Vitamin C... A Daily Dose of Creativity: paper

Showing posts with label paper. Show all posts

Paper Mayhem

by Kim

Tonight while I was wasting time on Facebook, I came across this 4 year old dress designer and her Mom. I love everything about this story and am inspired to try construction paper as a building material. Check her out: Paper Dresses by Mayhem

I cannot remember being this cognizant of anything at that age. Well, maybe reading. I loved reading. Would all kids show this kind of creativity if encouraged? And where would we be if that was the case?

Give your 4 year olds some Vitamin C!

Singing Flowers

by Kim

I had some fun this afternoon making some musical paper flowers for Wonder Woman's birthday. She likes a quiet, understated birthday, and I thought these might fit the bill. She loves music!

I used:

off white card stock
an old hymnal
a round, scalloped paper punch
hot glue gun and glue
small shank buttons
craft wire (mine is green, but use what you have)

First, I sat and punched a pile of round shapes. For each flower, I made 2 off white cardstock, and 7 hymnal punch outs.

Leave the cardstock punch outs flat. Fold the paper circles in half and then as you see above.

Put a pea sized dot of glue in the center of a cardstock circle. Place 4 folded papers on it, points in the center. Place another dot of glue in the center. Place three folded pieces as a second layer, points to the center. Glue a button in the center.

Cut a length of wire, glue it to the back of the flower. Glue a second cardstock circle to cover it. Make as many flowers as you wish, on different length wires.

I filled a jar with beans and tucked the flower stems down in. Use any vase. If you have one with a smaller neck, it won't need beans.

Take your Vitamin C!

Super Trimmers and Dress Forms

by Kim

While I have never been super girlie, I am having a crush on dress forms. They seem to be available everywhere. Very trendy. I got this one at Michaels with a 50% discount, making it twice as much fun.

I love tools, don't you? For this project, I built my own tool. I wanted fringe cut with different paper edgers, but did not want the long process of using three pair of scissors. I hooked them all together so I could make three cuts at once.

To build my tool, you need:

3 pair of Paper Edgers, your choice
duct tape
craft wire
4 6mm beads of any kind
wire cutters

Try this:
1. wrap a piece of duct tape around scissors to hold them together.

2. Cut a 12" length of wire, fold in half. Place the fold at one outside edge of handles. Twist two wires together twice. String one bead. Twist wires twice again. Sandwich second handle between wires and repeat twisting and bead stringing between second and third pair. Sandwich last handle between wires and twist together on outside of handle. Trim wires.

Repeat on bottom handles. Remove tape.

Awesome. Super trimmer!

To dress the form, you need:

your super trimmer
scrapbookpaper: 3-4 12" x 12" pieces that coordinate
wire dress form
hot glue gun and glue
ruler
pencil
straight scissors

Try this:
1. Stack two pieces of paper together. Measure and cut strips 3 1/2" wide. Cut in from one edge with super trimmer, across the entire edge, as far in as paper edgers will reach.

2. Glue small folds or tucks, about an inch apart along straight edge of papers (still holding them together). This curves your strip slightly.

3. Glue paper fringe around dress form, lower than waist. This will be the bottom layer of three. It took two 12" lengths to go around my dress form.

4. Repeat steps 1-3, glueing each layer a little higher on the dress form. The third layer should be at the waist.

5. Fluff out the layers.

The different cuts gives your skirt fabulous visual texture. So cute!

6. Use two bracelets you already own, or take this excuse to string two new bracelets.

Place them around the waist of the dress form. They provide bling and a place to store a couple bracelets!

If your dress form has additional hooks at the top, use it to hold additional jewelry. I added another bracelet, also made of paper.

Adjust the process according to the design of your dress form, and the colors you like.

My super trimmer is still intact. Who knows when I might need it again??

Use your Vitamin C!

Faux Enamel Flowers

by Kim

I love retro enamel flower jewelry. The bright color and bold design appeal to me, not to mention the shine. My own crafting style tends toward all three of those things, and I am a jewelry designer, so....perfect fit! Nice metal, retro flowers are not easy to find, nor are they inexpensive. So, what does a smart crafter do? She makes her own faux version of them, of course!

A little sidebar: I enjoy combining materials and techniques because I have such a varied past as a crafter/teacher. So, my projects almost always involve combinations of painting, jewelry making, papercrafting, stitching, and whatever else is on my mind at the time. Here is a charm bracelet made with a simple 1" round punch. It is never boring!

