Patriotic Pinwheel Wreath--a tutorial

Here's a fun and easy craft to try with your kids for the upcoming 4th of July holiday.  I found this tutorial on AllFreeHolidayCrafts.  Be sure to click on the link to get to a site for printable pinwheel papers!

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Patriotic Pinwheel Wreath

With little time and energy remaining, we still wanted to celebrate this 4th of July weekend somehow. So my wheels were turning and I came up with this simple craft to decorate our door. Here are the 6 supplies we used:

- 1 paper plate, center cut out, 1-inch rim remaining
- hole punch
- scissors
- 8 brass fasteners
- white printer paper
- red construction paper

We made 4 squares from one piece of red construction paper. I found a printable pinwheel template at the Family Fun website, and made pinwheels. We punched holes in each pinwheel, pushed brass fasteners through, and then attached them through 8 evenly-spaced holes I had punched around the plate. Voila--a patriotic pinwheel wreath!

This idea was featured at Tip Junkie in May of  2010 and is also linked to:

Posted by Aiming4Simple at 2:29 PM

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Tuesday Tutorial -- Magnetic Words from CreativeHomeArtsClub

I am still working on my Easter swag and hope to finish all the hand sewing this week, but until I have more pictures, I thought this tutorial was cute and easy.  Maybe you could use this somewhere at home or at work to brighten up the day.

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Magnetic Words Make magnetized letters and shapes from paper-covered chipboard By: Cindy Groom-Harry

Finished Size: Approx. 8" - 10" Skill: 1 Time: 1 Cost: 1 SAFETY TIP: Mom and Grandma – please supervise the painting in a well-ventilated area but do the cutting with the craft knife yourself. You will need: •  One 8" metal stove burner cover •  One 10" metal stove burner cover •  Spray paint*: Primer, Perfect Pink, Basil •  Coordinating scrapbook paper •  2 1/2" chipboard letters to spell, "H, O. P, E" and "D, R, E, A, M" •  Ten 1/2" button magnets* •  One pkg. 1/2" x 4" adhesive magnetic strips* •  Ten 5/8" buttons in assorted colors •  Ten white silk flowers in assorted sizes •  19" of 3/8" brown gingham ribbon •  10" of 3/8" pink ribbon •  10 1/2" of 3/8" tan polka dot ribbon •  Tacky glue* •  Glue stick* •  Craft knife* & cutting mat*, emery board, newspapers, ruler, sandpaper, scissors * The following products were used for this project: Design Master Color Tool Spray Color • Elmer's Craft Bond Tacky Glue & Extra-Strength Glue Stick; X-Acto Gripster craft knife & cutting mat • Magnum Magnetics ProMAG Button Magnets and Adhesive Strips Magnets. Note: For product information, see end of article. •  Craft knife should be used only by an adult. •  Use glitter spray only outside or in a well-ventilated area. •  Allow all paint and glue to dry between steps. •  See photo for details and placement. STEP 1: Prepare stove covers. Protect work surface with newspapers. Lightly sand stove covers to dull surface Spray with primer. Spray small cover Perfect Pink. Spray large cover Basil. Use additional coats if needed. STEP 2: Attach ribbon. Measure and cut ribbon to go across covers as shown. Use glue stick to attach. STEP 3: Prepare letters. Plan which paper to be used for each letter. Apply glue stick to fronts of letters and attach paper. Turn letter paper side down on cutting mat. Have adult use craft knife to cut away excess paper around each letter. Use outward strokes to gently sand letter from paper to edge all around letters. This technique creates a white, distressed look and secures paper to letter. Note: Use emery board in tight spaces of letters. Cut and attach adhesive magnet strip to back of each letter. STEP 4: Finish. Use tacky glue to attach buttons to centers of silk flowers. Glue button magnets to backs of flowers in same way. Sources: Design Master (303) 443-5214 dmcolor.com Elmer's Products, Inc. (888) 435-6377 elmers.com Magnum Magnetics Corporation (740) 568-3721 magnummagnetic.com

Free Heart Book Template

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I thought I'd post something easy to do that would be a nice valentine to give to others.  I found this really cute tutorial for a Valentine Heart Book on About.com and I hope you enjoy making at least one of these cute books to hold special mementos from this year's Valentine's Day.

On another front, we started to decorate the nurses' station at work yesterday, but decided that it looked too much like a baby shower because we could only find pink and green valentine cards and pink streamers.  We just gave up and went to the store next door for rootbeer float supplies instead.  I think the floats were a hit!

Here's the tutorial.  Enjoy.  After you make this book, go to the original site and see all the other wonderful templates and tutorials they have to make beautiful boxes and cards.

