Think Crafts Blog - Craft Ideas and Projects - CreateForLess

You can find the project instructions for this sunflower coaster set on FaveCrafts.com

We all need inspiration and sometimes flat out help coming up with fun stuff to make. I’m always out looking on the web for project sites. Sometimes I make the project, sometimes it inspires me to come up with a design of my own.

Here are some great project sites!

Stacy Sews  Stacy is a fabric junkie and I can relate. I love her blog! You’ll find projects, but also book reviews, celebrity style watch, tool reviews, and tutorials!

Fave Crafts Crafts from every category of techniques plus tips and videos.  I’m a bit bias as I’m the editorial consultant for the site!

Craft Projects The site owner says she’s been seeking craft projects since the day the net was born and she’s got a great collection.

Family Crafts Family crafting is what it is all about! Project for all age groups with a focus on our younger artists and crafters.

I really like it when sites display the current popular tags like FaveCrafts.com. If you scroll down the page you’ll see a list of tags like: Afghan, Baby, Birthdays, Decorating Ideas, Painting, Woodworking.  This tells you what other crafters are up to!

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

How to Make a Wallet Shrine

Our Church of Craft project this month was Shrine Wallets. These are based on Mexican Shrine Wallets, which are small, tri-fold pocket shrines. Unfolded, they reveal pictures of saints, a miniature rosary, and a printed prayer folded up into a pocket. There’s a photo of one here. My version is a more generalized pocket shrine, which can commemorate anything you like. I love the idea of carrying one around in your bag as a reminder of your favorite people, places, or things.

It all begins with two pieces of felt, cut to the same size. Mine are 3.5″ tall by 5.5″ long, but you can really make them any size you like.

You’ll want to mark the center of each piece. I do this by folding each one in half, and placing a couple of pins along the fold. These pins help keep you from placing any embellishments over the fold - because that could become a problem later on.

. . . Did someone say “embellishments?” Now’s the time for those. It’s so much easier to decorate your felt pieces before you assemble them into a shrine. So you can really go to town here - embroidery is great, ric rac is great, beads and sequins and felt applique. Here are some samples I have in progress:

(Learn to make these ric rac flowers at Primrose Design. I love them!) 

You can add photographs, too! I glued this one down to the camel-colored piece with good old Aleene’s Tacky Glue, and then glued the light-blue frame over it. (I did the couching on the light blue before I glued it down.) Those are my great-grandparents - aren’t they cute?

And you can add stuff like little pockets, and tags, and charms. You’ll quickly become addicted to this part.

Once you’ve torn yourself away from embellishing, it’s time to assemble your shrine. Put the two pieces together, right sides facing out. Join them along three sides with a whip stitch. But leave the top open.

Now, use those pins you placed to mark the center as a guide, and run a little running stitch down the center to help you fold your shrine. You now have two openings in the top of your shrine. You’ll want to insert a piece of cardstock into each one, to give your shrine some body. (The cardstock can be any old thing - an old greeting card, some junk mail, etc.) 

Just cut the cardstock so that it fits inside the two panels of your shrine. The pieces should be short enough to leave you some room to stitch up the top. If you want to be extra shriney, you could also insert something secret into the inside of your shrine - like a picture, or a handwritten note. That would be really cool.

Okay, so now you can stitch the top closed. And if you like, you can add some ribbon ties or a button-and-loop to hold your shrine closed. 

If you want to make a three-fold shrine, you can start with felt pieces that are a little longer - mine are 6.5″ long by 3.5″ tall. And the process is pretty much the same.

The only crucial thing to remember with a three-panel shrine is that the panel that will fold to the inside of the shrine should be a little narrower than the other two panels. (In other words, all three panels shouldn’t be the same width. If you made it that way, it wouldn’t fold up nicely.)

When you’re looking at the inside part of your shrine, this narrower panel will be the one on the right-hand side.

When you’re looking at the outside part of your shrine, this narrower panel will be the one on the left-hand side.

To read more of Diane’s posts, visit her website “CraftyPod“.

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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.

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I got hooked on glass fusing years ago.  I immediately purchased a small Quick Fire kiln after my first fusing class.  This type of kiln quickly heats to fusing temperature in about 5 minutes, you have to be careful with the annealing and cool down, but it’s worth it to be able to create so quickly.

I use mainly glass designed for glass fusing and slumping.  One of my favorites is Wasser Glass.  It’s thin and I really like the variety of colors available.  Here’s a project I created for Jewelry Creations 2, a magazine I was the editor for in 2008.

Quick Fire Fusing

This beginner fusing project uses a Quick Firing kiln for speedy glass fusing.  The abstract design makes each piece one of a kind.

Materials:

Diamond International Wasser Glass: yellow, brown, light brown, tiger’s eye, gold, butterscotch, weathered, red flash, surprise, and heavy gold

Glasscutter

Nippers

Safety glasses for glasswork

Quick Fire kiln

Kiln shelf primed with release

Timer

Rubbing alcohol

Lint free paper towels

Pin back, earring posts, pendant bails

Optional:  Thinned white glue or fusing glue

Firing Temperatures:

Wasser glass has a COE 90
(~±5°F and are dependent upon glass color and thickness)
Softening Point :1240°F (677°C)
Tack Fuse :1285°F (696°C) Orton std. lg. cone 18 (r/r 108°F)
Full Fuse :1340°F (727°C) Orton std. lg. cone 17 (r/r 108°F)
Annealing Temperature : 940°F (482°C)
Shrinkage Initiation Point :1360°F (738°C)
Balling Formation Starts : 1450°F (788°C)
Glass Lost / Shelf Intrusion : 1550°F (843°C)

1. If you do not have a kiln, check out your local stained glass or glass working studios as they often have fusing classes or offer kiln time. If you do not have a Quick Firing kiln, use the firing temperatures above. When cutting glass use caution and care. You are working with hot glass so be careful and consider all surfaces hot. 

