Paper Angel Crafts

A Happy Valentine's Day To All!

Wishing you all much love on Valentine's Day, and sending you a few "virtual" Valentines!

A Quick Valentine Gift Idea

I am really excited about the Valentines class I am holding tomorrow, and my work room has been a flood of pink, red and white all week!  This morning I have a project to share that is a Valentine card and gift all in one.  The beauty of this project is that, depending on how you decorate it, you could give it to your sweetie, you kids, or a friend.

The finished card measures 5 1/2 inches square, and inside there are two pockets.  The right pocket holds a CD...I love to make "mix CD's" on my computer, and this card would be the packaging to hold a CD of love songs.  The other pocket holds three removable journaling tags, which I can write "love notes" on.

Under the left side pocket, I cut out the words "things I love about you", and on the right side pocket I added "you put a song in my heart".

I punched a hole on each side so I can tie it closed with a pretty piece of ribbon.

If you aren't into burning your own CD's, you could purchase a CD, remove it from it's original packaging and tuck it into the pocket.  OR...you could put an ITunes card inside...bet your teen would love that!

Happy crafting!

Getting ready for Valentine's Day

I have been working on some great Valentine's Day projects which I will be sharing over the next few days.  Today I want to show your some Valentine treat jars which I made from pint sized vintage canning jars.

I wrapped each jar with pretty paper, then decorated it with some of my favorite vintage Valentine images, buttons, ribbon and lace.

I tied a cute tag and three bows onto each of the wire bails on top.

This jar in all done in greens and blues.

 
The jars are ready to be filled with M&M's or Kisses, and given to my sweeties!  We will be making these at the upcoming Valentines Galore class, see my website for the details.

Ribbon!

Happy New Year everyone!  After a break from all things crafty, I'm back!  As some of you know, by husband owns a catering business/restaurant and the Holidays are our busiest time of the year.  We have also had several rounds of illness in our home, but things seem to be getting back to normal now.  Hope you all had the Christmas of your dreams, and here's to an inspiring and creative New Year!

I spent some time cleaning and organizing my craft room this week, and in the process decided to write a quick post about ribbon.  This is part of my ribbon collection, it sits on a windowsill above my work table.  This is just the "everyday" ribbon, I have the holiday specific ribbon all put away for now.

I am always on the lookout for deals on ribbon, I check the clearance bins every time I am in Joann's, Michael's or AC Moore.  Sheer ribbon is my favorite, and it can be pricey.  This is actually a great time of year to get ribbon bargains with the after Holiday sales.  Most colors can be used all year round, think outside the box!

I am partial to browns, I think they work great with the vintage style I love.

I keep bits and pieces in this antique cookie jar.  I like to have all the ribbon right where I can see it.  That way, when I am in the middle of a project all I have to do is glance up and I can pick out just the right one.  Sometimes the whole project takes shape around a specific ribbon I want to use!  All that red ribbon is giving me ideas for Valentine's Day...stay tuned!

Frugal Christmas Decor, Quick & Easy Too!

I wanted to share a really affordable project I put together, to spruce up the windowsill above my kitchen sink.  The whole project cost about $8!

My windowsill is three feet long, so I used half of a six foot length of pine garland ($2), 4 little nutcrackers I got for $1 each (Christmas Tree Shop), six bunches of frosted red berries (3o cents each, clearance at Michaels) and then in the middle, my framed Victorian Christmas girl.

I found a little frame ornament ($1 at the Christmas Tree Shop) that had real glass in it.  It was already painted gold, so I just brushed some white glitter glue over it to give it a little shimmer.  Then I glued on some crocheted trim, three red buttons, and a Poinsettia with leaves (Prima).  (I brushed glitter glue on the buttons and flower too).  When it was dry, I added the vintage picture inside the frame. 

I am really happy with how it all turned out, and I love quick projects that don't cost alot!

Christmas Gift Card Holders

Sometimes, a gift card is the perfect present for someone special.  How can you make it even more special?  By presenting it in a handmade gift card holder!  This project can be completed in about 15 minutes...Hey, you've got time for that!

