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Sewing is an excellent hobby to start, because somebody who has the skill to sew can not only create small repairs on their clothing, but can also create a large number of useful things even with just a little practice. Whether you’re attempting dress making or simply replacing a lost button, the same type of basic skills are utilized.

With just a small amount of free time, anybody can create and plan some excellent sewing projects that help to make your surroundings just a bit more beautiful or to make your life just a little more easier. If you are having some trouble brainstorming, here are some simple ideas that may assist in getting your creative juices flowing.

Sturdy Tote Bags

If you have ever watched a public television fund raiser, you might have noticed tote bags being offered as some sort of incentive to reach a specific level of donation from the viewers. A sturdy bag is an excellent item to own, regardless of whether an individual uses it to carry library books to your house or a carry vacation items to the beach. But why end up settling for just a bag that does not reflect your own sense of style?

A tote bag is a pretty simple sewing project that does not require a lot of money for the basic materials. Just a little amount of fabric that you have left over from other projects will work fine for a project like a tote bag, or if you wish to make one that’s child’s sized for your daughter or son, an old pair of jeans supplies plenty of strong fabric to work with. If you end up doing the sewing for the bag, you are in control of the style and color of your bag, and that’s one advantage that no telephone incentive can give you.

Home Decorating

Given the number of television shows out there that are devoted to home decorating and home remodeling, making your surroundings more comfortable is a popular hobby. And when someone mentions home-improvement it often brings a pictures in your mind of Interior designers and contractors, you can do some excellent things by picking up a thread and needle instead of a hammer and nails.

Some of these types of sewing projects, for instance drapes, can be as basic as punching grommets in cloth and creating some decorative hems. You can make brightly colored pillows that will match whatever your decorating scheme might be, even if your local stores do not seem to have anything that will match. Better yet, taking on one of these types of sewing projects gives you a certain sense of pride that any do-it-yourselfer should have.

A Project for Fun

Sewing can assist you in doing things that are useful, and some sewing projects also end up making great gifts for younger family members. With simply a little knowledge and just a little practice, you can create stuffed toys for your kids.

What ends up making the sewing projects so wonderful is that they add a special personal touch to any gift you give to someone, a toy that’s got a more traditional type of look to it while still being fun to play with. A well-crafted stuffed animal or doll can be the type of toy that a small child remembers for many years to come, how many people can actually remember one of their old stuff toys?

Just as with other types on projects listed above, the advantage to putting your sewing skills to good use for personal types of projects is the control you have over the way that the smaller things in your life look.

Whether you choose to learn how to complete one of these type of sewing project ideas or utilize this as a starting point for your own brainstorming, sewing is a great hobby that can bring added enjoyment to your life, even after your thread and needle has been put away.

Listen to Corbin Newlyn as he shares his insights as an expert author and an avid writer in the field of fine apparel. If you would like to learn more go to Sewing and Trimming advice and at Kenmore Sewing Machine tips.

Part of the amazing charm about bead jewelry is just how easy it can be for someone to sit down and learn the basic skills of jewelry making in a matter of a few hours. As any bead jeweler will tell you, creating jewelry is one of those skills that only takes a few minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master!

While it’s fun to sit around with some friends at a bead shop and all work on jewelry together there is a grim reality: if you’re all making jewelry to sell then there’s going to be a little competition between you and your friends for customers. In fact, bead jewelry has become so popular in recent years among just about everyone that I’ve heard some bead jewelry artists actually say they were quitting because there were too many people making jewelry and it was simply too difficult to sell anymore.

And while making jewelry pieces is fun and even easy at times, actually selling the pieces and building a business with clients and customers can be rather difficult, especially if you’ve never been a salesperson or run a business before.

Here are three ways you can promote your bead jewelry business without coming on too pushy or spending a lot of money on advertising.

