More ideas from you in the Shoebox today, starting with a letter from Nancy Murray of Albilene, Texas, who wrote that she needed a key holder, but after searching for weeks in catalogues as well as in stores, she couldn't find one that met her requirements --one that looked nice one and that wasn't too expensive. Then her daughter Donna Schell came up with an idea that has worked perfectly. She suggested that her mother screw cup hooks into the bottom of a picture frame that Nancy had. So she did (
figure A). She had her husband drill in pilot holes; then she screwed in the cup hooks , and now he has a place to keep his line badge and his office keys and whatever else he needs--and he doesn't have to go searching for them at 5:00 every morning.
For all you needlepointers, Elaine Ransom of Cranbrook, British Columbia, sent in a dandy idea. Having seen one of our shows when we showed painted needlepoint canvas and realizing how expensive much of it is, Elaine thought she'd show us what she has been doing. She uses wall stamps...the chunky foam stamps that are so popular for stamping large images on walls and fabric...and stamps images onto needlepoint canvas. And, as when stamping on any surface, she can stamp only part of an image or repeat parts of it a number of times to get the image she wants (figure B). Elaine says it makes for a very easy no-count project that is great to take along when traveling .
And a new use for an old trick: Last year at the Holiday Workshops, one of the audience visitors, Evie Elliott of Granada Hills, Calif., handed me a hot pad folded in half and stitched across the bottom and up one side. I assumed that she used it for an eyeglass case. That's what we did back in the '70s. Nope. Now it's for carrying your cell phone! Works for either one (figure C).
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