Think Crafts Blog - Craft Ideas and Projects - CreateForLess

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.

Please Welcome Guest Blogger, Annie Authier, from the blog “Thriftfulness”. 

With school starting now is the time of year when the air is thick with promises made in parked cars, deserted beaches, the empty beds of pickup trucks and under the glow of your parents’ motion sensor porch lights. These are the promises of summer lovers and they are, sadly but most assuredly, of the empty variety.

BFs and GFs who met on lifeguard docks, in camp mess-halls, and while holding their roommate’s hair back at house parties all over the United States are, at this very moment, vowing to write, to call, to Facebook chat every day and text sweet nothings every night. Will it happen? Probably not. 

Though the combination of physical distance, ex-boyfriends who forgot how awesome your summer love looks with a tan, and angry fathers waving cell-phone bills is sure to crush your burgeoning romance, I’m one for keeping hope alive. Thus, I give you Goodbye Summer Love Stationary.

Receiving handwritten letters is one of the best feelings ever and making the stationary yourself makes this gift extra personal. Make it for sending your own letters or give it to your summer sweetheart so that he or she can promise to send it back to you chock-cull of XOXOs (though you should know full well you’re never actually going to get that letter). Here are some examples of my own Summer Love Stationary:

Materials:

-Nice paper (splurge on the thick stuff and send your letter in a big mailing envelope to keep your art un-creased)

-Scissors

 -Glue or double sided tape

 -Colorful markers or colored pencils

 -Decorative material: (this can be just about anything) stamps and ink, watercolors, magazine clippings, old greeting cards you’ve saved for no reason, even tiny buttons.

-Perfume or cologne to spritz the paper with (I won’t make a Grease reference; I WON’T make a Grease reference!)

Once you’ve gathered your supplies and ripped yourself from your lover’s embrace, get to decorating. There aren’t many rules to this. Just keep in mind that someone is planning on writing on this so try to decorate on the margins and don’t use paper that is too dark or too bumpy.

For the first sheet (and I like to decorate every page different, although you may want to work in themes) I found a page in a decorating book that I liked and made a color copy of it, then just glued it onto the cardstock and decorated with a fancy “from the desk of:” tab on top.  If you’re low on creativity or time this is probably the best way to go for you.

You can also use pictures from old birthday cards or wedding invitations that you’ve saved for no apparent reason. For the page below (picture is just of the top of the page), I also added some tiny buttons by sewing them to the card-stock. Ordinarily this would mean more money for postage but, because I’m your friend, I’m going to be straight: it’s probably not going to make it to the post office.

Various magazine clippings are also a great decorating tool. This mix-tape I cut out from a magazine ad reads “stories and soundtracks of lost loves” which will most likely end up a fitting irony for whoever receives it. 

In the same magazine, I discovered these lovely mass transit pictures, which I used for decoration in this desperate attempt for a rendezvous cloaked in the lyrics to a Supreme’s song. This picture is of the top of the page and I painted tiny red suitcases down the right side.

One of my favorite ways to decorate is with stamps. Now these can get pricey but they are worth it because they’re pretty and they also last a long time. I use my old-lady-chasing-something stamp whenever I get the chance.

I used my Alice-in-Wonderland stamp to make a final angry plea to my summer lover that he BETTER call.

And finally, for when it’s clear that the relationship has died along with the potted basil plants in the yard, you can pull out the big guns: Tootie. She yelled, “AU gimme back my gold watch” on a hilarious episode of The Facts of Life so that she could remember the periodic table. Your stationary yells it because you gave that slug your gold watch and you want it back.

Make any variation of these Goodbye Love Stationary sets and send them off, you’ll be singing Hey Hey Mr. Postman and crying into your pillow before the last leaves change color. Goodbye summer love. Goodbye summer.

Please welcome our newest blog contributor, Anitra from the blog “Coffee Pot People“. Anitra will be our Recycled Arts Contributor.

Anitra’s motto: “Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do, or do without.” Live with that long enough, and you’ll never want to throw anything away, so best to turn it into art!.

Frazzles!

Feeling frazzled? Lots of us are, with the school year underway and all the fall and winter holidays on the horizon. So let’s make a card, and not just any card, either. Let’s make a Frazzled card!

 Here’s what you’ll need:

• Blank card and envelope
• Fabric large enough to fit the card, front and back (fabric samples work well)
• Button
• Rayon or other embroidery floss
• Glue or double sticky tape

The first thing you’re going to do is choose your fabric. If you have one of those fabric sample books flip through it until you find a piece you like. They’re nice, because they have a paper backing around the edge, but any piece of fabric you like is good.

Take your blank card and open it out flat, and lay it face down on the fabric. By “face down” I mean that you should put the side you’ll write on down, and what would normally be the front of the card facing up. That’s because you’re going to trace around all four sides of the card now, and if your pencil slips you don’t want the marks to show on your finished card.

