Handmade Baskets

Today I'm sharing how I made baskets out of newspaper. Legit baskets! Out of paper!

I'd seen this project a long time ago on Pinterest and lockdown finally gave me the opportunity to try it out.

I looked at a few different tutorials and I suggest you do the same if you want expert advice! This is the tutorial that I followed. It's just pictures so there were some bits I had to figured out for myself.

I started by ripping sheets of newspaper in half along the long side, and then rolling them at an angle into long tubes, secured with a bit of Pritt stick at the ends. One end will be wider than the other and that's meant to happen and will be useful later.

Once you have a bunch of tubes you need to sandwich them between two pieces of cardboard with a lot of PVA glue, which will be the base of the basket. You need an odd number of tubes +1 around the edge so the weaving works. I learnt this by having an even number in my first attempt which messed up my over/unders. The +1 is the tube you start off weaving with.

Once the glue is dry fold the tubes up and secure them to a box with pegs. It helps to choose your box first and then cut the cardboard bases to fit it.

Then get your weave on, starting with the extra tube you stuck in the base. When the tube you're weaving with gets too short, stick the thin end of a new tube into the end of the first tube.

When you've reached your desired height, fold and tuck the ends of the tubes in a way that I can't explain but you might be able to see in the picture. Now would be a good time to check those other tutorials online.

Then there's some more folding and tucking to finish the top.

I then painted my baskets white with house hold emulsion, but most paints will do; acrylic, pre-mixed bottle paint etc.

I decorated one of my baskets by painting a gradient/ombre effect using turquoise paint mixed with different amounts of white.

For the other basket I managed to sew a lining which fits inside.

And that's it! I now consider myself a basketeer!

I can't wait to make more in all different shapes and sizes. I never need to buy a basket again! 

Character Gift Tags

 I felt like adding some personality to my gift wrapping so I decided to make these fun character gift tags. All I needed was some coloured paper/card and a glue stick.

To make the snowman I cut out a gift tag shape from white card. I cut two rough circles for the eyes out of black paper and five smaller circles for the mouth. I glued everything in place and added an orange triangle for the classic carrot nose.

For the Santa belt I cut a gift tag shape out of red card. I cut a strip of white paper with torn edges for the fur trim, which I stuck down first. I then added a strip of black paper for the belt, with a yellow square and black square on top for the buckle.

For the Rudolph tag I cut two gift tag shapes, one brown and one white, and sandwiched the paper antlers between them. I cut a large tan oval for the mouth and added Rudolph's signature red nose on top. I then used black and white card for the other facial features.

 Once I'd added some matching string through a hole in the top of the tags they were done.

There were really simple to make and I'm already thinking what other characters I could create in gift tag form.

Deadpool Birthday Card

I wasn't going to post about this but it made me laugh so much I had to share. It was my boyfriend's birthday at the weekend and I made him this card...

Deadpool with a birthday banner!
I'd seen the idea of the banner in a card before but having Deadpool holding it was a stroke of genius. Also, I thought Thor would've been too hard to make out of paper...

The birthday banner is just folded pieces of paper glued around a piece of sewing thread, one for each word. Once I'd stuck the paper Deadpool in the middle of the card I poked a hole by each of his hands and put the thread through. I made sure the 'birthday' was hanging lower than the 'happy' and then used sticky tape on the outside of the card to keep the thread in place.

I kept the outside of the card pretty simple, since the inside is the best bit. I just needed something that would cover up the sticky tape, so I cut out some balloons from coloured paper and added more thread for the strings. I tied these together and added a name tag.

 On the back I used one balloon to cover the sticky tape, and let him know who the card was from.

The birthday boy was very happy with his card!

Pin it!

Handmade Christmas Cards

Over the years I've aquired quite a lot of decorative bits; papers, ribbons, things pulled off old Christmas cards etc. So I thought I would use a few of them and make a few last minute Christmas cards.