Referral Bonus: On all your business cards you simply write the line “Receive $10 credit on any of my jewelry for every customer you refer!” How does this work? Let’s say I sold a beautiful glass bead necklace to my child’s daycare teacher. A week later the teacher’s sister contacts you and has you create a similar necklace for her. You go back to the daycare teacher and say that she now has a $10 credit to use at any time for any other piece of jewelry she wants to purchase from you. Once people get the idea this really catches on! People will be going out of their way to have their friends buy jewelry from you so that they get a credit.

Donate to a Charity Gift Auction: A lot of nonprofit groups, charities, schools and churches have gift auctions where they accept gifts from local vendors and then auction those gifts off to the higher bidder, keeping the money made at the auction. You can donate a collection of bead jewelry like a matching necklace, bracelet and earrings and prominently display your business card in front of your jewelry. For the whole evening people will be looking over gifts and seeing your jewelry and business card. If you can put a stack of business cards in front, do so. You might be surprised how many people contact you after the event and tell you that they didn’t win the auction but would love to see what else you have.

Mix Web Sales with Table Sales: Don’t try to sell all your bead jewelry at one venue or the other. The people who are really running success bead jewelry businesses are hustling and cross promoting themselves all the time. List your website on the business cards that you give out at craft shows (even if they don’t buy anything!) and mention the craft shows you’ll be attending on your website!

There you go, three low-pressure way to increase your customer base and get your bead jewelry in front of more people. These things might not generate lots of sales right away, but if you stick with it you’ll be amazed at how your bead jewelry business keeps growing and multiplying!

Visit the Bead Jewelry Blog to get more bead jewelry ideas, news, trends, tutorials and beading business advice.

These are brief instructions on how to make fabric flowers but let me start by telling you how it all started.

Last December, my co-workers and I went to the mall to buy gifts for our significant others for Christmas. We all ended up buying fashionable pocketbooks from the same store. Personally, I wanted to make my wife’s pocketbook stand out from the others in some way and not look like all the others. I pondered over this for a few days afterwards, then I had a marvelous idea. Some of my wife’s favorite things are from the fabric store and the flower shop. Since I am an avid origami flowers buff making the usual paper origami flowers would be predictable, therefore that was the answer - Making fabric flowers.

My only worries were that I would not know where, or what materials I needed to make them, or even exactly how to make the flower since I had only been accustomed mainly to paper crafts, including paper flowers. To my relief, the needed materials were very easy to acquire at the local hobby shop.

The other thing I was worried about was the time it would take to make the fabric flower, since I didn’t know how long it would take to make and Christmas was quickly approaching. Not to mention messing up this new and expensive pocket book and whether or not my flower, even if created correctly, would look okay on it! Again, to my relief it was very inexpensive to buy all the supplies and once everything was acquired it took very little time to make it.

There are only a few items that are needed to make this fabric flower for your significant other, or even your mom or daughter. You will need some fabric, a little piece of felt, some thread (preferably of the same color), some fabric glue (this is optional), and a template (this is the pattern of your design that you trace on the fabric) which you can easily draw the outline for yourself, have someone do for you or find on the internet and print out. The only tools needed are scissors, needle, button (this is used to hide the stitches), and a pin back.

1. first step is use your scissors to cut out the number of flowers needed (indicated on the template) in your fabrics. Use the dotted line to cut into each flower.

2. Next, take the two large pattern flowers and stack them neatly on each other. Fold in half, then lay the smaller flowers on top of the larger flowers, overlapping them.

3. Then, use your needle and thread to make stitches in the center to hold all the petals together. Now, tie the button over the stitches with the remaining thread from the previous step.

4. Finally, cut off a round piece of the felt and secure the pin back on to the felt and then sew the felt to the center of the back of the flower.

You can use a dab of fabric glue behind the felt for more security.

I have to tell you that I stupidly tried making my first flower on the pocket book and I did mess up the fabric flower and then had to buy another pocket book. Ouch! I guess I was anxious to get it done on time and my better sense eluded me. I learned my lesson and I recommend you practice a bit on some paper or cheap cloth first. However, I ended up getting it right and it came out great.

