Gift Bags from Newspaper

Posted on November 29, 2013 by thecontentedcrafter

I love to recycle and re-purpose – if I can figure out a way to make something that would normally be trashed into something useful or beautiful – or both – I’m up for the challenge.

I’ve been thinking about this project for a while now and finally committed myself to actually having a go. It came about this way…..

Do you remember I made a bunch of small gift bags a while back. I wanted to make some really big ones, you know, the size of a good shopping bag and I had figured I would need six 12 x 12 sheets per bag. Using quality specialist paper would have made the cost prohibitive – I mean $24 just for the paper and I haven’t even put the time in yet …. you can buy big gift bags at the moment for $2.50…..

With my creative mojo firing on all cylinders I had the genius idea I could make them from newspaper – the big giant ones.

I used the Otago Daily Times that I stole from YD’s place when I was cat-sitting the lovely Stanley. [I stole it for this purpose, I don’t read papers – they rarely have anything good or uplifting in them and I don’t want to live with images of all the horrible stuff that the media calls ‘news’]

An open double page measures 80 x 57 cm – I’m sorry I can’t convert that off the top of my head for you non-metric folk…… perhaps someone else might in the comments 🙂 Anyhow, it’s big!

So a couple of evenings back, I covered the floor with more bits of newspaper and hunkered down with a container full of blood red poster paint, a brush and a water jar:

I painted two double page spreads with a thick layer of paint and left them to dry overnight.

The next day I turned the paper over and ~~ran~~ wrestled a length of contact paper over the page. [Contact paper is used to cover books and shelves – sticky on one side and a plasticky / wipeable finish on the other.] I used this to give the newspaper some strength and durability.

I worked out my score lines for width and depth and top and bottom ……. ooooh headaches!!

And made a pair of bags:

I like that you can still see the newsprint showing through – but the photo is not true to the red I used – think blood red and you’ll be closer to the truth of it.

With the basic bag hanging together quite well it is embellishment time – Hurrah!!

I rummaged through my paper stash and found a 12 x 12 vintage collection that I purchased in a sale a year or two back and have never known what to do with – I chose two different pictures and roughly cut out around the images and stuck one on each bag.

Using white, black and gold pens I highlighted the edges of the cut outs, faux stitched outside the edges and outlined different aspects of the woman.

Lace was hot glued all around the top edges and red organza ribbon employed for the handles

Next I punched out some hearts using off-cuts from the vintage girl paper and shiny metallic gold and layered some:

And stuck ’em on both the front

and the back of the bags

The hearts were given faux stitching in black pen.

So, looking good you say – finished?

Nope. Remember, if a little embellishment is good, a lot is better…

The fabric flowers are made from organza and curtain netting – great fun to make as it involves a lighted candle and ~~charring~~ melting ….. 🙂

The beaded flowers I learnt to make from someone on the internet two or three years ago and I’ve completely forgotten who it was – but they too are fun to make. It’s just beads and twisted wire and they hang freely and move about which adds another layer to the whole thing.

I think they are finished – but there is still three weeks til Christmas, you never know what might happen to them between now and then…..

I think they came out quite well for a first try – I learned lots and know how to do it now….

Thanks for coming by today – I love that you did 🙂

Art Journal – Count Your Age By Friends …..

Posted on August 11, 2013 by thecontentedcrafter

Here’s a double page spread from my journal that I did a while back. I was experimenting with overlaying book paper with paint, paint with stencils and stencils with stamps. I was determined to keep the colours subtle, not my usual bright and bustling, overloaded and bling filled persona at all!

Finally I stuck some dies on top [the ever so slightly robotic looking lady is a 5 piece puzzle you can stick together however you want and the scrabble squares are also a die] along with one of my favourite John Lennon quotes………

Count your age by friends, not years

Count your life by smiles, not tears

Of course, right at the very end I had to give it a wee burst with some sparkly colour mist ……. just can’t help myself! 🙂

I find that now a bit of time has passed by since I last looked at this page, I quite like it………

Thanks for popping by, as always, it’s lovely to know you’ve been!

The Adventures of a Prima Doll Stamp

Posted on August 7, 2013 by thecontentedcrafter

I got myself a new stamp. It is so pretty!

Now before we go any further I just need to tell you that I was never able to be a little girly girl when I was a little girl – and, as a result, I have never quite gotten past the frilly-blingy-dress-up-pretty stage – ’nuff said?

So here is the stamp – she’s quite a tall lass, standing about 20 cm [8″] and the primary colour used in the composition, Distress Ink ‘Peacock Feathers’ an absolutely delicious colour:

And this is what I did to it:

Sh is coloured with water colour pens and the dress is over stamped in a pattern by randomly plonking a small swirly type stamp over the four colour base. Even though the dress has a sort of bottom frill, i wanted more, so made the fabric look frill from paper coloured in the same way as the dress and then pleated and shaped to get the look of movement. It’s topped with a row of tiny pearls.

She looked a bit cold so I took a piece of narrow white cotton lace and turned it into a shawl. Later, the harsh white will be softened with a few dabs from the green and blue colour palette.

