Normally, by this point in the season, I’ll admit: I’m pretty tired of seeing mentions of “last minute gifts.” So instead, I’ll share with you some cool crafty calendars I’ve been seeing around the blogosphere, and then you can think of them as New Year’s gifts. To yourself.

First, Interweave came out with a line of full-color print calendars for 2011. There’s one for weavers, one for knitters, one for crocheters, one for art quilters, and one for mixed media artists. And if you go to the Interweave online store, you’ll find them all on screamin’ sale.

Also, in the digital realm, Whipup released its 2011 calendar, but they’re offering it in both paper and PDF forms this year. I think that’s a brilliant step – with a PDF calendar, you can print the individual months at reduced sizes to carry with you. You can bind your calendar in lots of creative ways. Heck, You could even print it to fabric and applique that to a dish towel!

And to facilitate your creativity, this calendar is available in three different formats. See, my friends, digital stuff holds so much more creative potential than we realize!

…And then of course, Patricia of A Little Hut makes really beautiful paper wall calendars each year. For 2011, they take the form of these lovely boxes with cut-outs.

You can get these in paper form, as a SVG file to cut on your Silhouette machine, or as a PDF to cut and assemble yourself. How cool is that?

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Still playing with my Silhouette over here. I’ve been noodling up a package design for a little something I’ll be releasing soon for the holiday season. (You can handle a little Christmas right now, can’t you? Don’t worry, it won’t hurt!)

I had a blast playing around with the Silhouette Download store. It’s embedded in the Silhouette software, so you can click a button anytime and jump over to browse many, many cool designs – most are 99 cents for the download. Buy it, and the design is added to your library, and you’re right back into the software.

I totally applaud the iTunes-style buying option (over cartridges), and I loved the user interface simplicity. For people like me, who can’t draw, this is an awesome option.

Anyway. One of the designs I bought was this flourish. I decided to play around with using it as an overall background for my paper. So I needed to repeat it over and over. You can set the Silhouette software to do this for you, if you like.

…But ultimately, I decided I wanted something a little more organic-looking, so I simply duplicated the motif and placed them by hand.

(It’s true that I almost always seem to favor doing things the harder way.)

Then I loaded some card stock into the Silhouette and popped in a sketch pen. It took the machine about 12 minutes to draw the full page.

You might be thinking at this point, “Man! That’s a long way to go for patterned paper! And perhaps you’re right – but imagine if you were someone with amazing drawing and design abilities, like, say, Patricia. Then the Silhouette becomes something of a world-domination tool.

I also bought a template for something called the “Adorable Box.” And because the Silhouette lets you place templates on pages so precisely, I was able to run the same sheet of card stock right back through and cut the box out.

I was a little worried at first, when I noticed that the machine makes creases by actually cutting a dotted line. But these creases folded cleanly. I’m liking this little box!

(And incidentally, in the software I can change the dimensions of any box or envelope template with ease.)

Then I decided to cut a couple of snowflakes out as decoration. I’m showing you this photo for two reasons: first, the only scrap of red paper I had was this rather craptastic beat-up piece. But, since (again) the Silhouette lets me place motifs so precisely on the paper, I was able to use it.

And second, The cut-outs above are the same snowflake in two different sizes. But I could tell that, at the small size, there would be a lot of ridiculously tiny cut-out details that would mostly tax the machine and not be at all prominent in the finished snowflake. So, no problem, I just altered the design of the smaller version so it was simpler.

Then I added some glitter, because…

I’m sorry – would there be some reason I wouldn’t add glitter?

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UPDATE: The giveaway is now closed. Enjoy the review!

Some of you may remember last Summer, when I was busy exploring the Cricut cutter. While I liked the machine overall, its one big drawback (to me, anyway) was its reliance on premade “design cartridges.” You couldn’t create any original designs with it, you had to keep buying designs other people created.

So, when the nice folks at How Does She invited me to review the new Silhouette digital cutter, I was stoked. Because, you see, this machine lets you come up with your own designs and then cut them.

Today, I want to share my overall impressions of the Silhouette, and in the coming two weeks, I’ll share some things I’ve made with it. Ooooh, there’s a lot of possibility here…

So, the basic set-up looks like this. The Silhouette connects to your computer. You install some image-making and cutter-controlling software on your computer (Mac or PC, by the way). (The USB cables and software are included with the unit.)

