August Craft Ideas

Craft Ideas for the Month of August

August Garden Journal Pages for Discbound Planners Like Happy Planner, Arc or Tul

Happy August, crafty friends!

Want to find inspiring summer craft ideas you can work on during the month of August? If so, I’m glad you’re here! This site offers you a broad variety of summer-friendly tutorials, patterns, ideas and inspiration for needlecrafts, paper crafts, and bunches of other crafts. Below, I’ve rounded up a bunch of project ideas and suggestions for August craft ideas you might like to consider attempting this month.

Planning Your Craft Projects (And Everything Else in Your Life!) This August

How do you like to spend your free time in the month of August?

Planning August Crafts and Activities: Pictured here, you can see my undecorated August monthly planner dashboard, the garden-themed Happy Planner stickers I am going to use for decorating it, and a bunch of books I am interested in reading this month (no, I will probably not have a chance to read them all…)

I suspect that the answer to this question will largely depend on where in the world you are located. Surely some of you who live in the United States will spend time on gardening (and garden crafts!) this month; but, for those of you who live along the Gulf Coast or in Central Texas, I’m guessing it’s too hot right now for y’all to grow much of anything.

If gardening is on your to-do list for the month, I invite you to check out some garden planner ideas HERE. If you’re flower gardening this month, be sure to dry and preserve some of your flowers to use in dried flower crafts.

Whether or not you’re gardening this August, you can grab a planner and use it to create a plan for how you’ll spend your time.

Daily Planner Layout Featuring a Page From the Girl With Goals Guided Journal

These days, planner crafts are a thing. Some people use planners in the traditional way, to keep track of their appointments and other obligations. Some people treat planning as a creative hobby, using stickers, hand lettering and / or stamped images to design planner pages (or bullet journal pages) that are both artistic and practical.

If you maintain a physical planner, junk journal, scrapbook, or art journal, you might want to decorate your August calendar pages, journal pages or scrapbooking layouts with seasonal stamped images or embellishments. I invite you to check out the following pages for ideas:

Garden Journal Pages: This page has information on how to put together August garden journal pages plus additional pages for the other months besides just August.
How to Create Your Own Planners and Calendars
How to Make Your Own Academic Planner: School Diary DIY Calendar Project Idea

Summer Craft Ideas

Summer 2024 is already in full swing. The first day of summer this year was Thursday, June 20, 2024. I hope your summer got off to a spectacular start.

If the craft project ideas mentioned above aren’t what you want to work on right now, I invite you to check out this list of summer craft project ideas to find even more inspiration.

Of course, if you are in Australia, you’re likelier to need winter project ideas right now, so I offer you this list of winter craft ideas instead.

If you have other suggestions to add to this list, I invite you to post a comment letting me and the other readers here know about them.

For even more ideas, you’re invited to check out our main index of craft project ideas. Happy crafting!!

By Amy Solovay

Decorate a Heart in Red, White and Blue for Fourth of July

Decorate a Heart in Red, White and Blue: This Version Features a Czech Glass Button as the Focal Point

Decorate a Heart in Red, White and Blue: This version of the heart incorporates crocheted lace trim with ribbon; faux flowers; and a sparkly dragonfly-shaped gem

There are zillions of different things you can do with crocheted heart shapes. A lot of times, people think of these as being Valentine’s Day craft projects; but the truth is, you can find suitable ways to use them for many other holidays — and for everyday, too.

Lets try decorating a crocheted heart shape with red, white and blue accents for Fourth of July.

Choose a Heart Shape to Crochet

Your first step is to choose a heart shape and crochet it in the yarn, thread or other material of your choice.

You can crochet a heart shape using this free crochet pattern; then decorate it in red, white and blue for Fourth of July (or in any colors, for any occasion).

I’m starting with this heart shape crocheted in red yarn; but there’s nothing particularly special about this design. If you want more options, there are many different heart designs you could crochet.

Choose Your Decorations

After you’ve made your heart shape, it’s time to grab some things to use for decorating it. How you decorate your heart depends, to some degree, on what you want to do with it. You could turn it into a wall hanging. Alternately, you could crochet two hearts and put them together to make a pouch. One of my readers crocheted two hearts and a strap, and she used those to make a purse. Those are just a few ideas.

I’ll probably use these hearts as wall hangings, so I still have some work to do to figure out how I want to hang them.

I like to use lace, trims and edgings on my hearts; so when I am decorating hearts, I usually start off by stitching a bit of lace or trim to the heart and then building up layers of decorations from there. One of my favorite trims for this purpose is this easy scalloped trim with ribbon. If that one isn’t what you want to use, you can check out this page of (mostly free) patterns for edgings, borders and trims to find bunches more suitable options — or take a look at our recommendations on the best crochet edging pattern books for even more ideas.

Decorate a Crocheted Heart Shape: Start by Embellishing With Lacy Trim

Next, you want to grab whatever other pretty baubles you have hanging around that could be used for heart decorations: crocheted flowers, silk flowers, buttons, beads and ribbons are all fair game. If you want to use crocheted flowers, check out these crochet flower patterns for some options for flowers you can make. If you want to use faux flowers, I recommend scrapbook.com as being a great source for pretty ones. Czech glass buttons are particularly pretty for this sort of project; Etsy is one of the best sources I know of for Czech glass buttons.

