Valentine Day Craft
Decorate a bean bag snowman to share the love on valentines Day. Sock,rice,glue gun,hearts and trims make a cute and easy craft from candeecrafts.com
How To Age Paper with Teabags
Giving paper or fabric a patina of age is easy with our tea recipe!
You’ll need two teabags and four cups of water.
Boil the water and make the tea! Let it steep for about 15 minutes then pour into a flat tray that is large enough for the paper to lay flat. Soak the paper in the tea for about an hour for a light brown colour, longer for a deeper colour. For age spots lay the tea bag on the paper for about ten minutes. For a darker brown use more teabags or leave in the tea for longer. Remove the paper carefully and tear strips from the edges to remove the ‘new’ look.
While the paper is wet scrunch into a ball and squeeze out the excess water. Unravel carefully and lay it flat to dry. Leave for at least 24 hours. Once dry you could burn the edges carefully with a lighter or create darker areas by holding the lighter underneath the paper, far enough away that the paper is singed.
Natural fabrics can also be aged using this method.
Kid’s Chalk Art
Here’s is another of our easy kids craft ideas
Kid’s Chalk Art
The kid’s will love creating art with this method. The starch acts as a fixative for the chalk so it won’t rub off and spoil their creations. Make sure you use heavy enough paper or it will fall apart!
You’ll need : Liquid starch, large paintbrush, preferably flat, colored chalk,
heavy construction paper and water.
Mix the starch and water in equal amounts then dip the brush in the mixture and brush all over the paper. Now using the chalk draw onto the wet paper. Allow the paper to dry thoroughly. The result is a nice chalk picture that won’t rub off.
Hummingbird Nectar Recipe
Hanging a hummingbird feeder in your garden or on your patio will attract these lovely birds. In addition you could plant clematis, phlox, busy lizzies (impatiens), fuchsias, hollyhocks or hibiscus as they will also attract hummingbirds.
Hummingbird nectar is easy to make just follow the instructions below. Read more
Craft and Hobby Tools - The Essentials
Measuring Things
Ideally you should have two rulers. An eighteen inch metal ruler that you can use with a craft knife for cutting and a transparent plastic ruler for marking lines when you need to see an image.
Sticking Things Together
Paper glue known variously as PVA, school glue, paper glue, Elmers glue etc for all paper crafts. Dries to a clear finish but don’t overdo it on thin paper or in the presence of water soluble inks.
A glue stick is easier to use than paper glue and will not affect water soluble inks but it doesn’t stick quite as well as paper glue. Read more
Grow Strawberries in Strawberry Pots
Strawberry pots are urn shaped with pockets for planting the strawberries and usually made from attractive red terracotta. Planting a strawberry pot is easy and you’ll soon have an attractive feature for your garden as well as delicious strawberries. You can also grow herbs or other flowering plants, such as nasturtiums, in a strawberry pot but it’s best to use hanging plants that don’t mind their roots being cramped in the pot.
Playful Birds Atop A Strawberry Pot : click for details
You can mix flowering plants for an attractive effect but check that they require about the same conditions of water, sun and soil type first.
Read more
Newspaper or Magazine Holders
Materials
Cereal Box
Sharp knife
Ruler
Pencil
Spray paint or gift wrapping paper
Method
1. Draw a line about 5 inches from the bottom of the box all around. Make a mark on the line at one corner.
2. Draw a diagonal line from the mark to the opposite corner at the top of the box. Do the same on the other side of the box.
3. Following the pencil lines cut away the top part of the box.
4. Cover the box with the gift wrapping paper or spray paint.
Paper Bags Crafts
Here’s a very easy craft idea! Decorate brown paper bags or gift bags with pretty papers
Materials
Gift bag or brown paper bag
Pretty paper
Glue
Scissors and pencils
Method
1. Open the bag and carefully pull apart the bottom flap
2. Flatten out the bag and place on the paper. Draw around the bag allowing an extra two inches for the length.
3. Cut around the outline allowing a little extra at the top for a fold over.
4. Spread glue over the bag
5. Put the pretty paper on to the bag making sure to align the bottom edges. Smooth out the paper on the bag to ensure even sticking
6. Fold the extra paper at the top onto the bag then stick the bottom flaps together.
7. Make handles with some matching ribbon.
Fill your bag with gifts or home made craft items for a lovely present!
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