The next day I decided the black was too harsh and did this:

Tiny pieces of my encyclopaedia paper are glued down and brushed with some gold ‘Perfect Pearls’ which also made their way onto the gown The edge is treated to some ‘Peacock Feathers’ ink.

Now she needed to rest a bit while I had a think about where to go next – did she need to be affixed to a double layer of scalloped edged card? Did she like having flowers around her?. I often stand my half completed work out where I can see it when I’m doing other things. Getting a glimpse of it when I’m not focused on it, helps me know what is needed as a next step.

The little fella likes to get in on the action too:

She spent an evening out of the play room and when she went back in this happened:

I think she’s finished – but you can never be quite sure …… not until she is safely tucked up in her cellophane bag or gone to her new home!

Thanks for coming by 🙂 I hope you enjoyed your visit, do let me know what you think – constructive criticism is always appreciated!

Box To Book – Part 5 – The Cover Finished

Posted on June 20, 2013 by thecontentedcrafter

I thought I’d better post these photos of my progress before I get side tracked [again!]

We are having exciting weather – it was supposed to snow but that appears to have missed my part of the country and we have just had rain – endless rain …… cold, wet, hard-falling rain!

Lots of flooding and landslides and roads closed and bits of the promenade falling off into the wild southern ocean ….. I’m not a fan of weather like this – give me snow any day!

However Orlando is as happy as a bug in a rug – or a cat ….. he gets to go outside to potty and come back in and get a towel down. He loves a towel down! He suddenly finds he has to go potty many, many times in the day – far more often than at any other [drier] time of the year – and, on his return, presents himself side on so that I may touch the wet fur and retrieve his towel and do my job…………..

If I could film at the same time as towel down I’d post a little something for your eddication and enjoyment…….. head back, eyes closed, mouth a little open and rumbling like an aeroplane preparing for take -off……….

However I digress. Here are the last photos I took a few days ago:

The finished cover

The title is made with individual letters stamped onto dyed grunge paper and embossed with gold and rubbed down a bit for a worn look. The antique lace was an after thought – found in my stash when I was looking for something else – and is perfect for just right there don’t you agree?

Lace has been attached to the spine for added texture

The row of tiny pearls shows up in this last photo, nestled alongside the antique lace…..

Currently I’m working on the verses and finishing touches for all pages – I do what I can in between towelling down the cat, keeping the cat warm, singing to the cat, taking the cat for his daily walk – well, I walk he rides in my arms and points the way with his nose – retrieving his lost toys from under furniture and or appliances ……and now and again seeing to the needs of myself or other folk……….

Lovely that you stopped by, leave us a note do….

Box To Book – Part 4: The Cover

Posted on June 12, 2013 by thecontentedcrafter

Welcome, if you are a new reader [or follower 🙂 ] here is a brief introduction to this project:

Last Christmas I received a Grand Calibur die cutting machine which came in a large and sturdy box which – in a moment of madness – I decided to turn into a book. There are three previous posts showing the progress I was making – I haven’t made much progress for a while really………….

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So I hit a wall – I was thinking too much and everything I did was awful – truly awful!!

A good lesson for me to learn – stop thinking and start creating!

I got into the rut because I really wanted to make something special out of that box – the idea is to return the box to the original giver in a new form, so therefore I couldn’t muck it up………….. and, of course, therefore I thought too much and mucked it up ….. !!!

So I had a wee paddy and went into the play room today saying through gritted teeth – just go with your gut and play and chuck out all the ‘shoulds’.

And a miracle happened and in just a few hours I made the cover for the book:

I took some cream card stock and painstakingly put it through the machine six times to get the embossed pattern into it. I used stains in ‘Aged Mahogany’ and ‘Brick Red’ to colour it and when it was dry I sprayed liberally with glimmer mist ‘Black Cherry’ to get a slightly worn, but rich red. [NB:- The photos were taken with the low winter sun streaming onto the desk, the colour is not quite this pink in reality]

Then I prepared the inside lining for the cover. The small paper example to the right is the original, to the left after it is sprayed with the same glimmer mist colour. The edges are stained and slightly tattered:

When I had made two boards – front and back covers – I left them to dry and played around with the glimmer mist on some lace and punched a length of pretty paper using a Martha Stewart punch:

I decided it looked a bit insipid, so it too got sprayed liberally with the glimmer mist!

I cut a strip of grunge paper to size and that got a good coat of ‘Aged Mahogany’ stain and came out really pretty – it looks and feels like velvet! Then I attached the dyed lace with a light coat of multi-medium.

There was a strip of the inside paper lying around so I decided to use that on the front cover too, everything was glued on seperately and layered carefully.

Finally I attached the outer spine using a combination of hidden staples and tacky glue and then – fittingly – left it sitting under the weighty die cutting machine – the item which came in the original box – to dry:

When it emerged from under the machine it looked like this:

I’ve started on the title and a little something else which is needed – and I’ve got a line of pearl beads to attach tomorrow – but the worst of it is done. What a relief!

I’m really happy as at last it is starting to look the way I wanted it to – like a really old book that was beautifully and carefully hand made and has been much used and is now just a little the worse for wear ……

Thanks for sticking with it – let me know what you think………..