Choose some Czech glass buttons for decorating your heart shapes.

The last step is to do your finishing. How you approach that will depend on what your plans are for the project; but, in general, you’ll need to sew, glue or otherwise attach your embellishments to your heart. I like using a tapestry needle and thread to do this part, but you could also use a hot glue gun.

So there you have it: Those are some ideas for decorating a crocheted heart in red, white and blue for Fourth of July.

Happy Independence Day!

Related Resources

May Craft Ideas

Craft Ideas for the Month of May

Happy May, crafty friends!

If you’re in search of new and interesting spring-friendly craft ideas, you came to the right place; whether you’re hoping to find project instructions and ideas for needlecrafts, paper crafts, or some other sorts of crafts, you’ll find numerous patterns, tutorials, and project ideas for useful and creative things you could be making for yourself or a loved one. I’ve rounded up a bunch of project ideas and suggestions for May craft ideas you can use this month. If you have other suggestions to add to this list, I invite you to post a comment at the end letting me and the other readers here know about them.

May Holiday Crafts

Mother’s Day Crafts

Fabric Crochet Tote Bag: Free Crochet Pattern

Mother’s Day is coming up soon. This year, Mother’s Day will happen on Sunday, May 12, 2024. I have a huge list of Mother’s Day craft ideas you might want to check out if you’re interested in making a lovely gift for any of the maternal figures in your life.

International Scrapbooking Day

May 4, 2024 is International Scrapbooking Day. This holiday isn’t widely celebrated outside the crafting community – but if you’re a crafter, this is a day you won’t want to miss out on.

International Scrapbooking Day is a day of fun, camaraderie, contests, challenges, tutorials, demonstrations, and learning for paper crafters. Everyone is welcome to participate; even total beginners could join in the fun.

Many craft stores host online crops and events on this date (some of these events even go for the entire week or weekend surrounding the actual date of the holiday.) If you have a favorite place to shop for paper craft supplies, check out that store’s events calendar to see if they have anything fun planned that day.

If you don’t already have a favorite place to shop, you might want to check out A Cherry on Top’s forum because they host fun online crops for International Scrapbooking Day every year.

If you want to participate in any of the contests and challenges on this holiday, I recommend preparing for it in advance, especially if you do not already own any scrapbooking supplies. You’ll most likely want to print out some pictures to use for scrapbooking, and get yourself some adhesive, papers and embellishments. Be sure to peek at various stores’ events calendars a few days before the actual holiday to see when the festivities start and plan out how you want to use your time surrounding the holiday; there’s usually so much more to do than you can actually get done, so you have to prioritize.

May Planner Crafts

Garden Journal Pages for the Month of May

If you maintain a physical planner, junk journal, scrapbook, or art journal, you might want to decorate your May calendar pages, journal pages or scrapbooking layouts with seasonal stamped images or embellishments. I invite you to check out the following pages for ideas:

Garden Journal Pages: This page has information on how to put together May garden journal pages plus additional pages for the other months besides just May.
How to Create Your Own Planners and Calendars
How to Make Your Own Academic Planner: School Diary DIY Calendar Project Idea

Spring Craft Ideas

Spring has already sprung; the first day of spring this year was Tuesday, March 19, 2024. I hope your spring got off to a fantastic start.

Are you ready to get your spring cleaning on? If so, I offer you bunches of free patterns to use for making your cleaning supplies. Check out earth-friendly upcycled scrubbies HERE, and make yourself some irresistibly pretty spring dishcloths with these crochet dishcloth patterns.

The projects posted above are just a small sampling of the ideas posted on this website. I’ve put together a list of spring crafts that are seasonally appropriate for May crafting in many regions of the Western hemisphere. Of course, if you are in Australia, you’re likelier to need autumn project ideas right now, so I offer you this list of fall craft ideas instead.

For even more ideas, you’re invited to check out our main index of craft project ideas. Happy crafting!!

By Amy Solovay

April 21st Daily Planner Layout for Happy Planner or Other Discbound Planners

Daily Happy Planner Layout for April 21, 2024 Featuring Stamped Images by Graphic 45, Echo Park, Lawn Fawn and Others

Need ideas for daily planner layouts to use in the month of April? This page gives you an idea of a page layout you could make if you have a need for writing down multiple to-do-list items and reminders that can’t all easily just be lumped into one long list. If you want to break out your to-do list into different sections and label each of them with headers to keep you on track, this is one possible approach you could take for accomplishing that goal.

I made this daily planner layout for April 21st, but there is no special reason for using it on that particular day. You can make a planner layout like this one for any day of any month.

I try to spend about 15 minutes each day production stamping multiples of different images that I can use in my planner layouts and scrapbook pages. If I didn’t do that, putting together a stamping-intensive planner layout like this one would be really challenging. There is a LOT of stamping on this page!

