Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

Welcome Gust Blogger, Barbara Matthessen, for Earth Safe Finishes.

Belt Bracelets

Recycle thrift store or old belts into fun and funky bracelets.  You can make 3, 4 or even 5 bracelets from a single belt and give them all different personalities with earth friendly paints, chains and beads.  Why not make a batch of these for gifts or to coordinate with every outfit you own?

Materials:

Leather or leather like belt

Opaque Shimmers from Earth Safe Finishes in your choice of colors 

Toggle or hook clasp

1″ chain or 22 GA wire to match clasp

Jump Rings

Strong scissors or leather shears

Leather/belt hole punch

Paint brushes, liner for details

Jewelry making tools, pliers and wire cutters

Optional extras:

Additional chain

Beads

Metal tags

Kevlar thread or wire to attach the above

Instructions:

1. Cut your belt 1″-1 ½” shorter than your normal bracelet size depending on how loose or tight you like to wear them.  (Don’t worry about the existing belt holes you can either ignore them or bead through them later.)  Trim corners round, on a diagonal or leave straight.

2. Punch holes on both ends about 1/8″ inch.

3. Paint your belt using Shimmers with your choice of colors.  Some are a random splash of colors, some use the existing embossed pattern and some are freeform patterns. You may also choose to use a stencil or rubber stamp to create your image.  Allow the paint to dry.

4. Attach your closure with jump rings or a combination of chain, jump rings or wire. If you are using a toggle make sure to add in a small chain on the bar end to make it easier to attach the bracelet.

5. Embellish more if you like! Stitch on beads, charms, buttons or trinkets using Kevlar thread.  Knot on the back then dot each knot with a dab of glue when you are done.

More Fun: Wire on tags by using a flat bead with a head pin run through it on the underside.  Wrap the ends of the head pins around holes in the tag, secure with more wraps then trim the ends. Add sections of chain by attaching chain ends to jump rings on each end. There are a million and one ways to make this bracelet so try it out today!

Learn more about Earth Safe Finishes HERE.

I got hooked on glass fusing years ago.  I immediately purchased a small Quick Fire kiln after my first fusing class.  This type of kiln quickly heats to fusing temperature in about 5 minutes, you have to be careful with the annealing and cool down, but it’s worth it to be able to create so quickly.

I use mainly glass designed for glass fusing and slumping.  One of my favorites is Wasser Glass.  It’s thin and I really like the variety of colors available.  Here’s a project I created for Jewelry Creations 2, a magazine I was the editor for in 2008.

Quick Fire Fusing

This beginner fusing project uses a Quick Firing kiln for speedy glass fusing.  The abstract design makes each piece one of a kind.

Materials:

Diamond International Wasser Glass: yellow, brown, light brown, tiger’s eye, gold, butterscotch, weathered, red flash, surprise, and heavy gold

Glasscutter

Nippers

Safety glasses for glasswork

Quick Fire kiln

Kiln shelf primed with release

Timer

Rubbing alcohol

Lint free paper towels

Pin back, earring posts, pendant bails

Optional:  Thinned white glue or fusing glue

Firing Temperatures:

Wasser glass has a COE 90
(~±5°F and are dependent upon glass color and thickness)
Softening Point :1240°F (677°C)
Tack Fuse :1285°F (696°C) Orton std. lg. cone 18 (r/r 108°F)
Full Fuse :1340°F (727°C) Orton std. lg. cone 17 (r/r 108°F)
Annealing Temperature : 940°F (482°C)
Shrinkage Initiation Point :1360°F (738°C)
Balling Formation Starts : 1450°F (788°C)
Glass Lost / Shelf Intrusion : 1550°F (843°C)

1. If you do not have a kiln, check out your local stained glass or glass working studios as they often have fusing classes or offer kiln time. If you do not have a Quick Firing kiln, use the firing temperatures above. When cutting glass use caution and care. You are working with hot glass so be careful and consider all surfaces hot. 

2. Cut glass into thin strips in various widths and lengths.  Most strips are no more than 1/4 wide and 3″ long. As you design you might want to nip strips shorter. Remember that edges of cut glass can be very sharp.  Handle glass carefully.

3. Work on a clean surface and once glass is cut, clean all glass pieces with rubbing alcohol.  It’s important that the glass be oil and lint free when fired (heated).  Once happy with design, place glass onto kiln shelf that has been prepared with release (following manufacturer’s instructions for applying release).  It’s also important that glass be completely dry before setting on the kiln shelf or fusing (firing). 

