Posts tagged Paper Crafts

Guest Blog: Brittany 

Materials:

• Mod Podge Glossy
• Paint Brush
• Jar of Water
• Glass Cleaner
• Paper Towels
• Scrapbook Paper (thin works better)
• Glass Plates
• Recycled Jar or Cans to Dry Plates on
• Scissors
• Pencil

Instructions:

1. Clean the bottom of the glass plates with glass cleaner.

2. Trace around the plate on the scrapbook paper.

3. Cut out the circle.

4. Snip four slits into the circle but NOT all the way to the center.

5. Snip four more slits centered between the first set of slits. You should end up with eight cuts equally spaced.

6. Cover the bottom of your glass plate with mod podge

7. Center the cutout circle onto the bottom of the plate, pattern side down. Gently press the paper onto the plate allowing the paper to overlap slightly at each slit.

8. Liberally apply mod podge over the scrapbook paper.

9. Use your finger to smooth out the wrinkles in the paper. But, be gentle or the paper will tear.

10. Lay the plates upside down on the jars and cans until dry. Add more mod podge if needed to seal the scrapbook paper and glue it down.

Turn them over and enjoy your unique decorative plates.

Note: Do not fully submerse the plates in water, wipe them off and wash the tops so as not to mess up the paper side. Stack them with a paper towel in between so they don’t stick together.

The possibilities are endless with these plates. Think about personalizing them with photos or monograms. What are your ideas for making your own plates?

* Style & Photo Credit: Pretty Handy Girl

 This garland is an easy DIY and all you will need are:

• Prints of the pink & gold heart Free (Download Below)
• Scissors
•  Pastel or gold metallic thread
• Sewing machine

I used one printed PDF for each strand on a letter weight printer paper (rather than card stock), but you can make yours as long or short as you like. Below is the tutorial for the garland and at the end of the post you will find the button to download and print the pink and gold hearts.

* Credit: Elli Blog

What a great way to dress up a package, a bottle of wine or any gift: a hand-crafted paper bow in this crisp red or yellow chevron pattern. Below you will find a link to download and print both the red and yellow paper bow templates. Once you have opened the pdf, simply print onto your everyday printer paper (not card stock). There is also a pdf download for a template so that you can print that on card stock, cut it out and use it as a template for  your own paper.

Once you have printed your paper bow templates,
follow the step-by-step guide below to make your packages pop!

Photo Credits: ellinee.com

You can use your marbled paper for so many things! I choose to make some cute little name cards as well as some little stir sticks.

Supplies

• Cardstock
• 4 Colors of Acrylic Paints
• Wooden Dowels
• Mini Clothespins
• String
• Water
• Liquid Starch (you can buy it right near the spray starch at the store)
• Alum (found in the spice aisle, used in pickling)
• Dishsoap

Step 1: The preparations

ONE mix together 2 cups of liquid starch with 1 teaspoon of alum and pour in the bottom of a cake pan.

TWO water down a little paint so that the paint is just slightly thinner.  Add a tiny drop of dish soap to it, this helps the paint to float on the starch. mix well.

THREE construct a ‘comb’ with wooden dowels cut to 2 inches, or with toothpicks.

FOUR using a paint brush, shake drops and splatters of paint onto your starch. Do this with all colors you’d like to include.

FIVE using your comb, comb the entire pan in one direction. 

SIX Then repeat in the perpendicular direction.

Carefully place your cardstock onto the top of the paper.  Lay it down starting at one corner instead of straight down so that air bubbles don’t get trapped underneath. Once the paper has made full contact, lift by one of the corners and remove from the paint/starch mixture.

Dunk the swirled paper into another pan of clean cool water (don’t worry!  The paint will stay on). Then hang on a string with clothespins over newsprint to dry.

* Photo & Design Credit: House of  Earnest

I like these simple, modern thank you cards, a free download from Love Vs. Design. They look cool printed on kraft paper, too!

Check them out here and download your own set.

