Paper Craft | Cool2Craft

Ruby Rock-It Stepper Card—Special CHA Feature

March 11, 2013 By Lisa Fulmer 7 Comments

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Ruby Rock-It’s booth at the Winter Craft & Hobby show in January was just packed to the brim with pretty! They had a really cute wrought iron gazebo in the center of the action, and their Design Team filled every shelf with gorgeous projects that warranted looooong periods of lingering in the booth to admire.

They have an extensive line of lovely papers and embellishments for cardmaking, scrapbooking, and general crafts. Rachel Carlson, Ruby Rock-It’s Marketing Director, took some time to show me their new Stepper cards and their gorgeous Decoupage dimensional elements.

Watch my YouTube video visit with Rachel Carlson at the Ruby-Rock It booth!

Stepper cards are pre-scored pop-up cards in a “stair step” shape that come with matching envelopes. In just 4 easy steps, you have a beautiful and unique greeting card!

1. Fold the Stepper card along the score lines and press with a bone folder.

2. Adhere background paper(s) to the larger back panel and to the smaller front panel.

3. Embellish one corner of the front panel with a multi-layered Ruby Rock-It Decoupage image, using dimensional foam dots or squares.

4. Add a sticker or stamp with your desired sentiment on the front panel.

Now here’s your chance to win a lovely selection of Ruby Rock-It papers and embellishments! Leave a comment here for your chance to win…deadline to enter is 3/24/13. (Contest open to residents of USA only.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Filed Under: Featured Top Left, Lisa Fulmer Tagged With: bird, butterfly, Decoupage, Lisa Fulmer, paper craft, Ruby Rock-It, stepper card

Handmade Molded Paper by Candace Jedrowicz

February 17, 2013 By cjedrowicz Leave a Comment

Handmade Paper Wall Art by Candace Jedrowicz 300x150

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Candace Jedrowicz loves when EcoHeidi Borchers creates handmade paper so she decided to try Heidi’s recipe to shape paper pulp using a clay mold of an old jewelry box panel. Featured on Cool2Craft TV.

Watch Candace’s fun and easy Handmade Paper in a Mold YouTube video tutorial!

Note from Candace: I’m going to defer to EcoHeidi’s directions for making the paper. In this recipe, she uses paper towels! She’s so clever!

Materials:

Paper towels
Construction paper – colors of choice
Paper shreds – colors of your choice
Blender with lid (this should be a mixer that you use only for paper making/crafting. Do not use your good kitchen mixer.)
Water
Wooden or plastic spoon (to mix)
Plastic tub with water
Paper deckle (or create your own with wood frame and metal or plastic window screen)
Towels (You will need several old towels to place on worksurface to use while paper is drying. You can also use layers of chamois.)
Sponge
Optional: Iron, glitter or other embellishments to add to paper mixture

For my project, you want to add these items to your supplies list:

Paint brush
Copper flecks for paper making
Earthenware or plaster mold
Alcohol ink
Metallic paste – I used gold and copper

Now, back to EcoHeidi’s recipe…

	Tear apart paper towel plies.

	Rip into smaller pieces and put into blender filled half way with water. Do not overfill. It is better to make several small batches.

	Tear construction paper into small pieces and add to blender.

	Add paper shreds to blender.

	Mix to moisten paper. Let sit in water for about 30 minutes.

	Turn on blender and mix for 30 – 60 seconds.

	Check to see if mixture is desired consistency and color. If desired, turn on blender again until mixture reaches your desired consistency.

	Fill tub half way with clear water. Pour mixture into tub.

	Stir mixture.

	If desired, cut more shreds into mixture.

	I created my deckle from a wooden frame and window screen. I just cut my screen to fit over the frame and I stapled it in place around the outside edge.

	Insert end of frame into tub and carefully submerge it underneath the mixture.

	Carefully lift up the frame so that it catches the paper mixture. Gently shake excess water into tub.

	Place several layers of towels onto protected work surface. Place frame face down onto towels.

	Use sponge to wick up excess water. Squeeze water from sponge and continue until paper easily releases when frame is lifted.

Here’s where we transfer the paper to the mold.

1. Gently pick the paper up and lay it in the mold, pushing lightly with a paint brush to get into all the depressions in the mold.

