Each of these many colored beads will surprise you because each is different. String them together to make one-of-a-kind necklaces and bracelets. To fill your jewellery box or surprise someone: The materials you will need are: Typing paper: lightweight cardboard: transparent tape: strong thread: pictures from old magazines. Tools need: ruler: pencil: scissors: needle: and round toothpick.

Fold up 1 inch at the bottom of a sheet of typing paper. On the folded part, mark off ½ inch on the short edge and 5 ½ inches on the long edge. Draw a line joining the two marks.

Cut out along the pencil line. Unfold. This triangle will be the pattern for one set of beads. To make the pattern easier to use, tape it to a piece of lightweight cardboard and cut out the cardboard.

Now fold up 1 inch at the other end of the sheet of paper. On the folded part, mark off ¼ inch on the short edge and 7 ¼ inches on the long edge. Join the two marks, cut out along the line, and unfold. This triangle will be the pattern for a second set of beads. Tape it to a piece of cardboard and cut out.

For a necklace, put a length of thread around your neck and cut the thread off when it is as long as you want your necklace to be. Then thread it through a needle.

Pick some colourful pictures in an old magazine. Magazines with glossy paper are best. What the pictures show doesn’t matter.

Put one of your triangle patterns on a picture, draw around it, can cut the triangle out.

Lay a round toothpick on the back side of the picture triangle, across the wide end. Roll the triangle up around the tooth-pick. Roll straight so that the two sides taper evenly. This makes a bead.

Tape the loose end to keep the bead from unrolling. Remove the toothpick and run the needle through the hole to thread the bead.

Repeat, using the other triangle pattern, to make a differently shaped bead. Keep changing the triangle patterns until your necklace is completely threaded with beads. Then tie the ends together.

You can make differently shaped beads by changing the size of the triangle pattern Experiment until you find some new shapes you like.

You can make bracelets instead of necklaces by stringing the beads on shorter threads.

Put a bright flower on the breakfast table. Or give it as a special present. Here is how to make it: You will need: five sheets of tissue paper of different colours: pipe cleaners: coffee can, quart milk carton, or large plastic bottle: newspapers. Tools: pencil; scissors: yardstick. Optional materials you could use are gift-wrapping paper or crepe paper: white glue: enamel paint: thinner: paint brush.

Choose five sheets of tissue paper in the colours you want to use for the petals of your flower. Stack the five sheets on top of each other. Measure and draw a square 15 inches by 15 inches on the top sheet. Cut out all five squares at the same time.

Pick up the top square only. Fold it three times. Starting about halfway up on each side, round off the top with your scissors.

Open up the tissue paper. Than hang it over a yardstick, with the rounded edges pointing down.  Push the tissue together on the yardstick, gathering the part that’s pushed together.

Take hold of the gathered part and wind a pipe cleaner around it to hold it together.

Do the same with the four other pieces of tissue. When all are finished, twist the five pipe cleaners stems together and wrap another pipe cleaner around them all.

To make a vase for your flower, first cover your work space with newspapers. Then cover a coffee can or milk carton with gift-wrapping paper or crepe paper. (If you use a milk carton, cut the top off first).

You can also use a large plastic bottle-an empty bleach bottle or distilled-water bottle for a vase. Remove the label and, if you wish, paint the bottle with enamel paint.

Maracas are rattles used in playing Latin American Music. They make a swishy sound. The maracas player shakes a maraca with each hand to mark the rhythm of the music. The Indians of South America, the first people to use maracas, make theirs out of gourds. Here is how to make your own with easy day to day materials.

You will need: newspapers to over work space: two round balloons: white glue: 24 dried beans or small pebbles: two cardboard tubes: masking tape: paint: crepe paper: Tools: jar: ruler: scissors: measuring cup: foil pan: pin: paintbrush.

Blow up two balloons to the size of a grapefruit. Tie the end of each.
Place one of the balloons in the mouth of a jar. Then cut strips of newspaper about 6 inches long by ½ inch wide. (save time by cutting triple layers.)

In a foil pan, mix equal amounts of white glue and water about ½ cup of each. Dip the newspaper strips in this mixture and apply the wet strips to the balloon, criss crossing them. Use about five layers, to make the maraca strong. Make sure that no part of the balloon shows through except at the very bottom.

Do the same with the second balloon. Let both balloons dry over night.
Hold each balloon in turn by the tied end and burst it with a pin. When the balloon has gotten small enough, pull it out by the tied end.
Insert 12 beans or pebbles through the hole in each maraca and tape the hole closed.

