Think Crafts by CreateForLess

Julie does wonderful, intricate work with clay in beads and on wine glasses. Check out her one-of-a-kind look and learn more about how she started this creative craft! 

Hi! I’m Julie Saling, retired (meaning old) and living the good life in AZ. I have not come from a crafty family although my daughter has done some wonderful scrapbooking. So, I took a beading class here in my community that offers soooo many things. Then I started beading with a couple of gals. Well one of thoes “gals” comes from a VERY crafty family. She spends a week, every year, with her mother at a craft get-together and she teaches and takes classes. And you guessed it….. she took a clay class! As soon as she got back she taught us how to make beads and I’ve never looked back, except to look in horror at the check book to see where ALL the money went. Create For Less has most of it and I have been very happy with their products. I know I don’t have enough life to do all I want to do with clay. The canes I make often end up as jewelry as well as on wine glasses. So far I have only sold at the craft show and tennis tournament and of course friends, I would love to give everything away (which I did with lots of jewelry) to my sweetie’s horror. So, when I started a new hobby he said it had to support itself.
I would welcome comments or contact.

Thank you! Julie

I was recently asked by Terry’s Blinds to do an interview about my design aesthetic and inspiration as the editor of Think Crafts. I have to admit, it was a little intimidating. The beautiful magazine style layout and wonderful designers had me wondering if I was good enough to be included. I absolutely adore interior design and love drooling over perfectly styled rooms, but I’m horrible at executing it in my own life. This was a nice little challenge for me, and I have to say, the interview itself really got me inspired to get to decorating my own home!

Check out my top choices for spring style and read my interview over on Terry’s Blinds Designer Insights! You should also take a look at the other designers featured. There is a designer for every aesthetic and style and everyone is so inspiring!

It’s Friday again, so let’s get to giving away this week’s prize! Get inspired with one of our Bead Grab Bags!

If you love beads in all shapes and sizes, this prize is for you. Each bag has at least 12 different types of beads and two types of string in varying sizes and shapes. Enter to win one of these grab bags before it’s too late!

Every Friday we’ll post a giveaway on Think Crafts and all you have to do is comment on the blog post answering the question of the week. We’ll pick the winners and contact them via email. Deadline is midnight tonight and the winner will be announced Monday. One entry per person please.

Question of the week:  What is your favorite spring activity?

If the comment box is not below, scroll to the top and click “comments”.

By Kid’s Crafts Contributor Stephanie, from the Blog A Geek in Glasses.

Are you looking for a fast way to get organized but not break the bank? Well, here is one way to recycle those shipping boxes while tidying up the magazines.

Supplies:

• Shipping Box
• Paper
• Mod Podge
• Scissors
• Washi Tape

Read the rest…

By Craft Trends Contributor, Gillian from the blog Dried Figs and Wooden Spools. Check out our Craft Trends board on Pinterest!

Easter is fast approaching and while plain old colored eggs are always fun, there are so many amazing egg decorating ideas out there it would be a shame to stick with just the dye, wouldn’t it? Colorful, floral, unique, so many ideas! I’m thinking of trying a few of these on blown out eggs so that I can keep them well beyond Easter Morning! Alright, maybe I’m thinking of trying them all! Here are some of my very favorites!

Exquisite Eggs – Country Living

These clever eggs use tattoo paper to transfer botanical images to the eggs, I love their Edwardian style. Wouldn’t they look great in a pretty bowl or vase?

Silk Dyed Eggs – Country Living

This is an unusual take on the traditional silk dyed eggs. Using black and white silks creates a striking, modern style, beautiful and elegant. And so charming!

Decoupaged Eggs – Tatertots & Jello

On the flip side, these eggs are bursting with color. A great way to use those plastic eggs for something a little more decorative, these are bright and beautiful and I can’t get enough of them!

Scrambled Lines Easter Eggs – Martha Stewart

And here we have dyed eggs with a twist! Tape in stripes to create a void in the color when dyed. Applied in layers after each trip into the dye bath, you get a while and beautiful result with very little effort. This woudl be a great variation to try with the kids!

How will you decorate your eggs this year? Any ideas you’d like to share? We’d love to see them! And check out these and other egg-related crafts on our Craft Trends Pinboard!

By Kid’s Crafts Contributor Tracey, from the blog We Made That.

We always make flowers for my mom for Mother’s Day, but this year I wanted to mix it up a bit and make her some edible ones.  That is why we decided to make these yummy Mother’s Day Chocolate Flowers.  I know my mom will love them because she loves flowers and she loves chocolate, so this is a win-win. The fact that the grandkids made them just makes these the best gift we could make for grandma.

This was actually our first time ever making candy like this, so I was not really sure how it was going to go. I have to say it was way easier than I thought it was going to be.  Both girls were able to help, which just shows you how truly easy this was.

I decided to just melt the chocolates in a plastic bag to make the whole process quick and less messy which ended up working great.  While one bag was in the microwave melting, I had my daughter making flowers with another one.  It took less than 10 minutes to fill our mold using 4 different colors.  Then, we just waited for them to harden and we made some more.

Supplies

• Chocolate Melt
• Flower Candy Mold
• Candy Sticks
• Plastic Baggie for each color

Directions

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By Kid’s Crafts Contributor Stephanie, from the Blog A Geek in Glasses.

Earth Day is coming soon and I can’t wait for Spring to finally show up, so we made a quick bird feeder to entice some feathered friends to visit our yard. It is a bit of recycling as well as helping out birds during this unseasonably cold weather.

Supplies:

• Cardboard tube
• Peanut Butter
• Bird Seed

Read the rest…