This is a great time to begin crafting. Here are some great tips to help you get started down your creative journey. Crafting is a great way to explore your creativity and product items you will enjoy, whether at home or to give as gifts.
Lets Get Started
To begin, you need to identify a place in your home that is ideal for a crafting work area. You will need a flat surface to work on, room for tools and supplies, great light (the more natural, the better), and a storage area for your tools and materials. Also, find a comfortable, supportive chair.
Next, you need to decide what type of crafting is appealing to your sense of creativity. What type of items do you want to produce? Some people like to repurpose items, while others enjoy sewing or fabric arts. Is scrapbooking an area you would like to explore? Once you decide, this will help you determine the tools and materials you will need.
Basic tools to have on hand include items such as writing implements including pens, pencils, markers, and erasers. Cutting tools should be a part of the mix with scissors, a box cutter, an x-acto knife, and a utility knife. Measuring tools may include a ruler, yardstick, or slide rule. Paper clips, rubber bands, paintbrushes, glue, glue gun, and a pad of paper for notes help to round out the basics needed to get started.
If you are doing glass bottle art, start collecting various shapes and colors of glass bottles from around the house. Bottles can be used to help organize your tools such as a pencil holder or can become the focus of your craft. Hand decorated bottles can be used in a variety of ways. If you need rubber stoppers to finish the projects, they can be used as a cork replacement for wine bottles or give a nicer look than a metal cap.
Scrapbooking is so much fun. Start collecting photographs that are memorable to you. Inspirational sayings, invitations to special events, newspaper clippings, and ticket stubs can lay the foundation for your scrapbook story. The rest is the fun of decorating them by using decorative paper, fabrics, stamps, and trimmings. The only limit is the scope of your imagination.
There are easy crafts that can be made in the kitchen. Homemade herb bottles of vinegar, as well as homemade salad dressings, make a wonderful gift anytime. You can paint designs on the bottles, or make custom labels. A rubber stopper is available in a variety of sizes to be used as a seal for the bottle. Fresh herbs can be grown to create special blends of flavors.
Custom tee shirts are always a fun way to express yourself. You can use a potato print design, stencils, free form with fabric paints, or an iron-on graphic to make the tee shirt your own. Let the kids in on this project as they enjoy decorating their shirts. Tye dyed shirts are another fun way to go when doing this craft. Be sure to wash the shirt before and after you decorate it.
If you enjoy mother nature, and would like to create your living world, then terrariums may be the way to go. Using glass bottles or jars that have an opening wide enough for you to be able to work with, embed plants in a layer of soil inside the glass jar. Use small rocks, figurines, glass, and other small objects to create a scene that you enjoy. In the end, you will have a sealed jar with a nature scene that does not require much maintenance.
Windchimes are another easy craft project that can be made with found objects. Sticks can be used as the hanger. Old cutlery strung so they strike each other when moving or any metal or glass objects that make a pleasant sound when moving in the wind is game for this craft. Try your luck in different combinations of found objects.
Beginning crafting is so much fun you may find ideas entering your dreams at night. Having your basic tools in place at the beginning of a project will give you the freedom to create with everything needed at hand.