Think Crafts Blog - Craft Ideas and Projects - CreateForLess

Returning Guest Blogger, Diane Gilleland, from the Blog and Podcast “CraftyPod“.

I used to Drink out of my Bracelet.

Tiffany Threadgould wrote the greatest article for CRAFT 03 about turning plastic soda bottles into all kinds of useful things. I especially loved her Photo Cuff bracelets.

Ever since that article, I’ve been eyeing the plastic bottles in my recycle bin, and last night, lightning struck. Here’s my bottle-bracelet variation, using felt!

A 16-oz (500 ml) water bottle makes a particularly good bracelet, fitting my wrist comfortably with a little room to spare. Besides, many water bottles have nifty horizontal ridges around their middles, which make for perfect cutting guidelines.

You can use a utility knife or even a sharp kitchen knife to poke through the side of your bottle. (Be very careful with this! Make sure the bottle is on a stable surface, and anchor it so it want roll or jump.)

Using the slit you’ve just made as your starting point, cut all the way around the bottle, using one of those ridges as your guide. Scissors will work fine for this - use the big, tough ones you keep around for the heftier cutting jobs.

Now, make a perpendicular cut (see the blue arrow above). Then choose another ridge to cut along - based on how wide you want your finished cuff to be. Cut around the bottle again.

Great! You now have a rough bracelet. You’ll want to trim about 1/4″ to 1/2″ off of each end, so there’s a little gap in the middle. You’ll also want to round off the ends. I used a circle template and traced it with a Sharpie, but you can also trim the ends free-hand.

Now, cut two strips of felt. They should be a little longer than your plastic form, and about 1/4″ wider. Decide at this point how you want to decorate your bracelet. There are lots of possibilities here - you can do felt applique, or bead embroidery, or regular embroidery, or silkscreen, or stencils . . . .

Do all your embellishment on one of the felt pieces. I recommend keeping about 1/2″ of felt at each end of this strip unadorned, because you may want to trim it off later. (I didn’t do that here, and it came back to bite me . . . .)

Now, put your two pieces of felt together, right sides out. Begin joining them with a whipstitch along one of the long edges. Stop stitching when you reach the rounded end. (By the way, futuregirl has the best tutorial ever on how to stitch felt.)

Insert your plastic form into the felt, and adjust the felt as necessary so it lies smoothly against the plastic. Wiggle the plastic form a bit so that you have a roughly equal amount of felt at each of the rounded ends of the bracelet. Now, you might need to trim a little felt away from the ends, so that you have about 1/8″ sticking out beyond the plastic form.

After that, continue your whip-stitching until you’ve stitched the felt together completely.

And that’s it! These bracelets are lightweight and comfortable to wear, and hold their shape beautifully.

Be sure to check out Tiffany’s website for lots more great reclaimed-material projects, including a soda bottle candy dish.

To read more of CraftyPod, Visit her website.

Welcome Gust Blogger, Barbara Matthessen, for Earth Safe Finishes.

Belt Bracelets

Recycle thrift store or old belts into fun and funky bracelets.  You can make 3, 4 or even 5 bracelets from a single belt and give them all different personalities with earth friendly paints, chains and beads.  Why not make a batch of these for gifts or to coordinate with every outfit you own?

Materials:

Leather or leather like belt

Opaque Shimmers from Earth Safe Finishes in your choice of colors 

Toggle or hook clasp

1″ chain or 22 GA wire to match clasp

Jump Rings

Strong scissors or leather shears

Leather/belt hole punch

Paint brushes, liner for details

Jewelry making tools, pliers and wire cutters

Optional extras:

Additional chain

Beads

Metal tags

Kevlar thread or wire to attach the above

Instructions:

1. Cut your belt 1″-1 ½” shorter than your normal bracelet size depending on how loose or tight you like to wear them.  (Don’t worry about the existing belt holes you can either ignore them or bead through them later.)  Trim corners round, on a diagonal or leave straight.

