Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

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

It’s not exactly a secret: I hate to throw anything away. I do recycle as much as I can, but see it as just a greener way to discard something. I also have issues with buying water, especially since our water here is so good, but the recent heat, coupled with a two-day long outside show sent me to the store for a case of it. (Hint: Freeze at least half the water you plan to take. It will keep the other bottles cold, and melt as the day goes on, giving you lovely ice water to drink, and/or a cooling bottle to hold against wrists and neck.)

So, there I stood yesterday, with a cluster of empty water bottles on the kitchen counter. What to do? Why, make squids, or dangles, or whatever you want to call them! It’s an easy craft for older kids or grown-ups who don’t like to make garbage.

You need:

• Empty water bottles
• Scissors
• Small things to hang inside the bottle neck
• Wire or string

Begin by making a long, spiral cut the length of the bottle, starting wherever you want. I began my cut just below the bell shape. My water bottle was quite thin and flexible, so to begin the cut, I just kind of squished the side flat. You might have to poke a starter hole in a sturdier bottle.

Here’s the path my scissors took:

As you can see, the trick is to cut almost all the way around, and then angle your cut down. I pretty much followed the indentations around the bottle itself, including where there was a kind of wave pattern. (I thought it would look cool to “catch the waves”, but it didn’t actually show, so you can just do a plain spiral.) Go all the way to the bottom of the bottle, but don’t cut the bottom off.

When you’ve finished your spiral, you’ll have this:

Do that to three bottles, and nest the neck ends together in a stack, so that the curls hang from three different places.

Now take one of the little items you’ve gathered–a large bead, a key, a small toy, whatever you like that will fit inside the belled top of the bottle, but not go through the neck. If it has a hole in it, run a string or length of wire through. (I used wire, just because I knew where I had a good stash of different colors. It took about 18″ (46 cm). If there’s no hole, just tie it around the piece.

Run the string or wire up through all three bottle necks. Your bright object will add a bit of color, and provide a stopper so you can hang the “squid” up.

When you have the string through the top neck, you can spread it to each side, and screw the top on. It’s an option that doesn’t affect anything. In fact, without the lid, you have transparency all the way up, which might be even better. But here’s what I did:

Here’s are close-ups of my bottles. I used an old Christmas ornament and a big red button.

Take your squid outside and hang it from a tree, or arbor. Or dangle it from something in your room. (I put a single, spiral-cut bottle up for the neighbor’s kitten, and she loves it. It’s very bouncy. The bottle. Not the kitten. Well, actually, both of them.)

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

I’m just going to come out and say it. My trash and recycling cans were looking kinda sad. With two kids and a dog (and a husband who isn’t always careful) the once cool and shiny flip top cans we use for both our trash and recycling have seen better days. They are a little scratched and no matter how often I clean them, not very shiny. And worse, they have ugly signs stuck on them so everyone knows where to put what. Those signs, by the way, were meant to be temporary until I could find something better. But temporary turned into “it’ll do” until I decided to give them an Earth Day spruce up.

OK, so it didn’t make them shiny and new again, and it didn’t get rid of the dent in the back of one where the kids “accidentally” knocked them into the corner of the wall, but at least the ugly signs are gone. And it’s better than getting new ones and having to send these to the dump. Besides, you almost don’t notice the scratches anymore…

Here’s what you need:

Not-so-shiny-anymore trash cans
Vinyl stick on letters
Electrical tape
Ruler
Clear matte spray paint
Strips of paper
Newspaper

Start by giving your cans a good scrub down. They probably need it anyway. Mine did! Once they are clean and dry, use your ruler to tape one of the paper strips about 1/3 of the way down the front of the can. This will create a straight line for your stickers to sit on. Carefully stick the vinyl letters along the edge of the line to spell out “toss” or “recycle” (or whatever you want! They’re your cans after all!)

Create a box around the letters using electrical tape then mask the rest of the can with newspaper. Smooth down the letters and the tape to assure there is no seepage and spray in thin, even coats, allowing each to dry before adding the next, until the shine has gone from the surface of the can.

