Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

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

As design blog readers will no doubt know, the beginning of the year comes with not only resolutions and de-holidaying the house, it also comes with a color. A Pantone color of the year to be precise. Each year the art marker company declares a color or colors that will dominate, or at least show up regularly, in the years color schemes. 2012, it seems, it the year of Tangerine Tango, and it’s already everywhere.

Oranges have been making quite a comeback in the past few years, both in the design and the craft worlds and it’s the perfect color to help transition from winter to spring, especially in your crafting.

These citrus toned pom-poms scream warmer weather and look almost good enough to eat. String them into a bunting or gather them up like a bouquet to add a pop of color to your house.

This painted chandelier is nothing short of fantastic and as simple as a can of spray paint and a cast of light fixture. Check out the tutorial for the project.

Create your perfect shade of bright orange yarn with a summer staple! Kool Aid makes an excellent dye for natural fibers and mixing flavors results in a myriad of colors and shades.

Check out our Craft Trends Pinboard for some more Tangerine Tango ideas and tell us what you’ll be using the shade for this crafting year.

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

Once upon a time, having personalized china took either a lot of money or some serious painting skills. Now a days, however, anyone with a steady hand can decorate their dishes at home with pretty amazing results with Porcelain Pens. Whether you want a simple pattern or something a little more complicated, these draw and bake projects are a great place to look for inspiration!

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

Be honest, when you spot a bunting hanging on the wall, doesn’t it make you just a little bit happier? It’s like having a little bit of party around all the time, and who doesn’t want that?

Buntings come in all shapes and sizes these days, and more importantly, they are made in all sorts of crafty ways. Get your craft supplies out and get ready to make one because here are some of our favorite festive buntings.

Traditional

You can’t really top a good old fashion string of triangles. These buntings can be as simple as paper with holes punched in the corner for stringing up or as complicated as a hand embroidered, double sided piece of sewing mastery. Make it monotone, color coordinated or just use up your scraps. Anything goes!

Unusual Shapes and Materials

You can, of course, veer from the traditional route and make a bunting in almost any shape.

Hearts

Circles

Hexagons

Or how about pom-poms?

These crocheted buntings couldn’t be any cuter, could they?

Mini

Mini buntings are the perfect thing to top a cake, finish off a plate of brownies or decorate the front of a card. Perhaps the simplest of buntings to make, these can be created quickly and easily out of scrapbook paper, ribbon or fabric scraps.

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

When I was eighteen years old, a family friend gave me a hand crocheted doily as a graduation gift. And I didn’t get it. It was beautiful, of course, but a doily? What would I use a doily for? Well, I get it now. The humble and old-fashion doily has made a big comeback, both in the craft world and in the realms of fashion and interior design, which is good news for you, my little crafters, because you can whip those doilies that great Aunt Agnes made you out of the closet at last and put them to good use.

The Doily Lamp

I’d like to think that this is where doilies made their initial comeback since this project has been cropping up on craft blogs for a while now. With a myriad of tutorials and examples out there, you’re sure to find one you like.

The Doily Lamp

The Doily Table Runner

Romantic and yet, at the same time, very modern, this table runner is made up of a jumble of different doilies. So simple. So dramatic. So doable!

The Doily Table Runner

The GIANT doily

I would learn to crochet just to make this for my bedroom floor. Comfy and cozy, this oversized doily is a fun play on the original barely there lace creation.

The GIANT Doily

The Paper Doily

Let’s not forget the mass produced version of our lace friend, the paper doily. Oh so cheap and oh so versatile, paper doilies should be a staple in any crafters cupboard. Wrap them around gifts, use them as envelopes, pretty up a card, hang them as a banner, or fold them as a snowflake. So many craftertunities, so little time.

Altered Paper DoiliesDoily Invitations

 Press them in, glue them up, sew them on.

Some of the best doily related crafts have them displayed in unusual places. Roll a doily into dough, Mod Podge it onto a plate, paint it onto a canvas or sew it onto a sweater. Think outside the doily here and you never know what you might come up with!

Decoupaging with doilies

Doily Wall Art

By Craft Trends Contributor, Gillian from the blog Dried Figs and Wooden Spools.

Honestly, I really don’t think facial hair has been this popular since Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid can roaring through theaters. The mustache is in. Way in. It. Is. Everywhere.

And for something so simple, so normal, so “my dad has one” it’s makes me laugh every time I see another (and another) funny application for the mustache. The mustache pacifier or straw decoration? Hilarious.

Mustache rings? Love them!

How about mustache temporary tattoos? Or mustache mugs? Or mustache on a stick for a photo booth? Fab. One and all.

The best part about this particular craft trend is that it is oh so accessible and customizable. You can use it simply, say, with a felt mustache on a stick. You can get a little fancier, maybe embroider one on a tea towel for laughs or screen print a t-shirt. Carve yourself a mustache stamp to ink a little sillyness onto your letters and notes or cut a giant vinyl ‘stach for the hood of your car. If you can think of it, the mustache can make it a little bit funnier.

So tell us, where would you put a mustache?

By Craft Trends Contributor, Gillian from the blog Dried Figs and Wooden Spools.

About the time my kids were toddlers, I made a decision to use photos (of them, naturally) as the main “art” in my home. On top of the photos I take (and there are many!) I’ve also had a photographer take portraits of my kids every few years. I love having their smiling faces all around me, but I’d love it even more if I had BIG photos of my kids everywhere! Unfortunately, the cost of giant, canvas mounted photos has prevented this from happening. Until now, that is.

The process of transferring photos to canvas, or wood, or even fabric, – using a decoupage medium - has made huge leaps of late, making now not just possible, but simple, to create your own large scale (or small, of course). While there are several tutorials floating around, these are the ones we like best. Click on the photos to find step-by-step tutorials!

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

There’s a sweet little bakery, just down the street from my building, that sells the most incredible sweets. It’s been around for ages and walking in is a little bit like stepping back into time, especially when they wrap up that box of almond horns you just bought with a couple of yards of red and white baker’s twine hanging from a big metal canister above the cash register. I’ll admit that I’m tempted on a daily basis both by the sweets and by the beautiful twine that I’ve been saving in little bundles in my craft cabinet. Why? Because baker’s twine is a crafter’s dream.

You may not even know it by that name. In your head it might just be that colorful string that’s cropping up everywhere. What once came in giant cones on the cheap is now available in a rainbow of colors on smaller spools. And the stuff is handy.

The most obvious use for Baker’s Twine is as an all purpose gift decoration. Wrap up a box, a bunch of flowers or tie a bow with it around a bottle of wine and you are good to go. But it’s uses extend far beyond that.

Scrapbooking

Garlands

Cardmaking

A little spiral art perhaps?

Even pompoms!

As the holidays approach, a few rolls of Baker’s Twine will come in handy over and over again. What would you use it for?