Craft Article

Once you plan to make a Scrapbook you need to collect all the necessary items which will be very useful while making the same. Collecting all the items personally with great care will result in a beautiful Scrapbook which will be admired by everyone who sees that.

The things that you need would be pen or pencil, glue for sticking, protector, scale etc., the main thing that you need is the craft paper. The quality of craft paper that you choose will finally determine the quality of your scrap book. The paper that you choose for this purpose should be lignin free and should not have any dye and should have fast color. One more thing that you should look out for is Photo Activity Test (P.A.T.) paper.

The background of the paper, i.e. the design should be subtle so as to not clash with the design that you are planning on it. You may want to stick some stickers or design some pattern on it. Scrapbook is the memoir of your past, you are making a book which will enhance your past, keeping that in mind select paper.

Choose patterns:
The safest paper to select is the paper with a very general pattern. Normally we get paper with variety to design such as flowers, strips, dots. If you are planning for a variety then it is better to choose general patter paper. For portraying your holiday mood select paper with dots, as this type of design will go very well with festive occasions like Christmas. After paper selection comes the next step of designs. Think and plan out some ideas.
 
Die cuts:
Use die cut layers to shape your design. You can use punch machine to make some innovative design by making holes or use some scrap to make the border.

Pierce:
Try out piercing the paper, it is an adventurous. To complete the method make many layers like templates matching, trace it, and then cut, and later join all the layers together. Make some letters by using this method. Record dates, location, name and even time along with the mood at the time. Write this with colorful pens. All this make your scrapbook very attractive.

Categories your scrapbook by giving proper index, title page, comments etc. You can stick the photo and for the background can stick matching stickers. As an example, if you have a photograph in which your child is dancing, choose the frame with something matching to the theme.

Making Quilts is one thing but then decorating it to make it look presentable is another. After completing the quilt, making the border makes it look very beautiful. To make the quilt border, we need to take proper measurement.

Make Quilts borders:
Measure proposition of the quilt, leave about one fourth inch on all the four sides of the quilt. The margin of the borders should be ideally ten inches by thirty four inches. Include the one fourth inch to this margin. Cut the cloth as per the measurement of the quilt to make it into two different borders. A upper border and the lower border.

Leaving a space of one fourth inch for stitching increasing your measurement accordingly. Cut the cloth as per the new measurement. This type of the quilt that you are creating is known as framed quilt.

Spruce Borders:

To make your framed quilt look beautiful, it should be spruced nicely.
Starting at the crown of your quilt and working down to the middle, measure your quilt. You want the length dimensions. If your dimensions are 30 ½ inches, thus round it off to the nearest tenth, i.e. 30 to complete your calculations: You will need to insert ¼ inch into the seams and make room for your sides. Next, use measuring tape, or a ruler to measure your quilt. Measure from the alongside and factor in the dimensions of your borders. Now insert the ¼-inch seams to the sides.

After finishing the borders, you need to make some unique pattern. For this fold the strips of the border into half and put the pin in the middle. Do the same on all the sides. Use pins used specially for crafts. Once you have marked all the points, you can start stitching, but make sure that it is aligned properly to give that neat look. If done properly, you will find beautiful layers forming on your quilt.

Porcelain Dolls as the name suggests are the dolls made of ceramics or porcelain. You need to dress them up to look good. The small shoes, socks, dresses like skirts, pants, tops and gowns look good on them.

Most the stuff is available in the local craft shops but if you want your doll to look stylist and fashionable. You need to design the special clothes for them. For making the dress, you will need the material, maybe the material which is remaining from your last dress can also be used. The material can be colored fabric or the plain one. The material required will vary from doll to doll. The bigger your doll the more material you will require. For the undergarment, you will need a plain white cloth and in case if you to make an apron for her you will need to get a plain matching cloth.

The thread to stitch in similar color and the accessories as buttons, bows etc the color of the thread varies as per your requirement and as per the design you are creating on the dress. The shoes you can get at the craft shop or you can knit them with a different color, which will enhance its beauty.

