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.

My grandma has the most beautiful tea towels in her kitchen that are hand embroidered by her grandma. There are used for decorations and have become an antique over the years. All the towels have their own design of a flower, tea pot or piece of fruit, with a detailed, scalloped edge.  My grandma has had these towels in her kitchen for as long as I can remember, and I’m sure they will make it to my Mom’s kitchen sooner or later.

I wanted to decorate my own tea towels. My great, great grandma is the last one in my family who knew how to embroider, so I had to teach myself!  I went to YouTube and watched tons of videos on beginning to embroider. The video I found most helpful was from Threadbangers. They interviewed Jenny Hart, the designer of Sublime Stitching and she explains how to get started with embroidery.

Jenny gives step by step details on how to get your pattern on your cloth, setting up your embroidery hoop, picking out needles and floss and a beginning split stitch. The video finishes with some DIY ideas from their Austin, TX viewers. I really like the Sublime Stitching Patterns because they are very modern and fun. I think I’m going to try the Sushi Bar pattern first…

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

Last winter I went through a felting stage, turning old sweaters into flowers and coffee cup wraps and all sorts of things. But it wasn’t until I’d emptied our local charity shops of all their wool sweaters that I realized that you can also felt felt! Well, you can felt wool felt. And it doesn’t even need to be 100% wool to be feltable. Look for felt with at least 35% wool content for this project and run it through your washing machine on it’s hottest setting, repeating if you think it could shrink up a little more, then allow it to dry flat. Because of it’s thickness, the felt is great for protecting things like cell phones and glasses and cameras (it also helps to keep them dry at the pool, but don’t think that means you can drop it in the water!)

Here’s What You Need

1/4 yard of wool felt
Scraps of another color of felt (wool or otherwise)
Thread
Needle
Fabric Scissors
Yarn
Yarn Needle

Cut the felt to be just bigger than twice the length of your camera and a bit bigger than the width.

Using the other color of felt, cut a basic camera shape and a small circle. Stitch the circle onto the “camera” and then sew the whole thing onto one side of the felt square using a whip stitch.

Fold the square in half and, starting at the bottom corner, stitch with the yarn needle and yarn using a blanket stitch.

When you get to the top corner, tie the yarn off in a loop and trim off the tails.

Enter to win a the Clover Quick Yo Yo Maker in small and extra small, as well as the Clover Template Trace N Create Zieman Bag California! Use these products to create one-of-a-kind bags!

Leave it to Clover to create a tool that makes it quick and easy to produce nicely shaped yo-yos. This new plastic tool helps you make evenly spaced stitches to create gathers that in turn lead to lovely circular and beautiful shaped yo-yos. A great way to create decorations, accessories and home decor projects. The finished Yo Yo is approximately 3/4″ for extra-small and 1.2″ for small.

Clover Nancy Zieman Trace N Create Templates will help you create projects that will give you the status “designer” among your friends. Choose your favorite fabric, gather your notions and sit down to enjoy the process of creating.. The sewing is simple; the results are very rewarding! Zieman Bag California- Package includes 2 templates and instructions. Choose from 6 styles; Monterey, Monterey Petite Plus, Monterey Plus, Carmel, Carmel Petite, and Carmel Plus. The 6 variations of this template gives you option galore.

Every Friday we’ll post a giveaway on Think Crafts and all you have to do is comment on the blog post answering the question of the week. We’ll pick the winner and contact them via email. Deadline is midnight tonight and the winner will be announced Monday. One entry per person please.

Question of week: What is your favorite summer activity?

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

OK moms, Now that Mother’s Day has come and gone and we (hopefully) felt the love, let’s all let out a big old howl of panic over the fact that summer vacation is but a few weeks away from starting. AHHHH!!

Now that we feel better, let’s get to work gathering some summer friendly, keep them busy crafts for the kids in our lives.

First stop…fingerknitting. Remember fingerknitting? And Spool Knitting? I don’t know about you but I spent HOURS making long chains of fingerknitting when I was a kid. And while your child will probably be inthralled by the simple fact that they can make a verrrry long chain of yarn, they might be a little more excited by making their own fall scarf.