After the holiday was over, my wife began showing off her new pocketbook with the cute fabric flower on the front of it. All her friends were in awe because they didn’t understand how I could have found the time and the patience to make the pocket book with the fabric flower and how different I had been from most in the originality of my gift. Unbeknownst to them, it took me about an hour to make it and a ten minute stop at the store to get the supplies. That was it!!!

I never thought that in a million years that this would be a hobby to recommend to others. I had grown fond of paper and origami crafts but never fabric in this sense. I admit that I was terribly mistaken.

Now I recommend this creative hobby to you or anyone that is asking for a fun and inexpensive way to express your creativity, not to mention impressing your wife and friends. Just don’t go starting out experimenting on expensive pocket books like I did!

In the next step you should not have to go to great lengths to learn How to Make Fabric Flowers or other kinds of flowers. No doubt you could also use visual help. Visit my friend Erich’s free site with images, instructions, videos & more plus this other #1 recommended resource How to Make Origami Flowers.

The delightful and relaxing hobby of making paper flower crafts will astonish your friends and new neighbors.

Last summer my sister and my brother in law along with their six old year daughter relocated to my town. They stayed with my wife and I until they found a suitable home for themselves. During this time, my niece began displaying a melancholy demeanor and began withdrawing from everything. We realized that she needed to make a few new friends because she was feeling lonely and like a stranger in this new environment and that would make her feel comfortable with this new environment.

Making paper flower crafts was a hobby of mine and when my niece took an interest in it also, it seemed to help cheer her up to a certain degree. On my street there are a couple of kids her age and I decided to talk with their parents and invite them over to meet my niece.

They all quickly became friendly when I got them to make some paper flower craft projects. The comradery that paper flower crafts has introduced helped my young niece settle into her new environment.

The following is our first project…

There are only a few supplies you might need to pick up at the hobby shop or craft store. First, is the tissue paper (crepe paper) and some colored sheets of cardboard paper. If you don’t have glue and colored markers at home, then you will need to also purchase them. Also, two pairs of scissors which is carried in any store(one small and one large pair). The last thing is a challenging, creative imagination that is willing to think up and create ideas. In a short period of time with no previous skill just about any image of a paper flower craft can be created.

Everything from three dimensional paper flower crafts that are placed anywhere and everywhere in viewing sight to single sheet cardboard cut-outs of flowers that are used for the trimming inside the house can be made with this hobby.

The pattern of a young child’s hand is one of my favorite paper flower crafts.

1. Trace the child’s hand on to a piece of cardboard.
2. Cut the tracing if their hand from the paper.
3. Use a pencil to curl the fingers.
4. Use the palm of the hand and make a cone (fingers should point outward).
5. Glue the paper flower hand on a straw or similar object.
6. Cut some leaf shapes out of the green paper and glue them along the sides of your straw. Do all the steps as many times as you want to create a flower bouquet.

This is a very fun and very inexpensive hobby that anybody at any age can do. A relaxing and habit forming way that people can express their artistic creativity to their friends, and possibly meet new people is with making paper flower crafts. People will comment on certain crafts that you have created and this will give you a feeling of gratitude and accomplishment. Whether your looking for a way to meet your new neighbor, or looking for a new relaxing hobby, making paper flower crafts is an excellent way to do it.

In Part Two you will continue to learn How to Make Paper Flower Crafts and other kinds of paper flowers. Undoubtedly you could also use visual help. Tommy invites you to visit this top rated site with images, instructions, videos and more, plus this #1 recommended resource for How to Make Origami Flowers

Paper quilling is the art of rolling, shaping, gluing and decorating strips of paper. This craft is also called paper filigree or simply quilling. You do need a tool called a quill to create the basic coiled shape to the paper. You then glue the paper at the top and shape the coils to form various designs, such as flowers, leaves and other different decorative designs.

