Paper Art

You've heard of Snowflakes... well, get ready for what we have termed "Flowerflakes"! This past winter I did a blog on creating traditional snowflakes. The post can be found HERE.

Besides adding beauty to the house, it served a purpose. Our bird feeders are right outside this window. Our feathered friends can mistake the glass window for "sky" and fly into the window. We discovered that when we put up the snowflakes, we had far fewer mishaps! We decided that we'd need to do something similar in the spring when the snowflakes came down.

Since we liked the airy look of the snowflakes, we decided to make traditional snowflakes using colored computer paper, add a few leaves, and wah lah... our indoor flower garden was created! It works much the same as the snowflakes, giving our birds a visual barrier. Plus, it looks lovely :)

Directions for cutting out snowflakes can be found HERE, plus, if you Google cutting out snowflakes, you'll find tons of patterns. We like to just start cutting, but sometimes it's nice to gather ideas, too :)

The PDF for the leaf can be found HERE. Begin by making a template out of a heavy paper like cardstock. When it is cut out, fold a piece of green paper in half and place the leaf template on the fold. Using a pencil, press lightly, and trace the leaf on the paper. NOTE: I used marker to trace my leaf for purposes of the tutorial. If you use a light pencil, you won't see any leftover marks.

With the paper folded, cut out the leaf, cutting away the "X"ed sections.

Using fishing line or invisible thread, randomly hang leaves and flowers in your window.

 
A lovely Spring decoration, and a safety feature for your backyard birds :)

All photos, text and patterns are copyright protected. You may not copy, reproduce or redistribute any material found on WeeFolkArt.com without written permission. Wee Folk Art retains all rights.

Photos 4-28-13,4-30-13

Making rolled paper beads is so easy, and they turn out so beautiful, that you will find that you can easily get addicted to this nifty past time. What do you do with the beads when you are done? Anything you would do with any other beads. The durability of the bead really depends on how the beads are finished. So, let's just jump in and get started.

Materials Needed:
Paper - I love using colorful catalogs. My favorite are Fossil Catalogs. Usually they have beautiful theme colors. You can also use used wrapping paper, newspaper, or use regular printer paper and color your own. If you do that, however, make sure to use markers that will not bleed with wet.

Scissors

Pencil and ruler - optional

Glue - I like using glue sticks but any of the crafting glues are fine

Rolling bar - You will be rolling strips of paper around something. You can use skewers, round toothpicks or small sized knitting needles. (Note: the needles may be damaged by glue so only use old needles : ) Obviously, the smaller the diameter of the rolling bar, the smaller the hole in the bead. I used size 4 knitting needles. This left a bigger hole making it easier for the wee ones to thread.

Finishing/Sealer - Optional - You can use Modge Podge, clear nail polish, crafting glue watered down about half and half, polyurethane or leave unfinished.

Begin by cutting the paper into long triangular strips. I simply eyeballed the process. I'd take a piece of paper, say an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper or magazine page, and starting at one side, cut across to the other side. Then I'd make another cut, about 1" to 1 1/2" from my last cut, but angling my cut so I'd be down to a point on the other end. I'd flip the paper over and go back the other way. My triangles were about 8 1/2" long. The triangles weren't perfect, but when you rolled them, it really didn't matter. If you prefer, you can actually use a ruler and pencil and mark the paper giving yourself cutting lines. I tried that once, but it dramatically slowed me down so I just cut willy nilly : ) The paper can be cut wider and narrower and longer and shorter to change the size of the bead.

When you have your strips, begin rolling one at a time on your rolling bar. Start at the wide side. You want to roll them tight so the beads are solid, but not so tight you can't get them off the bar. TIP: If you are having trouble getting the end to stay in place as you begin to roll, you can moisten the very end SLIGHTLY. (Barely moistened.) Uh, would I totally gross you guys out if I told you I just stick the end between my lips for a second? If I did gross you out, umm... I was just kidding  :)

When you get down to the last couple inches, put glue on the end. This is really easy to do with a glue stick.

Let the glue dry. (With the glue stick, I was able to take the beads off almost immediately.) You can now remove the bead. Try twisting the bead as you remove it from the rolling bar. If you pull it straight off, sometimes the bead will unravel.

Finishing the beads: If you decide to finish the beads, which I do recommend, simply coat the bead with your sealer of choice and allow to dry completely. If you are using a hard finish like polyurethane or clear nail polish, it works well to use toothpicks. Instead of removing your bead, leave it on, and put on the finish. You can push the toothpicks into Styrofoam so the beads do not touch one another. When dry, remove. This will give the hardest finish that should not stick together if moist. (Humidity or skin moisture.)

Using glue or Modge Podge is faster and children can help, but it won't give you as tough a finish. I found I could string the beads side by side on a knitting needle and coat several at a time with Modge Podge. When they dried, I slipped them off the knitting needle and they easily popped apart.

Now, simply decide what you want to do with your beads and string them together :)

The other day on Facebook I shared a link to a posting for handmade Christmas cards on Back to the Drawing Board. The designer made a landscape using tissue paper trees, had them reduced and photo coped, then used them to make some awesome Christmas cards. Do check out her project. I thought the inside of her trees was especially clever!