Once the last coat is dry, carefully peel back the tape and letters (you might need tweezers to grab the corners of the letters) and clean up any errors with nail polish remover.

Voila – fancy (almost) new trash and recycling cans! Happy Earth Day!

Congratulations to Alison Harper who was randomly chosen as the winner of Free Stuff Friday and the Cloud Clay!

AMACO Cloud Clay is made up of a strong, pliable material, Cloud Clay stretches more than other brands so that the material resists tears. It is also reusable when stored and sealed properly after each use, so art projects can be saved day after day. This material is easy to manipulate and is dry to touch. It also dries overnight and is easy to decorate.

Alison’s winning answer to “What is your favorite guilty pleasure song” was…

“OK, I confess, I do love “Party in the USA”; most especially when Amelia is rocking out and roller skating to it. She’s so into the song she forgets that she’s not a very skilled skater and does awesome. My favorite guilty pleasure song is Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave your Lover”. I defend sharing it with the kids as it is a rhyming song, so I’m helping them with their skills.”

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

Christmas is not the only time for ornaments, in my humble opinion.  Spring is so fun and the weather is so nice that I created this ornament to celebrate.  I think it would make a lovely home decoration, and you can even get the kids involved in this one.  It was really fun and took hardly any time at all. 

First you’ll need to gather these supplies:

Craft Pedlars Paper Mache Ornament

FolkArt Acrylic Paint – Calypso Sky

Mod Podge Fabric

Mod Podge Gloss

Fabric pieces – 2 small coordinating

Buttons – 6

Die cut machine, punch or scissors – whatever you have to make shapes

Craft Glue

Flat Paint Brush

Wax paper

Paint your ornament with your base color – I used Calypso Sky.  Keep rotating and painting more coats until the ornament is completely covered.  Set aside to dry.

While your ornament is drying, prepare your fabric.  Wash and dry it, then iron it (which I neglected to do as you can see, but it’s okay for small cutouts).  Place the fabric down on a sheet of wax paper and “prepare” it using the Fabric Mod Podge.  Preparing fabric with Mod Podge means to paint Mod Podge over it in a medium layer and allow to dry.  Make sure to coat the entire area you are planning to use.  The advantage of preparing fabric is that when you cut it, the ends won’t fray.  Mod Podge both pieces and set aside to dry.

When the fabric is dry, use either a die cut machine, punch or plain ol’ scissors to cut out your flower shapes.  I did the flower tops with the blue fabric and my Sizzix Big Shot, and cut the stems and leaves out of the green fabric freehand with my scissors.  Do whatever inspires you!

Adhere the fabric pieces to do the ornament using Mod Podge Gloss.  I used six flower shapes – three of large and three of small.  I glued them down evenly spaced around the ornament.  Allow to dry.

Attach the stems.  You’ll see from the photo how I connected them at the bottom.  Flowers across from each other shared stems, so I only had to cut out three.

I cut out leaves for the large flowers only.  I adhered them to the ornament the same way I did the flower tops – by gluing them down and then putting Mod Podge over the top.  Once you are done, coat the entire ornament with Mod Podge.  Allow to dry for 15 – 20 minutes and then give it a second coat.  Allow to dry.

Use your craft glue to adhere coordinating buttons to the center of each flower.  Wait 24 hours until completely dry to display.

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

Do you write letters? I mean the “real” kind, on paper, not email. I hope so, because there’s something satisfying about popping an envelope into the mail. And there’s nothing like the happy little thrill of getting an actual handwritten missive tucked between the pieces of junk mail, is there? 

To ramp up the voltage of those two smile producers, why not make your own stationary, using recycled materials? There are lots of things you could use for that, but I’m going to choose old sheet music for this project.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Sheet music
• Plain paper
• Glue-rubber cement or Zip Dry Paper Glue are both good

The paper I used for the writing sheet was that old-fashioned erasable typing paper, and I really like that you can see the music through it.

