Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

By Crafts-a lot Contributor, Mable who is an avid reader of craft blogs & magazines and is always looking to improve her crafting skills. Join Mable on Facebook to socialize and share with other crafters!

Last weekend, here in Portland, quilters and manufacturers from all over the country had the opportunity to meet up and share what they love. Here are some of the highlights:

Right when we walked in to the quilt market, there were so many beautiful quilts hanging up around the booths. I absolutely loved the watercolor appearance of this quilt, with the intricate floral stitching. It’s absolutely gorgeous!

We very quickly started to notice a theme with all of the lovely quilts hanging up, lots and lots of color! There were bright neons and rainbow quilts everywhere!

This quilt quickly caught my eye. It is so colorful and I love the pointillism effect used with the background. I also love the fact that quilts don’t necessarily have to be about piecing together blocks of fabric anymore. You can create a scene and really tell a story with them.

Once we got into the booths, we had a lot of fun trying out the Sizzix Big Shot  and AccuQuilt Go Die they make cutting your fabric so easy and precise!

A lot of the booths had more fun notions and products than imaginable. It was so fun to look through all of the ribbons and trims that Cheep Trims has to offer.

The award for booth creativity definitely goes to Fairfield Batting. All of the decorations are made entirely from quilt batting!

 They dyed, felted, crimped, and ironed everything together to create this beautiful forest scene. It was really inspiring to see a creative way to use batting outside of quilting. Fairfield carries natural cotton batting, which they said was the easiest to dye. It’s so hard to believe those flowers are made from felted and dyed batting.

After many hours spent looking at new products, playing with new tools, and chatting with quilters, I think this photo best sums up how we felt when we left:

This decal was too cute!

By Guest Blogger Suzanne.

Hey everyone! I’d like  to share a gift & party idea project that came together fairly quick. It’s a Fourth of July themed treat bag and coordinating card. The card was really quick and easy to create. 

The base is a piece of kraft carstock that I’ve rounded (all edges) with a corner rounder tool. The center of the card is actually a manila shipping tag that is covered with canvas fabric and cotton batting. I glued the tag to the batting and sewed the canvas fabric on top.

I must admit, the fabric tag isn’t my original idea. The very talented Tammy Tutterow posted a tutorial giving step by step detail on how to dye muslin fabric (this step was included) and I was inspired to give this portion a go! I’m so glad I did because the fabric tag adds so much texture to the card! The star was cut from a piece of Fourth of July themed Reminsce paper that I had to “grunge” up a bit with Colorbox Cat’s Eye Chalk inks (Chestunut Roan and Creamy Brown) so that it would match the other papers. All rosettes were created using coordinating printed papers and the Martha Stewart Scoring Board. To finish, I added a coordinating button, Ideaology for Tim Holtz memo pin, date stamp at the bottom and that’s it!

I cut the bag with the Tags Bags and more Cricut cartridge using the window option. The clear window is simply a piece of transparency cut to size and taped on the inside. The “banner” is simply a strip of printed paper that I’ve backed with a piece of canvas fabric to add texture.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this project and been inspired to make some gift-giving/party items as well!

Congratulations to the winners of our 2011 Handmade Halloween Costume Contest! We choose the top 25 entries and you voted for the winners on Facebook. The winners will be awarded with CreateForLess shopping sprees!

“This is my personal take on the Predator! Skins are all latex. All painted using prosaide and acrylics. Bones are chicken/turkey bones. This is easily one of my favorite costumes but also one of the hardest ones for me to wear!”

By Branden Brown

“This is a centaur costume that I created for my son Isaiah. It attaches at his waist with a wide belt and rolls behind him on training wheels. I constructed the horse body using chicken wire for the armature. I then upholstered it with polyester quilt batting and, finally, velour. His vest and “apron” are made from leather shirts that I found at a thrift store. The tail is a fake ponytail. It was definitely a big project, but it was a huge hit, so it was worth the effort!”

By Emkay Sikora

“This was created the night before my son’s school Halloween party. It is typical for us to wait last minute, sadly, however we always manage to get really creative under pressure! Everything is made from recycled items, except the grey and black eyeshadow that was purchased for his face. We used a painted fridge box panel for the chair (it’s one piece like a pop-up card), a used tyveck jumpsuit from a mechanic friend with sharpie prison stripes, copper wire and tubing left over from home renovation, old leather belt and leather like fabric I had in my craft supplies, and my kitchen strainer for the headgear(which ended it’s straining days). It was a fun project to work on together!”

By Jody Stejskal-Johnson

Click HERE to view more of our favorite entries!

By Guest Blogger Wendy, from the blog “Ramblings from…The Sunshine State”.