As with the Cricut, you lightly stick the material you want to cut to a plastic carrier sheet. The Silhouette can cut materials 8 1/2 x 11 or smaller. (Or, if you’re cutting vinyl, you can cut up to 8 1/2 x 40.)

The software is pretty easy to use – the unit comes with several hours of video instruction, but since I’m a hands-on learner, I just banged around and tried stuff instead. And I was able to figure out the basics pretty easily.

You can use the software to build your own original designs, or you can consult the built-in library of simple shapes. (And there are lots more you can purchase in the Silhouette store – as digital downloads or CDs.)

What’s especially awesome is, you can take these library shapes (including envelopes and boxes) and endlessly combine and manipulate them. So even if you have no drawing skills, you can still make original art.

I took the simple leaf from the library shot up above, repeated and moved it, and welded it to a basic circle to make this shape. Easy peasy. Once you have your design, a couple mouse clicks sends it to the cutter.

As if that weren’t enough, you can take those library silhouettes, and in many cases, deconstruct them so you can cut different sections out of different papers.

But let me show you where the Silhouette really excels. Another big problem I had with the Cricut was in figuring out where, exactly, it was going to cut my design. If I had a small piece of paper, it was trial and error to feed it into that machine and land the cut in the right place.

With the Silhouette, I get to see the cutting mat and paper right on my computer screen. I can position my designs exactly where I need to, and size them to fit my paper. I can even run a sheet of paper through the cutter several times, cutting a different design out of it each time. Brilliantly useful.

Just to widen the scope a little, I’ll tell you that the Silhouette can also draw your designs – here’s an accessory set of colored ballpoint-style pens.

The machine is designed to cut paper and card stock, adhesive vinyl, and iron-on transfer material. Silhouette claims that cutting anything else could damage the machine – but if you have some other material you’re interested in cutting, you can mail them a sample and they’ll test it for you.

In addition, the Silhouette will cut any True Type font on your computer! You can change the size, character spacing, and line spacing before cutting.

…So I was able to create this fancy border by using a character from a dingbat font and then repeating and joining it. I’m all excited because I have a number of Christmas dingbat fonts. Christmas zine, anyone?

So, right – liking the Silhouette! (You can get more info on it over here.) And, thanks to Silhouette, I have two cool things for you…

First, the special offer:

Silhouette is running two bloggy specials, in case you’ve been reading this and thinking “Christmas Gift.” If you order a machine through their website and use our special discount code, POD, you can score:

• $50 off the Silhouette Craft Cutter (which comes with a cutting blade and two cutting mats)
• A roll of flocked white adhesive vinyl
• A roll of light blue smooth heat transfer material
• A roll of yellow flocked heat transfer material
• A Home Décor design CD (Valued at $50)
• A $10 Gift Card to the Silhouette Download Store

All of this for $249.99. which is a savings of $137.97. You can get this deal from September 23 – 30. (Hurry!)

From October 1 – 4, if you order a machine with the POD discount code, you can get:

• $50 off the Silhouette
• 2 rolls of heat transfer material
• A $10 Gift Card to the Silhouette Download Store

All that for $249.99, which is a savings of $79.98.

And then, the Giveaway!

The Silhouette folks have also offered me one of these dandy machines to give away here! (Quite possibly, the most stellar thing I’ve ever been able to give away on this blog.)

To enter your name, take a look at the project possibilities on this site and leave a comment here, telling me which is your favorite. You have until midnight on Thursday, September 30th to enter. Good Luck!

(Sorry, international readers. This giveaway is US only.)

UPDATE: The giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Kelli Jones, our winner!

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Hoo, boy, this little project came out of nowhere! But before I get to the tutorial, a little background…

Here’s how I maximize my office paper use: whenever I have paper I’ve had to print on one side, I fold it in half and use it as scratch paper. I write all my daily to-do lists on these things, and my phone call notes. And usually, there’s an untidy pile of these folded sheets on my desk.

…So I thought: “I should come up with some kind of holder for these!”

I started looking around for something that would form the basis of this holder, and found a 9×12 cardboard mailer in my re-use pile. Perfect!

So first, I wanted to make a pocket, so I could slide the folded sheets into it. I measured the size and drew a cut line on the back of the mailer.

…Then I slid a cutting mat into the mailer, so I’d be able to cut only one layer of it. (You could also use a piece of thick cardboard.)

With that in place, I used a ruler to cut along the cut line with a utility knife. I used light pressure and passed over the cut several times, so I wouldn’t damage any of the rest of the mailer.

