Meet Jane Clauss and some of her home decor opinions? Yes, your grandma’s tissue box crafty-stash and your kids pre-school finger-paints are still crafting, but today’s crafting is so much more. There are no limits to tools, projects, ideas, where you make it, and whatever design comes of your creative crafting. Crafting allows you to give new life to old items by giving them a different meaning or use; everything in your sight could be used in a craft project. Crafting really is the ideal platform to let your imagination run wild.

To get your fans excited with thrilling table décor, think about everything that is part of a basketball game. Set the food stations to look like a basketball court, cheering section and even concessions stand. You can turn the tabletop into basketball court by laying down faux wooden flooring on top of your table, draw out the free throw line and 3 point line with tape, and set up mini basketball hoops at each end; so you can put popcorn in the nets. Another food station can be set up like a cheering section with balloons, pom pons, foam fingers, and more. These specialty food stations will have your team cutting down the net with a big win. Good Old-Fashioned pancakes ? Using various sizes while cooking pancakes, you can make almost any animal shape. The larger round portion for the head, a small circle for the nose and small oval shaped pancakes for the ears or two round shapes merged together to make the body and decorate with fruit. Try making a bird, cat, lion or pig to put a smile on your kid’s face.

DIY ideas with janeclauss.com: Let’s start with moms that are the center of the universe for their families; what do they want? Well, they want to be reminded of their nearest and dearest. So, plan a family DIY activity for Mother’s Day and have every one participate in making a family tree, hand-print, wall hanging. This way she can sit back and admire her homegrown forest! You can also make her a photo block with pictures of the kids on all six sides. This is a cute home dec item that can sit on her desk or book shelf. Just decoupage a plain wooden block – that can you find at any craft store – with copies of old and new photos. Top it all off by creating a scrap book collection of love letters from Dad, emails will work and by the way, it’s better than a romance novel. Find additional information on crafts TV shows.

Fun food recipes with Jane Clauss: This sweet fruit is used to garnish hams, served as a dessert and even ordered as a topping on pizza! Don’t throw the spiky exterior in the trash use it to create spooky or goofy home decor this Halloween. To carve a pineapple, first cut off the thorny top and set aside. Then using a pairing knife, cut around the inside edge of the top of the pineapple; a carving tool set is handy to scoop of the insides. Continue the process until you have a hallow pineapple. The skin already has hexagonal shaped units in it so use them as a pattern to cut out eyes and a mouth. Finally, light the inside with a battery operated tea light and pop the lid back on. All those spines on top create a wicked personality for your Pineapple-lantern.

Jane coined the term “UpCrafting” as her passion to refashion, refurbish, recreate and reuse sweeps the nation. She was repurposing before repurposing was cool. This is no “Plain Jane”; she is the crafty, modern domestic diva who is clever and inventive in all aspects of her life. See even more info at janeclauss.com. If you are still reading, loves to “up-cycle” vintage fashion and furniture into new trends, enjoys cooking for anyone who will eat it, and will jump in the ring for a good bout of kickboxing any time! Jane and her new husband, Kurt, live in Chicago!