Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

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

A lot of adults have as much fun on Halloween as the kids do. And why not? Why shouldn’t we get to play dress up, and watch scary movies, and enjoy the decorations?

Of course, not many grown-ups get to go Trick-or-Treating! So let’s make up for that a little and put together Altered Treat Jars for our fun-loving friends.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Halloween papers and stickers—black cats, skeletons, Jack-o’-Lanterns, etc.
• Ribbons and trims in Fall and Halloween colors
•  A small jar with a lid
• Treats to fill the jar
• Glue

Now, this is such a simple project, I don’t think directions are really necessary. Just take a look at the photos, the one above of the front, and the one below of the back.

Let your own imagination and creativity carry you along. Cover the jar with scrapbooking paper, or an old Halloween card front, decorate it and the lid with stickers, etc., and you’re ready to fill the jar and give it away.

Need help on what to put inside? There’s always candy, of course, including such yummy adult goodies as chocolate-covered coffee beans, but you don’t have to limit yourself to edibles. My friend just happens to love Halloween, and also does collage and card-making, so I packed her jar with black, orange, and purple buttons, beads, and flat marbles, a bunch of stickers, some purple ribbon, some ostrich feather, and another black feather I found outside, and two small paper punches of a cat and a bat. Get the idea?

Now that you’ve done a Halloween jar, I’ll bet you’re getting all kinds of ideas for others. Me, too! Here’s one I made this week for a friend who loves pink:

My jar had two flat sides, so it ended up having two “fronts”:

Oh, and one last thing: When you’re filling the jar, if you’re careful you can get the contents to show through nicely, and almost become part of the decoration:

You know, I can hardly wait to empty another jelly jar!

By Guest Blogger Diane, from the blog Charmingly Creative.

Fall fast (5) project, five minutes or less to create, 5 or less materials needed.

Halloween is always such an exciting time of the year. You can make candy bags, invitations, cards or decorations. You can use the Pumpkin Carriage punch art to decorate just about anything you want. With just three craft punches you can create a cute nostalgic decoration. Let the magic begin.

What you Need:

• Sakura Hobby Craft 3D Crystal Lacquer

• Martha Stewart punch – Bat

• Martha Stewart double punch – Vintage Doily

• EK Success Paper Shaper punch – 1 1/4″ X 2″ oval

• Bazzill orange & black cardstock

• Glue and wax paper

Step 1:

Punch (five) orange ovals, (two) black Vintage Doily pieces and (one) black bat from card stock.

Step 2:

Assembly Pumpkin Carriage by layering center oval gluing on top of one oval under each side. Glue 4th & 5th ovals the same way. Depending on how far apart you space them you can create different size carriages. Glue bat in center of carriage.

Step 3:

Lie carriage on wax paper and coat with 3D Crystal lacquer, set aside to dry. When dry glue wheels in place.

By Guest Blogger Diane, from the blog Charmingly Creative.

I adore Halloween so I’d thought I would share a Halloween themed idea to get a jump on all of Halloween’s goodness. This card is fast and easy to make.

Materials and Tools:

• Scissors
• Cutting mat
• Suggested Halloween Stickers:
• Jolee’s Boutique – Witches and Cats Stickers
• Jolee’s Pumpkin Embellishment Stickers
• Spooky Tree sticker
• Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page Punch – Eyelet Lace
• Bracket punch
• Spooky Caption sticker
• Bazzill cardstock in white, orange, yellow and black
• Halloween Patterned cardstock

Trim white card stock with Rotary cutter to 8″x10″. Score the card stock in the middle at the 5″ line and use a bone folder to crease the edge of paper to form card 5″ x 8″.

Using Rotary cutter trim Halloween patterned card stock to 5″x8″ and use large Zots or glue to adhere to front of card.

Punch out two orange, one yellow and one black eyelet lace border strips 8″ long. Glue single orange strip to top of patterned Halloween paper. Glue black, then yellow and finally orange on top of each other making sure to overlap pieces so you can see each color. Glue to bottom of patterned paper.

From yellow card stock trace and punch out three yellow brackets. Glue to upper top of patterned card stock making sure to evenly line up the three brackets. Place stickers on each yellow piece to create a scene. Add caption sticker to complete card.

By DCWV Diary

Make this spooky and adorable Paper Witch Hat Centerpiece for your Halloween décor.

To make this hat use any of the DieCuts printed paper stack. I’d suggest the Haunting Paper Stack! Such a great Halloween stack…pretty much love every print in this stack and LOVE the classic colors.

I started with a Styrofoam cone. They make all different sizes so you could really make your hat any size.

I covered the cone with two pieces of 12×12 paper and positioned the top piece so it hung over the top a little bit. That’s what I squeezed together and glued down to make the hanging part of the top of the hat. Then I wrapped another print around the front. I hand cut the brim of the hat and glued two pieces back to back so there is another print on the bottom of the hat.

Then I just embellished the hat with some paper strips, tulle and Halloween Stickers. I think this will look darling in the middle of my kitchen table. So easy and after you have the Styrofoam cone, you probably have everything else you need! Love it when there are projects like that!

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

Looking for a special way to send a Halloween greeting to friends and family? Let your little one help and create a keepsake at the same time with these ghost footprint cards.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• White craft paint
• Black craft paint
• Black cardstock card blank
• Foam paintbrush

1. Coat the bottom of your child’s foot with a generous layer of white paint.

2. Press the foot carefully onto the black paper in the center of the card, rocking it slightly to make sure a full impression is created.

3. Wipe your child’s foot clean and allow the paint to dry.

4. Paint a thin coat of black paint onto their thumbs and press to create “eyes and mouth” on the ghost. Or draw in with a black marker. Allow the paint to dry before sending.

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

One thing I love about Halloween is being able to decorate for it.  Each year I try to add something new and different to my things.  My son and I have even had fun making our own decorations to hang in the windows.  This year I was fortunate to find several new things and thought it would be fun to start taking pictures and making them into layouts to see how much the decorating changes every year.  I decided to add to the fun by using the new Echo Park Apothecary Under Your Spell paper and Alphabet Stickers.

I started by taking pictures of the things I’ve added this year and printed them out to 4″ x 6″.  I, then, trimmed the white edges off the pictures to make them look even spookier.  I chose some Orange Bazzill Cardstock and trimmed it to be 4″ x 6″.  Next I used the Pumpkin Patch Punch by Martha Stewart  and punched the top of each piece of cardstock.  The details on this punch are fantastic and I wanted it to stand out more so I rubbed a q-tip over the Black Soot Distress Ink Pad and rubbed the ink onto the pumpkins and then turned the q-tip around, gently rubbing the ink into the grooves of the paper which also helped to remove some of the excess ink off the paper.  It not only helped to highlight the pumpkins, it gave them a shadowed look, as well.  I, then, adhered the pictures to the background pieces and onto the 12 x 12 piece of Under Your Spell paper.  I placed the patterned pumpkin from the Echo Park Apothecary Emporium Elements sheet between the 2 pictures to add some more interest to the layout.  I found that I had some of the Making Memories Toil and Trouble Foam Icons Stickers left from last year and decided that the stars would be great to add a glittery effect to the page.  I knew I was close to being done, but it still needed something more besides the title. 

Since most of my pictures showed my favorite pumpkins I realized I needed to use my newest Halloween punch which is extra special to me because I was able to help name this 1″ Lever Punch by Fiskars.  It’s called, “Laughin’ Jack.”  I used some yellow Bazzill and punched 2 faces out and adhered them to the layout using some mini Pop Dots cut in halves to fit onto the face areas.    The last thing I did was included the title using the Apothecary Alphabet Stickers and what should Halloween decorations say to those who see them? “Happy Halloween!”  of course, so that’s what I named this layout. 

Often as we decorate for the holidays we don’t think to take pictures and scrap them, but if you think about it that’s also a part of what our family memories are so the next time you snap a few pictures of the cute little costumes your children wear be sure to snap a few pictures of the decorations you have put up.  It’s all a part of the fun of the holiday!  Have a very Happy Halloween everyone!

By Paper Crafts Contributor, Lauren Romano.

I really love all the aspects of Halloween from the creepy designs to the art of doing costume makeup. I enjoy the holiday so much that I give my loved ones little bags of treats. Although Halloween isn’t typically thought of as a gift-giving holiday, there are plenty of opportunities to use a creepy spider gift tag. Whether you’re giving a hostess gift or a bag of treats to your child, the recipient can also use the tag as a bookmark.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

• Orange gift tag
• Ultra fine black glitter
• Mod Podge
• Red glitter glue pen
• Spray glue
• Spider punch
• Newspapers

Step 1. Punch three medium-sized spiders out of black cardstock, then use the Mod Podge to adhere them haphazardly onto the gift tag.

Step 2. Use the red glitter glue pen to make bright red eyes on the spiders. You may have to do this step two or three times so that the glitter shows up well enough. Avoid using regular red glitter – when working with such limited space, the glitter could flake off or bunch up into a single pile.

Step 3. Start from the hole of the gift tag and make a swirly and squiggly line from the top of the gift tag down to the bottom. Make certain parts of the line thicker than others; don’t worry if the line is a little jagged in some areas.

Step 4. Over a spread out sheet of newspaper, sprinkle ultra fine black glitter onto the glue line – don’t sprinkle it all over the glue, only sprinkle it in spots and let some of the red glitter show through. The line will appear as if it’s a thick, disgusting looking worm.

Step 5. Tilt the tag back and forth so the glitter sticks onto the glue and also spreads over the rest of the tag. Considering how fine the glitter is, it may not move easily so tap the tag a bit to shift it. Let the tag sit untouched until it is completely dry.

Step 6. You could leave the fine glitter spread on the tag as is, or if you prefer, use a very light coating of spray adhesive to ensure it sticks on. Don’t touch the tag until it fully dries otherwise you could leave fingerprints.