To introduce and demonstrate some products from our new line of paints with Plaid, we have a few instructional videos on our site that you can find here. Take a peek at the Spray Kit video below. I mentioned in an earlier post that it is my FAVORITE tool—you can turn any of our paints (except for glitter paint) into a spray paint! Look in the gallery below to see how we used the Spray Kit to make some of the crafts pictured in the cute kid's room above. You can find all our paints and tools at Michaels. Click here for a coupon to receive 40 percent off any one item from this line.
One lucky winner will win the spray-paint kit, the "On The Farm" stencil set used to make the projects above, a set of 10 bottles of satin paint, and a set of six foam pouncers. In order to win, please leave a comment below before 6 pm on Friday, September 16. Click here for giveaway terms and conditions.

Good luck!

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1 The ombre edges on these plates were created by painting around the rim with our Spray Kit...which is part of the giveaway!

2 The green "grass" on this pillow was also created with the Spray Kit by lightly spraying along the bottom of the pillow before stenciling on the white fence.

3 The giveaway!!

1 We used our paint and Cathedral Lace stencil set to create all of these projects: the wall art, pillows, and mugs.

2 Stencilling on the mugs...we used our foam pouncer to apply pearl paint over the taped-on stencil.

Tune in to HSN on July 21 at midnight ET (meaning tonight, the night of the 20th!) to see Martha and our own Alex Perruzzi demonstrate some new and favorite tools, embellishments, kits, and great craft ideas, including our NEW craft paint products that you won’t find anywhere else!

We’re very excited about our new paints, which are formulated to work on ALL craft surfaces, indoors and out, and are even dishwasher-safe! The paint palette includes 160 colors, available in five nontoxic finishes. The projects pictured above were created with our paints, stencils, and tools.

Check local listings for additional times, and click here for a channel finder and here for more information.

Here's my top five types of iPhone apps I use the most in my crafting life, and which I feel no on-the-go crafter should be without:

1. A list app. So important! Now you don't need to write lists on scrap paper and forget to bring them to Michaels—there are plenty of to-do and shopping-list apps out there to keep it all in one place. I like GoTasks (free), which is quite simple, syncs with my Google Tasks account, and lets me edit my lists from both my computer and phone.

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1 GoTasks list of lists!

2 List of floss colors I need to buy—simple checklist format.

2. A color app. You can use palette-creating apps to remember choices for projects, or just to play with color. Most will pull colors from a photo, so take a picture of that sunset and work from there. I like Cliqcliq Colors ($2.99). And of course there's the Martha Stewart Egg Dyeing app ($0.99), which isn't just for Easter—stare at the gorgeous egg color wheels to get inspired. You can also use the color recipes for mixing icing or as reference for mixing other pigments.

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1 CliqCliq Colors: Slide the controls to create colors in RGB, HSB, or CMYK.

2 E-mail or share the details of your palettes.

3 A few of my palettes...

4 Martha Stewart Easter Eggs 101: One of three beautiful color wheels.

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3. A doodler or sketchbook. Whether it's just for playing or for creating your own drawings and motifs, no creative person should walk around without a place to scribble. I like Brushes ($4.99), which is simple enough to use but has incredible possibilities (check out what some artists created with just that app—it's nuts).

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1 My pathetic apple in Brushes

2 In Brushes, use layers to add elements step by step

4. A measurement converter. What if you want to know how many yards of ribbon to buy for that garland you measured in inches? Or what if you need to convert the fragrance in a European candle recipe from mL to tsp? iConvert ($0.99) is a nice basic converter with an easy-to-use interface.

5. Finally, an app specific to your favorite craft(s). I use BlockFab (free) often to browse traditional quilt blocks, plan layouts, and calculate yardage. A quick search turns up plenty of high-rated apps for knitting, crochet, scrapbooking...you name it.

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1 BlockFab calculates fabric needed for traditional quilt blocks

2 Try out different quilt layouts

3 Many traditional quilt blocks to choose from

All the iPhone apps mentioned here can also be used on the iPod touch. To find out more about the iPad/iPhone apps and digital media available from Martha Stewart, go to www.marthastewart.com/apps.

