New Craft Alert! - Plastic Canvas

So because of all the crocheting, let's just say I have a lot of extra yarn lying around. How much is a lot?  Well I could easily fill a few (OK, seven) large bins with different colors and types of yarn. In my defense, some were given to me, and others I have amassed on sale over the last few years.  But hey, having a large variety of colors comes in handy if, say, you need that perfect color of burgundy and cream yarn to whip up a strip of play bacon or the perfect shade of red to whip up an Angry Bird stuffed animal at a moment's notice. 

I was looking for ways to use up all this left over yarn when I came across a craft from yesteryear; plastic canvas.  One Google search will turn up tons of pictures of extensive needlepoint snowmen and Christmas ornaments from what I can only guess is the 60's and 70's? Surely there must be modern applications for such a versatile medium.  Then, I came across this blog from Diane Gilleland over at Craft: featuring something that was cute, useful, and looked fun too.  It was a custom storage bin for craft objects.  

photo by Diane Gilleland  She also has an amazing blog called CraftyPod found here

How cute is that?  Love the colors too.  Of course you don't just have to make boxes for craft supplies.  Immediately I could see using this idea in a number of cool projects.  Also, I am a total newbie to plastic canvas, Diane's play by play tutorial on how to make it looks easy and fun.  It made me want to run out and try it.

Plastic canvas art typically uses needlepoint stitches to make the designs.  I, being a former cross stitching guru back in my teens and college years feel like I can maybe pull this off without much training.  Also she suggested not just doing tedious small traditional stitches, but think outside the box at using longer stitches and even different mediums like satin ribbon or paper raffia to make unusual patterns and designs

Photo by Diane Gillelan - she is inspiring me here!

Not only are these lovely, but the long stitches would make a project wiz by in no time.  So inspiring. Plus, upon a quick search, plastic canvas is super cheap, comes in a variety of colors and sizes, and with my current supply of yarn would make projects almost free to complete!  Also this might be a great craft for kids, tweens and teens to help learn basic sewing stitches and make fun gifts for their friends and teachers.  I was so excited I called up my 13-year-old niece Maddison and told her all about this, we might even learn how to do it together.

Plus, who knew that my random find of a new interest would be so hip and in trend with the Hollywood set?  If any of you out there are Big Bang Theory fans, you will see Dr. Sheldon Cooper is the proud owner of a rubix cube tissue cover made of... gasp... plastic canvas and yarn.

Uber-geeks will be pleased to know that those are not just random squares in the correct colors, but the actual exact placement of squares if you took a real rubix cube and messed it up.  My 80's lovin' geeky hubby might need one of these really soon!


So now I'm off to the craft store to track down some plastic canvas.  I'll keep you posted...