2. The paper will be fairly thin, so dip into the paper pulp in the pan and add another layer to the mold.

3. Allow to dry overnight.

4. Remove the paper from the mold.

5. Spritz with alcohol ink until you get the look you want. Allow to dry.

6. Add accents with metallic paste.

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Filed Under: Candace Jedrowicz, Featured Top Left, Idea Gallery Tagged With: Candace Jedrowicz, handmade paper, molded paper, Paper, paper craft, paper mold, recycle, wall art

Tissue Box Earrings by Candace Jedrowicz

December 23, 2012 By cjedrowicz Leave a Comment

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Of all the projects Candace Jedrowicz crafted this year, the Tissue Box Pendant made the biggest impact! Candace has been collecting tons of boxes with lovely prints and finishes and making all kinds of fun things. Featured on Cool2Craft TV.

Watch Candace’s super cool Tissue Box Earring YouTube video tutorial!

Materials:

Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue
Tissue box
Scissors and/or shape punch – I used a 1 1/8″ circle punch
Small hole punch – I used a 1/8″
Weight or clamp (to hold pieces together while glue dries)
Dimensional sealer
20 gauge wire
Round nose pliers
Chain nose pliers
Wire cutters
Beads
High grit sandpaper or fingernail buffer

1. Cut or punch 2 shapes for each earrings and one piece to go between the 2.

2. Glue each set of the 3 layers together, place a weight or clamp on each assemblage and allow to dry.

3. Punch a small hole in each for hanging.

4. Cut a 3″ piece of wire for each earring.

5. Beginning 1″ from one end, fold over the round nose pliers and crimp with the chain nose pliers to form a loop.

6. Slide the loop through the hole in the cardboard and slip a bead over both wire ends.

7. Grasp the loop with the round nose pliers and wrap the short wire tail around the long tail.

8. Bend the long tail around the handle of the pliers (or anything that you have handy) to form the ear wire and cut off the excess.

8. File the ends of the the ear wires until smooth.

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Filed Under: Candace Jedrowicz, Featured Top Left, Idea Gallery Tagged With: Aleene's Tacky Glue, Candace Jedrowicz, jewelry, jewelry craft, paper craft, recycle craft, tissue box, wire

Snowflake Holiday Cupcake Toppers by Savannah Starr

December 2, 2012 By Savannah Leave a Comment

Snowflake Cupcake Toppers by Savannah Starr 300x150

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Savannah Starr crafts up some easy snowflake themed cupcake toppers. A great way add some holiday flair to your cupcake desserts. Featured on Cool2Craft TV.

Watch Savannah’s super cool Snowflake Cupcake Topper YouTube video tutorial.

Materials

Silver scrapbook paper
Die cut machine and die cut of choice
Aleene’s Tacky Dot Singles
Rhinestones
Aleene’s Tacky Glue

1. Cut two layers of paper with die cut machine.

2. Apply Tacky Dot Single to back of each piece of paper.

3. Place toothpick in center. Glue the two diecuts together with toothpick in between.

4. If desired, glue rhinestone in place in center of both sides of topper.

5. Place into cupcake.

Designer note: There are many different styles of snowflakes available at the craft store that you can use for your cupcake toppers. At my local store, I found snowflake ornaments, felt snowflakes and button snowflakes that can all be used for this project.

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Filed Under: Featured Bottom Left, Featured Top Left, Idea Gallery, Savannah Starr Tagged With: Aleene's Tacky Dot Singles, Christmas, Cupcake, cupcake topper, dessert, holiday, paper craft, Savannah Starr, snowflake

Glitter & Mica Greeting Card by Lisa Fulmer

November 25, 2012 By Lisa Fulmer Leave a Comment

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Lisa Fulmer uses Aleene’s Tacky Spray to create a pear mask in a background of gold mica flakes. It’s easy to ink, color and glitter with Aleene’s Paper Glaze. This organic and curvy design is perfect for swerves of glittery texture. Featured on Cool2Craft TV.

Watch Lisa’s super cool Glitter Pear Greeting Card YouTube video tutorial!

Aleene’s Crystal Clear Tacky Spray
Aleene’s Glear Gel Tacky Glue
Aleene’s Paper Glaze
Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue
Adhesive foam squares
Patterned card stock
Coordinating solid colors of card stock
Rubber stamp and multi-colored stamp pad
Fine clear glitter
Gold mica flakes (option: mix in a little chunky colored glitter)
Black chisel-tip markers
Paper trimmer and small scissors
Large sheet of scrap paper and blue painter’s tape
Small paint brush, pouncer, tweezers

1. Trim patterned card stock to 7” x 10” and fold to 5”x7”.

2. Trim two coordinating solid colors of card stock for frame panels: 3-7/8” x 4-1/2” and 3-1/2” x 4”.

3. Trim another piece of patterned card stock to 3” x 3-7/8” for the mask card.

4. Stamp your image twice on to desired color card stock; allow to dry then cut out both images – one will be for the mask and the other will be your embellishment.