Once all the material is in place, you will now need to stitch it, try to get two of each as you will be able to change the clothes and it will always look new. You can also make small caps and hats for your doll from the same material as the dress. Once you get the idea of dressing up a doll, you will innumerable ideas, which will make your doll a new one every time others see her. For the under clothes you can add lace or different types of stitches or crotchet the sides.
To make it easier to remove and put on the dress on the doll you can add Velcro to the side or stitch it will a button or you can make two side the back and the front separately and join it with a Velcro or buttons. To make the dress more pleasant you can embroider some flowers or birds on the front.

Once you will make a dress for the doll, you will love it and will want to experiment with different materials and different styles.

Are you interested in doing crafts? Crafts either needs colorful paper, threads or just ink. In this article, we will cover as to how to select the ink for our craft project.

The basic things should be gathered first, things like paper, photograph, accompaniments, glue. Next comes the ink to mark it on the book that you are decorating. The ink is needed for decorating of the photographs, writing comments, adding dates and such important information. The pens what we are using to write and decorate this should be the one that uses the ink which will last for long time.

Normally to give the borders to the photographs that you have stuck in your scrapbook, a black sketch pen is used. The pen that you can use is a Marker; this type of pen has a thin tip so you can get the neatness in the writing. Once you write on the photograph, you can also erase it by using a cloth piece. You can also use CK OK pens, which are recommended by the experts in craft.

CK OK pens have waterproof ink, which will not fade, it is non-toxic, very lightweight, it is odor less and considered an ideal for the craft projects. The pen should not bleed and it should have a license for Photo Activity Test seal.

After pen you need protectors which are incorporated with PVC which does not smell. Protectors are used to protect your craft book from dangerous elements. The protectors that you choose should help you in properly managing your photographs. These are the sheets of thin plastics.

The thin plastic sheet that you will select should be of polyethylene, polypropylene, or made of polyester. You should select colorless, clear plastic protectors with a P.A.T., seal.

So all set with the pens and protectors, now select paper. The best is cardstocks which is good for designing quality scrapbooks.

Crochet is an art, it is a learned skill but for this, one should have ability. Not everyone can learn this art, along with the formal technical training then a person should also have some basic instincts for this to create the artistic stuff.

To know about crochet, we will start with the ABC of it. Crochet has a list of glossary wherein first few letters are used to describe the full term. Some are listed below:

beg (Beginning)
bet (Between)
bk lp (Back loop)
ch (chain)
ch-(previous chain)
cont (Continue)
dc (double crochet)
dec (decreasing)
dtr (double/triple crochet)
ft lp (Front loop)
hdc (half-double crochet)
inc (Increasing)
lp (loops), and so on.

The special basic skill set that you need is to handle the hook, to work jointly, to stitch a chain, to slip a knot, and make a crochet in a single row.

Handle the hook:
This is the most basic thing to know before beginning crochet. To hold your hook you should practice by holding a pencil. In the hook, you have a place to rest the finger; you can use that space for your thumb to get the grip. 

Work jointly:
Once you get the grip of the crochet needle hook, start weaving the thread in such a way that your left side fingers can control and apply the pressure. Later your thumb and left fingers will start pressing the stitches that you are weaving.

Slip knot:
Start looping the thread but let go the loose ends, you will notice it will take the unique knot like shape. You need to pull the thread but not too tight.

Chain stitch:
For chain stitching which is the basic part of crochet, start with technique Yarn over (Yo)? This is a short-row toe method and the most preferred one. Crocheting done with this method looks nice and neat both from front and behind too. In addition, it is easy method too.

Crochet a single line:
Make a crown loop and then insert your hook at the chain and begin Yo method of crocheting. Pull the thread through the series to make two loops on the hook. Repeat this Yo method and pull the thread again to make two loops on the hook.

Once you pass with above-mentioned simple things, you will progress to double crochet, triple crochet, half-double, slip stitch, popcorn stitch etc. You will also learn new methods like back loops, chain space, to stitch in between and how to post.

Double stitch:
In this type of crochet technique, Yo step us used and then hook is inserted into the chain, which is away from the hook and Yo. Then pull the thread so that it passes through the chain and hook and three loops. Repeat this step and then pull the thread through two loops and so on.

Half double:
In this type Yo, method is used and the hook is inserted so as that it goes in the second chain from the hook. After that Yo and string your thread through the third loops.

Triple crochet:
Repeat Yo few number of times and then insert crochet hook on the fourth chain. Again Yo, extend the thread and pass it through the second loop of the hook thus finishing the third step.