Think Crafts Blog - Craft Ideas and Projects - CreateForLess

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

You might not think of glitter glue as a component of adult jewelry. I think I might change your mind with this beautiful falling leaves bracelet made with Big & Glitzy glitter glue. Big & Glitzy is the most amazing, sparkliest glitter glue available. It’s the big gun of glitter glue!

Just look at this leaf charm, the look is almost crystally….because Big & Glitzy is so chunky.

I made this bracelet in less than an hour, not including drying time. You can make this fast and easy bracelet too.

You need:

• 5 gold leaf charms (They are 1 1/4″ tall, but there were a lot of different leaf charms I could have used, I used these)
• Big & Glitzy Glitter Glue: Peridot, Nugget, Ruby, Coral
• gold chain link bracelet
• 5 gold jump rings
• 20-21 assorted size and shape crystal beads in fall colors
• gold craft wire
• round nose pliers
• chain nose pliers
• wire cutters

Try this:

1. Lay your charms on covered work surface. Cover the front of each charm with Big & Glitzy. Pile it on! Refer to Mother Nature’s work for ideas on how to color them in. Let charms dry.

2. Using two pair of pliers, hook the charms evenly across the bracelet with jump rings. Open the jump ring by twisting it open. String a charm on it, place it through the bracelet link, and twist it closed.

My five charms glittered up.

3. Wire wrap beads randomly to fill in the bracelet. If you have never done wire wrapping, google: wire wrapping a loop. There are many good tutorials available. You can also find instructions for wrapping a loop in the back of any jewelry magazine.

4. Humbly accept accolades from friends and family when wearing.

The completed bracelet. You could add more charms or beads if you like. This would also make a very pretty necklace. The great thing about using glitter glue for jewelry is that the glitter does not shed. And with Big & Glitzy, it is just as sparkly as loose glitter.

As they say in Texas, Happy Fall Ya’ll!

Glitter on,
Sparkle

Please welcome experienced crafter and guest blogger Amy, from the blog “Mod Podge Rocks”.

I like clipboards yes I do, I like clipboards how ’bout you?

I’ve had several people tell me recently that they are working on clipboard projects, either for themselves or for gifts. I decided that I wanted to do one too, so I took a dive into the stash and this is what I came up with.

A little research reveal that clipboards are hot for back-to-school this year - but not the typical brown slab with a silver clip.  This year’s clipboards are fun and funky . . . and easy to personalize.  They are also way easier than you might think.  Just follow this tutorial for fabulous results!

"Hi, I'm a boring brown clipboard. To fix me up, gather the following supplies."

Supplies:

Clipboard
Scrapbook paper - 2 coordinating pieces
Acrylic paint - coordinating color (I used Sky Blue)
Spray paint - coordinating color (I used Apple Green)
Craft Glue
Chipboard letters and/or coordinating embellishments
Ribbon - all from my stash
Mod Podge Gloss, 8oz.
Flat paint brush
Ruler
Craft Knife and Mat
Pencil

Start by removing the clip at the top and set it aside.  Time to paint the board.  Paint one side, allow to dry, flip over and paint the other.  Do this at least twice depending on your paint color - I did mine three times because my paint was a little lighter and I wanted great coverage.  Set aside to dry.

While you are waiting for the paint to dry on the clipboard, spray the clip.  I had this extra paint laying around which happened to coordinate.  Lucky me, right?  Either buy spray paint (there are baby sizes now), or use outdoor paint such as this.  You can also use regular acrylic paint, but you’ll need to seal it with acrylic sealer so that it doesn’t scrape off.

While both the board and clip are drying, measure and cut your paper.  My clipboard is 9″ x 12″, and I decided I wanted two pieces of paper that met in the middle.  Therefore, I measured out two pieces of paper, 9″ wide x 6″ tall.

Cut both sheets of paper with your craft knife.  Lay them out on the clipboard (which should now be painted and dry) and make sure that they fit.

