Think Crafts Blog - Craft Ideas and Projects - CreateForLess

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

Although the weather outside is cold and gray, inside I seem to have nothing but spring on my mind these days. And with our front door bare of its Christmas wreath, it seemed like a good time to welcome spring, even if it’s a little early, with a bright and cheerful wreath.

I started out wanting to make a paper flower wreath but with the inevitable rains and snows (eek!) of late winter and early spring, that didn’t seem like a great idea. What I needed was plastic. But where oh where could I find thin white plastic?

About this time I was pouring my kids a glass of milk. From a white plastic jug.

Light dawned.

The fridge and recycling bin were literally full, overflowing almost, with thin white plastic tubs, jugs and cartons. Which meant that not only could I make the wreath I had in mind, it would also be practically free!

Here’s what you need:

A Variety of milk jugs, yogurt containers and other white plastic items from the recycling bin. You’ll need more than you think so gather quite a few (hint: organic milk often comes in white milk jugs while non organic is more clear, a mix is fine but you do want more of the solid white variety)

Circular objects of different sizes to trace (cups, bows and lids work well, you want about 5 or more different sizes)

Permanent Marker

Hot glue gun and sticks

A dozen pretty buttons and/or sticky backed rhinestones in a variety of sizes

1 flat wreath form

10 inches of ribbon

Kitchen shears or other sharp scissors

Rinse all the containers in soapy water and allow to dry. Using kitchen shears, cut the tops and bottoms off the jugs and the bottoms off of any tubs, then cut a slit down the length of the remaining tube or square. You should now have roughly rectangular pieces of flat plastic. It they are curling too much, run them under hot water and lay them flat under something heavy for a little while to help them relax.

Trace circles all over the plastic, squeezing as many in as possible. Make sure the different types of plastic have different sizes of circles on them. Labels can either be soaked off or taken into account when cutting the flowers. I left mine on to add extra patterns to the flowers since from the back they just see white.

Time to start cutting flowers! Start by cutting out the circles and then cutting almost to the center at the top, bottom and two sides so you have four even sections.

From there you can continue cutting until you have the number of petals you want. You can also remove wedges at the four points (or more) to make more widely spaced petals, cut a wavy edge or free hand small round petals.

Once you have all your circles cut into flower shapes, start layering them into flowers. Experiment a little with different combinations until you are satisfied and then glue the flowers together, finishing them off with a button or rhinestone. Be sure to leave a few flower pieces unlayered to help form a base layer on the wreath form.

Set your finished flowers around the form to decide on the layout of the wreath. Mark the spot where the top will be and where any gaps are between the flowers. Set the flowers aside and attach the leftover flower pieces to the spots where there were gaps and the ribbon (measure how long you will need in for your front door) at the top. Now you can glue the flowers onto the form to finish the wreath.

Since the wreath isn’t really even specifically spring like, it’s a great all purpose wreath for the whole year. But I find myself happily thinking of spring every time I see the bright white flowers festooning my front door. What about you? What crafty ways are you getting ready for spring?

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

If your child, well let’s be frank, you son, is REALLY opposed to gushy valentines, try this little project. This can actually be done with any old image and is a fabulous last minute Valentine or last minute ANYTIME gift bag. Although I used smaller white bags here, I’ve also done this with plain old lunch bags for a quick wrapping idea and try to hang onto any paper bags that come my way to reuse this way as wrapping.

Here’s what you need:

Paper bags small enough to fit in your printer - here I used 4 5/8 x8 5/8
Paper
Markers
Printer
Something to stuff in the bag (candy is always a good choice!)

Have your child draw their image. For this valentine I had my son draw a series of monsters from a “How to Draw Monsters” book. After looking through his drawings we picked the one he liked best and I scanned in into my computer.

