Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

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

As a crafter, I have TONS of bags.  Some of the bags I have are merely functional rather than good looking, so I like to embellish them.  Ones of the ways I embellish things are with pins!  Pins can be small or large, and they are easy to make with supplies that you probably already have on hand.  Pins are great scrapbusters!  They can also be made pretty quickly and give as gifts.  As you can see, my pin is inspired by summer.

To make, you’ll need to gather these supplies:

Chipboard shape  – approximately 2″ x 4″
K&Company Berry Sweet Paper and Chipboard Fruit Embellishments 
Mod Podge Matte 
FolkArt Acrylic Paint – Yellow Citron, Hot Pink (or coordinating colors)
Pink Rhinestones  
Wood Letter – initial of your choice
Pin back 
Craft Glue 
Scissors 
Pencil

Take a small piece of scrapbook paper a little larger than your chipboard piece and trace.  Cut the shape out and set aside.

Paint your chipboard shape and letter – since they are so small, I just painted them both on both sides.  Cover completely and allow to dry.

Spread Mod Podge on the top of your chipboard shape.  Grab the paper you cut and smooth down thoroughly.  You can use your hands – I always use a brayer because it works *really* well.  Allow to dry for 15 – 20 minutes.

You are now ready to coat the top.  Give a medium layer of Mod Podge and allow to dry for 15 – 20 minutes.  I also put a coat of Mod Podge onto my letter “A.”

Time to add embellishments!  I used craft glue to add the letter “A,” the strawberry and then one rhinestone in each corner for a little bling.  Allow to dry.

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

Do you ever buy something just because it’s cool, even though you don’t have (yet!) any use for it? I had this setting on my dresser for a long time for that very reason:

It’s a drapery tieback. Just one. Didn’t have a mate, and anyway, I didn’t need one, since the only draperies in the house were already quite adequately, and prettily, held back. I was dusting the other day, and picked it up, and as I did so, my eyes fell on the overflowing necklace rack.

Now, there’s another thing. I love necklaces, even though I almost never wear one. When I find one that’s really pretty, and really inexpensive, usually in a thrift shop or at a garage sale, I do the only reasonable thing: I buy it!

Suddenly, the tieback and the necklaces collided head-on in my mind. Of course! Hang the tieback vertically, and hang the necklaces on it!

There’s very little you need to know more than that, but here’s the bit you do need:

Screw or nail your drapery tieback into position on the wall. You’ll see that, probably, the part that does the hanging up shows above the pretty bit in front.

Options:

• Paint the nail/screw heads to match
• Cover with a pretty magnet
• Glue on an attractive button or piece of (preferably) broken jewelry

Now hang up your necklaces. Done, and Done!

By Crafts-a lot Contributor, Mable who is an avid reader of craft blogs & magazines and has aspirations to improve her crafting skills. 

It’s June and there are blooms everywhere! I live in the Northwest where it’s green most of the year, so it’s raining most of the year… I don’t mind the rain because it makes our trees, grass, and flowers so pretty. There’s no wonder why Portland is the City of Roses.

It’s almost July and it’s still been pouring here! Since I’ve been inside away from the rain,  I made these easy flowers to decorate for summer. More importantly to decorate me! All you need to decorate yourself for summer is…

Organza fabric
Scissors 
Beacon 3-in-1 Adhesive 
Lighter
Beads or rhinestones 
Felt
 Pin back, head band, bobby pin, hair clip (anything you’d like)

I started by cutting lots of different sized circles from the organza, the largest had a 3″ diameter to the smallest at 1/2″. Since a flower isn’t a perfect circle, it’s not necessary to trace, just wing-it. I stacked the circles on top of each other, so the bottom is biggest. The next circle is a little smaller, until you get to the smallest circle on top. Each flower has about 5-6 circles of organza.

Next I lightly ran a lighter around the edges of each circle so the fabric melts and starts to curl.  Once you have curled all the edges of the circle layers, sew them together and use a bead for the center. You can accent with rhinestones or buttons or feathers…

To attach the flower onto your hair clip or pin, glue a piece of felt on the back. I attached my handmade flowers to a headband, a hair tie, a clip and a pin back. I also added a flower to card I mailed to my mom. They are so easy to make and can be used to decorate anything!

I sewed a flower onto a hair tie to accent a pony tail

A few of my favorites!

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

In the past, finding a way to incorporate shank buttons in jewelry has kind of stymied and frustrated me, because there are so many really beautiful buttons just crying to be used. I begin to think I’ve found the answer. I’m also happy to say I’ve found a use for the beads from a rather unattractive necklace from a thrift store. Yes! You can recycle jewelry!

