A Stand for my Ukulele!
So back about 6 months ago, I was super excited to purchase and hopefully learn to play the ukulele. I bought one,
loved it, but wasn’t so great about practicing. Then a few weeks back, I joined Ukulele Underground and I found this.Plans to build your own ukulele stand, this one already sized perfectly for a tenor uke, which is what I have.
All I needed was a piece of wood for the base, a 1″ thick wooden dowel at least 22″ long, some felt, some screws, and some metal hooks sold at Walmart to act as the brackets.
I was super tight on money but really wanted to do this, so I improvised a bit. The wooden plaque I bought from Michael’s, with a 50% off coupon for $1.90. The felt I already had on hand, thanks to getting sent the wrong item when I ordered fabric ages ago. Wood stain and E6000 I had on hand. The dowel was the most expensive piece at about $4.50 for a 48″ length, and the screws were about a dollar for a package of 8. The hooks/brackets I made myself out of polymer clay, then cast them in resin which I dyed a deep red color with some mica powder.
These are my polymer clay originals, slightly burnt from a slightly too warm oven. I drilled holes in them to test the placement, but not because I actually expected to use these pieces. Baked clay is pretty tough, but not that tough. 
This is the first piece being cast in Amazing CLear Cast resin, after the original was molded in Remelt, another Amazing product. 
The felt pieces I cut to act as a soft surface for my uke to sit on. I cut 8 of the smaller bits and one larger piece to build up and really cradle my uke’s bottom. 
This is the completed stand. Besides using more felt, I also drilled a hole into my base and glued the dowel into place instead of screwing it from the bottom. I’m not great at screwing things in straight, so this seemed like a better plan for me. 
The finished stand, with my ukulele in it. Not counting the cost of materials I already had on hand, I spent about $8 building this.
Yarn Labels- What Does It All Mean?
As someone who only a few months ago had never even read the yarn labels on a skein of yarn, much less purchased and used one, the label was a baffling thing at first! However, much like the link I shared a while back on reading the back of a sewing pattern envelope, there’s a link with clear illustrations that explains the symbols on that skein of yarn you’ve been eyeballing!
I’ve reposted the graphic here, but you can see the site where I found it here.
Art Resurrected’s Fantastic Tree or Gift Tags Tutorial
What do we have here? Some fantastic (and so easy to make!) Christmas tree or even gift tags you can make this season. Tracy from Art Resurrected shares this great tutorial on the Amazing Mold Putty blog on how to make these great tags.
The idea behind them is so simple, and I’m sure anyone could make these, even without a lot of the tools she uses in her tutorial. All you really need is polymer clay, some ribbon, paint, and a few basic tools for working with the clay. Check out the full tutorial here!