Open a new word document  on your computer and adjust the page size to the size of your bag. Measure the lower end of the bag when it is folded flat up to where the bottom folds up. This will be your bottom margin. If you print over where the bottom folds up it tends to blur the ink.  Insert the image from your scan, resizing as needed by dragging the corner in and up. Add your text in a fun font. Abstract Fonts is a great source for fun, free fonts.

Insert the bag into your printer fed, right side down and with the end of the bag away from the printer. Adjust the paper feed to fit the bag and print away. These are super cute straight out of the printer but even more special colored in by your little artist.

What kind of Valentines will your kids be making this year?

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

Remember back to the Valentines days of our youth? All those little Scooby Doo and Barbie Valentines cards with their perforated edges and strangely sweet envelope glue? Yeah, they were cute, I’ll admit it. But somehow now that my kids are school aged, I find myself shying away from the cards that my classmates and I stuffed into shoebox “mailboxes” each year. Maybe it’s the fact that most of them are covered with kind of scary looking cartoon characters or maybe it’s the fact that I know all that paper will just end up in the landfill. Or maybe it’s just the crafter in me that hates the idea of sending my son off with something store bought (he’s going to hate me when he’s a teenager -What? No I will not buy you that shirt! I’m sure we can MAKE it for less honey!)

The problem is that now that he is seven and almost a half, the cutsie valentines that we’ve made in years past ARE NOT COOL MOM. No more puffball hearts or hand drawn red and white cards. No more talk of love or be mine. Sigh. So how on earth do you do a non lovey-dovey, boy approved, kid make-able valentine? Well, I’ll tell you, it took some serious thinking.

Actually, I’ll be honest; my son inspired the idea when we were eating lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant last weekend.

“Fortune Cookies! I love Fortune Cookies!” He said “Hey mom, can we make fortune cookies this week?”

Humm, well, yes, I think we can.

These are really simple and very kid friendly and let’s face it, who doesn’t love a fortune cookie?

Here’s what you need:

Felt - 1 sheet will make three large fortune cookies

Tacky Glue

Small treats (Hershey Kisses work great!)

Paper and pen

Fabric and paper scissors

Trace a five-inch diameter circle onto your felt. You can either cut a template from cardstock or find a bowl or lid that’s around five inches. You can also go bigger or smaller but I found that a five inch circle was the best size for holding a few treats and being handleable for little fingers.

Cut, or if your child is old enough, allow them to cut the circle out carefully. Try to keep the edges as smooth as possible.

Cut a strip of paper 1 inch long by 1/4 inch wide and write a message on it, leaving one third of the strip blank. Run a bead of tacky glue around the circle and lay the strip of paper just above the halfway point on one side. If you want to insert treats, put two kisses end to end (or other small candies) in the middle.

Fold the circle over and press to close, keep pressing the edges down until the glue has a good hold on it. Allow the glue to dry completely.

Using your thumb, push the center of the flat edge (between the two candies) toward the seam.

Dab a dot of glue where the two halves of the “cookie” meet and hold it closed for a minute to allow the glue to set.

And you’re done! How cute is that? My son is gung-ho to make these for all of his friends this year, which is good because I really don’t think I could have given in to the Power Rangers Valentines, no matter how anti-lovey dovey his seven-year-old self is!

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

So you know the expression “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey”? Well, that applies to crafts too. The doing is just as much fun, if not more, than the satisfaction of the finished product. And sometimes, making the stuff to make the stuff is the best part of the whole thing. This is one of those projects.

At the end of this project your going to have yarn. Yarn is good. There are lots of things you can do with yarn. But, you know, it’s yarn. Granted, this isn’t your average yarn, but it works in just about everything that regular yarn does. The fun part about this, is making the yarn.

Here’s what you need:

• An old (or new) t-shirt, Preferably one with no side seams but an old T will work
• Good, sharp fabric scissors
• Someone who likes to stretch things (hint: your kids would be good for this job)

If you want to be precise:

• A ruler

Lay your t-shirt out on a flat, clean surface.

