Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Mail Bag: We...Need Your Help!

Hey guys, help me answer some e-mail, will you? I have two readers here in need of their fellow geeks' input, and I bet between us we can come up with some good ideas for them.

Dilemma #1 comes from Casey:

Because I, like many great people in this world, am a total nerd, I am collecting Pokemon cards again. However, I'd rather not keep them in a box or a binder. I'm an adult now, so I gotta class it up a bit, you know?...[So] Here is my question to you, O Great Display-er of Nerd Memorabilia: How can I display my collection in an interesting and tasteful way? I don't want to just stick a bunch in a collage frame and call it a day. I want non-Pokemon fans to look at them and think, "Wow, those actually look pretty neat!"


Here's a bunch of Pokemon cards for reference.


My thoughts: Casey, if you're ok with destroying the cards (heh), then I'd recommend decoupaging a table top with them, or wallpapering an accent wall. You could also overlap them slightly on a canvas to create some cool wall art: maybe a big wreath/ring, or some neat pinwheel shapes?

Your turn: Let's assume Casey has a bunch of cards here. How would you display them?



Dilemma #2 come from Heather:

Today I went to help my grandma clean out her attic and we found a bunch of old knitting needles. We sorted them and, rather than throwing out all the unmatched ones, she gave them to me. Now, I don't knit, but I would really love to do something crafty with the needles. Any ideas? I'd like to do something a little more than just bending them round for bracelets, so if you've heard of anything, please let me know!


My thoughts: I have to say, bending knitting needles into bracelets actually sounds pretty darn cool! (Looks like crafters do this with plastic needles, too.) However, I can understand wanting something more unique. Hm. Well, if I had a lot of needles, I think I'd glue them all around a wooden cup or clear glass to make a funky bud vase. Then I'd tie a pretty polka-dotted accent ribbon around the middle to finish.

Your turn: I admit, my idea is kind of boring. So, what else could you do with a bunch of mismatched knitting needles?

Leave your advice for Heather and Casey in the comments! Then hopefully they'll let us know what they end up doing [hint hint].

152 comments:

  1. For the cards I would do a table but instead of ruining the cards with decoupage maybe do a glass table top and hold the cards in place with invisible picture corner holders. For the knitting needles i would try my hand at a tiddlywinks kinda wreath just get a wire wreath form and start aranging them largest on the bottom and keep piling them on. maybe finish it with some cute felted knitted foliage.

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  2. Not sure about the cards...although I like your decoupaged table idea...as for the knitting needles I bet they would look good with twisted wire/bead accents on top as Hair Sticks or added to floral arrangements

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  3. If you are retro-active (see what I did there? lol) you could use the needles to make some wall art or even a clock like these:
    clock 1

    or bend some and do one like this:
    another clock

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  4. I'd probably use the knitting needles as the bases for all sorts of funky hair accessories, provided I could find appropriately awesome things to put at the tops of them.

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  5. No clue if this would actually work but I am wondering if you could use them to made a basket of some sort. If you could pull the tops off somehow and then stack them like Lincoln Logs to make a basket. Maybe you could use hot glue to hold them together. You would have to figure out the best way to hold the needles together. Like I said this idea is purely in my head so I not sure if it would work but its something to explore.

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  6. From the blog Dollar Store Crafts, a project to make your favorite cards into a purse!

    http://dollarstorecrafts.com/2010/07/make-a-trading-card-purse/

    I have a pile of those WoW cards and am planning to do at least one...possibly even a horde and alliance version. Maybe even a priest themed purse :)

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  7. The knitting needles make pretty awesome hair stick when you cut them down smaller.
    Also if you saved the cut pieces you could make tube beads from the metal ones and such like

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  8. For Casey: Rolodex maybe. google ATC sevengypsy. It's a verical rolodex.

    For Heather: make a wreath. and add knitted or crochet or otherwise flowers as further decoration.

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  9. Instead of decoupaging the table top, to keep the cards intact, maybe just make it like a collage on a table top and then put the glass top over it.

    Another thought - maybe a photo-mosaic using the Pokemon cards to make a larger image?


    For the knitting needles, you can shape them into letters for decorations.

    You can also make things like baskets, like this one made from chopsticks: http://keetsa.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/recycled-chopsticks-basket.jpg

    And check out these lamps: http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/lamps-from-recycled-chopstick/

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  10. Also wind chimes for the knitting needles
    You could make a cool hanging mobile with the pokemon cards hung at different length and the damage to the cards would be minimal or none if you used plastic covers to punch the holes for the string/wire to suspend

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  11. Oooh - with the Pokemon cards Casey could make a "photo mosaic", using the different colors in the cards to make a larger image when viewed from far away. She might have to trim the borders just a little, but it would probably look just fine if you layered them just right.

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  12. Couldn't find the link, but I have seen bracelets made from chopped knitting needles. Aluminum needles were cut into 1-2-inch lengths, had holes drilled into them, then they were strung together like beads. Does this make sense?

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  13. Well, as far as the knitting needles are concerned, do you know women with long hair who like funky Christmas presents? Because I think, with a little craftiness, they could be turned into hair sticks. (I know nothing about knitting needles, but I've always thought they look a lot like the hair sticks I picked up in Thailand, minus the hanging beads on the end.)

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  14. Oh, and for the Pokeman cards - well, here's an idea: http://www.avantcard.com.au/uploaded_media/images/dress.jpg

    Find an old mannequin, make something like this, and stand it in a corner.

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  15. Dilemma #1

    Jen's ideas great, but like she said, it would involve basically destroying them. An alternative to a decoupage table top would be to use them on a table top covered by a sheet of glass/plastic/fibreglass/something. Then they'd be secure, but not ruined. Or you could use a similar tactic to make a wall hanging, although you'd probably have to use at least sticky tack for that, which might have adverse affects on the cards.

    Dilemma #2

    That picture of knitting needles makes me think of a floral display - maybe you could do something with that? Stick them into floral foam and then add interest with other knitting-related items (bits of yarn, maybe even some knitted flowers (or whatever)? Stitch holders, stitch counters, a small pair of scissors...)

    I would love to see the finished products!

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  16. Turn 'em into pens! (Not that I have any idea how.)

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  17. hmmm...for Casey...(as I doubt she wants to destroy them!) Maybe in a corkboard ribboned up and then slide the cards in to display...or maybe under glass. Like have a piece of glass cut to match your table, then nicely lay them out underneath the glas...no decoupage necessary...although it'll be a bitch to get them to stay straight, but it can be done.