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Folded Paper Heart Book

Folded Paper Heart Book

Kate Pullen

This folded paper heart book is deceptively easy to make. The book is formed from a single piece of paper. When the cover is added the book contains four pockets, each providing a space to hold a heart shaped billet-doux or love note. If you don't want the book to contain pockets then simply glue the pockets together. Although this book is small in size, it contains plenty of space for decorations, small photos, special notes and more.
The heart book is made using this free printable template - Heart Book Template. While I normally suggest printing templates onto scrap paper and using these as templates to transfer the design to best paper, in this instance, where the folding and cutting needs to be reasonably precise in order to get a neat finish, I suggest printing the template onto best paper. I have included two versions of the template, one in black and the other in a light gray. The gray template is ideal for use on lighter paper. Although the print is on the reverse of the book, the light gray ensures that the folding lines will not show through the paper and this is ideal if you are using a lighter weight paper.

Materials Required

• Template
• Paper and card
• Scissors, glue, paper folder or folding bone and ruler
• Ribbon
• Rubber stamps, inks and other embellishments as required

Cut Out the Template

Cut around the template

Kate Pullen

Print the template directly onto best paper or onto scrap paper and transfer the image to best paper as required. Cut around the edges. Add decorations to the paper now or at a later stage if more appropriate. This is the best time to stamp on the paper as it is still flat.

Fold the Paper

Fold the Paper

Kate Pullen

Use a paper folder or folding bone to score and fold the paper. With the right side facing, fold the first heart under and continue folding the rest of the hearts in concertina style. This will give you a book with four pockets. Folding it the other way will give you three pockets. I prefer the four pocket version, however this is just a personal choice.

Make a Cover

Make the Cover

Kate Pullen

Cut a cover from a piece of paper or card stock. Use the hearts as a template to cut the cover, making it slightly larger than the hearts. Score and fold the cover.

Attach the Ribbon

Add the Ribbon

Kate Pullen

The ribbon that ties the book is sandwiched between the cover and the first pocket. Cut two lengths of ribbon. Mark the point on both sides of the cover where the ribbon is to be attached. Glue the ribbon in place on the inside of the cover. Glue the cover in place.

Make the Inserts

Make Inserts

Kate Pullen

Cut four heart shapes for the billet-doux inserts, these need to be a fraction smaller than the heart pockets. Add any decorations as required and attach a ribbon tab to each insert.

Put the Inserts into the Pockets

Place the Inserts into the Pockets

Kate Pullen

Add any decorations as required on to the inserts. Place the inserts into each pocket. If you are looking for inspiration for things to write on the inserts, take a look at these short love poems or why not turn them into fancy conversation hearts!

Finish the Book

Add any finishing touches as required to the book. I added a row of beads around the edge of the one in the photograph.

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Tuesday Tutorial -- Halloween Ghost Garland

With Halloween so close, I thought I'd showcase a quick and easy craft for decorations for Halloween.

I've seen these before and I always thought they were cute, so here you go.

For this craft, all you need is a pencil, recycled paper of which one side is white, and a pair of scissors and Scotts tape.

The craft instructions are pretty straight forward:
1. Fold the paper length-wise
2. Cut into two long strips along the fold.
3. Fold each strips in four equal parts.
4. Make 4 to 8 pages worth of folded strips.
5. On the front of one of the folded packages, draw a ghost. 
Garland Making Tip: Make sure that the ‘hands’ of the ghosts are right at the edge of your paper section, so that when unfolded, it will look like the ghosts hold hands.
Can’t draw? Print my free Halloween ghost template, cut it out and overlay it onto the paper. You may have to scale it to fit your exact paper. The good news is that ghost drawings are pretty ‘forgiving’ and free form. You can’t really make a mistake with them.
6. Cut all the packages following the template or your own drawing.
7. Use the Scotts tape to attach the ghost garland sections to each other.
8. With a black marker, paint on the two spooky eyes on each ghost.
Your garland is ready to be hung.

Tip: To make it hang properly and not ‘fall over’, you might want to give the ghost hands in the center of the garland a little folding squeeze.
BOOO!! Well, actually, these ghosts are rather friendly and cheery. As there are good spirits and bad spirits in the world,  I guess we only want the good ones to join our Halloween Party. So, these little white spooks are invited!

This garland is of course also a perfect decoration for ‘Dia de los Muertos’, or the Day of the Death, which this year will be celebrated October 26-November 2, 2009, but most people celebrate it November 1.

More Halloween Garlands

If you want to create a whole bunch of garlands, here are some other ideas for you:
1. Use black crepe or tissue paper to create cats, bats or witches, and use orange paper for pumpkins.  Use the instructions as above. The sections will be much larger, so you may not even have to tape any together.  
2. No skulls will be found in my home (it’s bad Feng Shui) however the recycled white office paper would be good also for skull garlands. Or crepe paper.
4. For bats, cats and pumpkins you can probably find Cookie Cutters
to help you create your shapes, or you can simply draw them.


