Think Crafts Blog - Craft Ideas and Projects - CreateForLess

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

I’ve enjoyed, and still wear, my fingerless mitts, but spring is coming. Can you feel it? The candytuft in the front yard is already blooming, and the bulbs are up. There’s a fragrant narcissus next to the deck already perfuming the air, and March is, after all the month of spring romances.

That definitely calls for feminine touches of flowers, lace, and all things delicate. Let’s dress our hands in fairy gauntlets for spring!

You’ll need:

• A pretty handkerchief
• Two flower appliques, or flowers cut from lace
• Needle and thread
• Elastic string
• Fabric glue

To begin, make a pattern like the one shown below:

Fold a square of paper the same size as the handkerchief on the diagonal, and measure 4 inches from the point, on the fold. Draw a line straight down from that point. It will be four inches, too. Now measure from the point to about the length of the gauntlet you’re making. (Fold your handkerchief in half on the diagonal, and measure to the center to get that measurement.) Draw a line straight down from there, that’s about 4 1/2 inches long. Now “connect the dots”–draw a straight line from the 4″ line to the line you just drew.

That pattern fits my hand. To be sure it fits yours, open out the pattern and fold it around your hand. It should fit, but not too snugly, but we’re cutting the handkerchief on the diagonal (bias), which will lend stretchiness to it.

You’re done with the hardest part!

Fold your hanky into quarters, on the diagonal, and pin your pattern to it, with the long side on the fold, and cut. On the short side, the opposite end of the points, there will be another fold. Split that, which creates the two pieces you need:

On the short sides, away from the point, iron a narrow hem, but don’t stitch it yet.

Now, with the right sides of each gauntlet folded together, stitch the long sides, using a narrow seam, and then stitch the hem. 

You now have two tubes, with a pretty point on one end, and a straight hem on the other. All you need now is a way to keep them in place on your hands. To do that, thread a darning needle with a length of elastic string/thread. (I’ve chain crocheted mine, to make it heavier, but it isn’t strictly necessary to do that.)

Insert the point of the needle in the right side of one of the flowers and pull through, leaving a loop that will comfortably fit around your middle finger. Take a single stitch to secure it, tie a knot, and cut the thread. Repeat with the other flower.

On the wrong side of each flower, spread a thin coat of fabric glue. (I used Aleene’s Okay to Wash It.) Glue the flowers to the inside of the gauntlet, just below the points. Let dry, and you’re done!

One last thing: You still have two corners of your hanky left. If the hankerchief is a fair sized one, they’re actually large enough to make sweet little gauntlets for a child of age 3 to 6 or so.

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

Recently, I saw a very expensive set of glass pitcher and 4 glasses in a nice specialty store.  It made me want to have a picnic right then.  The glass was fused and had many colors decorating it.  I knew that I could make something I would like just as much.  Target had inexpensive blanks, I bought 4 glasses in a set for $1.99.  Can’t beat that!

I sat at my work table for a couple hours, put in a DVD movie and started glittering.  There is no pattern to follow.  Just make circles.  So easy and so pretty!

You Need:

Sparkle 21: 2 bottles each Vintage Sparkle, Ocean Sparkle, Jungle Sparkle (or other colors of your choice)

Clear pitcher and glasses

Try This:

Clean outside of pitcher and try not to touch the clean surface.

On surface of pitcher, randomly using three colors, make circles of Sparkle 21.

Make them close together.  Some circles will have one color, some two, some three.   Make circles travel up the sides of the pitcher as high as you desire.  Let dry completely before using.

Glasses: Repeat same process for glasses.

TIP: Sparkle 21 is permanent on glass.  Let it cure at least 48 hours before using.  It can be washed by hand.  Do not submerge in sink for extended period or put in the dishwasher.

Use colors that match your dishes, or wedding colors, or school colors.

Glitter on!

Sparkle

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

Although the weather outside is cold and gray, inside I seem to have nothing but spring on my mind these days. And with our front door bare of its Christmas wreath, it seemed like a good time to welcome spring, even if it’s a little early, with a bright and cheerful wreath.

I started out wanting to make a paper flower wreath but with the inevitable rains and snows (eek!) of late winter and early spring, that didn’t seem like a great idea. What I needed was plastic. But where oh where could I find thin white plastic?

About this time I was pouring my kids a glass of milk. From a white plastic jug.

Light dawned.

The fridge and recycling bin were literally full, overflowing almost, with thin white plastic tubs, jugs and cartons. Which meant that not only could I make the wreath I had in mind, it would also be practically free!