So, if you want to try this bracelet, you might start here:

A Small Shank Button Tutorial

The bracelet enlarges on that technique. So, pictures first, and then a bit of explanation on the difference between using the buttons for a bracelet and using them for earrings.

This is the finished bracelet:

And this is what I used:

• 5 vintage shank buttons,  about 5/8″ (1.59cm)
• 5 charcoal mother-of-pearl flat circle beads, about 1″ (2.54cm) in diameter
• 12 oblong vintage black plastic “jet” beads, about 1/2″ (1.27cm) long
• 12 head pins,  2 1/2″ (6.35cm) to 3″ (7.62cm) long
• 36 black seed beads 
• 2 round vintage plastic “jet” beads 
• 4 small silver bead caps 
• 1 clasp 
• Non-tarnishing silver wire,  20 gauge

Here’s a photo of the back of the bracelet:

As you can see, I didn’t fill the gap between the shank of the button and the ring bead, which added one more possibility for movement to the piece. It also wasn’t necessary to bring the wire to the back of the bead to prevent the beads’ spinning to show the wrong, or back, side–your wrist will do that.

So the process would be to make a wrapped loop on one end of a piece of wire about 2 1/2″ (6.35 cm) long, string on one side only of the circle bead, then the shank button, and then run the wire through the other hole in the bead, ending in another wrapped loop. After the first bead group, of course, you’ll want to join the wire-wrapped loops as you go, to create a chain of wire, buttons, and beads.

When you’ve joined the five buttons, measure the bracelet to your wrist, to see if you need another button-bead link. My wrist measures about 6 3/4″ (17.1 cm), so five was about right. More length will be added by the clasp assembly, in this case a silver capped bead wire-wrapped to each part of the clasp and the bracelet ends.

After you’ve created the basic bracelet, string the head pins:

• 4 head pins strung with one oblong bead and three seed beads
• 4 head pins strung with one oblong bead and two seed beads
• 4 head pins strung with one oblong bead and one seed bead

Attach one of each group to the loops joining the bracelet links, using a wire-wrap or simple loop. (I prefer to wire-wrap, as it’s sturdier, and looks nice, myself.)

To make the matching earrings, I followed the process given in the A Small Shank Button Tutorial.

With these earrings, I did fill the space between the button shank and the inside edge of the circle beads, as I wanted the button to be centered on the ring.

As you can see, I also brought the wire used for the stringing and upper loop to the back, to keep them from spinning.

Finish the earrings with a dangle made from one oblong bead and a seed bead, and add the earring wires.

Just for fun, here are three more pairs, made using the same basic technique:

Notice that in the last pair, I brought the spin-stopping wire to the front, for some extra design oomph.

This was fun for me. Hope it gives you some fun, too!

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

It amazes me when, despite the fact that I’ve stopped subscribing to print papers (I read them online) and have signed up for as many e-bills as I possibly can, out house still amasses a shocking amount of paper each week in the recycling bin. Flyers, junk mail, school announcements, all end up as fire starters in the winter and as plain old recycling the rest of the year. This week as I pulled yet another glossy sale flyer out of my mailbox I remembered an old project my mom and I did when I was a little girl.

Back then our house was always, literally, full of newspapers. My dad, after all was first a reporter, then an editor, and finally a publisher, of both daily and weekly newspapers. I once won a newspaper drive when my dad and I carted in a years worth of overprints and back issues to the school, three pickup truck loads. Cheating? Maybe, but at least they got recycled instead of rotting away in the backroom of the paper, threatening to catch the place on fire.

I remember this as being one of those go-to rainy day crafts and, although I hadn’t done it for years, all it took was one bead to get back in the swing. It’s a little bit addicting and the possibilities for colors and sized are pretty much endless. And, if you have a girly girl like mine, well, you can make (free!) jewelry to her heats content anytime you have some extra paper lying around. Which, let’s face it, it probably all the time.

You’ll need:

Paper – any thing works but colorful ads make some of the best beads
Tacky Glue
Metal or bamboo skewer
Scissors or paper cutter

Start by cutting a few trial strips to determine the size of your beads. They will be as long as the widest part of your strip and the thickness will be determined by how long the original strip is. My favorite size is about a 10 inch long stip, 1 inch at the top and 1/4 inch at the bottom. Once you have the size you like, cut as many strips as you need beads.

With the widest end of the strip pressed against your skewer, tightly roll the paper around until you are 1/2 inch from the bottom.

Dab the very end in glue and continue rolling, using your thumb to press down the end for a moment before spreading any remaining glue around the outside. Give the glue a few seconds  to set up and then carefully slide the bead off the skewer.

