Tag Archives: scrapbook paper

finished wreath

Paper Wreath – Color for the Winter Blahs

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finished wreath

Good Afternoon!

I hope everyone survived their holidays. I had a lovely month of December, but as some may have noticed, I only made it to December 16th with our advent. I just ran out of energy and time to keep up with the daily projects and make Christmas presents for my family. I still have the projects in my workbook, so you will probably see them at some point in the future.

Winter has finally hit our area and we have real snow. I like the white better than the blah of brown and gray, but I really needed a spot of color in my house to brighten up my day, so my new spring wreath was born.

Materials:

  • 6″ cardboard circle
  • wire for the wreath hanger
  • paper cutter
  • scrapbook paper
  • hot glue gun and glue sticks

6 inch cardboard circle

First, cut out your 6″ cardboard circle. My circle cutter only goes up to 5 1/2″ so, I added about a half inch to the outside of the mark and cut there with scissors.

attach wire hanger

Next, use some floral wire to make the hanger, poke it through the cardboard and leave the long ends to be inside the wreath where they won’t be seen.

cutting scrapbook paper into squares

Then, cutting the scrapbook paper. The cones of the flower wreath are made up of 4″ pieces of scrapbook paper. For easy accounting:

  • 24 – 4″ pieces dark color
  • 24 – 4″ pieces medium color
  • 24 – 4″ pieces light color
  • 15 – 3″ pieces medium color (optional)
  • 15 – 3″ pieces light color (optional)
  • 6 – 2″ pieces yellow

This came out to 6 sheets of 8 1/2″ x 11″ each of the dark, medium, and light colors and one sheet of yellow.

roll cones around object to get curve started

It makes rolling the cones much easier if you start the curve before you begin gluing. I took my ring mandrel and wrapped my squares of paper around it to get the curve started. You could use anything for this, a bottle of glue would work, just as an example.

how to roll the cones

Then, you add a little hot glue to one corner of the paper.

hold cone after gluing for a few seconds

Finally, you curl the opposite corner over the glue to make a cone and hold for a few seconds for the glue to set.

Pro for Hot Glue – It dries very quickly

Con for Hot Glue – It is VERY hot and you end up with strings to clean up

I made all of my cones at one time then started attaching them to the wreath. They stack neatly together to save space and it was a lot of fun to quickly put the wreath together after all the prep work.

put glue on very tip of the back side of the cone

For attaching the cones to the cardboard, you want a tiny bit of hot glue on the narrow tip of the cone.

start gluing tips of cones to edge of cardboard circle

Start gluing your cones to the cardboard, keeping the wide ends of the cone touching and the cones perpendicular to the edge of the cardboard. The tips with the glue will not touch each other.

first round of cones in place

Above you can see my first round of the dark color and the mess of hot glue. Don’t worry, no one will see this part once it is finished.

for all further rounds of cones, flatten the bottom of the cone to provide a place for the glue

For the second and all consecutive rings, you will need to flatten the tip of the cone a bit and put the glue on the flat edge. This makes attaching the cone to the cardboard ring much easier.

second round done, starting the third

Above, my second ring of medium color is done and I have started on the third ring with my light color.

third round done

Third ring is done.

fourth round done

Fourth ring in the same light color is done and I am ready to start the yellow ring of the flower center.

yellow center of flower done

With the yellow ring, I ended up having to squeeze a finger through the cone to press the glue down. There is very little space in there for a hand.

3 inch cones glued inside the outer ring of 4 inch cones

This part is optional, but if you did cut the 3″ squares, here is where you glue them inside the 4″ cones. For this wreath, I alternated the light and medium colors and put them inside the outer dark ring color. Using more hot glue, put a dab on the 3″ cone and press to the inside of the 4″ cone.

Finally, there is the clean up of the hot glue strings. This doesn’t take long, but it is definitely a necessary step.

finished wreath

And Voila! A lovely spring wreath to add a pop of color to your home and door.

side view of completed flower wreath

Above you see a side view of the wreath.

red paper cone wreath

Here is the first paper flower wreath I made Tuesday. It is in red tones and I used a 2″ x 12″ strip of yellow paper to make the flower center. I cut a 2″ circle of red paper, glued the yellow spiral to this and then glued it into the center of the flower. I much prefer the look of my new teal version with the center being made of small yellow cones.

Also, you can see in the red toned wreath, I put my 3″ cones in the third ring instead of the first. You can make every wreath different by where you add final touches. You could even put them inside every cone on your wreath and make a really intricate flower.

Have fun and play with color. Let me know how yours turns out!

