This is a project following the prompts for #dephemerember2023 hosted by @49dragonflies and @luiseheinzl.
6. Selfie in a bubble
7. Clocks and wings
Bubble: Combine water-based colorant (watercolor, dye reinker, a little acrylic paint, coffee, whatever you’re going to use) with water and a few drops of dish detergent and water. Use a straw to blow bubbles in your solution and pick those up with a piece of paper. I used mixed media paper, and went on to stencil some additional bubble images.
Selfie in a bubble: I used a circular piece to back my selfie for the Dephemerember prompt.
Clock and wings: I printed the wings from an internet image search, and cut the clock using Sizzix Bigz Tick Tock #657830. The party always starts at 9:05.
Since I had some bubble background left, I used Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Merchant #CMS331 and another number set from my collection to create numbers for journal pages. The weather is perfect for a little heat embossing, so I used Ranger Tim Holtz embossing glaze in rustic wilderness, mermaid lagoon, and salvaged patina. It’s just too hot on the Gulf Coast to turn on a heat gun in the summer, and that lasts five+ months!
This is a project following the prompts for #dephemerember2023 hosted by @49dragonflies and @luiseheinzl.
4. Butterfly and 3 torn things
5. Salvaged birds
I started with a letter-size master board. For the master board just start gluing stuff down. Don’t worry too much about how it looks. If you have some blank spots, add more layers or some stenciling or some marks. If it’s too busy use some watered-down paint or gesso, or a layer of white tissue, to tone it down. Seriously, you can fix almost anything with another layer, and if you can’t it’s just paper.
Birds: I used the Sizzix Bigz Flying Bird #660259 to cut the birds from the master boards.
Butterflies: I used the remainder of the master board to cut 2 1/2” circles, which I then layered with a scrap of sheer fabric printed with butterflies. (The rest of this fabric is some cute curtains in my mother’s guest room.)
Straight corks are from still wine and bulbous corks are from sparkling wine. If you are not a wine drinker, many liquor stores collect corks for recycling and are happy for you to have a handful if you ask nicely.
These are a variation on peg dolls or kokeshi. Blank peg dolls are also available from craft suppliers if you prefer a more polished look. I think this would work with toilet paper tubes as well, although the scale would be different of course.
The corks are decorated with acrylic paint, Sharpie markers, paper, and whatever else I had lying around.
Wonder Woman – tiara is printed from an internet image
Superman – chest shield is printed from an internet image
C-3PO – eyes are 1/4” hand punch, chest mechanism is 1/2” circle and small decorative flower punch, “cables” are bits of cord
Princess Leia – hair is 1/2” and 3/4” circle punches
Minnie Mouse – ears are 3/4” circle punches, bow is printed from an internet image, necklace is seed beads
Marge Simpson – necklace is seed beads, hair is aluminum foil
Dorothy – hair is rick-rack and bottom of cork is coated in tiny red sequins
Harry Potter – tie and house shield are paper, owl is a tiny punch
Snowmen – googly eyes, air dry clay for carrot nose, 5 mm pom pom for coal buttons
Reindeer – chenille stem (pipe cleaner) for antlers, 1/4” hand punch for eyes, 5 mm pom pom for nose
Paper clips are hot-glued to back to hold place cards.
I found it helpful to coat each cork with a coat of white acrylic paint before starting any decoration, and I’m sure gesso would also work. The cork just drinks paint otherwise. Natural and synthetic corks both work fine, although acrylic paint does tend to flake on some synthetic corks.
Last page of my all Tim Holtz art journal, using Stamp Collector and Correspondence. Thank you for joining me for this series! I printed the Great Wave onto copy paper to use as a base, covered the wave with a mix of used postage stamps and stamped & fussy-cut stamps, and used vellum for the wave caps. The Ideology cardstock base pages were 12 x 12, so I cut them down to 8 1/2 x 11 and used the off-cuts to make a pocket on the back of each side.
You can buy used postage stamps in mixed lots. Check eBay, Etsy, or Mystic Stamps. Search term is “used postage stamps bulk”. Mixed lots will include quite a few of Queen Elizabeth II in a rainbow of colors, which is perfect for crafting!
Prices are current as of the day I typed this out (obvs.) Amazon links are affiliate, others are not. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Or I would, theoretically, if anyone ever followed a link and bought something, which I guess might happen someday.
