Think Crafts Blog - Craft Ideas and Projects - CreateForLess

So many of our current trendy crafts include some hand writing.  Crafts like scrapbooking, card making, collage, altered art, and even painting.  At the very least you should be adding your signature to your crafts as the finishing touch!

I don’t know about you, but as my god son would say, “My handwriting sucks!” I hated penmanship in school (dating myself with that word!) and most of the time I’m in such a hurry that I can’t even read what I’ve written.  Heck, I’m so lazy that my signature is just my first inital and last name and even then I’m just scribbling always remembering to dot the i! Many use the computer and its heavenly wealth of fonts to make their crafts neater, but the whole point of being creative is to express yourself through your own mind, heart, and hands.

My most treasured keepsake from my mother is a silly old calendar on which she wrote a little something each day. I treasure it because seeing her hand written words makes me feel close to her again.  If she had used a computer, rub on letters, or sticker phrases, I don’t think the calendar would have much meaning to me. 

Maybe I should have been a doctor, my handwriting is horrible!

Here are some handwriting tips I learned while teaching at a scrapbooking expo:

Practice. Practice. Practice! If you don’t write often, you’ll “forget” how.

Make it easier with light marks to keep your handwriting straight and not marching up and down or slanting.  Keep pencil marks light. A heavy line will leave imprints on your page and be more difficult to erase. These imprints can also affect the way the paper takes colored pencils, chalks and watercolors.

A heavy-handed eraser can take the color off white core paper, patterned or solid. Go lightly!

Small, evenly placed characters look clean and precise.

Concentrate.  Don’t be distracted.  Don’t be doing four things at once. You want your lettering to look good, so take the time to do it right.

Whether you use a template or create guidelines yourself, be diligent about it. A little advance planning goes a long way.

It is great to copy and emulate other fonts or people’s writing, but the point here is to get your writing in your books. So find a style that suits you. Are you someone who loves cursive? Do you write in all caps, all lowers, or a mixture of both? Make sure that your style shines through in your letters.

Sometimes the faster you go, the better the results can be.  Just making sure that you’re concentrating. If you’re trying for a carefree look, make your guide lines, pencil in your text for correct spacing, and then go for it!

Use a straight edge for your verticals. If you’re doing large letters for a title, or even for your journaling, use a ruler to make your verticals. This is a trick architects use to make their printing look prefect every time.

Use shadowing for a great effect. It softens the subtle imperfections in your writing, making your letters look better. Grab a Black and Platinum Zig Writer and create letters that jump off your page.

Do not be too critical of yourself. Hand lettering is not, and will never be, perfect. And it shouldn’t be.

Air dry clay is often thought of as a child’s art and craft supply, but it’s so much more than that!  If you enjoy polymer clay, you’ll also enjoy paper clay.  You don’t have to bake this type of clay as it air dries. 

Materials

• Paper clay (also called air-dry clay):  This clay air-dries, no need to heat or bake.
• Rolling pin:  To evenly flatten clay if necessary for your project.
• Wax or freezer paper
• Rubberstamps, clay tools, molds or texture sheets:  To make patterns or images into the clay.
• Craft knife, NuBlade^TM, tissue blade (or other thin cutting tool).

Step by Step

1. Wash your hands thoroughly and make sure your work surface is clean.  Clay picks up every dust or particle on the work surface and your hands.

2. Roll clay out to about ¼” thickness or thickness desired.  Stamp an image into the clay with a rubberstamp or press clay into any type of mold and remove.  Trim with cutting tool if needed.  You can also hand form or sculpt the clay.

3. Place on wax paper to dry, turning every few hours for even drying.  To avoid curling you might want to weigh down the clay after a few hours of drying.

4. You can also use this clay to sculpt.  It easily can be colored, painted, inked, chalked, glittered, and otherwise embellished. 

Using an air dry clay, Helen Bradley created this watch for Jewlery Creations #2 Magazine (CK Media) using a clay from AMACO.

Tips

• Clay adheres to most surfaces with a dab or two of glue.
• You can cut this clay while still wet or when it has dried. 
• Use a wet fingertip to smooth rough edges while clay is still wet.
• Use a fine sanding paper or emery board to smooth clay edges once clay has dried.
• You can paint, ink, or chalk a dry piece of paper clay.
• You can add paint, ink, or chalk to wet clay to color it!
• Make an embellishment for the front of a scrapbook, diary or journal.
• Another wonderful way to use your rubberstamps.  You can make buttons to coordinate your designs and projects.
• Store unused clay in an airtight container like a zip-lock plastic bag.  You can’t add water to clay to restore, once it dries out, it’s not re-useable!
• There are wonderful cutting, shaping, and design tools on the market for clays, but don’t forget that toothpicks, paper clips, cookie cutters, and pencils are handy tools too.

I found some great sites with fun projects:

Colorful Fun

Earthy Heart Pendant

Upscale Designer

Another wonderful design by Helen Bradley for AMACO. This design was also published in Jewelry Creations #2, CK Media.

