Think Crafts Blog - Craft Ideas and Projects - CreateForLess

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

With all the cold weather that has swamped our part of the country this winter, we’ve been drinking a lot of hot chocolate and warm tea. And while my kids are generally pretty careful with dishes, I prefer not to hand them their treat in one of my vintage tea cups. I could, of course, pick up a plain old mug somewhere for each of them or dig into the collection of sentimental, but not valuable coffee mugs that reside under the kitchen sink, but where would be the fun in that?

When I was a kid I remember carefully coloring a picture that my mother sent off to be made into a mug in some mysterious factory. While that’s still an option, a homemade version is also easily done now a days thanks to inkjet waterslide decal paper. Whew, that’s a mouthful, I know. Basically this is the stuff that model makers use to add details to cars, planes and trains. It’s a printable paper that, once sealed, can be soaked in water and applied to just about any surface you want.

My kids put in requests for images (a Welsh Dragon and a crown) but you could easily scan some artwork of their own making and size it to fit on the mug. Either way, once you have your art, here’s what else you need:

Waterslide decal paper - this is available at model shops, I like 5 x 8.5 inches because there is less waste
Clear gloss lacquer spray
Old mugs - white is best
Your computer and a printer

Size the document (look under page set up) to the size of your actual paper and import the art you want to put on your mug. I generally like to try to fit it all on one half a sheet, this way I can still put the other half in the printer at a later date and have little waste. Print your images and allow the ink to dry completely, give it a good two hours otherwise the ink may run when you seal it.

Once it’s dry, spray a thin coat of lacquer over the paper and allow that to dry. Go back and add a second and maybe a third coat, allowing it to have a few minutes of dry time between each layer.

Cut out the art as closely to the edges as possible. The decal will slide off clear but you want as little extra material as possible. Drop the decals into a bowl of cool tap water. They will curl up at first then sink. If they float on the surfact, push them down so they are totally submerged.

After about a minute the decal will slide freely off of the paper. Being careful not to let it fold on itself, arrange the decal onto the clean, flat surface of the mug, smoothing out any bubbles. When you are satisfied with the placement of the image, lightly spray two more coats of the lacquer, again allowing a few minutes of dry time between each layer (hint - turn the mug upside down on a piece of cardboard before spraying to avoid getting any inside the mug)

While not dishwasher safe, the decals will last through handwashing and is a great way to repurpose old mugs.

By General Crafts Contributor Amy, from the Blog “Mod Podge Rocks!”

I love all sorts of woodland creatures right now, including frogs.  I decided recently that I wanted to find a way to fit them into home décor, especially as it applies to children.  What resulted was this wood name plaque celebrating cute amphibians and in bright colors.  I made it with my own name for this round, but I have a friend that’s having a baby and I’m going to make one for her new little one.  If you want to make it too, gather these supplies:

Mod Podge Gloss

Demis Wood Plaque

Wood letters spelling the name of your choice

Wood frog embellishment

FolkArt Paint - Wicker White, Licorice, Yellow Citron, Metallic Green     

K&Company Paper Pad 12×12 Actopus to Zelephant

Beacon 3 in 1 Glue

Flat paint brushes of various sizes

Piece of scrap paper to cover the plaque

Scissors

Tape

The first thing I did was make a template for the plaque background.  I just took a piece of computer paper (old and printed on one side) and pressed it around the edges.  I know it seems very rudimentary, but it really works!  Grab a sheet of scrapbook paper you want to use and some tape - tape this down and then cut around the edge of your template with the scissors.  There’s your background!  Set it aside.

Paint your plaque with white paint.  Completely coat the front and the back.  Allow to dry.

Paint the letters of your name with several coats of the metallic green paint.  Allow to dry.  Use the end of your paint brush to make yellow citron dots on the letters.  Allow to dry.

Paint your wood froggie piece with yellow citron paint.  You are going to use several coats.  Allow to dry.  Go back with a smaller brush to paint the spots metallic green and then the eyes black.  Let the entire piece dry.

Tip: Use a medium flat brush to paint the frog piece and don’t worry about getting paint on the spots.  When you paint the spots, use a smaller detail flat brush and this time take great care painting.

I went back to my white plaque and decided to dress it up a little bit.  I first painted one layer of metallic green on the top edges - this was for when I put my paper down - in case the edges of the paper didn’t exactly meet the edges of the plaque, there would be some green there.

The next step was to use a medium flat brush to add the stripes around the edge of the plaque.  I did this freeform - no planning, no taping.  That’s the look I wanted!  I did one pass first and then went back to tidy up the edges.  It was really easy.  Just go for it!  Allow the plaque to dry.

