Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

By General Crafts Contributor Mina, from the blog Mina’s Journal.

Make these cardboard tube holders for your pens and pencils to organize your craft area or funky up your desk. An easy ‘rainy day’ activity or for when the kids say they are ‘bored’. Most houses will have the basic materials at hand.

These were made with help from a wee guy who just turned four. He had a lot of fun deciding what colors the arms and feet should be, applying the paint with a sponge and loves to stack them like a totem pole. Maybe I’ll make up some tribal tubes for just that purpose. His two year old brother likes to put them in different orders, sometimes color, sometimes according to the shapes on them. (I haven’t quite worked out his logic!)

Craft Supplies

• cardboard tubes
• card for the arms
• acrylic paints
• thick black marker
• wiggly eyes
• white glue
• craft knife
• scissors

Craft Technique

Base coat the cardboard tubes. I used cut pieces of kitchen sponge. It provides a quick and even coverage.

Decorate the tubes with a marker. Use simple shapes like stars, swirls, dots, stripes.

Glue on the eyes. Add faces. A few well placed lines to show expression is all you need.

Cut out base from card and glue to the bottom of the cardboard tube. You can download some base shapes to use.

Download Feet Template

Or download plain shapes to use as a template. Resize them if you need to.

Download Plain Feet Template

Cut a rectangle from matching card for the arms. Make a slot in each side of the Pen Pal with a craft knife to place the arms through. Bend the middle of the arms to the inside of the cardboard tube to make more room inside the tube.

Add pens to your pals, and you’re done.

Easy Craft Ideas

• Further embellish with ribbon or yarn bows for shoe laces
• Use glitter glue to add some sparkle to your drawn designs
• For small children, let them put stickers on the cardboard tubes instead of painting them
• Draw eyes instead

Have fun and Happy Crafting!

By Craft Trends Contributor, Gillian from the blog Dried Figs and Wooden Spools. Check out our Craft Trends board on Pinterest!

For a long, long time, acrylic felt was just what was available to crafters, and in many applications, it’s still a good choice. But now that wool felt is more readily available again, and in so many beautiful colors, it’s everywhere in the craft world.

Sturdier and more versatile, wool felt can be used in applications where more wear will take place or a firmer material is required. It can also be felted further, similar to knitted wool, to create a thick material with a more organic look. It’s also softer to the touch and nicer to work with.

These felt baby slippers are simply adorable, not to mention useful.

Ornaments! Even though the Christmas has come and gone, felt ornaments can be made for all seasons (they are especially cozy for the Christmas tree though!)

As handy as it is simple, these baskets beg to be made in bulk. Craft storage anyone?

Feeling inspired? Check out our Craft Trends Board for more ideas and then tell us what YOU would do with a few squares of wool felt.

Congratulations to Heather D. who were randomly selected as our Free Stuff Friday winner and will receive Threads Teach yourself to Sew Seasons 1 & 2 on DVD! Also included Threads Industry Insider Techniques DVD, Vol.1!

In just hours, you’ll be well on your way with this pair of Teach Yourself to Sew DVDs from our highly acclaimed series. While they are designed for beginners, every sewer must conquer these basics before they can expect to do more challenging work with success. Threads Industry Insider Techniques DVD, Vol.1 is an instructional sewing video developed to answer requests from Threads readers for a behind-the-scenes look at how professionals construct fine clothing worthy of designer labels.

Heather’s winning answer “What was the last movie you’ve seen?” was…

“The last movie I watched was Gnomeo and Juliet”.

By Kid’s Crafts Contributor Stephanie, from the Blog Geek with Glasses.

Traditional yarnbombing is graffiti using knitting or crochet pieces stitched around trees, benches or any other structure that stands still. This is a way to entice the birds to help beautify the world one nest at a time!

The frozen and snow covered ground makes it hard for the birds to find items to make their nests out of. This is a very quick project for the kids to help with and then watch from the window to see the birds come and go. In the spring and summer the children can go in search of the nests made out of their offerings.

I live on a small fiber farm and last year after shearing the sheep and goats, we tossed the dirty bits and short cuttings of wool on to the compost pile. The birds frequented the pile, I thought they were after seeds and worms in the pile, but later on in the summer I started to see nests made of mohair and wool.  The nests were beautiful and hopefully warm for the birds.

This year I thought I would offer some pretty bits for the birds to enjoy and create a little bird area for my daughter to watch. Then in the summer maybe our trees will be filled with rainbow colored nests.  

