Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

By Crafts-a lot Contributor, Mable who is an avid reader of craft blogs & magazines and has aspirations to improve her crafting skills. Join Mable on Facebook to socialize and share with other crafters!

I love planning birthday parties. I love the decorations, party games, invitations, food and the most fun part for me is picking a theme!

I vividly remember my 5th birthday I had a rainbow theme party. I got to pick out the decorations, plates & napkins, invitations and my cake. I had streamers in rainbow colors, a confetti cake and a rainbow table cloth with matching plates and napkins. It’s been 20+ years since my party, but it’s still a very pleasant memory.

My favorite blog for party ideas is One Charming Party. They posted a series of posts for a Pajama Glam Party, and it’s the most adorable idea I’ve ever seen. I love the feather boas, because every glam girl needs one.

Pajama Glam Party

I saw this while spending quality time with Pinterest, The Golf Par-Tee. She piped green frosting to look like grass on the cupcakes, and added a donut hole to be the golf ball. The green cups are jello with a mini marshmallow for the golf ball.  It was his 6^th birthday, so all the golf flags had a 6. The kids wore foam visors, and they even had a putting green!

Golf Par-Tee

iCandy Handmade posted their Princess and Superhero Birthday Party idea. It was a great idea because it was for boys and girls. Each kid got their own capes and she had fun activities for them. First, it was Squirt the Villain.

Princess & Superhero Birthday Party

No Birthday party is complete without party hats. It makes the day more special, and the pictures are sillier when you are wearing party hats. There are a lot of tutorials out there to make your own to go with your party theme.

Birthday Party Hats

By Craft Celebrity Mark Montano, from the blog Mark Montano’s Big Ass Blog.

You’ll Need:

• Nylon zip ties in different colors (or black and white)
• Scissors
• 2 jump rings
• 1 large lobster claw

Here’s How:

1. Make your first link in a size you like. This will determine the size you cut your other zip ties.

 5. Add a jump ring with the lobster claw to the other end so you can close it.

By Kid’s Crafts Contributor Stephanie, from the Blog Geek with Glasses.

This Tin Can Vase is a quick and easy project for the kids. It’s easy to make and is a beautiful personalized gift for anyone special in their life.

Supplies:
Chalk Board Vinyl
Tin Can
Ribbon
Potting Soil
Flower or Plant

Tools:
Scissors
Craft Glue
Chalk

This is a simple project, just start by measuring the Chalk Board Vinyl so it wraps around the can. Cut it with scissors and peel off the backing. Stick it around the outside of the can.

Using craft glue, secure a piece of ribbon to cover the seam of the vinyl. Then tie a bow around the top of the can with another piece of ribbon.

Finally finish up the decorations with chalk. This can be a written message for Mom, a drawing or information about the plant inside.

This is a nice project for tiny ones who might mess up the design and want to try again or if this is a transfer point for plants. The vase can be used over and over again and the name of the plant can be changed.

Make someone’s day beautiful.

By Paper Crafts Contributor, Lauren Romano.

Having flowers in the home isn’t always possible, especially when there’s kids or animals who can easily get at them. In that case, a better option is to make paper flowers, which is an especially cute craft idea to do with kids. It requires only a handful of items, but you can end up with a small window box of adorable paper flowers that everyone will love.

What you’ll need:

• Rocks
• Colored paper
• Tissue box
• Mod Podge
• Green pipe cleaners
• Scissors
• Pencil

Step 1. Draw petals on various colors of paper, then cut them out. You can mix and match, do single colors or a combination of both.

Step 2. Cut out circles for the middle of the flowers.

Step 3. Glue the edges of the petals onto the back of the circles to form flowers, then give them ample opportunity to dry.

Step 4. Trim the top off a tissue box, then fill the box with rocks.

Step 5. Use Mod Podge to adhere a single green pipe cleaner onto the back of each flower. You can use the pipe cleaners to also make leaves or you can leave them without.

