Easter Postcards (3)

In this postcard project I covered the egg in small flowers.

Flowery Easter Postcard

Material: 1 sheet of white paper

                1 sheet of pink paper

                newspaper and magazine cutouts in all shades of pink, purple, red, orange

                oil pastels in pale pink

                spray fixative

                glue

                thread in several shades of pink

• Print the template.
• Cover the egg in oil pastels and mark vertical lines with a needle, beginning in the center and drawing parallels every 1.5 cm.
• Cut out flowers in shades and patterns of pink with a flower hole punch.
• Fix the flower cut-outs with tiny dots of glue along the vertical lines.
• Sew along these lines in different colours. Knot the dangling threads thoroughly on the back.
• Spread spray glue onto the pink paper and press onto the back of the postcard.
• Fold the postcard carefully with a bone folder along the middle.

Making this postcard was so much fun, that I produced some more in every colour of the rainbow. To top the look, I added an envelope in the same colour as the lining of the respective card.

                  

Easter Postcard (2)

This is the second Easter postcard. I wanted to further experiment with weaving, this time in wool.

Easter Postcard With Wool Egg

Material: 1 sheet of white paper
                1 sheet of green paper
                mending yarn in turquoise (or another colour of your liking)
                adhesive tape
                spray glue

• Print the template for the egg on the white sheet of paper.
• Cover the dots with adhesive tape for more stability. This is the back side of the postcard, so it won't show.
• Pierce all the dots.
• Start weaving by doing all the vertical lines. This is the warp.
• Begin with the weft at the bottom of the egg. As you can see, I applied two different techniques: plain-weaving and twill-weaving. You can find the explanation here. To achieve the herringbone effect you have to change the direction of the warp thread you are weaving under: to let the pattern 'move' to the right, weave under the next warp thread to the right in every row, to move to the left vice versa.
• Suture all ends neatly on the back.
• Cover the green paper with spray glue and press thoroughly to the back of the white paper.
• Fold carefully along the middle with a bone folder.

You can further vary your design by using different colours for the weft and creating stripes.

Easter Postcard (1)

As outside everything is still black, brown and muddy, I wanted to do projects that give a 'springy' feeling by using spring green and other bright colours. I began with some Easter postcards. You can see the first one above. I actually used some blades of grass I found behind my garden.

Easter Postcard With Grass-Blades

Material: 1 sheet of white paper
                1 sheet of spring green paper
                some dried blades of grass
                spray glue
                bone folder

• Cut vertical lines 3 mm apart so they build the shape of an egg into the front of your postcard. You can order the template here.
• Cut strips of paper 3, 6 and 8 mm wide.
• Weave the strips into the vertically cut egg-shape, alternating the width and occasionally using the blades of grass, too. You have to handle the grass very carefully, because it's so brittle. I used a small kitchen knife to help threading. The last strips are a bit tricky, too.
• Cut off the excess length of the strips on the back, yet not too short.
• Spray glue onto the green paper and press tightly onto the back of the postcard.
• Carefully fold along the middle with a bone folder.

Valentine's Day Love Letters

Happy Valentine!

Here comes a nice little Valentine gift for those of you who like a fiddly job.

Love Letter How to

Material: 1 sheet of white paper
                oil pastels in various shades of red, orange, magenta, pink
                water colours in similar shades
                glue

• Cut out the template (which you can order here). Paint the heart parts with the oil pastels. Add a second layer in water colours covering pink with orange and vice versa. Let dry.
• Cut out all parts, clipping small triangles off the flaps of the heart shapes.
• Fold back all flaps. Do valley and mountain folds in the 'wall'-strips according to the shape of the letters and crease properly.
• Beginning with the letter 'L' spread little glue on all the flaps of the first L and onto the inner rim of the strip. Carefully put together, hiding the endflap of the 'wall'-strip inside. Let dry.
• Repeat the procedure with the second L and insert carefully. You might need to insert the corners and level cover and wall with the help of a knife, which is a bit tricky.
• Repeat the last two steps with the other letters and the heart. As you can imagine the 'E' and the 'V' are especially fiddly. Here you need a bit of patience.

You can also do lids for the boxes by enlarging the top cover and a strip of about 1 cm height and fill the boxes with small items like candy or coupons for treats as an additional surprise.

Prince Crown

On carnival not only girls want to be a character from a fairy tale: here comes the crown for your little prince.