5. Consider keeping the design or the garland simple. 
If you are not throwing a party, but simply want just a touch of Happy Halloween shimmer in your home, consider using the above techniques for a small garland, such as this.  This one is made with just 1/2 a sheet of white paper, folded 4x. 
I left it white, however, you could use glitter glue and/or a few markers to add a splash of color. (With this self-created ‘coloring page’, you actually have created a fun Halloween craft project for your kids.)
For more color, use recycled ocher yellow or orange paper and add green curls of rag pipe cleaners, for a little bit more dash. Finish it off with drawing in the black detail lines.

6. That’s all I can recommend, besides have fun. Enjoying the Holidays, is all about the process, the time in between, so have fun crafting. HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

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Tuesday Tutorial -- Paper Birdies!

I told you I have a fascination with birds! I found this tutorial on a really great blog called, "No Money Mama" and I am reproducing it here for you. Be sure to leave her a comment on her blog if you make these adorable birds. She makes them look so easy to make, doesn't she? Let me know how these turn out for you.
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 This little birdie!

The No Money Mama has seen this awesome Spool Sewing bird tutorial around for a while and I just adore it. Let's just say sewing is not my thing, so I thought to myself, "What about paper?" Today we will be working with: paper, glue, scissors and pipe cleaners.

I have been holding on to this super cute monkey paper from Michael's, just waiting for the right project.

And yes, the hot pink monkeys are flocked! It kind of reminds me of the PB Kids Emmy collection. So, I made a few changes to the original Spool Sewing bird tutorial, and here it is. My birds were printed out at 100%. *Please note, I did not create the original Spool Sewing bird pattern, I only made a few slight adjustments to turn it from a sewing project into a paper craft.

               

               

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Tuesday Tutorial -- Paper Mache Birds

Here is the tutorial on making paper mache birds. I cannot wait to try these. I simply love birds and I don't know why. These look like they are simple and fun to make. If you try these, let me see how yours turn out, okay?


This is from that artist woman. I hope you enjoy the tutorial!! Please click over to her blog and leave her a nice comment, won't you.  Her blog is very interesting and fun.


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I guess I have a bird theme going here.


These are some cute paper mache birds we made recently.

They have wire feet which allow you to clamp them on an edge like a flowerpot or piece of driftwood or have them free standing.










MATERIALS REQUIRED:
- newspaper
- tape
- paper towel
-  reg. white school and tacky glue
- water and recycled container
- thin cardboard from a cereal box
- wax paper
- acrylic or tempera paint
- fine markers
- sealer like Mod Podge (optional)
- med. gauge wire
- embroidery thread or yarn

Take a quarter sheet of newspaper and crush into a pear shape.

Tape into place.  You can twist out a beak shape, click on this photo to enlarge to see this.

Cut some paper towel into strips about 1/2 an inch wide or so.  Pour some white school glue into a recycled container and add water in a 1 to 1 ratio. Mix well. Dip the strips into the glue mixture and start covering your bird.

With paper mache you want to overlap your strips for strength and smooth them down as you go.  Use a few dry strips to soak up excess glue.  That way your bird will take less time to dry you just want it moist not sopping.

Leave to dry in a warm place overnight...turn once to ensure even drying.


Out of thin cardboard from a cereal or cracker box cut out a wing shape...I used a teardrop shape.  Cut out a tail shape as well.

Take the cardboard shapes and cover in a coat of paper mache.

Leave to dry.

Paint with acrylic or tempera.









We used a basecoat first and then added additional color on top.

For the feather and eye detail you can either paint it in with a fine paintbrush or use fine sharpies after the paint has dried.

Younger kids to better with the markers.

If you want a shiny coat you can add a coat of mod podge but you might want to wait until after you add the legs.  This way it can stand up while drying.

To make the feet take piece of wire about 16 inches or so.  I don't what gauge this wire is as the label was missing but it's soft enough to bend with your fingers but firm enough to hold the shape without collapsing.

Make a foot shape with 4 toes and then twist the 2 ends of the wire together to form the leg.

Trim them down and bend in the knees.  Remember a bird's knee bends backwards.

I like the look of the silver foot but I wanted to add some color to the legs so we wrapped them with embroidery thread.  You could also use yarn.  Take the end of the thread and loosely wrap from the top of the leg down, double back and wrap tightly now.

When you reach the top knot off.

Using an awl or a knitting needle punch holes for the legs.

Put some tacky glue on them.

Push the leg thru the glue into the hole (remember the knees are backwards).

Add some more glue if needed.

Let dry. 

Here is the one my 7yr old made.

That's it.They look pretty realistic once the legs are on.