Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

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

One of the “in” and fun thing is to use a sketch to create your layouts.   They’re  helpful when you aren’t sure just where to begin or need a little inspiration for a page. This is a simple sketch and layout I created.  The one fun thing about using sketches is that your embellishments don’t have to match the ones on the sketch the butterflies here are 2 flowers and 1 butterfly on my layout.  You can turn the elements in any direction you’d like. Card makers use sketches, too! 

The following products can be found at CreateForLess:

• K & Co. Spring Blossom Paper Pad
• K & Co Abrianna Chipboard Chipbox
• Paper Accents Variety Pack Cardstock
• Fiskars Punch Everywhere Starter  Set
• Marvy Uchida Clever Lever Spring Flower Punch
• Paper Trimmer
• Green Brad
• Favorite Marker
• Favorite Taper Runner
• Click to Download Fun with Sketches PDF
  

  Fun with Sketches

Once  you have the paper and embellishments to create the layout,  you will want to print out the sketch and the pictures.  First trim the pictures according to the sizes listed on the Fun with Sketches PDF.   Next, trim the background  paper (yellow Paper Accents Cardstock) to be a little larger than the pictures.  Here I left those measurements up to you because you may have a piece of patterned paper that doesn’t have a large pattern  such as the tulips in the right corner.   My background papers measured 6 ½” x 4 ¼”  for the large photo and 1 ½” x 1 ½” for the smaller ones.  Adhere to photos and the background paper to the layout using your favorite tape runner.  Be sure to keep the sketch design in mind. 

Punch 2 flowers using the Spring Flower Punch and the yellow cardstock and 1 flower from the green cardstock.  Layer the green and one yellow flower on top of the last yellow one and put the green brad through the center.  Attach the flower on the layout where you’d like it.  Remember the fun thing about using a sketch is it’s ok to put things in different places. 

Trim a piece of yellow cardstock for your “title” square that measures 2 ½” x 3″ and lay it aside.  Trim a piece of green cardstock that measures the same size.  Center it in the Fiskars Punch Everywhere as shown in the picture.

The punch is made to punch once to set the pins and then you will have to push down a second time a little harder to make the cut.

You will now have a piece that looks like this.

Place some adhesive on the back of the frame and attach it to the yellow cardstock you trimmed. 

Adhere it onto the layout and write in your message.  Notice on my layout, I turned my frame sideways.  That’s ok because I’ve still used the element of the sketch and made it my own.  Add the flower and butterfly to the layout where you’d like them and your layout is now finished. 

Be sure to use the sketch and create your own layouts!  For even more fun join the CreateForLessFacebook page and share with everyone what you have created. 

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

Q1. How do I create a vintage look on a layout or card?

A1. A good starting point to achieving a vintage look is by inking the edges of your projects in a brown or sepia ink. Another easy thing to do is to distress the edges of your paper. Once you have them distressed you can ink the distressed edges or leave them alone. If you are doing any stamping on the project you can stamp the image in the brown or sepia ink to give it an old look. Using tan, yellows or brown papers, too, is another great way to achieve a worn, vintage look.

 Q2. Do you have any organization tips?

A2. CreateForLess carries a large selection of organizational and storage items for all of your craft supplies. Some of them are created to fit into your craft space to store things like small tools, ink pads, embellishments and other things in. There are some storage pieces that are designed to help you store your paper especially those 12 x 12 sheets. Don’t forget that sometimes you will want to take your supplies with you so those made with handles and divided sections are good for on the go.

 Q3. What can I use to temporarily mount unmounted stamps?

A3. Tack ‘N Peel are reusable sheets that help your rubber stamps cling to the acrylic or wood block and are the perfect answer to using those unmounted stamps. The adhesive side creates a bond between the sheet and the block which helps keep the sheet from moving and when the stamp is applied you don’t have to worry about it falling off or moving while you stamp the image.

 Q4. How do I keep the intricate pieces from sticking in my dies?

A4. The answer to this is an easy one.  Blue Painter’s Tape.  Since it’s made not to permanently stick and won’t harm surfaces it’s a great choice to use on your dies.  Simply cover the intricate areas on your dies before placing the paper over the top.  Run it through your die cut machine and once you’re done pull the tape off.  Those little pieces pop right out!