When it’s time to Mod Podge is when I get really excited!  Use your flat brush to apply a medium layer of Mod Podge to the top of the plaque.

Place the paper piece that has been sitting around for awhile down on the plaque and SMOOTH, SMOOTH, SMOOTH!  I use a brayer, but you can use your fingers or even an old gift card.  Smooth until the paper is flat, and if Mod Podge comes out the side, wipe it away with a brush.  Allow to dry for 15 - 20 minutes.

You’re almost done!  Mod Podge everything to seal it - the entire plaque, the letters and the frog.  Give it all at least two coats and then let it dry.

Finally, use your Beacon glue to attach the wood pieces to the plaque.  You’ll see I glued my letters down a little funky - choose smaller letters and make them “dance” for large names.  Now you’ve got a name plaque for yourself or someone as a gift.

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

Despite the fact that the state I currently live in was once the capitol of the Confederacy we’ve had far more snow this winter than any of the years I lived in Oregon. In fact, the past two months have done a pretty good job of reminding me of my childhood in Northern Idaho. And with all that snow has come a lot of snow days. Snow days that cancel school and snow days that just cancel everything. With two kids in a smallish house, I’ve had to come up with a pretty steady stream of crafts and activities. Some have been good, some have lasted about thirty seconds and some have been a downright hit. At the top of the list for my son was this little project, which we spent an entire snowy afternoon on. 

Remember back when we were in elementary school and played around with the Ed Emberly’s Thumbprint book? Well it’s still around and just as fun as ever. And even if you don’t happen to have the book hanging around, you can still help turn your kids thumb and finger prints into just about anything they can dream up. And what better way to illustrate a story of their own making?

Here’s what you need:

Stamp pads in various colors (I sometimes just use washable markers with my daughter, just color the pad of their finger and stamp quickly, less mess for the little ones!)

White cardstock or thick copy paper

Black marker

Black pen

Ruler

Start by having your child write or dictate a story. It’s a great time to talk about the basics of story arcs and how they need a beginning, middle and end for a good story. As they write (or dictate) estimate how many “scenes” the story will have and draw a square for each on the paper.

Most comic books have a variety of sizes of squares so keep that in mind, and don’t forget to add a box for the title and the “the end” frame. Write each line in its box and read through the story with your child so they know what’s going on in each box before they get started. It’s a good idea to make a few examples of animals and characters they might want on a separate sheet of paper if you don’t have a thumbprint art book, just to get them started.

Then let the stamp and draw away. In the end you’ll have a (probably hilarious) memento of just what kind of story was bobbing around in their head at that moment in time. In fact, we ended up laminating the pages of our sons to make sure it was well preserved. I know I never want to forget the story of a pig that loses his “singing lung” and has to learn to trumpet!

How about you, have you introduced any crafts inspired by your childhood fun to your kids?

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

Because my two kids, a boy - 7 and a girl - 3, share a room, our decorating scheme walks a fine line between girl and boy, between little kid and big. I’ve been a little weary of hanging much art so far, finding everything too one way or the other. But I also get tired of blank walls very quickly, so this week I decided it was time to tackle the wall above their beds. We needed color and fun and something they each loved. And in the end, their favorite books seemed like a good place to start. I should also say that this decision also happened to come about after picking up the dustcovers from those favorite book off the floor one too many times.

If your kids are like mine, they have very little use for dust jackets, and since I try to buy hardback copies of books that I suspect will get a lot of use, we have a lot of them hanging around. Sometimes they stay on the books and gradually disintegrate, eventually being sucked up bit by bit through weekly vacuuming. Sometimes I pull them off right away and tuck them in a cupboard where they sit, taking up space. This is, I think, a better solution than either of the two.

Here’s what you need:

5-6 sheets of scrapbooking paper in coordinating colors (and coordinating with your dust jackets)
Book dust jackets of various sizes
Old frames in various sized
spray paint
foam
Mod Podge
Sewing machine
Ribbon
Paper cutter

Start by matching your dust jackets to frames, deciding which look best where. Paint the frames to match the color scheme of the paper you have chosen and/or the bedroom decor. You can either keep the glass in the frames or choose to leave it out all together. I choose to leave it out, just in case jumping on the bed led to pictures falling on the floor or heads!

Cut a piece of foam core to fit into the back of each frame snugly.

Trim the dust cover neatly so that you have an even rectangle or square of just the front. Reserve the scraps.

