Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

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

I’m not sure why, but my kids have a thing about cuckoo clocks. They really like them. REALLY like them. And they have been asking for one for ages. While I love them to bits, I’m not about to deal with a real cuckoo clock singing it’s little heart out all day while I’m at home working and they are at school, so we’ve compromised and agreed that a pretend cuckoo clock will do until they have a house of their own. And since we couldn’t find a pretend cuckoo clock, we decided to make one!

You’ll need:

• Unfinished wooded birdhouse or birdhouse kit (assembled)
• Dark brown wood stain
• Foam brushes
• Cardstock
• Markers
• Craft Sticks
• Red craft paint
• Small bird figurine
• Craft glue
• Craft knife
• Heavy cording or small link chain
• Two small decorative beads

1. Begin by staining the entire birdhouse and the finials or beads. Allow the stain to set for at least 24 hours before handling.

2. In the meantime, paint the craft sticks with two coats of red paint and cut 1 inch off each end. Keep all the rounded end pieces and two of the straight edged pieces.

3. Attach the craft sticks in layers along the roof to create shingles, starting with the bottom edge and moving up. Touch up any paint as needed.

4. Insert the bird into the opening and glue into place. Attach the two flat edged pieces of tongue depressor to either side to create “doors”

5. Cut a circle out of cardstock and punch a hole in the center. Draw on numbers and hands and slip over the post of the birdhouse. Glue into place.

6. Glue the beads to either end of the cording or chain and hang, slightly uncentered, from the bottom.

7. Hang on the wall and enjoy the fact that you have a cuckoo-less cuckoo clock!

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

A couple of months ago, my dear blogger friend, MizMollye, sent me these:

I have to admit to some befuddlement. What were they for? (Yes, you are allowed that snort of derision.) I lay them out and sorted them, and began to get some idea of usefulness.

They might be plain, but they were beginning to look very interesting.

It was when I decided to make some autumn tags that it finally hit me: Whatever those things were, they were great! And not in spite of their lack of color, but because of it. I painted three of them orange, and used them to bracket the tops of my tags: 

I topped them with silk leaves and buttons, and even stamped on them:

Well, after making the tags, I had to have more of those things. Of course, first I had to figure out what they were called, since they came in that box that said they were an album, which clearly they were not. (Did I jut hear another snort?) It did come to me: Chipboard! I started my quest at the brick & mortar stores near me, but found little. Everything they had was covered with glitter, and I wanted something more customizable.

I hit the real payday at CreateForLess.com. Here are just a few of the shapes I found:

(Two of those are sold out, but you can ask them to email you when they’re back in stock.)

There are, a quick search showed, 149 die cut shapes to be had there, not including alphabets and numbers. I feel a shopping excursion coming on!

I’d like to use the autumn tags, or Christmas tags later, as plate decorations at the Thanksgiving or Christmas table, a small gift for each guest.

And that sparks another idea: Tags quite often have “To:” and “From” on the back. In our family, we’ve always gone around the table at Thanksgiving, and each said what we’re grateful for that year. Why not have each guest fill in the blanks with who they are grateful to, and for what? Then put them in a basket, and draw one out at intervals during dinner, or during the day, to be read, for a day truly full of gratitude.

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

My children, who happily share a room despite being different ages and sexes, also share a useless closet that has, up to now, just been filled with junk. It’s not really tall enough for a true closet, it wraps around in a snail shell shape which makes storage difficult, and it has no light, so it’s pretty dark in there. The only thing that it’s been really handy for is a fort. And periodically they will pull out all the stuff that they have shoved in there when they are supposed to be cleaning their rooms and set up house inside. So we’ve decided to make it official, it is no longer the closet, it’s the fort. And being the children of two parents who are constantly renovating their house, they wanted some improvements. Beginning with the walls. Together they decided it needed to be a cottage, like something out of a story book. After some discussion (“No, I’m not going to wallpaper in there!”) We settled on stenciling. They chose the pattern and colors, I did the work (typical!). I remember stenciling with my mom years ago but hadn’t tackled a true stenciling project since, so if you are like me and needed some tips, here are the basics to stenciling!

You’ll need:

Stencils – there are so many to choose from these days!

Stencil Paint - *Note – craft paint won’t work here, trust me, I found that out the hard way!

Stencil brush or sponge

Masking tape

Pencil

1. Start by marking out your space. For this wall, we wanted to leave an opening in the stencil for a “window” that will be painted on next (with cows out in the grass and curtains it seems). Get a rough idea of how many repeats you’ll need both up and down and side to side so that your pattern is even.

2. Once you know where your pattern is going and what your spacing will be, tape your stencil in place at your starting point . For my spacing, it worked best to start in the center.