You laid out the papers on the board - remove the top piece and cover the board with Mod Podge.  Put on a medium coat, and make sure to get the corners well.  You’re probably going to put on more than you think.  Lay the top piece of paper down and smooth out with your fingers.

 Okay, so the top piece is down.  Repeat the process with the bottom piece.

Now that both pieces are down, you can use either your fingers or a brayer (like I am above) to smooth both sheets down thoroughly.  If any Mod Podge comes out the sides, wipe it away with your paint brush.  Allow these sheets to dry for 15 - 20 minutes, and then Mod Podge over the top of them.  Allow to dry, flip over and then Mod Podge the back of the clipboard to seal the paint.  Allow to dry for at least an hour.

This is always the fun part for me!  You’ll notice that when the Mod Podge dried, I replaced the clip.  I also laid out some ribbon that I had in my stash, a large brown piece and a thinner orange piece.  I had some chipboard letters to make the “Notes” saying down at the bottom, and I had a sticker to adhere to the clip.  I glued everything down with craft glue and allowed to dry for 24 hours.

Here’s the finished clipboard again.  Notice that I tied some ribbon at the top too - they were about 10″ pieces that I just knotted through the hole.  I call the ribbon the “piece de’la resistance.”  That’s French for something really cool!  Enjoy your clipboard, and as always I encourage you to use papers, colors and embellishments that fit your style.  Don’t forget, above all else, have fun!

Welcome Returning Guest Blogger, Annie Authier, from the blog “Thriftfulness”.

Charming and wallet-friendly gift: the knit collar. Bulky scarves are so last December. And with this fun, easy to make collar, your friends can celebrate fall without worrying about frostbite.

I made this on my Knifty Knitter, a knitting loom and a wise investment (under $20) for the needle-impaired. You just wrap the yarn around the pegs for an hour or two while you’re watching your favorite medical drama or reality television competition. The yarn I chose has some fun bright colors in it so that it feels warmer-weathery. You could also unravel an old sweater and use that yarn.

Aah. A warm neck on a blustery day. Looks good pulled up around your chin or folded over (see top pic). Haven’t figured out who I’ll give this to yet. I’ll have to keep my eye out for acquaintences with chin hair or unsightly Adam’s apples so I can be sure this gift gets put to use all year round.

Cost: $1.75 ($20-$25 with new knitting loom and new yarn)

Time: 1 and a half hours.

To read more of Annie’s blog, click here.

Please Welcome Guest Blogger, Annie Authier, from the blog “Thriftfulness”. 

With school starting now is the time of year when the air is thick with promises made in parked cars, deserted beaches, the empty beds of pickup trucks and under the glow of your parents’ motion sensor porch lights. These are the promises of summer lovers and they are, sadly but most assuredly, of the empty variety.

BFs and GFs who met on lifeguard docks, in camp mess-halls, and while holding their roommate’s hair back at house parties all over the United States are, at this very moment, vowing to write, to call, to Facebook chat every day and text sweet nothings every night. Will it happen? Probably not. 

Though the combination of physical distance, ex-boyfriends who forgot how awesome your summer love looks with a tan, and angry fathers waving cell-phone bills is sure to crush your burgeoning romance, I’m one for keeping hope alive. Thus, I give you Goodbye Summer Love Stationary.

Receiving handwritten letters is one of the best feelings ever and making the stationary yourself makes this gift extra personal. Make it for sending your own letters or give it to your summer sweetheart so that he or she can promise to send it back to you chock-cull of XOXOs (though you should know full well you’re never actually going to get that letter). Here are some examples of my own Summer Love Stationary:

Materials:

-Nice paper (splurge on the thick stuff and send your letter in a big mailing envelope to keep your art un-creased)

-Scissors

 -Glue or double sided tape

 -Colorful markers or colored pencils

 -Decorative material: (this can be just about anything) stamps and ink, watercolors, magazine clippings, old greeting cards you’ve saved for no reason, even tiny buttons.