I love gift bags for the convenience, but I want to dress them up a little. People love personalized items, and that’s something you can’t easily buy. Look through your own holiday stamps and dies to create fun tags.
I’m using a very old Sizzix Originals steel rule die (Tag, Super Scallop) to cut tags, but there are a million options for die tags. Pre-made tags are also reasonably priced.
I cut a number of tags in smooth white and textured kraft paper, then used small (3/4” tall / 2 cm) alphabet dies to cut names in each white tag. I adhered leftover wrapping paper behind the letters on the white tags, then adhered the cut-out letters onto the kraft tags. I decorated the kraft tags with die cuts of holiday greenery, dried citrus slices, and pine cones and the white tags with line art stamps and greetings.
Sizzix Tim Holtz Holiday Brushstroke 2 #665578, $10.06 from Sizzix on Amazon https://amzn.to/47d5td8
For 2023 products, your best bet is the 15% new email signup discount on Sizzix website or a Scrapbook .com sale. For older products, the Sizzix storefront on Amazon generally has the best price.
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Christmas Cartoons $29.99 everywhere I looked, since this is a 2023 product https://amzn.to/49ApNqp
YouTube and Instagram: papercraftcrystal
Prices are current as of the day I typed this out (obvs.) Amazon links (if any) are affiliate, others are not. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Or I would, theoretically, if anyone ever followed a link and bought something, which I guess might happen someday.
First tag, using the purchased dome: I cut the steel rule die using a variety of paper in dark shiny silver, gray, brown, and black. Next, I assembled the pieces of the TV. I stamped on the “screen” and built a shaker using the matching Sizzix shaker dome. I placed all of the pieces on a custom tag 4 1/4” wide by 6” tall.
Second tag, building my own: I cut the steel rule die 19 times in brown cardstock. I stacked 16 copies of the die, holding back three. I used two to build the back, sandwiching the stamped message and image between them. I used one to build the front, attaching a clear piece to make the screen. I used Foundry Wax to make the legs golden and partial embossing to make the antennae silver. I filled the well with shaker elements before attaching the top layer.
The sequins and other shaker elements are stored in 4 ounce Ikea spice shakers.
Stamps and Dies:
Sizzix Bigz Tim Holtz Retro TV #665371 $18.94 https://amzn.to/3QIinc3 , check Sizzix website for sale pricing which was $6.90
Sizzix Shaker Domes #664920 (set of 6, also matches Retro Oven) $6.99 https://amzn.to/3QC5xw4
Older Sizzix products are usually less from the Sizzix storefront on Amazon than from the Sizzix website, but they do offer a new email signup coupon for 15%.
Prices are current as of the day I typed this out (obvs.) Amazon links (if any) are affiliate, others are not. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Or I would, theoretically, if anyone ever followed a link and bought something, which I guess might happen someday.
I’m making some Tim Holtz Paper Village houses, including a comparison of the Paper Village houses to the original Tim Holtz Bigz Dwelling and Bigz Townhouse.
There are three house pieces, three roof pieces, and a bunch of door and window accessory dies. The packaging shows five houses to display the range of accessories. Select your accessory pieces to place inside the house die as you cut out the paper pieces.
If you want to use thin patterned paper, cut one set of house pieces from cardstock and one set from patterned paper. Cut the tabs off the patterned paper set and attach to the cardstock set before assembly. This is the time to add any inking, paint, or other details – while the pieces are flat!
The door pieces are partial-cut, so they will open if you use a single layer of cardstock. The doors are cut on three sides, leaving a paper hinge.
Cut two of each side of the house. Join at one side, then hold upright and flat on your work surface to join on the other side. This will keep the house level. Attach the roof last, pressing the tabs from inside for good adhesion. Use a high-grab adhesive for building, such as double-sided tape or hot glue. (The buildings from Paper Village are very small, so your hot glue gun would need a very fine tip.) The little porch roof has no tabs, so just run a bead of white glue along one edge and attach over the door, leaving the house flat on its back while that dries.
I used Paper Village in the video, but the sets are similar. Paper Village #2 includes a pointed roof for the townhouse, a chimney, and windows that partial-cut so they open.
Older Sizzix products are usually less from the Sizzix storefront on Amazon than from the Sizzix website, but they do offer a new email signup coupon for 15%.
YouTube and Instagram: papercraftcrystal
Prices are current as of the day I typed this out (obvs.) Amazon links (if any) are affiliate, others are not. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Or I would, theoretically, if anyone ever followed a link and bought something, which I guess might happen someday.