Here’s what you need:

A Variety of milk jugs, yogurt containers and other white plastic items from the recycling bin. You’ll need more than you think so gather quite a few (hint: organic milk often comes in white milk jugs while non organic is more clear, a mix is fine but you do want more of the solid white variety)

Circular objects of different sizes to trace (cups, bows and lids work well, you want about 5 or more different sizes)

Permanent Marker

Hot glue gun and sticks

A dozen pretty buttons and/or sticky backed rhinestones in a variety of sizes

1 flat wreath form

10 inches of ribbon

Kitchen shears or other sharp scissors

Rinse all the containers in soapy water and allow to dry. Using kitchen shears, cut the tops and bottoms off the jugs and the bottoms off of any tubs, then cut a slit down the length of the remaining tube or square. You should now have roughly rectangular pieces of flat plastic. It they are curling too much, run them under hot water and lay them flat under something heavy for a little while to help them relax.

Trace circles all over the plastic, squeezing as many in as possible. Make sure the different types of plastic have different sizes of circles on them. Labels can either be soaked off or taken into account when cutting the flowers. I left mine on to add extra patterns to the flowers since from the back they just see white.

Time to start cutting flowers! Start by cutting out the circles and then cutting almost to the center at the top, bottom and two sides so you have four even sections.

From there you can continue cutting until you have the number of petals you want. You can also remove wedges at the four points (or more) to make more widely spaced petals, cut a wavy edge or free hand small round petals.

Once you have all your circles cut into flower shapes, start layering them into flowers. Experiment a little with different combinations until you are satisfied and then glue the flowers together, finishing them off with a button or rhinestone. Be sure to leave a few flower pieces unlayered to help form a base layer on the wreath form.

Set your finished flowers around the form to decide on the layout of the wreath. Mark the spot where the top will be and where any gaps are between the flowers. Set the flowers aside and attach the leftover flower pieces to the spots where there were gaps and the ribbon (measure how long you will need in for your front door) at the top. Now you can glue the flowers onto the form to finish the wreath.

Since the wreath isn’t really even specifically spring like, it’s a great all purpose wreath for the whole year. But I find myself happily thinking of spring every time I see the bright white flowers festooning my front door. What about you? What crafty ways are you getting ready for spring?

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

So you know the expression “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey”? Well, that applies to crafts too. The doing is just as much fun, if not more, than the satisfaction of the finished product. And sometimes, making the stuff to make the stuff is the best part of the whole thing. This is one of those projects.

At the end of this project your going to have yarn. Yarn is good. There are lots of things you can do with yarn. But, you know, it’s yarn. Granted, this isn’t your average yarn, but it works in just about everything that regular yarn does. The fun part about this, is making the yarn.

Here’s what you need:

• An old (or new) t-shirt, Preferably one with no side seams but an old T will work
• Good, sharp fabric scissors
• Someone who likes to stretch things (hint: your kids would be good for this job)

If you want to be precise:

• A ruler

Lay your t-shirt out on a flat, clean surface.

Cut just above the hem line and just below the armpit line so that you have a nice rectangle of uninterupted t-shirt fabric.

With one of the folded edges up, fold the fabric in half, leaving a one inch space at the top uncovered and then fold it in half again, still not covering that one inch area.

Either measuring evenly across the folded fabric or, just eye-balling it (it doesn’t need to be perfect) cut even strips through the folds to the edge of where the one-inch margin is. (DO NOT CUT ALL THE WAY ACROSS!) If your kids are of the older and/or trustworthy sort, let them do the measuring and cutting. One inch strips works well but you can go wider or narrower to produce a thicker or thinner yarn.

Once you have the fabric cut all the way across and have unravelled the whole thing, lay the uncut portion out flat.

Cut at an angle from one end of the first loop up to the opposite end of the next loop up. Continue this until you have cut them all through, trimming the ends so that you have one long strip of jersey.

Now for the fun part. Working along the length of the strip (or really, in any direction your little pullers want) firmly pull on the fabric to stretch it as far as it will go without breaking.

The jersey will curl in on itself creating a thin, rounded yarn like material.

So what CAN you do with t-shirt yarn. Well, like I said, just about anything you can do with yarn. It’s also a great material to make braided rugs or pot holders, both great kid projects. I taught my son to finger crochet and he happily used up an entire t-shirts worth of yarn making a long chain which he promptly carried off to do something with, I’m not sure what, but since I remember making finger crocheted chains long enough to go all the way around my room when I was seven, I’m not too worried. As for the rest? Well, I’ll confess that I rolled up five t-shirts worth of yarn and stuck them in a big bowl on my dining room table. Just because it looked so darn pretty.