This stationary is a combined envelope and writing sheet. You write your letter on one side, fold shut, and write the address on the other side.

To make the envelope, just take a large sheet of music, and measure out a square, using the width of the sheet to determine the length of the four sides. Cut the square on the diagonal to make two right triangles. Measure the longest side (hypotenuse), and divide by three to find where to fold the side points in. Fold the top point down until it touches the V made by the other two points. Do that to the other triangle, too. You have now made the foundation for two sheets of stationary.

Now take your plain paper, and cut a square a little smaller than the square made by folding in the triangle points of the foundation. Glue that to one side of the music paper, to write the address on. I also printed, “TO” and “FROM” on mine, and a grayed-out image of a vintage postage stamp. As you can see from the photo, I trimmed one of these with a bit of lace. You may want to add your own embellishments.

For the body of the letter, cut a rectangle of plain paper one third the length of the long side of your sheet music triangle, and twice as long. Glue that to the other side of the triangle. (Refer to photo for placement.)

Write your letter, fold the writing sheet up to the lower corners meet the upper ones, fold in the triangle points, and seal with a sticker made by cutting out a bar or two of music and gluing it to a mailing label. (Next time, I think I’ll glue the little bit of music to a black or red background to make an edging, and make the sticker stand out better.)

I do like this stationary! Now I’m wondering about different folds, different papers….

Question of the Week: What is your favorite guilty pleasure song?

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

Are you someone who likes the song “Party in the U.S.A.” by Mylie Cyrus? It’s okay, I won’t tell anyone! 

AMACO Cloud Clay is made up of a strong, pliable material, Cloud Clay stretches more than other brands so that the material resists tears. It is also reusable when stored and sealed properly after each use, so art projects can be saved day after day. This material is easy to manipulate and is dry to touch. It also dries overnight and is easy to decorate.

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

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

Once you start making rings, it’s only a matter of time before you need a place to display them.

For the first one, you’ll need:

• 1″ thick sheet of Styrofoam, in a size you like. (Mine is about 1″ X 10″ X 12″.)
• A piece of vinyl or fabric 2 inches larger all around that your Styrofoam
• Ribbon, gimp, belting, or other trim, 1″ wide, and long enough to go all the way around the Styrofoam sheet
• A few little trims, if desired

First take your piece of fabric, and cover the sheet of Styrofoam with it. Stretch the fabric over the top and sides, mitering the corners, and using pins to anchor the fabric in place.

Once you’ve done that, take a sheet of graph paper and draw a “map” of the slots you want for your rings. You’ll need to cut slots for each ring that are about 1″ long, and about 1″ apart.Since my piece was fairly large, I opted to leave half of it solid, allowing for other items to be displayed alongside the rings.

Lay the map on top of your covered sheet of Styrofoam. Use a few pieces of double-sided tape to hold it in place, or simply hold it down with your free hand, and use a sharp knife or box cutter to cut right through the map, the cover, and about halfway through the sheet of Styrofoam.

Your slots will probably be too tight for rings to go in and out of them easily. Take a nickel, and just push it into each slot to widen them. It will loosen the fit, without affecting how your display piece looks.

Now take your piece of ribbon or trim, and glue it all around the edge of the Styrofoam, taking special care at the ends. If you like, you can cover the join with a few bits of jewelry, beads, or other pretties. This really won’t show, so it’s just for you. I chose a little charm that said, “Free your heart from hatred,” and secured it with both glue and pins, and added a few other sparkly things.

All that’s left is to add rings!

Now I’m going to show you another way to create a ring display, from a recycled candle holder. I found this piece in a thrift shop, and it instantly struck me as both cool and useful. Turning it into a ring display was so easy, I’m not even going to do the step-by-step thing. I know you’ll figure it out from the picture and a couple of easy-breezy instructions. Here’s the piece:

Instructions: Cut circles the same size as the candle cups from heavy duty foam rubber. Cut slots in the circles, and use a little rubber cement to glue them into the cups. Done!