Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

Congratulations to Gail W from Parrish, FL who was randomly chosen as the winner of our National Craft Month Drawing! She will receive a $100 CreateForLess shopping spree.

Her helpful craft tip was… 

“I’m awash in craft magazines and ideas I’ve made copies of from the internet. Once a year I go through all my magazines tearing out the ideas I think I’ll do and sort copies. Then I organize them by craft, i.e scrapbooking, knitting, etc. putting a colored paper divider between them. Then I sort by topic, i.e. pets, birthdays, shawls, etc. and put dividers between those. Finally I take the stack to my local Staples store and have them comb bind it. I can tear out the pages to go to a scrap or knitting group. I feel accomplished as the book of ideas gets thinner”. 

Here’s some more of our favorite craft tips submitted by customers. Thanks to everyone who entered!

“When I am using my Cricut, in order to save wear and tear on my mats and to make the most of every sheet of paper, use this tip…make extras of the letters or shapes that you use the most. Then, later when I am scrappin’, I can pull out the extras and complete most pages. Saves time and there’s no waste!”
Jo M.
Barberton, OH

“Working with the new slice machine I like using spray adhesive. No drying time. Tim Holtz distress inks, I use the white paper that comes with the page protectors and make my own pages by, wrinkling the paper and rubbing the ink pad over the paper, spritz it with a little water, and then I iron the page. Turns out really cool, try using different inks on one page”.
Robin M.
Prescott Valley, AZ

“Favorite Craft Tip: Taking time to organize…I know some might dread the horror of organizing that craft room but once it is done everything is easily accessible and can make your craft projects go a whole lot quicker! Favorite Organization idea…taking old cereal boxes and turning them into magazine file organizers. Cut and Cover with fabric or fun paper”.
Debbie A.
Starkville, MS

“Scrapbooking – When you are doing a mosaic, run your picture through a Xyron Sticker Maker first. Then cut the picture into 1 inch strips with a paper cutter instead of a blade, and then cut your picture into 1 inch squares. Peel the paper off the back and stick on your sheet. This makes making a mosaic easy. Happy Scrapbooking!”
Susan W.
Stockbridge, GA

“Any quilting tip is always welcome. But my favorite is, when cutting for a large quilt stack as many pieces of material as you can on top of each other and using the 65mm rotary cutter, you will be able to cut a lot of pieces all at one time. This saves a lot of time, as well as your arm and the cutter blade”.
Lynette B.
Butler, PA

“I use floss threaders to thread yarn through needles and beads. Makes the job much easier than anything else I’ve tried and they are quite inexpensive and flexible”.
Marilyn G.
Hixson, TN

“When using embossing powders, before stamping your image to emboss, wipe your paper with a used dryer sheet to keep the static off of your paper, thus being able to keep the embossing powder on your stamped image instead of all over the page, when you shake the extra embossing powder off”.
Heather S.
Atwater, OH

“When I get ready to start a new project I often make a (very) rough sketch to get an idea of the materials that I will need and use it to make a list of everything I am going to need. Then I go “shopping” in my stash of materials–fabric, glue, paint–whatever I need for that project. I put everything into a clear plastic shoe box, or if the project is big I use a sweater box. I add the items I purchased at the store and keep everything together until the project is completely done. Then I take a picture and add it to my sketch for a permanent record of my creativity.”
Nancy S.
Phoenix, AZ

Related posts:

• National Craft Month, Craft Tip Drawing