Stuff to Do With Paper Scraps

Really enjoyed this DesignSponge post on re-using paper scraps for simple crafts. This could be a good idea for leftover wrapping paper!

DIY Gift Bows

Awhile back, I shared a DIY trick for making gift toppers out of plastic bags.


As the holiday season approaches again, I thought I'd pass along this tutorial from How About Orange on making gift bows out of recycled items you have on hand, like maps or magazine pages.

A Childhood Classic Revisited

Some people take coffee breaks, I take craft breaks. In honor of the cold weather we've been having here in DC, I present to you a (mostly clean) paper towel (from the office kitchen) turned snowflake. What can I say, I enjoy using scissors as stress relief.


As you may be able to tell, it's been strategically posed on my office chair, and photographed with the not super high resolution camera on my phone. As for the original, it is now hanging in my office window.

DIY Japanese Paper Dolls Tutorial

These Japanese paper dolls that Kimono Reincarnate makes are super adorable. They could work as bookmarks for those who want a more grown-up way to play with dolls. Here's the easy tutorial.

Happy Easter!

Or Spring....or belated Passover...or whatever you may celebrate!  =)  I'm in the middle of the fun process of packing boxes before I move tomorrow.  But if you have free time, jinjerup provides these adorable chick bookmarks to print (via Folding Trees). 

Envelope to Gift Bag Tutorial

I've posted before with tutorials for how to use envelopes to create beads and to make new envelopes.

This time, How About Orange provides a great tutorial so you can learn how to turn old envelopes into nice gift bags in just a few steps.

P.S. This is not an April Fool's Day joke! =)

Recycled Envelope Bead Tutorial

 

A while back, I posted about re-using old security envelopes to make new, pretty envelopes.  Well, here's another option: turning those junk mail envelopes into lovely paper beads.  Laupre has an explanation of how to make them.  (via Folding Trees) 

Presidential Puppets

Election Day is coming.... It's always been one of my favorite days of the year (yes, yes, complete dork). And if you wanna celebrate it with crafting fun, one way is to print out some of these downloadable presidential/vice-presidential finger puppets. No comment about which finger I'd suggest for certain candidates.

More Kirigami Fun

Folding Trees offers a review of Easy Cut Pop Up Cards, a line of pop up card designs advertised as making kirigami simple to do.  I think this card is super cute!

Gift Wrap Re-Use

 Hi guys, sorry for no posts in a while.  I've been sick.  Hopefully, I'll do better this week, but I am going out of town late in the week, so I'm not making any promises.

I often find myself saving supplies (cardboard comes to mind) with no actual plan for how I can reuse these useful items for some kind of craft.   For those of you who have wrapping paper lying around for no apparent reason, I thought I'd post some ideas.

I found a few ideas via Tickled Pink:

::  Use pieces of old wrapping paper as cummerbunds around the gifts.
::  Use pieces of old wrapping paper to make a collage for new wrapping or create works of art.
::  Cut into squares and make origami.
::  Put it through a paper shredder for stuffing other gift bags and gifts going in the mail.
::  Decoupage it onto cardboard or wooden shapes to make decorations.
::  Use it as a mat for picture frames.

A few more thoughts:

::  Instead of using it as just a mat for picture frames, you could actually just use especially pretty wrapping paper as a picture itself.
::  Use it to make kirigami flowers
::  Add it to some blank card stock and make pretty greeting cards


Good luck!

Love Letter Box

Folding Trees comes through once again with this beautiful picture from Craftster user nicolatte (you can also see more views here). 

You can also learn how to make your own box.  So romantic!

Cute Embroidered Notecards

Craftzine recently posted about these adorable notecards from one of my favorite Etsy sellers, Bird and Banner. Much of Bird & Banner's stock includes the sweet phrase, "When you see this, think of me," but I am a big fan of these new cards with pre-punched holes and embroidery floss.

They say it takes under 10 minutes to make a card, and I'm sure your loved ones would like a nice reminder that you care! At $18 (plus shipping) for a pack of 5 notecards, these might not be the cheapest craft ever, but I think that it wouldn't be too hard to try making some simple embroidered cards of your own.

Baking with Cardboard

This post is written especially for those who like to look at food but not eat it.

Art on the Menu on Etsy sells handmade art that is inspired by food. All of the works are made with cardboard, acrylics, or watercolor. I would imagine that a creative person could figure out how to make fake food like this too. Mmm, crunchy.

Fashion from Paper

You must check out this amazing collection of paper dresses put together by painter/textile designer Isabelle de Borchgrave and costumer Rita Brown. Papiers a la Mode is a traveling exhibit of these gorgeous paper craft takes on 300 years of fashion. Prepare to be amazed what some folks can do with a little paper. (via Folding Trees)

DIY Business Envelopes to Pretty Envelopes Tutorial

Hi all, wonderful news: my nephew is on the mend! Here's a fun little project from Design Sponge I came across via Folding Trees. All it involves really is carefully turning junk mail envelopes inside out. Check out the tutorial at Design Sponge.

Recycled Map Project

Growing up, we used to get used National Geographics for sale at the library. Many have maps included inside. Those maps always ended up on our walls, but you could also make use of the maps for lots of interesting crafts.

I came across this recycled map stationery set on eco-artware.com. This seems like it could be a pretty easy DIY project. I also think that old maps could make very nice gift wrap!

Craft: Japanese Paper Boxes

I've gotten fascinated by paper. It's just amazing all the things people can do with it. I was never into origami as a kid, but maybe I was just a late-origami bloomer. One item on my craft "to buy" list is a Japanese paper box kit. I'm told they are super-easy and fun.

After I've tried one with instructions, then maybe I'll be ready to tackle Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories' tutorial on how to make a small box without a kit. Actually, the tutorial doesn't look very hard; I just need time to gather the relevant supplies. But as you can see below, the effort will be worth it:

Covered Business Card Box

A few weeks back, Jessica on How About Orange posted with instructions for making a box out of business cards. The folding instructions came from here, but Jessica gave suggestions for how to make the box without flaps on the outside. I decided to give it a try, and it was incredibly easy!

So I added my own twist: I used rubber cement to add some of my beautiful koi paper. I simply took each business card and cut paper to fit, added rubber cement to both the back of the paper and the business card, and trimmed the edges. The whole task took less than 5 minutes. You can see the results above (through the blurriness of my camera phone).

Craft: Kirigami

Now that law school's over with, I have all this free time, and better yet: free brain space! So, I'm looking into what kinds of creative outlets I plan on having. One thing that I definitely want to do is some form of paper craft...and I think kirigami (also sometimes spelled kiragami) is gonna be my solution.

What is kirigami? Well, it's a traditional Japanese folk art of paper cutting (think origami, plus scissors). It also goes by origami architecture, paper cuts, paper sculpture, etc.. There are a few books out there, which I plan on checking out. But a brief web search has shown me that there are many types of art out there that people are calling kirigami.

Some Examples:


From Marivi's Origamic Architecture:

(Marivi actually offers free downloadable patterns for this and some other cards. This one's called 2 Cupids--send it to the one you love!)



From lilzabubba on Flickr:


From Gerry Stormer's Web Gallery:

(Gerry includes lots of links to other Origamic Architecture sites, for those who want to see more.)