Tag: Paper

Christmas Cards

Every year it is the same question, will I send out Christmas cards this year? Real ones, with paper and that (if I don’t hand them over to the recipient directly) go through the mail and stuff. This year, the choice was easy. I was in a shop, I saw a kit for making paper Christmas balls and decided I could use the idea for my cards this year.

The shop sold craft paper blocks which I got one of, bags of buttons in different sizes (120 in a pack), metal loops for ornaments and gardening wire. I had my card almost ready!

I’ll explain what I did, there are more pictures below. First, I’ll show you the ‘instructions’, I drew them and then created them in Photoshop (not very well, but still), I copied my own handwriting and printed 3 of them on 1 red A4 piece of paper. I then signed my name in the bottom right corner and added some metallic fireworks. The back was used for a personal message and the address.

Instructions

To put the kit together I cut strips of the paper using my paper-cutter machine thing. It can do straight lines, dashed lines or curved lines. I used the first and the last. Then I made holes in the ends of the strips using a hole punch. I noted the middle of the strips and punched a hole there (1). I wrote the text I wanted on the strips (2), the text is (translated) Happy Holidays and a Healthy, Cosy (untranslatable) and Happy 2014. It was written (mostly) on different coloured strips (3). I cut a bit of wire and added the first button (4).

Cards 1

I put the strips on the buttoned wire (5) and added a button on top to keep it in place (6). This was placed with 2 other buttons, a hanger and the instruction in an envelope and sent. To make the ball, you twist the wire (7) and add another button (8).

Cards 2

You can read the entire text in now if you turn the strips out (9). Then the ends of the strips are put on the wire (10) and the last button is added (11). Twist the wire a bit and add the hanging loop (12).

Cards 3

That’s it! Then you enjoy the pictures people send you of their balls in their trees. I enjoyed that the most. I had fun making them. Next year, I’m going for a new idea. I got some inspiration from a card we received during the holidays, so who knows…

Papercrafts

For some reason, three months from now is a really nice time to fornicate. At least that’s what I assume. I had a massive 5 known birthdays in the last week alone. i.e. 5 people who I knew celebrated one year further in their lives. While I did not go or organise any parties (It was my birthday too, the), I did make some cards for some of those people. I had found some animal print origami paper in my box of craftstuff. Including instructions on how to fold a giraffe. Ok, while I’m not sure it really classifies as origami, as the giraffe is made up of two pieces and requires glue, it still looks nice. I took pictures of 2 out of 3 cards,because I had already posted one of them. The text on the front means congratulations (with your birthday), it’s in Dutch on these cards. You might also wonder why my giraffe, elephant and bird don’t have their own print. Well.. I wanted to change it up a little, and still had some zebra paper left. The bird and the elephant I’ve known for years, out of an origami book I got from my aunt for my birthday several million years ago. I know the bird and elephant by heart, which always impresses people. I’m going to make a giant elephant once I can find large enough paper. Anyways, here are those cards. I did enjoy myself making them, and see more of this in the future.

Card Card