Articles on Art Matters:

Arts & Crafts For Fun & Profits

Arts and Crafts are about making things with your own hands and using your own skills. An individual generally starts enjoying arts and crafts out of interest. Arts and Crafts projects can be used for decoration and help our environment by recycling of household items and extras. You can also make money by selling these items, both online and offline. This helps our world be a better place and helps earn money, also!

Crafts activities entail a combination of skill and talent that almost anyone can learn! Many community centers, schools and churches offer classes and workshops teaching basic craft skills. Most of these classes do not take long, are offered day and evening or weekends and can be fun.

Some of the basic techniques that can help in utilizing your skills in the area of arts and crafts will be detailed in my blog. The tips and tricks mentioned in the blog may help you to deploy household recyclables successfully and you can satisfy your creative quest without spending much money.

Start a Craft Group and Share Skills

In order to start the craftwork, you can join a community centre group or a workshop in your area or carry out the work collectively at some predefined place. In this way you will not only save the cost of commercial craft lessons but you will also benefit from each others talents. There are usually one or two members who can teach something new or are really good at a particular craft and can help those who are struggling with a concept or who simply cant do a certain aspect of the craft. You will find that the people who are interested are already enjoying some form of craft. There is a treasure trove of ideas and helpers available at workshops.

Various workshops provide free of cost training, free tea/coffee, cakes etc. along with all the material for the workshop. You can join them on an individual basis or you can make a craft group with a few interested people. You can have a wonderful day together and learn new skills.

Sources for Great Ideas:
I. If you find yourself short for the great ideas during craft work or for pursuing the art of craft, you may employ the Internet. You can use the Internet to get free card making, scrap booking and other craft ideas and templates.

II. Friends: turn out to be of great help and fun source of information sharing. If you happen to find that some materials are not needed on your project, you can exchange and share them among your peer group, you can also share your views and material with other people pursuing the same work by exchanging message boards on Internet scrapping sites. Its a great way to get some new tools without spending much money.

III. You can join a local crafts group for getting or sharing his or her ideas its indeed a great way to improve your skills. You can also make your own group, start by inviting three four people from your community and make new friends along the way! Making crafts can fascinate anyone with some amount of creativity.

IV. On weekends have a crop day or card making day; everyone can bring his or her gear and share.

V. Inexpensive craft equipment can be easily found on the various Internet auction sites. These types of sites are an excellent source for a wide range of inexpensive crafts accessories.

VI. There are many market places on the Internet, where you can sell your products. Using a search engine is a great way to find a place to sell your crafts.
VII. Operate a crafts consignment shop.

VIII. A sales agent for handicrafts could be a way to excel.
IX. Sell handicrafts at fairs and flea markets.

John Savage
23 Dec 2006

john savage has a most helpful Blog showing little known ways to cure Arthritis. Click Hereto visit

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Gel Candle Making Step By Step

Do you love burning beautiful, scented candles? And do you know that you can easily make them yourself? It is exciting and not at all difficult. Here are 12 easy steps to creating unique candles that you can burn at home, give as gifts, or even sell.

Materials for gel candle making

You will need:

- gel
- zinc wicks (cotton wicks can’t be used for gel
candles because they absorb too much gel)
- essential oil for fragrance
- liquid color dye
- embeds (optional)

All these materials can be obtained online from candle making suppliers. It is important to use essential oils and colors specially made for gel candles; fragrance oils you can buy in a cosmetic shop are not suitable. Also, you can buy a gel candle making kit. Getting a kit is the best solution for a beginner, because it will include everything you need to make your first few candles.

And of course you will need a container. The best container for a gel candle is glass, so people can see the embeds you put inside the candle, but any non-flammable container would do. You can use any glass, wine glass, or even a small wide vase, but your container should be at least 2 inches in diameter. Garage sales and second hand stores are gold mines, when it comes to candle containers.

For embeds you can use anything non-flammable - colored aquarium gravel, marbles, glitter, sand, sea shells, pebbles, crystals, polished stones, artificial jewels or pearls.

Steps to making a gel candle

1. Place a little bit of hot glue in the center of the container bottom. Stick the wick in it and let the glue set.

2. Cut the gel into small pieces so it melts faster and more evenly. Melt it in a stainless steel pot over a medium heat.

3. The trickiest part is the temperature - you should get it to exactly 200°F, because overheated gel looses its clarity. For that, you will need a suitable thermometer.

4. Maintain the temperature at 200°; all the gel should melt and become smooth, like syrup.

5. Add color dye to the melted gel, a little bit at a time, until you get the desired color - remember, you can always add more dye to make the color stronger, but you can’t take dye away. For a candle with embedded objects, you should use only a little color, so the objects remain visible

6. Add the fragrance - 1/3 teaspoon for each glass of melted gel will give it a nice scent. For a stronger scent, add a bit more fragrance.

7. Heat the container in the oven or microwave to about 150-160°F. This will help to reduce the appearance of bubbles

8. If you want to use embeds, dip them in hot gel first and then arrange them in the container as you like. It is better to keep the objects closer to the sides of the container - they will be easier to see, this way.

9. Now it is time to pour your gel into the container. Place your container on a level surface and pour the gel slowly and carefully down the side. If it is your first time, you will probably get a few bubbles; to avoid that, the gel should be still very hot.

10. Pull the wick up. Roll it on a pencil to keep it straight.

11. Let the candle cool. Trim the wick and you are done! You have a beautiful, unique gel candle, made by yourself.

Tanya Turner
26 Dec 2006

Tanya Turner is an eye health expert and a founder of Contact Lenses Consumer Guide where you can find reliable information about eye health and lasik surgery