This craft can also be done with younger children using strips of newsprint for the paper and something wider, like a dowel, to wind the beads on. The finished beads can be used as is, painted, or even clear coated. Mine ended up on a ribbon as a bracelet which I wore for maybe 30 seconds before it was claimed by the fashionista of the house, who wore it day and night until the dog “borrowed” it. *Hint*, these are not dog proof. But luckily they are free, so a replacement was just a few rolls away.

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

Do you ever just feel creatively uninspired? Me, too. When that happens, nothing gets my juices flowing like browsing through beading supplies, whether it’s in person, with a catalog, or online. I especially love Blue Moon beads-so much pretty for such a small thing!

The other day I came across a new (to me, anyway) jewelry finding-a bangle bracelet with knob on each end that unscrewed to let you slide on whatever additional elements you chose. I had to play with them. (And that’s another way to spark creativity, isn’t it? Just sit with your materials and play.)

I’ll spare you the couple that purely did not work, but show you five that did:

I began by seeing what each chain would look like, using different sizes and metals, and threading it on in different ways:

Hard to choose a favorite, but I really like that gold on silver!

Then I thought I’d try putting together something a bit over-the-top glitzy. I dug through my broken jewelry stash, and came up with two pendants without necklaces, two single earrings, and a broken pin. Perfect.

I created a wire-wrapped loop connector for each of them. The pendants were easy, since they both had loops to attach my wire. The earrings, I took my round-nose pliers and bent the post into a loop. The pin took more ingenuity, but wire and pliers did the trick.

Once I’d done that, I threaded the newly-created dangles on. Not great. When I put the bracelet on, all the dangles swooped to the downward side of my wrist. To counter that, I took a length of silver wire, curled a tiny loop on one end to eliminate the sharp point, and wound it around the bracelet in a spiral, adding dangles as I went. Nylon-jawed pliers held the wire in place without marring either it or the bracelet.

Broken jewelry lives again!

As I worked on the bracelets, a pile of mother-of-pearl beads caught my eye. I’d peeled them off a set of coasters I found in a thrift store. The coasters were kind of cool, but awfully permeable looking. The beads, though…!

So that was my last bracelet experiment. Using two silver jump rings for each bead, one to go through the top hole, and one to go around the bracelet’s shank, I filled the bracelet. It’s my favorite:

Best thing: The way these bracelet “bases” are made, a new bracelet is as easy as taking the knob off again, sliding off the old, and sliding on the new!

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

Are we in full scurry mode yet? I know I am, gatherings to attend, and Arts & Crafts shows to prepare for. Honestly, there are times when I have so much to do, I just come to a full stop, not knowing what task to do next.

Efficiency becomes more important at this time of year than at any other, and I look for shortcuts.

I’d like to share a speed wire wrap hint: Do as much as you can assembly line style.

For instance, a simple wrapped loop has a number of steps. Fully described, they are:

1. Pick up spool of wire and wire cutters.
2. Measure out the length you need, and cut.
3. Put down the wire cutters, pick up the round nose pliers, and make a wrapped loop.
4. Put down the round nose pliers, pick up the wire cutters, and cut off the excess.
5. Put down the wire cutters, pick up the flat nose pliers, and squish the end of the wrap flat.
6. String on a bead.

That’s six steps, with six tool changes, per bead. Multiply that by the number of beads you need, say seven, and that’s 42 steps, with 42 tool changes.

Now, instead of that, try this:

1. Pick up spool of wire and wire cutters.

2. Measure out the length you need, and cut as many pieces of wire as you’ll need. (Say, seven.)

3. Put down the wire cutters, pick up the round nose pliers, and make all the wrapped loops.

4. Put down the round nose pliers, pick up the wire cutters, and cut off the excess on each of the seven pieces.

5. Put down the wire cutters, pick up the flat nose pliers, and squish all the ends flat.

6. String a bead on each of the wrapped loop eye pins you’ve created.

That’s still six steps, and six tool changes, but you’ve done all the beads.  You just saved yourself 36, count ‘em, thirty-six, tool changes. That’s a time saver, even if you’re making just one thing. If you’ve got multiple items to make, it really does add up.  It also has the advantage of being something you can do ahead of time, even when you don’t have the time or inclination to attempt an entire jewelry piece.

You can continue similarly with the rest of the piece you’re creating. 

If you’re making a bracelet, or other item that ends with a clasp, you’ll need to leave both loops unfinished on the end bead, one to attach to the chain of beads you’ve created, and the other to accept the clasp.