From there, it was easy to cut down the center of the back of the mailer…

…And then cut away the excess parts of the back. Now I had a proper pocket, and the makings of a front cover!

I stacked all my folded sheets with the blank side facing out.

Then, I slid my stack of paper into the pocket as a gauge, and then drew two parallel lines, about 1/4″ apart. These form the spine of this book cover.

I gave these lines a good scoring with a bone folder and ruler.

…And then folded on the score lines to form the front cover.

On the back, then, I traced along the edge, and then on the front, I cut along this traced line. That made the front cover match the back cover.

I really should have applied some hand lotion before shooting this tutorial.

All I had to do now was find something good to decorate my cover. Heh! Heh heh heh!

…So I just glued my awesome Mexican chromos to the front, back, and inside panels. You could also fuse some fabric to the cover. Or decoupage. Or rubber stamp. Or frankly, any one of a million other decorative techniques.

Now all my lists are tidy, and I can add and remove pages anytime I want. I can even grab the whole shebang and throw it into my bag if I need to take it with me.

Cool, huh?

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We’re busy this week getting ready for How to Host Your Own Blog, so I thought I’d share some crafty I’ve done for other people lately.

Over on CRAFT, I did this tutorial for an oilcloth garden tool caddy as part of their Bloom garden project series.

…It unfolds to reveal pockets for your tools, and you can use it as a gardening mat! Also, cherries and gingham FTW!

And then for Earth Day, I had this how-to for a recycled newspaper vase in The Oregonian. (For you locals, I used a whole FoodDay circular to make this.)

You can see the tutorial online over here, and get more detail on the reed-rolling process over here.

And while I’m here, I freaking love you guys for your kind responses to my first video blog. Seriously, you rock!

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So instead, I’ll share tutorials for three Easter baskets I did last year…

This paper basket is based on the traditional woven paper heart. The how-to is over at CRAFT.

Take a look at the pretty version Tethered2Home made!

(Incidentally, have you ever seen what happens when you put Peeps in the microwave?)

These baskets are made of two fabric circles, placed back to back and then dipped in stiffener and formed. You could easily glue in a stiffened ribbon handle. The how-to is over at CraftStylish.

…And this basket is woven from cardboard packaging. Very sturdy, and the graphics add lots of visual texture. You could always paint them, too. The how-to is also over at CraftStylish.

Enjoy! And don’t forget, Craft Social is tomorrow!

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I loves me some of those old-school composition books. Last August, our local Fred Meyer had them on sale for 25 cents apiece for back-to-school, and K and I laid in a stock to get us well into our old age.

I’ve been noodling with ways to make them look prettier. There are tons of tutorials on the web for mixed-media treatments, or removable patchwork covers. But I wanted something a little more simple and durable – after all, my notebooks take abuse.

I don’t know why it took me so long to arrive at this dead-simple idea, but here you go.

So first, you’ll need a piece of fabric that’s roughly 1″ larger on all sides than your opened-flat composition book.

This project works best with a woven cotton that’s a little on the thicker side and tightly woven. Quilting cottons are ideal. Do take a moment and see whether the black-and-white composition book cover will show through the fabric – this can happen with light colors especially.

Next, get a sheet of fusible web that’s slightly smaller on all sides than the fabric. You’ll notice that I haven’t gone to too much trouble to cut anything perfectly straight. This tutorial was shot on a Sunday morning. There’s no need to get too exacting about anything on a Sunday morning.

Place the fabric on an ironing board wrong side up. Place the fusible web over the fabric, with the web side facing down.

Your iron should be on high heat with no steam (No steam is really important here.) Pass the hot iron over the paper backing of the fusible web. Keep the iron moving, and make sure you iron over all of the paper – especially out to the edges.

When you’re done ironing, let the fabric and paper cool for a moment.

Gently peel away the paper. See the shiny glue fused to the back of the fabric?

You should end up with a nice, even coat of glue fused to the back of your fabric. If you end up with bare spots, try placing the backing over the fabric again in the same position, and iron over the bare spots again to transfer the glue from the paper to the fabric.

Now, place the fabric on your ironing board with the glue side facing up. Place your composition book over the fabric, like this. Then, close the book, folding the fabric over it.

Take a moment to adjust the placement of the fabric as needed. This is why we made the fabric bigger than the book – so we’d have some leeway for adjustments.