Happy Crafting,

Kristin

TealCompleted

paper circle ornamnet

Christmas Advent 2015 – Day 10 Paper Circle Ornament

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Day 10 and I am neck deep in crafting supplies. My house is truly a disaster. Maybe my final advent  picture should be of the absolute mess I have made.

Today is a very simple and easy ornament you can do with your kids.

Materials:

  • Scrapbook paper
  • Paper cutter (scissors work just fine too)
  • Tacky glue
  • Ribbon

paper circle ornamnet

I cut strips of paper in varying lengths between 4″ and 7″ long and 1/2″ and 1″ wide and in varying colors, then formed circles and glued the edges together. Then I selected the circles I thought looked best together and glued these together making sure the glued edges where on top of each other. Once they were dry, I tied a ribbon to the top, dabbed a bit of glue on the ribbon knot so that it did not come undone and attached a tree hook.

All done!

This one is so easy I felt I needed to pay a cat tax.

kitty picture

My dopey cat wondering why I will not sit still.

Happy Crafting!

Kristin

napkin rings

Christmas Advent 2015 – Day 7 Napkin Rings

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Loryn has been doing lots of entertaining lately and has the most awesome table. It is gigantic and sits our family very well. I decided that for this advent, I would make the table decor for Christmas family dinners. Today I made the napkin rings.

napkin rings

Materials:

  • Scrapbook paper
  • Tacky glue (white glue)
  • Foam sheets
  • Mod Podge
  • Sponge brush
  • Wax paper

I cut strips of scrapbook paper in three different styles to 1 1/2″, 1″, and 1/4″ wide by 7″ long. I used a sponge brush and some watered down tacky glue to glue the papers one on top of the other. I then squeezed these flat between some wax paper and heavy books.

I cut 1 1/2″ by 6″ long strips of the foam sheets and once the paper strips were dry, I used some more watered down tacky glue and the sponge brush to glue them to the foam strips. I again squeezed these flat between my sheets of wax paper and heavy books.

I then trimmed the paper on one end to evenly match up to the foam and left a 1/2″ edge of paper on the other end. I smeared straight tacky glue on the inner side of the leftover edge of paper and a bit on the end of the foam and curled it around the tacky glue bottle (nicely doing double duty here) and glued the ends of the foam/paper strips together, making sure the paper strips lined up, wiping any excess glue away, and ensuring the rings formed good circles.

napkin rings

After the glue was dry, I used another sponge brush and covered the rings with one coat of Mod Podge. I am not too worried about durability and if I need to make more next year, I will gladly do so. This was fun and easy and only took a couple of hours.

I only show five of the rings above as the others were all still drying. I only made a few to start to be sure I liked how they turned out. I also used several colors of foam sheets to add a little more color. (I know the insides of the napkin rings will be hidden by the napkins themselves, but they do spend a lot of time on the table with nothing in them after everyone pulls their napkins out.)

Stay tuned for napkins and other table decorations coming soon!

Happy Crafting,

Kristin

paper fold ornament

Christmas Advent 2015 – Day 5 Paper Ornament

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Ha Ha! I got both my projects finished today! My project for day 5 is an ornament (Styrofoam base) that I covered with strips of red and green paper, then finished off with some wired silver/multicolor mini-garland.

Materials:

  • Styrofoam ball (3″)
  • Sequins
  • Sequin pins
  • Scrapbook paper
  • Paper cutter
  • Silver/multicolor wired mini-garland (trim ribbon)
  • Small piece of wire
  • Super glue

paper fold ornament

I took the small piece of wire and formed a loop at one end. I stuck the other end through one sequin then stuck the wire into the Styrofoam ball. Then using the super glue, I glued it securely. This gave me somewhere to safe to attach my tree hook at the top of the ball.

My next step was to cut lots of 1/4″ by 2″ strips of green and red paper. In reality, I only used 2″ x 10″ pieces of paper in each color and cut them all into my 1/4″ strips. I then folded these strips in half. I grabbed a sequin pin, put a silver sequin on and then attached the folded paper to the ball with the pin/sequin.

I did seven rows of these, with no particular spacing, just what I thought looked good, and covered about 2/3 of the ball, leaving the top uncovered. Lastly, I took the silver/multicolor wired mini-garland (trim ribbon) and pinned it to the ball in circles to cover the rest of the ball.

Since I had already put in the wire loop for the hook, all I needed to do was add a green tree hook and I was done!

paper fold ornament

I like this one and ended up curling the ends of the paper strips to give the ornament more depth. I think it looks like a Christmas acorn.

