Green Craft: Envelopes made with magazines

I have a stack of old magazines and was trying to think of ways to use them. I'm making a list of magazine crafts - my list so far: envelopes (check), cards (in progress) and gift bows. Do you have any other ideas? Links to tutorials?

Making the envelopes was super easy to do and I've already started making cards to go in them. :-)


Supplies: Envelope template, magazine, scissors, scorer (to score the folds)

I made a template for an envelopes that will fit 1/4 piece of paper - so the cards I will make will be half a sheet of paper folded in half. You can download my template here. I printed it onto card stock and cut it out.

 

Then I went through my magazines and pulled out pages that I liked.

  

I put the template on the back of the page and traced it - I did not trace on the side I wanted out the outside of the envelope.

 

 I had a stack of magazine pages ready to be folded into envelopes.

 

I used a straight edge and a scorer to score the four fold lines (you can see the fold lines in the template).

 

First I folded up the two side flaps.Then the top and bottom flap

 

I put double-sided tape on both of the side flaps and then folded the bottom flap up - making sure that the paper was smooth once it was taped together.

 

Next you just need to fold the top flap down and you have an envelope. Once you are ready to mail the envelope you can either use double-sided tape or a nice sticker to seal it shut.

 

When I mail the envelopes I plan on writing or printing the address on a white mailing label and sticking it to the front of the envelope.

Here is the stack of envelopes I made...

 

and here are some of my favourites.

   

 I have a coffee problem. Mmm coffee.

Envelope Template





http://secretpieshoppe.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-02-10T21%3A31%3A00-06%3A00&max-results=8

Update: PDF tutorials posted

PDF tutorials have been created and posted for the following projects. 

The link to the PDF is found at the bottom of each post.

Valentine's Day Wall Art

 

 Felt Heart Wreath

Cloth Snack Bag

Cloth Coaster

Craft: Fabric Flower Earrings

I had some small scraps of material left over from my quilt and wanted to try to find a way to use them. I saw fabric flower earrings on Happy Together and decided to make them. I made them a little differently so here is how I made them.

Supplies: Earring backs, hot glue gun (or other glue), pearl beads (or other small beads), fabric scraps, small button to trace

First I traced the button on the fabric and cut out circles. You can see how tiny my scraps were - you don't need much fabric at all. This scrap, not even 3'' by 2'' made 10 circles.

You'll need 7 circles for each earring - 14 circles per pair of earrings.

The earring starts with one circle. This will be the bottom layer of the earring.

 

 Fold two circles in half - with the right-side on the outside.

Put them on top of the bottom-layer circle - side by side so they completely cover the bottom-layer circle and create a circle of their own.  Sew them onto the bottom-layer circle.I just sewed in two spots near the middle. You can use the same piece of thread to sew all of the layers on so make sure it's long enough.

Take the four leftover circles and fold them in half and then in half again, right-side facing out.

Place one on the earring circle and sew it to the layers (one full circle, two 1/2 circles) at the very point....this picture might make more sense.

Grab another folded circle and place it right across from the first one. Sew it to the earring layers at the point.

In the same way, sew the remaining two folded circles between the already sewen ones - so that all four 1/4 circles make one circle. Tie off the thread.

Now the tough part is done. Sew your pearl (or any bead) to the center of the flower.

The two finished flowers.

Next I used a hot glue gun to glue the earring backs to the back of the flower.

 

Three completed pairs! I used a dime for the grey flowers but thought it was too bit so I used a small button for the red and blue flowers and liked them much better.

PDF Tutorial

Featured on:

Craft: Valentine's Day Wall Art

I loved how my Valentine's Day garland and wreath looked so I decided to make another Valentine's Day decoration. In our living room we have a big blank wall that is patiently waiting for us to finish the wall art we plan on hanging. I decided to use that space and try to make a simple, cheap wall art.

Supplies: Card stock, pattern to print (I did sheet music), scissors, tape
Cost: $0  (I already had all of the supplies)

I started off by printing off sheet music. I printed two pages on each 8 1/2'' x 11'' sheet of paper.

Then I found a heart shape that I liked (via google images). I used this heart and edited the biggest heart in paint (very sophisticated...) so that I just had the outline. I made the outline light grey. I printed the hearts on the back of the sheet music - I was able to fit two hearts on each page of music so since there are two pages of music per sheet I was able to fit four hearts on each 8 1/2'' x 11'' page. I also printed out one red heart.

I cut out the hearts by hand - I'm very jealous of people with cricuts or other similar machines that do it for you. :-)

I had originally planned on just taping the hearts to the wall (I was going for very simple wall art) but decided it might look neat if the hearts stood a little bit off of the wall. To do this I cut out strips of paper that were 3.5'' long and 1/2'' wide. I folded the strips of paper so that it would create a little square - each side was 3/4'' long and there was a 1/2'' overlap on one end - where I taped the square together. 

Does that make sense? no? Here's a picture that might help explain it. 

I printed the outline with the folding lines (light grey) onto card stock and cut them out.

I folded all of the strips of paper and taped them together.

Then I taped them to the backs of the hearts.

All of the hearts.

I laid the hearts on the floor to figure out the layout. I didn't keep track of how many hearts I made but when I decided to make 8 rows of 8 I magically had the exact number of hearts needed. :-)

Then I started the slow process of taping them all to the wall. I used a level to make sure the first row was straight and for the other rows I ued a mix of the level and just eyeing it.

All done!

 

(please ignore the cushions - we're working on making new covers but have yet to find a fabric we like)

A close up of the "3-D action"

I think it turned out great. It'll stay up until we finally finish the frames we are making for the ceiling tiles that we will hang on this wall.

After I take them down they'll be carelfully packed away until next Valentine's Day.

N liked this project and decided to make his own version for the basement.

(dark basements aren't the best for photos...)

Any Zelda fans? :-)

PDF Tutorial