Making your own faux enamel flowers is quite easy. And fun! Here is what you need:

heavy paper: I used both 90 lb. watercolor paper and posterboard. They worked equally well.
cardstock: solid brights
Fiskars punches: I used a 1" circle lever punch, a heart squeeze punch, 2 sizes of oopsie daisy squeeze punches, and a large scalloped circle squeeze punch
Plaid's Dimensional Magic in clear
Mod Podge for paper, or your favorite paper adhesive that will hold with moisture
white acrylic paint (optional)
small flat paintbrush (for Mod Podge)
buttons or gems for flower centers
hot glue gun and glue sticks
wire cutters (if you have shank buttons)

Try this:

1. Punch shapes. For every watercolor paper shape you punch, punch two color shapes the same.

2. Using Mod Podge as glue, sandwich a white piece between two color pieces. Brush on a light coat that completely covers the shape.

3. Make dots or stripes on layered pieces with acrylic paint if you wish. I used the end of the brush handle on the heart and a pencil point on the daisy. Let the paint dry before the next step.

4. Lay all shapes on a flat, level surface. Cover each with a coat of Dimensional Magic. Apply straight from the bottle, no brushing is necessary. Let the coat dry 6 hours or so.

5. Assemble flowers by glueing pieces together. You can roll petals up or down before you apply Dimensional Magic.... or now, after one coat. Gently manipulate the paper for dimension.

Apply a second coat of Dimensional Magic on the front. Let dry. Also apply a coat to the backside of the flower. This makes the flower very sturdy.

6. Glue gems or buttons in the centers of the flowers. I used some gorgeous Blumenthal Lansing buttons. Snip the shanks off with a pair of wire cutters before glueing them down.

Build your flowers in layers. Here are some suggestions. One large daisy, two small daisies and a round gem.

One large scalloped round, five 1" circles, a rhinestone button.

Eight hearts, one large daisy, a gold button.

At this point, your flowers are complete and fabulous. Glue on pinbacks, magnets, or add them to a necklace.

To complete a necklace like mine, you will also need:

silver wire
embroidery floss
scissors
a chain necklace

Cut a 2" piece of wire. Fold in half. Glue to back of flower.

Using a piece of floss, knot the flower wire to the chain. Repeat with all flowers you want on your necklace.

No doubt, it makes a statement! How fabulous for spring and summer?

P.S. Clicking on the photos will enlarge them and give you a close up view.

Use your Vitamin C to make yourself a garden of flowers!

Paper Punch Charm Bracelet

by Kim

You might remember that I have had a long play date with jewelry made of paper. I have always used paper (usually torn) and paint, so today, I am using only paper for a creative change.

If you have never made paper jewelry, consider:

it is very lightweight
the jingles from dangling pieces bumping together is very soft, so not annoying if you don't like that sound
it is inexpensive
available paper designs are probably better than most of us can paint
it is unusual and fun!

This is what you need to make a paper charm bracelet:

chain link charm bracelet
140 lb. watercolor paper
scrapbook paper of your choice (I went with a citrus color palette, loving the warm colors)
Mod Podge for paper with flat paintbrush, or paper adhesive of your choice
Dimensional Magic: clear
Fiskars 1" round punch
Fiskars 1/8" round hole punch
3 yards 1/8" satin ribbon: color to match your paper, mine is orange
10mm round beads to match: mine are hot pink
scissors
ruler

This is a great project to use up leftover scraps!

Start with a chain charm bracelet. Buy one or make one with chain and a toggle clasp. If you are making your own, wire wrap the toggles on or use two oval jump rings on each toggle piece.

Punch 30 1" watercolor paper circles. Punch 60 1" scrapbook paper circles. My bracelet has 30 paper charms. Of course, add or subtract as you wish.

Mod Podge a scrapbook paper circle on each side of each watercolor paper circle. Punch a hanging hole in each one.

Apply Dimensional Magic to one side of each charm. Let dry overnight. Repeat on the other side.

Look what I did with the hole pieces I punched out! Just set them in the wet Dimensional Magic.

Pin or tape bracelet to work surface. Making the chain immobile, makes the assembly process way easier. I use a fabric covered piece of foam, and it works perfectly.