You can see that my fabric is already nearly the size of the card, but that’s because I had a fabric sample that size. Once you’ve marked your fabric, cut it with pinking shears just outside the marks. You want the fabric to be a little larger than the card. If you have enough fabric, cut a strip as long as your card is wide, maybe an inch wide.

Now choose a button that coordinates with your fabric. Flat buttons work best, but buttons with short shanks can be used, too.

Fold the fabric piece you’ve cut in half, so you’re looking at the front of your finished card. Take the button you’ve chosen, and play with positioning it a bit. Maybe it will look best centered on the card, or maybe near one of the corners. Maybe it wants to sit, centered, near the lower edge. Just move it from place to place until you like what you see.

Thread your needle with the embroidery floss, but don’t tie a knot. Rayon thread is crinkly, and will give shine and a lot of texture. Other option are regular floss, or yarn.

This is where the “Frazzled” part comes in. You’re going to sew the button to the fabric, but not from the back like you’d usually do. Push the needle in from the front, and pull the floss through until an inch and a half or two inches is left, sticking out of the button. Bring the needle through the other hole in the button, and cut the thread, again leaving a tail an inch and a half or two inches long. You can leave longer tails if you like; it’s all up to you.

If your button has four holes, do that twice. Pick up the thread tails and tie them in a knot.

You're almost finished!

Glue the fabric to the card. You can use rubber cement if your fabric has that paper backing. Otherwise, double-sticky tape is the way to go, as the rubber cement may show through the fabric. Glue the extra strip of fabric you cut to the flap of the envelope.

My finished card

Frazzles are really very tactile. You’ll find people want to stroke them, and play with the shiny floss ends.

A few favorite frazzles

Recently I spent a day making greeting cards. It’s relaxing and brings a smile to my face. I have more cards than I’ll ever use, but I just can’t stop at one or two. I found a wonderful organization that sends unused greeting cards and stationary to our troops overseas so that they have a way to send news and love to their friends and family back home. CardsForHeroes has sent over 126,731 cards to our troops.

This simple stamped card is perfect to send to an organization like Cards For Heroes.

Find your cardmaking supplies on CreateForLess.com and your buck goes a long way. I’d be lost without my card blanks, which save time and energy. I always love using mirror paper to mat my card front images and embellishments. We can make such a big difference to our troops using our creativity.

So many of our current trendy crafts include some hand writing.  Crafts like scrapbooking, card making, collage, altered art, and even painting.  At the very least you should be adding your signature to your crafts as the finishing touch!

I don’t know about you, but as my god son would say, “My handwriting sucks!” I hated penmanship in school (dating myself with that word!) and most of the time I’m in such a hurry that I can’t even read what I’ve written.  Heck, I’m so lazy that my signature is just my first inital and last name and even then I’m just scribbling always remembering to dot the i! Many use the computer and its heavenly wealth of fonts to make their crafts neater, but the whole point of being creative is to express yourself through your own mind, heart, and hands.

My most treasured keepsake from my mother is a silly old calendar on which she wrote a little something each day. I treasure it because seeing her hand written words makes me feel close to her again.  If she had used a computer, rub on letters, or sticker phrases, I don’t think the calendar would have much meaning to me. 

Maybe I should have been a doctor, my handwriting is horrible!

Here are some handwriting tips I learned while teaching at a scrapbooking expo:

Practice. Practice. Practice! If you don’t write often, you’ll “forget” how.

Make it easier with light marks to keep your handwriting straight and not marching up and down or slanting.  Keep pencil marks light. A heavy line will leave imprints on your page and be more difficult to erase. These imprints can also affect the way the paper takes colored pencils, chalks and watercolors.

A heavy-handed eraser can take the color off white core paper, patterned or solid. Go lightly!

Small, evenly placed characters look clean and precise.

Concentrate.  Don’t be distracted.  Don’t be doing four things at once. You want your lettering to look good, so take the time to do it right.

Whether you use a template or create guidelines yourself, be diligent about it. A little advance planning goes a long way.

It is great to copy and emulate other fonts or people’s writing, but the point here is to get your writing in your books. So find a style that suits you. Are you someone who loves cursive? Do you write in all caps, all lowers, or a mixture of both? Make sure that your style shines through in your letters.

Sometimes the faster you go, the better the results can be.  Just making sure that you’re concentrating. If you’re trying for a carefree look, make your guide lines, pencil in your text for correct spacing, and then go for it!

Use a straight edge for your verticals. If you’re doing large letters for a title, or even for your journaling, use a ruler to make your verticals. This is a trick architects use to make their printing look prefect every time.

Use shadowing for a great effect. It softens the subtle imperfections in your writing, making your letters look better. Grab a Black and Platinum Zig Writer and create letters that jump off your page.

Do not be too critical of yourself. Hand lettering is not, and will never be, perfect. And it shouldn’t be.