Make sure the fabric is smoothly spread over the cover of the book. Then, iron the fabric to bond it to the cover. Again, keep the iron moving and make sure you iron along all the edges of the cover.

Flip the book over and re-smooth the fabric. Iron the fabric to the back cover.

Lastly, run the iron along the spine a few times. Then let everything cool for a moment.

Next, trim the fabric along the edges of the book cover. I like to use my rotary cutter for this, but you can also cut along the edges with some scissors.

(Don’t you love all these conversion tables and things on the inside covers of composition books?)

I prefer to use scissors to trim the fabric along the rounded corners.

As a last step, iron along all the edges and corners of the cover one more time, to make sure that fabric is good and fused there.

…And it’s done! Don’t you love this 70′s fabric? I’m only going to use this notebook to write about my dates with Keith Partridge.

Of course, since you’re playing with fusible web, you could also fuse a solid fabric to the cover and then fuse some cut-outs from other fabrics over that. There are a million and one possibilities.

OOh -and since we’re here, I’ll show you another idea that didn’t pan out so well. I thought it would be cool to cover a notebook with duct tape. Since I spend a lot of time at marshy bus stops, it seemed like a nice waterproof option. But, I overlapped the strips of tape, and I don’t love the look of that after all.

(I cut those flower shapes out of more duct tape with an Xacto knife. As you might imagine, it ended up being decidedly not fun.)

Anyway. Happy New Week, everyone!

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I guess I should say that my family is not Jewish – but as it happens, Mom and I both have Hannukah crafts on the web today.

Aren’t these star ornaments amazing? Mom made them with cardboard, pins, and yarn scraps. She has a beautifully-presented tutorial on her blog, if you want to learn to make them.

(Incidentally, see the photo at the bottom of this post to see how they look in other colors.)

…And I have a tutorial for this Very Simple Menorah on CRAFT. It’s a decoupage project, using ordinary colored tissue paper. I love how the light shines through!

I may be biased, but I think my Mom is a freaking genius.

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This little project was inspired by a post on Ann’s awesome blog, All Things Paper. Which you should add to your feed reader right now. I’ll wait.

Ann posted about a gorgeous floral card, in which the petals and leaves were made with a single paper punch.

Well, that got me excited. I’d love to have a big collection of cool punches, but have you priced those things lately? Ack.

You’re looking at my entire punch collection. When I saw Ann’s post, I sat right down and challenged myself to make something cool using only these tools.

After punching some base circles, I set about dividing them into quarters. I used a circle template, but you can also just fold and unfold them.

I wanted to punch these circles into new shapes, but I needed a way to feed them back into the punches.

…A Post-It note worked great! I just folded it in half, with the circle sticking to one corner.

Then, you have a nice handle! You can use it over and over again, and if you happen to punch through it, so what?

So with a few punches, you can make a nice array of basic shapes. It’s also very easy to turn out crescent moons and loops and such.

It was really fun, playing around with all the ways these simple shapes can be combined.

And then I busted out my Stickles and added a little enhancement here and there.

By the way, Ann also turned me on to these fun circle-based designs.

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So, yesterday, we learned to make a notepad from a cardboard box. Today, let’s fancy up the cover a little by adding some weaving.

You can start weaving your cover right after this step in the notepad-making process…

Now, most weaving project begin with a little measuring and figuring. I’ll try to keep this part as loose as possible. The nice thing about this little weaving is, it’s not an exact science at all. There’s lots of room for flubs and cheats of all kinds, as you’ll see.

Anyway. On the inside of your cover, measure and mark a rectangle in the center. Make it about 1/2″ inside the edges of the cover on all sides.

Next. divide this rectangle into an odd number of strips, and mark a series of parallel lines, as you see here.

These strips don’t have to be equal, as you can see from my sample. In fact, I think the weaving is more interesting if they’re a little unequal.

Use a metal ruler and a craft knife to cut along these lines. Be careful not to cut outside the borders of that rectangle!

…So when you’re done, you’ll have these nice, parallel slits in your cover. These will be the warps of your weaving.

Now it’s time to make some weft for your weaving. Take another piece of cardboard and cut a new rectangle. It should have these two qualities:

1. It should be the same width as your cover.
2. It should be about 1/2″ shorter than the length of those slits you just cut.

Why make it shorter? Well, the thickness of the cardboard will take up a lot of space in your weaving, as we’ll see in a moment.

