Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

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

If you’re like me, it’s tough to toss jars when you’re creative because you know they will come in handy for something! Last year I wrote an article for Hamptons Magazine and thought I’d share with you the project I made especially for them.

YOU’LL NEED:

• Jars in different sizes
• Yarn
• Masking tape
• White Krylon spray paint
• Fabric cut on the bias 1 1/2″ wide by 10″ per jar
• Tea lights

HERE’S HOW:

1. After your jars are sparkly clean, tightly wrap them with yarn in a crisscross pattern and tape the ends on the underside or the inside so they stay in place. Don’t place the tape on the outside of the jar where you will be painting.

2. Cover an area in newspaper and give the jars 3 light coats of white Krylon spray paint (waiting 5-10 minutes in between coats) and let dry.

3. Remove the yarn and wrap the tops with the bias fabric securing them with a knot. You could also use ribbon for the tops, it’s up to you.

4. Add your tea lights and set your table.

By Guest Blogger Jenny, from the blog a bird in the hand.

Here is a tutorial for creating and using your own fabric stamp. The fabric stamp I made was carved out of an eraser. The only supplies you’ll need are an eraser, craft knife and fabric paint. I used an owl charm to help create my design, you can use a stencil or free-hand a drawing to stamp.

Start with an eraser. I chose to cut the stamp in half since I was making a smaller stamp.

Sketch out your design with a pencil. I traced an owl charm on mine. I kept it fairly basic so that it would be easy to carve.

Using whatever knife or carving tools you have, start cutting away at the eraser. I found it easy to slice down around the design and then into the side of the eraser.

Continue working until you have cut out the whole design. Now start stamping! Do a few practice ones on paper to start. I chose to stamp on some fabric bags I had on hand but it was challenging to stamp on the uneven surface.

 You can leave it like that or do what I did next and trace around your design. I wanted to add details and let the whole piece pop a bit more.

By General Crafts Contributor Mina, from the blog Mina’s Journal.

Make these wee night light lanterns for the wee ones you know to help settle them to sleep, or to set a mood!

Craft Materials:

• Small boxes – lightbulbs or food packaging for example
• Marker or pencil
• Craft knife
• Cellophane or clear plastic
• White glue
• LED lights
• Craft Paint

How to Make the Night light Lanterns

Carefully pull the the packaging apart, so it is still in one piece, but will lie flat.

Draw your designs onto the packaging. I used the inside of the box so the paint would cover better.

Simple shapes are cool. You can see here I’ve used hearts, stars and small square and rectangle shapes like a building at night time.

Cut your designs with the craft knife and paint the surface of the box.

Cut cellophane to cover the cut out spaces and glue to the inside of the box.

Note about Lining the Boxes

For large designs, the spaces look better if they are lined with something like cellophane. For small designs, there is no need to line the boxes.

You could line the window spaces with colored cellophane.  Bend the existing folds of the box the opposite way than they were intended, so your box will keep its shape. Glue the side edges together. Fold the ends of the box back in.

Pop your lights in when you are ready!

A Note about LED Lights

The LED lights I used here are childrens’ finger laser lights. They are safe, small and have a switch – all enclosed in plastic housing. They are cheap – there are four in the set I got in colors white, blue, red and green.

Ideas for the Night light Lanterns

For little ones:

• Stack on top of each other for buildings.
• Change the nightlight Lanterns and / or the colored lights around each night as a pre-sleep activity.

There are more sophisticated uses for these things for grown ups.

• Set the scene for romantic dinners
• Use in the bathroom to have your bath with (Don’t forget the bubble bath!)
• Use in ‘your space’ for quiet contemplation or relaxation

Have fun with these and create your own ambiance! Happy crafting!

By General Crafts Contributor Mina, from the blog Mina’s Journal.

Stamps are great for motifs or words that you use often in your crafting projects. They all don’t have to be store bought. Your own customized foam stamps are easy to make. Start making your own stamp stash with this easy project. Use up your left over foam shapes. These really work and are re-useable.

Craft Materials

• foam shapes/letters
• white glue
• scissors
• polystyrene food tray

A good idea would be to make stamps of the child’s name and other family members names or for words that you will use often. Words that come to mind for this are ‘Joy, Love, Happiness, Cute’.

