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.

                  

Snowflake Postcard

As winter still is in full bloom (or rather in full snow) I have done another snow project. This one is a bit tricky and requires a lot of patience.

Snowflake Postcard How To:

Material: 1 Sheet of white paper
                a small piece of sandwich paper (left over from the snow crystal project)
                a small piece of a different transparent paper (a different shade of white,
                a slightly different texture)
                sky bluish paper
                sewing thread in different shades of blue (consistent to your choice of
                background paper)
                glue stick

• Cut the sheet of paper in two crosswise.
• Draw the contour of a snowflake and cut out.
• Cut out a snowflake from the transparent paper.
• Cut out a small hexagonal crystal shape for the center and 6 pieces for the tips of the snowflake from the sandwich paper.
• Align them all on your background paper in layers, so that they fit into the snowflake cut-out of the cover.
• Glue carefully only in the center of each 'arm' of the snow crystal, so that it is just fixed a bit, but the ends will remain loose.
• Sew the layers together, using different shades of sewing thread for each seam.
• Glue under the cover and sew carefully together.
• Glue the finished  cover and the other half of the A4 sheet together. Cut off protruding edges if necessary.
• Fold in two.
• Very carefully pull the loose ends of the tranparent parts of the crystal a bit off  the background for a more 3D look.

Fixing the transparent paper onto the background and sewing everything together are the trickiest parts. If your sewing machine allows for extra slow sewing, take the chance.

Pyramids

Here comes my first project: pyramids. I remember them from my childhood, when we drank Sunkist juice with straws out of them. Also in Britain you can buy PG Tips tea in such cute tea bags. I was always wondering, how one could do these intricate containers. When I discovered how simple they are to create, I was all the more fascinated with them.

Here's the how to:

• Cut a rectangle with one side twice as long as the other.
• Then fold in half and glue or sew them together (as in the above project) along the adjoining sides.
• Leave open the last side.
• Open and fold exactly in the opposite way so that the seam meets the middle of the leftover side.
• Then glue or sew together.
• Pull a bit until it shapes like a pyramid.

While doing them I discovered that it is much easier to fold the creases and properly shape the pyramids, if you thoroughly rumple the paper and smoothe it out before sewing it. The paper is much easier to handle then. Of course you must not overdo this or it might tear.