Think Crafts Blog - Craft Ideas and Projects - CreateForLess

By Guest Blogger, Sparkle E. Glitter from the blog “Sparkle Studio”. 

I could not resist these brown candles, so chocolate looking.  They are non-scented, so they are a little less expensive too.  But, you know me.  I think even chocolate needs glitter! 

Remember as you are making these, perfection is not the key, glitter is.  Just have fun with your Big & Glitzy.

I used Big & Glitzy Glitter Glue because it sticks better to most surfaces.  It is also made of big chunks of holographic glitter…so pretty.  And, unlike kid’s glitter glue, the colors fit home decor.  Since turquoise is THE color of the year, I new my chocolate brown candles would be trendy and fabulous.

You Need:

Big & Glitzy Glitter Glue: Aquamarine, Nugget

Sparkle Gems: 8mm round Amber

Pillar candles: brown, size of your choice (mine are 6″ and 3″)

Try this:

With the 6″ candle,  working on one side of the candle at a time, draw a rectangle of Aquamarine that is the height of the candle.  Inside that rectangle, draw a smaller rectangle of Nugget. 

Add dots of Nugget between Nugget and Aquamarine rectangles. Set amber gems into dots where desired. 

Repeat, alternating colors for rectangles.

Prop the candle up so it cannot roll, let glitter glue dry.  Repeat on next section of candle.  Continue until rectangles go all the way around the candle.

For the 3″ candle, working on one side of the candle at a time, apply dots of Nugget.  Set amber gems into dots.  Prop the candle up so it cannot roll, let glitter glue dry.  Repeat on next section of candle.  Continue until gems go all the way around the candle.

Another 3″ candle: Alternating colors, draw narrow rectangles on one side of candle. Prop the candle up so it cannot roll, let glitter glue dry.  Repeat on next section of candle.  Continue until rectangles go all the way around the candle.

TIP: To save the candle, burn down in the center a couple of times, blowing it out before the edges get melted.  Place a tea candle or votive in the hole.  Burn the votive.  Replace the votive as many times as you want.  This is also a way to add some scent to your burning candles: use scented votives.

Change up the colors to whatever suits your mood or décor.  This set would make a nice centerpiece, don’t you think?

Glitter on!

Sparkle

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

I love capturing memories through photographs, and I particularly like interesting ways of displaying them.  Regular frames are nice, but photo memory blocks add a wonderful touch to your home décor - and you can get very crafty with them!  Consider using a photo memory block to decorate your child’s room or you desk at work.  Here’s how I made mine.

Wood Memory Block - mine is a 6″ square

FolkArt Acrylic Paint, coordinating colors - I used Lemon Custard, Hot Pink and Yellow Citron

Mod Podge Matte, 8 oz.

Scrapbook paper, 1 sheet per canvas - I used K & Company’s Berry Sweet papers

Embellishments - I used K & Company’s Berry Sweet collection, as well as a few buttons, paper flowers and rhinestones from my stash

Craft Glue

Flat Paint Brush

Craft Knife and Mat or Scissors

Ruler

Start by trimming your paper to fit the sides of your wood block.  My craft mat has a ruler guide so I was able to quickly measure and cut a 5 1/2″ square - I wanted to leave a 1/4″ border around all side of the paper so that I could see the paint.  I cut six squares out of three sheets of paper, choosing coordinating papers so that they would look good together.

Paint your block with the acrylic paint and flat paint brush.  You don’t have to paint the entire side of the block since you’ll be applying paper over it; just paint the edges.  I applied three coats to each side.  Allow to dry.

Now that your wood block is dry, apply the Mod Podge.  Use a medium layer and coat well. Apply the paper to the center of the block and smooth it down thoroughly with your fingers or a brayer.  If Mod Podge comes out the sides, that is fine - simply wipe it away with your brush.  Apply the papers to all sides of the block and allow to dry for 15 - 20 minutes. 

TIP: I applied Mod Podge to the corners and edges of my paper before smoothing down - this helps since the edges are the first thing to dry!