I must have a ton of beads!  I’m hopelessly addicted to beads.  I buy for color; I love orange.  I buy for shape; I love tablet, oval, and round.  I buy for motif; I love fish, sealife, and flowers.  I have small beads like seed and E beads.  I have medium beads of shell, ceramic, and glass.  And I have large beads of clay, crystal, and wood.  And with so many beads, it’s easy to forget exactly what I have.

I recently just re-organized my beads because I couldn’t remember everything I had.  Because if you have beads, you most likely have all the supplies needed to make jewelry, meaning you need to keep up with all your findings!  For me the real key to organization is that the organizers need to be clear, I need to be able to see at a glance what is in my organizers!

Organization can be a bore, but somehow I’m never bored when organizing my beads.  I enjoy seeing all my treasures, touching each to feel the texture, and coordinating the colors.  I get happy all over again and think about all the jewelry I can make.  I organize first by type of bead, which usually boils down to size. And then I organize by color or metal.  It’s important that you follow your way of thinking when you organize.  If your first thought is color, then organize by color. If your first thought is that’s a glass bead, organize by material used to make the beads.

 I love the above organizer!  I like the sturdy, permanant compartments and that it shuts very securely. I’ve used organizers with adjustable compartments, but most aren’t stable so your beads end up mixing.  Adjustable organizers are better for larger items or maybe threads.

I have tons of seed beads and hated having to store them in original packages, it just made organization difficult so I was happy to find this type of organizer so I can store my seed beads by color and easily find the color I need!

How do you organize your craft supplies?  Come on!  Share!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

I’m hopelessly addicted to needlepunch or punchneedle (I’m not really sure which term to use!). I don’t always have time to make a project from a kit or punch a complex design so I came up with an easy way to get my needlepunch dose without having to concentrate too hard!

I use needlepunch as a background for jewelry pendants!  I use miniature frames and variegated floss; I’ll needlepunch the frame shape (measure the inside area of the frame) as a background.  Once done, I apply fray stop around the edge of the design, apply to the back of the design (remember when doing needlepunch you are working the back of the design). Once the fray stop has dried, I cut out the background. The fray stopping adhesive keeps the raw ends of the floss from unraveling.  I add a cute button, bead, or charm to the background. If needed I mat the design onto light cardboard and insert into the frame. 

The photo above shows an example of a pendant set done with a fish, turtle, and seahorse bead!  Ocean and sea life are my favorite themes for needlepunch and many of my crafting projects.

When I first started crafting after college, I would sit and cut fabric for hours.  My hands would actually go numb.  I never gave it a second thought, but maybe I should have.  We are learning more and more than repetitive movements done until you feel pain is just not a healthy thing to do!  Be comfortable and enjoy your hours of scrapbooking, rubberstamping, card making, and other paper arts.  Here are a few tips to make your adventures fun, safe, and more enjoyable.  Remember, comfort and safety first.

Ergonomics for the crafter means using tools that are comfortable and properly fitted.  It also means using good lighting, proper chair posture, and learning to get up and move every so often.  Here are a few pointers:

• Chair:  Invest in a proper sized chair for your work area(s) if you sit for more than 1/3 of your day.  You should be able to sit back comfortably in the chair with your feet flat to the floor.  Do not cross your legs.
• Take Breaks:  Schedule regular 15-minute breaks for every two hours.  Every 30 minutes stand and stretch.  Take a walk, wash your hands, or splash some water on your face. You’ll be more “mentally” ready and refreshed.
• Work In A Circle & Semi-Circle:  Create a work area that forms a circle.  The more a tool or supply is used the closer it should be to your reach and towards the front of the work circle (the front of the work circle is the area in front of you as you are sitting). 
• No Slouching:  Mom was correct, you should watch your posture to avoid neck and back problems.  Adjust your chair or worktable to help avoid slouching or hunching over your projects.
• Take Notice:  Make notes of repetitive movements.  Try to vary and change the repetitive movements.
• Lighting:  Invest in it.  Natural light is the best, but make sure that there is plenty of non-glare lighting.  Try to use as much full spectrum lighting as you can in your work area.
• Tools:  Try and test tools before buying and look for user-friendly designs like spring-loaded, padded handles, easy grips, and other comforts.  One size rarely fits all!  Get the proper fit!
• Pain Means No Gain:  If it hurts, feels painful, goes numb, or any other discomfort is felt…STOP.  Learn a new way of doing the situation or process.  Your hand wasn’t designed to hold scissors and cut for hours.  Break up your tasks.  Spend 15 minutes cropping, then move on to 15 minutes of designing…
• Be Well Rested:  Don’t work or play when tired or fatigued.  The number one cause of accidents is carelessness and carelessness is often brought on by fatigue.  You can’t really enjoy your creativity if you are fighting to keep your eyes open. 
• A Place For Everything:  Keep everything in its place, and that is not on the floor or any other traffic area.  Organize as best you can and don’t let your work area get too cluttered.  A few minutes cleaning up and putting up can save you hours later!