3. Tape off the parts of the stencil you are not painting in the first layer. Yes, you can try to avoid them with your brush, but taping off the unused parts makes life easier and the process faster.

4. Dab the end of your brush into the stencil paint. It’s very thick and slightly waxy, almost like lipstick, so you don’t need a lot. Blot as needed on a paper towel.

5. Apply the paint in a swirling motion onto the stencil, turning the brush in small circles to apply the paint evenly.

6. Work the entire surface in one color and then allow the paint to dry overnight before proceeding to the next color, being sure to remove any tape and clean your stencils between layers.

7. Remember that you don’t have to use all parts to the stencils, and you can combine different stencils to make a more complex pattern. Try a few ideas out on paper (or your wall if you’re really bold – or have leftover wall paint) and have fun!

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

Do you ever miss happy mail? You know, going to the mailbox and pulling out something other than a bill or piece of advertising? I sure do, and I know for certain I’m not the only one, with email so dominant, this year I decided my treats for Halloween were going to be something that would bring a smile at the mailbox. I’m sending postcards!

As I was cleaning up my craft table the other day, I noticed that some foam letters had arranged themselves in a group that looked very like the beginning of a skeleton. Ooh, I thought. Could you make an entire skeleton using them? The answer was YES, and in a few minutes I’d created a skeleton stamp.

If you’d like to make one, too, you’ll need:

Foam alphabet stickers, all caps, about 3/4″-1″ tall:

• 1 Q
• 2 E’s
• 2 P’s
• 4 L’s                      
• 2 I’s
• The centers from 2 O’s

A backing/support for your skeleton. I used the lid from a whipped topping container, which was translucent.

Arrange your letters something like this:

The original thought was to add a hat, but I decided to leave it off.

As you can see, only two of the letters need to be reversed–one E, and one P–to form the left sides of the ribcage and hip bones. Those two you will glue to your support piece, rather than using the sticker’s adhesive.

Cut tiny triangles from the O centers to create fingers.

You can play with the positioning of the arms, legs, and head, until you find a pose you like. Keep in mind that if you’re arranging the stickers with the adhesive side down, your stamp will be a mirror image of what you see. If you want to see it as it will stamp, turn the letters face down. Once you’ve created the pose you want, peel off the protective papers and stick the letters to the support/base, starting with the head, and working down. For the two letters that you’ll glue, make sure they’re exactly where you want them before you remove the papers; otherwise, they’ll stick to your fingers when you try to move them and not let go! (And yes, that IS the voice of experience, lol.) Once the glue on those two letters is dry, you can pat a little talcum powder on them, which will take away the stickiness.

You now have a skeleton stamp to play with!

To make a postcard using my new stamp, I took some cardstock I thought had that “Halloween feeling”, and cut it to postcard size. (USPS allows a maximum size of 6″ X 4.25″, and a minimum size of 5″ X 3.5″, or 15.2cm X 10.8cm and 12.7cm X 8.9cm)

Then I stamped the skeleton on it, using three of my new word stamps to say “Happy Boo Day”. The first time, I used black ink for everything, but then decided I’d like the skeleton better white, after all. I took a stiff bristle brush and painted on white craft paint, and over-stamped the original skeleton. (You have to love a stamp base you can see through!)

Of course, after that, I had to see what it would look like if I just used the white, without the black underneath:

Personally, I like it better with the black under it, as the skeleton seems to show up better.

Last step: Turn your new postcard over and divide it in half so you have one side for the address, and the other for a brief message. You can simply draw a vertical line, or use another stamp:

For another easy card, cut a postcard-size piece of cardstock that pumpkins would look good against. I chose one that looked kind of “vine-y”. Now cut three or four circles of pumpkin-Design paper or cardstock. Arrange them on the card in a pleasing arrangement. Placing the larger disks near the bottom of the card, with the smaller ones nearer the top will give a sense of distance, as your mind interprets “smaller” as farther away, and “higher” as being the far horizon.

Once you’ve decided on your placement, you can pencil in jack o’ lantern faces on each of them, and then black in the features. Glue them in place on the card and write or stamp, “Oooooooooooh” in a curvy line across the card. Last step is to turn the card over and divide it in half as you did the other one.

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

Someday I will have the time and patience to embroider some cute flour sacking tea towels for my kitchen. I love the way they look and that you can vary them for the season, but alas, bad eyes and impatience has kept me away from most embroidery projects. That doesn’t mean, however, that I can’t have some fun tea towels this fall. A little freezer paper and paint and voila, cute, acorn towels to hang off my stove or drape over rising bread for those chilly fall evenings.

Here’s what you need!