For this project, cut two pieces of cardstock one inch wider and longer than your gift card.  To decorate the front, I chose one of my favorite vintage images, inked the edges, matted in on cream cardstock, inked those edges, then tied a piece of sheer ribbon around it.  Next, I mounted than on patterned paper I trimmed with scalloped scissors.  Then, I mounted those pieces on the front green cardstock which is the base of my holder.  Lastly, I hot-glued two buttons on the top, and the ribbon loop for hanging.

To make the back, I trimmed 1 inch off the top, used a circle punch to cut out a half circle, then used permanent tape runner to attach the back to the front.  Last step is to ink the edges of the finished project.

Here is the same project, sides reversed.  I decorated the side the gift card slides into, instead of the"front".  I pen-stitched around all the edges, instead of inking.  Both examples can be hung on the tree as a ornament, or tucked into an envelope for mailing.

Another Machine Stitched Project

The other day I posted  pictures of recipe card files which were made of machine stitched cardstock.  Today I have another project which utilizes the same technique.

Inside is a memo list pad, and a pocket to hold coupons or receipts.

Here is another one that has an adorable picture of a little Victorian girl.

I love Mary Engelbreit note pads!

To make this memo holder, stitch together two pieces of cardstock (ribbon ties get stitched in between the layers).  Next cut a slit in the inside piece to tuck in the backing cardboard for the note pad.  You could also just hot glue the pad inside.  Lastly,  decorate the front with your favorite embellishments.  I like to use vintage images from digital collage sheets purchased on Etsy.  (www.etsy.com)

By the way, it did snow the other day, but it's already melted!

I wish it would snow...

I'm sure I'll regret this in a month or so, but right now I really wish it would snow!  Where we live in Upstate New York, we normally would have had several big snows by now, but it was nearly 60 degrees today! 

Meantime, while I am waiting for snow, I am still preparing for Christmas.  I wanted to share a couple of little recipe books I made.

Last year I started experimenting with sewing cardstock on my sewing machine, and the idea for this little book was born.

I picked up one of those little plastic covered photo albums at the Dollar Store, the ones that hold 4 x 6 pictures.  I constructed a cover by stitching two sheets of cardstock together, then cutting a slit in the middle of the inside piece so I could insert the covers of the album.  Then I just took out the little pieces of cardboard in each photo sleeve, and replaced it with cute recipe cards I found in the dollar bin at Michael's.

Lastly, I decorated the covers with stickers, chipboard, buttons and other bits & pieces I had laying around.  Really simple, and makes a great little gift. 

Hopefully it will snow this week...

Oh So Shabby Christmas

I'm such a softy for anything Shabby, and this little tag book was so fun to make!  The book is made out of one sheet of cardstock cut and folded to make eight pages with pockets.  I found the directions online, if I can find that page (I didn't bookmark it!) I will post it. 

 

Each page has a little pocket with a coordinating tag tucked in.  This would make a great hostess gift...the tags can be used to mark Christmas gifts or hung as ornaments on the tree.

Or better yet, you could turn it into a little photo album by attaching small photos to each of the tags.

At our papercrafting class last week, I was encouraging the ladies to think outside the box when it comes to Christmas crafts.  The papers you use don't necessarily need to be "Christmas" papers.  This project was done with papers from K&Co. Life's Journey, Charlotte and Bailey collections.  The colors are light green and pink, but with the right embellishments, they still say "Christmas"!

The round medallions decorating some of the pages are cutouts from the Making Memories "Mistletoe" paper pad.  The vintage images are from digital collage sheets I buy on Etsy.com.

Family Christmas Past

We had a great class on Saturday.  The ladies enjoyed learning the "art" of making Tussies and took supplies to make more at home.  (There never seems to be enough time in class, with the socializing, the eating, and the crafting!)  It never ceases to amaze me how much I enjoy watching everyone work on their projects.  I always come away with some new idea learned from the students!  I definitely  "get" as much as I "give"!

Looking forward to the Vintage Christmas Card class coming up, I have been working on a bunch of samples. 

I love using vintage photos, and this one is actually a copy of a family photo.  It is my father (on the right) and my uncle, taken in the early 1940's.  I scanned the photo then printed it on white cardstock.  I then inked the edges with brown ink, and lighly dragged the ink pad over the photo to "age" it.

This card features a picture of my father, my uncle and my great-grandfather.  I can't wait to surprise my dad with this card at Christmas!