    As for Heather...I keep thinking magic wands...although I highly doubt something with a pointy end makes a good magic wand...maybe if you put them all together and got a clock mechanism, you could make a super cute clock out of it...maybe.

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  18. as far as the cards goes... i was going to say make a table top out of them too. but maybe you could use some double stick tape to adhear them to the table top and then cover them with a glass or plexiglass top. maybe you could make a decretive fan out of them or use them as a paper border around a room.

    as for the knitting needles, you could make some lovely hair sticks out of them. attach some colorful beads and charms and use them in your hair like chopsticks. personally, i keep a one of my lone wolf needles to use as a backscratcher, but i'm admittingly weird

    good luck with the projects.

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  19. Sassafrascreations on Etsy has some awesome jewelry made out of knitting needles.
    http://www.etsy.com/shop/sassafrascreations

    If casey doesn't mind damaging the cards, the cards can be crafted into a sphere.
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicksayers/1157782583/

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  20. cards: a permanent card castle would be fun. You can keep putting on additional wings as you get more cards.

    needles: sell them! those suckers are worth money!

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  21. For the cards, I like what these bloggers did:

    http://www.younghouselove.com/2010/07/office-progress-getting-our-art-groove-on/

    They made a few wall-mounted shelves with a groove in them to hold postcards in place. The word 'shelf' is even overkill, it's really just a few 1x2 boards painted white and screwed in place. That'd let you display the cards, keep them usable, and rotate them easily as the mood strikes. Plus let people pick them up to admire.

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  22. For the cards, you could make a sort of mural, like, glue them to a poster board or canvas, and then hang it. That would be cool. For the needles, I like the wreath idea. For a party, it would be cool to put them in vases. I think that would look really pretty, especially the more pastel shades.

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  23. All the ideas posted so far are great... The cards floor me as to what to do. I've actually been trying to figure something out for my 11 yo to do with his trading cards... So I'll keep an eye on this to see where it goes.

    As for the knitting needles, I see some sort of light fixture-- where the bulb is in the center of a whole bunch of needles. How to do this, I'd have to think about. But I can see it with really cool light designs on the walls and ceiling...

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  24. Are some of those knitting needles wood? If so, cut the ends off, and they will make great Harry Potter-type wands. Way cooler than anything I have seen in the stores.

    As for the cards, I recently took some seed envelopes that were mounted on wood and put each one in a 4x6 frame from the dollar store. I removed the glass, and then backed each one with some scrapbooking paper.

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  25. For the knitting needles, you could use them to do a lampshade, or to cover vintage picture frames.

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  26. Like Casey, I don't know what to do with my son's collection (over a jillion I'm sure) of Pokemon cards. Do I keep them, and where & how or try to sell them on Ebay?

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  27. I think the knitting needles, provided there are enough, would be a super cool clock!

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  28. The cards I think would look cool in some sort of 3 dimensional art piece of some sort, but that would involve destroying them... Maybe find some of that old CD holder wall paper? Urban Outfitters used to carry it online. Then you could put the paper on the wall and slide the cards in at your discretion.

    For the knitting needles, how about get a round piece of wood, a clock kit, and some awesome kitchy numbers. Glue the sticks onto the circle, pointy ends into the middle, so that each one is one of 60 marks, and make a cool huge wall clock :)

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  29. For the cards; If you attatch the cards end to end via jump rings, you could make panels of them and use them as window treatments, or smaller panels could be hung from the ceiling as artwork.

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  30. How timely!! My son is 15 but doesn't want to throw away his Pokemon cards. We were just talking about what to do with them. He has a cube (2x2) white bookcase from Ikea and we're going to decoupage the cards on it. Fun to see the other ideas!

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  31. I have no idea how to do it, but for the cards you could make coasters or a lighting fixture

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  32. I am a fan of hedgehogs so the first thing that came to mind with the knitting needles was to create some sort of stylized hedgehog sculpture.

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  33. #1 - Casey - display would depend on how many cards we're talking about. I'd pick out a handful of favorites and arrange them in sets of three of four per shadow box or frame with a black mat... then have these hung above either a table covered in them (plexiglass or glass cover so the cards are not damaged) OR hung around a larger collage in a shadow box type frame, done with some of the cards raised above the others.

    #2 - Heather - if we're talking a 'lot' of needles, why not do a few different things? Make a couple into bracelets. Have you ever made a 'bowl' out of popsicle sticks? You could try doing that with them if you have enough.. use it as a center piece. If you have enough left over, maybe make a matching vase as well!

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  34. For the cards what about doing a wall hanging like this: http://www.hgtv.ca/articles/articledetails.aspx?ContentId=2843&cat=2&by=5

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  35. Cards:
    I really liked the idea of the permanent card house and the dress ideas. That would be spectacular! I also was thinking, why not make a pokemon? I've seen animals made out of cards before, why not pokemon? It'd be fun, but hard. A great winter craft.

    Needles:
    Try doing several crafts and semi-redecorating a room in your house with them. A clock, a lamp, a vase, etc. What about a for-show-only breakfast/serving tray? Just use the longer ones for the bottom and the smaller/shorter/thinner ones for the sides. It'd be very colorful and make a statement. :)

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  36. For the cards I would get some old windows with the 4 or 6 panes in them, and mat the cards in them, then hang on the wall or from the ceiling.

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  37. I like the idea of using the knitting needles as a lamp shade or chandelier. Drill holes near the tops (knob ends) and string them onto a round wire frame. Hang a bulb in the middle and wah-lah! If you want to do a double layer, you could put the shorter ones on the outer layer and longer ones in the middle.

    Here's one made from ball point pens... http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/01/10/bic-ballpoint-pen-chandelier/

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  38. For those knitting needles I would arrange them in a circular fan that would be able to hold stuff, like decorative glass balls or something like that.

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  39. Hmm, for Heather, what if she drilled holes through the needles, put string through, and made them into funky blinds?

    For Casey, could you glue them onto a plain lampshade and make them into personal lamp shades?

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  40. For the cards: I like the idea of a photo mosaic or finding card displays of various heights and group three or so together. Sort of like adding a planter or coffee table and lamp, to add some interest. Here's a link to provide a visual: [url=http://www.chromazonecards.com/photo_displays.php?language=en]card display[/url]

    You could also make a garland with wire and clips/clothespins.