Supplies:

Suet Bird Feed Holder
Yarn
Wool
Scissors

First cut lengths of yarn, I made them 2″ to 3″ long. All of my yarn was cotton or wool. I used different types of yarn with different thicknesses. Next, pull apart the wool in to little tuffs. I opened the suet holder and started to layer in the yarn and wool. I really packet it in. Then I closed the feeder and pulled some of the yarn out through the holes. I took it outside and hung it in a tree right outside our big picture window. 

We are just helping the birds yarn bomb nature!

By Cardmaking & Scrapbook Layout Contributor, Peg from the blog Peg’s Crafting Corner.

Everyone enjoys receiving birthday wishes so send them this “hoppy” birthday card to make their day a fun filled one.

Supplies Used:

• Spring Blossom Paper Pad by EK Success
• Google Eyes-3 millimeter size
• Frog Stickers, Die Cut or Chipboard Piece
• Pink Cardstock
• 3-d Adhesive Mini Pop Dots
• Martha Stewart Travel Paper Trimmer
• EK Paper Shapers Corner Punch
• Birthday Sentiment Stamp
• Stamp Block
• Pink Ink Pad

First, cut a piece of pink cardstock with the paper trimmer to be 6″ wide by 8″ long and fold it in half to create a 6″ x 4″ top fold card. 

Open the card up and using the corner punch, punch the bottom left corner by lining the sides of the paper with the edges of the clear piece on the punch. Make sure the paper is all the way inside the punch as far as it will go without bending to make sure it is punched in the correct spot.

The easiest way to punch the right corner is to turn the punch upside down and line it up with the corner and the clear plastic piece again.

In order to punch the top corners of the card in the correct area you will need to start by measuring the area from the side to the punched pattern on one of the bottom sections that has already been punched. You will, also, need to measure the area from the bottom of the card up to the punched pattern. On my card it was ¼” in from the left side to the punched pattern and from the bottom of the card to the punched pattern.

Using the measurement from the step above, I measured ¼” from the top and made a mark in pencil so it can be erased and then repeated it from the side and made another mark. Repeat this step on the other side of the card, too.

Line up the marks with the bottom opening of the pattern and the side opening that is nearest the top fold of the card and punch. Repeat this step on the other side of the card, too. You will now have the four corner punches to hold your patterned paper.

Trim a piece of the Lily Pad paper from the Spring Blossom Paper Pad that measures 5 ½” wide by 3 ½” long and place it behind the corner punches. If necessary, you can trim a little of the patterned paper to help it fit correctly into the card base.

Glue the eyes onto the frog and adhere him onto a lily pad using the Adhesive Mini Dots.

Place the birthday sentiment onto the stamp block and ink it. Stamp the sentiment onto the card. If you have a stamp that won’t fit into the area you’d like it to remember that you can ink one part of the stamp and stamp it onto the card and then ink the next part and stamp it. I did this with the “Happy Birthday” because my stamp was in a long line and I wanted the “Happy” to be above the “Birthday”.

 Now hop to it and create one to send to someone you know who has a birthday coming up so they,too, can have a “frog” filled birthday!

By Paper Crafts Contributor, Lauren Romano.

There’s something incredibly boring about a refrigerator unless it’s decorated. Some bright color and sparkle can do wonders for brightening up the fridge and the kitchen. A cost-efficient way to do this without going overboard is to combine glitter magnets with bright paper for note taking. All you need is a few items in order to put together a set to use at your home or to give as a gift.

What you’ll need:

• Adhesive round magnets
• Glitter
• Wax paper
• Spray glue
• Bright paper or cardstock
• Scissors

Step 1. Choose the glitter you’d like to use and put one small pile of each on different sheets of wax paper so the colors don’t mix.

Step 2. Remove the paper backing off the magnets and press each one adhesive side down into a pile of glitter.

Step 3. Shake off the loose glitter, then place each finished magnet on a single piece of wax paper.

Step 4. Hold spray glue at least a foot away from each magnet, then spray them in short spurts so it doesn’t knock the glitter off. Let it sit to dry and, if necessary, put more glitter on and spray it again with the glue. Give the glue time to dry before putting the magnets on the fridge.

Step 5. Cut the paper to whatever size you’d like to use, then place it on the fridge along with the magnets.

Enter to win Threads Teach yourself to Sew Seasons 1 & 2 on DVD! Also included Threads Industry Insider Techniques DVD, Vol.1!

 In just hours, you’ll be well on your way with this pair of Teach Yourself to Sew DVDs from our highly acclaimed series. While they are designed for beginners, every sewer must conquer these basics before they can expect to do more challenging work with success. Threads Industry Insider Techniques DVD, Vol.1 is an instructional sewing video developed to answer requests from Threads readers for a behind-the-scenes look at how professionals construct fine clothing worthy of designer labels.

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.

Question of week: What was the last movie you’ve seen?

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