Also, I should point out that in my photo here, I’ve actually made the Awake Tea cardboard a little too long – see how it’s only about 1/4″ shorter than my rectangle? That won’t work. Don’t be like me.

Make yours at least 1/2″ shorter. This will all make more sense in a minute, I promise.

Next, cut your weft piece into an odd number of strips. They don’t have to be the same width – in fact, I like ‘em a little uneven.

Enough talk! Let’s weave! Begin by sliding the first strip of weft under and over the warps, as shown here.

Slide that weft down to the bottom of the cover, like this. See how the ends of this weft are hidden under the cover?

Weave in a second weft, this time weaving opposite to your first weft. The ends of this weft are sitting on top of the cover.

Slide this weft down as close to the first one as you can get it. Use a gentle pressure to pack them together.

Remember all that babbling I was doing a minute ago about the thickness of the cardboard taking up space? Here’s where that comes into play. It’s possible that, as you’re weaving, you may need to shave a tiny bit off your wefts so they’ll all fit into the weaving. This is totally okay – nobody will ever know.

Keep sliding all the wefts downward as you weave, pressing them as close together as you can.

When you’ve woven in all those strips, glue the ends down with a little tacky glue. Do the same thing on the back side of the cover. And then place it under something heavy for about 10 minutes while the glue cures.

There are lots of design possibilities with this technique. Here’s a version I made where I cut both the warps and wefts into wide and narrow widths. And I used the chipboard side of the cardboard, and added a coat of Shimmer Mod Podge to give it a distressed-yet-gleamy look.

…Incidentally, you could also incorporate my Handwoven Greeting Card technique here, to make a fiber-covered notepad.

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I kid you not: I first made this project, from start to finish, in a dream. (Which was pretty great – I mean, it’s so hard to find crafting-time during my waking hours. Wish I could manage to craft in my sleep more often.)

Anyway. I like these simple notepads – they’re a fun way to re-purpose cardboard into something useful.

In my dream, I used a Kleenex box, so I’ll start with one here, too. But you can really use any chipboard box with interesting graphics.

So, cut your box apart into panels. You an really make these notepads in any shape and size your particular box will accommodate. Since this Kleenex box has that big plastic window in the top, I’m opting to use the side here, which will yield a long, narrow notepad.

Turn the chipboard over to the back. Get a ruler and a pencil, and draw two parallel lines, about 3/8″ apart, in the center.

…Then, score these lines with a bone folder. (Jolly useful, those bone-folders.)

Fold the chipboard along those score lines, and now you have a cover for your notepad. So far, so good!

Now, you’ll need to cut some paper for inside pages. You can use fresh sheets, or sheets from your recycle bin, or magazine pages, or any other interesting paper you like. You’ll need to cut a series of long strips, measuring about 1/8″ smaller on all sides than your cover piece.

So, by way of example, my cover piece measures 3″ wide and 8 1/2″ long. I cut my paper strips about 2 3/4″ wide and 8 1/4″ long. But if you hate measuring, don’t! Just make the paper a little smaller than the chipboard, and all will be well.

Separate the paper into equal bundles. I cut up five sheets of paper here, so I have three bundles of five pieces each. (But you can totally vary this to suit your fancy.)

Fold each bundle in half crosswise. Unfold it, and staple it once along that fold line.

Ooh! A Lazy Bookbinder’s Trick: place the staple in a different spot on each bundle. That way, you can pack the bundles together more tightly when you bind them into the cover.

(This might be a good time to add: you could also make these notepads with fancier stitched bookbinding methods, like this or this.)

Now, take your cover, and apply some strong, flexible glue, like E6000 or Amazing Goop, inside the spine.

Press those paper bundles together, and set them into the glue.

Fold the cover closed, making sure all those bundles are pressed firmly into that spine-glue. Then, place a weight on the pad and leave it to dry for several hours or overnight.

(Yup, Amy, that is what you think it is.) :-)

When the binding is dry, then you’ll need a little strip of chipboard. Mine measures about 3/4″ x 3″ Score this piece twice in the center, like you did the cover. The scores should be about 3/8″ apart, same as your cover.

You’ll also need a nice big button – 1″ or larger.

Glue one side of the strip to the back of the cover – Tacky Glue is fine for this.

Then, stick some velcro to the strip and the cover, as shown here. I’m using those self-adhesive velcro dots, and I trimmed them down a little to fit. You can also use regular velcro, and glue it down.