    For the knitting needles, I would buy a shadow box and lay out the needles in a row. Add a mat, and it makes interesting wall art. You could also add in little knitted crafts, such as [url=http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2007/06/knit_small_dolls_pattern.html]this[/url]

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  41. I think with the needles, especially if you have a lot of the skinny ones, you could tie or attach them together and make place mats or a table runner like the bamboo ones you can buy.

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  42. My brain TOTALLY sees a sculpture that is a big ball of yarn with all those needles sticking out in every conceivable direction and little kittens playing on them like a jungle gym.

    Not that I'm a sculptor, not that I could explain to you how to make that happen.... but it's what I see in my mind's eye. :) Ya, it's kinda lame - but hey - it's brainstorming.

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  43. Dilemna#1: You can buy dark grey cork board, cut it into any shape you want, decorate with ribbon OR whatever you deem cool, hand with double stick tape.
    To attach the cards, insert into ribbon and/or use cheapy cool stick pins that are long in shape, let the card rest on top of it instead of sticking the card.
    You can keep swapping them as you wish!

    Dilemna #2: For some reason I keep seeing a bi-fold door, or shutters. I bet they'd look cool on a dressing curtain too!

    Good luck fellow nerds!!

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  44. tiny purple elephantOctober 5, 2010 at 10:04 PM

    arrange the cards and frame them so from far they look like the mona lisa or some other famous and easily recongnised picture

    the needles i would make into a vase or lampshade so i would have a grandma memento always

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  45. You can get clear plastic card holders at any hobby/collector shop. Get one for each card and use a tiny dremel bit to drill a hole. String them together and then hang them on a rod to make a wall hanging. Or you could attach ribbon at the tops and bottom, but jump rings would probably work better. That way you can look at both sides of the card, ya know, if you ever want to. You can also buy pretty nifty baseball card frames at most stores, picking out your favorites/rarest and framing them, and then using the rest for a craft would be neat.

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  46. For the cards, I highly suggest not ruining them. By the looks of them, most of them are from the original series, so they have MAJOR collector's value (Pokemon Nerd here).

    Ideas for cards: Card Towers or Laminate a few together and make coasters, then backing the laminate on some cork board.

    The knitting needles gave me this idea of somehow dulling the ends, and somehow make them into onto of those Bamboo Plate Mats.

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  47. For the cards -

    Instead of decoupaging with them, I would laminate them in a sturdy manner and then use them as coasters! This way they're kept clean / safe and presentable, and yet they're still somewhat useable.

    Just my $0.02 :)

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  48. The needles could be used for a cool mirror like this one from Miss Mustard Seed:
    http://missmustardseed.blogspot.com/2010/09/two-mirrors.html

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  49. For the cards, if you're leaning towards a wall art mosaic, most craft/framing stores have "frames" that are really just two pieces of glass clamped together with tiny (but super strong) clamps on each edge. It would be a really cool way to keep a collage "floating" on the wall without having to glue them down at all. The free-form frame also means that if you want to, you could have cards sticking out from the edges a bit. I've seen these frames at our local framing store, but also at chains like IKEA and JoAnne's Crafts locations (ones that have a framing dept, that is).

    Knitting Needles... sometimes they can be too long for hair sticks, but if you cut them in half and epoxy'ed the cut end & stuck a jewel in it, then it would be a great hair stick, and you could use the excess to cut into little beads for bracelets & necklaces.

    You could also use the needles to make a colorful wreath, or make into a centerpiece by just arranging them in a vase (I'd bet some origami flowers stuck on the tops of a few of 'em would look awesome).

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  50. Oh! if you can cut any metal knitting needles, this etsy seller might be a good use of inspiration for you:
    http://www.etsy.com/shop/sassafrascreations

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  51. I can't help with the cards, but those metal knitting needles are not worth money, (as someone else tried to say), I was thinking of wall art also~ if you arrange them from longest and fattest, to shortest and thinnest, and then did a circular pattern... Not that I can imagine how to make them stick... Maybe a custom frame with them hot glued to some matting?

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  52. Oooh, I have the same problem, but with a large bag full of collectible silver spoons my grandma gave me (you know the ones you but at souvenir shops?). I've been trying to figure out what to do with them...

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  53. Thanks for all the suggestions!
    I could never bring myself to damage the cards, so anything involving glue, folding, or cutting is out. I would LOVE to do a tabletop, but I don't think I can. I don't have a table I can do that with at the moment. The biggest issue is going to be whether or not my collection is easy to move. I am enlisting in the Air Force, so there will be a lot of moving in my future.

    What I've decided to do is this: Tape a bunch of those clear individual card sleeves together, and basically make pin-up wall paper. I have one card per sleeve, and the sleeves are open so I can rearrange them whenever I want. The sleeves peel off of the tape, so I can re-shape the wall hanging to suit any wall shape or size. Right now I only have twelve cards hanging, but my order of 100 should be arriving in a few days. Of those, I expect I will want to hang about half. Once I do that I will definitely post a picture here and/or send one to Jen for her to post.

    In my "I will live here for more than a year or two" house, my fiance/boyfriend/whatever and I are going to have a nerd cave. DnD, Warhammer, video games, you name it. I think that having the walls completely covered like this could be very nerd-cool and rather appropriate.


    Those knitting needles? Make some hair sticks! When I had long hair I used hair chopsticks all the time. You could make some teeny origami to hang from the end, or make them styled after geisha hair ornaments.

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  54. Not particulary DYI, but I would be tempted to display cards using a photo tree like this. http://www.amazon.com/Umbra-Fotofalls-Standing-Ornaments-Polished/dp/B0018A5POW/ref=pd_sbs_k_2

    Depending on how concerned you are about keeping the cards protected, you can also use bulldog clips (those ones that have the little black part and the two arms that bend back) to hook the cards together in a long chain. Then you could either do a wall handing or, if you have the space, some sort of mobile.

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  55. I'm not sure about the needles, but I think the idea of the little sleeves is neat. And even though its still really early, you could string them together as a christmas tree garland or hang them individualy as ornaments.

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  56. I LOVE decoupage!

    As for the knitting needles, you could glue them to cupboard/dresser/closet/etc. doors, maybe use some yarn or bits of broken glass to form flowers, with the needles as the stems?

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  57. if it were me, I'd figure out a way to attach the needles at the tips (maybe in styrofoam?) and make a ball. then hang it from the ceiling. super retro art!

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  58. I had the same idea as Lissy when I read about the knitting needles: Some kind of sea-urchin-like light fixture. I can't figure out how to get the needles to stick out with the light bulb in the center, though.

