Making Money | The Blog Scope

39 Easy Crafts You Can Make and Sell

by Hannah Sims | Oct 9, 2018 | Creativity, Inspiration, Making Money, Tutorials

Have you ever wondered how a person learned to make or do something? I always marvel at the things people can craft and want to know how they did it. With this huge compilation of tutorials, you also can learn how to make amazing products to sell online, at craft shows, or anywhere else!

I had some basic criteria for choosing the tutorials in this post.

1. Every tutorial had to be beginner friendly. Even a “non-crafty” person could make these!
2. Every craft had to turn out looking stellar. No Becky Home-Ecky crafts here!

I also conveniently organized the tutorials by category—candles, coasters, cups & mugs, decor, dishes & planters, ornaments, printables, and soaps & beauty. If one category interests you more than the others, feel free to skip down to that section.

For more great craft and design tutorials, follow me on Pinterest. And don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter below!

All images link directly back to the original tutorial. Links can also be found in each individual caption.

For more posts on how to make money, check out these!

Creative Ways to Make Money with Doodles

How to Make $20+ an Hour Online

10 Real Ways to Make Extra Cash Quick

Candles

1) This make and sell craft is great because you can always find cast off, low price teacups at thrift stores and yard sales.

2) These would be great to make for wedding decorations!

3) A unique and glitzy take on a poured candle.

4) A classic. Will mason jars ever go out of style?

Coasters

5) These coasters certainly have a wow factor!

6) These end up with a watercolor look to them, which is very on trend.

7) These coasters are so bright and modern!

8) I’m all for cheap, dollar store materials getting turned into a fancy, resellable craft!

9) You’ll never get the same coaster twice with this tutorial, which is part of the handmade appeal!

Cups and Mugs

10) As with most handmade mugs and cups, be sure to note that these are hand wash only!

11) You could do so many cute geometric designs with this.

12) Who isn’t obsessed with rose gold?

13) Seriously crazy easy with beautiful results.

Decor

14) Vases as bright as the flowers in them! You could create themed collections and sell them in sets.

15) Super cute and beginner seamstress friendly. Win-win.

16) This wreath is rustic and almost free to make. I think it would look great on a wall, too!

17) I love these little garlands around the holidays. You can dress up a mini tree or string them up around your kitchen.

18) You could use the tutorial to make any variety of shapes. A great way to use up old corks!

19) These canvases are so easy and very striking. You could make a variety of sizes and colors to match anyone’s decor!

20) My own wreath tutorial is easy and produces beautiful results, I believe. But don’t just take my word for it! Give it a try.

Dishes and planters

21) You won’t believe you actually made these once you’re through. They are so easy but turn out so adorable!

22) So many possibilities with these.

23) I had a friend once who told me, “Everything is cuter when it’s tiny.” These mini planters prove her point.

24) Some more bright vases using very basic items!

Ornaments

25) Christmas really is coming up fast. Now is the perfect time to start planning and offering Christmas ornaments!

26) These also make simply lovely gift tags.

27) These would be really sweet to market for teachers’ Christmas gifts!

28) Another craft with lots of room for personalization!

29) I love that these look both classic and updated.

30) You could even add an initial on the front after creating a custom color ornament!

Printables

31) Printables are great because you only have to make it once and you don’t have to worry about shipping! Michelle’s tips give good advice for the design of your printables.

32) Ok, so this one is not a tutorial as much as helping you sell the printables you’ve made!

Bonus: Check out these tutorials to make some gorgeous graphics for your printables!

How to Make a Watercolor Background

How to Make a Beautiful Background on your phone

Soap and Beauty

33) These gorgeous soaps from A Beautiful Mess are sure to catch your eye!

34) “Lemon and pepper” just sounds so grown up and sophisticated, doesn’t it?

35) This adorable sugar scrub is a grown up spin on the sand art you made in preschool.

36) The beauty of lip balm is that you can customize it with your own choice of safe, wholesome ingredients! So important for something that will be right on your mouth.

37) These are some seriously cute, juicy looking soaps. And they use melt and pour base!

38) Bath salts and unicorns are so trendy right now. Jump right on that with these fizzy bath salts. Give the people what they want!

39) Forget scary lye and hot process/cold process. This tutorial shows you how to repurpose already made bars. You can then add your favorite scents and flavors (Tea! Essential oils!)