5. Use small piece of painter’s tape to adhere image to the mask card, and another piece to adhere mask card to large sheet of scrap paper.

6. Saturate the mask card with generous, even coverage of Tacky Spray.

7. Immediately cover the card with mica flakes and tap off excess (TIP: use a sheet of non-stick parchment to gently press the mica flakes into the card to ensure good adhesion) then carefully remove the image from the mask card and set aside to dry.

8. Use a pouncer to shade your embellishment with ink from the stamp pad as desired, then ink the edges with a black marker and allow to dry.

9.Paint some Clear Gel Tacky Glue and/or Paper Glaze to highlight desired areas of the inked image, sprinkle with clear glitter, tap off excess and set aside to dry.

10. Use Original Tacky Glue to center and adhere each frame panel to the folded card, then adhere the mica mask card on top.

11. Apply adhesive foam squares to the back of the glittered image and position on top of mask card, allowing some the of open space of the mask to peek out like a drop-shadow.

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Filed Under: Featured Top Left, Idea Gallery, Lisa Fulmer Tagged With: Aleene's Crystal Clear Tacky Spray, Glitter, greeting card, Lisa Fulmer, mica, paper craft, pear, stamped

Dia de los Muertos Shrine for Conan

October 31, 2012 By cjedrowicz Leave a Comment

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Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a wonderful holiday that celebrates the lives of loved ones who have passed. One of the symbols of the holiday is the sugar skull, usually decorated in bright colors. I wanted to use the sugar skull icon in a shrine for our dog that we lost early in the year, but I did not want them to be the focus. I punched out skulls from colorful card stock and glittered them in monotones.

I started the shrine by covering Conan’s bowls with handmade tiles, beads, baubles and all kinds of things that have meaning for our family. It’s not a traditional mosaic process. I glued everything on with hot glue and did not grout.

I made a polymer clay sugar skull to add as a finishing touch. Let’s start with that tutorial and go from there.

Materials:

Polymer clay
Mark making tools – needle tool, pencil, craft knife
Glitter in several colors
Glue
Black felt pen
Card stick in several bright colors
Skull shaped punch – I used Martha Stewart’s
Glitter glue in the colors of your card stock
Silk flowers in bright colors
Hot glue

	I was so happy to find Martha Stewart’s Halloween glitter kit!. The little glue bottle has a tiny nozzle – perfect for delicate work. To make the polymer clay skull – use my shape as a guide. Shape it on your work surface to keep the back flat. Bake as directed. Color in the eyes, nose and teeth with the felt pen.

	Add tiny dots of glue where you want one color of glitter.

	Sprinkle glitter. Tap off excess glitter. Repeat for each color. Allow to dry.

	Now for the Dia de los Muertos border: Punch out the skulls. Outline and make designs with glitter glue the same color as the paper. Allow to dry.

	Here are the mosaiced bowls in a dimensional frame. Due to the heavyness of the bowls, I glued and screwed them on the backing.

	Alternate silk flowers and skulls all the way around the inside edge.

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Filed Under: Candace Jedrowicz, In the Spotlight Tagged With: Candace Jedrowicz, cardstock, Cool2Craft, craft, craft how to, Dia de los Muertos, Glitter, glitter glue, paper craft, polymer clay, shrine, skull shaped paper punch, tutorial

Return of the Birthday Zombie

October 13, 2012 By cjedrowicz Leave a Comment

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This is a polymer clay zombie that I made for my dear friend, Beth. She and her family love zombie movies, so I came up with an idea to make the gift as cheesy as a great zombie flick. [Originally published in October of 2009 - spiritclay.blogspot.com] I made the zombie using polymer clay. I made him one half of an Origami box to stand in, but you could use any box. I used some Photoshop techniques on a photo I’d taken of a graveyard for the background. I tore the edges and browned them up with a sienna stamp pad and glued the pieces to the back and sides of the box.

Next I composed the following letter to go with it. If you’re a zombie aficionado you’ll see where this is going. If you’re not, I’ll say this: George Romero made the first zombie classic Night of the Living Dead – It takes place in a small town in western Pennsylvania – If you’re bitten by a zombie, you become one (some consider this the Zombie Virus) – Where ever zombies go there is mayhem – The most famous line from the movie is “They’re coming to get you, Barbara”.