    Maybe just make a conversation piece using a styrofoam ball (painted, or wrapped in yarn, or...) and stick the needles in so that they all stick out and kind of form a "ball", and then hang it from the ceiling in a place where no one will accidentally bump into it.

    Inspiration: http://www.explorecrete.com/nature/fish/sea-urchin.jpg

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  59. I second the sunburst clock idea for the knitting needles. Should you ever decide to knit you could always reclaim them.

    For the pokedex, how about a real and classy Rolodex like this one? You could even steampunk it up a bit:
    http://oldglutton.blogspot.com/2008/01/rolodex-updated.html

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  60. The needles could make a neat wind chime.

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  61. For the cards, if you want to see them (whole) but display them safely (i.e.covered) I like the rolodex idea someone had.
    For the knitting needles.... lots of good suggestions so far. If you wanted to 'save' a few for yourself, you could pull out the few you wanted and put them in a shadow box. Do you have something your grandmother knitted? Some yarn? A picture of your grandmother? It would be a fun way to display them and remember her. Maybe make one for other family members?

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  62. I'd use the knitting needles as rods for mini wall hangings. Use your own art, or print some free art from Feed Your Soul, or find a glamour shot of Jon Hamm (what, just me?), glue ribbon in a loop in two places on the back of the paper, thread the knitting needle through the ribbon. Use clear tacks on a bulletin board to mount a bunch of these little hangings.

    Also, keep a knitting needle by your music so you can spontaneously do some air conducting.

    Marcy

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  63. I'd use the knitting needles as rods for mini wall hangings. Use your own art, or print some free art from Feed Your Soul, or find a glamour shot of Jon Hamm (what, just me?), glue ribbon in a loop in two places on the back of the paper, thread the knitting needle through the ribbon. Use clear tacks on a bulletin board to mount a bunch of these little hangings.

    Also, keep a knitting needle by your music so you can spontaneously do some air conducting.

    Marcy

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  64. If I had a bunch of mismatched long stick things . . . in this instance knitting needles . . . I'd want to make a sputnik-like wall clock. You know what I mean? I'm not sure exactly how, but I'd start with a round piece of wood, install clock works in the middle, and attach the needles around the edge at various lengths. You could do a funky paint job to the face of the clock or make it specifically knitting themed . . . and give it to Grandma as a surprise gift.

    As for the Pokemon cards that might actually have monetary value (I admit I'm not into that and have no clue), you could make color copies of the cards and decoupage, etc. with the copies while keeping the originals safe and sound in a binder or box. I know there are those plastic display boxes for baseball cards that you could purchase for your favorite ones. You could get a few of those to showcase your favorites and change them out every once in a while. If clear plastic is too boring, you could always decorate the plastic boxes before hanging them on the wall or putting them on the shelf.

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  65. Ooh the color combinations of the knitting needles...! Definitely worth putting on display. I have to say, the idea of sunray mirror/clock sounds good. Or maybe bind them together with ribbon to create a "bamboo curtain"?

    I know I'd just keep them in a box somewhere safe and whenever feeling down, I'd go through them and sort them again and again by color / size / whatever, and be happy as a child.

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  66. I love the ballpoint pen chandelier. It looks amazingly like the chandelier in my dining room, which consists mainly of crystal rods.

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  67. for the cards, I have no clue..mine are all beat up and shabby in the binder...but for the knitting needles...you could make them a frame...hot glue them around the edges of a pre-existing frame (maybe like 3 bucks at Hobby Lobby) and just go wild with how you do it (you could also do more then one)...my grandma has a bunch of old ones and my mom and I did this for her one year, just around the edges of the frame...turned out really cool...hope that helps! :)

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  68. Heather from the PostOctober 6, 2010 at 3:26 AM

    Hey fellow nerds! Thank you all so much for your input on my knitting needles project. I'm considering what to do, but I really like the wreath and vase ideas. I might also experiment with hair sticks, as that seems to be a popular choice^^. Oh, and I really like the idea of just making them into a centerpiece, possibly with other knitting-related things around it. And windchimes. Heh, thankfully I have quite a few of the needles. I think I'll try a few and I'll definitely post pics of my finished products!

    On a side note, many of them are from the UK, as that is where my grandma is from, so they might be worth something if someone wanted them, but they're pretty old and all mis-matched^^.

    Thanks Jen for the great advice and for posting my dilemma for extra help :)

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  69. The only knitting needle idea I came up with was bending them into circles and make a curtain, like those old bead curtains. Granted, depending on how many Heather has received from her grandma, she might not get very far, but as an accent piece over a mirror's top like those old paper chains we all made as kids, or something to hang from a light like a chandelier's embellishments or something.

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  70. I have 2 ideas for the pokemon cards. First one - take a large wooden dowel and split it down it's length with a saw, then drill a hole in either end at right angles to the split. Put bolts in the holes in each end with a nut on the back side. Add a screw eye on one end. Now if you put the cards in the slot between the 2 halves of the dowel then tighten the nuts down to hold them in place you can hang them on the wall by the screw eye.
    Another alternative is to get 2 inexpensive plastic shower curtains, one of them clear. Cut the clear one into strips a little bigger than the cards are tall. Then lay the strips on the uncut curtain and use an old soldering iron or something along those lines to "weld" the plastic together making little pockets just big enough for the pokemon cards to fit in all the way across and down the curtain, basically making a gigantic notebook card holder page. It could be hung on the wall or used as an actual curtain on a window.

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  71. For Casey:
    DON'T destroy your treasure. How could they they dare think of it. I would proudly present them in an honorable way. E.g. a chandilier. I would put them in some folie and glue some mirror mosaiks on it, leaving the image free. Now I would use some small silver clothespins and a silver metal band to create the chandilier around a normal boring lamp. That would be cool and everybody would yout see the beautiful pictures. No harm to the cards (if the lamp is not heating them up).

    To Heather:
    I would also make a lamp i the are hollow. By cutting of the ends and put a chain of LED lights in them. Then putting them in a vase. I belive this would look great.

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  72. Cards: How about cards in plastic sleeves in strips to hang in a doorway? Or from a circle wire frame at different lengths around a light as a lightshade?
    A flatmate I once had did a large photo-display by sewing a clear plastic shower curtain (or two) into photo-sized pockets and slitting the plastic so she could insert photos in at will.

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  73. Sounds like you have the cards sorted...

    so those knitting needles. There are a couple of ideas here

    other ideas: You could use the rounded ends to make a foot massager (you know those under the desk ones)

    Some people have suggested art... what about a shadow box and you can make it like a bamboo forest type thing.