Lastly, glue your button in place on top of that closure strip. Let everything dry completely before you try opening the cover.

These are easy to make, and addictive! There are a million creative possibilities here – you can use old album covers, or food boxes, or toy packaging, and on and on. The world is filled with interesting cardboard, my friends.

…I should say, too, that in my dream, I was able to open and close this notepad with my mind. Sadly, I have not been able to figure out how to make this part of the project work.

Also in the dream, I made that woven cover you see in the background. But I’ll show you how to do that part tomorrow.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Hi, everyone – today, we have a guest post from Nancy Overton. She’s a veteran crafter, and the mother of Paul Overton, of Dudecraft fame. Her story made me smile, and I hope it has the same effect on you. Plus, she’s generously shared a project tutorial. Enjoy!

_________________________________________________________

Craft Deficit Disorder
by Nancy Overton

Teaching at two garden club meetings and one senior center in quick succession, I am thinking that I may have diagnosed a new malady buried within the busy lives of many seniors; Craft Deficit Disorder.

Is it the lack of time or other activities that keeps them away from crafts? Do they lack a space? Is it too messy? Is it hard to justify spending an afternoon in such concentration that you forget your troubles? Have they forgotten the spiritual and mental rewards that come from spending hour of single-minded eye/hand coordination devoted to a creative endeavor?

They may have had a lot of excuses for being craft deficient when they arrived at my class, but I don’t think they could give me one good reason for their craft neglect when they left. They had way too much fun!

The groups I instructed were a mixed bag, consisting of the savvy, the excited, the willing, the wary, the reluctant, the intimidated and those with returning childhood memories of growing up craft-deprived and art-discouraged. I could see the mix of emotions from face to face as I gave my presentation and described the craft of the day: making greeting cards using pressed leaves and flowers.

The large round tables were covered in newspaper. A blank white greeting card took the place of a plate at each place setting, with a foam brush to the left, in place of the fork, a watercolor brush and a toothpick standing in for the knife and spoon to the right. In place of the water glass was a cottage cheese container of dilute white glue.

The side tables were set like a buffet with paper plates on which to place one’s choice of potluck salads. In this case the fare was a selection of pressed pansies, dried hydrangea petals, single primrose flowers, violas and a variety of colorful pressed leaves.

The volume of female voices rose as they stood to fill their plates. The objective view of the camera shows a blur of activity not unlike a grade school cafeteria at noon. As they sat down at the tables, I buzzed the room, instructing here and encouraging there to find that even the reluctant and wary were busy pushing flowers, dipping brushes in glue while engaging their “luncheon” partners in conversation. Some lively leaf trading was in progress at table three.

“Ladies”, I said (I needed a whistle to get their attention), “there are more blank cards available. Just raise your hands.”

The buffet table was testament to the success of the “meal”. Every plate was empty but for a crumb of a leaf and a leftover garnish of pansy petal.

Seventy women had “eaten” 100 blank greeting cards, months of pressed plant material and half a gallon of Elmer’s glue in an hour and a half.

They were smiling and loud, thanking me and shaking my hand, telling me what fun they had. They were girlish and happy and proud.

Now they greet me in the grocery store and on the street. They tell me they are pressing flowers and how much Jane loved the card they sent.

Should you be privileged enough to provide a cure for craft deficit disorder in your community, take the offer. You may use my greeting card recipe or create a craft project of your own.

_________________________________________________________

The Craft Cure for 25 to 75 people

• Pack of 100 Strathmore 5” x 7” blank greeting cards (140lb. Watercolor paper)
• 1 quart Elmer’s Glue-All all purpose glue
• 1 season of small pressed flowers and leaves
• 100 pieces of 5” x7” art papers in assorted light colors
• Small containers for glue so that every two people share
• Pack of 100 foam luncheon plates
• Foam brushes so four people share
• #6 watercolor brushes so four people share
• 1 box of toothpicks

Step 1: Press plant materials in phone books, old dictionaries or encyclopedias. No special paper is necessary. Most plant materials will dry in two weeks. Don’t try to dry anything that is sticky, fleshy or refuses to lie flat when pressed with a finger. Roses don’t work.

I have had good results with individual hydrangea flowers. (Cut the flowers from the multi-stemmed head and press each flower face down on the page. Close the book slowly, trying to insure that all the flowers are flat.) In a good-sized book, you can place 4 to 10 flowers per page. Pressed hydrangea stems make nice looking little “trees”. Other flowers I like are pansies, violas, small daisies, individual primrose flowers, the petals of compound flowers, small leaves, seed heads, interesting grasses and ferns.

