Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

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

I’ve been obsessed with buttons since I was little.  I’m also obsessed with shopping bags, and so I decided to bring the two loves together in this button coat rack.  Are you one of those people that has a healthy bag collection?  Me too – and there’s nowhere for the bags to go except jammed into the bottom of my closet.  I decided to remedy that situation by organizing my bags on a coat rack distressed and accented with buttons.  Here’s how I did it.

Wood coat rack

FolkArt Acrylic Paint

Assorted Buttons

Craft Glue

Flat Paint Brush

Stencil Décor Stencil Tape

Candle or piece of wax

Sandpaper – medium grit, one piece

Basecoat the rack with a color – I used a shade of pink.  This color is only going to show through the overcoat slightly, so don’t worry about doing a bang-up job.  I just painted two coats and I did NOT paint the hangers.  Allow to dry.

Your next step is to rub the candle or piece of wax in certain areas on the rack that you would like distressed.  I just picked random patches on the front of the rack and edges.  Rub a little wax here and here.

Now that your coat rack has been waxed like a pair of skis, paint over it with another paint color.  I chose a shade of white and so had to paint about three coats to fully cover the pink.  This time I painted the hangers.  Once you are satisfied with the coverage, allow to dry.

Take your rack outside and begin sanding with your paper.  Check out the picture – do you see the pink starting to show through?  Those are the areas I waxed!  The paint just sands right off.  Don’t sand too hard or you will sand down to the wood.  Sand very lightly for less distressing and a little more for a more distressed look.  Stop when you are happy with the effect.  Wipe the sanding dust off of your rack.

I love stripes – did I mention that?  I decided while doing this project that stripes would be a nice backdrop for my buttons.  I used stencil tape to make stripes going in different directions.  The thickness of the stencil tape doesn’t matter, you just need to space the pieces so that you have the thickness of stripes that you want.  I wanted mine to be relatively thin, as you can see.  Paint the stripes (I did three coats with a blue) and then remove the tape immediately.  Allow to dry.

To jazz my rack up even further, I used more stencil tape and a lighter blue to make stripes going in other directions.  Same applies as before – paint about three coats, and then remove the tape immediately.  Allow to dry.

Finally, I added the buttons with craft glue.  Before I glued anything down, I laid all of the buttons out to make sure that I was happy with the way they looked and the colors.  I highly recommend ALWAYS doing this before you glue anything down.

Now my bags have a place to go and I have a crazy button rack like I’ve always wanted.  The world is good.

Our question for Free Stuff Friday was “What is your favorite DIY show? ”

The winning answer came from:

Debbie - My favorite show for years was Carol Duvall on HGTV. Since that is no longer on, I would have to say Sweat Equity!

Debbie won the Martha Stewart Screw Punch. Makes small holes anywhere on the surface of your project with this screw punch with oversized, soft-grip handle and 3 sizes of tips, 1/16″, 1/8″, and 3 1/6″, which can be stored in the punch’s handle. Use on paper, cardboard, felt, thin metals, leather, foam, and fabric.

Click here to check out the newest products from Martha Stewart Crafts!

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

Are we in full scurry mode yet? I know I am, gatherings to attend, and Arts & Crafts shows to prepare for. Honestly, there are times when I have so much to do, I just come to a full stop, not knowing what task to do next.

Efficiency becomes more important at this time of year than at any other, and I look for shortcuts.

I’d like to share a speed wire wrap hint: Do as much as you can assembly line style.

For instance, a simple wrapped loop has a number of steps. Fully described, they are:

1. Pick up spool of wire and wire cutters.
2. Measure out the length you need, and cut.
3. Put down the wire cutters, pick up the round nose pliers, and make a wrapped loop.
4. Put down the round nose pliers, pick up the wire cutters, and cut off the excess.
5. Put down the wire cutters, pick up the flat nose pliers, and squish the end of the wrap flat.
6. String on a bead.

That’s six steps, with six tool changes, per bead. Multiply that by the number of beads you need, say seven, and that’s 42 steps, with 42 tool changes.

Now, instead of that, try this:

1. Pick up spool of wire and wire cutters.

2. Measure out the length you need, and cut as many pieces of wire as you’ll need. (Say, seven.)

3. Put down the wire cutters, pick up the round nose pliers, and make all the wrapped loops.

4. Put down the round nose pliers, pick up the wire cutters, and cut off the excess on each of the seven pieces.

5. Put down the wire cutters, pick up the flat nose pliers, and squish all the ends flat.

6. String a bead on each of the wrapped loop eye pins you’ve created.

That’s still six steps, and six tool changes, but you’ve done all the beads.  You just saved yourself 36, count ‘em, thirty-six, tool changes. That’s a time saver, even if you’re making just one thing. If you’ve got multiple items to make, it really does add up.  It also has the advantage of being something you can do ahead of time, even when you don’t have the time or inclination to attempt an entire jewelry piece.

You can continue similarly with the rest of the piece you’re creating. 

