Happy September! We just finished up talking with some wonderful crafty ladies about home decorating and easy DIY home decor crafts. I walked away with some great ideas for my own apartment, if you didn’t listen in you should listen to the recap and walk away with some ideas of your own.

If you couldn’t listen in this month, make sure you tune in to the archives!

This month we chatted with Amanda Formaro and Shalana Frisby who gave us some really amazing tips for decorating your living space. Especially since both Shalana and our Host Amy Anderson had just moved into new spaces that needed lots of decorating.

The easiest ways to spruce up your home is through making your own wall art and pillows! You can buy wood cheaply from Home Depot or pick up things from thrift stores and flea markets to put up on the walls. Pillows are so easy to make and change up too and they give any room a brand new feel without too much cost or work. What great and simple ideas!

Shalana loves to go room by room when decorating her home! What a cute idea! Each space can be it’s own separate getaway. She also loves up-cycling. Reusing items that you already have in the house is a great way to give something a fresh feeling without breaking the bank.

So we wanted to know about DIY home decor on a budget. The answer? Thrifting of course! Amanda told us that some fun pieces picked up from the thrift store and a can of spray paint can create a perfectly fun and kitschy wall statement. Amanda is a big lover of wall art, and let me tell you, she’s got me convinced too! Recycling and re-purposing is the best and cheapest way to decorate your home.

Amy told us that she never finds anything good at the thrift store. Amanda’s advice is to visit them more frequently because they get donations all the time and stuff rotates out, so you’ll always be able to find something new. Think of times when people are doing a lot of cleaning and donating – spring and fall.

We had a fun reader question from Jessica from Mad In Crafts. She asked “How difficult is it to hand those heavy signs on the wall?” Some suggestions we got were saw tooth hangers, picture hanging kits, and wire hanging kits.

Of course we got on the topic of IKEA because, you know, IKEA is awesome when it comes to cheap, ready-made home decor. We started chatting about IKEA Hackers, which is another fun blog with ideas for how you can make your furniture items your own for cheap! And really, who doesn’t like cheap?

Necessary tools for the home decor fan? Spray paint and a really good glue. And I have to agree.

We chatted with Amanda about styles and trends. Guess what’s in? Mocha and coffee colors. How perfect for fall! But Amanda made a good point, if you were following the colors trends every year, you’d be changing your walls all the time! A better idea? Try finding some old vases and using glass paint to change up the colors or making some new colored throw pillows. Accent pieces are the perfect thing you need for changing an entire room without having to paint the walls.

Shalana was our color expert and told us about using  shades of grey for more modern looking home decor. If you’re thinking ahead because you’re decorating now, the Spring 2013 color trends are pastels and brights!

That’s only some of what we chatted about. We also talked about wallpaper, using wallpaper as wall part, supplies for getting your home decor crafting inspirations started, and decorating with kids in the home!

Mod Podge Prize Pack!

To enter to win the prize pack you’ll have to listen to the September edition of the radio show to get the “secret question” to answer in the comments section. It’s that easy! How can you not want an awesome sampler prize pack from Mod Podge? The prize includes our host Amy’s new book all about Mod Podge along with a huge sampler set. You know you want it! As our editorial director claims “The book is awesome!” and she’s right!

Contest Rules:

•     Contest open to US and Canada residents 18+
•     One comment/entry per person.
•     Contest closes September 15, 2012 at 11:59p CST.
•     Please enter the super secret password from the radio show in the comments in order to be entered.
•     Winners will be posted on this blog Monday, September 17th and notified by email

When’s the next show you ask? October 9th at 11 am EST. See you there!

We answered your questions! I can’t believe you missed it! We gathered a panel of crafty question answering experts to take your calls, Facebook questions, and tweets and oh boy were there some good ones.

Haley Pierson-Cox from The Zen of Making,Vicki O’Dell, The Creative Goddess, and Jenny Barnett-Rohrs from Craft Test Dummies made up our panel and they were fantastic! We were a little all over the place today, but here’s a quick run down of some of the questions and quick answers.

If you missed the show, no worries, you can listen to it online anytime, right here!

Question Number 1: Laura asked “What is the one crafting product that you simply cannot live without?” 

Simone: “Paper, paper, and more paper.”

Haley: Loves the Clover Seams Right for all her sewing projects!

Jenny: Her go-to is dry adhesive, which is usually a tape runner.