To make handles, use a cardboard tube for each maraca. A tube from gift-wrapping paper is best, but you can use a paper towel tube instead.
Cut four parallel slits into the end of each tube, running lengthwise. Make each slit about 3 inches long. Circle the tubes with tape just below the slits to keep them from splitting farther.

Spread the slit pieces apart. Fit the maracas onto the slit pieces and tape the slit pieces firmly to the maracas.

Paint the maracas and let dry overnight.

To decorate the handles, cut two strips of crepe paper about 3 inches wide and 14 inches long. Cut 1 1/2 –inch slits all along the edge of each strip, about ¼ inch apart. This will make a fringe.

Glue the uncut edge of one strip to the handle of one of the maracas, starting just below the maraca. Wind and glue the strip around the handle toward the bottom end. Repeat with the other handle.

Cut out several crepe paper circles and glue them on the maracas.

THE MOON? MARS? Pick your space target. To get your rocket ready for the launch pad and countdown you will need Materials: newspapers to cover work space: round oatmeal or cornmeal box; masking tape; light weight cardboard: white glue: salt box: (for a super rocket two boxes): three empty spools: paint. Tools needed: pencil: ruler; scissors: compass or other circle maker: paintbrush.

Tape the cover onto an oatmeal or cornmeal box. Cut four fins from cardboard. Each fin should be a triangle 4 inches at the bottom and the same height as the oatmeal or cornmeal box.

Glue and tape the fins to the box. On a piece of cardboard, draw a half circle with a 7-inch radius. Cut out the half circle and roll it onto a cone.

Adjust the bottom of the cone until it just fits the top of a salt box. The tape the con’s seam and tape the cone to the box.

Cut four cone fins from cardboard. The fins should be the same height as the side of the cone (or, for a super rocket, the same height as the salt box) and 3 inches wide at the bottom.

Glue and tape the fins to the cone. For a super rocket, attach the fins to the salt box instead. Then glue this salt box on top of a second salt box.

Now glue the salt box (or boxes) to the oatmeal box, being careful to line up the top fins with the bottom fins.

Glue three spools to the bottom of the oatmeal box. These are your rocket’s engines.
When the glue is dry paint your rocket. Mars has never looked better!

A popular medium for making your own jewellery at home is shells in their various forms and colours. When visiting the seaside you can usually find a selection of shells on the beach that can be used in your own jewellery projects. Shells come in so many different shades and types of colour from light pinks through to the amazing mother of pearl colour of the abalone shell. If you use your imagination when collecting shells at the beach you can create designs for your shell jewellery around the shells available to you. As well as shells other interesting beach combing articles can be used to make your own jewellery. Unusual shapes and colours of pebble can be found on the beach that would make a nice addition to an item of jewellery. Often stones on the beach can be found with holes worn in them from thousands of years of being buffeted by the waves, these can be easily threaded onto your jewellery designs.

When you have completed your beach combing expedition wash your various shells and stones in clean water ready to use in your jewellery. If you will be making necklaces you need to drill some holes in your shells to allow you to thread them onto your wire or string. Stones and other items like coral can be glued onto jewellery to create unusual pendants, rings and earrings. Mother of pearl can easily be found on the beach and the amazing colour can make some of the best pendants, necklaces and bracelets. Jewellery suppliers offer many different types of fittings and jewellery mounts that will allow you to set your mother of pearl and stones into silver or even gold jewellery. Shells can be threaded onto string or twine and clasps added in silver or base metals to secure the jewellery. Many varieties of clasp are also available from most good jewellery suppliers in precious metals as well as base metals.

If you wish to invest some additional time and money into your jewellery from the sea designs you may want to try using some of the more expensive jewellery materials. You can use pearls in your jewellery pieces to add that extra bit of class to your creations. When using pearls you may prefer to use clasps and jewellery wire made from 14 karat gold rather than lower cost silver or base metals. Nothing sets off pearl jewellery better than gold fittings and accessories, although some excellent results can be accomplished using silver with pearls too. Obviously pearls are highly unlikely to be found when beach combing, but will be available at most good jewellery supply stockists. When purchasing your pearls it is advisable to get them already drilled as this will allow you to concentrate on the creative side of making your jewellery. Cultured pearls are less expensive than saltwater pearls as they are easier to obtain, but they are still supplied in a beautiful range of different colours from pure white through gold and pink to pitch black. Stringing pearls can take time to get right as each pearl needs to be secured perfectly tight on the string to create the best effect with your pearls.

Sterling silver jewellery can be crafted from silver wire to create interesting designs and effects. Most silver jewellery wire available for crafting jewellery pieces will be sterling silver which is 92.5 percent pure silver alloyed with 7.5 percent other metals. Quite fine silver wire is generally used for jewellery manufacture as it is easy to bend and work with. As well as the silver wire other materials can be used in your jewellery creation such as precious gemstones, polished stones, glass or crystals.

Before you begin working your materials to create your own designs of jewellery it is advisable to put some design ideas on paper first. Even if you adapt your design while your creative juices are flowing a design on paper gives a good basic starting point for your jewellery design. Fine silver wire can be used for threading drilled gemstone beads and other interesting materials but silver for making jewellery is available in many different shapes for you to work with. Thicker silver wire can be twisted or wrapped into various forms and shapes to create your final piece of jewellery. Flat pieces of silver can be hammered out into exciting designs and given a textured finish surface to make bangles or wide necklets.

If you are new to making your own jewellery you may want to start with a lower cost alternative to silver wire initially. Silver bonded wire is available at many craft websites on the internet and in good local craft stores at a lower price than sterling silver wire. This will be a base metal wire that has been plated with silver, so your resulting jewellery piece will still look like silver but will only be silver plated and may be less hard wearing than sterling silver. And rather than using more expensive precious stones in your jewellery you could begin with lower cost beads made from glass crystal, that can still give outstanding results.

The equipment required to start making your own wire jewellery can be as simple as a pair of pliers and some wire cutters. Simple designs can be made without the need for soldering using simple twists to secure beads onto your jewellery. Sooner or later you may require an oxyacetylene torch to enable you to solder high melting temperature metals such as silver. Once you get the hang of soldering your own jewellery the options for designs and artistic creations will be practically endless.

As well as using silver or silver bonded wire many people create their jewellery from gold wire. Gold wire can be used to great effect in combination with other materials such as pearls or polished semiprecious stone beads. After you have become proficient at making your own wire jewellery you may wish to go on to sell your creations at a local fair or craft show. Many people that started jewellery craft as a simple hobby have progressed to making a part time or even full time income from sales of their jewellery. The appeal to the public of handmade wire jewellery is that they will be wearing one off designs that may be unlike any other jewellery available in the stores.

You can have great fun creating your own bead jewellery and can start with very little financial outlay. All that you require are your choice of beads that you wish to use and some kind of thread or jewellery wire to use to string your beads. There are various different combinations of beads and design that you can try to make your bead jewellery really stand out.

First you will need to decide on how your beads will be presented. You can simply string them in one long necklace or more complicated designs can be created using jewellery wire or other methods of combining your various beads together. Simple thread can be used for stringing beads as well as cord, nylon, and even mono filament fishing line can be used to great effect. Almost any type of string or thread can be used and some people like to use a more rustic looking fibrous string to give a different appearance to their designs. With jewellery wire you can make almost any type of bead jewellery such as earrings, bracelets or more complicated necklace designs.

Beginners do not need to spend a great deal on bead supplies and can still create brilliant designs. Purchasing beads made from materials such as coloured glass, shell, and plastics will help keep the cost of your jewellery fairly low. Once you get the idea of how to create attractive designs you can start to use more expensive beads made from pearls or precious and semiprecious gemstones. The selection of bead colours and textures available to you is enormous. Beads can be obtained in various different forms from the classic round bead to unpolished free form stone chips. By using different colours, shapes and stones in your bead work you can create interesting designs that are unique to you.

In many parts of the world, people make their cloth by weaving on a hand loom. This way of making cloth is thousands of years old.  It is still used by craftsmen everywhere who want to make something especially fine.  Weave a coaster, place mat, doll blanket or rug, scarf, belt, or all hanging.

Here’s how to make your loom, first you will need medium-weight cardboard and yarn. Tools needed are a ruler, pencil, scissors and paper punch. Now decide how wide and how long you want your woven material to be. Draw a rectangle on cardboard 1 inch wider and 2 inches longer than the finished material. Cut out the rectangle. Draw a line across the width 1 inch from each end.

Make an odd number of marks along the top and bottom edges, 1/4 inch apart. Cut notches at the marks.  Punch a hole near the top left corner and bottom right corner.  On cardboard, draw a rectangle 1/2 inch wide and 4 inches long. Cut it out, making one end rounded. Then punch a hole near the other end.  This is your shuttle.

Tie one end of a piece of yarn to the top hole of the loom. Wind the yarn up and down between the notches. There are two ways of doing this.  The first method is easier, but it wastes yarn, since the yarn on the back is later cut off and discarded.

Tie the yarn at the bottom hole. This yarn forms the warp threads of your material.

The crosswise threads are called the woof. For these, you will need a long piece of yarn. Thread one end through the hole in the shuttle and tie it in place.

Now you can start to weave. Start at the line you drew 1 inch up from the bottom of the loom. Pass the shuttle under-over-under-over the warp threads until you reach the other side. Pull the yarn through carefully until there is only a 3-inch long end sticking out where you started.

For the next row, weave back under the threads wherever you went over in the row before, and go over wherever you went under before.

Continue weaving new rows until you reach the 1-inch line at the top of the loom.

Cut the warp thread at top right and tie it to the end of the woof thread. Then cut the next warp thread and tie it to these two threads.  Now cut the remaining warp threads two at a time, tying each two together as you go. Repeat at the bottom. Trim off the fringe and your woven material is finished.

The kind of weave you have just made is called plain weave. Another kind, called twill weave, is made by weaving over and under two warp threads at a time. Try it the diagonal pattern may surprise you.

For people that have never scrapbooked before, the mere thought of the hobby brings to mind images of albums that are overflowing with papers and souvenirs. While this can be the case if the scrapbooker is not particularly skilled at the craft, it doesn’t have to be.

If you are someone that would like to get involved in scrapbooking but is afraid you will just end up with a big mess on your hands, you might want to look into professional printing. If you create your scrapbook pages with a digital medium, for example, you can take your digitally saved scrapbook to a professional printer and have the book created with a clean and slick design.

Professional Printing and Binding

In many cases, if you wish to enlist in the services of a professional publishing and binding company, you can actually receive free software from the company. With this software, you can design your scrapbook layout with ease while still creating a unique look and style that fits with your personal taste. Then, using the digital scrapbook that you created, you can take the saved work to the professional printing and binding service company and have the book created.

In many cases, you can have a book professional bound and printed at a pretty low cost. One of the additional perks to having your scrapbook design professionally published and bound is that you can create multiple copies if your budget allows. This can be a great idea for family gatherings. For example, for your next family reunion, you can put together a scrapbook that will be meaningful to all of your family members. Then, have the book professional bound and published and give away a copy to each family that attends the reunion. This is a great way to share memories while also allowing family members to leave the reunion with a meaningful and special memento.

Creating Your Own Professional Look

If you do not have the funds to enlist in a professional printing and binding company, you can still put together a professional looking scrapbook on your own. You can accomplish this by purchasing your own software and developing your own pages. While this will be somewhat costly as an initial investment, it will be worth it if you intend to create scrapbooks on a regular basis.

Even if you do not have the software it takes to create digital scrapbooks, you can still create a scrapbook with a professional look that contains real life memorabilia rather than digitally created items. In order to do so, be sure to avoid overcrowding your pages and to not allow items to hang out the sides of your album.

While creating each scrapbook individually rather than mass producing them with a professional publisher and binder is a time consuming process, it can make the scrapbook even more meaningful as you personalize each one for the person you will be giving the book to. Therefore, you need to weigh the pros and cons of each method in order to determine which one is right for you.

Very young children (5 or younger): These children are going to need a lot of parental assistance when it comes to crafts, no matter how difficult or easy those crafts might be. You have to take the most care when choosing projects for this age group because there are so many ways they can injure themselves in the few seconds that people might not be paying attention to what they are doing. The best crafts for these children are crafts that involve cutting things out and pasting them to one another; crafts that involve glue, scissors and a lot of construction paper for example. Get the parents to do most of the cutting, but the children to do most of the pasting. Also, art projects with markers and crayons or some combination of arts and crafts are always a good idea.

Young children (6-9 years of age): These children have become far more self-sufficient than their younger counterparts, which means that you can expand on the types of projects that you give them. These projects can now be things like doll or animal making and you might even be able to trust some of them with things like exacto knives and bobby pins. Just this little bit of flexibility gives you far more room for other craft projects as you can easily see by doing a quick search online.

Youth (10-18 years of age): This might seem like a very weird age group since there are so many developmental differences between a child 10 years of age and a teen 18 years of age, but as far as crafts go they are pretty similar in their abilities. These abilities include the use of sewing machines and other potentially dangerous instruments, but for the most part as long as you supervise the younger ones closely you should have no problems with these. This also means that any craft project is open for you to choose for this particular group to do.

Adult (19+ years of age): Adults of course are just like youths in their ability to use all the tools available to them, but for adults you can also include things like wood cutting and shaping; very advanced carving and cutting tools that would be quite dangerous for youths to use. This means that not only arts and crafts projects are open to you, but even handiwork projects with craft elements can be used with adults willing to take on a new hobby.