Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

I once searched for tiny wood pencils for three years!  I wanted really small pencils for some of my paper crafting projects, but trying to find a place to buy the tiny pencils seemed almost impossible.  Every few months I’d sit down at the computer and went search engine crazy. I wasn’t sure these pencils existed or I wasn’t using the right keywords!

Finally one day American Pencil popped up during a search and I found my tiny, tiny pencils!  I was in heaven, of course I had to buy a box (1,000 little pencils!) and I wasn’t happy just picking one color, I wanted green, red, and yellow!  I still have about half of those pencils left in my stash and to this day I just love them.

Recently I wanted to find small dive flag beads.  One of the divers we dive with, had the coolest anklet made up of ceramic beads… a seahorse, turtle, dolphin, and clown fish.  Those beads I’d seen before and even had in my bead collection, but I’d never seen the ceramic dive flag bead.  I wanted those beads!

I searched and searched.  Asking every bead shop owner I’d visit and lots of Google searches. Nothing.  Finally, I found an artist on Etsy.com who was making earrings using those same dive flag beads.  She was kind enough to sell me just the beads.  I felt some joy!  I’m going to design something special for a group I admire, EagleDivers.org. This is an organization that helps wounded soldiers heal using scuba diving as physical therapy.  As a scuba diver who has fibromyalgia, I know how healing this sport is and can’t wait to get started on a design using my new found dive flag beads!

Some of the Eagle Divers gang!

If you have problems finding art or craft supplies please feel free to drop me a line using our Ask A Question form found at the top of the page.  I don’t always have an answer, but I’ll try my best!

When I need some inspiration I usually go surfing on the web.  It’s always so amazing to find other creative people and see what they are up to and how they are being creative.

I wanted to share some of the fun I found today!

Craft Mafia!

This was a fun blog!  See if there is a craft mafia near you!

Go Green with Crafting A Green World

This is one of my favorite green crafting inspirations.  I love the variety and you’ve got to read the information on craftivism, I love this word!

Get Crafty

I learned another cool word on this blog, craftistas.  Love it.  And I couldn’t resist the Naked Lady Party… can you?

And Last But Not Least!

It’s Glue With UHU

This is a manufacturer’s blog and it’s full of ideas, projects, and inspiration.  I had a blast looking at all the “gluers” projects posted.

What are some of your favorite blog sites?

One of my 2009 resolutions (or goals as I like to call ‘em!) was to finish at least one craft project BEFORE I started a new one.  I know I can’t be alone in the fact that I’ve always got at least a half a dozen projects going on at a time.

I’m not sure why I end up with a few unfinished projects.  Maybe I get bored or sidetracked or couldn’t find the unfinished bracelet under all the books I have piled on my worktable.  No matter the reason, I wanted to get some of my projects done!  To motivate myself I decided that I’d use my finished projects as Easter basket goodies this year.  If I didn’t get the projects done I would make the poor ole Easter bunny look like the Grinch!  It may not seem like motivation, but you haven’t met the family and friends who show up every year to hunt baskets.  They are serious goodie basket reviewers and I have to stay on my toes!

Well, I’m ready to share some of the projects I got done.  Scratch a few items off my To Do list!

These two bracelets were made using a metal cuff finding. I used thin wire to wrap, thread beads, then wrap until the entire cuff frame was done. On the second one I added some fish beads I had.

I made matching earrings for the cuff bracelets. I'm into dangles right now and love adding the effect to earrings.

I finally used these pieces I'd fused months ago!

If you’ve been following my blog you know I’ve become rather obsessed with making sea glass.  I’m at the point where I’m thinking this process is pure torture!  I took my cut glass pieces and put them into a small bowl of etching solution.  The bottle said leave for a few minutes.  Well, a few minutes later… nothing had happened.  Now, I have to confess that the bottle of etching solution I was using was maybe, well, kind of old.  I’d had it for years and figured it was worth a shot.  I left a few glass pieces in the bowl overnight and by morning a little etching had taken place, but I knew I could do better!

