MichaelsCoupon.com

During the 1970s, literally everyone was wearing love beads. Long bead necklaces, earrings, wristlets, ankle bracelets – you name it! Fast forward: several decades later, beads are popular again. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of people who take beading as a hobby. It’s fun and inexpensive. It relaxes you, it gives you a sense of accomplishments, it makes a great gift to family and friends, and some even sell beaded stuff for supplemental income!

Michaels offers a variety of beading supplies for beginners and professionals. We are giving you a checklist of the basic tools and supplies that you need to get this new hobby started.

Beads

Beads come in a variety of forms – plastic, glass, wood, semi-precious stones, and hand painted beads. They also come in a variety of colors, shapes, sizes, and styles. You can find a wide selection of beads at Michaels. For the beginners, we recommend that you start with the simpler ones. Of course, it is recommended that you choose the ones in your favorite styles and colors. When you become an expert, it’s time to use the more fancy ones.

Findings

These are the jewelry clasps, clamps and closures. You can purchase the Petals a Plenty™ Findings from Michaels which contains a selection of must-have findings in coordinating antique brass.

Stringing Materials

Like beads, there is also a wide variety of beading strings that are available at Michaels. The Art-C™ Fiber, Wire & Cord Packs is a set of stringing materials which give you the flexibility to choose whichever is suitable to your project.

Tools

At the very least, make sure that you have the right tools for beading. This includes needle nosed-pliers, round-nosed pliers, wire cutter, and tweezers. While you may not need to buy everything at once, having the right tool will make your beading easier. The Bead Landing™ 4-Pc. Tool Set and Bead Organizer has all the basic tools that you need. The Bead Landing™ Starter Kit has more tools in it, you may want to consider getting that instead.

Beading for Kids

You can also do this hobby with your kids to keep them occupied or to spend quality time with them. There are beading kits that are suitable for kids like the American Girl Crafts™ Doll Accessory Party Activity Kit where little girls can make accessories for their dolls.

You love baking alright, but there are more ways to baking that make your goods more delicious and look pleasing. How do you do this? By decorating them! Here are some cake-decorating tips that will suit any season, holiday, or special occasions. The idea of decorating cakes is also about making it an unforgettable one.

Frosting Your Cake

Cool your cake before putting in frosting. Place a wax paper (or a parchment paper) around your cake plate to keep it clean. It will be easy to take it off after frosting.

With a serrated knife, cut off the mounded top of the cake and invert. Brush off excess crumbs with a paintbrush.

Frost your cake using a spatula – the one that is specifically made for frosting. You can get the Duff™ Small Angled Icing Spatula or Duff™ Straight Icing Spatula from Michaels.

To avoid getting crumbs in the frosting, use a lot of icing. Do not touch the cake with your spatula. The best way is to start from the middle and work the frosting outwards.

Once you’re done, allow the frosting to rest for a couple of minutes and smooth out the icing with a wax or parchment paper.

After icing the cake, let it rest at least 15 minutes. Smooth out the cake using parchment paper. Place the parchment paper on the cake and gently smooth out the icing.

Using Colored Icing

If you want to add color to your frosting, forget about the food coloring that you bought from the grocery store, it will make your icing look dull. Instead, use ones that emanates bright and bold colors and easy-to-blend colorings such as the Duff™ Electric Color Gels, available at Michaels. You can combine colors to create other colors – you will find the color wheel handy for this.

Themed Cakes

If you are celebrating a special occasion with a theme or if you are making a holiday cake, you can visit Michaels and you’ll find a wide variety of tools and embellishments for your theme from cute teddy bears, character cakes, to romantic-themed cakes.

Your family has a lot of cherished memories that are seen on your holiday, special occasion, and just about any family photo. What better way to showcase these special mementos by framing and displaying them at home. Here are three best styles to display your family photos.

Photo Frames in White

You’ve probably seen this idea a few times in magazines and other housekeeping Web sites. We love this idea because it gives your living room (or wherever you place it) a clean and calm appeal. Because you are sticking to the white theme, it’s okay to combine a variety of textures and sizes. The white scheme will unify what you might think seems to look like a clutter.

Talking about clutter, you might want to minimize the number of pictures to be framed. For a more personal touch, forget about the formal portraits – you want to be as fun and candid as possible. After all, it’s always amusing to talk about the happy memories together.

This concept works best in when you hang or display it on the entrance area so it becomes a great way to welcome your visitors.

Frames of Different Textures

We mentioned this earlier, but if you opt to not stick to a one-color theme, you can mix frames of different textures and materials – from fabric to metals. If you want to hang them, you can fit in a wall clock – it will look great and add more variety. You can also completely do away with the hanging, you can display picture frames between books in your book shelves – this is a neat way to make a divider between sections.

Antique Frames

You don’t need to find antique picture frames to do this. You just have to get some good finds when doing your shopping. For example, the Whitewashed Distressed Portrait Frames from Michaels will fit this theme. You can also check out the flea market. Again, you do not have to be match everything together because the antique theme will match everything well. You can try a mixture of shapes and sizes they are definitely going to work! What you want to make sure is that all the frames are coordinated.