Snowflake Serendipity

I picked up this snowflake punch the other day, hoping to use it for accents on some of this year's cards. Though the punch itself is fine, the flakes turned out too flimsy for what I had in mind, but while punching, I made a discovery that delighted me! In other words, the punch will be useful, albeit in a way other than originally intended.

Like most paper artists, I'm thrifty. For example, when I punch, I like to find the most effective way to use the paper, so that I throw away as little as possible.

While trying to find the most economical punching layout for the snowflake, I lined the edge of the punch with the center of the hole left over from the previous snowflake. To my utter delight, I discovered that my approach created a gorgeous punched border.

Pretty Pegs Tutorial

The last couple of evenings, I've been pulling the punches on leftovers from my paper stash and making mountains of these little paper flowers and clothes peg (USA: clothes pins) clips. They are so easy to make and a great way to use even small scraps of paper, and you can use the finished pegs for all kinds of things.


You'll need:

• wooden clothes pegs ( I picked up 50 for one euro at the el cheapo.)
• paper scraps
• glue stick
• the same type of flower punch in two sizes
• brads
• sticky foam pads.

To prepare the pegs (pins):

1. paint the sides of the pins (optional)
2. cut paper strips the width of the pegs
3. glue the paper strips onto both flat sides of the pegs.
   

To make the flowers:

1. punch two large and two small flowers
2. glue them together (Prevents the petals from moving and coming to lie directly on top of each other.)
3. punch a hole in the center
4. push through a brad, and
5. add a sticky foam pad on the back
6. stick a flower onto each peg.

I'll be using the pegs as Xmas decorations, both on the tree and to hang up my Xmas cards. I'll also be giving them away as "little extras" when I sell my handmade cards and albums at this year's local craft fairs.

Leaf Journals

The style of these journals is borrowed from the palm leaf journals found in Asia. There, sheets of paper (papyrus) made from palm leaves are bound on a thong between wooden covers. Most of the palm leaf books I've seen or heard of contain sacred texts. These journals contain blank pages, so the recipients can use them to write and store their own secret or sacred content.

For the covers, I started out by cutting two pieces of balsa wood. Anything between 2-4 mm thickness will be fine. You can also use sturdy cardboard or bookbinder's board. These particular covers are 5x15cm (ratio 1:3), to fit in the cartons I'm using for the Art In A Carton project. For my own use, I prefer 5x20cm (ratio 1:4). I drilled two holes in each cover before painting and so on. By drilling the holes at the start of the process, you can save yourself the trouble of having to go back and touch up the holes so the wood doesn't show. Simply paint inside the holes as you go.

I base coated the covers using Pelikan Prism, a two-tone acrylic paint that contains gold pigment. Two books are done in pink/gold and one in blue/gold. I then used a hot glue gun to dribble threads of glue onto the covers. Once cooled, I rubbed alcohol inks in to the threads. After a couple of minutes drying time, I went over parts of the covers with light coats of Lumiere metallics. After the covers were completely dry again, I dabbed on just a hint of glitter glue and a dusting of micro pearls.

Each journal contains around 10 pages. Just cut card stock to size and use the holes in the covers as a guide to mark out where the holes need to be in the card stock. Punch the holes with an eyelet tool, or whatever you have for the job.

Cut 2 lengths of narrow ribbon for each book. (I used 3 mm ribbon, because that's what I had. You might prefer to use twine or leather thongs or, or, or...) Each length or ribbon measures around one metre.

Thread each length of ribbon through one set of holes. Tie a bead or a button at the end of each length or ribbon, to prevent it slipping out of the holes. Repeat for the other set of holes.

Easter Goodie Drums

This has been one of those weekends when I feel I've been slogging away all the time -- or waiting for something to dry, so I can take the next step -- but with nothing much to show for it.

These are some "pretties" I made as containers for my granddaughters' Easter goodies. I still have one to make for my grandson. These are all very girlie, though.

The containers are cardboard tobacco drums with plastic lids. My neigbour saves them for me, and I knew they would come in handy at some point. After a thorough dusting out, I painted the outside of each drum with gesso, to cover up the tobacco label. In a next step, I painted over the gesso using either yellow or pink acrylic. When the first layer was dry, I went over it again with two or three washes of yellow (or pink) eggshell glaze (a glaze that contains tiny white flakes) to add dimension.

Then I wet and tore raggedy strips of a coordinating mulberry paper and decoupaged them onto each tin and added a strip of matching polka dot ribbon.

The lids have a rim, so I cut patterned cardstock circles to fit inside the rim. I do this using a circle cutter. It's a cheap little tool I picked up at a craft store a long time ago; like a compass, but with a blade instead of a pencil lead. I think you can get them in stationery stores, too. I can tell you, I wouldn't want to be without mine.

I decided to decorate the lids with punched flowers. First I punched out a scalloped circle as a contrast, so the flowers would stand out against the cardstock pattern. I then glued the circles together and punched a hole in the center (see the next step for the reason).

Then I used two flower punches to cut petals from the same cardstock I used for the larger circle. The cardstock was printed on both sides, so I automatically had matching patterns. I punched out three large flowers and two small ones for each lid and used a hand hole punch to make a hole for the brad to hold them together. (I like to add a dot of glue stick to the centres and then arrange the petals, so they all show.) I also punched a hole through a twist of the same polka dot ribbon I used on the drum, then simply poked the brad through all layers, including the large circle(s), and stuck a foam strip to the back. The center of each plastic lid is deeper in the center than at the rim, so the foam strip fills the gap.

To stick the topper to the lid I used acrylic gel medium and pressed the cardstock down firmly using a paper towel to remove little oozes neatly and cleanly.

I made a second flower for each container and stuck it over the ribbon join using a foam strip.
The nice thing about the flowers is that you can flip a knife blade or credit card under them and raise the layers of petals, to add more dimension.

You could easily add more embellishment to the drums, if you were to make them for adults, but I decided this was enough for the children. I know they will love the drums to bits, but being children, they will handle and use them, deciding they were pretty enough for the handling they will receive.