Check out my finds below with a number of links to projects that you, too, can make out of these simple and readily available materials. Remember, it's never too early to get a jump on your holiday crafting!

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1 A lonely lifeguard chair...

2 The long, flat beach and beautiful surf of Fire Island

3 The dunes just beyond the beach

4 A scrubby forest of evergreens just beyond the dunes

5 Marsh grass growing tall and lush in the more swampy areas of the island

6 More marsh grass

7 A beautiful (and fearless!) deer at sunset

From candles to wreaths to flowerpots, there is no limit to what you can make and do with your summer shells collection. For project ideas, visit our Shell Crafts Gallery.

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1 Clam shells

2 Scallop shells

3 Tiny clam shells

4 Snail shells

5 Oyster shells

Sea glass is the beautiful result of man-made materials meeting the relentless forces of the ocean. Check out our Sea-Glass Crafts Gallery for ideas of what to do with your unique finds.

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1 White, green, and brown sea glass

2 A sea-glass collection

3 Blue, white, and green sea glass

4 Sea glass and beach stones

The coastal environment of sea spray and constantly changing weather makes it hard for many plants to make their home near the sea, but a number of hardy evergreen species (including scrub pines and the like) are able to endure. The perfectly shaped pinecones they produce are ideal for seasonal crafts such as those found in the our Pinecone Crafts Gallery.

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1 A perfectly formed pinecone still on the tree

2 A scrub pine eking out a living in the sand

3 Pinecones on the sand

4 A perfect specimen

5 A sandy collection of pinecones ready for some crafting!

Besides the requisite collections of shells and rocks and sand, the seashore is a place to find little oddities that can be displayed on their own, like little pieces of natural art. Check out these Collection Frames to find out how you can proudly display your finds.

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1 Skate egg case

2 Crab shell

I wanted to share an easy Mother's Day gift idea and another great craft (see gallery below), both using our Martha Stewart Crafts Screw Punch. To celebrate Mother's Day, we will be giving away a screw punch and set of our 24 pack of glitter!! (See below for details.)

One of our talented crafters, Emily Eibel, came up with these projects and she describes them here:

"The screw punch has many uses when it comes to paper crafting, but I love to repurpose my tools to craft with fabric. A personalized tote bag can be a great Mother’s Day gift–and you can easily accomplish a unique look by using a screw punch to design your stencil.

To make this tote for my mom, Lucy, I found simple flower and type templates on the Martha Stewart site here and used them to guide my screw punch.

You’ll need:

• screw punch
• type and flower templates
• freezer paper
• iron and ironing board
• canvas tote bag
• acrylic paint in light and dark pink

1. Layer the template over a piece of freezer paper (shiny side down), and screw punch the design using all three hole sizes.
2. Arrange the freezer paper stencils on your tote and iron them down (again, shiny side down) on medium to low heat. Freezer paper, when ironed, creates a temporary bond to fabric, which keeps your paint from leaking!
3. Put some cardboard inside your tote so paint won't leak through to the other side.
4. Pounce acrylic paint through the stencil. You can use tape or a piece of card stock to mask holes if you are using more than one color. Let paint dry.
5. Peel off the freezer paper stencil, and fill the tote with magazines, delicious treats, or books by your mom’s favorite author!"

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1 If you’re welcoming a new baby, the screw punch can be used to stencil blocks of a simple quilted pillow or blanket.



2 Your favorite cookie cutters can be traced onto freezer paper, punched, and used as stencils, too!



3 Freezer paper is incredibly easy to use as a stencil! (Iron shiny side down—see tote instructions.)



4 Pounce paint with a stencil brush onto your fabric.



5 Peel off the paper to reveal your design!



6 The giveaway: Martha Stewart Crafts glitter set of 24 colors and Martha Stewart Crafts screw punch. (The glitter would make a nice gift for Mom!)

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Thanks Emily!

To see more of Emily Eibel’s fabric projects visit her website, Tombyillustration.com and blog, poppypod.blogspot.com.

For a chance to win the Martha Stewart Crafts Screw Punch and Essential Colors Glitter Set, please leave a comment on this post. All comments must be received by 6 p.m. on Friday, April 29. We'll choose one commenter at random to win the prize. Read the official rules for this giveaway here.