Here’s the letter:

Dearest Beth,

I was looking on line and found this killer cake decorator, Barbara, who makes these fabulous cakes. She works at a place called Romero’s, in a small town in western Pennsylvania. I called her up and told her about you and the kind of things you like. I was so excited! She said she’d make something spectacular for you. So, yesterday I got this strange email from the owner of the bakery:

Dear Candace,

You should know there’s been a terrible virus going around our town. None of my staff showed up at all today. Barbara started your cake, but couldn’t make it in either. There are several fires in town and things are a mess. I called my delivery guys, who said they could go pick her up. I called her and said “They’re coming to get you, Barbara”, and she screamed and hung up. She never showed and I can’t get hold of the delivery guys, either. I’ve finished the cake myself and will deliver it personally. I hope it will meet your approval.

Sincerely,

George

So, in the process of moving to Utah and, yes, that’s my excuse – I missed Beth’s birthday. As I was putting together ideas for Alexa Westerfield’s Terrorific Tuesdays, I printed photos of the birthday zombie and made them into earrings. See the SugarSkull Bracelet & Bats in the Belfry Necklace, and Candy Corn Riot Earrings blog entries, if you want to use this idea. They have all the directions you might need for shrink plastic and earring making. With one exception – to make your earrings from a photo, you’ll need the inkjet printable shrink plastic.

Beth%27s+Earrings Return of the Birthday Zombie I figured I’d send along a note set up like a movie poster and title it:

RETURN OF THE BIRTHDAY ZOMBIE.

Now, I was looking around the house for a box to send the earrings in and then it hit me – I had some old DVD cases that I’d been saving for some scathingly brilliant idea, and finally I had one!

Here’s what I ended up with…

The front cover says:

Return of the Birthday Zombie

Send in the Clones

The movie that no one wanted to see made

Has been Made!

See the zombie clones arrive late for Beth’s Birthday!

Well, they had a really long way to walk and zombies are slow anyway!

You laugh! you’ll Cry! You’ll hurl!

The back cover says:

This film has not yet been rated

Void where prohibited by law

Do not put on these earrings while driving

No zombies were harmed in the making of these earrings

Do not wear these earrings while squeezing your head through your stair rails as they are large and might sustain damage Zombie+DVD+Inside Return of the Birthday Zombie Here’s what you’ll need to make your Zombie (or any kind of) Movie Gift Box.

A DVD case
A DVD
Photos that you can size appropriately

A heavy duty hole punch

Glue

Double sided craft tape

A scrap of card stock, any color

Scissors

If you don’t have a printer at home, make copies at the library or neighborhood copy store. Make extras for good measure. Speaking of measuring, you’ll need the measurements of the DVD case. This can be done easily by taking the paper out of the DVD cover and measuring it. Easy peasy!

I did mine with Photoshop, but I could just as easily done it as a collage. Just make sure that the collage will easily fold to slip into the DVD case, if you choose this option.

For the DVD, place a disc on your extra copy and trace around it. Cut the copy giving a bit of extra margin to trim. Now smear a thin coat of Aleene’s Quick Dry Tacky Glue on the disc and put your cut image on it. Trim the edges with a craft knife and cut out the center hole.

Punch two holes to put the earrings through (if you’re doing that) and tape the backs, so the earrings won’t slide out. Ohh, I just had an idea! Since the center of my DVD that got cut out was a cake, I decided to add it back.

Zombies+010 Return of the Birthday Zombie I got another copy of the photo and cut loosely around the cake. Next I used a double sided craft tape to stick the cake to a piece of card stock. Then I cut the cake out and used a sticky craft dot to attach the cake to the image just below the hole. Since the earrings are taped on the back of the disc, I want Beth to be able to take the disc out of the case. She’ll press on the cake to release the disc!

Now, go! Go make your DVD case gift box! You’re welcome to use the zombie letter and figure ideas, if you like!

I will post a zombie tutorial tomorrow!

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Filed Under: Candace Jedrowicz, In the Spotlight Tagged With: Candace Jedrowicz, cardstock, Cool2Craft, Cool2Craft TV, craft, craft how to, dvd case, paper craft, printable shrink plastic, printer, tutorial, Upcycle

Skunk in a Punkin by Candace Jedrowicz

October 10, 2012 By cjedrowicz Leave a Comment

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I started a handmade Halloween photo album seven years ago. I have lots of pages, but I just never put it together. I decided to add a photo inside of a pumpkin to one of the pages. The pumpkin will open as if it were a jack-o-lantern. Just slide the top up and there’s that little stinker.