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

Okay, admit it. You were so sure there’d be a way to use those spiffy metal tins you used to get in the mail from AOL, the ones that held a CD, that you saved every one of them. Do you still have them? Because I fnally found a way to use mine, and I’m so excited about it that I’m going to show you what I did!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• CD tin
• Gesso
• Fabric
• Cut outs from old magazines
• Alphabet stickers, or the word “Recipe” cut from a magazine or book
• Small adornments–lace, buttons, string, etc.
• Glue
• Every pair of scissors you own (Just kidding, but you’ll be cutting paper and cloth a variety of ways.)
• Sheet of paper or plastic for template

First, protect your work surface, then paint your tin on all sides with the Gesso. You don’t need to paint the inside.

Let that dry. If you have a second tin you haven’t painted, you can go ahead and trace around it to make a template/pattern. (Or you could do this step before doing the painting.) There’s a bit of a bead around the rim of the tin where the top goes over the bottom, so be sure you don’t use that edge to draw around, or your pattern will be too big.

Choose the fabric you’re going to use for the background, if you haven’t already, and lightly trace around you pattern. (Placement is easier if you’ve used something transparent for the pattern–the lid from a take-out box works well, or a sheet protector.) Use pinking shears to cut fabric out.

You could glue the fabric to your tin now, or do what I did, which was to cut an identical piece from an old book and sew all the way around. I find it’s easier to glue the paper down flat than fabric, to tell the truth, but I also liked the look of the stitching.

Now the real fun begins. Go through your old magazines and/or cookbooks, and find images and slogans you like. If you can’t bear to cut the actual book, you can make copies to use.

Arrange the pictures and words you’ve found on the fabric-covered tin lid. Leave room for “Recipes” if you want to include that. Glue everything down securely.

Last, use your paper pattern to cut a piece for the back of the tin from the index of an old cookbook.

Put recipe cards inside to finish. I made my own, but store-bought works just fine.

These are like potato chips for me. I just can’t stop, and I’m thanking my lucky stars these are no-calorie treats!

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

When it comes to patterns, brochures, magazines, and booklets, we crafters can be a bit compulsive. I try to sort through and weed out, but even so, I have dozens and dozens of slender “volumes” to keep track of. I’m sure many, if not most, crafters are similarly blessed.

How to keep them all straight and accessible? Stacking those slim items is inefficient and untidy. Since they don’t have readable spines, shelving them with your books doesn’t work either.

A filing cabinet might be the first, most logical, choice, but that’s not always an option. My solution is one I ran across years ago, in The Messies’ Manual. The authors were talking about children’s books, but I quickly saw a personal adaptation.

I use the big tins you can buy cookies in this time of year. They’re available new, full of cookies (my favorite!), or you can find them at yard sales and thrift stores, and they are just exactly the width you need for the average magazine.

Stand them in the tins with the front pages facing the front, and put the tin on your book shelf. Now, when you want to find a particular leaflet or magazine, you can slide the tin out, and riffle through until you spot it.

I’ve got four of those tins so far, and use each for a different crafting category–sewing, beading, crochet, and miscellaneous. Since they are all basically an elongated octogonal shape, the front and back are narrower, which is handy for the smaller booklets, and also makes a good place to stash my crochet hooks.

Oh, and it’s still a really great way to keep children’s books organized, too!

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

Have you noticed how popular cuffs are these days? It seems as though you see them everywhere. There’s a lot to like about them–a fun new fashion to try, the way a wide band can disguise a rather knobby wrist (mine), and the fact that men and boys are wearing them, because it gives us another gift option for the guys.

I decided to try making some, using recycled belts. This is what you’ll need if you decide to try it yourself:

• A belt with at least two rows of grommets down its length
• Electrical wire (Note: The toaster doesn’t have enough. Old computers are a good source.)
• Cord end findings (I’m using the spring type, but other styles would work as well.)
• A few links of chain
• A 1/2″ to 3/4″ lobster clasp
• Pliers and wire cutters

First cut a length of belt about 5″ long, with an odd number of grommet pairs. Five pair is good.

Now cut two pieces of wire, each a couple of inches longer than twice the length of the belt piece. Fold each piece gently into a “U” shape, and thread the ends through the first pair of grommets, from the underside of the cuff to the top:

Lace the ends of the wire down the length of the cuff, criss-crossing on top, going straight from hole to hole on the bottom:

Take the other piece of wire and do exactly the same thing, but start from the other end. You can use two colors of wire, as shown below, or a single color:

Slide a cord end on each end. If your cord ends are large enough, you can put both wire ends through one; otherwise, slide one on each of the four wire ends. You can join them together with the chain links.

Cut the wires off so they don’t show, and don’t get in the way of the open coil on the end, and then use your pliers to mash the last coil on the end nearest the cuff to clamp the cord end on. Give it a good tug to make sure you’ve clamped it tight enough, and if it slips, mash it a bit more.

Open up one link of your chain, and slip on the lobster clasp and cord end loop.

Use three to five links of chain for the other end of the cuff, and attach as you did the lobster clasp.

Some finished cuffs: