Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

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

In the last few weeks, my summer flowers have begun to fade and the mums are starting to make a showing in my garden. Fall is on the way. From one of the windows of our house we have been watching tiny, bright yellow birds feast of the shriveling heads from our row of sunflowers. It’s been so much fun watching them flit and fly around the plants that I decided to spread the wealth around the house so that we had a view form every window with these sunflower head feeders.

If you don’t have sunflowers growing in your yard, you can sometimes find them through crafts stores, florists or even your local farmers market.

Here’s what you need:

Two sunflower heads per feeder
Floral wire
Ribbon
Needle-nose pliers
Wire cutters
Embroidery needle

1. Use the wire cutters to trim the stalk of the flowers back as far as you can.

2. Cut a 12 inch piece of wire and thread it through the back of one of the flowers. If the wire is bending, use the needle to make a hole in the flower before you push the wire through. Use your pliers to pull it out the front side of the flower and then thread it back through to the back about 1/4 of an inch over from where the first hole is.

3. Using the same wire, repeat the process with the other head so that the two flowers lie back to back.

4. Pull the wired tightly and twist together to secure. Trim ends.

5.  Thread the ribbon between the two heads below where the wire connects them. Bring the two ends of the ribbon up over the top of the flowers and tie a knot just at the edge of the flower heads. Tie another knot in the ribbon about 8 inches up, leaving a loop in between knots.

6. Hang from a tree near a window and watch the birds flock!

By Sewing Contributor Jessica, from the blog “Life Sew Good”.  

My friend Summer lost her dad a little over a year ago to cancer.  After she heard about a program that is trying to collect 1 million pillowcases to be donated to various hospitals, she jumped on board.  Patients like to have pillowcases that are their own when they are in the hospital for long stays.  I definitely wanted to be a part of this, and I thought it would be a fabulous idea to have our ThinkCrafts.com friends join in!  Summer’s blog, has all the info you need on where to send pillowcases, as well as the story behind her motivation for doing this.  All the pillow cases collected will be sent to St. Jude’s, a children’s hospital.   I’ve provided you with a simple tutorial to make a sweet standard pillowcase.  Please send pictures of the pillow cases you make and I can include them on a future post.

You’ll need:

1- 1 1/3 yd. main fabric—flannel or cotton
¼ yd. coordinating fabric—flannel or cotton
Measuring tape/ruler
Fabric Pen (optional)
Scissors
Thread
Pins

Preshrink your fabric using HOT WATER ONLY (no soap!).  This is important if you are making the pillowcase to send to children in the hospital.

1. Cut  1 piece 27” x 42” main fabric  (piece “A”)
2. Cut 1 piece 8 ½” x 42” main fabric  (piece “B”)
3. Cut 1 piece 5” x 42” coordinating fabric  (piece “C”)
4. Take piece B & C, fold in ½” length-wise and press.
5. Lie piece C on top of piece B, raw edges together

6.  Lie piece A on top of piece C, lining up the raw edges and pin in place.

7. Sew ½” seam along raw edges.  Back track on each end.

8. Serge or zigzag edge. Open so that you can see all right sides.  Press piece C so that it lies on top of piece A.  Turn the case over to the wrong side & press seam up toward piece B.  Top stitch.

9. Fold pillowcase in half, right sides together, finished edges together.  Sew ½ seam along all raw edges.  Sew ½” seam along raw edges.  Back track on each end.

10. Serge or zigzag edge. Open so that you can see all right sides.  Press piece C so that it lies on top of piece A. 

11. Turn the case over to the wrong side & press seam up toward piece B.  Top stitch.

12. Fold pillowcase in ½, right sides together, finished edges together.  Sew ½ seam along all raw edges. 

13. Serge or zigzag edge.

14. Turn right side out.

You did it!!!  Now make a few more & send them to Summer, along with a personal note with a prayer or special message for the unknown recipient.  You will be part of a huge effort to bring specially made pillowcases to children at St. Jude’s!

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

I love art in the garden, and for a long time I’ve wanted a gazing ball. Why can’t I make one? I wondered just a day or two ago. I decided to give it at try, and take you along with me!

My materials were few:

• A plain, round light globe, vase, jar, or other clear sphere
• Spray paint in shiny metallic silver or gold

First, true confession: I bought two spherical light globes for this at a thrift store, but they disappeared! They would actually be my first choice for the gazing balls, but I did have a small, round vase and a large, perfectly round, jar—no flat spot anywhere, except for where the lid screwed on. Use what you have; it doesn’t even have to be round, as long as it’s a shape you like.

The instructions are as simple as the list of materials. Make sure your sphere is perfectly clean. Protect your work area, and/or work outside. Choose the color you want for your gazing ball, and spray paint the inside of the sphere. Be patient and don’t spray too much at a time or the paint will run. Just short bursts of paint will do it, overlapping until the glass is completely covered.

My spheres aren’t quite a shiny and mirror-like as I’d hoped they’d be, but I do think they look pretty great in the bird bath against the fence. I added a white light globe to the grouping, and have been enjoying the sight of them.

You could also dazzle them up even more by painting a water-proof glue on the outside of your sphere and sprinkling on glitter, in either a matching or contrasting color. I’m contemplating a swirl of gold glitter on the silver ball…What do you think?

By Sewing Contributor Jessica, from the blog “Life Sew Good”.  

My friend Anna has an amazing ability to take great high-end decorating ideas and making them practical and affordable.  After seeing some great pillows, she decided to ask my friend Aimee to make some for her . . . out of burlap! 

Friends, it may not be a pillow you’ll cozy up to, but the burlap adds great texture and dimension.  They are perfect for a neutral throw pillow to add in with other pillows or to throw on your outdoor bench.  Maybe it sounds crazy, but try it.  In another post will include ways to “spice up” your burlap pillow, so make it now, and get ready for crazy fun.

Here’s what you need:

Scissors
Thread similar to this
Pillow Form
Burlap

Because burlap is see-through, we double-layered it.  You could put colored duck cloth or other fabric underneath, but burlap is inexpensive and it’s just as easy to double it.  The rest of the instructions will assume you just folded over your burlap and are measuring it together.

Figure your dimensions: 

We used a 12” x 16” pillow form.  We accounted for ½” seam allowance on all sides.  We also decided we wanted the make it a pillow case so that when we change our minds and want to do something different with our pillow, we can!  So, we allowed for a 2” over lap in the back plus 2” fold-over (which makes it look good.)  Here’s what that ends up looking like:

Here’s the math: 

Height:  12” (front) + 12” (back) + 1” total seam allowance = cut 25”

Width:  16” (front) + 16” (back) + 1” total seam allowance + 8” fold-over/over-lap =  cut  41”

You should have a 25” x “41 double layer piece of burlap.

Fold over and pin the 2 short ends 2 ½” (2” fold-over + ½” seam allowance).  Sew ½” seam on each end.

With RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER, fold burlap in thirds, over lapping your folded edges 2”, so that the fold on one side meets the seam of the other folded side.

Pin sides.  Sew sides together with a ½” seam.  Don’t worry about raw edges.  It won’t matter in the pillow! 

Trim corners, being careful not to cut through your seams. 

Turn right side out, and viola!  Burlap pillow cover!

Stay tuned for further ideas in burlap décor!

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

I’m a menu planner, in fact, I have a hard time functioning in the kitchen without a solid plan. I even plan our meals when we are on vacation. It saves time and money and helps us to keep from wasting food because generally, we only buy just what we need for the week, so there’s not much that has a chance to waste away on a back shelf.

For the past year I’ve been using a cute little notepad to keep track of what we are eating and when, but this week when I sat down to write up our meals and our grocery list, I found that I had only two pages left. I could, of course, go pick up another one, but I love a challenge, so I decided to make my own.

The hardest part of this was designing the template so I’ll save you the trouble and give you a few versions of the one I made to download, but if you’re handy with Adobe Illustrator, the possibilities are endless! Design away!

This version is sized to fit an 8 x 10 inch clip frame but you could resize it at a copy shop very easily to fit whatever frame you want. I like the clip frame because it’s easier to write on.

Here’s what you need:

1 8 x 10 clip frame
Printed menu card
Ruler and Xacto knife

1. Print out your card and trim to fit your glass. My printer was a little low on ink so mine turned out light, but it works.

2. Clean both sides of your glass and wipe dry.

3. Assemble the clip frame with your menu card inside. Presto! Using a dry erase marker, you can keep track of your meals and have something fun hanging on your wallthat wasn’t created by a two year old!

*You can also glue strong magnets to the back to mount your menu card on the fridge!

Download your  menu template here:

Blue Menu Template

Yellow Menu Template

Red Menu Template

By General Crafts Contributor, Shelly from the blog “Pickwick & Plum”.  

Ever notice how similar Champagne stoppers and vintage cafe chairs look? I’ve been playing with a variety of treatments and here are three that I think might inspire you to ‘look anew’ at that bottle of bubbly you’ve got hid in your pantry. So, pour yourself a glass and plug in the hot glue gun.

Materials for this project might include:

Vintage buttons and millinery
Scraps of trim or rick rack
Odd metal parts or toys
Plastic bird, or sticker
Tinsel
Beads

I recommend letting the seat lead the direction of the rest of the chair. For all three of these, I picked a vintage button for the seat. Only on the Tree Chair, did I flatten one of the sides – but it helped with getting the branches to line up properly. The metal backing of the Blue Chair is half an old drawer plate (the part of a dresser drawer pull that sits against the dresser). It’s nice and thin metal, so it bent well. Although I did help it along with my handy Nibblers (a great tool for metal available at hardware stores).

At the back of the Blue Chair, I stuck a small rod of brass through the button shank. I added some vintage trim and a velvet ribbon to finish it off. It looks a bit art deco in design.

For the tree chair, I simply hot glued some branches together in a row and attached them to the flattened part of the button. I think  I used my heat gun on some old christmas tinsel. Got it nice and scrunched for the nest and sewed three ivory buttons onto it. I then attached a bird sticker to one of the branches. I wrapped the seat with some vintage trim in gold and blue.

This Mod Chair is made using a part of an old lamp. Where the light bulb would be, is the upholstered button. I attached this to the metal with 2 part epoxy. The back seat cushion I made by using another fabric covered button. I dented the middle so it looked more ‘stuffed’ and stuck a metal flower in the center – but you could actually make a small fabric cushion out of some fabric and foam. I wrapped the seat here in red rick-rack to match the red ‘legs’ of the stopper.

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

Jar candles are great, aren’t they? The flame is contained, as is the melted wax, and most of them are scented, which I love. Eventually, though, if you burn them often, you end up with a stash of the empty jars and their lids.

I was looking at just such a stash the other day, and got an idea.

If you stacked them, and glued them together, you’d have pretty cool candlesticks, which seemed poetically fitting, given their origins.

Here are your instructions:

If the lid has a plastic ring around it, slip the blade of a table knife under the edge and give the knife a twist. It may take a little working at, but the rings come off pretty easily.

Make sure the lids are clean. Stack them, experimenting to get a pleasing “structure”. I put my top lid on upside down so there’d be a cavity to put a candle in. You may prefer the flat side to be up, and use a larger, pillar candle. Another option is to insert colorful items in the lids before you glue the lids together. In the first photo shown, you can see the red beads I put in one lid.

Glue them together, using a good glue for glass. (E6000 is always my choice, and no, I don’t work for that company!) Check every now and then as the glue is setting up, to make sure the lids don’t slide out of position.

Put a candle in or on your stack, and light it.

Want something even simpler? Take several lids, put them down the center of your picnic table, place a tea light in each, and light.