Prince Crown How To:

Material: 1 sheet of white paper
                small pieces of cellophane
                oil pastels
                glue stick
                adhesive tape
                double-faced adhesive tape
                glitter hairspray

• Make a pattern for the crown or feel free to order it here. Cut out carefully.
• Fold the rim in halve and glue together.
• Spray thoroughly with glitter hairspray.
• Glue the ends of the rim together, overlapping.
• For the gems cover small pieces from the cut-off paper with red oil pastel for a ruby and blue for a sapphire. Rumple and smooth again and then paint over the creases in darker shades of red and blue. Cut out circles a bit smaller than in the crown.
• To let the 'gems' be more 3D you can rumple small pieces from the cut-off paper and fix it on the back.
• Rumple small pieces of cellophane and cover the front of the gem, gluing them to the back with tiny pieces of tape.
• Put some double-faced adhesive tape onto the back of the gems and fix them on the crown, alternating the colours.

Carnival aside, how about throwing a motto party for princes and princesses? You might give every guest a crown as a welcome gift. Or, using the templates, you might let them do their personal (simpler) versions of crowns by decorating and painting them alone.

Princess Crown

Carnival has come and you don't have a crown for your little princess?! Here's an easy one to make.

Princess Crown How To

Material: 1 sheet of white paper
                1 sheet of sandwich paper
                oil pastels
                glue stick, glue
                hole punch
                elastic yarn

• Make a template for the crown that leaves a strip of about 7 - 8 cm straight lengthwise, with a pattern that can be divided by 8 for the positions of the roses. In line with the big roses in the center cut out small strips of 1 cm width to the edges.
• For the roses rumple the sandwich paper, smooth it and paint one side pink, one side red. Cut out 9 (!) squares of 5 cm and twist around the center, shaping them blossomlike. Cut the corners round.
• For the leaves, also rumple the sandwich paper, smooth it and paint one side dark green, one side light green. Cut out 27 leaves. It's not necessary to make them all exactly the same.
• Now glue 3 leaves to the marks for the roses, also at random rather than regularly and only to the center, leaving most of the leaves loose. Pierce through the leaves and the white paper and thread the 'stems' of 8 roses. Glue the stems onto the back of the white paper and cover with a small piece of white paper.
• Cut out 3 small leaves and 2 circles (with a hole punch) per rose for the small ones at the edges and glue them on, again only at the center.
• Fold the 8 narrow strips of paper to the outside directly at he beginning and carefully shape them to arches.
• Glue the straight part of the crown together, overlapping for 1 cm.
• Pierce the long strips half a centimeter from the ends and glue them together. Glue on 3 (larger) leaves, thread the last big rose through and fix like the others.
• To fix the crown on your child's head, pierce 2 small holes 1 cm from the lower edge of the crown on opposite sides (reinforce them with an additional layer of paper for more durability) and thread and knot a length of elastic yarn according to the size of her head.

Happy carnival for your little princess!

Feel free to order the template here.

Dangling Ornaments

For this project I made some ornaments to decorate twigs from my garden with but which you could also hang in front of your window. I took dogwood twigs because I love their beautiful mahogany red bark.

How to:

Material: 1-2 sheets of white paper
                cardboard cylinders of different diameters
                glue
                white yarn (I used very thin cotton yarn for crocheting lace)

There are two different types of ornaments.

No. 1: Furry ornament

• Cut three squares for each ornament, about half a centimeter longer than the circumference of your cylinder (which should be 1 cm broad) and 3, 4 and 5 centimeter high.
• Now cut the heights in very thin strips (ca. 1 mm), working from the edges of the height to the center, leaving 1 cm uncut.
• Cut a piece of yarn about 25 cm long.
• Spread glue evenly around the cylinder and fix the ends of the yarn under the first strip of fringed paper, beginning with the widest of the three. Let dry thoroughly.
• Apply the next strip (middle width) and at last the narrowest.
• When it is completely dry, carefully ruffle the fringes to give it its 'furry' look.

 
No. 2: Wrap-around rings

• Cut strips of 3-4 mm width.
• Cut a piece of yarn about 25 cm long.
• Spread glue thinly on the whole strip and wrap thightly around the ring in two layers. Fix the ends of the yarn under the first wraps.
• You can leave them just like that or embellish them further by adding patterns of very thin cut paper strips (1mm) in different patterns or even some circles gathered from your hole punch.

I did not work too regularly when wrapping or cutting and ruffling the fringes to give the ornaments a more vivid appearance.

For easter I also intend to do some egg-shaped ornaments made of all shades of green paper. I will show them to you in time.