(Source: zazzle.com)

Materials:
X-acto knife
Ruler
PDF pattern
Hole puncher
Twine

Step 1: Using an X-acto knife and ruler, cut your image. The PDF has crop marks to make it easier to see.

Step 2: Hole punch either side of the pointer finger. I used one with a very small opening.

Step 3: Insert the twine through the holes and tie a bow.

Voila! Your guests will be sure to remember the date of your special event. Enjoy!

* Photo Credits:Brittany Watson Jepsen.

(Source: zazzle.com)

This cookie gift bag is so cute. Simply display a platter of them for your guests to take when they leave. For these designs, you can print directly on the bag. Just change the printer settings to use a 5×7 piece of paper. If that won’t work for you, you can always print them on labels, and cut them out. I like these labels.

Here are the supplies:

*  5×7 Kraft paper bags

*  Skewers. You could also use toothpicks, and little food picks, but I like how thick the skewers are.

*  Enjoy! design  (Download)

*  Bag design   (Download)

*  Tape Runner Have you guys ever used this? It’s the best thing ever, if you don’t have that, you can use a glue stick.

*  Plastic Baggies

*  Scissors

*  Exacto Knife

Put between one and three cookies into some plastic baggies. After you have printed out the bag design either directly onto your bags, or onto labels to put on your bags, put the cookies into it. Fold over the bag top a couple of times and give it a nice crease. Then take your enjoy! labels, and run the tape runner along the back, at the end of the design. Simply wrap the design around the skewer pressing the paper together to create a flag. Then snip of about 3.5 inches of the skewer. Once you have done that use your exacto knife to cut two small slits into the bag, all the way through for your flag. Insert your flag into the slits and you’re done!

* Photo credit: Spoon, Fork Bacon

Have you seen the printable chalkboard gift tags you can download free from Ellinée? Chalkboard graphics are all the rage, and these are particularly nice specimens. The tags come in a variety of messages; tie one to any party favor or gift and you’ll impress friends with your artfulness.

Guest Blog by: Jessica Jones

 It only takes a minute to make simple origami arrows. They can be used as magnets to hold up your stuff.

I added self-adhesive magnet tape to these, available from craft stores. You could also chop up some of those free magnets that come in the mail with advertisements on them and glue those on.

The arrows can also be turned into thumbtacks for your pin board.

Lift up the arrow head flap, poke a tack through the paper, and stick the head back down on top

How to fold a paper arrow:

 Start with a square piece of paper. Origami paper is easiest to fold because it’s thin. If you don’t mind a bit of wrestling, you can also use regular printer paper like I did for the red and orange arrows. Those were made from 3” squares. The patterned purple arrows were made from 2.5” squares.

I’ll add captions below each photo.

With the pretty side down, fold a square paper in half and open it again. (Or as Maria suggested in the comments, just press a little pinch to mark the center. Then your finished arrow won’t have a crease running through the center.)

With the pretty side down, fold a square paper in half and open it again. (Or as Maria suggested in the comments, just press a little pinch to mark the center. Then your finished arrow won’t have a crease running through the center.)

 Fold the top and bottom edges inward to meet the center crease.

 

Fold the pointed end over.


 

Turn the paper over so the point is hidden, then align it so that the point is positioned like the pink line in the diagram (though the point is on the underside and not visible.) Grab the top edge of the rectangle and fold it down, making a valley fold along the dotted line. 

The result should look like this. Half of the pointed triangle is exposed.


 

Rotate the paper 90 degrees counterclockwise. (Well, you don’t have to, but I found it easier and that’s what the photos show!) Press down with your fingernail at the point where the top layer of paper meets the triangle. Poke your other finger in between the two layers of the flap to open up a little pocket, at the same time folding the long top edge of the flap down to meet the center crease. 

Squash the resulting triangle flat.

It should look like this.


 

Repeat on the bottom side, folding the bottom edge upward to meet the center crease.

It should look like this.


 

How-to

♥ Line up your vertical strips on a table top…you can use a bit of sticky tape at one end to hold them in place while you weave away.

