Lucia Paper Dolls in shop!

Just checking in to let you all know that these brand new Swedish Paper Dolls are now up in my Etsy shop! This is a new item for my craft fair in just a couple weeks, and I thought I'd add it to my shop in case any of you Lucia lovers out there wanted to order some before December 13 [St. Lucia Day!]! I commissioned a friend of mine to do the drawing (since my drawing skills are quite abysmal) for this and I could't be more pleased with how they turned out!

 Purchase on Etsy here

The finished product obviously isn't printed with the 2014 Copyright watermark. It will come printed out on 8.5 x 11 cardstock, packaged in clear cellophane wrapping. 

Ok, back to crafting for the SWEA Christmas Market in just T-minus 13 days! Ah!

Gift Tag Tutorial

These are so super easy and quick! They just require some paper punches. If you wanted to make even easier ones you would only need the large "gift tag" punch on the far left. I also used my snowflake punch and the small hole punch to make them a little spiffier.

First, just punch out your gift tags using the large punch. Make a lot in various colors.

Next, add your embellishment. In my case, I used the snowflakes.

Then glue together. I did two versions - one using the punched gift tag glued on white paper and then one white gift tag with the punched-out snowflake glued on it.

I plan on making quite a few more before the holidays. I have a "God Jul" (Merry Christmas in Swedish) stamp that would look cute on the gift tags too. I need to try that version yet.

Last, use your small hole punch to make a hole on the right side to fit ribbons and such. This step is totally optional as you could just as easily glue or tape these directly on your gifts.

Can you believe that Christmas is almost here?! How did that happen so fast?!

Wedding favors...

This week my mom and I have been busy making prototypes of the tags that will be on the candy boxes (for the candy table we're having for the wedding favors). This is the one I like the best. I bought that super fun scalloped punch from Country Needleworks here in town, and even if I don't end up using it for this, I will definitely use it later.

You also may have noticed that the stamp I used here is not the stamp I originally was going to use. Unfortunately, through the chaos of packing and unpacking, I have absolutely no idea where I put it so I had to order a new stamp. I love this one too though so it's really a win-win situation. :)

Funny Valentine

After making the tutorial about repurposing old newspapers into your own homemade paper I go this idea to do a little decoupage on them.

The cut out letters reminded me of a ransom note so I put "Be mine, or else" on the first one. Then just "love" on the next one. I think it would be cute to do conversation heart words on them like "You're sweet" and then write your own message on the back for a very personal (and dirt cheap) Valentine!

Happy Valentine's Day, again! :)

Paper Hearts from Newspapers Tutorial

I've been wanting to try my hand at making my own paper for a while so I finally just did it. I used some flyers that came in the mail and recycled them into heart-shaped pieces of paper.

It's quick, cheap, easy and pretty darn fun!

First, round up your materials. You'll need: a tray, hot water in a bowl, newspaper or any type of paper you have laying around, tulle (or anything mesh-like would work in a pinch), and some paper towels.

Tear up your paper into thin, small pieces and dump them into the hot water bowl.

Push the pieces down into the water.

Mix it around and knead the paper together with your hands. Kids would especially love this step! After about 1 minute it should look like this:

Continue to mix and knead the paper together until the pieces start to disintegrate and are sticking together. It takes just a few minutes more. It should look like this:

Prepare your tray. Cut a rectangular piece of your tulle and lay it down on the tray, leave about 6 inches hanging off of the tray...You'll need this to fold over your wet paper. Also add a piece of paper towel underneath your tulle, I forgot to add it for this pic, oops!

Make sure your paper is ready to form into shapes. Test a piece by squeeze a small amount of the paper to get rid of any excess water, if it holds it shape it's ready! If not, continue to stir and mix your paper.

Lift out enough of the paper and squeeze it out. Leave some water in so you can shape it.

Set your glob of paper on the tulle/tray and shape. You could even use a cookie cutter if you wanted to make more elaborate shapes!

Fold tulle over and gently press to remove all excess water.

Check to see if enough water has been removed, gently peel pack the tulle and if it easily comes off it's ready! If not, continue to press out more water.

Set on a paper towel to dry.

Let dry completely, about 12-24 hours, before writing on them.

I added a grommet and made a Valentine's gift tag.

Use your homemade paper hearts for a Valentine's gift tag, card, ornament or just a decoration!

Happy Valentine's Day!