Q5. I like to use my distress inks and spritz them with water to use on things, but my paper curls up.  What can I do about that?

A5. The first thing is to make sure that you are not oversaturating the paper.  Watercolor paper is good to use for this technique as it is made to hold water without becoming too wet.  It is made so that when water is placed on it the water sits on the surface and doesn’t bleed the color into the fibers making them less intense and since all the liquids aren’t absorbing into the paper it doesn’t have the chance to saturate and cause the paper to curl.

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

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

Kids are just like us, they have that one piece of clothing that they love, the only problem is they grow so fast, it doesn’t fit them anymore. I have several boxes of clothes to be saved for my daughter in hopes that one day she has a little girl, then she can share her faves with her tiny one. Let’s face it, for the most part, in 20 years are they still going to love Elmo? Probably not, there will be something or someone more popular. Most of these clothes will be out dated. Let’s make cute memory pieces now for our kids, so they can continue to love their favorite shirts.

The one shirt used today is a too small tee that my daughter picked out at one of our first shopping sprees.  A favorite of hers and a great memory of mine. The second shirt is one that has holes in the shoulders and a terrible stain on the back, plus yucky arm pits.  

This project uses the favorite print from the t-shirt to make adorable wall hangings.

Supplies:

Embroidery Hoop (large enough to fit your image)
White cardstock
Glue
Pen
Scissors

Optional:

Ribbon

To start, I traced the inside of the inside hoop onto the cardstock. I cut the circle out and put it aside for later.

Next, I laid the shirt out flat on the table. I slid the inside hoop into the bottom of the shirt and centered the image I wanted to frame, then I place the outside hoop down around the inside hoop, on the top of the tee, framing the image. For the case of the Pirate Ship, I used 2 hoops. The larger one I placed first, then to frame the Black Flag, I used a smaller hoop. I made the fabric taut by pulling the edges of the tee while the hoops were set but not tightened. Once both hoops were set, I tightened the screws.

I cut around the hoops leaving an edge that can be wrapped around the frame, a little more than a half inch, were I could. The section where the two hoops almost touched I cut down the center giving each hoop an equal amount.

Once the material is cut, place glue around the inside of the hoop on the back and fold the material around, press the cardstock into the back to cover up the ragged edge of the glued material. Let the glue dry.

If the hoop is to be hung, use the ribbon to make a bow or hanger. Or it can be hung just by the screw.

Additional Ideas:

The one t-shirt, I cross stitched my daughters name and then glittered it.

Before glueing the edges and the cardstock back on, the date coule be embroidered on.

This is a perfect way to let the great prints of baby and toddler clothes live on with new life.

By DCWV Diary

I knew just the thing to work on this afternoon to get me out of my manic Monday…the Mango Frost Stack & Embellishments!  The colors in this stack are gorgeous…tangerine, yellows, melon pink, greens and blues. A super versatile line of stuff if you ask me!!!

I really love this line because of all of the fun embellishments that coordinate with it!! It’s like candy in my scrappy candy store

Used a 1 3/4 circle punch to punch out circles to fill my 12×12 page. I punched 2 circles from each pattern and got a total of 49 circles.

A great way to get the adhesive on all of these little circles, my Xyron Creatopia Machine! LOVE THIS THING!!! Had no idea all of the things it could do!!

This is how it came out of the machine, just peeled back the clear top and all had a perfect layer of adhesive.

It’s just too pretty, had a hard time covering any of it up!! This is definitely a “happy stack”

And here is the finished page! Just added 3 pictures and 2 embellishments. Love how different this layout feels because of the circles. It’s like making your own patterned paper!

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

There’s nothing more fun than to receive a flower on a special day and what better thing to have is a flower pot that you can keep.  This beautiful flower pot card was created using the new American Crafts Neapolitan Dear Lizzy Collection. This would be a great project for Mother’s Day, which is on the 13th.

Plus tomorrow for Free Stuff Friday enter to win a prize pack from the American Crafts Neapolitan Dear Lizzy Collection!