Cut just above the hem line and just below the armpit line so that you have a nice rectangle of uninterupted t-shirt fabric.

With one of the folded edges up, fold the fabric in half, leaving a one inch space at the top uncovered and then fold it in half again, still not covering that one inch area.

Either measuring evenly across the folded fabric or, just eye-balling it (it doesn’t need to be perfect) cut even strips through the folds to the edge of where the one-inch margin is. (DO NOT CUT ALL THE WAY ACROSS!) If your kids are of the older and/or trustworthy sort, let them do the measuring and cutting. One inch strips works well but you can go wider or narrower to produce a thicker or thinner yarn.

Once you have the fabric cut all the way across and have unravelled the whole thing, lay the uncut portion out flat.

Cut at an angle from one end of the first loop up to the opposite end of the next loop up. Continue this until you have cut them all through, trimming the ends so that you have one long strip of jersey.

Now for the fun part. Working along the length of the strip (or really, in any direction your little pullers want) firmly pull on the fabric to stretch it as far as it will go without breaking.

The jersey will curl in on itself creating a thin, rounded yarn like material.

So what CAN you do with t-shirt yarn. Well, like I said, just about anything you can do with yarn. It’s also a great material to make braided rugs or pot holders, both great kid projects. I taught my son to finger crochet and he happily used up an entire t-shirts worth of yarn making a long chain which he promptly carried off to do something with, I’m not sure what, but since I remember making finger crocheted chains long enough to go all the way around my room when I was seven, I’m not too worried. As for the rest? Well, I’ll confess that I rolled up five t-shirts worth of yarn and stuck them in a big bowl on my dining room table. Just because it looked so darn pretty.

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

I keep a bin of clothespins in my house even though I’ve long since given up on line drying in this humid part of the country. They are one of those super handy, tons of uses kind of things. They hold up the sides of forts, keep the chips bag closed, identify dinner napkins and hang this week’s art assignment up in the playroom. But you know, they’re kind of boring; especially for something that makes appearances in every room of my house. After seeing some painted clothespins featured on an online store a few weeks ago, I decided to give my set a makeover, and if there’s paint (and it’s washable) my daughter is only too glad to help. 

There are really two ways of painting the basecoat of the clips. If you aren’t bombarded with “I want to help!” from a three year old, go with spray paint. It’s fast, it’s easy, it dries quickly and the colors are nice and bright. If, however, you are also blessed with a little helper, washable craft paints are the ticket. 

Clip the clips along the edge of a sturdy box, leaving enough room between each for fingers (or spray paint cans) to get in there. Paint the front, back and sides of the clip and inside the top. Allow the pins to dry, take them off to check for missed spots, and add another layer (hint- turn the clips around for the second coat)

Once the base coat is dry, lay them of a flat, paintable surface and get going with the dots. Drops of puff paint will certainly work but I found that applying paint with the tip of a knitting needle gave me more control over the size and shape of the dots and had an over all nicer effect. 

Allow the dots to dry completely before flipping over and dotting the other side. 

The possibilities for these are endless. Hang art, mark a page in your favorite book, close a lunch bag. Imagine the possibilities. I’ve already got a set of green and red clips in the works for holiday gift bags and Christmas ornament hangers. 

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

When I was a kid, December was my favorite month of the year for one reason alone. Sure there was the tree and the gifts and the snow and the days off of school. Those were all great. Bonuses, in fact. But the real reason I loved december was that every morning I was allowed, even ENCOURAGED, to eat a piece of chocolate, a piece of chocolate from my advent calendar.

The thrill of opening another little door never wore off, even though I knew what was behind each and every one. And my brother and I would check all the opened doors each morning, just in case we had somehow missed one.

When my son was younger I made a felt Christmas tree with little ornament pockets. An old, vintage, crystal button traveled form pocket to pocket as the days got closer and closer to Christmas. Pretty, glittery, calorie free. He didn’t know what he was missing. And then one year my mother bought him the “real” kind of advent calendar, and it was curtains for the poor old felt tree.