Soft baby blocks/rattles from felted sweaters, recently made on The Martha Stewart Show

Click here for our instructions on how to felt sweaters in a regular washer and dryer. I prefer using dye- and fragrance-free detergent. Here are some of our other tips for recycled wool felting:

• Sweaters must be 100 percent wool. It can be a few wools blended together (mohair, cashmere, lambswool) but not a "wool blend" (cotton/cashmere, silk/wool). Check the label first to avoid disappointment.
• To speed things along, add a pair of jeans (that you don't mind shrinking a bit) or a couple of tennis balls into the washer and dryer with the wool.
• Be nice to your appliances afterward: Clean all fuzz from the dryer, lint trap, and underneath the trap, and run a damp paper towel around the washer basin to collect wool bits. Fill the washer with cool water and drain before using again for laundry.
• Sweaters are not the only thing you can felt. Try winter hats, scarves (which usually have great patterns), gloves, a blanket, the knitting/crocheting project you abandoned—if it's 100 percent wool, it will work!
• Use a sweater comb (not an electric shaver) to condition the material once it's felted. It will make the material uniform and softer and will remove any unattractive fuzzballs ("pilling").


felted sweater - not defuzzed



defuzzed with comb

• Once you've felted the item, cut it apart at the seams. Use everything! Arms can be unfolded into decent-sized pieces; ribbed necks, wrists, and hems can be used for trims or embellishments.
• Felted wool can be machine- or hand-sewn together. Felt will not fray or will fray minimally, so don't worry about hiding raw edges.
• Wool likes wool: You can even needle-felt wool roving into the felt pieces to create designs! (Kristin did it here.)

Below are some more ideas for using felted recycled wool.

bags and pouches

heart-felted scarf

teacup pincushions

felted stuffed animals

Let us know of any felted wool tips or projects you'd like to share!

Perfect for making boxes, cards, envelopes (and much, much more!), the Scoring Board is a must-have for anyone wanting to add a personal, truly creative touch to the holiday season.

Follow the photo gallery below for an introduction to this amazing tool and a quick little tutorial on crafting both a simple box and a simple envelope. But don't stop there! Be sure to get your own Scoring Board (available at Martha Stewart Crafts online for less than $20) and start crafting to your heart's delight. The possibilities of what you can create are endless!

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1 The Martha Stewart Crafts "Scoring Board"—one of my favorite craft tools!

2 The kit comes with three pieces (the board, the envelope making triangle & the bone folder) plus basic instructions.

3 Unlike most scoring boards available, the Martha Stewart version has scoring channels every 1/8 inch for infinite scoring capabilities. Brilliant!

4 The top of the board holds the bone folder as well as handy measurement "cheat sheets" for various sizes of cards and boxes.

5 I decided to work with paper from the Martha Stewart Crafts "Neutrals" 12" by 12" paper pad—another one of my favorites!

6 To make a 4" by 4" by 2" box, I started by cutting two 8-inch square pieces of paper (one for the top of the box and one for the bottom).

7 I scored each of the four edges of each piece of paper at the 2-inch mark and folded along the score.

8 For the top, I positioned the paper at the arrow mark, allowing a bit of room (about 1/16 on each side) for the top to fit snuggly over the bottom.

9 Here we have the top on the left and the bottom on the right—scored & folded.

10 I then cut along the short folds at either end of each box piece and folded the flaps up. You can see the box taking shape!

11 With a little bit of double-sided tape, I secured each of the small flaps to the larger flaps at either end, creating the top and bottom of my box.

12 Put the two pieces together and you've got a lovely 4" by 4" by 2" craft paper box!

13 To make a fabulous envelope, I started with a piece of pearlescent cream paper and cut out an 8.5" square.

14 I inserted the envelope making triangle into the grooves of the scoring board, flush with the top and side measurement rails.

15 I laid the paper on the board, directly abutting the triangle.

16 I scored across two of the opposite corners at 3" and then (for the remaining two corners) at 3 5/8".

17 Folding along each of the scores gave me this fun shape.

18 Then, just by cutting out the little triangles, you can begin to see the envelope really taking shape.

19 I folded the two side flaps in toward the center of the envelope and secured the bottom flap to each of them with double-sided tape.

