Recycled Craft Ideas Drawing

Crafts, CreateForLess Team, Green Crafting, Holidays & Seasons, Projects No Comments

In honor of Earth Day on April 22, CreateForLess is celebrating by giving you a chance to win!  Do you have a great craft project idea using recycled materials?  It can be using anything from household items, such as CD’s and bottles to natural materials like rocks and sea shells.

My recycled craft idea is making picture mats out of wallpaper, or use it to add color and shapes to a scrapbook layout. Other ideas with wallpaper are lining a drawer, covering a bulletin board, or make decorative placemats. From a step by step craft project to a helpful craft tip, let’s see your ideas! Get creative with recycled stuff and you could win a $100 CreateForLess shopping spree! 

Limited to one entry per person.  Drawing deadline is May 4, 2009.  The winner will be randomly chosen and will receive a $100 CreateForLess e-gift certificate.  After the drawing ends, some of our favorite ideas submitted will be showcased on CreateForLess.com.  Submission of an entry into this drawing grants CreateForLess permission to use the submitted content for promotional purposes. 

Click here to enter your Recycled Craft Idea.


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National Craft Month Drawing Craft Tips

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Congratulations to Gail W from Parrish, FL who was randomly chosen as the winner of our National Craft Month Drawing! She will receive a $100 CreateForLess shopping spree.

Her helpful craft tip was… 

“I’m awash in craft magazines and ideas I’ve made copies of from the internet. Once a year I go through all my magazines tearing out the ideas I think I’ll do and sort copies. Then I organize them by craft, i.e scrapbooking, knitting, etc. putting a colored paper divider between them. Then I sort by topic, i.e. pets, birthdays, shawls, etc. and put dividers between those. Finally I take the stack to my local Staples store and have them comb bind it. I can tear out the pages to go to a scrap or knitting group. I feel accomplished as the book of ideas gets thinner”. 

Here’s some more of our favorite craft tips submitted by customers. Thanks to everyone who entered!

“When I am using my Cricut, in order to save wear and tear on my mats and to make the most of every sheet of paper, use this tip…make extras of the letters or shapes that you use the most. Then, later when I am scrappin’, I can pull out the extras and complete most pages. Saves time and there’s no waste!”
Jo M.
Barberton, OH

“Working with the new slice machine I like using spray adhesive. No drying time. Tim Holtz distress inks, I use the white paper that comes with the page protectors and make my own pages by, wrinkling the paper and rubbing the ink pad over the paper, spritz it with a little water, and then I iron the page. Turns out really cool, try using different inks on one page”.
Robin M.
Prescott Valley, AZ

“Favorite Craft Tip: Taking time to organize…I know some might dread the horror of organizing that craft room but once it is done everything is easily accessible and can make your craft projects go a whole lot quicker! Favorite Organization idea…taking old cereal boxes and turning them into magazine file organizers. Cut and Cover with fabric or fun paper”.
Debbie A.
Starkville, MS

“Scrapbooking - When you are doing a mosaic, run your picture through a Xyron Sticker Maker first. Then cut the picture into 1 inch strips with a paper cutter instead of a blade, and then cut your picture into 1 inch squares. Peel the paper off the back and stick on your sheet. This makes making a mosaic easy. Happy Scrapbooking!”
Susan W.
Stockbridge, GA

“Any quilting tip is always welcome. But my favorite is, when cutting for a large quilt stack as many pieces of material as you can on top of each other and using the 65mm rotary cutter, you will be able to cut a lot of pieces all at one time. This saves a lot of time, as well as your arm and the cutter blade”.
Lynette B.
Butler, PA

“I use floss threaders to thread yarn through needles and beads. Makes the job much easier than anything else I’ve tried and they are quite inexpensive and flexible”.
Marilyn G.
Hixson, TN

“When using embossing powders, before stamping your image to emboss, wipe your paper with a used dryer sheet to keep the static off of your paper, thus being able to keep the embossing powder on your stamped image instead of all over the page, when you shake the extra embossing powder off”.
Heather S.
Atwater, OH