    Plant stands and supports??

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  74. For the knitting needles I would use little metal eye screws and have them semi random all around the top of a room or a mirror liek a border. See the kitchn blog what that one woman did with chopsticks you could do that with knitting needles

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  75. I didn't read through ALL of the comments because, whoa mama, there are a bunch. Sorry if this one's a repeat. Pound the non-pointy ends of a few needles into hook-like curves, and mount them on a block of wood (I'd advise that you use some woodworking tools and paint to make it pretty). They'd make great hooks for keys, aprons, whatever-the-heck-else you need to hang up on a pretty hook rack. I was inspired by the spoon hooks (http://secretpieshoppe.blogspot.com/2010/08/spoon-hooks.html), so now I mount all sorts of things (HA!). Good luck!

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  76. No idea about the needles. For the cards, though, I'd probably sort them all by element, since that determines the background color. And then I'd try and make a recognizable picture or at least pattern out of the colors I had available. Glue them to a posterboard, frame it, hang it up. It might not work if you don't have enough of certain colors. If you have too many for one frame, though, you can make multiples. So that'd be cool.

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  77. For the cards, why not give them a 3D feel? Use Jen's idea about shadowboxes and foam behind the cards; use a shadowbox big enough for a lot of them (rather than one at a time) and use different thicknesses to arrange each card and give it a lot of interesting depth, like a topography. That would be cool wall art that wouldn't look like pokemon until you're up close.

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  78. I'd make Pokemon card display frames out of the knitting needles.

    Or a Pumpkin Pinhead for Halloween.

    Does it have to be something you make out of them once and you're done forever, or can you keep reusing them forever, like legos?

    I can imagine a few ways to use a couple of them in female steam punk costumes, in corsets, instead of those chopstick things girls use to mysteriously defy gravity when they put their hair up in a bun.

    You could strike up casual conversation with the wandering "Mad Hatters" outside the Cons, steer the direction towards the the extras part of the DVD where the hatter costume designer talks about integrating sewing crap into his costume, produce the knitting needles on the spot, and be all, $50 each, hatter beyotch!

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  79. For the cards I would get a wall mount or full sized juke box that has the "flip" catalog to view the songs.
    MP3 Jukebox Picture
    Then you could flip through your cards and even put a song to your favorite ones.

    For the needles I would either suggest a new version of a very old game -- pick up sticks, or do some interesting geometric shapes.

    Example 1
    Example 2
    Lee

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  80. For the knitting needles, I think you could do a cool starburst mirror or clock with them. Depending how many you had, you could either place them really closely together to make a dense sort of burst, or make the more sparse and have more of the old atomic clock look.

    Another idea would be to make some cute fake flowers with fabric scraps or scrapbooking paper, use the nob of the knitting needle as the center of the flower, make a cute floral arrangement with them.

    I like Jen's idea of wallpapering an accent wall with the pokemon cards, if you had that kind of number. If you didn't want to ruin them,you could see if you could affix card protection sheaths to the wall,with the cards in them. that way you could pull them out if you wanted to show someone one in particular or play again. I don't know how well that woudl hold up long term though. Maybe some heavier plastic ones?

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  81. I would use the knittting needles in an art piece. line the needles up side by side either attaching them directly to the wall or maybe a canvas. The different colors thicknesses and lengths would make an interesting texture. It may not even look like knitting needles in the end.

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  82. Jen I love you! Casey, for your cards here is my idea. Little plastic sleeve for each card. Cards then strung together top to bottom with clear fishing line. I would make lots of "stringers" of the cards. Clear a wall, hang a uber cool curtain rod or such all the way across the top of the wall about 4 or 5 inches from wall so the cards have room to sway/move. you could put cool beads or other decor between cards. space the stringers of cards about 6 inches apart again for movement. since you can easily slide the cards out, you could rearrange them over and over to your hearts content.

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  83. For the cards: I think you could make...
    ~ A neat laminated card chandelier;
    ~ You can put them on the back of some glass plates, They'll be on display and can still used to eat;
    ~ A door curtain with laminated cards attached end to end;
    ~ A lamp shade;
    ~ Frame a Mirror
    ~I once saw a picture of someone wearing cards as a dress, you could try that?

    For the knitting needles: I think you could make:
    ~ A neat little vase;
    ~ Decorate a clock;
    ~ Maybe you can arrange them somehow into a lamp shade

    Good Luck with your crafts!!

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  84. I don't think your idea for the needles is boring! I think that would be adorable ^_^

    I would use them as hair sticks becuase some of those have amazing shapes! For the metal ones, I'd grab a wooden picture frame and attach them to the front as decor. But there are lots of knitters in my family who would love a needle frame.

    Ooh what if she used them to be the supports (with the ends showing) for a knitting bag. The rest of the bag could be knitted or sewn.


    Really have no idea on the cards at the moment. I'll have to think on that one.

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  85. I love Lauren's idea of making a basket. The knitting needles could be attached (hot glue?) points down to a circular base. They would be the verticals, and continuous reed strips could be woven around them on the horizontal.A taper could even be added. Leave the interesting heads exposed and displayed at the top of the basket. Now I want to come across a bunch of orphan needles to make myself one! Here's an image that kind of shows my idea.

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  86. Pokemon cards, if you want to keep them intact and accessable, you could take a clear shower curtain, get clear plastic from a fabric store, cut them into long narrow strips and sew them on so they make long rows of individual pockets, then put in your cards. If you do not have enough to fill the whole shower curtain thenalternate what you put in the pockets or make a few rows with something else that goes with the theme. If you have to many then you could make matching, wall art, tooth brush holder, trash can, soap dispenser, toilet seat cover, tag them all to the ceeling.

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  87. Knitting Needles: make a really unique, colorful piece of wall art, using a little bit of wire to secure the joints. Similar to what artist Andy Goldsworthy does, although he uses only twigs and small thorns to hold things together... see HERE

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  88. I was thinking about the knitting needles today and thought that maybe if you're into steampunk, then you could spray them (or otherwise color them) bronze and decorate them up as steampunk flowers. Throw them in a suitable vase and you're set.

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  89. For the cards, they sell kits to make your own serving tray with photos (or Pokemon cards) underneath. It's covered in glass and therefore none of the cards would get water damaged. It becomes a great conversation/display piece in your home and you can rotate them out! For the very crafty you could probably make your own tray. Coasters would be cute too!