4. As you design your pieces make sure you include some small sets that can be turned into earrings.  You may want to leave some openings to turn the piece into a pendant or leave a place where a pendant bail can be glued.  As I made my pieces, I was thinking pins so I made sure there was a space that a pin back could be adhered. I do not use any type of adhesive as I design abstract pieces.  If a piece of glass moves as fired I consider it part of the abstract look, however, you can apply a watered down white glue or fusing glue to the back of glass to avoid glass moving.  Remember that glue must dry completely before you fire your piece(s).  Any moisture when firing may cause the glass to crack.

5. Place shelf into kiln, close kiln, and turn on. The Quick Firing kiln will get to full fusing temperature (Wasser 1340 degrees F) within five minutes so it’s important that you never leave a kiln unsupervised.  As the temperature rises to full fuse, put on your safety glasses and check glass. Never look into a kiln or torch without safety glasses designed for hot glasswork. If fused (fully melted together), turn off kiln and keep open until temperature is around 1200 degrees F.  You may have to vent several times to keep temperature below full fuse.  Allow kiln to cool completely.  Allow glass to cool completely. Your glass should be annealed (kept at a temperature for 20+ minutes so the glass is at its strongest, least likely to break or crack) if you didn’t open the kiln after you brought the temperature down to 1200 degrees F. If working in a studio, staff will most likely compute a sequence for the kiln.

6. Once completely cooled clean pieces with rubbing alcohol. Add pin back, earring posts, or pendant bails as you prefer.  Fusing is a great way to use small pieces of glass and a wonderful way to design pins, pendants, and other jewelry components for unique and personalized jewelry. Find a stain glass or glass studio in your local area for fusing classes.

More about fusing & Wasser Glass click HERE.

Welcome Guest Blogger, Chris Steele.

I love googly eyes.  They’re just plain fun.  They can turn anything into a crafty project.  Literally.  Anything.  Anyone can use them, and everyone enjoys them.  Kids LOVE them, in fact.  They’re great for spontaneous giggles.  I’ve included a few pictures of our recent googly-eye forays-hopefully you can use the ideas yourself.

First, the magnetic sketch board (Doodle Pro?).  My 2 ½-year-old daughter, Emily, looooves the episode of “Blues Clues” where the kids put googly eyes on things around the house…but that is not exactly practical.  At least not at my house.  Plus, I’m not sure that I want Emily to get used to sticking things all over everything.  It’s something I could regret later.  So we compromised.  We put some on the Doodler (as it will be named from here on out), and she had the best time drawing all around them.  There was a turtle.  Then a dog.  Then Daddy.  Please don’t tell her that they all looked the same to me.  But the best part – only one set of googly eyes, dozens of different pictures, hours of fun.

The doodler with googly eyes

Next came the plastic-ware characters.  These were SUPER easy, and lots of fun.  They also lasted a really, really long time, which surprised me.  If you’re like me, you have all sorts of random plastic-ware around the house, just begging to be turned into crafts.  I used sharpies to draw faces (those did need touch-ups every so often), then we played around with chenille stems to dress the characters up a bit.  Emily’s favorite was the dog (come on…it looks like a dog if you squint a little).  I’m certain you could also use something actually crafty, like Popsicle sticks, too.

Plastic-ware Characters

Emily showing off her creation

Then came what I consider to be my crowning glory.  Those who know me understand that I am NOT a girly girl.  Those same people laughed hysterically when I found out that I was going to have a second daughter.  Needless to say, I’ve done my best to turn Emily into a tomboy, and she is basically as far from that as you can get.  She is a princess through and through.  Part of being a princess is having weekly (or daily, if she had her way) pedicures.  I’m always looking for ways to spice them up-new colors, painting little flowers or hearts or polka dots.  But as I said, I’m not very girly.  These things tend to elude me.  BUT, in the midst of my googly frenzy, I decided that they would be the perfect accent to newly-polished toes.  They were a big hit.

Emily's new pedicure

So, go crazy with the googly eyes.  And share your good ideas with me, too.  In the future I’m thinking that I might stick some on a balloon.  Or on a lunch sack to make a puppet.

Welcome Guest Blogger and Designer, Phyllis Dobbs.

Phyllis Dobbs began her creative career 20 years ago designing in the needlework and crafts industry. Phyllis’ designs reflect a sense of whimsy and she is driven by her passion for color. Phyllis has created over 1500 designs that have been published in books for cross-stitch and quilt designs.

Phyllis' new fabric collection - It's a Dog's Life

For the past two or three years, a big trend has been “retro” with various decades being a hot trend influence.  When I see remembrances of these decades in fashion or home décor, I also recall the crafts that I was doing when I was wearing the original versions of these fashions. (Yes, even bell-bottoms!)

