Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

It’s official, it’s the holiday season! This time of year is the busiest and craziest for most people. Making Christmas presents, baking cookies, shopping and holiday parties. Between all the commotion, take time to enter to win free stuff!

The Olfa Spinning Rotary Mat will make quick work of your entire cutting with one easy movement. Simply cut, rotate and cut again for effortless results. Use for cutting, squares, circles, triangles, diamonds, any shape that would require you to turn your project or body around. The Rotating Mat’s smooth rotating action simplifies your piecework when making multiple cuts, saving time and effort for you. It features a self-healing surface and is a convenient 12″ square size that is perfect for taking to class and fits easily into your tote bag. Retail price at CreateForLess for $30.99.

Every Friday we’re posting a giveaway on Think Crafts. All you have to do to enter is comment on the blog post answering the question of the week. We’ll pick the winners and contact them via email. Deadline is midnight Friday night and the winner will be announced Monday on Think Crafts. One entry per person please.

Question of the Week: If you had the chance to go on any game show, which one would you choose?

If the comment box is not below, scroll to the top and click “comments”.

By General Crafts Contributor Amy, from the Blog “Mod Podge Rocks!”

It was not so very long ago that I created a bird pencil holder – now we’re ready for the tray!

Go ahead and gather these supplies:

Wood desk tray, shape and size of your choice
FolkArt Acrylic Paint, coordinating colors
Mod Podge Gloss, 8 oz.
Scrapbook paper, 1 sheet – I used K&Co Carolyn Gavin’s Greenhouse papers
Embellishments for the ends of the tray – I used K&Co Carolyn Gavin Greenhouse Craft Flowers
EK Paper Shapers® Punch Medium Slim Scallop Circle
All Night Media Pop Dots – ½”
Craft Glue
Flat Paint Brush

Grab your tray and craft paint and begin covering!  I love color blocking, so I painted the inside of the tray light blue, the outside ends soft apple and the outside sides pink.  Paint several coats until everything is covered, and then allow to dry.

Grab your punch and start punching out scalloped circles to go onto the bottom of the tray.  I was doing another project at the same time, so I punched over the frame.  I always punch on the BOTTOM side of the paper – I can’t tell you why, just a funny habit!  I used paper from the same collection as I did my pencil holder, so they were coordinating but not exactly the same.  I think it gives my desk set a special touch.

Now for the fun part – start spreading the Mod Podge over the bottom of the tray.  Spread a medium coat.

Place your scalloped circles into the Mod Podge randomly.  Continue spreading Mod Podge and laying down circles until you’ve covered the bottom of the tray.  Use your brush to spread Mod Podge over the top of the circles and remove excess Mod Podge from the edges.  Allow to dry for 15 – 20 minutes.

After drying, coat the entire tray with at least two coats of Mod Podge.  Allow to dry and then add embellishments (I added paper flowers) to the ends with Pop Dots.  I layered some of the flowers using craft glue.  Now that you are done, put together with the pencil holder you also created for a very special gift desk set.  Happy Holidays!

By Kid’s Craft Contributor, Gillian from the blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”.

One of these years I’ll have a wreath for every window of my house during the Christmas Season. Of course, if I’d made a wreath every year of my adult life, I would have a wreath for every window but none of them would match as I would have made whatever style and color inspired me that year. Such is the way with crafters, you know who you are!

This year I’ve been obsessed with felt. It’s easy, it’s cheap, it’s fun, and there are endless possibilities of what you can make with it. I once made a 6-foot tall knights tent for my sons room out of felt. It was fantastic. So it seemed natural to find a way to make a wreath entirely out of felt this year.

This project is surprisingly fast once the pieces are cut, taking under a half an hour. With breaks to pass out goldfish and wipe up a spilled glass of milk (or three). The cutting takes a little time, but it’s sit in front a good movie and veg kind of time.

First, decide on your circle size, I used the top of a pint glass for a template, which worked well for a 14 inch diameter wreath form. Bigger circles for bigger wreaths, smaller for smaller, you know the drill. Trace the circles onto the felt and get cutting. For this wreath I used three -1/4 yard pieces of felt and a few scraps from some quilting cotton just for kicks. 

Glue a loop of ribbon to a masonite or flat wreath form for hanging. Then once you have your circles cut (using good sewing scissors I was able to cut through four layers at a time and still get nice circles), heat up your glue gun, separate the circles into colors for easy assembly and get ready to glue.

Folding each circle in half, glue with a dot of hot glue along the center of the wreath form. The closer the circles are to each other the denser the wreath will look, and the more circles you will need. So play around a little with this, you can tuck and extra circle in between two if a spot is looking thin.

