Are You Crafty?

Flower arranging is a great hobby or pastime. Make your house much more inviting with beautiful flower arrangements that you personally arranged. This quick instructional video will show you how to pick the right flowers and arrange them accordingly.

Crocheting is a great pastime for the young and old. If you already know how to knit, then crocheting will be easy to learn. It is similar to knitting in that you pull yarn through loops using a crochet hook. Even if you have no knowledge of knitting it will still be easy to crochet. With some time and practice, you can learn to crochet anything. These are some basics to crocheting.

Crochet Materials

You will need to purchase a crochet hook. Just like knitting needles, they come in many different sizes and materials. Smaller crochet hooks yield finer crochet work. For beginners, it’s best to get a bigger crochet hook (15 to 19 mm) so that you can easily see what you are doing and fix mistakes as they come.
You also will need yarn. Yarn for knitting can be used for crocheting as well. The yarn label on the yarn will mention what size of crochet needle they recommend.

Differences To Knitting

• Crochet uses one hook while knitting uses two needles.
• When crocheting, you have only one active stitch on the hook while knitter has numerous stitches that are active at the same time.
• Crocheting a circular pattern is quite easy using a crochet hook. Knitting, however, requires circular knitting needles or a series of double-ended needles.
• Crocheting is used for joining fabrics together, much more frequently than knitting. in fact, crocheting is often used to finish a knitted sweater.

So go out today, get the basic materials and off you go. Start with something small to crochet like a pot holder and once you get the basics you can expand to something more elaborate.

Did you know that stamp collecting is one of the worlds most popular hobbies? Over 20 million people are stamp collectors in the U.S. People of ages from children to the elderly are enjoying the pleasures of stamp collecting.

You don’t need much to start collecting stamps. Just a book or stamp album to hold stamps and some exotic and unique stamps. It’s up to the collector to pick the ones they like. You can get your children involved as well by giving them their own book and taking them to a place to buy stamps. Make this a bonding experience with your child or children. Have fun and start today!

Scrapbooking is a pleasurable pastime and opportunity to spend quality time with your children. Building memory photo albums will be cherished for many years to come. Many people want to begin to scrapbook but find it overwhelming. There are many different books and paper to use and decorations to get. Where to begin? Before you begin your project, realize that this is your own personal book and you can put whatever designs you want with whatever material you so choose. I found an informative tutorial for scrapbooking for beginners. Take a look and begin today!.

Ever wanted to learn how to paint? Well, watercolor painting is a great beginner. Many local colleges, community centers and your local YMCA will have introductory classes for watercolor. There you can learn the basic techniques used like flash washing, graded washing, and using a dry brush technique. Before you begin you class, you need a basic list of watercolor supplies. Here are some essential supplies.

Source: Delilah Smith

• Paint Brushes – There are many sizes and qualities of paint brushes to purchase. When you are starting, it’s best not to purchase a highly expensive brush. You can get buy with an average priced brush. When testing watercolor brushes make sure they can hold their tip so that they can hold their color and they can be used to add detail. Make sure to buy your brushes for what you need them. For example, for larger pictures purchase larger brushes.
• Watercolor Paints – Get watercolor paints in a tub so that you can easily squeeze them into your palette. When you go to the art store, look around and pick the colors you see yourself using the most. Experiment a little and choose different brands of watercolor paints. Over time you can find one that you like the most.
• Watercolor Paper – It might be best, in the beginning, to purchase a heavy type paper such as a 300 lb watercolor paper. You can fix mistakes better and it can stand a lot of abuse. When choosing your paper you can get a hot pressed which looks smooth or a cold pressed which is a rough texture. Buy a piece of each and work with it to see which style you like better.
• Water Containers – You can keep your water in many containers but the best are probably yogurt containers or milk jugs. With the milk jugs, cut a large enough hole for your brushes. It can hold a lot of water and it’s clear so you can see with your water starts to get dirty.
• Miscellaneous Extras – Water coloring can be a bit messy so it’s best to have paper towels handy. It’s also handy to have a blow dryer so that you can quickly dry parts of your painting. Also get some painters tape to add depth to your painting. Finally, a pencil to draw your outline and a pencil sharpener to keep your pencils sharp.