Next add a coat of Mod Podge on top of the paper.  Allow to dry and add a second coat, covering the whole block.  The fun part is next!

Now add the images and embellishments with craft glue.  Get creative!  I planned my picture sizes first and printed them all out before I glued anything down.  You don’t have to fill the entire block with one photo; check this finished side out:

You can also do a few photos on one side and add embellishments around them.  I had so much fun!  Here’s another finished side:

Add photos and embellishments to all sides, except for the bottom and the top (unless you want to).  Now I have something for my desk at work to remind me of my sweet dogs when they are at home and I’m in front of the computer.

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

Despite the fact that the state I currently live in was once the capitol of the Confederacy we’ve had far more snow this winter than any of the years I lived in Oregon. In fact, the past two months have done a pretty good job of reminding me of my childhood in Northern Idaho. And with all that snow has come a lot of snow days. Snow days that cancel school and snow days that just cancel everything. With two kids in a smallish house, I’ve had to come up with a pretty steady stream of crafts and activities. Some have been good, some have lasted about thirty seconds and some have been a downright hit. At the top of the list for my son was this little project, which we spent an entire snowy afternoon on. 

Remember back when we were in elementary school and played around with the Ed Emberly’s Thumbprint book? Well it’s still around and just as fun as ever. And even if you don’t happen to have the book hanging around, you can still help turn your kids thumb and finger prints into just about anything they can dream up. And what better way to illustrate a story of their own making?

Here’s what you need:

Stamp pads in various colors (I sometimes just use washable markers with my daughter, just color the pad of their finger and stamp quickly, less mess for the little ones!)

White cardstock or thick copy paper

Black marker

Black pen

Ruler

Start by having your child write or dictate a story. It’s a great time to talk about the basics of story arcs and how they need a beginning, middle and end for a good story. As they write (or dictate) estimate how many “scenes” the story will have and draw a square for each on the paper.

Most comic books have a variety of sizes of squares so keep that in mind, and don’t forget to add a box for the title and the “the end” frame. Write each line in its box and read through the story with your child so they know what’s going on in each box before they get started. It’s a good idea to make a few examples of animals and characters they might want on a separate sheet of paper if you don’t have a thumbprint art book, just to get them started.

Then let the stamp and draw away. In the end you’ll have a (probably hilarious) memento of just what kind of story was bobbing around in their head at that moment in time. In fact, we ended up laminating the pages of our sons to make sure it was well preserved. I know I never want to forget the story of a pig that loses his “singing lung” and has to learn to trumpet!

How about you, have you introduced any crafts inspired by your childhood fun to your kids?

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

My husband and I recently had the pleasure (not to mention mild shock!) of attending his son’s 50^th birthday party. It was a family celebration, and the attendees ranged in age from four years to 74 years.

What do you do at a party with that wide an age span, encompassing both sexes, other than eat ice cream and cake and watch the birthday gifts being opened?

Our son, Jeff, had the perfect solution, and I’m only sorry I didn’t get the camera out earlier, because once we got started on our activity, all I could think was, I’ve got to share this! It’s great!

We had all settled in and were standing or sitting around the family room when Jeff got our attention and told us to team up in groups of two or three, choosing a partner or partners we thought we’d like to create something with. We were soon laughing, wondering aloud just what we’d be doing, and standing in little clusters before being led out to the garage.

There, Jeff had set up a large table, with small, identical, piles of materials places all around the edge. In the center of the table were jars of nails, hammers, and a big glue gun. As each team chose a station and examined the assortment of wooden pieces, Jeff explained the “game”.

Each team was to build whatever they wanted out of the pieces they’d been given. The only stipulation was that we had to use every piece, although we were free to cut or break any piece, or alter them, as we wished.

We had each been given two wooden circles with a hole drilled through the center, a piece that appeared to be the corner of a square piece of wood where a circle had been cut from, a couple of sticks roughly ½” X ½” X 4″, scrap of a 2X4, and a largish piece of very thin wood, which Jeff told me later was a door skin, cut into rectangles. You, of course, could use any scraps you had lying around, or cut scraps into interesting shapes, just making sure everyone got the same things.

