Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

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

In the last few weeks, my summer flowers have begun to fade and the mums are starting to make a showing in my garden. Fall is on the way. From one of the windows of our house we have been watching tiny, bright yellow birds feast of the shriveling heads from our row of sunflowers. It’s been so much fun watching them flit and fly around the plants that I decided to spread the wealth around the house so that we had a view form every window with these sunflower head feeders.

If you don’t have sunflowers growing in your yard, you can sometimes find them through crafts stores, florists or even your local farmers market.

Here’s what you need:

Two sunflower heads per feeder
Floral wire
Ribbon
Needle-nose pliers
Wire cutters
Embroidery needle

1. Use the wire cutters to trim the stalk of the flowers back as far as you can.

2. Cut a 12 inch piece of wire and thread it through the back of one of the flowers. If the wire is bending, use the needle to make a hole in the flower before you push the wire through. Use your pliers to pull it out the front side of the flower and then thread it back through to the back about 1/4 of an inch over from where the first hole is.

3. Using the same wire, repeat the process with the other head so that the two flowers lie back to back.

4. Pull the wired tightly and twist together to secure. Trim ends.

5.  Thread the ribbon between the two heads below where the wire connects them. Bring the two ends of the ribbon up over the top of the flowers and tie a knot just at the edge of the flower heads. Tie another knot in the ribbon about 8 inches up, leaving a loop in between knots.

6. Hang from a tree near a window and watch the birds flock!

By Scrapbook & Paper Crafts Contributor Jennifer, from the blog “So Many Products, So Little Time”.

I love to go green whenever possible, so I try to find ways to reuse objects around the house.  One of my favorite items to reuse is an empty plastic juice container.  I use the Welch’s brand – they are very sturdy and you can even run them through the dishwasher before decorating.  In the past I have decorated quite a few for my scrap room to hold supplies.  My son recently got a new desk for his room so I decorated this can to hold his pencils.  He also loves to write notes to his friends, so I created a matching mini notebook.

Supplies used:

K & Company – Actopus Collection

• 12×12 Paper Pad
• Rub-ons
• Grand Adhesion Sticker

Ribbon
Plastic Juice Container
Composition Notebook (small)
Strong Adhesive

To cover the juice can:

* Cut a strip of paper to cover the entire side of the can and adhere.  You will need to use use a strong tape such as Therm O Web Zips Craft Adhesive Lines.

* Cut a small strip of paper and adhere to the top edge of the can using the same adhesive.

To cover the notebook.

* Cut a piece of paper to cover the notebook and adhere using a strong adhesive

* Apply rub-ons (see picture) to the notebook.

* Affix 3 Dimensional sticker to center of the notebook.

* Adhere piece of ribbon to edge of the notebook.  You can also tie a bow if desired.

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

I love art in the garden, and for a long time I’ve wanted a gazing ball. Why can’t I make one? I wondered just a day or two ago. I decided to give it at try, and take you along with me!

My materials were few:

• A plain, round light globe, vase, jar, or other clear sphere
• Spray paint in shiny metallic silver or gold

First, true confession: I bought two spherical light globes for this at a thrift store, but they disappeared! They would actually be my first choice for the gazing balls, but I did have a small, round vase and a large, perfectly round, jar—no flat spot anywhere, except for where the lid screwed on. Use what you have; it doesn’t even have to be round, as long as it’s a shape you like.

The instructions are as simple as the list of materials. Make sure your sphere is perfectly clean. Protect your work area, and/or work outside. Choose the color you want for your gazing ball, and spray paint the inside of the sphere. Be patient and don’t spray too much at a time or the paint will run. Just short bursts of paint will do it, overlapping until the glass is completely covered.

My spheres aren’t quite a shiny and mirror-like as I’d hoped they’d be, but I do think they look pretty great in the bird bath against the fence. I added a white light globe to the grouping, and have been enjoying the sight of them.

You could also dazzle them up even more by painting a water-proof glue on the outside of your sphere and sprinkling on glitter, in either a matching or contrasting color. I’m contemplating a swirl of gold glitter on the silver ball…What do you think?

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

I don’t know about you, but where I live, it’s full on farmer’s market season. Something new seems to come into season every few days and the stalls, and my garden, are overflowing with produce. Between the peaches and blackberries and beans and corn, we’re entering into the busy season for preserving. Our pantry is beginning to look like we’re preparing for Y2K.

But rather than prepping for disaster, I like to stock up on homemade goodies every summer  in part to have a ready supply of gifts to give come winter. When the snow is falling and the temperature has dropped below freezing, there’s nothing better than a jar of homemade strawberry jam to cheer everyone up. And to help get my self jam-giving ready, this year I’m making ready to go jam covers so that when the time comes, I don’t even have to wrap. One of the styles of covers I’m working on this summer is this simple, stamped burlap cover. And you can make some too in less time than it takes to sterilize your jars.

Here’s what you need:

Burlap
Fabric Scissors
Foam Letter Stamps
Craft Paint
Foam Brush
Newsprint or scrap paper

1.Using one of the rings from your jars as a guide, cut a circle two inches wider all around out of the burlap.