If you’re making a bracelet, or other item that ends with a clasp, you’ll need to leave both loops unfinished on the end bead, one to attach to the chain of beads you’ve created, and the other to accept the clasp.

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

You want to play with liquid plastic, you know you do!

By now I’m sure all you crafties out there already have your Christmas decorations put away, your winter-but-not-Christmas decorations still up and decorations leftover from your New Year’s Eve Dinner Party. 

That seven day gap between Christmas and New Years doesn’t leave much time for crafts, much less whole house decorations. But here’s a quick little craft that was just perfect for my New Year’s Eve dinner party.  

Here’s what you need:
 
Pinecones (one for each dinner guest or as many as you want!)
Plasti-dip black
Florist’s wire
Newspaper
Rubber gloves

 
A few notes: Plasti-dip is intended to use to recoat the handles of tools. It can be sprayed on, dipped on or painted on. While the spray is probably the easiest option, it’s also going to be pretty messy and probably not the best choice if you are working with kids. Painting on is better but I found that dipping was their favorite (and mine too!)  If you want to dip you’ll need to either find pinecones small enough to fit in the can or find a wider mouthed jar to transfer the dip to. And while all the types of pinecones that we tried looked great, those that were more open were definitely the best.

First find a place where the pinecones can hang to dry. A hanger hooked to a shelf or a lamp works well but look around the house and see what you can find. The paper towel holder in my kitchen worked perfectly for us. Cover the surface underneath your hanging spot with plenty of newspaper and cut a piece of wire for each pinecone that is long enough to wrap around the wider end of the pine cone and still have enough length so that it will hang a few inches above the newspaper.

Wrap the wire underneath the tines of the cone so that you can only see the piece that you’ll hang it from. Gently shake or stir the plasti-dip and remove the lid.  With their gloves on, let your kids lower the pinecone slowly into the plasti-dip. Once it is completely submerged, carefully lift it out, shaking a little to remove the excess plastic. Hold over the jar for a minute to catch the biggest drips and then let it hang to dry. If you want to add glitter, sprinkle a small amount about 10 minutes into drying time. The pinecones will be dry in about four hours.

The possibilities with this are almost endless. We plan on using them as place card holders but you could also pile them into a bowl, hang them garland style along your mantle or stairs or even add a little new years glitz to your tree. Plasti-dip also comes in other colors, including a custom color-making version, bringing other projects to mind. Think of blown eggshells for Easter or origami frogs for a child’s birthday party.
 
Be sure to clean the rim of the jar completely before replacing the lid and any leftover should be stored as you would any chemical.

Enter to win the Screw Punch from Martha Stewart Crafts! Whether you’re trimming, cutting, measuring, punching, and more you can depend on the Martha Stewart line of crafting tools to help you out.

Don’t be limited by the depth of the throat of your plier or lever hole punch. Punch small holes anywhere on the surface of your project with this screw punch with oversized, soft-grip handle and 3 sizes of tips, 1/16″, 1/8″, and 3 1/6″, which can be stored in the punch’s handle. Use on paper, cardboard, felt, thin metals, leather, foam, and fabric.

Click here to check out the newest products from Martha Stewart Crafts!

What’s your New Year’s Craft Resolution this year?  Is it to organize your quilting room, learn a new craft or finally catch up on your scrapbooking?  We’d love to hear your craft resolutions for 2010.  Simply tell us your resolution and you could win a $100 CreateForLess shopping spree! 

Click here to Enter!

Limited to one entry per person.  Drawing deadline is February 1, 2010.  The winner will receive a $100 CreateForLess e-gift certificate, be randomly chosen and contacted individually via email and posted on our web site.

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

I really love writing thank you cards, and after the holidays I have several to write.  In the age of computers, handcrafting a thank you card seems like a lost art – I encourage you to bring it back by making your own!   

Paper Accents Card & Envelopes 4″ x 4″ White 5 pc

Assorted buttons

Assorted paper flowers

Beacon craft glue

Offray floral ribbon (or ribbon of your choice) – 4 inches

Colored Marker 

Start with your white card and envelope – begin choosing buttons of different shapes and sizes that “tickle your fancy.”  I decided florals are nice for thank yous, so I chose buttons to go with that theme. 

Here you see me organizing my buttons – it took me about five minutes to get the look I wanted, once I had chosen the colors I liked! 

Glue all of the buttons down with craft glue.  Just slide the other buttons to the side a little.  Allow the glue to dry for 24 hours before sending.  If you want to, write “Thank You” on the front with a marker like I did. 

For the ribbon card, trim the ribbon to fit across the front of the card.  Glue down and allow to dry for a few minutes. 

Glue some paper flowers down, and then some buttons into the middle.  Again, allow to dry for 24 hours before sending.  On this card I’m going to leave the front blank but write a sweet message inside. 

These only took me a few minutes, and I actually ended up using my entire pack of cards – I had five thank you cards in less than an hour.  Easy, fun and inexpensive.