Crafting Secrets

Get a Step-by-Step Guide for Craft Projects For Any Age And Ability, Made EASY 101 Easy Craft Project Ideas.. -Let me know how you like it.

As our economy continues to decline and rising unemployment rates continue to increase many Americans have been scrambling for alternatives to making some extra cash , but you are not alone! Many opportunists are well aware of your need and are quite willing to help you part with your hard earned money by offering over blown income claims.

You can protect your self by just doing a little research and using a little common sense.

Do you have a hobby? Most of us do! And if you are good at it, you can turn it into a money making opportunity! The Arts & Crafts industry contributes 10′s of billions of dollars to the U.S. economy every year and this may be your opportunity to grab a piece of the pie.

Let’s take Arts & Crafts as a fine example for making money! What I’m talking about is things you have made with your own hands using your imagination and skill.

When making money with Arts & Crafts you should consider a few things in your search such as what you are good at, what can you can do and what do you enjoy.

Everything sells and thousands of crafters and artist make a nice living doing what they enjoy. Artist and crafters all over the world sell candles, rugs, figures, pottery, quilts, photos, bird houses, soap and the list goes on and on.

So what can you make? I believe in doing what I say! So let me share with you a little story of how I make money with crafts. Now keep in mind I am in no way an artist or even a crafter!

I just know how to be creative and one day when I was at the Dollar store (You know everything for $1.00) I was looking at some little cowboy figures riding a horse about 8 inches tall. I talked to the lady at the counter and asked how many she had, she said she had 100 of them and after a little negotiation I got them for $0.72 cents each.

Now comes the creative stuff, on my way home I stopped off at a local saw mill and purchased some cedar log scraps and took them home. With a little sawing, sanding and some varnish I made 100 little wooden bases for my cowboys. After drying I epoxied my cowboys on their bases and hand signed each one with my name and date.

I had 8 sets of 12 different little cowboys along with a few duplicates and the following weekend I went to the flea market and set up shop. I sold my cowboys for $12.95 each and sold out that weekend.

I had about 20 Hours into this project, spent $72.00 on my cowboys, $18.00 on wood scrap, $15.00 in material and $35.00 for my space rent. My net profit for this project was $1,155.

I hope this gets your creative juices flowing on what you can do with Arts & Crafts.

You will find many of sources to sell your Arts & Crafts such as:

1. Online with Craigslist for free.

2. At flea markets.

3. Craft fairs.

To your success, Ozark Mike

The idea of arts & crafts for children is something that you really should have. If your kids talk about being bored, then you can really give your children something to do away from the computer games while helping them grow with crafts. Many parents do not advise to you how important arts & crafts are for helping them grow as individuals.

When you do crafts, it is important to remember that some arts & crafts have age limits. This is due to the things you use and the time that is needed. Lets give you a few of those ideas for different age categories that really benefit from completing arts & crafts.

Lets start with preschoolers. Now, with preschoolers, you will have to provide a lot of assistance. Yet, arts & crafts such as gluing things on is a great thing to work with them on. For instance, one that we like to do is cutting out the outline of a butterfly then allowing them to glue things to the butterfly which are quite vibrant in colors.

Something that we like to do with kindergartners is to create items that they can play with when arts & craft time is over. Something that we have found for this age is that making hand puppets is fun. They can cut out the pieces to create the eyes and so forth and then glue the facial features on. This is one form ofarts & craft you can do with your children.

The last age is the elementary school age. You will find that when a child enters the classroom, they can incorporate colors with their projects. You tell them to use a color and they will use it. Something that we like to do in terms of crafts with this age though is helping them to think multi dimensional. For them, you might try to have them craft things out of clay or even with beads like creating jewelry. All of these things help them with that.

One thing that many of us want is to find cool projects that we can do. Something that our kids found very cool are spider webs that you let them create the web part out of glue and coat it with glitter. From here, then while that is drying you can help them make the spider for their spider web.

We have found that what happens when you help children to do craft projects it allows them to display their creative side that everyone has. You see what colors they like. You see the dimensions that they work in. Then, you can see the true side of them come out.

Halloween usually conjures up images of strange shapes, dark movie characters and popular animals. These days though, these common figures can be made in more ways than one and using an assortment of different materials. Here are the top eleven variations on the most popular Halloween arts and crafts for kids.

Bats

There’s no need for you to buy plastic bats for Halloween since you can make your own. You can easily cut patterns or two dimensional bats from construction paper or cartolina. Bat Halloween arts and crafts for kids can also be creatively made out of egg cup cartons to hang or out of clothes pins to clip on curtains.

Pumpkins

These days, you don’t have to worry about messy pumpkin carvings anymore. You can easily have pumpkin paper lanterns as Halloween arts and crafts for kids projects. If you don’t like lanterns, you can still make pumpkins out of paper plates, milk containers and construction paper. One other great alternative would be pumpkin baskets made of paper mache.

Witches

Witch Halloween arts and crafts for kids can be made out of paper plates and cardboard. As an alternative, you can create a witch doctor look instead of a western witch by incorporating beaded necklaces and homemade stuffed voodoo dolls.

Spiders

One favorite Halloween arts and crafts for kids is the spider. Spiders can be as simple as construction paper or egg cup carton hangers. They can also be made of pom poms or colored cotton balls.

Vampires

Vampire masks with fangs can be easily made with paper plates. More imposing ornamental life size vampires however can be made out of coat hangers and black garbage bags.

UFO

Aliens and UFOs are not common Halloween figures but stories of alien kidnappings and abduction makes great Halloween tales. Make UFOs out of paper plates that you can hang from the ceiling. You might also want to complement the ships with cookies shaped like stereotypical aliens instead of ginger bread men.