I stamped most of these images ink blended cardstock, then used a stencil to draw around them with a Gelly Roll or other colored pen, and then fussy cut them out straight or scalloped scissors.

Craft Supplies You’ll Need for Creating a Similar Daily Planner Layout:

Planner Stamps: You’ll need a variety of planner stamps and assorted other stamps to make this planner layout. I used the Milo’s ABCs stamp set by Lawn Fawn; the “Plan on It” stamp set by Lawn Fawn; the “Seek Out Adventure” stamp set from the “Let’s Go Camping” collection by Echo Park Paper Company; and Graphic 45’s Calendar Stamp Set. The stamp with the crochet hook and yarn is by Simon Says Stamp. The stamp with the laundry suds is from the “Loads of Fun” stamp set by Lawn Fawn. A few of the word stamps are by My Favorite Things and Waffle Flower Crafts.
Ink Pads and Reinkers: I used ink pads to do the stamping and reinkers to do the ink blending techniques used on this planner page. Ink colors I used on this page are as follows: Catherine Pooler’s Premium Ink in the Uptown color; Tim Holtz / Ranger Industries Distress Oxide in Dusty Concord, Salvaged Patina, Stormy Sky, Bundled Sage, and Rustic Wilderness.
Cutting Dies: The scalloped lace at the top is die cut using a die from the Lacey Edgers set by Pinkfresh Studio.
Scraps of Patterned Paper: I used scraps of patterned paper from the Ephemera Queen collection by Graphic 45; this can be seen under the dated image and in the scalloped frame in the middle of the page at the lower edge of the planner layout.
Washi Tape: I used a strip of glittery, sparkly washi tape by Graphic 45 close to the discbound edge of this planner layout. This is prettier in person; the Graphic 45 washi tape is really sparkly, but the sparkle doesn’t show up that well in my photo.

So there you have it: That’s one possible way to make a daily planner layout for April 21st or whatever day your calendar says it is when you happen to find this page.

Thanks so much for taking a look at my project! I really appreciate your interest. Happy planning!

Posted By: Amy Solovay

Bead Crafts for Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day is coming up soon. This year, in the USA, Mother’s Day will occur on Sunday, May 12, 2024. As of right now, you still have plenty of time to make or buy Mother’s Day cards and gifts for all the mother figures in your life.

If you love and adore making pretty things for the people you love, there are zillions of possible things you could make for your mom, grandmas, mother-in-law and / or stepmom. If you aren’t sure what to make, bead crafts offer you a fantastic starting point to consider because beads are beautiful, popular, readily available, reasonably affordable and really easy to work with.

If your mom and other gift recipients enjoy wearing jewelry, there are many pretty beaded baubles you could be making for them.

Furthermore, if you wear beaded jewelry yourself, and you’re taking any of the moms in your life out to Mother’s Day breakfast, lunch, brunch or dinner, you might also want to make something pretty for yourself to wear when you go out. Why not?

Beautiful Beaded Jewelry for Mother’s Day

Beaded Lace Crochet Choker Necklace Pattern

This pretty beaded choker is easy and inexpensive to make, but it turns out stunning if you do a careful job of crocheting it. It’s also really easy to personalize, because you can easily make it exactly the right length for its intended wearer. Beyond that, you can choose just about any color and shape of small beads for embellishing it, and pretty much any fine yarn or crochet thread for working it. The crochet pattern for making it is available on this website for free, and the materials for making it can be reasonably affordable if you choose inexpensive beads, crochet thread and findings; it’s also possible to splurge on precious metals and other exquisite materials to make the finished project truly, luxuriously spectacular. So if you’re thinking of making a choker-style necklace for your mom, this one gets my vote as one that’s ideal for most crafters to try. You can get the free crochet choker pattern HERE.

The only exception: This really isn’t a fantastic choice if you’ve never crocheted anything before, ever; in that case, I recommend taking a look at this list of crochet projects for total beginners and choosing an item from that list to make first. Then after you’ve made an item or two to get comfortable with crocheting, you’d be better equipped to succeed at making this project. But if you’ve already made a few crochet projects before, I’m positive that you could handle making this beaded choker necklace easily.

If you want to find more ideas for pretty beaded jewelry you could make for Mother’s Day, check out this list of jewelry making ideas and this list of crochet bracelets HERE.

Beaded Gadget Cozy

Beaded Crochet Gadget Cozy: Free Crochet Pattern

If your mom carries a cell phone, camera, or other similar small gadget, this pretty beaded gadget cozy might be a useful gift for her. Alternatively, this little pouch could be a pretty way to giftwrap a small gift.

These ideas only just scratch the surface of what is possible to make for Mother’s Day using beads. Want even more ideas? Check these out:

Learn all about bead crochet, and find more bead crochet project ideas, HERE.
Get crochet patterns for making spectacular beaded trims and edgings HERE.
If you’re cooking for mom at home, you can make gorgeous beaded napkin rings to use for setting your Mother’s Day table. Free patterns are HERE.
Find even more Mother’s Day craft ideas HERE.