2. Punch holes on both ends about 1/8″ inch.

3. Paint your belt using Shimmers with your choice of colors.  Some are a random splash of colors, some use the existing embossed pattern and some are freeform patterns. You may also choose to use a stencil or rubber stamp to create your image.  Allow the paint to dry.

4. Attach your closure with jump rings or a combination of chain, jump rings or wire. If you are using a toggle make sure to add in a small chain on the bar end to make it easier to attach the bracelet.

5. Embellish more if you like! Stitch on beads, charms, buttons or trinkets using Kevlar thread.  Knot on the back then dot each knot with a dab of glue when you are done.

More Fun: Wire on tags by using a flat bead with a head pin run through it on the underside.  Wrap the ends of the head pins around holes in the tag, secure with more wraps then trim the ends. Add sections of chain by attaching chain ends to jump rings on each end. There are a million and one ways to make this bracelet so try it out today!

Learn more about Earth Safe Finishes HERE.

Welcome Guest Blogger, Diane Gilleland, from the Blog and Podcast “CraftyPod”.

CraftyPod is made by me, Sister Diane - aka Diane Gilleland. I’ve made things my whole life, and would gladly give up most household chores for an afternoon of serious crafting. When I’m not crafting, I produce podcasts, and make zines, and write and blog about crafts. I live in Portland, Oregon - the coolest city ever. I also run DIY Alert, a website for Portland crafters. If you’re a local, you should check it out.

How to Make a Cool Button Pendant

Here’s what we made at Church of Craft yesterday: Button Pendants. They use good old plastic canvas as their base, which means they can easily be converted to pins. Speaking of which, Susan has two great button projects in Bead Simple that use those plastic canvas rounds. (That’s Page 147 and 213, for you book owners.)

So, you begin with some small pieces of plastic canvas. The 10-count variety is best - the more-commonly available stuff with the larger holes. Start with a piece that’s roughly the size you want your finished pendant to be, plus a little larger. This is a very flexible project, so you can always cut away excess canvas, or even add more later.

Next, gather some cool buttons. You’ll want a mix of sew-through and shank buttons. And you’ll also need some coated copper craft wire in either 24-gauge or 28-gauge. I like 24 myself, but if that seems to stiff to handle, try some 28. You can use any color of wire, by the way.

Okay, now we’re going to wire these buttons to the plastic canvas. Begin with one of your sew-through buttons. Position it on the canvas and move it slightly until you’ve lined up the holes in the button with the holes in the canvas.

Take about an arm’s-length piece of wire. Thread one end through the first set of holes, passing through the button and the canvas. Pull the wire through until there’s about a 6″ tail of wire sticking out from the back of the canvas.

Poke the leading end of the wire back down through the other set of holes - again, passing through both the button and the canvas. Carefully pull the wire through until you have just a little stitch or wire on top of the button. (If your button is a four-hole button, then take another stitch with the wire through those holes, too.)

Now, here’s something to watch out for as you pull your wire through the canvas: it will want to twist up. Take lots of care to avoid these twists! If you pull twisted wire too much, it will kink, and kinked wire can easily break. So, any time your wire begins twisting, stop a moment and un-twist it before you continue pulling.

Let’s add a shank button to our pendant now. Shanks are great, because they can overlap the sew-through buttons and give your pendant some nice dimension.

Place your shank button where you like it on the pendant, and then look at it from the side, like this. Make sure the hole in the shank is in a location you can easily reach. (If it’s not, just spin the button around.) And then, guide the leading end of the wire up through the canvas so that it’s close to where this hole is.

Now that you have the wire positioned, you can thread the button onto it. Scoot it down the wire until it’s back in place on the pendant.

. . . And then pass the wire back down through the canvas, and pull it tight. Apologies for the focus here.

