stars themselves actually have a pretty interesting story. A family friend had made a couple of these stars as a gift for my mother. Mom thought they were very cute but did not look too closely at them. She had mentioned them to me before but I had not seen them until recently. When I took a look I noticed that Mrs. Wanda (the family friend) had carefully chosen maps of locations my parents had previously lived to make the stars from. How thoughtful!! The one pictured here is Washington D.C. where my parents lived for a stint and, by chance, one of my favorite US cities!

I immediately thought of the maps I have been collecting from my travels and wondered if they too could be used to make these cute 3D stars. Mrs. Wanda so kindly turned my travel treasures into displayable art! Maps from Turkey, Russia, the Czech Republic and the USA now adorn my wall. I used two cup hooks, craft wire and some of the wire used on the back of large picture frames or mirrors to finish the project. A few simple snips and wire twists and the project was complete. Now, as I sleep beneath the stars I am reminded of some of my favorite adventures! Plus, they look pretty stinking cute and make a great conversation piece.

Interested in making tassels for whatever project you have on your plate? I used the instructions found on on this blog, "Visual Vocabulary". I modified the project by being much less precise and extremely lazy. They do not take nearly as much time as suggested if you are not being particularly detailed - it is arts and crafts, have fun with it!