The main part of this card, the bauble in the middle, was taken off of an old Christmas card, bow included. I then found paper and card that matched the colours to make the squares behind it. I put a scrap piece of gold ribbon behind and added the Happy Christmas, which I have on a sticker sheet.

I've got a whole pack of blank red folded cards which are perfect for Christmas cards. I added some poinsetta scrapbook paper to the lower half and some gold ribbon with a bow to the middle. The plastic gold angel, which I've placed on a paper circle, is another item I got off an old Christmas card.

 This card took the longest but I'm really pleased with how it turned out. First I had so pick out all the red sequins from various packs, arrange them in a tree shape and then stick them all down. I was watching CMAs Country Christmas at the same time which made the task less monotonous.

Do you like making Christmas cards? Are you someone who saves bits from old cards for later use?

Art Cards

This week at work we've put up the end of year art exhibition. On Tuesday night we had the private view where some of the students get awards for their work this year. The Head of Art asked me if I had some handmade cards we could give the winners, so I made these 6 especially for them. 

The starting points for most of the cards were these paint experiments that the students made throughout the year and then abandoned in the 6th room. I scooped them up and put them to good use. 

For these cards I cut out a geometric pattern using a craft knife and layered the patterned paper underneath. I stuck pieces of coloured paper on some of the triangles, picking out colours from the patterned paper.

For this card I used a Sharpie to draw mandala style doodles over patterned paper, which I spray mounted to a folded piece of red card.

This was the quickest card to make. I just made water colour paint splodges and when they dried I drew feathers using a fine liner on top.

Which card is your favourite?

Embroidered Knitting

I've had this project from Good Knits of embroidered 'knitting' favourited for ages and I finally got around to trying it to make a birthday card for my Mum.

I used the same heart pattern as in the tutorial and made the holes with my pokey tool.

I followed the instructions to do chain stitch and I think it turned out quite well. The holes could have been a little closer to really make it look like knitting, but it still looks good.

Greetings Cards

Here's a few greetings cards I've been working on.

The first set are some last minute Christmas cards I made for the art teachers I work with using the stag lino cut I made a couple of months ago. To make them more Christmas-y (and cover up the slightly messy prints) I added gold paint and red noses.

The second set were cards I wanted to get printed for a while but was just waiting for the right offer. £5 credit combined with cyber Monday deals made printing these cards with Photobox more affordable. I used this scanned paper image from a while ago. I think it's really fun and it will work as a birthday card or congratulations card.

Confetti Printed Cards

One of the teachers I work with recently became a Dad so I made this card for him.

I was quite impressed with what a bit of tissue paper and the fonts in Word can produce.

So I decided to make some more cards using that style to sell at the craft fair I've got next week.

My circle paper punch is still my favourite thing and I used it to make the tissue paper confetti.

I randomly stuck the circles to blank cards which I sent through the printer to get the message printed on, which I created in Word using Word art. Nothing fancy here.

Party Decorations

For my birthday party I made these big gold numbers for decoration.

To make them I cut out a 2 and 5 from corrugated card.

I sprayed the card with spray glue and stuck them to this glittery wrapping paper which I bought from the Scrap Store for 50p. What a bargain.

I cut the excess paper so it would wrap around the card and glued it in place.

The numbers were so much fun to pose with and I'll be able to use them again in 27 years when I turn 52!

The other decorations I made were tissue paper pom-poms. So Pinterest!

I made 6 pom-poms from one 49p pack of tissue paper.

I used more of he gold paper to add to the pink paper bunting I already had.

I also hung up some photos of me throughout the years,

And finally I fancied up some plastic disposable cups by gluing pink glitter around the bottom,

Paper Circles

As I mentioned in this post my circle paper punch is my new favourite thing. After making the tissue paper confetti I wanted to find out what else I could make with it, so I took to Pinterest.

I made these washi tape circles from this post, which I think will look great on scrapbook pages.

And I made this cool paper circle flower from this post which could could look pretty on the front of a card.

What other ways could I use my circle paper punch?