This is a good time to mention: for sew-through buttons, I’ve found that one set of wire stitching is plenty to hold it to the canvas. For shank buttons, I like to stitch them twice, so they don’t flop around.

If you’re using vintage buttons that have wire shanks, these will always have a tendency to flop. You may have to anchor them with a little glue later on.

Keep wiring buttons to your pendant. You can really get creative, stacking buttons on top of each other, and you can of course add beads and other embellishments.

You can even wire a button to the outside edge of your canvas, as seen here. Or, if you decide to make your pendant larger, you can cut a second piece of canvas and wire it to the back of the first one.

When you’re done wiring on buttons, flip your pendant over. You’ll have all these stitches on the back. Finish off the two loose ends of your wire by weaving them under a few of these stitches.

Cut the end very short, like 1/4″ or less, and then use some needle-nose pliers to bend that end down into the canvas, so it won’t stick you when you wear your pendant. Finish off both loose ends this way.

By the way, sometimes you’ll end up with excess canvas sticking out from under the buttons. No worries - you can simply cut this away with scissors. . . . And your wire-cutters can help you reach into tighter spots.

See? Custom-shaped backing. You can also cover this back with felt, if you’re so inclined.

To read more of “CraftyPod”, visit her Blog.

One of my 2009 resolutions (or goals as I like to call ‘em!) was to finish at least one craft project BEFORE I started a new one.  I know I can’t be alone in the fact that I’ve always got at least a half a dozen projects going on at a time.

I’m not sure why I end up with a few unfinished projects.  Maybe I get bored or sidetracked or couldn’t find the unfinished bracelet under all the books I have piled on my worktable.  No matter the reason, I wanted to get some of my projects done!  To motivate myself I decided that I’d use my finished projects as Easter basket goodies this year.  If I didn’t get the projects done I would make the poor ole Easter bunny look like the Grinch!  It may not seem like motivation, but you haven’t met the family and friends who show up every year to hunt baskets.  They are serious goodie basket reviewers and I have to stay on my toes!

Well, I’m ready to share some of the projects I got done.  Scratch a few items off my To Do list!

These two bracelets were made using a metal cuff finding. I used thin wire to wrap, thread beads, then wrap until the entire cuff frame was done. On the second one I added some fish beads I had.

I made matching earrings for the cuff bracelets. I'm into dangles right now and love adding the effect to earrings.

I finally used these pieces I'd fused months ago!

If you’ve been following my blog you know I’ve become rather obsessed with making sea glass.  I’m at the point where I’m thinking this process is pure torture!  I took my cut glass pieces and put them into a small bowl of etching solution.  The bottle said leave for a few minutes.  Well, a few minutes later… nothing had happened.  Now, I have to confess that the bottle of etching solution I was using was maybe, well, kind of old.  I’d had it for years and figured it was worth a shot.  I left a few glass pieces in the bowl overnight and by morning a little etching had taken place, but I knew I could do better!

I went and bought a new bottle of etching product, this time a creamy paste rather than liquid.  The instructions said brush on the cream and remove after 1 minute.  You guessed it, nothing!  So I left it on 5 minutes!  Nothing!  I must be jinxed!  Using an etching solution was just not working for me!

I just was not getting the results I wanted during my first attempts at making sea glass.

So I turned to my handy dandy tumbler.  Reading the instructions I discovered it would be SIX weeks before I’d have sea glass, oh my gosh… I would go crazy if I had to wait six whole weeks.  But I loaded a few pieces of glass into the tumbler just in case.  Mother Nature takes years to create sea glass, but I’m not a very patient kind of person!

I was feeling the creative challenge!  I had a studio full of grinders and drills and sanders.  I was going to make sea glass if it was the last craft project I ever undertook!

It worked.  I could use my glass grinders to smooth the edges of the glass and lightly etch the both sides of pendant and earring pieces.  I also grinded down most of my finger nails, but it was worth it.  I had made faux sea glass I was proud of.  I’d like to share one thing I learned.  Using milky almost pastel colors of glass re-created the colors I’d found in the islands.

