This started as a silly little creative experiment I’ve been tinkering with lately.

I’ve always loved odd, whimsical natural art, so I decided to build a tiny woodland jazz ensemble. Every beetle here is prepared, posed, and mounted entirely by my own hands. I fitted each performer with these miniature brass instruments — saxophones and a French horn — then set them onto small tree slices I collected, to give them their own little forest stage.

Putting them together was trickier than I expected. Getting each beetle balanced just right, lining up the tiny instruments, and making sure everything stayed in place took a lot of slow, careful work. Each one ended up with its own subtle pose and personality.

I really enjoy the contrast between the deep, glossy shells of the beetles and the bright, shiny little brass instruments. It feels like they’re all about to start a quiet jam deep in the woods.

Today I tried to make for the first time some flowers with shrink plastic... but not having a heat gun, I had some problems making them three-dimensional (especially the leaves) because it cools down immediately and I didn't have time to shape them😭

I'm also quite satisfied with the result but since I would like to make others I'm thinking of buying the heat gun... is it worth it or is there a way to be able to shape them well even without it, using the oven instead?

I made this painting inspired by “Girl With a Pearl Earring” painting by Vermeer! I wanted to paint it in my own style and whimsy and this is the final result (turned them into journaling cards)! 🥹🥰🧸❤️✨

How do you like to add whimsy to your crafts? :)

Hi everyone! I'm a needle felting artist from Taiwan~

I recently finished this little rainbow cube cat, inspired by a child's drawing!

The idea actually started when a relative saw a needle-felted charm I'd made based on my son's drawing. Her child loved the rainbow colors and wanted a rainbow body for their own little cat too!

I had a lot of fun experimenting with different materials for this piece. The heart-shaped nose was originally a little heart-shaped eye I found at a craft store, and I made the eyes myself using clay and paint.

I also had some colorful sprinkles lying around and thought they'd make a cute addition to the design!

But the biggest challenge was definitely the cube shape!

I thought using pre-made wool balls as a base would save time, but the wool kept compressing as I worked. I had to repeatedly add more wool to maintain the shape, and the colorful surface layers kept getting pushed deeper into the base.

Getting everything smooth, square, and colorful took so much more work than I expected!

In the end, I spent over 8 hours making this little guy. It was challenging, but I genuinely enjoyed experimenting and figuring things out along the way.

And honestly, I almost didn't want to let this little cutie go! 🥹

I'm really happy with how it turned out, and I hope you enjoy watching the process!

I'd love to hear about your experiences too. Have you ever made something that turned out to be much harder than you expected?

Thanks for reading! I'm looking forward to seeing more of everyone's amazing creations here! ❤️

Hello! I wasn’t sure where to post this question originally, but I feel like this is crafty enough to go here!

I work in an environmental lab and for my particular method we are only allowed to shake our samples by hand. (Trust me I wish this wasn’t the case but it’s the EPA). Since we have ~30 samples per batch, we have resorted to making shaker out of foam, cardboard, tape, and a dream. (I’ve provided a little sketch of what we have since I cannot take pictures in the lab). It’s long and can fit about 35 60 mL sample vials that have ~2.5 cm diameter. The inside is a kind of foam with holes for each vial and cardboard all on the outside.

The problem is that it’s not very durable and we have to tape it closed each time we shake it. This wouldn’t be too much of an issue, however we need to shake, add something to vials, then shake again— making the process very annoying in gloves. Every couple months we have to reinforce them with more cardboard since the shape warps a lot. I’ve been trying to think of ideas on how to improve this.

My question is, what material would be best to make a more long-lasting device? It still needs to be fairly lightweight so we can still shake it. I also wonder if there would be a way to have some sort of latch holding the 2 halves together? It’s also important to note that the device CANNOT be made of plastic, as my method cannot involve any plastic in the process. Does anyone think something can be 3d printed? I’m open to all ideas, this isn’t something my job asked me to look into, I’m just sick of tape getting stuck to my gloves lol.

Thank you in advance!

Made just in time for halloween. Going to have this sat with my decorations this year :)

I don't usually love cherry, but I do like it in this "brick wall" style combo with the walnut. The "mortar" is hard maple. Each brick is 3 1/4 in x 1 1/2 in. The mortar is 3/16in wide. The finger grooves are carved to a depth of 11/16 in, 5/8 in wide, and 5 in long.

Hello everyone! 🌷

I’m from Canada, I love vintage fashion, and designing lingerie is my passion.

I wanted to show a set that I made in 2021.

It’s a wireless padded bra with matching high-waisted thongs decorated with ruffles and bows.

Materials used:

lace, mesh, cotton jersey, satin ribbon, straps, scalloped elastics, bra foam lined with cotton jersey, wire channeling, closure, sliders, rings.

I’ve never actively shown my works before.

What do you think of this lingerie set?

A few of you were interested in seeing the process of making coin rings, so I thought I would do the logical thing and start from the end. So enjoy something being turned from not shiny to shiny!

Hello! I want to make 23 sets of custom cards for my wedding favors (personalized for each family). I’m confident about designing and printing but I’m wondering if anyone has any idea of where I can get the paper (no you cannot get it at staples, I work there). Specifically the plasticy paper that will snap nicely when you shuffle.

Couple issues: 1) you can’t print on pre-cut cards so I want to find the actually letter size paper. 2) my fiance doesn’t want to print on stickers and put the stickers on the pre-cut cards because he thinks it look cheap

Regular balloon, or heart balloon?

First I want to apologize if this iconography offends anyone’s religion. It is just a video game costume.

So, I have been crafting a Necromancer costume for my 20 yr old son for Comic Con which is on Halloween this year (inspired by the Diablo 4 game). I used eva foam, and then foam clay to sculpt a rib cage on the chest and painted it. Then my son asked me to carve a upside-down pentagram in the sternum, which I drew on with a pencil but accidentally did that right side up. I erased the pencil lines, and repainted over them, but they’re still visible. Is there any special kind of paint anyone can recommend to cover over the pencil lines of the right side up pentagram?

Hey All,

I'm commissioning custom toys to look like a wet specimen, and want to give the illusion that they're suspended in water. The toys need to remain dry, and be easy to take out and put back into its faux suspension. Any ideas on how I would achieve that? My thoughts are:

• Jar insert that warps light to make it look like its in liquid?
• Smaller jar inside of specimen jar, with fake water poured between?

AKA Dry contents, wet appearance

Hello, fellow crafters! I need to do a project where I need to preserve/lacquer different types of candies and attach to a display (think Smarties, gumdrops, gummy bears, TicTacs, Bubbleyum, Chicklets). I've read about using resin and spray acrylic, but I am still unclear about the best approach to preserve the color and shape. I have one old display like this I need to replicate, but the person who made it is no longer around, so I'm not sure how they did it. If I should ask this in a different sub, please let me know. Thank you so much for any advice you can give!

Has anyone ever done craft projects with pieces from puzzles you don’t want to put together again?
I was gifted a puzzle with a not good looking AI image so I think the pieces might have a better life in crafting than sitting on a donate shelf somewhere.

The pieces are very glossy and I’m thinking about painting them. Any thoughts on whether I should use a primer or sand them down so the paint sticks better?