Worms in Cans

Worms in cans can be made of brown crepe paper. They can seem yuckier to the touch though if you use gummy candies and cooked spaghetti.

Ghosts

Ghosts can also come in variations. You can make ghost Halloween arts and crafts for kids made of socks, packing foam, old cloths, crepe paper, helium filled balloons, white painted jars, tissue and clay.

Mummy

Use tissue paper or gauze and wrap it around a jar for a mummified figure. Cut out some eyes from construction paper and stick them on the jars before you put on the tissue so you can have the eyes slightly covered and just peeking.

Cats

What’s Halloween without black cats? Use paper plates to create cat masks or some cotton and crepe paper to create billowing streamers.

Skeletons

White or luminous paint on a black figure would be perfect for the usual skeleton man. You can however create a good looking skeleton with different kinds of pasta.

Turn on your local news these days and you would think its 1933 revisited. They say we’re not quite in a depression but I guess it depends on who you ask and what part of the country you’re from. The percentage of Americans out of work is almost record breaking. Times may be difficult and job opportunities may be few and beyond reach. These are the times when you have to dig down deep inside yourself and come up with a solution on how you’re going to survive in this economy.

If you’re the creative type, you may want to try making extra cash in the art and crafts field. This hobby can quickly turn into a very profitable business. With today’s technology, you’re able to reach a wider audience to sell your arts and crafts. Believe it or not, there are people still out there willing to buy handmade crafty items. You just have to be creative in finding where these people are and placing your craft items in front of them.

So, what crafty item should you make and sell? Well, that depends on your creative passions. The crafting field is vast and there is always something for everyone. Some suggestions are; crocheting, knitting, polymer clay, sewing, handmade toys, handmade home decoration, the list can go on and on. Think about what craft items people might want to buy. How would your craft item benefit the buyer? Can your craft item be of use as decoration? Is it a functional craft item? What purpose does it have for the potential buyer? These are the questions you should ask yourself when coming up with ideas on what craft item you want to make and/or currently making.

Now that you have decided on what craft item you want to make, how do you know if there is a market for it? You don’t, unless you do some research. Browse some of the online auction sites that are out there on the web. Type in your craft item into the search field and take note of how many bids are placed or how many items are listed. This is not a sure fire method but will give you a sense of who else is making something similar to your craft item. Another way to find out if there is a market for your craft item is to search for possible stores or internet stores that may be selling what you want to make. Research, research is the key.

You discover there may be a possible market for your craft item. How do you make money? Where do you sell it? This is where you need to get extra creative of getting people to buy your craft item. Research local craft fairs in your area and sign up to the ones that fit in with what you want to sell. There are many online internet sites like Etsy and ArtFire where you can setup an online store to sell your craft item. Just make sure you read all the fine print about listing fees and final sale fees but are a good way to sell online. Make sure you take good pictures of your craft item and remember, the potential buyer can’t hold your creation. Describe in detail everything about what you are selling.

Along with selling your craft items on online stores, you can also turn your knowledge of making your craft item into a tutorial or eBook. The quick and simple way is to create the tutorial in word doc and then convert it to PDF file. List your tutorial on your online store. When people purchase your tutorial, you would email them the PDF of your tutorial. There is also online eBook creating software out there on the web. Do a search on your favorite web browser for; creating eBooks.

These are just a few ideas of how I am trying to survive in today’s rough economy as a crafter. Keep your head up and happy crafting.

How to teach young children to make an Indian headband arts and crafts project; get expert tips and advice on arts and crafts for kids at preschool through elementary school ages in this free instructional video.

These days, ‘Creative and Commercial Arts’ is one of most sought-after career fields. There are many students who have creative abilities and talent. All they have to do is sharpen the inbuilt aptitude, by giving themselves a formal triaging, which is available through fine arts at the certificate, diploma and degree level by numerous institutions.

 

Options in Commercial Fine Arts courses range from sculpture, applied arts, painting, craft, graphic interior design and painting. One should always get a professional training as it helps you to acquire the technical skills to survive in an industry where competition is never ending. One can get training at diploma and degree level. For getting the admission in Bachelors Degree course in Fine Arts (BFA), the minimum education required is Higher Secondary Examination or 10+ 2. Consequently, the eligibility for the Post Graduation Degree course in Commercial Fine Arts is a graduate degree in Fine Arts.

 

Some famous colleges in India that offer these courses are Symbiosis Institute of Design, Jamia Milia Islamia, Loyola College, Amity University, University of Calcutta, Rabindra Bharati University, International Institute of Fine Arts, Apeejay College of Fine Arts, University of Delhi.

 

Those who have acquired professional training can work in the respective fields as a freelancer. This allows variety and liberty in their projects. Illustrators, cartoonists, and designers are in a great demand in publishing industry and newspaper houses. Those who have expertise in applied art have ample opportunities in advertising agencies as graphic artists, designers, visualisers, and creative directors. Professional artists have unlimited opportunities in front of them ranging from working in art studios, advertising companies, fashion houses etc. There are many more related career options like teaching, direction, photography, television, clothing and fashion, art directors for magazines, on-line services, software companies, manufacturers, promotion and product design.

 

In electronic media, one can design non verbal presentations for television programmes involving trade figure analysis, election results, etc. Many commercial artists also design stamps and letter heads for government organizations and private firms. Software firms in India hire experts in commercial fine arts as “Graphic equalizers”.

 

One can also explore career options in abroad as there too you can find good career opportunities. There is an option to organize exhibitions and auctions for creative work in India and abroad also. One can also arrange workshops on fine arts and other related fields for better career prospects. Thus, we can say that there are unlimited options for job opportunities for the trained and professional artist in the field of fine arts, creative arts and commercial arts. After the completion of the course, one can choose his/her desired field and can work with either in a good company or for his/her own. This field can give you name and fame for the piece of work.