Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

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

If your kids, like mine, love to play house for hours and hours, play food, you’ll know by now, figures largely into this imaginary world. My daughter loves to make tea and lunch for her babies and herself, and sometimes if I’m lucky, I’ll get a plate as well. This play pasta is easy enough to create that most kids can help out and the result will bring hours of play time fun.

If you can’t find beige felt, try soaking a few pieces of white felt in coffee or tea and allowing it to dry!

Here’s what you need

Tan or beige felt sheets
Pinking shears
Sewing Scissors
Needle and matching thread
Ruler and pencil
Batting

Tortellini

1. Cut 3-inch diameter circles from your felt.
2. Lay a quarter sized lump of batting in the center of your circle and fold over into a half-circle. Stitch a few stitches at the point to hold the shape in place.
3. Bring the two sides of the half-circle together and cross over, stitching them in place.
4. Fold the rounded edge over to finish the tortellini shape.

Ravioli

1. Cut 2 2-inch squares using your pinking shears.
2. Sand which a quarter sized piece of batting between the two layers of felt.
3. Stitch a square 1/2 inch in from the sides around the square, sealing the batting in place.

Linguini

1. Using your ruler, mark out 1/2 inch wide strips along the length of your felt.
2. Cut out the strips to make long noodles
(if you want you can also cut a wobbly shape out of red felt to make a blob of spaghetti sauce to set over the linguini!)

By Guest Blogger, Jennifer from the blog “So Many Products, So Little Time”.

My husband Steve grew up a farm boy in Southwest Iowa.  A tractor originally owned by his Grandpa Stanley Hansen was passed down to  his father Robert Hansen.  When Steve was a young boy while he was driving it, the tractor rolled over on top of him.  Miraculously he wasn’t hurt.  The ground was very soft from a recent rain and they think it had just enough give that it kept him safe. The tractor was damaged after rolling over and so they stored it.  A few years ago my husband started to restore this tractor and finished it up a couple years ago.  It currently takes up his side of the garage and he likes to drive it during tractor rides at the local county fairs. I made this album of pictures with him and his tractor. I used pictures from the recent Warren County Fair, and from back in 1951.

Supplies used:

Wooden Album: Genuinely Jane Studios (4 pages – 8 sides) approx. 5 x 6 ½”
Plaid FolkArt Paint - silver, black, red
Jewels
Chipboard Circles
White Cardstock
Black Photo Corners:  Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L
Ribbon
Provo Cuttlebug Embossing Machine
American Crafts Black Paper
Label Tape/Machine

I started by painting the tractor part of the wood album red, and the side of the tires black. I used my circle Coluzzle template to determine the tire sizes and then cut them out.  Be sure when using a Coluzzle knife that you have it straight up when cutting.  If you do not have a Coluzzle or large punches, you can trace a template and cut by hand.

I ran my circles through the Cuttlebug Embossing Swiss Dots template to give them some dimension.

I made my hubcaps by using chipboard circles and used the outside ring for the large tire and the inside circle for the smaller tire.  I painted them with Plaid silver paint. After gluing down the tires and hubcaps, I added red jewels to the centers.

Next all you have to do is add your photos, photo corners and captions. I used white cardstock as a backdrop for each photo. To make the small pictures, I used the collage 4×6 print feature at Walgreens (most photo centers would have the same function).  I selected 4 pictures that were either all portrait or all landscape and for around 25 cents. I had 4 mini photos that fit perfectly as tractor windows. Their size is 1 ¾ X 2 ½”.

Lastly join all your pages together with ribbon or a binding ring.

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

Aside from my wedding ring and my grandmother’s screw on (i.e. can’t fall off) diamond earrings, the only jewelry that I wear on any kind of regular basis are bracelets. I love necklaces, but about a week after my first child was born I realized that kids and necklaces don’t mix. Or at least my kids and necklaces don’t mix. Although now that they are 4 and 8 I’m probably safe to wear them again. But I’m out of practice. My jewelry box is full of bracelets.

Or I should say it’s full of lots of broken bracelets and a few hearty specimens that have survived where the others failed. I break bracelets all the time. Part of this I can blame on the kids, but most of it is all me. I spend a lot of time at the computer and I am constantly putting on and taking off my bracelets, and eventually, they break. Recently I moved most of the broken but-I’ll-fix-it-someday bracelets to a bead jar on my desk and in the process I realized that in most cases I don’t have all the bits and bobs from the originals, so returning them back to that state is probably not going to happen. Enter Stretch Magic.

If you are a veteran of jewelry making, you know all about this stuff, but I’d never tried it and I was so excited to get my hands on some and start turning my jar-o-beads back into wearable jewelry again.

Before you start, think about the size of the holes on your beads. Stretch Magic comes in a variety of thicknesses and several colors. Most of my beads had larger holes and since breaking has been an issue in the past, I chose the 1mm clear for my projects.