That should give you plenty of scope for imagination and inspiration to get your creative gears wound up! Subscribe to the newsletter for more great information and freebies, and follow me on Pinterest for a continual stream of great inspiration!

How to Make $20+ an Hour Online

by Hannah Sims | Oct 4, 2018 | Inspiration, Making Money

I know I’ve spent a lot of time following links from Google and Pinterest promising me ways to make money online that end up being absolutely worthless. They don’t give enough information, are outdated, require way too much work for the return (I’m looking at you, survey sites), and on and on. This is not one of those posts! I currently work as an independent contractor for 2 companies that pay me $20 or more per hour. Let me tell you how!

how to make $20 an hour as an independent contractor

You may or may not be familiar with online ESL companies. There is a big trend in China and many other Eastern countries to hire North American teachers to teach their children English. Most Chinese children learn English in school but from Chinese teachers, so they often speak English with a strong accent and not always with correct grammar. With how difficult the transition from Chinese to English is (and vice versa!), it is totally understandable. But, since the goal for many of these children is to study in America or work for American and international companies, speaking English without an accent is desirable.

That’s where you come in! You can be hired to teach ESL to children in China (and, depending on the company, other countries in Asia). There are a few basic requirements.

You do NOT have to have a degree in teaching or education,
You do NOT have to have previous ESL experience or certification,
You do NOT have to have a special teaching or ESL license.

You DO have to:

Be a native, North American English speaker
Have a bachelor’s degree (in any field)
Have some sort of experience teaching children (can be as basic as babysitting or leading a Bible study).

There are dozens of companies out there. If you use my referral link, I will get a one time bonus and will guide you through the entire process! The two companies that I can personally recommend are:

VIPKID

VIPKID is the big name company in this field. It has been very successful and has thousands of teachers and students. Pay is per 25 minute class and you will be offered a base pay between $7-10 a class during your interview. You can also earn up to $2 more PER CLASS if you 1) show up to class on time =$1 (easy!) and 2) teach more than 45 classes a month =$1. This brings up your potential HOURLY pay to $18-24 per hour.

You are free to set your schedule how you want. All lesson plans are provided by the company. Parents book for their children. You might open slots that do not get filled (some teachers struggle more with this than others). Peak class times are from 6am-8am CST. You can open slots anywhere from 7:30pm-8:30am CST.

GogoKid

GogoKid is a very new company on the online ESL field. A big draw of GogoKid is that teachers have generally been offered higher pay than at VIPKID. GogoKid is also currently offering a $300 bonus to new teachers who complete 3 classes in their first month. Base pay is the same, but you are more likely to be offered more than at VIPKID. There is also a credit system that can bump up your pay up to 1.25x your base pay.

I think GogoKid’s interface is nicer looking than VIPKID’s and their lessons look more modern. That being said, it is a startup and has had some growing pains. I would recommend GogoKid for a seasoned teacher or someone who is able to roll with the punches and not get extremely worked up about slow communication and policy changes. The benefit, though, is that you would be entering into a much newer company with fewer teachers, which is why I chose to join.

make $20 an hour as an independent contractor from home

If you are reading this and thinking, “This sounds great, but I’m not a teacher!” do not worry! I have heard from MANY brick and mortar teachers that the skills they use in the classroom are NOT the same skills that are required to teach one on one English classes. My degree is not in teaching and I have no formal classroom experience, but I have excellent feedback from parents. With VIPKID in particular, there is plenty of support and training to assist you in teaching. And, like I mentioned before, you are not creating lesson content. You just teach the material that is given to you.

If neither of these companies sound like a fit for you, there are dozens of others that I could suggest though not recommend from personal experience (I was hired with a third company but haven’t moved forward with it because I’ve been busy with my 2 current companies).

Honestly, I am passionate about helping people find ways to make money at home, so I would be more than happy to help you find the company that is right for you! If you do want to apply for GogoKid or VIPKID, I would be honored and thrilled if you used my referral links. Let me know before you apply so that I can offer you personalized assistance with your application, getting through the interview process, and getting hired! You can contact me by leaving a comment, using the contact form, or DM on Instagram. Instagram is the fastest way to get in touch with me because I’ll receive an instant notification.

I hope this post was helpful to you! Sign up for emails below to receive more money making tips and creative inspiration.