I started crafting at an early age and learned cross stitch, sewing and quilting from my mother and aunt.  Although needlework has remained my “craft specialty” and the medium that I have devoted most of my designing career to, I have tried and loved them all. 

Because of my great love of crafts, I started designing.  My career started in the 80′s during the height of another craft dynasty – counted cross stitch.  At that time, there was a cross stitch shop on nearly every corner.  I jumped in with both feet and self published cross stitch books and leaflets.  I was successful and enjoyed my new career. 

When cross stitch began losing its popularity, I also began designing quilt patterns and started a freelance design career. Giving up self-publishing, I designed for other publishers for magazines and books.  I continued trying new craft mediums and created designs using these mediums.  I designed with beads, creating jewelry, tassels and adding them to cross stitch and quilting. I loved ribbon embroidery and authored several ribbon embroidery books.  In hard crafts, I loved to design mosaics. 

For the past 8 years, I have been painting.  I have translated my painting into product design through art licensing.  With my love of quilting and fabrics, I have been thrilled to have my art licensed for fabrics with Quilting Treasures.  My newest fabric collection, It’s a Dog’s Life is debuting next week at the International Quilt Market.  Throughout all my years of crafting, my style has evolved into whimsy combined with brilliant color.  My career as a designer started with seeds – all those seeds of being taught by my mother and aunt, and then from all those various crafts I loved over the years.  If you love something, it can take you on a path you never anticipated. 

It's a Dog's Life Fabric Collection

Happy crafting,

Phyllis Dobbs

Click here to read more of Phyllis’ posts.

Returning Guest Blogger, Gillian from the blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”.

Spring is in the air, the flowers are blooming around town and I’m in the mood for some embroidery!

I’m not, as a rule, an embroiderer. I lack the patience that it takes to finish a project of any size and have a pile of half done cross stitch/embroidery projects in my sewing box to prove it. But when I received the book Sublime Stitching as a gift a few years ago, it opened my eyes to a  new world of embroidery. The book, and its successor The Sublime Stitching Craft Pad, is packed with cute, slightly funky patterns for projects that you can use to embellish just about anything. And for me, there’s nothing like stitching a little something special to a store bought outfit to add some “awwww…” to my kids’ wardrobes. So far we’ve done cowboy patches on worn through knees, Scottie dogs on a bland dress or two, Siamese kitties to turn a little boy coat into a little girl one and a rocket ship tie that was the hit of the school concert. The tie was, in fact, such a bit hit that I’ve been commissioned (and paid in kisses) to make another, this one with dinosaurs.

Kid’s ties are hard to find and when you do, they are usually plastered with cartoon characters in garish colors. But ties are also remarkably easy to make. No, really they are! I used to make them for Christmas gifts for my teachers when I was in elementary school. I wonder if Mr. Koep still has the jungle with glow in the dark eyes tie I made him all those years ago… Kid’s ties, are even easier, since they require less fabric and don’t need to be perfectly smooth and tailored.

For a pattern, I used one of my husband ties that I had put on my son, adjusting it so that the narrow end was the right length and the wider end was too long. With a pin I marked the spot on the front of the tie where I wanted the length. After I’d removed the tie and ironed it I set it out on the fabric I planned to use and cut a rough pattern using the length and width as a guide. Keeping in mind my seam allowances I embroidered the dinosaur of choice. The rocket ship tie was fully line which made it a little thick so this time I only lined the ends before stitching the seams closed and giving it a whirl. The result was a perfectly proportioned tie that my son is excited to wear anywhere he gets a chance, which, given the fact that he would stay in his pajamas all day if allowed, is saying something.

Have you embellished a store bought piece of clothing with embroidery? What projects do you go stitch crazy for?

To read more of Gillian’s posts, click here.

Welcome Guest Blogger Jennifer Pebbles from the blog “Making Memories”.

Since its 1997 inception, Making Memories has become one of the nation’s fastest growing manufacturers of craft and scrapbooking supplies. Jennifer Pebbles is a paper crafts deisgner, to read more of her blog entries click here.

Flower Patch Bouquet

If you check out your favorite scrapbook magazines, you will see this project featured in Making Memories print advertisements. This beautiful Making Memories Flower Patch bouquet was created by the talented Jennifer Pebbles.
 
To create this paper craft, follow these steps.

1. Cover a Styrofoam cone with Making Memories’ Flower Patch paper (Jennifer used the die-cut scallop paper).

 2. Attach a ribbon loop, using your favorite Making Memories ribbon, to the back of the cone.

 3. Cut various sizes of craft wire (approximately 6″ to 8″).

 4. Adhere a Flower Patch Layered Flowers and/or Flower Patch Dimensional Flowers to one side of the craft wire. Jennifer added two flower stickers on each piece of wire (front and back).

