All posts tagged: Crafts

Abstract collage of circles in various shades of blue. A thin strip of cream paper runs through it on the side

Unleash Your Creativity: A Beginner’s Guide to Making Collages

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Collages are such an interesting form of art. It’s the bringing together seemingly unrelated, independent items and blending them in artistic harmony. Collages can be simple with just three or four elements or more complex, with elements often clashing with each other to convey a message.
Collages are a fun and versatile art form that allow you to combine various elements such as photographs, illustrations, and found objects to create a unique and visually striking composition. Whether you are a beginner or have experience with other art forms, making collages is a great way to unleash your creativity and explore new techniques.
There are several ways to make a collage, depending on the materials you are using and the desired outcome, but you can follow these steps if you are new to the art form.

DIY trinket trays with air dry clay embellished with beads

An Ode to Teachers and a Handmade Thank You Gift for Teachers

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Teachers no doubt shape the lives of their students in a multitude of ways. With a word that’s thoughtful or sharp, they can make or break a student. A good teacher is a rare gift that not everyone is lucky to experience. They nurture, educate, and inspire beyond their own classrooms.
Thank you to all teachers who touch the lives of others every day. We don’t always notice teachers’ efforts or impact on our lives, but they do so in many ways, and we are forever grateful.
Here’s an easy and awesome gift idea for a teacher’s day gift or a thank you gift at the end of the school year.

collage of hand painted cotton bags and a child using them

DIY Hand-painted Cotton Bags

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Have you gotten used to carrying your own bags for shopping? Be it groceries or clothes, most cashiers will check with you if you’re carrying your own bag. It’s a refreshing change from just handing you a plastic bag. Even paper bags need resources to make and a whole pile of unused ones generate a lot of waste. I have various cloth bags distributed all over the place – a few in my car, a foldable one in my purse, a few next to my main door, and a few ‘fancy totes’ to be used for the upscale flea markets. I had a few plain cotton cloth bags lying around and thought about giving them a makeover. I had never painted on fabric before and was sceptical if they’d last. After having used and washed them over the past year, I was pleasantly surprised. I even tried embellishing some of them with beads and parts of junk jewellery that weren’t getting used, and I was thrilled with the results. All you need are some fabric …

diy bookbinding sketchbook with house plants and fine liner pens

Easy DIY Bookbinding at Home Tutorial

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I have scrolled through hours of arts and crafts tutorials over the last year and have been tempted to try each one of them. Some seemed easy enough; others were a distant dream.  Bookbinding was one such tutorial. The videos look so beautiful—the old-world charm of making something with your hands how people did it hundreds of years ago. I always felt you’d need special tools and skills even to try a basic version.  There are many different book binding types. Some of them need special book binding materials that you wouldn’t necessarily want to invest in. Thankfully, I came across some tutorials that a beginner like me could try with stuff you’d generally have at home. I had a bunch of loose papers from a tear-away sketchpad that was just getting tossed around in my drawer. It was the perfect time to make use of them and try bookbinding at home. Book binding supplies Loose sheets double the size of the book you want. We’ll be folding these sheets in half Sharp pin or …

DIY family hand casting

Hand Moulding DIY – Preserving A Lifetime of Memories

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By the time I saw all the ads for a baby hand and foot casting kit, my son was way past his tiny baby stage. But I still wanted to hold on to the memory of his tiny hands. When I started looking for ideas, there were just so many, including couple hand moulding and family hand casting ideas. I thought a sculpture with all three of our hands would be perfect. I ordered a hand moulding kit online and quickly tried it out. It was a failure, and it felt worse because these hand casting kits are expensive. The hand moulding process is a tricky one and you need to be quick. You also need to have extra material on hand in case things go wrong. They fail to mention this in the kits. I finally figured out a cheaper way to make my hand cast. It still took us a few tries to get it right but at least the materials were much cheaper. You’ll never waste money on expensive hand casting kits …

Paper Marbling Tutorial – Fun and Easy DIY Activity

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Paper marbling is a great activity for children to get involved with. It is also fantastic for encouraging them to learn about colours and how to blend them together beautifully. Arts and crafts is always a fun thing to get involved with as it requires manual skill. What’s better than having a bit of arts and crafts fun at home? If you’re looking for an easy paper marbling tutorial, then you’ve come to the right place. There are plenty of paper marbling tutorial online with many different paper marbling techniques. Some of them seem quite daunting. We found one that’s so simple that my (then) 4-year-old could do it. Paper marbling with shaving cream is the simplest of all, albeit a little messy – but the kids love a bit of mess too. Shaving cream paper marbling needs just a few basic supplies, some you might already have at home. No need to look for specialised paper marbling supplies. You’ll need Shaving foam Liquid food colouring (mixed in some water) Bowl for the colours (cupcake …

packaging box covered with wrapping paper repurposed to a cat food holder with a cat doodle on it saying feed me

Creative Ways to Reuse Cardboard Boxes

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Up-cycled cardboard boxes is a great project to do, as well as a nice way to use up leftover packaging materials. These boxes have become an affordable way to get creative with your decor and can be transformed in a multitude of ways. What are some of your ideas? Go crazy and make a variety of boxes out of different types of plastic, like bubble wrap, corrugated cardboard or even tea bags. Our imaginations are the limitation here If you’re like me, you mostly shop online. Some are local stores that deliver in baskets they can take back. Mostly, you’re left with a bunch of packaging material of different kinds. I have tried to be cautious while shopping online. I try to group my orders together by the same vendor, but even after all that I usually get items shipped to me individually. Thankfully, I live in a community that’s serious about waste segregation and recycling. We have multiple vendors who come in to collect the dry waste for recycling. I try to reuse as …

Using old CDs to make a mosaic on a plain tray

Creative DIY project: Use Old CDs and Make a Mosaic Tray

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The CD Mosaic is a unique corner wall display for your home that provides an old CD with new life. The simple, yet beautiful design allows the disc to be appreciated for what it is: just another item in your collection. Remember when we had drawers full of cassette tapes? Some originals bought from the store, some blank ones with recordings from the radio, and a whole bunch of mixed tapes. Then came the CDs and DVDs. They saved a lot of space, but were soon obsolete. I haven’t had, or felt the need to have, an optical drive in my home for over eight years. So now what to do with all the CDs? There is a lot of clutter in our homes that we don’t use. We donate it to a general recycle bin and hope that tomorrow it will be replaced by something new. I saw this trick somewhere and knew I had to try. Yes, it repurposed some of my CDs, but it also looked awesome. This is the simplest and …

Kid making a decoupage bowl from scratch

A creative weekend project: A Decoupage Bowl You’ll Love To Do

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If you are looking for some fun decoupage activity with kids, we’ve got the perfect project for you to try! This vintage bowl turned into a fun decoupage makes a great gift as it’s so easy to make.  You might have heard the term Decoupage, or even seen decoupage products. Do you know how easy it is to try this technique on your own? Learning how to decoupage a glass bowl can be a fun activity for kids and it’s cheaper than buying bowls. This post will show you how to decoupage a bowl with tissue paper. The result is a unique decorative bowl that your friends will envy again and again. You could opt for store-bought materials and decoupage kits, or just use stuff lying around the house. While eating at a restaurant one day, I noticed their really pretty paper napkins. So instead of using them, I kept two of them in my purse. It’s not stealing if they give it to you.  You get decoupage napkins that are colourful and in a …