Getting Crafty

Some tutorials of things that I’d like to make:

Zippered wristlet (seen at splityarn)
Covered thumb tacks (How about orange…) - so cute!
Wristlet Clutch Purse (U handbag) - very femme! (This cute bag might be out of my league though but if you can, do make it!)
Carve your own stamps (Mindful Craftiness) - looks complex!
Make your own journal (Daydreaming)

Have you come across any tempting tutorials?

tutorials, craft tutorials

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I left you with a bit of a teaser on Tuesday, and I’m glad that no reports of people jumping off cliffs or pulling their hair out out of anticipation were heard.

Without further ado then, here is how you can make your own wire and bead rings and things:

Start with your materials:

(You will also need a nail clipper or a small pair of scissors to cut the wire thread)

Instructions:

Cut a length of wire, five or six times the length of the finished product (I have large fingers so the longer the thread I have, the easier it is for me to manipulate it).

String on twice the number of beads that you want the width of the final product to be. In this case, I want a ring three beads wide, so I have strung on six beads. You’ll want to centre the beads on your wire thread.

Take one end of the wire thread and thread it through the three furthest beads and pull tightly.

Thread enough beads to make up the width of the ring (in my case that’s three more beads) onto one end of the wire thread.

Thread the other end of the wire thread through the newly threaded beads and pull tight.

Thread three more beads (in my case) onto the opposite side of the wire thread as before, and insert the other end through, pulling tightly.

Continue until the length is appropriate.

Thread one end of wire through the three beads on the other side. Tie the two pieces of wire together along the top (or bottom) edge (there is no official top or bottom).

Voila! You’re done. Try it on and admire your handiwork.

Alphabet beads are always a hit with children–they love being able to spell out their names in colourful beads so it’s only natural that an easy craft involving beads and children is to string some beads on some stretchy cord or thread and make a bracelet or necklace. The alphabet beads can be centered on the cord, and coordinating beads can be added on either side of the alphabet beads.

Scrapbooks can be embellished with beads too, without having to string them up first. Instead, you can stick the beads directly onto the surface and use them to spell things out while adding some dimension to page. I have done the same thing on cards too. If you want to make a necklace with beads, you can incorporate the necklace onto the card by allowing it to dangle across the front of the card, perhaps underneath the “Happy Birthday” message, for example.

Alphabet beads can also be worked into knitted work if the holes are large enough. Perhaps one fringe on each side of a scarf can be strung with the letters of your name or the name of the recipient.

How do you use alphabet beads?

alphabet beads, beads, stringing beads, string, necklace, bracelet

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Want to know how to get to this:

From the two things below (beads and a fine wire)?

Tune in on Thursday for the very easy instructions. If you want to cheat, you can check out Cyndi’s site and see if she shows you how to make simple beaded jewelry in addition to all the other lovely things she has cooking.

The ring that I made above was my first try and it was too wide and loose for my finger, although it looks alright on my thumb. I’m going to experiment with a ring only two beads wide and I need to work on the sizing as well.

beads, wire, beads and wire, beaded ring, beaded bracelet

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For those of you who enjoy crafting, what do you listen to as you craft? Do you have certain music that you listen to during different stages of the process? Does your choice in music serve to energize or inspire, or are you one of those people who becomes twitchy in a completely silent room?

Personally, I am the kind of person who enjoys complete silence when I am working on something. I do not particularly enjoy carrying on a conversation while I’m trying to put together a scrapbook page, nor does it usually occur to me to turn on some music. When I’m knitting, however, I find that I enjoy listening to Tracy Chapman or John Mayer in the background. There is something about music with deep lyrics that just goes with knitting for me.

How about you? Do you listen to music as you create? If so, what music works best for you?

music to create to, creative music, music, background music

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I have a lot of brads, and I have a lot of eyelets. Eyelets are a bit more high maintenance than brads because they actually require some tools for their use. I bought a whole kit but you would be fine with a hole punch and a hammer, both relatively small and easy to use. You may also want or need a crafting mat to ensure that you don’t dent your table during the process.

Setting an eyelet is easy; you can do it in three very short steps:

1. Create a hole where you want your eyelet to appear.
2. insert the eyelet right side up where you want it to be.
3. Turn the paper over and using the hammer, bang down on the wrong side of the eyelet to set it.

And now what? Well you can use the pretty eyelet holes to thread ribbon and hang things from it. Two eyelets and a piece of ribbon long enough to be tied into a bow can be used as closures of paper bags. You can use eyelets to create neat and funky holes in your work that isn’t boring, or use eyelets as part of the design. Eyelets can reinforce holes.

How do you use eyelets?

eyelets, crafts with eyelets

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I have only tried decoupage once, and the results were so embarassing that I did not complete the project.

Despite following instructions, my project looked more like a “before” than an “after”, and the tin that I was covering looked far better before I got my hands on it. Because of this, I have been seeking clear and simple instructions on decoupage so that I too can create projects that I am proud of. My searches have found many sites that dabble in decoupage:

• HGTV
• Martha Stewart
• eHow

My goal for this weekend is to try out a technique from one of these sites and report back.

I have managed to get my hand on SARK’s book Make Your Creative Dreams Real and I started reading it today. I heard about SARK through a blog I started reading nearly a year ago, that of Andrea Scher. Andrea’s positivity and light that she seemed to exude have always touched me so when I saw her mention that SARK, one of her heroes, had a new book out, I had to check it out! Although this is not the book that Andrea refers to, this seems to be a very relevant book for those of us that are seeking what our creative dreams should be.