Materials:

Decorative papers
Photo
Paper Pumpkin – I used a photo of a pumpkin I made at least 1 1/2″ wider than the photo
Aleene’s Double Stick Tacky Sheets
Scissors

	I started with a small photo of my grandson, a lovely grouping of decorative papers, Aleene’s Double Stick Tacky Sheets and a photo of a pumpkin.Before trimming the photo cut a piece of the Tacky Sheet as big as the untrimmed photo.Peel off one side of the Tacky Sheet and affix it to the back of the photo.

	Cut the top off the pumpkin, making sure that the width of the top is at least as wide as the photo.

	Lay the top of the pumpkin on a piece of yellow paper and trace.Cut the yellow paper and stick to the back of the pumpkin top offset as it is in this photo.

	Sandwich the photo between a sliver of the top of the pumpkin and a piece of pumpkin colored paper.Measure the width of the photo on the back of the pumpkin and add Tacky Sheet to the outside of the photo.

	Here is the finished page.This is the year that I will finish this album!

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Filed Under: Candace Jedrowicz, In the Spotlight Tagged With: Aleene's Double Stick Tacky Sheets, Candace Jedrowicz, Cool2Craft, craft, halloween craft, Paper, paper craft, photo, tutorial

31 Days of Halloween – Day 2 – Monster Football by Candace Jedrowicz

October 2, 2012 By cjedrowicz 4 Comments

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Here’s a Halloween project for the kids – A paper football built around a set of vampire teeth that they can paint and glue faces on and will hold up to rough play! My oldest kidlet (my brother’s grandkids) is 11 and the youngest is 6. We recently started having one party a month where one kidlet gets to pick the theme, help with the invitations, plan the meal and come up with a craft. We drew names to see who got which month.

Stevie had the month of September. He couldn’t decide between a football theme or a monster theme, hence the monster football. My daughter and I put the balls together in about an hour and the only thing I had to buy was the teeth, so this is a pretty economical project.

Materials:

Plastic vampire teeth – the cheap kind with upper and lower teeth connected
Hot glue
Felt in various colors
Lots of cheap masking tape – painter’s tape won’t stick when you start painting
Recycled paper
Scissors

	So, here is my solution to the monster football theme.I started with teeth and red felt. I traced around the teeth on the felt leaving 1 1/2″ on both sides. The side pieces are 1″ and you can see I’ve marked the center for cutting. Glue the upper and lower curves of the felt to the inside of the teeth. Cut the side pieces as marked. Fold the pieces over the sides of the teeth and glue in place.

	Cut a strip of felt to fit all the way around the outside of the teeth with the teeth partially closed.Glue in place.

	You can see that the mouth is secured here and can’t open any more than this.

	Begin building the paper football around the mouth, securing the first piece with glue.I used recycled packing paper, but anything will do.

	Tape down every layer of bunched paper with tape (but not this blue tape as it’s designed to come off easily and you don’t want that for this project).Shape as you go.

	This is as far as my daughter and I went. The kids got to paint it before dinner, then design the lips, eyes and stripes.I did the gluing, because my new hot glue gun is way hot!

	After we were done, my brother and I went outside to be the ghoulposts for the kids. It was a hoot!

Stevie is demonstrating his scary football face! Eeek! Too much fun!

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Filed Under: Candace Jedrowicz, In the Spotlight Tagged With: 31 days of halloween, Candace Jedrowicz, Cool2Craft Creative Play, craft, felt, hot glue, masking tape, monster football, Paint, paper craft, paper football, recycle, recycle craft

Polka Dot Crown by Candace Jedrowicz

May 14, 2012 By cjedrowicz Leave a Comment

Polka Dot Crown Hero by Candace Jedrowicz

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A paper polka dot crown is a thing of joy! Candace Jedrowicz shares a fun, easy and whimsical way to show anyone that they are special to you! Featured on Cool2Craft TV.

Watch Candace’s adorable Polka Dot Crown YouTube video tutorial!

Materials:

Aleene’s Turbo Tacky Glue
Decorative paper
Gems, trims and other embellishments
Headband
Hot glue
Crown Template by Candace Jedrowicz

	Print out the crown template. Trace onto decorative paper and cut out.Tape or glue the cut out to the wrong side of the decorative paper that will go on the inside. Cut out.

	Add embellishments.I used gems and gold trim.

	Don’t forget to embellish the inside, too.

	If you use trim, be sure to allow for where one side will overlap the other.

	Use hot glue to secure the ends together.

	Turn the crown over and add hot glue to opposite edges where the headband will sit.Secure the headband to the crown.

	I added extra hot glue to the inside where the headband touched the crown.