Think Crafts by CreateForLess

By Guest Blogger Maria Mercedes

Supplies:

•  8×10 canvas
• Decorative paper or book pages
• Gel medium or Mod Podge
• Craft Paints: terra cotta, antique white, skintone, yellow, white, light blue and burnt umber.
• Permantent fine black pen
• Brushes
• Tranfer paper or parchment paper
• Red Pastel Oil

Directions:

Glue decorative paper to canvas using gel medium or mod podge.
Water down the white paint to cover most of the decorative paper but leaving the edges unpainted. Let dry and then apply another coat of watered down light blue paint on top of the white.
Transfer a pattern of your choice to canvas.

Base coat bear using terra cotta paint and use antique white for the mouth area and small bottom. Paint beehive skin tone, bees yellow and wings white. Let dry.

Shade darker areas by applying watered down burnt umber paint to some areas.

Use the permanent black pen to outline details and finish off the painting.

Using a red pastel oil and an old brush add the red color cheeks to the bear

By General Crafts Contributor Monica from the blog Mon Makes Things.

I have been wanting to try my hand at some DIY mason jar tumblers for a while now, and I am pleased to report that they are WAY easier than you may think. Seriously, they’re like, really really easy. I decorated my jars with the Ball Transform Mason Frosting Paint for a subtle “etched” polka dot effect. The paint was supposed to be dishwasher safe, but unfortunately mine washed clean… So I suggest either hand washing these, using a different glass paint (I’ve heard good things about Martha Stewart), or decorating your jars a different way. The effect was really cute, but I recommend saving this particular paint for projects that won’t need to be washed regularly.

Stuff You’ll Need: Mason Jars with Lids, Reusable Plastic Straws, 1/2″ Rubber Grommets, Crop-A-Dile, Screwdriver, Glass Paint, Paint Pouncers

To achieve the polka dot look, I used three different sized paint pouncers. Pour a small amount of paint onto a paper plate, dab your pouncer into the paint, and dab the pouncer back onto the plate (not in the paint). You don’t want too much paint on your pouncer when you press the pouncer onto the jar or it will pool up around the edges of the pouncer. Follow the instructions on your glass paint for making your glasses dishwasher safe (though again, the Ball Transform Mason Paint washed off my jars in the dishwasher, despite the instructions).

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

If you have coffee or tea lovers on your gift list this year, here is a gift that the kids can help you make. No knitting or sewing involved! All you need is a festive sock and some fabric glue, how fabulous is that? So simple you can make them for everyone in just a couple of minutes. The hardest part is deciding what socks to buy.  I picked up mine at the dollar store, so for a buck you can make 2 gifts!

Supplies

• 1 Holiday Sock
• Fabric Glue
• Scissors

Start by choosing some fabulous holiday socks. Take one sock and cut the leg part off just above the heel.  Turn the tube part of the inside out and place a thin bead of Fabric Glue along the cut edge.

Fold over about a half inch hem and press it down having the fabric glue hold it in place. Let dry.

Once the glue is dry, it is waterproof.  The cozy can be washed if coffee or tea gets on it.

Since the sock has stretch, it will fit any sized coffee cup without a handle. Just think how cute this would be for the kids to help make for a teacher gift.  Make it hug a coffee shop gift card as an easy gift.

By Guest Blogger Anne from Creative Life Blog and Unfinished Wood Co.

Check out Anne’s blog for tons of great painting, home decor, and kids craft ideas. Then head over to Unfinished Wood Co. to find wooden shapes and pieces for beautiful crafts!

I am always stuck for fun ways to display my Christmas cards every year. They usually end up sitting in a pile on the mantle, falling on the floor, and eventually they get torn up by one of my children or stepped on with my dog’s muddy paws.  A few lucky cards might even make it to my refrigerator. This year I thought there has to be a better way to display all these cards. So I decided to make some decorative card holders with some old wooden dowels.

First, I cut some scrap 1.25” diameter dowels into a variety of different lengths and sanded them smooth. Then, I carefully used a handsaw to put a grove in each one.

Once I had them prepared, it was time to decorate. I used Christmas scrapbook paper, stickers, Mod Podge, decorative ribbons, paint and whatever else I could find in my craft drawer. Viola!! My Christmas cards will certainly be displayed in style this year.

It’s Monday again, so it’s time to announce another winner of Free Stuff Friday! Congratulations to… Millie! Have tons of fun with your Sticker Grab Bag!

If you love stickers then this is prize is for you.  Each grab bag has a different assortment of at least 14 different packages of stickers or embellishments.

The winning answer to “What is your favorite thing about the holiday season?” is…

“Glitter, angels, snowflakes, cinnamon, hot cocoa, cold weather perfect to stay in and craft away!”

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.  Check back on Friday for your chance to win!!

By Card Making & Scrapbooking Contributor

Peg Rounds

Peg’s Crafting Corner

Don’t have the right embossing folder?  That’s alright.  As long as you have punches or dies for the design you are want you can create the look of an embossed background.  It looks so good you won’t be able to tell that’s it’s faux embossed.

For this card, begin by creating a 5” x 7” card base from card stock.  The base needs to be the same color as the punched items you will be placing on it will be.  For example, white card stock on white card stock.

Create the focal piece of the card and lay it aside.  This card was made by paper piecing together the snowman (Snowman by EK Success).  Punch the snowman in the following colors from card stock:  white for the base, orange for the carrot nose, black for the top hat and blue ( or your choice of color) for the scarf.  Trim each piece off and adhere it to the white snowman in the appropriate area using a Quickie Glue Pen by Sakura.  Lay him aside to dry.

Punch and die cut different sized snowflakes from the white card stock.

 The Snowflake die by Sizzix and Sizzix Die Cut Machine were used for this.

Also, die cut the backgrounds for the snowman.  Here the Scalloped Rectangles by Spellbinders and 2 different colors of blue card stock were used for the backgrounds.  Cut one larger and one smaller one and adhere them on top of each other.

You can first arrange a pattern of snowflakes onto the card base to get an idea of how you would like to have them.  Next, run each one through a Xyron Sticker Maker to attach adhesive to the backs of them.  Adhere them into the pattern you chose on the card base.

Your card base should now resemble this when you are finished.

Attach the snowman to the rectangles using a tape runner and attach the rectangles over the top of the snowflakes in the center of the card.

The next time you don’t have the right embossing folder, dig out those punches and dies and create a faux embossed background.  It’s easy to do and adds a whole new look to your technique how-to’s. Only you will know it’s not true embossing!

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

I love the simplicity of this tree decoration. It’s elegant and it can be plain or it could be painted. The project requires nothing but time and an old book. It’s a great quiet time project for children to work on and they can give the trees as gifts when they are done.

Supplies:

• Old Paperback book

Optional:

• Pipe Cleaners
• Spray Paint
• Glitter
• True Snow

If you have a hard back book you have to cut the covers off.  Start by folding the top corner in down towards the inside center towards the spine.

Then fold the edge into the center to the spine. There will be a little corner at the bottom of the book, it can be folded up and tucked into the folded page or it can be trimmed off along the bottom edge.

This is the time consuming part, continue folding all the pages in this manner. The tree will magically appear.

When all the pages have been folded the tree can be spray painted or glittered. It can be decorated with stickers. The star on top can be made with sparkle pipe cleaners. The tree can also be painted with a fluffy snow.