This year I’m sure we’ll have the chocolate behind the door variety, in fact, I believe there are two arriving in the mail tomorrow. But, because I remember the thrill of getting a special treat every December morning (and because you can never have enough chocolate around the house) my kids will also get to open a box on our advent garland this year.

Besides the chocolate (or what ever you choose for a treat inside) this garland comes together with only three items (or groups of) total.

You will need:

1 piece of ribbon (not wired) - determine how long you want the garland and then add a third more and cut the ribbon to length

24 mini take-out boxes (alternating colors are fun but one solid color works great too!)

Holiday stickers (letters that spell out a greeting are nice, numbers to count down the days would be great to)

Find the center of your ribbon and tie a box about one inch on either side of that point. Continue to tie the boxes, knotting at each handle, an even distance apart, until you have all 24 (or 25 if you want one for Christmas morning, but really, who opens a teeny little advent box when you have presents to open?) tied on.  Decorate the front of the boxes with stickers, fill each box with a treat and string it up. It makes a great decoration over the fireplace or along the banister and could be wrapped around a fir garland for an extra festive look. Either way, your kids will love you for giving them one more little treat this December.

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

Once upon a time, when I led a much more exciting life than I do nowadays (it’s still great, just not quite as exciting!) My husband and two-year-old son took me to Paris for Mother’s Day. I know, major points for them! In those days we were the masters of childhood distraction and I was always on the lookout for great, small toys that could distract a busy toddler on our travels. That weekend, walking along the ile de citie, we stumbled into a small toy store hoping to find something that would keep our son busy while we toured nearby Notre Dame. The store was a marvelous jumble of exotic looking toys and we were instantly fascinated. We could have walked away with bags and bags of fabulous toys, but with limited funds we left with only a small box containing a set of puzzle blocks with six different pictures.

Our son literally spent hours with that puzzle. Not only building the puzzles correctly but also making an infinite combination of odd- looking animals, a lion with a monkey tail, a giraffe with elephant feet. It was one of the best purchases we ever made. And ever since I’ve kept an eye out for similar puzzles to add to our toy repertoire.

The boy has pretty much outgrown the old puzzle blocks, but his little sister is as fascinated as he was which started me thinking, how hard could it be to make a set of puzzle blocks?

As it turns out, not very hard. Here’s what you need:

• 4 or 9 wooden blocks - you could reuse old alphabet blocks or purchase plain wooden blocks
• Six images big enough to cover all your blocks when they are pushed together in a square. I used pages out of High Five and Highlights, but copies of family photos would be another great idea
• Mod Podge
• Paintbrush
• Scissors or paper trimmer 

The only trick with this project is that you need to be fairly precise with cutting, so it helps if you have a paper trimmer to make things easier.

First, cut the image down to roughly the size you’ll need, leaving at least a half-inch all around. Position your blocks on the reverse side of the paper and trace carefully all around the big square, then around each of the individual blocks. Trim the paper along the lines, checking as you go to make sure the squares line up on the blocks.

Once you have all your images cut out, it’s time to glue. Be sure that you only have one square for each puzzle per block (it’s easier if you separate the squares by picture and just take one per puzzle per block from each pile). Brush a thin coat of Modge Podge onto the surface of the block and smooth one of the squares over the top, being sure to line the edges up. Working in stages, cover each block with the six puzzle images until every square has been used up. When all your squares are covered and dry, apply a second coat of Modge Podge over the top to seal the images on. Depending on the thickness of the paper, you may want to add a third layer as well.

The variations on this are pretty much endless. And once you have one set done you can change out pictures as your child’s interest wane by gluing new squares over the top of old or damaged ones. Use family pictures, images from wildlife magazines or even drawings that your child has made for these fun little puzzles.