Happy crafting,

Kristin

Red wreath, completed and hung on my door.

Christmas Advent 2015 – Day 2 Paper Wreath

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Day 2, Hurrah!!

I have been making wreaths off and on over the years, but lately, for every season. I love all of the pretty scrapbook papers available and I have such a hard time not investing in every type of paper punch ever made. I have managed very admirably to keep this part of my craft collection to a small box that holds my paper and various cutters.

Materials:

  • Scrapbook paper (heavy and thin)
  • Paper punch
  • Glue
  • Wire
  • Wire cutters

I have this awesome petal paper punch that I have barely used and picked up on clearance some time ago. I needed an excuse to use it. After this project, it has certainly seen some usage. I started by making two green wreaths (I had a LOT of green scrapbook paper). I cut out 1 large circle (about 10″ for the outside diameter) from two pieces of heavy paper, glued them together, made a quick wire hanger that I attached to the circle, and then I started punching out petals. And more petals. And more petals.

First wreath in progress.
First wreath in progress. I made the other two wreaths much wider.

The first wreath I made is pretty thin, and while it looks great, I like wider wreaths better. When I started, I just randomly placed the petals to get a feel for the design. I found that I really liked the way the wreath looked with the petals pointing out on both the inner and outer side of the ring. Above you can see a few, but I had not quite gotten into the swing of placing the petals.

Close up of wreath hanger.
Here you can see my hanger and how I covered it up with petals.

I then found that I needed to cover the wire hanger and built up petals around the wire until I could hide it under yet more petals. You can also see the petals pointing inside and outside the wreath. I just kept layering until you could no longer see the paper ring underneath and until I liked the layout of the petals.

Green wreath, half completed.
Mostly complete wreath, still have to add the outside petals.

Above is the first wider wreath I did, again all in green paper. You can also see the start of hiding the wire hanger. I found it much easier to do all the inner pointing petals, then some of the middle petals, glue on the outer pointing petals, and then finish filling in the middle part of the wreath with the paper petals.

I was using the cut out center piece of the paper ring for my glue. I would pour some out, dip the wider end of the petal into the glue and then place it on the paper ring. In the picture above, you can see my bowl of petals. I punched lots and lots of these.

Green wreath, completed and hung on my door.
Green wreath, completed and hung on my door.

The finished green wreath looks great and I was very happy with the outcome. So happy that I immediately set out to make another one in more Christmassy colors, red and green.

Red wreath, completed and hung on my door.
Red wreath, completed and hung on my door.

So happy with it!

Happy Crafting,

Kristin

Easy Scrapbook Paper Star Garland

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garland2

Loryn:  This scrapbook paper garland is so easy to make! All you need is a few sheets of paper, a star-shaped punch, glue, and fishing line, nylon thread, or any other white/clear cord to glue your paper to (even dental floss if you’re crafting late at night and grab the first thing you can find!).

garlandall

The first step is to cut stars out with your punch.

garlandstep1

Then fold two in half and glue the halves together. For this garland, I used two pieces of the same color and an accent for each bauble.

garlandstep2-a

Then put your thread or fishing line into the fold and glue the third star onto the first two. That’s it! Just repeat to make the garland as long as you want. I don’t know how many stars I used for this. A lot!

— Loryn

garlandgkr 

Envelope Rosette.

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120313 127 120313 125

Cheri-I cannot believe that it is Christmas Advent already. Time to get back in the swing of ornament making.

In the last few months I have picked up another collection and this is an incredibly cheap one. I have begun to collect envelopes. Not for stamps, or anything like that, I  collect them for the inside. the envelopes have amazing graphics that are printed on the inside. They are quite beautiful, and a great source for interesting paper, and I am always looking for a craft to make with is.

This is where my ornament comes in.

Supplies:

Interesting paper

Scissors

circle template

glue

Start by cutting out circles from the patterned paper and cut them into four pieces. Then roll them into a cone and glue the edges together. I made 18 for the outer rosette and 13 for the inner rosette. Glue them together on the edges and form a rosette. Do the same with the smaller circles and put them on both sides. For the inner part of the rosette, I cut small strips from a different envelope and and curled it. There you go. Very easy and cost me nothing to make, but what an impact the pattern makes.

How simple can it be? Hope you like it and if you have any questions make sure to e-mail us.

 

Side view of wreath

2013 Christmas Advent: Paper Wreath

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Happy Holidays!

Hello, and yes we are still alive. We are doing our annual Christmas Advent. This year we are covering Christmas Decorations. I decided to to do a Christmas wreath and have been playing with paper lately and thus my Christmas Paper Wreath was made.