We loved the bright and cheerful trees so much that we used the idea to make pictures of our own to display throughout the winter. We began by taping our water color paper to the table. This stops the paper from moving around and creates a border around your picture when the tape is removed. We used this same technique when we made our Winter Birch Trees last year.

After the paper was taped down, we used water colors to paint the sky blue, fading it into white. 

Next, we chose our tissue paper colors and cut them into squares.

We then smeared glue stick on cardstock paper, and added the squares in random patterns.

When the pages were dried, we turned them over and drew very geometrical triangles on the back, and cut out our trees. This was a joint project. We only made 2 pictures, one for Michelle's and one for my house. Usually the wee ones make their own projects, but it was fun working cooperatively on this project :) Together we decided on the placement of the trees and glued them down.

Funny, as it turns out, their favorite part of this whole project was using the hole punch to "make snow". Even though their hands got tired, they were delighted they could make these perfect little circles. Pixie, btw, preferred to make crescent moon shapes by punching overlapping holes :) (BTW... As soon as we were done, Fairy went to a 5 hour final dress rehearsal for the production The Nutcracker that she will be dancing in, as a cute mouse, this weekend. She needed her hair braided and pinned close to her head so all of her hair would fit under her costumes hood! Doesn't she look like she fell out of the pages of Heidi :)

Finally, we added dots of glue to our trees, and glued down the snow. All done! (Note: the artist at Back to the Drawing Board added detail using a thin tipped marker. We opted not to add this detail.

Then, wah lah! Our Winter Tissue Paper Trees were done! They will add a cheerful addition to our homes throughout the winter months. They remind me of Eric Carle illustrations. Fun!

PS... Thank you, Pam, for the inspiration your project gave us!

Photo 12-6-12
 

German Stars, also called, Moravian Stars, have long fascinated me. I had planned to make some a while back with my SIL Jennifer, but when our star making morning fell through, I forgot about them. Then, a couple of weeks ago, with a little time on my hands, I gave them a try. I cut my own strips out of wrapping paper, followed a wonderful tutorial I found at With A Grateful Prayer and A Thankful Heart, and made my first star. Exciting beyond belief! HOWEVER, the wrapping paper did not work well for me... it was hard to cut, too thin, and you could see the back of the paper. So, I went on Etsy, typed in German Star Strips, and found a wonderful selection. I wound up buying strips that were 3/4" wide, and they made stars that were 3 1/2" when finished.

I considered writing up the directions here, but honestly, I could not do better than the 2 part video tutorial found at With A Grateful Prayer and A Thankful Heart. Lorraine is a won.der.ful teacher, and her tutorial is easy to follow and well done. So, let me send you over to her to learn how to make them :) Here's my first go-around making them, following her instructions:

I call these my "Candy Cane Stars". I made a few other sets, too. I made 6 of each, and added metallic embroidery floss for hanging them on a tree. Here are my "Eloquent Stars"... nice and shiny

my "Pastel Stars"

and my "Rainbow Stars".

I also made a bunch of "Pure White Stars" to add to my Snowflake windows.

I will caution you, they are very addicting! If you feel like you are all thumbs the first time you make one, not to worry. Before you know it, you'll be able to fold them with your eyes closed. I made all the stars, except the white ones, as gifts. I plan to make more for myself in various colorways, and use them throughout the year in my seasonal decorating. Give them a try. Tons of fun :)

So, we've been talking quite a bit about letterboxing lately. If you've had a chance to get out and give it a try then you may have run across some fun... even amazing... homemade stamps. You can use any stamp as a signature stamp... but of course it would be even more fun to make your own. Here is a basic run down of how to make your own stamp using our spider applique block as inspiration.

NOTE: The most important thing to remember when making a stamp is that the image will print in reverse! So if you are incorporating any text into your design, the letters must read backwards on your stamp face. Don’t forget.

Ok, on to stamp making. What you need is a sheet of linoleum (or an eraser), carving tools and a razor. You can buy a basic Stamp Making kit for around ten-twelve dollars. The stamp in this tutorial was made using a kit. Optionally you may want a piece of 1-1.5” thick wood and super glue. You will also need a pattern or image scaled to the size of stamp you would like to make. For our project today, I scaled the spider image down to 50%. This is a good size stamp to use for letter boxing. Any smaller and it would be hard to carve, much larger and it may not fit in some of the journals that you find.

Transfer the image to your stamp material. I did this by rubbing pencil lead all over the back of the image and then traced it hard onto the stamp material (remember it will turn out backwards… but that is not an issue with just the little spider he can face either way).

Trace the faint lines with a permanent marker. You want nice thick lines. If your image is very detailed you will want to simplify somewhat. Fill in with the marker any part of the image that you want to show up on your stamp.

If you have a large sheet of linoleum, use a razor to cut out the image leaving at least a ½” boarder around your image. Using your carving tools, carefully shave away the non marker portion of the stamp face. I find that holding the carving tool still and moving the linoleum around was the easiest way to carve the initial outline of the shape.

You may want to trim up your stamp with the razor even more now.

Once you only have the black portion remaining test your stamp.

If you are getting wayward stamp marks, use your carving tools to smooth away any of the excess bumps. Test again.

Once you are satisfied with your stamp you can glue it to a small piece of wood to make it sturdier and easier to handle.

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