You also may be interested in this post for creative ways to make money with your art!

3 Easy Steps to a Modern Hoop Wreath

by Hannah Sims | Sep 12, 2018 | Creativity, Inspiration, Making Money, Tutorials

It seems like every spring and fall bring a flood of gorgeous wreaths into my Pinterest feed. Nothing shouts “It’s a new season!” like beautiful new decor around your house and front door. If you’ve ever searched for wreaths at the store or online, you probably suffered sticker shock when you first realized how expensive they are! My natural inclination in response to that is to figure out how to make one myself.

A Gorgeous Modern Hoop Wreath

In today’s tutorial, I will show you how to make a lovely, modern floral hoop wreath and I will give you a price breakdown of materials. A floral wreath is also an excellent addition to your Etsy shop and it looks stunning in craft booths, so I will also offer pricing suggestions to help you get started on selling your own wreaths.

A Gorgeous Modern Hoop Wreath

Now for materials! I purchased all of my materials in store at Michaels.

• 14 inch wire hoop

• Assorted flower bunches

• Greenery

• Floral tape

• Glue gun

• Glue sticks

I purchased one bunch of mums and one small, pre-made bouquet that I then took apart. I suggest purchasing flowers when they are on sale, so make sure to keep an eye on that before you purchase! I went when there was a 40% off on fall flowers sale.

A Gorgeous Modern Hoop Wreath

Instructions:

Heat your glue gun up so it is ready when you are. Loosely lay your greenery and flowers around and decide on a rough arrangement of what you want.
Start taping down your greenery. I cut the largest branches off of my bunch and taped them down. Make sure to hide the tape under other leaves if it will not be covered by flowers later on.
Once you have the leaves to your liking, move on to the flowers! Cut the flower heads off of their stems. Apply them to the wreath with the glue gun. If the flower was going in a tricky place, I put a small dot of glue just to secure the flower and then flipped the wreath over so I could see better where to add more glue. I worked from the center of my flower bunch outward. I also spaced my flowers very close together to make my wreath more lush.

A Gorgeous Modern Hoop Wreath

When you have enough flowers on the wreath, you’re done! I decided to add a ribbon from my stash to the top, but it’s not at all necessary. Hang your wreath and marvel at its beauty!

A Gorgeous Modern Hoop Wreath

If you love arranging flowers and matching unique color schemes together, then perhaps wreath making would be a great source of side income for you. Wreaths of this style sell for $45-55 on Etsy, and at Michaels I saw wreaths selling for $60-80. With tax, my total for this project was $21.21 (I did not count the glue gun and glue stick as those are reusable, general craft items). I also have enough flowers left over for another wreath, which would lower my cost per wreath. The wreath took very little time to put together, so you could potentially net $24-34 per wreath.

Another place to find great wreath materials is Afloral. They have hoops in gold, which I love! Their flowers are more costly but are beautiful and very high quality.

A Gorgeous Modern Hoop Wreath

And that’s the end of this tutorial! I’d love to see your creations—tag @hannah_lynne on instagram! Follow me on Pinterest for plenty of inspiration and don’t forget to subscribe below for the latest content!

Make an Easy Watercolor Background on Your iPad or iPhone

by Hannah Sims | Sep 7, 2018 | Creativity, Inspiration, Making Money, Tutorials, Watercolor

Watercolor backgrounds are a great design element, but you have to have a bit of time and equipment to make them. I found myself wanting some backgrounds in new colors but never having time to get around to creating some. Then, I discovered a way to quickly produce already digitized, transparent watercolor backgrounds! This is a huge timesaver and I will show you exactly how to do it.

In my previous posts, I shared how to make a watercolor background and remove the background in photoshop. To make these quick digital backgrounds, all you’ll need is the free app Adobe Sketch. Then, follow along with the video to create your background!

I also included a quick tutorial to show you how to use this background in Procreate or Photoshop. By using blending modes, you can put your watercolor background in almost anything. This is a great way to make printables and digital downloads that you could sell on Etsy or your website.

Instructions: Download the app “Adobe Sketch” on your iPhone or iPad. You will need to login or create a free Adobe ID. Choose your canvas size and then choose the “watercolor flat brush.” Make your brush pretty big and select your color. Start laying down strokes of your color. You can adjust how saturated the color is by adjusting the “flow.” You’ll notice that the strokes mix and blend as you paint.