Acorn Stencil
Freezer Paper
Fabric Paint
Foam Brushes
Flour sacking tea towels
Scissors
Craft knife
Iron

1. Cut a piece of freezer paper to 8 1/2″ x 11″ and print the template directly onto the paper (plastic side down).

2. Cut out the stencil carefully with your craft knife.

3. Iron on the stencil, centered near the bottom of your tea towel.

4. Sponge on yoru fabric paint, making sure you get paint all the way to the edges. Allow the paint to dry.

5. Peel off the stencil and heat set the paint with your iron.

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

Collage, in both “hard copy” and digital forms is very popular right now, and I’m a fan of both. It’s relaxing, almost zen-like to sit with my materials, arranging, re-arranging, and layering them. Digitally, I love the fact that you can create what are basically transparent layers, which is mostly not an option with “real” images and materials.

Except that it is, at least with printed items. You can make decals, and it’s really quite easy to do it. I’m familiar with two products you can use, Liquitex Gloss Medium, and Omni-Gel. The process is the same with both products.

You’ll need:

Omni-Gel OR Liquitex Gloss Medium
Soft paint brush
Printed images—almost any will work, except for inkjet or photographs
A dish that is larger than your print(s)
Water

So first decide what images you want to use. Cut them out, leaving a generous edge around any that you want to completely cover the collage surface. Protect your work surface with plastic wrap, which will let you peel the finished decals/transfers off when they’ve dried, and lay the images print side up on it. Paint each image with a coat of the medium, allowing the medium to extend beyond the paper just a bit, and let dry. I usually just squeeze a drop or two of medium on the image and spread it around.

When the medium is dry, spread on another layer. If you’ve painted with up-and-down strokes on the first layer, make the second layer’s strokes go side-to-side. Let that layer dry, and paint on a third layer, again with brush strokes that go in a different direction than the layer before.

Three layers of medium is generally enough; I sometimes do four, but it probably isn’t necessary.  You’ll now have what looks and feels like a picture coated with a plastic sheet.

When the last layer is thoroughly dry, peel your images off the plastic and soak them in the dish of water. (If an image resists being peeled off, you can cut right at the edge of the paper, and slip your finger between the picture and the plastic.) Don’t worry if the transfer medium turns a little milky while soaking.

Soak the pictures until the paper is good and wet, but not more than twenty minutes, then take each one out of the water and lay it face-down on a clean, smooth surface—a plate works well.

Rub the paper with your fingers, and it will roll up and come away from the transfer.

Rub until ALL the paper is gone. You’ll know you’re finished when you don’t feel any fuzziness at all, and the transfer is completely transparent.

You now have a decal!

To use it, just paint the back with more of the transfer medium, and apply it wherever you like on your project. Make sure your fingers are absolutely clean—any little bit of anything will imbed itself and show later!

One of the things I love about the finished decal is that it’s stretchy. You can cover uneven surfaces, or pull the image around the edges of a plaque, and smooth it out completely, as you can see from the little project below:

To make it, I used three images I’d turned into decals—the background trees (scrapbooking paper), the blue bird (cut from a magazine), and the bit of music (from an old music book). As you can see, the plaque I used had a crenellated edge, and a raised circle about 1/2″. The transfer stretched over every irregularity and clung there. On the back, I just squished the gathered edge down and used a bit more medium to glue them in place.

You can also use the transfer medium to create pendants. The first image in this post doesn’t give you scale, but each piece is a half-globe in shape, with a transfer stretched over it. The half-globes were molded in measuring spoons—1/4 teaspoon, 1/2 teaspoon, and 1 teaspoon—so they’re quite a nice size to glue on a bail and put on a necklace or bracelet.

By Sparkle Crafts Contributor, Sparkle E. Glitter from the blog “Sparkle Studio”.

If you have a scrap wood bin, this project is made for you. If you don’t, head over to the store and pick up a bag of scrap wood.  The pieces do not need to match, or even be cut straight.  The more differences your pieces have, the more charming your project will be.

Choose a word or a name that you would like to display. This project can be adapted to holidays: Noel, Love, Thanks.  Or make the blocks with your family name.  What a nice gift this is for anyone on any occasion.

You need:

• Big & Glitzy Glitter Glue: Peacock, Peridot,  Garnet (or colors to match what you are showcasing)
• Acrylic Paint: black,  turquoise, lime, hot pink  (also select your colors accordingly)
• 4 pieces of scrap wood (or as many as you need to spell your word or name)
• Wide flat brush 

Try this:

Basecoat wood pieces black.  Let dry.  Paint the edges of the blocks turquoise, lime and hot pink.  Let dry.

Using Big & Glitzy, print a letter on each block, with a frame around it in a different color.  Add stripes, dots, squares or whatever fits your project.

This is your chance to be creative with color and design.  Make this reflect you!

Glitter on!

Sparkle