Above is a mini scrapbook page I created for a pet scrapbook I’m keeping.  I used fabric paper and just did a little primitive stitching around the edges.  I wanted to add stitches for texture and to highlight the quilt in the photo. This page was featured on a segment of Creative Living (PBS) for CreateForLess.

I love sewing.  Machine sewing or hand sewing, there is something very soothing about working with fabric, thread, and a needle.  I gathered up a few random tips I’ve learned from my scrapbook sewing experiences and these tips can also be used for other paper crafts!

• When using a sew machine always use a scrap piece of paper (the same weight as the paper you want to use for your scrapbook page) and run some test stitches to get the feel of how your machine sews the paper.
• Experiment with the stitch width of your machine for different looks.
• Sewing machines do a great job for sewing a border.
• Sew on a pocket for your page.  Randomly sew across, up, down, and diagonal creating a unique background paper.
• Use any decorative stitches your sewing machine might have.
• Always make sure there is no adhesive on the front or back of anything you are sewing through.  Adhesive can jam up your sewing machine.
• When hand sewing you might have an easier time if you paper punch small holes where you plan to hand sew.  It’s much easier than hoping your needle can pierce the paper evenly.
• Threads and fibers can be used to dangle charms, paper roses and small buttons.
• When hand sewing you might want to lightly trace your pattern or design onto the scrapbook page or cardstock (for a card).
• Try using embroidery flosses and threads, tapestry yarn, tatting thread, metallic threads and specialty yarns.  The variety makes for a fun textured page or card.
• To keep fibers from unraveling dab just a touch of clear paper glue to each raw end.  You can also use a fray stopping liquid.
• A dab of clear nail polish will hold any knot and keep it from coming through the paper.  Make sure the knot is to the back of your scrapbook page.
• Try mixing colors and textures of fibers for a page.  Use thick fibers to frame your title, captions or photos.
• Don’t throw out your scraps of threads and fibers.  Keep them in a small box and use them for smaller projects.
• Pulling a thread over beeswax or thread conditioner will keep the threads from tangling and knotting.  Beeswax will stiffen thread, while thread conditioner will soften threads.

If you think you can get overwhelmed organizing your traditional film photos you’ll be doubly overwhelmed with how quickly digital images can add up!  It’s important to keep current and keep your digital images organized. I recently vowed to organize my digital photos and I must say I was tempted to just delete everything a few times.  My husband loves to take 5-6 photos of the same thing just to be safe and my eyes started to cross trying to figure out what to keep and what to delete.

I’m trying to organize my digital photos because I’ve fallen in love with the process of making slide show videos out of them.  So in love I even purchased a new computer for myself and after 20+ years of being quite PC, I bought a Mac!  I’ve not had much time to play around with my Mac other than organize the billion photos my husband has taken over the years, but I’m excited about it.  Another way to be creative.  And don’t think I’m going totally digital, I’ve been stocking up on my decorative papers to make cool CD and DVD envelopes!

Here’s my advice for organizing your digital photos and I’ve thrown in a few of our most recent photos for you to enjoy!

Immediately delete any images you don’t want while taking your photos.  This is the first step in organizing digital images.  If you aren’t happy with a photo, delete it, and re-shoot on the spot.

Don’t leave images in your digital camera.  Download the images into a folder that includes the event and date in the folder name.  This is also a good time to delete any images that you don’t want.

A sunset captured in Palau.

Once images are downloaded into a folder on your computer, make an index file.  Create a word document and use it to describe the event, people in the photos, location, date, and journaling.  This is a must! 

If you have time, rename the images to include name, date, location or other reminder of what the photo is about.  This can be done later, but it is important.  This is also another opportunity to delete any unwanted images or to send images to others via e-mail.  The longer you wait to organize digital images the more likely you are to forget the details like location, date, and even people in the photos.

The new addition to my craft studio my husband is building.

It’s a good idea to back-up your photo inventory on a timely basis so you don’t lose any images if your computer has problems.  It’s a good idea to keep different categories of CD or DVD copies too.  

There are several excellent software programs that help keep your digital photos organized.  Programs like Greenstreet Digital Photo Album Deluxe, OnTheGoSoft Photo Backup and Preclick Photo Organizer.  These programs organize, backup, and even allow for digital albums.

A huge grouper we saw diving!

Use subfolders for key events like birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and other annual events that you know you will take photos.  The main folder should have the event name and all subfolders will have the year.  For example:  Main Folder is Maria’s Birthday; Subfolders are 2003, 2004, 2005, and so on. Vacation folders should include location and year with an index that includes specific dates and people.

Ken's 50th birthday.

If photo editing, make sure you keep the original image intact.  Make a copy of the image you want to photo edit and work with that.  The more you photo edit, the more the image loses some quality so it’s important that key original images be kept as backup.

One of our orchids in bloom.