Barbara built her bowl with fabric layers and PVA glue over an existing bowl as the base. There’s a lot of drying time and not much rigidity in the finished project. I tried that approach with plaster, similar drying time but more rigidity, and that was a horrible idea that did not work at all. I’ve used plaster-infused gauze bandages in a paper mache project before with great success, so that was probably the better approach here. Lesson learned.
The second attempt was modeled on the base of a chocolate truffle box from Aldi. I cut a cardboard base into a square, with the maximum measurement dictated by the size of the box, and then removed the corners to make it a plus sign. I covered that with cotton fabric attached with a thin coat of PVA glue, which dried quickly. While leaving the corners in was fine on the truffle box, it didn’t work for me on my version. I cut out the fabric corners until the fabric matched my chipboard base. I attached ribbon to each top edge using hot glue. I folded up the sides and wrapped fabric strips and trim around the whole thing, attaching that with hot glue. I cut out Ephy, the #dephemerember mascot, from paper and attached that to the bottom of the bowl with a thin layer of PVA glue. The whole project took under 30 minutes start to finish.
Now, perhaps I’m stretching it to call this a “fabric bowl” since it’s about 40% cardboard and it’s pretty blocky. However, it was speedy and I like it. Looking forward to filling it with fun supplies for all the December challenges!
Two different ideas for presenting gifts of wine, beer, or soda. These are great for holiday gifts or party hosts, for Thanksgiving gatherings or Christmas or New Year’s. These are welcome gifts but always awkward to wrap! Today we’ll talk about decorated cardboard carriers and tags for the bottle neck.
You can buy the carriers plain, but generally you can get them for free wherever you are buying the beverages to put in the carrier. Check your grocery store. The free carriers typically display store branding rather than coming as a blank slate, but I found that easy to cover with acrylic paint or paper.
I’m linking to Amazon plain carriers because they sell low quantities, but these are also available at Uline or Papermart in quantities of 25 and up.
Drink carrier, for 4 20-oz cups, pack of 30 for $24.99 https://amzn.to/3tJsjdG These are good for shorter cans, such as catering minis of Coca-Cola.
Six-pack carrier, for 12-oz bottles or cans, pack of 10, kraft or white, for $16.99 kraft https://amzn.to/46GWnoH These will hold 16-oz plastic bottles of soda.
Four-pack carrier, for 750 ml bottles, pack of 10, kraft or white, $24.99 https://amzn.to/472AArh These will hold 32-oz or 1 liter plastic bottles of sparkling water.
Six-pack carrier, for 750 ml bottles, pack of 10, kraft or white, $29.99 https://amzn.to/497dAcz These will hold 32-oz or 1 liter plastic bottles of sparkling water.
DIES
Look through your stash of holiday products. The surface of these carriers is generally not smooth enough for stamping, so dies or stickers are ideal.
For decoration, I used die cuts from Sizzix Bigz Tim Holtz Festive Stems #664757
As usual, buying older products from Sizzix on Amazon is MUCH LESS.
1.75” circle punch from Stampin Up. Corner rounder is 1/2” from Zutter.
TAGS
You can adjust to your specific gift, but these are the dimensions I used that seemed pretty universal.
Tag is 2.5” wide and 8.5” tall, score at 2.5” and cut hole for neck in small end. Hole for neck is 1.75”. That’s just the size punch I happened to have, I think anything 1.5” – 2” would be fine.
This is a great opportunity to use off-cuts of holiday patterned paper and gift wrap. Tags are the right surface for stamping!
Instagram and YouTube: papercraftcrystal
Prices are current as of the day I typed this out (obvs.) Amazon links are affiliate, others are not. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Or I would, theoretically, if anyone ever followed a link and bought something, which I guess might happen someday.
Art journal page using Tim Holtz Sizzix dies Retro Type and Vintage Phone. I cut the dies using shades of dark, shiny cardstock, then layered them over collage paper adhered to a brown inky background left from the coffee spread. I put a halo of white tissue under each die so it would stand out from the busy background.
If you want to shop elsewhere, remember Simon Says Stamp carries a full range of absolutely all Tim Holtz products.
Instagram and YouTube: papercraftcrystal
Prices are current as of the day I typed this out (obvs.) Amazon links are affiliate, others are not. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Or I would, theoretically, if anyone ever followed a link and bought something, which I guess might happen someday.
Papercraft Crystal 