My boyfriend is a bit of a musicphile so I bought him a record player for his birthday since his philosophy is that vinyl always sounds better and more authentic. His dad then gave us all of his old records which are just sitting in a pile beneath the player. Some of the album covers had great art so I tried to figure out a way to display them but also keep them protected and usable. I had looked online for something I could purchase and didn't find anything so I thought for a while and and voila! This is my solution!

(excuse the crappy flash flare)


I used a lightweight plastic that I found at JoAnne's similar to a shower curtain and then created pockets for the records. The pocket openings are facing the wall so it looks streamlined and like the records are trapped in the plastic but the records can still be easily removed.



I folded the top so that it could handle the weight and added grommets for hanging. As you can see though the plastic is sagging a little bit since the stitch was straight.

Here is a close-up of the zigzag stitch I used



And another angle.


I'm happy with the way it turned out and my boyfriend loves it too. It has a few flaws here and there but it gives it personality.

In honor of March being national craft month I decided to finally make something of my own instead of drooling all over everyone else's creations!

I made lumberjack puppets to use in a video shortly. A puppet stage is my next project. After that I'll most likely give them to a friend's kids to use.




All 5 only took me around 6 or so hours to make.

Materials used:
   Puppet pattern found online  
   several different colored felt squares
   1/4 yard of 4 different lumberjack-patterned fabrics
   1/4 yard brown fur fabric
   1.5 yards of black elastic  
   Old pair of denim jeans
   brown yarn
   Aluminum foil
   Glue gun
   pack of googly eyes
   blue ribbon
   bell
   small buttons
   black marker

They stand 11 inches tall and their arm span is 9 inches.

I still need to put some mouths on a few of them but I'm undecided what I want to use or what they should look like. Any ideas?
  
Here are some more photos of the process and a few details as well as the back.