“When I get ready to start a new project I often make a (very) rough sketch to get an idea of the materials that I will need and use it to make a list of everything I am going to need. Then I go “shopping” in my stash of materials–fabric, glue, paint–whatever I need for that project. I put everything into a clear plastic shoe box, or if the project is big I use a sweater box. I add the items I purchased at the store and keep everything together until the project is completely done. Then I take a picture and add it to my sketch for a permanent record of my creativity.”
Nancy S.
Phoenix, AZ


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Fun with Shrink Plastic! on AM Northwest

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Two weeks in a row CreateForLess products have appeared on television! This week our products were featured on AM Northwest for a “Fun with Shrink Plastic” by Shelia Rufener. This fun craft project is great for kids to do over spring break. The segment showed how easy it is to use shrink plastic to make colorful and shiney designs for keychains, necklaces and more.

 

Supplies Used for the Shrink Plastic Project:

Grafix White 8 1/2″ x 11″ Ink Jet Shrink Film
Dual-Point Paint Markers
Dual-point Permanent Markers 
Top Boss Tinted Embossing Stamp Pad
Melt Art UTEE (Ultra thick embossing enamel) powder
EK Success dual-temperature Coloriser heat tool

AM Northwest is our local morning news show here in Portland, OR, on KATU our local ABC affiliate. AM Northwest reports on topics of interest to the NW residents, such as home & garden, recipes, and crafts and is hosted by Helen Raptis and Dave Anderson. Shelia Rufener is the craft expert for AM Northwest. Shelia is a professional TV demonstrator for the craft and hobby industry. She has worked for craft manufacturers writing books and magazine articles, and demonstrated their products on TV. Her craft projects have also appeared on The Carol Duvall Show and The Creative Life. For more craft ideas from Shelia, visit her website.

To view the “Fun with Shrink Plastic” segment, click here.


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The TODAY SHOW!

Crafts, CreateForLess Team, Trends No Comments

The buzz around the CreateForLess office is…..One of our products was featured on The Today Show! We have been anxiously waiting to share the news! This morning during the 9:30AM Fashion & Beauty ”Bobbie’s Style Buzz” segment on The Today Show, Bobbie Thomas featured our zipper for a Do-It-Yourself spring trends segment. The featured zipper is a heavy brass separating zipper that ranges from 18″ to 22″ inches long. These zippers can be found here. The zippers come in a variety of colors to suit your item of clothing.  Bobbie demonstrated how easy it is to update an outfit using zippers, turning old items into high-fashion pieces. The new trend is exposed zippers to accent your outfit, and adding these zippers couldn’t be easier - no sewing skills required.


Bobbie Thomas is the Style Editor for NBC’s Today Show. Her featured segments topics are makeovers, do-it-yourself craft projects and style spreads. Bobbie also writes a weekly column called “The Buzz” for InTouch Weekly.

If you missed The Today Show this morning, you can watch the video The Today Show DIY Spring Trends. For more information about the featured zipper segment, read this article from The Today Show website.


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National Craft Month, Craft Tip Drawing

Crafts, CreateForLess Team, Holidays & Seasons 1 Comment

In honor of National Craft Month, CreateForLess is giving away a $100 shopping spree to a clever crafter for their favorite craft tip. Ever realized how much more time you saved by doing something this way? Or improved the look of your creation by doing it that way? I want to hear about your scrapbooking layout ideas, time saving ideas for sewing projects, or any craft tip that you can’t craft without!

My favorite craft tips are using the laser side of an old CD as a paint pallet. It has a finger hole to hold it and colors mix well, and wipe or rinse off easily. Also by rubbing a fabric softener sheet all over your hands before using paint or glue, makes cleanup easier. These sheets are also handy for cleaning glue guns after use. Such simple and easy ideas!

CDs are just as easy to hold and to mix paint on as this pallet.

Just by sharing your favorite craft tip, you will be entered into a drawing for a $100 shopping spree at CreateForLess. Limited to one entry per person, the winner will be contacted via email. Drawing deadline is March 31, 2009. The winner will be randomly chosen and will receive a $100 CreateForLess e-gift certificate. The winner will also be announced in our upcoming eNewsletter and their craft tip will be posted on our website.

Click here, to submit your craft tip! Keep on the look out for your craft tip to appear in a blog post or weekly newsletter!


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