 5. Stick craft wire (with Flower Patch flowers) in Styrofoam cone.

TIP: You may want to use an additional adhesive (besides the self-adhesive that comes with each flower sticker) when adhering flowers to ribbon to ensure the flowers are secure.

To read more from the blog “Making Memories”, click here.

Welcome Guest Blogger, Diane Gilleland, from the Blog and Podcast “CraftyPod”.

CraftyPod is made by me, Sister Diane – aka Diane Gilleland. I’ve made things my whole life, and would gladly give up most household chores for an afternoon of serious crafting. When I’m not crafting, I producepodcasts, and make zines, and write and blog about crafts. I live in Portland, Oregon – the coolest city ever. I also run DIY Alert, a website for Portland crafters. If you’re a local, you should check it out.

How to Make a Cool Button Pendant

How to Make a Cool Button Pendant at ThinkCrafts.com

Here’s what we made at Church of Craft yesterday: Button Pendants. They use good old plastic canvas as their base, which means they can easily be converted to pins. Speaking of which, Susan has two great button projects in Bead Simple that use those plastic canvas rounds. (That’s Page 147 and 213, for you book owners.)

So, you begin with some small pieces of plastic canvas. The 10-count variety is best – the more-commonly available stuff with the larger holes. Start with a piece that’s roughly the size you want your finished pendant to be, plus a little larger. This is a very flexible project, so you can always cut away excess canvas, or even add more later.

Next, gather some cool buttons. You’ll want a mix of sew-through and shank buttons. And you’ll also need some coated copper craft wire in either 24-gauge or 28-gauge. I like 24 myself, but if that seems to stiff to handle, try some 28. You can use any color of wire, by the way.

Okay, now we’re going to wire these buttons to the plastic canvas. Begin with one of your sew-through buttons. Position it on the canvas and move it slightly until you’ve lined up the holes in the button with the holes in the canvas.

Take about an arm’s-length piece of wire. Thread one end through the first set of holes, passing through the button and the canvas. Pull the wire through until there’s about a 6″ tail of wire sticking out from the back of the canvas.

Poke the leading end of the wire back down through the other set of holes – again, passing through both the button and the canvas. Carefully pull the wire through until you have just a little stitch or wire on top of the button. (If your button is a four-hole button, then take another stitch with the wire through those holes, too.)

Now, here’s something to watch out for as you pull your wire through the canvas: it will want to twist up. Take lots of care to avoid these twists! If you pull twisted wire too much, it will kink, and kinked wire can easily break. So, any time your wire begins twisting, stop a moment and un-twist it before you continue pulling.

Let’s add a shank button to our pendant now. Shanks are great, because they can overlap the sew-through buttons and give your pendant some nice dimension.

Place your shank button where you like it on the pendant, and then look at it from the side, like this. Make sure the hole in the shank is in a location you can easily reach. (If it’s not, just spin the button around.) And then, guide the leading end of the wire up through the canvas so that it’s close to where this hole is.

Now that you have the wire positioned, you can thread the button onto it. Scoot it down the wire until it’s back in place on the pendant.

. . . And then pass the wire back down through the canvas, and pull it tight. Apologies for the focus here.

This is a good time to mention: for sew-through buttons, I’ve found that one set of wire stitching is plenty to hold it to the canvas. For shank buttons, I like to stitch them twice, so they don’t flop around.

If you’re using vintage buttons that have wire shanks, these will always have a tendency to flop. You may have to anchor them with a little glue later on.

Keep wiring buttons to your pendant. You can really get creative, stacking buttons on top of each other, and you can of course add beads and other embellishments.

You can even wire a button to the outside edge of your canvas, as seen here. Or, if you decide to make your pendant larger, you can cut a second piece of canvas and wire it to the back of the first one.

When you’re done wiring on buttons, flip your pendant over. You’ll have all these stitches on the back. Finish off the two loose ends of your wire by weaving them under a few of these stitches.

Cut the end very short, like 1/4″ or less, and then use some needle-nose pliers to bend that end down into the canvas, so it won’t stick you when you wear your pendant. Finish off both loose ends this way.

By the way, sometimes you’ll end up with excess canvas sticking out from under the buttons. No worries – you can simply cut this away with scissors. . . . And your wire-cutters can help you reach into tighter spots.

See? Custom-shaped backing. You can also cover this back with felt, if you’re so inclined.

To read more of “CraftyPod”, visit her Blog.