Choose different shades and variations of the color you’ve chosen for your background. Blend these shades together by adding small strokes of different shades. When in doubt, keep blending! When you are happy with how the background looks, click the share button. You can send it in layers to your Adobe creative suite if you are a subscriber, or you can share or save your image.

If you want to put your watercolor background into lettering, import the photo into Procreate or Photoshop. Set the blend mode to “Lighten.” Add a layer beneath your watercolor background layer. Anything that you draw or type on this layer in black will reveal the watercolor texture beneath!

How to Make a Watercolor Background on your iPad or iPhone

So there you have it! I promise I won’t always talk about watercolors, but this one is so easy and produces lovely results. Now, you can experiment with different colors and make backgrounds to your heart’s content. These will not look quite as organic as the real thing, but you can still get really beautiful results without photoshop, a scanner, or any actual paint. Plus, since it’s an app on your phone or tablet, you can make backgrounds anywhere and anytime!

Even if you don’t have an iPhone or iPad, you can STILL grab four free backgrounds that I’ve made. Just sign up below and you’ll be able to download the backgrounds instantly.

I’d love to see your creations. Tag me on instagram @hannah_lynne and follow me on Pinterest for more design tutorials!

Creative Ways to Make Money with Doodles

by Hannah Sims | Aug 18, 2018 | Creativity, Inspiration, Making Money

Have you ever wondered how you might monetize your creative pursuits? The internet has provided endless ways to connect, share, sell, and buy. This is great news for budding creatives! Sure, you could just sell original pieces, but technology and the web have provided dozens of fun ways to produce and sell your artwork. Read on for some ways you can use digital versions of your art to make some cash!

Creative ways to make money with doodles

Digitizing your art really opens up your possibilities. With a digital copy, you can produce an endless supply of your artwork and put it on a variety of products or prints. This is a good blog post on the subject, or here is a Skillshare class with a few different methods.

Create vectors with your literal doodles! These can be packaged into a collection and sold on your website or a website like Etsy. Here is one class to explain the process to you. Here’s another one.
Love to make cute little watercolor animals, fruits, flowers, or other illustrations? Try creating downloadable sticker packs or clip art with a collection or your work!

Creative ways to make money with doodles

If you love doing line art, try your hand at making some intricate adult coloring pages for download. Mandalas and botanical scenes seem to be pretty popular!
Use a service like RedBubble, Printful, or Society 6 to add your artwork to shirts, phone cases, pillows, hats, and more. With RedBubble and Society 6, your items can be found by users on these sites. With Printful, you list the products in your own shop and connect to Printful. RedBubble also allows you to add their products into your personal shop.
Are you great at arranging repeating patterns? Put your artwork onto fabric using Spoonflower.
Are you a whiz at creating interesting textures and backgrounds in Procreate, Photoshop, or Illustrator? Package some backgrounds together and sell them as stock images or digital scrapbook papers.
Do you love to create hand-lettered phrases? Try putting your witty sayings on mugs, shirts, or wall art using Printful! Watch this Skillshare class for some in depth info on using this process with Etsy.

None of these are get rich quick schemes, but they can add some extra money each month and give you reasons to make something that you love!

I would love to know if you’ve tried any of these ways to make some money with your art. Comment below!

10 Real Ways to Make Extra Cash Quick

by Hannah Sims | Aug 1, 2018 | Making Money

Dave Ramsey, well known radio personality and financial advisor, is a proponent of the “debt snowball,” where you pay off debts from smallest to largest. As you knock out smaller debts, you can add those payments to the larger debts. I love this idea of starting small, getting quick results, and then using that to fuel bigger things. I like to think about making money this way as well, like a money making snowball. Creative pursuits and businesses take money to get going—you’ve got to purchase supplies, perhaps some classes to increase knowledge, websites or hosting to sell your goods, and more. So if money is tight already, what can you do to be able to afford the basics to get your creative business going or just fund your hobbies in general? Here is a list I’ve compiled of quick, simple things you can do to earn some extra money, which you can then put towards other pursuits to earn more income.