♥ Weave the horizontal strips into the vertical strips.

♥ Using a bit of sticky tape secure to your gift. Job done!

I also made a rainbow gift topper.

(Source: zazzle.com)

If you have been loving the watercolor and ombre trend recently, you are going to LOVE this fun DIY Sarah is bringing us today! She is sharing a sweet way to ask your bridesmaids if they will stand by your side on your wedding day. This DIY is so adorable and super easy! It is even more awesome because this technique can be applied to so many elements in your wedding (hello, fabulous escort cards and favor tags!)

Materials

• Watercolor paper cut into 9″x6.25″ rectangles, folded into cards(size A6: 4.5″x6.25″), 1 per bridesmaid
• Watercolor paints (the cheap Crayola one will work just fine!)
• White colored pencil or colorless blender pencil (Prismacolor makes one that is available at most craft stores)
• Scrapbooking or decorative paper cut into 9″x9″ squares.
• Small pieces of leftover watercolor paper for envelope labels
• Medium flat paintbrush
• Glue
• Bone folder (or butter knife)
• Tape
• Cutting mat and xacto knife, or rolling cutting board (available at craft and scrapbooking stores)
• Templates from this DIY (Card Design Here and Envelope Template Here), or your own designs, printed onto printer paper

Helpful hints: Using a bone folder to fold the paper is very helpful, since watercolor paper tends to be thicker than printer or scrapbooking paper. It will give you a nice, clean fold. Also, use an X-acto knife, ruler, and cutting mat or a rolling cutting board to cut your paper, rather than scissors, to have a precise, even cut. Additionally, if the inside of your cards are too bumpy to write on, glue in a small piece of cardstock that is slightly smaller than the card.

Step 1: Cut all of the paper (watercolor and scrapbook) to the sizes indicated above. Fold the watercolor paper in half to make 4.5″x6.25″ cards. Unfold one of the watercolor paper cards and position the template with the words on it underneath the top flap. Hold it up to a window and tape in place, so that you can easily trace the words from the template. Using your white colorless blender pencil, trace over the words/design, pressing hard with the pencil. You want the watercolor paint to be repelled by the wax of the pencil, so make sure you fully cover the area of the design you want to remain white.

Step 2: After the design is fully traced onto the card, un-tape and place on your work surface. Decide what color paint you would like to use, and with a wet brush (not dripping!), gather the paint onto your brush. Paint around the design to create an organic, flowing border, then fill in with the middle. Use different colors within the same color palate, mixing to get a blended, gradient look. Keep it moist as you work, but not soaking wet. You want the paint to mix on your paper.

Step 3: Once you have a color story you like, set aside to dry, and repeat with the rest of your cards.

Step 4: When the cards are mostly dry, take a small scrap of paper towel, or a q-tip, and wet it. Go over the white design and wipe away any paint that is left on it. The wax should resist most of the paint, but this will help take off any that was leftover and make it whiter and brighter. If you wish, you can go over the lines with your white colored pencil to brighten them even more.

Step 5: While the card is drying, take your scrapbooking paper and lay it design side DOWN in front of you. Measure 4.5″ from each side of one corner and mark with a pencil. Connect the dots with a light pencil line. Repeat with the opposite corner. Then, with the other two corners, do the same thing, but measure 5.5″ from each side of both corners. Your paper should look like the example template. Cut the small triangles that form from the pencil lines (see the grey areas on the template).

Step 6: Using the bone folder again, with the paper still facing design side DOWN, fold along the lines you just drew, and glue the two smaller flaps and one large flap together, leaving the other large flap up and open. You have a beautiful, custom made envelope! Your finished measurements should be: 5 x 6 3/8. If you want, glue the scrap pieces of watercolor paper on to the fronts of the envelope, to create a label for the name of the girl to whom you are giving the card.

Each little work of art will be such a sweet way to invite your best girls to stand next to you on your most special day!

(Source: zazzle.com)