Some dried materials may be hesitant to leave the book, so have a toothpick handy as a prod. For a good method of storage and transport, have a foam plate ready to receive each kind of leaf or flower. Stack the plates, putting an empty plate on top and secure the stack with rubber bands.

Step 2: Though flowers look fine glued to the blank cards, I like to tear out a piece of lightly colored paper and glue it to the card before adding the flowers. It makes a nice visual transition between the tight, hard surface of the card and the fragility of the plant material.

Step 3: Dilute the glue a bit with water. Apply the glue to the card using the foam brush and place the colored paper on it. Applying the glue to the colored paper will make a soggy mess.

Step 4: Apply the glue to a plain card or a card with colored paper and place the plant material on it. Use a toothpick to arrange or move the flower. Use the #6 watercolor brush to add glue under the flower or to put glue between the petals (pansy, viola) so that all parts of the flower are secure. Stubborn plant material may need be finger pressed several times as it dries, or you may place a coffee cup or water glass on it for awhile.

Step 5: The wet glue often buckles the paper card. After the card is thoroughly dry, place it in one of your pressing books and weight it. It should flatten in a day or two.

When you’ve made a nice collection of cards and you love them too much to send them, color copy them and glue the images to your blank stock with a glue stick. Frame your originals “for keeps”.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

I was so excited to see Home, Paper, Scissors come out, because, like a lot of us, I’m always amazed by Patricia Zapata’s blogged paper projects.

I really love the idea of a papercraft book that bypasses all the usual greeting cards and paper chains and such, and instead offers actually-useful stuff for the home. There are some crazy-innovative designs here.

… Like this clock, which has a clock mechanism attached, and does tell time. How cool is that? Patricia even figured out how to build a shadowbox frame from paper.

This is another favorite project – this mobile uses simple punched circles, folded a couple times, and strung with seed beads to keep them in place along the string. Such simple materials and processes, and such a beautiful result.

I also love this wall art – three sheets of paper, each cut a slightly different way, with some balsa wood between them to add dimension. I imagine this would also cast some pretty little shadows with the right light.

The instructional quality here is excellent, too. Patricia shot step-by-step photography for each project, and templates are included where they’re needed, so you should have no trouble re-creating these projects.

Patricia really excels at boiling her designs down to their purest form. And it’s very cool to see that they’re construction is so accessible.

(Can’t resist showing you that leafy centerpiece project in finished form. I just love the simplicity, and the perfect detail of adding that smaller leaf on top of each large one.)

The book is divided into three sections: Decorating, Entertaining, and Gifting, with projects for each. These wine glass markers are one of several festive entertaining projects, along with paper placemats, table runners, and cupcake toppers, to name a few.

…And here’s one from the Gifting section. What a perfect little bow form! Patricia also suggests lots of alternate uses for her projects – for example, this one could also become a napkin-ring topper, a tree ornament, or the basis of a gift tag.

Be sure to check this one out – it will get you thinking in creative new ways.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Happy Friday, everyone! Let’s celebrate with a giveaway.

Molly Lee Cards has generously offered to give five lucky winners one pop-card of their choice.

To enter, just pop over to the shop and decide which card you’d want if you win. Then come back here and leave a comment. Please include your email address and the title of the card.

(I’m sorry, but I’ll have to disqualify entries with no email address. Just fill it out in the comment form. I promise, your info will never be abused.)

You have until noon PST on Monday, October 5th. Good Luck!!

UPDATE: Congratulations to our winners: Connie, Megan, Colleen Wagner, Scott Schluter, and Donna Bridy! Molly will soon be emailing you about your cards.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!

If you’re a CraftyPod subscriber, you can get this show and over 100 others, plus two new episodes each month. Click here to learn more!

You can also enjoy the current archive of free podcasts over here.

In this show:

- Patricia Zapata talks about how graphic design affects her crafting, and vice versa.

- Some discussion of how design principles can be beneficial to a small crafty business.

- Suggestions for developing your “design eye.”

Links:

- Check out Patricia’s craft blog, A Little Hut .

- You might also be curious about Patricia’s graphic design business, Zapata Design.

- …And check out Patricia’s book, Home, Paper, Scissors.

CraftyPod is a blog about making crafts and making media. If you're seeing this post on another website, I'd love to know. Thank you!