Things are slowly coming along for my daughter’s rainbow birthday party. I managed to get the wreath done, now I’m getting ready to work on her t-shirt. Lots to do still! But I want to go ahead & share the wreath. I started with a wreath form, some batting & tacky glue.

I cut strips out of the batting (doesn’t need to be perfect) and wrapped it all around the wreath.

This is what you will end up with.

I used this super soft baby yarn. It has 110 yards & was less than $3. I knew this would cover it & I wasn’t looking to spend much on this.

I don’t have any photos of making the flowers, I was kind of playing with them as I went. At the time I wasn’t 100% positive what I wanted to do. But the flowers are easy. Just cut a spiral in the felt & roll it up. I used a little hot glue to secure them together.

I haven’t decided if I am going to make another bunting for this party (I made one for all three parties last year), so I wanted to add one to the wreath. It’s just triangles of felt, glued together.

I strung them on a piece of baker’s twine.

And here is the end result! I think it turned out pretty cute! I might hang it in their bedroom when the party is over, not sure yet.

By Sewing Contributor Jessica, from the blog “Life Sew Good”.  

My mom used to decorate jars with fabric on the top all the time.  Here’s a fresh way to make yourself a shabby chic little pin cushion that has secret little powers—magnetic powers! 

Here’s how to make yours!

1. Find a cute jar.

2. Since I only had batting, I used the lid to measure a couple of pieces of batting to top my jar.  You can use loose pillow stuffing, which probably works better, although it may turn out lumpier.  I don’t know!

3. I sewed my batting pieces together.  Tip: Keep edges of the lid free or your jar won’t close!

4. Using a hot glue gun, glue the batting to the lid.

5. Using the lid with the batting attached as a guide, cut a piece of fabric that will give you plenty of room to wrap around the top of the lid and then to attach to the bottom of the lid.  I would add about 1″ to 1 ½” to the circumference of your lid.  You can always cut it down if you need.

6. Pull the fabric tightly across the top of your batting and wrap around the bottom of the lid.  Attach fabric to the bottom with a hot glue gun.

7. Take a small magnet.  You don’t even have to glue it; it should hold to the bottom of your lid!

8. Add your own embellishments to the jar.  I kept my super simple by gluing rick-rack on the jar.

By Betsy Sue Sews, a member of the CreateForLess Craft Crew, who spends her time sewing, reading about sewing, or blogging about sewing!

My kitchen has white cupboards, walls and stove top. I wanted to add some color and accessorize my oven with some fun color and prints. To start I made pot holders. You don’t need much fabric for this project, fat quarters work great to make these. You can even use fleece, an old pot holder, or a small piece of batting to line this cute and practical kitchen accessory!

Start with 4 pieces of fabric that are 6″ by 8″, and 2-4 pieces of an inside insulator material. I used 2 pieces of fleece. With RIGHT sides together sew around 3 sides leaving a small side open for turning.

After sewing around the edges, turn you pouch so your pattern is facing out. Lay down and straighten your insulator material inside.

Next press the open seems inside your pouch so there are no raw edges. You can either sew this seem shut now, or after you’ve quilted your this side of the pot holder.  I just did straight lines, be creative, quilt how’d you like.

Now for the top 2 flaps of the pot holder, repeat above stops with fabric pieces 4″ by 6″ and line, quilt and finish the edges. Make a loop to hang your pot holder by cutting a piece of fabric 1″ by 3″ and sew so right sides are out and there is a pretty seam.

I’d suggest sewing the loop to the large quilted piece first, before sewing on the small flaps. Sew the loop to a corner on a diagonal. After the loop is attached all that’s left if sewing on the top flaps so the pot holder stays on. Just match edges so the small flaps cover the bottom and top half.

By Sewing Contributor Jessica, from the blog “Life Sew Good”.  

I love coffee.  The smell of coffee . . . intoxicating!  Hence, the need for aromatic coffee coasters. 

These are made from recycled coffee bags, scrap fabric, batting, and whole coffee beans.

1. For 4 coasters, cut 4 squares each of your top fabric (mine is the recycled coffee bag), bottom fabric (I chose corduroy), and batting.

2. Layer the fabric:  RIGHT sides of bottom and top fabric together and place batting on top.

3. Sew 1″ around, leaving about 2″ opening for turning.

4. Trim edges. 

5. Turn right sides out and fill middle with about 1/8-1/4 cup whole coffee beans.  You don’t want to overfill; just put enough in that you can get a nice even layer.

6. Tuck in filling hole and top stitch 5/8″ all the way around.  

Brew yourself a cup of joe and set it on one of your aromatic coasters and enhance the intoxicating coffee aroma!