2. Cut glass into thin strips in various widths and lengths.  Most strips are no more than 1/4 wide and 3″ long. As you design you might want to nip strips shorter. Remember that edges of cut glass can be very sharp.  Handle glass carefully.

3. Work on a clean surface and once glass is cut, clean all glass pieces with rubbing alcohol.  It’s important that the glass be oil and lint free when fired (heated).  Once happy with design, place glass onto kiln shelf that has been prepared with release (following manufacturer’s instructions for applying release).  It’s also important that glass be completely dry before setting on the kiln shelf or fusing (firing). 

4. As you design your pieces make sure you include some small sets that can be turned into earrings.  You may want to leave some openings to turn the piece into a pendant or leave a place where a pendant bail can be glued.  As I made my pieces, I was thinking pins so I made sure there was a space that a pin back could be adhered. I do not use any type of adhesive as I design abstract pieces.  If a piece of glass moves as fired I consider it part of the abstract look, however, you can apply a watered down white glue or fusing glue to the back of glass to avoid glass moving.  Remember that glue must dry completely before you fire your piece(s).  Any moisture when firing may cause the glass to crack.

5. Place shelf into kiln, close kiln, and turn on. The Quick Firing kiln will get to full fusing temperature (Wasser 1340 degrees F) within five minutes so it’s important that you never leave a kiln unsupervised.  As the temperature rises to full fuse, put on your safety glasses and check glass. Never look into a kiln or torch without safety glasses designed for hot glasswork. If fused (fully melted together), turn off kiln and keep open until temperature is around 1200 degrees F.  You may have to vent several times to keep temperature below full fuse.  Allow kiln to cool completely.  Allow glass to cool completely. Your glass should be annealed (kept at a temperature for 20+ minutes so the glass is at its strongest, least likely to break or crack) if you didn’t open the kiln after you brought the temperature down to 1200 degrees F. If working in a studio, staff will most likely compute a sequence for the kiln.

6. Once completely cooled clean pieces with rubbing alcohol. Add pin back, earring posts, or pendant bails as you prefer.  Fusing is a great way to use small pieces of glass and a wonderful way to design pins, pendants, and other jewelry components for unique and personalized jewelry. Find a stain glass or glass studio in your local area for fusing classes.

More about fusing & Wasser Glass click HERE.

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Returning Guest Blogger, Gillian, from the blog “Dried Figs & Wooden Spools”.

This weekend our town, in a fit of adorableness, will be holding it’s annual Mother-Son Prom in honor of Mother’s Day. Lest you fathers out there feel this is unfair, rest assured that we also have a Father-Daughter Dance every fall so everybody gets their turn. So this week I’ve been dusting off the one dressy dress I own (a full skirted little black and white polka dotted number right out of a fifties sitcom), ironing the three piece linen suit that was my husband’s when he was seven (no joke, it’s vintage seventies and my son looks ready to leap into Saturday Night Fever in it) and because I really want one and I can’t count on the boys in my family to think to get one, I’ve been making a wrist corsage.

Fabric Wrist Corsage

I’ve got a thing about wrist corsages. They are elegant and romantic and I love them the best of all the wearable flowers. But this project could be made into a pin for your dress, fastened to your waist, or worn in your hair. And it takes all of about twenty minutes to make.

Start with some sturdy but not stiff fabric (you could use paper as well but you would want to be careful with the folds so that it doesn’t end up totally flat, I choose corduroy because I happened to have it in red) and cut two large circles and four smaller ones out with pinking shears. I used the top and bottom of a short drinking glass to make my circles. You want the smaller ones to be about three quarters of the circumference of the bigger ones. If you don’t have pinking shears thats fine, they do add a nice texture but this could also be achieved by scalloping the edges of the circles.

Once your circles are cut, lay the two big ones on top of one another and then fold the four smaller ones in half, layering them over one another until you form a circle with these half circles. Center this on the bigger circle and put in a couple of stitches at the corners to hold everything in place. Now, with a contrasting (or not) color fabric, cover a button or a penny or something round and stitching this to the center. You could also use a pretty round pin if you have one laying around. Fluff the edges of the flower until you have the look you want and your done!

If you want a wrist corsage, stitch a coordinating ribbon to the center of the back, otherwise throw on a hair clip or pin. These would look great bunched up together and fastened to a purse, a belt or even on top of a gift. I also added two loops of green ribbon to the back for “leaves” but you could also use the leaves from a silk flower for more punch.

Although I didn’t do this project with kids, it would be an easy one for them to help out with so pay attention dads; this project might just save your bacon if you have forgotten to buy the all important Mother’s Day gift. And if your town happens to have a Mother-Son Prom and your son will condescend to wearing a boutonniere, you could make a smaller version of this flower for that as well. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the one I made him will find itself pinned to his little white coat come tomorrow night.

Did you make something for your mom for Mother’s Day? What craft can you not wait to give your mom this year?

To read more of Gillian’s posts, Click here.

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