Vicki: Well, she’s all over the place, but she says her go-to is a good reliable Sharpie marker! Sometimes the simplest items are the most important.

Amy: Besides ModPodge, Amy loves acrylic craft paint!

Question Number 2: Chanel asked “What is the best way of sewing interfacing or bating into a purse?”

Haley suggested using fusible interfacing because it fuses right into the fabric and you can work with it as one piece.

Amy asked Jenny how to use water-color markers. Her advice was to color as you would normally and then go in after with a water brush or wet brush and brush it over to give it a cool water color effect. This technique works for water color markers, water color pencils, etc.

Question Number 3: Suzy asked “Naturally I’m curious about what to except from the CHA trade show. Anything note-worthy?”

Vicki: There are a lot of different companies that give sneak peeks right about now. Checking the company sites will let you see all the sneak peeks they’re releasing to get people excited for the show.

Jenny: Jenny tries to not really check out the sneak peeks, because she likes approaching the show with fresh eyes. Which is a great way to show up at the show and get excited!

Question Number 4: Amy asked “Do you have any suggestions of how to incorporate mixed-media into something that’s more of an experimentation project” 

Vicki: Go to your favorite craft store and buy something from one corner of the store and another thing from a different corner of the store, then put it together you’ve created mixed media! So if you buy some scrapbook paper and some wire and jewelry bits to make one item, you’ve created mixed media.

Question Number 5: Jackie asked “I’ve knitted 24 5-inch stockings for an advent calendar but I need to put the numbers 1-24 on them. Chain over stitching does not work. Any suggestions please?”

Haley: Depends on the style you want to keep. Sewing on little felt numbers would be a cute way to add them. You can also use the mending method. Take the color yarn you want and then hand stitch right over the knit stitches you’ve already made so it looks a little like color work, but it’s actually a method of embroidery.

Question Number 6: “How do you use glues like Mod Podge with inkjet printed photos.”

Amy: Mod Podge will smear the inks, but you can spray the picture with sealant and let it dry before you Mod Podge. Also, this method has not been tested by Amy, you can freeze the photo for 12 hours before putting on the Mod Podge.

Question Number 7: “Where do you get your pictures printed?”

Vicki: She prints hers right at home because she’s got three different kinds of printers and two scanners. Lucky lady!

Jenny: Usually prints at home because she’s the type of gal whose inspiration hits at 2 am.

Haley: Does not do a whole lot of printing, but prefers printing at home.

Question Number 8: “How do you reverse a crochet pattern so that the alphabet will come out in the correct left to right order? How do you read the graph.”

Haley: If the graph appears correct, then you might be entering your stitches on the incorrect side. If you’re looking at the graph you are going to start left to right, the second row of stitches you are going to read right to left.

Question Number 9: Simone (who is scared by jewelry) asked “What is the easiest project that I could start with if I wanted to make a piece of jewelry?”

Vicki: Has a project called the “World’s Easiest Necklace” on her blog, that take very little time and very little expertise!

Question Number 9: Joan asked “What type of glue should I use when attaching wooden letters to a Mod Podge surface.”

Jenny: You can actually use more Mod Podge! Because wood is porous it’ll stick to the already Mod Podge surface.

Question Number 10: Amy asked “What is a good way for someone to get started for someone who has never crafted before?”

Jenny: Do some research! YouTube videos and online tutorials are perfect for that. Once you know what you want to do, you have to build your basic tool kit to get started. Knowing what you are interested in creating, will help you pick the right type of products to get started. This is also the key to avoiding craft fails.

Phew! That was quiet a bit huh? I didn’t get to cover everything though, so to make sure you didn’t miss anything don’t forget to listen in the archives for all the crafty knowledge.

Mod Podge Prize Pack!

To enter to win the prize pack you’ll have to listen to the July edition of the radio show to get the “secret word” to enter in the comments section. It’s that easy! How can you not want an awesome sampler prize pack from Mod Podge? The prize includes Amy’s new book all about Mod Podge along with a huge sampler set of all the different kinds of Mod Podge.

Contest Rules:

•     Contest open to US and Canada residents 18+
•     One comment/entry per person.
•     Contest closes July 13, 2012 at 11:59p CST.
•     Please enter the super secret password from the radio show in the comments in order to be entered.
•     Winners will be posted on this blog Monday, July 16th and notified by email

Thanks all! Hope to see you next month, August 14th, for another great show!