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  90. For the knitting needles, I like the idea of somehow tying them together with yarn to make a collage, or mobile type thing. If you're able and willing to bend them, bend them into shapes on some theme that you identify, like music staffs and notes, animals shapes, or even geometric shapes to make it easier to web them together with yarn.

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  91. Hello,
    It'd be a shame to ruin the cards - I would go for a lo-fi effect. Hang a line on the wall and peg the cards to it with little clothes pegs - you ought to be able to get these in an art and craft shop.
    Something like this:
    http://www.etsy.com/listing/28270761/i-hang-my-art-from-a-miniature

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  92. I just thought of another idea!
    PVC tubing
    drill random holes
    insert knitting needles randomly THROUGH the drilled holes.

    Picture the game Kerplunk

    You could even display some of your cards on it! Rest them on the needles in random places...place the whole thing under a glass type of globe or inverted vase so you don't have to dust as often!

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  93. This is what I'm going to do with my pokemon cards: Paper Pikachu So cute! I think it would be awesome if you used a Pikachu card, then put little eyes on it. The only thing is that the cards would get damaged and you would have to cut some up.

    With some creative thinking, I'm sure you can make all sorts of pokemon that way!

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  94. Casey, if you want to make your wallpaper a little more colorful and interesting, use larger colored jumprings to attach the sleeves top to bottom and side to side. You can buy bags of the colored rings from the craft store in the jewelry department. You'll still be able to reopen the rings to reconfigure the shape, but it just adds a little something over tape. Hobby Lobby has a line of very inexpensive charms ($.77) as well, so here and there you could hang an appropriate charm from the top ring of a card--like a little lightning bolt at the top of a Pikachu card. Picking out the charms would be half the fun!

    And Heather, along the same lines as other folks have mentioned, you could use the needles to cover or embellish picture frames. Add a picture of your grandmother and give one to each of her children/grandchildren as a keepsake.

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  95. if the knitting needles are wood, I'd cut them down & attach them to a post or decorative wood and make them into coat hooks.
    as for the cards, if you want to display them and have 2 of each for front a back, then I'd get a shadow box, start collecting the figurines to match and display them all for a background and set the figurines all over
    Kathy T

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  96. I would actually recommend NOT decoupage the cards. I did that to my old movie ticket stubs (ones my husband and I had been collecting for years) and put them on a bowl and was intending to use it as a popcorn bowl for movie nights.
    Well, the majority of the ticket stubs are ruined because the glue reacted weirdly to the ink on the paper. Almost all of them have faded and I can't even see what movie was written on them.
    I was thoroughly pissed and upset because it's not like I can just go see those movies again!
    So, unless you know how the Pokemon cards will react to that glue, I wouldn't try to decoupage them. You might be ruining something you love!

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  97. For the cards, I would do a glass top coffee table, but underneath I would have a two sided game displayed. That way people could see the cards and ask how to play the game. Under the game, one could put a bright foil leaf (Blue or Green or something bright) to highlight the cards. And, every so often you could change the cards and the game. As for the knitting needles... I'm seeing more of a fence to a yarn house.

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  98. Well, I think this may be too simple an idea, but I saw somebody do collections of postcards in those big shadow boxes. They weren't mounted in any way, just kind of tumbled in haphazardly until the box was a little more than half full. Maybe you could fill up the bottom and back of the shadow box with plain paper, so you don't use too many cards where nobody would see them.

    As for the knitting needles, I am so jealous! I have always wanted to have a white pitcher full of old knitting needles, just like on Knitty's front page. They are so gorgeous, just as they are.

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  99. Remember the American Express Card dress from the Oscars about 10 years ago? I would use that idea, but turn it into a wall tapestry, using jump rings at the corners. If you don't want to damage the cards themselves, I think you could still use the clear binder card sleeves and link those with jump rings instead, which might make it a bit more like a quilt, with bigger blocks.

    As for the knitting needles, I would get a couple of wooden bases and glue them pointy-end-up in a tight cluster, and use it to hold mementos and photos. Or use them just along the edge of a base, sort of pointing out at an angle, weave yarn through them, and have a pretty basket to store things in.

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  100. What about something like this for the cards. A couple of them and put the cards back to back to display the maximum amount of cards.

    http://www.momastore.org/museum/moma/ProductDisplay_Photo%20Mobile_10451_10001_34325_-1_11470_11470_null__

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  101. for the cards, I'd laminate them and hang them in chains so you can make a doorway curtain of sorts out of laminated pokemon cards, or could hang them on a wall this way (like the toy bubbles you showed a while ago) so people could see front and back.

    for the knitting needles, well, I knit with them, The wooden ones make good sweater closures (just poke through a sweater that has no buttons or other closures and it's really cute) and hair accents.

    also, you could add tags and use them as plant/ garden markers

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  102. For the knitting needles, since they're all mismatched, I'm thinking giant tomato pincushion. Made out of red felt and surrounding a foam core, you can stick the knitting needles in as though they were giant pins. Maybe even decorate the top finials however tickles your fancy (felted flowers? charms?).

    If the old-fashioned tomato pincushion look isn't your thing, I'm sure you could come up with anothe style -- pumpkin? I think someone else mentioned a hedgehog, which could be done this way. Check out IKEA's floor poufs in their children's furniture department for more ideas.

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  103. I have an idea for the knitting needles. She could create a sunburst mirror like in this post.
    http://shabbynest.blogspot.com/

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  104. For the needles: http://www.amazon.com/Torre-Tagus-Vortex-Fruit-Bowl/dp/B001I1QBLM
    And variations on that theme.

    As for the cards: I'm thinking a variation on the old fashioned Jukebox books that you find at Johnny Rocket restaurants but custom pages to hold two cards...or four depending on how big...with the "container" being shaped like a poke ball. Custom job, but I think it fits the bill. Would be fun to rig it so that you can turn a knob or dial and the poke ball opens to a different page each time, of course you can still flip through them.

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  105. Google ATC display (artist trading cards) for the cards. Just like Jen I also like the 7 gypsies ATC round display.

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  106. check out sassafrascreations on Etsy for some excellent knitting needle ideas!! What a great store she has!!!

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  107. For the knitting needles, you could make a ... "star" ? out of them... The thing I pictured in my head was that orb-like star thing Lady Gaga carried one time.. But it could be for decor around the house...

    If you've ever made a "God's Eye" with popsicle sticks and yarn, you could do something similar with the needles.. you don't have to do just two of them together, you can add a bunch, and even make it 3-dimensional..