Products Used:

• Orange cardstock
• American Crafts Dear Lizzy Patterned Paper:  Hazy Horizons, Sweet Sundress and Warm Memories
• American Crafts Dear Lizzy Ribbon: Printed and Specialty
• Craft Stick
• Foam Sheets in Green
• Wet Glue
• Tape Runner
• Martha Stewart Scoring Board
• Martha Stewart Paper Trimmer
• Stylus
• Scissors
• Ruler and Pencil
• EK Retro Flower Punch
• EK Open Scallop Edger Punch

Begin by cutting a piece of orange cardstock to be 4 ½” x 12″ and score at the 2″ mark using the Martha Stewart Scoring Board.  Now move the 2″ score line over to the left so that it is at the zero mark on the scoring board and score at the 5″ mark.  This will give you 3 sections- one that is 2″ wide and two that are 5″ wide. 

Fold the last 5″ long section up over the other; leaving the 2″ section unfolded.  Measure 1 ¼” in from each side of the paper and make a mark. 

Using a ruler and pencil draw the lines from the marks you just made to the top corners of the 5″ flap as shown in the picture. 

Place the paper in the trimmer matching the pencil line to the trimmer’s cutting track and cut on the pencil line. 

Repeat this step with the other side again lining the pencil line up with the track. 

Using the EK Open Scallop Edger Punch, punch a scalloped edge on the top of the 2″ flap.

Trace 2 of the flower pot shapes using one of the flaps as a template onto the Hazy Horizon sheet and cut them out.  Adhere one sheet with the wavy stripes out onto the front of the flower pot that will be the front of the card.  Lay the second sheet aside for now. 

This is what your card will look like at this point.  Run a piece of tape from your favorite tape runner along the inside edge near the fold.  Tie the ribbon around the flap and fold the flap down to secure. 

Now, punch 8 flowers using the EK Retro Flowers punch and the Sweet Sundress and Warm Memories Patterned Paper from the new American Crafts Neapolitan Dear Lizzy line.  Glue them together using your favorite wet adhesive glue.  Taking the stylus and 2 foam sheets stacked on top of one another gently emboss the center of the flowers going in circles until you reach the center.  This will give each petal a little curl to add a little dimension. 

Take one of the foam sheets and trim 4 long strips off to make the flower stems.  Next, fold each strip in half and then open up and add some glue onto one of the halves.  Fold down again and hold until secure.  This will create a stem that is sturdy enough to hold the flowers up right. 

Once the stems are dry, glue them to the flowers using the wet glue and allow them to dry.  After they are dry, run a piece of tape along the edge of your flower pot and place the stems over the tape making sure the flowers are at different heights.  Trim off any excess stems that are below the tape using a pair of scissors.  This will help remove some of the bulkiness when the patterned paper is placed over them. 

Take a craft stick and trace around it onto the Sweet Sundress Patterned Paper, cut it out and adhere it to the craft stick using the tape runner. 

Attach the pinwheel from the American Crafts Dear Lizzy line to the top and put it in the middle of the flowers on the flower pot making sure it is the tallest of all the pieces.

Take the second flower pot shaped paper that you traced earlier and making sure the green side is up; adhere it over the flower stems and the bottom of the pinwheel as shown in the picture. 

Find the four small flower shapes shown in the picture from the Serendipity Thickers and place it in the center of each flower. 

Use one of the cute stamps or fun stickers that are in the new Dear Lizzy line to add a special sentiment to the card and plant some smiles in a person’s day!

By Guest Bloggers Melissa + Kellie, from the blog Icing Designs.

Washi tape….love it!! We are sure you have heard of this fabulous Japanese, decorative tape that has taken over the craft world! It comes in so many amazing patterns and colors…some is even glittered! There are so many ways that it can be used from cupcake flags, to cake buntings to making packages pretty!!

Have you used it, if so what have you done with it? We just ordered a bunch of it…can’t wait to start using it!

Washi Tape is made from Washi Paper. The word Washi literally means WA (Japanese) and SHI (paper), Japanese paper, and is used in many traditional Japanese arts, such as origami paper folding. Tougher than wood pulp paper, Washi is commonly made from the bark of the gampi tree, mitsumata shrub, or paper mulberry, but also can be made using bamboo, hemp, rice, and wheat. Washi was originally developed from the traditional Chinese paper-making process.