I went and bought a new bottle of etching product, this time a creamy paste rather than liquid.  The instructions said brush on the cream and remove after 1 minute.  You guessed it, nothing!  So I left it on 5 minutes!  Nothing!  I must be jinxed!  Using an etching solution was just not working for me!

I just was not getting the results I wanted during my first attempts at making sea glass.

So I turned to my handy dandy tumbler.  Reading the instructions I discovered it would be SIX weeks before I’d have sea glass, oh my gosh… I would go crazy if I had to wait six whole weeks.  But I loaded a few pieces of glass into the tumbler just in case.  Mother Nature takes years to create sea glass, but I’m not a very patient kind of person!

I was feeling the creative challenge!  I had a studio full of grinders and drills and sanders.  I was going to make sea glass if it was the last craft project I ever undertook!

It worked.  I could use my glass grinders to smooth the edges of the glass and lightly etch the both sides of pendant and earring pieces.  I also grinded down most of my finger nails, but it was worth it.  I had made faux sea glass I was proud of.  I’d like to share one thing I learned.  Using milky almost pastel colors of glass re-created the colors I’d found in the islands.

It was time to make some pendants.  I figured wire wrapping would be a breeze, NOT!  I now have a deep appreciation for artists and crafters who have honed this delicate skill.  However, I wasn’t going to quit just yet.

I’ve at least completed a few pendants.  I’m still not totally happy with my final results, but my tumbler is tumbling and I’ve only got four more weeks to go!

I check my tumbler every few days. I've still got a few weeks to go according to the instructions. I'll keep you posted!

Eclectic Products hosted Mark Montano, author of The Big-Ass Book of Crafts for a book signing at the Craft And Hobby Association’s 2009 Winter Show in Anaheim, CA.  I’ve been a huge fan of Mark’s for many years because of his work on a TV show on TLC called, While You Were Out.  It’s one of those rare TV programs that my husband and I can sit down to watch and feel like we are spending some fun time together.  I’d also love to go on Mark’s show, 10 Years Younger although I’m not sure I could handle it!

I told everyone in the booth I was going to give my signed book to one lucky ThinkCrafts! reader and most seemed surprised.  Mark got it.  I felt like I was spreading some of the joy by getting a great book to give someone who spends some time on my blog.  If you’d like a chance to win a signed copy of Mark’s book just send me an e-mail at maria@thinkcrafts.com with Mark Montano Rocks in the subject line.  At the end of February, I’ll randomly pick an e-mail and send the winner the book along with a photo of Mark signing it!

Mark loves Eclectic Products like E-6000 and Goop.  You can find these wonderful adhesives on CreateForLess.com!

Ah, the heart.  It’s the king and queen of love.  Some of us let our hearts sing.  Some of us wear our hearts on our sleeve.  Some of us give our hearts away.  The heart is one of the most recognizable motifs in design.

We put hearts on cups, charms, walls, baskets, stationary, hair bobbles, shoes, sweaters, stamps, vases, candleholders, soap, candles, watches, clocks, lamps, floors, rugs, diaries, journals… well you get my drift.  One heart, two hearts, or rows and rows of hearts, it really doesn’t matter.  A clear message is sent.  Love.  Warmth.  Happiness.  Joy.  Tears.  Sadness.  Well, wait, maybe the message isn’t so clear!

I love the heart with wings.  This use of a heart seems to bring it all together.  Faith.  Love.  Hope.  There isn’t a place the heart doesn’t touch.  Even the web savvy were quick to put the 3 and the less than symbol together to make a heart (<3) making the phrase I Heart You ( I <3 U) a classic!

Right under my computer is a little frame and paperweight.  Both say the same thing, Always Follow Your Heart.  The heart holds our passion, our dreams, our spirit.  It’s also delicate and precious.  Keep your heart healthy so you have years and years and years to wear your heart on your sleeve while singing your heart out!