    Create flowers for the ends of the needles, attach with wires, make a bouquet of them

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  108. Cards: You know those pictures that are made up of a bunch of little pictures of different colors? They could make a portrait/landscape/some other sort of picture with them depending on how many they had and what kind of color variety there was. They'd need a pretty big wall to display it on though.
    Needles: Could make an interesting light fixture... either fan them out to make a sconce or make a semi-spherical cover for a hanging light. Either way would prodice some interesting shadow patterns.

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  109. For the cards, you could place all of the cards in those plastic protectors, two cards back-to-back in one protector. Then use fishing line, or some other string, to string them top to bottom long enough to be hung from a curtain rod. Find some ornate or fun shower curtain/drapery holders and hang them in strings from the curtain rod to make a cool/crazy curtain. You'd have to use an actual curtain under your card-curtain, but it works as a cool display...did this with my son's Pokemon and Bakugan cards. Sorry I have no pics, though :(

    For the knitting needles, I love the clock idea the other posters had!

    goids - Today I got my goids removed.

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  110. I'm at a loss for the cards... sorry! I hope one of the 105 comments before this has a great idea! (I'm sure there are multiple hahahaha)

    For the needles... what if you did something with them to create some kind of stand or hangers? Maybe you could get the base of an old coat stand or something that you'd like to make into one and somehow affix the needles to it and create your own custom stand? Similar idea would be using them to make something to hang keys or pictures from your walls.. anything like that?

    Good luck and please send photos!!

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  111. I've seen the clear shower curtains that have pockets you can slide photos into. You could put your favorite cards into that or change them all out easily according to theme (priest, etc...).

    Hang it wherever you're stationed and it will feel a little more like home!

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  112. Well, the knitting needles in a jar by themselves would look pretty neat to me, but maybe that's because I'm a knitter. To dress up an arrangement of needles in a vase or jar, I think it would be cool to attach a felt flower (or a knitted or crocheted one, if you know how) to the knobby end of each needle (hot glue should work for this.) If you're using metal or platic needles, which are ususally colored, you can coordinate the colors of the flowers to match the needle color. If you have wooden or bamboo needles, sand them down and paint them with craft paint in pretty colors and then seal them with a shiny topcoat before attaching the flower top.

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  113. For the cards, what about working them into a room divider like this one. Slide the cards into the harder plastic card sleeves. These can then be inserted into some sort of frame. Hinge several frames together to make the divider.

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  114. I would use the knitting needs and flower "stems" for an arrangement. You could make some cool paper flowers like the ones on the boutineers from the other day. (If you visit the full site they have some other flower ones too!) Then you could attach the flowers to the hook end of the needles so they don't slip off. Then stick them in a basket or antique vase! You could even add some greenery or other items.
    OOH!!! You could make yarn flowers instead of paper flowers too! That'd be really neat!

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  115. Er, make a bed of nails? :/

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  116. I top cut off knitting needles with charms or beads and use them for hairsticks! Waterproof and strong. I get compliments whenever I wear one because they are unusual.

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  117. So the first thing to pop in my head regarding the knitting needles was to make place mats out of them. Kind of like making small reed mats. You would need to find a way to bind them together (lots of knot tying), but I think they'd be pretty...in theory.

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  118. Pokemon card dillema: If you are okay destroying them, sorta... I would punch a small hole in the top and bottom of each card and connect them with a jump ring or chain piece and make a "beaded curtian" out of them. Hang them on the wall or even on a window so they dont come into human contact too much. Could be a great window treatment or art piece.

    Knitting needles: I might try getting a large clear vase and surrounding it with the needles and fastening them together with some fancy yarn and buttons. Or make a "mixed media-ish" frame by covering an old or ugly frame by staggering the needles. OR put some vintage brooches on the end of a few and use them to add a little interest to flower arrangements or that bunch of roses your hunny got you. So many ideas!

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  119. If you have metal knitting needles that are pointy at both ends, instead of hairsticks, you could bend them to make U-pins. Torrinpaige on YouTube has a tutorial for making them and I think they're super pretty.

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  120. For the cards i have no idea. for the knitting needles, I would do a reaf. Not sur here if I spelded wright. I'M french you see. If not you know the thing we put on door outside for Xmas.

    Regard Nad

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  121. Some pretty jewelry ideas for the knitting needles

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  122. Have you seen this etsy shop/:
    http://www.etsy.com/shop/sassafrascreations?ref=seller_info

    I'd love to try to make some of her stuff

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  123. FOr the knitting needles, I'd find a nice cheap DVD shelf or small book shelf and glue them in random patterns along all the sides to make a knitting needle shelf. Since i'm a knitter/crocheter myself I'd get a woven knitting basket and weave the needles in and out in pretty patterns, that way you get something pretty and artful but you can still use the needles if you are so inclined.

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  124. I would twist the needles into a tree. (my specialty!) I am always looking for new things to twist!!

    Twysted Wyres

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  125. Call me boring but I wouldn't do a thing to the knitting needles. I'd drop them in a glass jar or vase and display them as is. Pretty.

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  126. Those needles would look awesome stuck in a styrofoam ball and suspended from the ceiling. Kind of like this only not floppy.

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  127. Casey From the PostOctober 6, 2010 at 6:06 PM

    I love the idea of incorporating jump rings and charms into my Pokemon card wall hanging. I don't have the money for that right now, but I think that's what I would like to strive for. I'm not going to hang them in a doorway because we have a cat. I'm thinking tapestry here.

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  128. could the knitting needles be turned into picture holders? (you know, like the ones you see that are just sticks you wedge your picture into)

    I'm thinking you could do different lengths and make like a picture arrangement in a vase or something...

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  129. How about gluing the needles round a container/vase to store all the matched needles in? Or they could be glued onto a box to keep knitting wool in - keeps it topical!

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  130. O.K. I didn't read all the way to the bottom (sorry I don't have that much time.) However, the viability of knitting needles as hair accessories is minimal unless they're extremely short/DPNs (BELIEVE me on this, I'm a knitter. And I've tried) O.K. if you have any talent with polymer clay, you could make polymer clay flowers and attach them to the tops and include them in floral arrangements. Otherwise, you could use two needles of equal lenth as the frame for a funky bag (like at the top where the handles attach. This is more practical than crafty but you could use them plant stakes... just a few ideas. :0)

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  131. For the cards, there are card protectors and card sleeves of various types. ("Card protector" means something different in poker.) These may be flexible individual or multi-card sheets, or semi-rigid sleeves. These are intended to protect trading cards, so should form a good tool for holding the cards in one place without the damage of glue.