Cut and piece the scrapbooking paper so that it covers the edges of the foam core just slightly more than the gap between the dust jacket and the edge of the frame.

Using Mod Podge (I’ll refer you to our own Mod Podge Amy for her excellent tips) decoupage the paper and then the dust jacket onto the foam core.

Once dry, pop your new art into the frames, securing with a staple gun or tape.

With the remaining paper and the scraps of the dust jackets, help your children cut even triangles (or, if they dont feel like a geometry lesson, you could do it yourself). Cut two lengths of ribbon for the beginning and end of the bunting.

Help your children decide on an order for the triangles to fall in the bunting, stacking them from first to last in a pile.

At your sewing machine, place the end of one piece of ribbon under the starting edge of the first triangle and start stitching using a straight stitch and a 1/4 inch seam allowance. As each triangle is done, run the next through, leaving only a few stitches between each. Sew the second piece of ribbon to the back of the last triangle and back stitch to secure.

Using the ribbons as hangers and arranging the art and bunting across the wall, hang your new kids art and stand back to admire. When your kids fall out of love with one book and in with another, or you just need a change, you can decoupage a new dustjacket right on top of the old ones, creating an up to day display of their reading habits.

Blog Contributor, Crafty Mom and Writer, Gillian, from the Blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”.

We eat a lot of eggs in our house. This is in part because we are lucky enough to share eight beautiful hens with our neighbors so there are always plenty of fresh eggs just a few steps from our door. But even before we had hens, we were big egg eaters. Our most popular egg meal is probably Egg Soldiers. It’s something I grew up eating on a regular basis and I’ve never met a kid who didn’t love it. It’s pretty basic, soft boil an egg, tap off the top to reveal the runny yolk, cut a slice of buttered toast into thin strips (soldiers) for dipping. My kids devour it, scraping every last drop of egg out of the shell, which leaves me with a lot of stripped clean egg shells.

Now admittedly I throw most of them in the compost heap. Even I’m not crafty enough to think of a use for half a dozen empty egg shells each week, but every once in a while we use them for some kind of craft. A few weeks ago, the kids were eating a pair of particularly pretty brown eggs and I just couldn’t bring myself to toss them in with old orange peels and last night’s dinner scraps so instead, we decided to make a couple of mini planters out of them.

Our Egg Planters

I read somewhere recently that nothing brings out your inner kindergartener like a sprouting seed. I think that’s absolutely true. When I was a teacher we used to sprout Lima beans in wet paper towels and I think I peeked more often than the kids. It’s just one of those miraculous things that never get old. For this seed sprouting experiment we dug out some of last spring’s left over seeds that were both quick germinating and pretty, radishes and chives.

But before we could get planting, we had to get decorating! Because an egg planter isn’t and egg planter without a little something added to the mix!

Pick out your decorations

First, we needed something for our little guys to set in. Egg cups were the obvious, and we certainly have a bunch of those lying around, but they didn’t seem very fun. Instead we turned a couple of bottle lids into mini egg cups by hot gluing a scrap of ribbon around the edge. Next we glued buttons on for eyes, noses and a mouth (my sons has no mouth, it’s a robot egg, and apparently robot eggs don’t need mouths). With that done, it was time to plant.

It's takes a lot of concentration to glue decorations on an empty egg shell!

We packed some potting soil into the egg shell, sprinkled on the seeds and then it was time to wait. The trick here is to give them just enough water, since there is no drain hole you don’t want to flood the egg, but you also don’t want the seeds to dry out. After a few weeks, the seeds begin to sprout, making fun tufts of hair for your egg planter men.

The kids love them and are lobbying for a transfer from kitchen window sill to the playroom and while I’d love to oblige , I don’t think I can give up having those happy little egg faces smiling at me while I do the dishes each day. Good thing we’re having eggs again this afternoon!

 Click here to read more of Gillian’s blog.

Blog Contributor, Crafty Mom and Writer, Gillian, from the Blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”.

I have a three year old girl. A three year old girl who gives Fancy Nancy a run for her money in the dressing up department. Which means I have hairclips. Lots of hairclips. Or at least it means I buy, make and inherit lots of hairclips, keeping them together and in a handy place for our hair taming sessions however, is another story. I’ve tried boxes and baskets but somehow they get tipped, or raided or dumped out into the sink and the clips begin to disappear into couch cushions, car seats and, although I’ve never seen it myself, into the toilet I imagine.

