cork
Corks are easy to collect and easy to manipulate. They cut well, glue adheres to them, and they last. A single cork can be used to make decorations, or one hundred can be used together to make one piece.
Home Decorating-Beautiful and Modern Home Design Ideas posted a blog entry on 25 Do-It-Yourself cork crafts. The post is in the link below:
http://www.chomec.com/the-magic-with-corks/
A Critique of Home Decorating's post of "The Magic of Corks":
Home Decorating is a site that posts ways to improve the visual appeal of a home. It includes, “The Magic With Corks”, a post of 25 ways to use recycled corks for decorations and purposes around the home. The posts are meant to show readers how they can utilize these improvements. Although this post provides many ideas of how to improve a home, it doesn’t show the reader how exactly to do so. “The Magic With Corks” is an excellent resource for finding ideas for new cork projects, but lacks a few elements necessary for beginners to fully take advantage of the post and complete its suggested projects.
The post provides a significant variety and number of do-it-yourself cork crafts with multiple pictures for each one, however the pictures are not enough to adequately show how to do each project. Some projects, such as the cork stamps, provide pictures for each step, whereas others, like the cork candles, provide only the picture of the completed item. This makes the post look very inconsistent throughout the 25 cork projects. It also limits the reader on what he or she can do, based on his or her experience with crafting. For example, most beginners would not know how to turn a cork into a candle from a couple of pictures. Therefore, the 25 cork “DIY” projects are reduced to however many provide adequate instructions.
Although some of the picture instructions are helpful, there are neither written instructions for a single cork project, nor a list of materials. Not everyone is a visual learner and some people prefer written instructions over pictures, or at the very least, written instructions with pictures to compliment them. Therefore, to adhere to the widest audience, written instructions should always be included. A list of materials would be helpful for readers who do not have all the necessary supplies. If only pictures are provided, and some of them very small, it may be easy to miss a material. Thus, a including a list of materials would also improve the post.
The many pictures the post uses are visually stimulating, but their placement and sizes are inconsistent and not entirely useful. Some of the 25 ideas provide 9 pictures while others only provide a couple. Although some projects require more instruction than others, the projects with no visual instruction significantly demonstrate the inconsistency. The placement and set up of some pictures shrink the pictures far too much making many pictures very small compared to others. For readers looking to follow the pictures for instruction, this makes it much more difficult. The order of the picture instruction is inconsistent as well. Some go from left to right, others from top to bottom, and a couple even go from bottom to top. A more consistent use of pictures would be more aesthetically pleasing and make the post easier to navigate and instruction easier to follow.
“The Magic With Corks” fulfills its goal of providing 25 ideas to decorate the home, but it does not provide the necessary instructions and materials to be a true “Do It Yourself” post. With some editing here and there, it can be improved to be an excellent resource for all audiences looking for homemade cork craft projects.
Home Decorating-Beautiful and Modern Home Design Ideas posted a blog entry on 25 Do-It-Yourself cork crafts. The post is in the link below:
http://www.chomec.com/the-magic-with-corks/
A Critique of Home Decorating's post of "The Magic of Corks":
Home Decorating is a site that posts ways to improve the visual appeal of a home. It includes, “The Magic With Corks”, a post of 25 ways to use recycled corks for decorations and purposes around the home. The posts are meant to show readers how they can utilize these improvements. Although this post provides many ideas of how to improve a home, it doesn’t show the reader how exactly to do so. “The Magic With Corks” is an excellent resource for finding ideas for new cork projects, but lacks a few elements necessary for beginners to fully take advantage of the post and complete its suggested projects.
The post provides a significant variety and number of do-it-yourself cork crafts with multiple pictures for each one, however the pictures are not enough to adequately show how to do each project. Some projects, such as the cork stamps, provide pictures for each step, whereas others, like the cork candles, provide only the picture of the completed item. This makes the post look very inconsistent throughout the 25 cork projects. It also limits the reader on what he or she can do, based on his or her experience with crafting. For example, most beginners would not know how to turn a cork into a candle from a couple of pictures. Therefore, the 25 cork “DIY” projects are reduced to however many provide adequate instructions.
Although some of the picture instructions are helpful, there are neither written instructions for a single cork project, nor a list of materials. Not everyone is a visual learner and some people prefer written instructions over pictures, or at the very least, written instructions with pictures to compliment them. Therefore, to adhere to the widest audience, written instructions should always be included. A list of materials would be helpful for readers who do not have all the necessary supplies. If only pictures are provided, and some of them very small, it may be easy to miss a material. Thus, a including a list of materials would also improve the post.
The many pictures the post uses are visually stimulating, but their placement and sizes are inconsistent and not entirely useful. Some of the 25 ideas provide 9 pictures while others only provide a couple. Although some projects require more instruction than others, the projects with no visual instruction significantly demonstrate the inconsistency. The placement and set up of some pictures shrink the pictures far too much making many pictures very small compared to others. For readers looking to follow the pictures for instruction, this makes it much more difficult. The order of the picture instruction is inconsistent as well. Some go from left to right, others from top to bottom, and a couple even go from bottom to top. A more consistent use of pictures would be more aesthetically pleasing and make the post easier to navigate and instruction easier to follow.
“The Magic With Corks” fulfills its goal of providing 25 ideas to decorate the home, but it does not provide the necessary instructions and materials to be a true “Do It Yourself” post. With some editing here and there, it can be improved to be an excellent resource for all audiences looking for homemade cork craft projects.