These are my personal favorites that I use and recommend:

1) VoxPopMe

App | 1-2 minutes | $15-50 / month | $15 to cash out | PayPal

This is an app that you download on your phone. It gives you questions and you respond by video survey. Most questions pay around $0.50, but only take 1-2 minutes to complete. If you diligently answer the questions, you can become eligible for higher paying surveys. For example, I got a survey where I went into Target and made three 1 minute videos of me talking about the products I saw on a particular aisle. This survey paid $30. You can cash out at $15 and the app deposits directly into your bank account. It only takes about 1 business day or less for me to receive my funds after cashing out.

2) Usertesting

Website and app | 15-20 minutes | $20-100+ / month | 7 day payout | PayPal

Usertesting is a website that lets you test websites and give feedback. There is also an app to test websites on your phone as well. Tests take about 15 minutes to complete and pay $10 each. You must think aloud as you complete the tests and your voice and computer screen are recorded and submitted. Tests are first come, first serve, and sometimes have very specific criteria that you must meet in order to test. Payout is exactly 7 days after testing to your Paypal account. There are also often surveys that determine your eligibility for moderated studies, which are longer, but have a much bigger payout. I have yet to qualify for one of these. They pay $60-90 for 1 hour’s worth of time.

3) Swagbucks

Website and app | 1 hour + | $50-150 / month | $3 for gift cards, $25 for PayPal

Swagbucks has been around for a while, but I hadn’t really heard great things about it until recently. It’s not my favorite way to earn but some people love it. I was able to earn just over $160 in 1 month (but had to spend about $25). You can earn several different ways with Swagbucks. There are rebates where if you spend a certain amount on a website, you’ll get money back. There are also surveys that you can fill out. Most of these are terribly low paying (like $1.00 for a 20 minute survey), but if you fill out some surveys you’ll have opportunities to take higher paying surveys. After just a couple of weeks of trying Swagbucks, I got a survey where I had to watch the Grammys and note which advertisements stood out to me. I received $60 for this survey. Even so, I found that I was having to spend a lot of time hunting down deals and offers and then making sure my credits were awarded correctly. As I said before though, some people love the format and make $50-200 a month using Swagbucks.

4) Ibotta

App | 10 minutes | variable | $20 to cash out | PayPal, Venmo, Amazon

Ibotta is a little different from the other apps and websites mentioned here as it is only a cash back app. However, you can get cash back on things you normally buy, so it’s worth mentioning. You download the app, find rebates on groceries and other items, and upload your receipt to get credit for the rebates. It’s very easy and rewards can rack up quickly. There are also several cash out options once you reach $20.

5) VIPKID

Website | 30 minutes / class | $15-20/hour | Payout is 1 / month | Direct deposit

Right now, my highest paying side hustle is with VIPKID. I was hired in April 2017. When I started, I taught 25 (30 minute) classes a week and made around $1000 a month. Since I had my second child, I’ve just been doing about 16 classes a week (2 hours/4 days a week) and getting around $500 a month. I really love this company and it’s helped my family out a lot, so if you’re interested in it you can reach out to me via my contact form and I will give you more information and help you get hired. A bachelor’s degree is required (but it does not have to be a teaching degree—I do not have a teaching degree and have never taught in a brick and mortar school).

Now, for some opportunities recommended to me by friends:

Cambly – $10/hour, no degree or experience required. Take phone calls from people all over the world wanting to speak to a native English speaker!
MagicEars – $22/hour advertised, degree required, experience preferred. A competitor to VIPKID.
Leapforce – $13+/hour, no experience required. It seems that when you become an agent for Leapforce, you sign nondisclosure forms, so what you do and how much you can make is a little hazy. However, it has to do with search engine evaluation. Read more on their website.
Outschool – On Outschool, you create and list a class which you teach live to the children who sign up for your class. You receive 70% of the payment for the class, while Outschool takes 30% as your listing fee. No degree or experience is required and you get to choose your topic.
Etsy + Printful – If you create an Etsy shop account, you can link it to Printful, populate it with items that are sold and fulfilled by Printful (but designed by you), and pocket the profit with minimal interaction from you! See here for an example of a listing that I created with Printful. See here for an awesome Skillshare class that goes more in depth with this process.

Do you have a favorite fast cash app or website? Or is there one you’ve heard about that you’d like me to try out? Comment below! And don’t forget to sign up for my email list to receive the best tips and insight!

10 Real Ways to Make Extra Cash Quick | The Blog Scope

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