Now that fall is upon us and I’m preparing to restock her wardrobe, both for the body and for the head. I am determined to hang onto more of the sweet hairclips that she insists on wearing each day. Which means I need to get organized. After perusing all of the hairclip holding options out there, I settled on a wall mounted system. It displays what you have (so you dont forget about that oh so sweet clip you couldn’t resist that is now crammed in the back of your makeup drawer, admit it, it happens!) without leaving them out where little hands can carry them off without your knowledge. And since I could a) not find anything that was going to match the bathroom where the bulk of our hairdressing happens and b) I’m too cheap and too into crafts anyway to buy one, I set about making my own version of a hairclip holder.

You can hang the hairclip holder anywhere!

If you look around the house (check that basement!) you’ll probably find most of what you need. An empty frame, a piece of plywood, a staple gun, paint that matches wherever you intend to hang the finished product and ribbon to match.

Remove all glass, backing and art from your frame and lightly sand the surface with a fine grit sandpaper then wipe it down carefully to remove all the dust and dirt. Coat the front, sides and interior edge with the paint of your choice, for my project, I used a black semigloss paint that was close to the color of the frames already hanging in my bathroom.

Next, cut the plywood to fit into the back of the frame. If your frame had a sturdy backer board, this will work too. Here you have two options, you can either paint the backer board with a craft paint that matches your walls or decor or you can wrap the board in a coordinating fabric. Personally I wanted a delicate but graphic look so I chose to paint the board the color of my walls and used patterned ribbon, but a patterned fabric and solid ribbons would be a great combination as well.

Select your ribbon

Cut several lengths of ribbon that are longer by several inches than the backer board and try out a few arrangements, pushing the board into place to check the effect until you are pleased with the look you have created.

Staple the ribbon down

Once the ribbon is where you want it, secure one end to the back of the frame then pull the other end tight before stapling the other end. If your staples are long enough you can staples directly through the board and ribbon and into the setting edge of the frame, securing the ribbon and the plywood all in one go. As you work be sure to check the positioning of the ribbons before you staple each one. This means a lot of flipping but is much better than ending up with crooked ribbons!

Line the back with craft paper

When all the ribbons are secure, cover the back with craft paper and attach a picture hanger to the top and your ready to go! If your daughter is into cloth headbands these can be woven through the ribbons or you can screw a few small cup hooks into the bottom of the frame and hang them from there, keeping all your hair accessories in one lovely spot. Now I just have to figure out how to keep all those stripy tights organized!

Blog Contributor, Crafty Mom and Writer, Gillian, from the Blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”.

Once upon a time, when I taught elementary school, I spent  a lot of time wearing an oversized denim apron with huge pockets stuffed with Kleenex, hand sanitizer and other flotsam and jetsam of life with kids. I still have that apron and the pockets are still filled with the debris of childhood, Playmobil flashlights, dolls shoes, you get the idea.

Lately my daughter has been asking for an apron of her own. Either she’s becoming finicky about keeping her clothing clean (not likely as she is three) or she sees me wearing it and, as is the way with three year olds, wants to mimic mommy. I made her an apron from some vintage tea towels which turned out beautifully. Too beautifully. I can’t bring myself to let her wear it while she grinds pink Playdoh across her belly. So this weekend we set out to make a sturdy, but still pretty, apron for my little dirty princess.

Apple Stamp

I picked up a canvas tool apron at the hardware store. The advantage of these is that they are relatively small, so are a good size for kids, and they are dirt cheap. But any canvas apron would work. We also picked out fabric paint (pink! of course!) and I dug out some fabric scraps and a package of rick rack from my sewing bin. Since it’s almost back to school time I chose to use an apple for making prints but you could carve shapes out of a potato, cut up dish sponges or pull out that stamp collection that’s sitting in your craft cupboard.

For the apple, I chose the most apple shaped apple in my fruit bowl and carefully sliced it in half, leaving the stem on and popping out an errant seed so I was getting a nice clean profile. The paint adheres better to a dry surface so we patted the apple half dry with a paper towel before dipping it in paint and stamping away.

Stamp or paint any design

Because the apron had an emblem painted on the front pocket, I also had my daughter stamp the fabric scrap which I cut to size with pinking shears and glued in place with fabric glue. As a final touch I also glued rick rack around the edge of the apron and the pocket. An adult sized version of this would make a great back to school gift for a new teacher and I have it on good authority that grandmas love them as well.

So quick and easy, yet so cute!

*If the neck of the apron is to big for your child, as it was for mine, cut the strap at the center point and tie a knot in the end to prevent fraying. This allows you to adjust the apron for fit and coverage.

My apron model

Click here to read more of Gillian’s blog.