-Perfume or cologne to spritz the paper with (I won’t make a Grease reference; I WON’T make a Grease reference!)

Once you’ve gathered your supplies and ripped yourself from your lover’s embrace, get to decorating. There aren’t many rules to this. Just keep in mind that someone is planning on writing on this so try to decorate on the margins and don’t use paper that is too dark or too bumpy.

For the first sheet (and I like to decorate every page different, although you may want to work in themes) I found a page in a decorating book that I liked and made a color copy of it, then just glued it onto the cardstock and decorated with a fancy “from the desk of:” tab on top.  If you’re low on creativity or time this is probably the best way to go for you.

You can also use pictures from old birthday cards or wedding invitations that you’ve saved for no apparent reason. For the page below (picture is just of the top of the page), I also added some tiny buttons by sewing them to the card-stock. Ordinarily this would mean more money for postage but, because I’m your friend, I’m going to be straight: it’s probably not going to make it to the post office.

Various magazine clippings are also a great decorating tool. This mix-tape I cut out from a magazine ad reads “stories and soundtracks of lost loves” which will most likely end up a fitting irony for whoever receives it. 

In the same magazine, I discovered these lovely mass transit pictures, which I used for decoration in this desperate attempt for a rendezvous cloaked in the lyrics to a Supreme’s song. This picture is of the top of the page and I painted tiny red suitcases down the right side.

One of my favorite ways to decorate is with stamps. Now these can get pricey but they are worth it because they’re pretty and they also last a long time. I use my old-lady-chasing-something stamp whenever I get the chance.

I used my Alice-in-Wonderland stamp to make a final angry plea to my summer lover that he BETTER call.

And finally, for when it’s clear that the relationship has died along with the potted basil plants in the yard, you can pull out the big guns: Tootie. She yelled, “AU gimme back my gold watch” on a hilarious episode of The Facts of Life so that she could remember the periodic table. Your stationary yells it because you gave that slug your gold watch and you want it back.

Make any variation of these Goodbye Love Stationary sets and send them off, you’ll be singing Hey Hey Mr. Postman and crying into your pillow before the last leaves change color. Goodbye summer love. Goodbye summer.

Welcome guest blogger, Mable who is an avid reader of craft blogs & magazines and has aspirations to improve her crafting skills.

Mable Craftsalot  

I love going to craft fairs, Saturday Markets and festivals and browsing the craft booths. I always come home with a new pair of earrings, purse, hand-made soap, photography print… What’s great about crafting is it’s highly unlikely you will see that piece anywhere else. I love reading craft magazines and blogs, I love the pictures! I’ve been reading Think Crafts for the last year and it always makes me anxious to get crafting. I’m what I like to call a “challenged craft dabbler”. My ‘challenges’ are getting impatient with my lack of skills, getting distracted by something shiny, wanting to try all crafts and not having any craft projects around.

My craft dabbles have so far included: crocheting, knitting, scrapbooking, clay work, beading, and using my knifty knitter as an easy way to make hats. Majority of my craft dabbling has been with knitting. I have perfected the knitted scarf! I like to give handmade gifts so my relatives have gotten a scarf every Christmas while I was in college. Since they live in North Dakota, the scarf was practical and very easy and inexpensive to make. Unfortunately my knitting skills have yet to progress past rectangular shapes, but I plan to try other shapes and even patterns very soon! And now that I’ve graduated, it’s time to step up my crafting game.

As a beginner, I have found it’s best to start to learn a craft with a kit or a book. Kits are convenient because the instructions are simple and the pictures are going to be exactly what you are going to be doing. And kits come with the supplies you need. I learn best with pictures because I like to see how to do it, then once I learn the skill I can adjust or change how I feel. 