The book is divided into twelve sections, with one section for each month, although the author is quick to urge you to use the book however you wish. If you want one section to be a 12 week or 12 year project, it’s up to you.

The introduction to the book was very inspiring and I am looking forward to reading the entire book.

Now it may have just been the daze of being a bridesmaid that prevented me from seeing them but I didn’t see the bows that I made used at the wedding that I was in this past weekend.

It doesn’t actually bother me too much, as the wedding was lovely but the unused bows represent money wasted on the bride and groom’s part, and a bit of time wasted on my part. Perhaps the bows will be used for a good cause sometime soon…it might be too fancy for the bride and groom’s housewarming party though!

The wedding favours were beautifully wrapped and someone creative was definitely responsible for putting them together:

I’ve got weddings on the brain: one of my friends is getting married in 17 hours!

Aside from the bows I made, not much crafting was involved in this wedding. When I get married I intend to do most of the work myself, including the assembling of the favours and making the programs and invitations. Some have told me that planning a do it yourself wedding is a recipe for disaster but if others can do it, so can I.

Have you witnessed or been party of a good do it yourself (DIY) weddings? How about horrendous ones?

Please share!

As promised, here are pictures of the bows I ended up making. The bow is called the florist’s bow if I’m not mistaken:

I learned that wired ribbon is not usually the ribbon that most instructions refer to, and despite its flexibility, it can be hard to manipulate exactly as you’d like them.

I made five such ribbons (both the bride and her mother have the philosophy of “less is more” when it comes to decor, so I’ll be lucky if all five bows get used) and I’m pretty proud of how they turned out. However, I’m still trying to decide if I’d like the bows more if the ribbon was less sheer.

For more bow instructions, including the Chrysanthemum Bow, Carnation Bow and Poinsettia bow how-tos, you must check out these instructions from the Container Store’s site.

HGTV also has some easy instructions to make some pretty bows too.

bows, ribbon, bow, ribbons, wire ribbon, weddding bow

In the past five years, dollar stores have been opening in my area in large numbers. The few dollar stores I had visited in the USA always seemed full of mugs, knick knacks that you never want to receive, and lots of other things that many would call junk. However, as the years have gone on, dollar stores have begun to carry a wide array of things that people want. And if the constantly increasing size of my local dollar store’s craft section is any indication, people want to be able able to get affordable crafting supplies.

My favourite dollar store is the one that sticks to its mandate to provide all its merchandise at $1 or less in price. However, because of this mandate, there is a limit to the quality and/or selection that can be bought from this store. Even so, Dollarama is good for brads, eyelets, glitter, adhesive jewels, beads, knitting needles, small balls of (acrylic) yarn, and charms. When you want to spend a little bit more for your materials than $1, and want some more selection on what you can get, you may want to try a store such as Buck or Two, where the price range is a larger than other dollar stores. It’s a good reason too: you can find a wide selection of scrapbooking paper and far more interesting designs, shapes and sizes in brads, stickers and ribbon.

One of the last times I went, I found some paper flowers:

It’s fairly hit and miss with dollar stores though: you have to know when new stock is dropped and make sure you drop by regularly. One dollar store even has a mailing list that you can join to be told when new scrapbooking material arrives at the store.

Where do you get your inexpensive craft materials?

dollar store, cheap crafts, craft, inexpensive crafts

Over the course of two hours, I attempted to turn a spool of ribbon with wire at the ends into a bow worthy of a wedding.

While the mother of the bride and the bridesmaid were impressed with the creation, I was not. I should have snapped a picture of it for your viewing pleasure but it was thoroughly unimpressive.

To be honest, I thought turning a roll of ribbon into a lovely bow would be a piece of cake and now that I realize it isn’t, I have turned to the internet to see if I can’t find a better way to do it.

My first stop was at Martha’s.

She has the Three Perfect Bows and while those are pretty, they aren’t quite elaborate enough for what I need. I recommend bookmarking the page if you ever need to tie pretty bows with plain ribbon.

Through Marth’a site, I stumbled across a site that has instructions on how to make a pretty rose bow. While lovely, it’s not quite what I’m after for this event.

Third time’s the charm: this site has exactly what I’m looking for! I’ll be buying ribbon tomorrow and plan to have pictures of perfect bows to share.

ribbons, bows, wedding ribbons, wedding bows

To inspire and make you think, here are some quotations about art and creativity:

Science and art belong to the whole world, and before them vanish the barriers of nationality.
-Goethe

Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.
-Franklin D. Roosevelt

All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
-Pablo Picasso

The world is but a canvas to the imagination.
-Henry David Thoreau

Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.
-Edgar Degas

Do you have a favourite quotation about art and/or creativity? Share!

art, creativity, quotes, quotations, art quotations

Christmas is coming and I plan to make at least some of my gifts this year. To that end, I have been checking out books that focus on holiday gifts and I happened upon Holiday Knits by Sara Lucas and Allison Issacs:

Everything in the book looks so pretty: the book has clear instructions to follow, beautiful pictures, and patterns for everything from ornaments to the ubiqutous hat and scarf set are in this book.

Here are a few images that caught my eye:

soft-as-a-cloud baby booties: All I need to do is find a baby to knit these for.

old-fashioned christmas stocking: I would love to make a set of these stockings for a couple of families I know.

winter placemats: My family doesn’t use placemats regularly but I bet if we had pretty ones like this one, we would!

If you’d like to see more patterns for pretty projects that range from short term to long term in nature, get yourself a copy of Holiday Knits!

knit gifts, holiday gifts, holiday crafts, knitting, Sara Lucas, Allison Isaacs, Holiday Knits