After we’d made our “sculpture”, and named it, we were to visit all the other ones that had been made, and vote for the one we thought was the best.

There was so much whispering, chatter, and laughter, with every single person a happy participant, from youngest to oldest.

Here are pictures of three more projects, and while you might not be able to tell from looking which team had the 4-yr-old, which teams had cabinet maker partners, or which were comprised of a woman and child, I’ll bet you can tell we all had fun!

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

Because my two kids, a boy - 7 and a girl - 3, share a room, our decorating scheme walks a fine line between girl and boy, between little kid and big. I’ve been a little weary of hanging much art so far, finding everything too one way or the other. But I also get tired of blank walls very quickly, so this week I decided it was time to tackle the wall above their beds. We needed color and fun and something they each loved. And in the end, their favorite books seemed like a good place to start. I should also say that this decision also happened to come about after picking up the dustcovers from those favorite book off the floor one too many times.

If your kids are like mine, they have very little use for dust jackets, and since I try to buy hardback copies of books that I suspect will get a lot of use, we have a lot of them hanging around. Sometimes they stay on the books and gradually disintegrate, eventually being sucked up bit by bit through weekly vacuuming. Sometimes I pull them off right away and tuck them in a cupboard where they sit, taking up space. This is, I think, a better solution than either of the two.

Here’s what you need:

5-6 sheets of scrapbooking paper in coordinating colors (and coordinating with your dust jackets)
Book dust jackets of various sizes
Old frames in various sized
spray paint
foam
Mod Podge
Sewing machine
Ribbon
Paper cutter

Start by matching your dust jackets to frames, deciding which look best where. Paint the frames to match the color scheme of the paper you have chosen and/or the bedroom decor. You can either keep the glass in the frames or choose to leave it out all together. I choose to leave it out, just in case jumping on the bed led to pictures falling on the floor or heads!

Cut a piece of foam core to fit into the back of each frame snugly.

Trim the dust cover neatly so that you have an even rectangle or square of just the front. Reserve the scraps.

Cut and piece the scrapbooking paper so that it covers the edges of the foam core just slightly more than the gap between the dust jacket and the edge of the frame.

Using Mod Podge (I’ll refer you to our own Mod Podge Amy for her excellent tips) decoupage the paper and then the dust jacket onto the foam core.

Once dry, pop your new art into the frames, securing with a staple gun or tape.

With the remaining paper and the scraps of the dust jackets, help your children cut even triangles (or, if they dont feel like a geometry lesson, you could do it yourself). Cut two lengths of ribbon for the beginning and end of the bunting.

Help your children decide on an order for the triangles to fall in the bunting, stacking them from first to last in a pile.

At your sewing machine, place the end of one piece of ribbon under the starting edge of the first triangle and start stitching using a straight stitch and a 1/4 inch seam allowance. As each triangle is done, run the next through, leaving only a few stitches between each. Sew the second piece of ribbon to the back of the last triangle and back stitch to secure.

Using the ribbons as hangers and arranging the art and bunting across the wall, hang your new kids art and stand back to admire. When your kids fall out of love with one book and in with another, or you just need a change, you can decoupage a new dustjacket right on top of the old ones, creating an up to day display of their reading habits.

TGIF! Celebrate Friday by entering to win! Enter to win this Amber Bracelet Kit by Janlynn. Create the look of a high-priced collectible bracelet, for only a fraction of the cost! These designer inspired beads will fit on any charm bracelet, and you can arrange the beads anyway you like! The EZ-Bead clasp lets you change the beads at any time, with no tools necessary. Kit includes 7 handmade glass beads, 8 lead-free/nickel-free metal beads, 7.5″ bracelet featuring EZ-Bead clasp and one jewelry pouch.

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. One entry per person please.

Question of the Week: It’s almost Valentine’s day, so tell us about your first Valentine!

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