Lots of Presents Birthday Card

I love to send hand-made cards to my friends on their birthday's. I'm always on the lookout for fun cards ideas that can be sent without using extra postage. I saw this idea in Cards and it fit the bill perfectly!


Tools Needed:

• Paper cutter
• Scissors
• Adhesive
• Glue Dots
• Foam tape
• Darning thread or crafting floss
• White card stock
• Solid card stock
• 3 - pieces of coordinating patterned paper
• Sentiment
• Glitter glue

Start with an 8.5" x 11" piece of white card stock. Cut it to 5.5" x 8.5" and fold it to 5.5" x 4.25". 


Cut the remaining white card stock to 4.5" x 3.25". Cut the colored card stock to 5" x 3.75". Adhere the white card stock to the colored card stock and the colored card stock to the card base. 


Cut 6 - 3/4" x 3/4" squares from patterned paper. Place a piece of foam tape on the back of each square. Adhere squares to card with about a 1/2" between each square.


Tie 9 bows with darning thread or crafting floss. Adhere a bow to the top of each package with a glue dot. 


Use a rub-on or sentiment sticker on the top of the card. I added some Stickles (glitter glue) on either side of the sentiment.  


Enjoy!

Paper Flower - Paper Craft Technique

One of my goals this year was to give hand-made cards to my friends & family on their birthday. I didn't want to send everyone the same card so I began looking for new ideas. I was happy to find this paper flower technique in a magazine. 


Paper flowers are a great technique to use when you need to make a card in a pinch. The steps are simple and use a limited amount supplies. Also, they can be sent through the mail with standard postage.  

Tools Needed:

• 1" circle punch
• 1-1/2" circle punch
• double-sided card stock
• coordinating solid card stock
• 1 brad
• 1 small flower embellishment
• scissors

Punch one 1-1/2" circle and one 1" circle from the solid card stock and set aside. Punch twelve 1" circles from the double-sided card stock.

Fold in the corners of six 1" circles to form the shape of a petal. Fold the other six circles in the opposite direction so an alternating design is showing on half of the petals. 

Using a dry adhesive begin adhering the petals to the 1-1/2" circle. Try to keep the top of the petal's aligned. It's okay if the flower doesn't sit exactly on the center of the circle because when your done the circle isn't visible. 

To finish the flower, lay the 1" circle from the coordinating card stock in the center of the flower. Using scissors pierce a hole through the center of both layers. Lay the flower embellishment on the circle and thread the brad through all the layers opening the prongs of the brad to secure.

To make the card in the example, I matted patterned card stock with solid card stock and adhered to a pre-made card base. I also added a 1-1/2" strip of patterned card stock to the left side of the card. Then, I punched a tag out of cream card stock and applied a "Happy Birthday" rub-on with 3 adhesive rhinestones underneath. 


The options are endless with this technique. You can increase the size of the flowers by using larger punches. You can add stems to your flowers using ribbon or even assemble a entire garden!


Enjoy!!

Pleated Circles - Paper Craft Technique

I've been seeing these pleated circles everywhere and I can't get over how cute they are!!


Recently, I read an article about how to make them and couldn't wait to try it out. I had to play with them a bit but I finally got it down. I really liked the creative liberties you can take with these circles. I listed some of the variations in the tips section. 


Tools Needed:

• Hot glue gun & glue sticks
• 12 x 12" card stock
• Paper trimmer
• Scoring tool or popsicle stick
• 1" Circle punch
• Brads or stickers 

1. Cut card stock to 12 x 1-1/2"

2. Using the guide of a paper trimmer and scorer or popsicle stick, score the strip every 1/2" and fold it accordion-style. 

3. Using a hot glue gun apply a small line of glue and connect the edges together; you will have something that looks like a pleated cylinder.

4. Punch a circle from scrap stock and have it ready. Working on a smooth surface press the edges into the center until they meet in the middle, making a little tee pee. Continue to press down until your tee pee is flat, forming a circle. 

5. Hot glue a circle to the back of your flower to help stabilize it. Flip it over and squeeze a little more glue in the middle. 

6. Embellish the center of your circle with brads, smaller circles or stickers. I used 3 different brads on my example. I felt the easiest way to attach the brad was to clip the prongs off the brad and hot glued it to the front. 

Tips:

- I used my circles to make a card, however in the magazine they had sewn many circles together to form a garland. It was awesome, but I don't have that kind of time!! If you do, simply punch one or two holes on both sides of each circle and stitch them together. 

- For smaller circles, cut the strip 12 x 1/2" up to 12 x 1-1/2"

- For large circles, you will need to cut 2 wider strips of card stock (for example, 12 x 2-1/2" up to 12 x 4"), glue the strips together after you accordion fold them. 

- Your accordion folds can be as wide or narrow as you wish.

- I don't think I would recommend this project for kids. I ended up with 2 blisters on my fingers from the hot glue. Ouch!!

Love is in the air...

Valentines Day is getting close and I wanted to share a few card ideas, as well as, some treat ideas over the next couple weeks. Enjoy!

Materials list:
1 - 12 x 12 sheet of cream or white card stock
1 - Brown card stock
1 - Patterned piece of paper (pink polka dots on cream paper used in example)
3 or more colors of darning thread
Darning needle
Adhesive
Paper Trimmer
Scissors
Pen or pencil
Mouse pad or cork board


I tried to make this card using things that you might have at home already.
The first step is cutting your card stock.
   Cut cream or white card stock to 10 x 6 1/2 in. then fold it to 5 x 6 1/2 in.
   (you can also purchase pre-made card bases at Michaels in bulk).
   Cut brown card stock to 4 3/4 x 6 1/4 in
   Cut patterned card stock to 4 1/2 x 6 in.

Next turn your patterned paper over and free hand several hearts and in the right hand corner write OX.

Than place your patterned card stock on the your mouse pad or cork board and with your darning needle poke holes around your letters and hearts. The trick is to get them close enough so that you get the detail of the shape but not too close that the paper rips when you pull the thread through. When you turn it over it will look like one of those lacing cards you played with in preschool.

 Now you want to thread your needle and start looping your thread through each hole. The back won't look pretty but don't worry no one will see it.














Now you are almost done. Just adhere your patterned card stock to the brown card stock. Then your brown card stock to your cream or white card and your finished!! These are simple, fast and budget friendly cards to make for Valentines Day. You can play around with spelling out different sayings (just make sure to write them backwards) or you can use some cute glitter letter stickers to spell out your sentiment.

I'll post a few more card idea using different tools and products soon.