2. Set the circle onto the scrap paper to catch any paint that seeps through the fabric.

3. Brush a light coat of paint onto each letter and, centering the word on the circle, stamp your letters firmly.

4. Allow the paint to dry before tying on with a colorful string of bulky piece of yarn.

Presto! Gift ready!

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

It was the perfect confluence of habits: I love, collect, and acquire a lot of laces, braids, and other trims, our family of two eats a lot of eggs, and I hate throwing things out that look like they could be useful.

I heard that! You’re scratching your head and saying, “HUH?”

Here’s the deal. I’ve been looking at egg cartons for years, trying to think of an afterlife for them. I also groan every time I open the drawer that holds those laces and trims I’m such a magnet for. Hard as I try to keep that drawer tidy, it always ends up seriously jumbled. Yesterday those two things just sort of collided in my brain, and I had an epiphany, just a little-bitty one, but a good one nonetheless.

Here’s what I did. I took an egg carton, in this case one from a five-dozen pack (told you) but a regular one would work as well, cut off the edges, and started wrapping lace trims around it.

The egg cup rows kept the laces in their places, the texture of the paper carton held onto the trims like gentle Velcro, and the rectangles still had just a bit of that nestling instinct. And they fit perfectly into those shoebox size plastic boxes, of which I had several, with room on the ends for a baggie filled with the short bits and pieces left over from past projects.

Now I can either put those boxes in the lace drawer or on a shelf, and instead of trying to riffle through this:

I can pick up one of these and see exactly what I have, without causing a lace explosion!

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

If you’re a crafter, or a blogger, or both, you’ve probably run into times when people have asked about something you’ve made and how they can get one. It’s one of those moments when you think “hmm, I wish I had a business card!” except, it’s hard to justify a whole box of business cards when you just need one here and there. And what if what you’re crafting changes, as it does with most crafty people. Do you order a whole new set of cards? Maybe you just want to have your contact information handy for meeting other moms. What’s a crafty gal to do?

Instead of weighing your desk down with a big box of cards, grab some shipping labels and a stamp kit and have an ever changeable business card making set always at your fingertips! These tags are also handy for gift wrapping, organizing and a myriad of other things, so don’t be afraid to buy in bulk!

Here’s what you need

Letter stamp kit
Fun stamps
 Box of Shipping Labels
Stamp Pad 

Before you break out the tweezers and teeny letters, figure out what you want your card to say. Do you want a phone number or just an email address? Do you have a website or a blog? How do you want your name to look? Do you have a tagline? Write it all down so you can lay out your stamp easily, then pull out those tweezers and start arranging letters. I found my custom stamp kit with the small letters at a business supply store.

Once you have your words ready to go, look through your collection of fun stamps (come on, I know you have some!) and try out a few on your card. Or try cutting the end off the card with pinking sheers, you can even glue small strips of ribbon to the card or play around with embossing. Try out several combinations until you have a few you love and stamp away. Remove the wire from the tag and tuck a few in your bag. The next time someone stops you at the park and asks “where did you get that?” you can come back with “Why, I made it, here’s my card!” And a small business is born

By General Crafts Contributor, Shelly from the blog “Pickwick & Plum”.  

Ever notice how similar Champagne stoppers and vintage cafe chairs look? I’ve been playing with a variety of treatments and here are three that I think might inspire you to ‘look anew’ at that bottle of bubbly you’ve got hid in your pantry. So, pour yourself a glass and plug in the hot glue gun.

Materials for this project might include:

Vintage buttons and millinery
Scraps of trim or rick rack
Odd metal parts or toys
Plastic bird, or sticker
Tinsel
Beads

I recommend letting the seat lead the direction of the rest of the chair. For all three of these, I picked a vintage button for the seat. Only on the Tree Chair, did I flatten one of the sides – but it helped with getting the branches to line up properly. The metal backing of the Blue Chair is half an old drawer plate (the part of a dresser drawer pull that sits against the dresser). It’s nice and thin metal, so it bent well. Although I did help it along with my handy Nibblers (a great tool for metal available at hardware stores).

At the back of the Blue Chair, I stuck a small rod of brass through the button shank. I added some vintage trim and a velvet ribbon to finish it off. It looks a bit art deco in design.

For the tree chair, I simply hot glued some branches together in a row and attached them to the flattened part of the button. I think  I used my heat gun on some old christmas tinsel. Got it nice and scrunched for the nest and sewed three ivory buttons onto it. I then attached a bird sticker to one of the branches. I wrapped the seat with some vintage trim in gold and blue.

This Mod Chair is made using a part of an old lamp. Where the light bulb would be, is the upholstered button. I attached this to the metal with 2 part epoxy. The back seat cushion I made by using another fabric covered button. I dented the middle so it looked more ‘stuffed’ and stuck a metal flower in the center – but you could actually make a small fabric cushion out of some fabric and foam. I wrapped the seat here in red rick-rack to match the red ‘legs’ of the stopper.