    These things are available online or at game stores which sell Pokemon cards, other trading cards, and comic book shops.

    Keeping them out of the sun or under UV-filtering glass is important to prevent fading.

    For the needles... frame decoration, lamp decoration, or weave cords to form a small flexible screen or mat.

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  132. For the cards I would say find a ton of small matching frames that would work for them. Since all of these cards are completely different colors, I would arrange them in a rainbowish look across a wall. They can be arranged in any design.

    For the needles I would get a styrofoam ball and wire *from the heads of the needles* the needles all into the ball, so they stick out like a giant sea urchin. These would exclude the wood ones.

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  133. for the cards you can laminate them and string them up with metal rings (punch a hole at the top and bottom of the card) to make door blinds/curtains. it doesn't have to be full length, like those Japanese ones.

    make a huge mobile or lampshade with some wires and clips.

    the knitting needles are too cute and colorful. i'll just stick them into a pretty vase and tie an equally cute Huge bow around them.

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  134. Send the knitting needles to me! Mine are forever disappearing.

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  135. For the cards: Would be a bit tedious, but you could put the cards together at the edges to form 3D boxes/geometric designs (although this might require folding/cutting). Once assembled, you could affix string or ribbon of different lengths & hang them from the ceiling in the corner of the room like a mobile.
    Shapes like this

    For the needles: Criss-cross them & secure them somehow (think teepee shaped) and use them for display stands. Would be kind of cool to display miniature gazing globes.

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  136. I didn't read all of the suggestions so I hope these are original.

    For the Cards: Scan them, print them on transfer paper and transfer print them onto cloth and make a Pokemon shower curtain. You'll not only keep your cards in excellent condition in a box, but you'll have the cards on a shower curtain and give yourself something good to look at while having nothing better to doo. (Oooh... Bad pun!)

    For the Knitting Needles: I know the older needles are difficult to replace, so don't ruin them. I would do the more labor intense things like making roll-up blinds out of them via tying them all together with twine and using them as a window covering. Or, you could make a cool craft room closet door with a bifold frame that used to have the slats in them, but take those slats out, drill appropriately sized and depth holes (or halfway through holes) in them and fit the needles in to make the slat area into knitting needles.

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  137. Stick the needles into a covered foam wreath form to make a fun, funky wreath to hang up somewhere!

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  138. A cool idea for the knitting needles would be to cut them up into small cylinders of about 1 or 2 cm in height. You could drill holes in them and attach them to a bracelet. It makes a really colorful and dangly bracelet or necklace.
    Also, they could be cut down and used as mosaic pieces or, something my mom used to do, use them as mosaic pieces on the bottom of a wooden tray and cover it in lacquer. It looks really neat, especially when you use smaller pieces inside of one another. It makes a great bubble effect.

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  139. Knitting needle wind chimes.

    Pokemon placemats?

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  140. PokeCards: Since pokemon are elemental I would do different elements in different rooms: water in the bathroom, fire in the kitchen, etc. And I would use the different cards different ways, aka the creature cards I would avoid destroying but the element cards I'd turn into boarders for frames or such.
    You could do a 'story' with them, running a bunch down a wall using trainer cards to represent obsticels and effort and the creatures as the characters.
    Trim them up and they could make a really cool screen for a window or such: Here Though that would take quite a while...
    You could make a deck of regular playing cards out of some of them.
    Make a some book marks, make note cards to carry around, cover your least favorite books/boxes/etc with them.

    Knitting needles: I'd wire them together to form an unsymmetrical hour-glass shape to use as a vase or such, or instead of wire use thread/yarn/crochet chain to hold it together. Bend them crazy to make a picture frame. Use them to hang things on the wall by bending them slightly. Pick your favorite building/vehicle/animal skeleton and replicate it with the needles. They would look neat as a bi-wing.

    Ok, can't think of anything else good luck to you both.

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  141. If Casey is ok with messing up her cards I would say make a giant asian-type fan. If she can find a skeleton of one or even just screw a bunch of wood slats together and secure with a ribbon on the back to keep it's shape. I admit I don't have any experience making a fan, but it might look cool.

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  142. I'm pretty confident someone has prob'ly given you this idea already - but jewelry made from slicing up knitting needles is really fun. clicky to see

    I also love Jen's idea - but i might take it a step further and pretend the needles themselves are the flowers. The picture of them all in a vase is funky and fun - just find a spot that needs some color and plunk it down. If you wanted, you could add fresh flowers and the needles would work like a flower frog.

    For the pokemon cards - they are really pretty the way they are spread out in the photo - I would never have guessed they were something so mundane. I like the first posters idea of putting them under glass on a table top, however, I don't think you would have to use anything to hold them down. If you have a thick enough piece of glass, or something holding the glass down, then you can just scatter them out. It would make a cool card table or coffee table.

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  143. Sorry I don't have a better picture, but I've decided on what to do with my cards! Check it out!

    Eventually I'm going to hang little charms from jump rings between cards. For example, I'll have a lightning bolt charm near the Pikachu cards.

    Nifty, eh?

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  144. re: Knitting needles . .are they plactic? Here's what a great Melbourne Jeweller has done with them . . http://www.studioingot.com.au/DSC.html

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  145. I don't know if anyone has posted this yet, but a friend of mine used her knitting needles as plant stakes. They brightened up the garden. :)

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  146. use the cards to make a room divider or just wall art by putting each card in a sleeve and then putting them together with rings
    see example here:
    http://www.hgtv.ca/articles/articledetails.aspx?ContentId=2843&cat=2&by=5

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  147. Knitting needles could be glued or wired together, points out, togo around a round mirror or picture frameto make a sunburst pattern frame. Throw in some bead spacers if there aren't enough to go around the mirror size you like. The colors would make it very unique.

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  148. Are those wooden knitting needles? If so, hair sticks? Put ribbon(s) on the ends, and put them into a bun or braid for decoration? Might have to shorten them some, and if they are antique maybe don't? Just remeber, go down, up the middle of the bun or braid, and back down again to ensure you don't lose the hair stick and that it holds the hair.

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  149. I know I'm late to the game, but I came across an amazing idea for cards a few days ago. They could be displayed on a surface or hung from the ceiling. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/50207/making-polyhedra-from-magic-cards-a-guide-with-t

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  150. For Heather: A barbie log cabin? You could build a guitar; fit a few long ones together for the neck, thin ones for strings, nip the tops off for the tuning pegs, and bend some (Gibson style) for the body.

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