This decorative method of using paper dates back to the Renaissance, when nuns used the coiled paper designs to decorate book covers, bookmarks and religious items. At this time the most commonly used type of paper was the gilded edges of the pages of books. The nuns coiled the small strips of these gilded edges to try to imitate the iron latticework of the time period. It was an art practiced by ladies in the 18th century and was one of the techniques that young girls of wealthy households were required to learn as part of their studies. The colonists brought the art with them when they emigrated to America. Most of the quilled paper designs that have been preserved are of religious artwork.

The art of quilling did die out for a time, but has recently become a very popular craft. This is because of the low cost of the paper supplies needed to make different designs to decorate invitations and boxes and especially pages of scrapbooks, with the increased interest in scrapbooking.

The tools you need to get started in quilling are very basic - strips of paper, something to wind the strips around and glue. The strips of paper can be cut in widths of 1/8 inch to I inch, but most people use 1/8 inch strips. You can choose the paper in whatever weight you want, but the standard is construction paper, which comes in a variety of colors. The winding tool can be a toothpick or a needle, but you can also visit a craft store to buy a specially designed quill.

Other tools that you need include sharp scissors for cutting the paper and a ruler to ensure that you cut all the strips the same size. You can cover a piece of corrugated cardboard with wax paper, rather than use the top of the table, This will keep the glue from getting onto the table. You should also have a damp cloth close at hand for wiping the glue off your fingers.

Some of the simple designs you can start out with include:
- A V-shape design which involves folding the strip of paper in half and rolling the ends of the outside of the paper around the quill. You have to roll the paper away from the inner crease.
- Feelers involve rolling only part of the strip of paper. You leave the rest of the strip straight. You can make this design by folding the strip in half or by using an infolded strip.
- Coiling the paper either loosely or very tightly around the quill can make a peacock eye. You can form a petal in the same way by bending the pinched part ot one side.

For more information on paper quilling, great paper quilling ideas, and lots of other paper filigree related articles visit http://www.MyPaperQuilling.com

Once you discover the art of paper quilling, you will realize the many different designs that you can create with this simple craft. Rolling small strips of paper around a toothpick can help you create designs for invitations, thank you cards, pages of your scrapbook or even small gifts you give to family and friends. Different flower designs are always popular paper quilling ideas, but you can use several different designs in each flower. You can make one petal at a time and arrange them around a central point or glue large petals on top of one another to give the impression of a flower that rises right off the background.

If you want to create quilled flowers with a difference, simple snip one edge of the paper strip before you start rolling. Roll the paper really tight will make fringed flowers. If you want to make a paper rose, you need to have a slotted quilling tool. First fit the end of the strip through the slot and wind it around the quill for a few turns to make the center of the rose. Then fold down the paper so that it is at right angles to the back. Continue rolling the strip making sure that you keep the bottom of rose in alignment and letting the edges splay away from the center of the rose. When you reach the end of each folded section, fold the paper again and continue rolling until you only have a small amount of paper remaining.

At this point you can releases the rose from the quill and although you let it relax, don’t let go of it completely. If you do the rose will unwind and you will have to start over. Push the center of the rose downwards until you can see the inside rolls of the paper. Now you can glue the paper in place. You will have a little bit of paper left over. Fold this over to cover the glued piece and hold it with your finger until the glue dries.

Flowers are not the only ideas you can use in paper quilling, although they are usually the designs you will begin with. You can also make animal designs using strips of paper, but the process is a little more complicated. To make a quilled mouse for example, you can use three different shapes and glue them together.

Craft stores have books about paper quilling filled with ideas you never thought possible. You can also find many free ideas when you search online. When you get used to paper quilling you can start creating your own designs. The easiest way to do this is to purchase a children’s coloring book of simple shapes. Color in the various pictures with different colors that represent the colored paper strips you intend to use.

For Easter, you can make chicks or eggs, for Christmas you can make wreaths or bows, and for Thanksgiving you can make vegetable designs or leaves in fall colors.

For more great paper quilling ideas, as well as information on how to quill and other topics related to paper filigree, visit http://www.MyPaperQuilling.com