My goal is to finish the craft projects I start. I want to find project ideas and kits that allow a newbie like me to be able to be successful and also learn a few things. Also I want to improve my skills and maybe find some I didn’t even know I had! For my first project I wanted something new! Something fun!

Everything you need to make a sock monkey

I found this Sock Monkey kit on CreateForLess and had to try it. This kit was easy for a sewing novice and came with everything you need to make your own sock monkey. The kit came with 2 tube socks, felt, buttons, material, instructions, thread, embroidery floss and even a sewing needle. However, you will need to use a sewing machine and have fiberfil stuffing. Making the sock monkey I hand-stitched on the arms, tail, head, ears and hat and also learned a few embroidery stitches for the face and teddy bear. I placed a plastic bag of popcorn kernels in the seat of the sock monkey before I closed it up so it would sit up straighter. Hopefully you can’t tell from the picture, but I really need to improve my blanket stitch (well all my stitches actually!)

Meet PeeJay!

Keep the instructions when you’re done because you never know when you will have two tube socks that need to be turned into a sock monkey!

Recycled Sweater Vest Bag

I love felting wool sweaters and making them into stuff.  I’ve made tote bags, purses and patchwork blankets and jackets. Here’s a quick project that you can make out of a man’s sweater vest in about an hour!  One of the neat things about felting your own wool is that you can control the density of the fabric by the amount of time it spends in the hot wash cycle.  For this project, you want dense, substantial felted wool. 

I used the “Whitest White” setting on my washing machine (about 60 min.)   After a quick trip in the dryer, my sweater was the perfect weight to make an unlined bag.  It’s important to start with the largest sweater you can find, because they shrink A LOT.  My size large sweater shrunk to a small child size!

Here’s what you’ll need

•  A wool sweater vest (I like lambswool or merino wool)
•  A pair of sharp scissors
•  Rotary cutter
•  Small square ruler (I like Creative Grids because they don’t slip)
•  YLI Jean Stitch Thread (or other heavy weight topstitching thread)
•  All purpose thread to match fabric
•  Sewing machine
•  4 decorative buttons

Step 1

Start by cutting off the binding around the neckline - I save all this stuff for some future project that might need a little black edging.

Step 2

Using chalk, draw an enlarged neck opening that is squared off at the bottom.  The bottom edge of the opening should be level with the bottom of the armholes.  With the sweater laying flat on a cutting board, cut along the chalk line through both layers.  -The opening, together with the armholes, form the handle of the bag.

Step 3

Lay sweater flat, with the side seams centered.  The side seams are now the center front and back of the bag.

Step 4

Create a box bottom. Using a small square ruler draw a 2 ½” square in each lower corner.

Step 5

Cut the squares out.  Pin the bottom edges together. 

Sew bottom edges using a ½” seam allowance.  Press seam allowance open and use a triple zig-zag to topstitch over the seam.  This will reinforce the bottom of the bag and hold the seam allowances open.

Step 6

The stitching sinks into the nap of the felted wool to make it virtually invisible.

“Pinch” the square opening closed so that the bottom seam is centered.  Sew across the diagonal opening using a ½” seam allowance. Press seam allowances open and topstitch like you did the bottom seam.

Step 7

Define the bottom of the bag by folding the bag and topstitching between the seams sewn in step 7.  Using chalk, draw a line across the front and back of the bag connecting the ends of the seam created in step 7.  Fold along the line and topstitch 1/8″ away from the fold.  The fold is the very base of the bag and the fabric between the two folds forms the bottom of the bag.

Step 8

Give the bag a unique shape.  Form a box pleat centered on both sides of the bag between the armhole openings. The width of the pleat should be about 1 ½” and take up all the space between the armholes. The pleats should be facing inside the bag.  Use Jean Stitch or other heavy topstitching thread to hand sew the pleat in place.  I whip stitched over the top edge.  Sew a decorative button at the center of the pleat.

Step 9

To finish the shaping of the bag, form a smaller pleat at the center front and back of the bag.

