Archive for the ‘ Crafts ’ Category

If you are not a painter or if you have never touched a paint brush in your life, then the very idea of face painting may intimidate you at first! Don’t worry there are books to guide you and if you start with beginners books you cannot go wrong.

The more you look the more you will realize how many easy face painting books are out there. When browsing you should pick a book that has more simple designs and keep practicing them. If you haven’t got anyone to paint then you can start by painting on paper or you could use your own hands or legs.

As your confidence grows by painting simple designs you can start to paint more difficult pieces. On a side note - always use FDA approved face paint to ensure the safety of your customer/child. Of course you will need to have the right tools for the job so, brushes and sponges are essential to complete designs properly. Once you have all of the tools and have made a start you will see that it is easy face painting.

Books will always have some easy face painting ideas for you to copy but knowing that boys and girls have different likes and dislikes will help you to have a wide range of designs to choose from. Boys prefer monsters of Spiderman designs whereas girls like princesses, flowers or bunnies.

Having an idea of how many children will attend the party will help you to make sure you have a wide range of designs for the kids to choose from.

To help you have an easy face painting session I recommend having all of the designs you can do out on display. This way, the kids can choose the design they want before they have even got to you. This will speed up the whole process and avoid the kids sitting in front of you struggling to decide what they want on their face.

Kelly Van Dorn is a well respected Face Painter and founder of Face-Painting-Designs.com. She has recently revamped her site and by popular demand has included an Easy Face Painting page which will be updated with hints, tips and tricks as often as possible. Go check out Kellys revamped site today.

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Rawhide dates from the early Americans. Rawhide usages include shields, drum heads, lace, lampshades, article of furniture, wraps, and a good deal more. Rawhide is really firm because it has not been tanned; it’s merely been de-haired and preserved. Soak it in body of water for shaping, cutting and shaping. It dries out, constrains and holds its shape.

Rawhide is often times and mistakenly called leather. Rawhide has been utilized for several different purposes for numerous years. Rawhide is arrived at by scraping the animal pelt thin, soaking it in lime, then stretching out it while it dries out.

Rawhide is stiffer and more brittle than other forms of leather, and is primarily found in uses such as drum heads or western furniture where it does not need to flex significantly. It is also cut up into strips for use in lacing or stitching, or for making many varieties of dog chews or bones.

Rawhide was used to make par fleches (envelope-like containers), moccasin soles and ropes. Rawhide is what you typically see on Native American drums, par fleches, etc. Rawhide is animal hide which has been dried by salting. Rawhide is used to make everything from clothing and personal items to building materials, furniture, and tools.

Rawhide makes up the unprocessed pelt of an animal that stays in its natural state. Various companies use rawhide to construct low-friction, high-impact, soft face hammers or mallets; this rawhide mallet is superior for tooling and stamping oak workmanship of leather.

Prepared rawhide can be purchased at some outstanding craft stores, leather distributors specifically Leather Unlimited and saddlery shops. Ready rawhide may include rawhide goatskin, rawhide pigskin, rawhide drum covers, rawhide lace, and many additional merchandises.

Making your own rawhide is much easier than tanning a hide for the novice, and quite inexpensive. Once this is done, turning a raw skin into rawhide is a fairly simple process. If you want to save it for later use, once the rawhide is dry, roll it gently and tie with a lace for storage. When you are ready to use the rawhide, soak it again in a five gallon bucket until it is soft again, usually about fifteen to twenty-four hours, depending on the thickness of the hide. If you soak a piece of rawhide, then something comes up and you aren’t ready to use it when you planned, you can keep it hydrated for a few days and it won’t hurt it as long as you change the water at least once a day, depending on the temperature. Rawhide is really just skin that has been dehaired, and it has many varied uses.

Opportunities to work on such crafts as drums, rawhide making, rawhide tanning, cradles, moccasins and many other fascinating primitive technologies are great craft projects. First it must be converted to “rawhide”. Once tanned, the rawhide achieves the soft substance of leather that we are familiar with. Dog chew toys are a good source of rawhide if you don’t need large pieces. Why do you think we call it “rawhide”. Rawhide is “raw” because it has not been tanned. Most of the leather we use today is tanned leather, but rawhide is still used to make many products even though it is not technically tanned.

Leather authority and Craftsman Ethan O. Tanner shares his knowledge about the many kinds of Leather the process ofrawhideand the numerous rawhide items made..

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Many people enjoy creating their craft projects these days because it’s a rewarding way to create something that’s decorative and sometimes useful. Most homemade craft projects are made with art materials bought from an art store, but many artists are looking at utilizing more re-purposed items to make new art. Jewelry makers have been putting together jewelry out of recycled materials for decades and that skill has now extended into other arts and crafts areas.

Creating a craft project out of recycled materials is usually a good way to reduce the overall cost to make any craft project. Many people are trying to be more “green” these days, so craft items created from junk materials is going to be popular if you sell your items at a craft show. Re-used materials used in clever ways is showing up in a lot of different areas these days, including in clothing, fashion accessories, purses and even in decorative wall art.

Lots of people now make fashion accessories from CDs and even bicycle chains. If you need ideas on what sort of re-used materials you can utilize you really don’t have to look any further than a local junk store. Consider reusable craft supplies like the leather found in old handbags, shoes and wallets that can be cut into thin strips and twisted into something new. Just about any item can be imaginatively used to make beaded jewelry.

When you are making crafts out of recycled supplies you will probably need to make sure the supplies are clean and safe. Be sure to scrub any possible grime off any item you take out of the trash. Some materials may need to be modified to make sure they do not have any sharp edges or could harm anyone.

Making art made out of junk could be your ticket to a more financially lucrative lifestyle. The next time you throw anything in the trash you might want to stop and think about what kind of craft item you could make out of it. By using trash to make art you will saving the environment and maybe starting a new artistic trend of your own!

Want to learn more about saving money on arts & crafts supplies? Visit our site to get all the latest arts and craft supply money-saving tips and tricks!

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