Finished paper wreath

For supplies:

Foam wreath shape, burlap ribbon, scrapbook paper (paper cutter optional), pins, sequins, paper punch (twine and bells optional)

Supplies needed for paper wreath

The paper punch I chose cuts out a 2 1/2″ shape, so I cut my scrapbook paper into 3″ swathes. This I then ran through my paper punch and cut out my florets.

Paper punch

Once I had all my florets, I wrapped the foam wreath with the burlap ribbon. I used pins to hold the burlap in place (I was trying to keep my supplies to a minimum, but you could use hot glue here if you preferred).

Burlap wrapped foam wreath

I attached the hanger and bells at the very end, but realistically, this would have been the best time. It worked just fine adding these at the end of the project, but I could have hidden them better had I tied them around the wreath before adding the florets.

Next, I started attaching the florets. I have to tell you about my error now. I bought large head beading pins for this project and thought they would be large enough that they would hold the florets by themselves. However, once I tried to hold the florets in place with the pins I discovered that I was wrong. I needed something to go between the pinheads and the florets. You could use just about anything, I chose to use silver sequins. I imagine that small beads would also have been lovely.

Once you put the pin through the floret, use your fingers to bend the floret up into a flower cup shape. This is what gives the florets three dimensions.

Attaching florets to wreath

Just keep pinning the florets to the wreath all the way around, being sure to cover the inside and outside of the wreath.  I made sure that none of the florets were flat on the wreath. I would pull up the edges of the nearby florets so that the edges were all up and none were flat.

Here you can see the burlap ribbon under the florets, but once the wreath is complete, you cannot see the burlap from a regular distance away.

Paper Wreath Close Up with Burlap2

I love the way it turned out. It looks great hanging on my front door.

Side view of wreath

Finished paper wreath

Happy crafting!

Kristin

Paper Wreath Close Up CG

Ornament Advent: Day 21 Christmas Paper Popper

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popperopen

 

This is another blast from the past. I haven’t made one of these since second grade! We called them Poppers, though some people call them fortune tellers, and others call them “that paper thing that you move back and forth.” For this Christmas-themed one, you get holiday messages inside, rather than the name of the boy who loves you!

If you can’t remember how to make one from your elementary school days, here’s a quick tutorial! To start, cut a square piece of paper. I used an 8″ square piece of double-sided scrapbook paper. It’s very pretty, but a little stiff.

Fold the paper in half, unfold it, and fold it again the other direction. Once you’ve done that, fold each corner into the middle, like this:

popper1

 

Once you’ve folded all four corners (and gotten glitter everywhere!), flip it over, and fold the corners in again. That will give you this:

popper2

Once you have all four of these corners folded into the middle, fold it in half, like this:

popper3

Once it’s folded in half, pop out the corners. Now you can find out the Christmas message in your future, or you can try to catch your little sister’s fingers in it!

popperfortune

 

To hang on the tree, put a grommet in one corner. Merry Christmas!

— Loryn

 

Ornament Advent: Day 20 Wrapping Paper Christmas Tree

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Use scrap pieces of wrapping paper to make this ornament.

Lynne: I liked using scraps of wrapping paper to make my last ornament and I decided I would try to use up more of the pieces I have lying around. I found this tutorial on design and form with these terrific paper ornaments, but I don’t have that precision in my paper-cutting skills. Thus I drew a very loose, cartoon type tree and used that for my pattern.

You will need:

a 6 x 6 inch square piece of paper for the pattern

approximately 10, 6 x 6 inch square pieces of wrapping paper

a glue stick

When you draw the pattern, draw it full size and then fold it in half. This will be easier to do instead of trying to think of how one half of a tree will look. Don’t worry too much about how it looks. You will be surprised how good irregular lines will look in the finished ornament.
wrappingpapertree2

Glue the unprinted sides together and then start gluing to make a stack. Be sure to keep the folded edge straight so everything matches when the ornament is opened. I used a weight for a few minutes to make sure the glue would hold.

I traced around the pattern onto the stack and then began to cut. It seemed that more than three edges were too hard to cut, so cut what you can and then retrace the pattern from what has already been cut. When every edge has been cut, glue the two outside edges together and adjust the 3d figure until it is evenly spaced.

I added glitter and stuck an old hat pin in the top, but feel free to decorate any way you wish. I used a loop of fishing line for a hanger, but these ornaments will stand on their own if you want to use them in a centerpiece.

wrappingpapertree3

Happy Holidays and just one more ornament!