Creative with a Purpose

It's always nice when the products of one's creativity can serve a practical purpose in everyday life. I have a very creative friend who makes lots of things for lots of people, and since her birthday is this week, I decided I wanted to make something for her. So, even though there were loads of laundry and bins of things that still needed to be put away after our vacation, I spent an hour or so in the art studio last night . . .

A number of years ago, our cousin showed us a simple way to make some really cute and sturdy coasters. All you need is these:

(The tiles were purchased at Home Depot -- from the tile department. The ink needs to be solvent, and the only brand I can find is StazOn. Those little circles are felt pads with adhesive backs. Did I really spend $13.99 on that stamp?!?!?!? Doubtful.)

And you can make these -- in less than half an hour (the most tedious part is peeling the backs off the felt pads!):

Since that was such a quick job, I decided to make one of the cute dragonfly clips that I saw at CAN'T STOP MAKING THINGS. Here's what I started with:

(Oops -- I forgot the wooden kabob skewer that was used to form the body.)

And here's the result:

See -- it's just wired onto the little alligator clip. The tutorial positioned it differently, but as I didn't have the instructions handy, I just did it the way that made sense to me. I also added beads:

The tutorial suggested gluing a magnet to the back for posting pictures and notes on the fridge -- but the uses are limitless, really. DH suggested they could be used as little scarf clips, my SIL suggested lapel decorations, and I was thinking of little attachments for gifts and what-not. Here's my little guy adorning the plastic ribbons that separate our art studio from the play room:

How have you used your creativity lately to make something practical or functional?

Just for fun, I linked this post at: