Author: Susan Luke

Could you use some last minute handmade Christmas gift ideas? If you are anything like me, there’s always a gift or two I get stumped on, or worse, forget about.

For example, have you worked out what to give your child’s Teacher yet? Do you want to give a little gift of appreciation to your doctor or accountant or workmates? Do you want to give gifts that have some personal meaning and aren’t mass produced by a chain store?

Having some quick and easy ideas for handmade Christmas gifts is something I almost automatically put on my ‘to do’ list, and generally I use what I make! It does help reduce my stress levels to have a few extra gifts on hand just n case.

One of my favourite last minute handmade Christmas gifts this year is decorated candles. I found out how to decorate candles with stamped images on tissue paper. It’s so easy and it looks so good! You can purchase inexpensive undecorated candles from most grocery stores these days. You can choose almost any sized or shaped candle, as long as the surface is large enough to display the stamped images you would like to use.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Stamp an image on fine tissue (or Kleenex), cut it out and hold it on your candle with something that is heat proof like a wooden skewer.

2. Use a heat gun (maybe even a hair dryer would work) to carefully melt enough wax under the image to be soaked up by the tissue and meld the edges of the tissue into the candle.

3. Allow the wax to cool, and there you have it – a lovely decorated candle!

Another little emergency gift I have on hand this year is a candy bar favors. I have learned how to make a flat pouch out of paper big enough to hold a candy bar. I decorate the paper pouch and fix ribbon to it to assist the chocolate bar in sliding in and out of the pouch. It’s a neat little gift that can even be slipped into a Christmas card, if you choose a small, thin chocolate bar. If you go for gourmet chocolate – a small quantity of high quality chocolate – the gift is still going to be very affordable. After the chocolate is eaten, the pouch makes a wonderful book mark.

Handmade cards, tags and bookmarks are always appreciated. I think many recipients are touched that you have taken the time to make something especially for them.

Why not make up a number of blank cards and place them in a decorated box as a gift? It’s always handy to have ready made cards on hand to thank someone or to give for birthdays, anniversaries, engagements, new babies, etc. One friend I know made up a box that was divided into months of the year. She made the box for her mother. She then created a card for each special family event that she knew would be coming up in 2009, added envelopes and stamps, and her mother will just need to add her own hand written messages before mailing them.

What a thoughtful and useful gift!

I trust some of these last minute handmade Christmas gift ideas helps you to make sure everyone you appreciate feels very special this Christmas, withoiut breaking the bank, and that this helps you feel less stressed by the last minute preparations.

Having a few pre-made gifts on hand should do the trick!

EDITED: Thank you for the comments about safety and the use of tissue paper to decorate candles. I should have included a WARNING not to burn your decorated candle, or if you decide to do so to place it inside a hurricane lamp or similar to contain any possible fire hazard, and never to burn any candle unsupervised.

I have not heard of the special and safe tissue that my commenter referred to before. If you would like to let us know how to find safe tissue for candle decorating, I am sure many people would appreciate it.

About the Author:
Susan Luke loves paper crafting. Her website PaperCraftCentral contains a wealth of FREE information about scrapbooking, cardmaking, 3-d papercrafts and more. Sign up for her FREE Ezine “Paper Twists” today at http://www.papercraftcentral.com/subscribe.html

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Last Minute Handmade Christmas Gifts

Author: jo
By Sam Russell

In this brief article we aim to just give a basic understanding of knitting needles, their sizing and what you need to look out for.

Size IS important…………….

Knitting needles come in different sizes. It is important to know the size of your knitting needles because their size is related to the size of your stitches and, implicitly, to the appearance of the finished work.

Knitting needles are given different numbers according to their measure. Do not think of their length! It is important how big round the needles are. However, these numbers can differ from one country to another. For example, a knitting needle of 3.75 mm is number 5 in American measurement and number 9 in British measurement, or you may see on the bag of the knitting needles you buy it is simply written as a 3.75 mm needle.

Notice that the American measurement has low numbers for needles with smaller diameters, and the numbers can go up to 50 for a larger diameter like 25 mm, while the British measurement has high numbers for low diameters and the numbers decrease when it comes to high diameters like, for example, 000 for knitting needles of 10 mm, Therefore, you need to look up a knitting needle conversion chart to ensure you end up with the correct needle size.

To confuse you still further if you have a 4.5 mm knitting needle, in that case the size number coincides; with both countries calling it size 7.

Understanding Gauge …………

In knitting, there is the concept of gauge and it means the number of stitches in a given length. This concept is related to the pattern you have and, if in your pattern it says there are supposed to be, for example, 5 stitches to an inch and you can make only 3, than you should and need to change the size of your knitting needles. Each pattern requires that you knit a certain number of stitches using a particular yarn and a specified needle.

However, it is not necessary to stick to the yarn or the needles specified in the pattern, but it is important to get the correct number of stitches per inch in order to have the right size, length and other characteristics of the pattern.

Different Kinds ……….

You can also choose between circular needles and straight needles. Some people prefer circular needles because they are more comfortable to use and you can knit both in the round and back and forth like straight needles. You can find circular knitting needles, double point knitting needles and also single pointed knitting needles made of different materials such as steel, wood or bamboo. There are also different types of knitting needles like Addi knitting needles, Clover knitting needles, Misc knitting needles, Crystal Palace, Rosewood and HiyaHiya

To find out more pay a visit to a good knitting or haberdashery store & ask for advice.About the Author:

Discover knitting now – it requires some skill most of which you can pick up as you go along. Its not expensive and its easy to start small on a simple project building as your experience and aptitude develops to enable you to create some truly memorable projects including clothes for the family and household items that friends and family will admire for many years to come.Learn to knit now and Visit my site for information, tips and hints on how to get started. My beginners guide book and audio guide is a perfect companion to accelerate your learning process.

We are all beginners at some stage and when I decided I wanted to learn how to knit I started searching for a manual to inform and teach me. Fortunately I found clubs and other knitters who generously helped me, thats when I decided to compile my own manual to help and encourage others to get knitting.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Understanding Your Knitting Needles

Author: Nicholas Tan

Birthday cards come in all shapes and sizes, types and methods. You can get funny birthday cards, emotional birthday cards, and children’s birthday cards. The best place to easily find cheap birthday cards is to go to a discount store like Walmart. However, if you want something really flashy, or just like to spend a lot of money on your friends and family, you can always shop for birthday cards at a specialty store like Hallmark.

You can also find great birthday cards online. You can find them to order in print, order in bulk, or order several different birthday cards for many occasions at the same time. Alternatively, you can send birthday cards electronically, through email. There are many websites that allow you to pick your general birthday card, then add your own birthday or other message to the birthday card. You can also send musical birthday cards and animated birthday cards. While some of these services are free, many of them require registration.

One thing that is becoming very common is hand made birthday cards. You can find handmade birthday cards at flee markets and craft shops. You can also occasionally find handmade birthday cards at wholesale clubs like Sam’s Club and Costco. You may think that handmade birthday cards are expensive, but really they can be quite reasonable. You can often find boxes of handmade birthday cards for around ten to thirty dollars.

These days birthday cards come in all shapes and sizes, and all genres. You can find birthday cards related to every child’s age from one to eighteen. You can also find birthday cards related to every landmark age, such as age twenty-one, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, and eighty. I imagine they also have birthday cards for ages ninety and one-hundred, but I haven’t seen them. You may need to special order these birthday cards, as few people reach that old age in today’s society.

Themed birthday cards are a lot of fun. Themes such as “over the hill” are very popular. My father received an over the hill birthday card with the phrase “you’re a national treasure…unfortunately the government has failed to allocate funds to your maintenance.” These birthday cards are very humorous, and make older men especially feel much better about having their birthday.

There are also themed birthday cards for the younger generation. Birthday cards with sexy women, alcohol, or crude gestures are very popular with today’s young people. There are also Disney themed birthday cards for younger children. These birthday cards include themes such as Disney Princesses, Cars, Aladdin, and other Disney favorites. Some of these birthday cards are pop-ups, and some of them are musical. Disney birthday cards are always a lot of fun to open, read, and play with again and again. It’s almost like another toy!

The best way to learn about birthday cards is to visit the birthday card isle at any department store, discount store, or Hallmark store. Birthday cards are so versatile, you are sure to find a birthday card perfect for your son, daughter, grandchild, spouse, or other friend or family member.

About the Author:

Nicholas Tan has been involved in Article Writing, providing Free Articles, Internet Marketing, SEO, Adwords, & Adsense for more than 5 years and designs and develops websites. Submit your free articles and get your articles noticed! Get your Free Articles here! Submit Articles! We provide free articles and information. Check us out at Free Articles!

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Greeting Cards: All About Birthday Cards

Author: Joey Robichaux

Here’s a simple and useful project — a simple, easy apron. You’ll use just one yard of fabric cut into four pieces — actually, you don’t even have to “cut” the fabric, you can just tear the fabric into the proper sized strips! Fabric choices would be any broadcloth or patterned cotton — something easy, cheap, and WASHABLE (it is an apron, after all!)

Begin with a piece of fabric 1 yard long by whatever length it comes in — most probably 44 inches. We’ll use the selvedge sides as the sides of the apron — that way we don’t have to finish the seams!

Next, cut a strip 2 inches by 44 inches — the width of the fabric. That was easy enough — so do it again. Now, cut a last strip 11 inches by 44 inches.

The results are 4 pieces of fabric — two pieces 2 inches by 44 inches, one piece 11 inches by 44 inches, and one piece 21 inches by 44 inches. We’ll make a drawstring from the two 2 inch pieces, a large pocket with the 11 inch piece, and the body of the apron with the 21 inch piece. (Note: You can follow step-by-step photo directions at the link in the resource box.)

First, we’ll make a casing for the drawstring. On the 21 inch piece, fold over and press down about 1/4 inch from the top of the apron towards the wrong-side. Next, fold another 2 inches at this folded edge, again towards the wrong side. Sew a straight stitch along the bottom of this fold. Do not sew the edges — this is where we’ll insert the drawstring!

Now we’ll do the pocket portion. Match the 11 inch piece to the bottom of the 21 inch piece — match right sides together. Sew a straight stitch along the bottom of the piece. Turn rightside out, match the sides of the pieces and sew a straight stitch along the sides. You now have a 44 inch wide pocket along the bottom of the apron — you may want to sew some straight stitches up this wide pocket to divide it into sections.

Almost done — join the edges of the two 2 by 44 pieces and sew together — making a single piece 2 inches by about 88 inches. Fold in half along this 88 inch width (right side together) and sew a seam along the edge to make a long tube. Turn the tube rightside out. Now, tuck in the raw edges on each end of the tube; sew the edges closed. Insert the tube into the casing at the top of the aprong — and you’re done!

A 21 inch deep apron easily reaches from the waist to below the knees — but you can make it deeper if you wish. Just begin with a fabric piece longer than one yard.

About the Author:

Joey Robichaux operates Sewing Machines and Sewing Projects. — offering free sewing projects and reviews of older mechanical sewing machines. Follow pictures of this particular project here!

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Make an Easy No-pattern Apron

Author: Joey Robichaux

It’s a treat sewing with fleece — the edges don’t unravel, so there’s no need to finish seams. Fleece is kind of stretchy, plus fleece garments are normally a little loose, so fitting isn’t a big issue.

Even though fleece is easy to sew, there are two sewing tricks that can make your fleece experience much more pleasant!

First, you want to use a longer stitch length when you sew fleece. Rather than your normal setting of 2 or so, you may want to go up to a 4 or a 5. Some people even suggest a basting stitch for fleece!

The reason is that fleece stitches can pull through the fabric if the stitch length is too short. Longer is better when you sew fleece. The plus side of this is that it makes your sewing much faster!

Next, you want to make sure of your “right-side/wrong-side” when you sew fleece. Some people are surprised to find that fleece has a right/wrong side — the print usually appears the same from both sides. Solid colors have the same color depth regardless of the side. How can right/wrong side come into play?

The catch is that fleece will always curl to one side or the other. The side it curls towards is the “wrong” side! When you cut a piece of fleece, you’ll not the cut edge will always curl in a certain direction. Take careful note of this when you assemble fleece garments or projects; match your right/wrong sides carefully to up the quality of your finished product!

To make this a little confusing, the selvedge edge of fleece doesn’t folow this rule! The selvedge edge normally curls towards the “right” side! For best results, don’t leave your selvedge edges raw — trim them instead. After all, fleece edges won’t unravel, so there’s no real need to keep the selvedge edge.

Keep these two tricks in mind when sewing fleece and you’ll find your sewing experience much more pleasant — and the results more enjoyable!

About the Author:

Joey Robichaux operates Sewing Machines and Sewing Projects — offering free sewing projects and reviews of older mechanical sewing machines — as well as Sewing Stash, an extensive sewing and crafts directory.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Sewing Tips for Fleece

Author: Father Time

Making a homemade, handmade greeting card is really a great way to lift someone’s spirits, brighten their day, and put a smile on their face, while using your own creativity, personality, and talents. There are more and more folks getting into this awesome hobby, and there are many books and magazines about the craft!

There are also a multitude of papers, glues, ribbons, envelopes, stickers, embellishments, and so forth, that are available for sale to assist anyone with this wonderful hobby. If you don’t know what to write inside the cards that you make, don’t worry, because I have a great idea for that as well.

Many folks enjoy making these homemade, handmade greeting cards, and they get very artistic and creative with all of the colors, designs, and so forth. Sometimes people are not quite sure what to write inside! If that is the case with you, don’t worry because I can help you with that. My name is Father Time, and I have been writing greeting card verses for so long, that I can’t remember. Perhaps you have at one time or another, read some of my verses in a store, or maybe you have received a card that I have penned!

I have an e-book, of spectacular card verses that you can use inside your own homemade cards! I dropped the price a couple of times, only to make it affordable for anyone and everyone, so please order one! To read more about it and/or to order it, click here please: Father Time’s eBook of Fabulous Greeting Card Verses! Notice that I said “please”? Twice!

I will send this fabulous, bargain priced eBook to you via e-mail in Microsoft Word format, that way you can click on a verse, change the font, size, and color, and then print it out, cut it out with scissors, and paste it inside your own cards, scrapbook pages, or other works of art! There is no comedy here, and nothing risqué or sarcastic; just honest-to-goodness Love and Friendship verses that you will love, and they will make the person that you send them to feel warm and fuzzy, like an old sweater! Please order a copy today?

Thank You and Bless You!

About the Author:

Father Time has been a published writer for over thirty years and particularly focuses on motivational and self-help writing and speaking! He also has many years of sales experience and writes sales & marketing training and materials. His first love is poetry and greeting card verses!

He currently does a lot of writing for hire, especially article marketing pieces for folks who have their own websites to promote. IF you have a website, you should contact him for some good writing to promote your site; right away! You will be glad that you did!

Father Time deals in wholesale merchandise of a wide variety, and is especially fond of helping college students and anyone else who needs to earn extra cash, by allowing them to buy a dozen or other small quantity of “this or that” for the purposes of reselling the items, for a cash profit. You don’t have to go through the hassles of opening a business, you can just buy a batch of something that appeals to you, and then sell them to your friends. It is easy and fun, and very profitable!

Father Time has a great Online SuperStore at www.FatherTimePublishing.com If YOU, as a reader of this website, are simply purchasing at retail, YOU can save an additional 15% off of the normal merchandise. (Sorry, discount does not apply to writing, card readings by e-mail, or on bulk packages) The coupon code is: SaveNow

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Do You Make Greeting Cards? Got Verses? Need Verses? Want Verses?

Author: Shelly Hill

When it comes to Halloween costumes, we always decided to make our own because we felt it was foolish to spend $35 and up, for a costume that our child was only going to wear one time. Over the years, my sister-in-law and I have made numerous costumes for our children and I thought I would share a few simple ideas with you.

If you are concerned about safety, I recommend purchasing some reflective material patches at your local fabric and crafts store, and sew or glue them onto your child’s costume. This safety measure will help car drivers to see them at night as they are crossing the street. I always recommend that a responsible adult accompany children on Trick or Treat night.

Here are the Halloween costume ideas we came up with over the years.

Lady Bug – You will need: red leotard, red tights, 4 sheets of black felt and fabric glue. Cut out some circles and ovals from the felt and glue onto the red leotard so that it looks like lady bug spots. To make antennae, purchase a black headband, 2 round 3″ diameter Styrofoam balls, 2 pencils, black acrylic paint and gorilla glue. Paint the Styrofoam balls and pencils black and let dry. Glue pencils to the center of the Styrofoam balls, let dry and then glue the pencils to the top of the head band.

Note: You could use the same concept above and do a bumble bee and substitute the red clothing items with yellow clothing items and make black felt bee-style stripes.

Construction Worker – You will need: denim blue jeans, white T-shirt, flannel shirt and a yellow plastic hard hat found at a discount toy store. You can borrow a man’s tool belt or purchase a canvas-style apron with pockets at a local craft store for a few dollars. If desired, visit your local dollar discount store and purchase a plastic tool set to stick into the pockets of the tool belt.

Golfer – You will need: khaki colored pants, polo-style shirt and a plaid golfers cap. You can purchase plastic golf clubs and balls at your local dollar discount store. We made our own golf bag by emptying out a large round cardboard tube and painting it with acrylic paints. Punch a hole in each side of the tube and attach twine for a carrying strap. You can fit 3-4 plastic golf clubs into the holder and have your child carry it over their shoulder.

Nurse – You will need: white skirt, shirt, tights and shoes which your child most likely already has in her closet. To add to that, purchase a child’s size nurses cap at a costume store along with a plastic doctor’s kit at your local dollar discount store. We also accented the white shirt with a name badge and a red felt first-aid cross that we hand drew and safety pinned to the shirt.

Mummy – You will need: white clothing, white ski mask, white sneakers, several rolls of white first aid bandages and numerous safety pins. We cut the bandages into 12-24″ lengths and safety pinned them around the legs, arms and abdomen of the outfit. We chose to use fabric glue to attach them to the white ski mask. If you are making this costume for a small child, then I recommend using non-toxic fabric glue instead of the safety pins.

Black Spider – You will need: black jeans, black sweatshirt, 2 pairs of black little girls tights, 1 bag of fiberfill stuffing, black thread. You need to cut the panty portion off of the tights and just use the legs. Stuff each leg firmly with fiberfill and then sew the end shut with thread. Do this for a total of 4 spider legs. You will want to hand sew (or machine sew) the stuffed legs onto the sides of the black sweatshirt about 4-5″ below the sweatshirt arm. If desired, you can paint the child’s face black or lime green with face paints.

Crayon – You will need: your choice of colored clothing, we selected orange to fit with the Halloween theme, along with several sheets of black felt, fabric glue and a black fabric paint. Grab one of your child’s crayons and use it as an example on how you should cut out designs from your black felt. Attach those designs onto the clothing items so that it resembles a crayon. You can use the black fabric paint to paint on the crayon-makers name on the front of the shirt. To further fit with our theme, we machine sewn a triangular hat out of matching orange felt, so that ‘our’ little crayon had a pointy crayon top.

About the Author:

Shelly Hill is a mother and grandmother living in South Central Pennsylvania. Shelly enjoys crafting and spending time with her family and loves the Fall holiday season. You can visit Shelly online at http://www.workathomebusinessoptions.com or at her recipe blog at http://wahmshelly.blogspot.com for free family-friendly recipes.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – 7 Homemade Kids Halloween Costume Ideas

Author: julius villanueva

How to make your own candles
Candle making has been around designed for thousands of years. It was as soon as a requirement in the field of order to retain light by the side of night; it is straight away a hobby so as to many group have the benefit of. Candle making continues to stay a well-liked hobby designed for a variety of reasons. Group reach candles designed for their own delicate apply, it is a illustrious expertise project to make with elder children, group reach candle to undertake away in the role of gifts, and group even reach candles to wholesale and create a responsibility shown of it.

Making candles designed for your own delicate apply before to undertake away in the role of gifts is awfully rewarding and uncomplicated to make. Many of the regional expertise provisions supply all of the tools you long for need in the field of order to reach your own candles. You can obtain increase, wicks, and molds from almost several expertise provisions. With the popularity of the hobby, expertise suppliers retain and made things like color, decorations, and perfume readily existing designed for homespun candles. The take it easy of the materials desirable designed for candle making can stay supplied by the hobbyist.

The formerly step in the field of candle making is to groom the increase. You make this by melting it in the field of a doppelganger cistern. A doppelganger cistern is simply single tubby pot full with dampen and placed on the stove top. A new slighter pot so as to contains the un-melted increase is sat inside the superior pot. Increase long for burn as soon as you try to melt it so using a doppelganger cistern makes it uncomplicated. As soon as the increase is melted, accommodate the wick in the field of place in the field of the halfway point of the mold and pour in the field of the increase. Allow the increase to cool designed for approximately four to six hours facing you attempt to remove it fro the mold. From time to time putting the intact matter into the freezer designed for approximately a partially an hour long for reach it easier to remove the candle from the mold. You can and spray non-stick cooking spray into the mold facing you pour the increase into it so it is easier to remove the finished candle.

Nearby is almost nix come to an end to the distinct types of candles you can reach by the side of habitat. With the distinct fragrances, flag, and decorations your no more than limit is your imagination.

Round about candle making enthusiasts retain vanished in the role of far in the role of to reach their own molds using liquid latex in the field of order to create amazing candles. The no more than predicament with using latex molds is so as to they typically are too flexible to stand up on come to an end to pour the increase into the floor of them. I beg your pardon? You long for need to make is to cut down a flaw in the field of a model of strong cardboard. The undivided needs to stay vast adequate designed for the mold to slip through but no more than up to the lip. All latex molds need a lip on the floor designed for this rationale. The increase can so therefore stay poured into the floor of the mold and the cardboard long for bill in the role of support.

Round about entrepreneurs retain found so as to promotion candles can stay a lucrative responsibility. They retain taken their care for of the hobby and their talent and bowed it into a illustrious way to reach money. They make this by import their materials in the field of bulk by the side of mark down prices. They and take point and effort into packaging their products attractively.

The matter so as to really drives them is their imagination. People are until the end of time looking designed for something new-found as soon as it comes to this old custom.

About the Author:

Julius Villanueva is a candle making expert and writer. For more information on successful candle making visit http://www.candlemakingpros.info

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – How to make your own candles properly