20 Then I secured the top flap down to the rest of the envelope.

21 And, magically, with just one simple tool and almost no time at all, you have a fabulous craft paper box and a beautiful, shimmery envelope.

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1 Use a tiny dab of glue to attach a punched shape to a straw.

2 A nut cup mini candy basket (keep clicking for how-to).

3 The punched shapes are adhered to lollipop wrappers with a tiny square of double-sided tape.

4 Add a dab of glue to the back of a punched shape and stick it on a toothpick.

5 Easy cookie and candy favors.

6 Mini candy basket, step 1: Punch a 6-inch spiderweb trim and a spider.

7 Adhere spiderweb to cup with a few small pieces of double-sided tape along top edge. Glue a thin (1/4-by-6-inch) strip of black paper inside cup for the handle. Glue on spider.

I used some of my favorite Martha Stewart Craft punches (all available at Michaels). The big vintagey-looking embossed jack-o'-lantern is one of my favorites. The cute striped paper straws I used are from Kikkerland. You can find them here or here. The favor cups are made from nut cups, which you can get at party stores and some supermarkets.

Have a festive and fun Halloween!!

First, wash your fabric with a color fixative, such as Retayne. Dry on high heat, then cut off all the loose thread garbage that ends up on the raw edges. Your fabric is now colorfast and preshrunk.

Stand up, and hold the fabric, meeting the two selvage edges (the finished edges; in quilt fabric, it's usually printed with the manufacturer and designer's names), creating a lengthwise fold down the middle. Shift the fabric left to right until the fabric hangs straight. Here I demonstrate with one yard of fabric:

right

wrong!

Note: Depending on how the fabric was cut from the bolt, your raw edges may not line up. This is common and okay, as long as the fabric hangs straight from the selvages.

Follow the gallery below to see how I fold, stack, and finally, cut the fabric.

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1 Lay the once-folded fabric down on a flat surface, such as a clean floor.

2 Fold fabric in half again lengthwise, matching fold to selvages.

3 Fold lengthwise one more time (a cat's help may or may not be required for this).

4 NOW fold in half along the length, as many times as you need to create a neat package to fit in your storage...

5 For one yard of fabric, I had to fold twice.

6 The fabric now stacks neatly in my Ikea cubby (designated "greens & yellows").

7 When you're ready to cut, simply unfold along the length only. Cut off all that crap at the end.

8 Say I wanted perfect 4" squares: I can line up my ruler 4 inches from the neat cut end, and cut a strip.

9 I can spread out this strip, cut off the selvage, and cut my 4" squares all the way down the strip.

10 You can actually cut multiple strips, then "stack and whack" them, cutting many squares at once.

11 You may want to feed or otherwise distract the pets first. Libby was quite annoyed that I spent so much time on this.

How do you store your fabric at home?

I had a wonderful time speaking with the ladies at the shop. I learned that the yarn and fibers were almost exclusively collected from happy sheep at local farms (and when they say local, they mean local—a round-trip to all six farms takes only 2 1/2 hours of driving on their "Farm to Yarn Tour"). Wool is hand-dyed, yarn is hand-spun, and completed gift items are handmade by members of the cooperative.

I also learned about Lincoln Wool, a super-curly, heavy wool from sheep of the same name that is used to spin a nice heavy, shiny yarn, but also offers endless possibilities on its own as a felting fiber because it just looks SO DARN COOL.

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1 washed Lincoln wool in its beautiful natural color

2 (i bought a ton of it)

3 here, dyed in my two favorite colors! you can see it takes color really well ...

4 "Miss Priscilla," made by Carol at the shop - I couldn't resist giving her a home on my desk.

5 Another use - felted beards! (photo from Mtn Fiber Folk's website)

6 Wool still on the sheep (image from Wikipedia). (HOW do they see!?)

I am now daydreaming of leaving the city and raising my own sheep in this tiny northern corner of Vermont.

Mountain Fiber Folk can be found online here (they don't have an online shop YET, but they are extraordinarily helpful over e-mail and phone). Let us know about other fun local shops near you!