Above is a mini scrapbook page I created for a pet scrapbook I’m keeping.  I used fabric paper and just did a little primitive stitching around the edges.  I wanted to add stitches for texture and to highlight the quilt in the photo. This page was featured on a segment of Creative Living (PBS) for CreateForLess.

I love sewing.  Machine sewing or hand sewing, there is something very soothing about working with fabric, thread, and a needle.  I gathered up a few random tips I’ve learned from my scrapbook sewing experiences and these tips can also be used for other paper crafts!

• When using a sew machine always use a scrap piece of paper (the same weight as the paper you want to use for your scrapbook page) and run some test stitches to get the feel of how your machine sews the paper.
• Experiment with the stitch width of your machine for different looks.
• Sewing machines do a great job for sewing a border.
• Sew on a pocket for your page.  Randomly sew across, up, down, and diagonal creating a unique background paper.
• Use any decorative stitches your sewing machine might have.
• Always make sure there is no adhesive on the front or back of anything you are sewing through.  Adhesive can jam up your sewing machine.
• When hand sewing you might have an easier time if you paper punch small holes where you plan to hand sew.  It’s much easier than hoping your needle can pierce the paper evenly.
• Threads and fibers can be used to dangle charms, paper roses and small buttons.
• When hand sewing you might want to lightly trace your pattern or design onto the scrapbook page or cardstock (for a card).
• Try using embroidery flosses and threads, tapestry yarn, tatting thread, metallic threads and specialty yarns.  The variety makes for a fun textured page or card.
• To keep fibers from unraveling dab just a touch of clear paper glue to each raw end.  You can also use a fray stopping liquid.
• A dab of clear nail polish will hold any knot and keep it from coming through the paper.  Make sure the knot is to the back of your scrapbook page.
• Try mixing colors and textures of fibers for a page.  Use thick fibers to frame your title, captions or photos.
• Don’t throw out your scraps of threads and fibers.  Keep them in a small box and use them for smaller projects.
• Pulling a thread over beeswax or thread conditioner will keep the threads from tangling and knotting.  Beeswax will stiffen thread, while thread conditioner will soften threads.

If you think you can get overwhelmed organizing your traditional film photos you’ll be doubly overwhelmed with how quickly digital images can add up!  It’s important to keep current and keep your digital images organized. I recently vowed to organize my digital photos and I must say I was tempted to just delete everything a few times.  My husband loves to take 5-6 photos of the same thing just to be safe and my eyes started to cross trying to figure out what to keep and what to delete.

I’m trying to organize my digital photos because I’ve fallen in love with the process of making slide show videos out of them.  So in love I even purchased a new computer for myself and after 20+ years of being quite PC, I bought a Mac!  I’ve not had much time to play around with my Mac other than organize the billion photos my husband has taken over the years, but I’m excited about it.  Another way to be creative.  And don’t think I’m going totally digital, I’ve been stocking up on my decorative papers to make cool CD and DVD envelopes!

Here’s my advice for organizing your digital photos and I’ve thrown in a few of our most recent photos for you to enjoy!

Immediately delete any images you don’t want while taking your photos.  This is the first step in organizing digital images.  If you aren’t happy with a photo, delete it, and re-shoot on the spot.

Don’t leave images in your digital camera.  Download the images into a folder that includes the event and date in the folder name.  This is also a good time to delete any images that you don’t want.

A sunset captured in Palau.

Once images are downloaded into a folder on your computer, make an index file.  Create a word document and use it to describe the event, people in the photos, location, date, and journaling.  This is a must! 

If you have time, rename the images to include name, date, location or other reminder of what the photo is about.  This can be done later, but it is important.  This is also another opportunity to delete any unwanted images or to send images to others via e-mail.  The longer you wait to organize digital images the more likely you are to forget the details like location, date, and even people in the photos.

The new addition to my craft studio my husband is building.

It’s a good idea to back-up your photo inventory on a timely basis so you don’t lose any images if your computer has problems.  It’s a good idea to keep different categories of CD or DVD copies too.  

There are several excellent software programs that help keep your digital photos organized.  Programs like Greenstreet Digital Photo Album Deluxe, OnTheGoSoft Photo Backup and Preclick Photo Organizer.  These programs organize, backup, and even allow for digital albums.

A huge grouper we saw diving!

Use subfolders for key events like birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and other annual events that you know you will take photos.  The main folder should have the event name and all subfolders will have the year.  For example:  Main Folder is Maria’s Birthday; Subfolders are 2003, 2004, 2005, and so on. Vacation folders should include location and year with an index that includes specific dates and people.

Ken's 50th birthday.

If photo editing, make sure you keep the original image intact.  Make a copy of the image you want to photo edit and work with that.  The more you photo edit, the more the image loses some quality so it’s important that key original images be kept as backup.

One of our orchids in bloom.