Step 6. Stick the flowers into the rocks. If they start to fall over, use the rocks to hold the stems in place. Make sure all of the flowers fully stick out from the box.

By Cardmaking & Scrapbook Layout Contributor, Peg from the blog Peg’s Crafting Corner.

I have to admit that National Backyard Games Week was new to me when I first heard about it.  I searched the internet to find out that it is used to observe the unofficial start of summer and comes the week before Memorial Day every year.  This year it’s May 18^th – 25^th.  

The week is used to promote physical and social activity amongst family, neighbors and friends all while playing the games that we grew up on such as pillow case races, H-O-R-S-E and many others.  One idea to celebrate the week is by having a party or a carnival.  A good place to start for that is by creating invitations to send to friends and family telling them to come join the fun.  This is a quick and easy invitation that even your children can help you make. 

Begin by using items that will represent some of the games that you used to play and will be playing at the carnival.  It will add an element of excitement to the receiver of the invitation when they remember what games they used to play and for kids trying to guess what games will be there. 

Using a piece of green cardstock that measures 9 3/8″ long x 6 1/2″ wide and fold in half.  Next, punch the rope, using the EK Success Braid Punch, to represent the game of tug of war at the bottom of the front flap. 

I have been using the new American Crafts Dear Lizzy Neapolitan line and loving it.  The line had the perfect elements I was looking for to include on this invitation.  I began with using the Accents and Phrase Sticker Book and chose the bicycle to represent a bike parade, the arrow for a bow and arrow contest and of course you have to include some fun so I used the “fun” ticket sticker.  One of my favorite pieces is the 3 tickets stickers because on them they say, “Here’s the scoop” and I used a black marker to write on the lines, “You Are Invited.”   I, also, included a the measuring tape piece from the Sunny Skip patterned paper to represent a jumping contest and the ice cream cone from the First Date patterned paper to include an ice cream eating contest. 

Since the celebration is all about being outdoors I just had to use the Silver Lining Vellum for some clouds.  I didn’t just want to stick the entire sheet on because it just didn’t fit correctly into the design so I used my Xyron Create A Sticker Machine to make them into stickers after cutting them out.  This helped to adhere them onto the invitation without have the adhesive show. 

In order to make the clouds into stickers, simply run them through the Xyron Create A Sticker Machine, peel them off the adhesive and stick them to your project. 
Now that you have an idea for the party invitations, start inviting your family and friends to join you for the unofficial kick off to summer and have fun playing the games you played as kids with your children and their friends!

By General Crafts Contributor Melissa, from the blog MeloMomma.

Tell mom how much you care for under $5. I do believe this will mean more to mom than any candle or flowers. This is truly the gift that keeps on giving all year round. You can make it as personal as you wish and getting the kids involved is an even greater bonus. Happy Mother’s Day to you all!

What you will need:

• Construction paper
• Scissors (scrapbooking shears if desired)
• Ink pen
• Glass jar (mason jar or any jar with a lid will work)
• Artificial beads and flowers
• Hot glue gun
• Glue sticks

Directions:

Cut out 365 random sizes and colors of construction paper. Write little messages on each one. Duplicate messages are ok. Be as creative or as simple as you wish.

 Fill the jar with 365 notes. Add some heart confetti.

Include a note telling the recipient that they are to take out one note each day until next Mother’s Day. Oh, and be sure to tell them you love them too!

By DCWV Diary

School is almost out and I wanted to make something special for my Kindergartener’s teacher to wear on the last week of school! It thought that the Lemon Flower Stack would be the perfect “happy, spring” stack for this project!

I created a special badge that says “Best Teacher Ever” for Mrs. M to wear. It shows just how we feel about her!! The top was cut out with a Tim Holtz Sizzix Die….layered patterned paper and chipboard to make it a little sturdy.

Then I layered ribbon that matched the stack to jazz it up a little bit. This ribbon is sooo pretty!!

I hope she likes it! Troy is so excited to give it to her