Work around the form until you have the whole thing covered. You can also do the same to the back-side of the wreath so they will look great from either side of the window. Either way, you have a wreath of felt goodness for the holidays.

What is your favorite kind of Christmas wreath to make?

By Recycled Crafts Contributor, Anitra from the blog “Coffee Pot People”.

When it comes to patterns, brochures, magazines, and booklets, we crafters can be a bit compulsive. I try to sort through and weed out, but even so, I have dozens and dozens of slender “volumes” to keep track of. I’m sure many, if not most, crafters are similarly blessed.

How to keep them all straight and accessible? Stacking those slim items is inefficient and untidy. Since they don’t have readable spines, shelving them with your books doesn’t work either.

A filing cabinet might be the first, most logical, choice, but that’s not always an option. My solution is one I ran across years ago, in The Messies’ Manual. The authors were talking about children’s books, but I quickly saw a personal adaptation.

I use the big tins you can buy cookies in this time of year. They’re available new, full of cookies (my favorite!), or you can find them at yard sales and thrift stores, and they are just exactly the width you need for the average magazine.

Stand them in the tins with the front pages facing the front, and put the tin on your book shelf. Now, when you want to find a particular leaflet or magazine, you can slide the tin out, and riffle through until you spot it.

I’ve got four of those tins so far, and use each for a different crafting category–sewing, beading, crochet, and miscellaneous. Since they are all basically an elongated octogonal shape, the front and back are narrower, which is handy for the smaller booklets, and also makes a good place to stash my crochet hooks.

Oh, and it’s still a really great way to keep children’s books organized, too!

It’s Monday morning, and time to announce the winner of last week’s Free Stuff Friday! Our question last week was: What is your favorite Holiday decoration?

Readers answered our question to enter to win these authentic set of Scrabble Letter Stamps. These stamps contain all 26 letters of the alphabet as well as icons from the board game. Use these letter stamps on any stamping or paper crafts project. Ink these stamps with ink pads or ColorBrush markers. Use these stamps and create shadowing and lines by using the rubber edges. Simply apply ink to the edges and stamp for unique patterns and shapes. Use all four sides to create a box around your letters. Made my EK Success and retail value about $20.

The winning answer was:

Alison – So hard to decide… I really love the angel that sits on top of our tree. She’s timeless and lovely and was a gift from my stepsister when JP and I were first married. Then again, there’s nothing better than the decorations the kids have made and brought home through the years. So many have pictures that illustrate how much they’ve grown and others show how their artistic tastes and talents have changed. I love them all!

You know what time it is! Free Stuff Friday Time!

These authentic set of Scrabble Letter Stamps contains all 26 letters of the alphabet as well as icons from the board game. Use these letter stamps on any stamping or paper crafts project. Ink these stamps with ink pads or ColorBrush markers. Use these stamps and create shadowing and lines by using the rubber edges of the stamps. Simply apply ink to the edges and stamp for unique patterns and shapes. Use all four sides to create a box around your letters. Made by EK Success and the retail value about $20.

Every Friday we’re posting a giveaway on Think Crafts. All you have to do to enter is comment on the blog post answering the question of the week. We’ll pick the winners and contact them via email. Deadline is midnight Friday night and the winner will be announced Monday at Noon. One entry per person please.

Question of the Week: What is your favorite Holiday decoration?

If the comment box is not below, scroll to the top and click “comments”.

Congratulations to Geri S. from Benton City, WA, who was randomly chosen as the winner of our Handmade Holidays Drawing and a $100 CreateForLess Shopping spree!

Geri’s handmade holiday idea was…

Gift card tote ~ Embossed tote with Cuttlebug holly sheet, Inked my stamp and then misted with water before stamping, applied glitter, added photo hangers and ribbon, and Velcro closure.

Some of our favorite handmade holiday ideas…

A warm “holiday hug” tag ornament, made with wool felt, buttons and ribbon, perfect to adorn a special gift, then can be used to decorate the tree!

Handsewn tag measures 1.5″ x 2.75″. Total length including ribbon is approximately 5.5″. Available at www.twokazoos.etsy.com

Submitted By: Stephanie B. from Edmond, OK

This is my version of an Advent Calendar that I made for my friend. I used red and green paper bags, clothespins, foamies for decoration, ribbon on each end of the garland, and a wooden beaded Christmas garland to string them up on the wall. It was so much fun to make and the children LOVED it!

Submitted By: Cyndee G. from Missouri City, TX

Christmas card

Materials: Snowflake stamp set, Snowflake Punch, silver beaded rope and rhinestones.

Submitted By: Geri S. from Benton City, WA