Yes, fall is a ways away, but knitting projects can take time, and even if they don’t why not encourage them to make several so that they can give them out as back to school gifts for friends.

With all the fluffy, bulky and downright funky yarns out there, fingerknitting can produce some really cute (I’d wear one!) scarves that are a great project for kids who aren’t quite ready for needles. And because all you need is yarn, it’s also easy to carry along with you just about anywhere.

If you’ve forgotten the how’s of fingerknitting here’s what you need and how to get started. Skien of furry, funky or bulky yarn (I used a slightly bulky weight yarn for this tutorial so you could see the stitches, you want something bigger..and probably harrier)

Start by wrapping the tail of the yarn around your thumb a couple of times, just to keep it out of the way.

Weave the yarn in and out of your fingers then back again. Repeat until you have two rows of loops. Hook the yarn back over your thumb to it is out of the way as well.

Palm up, pull the bottom loop up over the finger it is on and over to the back of your hand. (hint- you should use your non-dominant hand for the yarn and your dominant hand to do the pulling- it’s easier plus you can do other things with your good hand when you need to with out the knitting getting in the way)

Pick up the new yarn and repeat. Once you have a few stitches down, you can unwind the tail from your thumb. Because the knitting falls down the back of the hand it keeps it out of the way should you want to stop and do something else. If you need to stop all together, run the tail of the yarn through each loop and tie it off loosly so that nothing unravels.

Keep an eye out here for more Schools Out Fun every Thursday!

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

Now Tunisian crochet isn’t anything new. Well new to me. They go back a gazillion years. Well, maybe not that far, but it is an old technique. But now there’s something new on the market from Clover. It’s the Double-Ended Tunisian Crochet Hook. With a hook at both ends, it allows you to crochet in the round so you can make beautifil projects ranging from a cute little coffee cup cozy (you know, like those cardboard sleeves coffee places use) to hats to a cell phone holder to purses to …. well, you get the idea.

My handmade, reusable coffee sleeve

You can make a whole lotta stuff! Clover’s web site has instructional videos.

Check it out:

The Best Yarn & Needlework Supply Craftie goes to the Boye Electric Yarn Ball Winder!

Boye Electric Yarn Ball Winder is a convenient and quick electric ballwinder that is fully automatic. It eliminates tedious handwinding and easily winds hanks of yarn into center-pull skeins. It will create flat bottom balls that stack neatly. You can rewind messy partial skeins into a tidy center-pull skeins. Wind thin yards together to create custom sizes and colors. Labor-saving motor means less stress on arms, hands and wrists.

Here’s Boye’s acceptance speech they gave while accepting their Golden Glue Gun Award…

It is an honor and pleasure to accept this Golden Glue Gun Award for the Boye® Electric Yarn Ball Winder in the Best Needlework Supply category.  The day I brought home my yarn ball winder changed the course of my crafting experience because of its ease and speed.  I am now able to wind hanks lickety-split creating the perfect center pull yarn cake every time allowing me to get to the fun part – using the yarn to crochet and knit!

Drew Emborsky aka The Crochet Dude®

Boye

 Check out the demo below to see how quickly the Boye Yarn Winder works!

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

I’m well aware of the fact that winter weather is almost over, but it’s actually a great time to start making presents for this coming fall.  I’ve been knitting since I was 15, and knitting goods for others takes some careful planning and preparation.  There nothing like the look on someone’s face when you deliver a hand-knitted gift!

A recent discovery of mine is Red Heart Pomp-A-Doodle yarn. If you haven’t felt this stuff, it’s amazing!  I got some this January and finally put together a scarf.  It’s so easy, so I share my pattern with you here.

Supplies:

Red Heart Pomp-A-Doodle, African Violet, 2 skeins

Knitting Needles, Straight, Size US 9

To Knit:

Cast on 14 stitches.

Knit all stitches.  Keep knitting until you’ve used up the 2 balls of yarn.

Cast off knitwise and bind in all ends.

Your fuzzy wuzzy scarf is complete!  These are so easy and soft . . . you should make several for gifts during the year.  Don’t forget to watch the following video for some really important tips on how to knit Pomp-A-Doodle.  It’s so fun!