Step 10

Whip stitch the pleat in place.  Add a decorative button to the center front and back. 

Finished!

Click here to read more of Jennifer’s Blog.

Blog Contributor, Crafty Mom and Writer, Gillian, from the Blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”.

When my son was a baby he absolutely could not sleep unless the room was totally dark. The room darkening shades on the market were well out of my budget so I resorted to the use of heavy quilts thumb-tacked over the windows which was effective, but not the most attractive looking solution. Over the years I’ve made all sorts of window treatments for his room and his sisters in the various houses we’ve lived in. Most of them have been far better looking than the old blanket over the window set up, but none were quite as effective.

We have, once again moved into a new house and while room darkening is not as crucial as it once was, it was still important when I set out to decorate the kids new (shared) room. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money because, let’s face it, they’re kids, they like to destroy things. I especially did not want curtains since my daughter has recently become obsessed with swinging from things Indiana Jones style and like many parents, I have a mortal dread of the strings that go along with Roman shades and mini blinds. I  also wanted an attractive, custom look. The solution?

Roller Shades!

Roller shades are about as economical as you can get when it comes to window treatments. The thinner, sun filtering variety ran about $3 at our local Home Improvement store and the thicker, room darkening ones were only slightly more. The problem is, they’re ugly. The white vinyl surface looks more like a shower curtain liner than something you would hang on a window. The saving grace of these is that they are eminently customizable. You can wallpaper them, you can tear the vinyl off and attach heavy fabric to the roller or, if your like me,  you can cover them with leftover sheeting fabric.

Now I know I’m not the only one whose linen cupboard is full of flat sheets that the kids don’t ever use. You know how it goes. You make up the bed with freshly laundered sheets, tuck them in and by the time you come back kiss them goodnight, the flat sheet is either a) crumpled up at the foot of the bed and doing an excellent impression of a strange beast hiding under the covers or b) on floor getting all dirty again. So into the cupboard they go, there to languish and not fade in the wash like the fitted sheet until the pain in no way matches. Well, I say put those sheets to good use! Repurpose them into shades!

To make the shades, you first need to carefully measure your window width. Don’t assume that all your windows are the same width, they can vary by a 1/4 of an inch and with roller shades, that 1/4 of and inch matters. For a truely room darkening effect you’ll want to get the style that hangs on the outside of the window frame so that it covers the whole window. Since neither of my children are that picky anymore, I chose to hang mine along the inside of the frame and measured accordingly.

Once the shades have been cut for you at the store, determine how much you will be pulling out. If you plan to pull the shade to it’s full length, you’ll need to cover the entire thing, but if the shade is much longer than the window, just plan of covering as much as you need plus about six inches.Lay your sheet out on a flat surface and spread the shade(s) on top to decide where you want to cut. For this project, I was able to cover three shades from one flat sheet with a little fabric to spare.

Cut the fabric, leaving a little overhang on each side and about 2 inches at the bottom. Take the shade outside and lay it flat on a clean surface and spray the entire thing with a slow setting spray adhesive. The benefit of the slow setting variety is that it actually benefits the sticking power to wait a few minutes before adhering the fabric, which gives you plenty of time to bring it carefully inside and back onto your flat surface. Position the fabric on top of the shade, making sure to leave that two inch overhang at the bottom. I found that the best way to smooth out bubbles was to pull firmly at the sides of the fabric, starting from the bottom and smoothing as I went up. Once the entire surface is covered, spread some tacky glue on the overhang and carefully fold it over, trimming if necessary to create a smooth effect on the reverse side. Trim the excesss from the long sides and hang.

Finished!

Depending on the fabric you used, you may want to dab some fray check along the edges once the shade is hung and then re-trim any stray thread that may have come loose. Once it’s dry you can roll them up to the length you are looking for and stand back and admire your work.

Click here to read more of Gillian’s blog.