Making the Stamps

Sort out the shapes you want to make stamps from.

When making words turn the letters upside down and placing the letters from right to left and glue them onto some kind of base to make a mirror image.

I used a a polystyrene food tray for this. Find out more about foam meat trays.

Cut around the shapes or words to make individual stamps.

Using the Stamps

Apply paint to stamp with pieces of kitchen sponge for quick, even coverage.

Cleaning the Stamps

Rinse under cold water and dab them dry, or just let them drip dry.

Further customization

Make your own shapes with stencil templates and foam sheets.

Find an image, silhouette you like and trace shapes with an old used-up ballpoint pen

Foam craft sheets are great for making your own shapes with. They are easy to cut with scissors. There are plenty free printables for shapes and outlines. Here’s a sheet of basic outlines to begin your own stamp stash collection with.

Download Foam Stamp Shapes Template

A heart, star, hand, bird, arrow, sun and moon. Finding other shapes is easy. Do an online search for silhouettes, shapes, outlines and stencils. You may need to resize them according to your needs.

Have fun with these… Happy Crafting!

By Guest Blogger, from the blog Serenity’s Musings.

Here’s something you could DIY as a Gift for anyone.

Material Needed:

• Fabric Paint
• A brush for painting ( I used a fine tipped brush)
• A T-shirt
• Cup of water for washing brush between colors

Time: About 20 minutes

Difficulty Level :Easy

Step 1: Place a sheet of paper or book inside the T shirt right beneath where you wish to draw. This helps prevent seeping of colors.

Step 2: Start with white paint. You can always add other colors on top of white, this gives a purer color. Or you could leave it as white.

Step 3: Draw freehand swirls and curved lines. Or you could try for straight lines, but these are harder to do at the start.

 Step 4: Wash your brush. Best to paint on a piece of paper or tissue to get rid of excess water.

Step 5: Choose a darker color similar to the T shirt color. I chose red.

Step 6: Paint some swirls or dots in red.

Inverted colors of the original for a different color combination.

Reminder:

Iron on reverse before washing.

I have used normal detergents and washed in normal machine wash(cold water) and the colors seem to last for quite a while.

For best colors, apply more than one coat of acrylic/fabric paint.

By Dondi Richardson from the FloraCraft Make It: Fun Blog.

This Styrofoam glider is a fun weekend project to do with your kids. (Get them into crafting earlier!) Project includes a template for the glider. Easy to make and fun to decorate, plus you can see how far it will fly!

Supplies:

FloraCraft Foam: Four – Sheets, ½”x12″x12″

Other Materials:

• Acrylic Paint
• Dimensional Fabric Paint
• Toothpicks
• Glider Template

Tools:

• Design It: Foam Cutter or Serrated Knife
• Low-Temp Glue Gun and glue sticks
• Paint Brushes: wide flat brush and detailing brush
• Paper (for templates)
• Black Marker
• ½” Sequin Pins

Instructions

1. Print and enlarge the templates to size needed. Hint: You can use a photocopier to copy and enlarge templates.
2. Pin the templates to the sheets of foam and trace with black marker: one body, two wings, two tail wings and one tail fin.
3. Remove the templates and cut out the plane parts using the foam cutter.
4. Use the scrap pieces of foam like a sanding block to “sand” the square edges of the foam parts smooth, making it look more authentic.
5. Glue the parts together, inserting toothpicks between the parts for a more secure bond.
6. Paint desired colors and let dry completely.

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

I love the look of mercury glass. It’s perfect in almost every style of decor or season. It can be simple, elegant, romantic or modern depending entirely on what you do with it. It has only one problem. It can be prohibitively expensive. But not anymore. Turn any old glass jar into dazzling faux mercury glass with two simple ingredients (hint, one of them is water!)

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Glass jars, vases or bowls
• Water
• Mirror spray paint

1. Lightly mist the inside of your glass. If you have a wide mouth jar or a bowl, you may want to tape off the outside.

2. Spray a thin coat of Mirror paint into the inside of the jar or bottle. Allow the paint to drip down and coat the inside, you want the coat to be uneven.

3. Allow the paint to dry and then repeat until you have the level of mirror finish that you desire (2-3 coats is usually sufficient).

You can also use this technique on the outside of a jar candle to create a Mercury Glass Candle.