It was time to make some pendants.  I figured wire wrapping would be a breeze, NOT!  I now have a deep appreciation for artists and crafters who have honed this delicate skill.  However, I wasn’t going to quit just yet.

I’ve at least completed a few pendants.  I’m still not totally happy with my final results, but my tumbler is tumbling and I’ve only got four more weeks to go!

I check my tumbler every few days. I've still got a few weeks to go according to the instructions. I'll keep you posted!

I don’t care what you call it.  Faux. Fake. Imitation. Counterfeit.  Mock.  It’s not real sea glass, but it comes very close to looking like the real thing.  One clue that a piece of “sea glass” is manmade not nature made is the color.  Most sea glass is dark brown, dark green, or frosty white.  These are the colors of the bottles of soda, beer, and wine that find a way into our oceans.  So if you are seeing light blues, light yellows, frosty pink or neon orange, most likely your sea glass was made by a person, not Mother Nature.

I made more than enough pieces just in case! You can see my glass cutter to the top right. The pliers in my hands are designed for safely breaking glass along cut lines.

 I must admit, I liked those unnatural colors of sea glass.  So I searched my junk glass drawers for light blues, soft yellows, delicate pinks, and yes, bright oranges!  My junk glass is made up of leftovers from other glass projects (fusing, slumping, and torch bead making).  I also get glass from friends who do stain glass.  Most stain glass shops sell what I call junk glass by the pound at inexpensive prices.  For stain glass shops this is glass leftover after classes and too small to save for the next project.

Once I had my glass picked out I did have to cut it into smaller pieces with a glass cutter.  I read on a website that you can also wrap the glass in newspaper and tap on the wrapped package with a hammer to get smaller sizes of glass.  If you do this, just be very careful, the glass can be very jagged and sharp.  Using newspaper and a hammer will get you more random shapes.  I sort of had an idea in mind of what I wanted to make so I wanted the control of a glass cutter to give me squares and rectangles of the same shape and size.  Always wear safety goggles when working with glass!

I placed my drill in a drill press for my first attempt at drilling a hole in the glass. I striped the bit! Total waste. It's best to hold the drill in your hand for better control.

The next step for me would be to drill holes in the glass shapes for earrings and pendants.  You can use bails instead of drilling holes, but most of the time you will see the bail even though the glass isn’t clear.  I work with glass so I did have a good idea of what was involved in drilling glass.  First of all, you MUST use a diamond tip bit. This is a specialty bit that is on the expensive side.  But only diamond tip bits will cut glass. You also need a drill.  I have my handy Dremel, a tool that has a million and one uses with all sorts of bits and tips available.

To drill glass you need to place the glass in water.  This keeps the glass and the drill bit from overheating.  I use a sturdy shallow plastic tray filled 1/2 with water.  I do have a drill press for my Dremel tool, but for drilling glass I recommend holding the drill.  You place the glass to drill into the water, come in at an angle for your first touch down onto the glass, and drill slow and steady.  It takes some patience, but you’ll damage the bit and the drill if you try to power push the bit through the glass.  It takes a little practice too.  If you aren’t steady, the bit will bounce around on top of the glass! You drill the hole in the glass before starting the aging or etching process so that the hole will also get that sea glass look to it!  Again, don’t forget to wear your safety goggles.  Your eyes must always be protected.

I’ve already invested dozens of hours into my sea glass.  I researched several resources for instructions, gathered up the supplies (glass, glass cutter, etching solution/creme or tumbler, drill, diamond drill bit, bails, brush, containers, and file), and started the process.  I’m less than half way there!  What have I gotten myself into?  For a recycling (green) craft this one was starting to add up to some major money and time investment.

At this point, however, I am obsessed as only a creative person can be obsessed.  I will make faux sea glass if it kills me!

Come back in a couple of weeks to see if I make it out alive!