If you don’t have any broken bracelets or necklaces to start with (lucky you!) you can always peruse the many options that are out there just waiting for you to make something from them. I know I could go absolutely overboard buying different beads and charms in the jewelry making section.

Cut a good four inches longer than your wrist is around and start sliding on the beads, thinner Stretch Magic may require a needle but I had no problem using it straight with my larger holed beads. Once you have arranged your beads the way you want, tie the ends together using an overhand knot or two to secure the two pieces together without slippage. Trim the ends and enjoy your new (old) jewelry!

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

It was the perfect confluence of habits: I love, collect, and acquire a lot of laces, braids, and other trims, our family of two eats a lot of eggs, and I hate throwing things out that look like they could be useful.

I heard that! You’re scratching your head and saying, “HUH?”

Here’s the deal. I’ve been looking at egg cartons for years, trying to think of an afterlife for them. I also groan every time I open the drawer that holds those laces and trims I’m such a magnet for. Hard as I try to keep that drawer tidy, it always ends up seriously jumbled. Yesterday those two things just sort of collided in my brain, and I had an epiphany, just a little-bitty one, but a good one nonetheless.

Here’s what I did. I took an egg carton, in this case one from a five-dozen pack (told you) but a regular one would work as well, cut off the edges, and started wrapping lace trims around it.

The egg cup rows kept the laces in their places, the texture of the paper carton held onto the trims like gentle Velcro, and the rectangles still had just a bit of that nestling instinct. And they fit perfectly into those shoebox size plastic boxes, of which I had several, with room on the ends for a baggie filled with the short bits and pieces left over from past projects.

Now I can either put those boxes in the lace drawer or on a shelf, and instead of trying to riffle through this:

I can pick up one of these and see exactly what I have, without causing a lace explosion!

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

We’re just weeks away from back to school. From backpacks and library books and school supplies. But that doesn’t mean we cant have just a little bit more crafty fun before school starts up again. This project is a great one to take to school that first day to help keep your place in all those books you are going to read this year. And yes, I did say toilet paper. But never fear, no one will know your cool bookmark really started out in the bathroom!

Here’s what you need:

10 sheets of toilet paper
Water
Stamp of your choice
Craft Glue
Cardstock
Scissors

1. Fold the sheets of toilet paper up on each other until you have a thick square. Run briefly under water and then wring out gently until you have a damp but not dripping pile.

2. Center the toilet paper stack onto your stamp. Stamps with a raised edge work better than those that are carved in, but you can get a good result out of both. Press firmly onto the stamp with your fingers trying to work it around the edges and into any grooves. If the stamp has raised edges leave the paper on while it dries. If it is an carved in stamp, gently pull the paper off the stamp and flip over onto a flat surface.

3. Allow the paper to dry completely. Trim the edges so taht you have a neat square with an impression centered inside it.

4. Cut the card stock into a 2×5 strip and glue the stamped paper just down from the top of the bookmark. Allow the glue to dry.

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

Sometimes what you need isn’t a new project, but a new process, something that will spark your own creative juices (Can you spark juice? Hmmm…)  For instance, you probably have a dozen different ways to use marbles, both the traditional spheres and the newer flat ones, but have you ever wondered if there was a way to make your marbles look a little different? If they did, how would that change projects you have in mind?

Here’s a way to do just that, and it’s really easy. We’re going to fry them!

To begin, select the marbles you want to use. I just pulled out a pretty random handful for the purposes of demonstration; you might have specific colors in mind. This process will craze the glass, so don’t use marbles that are opaque, because the crazing is all on the inside, and you won’t see it. We’re also going to get the marbles really hot, so the painted ones are probably not going to work, either. You want plain glass, although there’s nothing to say you can’t use the cat’s eye style.

Now put them in a skillet or pan, one that’s large enough to lay them all out flat. We’re not literally frying them, so don’t put in any oil! (This is the method for flat marbles; I’ll get to the round ones in a bit.) Turn the burner on under the pan and pour yourself a cup of coffee or tea, and relax for ten minutes or so while the marbles get really hot. Don’t go too far away; you wouldn’t want to melt the pan!

When the marbles are good and hot, fill a bowl with ice water, and then gently slide the marbles in. You’ll hear them sizzling and popping in the water. Don’t worry; that’s what they’re supposed to do.

When they’ve cooled to the touch, take them out of the water. You’re done!

As you can see, they have a nice internal pattern now, which you can’t feel, and they’re not quite so see-through, which may be helpful if you want to obscure a flaw or graphic on the item they’ll be applied to.

Now, as mentioned, you’ll use a slightly different method for the spherical marbles, since they really touch the surface of a pan at just a single point and are too hard to heat that way. Put them in an oven-proof dish or pan, and slip them into an oven preheated to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake 20 minutes, and then slide them into ice water, just the way you did the others. Same sizzle, same crackle!

Are you getting ideas yet? Here’s one more: You can do this with those big glass telephone pole resisters. We used to do that and turn them into quite elegant candlesticks!

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…