Simple craft projects that are great for sharing on social media

Some of my favourite crafts are simple ones that don't need many materials, and it's even better if you don't need to go shopping and can use things that you already have at home. 

Today I'm sharing some of my favourite crafts that are great for beginners. They also look fantastic when shared on social media, or they can be used as a way to enhance your online content. You can find the tutorial for each craft by following the links below.

Felt heart bunting

Felt bunting is a great way to use up scraps of felt that you may have lying around from other projects, and it is so simple to make. All you need to do is cut out small hearts (or you can try different shapes like circles or stars) from colourful pieces of felt, then string them together. I used a sewing machine to connect the hearts, but you can make it even easier by just glueing them to a length of cord or ribbon. The bunting looks great strung up for a colourful background, or you can use it as decoration in the background of another craft post or image.

You can find the tutorial here - Simple felt heart bunting

Recycled book crafts

If you have any old or damaged books that are headed for the recycling bin, there are some lovely photogenic crafts that you can make with the pages. My favourite is making simple bookmarks, which are a great fit for pairing with book reviews, blog posts about reading or images of books.

See how I made them here - Bookmarks made from old book pages

Tin can lanterns from upcycled cans

All you need for this project are some old tin cans, a hammer and a nail. My tutorial below explains how to make punching the holes for the lantern really easy, and how to make them look cheerful even during the day with colourful beads around the rim. The lanterns look great when photographed at dusk or at night, and would be a great accessory for content related to outdoor parties or as a backdrop to lifestyle content.

The full instructions are here - How to make simple tin can lanterns

Fabric covered plant pots

These flowerpots are another great craft for using up scraps of fabric which you may have lying around. You can match the fabric to your home decor, and they look great in photos if you use bright, cheerful fabrics in a range of different designs and pots in a variety of sizes. They would brighten up images of a bookshelf or windowsill, and would work well with content about gardening or houseplant care.

Find details here - How to make fabric covered plant pots

Easy beaded bracelets

Stretch beaded bracelets are so easy to make, all you need is some stretch elastic, a selection of beads and some superglue to keep the knots secure. You can make bracelets for special occasions like a concert, and take colourful photos of your arm covered with bracelets as you sing along to your favourite group or singer. They can be made in different colours to reflect the changing seasons, or to co-ordinate with different outfits, making them a great accessory for outfit posts. You can also use them in flat lays. 

Here's how I made my ocean themed stretch beaded bracelets

All of these crafts are really fun and simple to make and they also look great if you are planning on sharing the results on your social media or as a part of your online content creation!

Simple Christmas felt garland craft

I love crafting with felt, it's so easy to work with and I love the soft texture and bright colours. This Christmas I made a really simple felt Christmas garland to add to my collection of homemade Christmas decorations.

I the same method that has worked well for two previous projects - my simple felt heart garland and my Halloween themed felt bunting. Using scraps of felt and a sewing machine it's a quick way to make some simple bunting that can be switched out according to season. 

This was a stash buster project for me, so I was limited by the felt colours in my stash. I've run out of red which is a bit of a disaster for Christmas crafting! But I had some pre-cut red circles left over from another project which worked perfectly, and I chose shapes based on the colours that I had available. 

I ended up with a red circle, a green Christmas tree, a golden bell and a brown gingerbread man, with each shape measuring around 4cm in height. I cut 10 of each shape and for this project I attempted to keep the shapes in the same pattern throughout. 

Tips for cutting out the shapes - I made a paper pattern for each shape which I pinned to the felt while cutting. Use small, sharp scissors, and don't worry too much about perfection!

When all the pieces are cut then I sewed them together. If you want to keep to an order make sure you know what you are doing, as once you start sewing it's easier if you can have the next one ready to go at all times. Before starting to sew, make sure to pull out a decent length of thread and then again at the end so that the felt garland will be easy to hang. 

Then just line up the shapes and sew them together! It's a bit of a fiddly job but it gets easier as you go along, I had several false starts! Just get the next piece ready to sew before you've finished the previous one, and squish them together a little bit as you sew each end.

The finished garland adds a lovely Christmas hint to the festive decorations, whether hung on the tree or elsewhere around the house!

My sea themed simple tote bag

It's definitely getting cooler now here as we head towards the end of the year, and I'm busy working my way through my list of ten craft projects to complete by Christmas.

Next up on my list was a sea themed fabric project. I bought some lovely fabric while I was in the US this summer, and I intentionally chose some that had a beach or ocean theme or was blue and green in colour. Most of the fabric in my stash was pink and flowery and so I wanted something a bit different. I wasn't sure what to make, but after searching for inspiration online I decided to try a simple tote bag.

From my new fabric I chose the blue camouflage, seahorses and turtles and different shells. I already had some fabric with anchors on which I knew would be perfect for the lining.

I searched for simple tutorials and found this one from Skip to my Lou - How to make a tote bag. It's an excellent tutorial for a simple lined and reversible tote bag and I found it pretty easy to follow. The only place I got a bit caught out was with the straps, I'm not very good at visualising how a pattern will come together, and it took me a while to work out how I needed to place them! Next time I would manage the placement a bit better with an extra twist.

And there will definitely be a next time because I was so pleased with how this turned out! I already have an order lined up for Mia, and I'm thinking about making a few smaller ones for some younger family members. It's gong to be a great way to work through some of my fabric stash!

Using up scraps of felt to make simple felt heart bunting

Recently I wrote about my fabric stash and my plans for fabric based crafting to work my way through some of it. What I didn't mention is that I also have a huge stash of felt. In 2014 I collaborated with Viking and I received 100 sheets of felt in a variety of colours, and although I gave some away to friends and family I still have loads. I also have felt which I've purchased for various projects over the years, and a large amount was made up of small leftover scraps which I couldn't bear to throw away.

So I decided to use some of these gorgeous colourful pieces of felt to make some simple felt heart bunting. I found several different tutorials online, but my favourite was this Easy DIY Felt Heart Garland. That garland uses a Cricut to cut out the felt hearts which would make the project much easier! I cut out my hearts by hand using a paper template.

The hearts are sewn together using a sewing machine. It's best to work from the dip at the top of the heart rather than the pointy end, and my hearts are placed very close together. Before starting this project it's a good idea to make sure that your sewing machine is well loaded up with thread - it looks much neater if you don't run out of thread halfway through. It's a bit fiddly at first but I soon got into the swing of it, and it didn't take long at all to sew the bunting together. I used mainly larger hearts with a few smaller ones mixed in.

I love that I had so much felt in such a beautiful selection of colours, I think it looks gorgeous!

I've hung the bunting across my mantlepiece for a beautiful summer decoration. I made enough to loop it across twice, and it mixes in well with the fairy lights that I string there year round.

This project didn't make much of a dent in my overall felt stash, but it did feel good to use up some of the smaller pieces, and it inspired me to come up with some other felt crafts.