DIE CUT FROM PHOTOS

Photo and dies

Die-cut birds from repurposed photos

I like playing around with photos....sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't end up quite as I imagined it would, or I get carried away and have extra prints, when one is sufficient.  The red daisy photo was an example of the latter, but as I hate throwing things away, I decided cut out a flock of little birds instead.

I'm quite pleased with the end result - the photo (commercially printed) has a nice surface sheen, the paper is stiff enough to be mounted with foam dots and keep its shape, and it cut easily.  If you were really keen you could even design your own prints especially for certain dies (I'm already imagining a collage of tiny feathers for these guys).  You can get a 15 x 10cm print for just a few cents from many processors nowadays - bargain thick patterned paper!!

VASES FOR PAPER FLOWERS

REPURPOSED JARS - TWINE VASES

The papercraft aspect if this project are the flowers in the vase - the lilies that have featured previously, and the little text flowers that were made by stacking up three layers of two sizes of retro flower punched book pages.  The layers are secured with wire threaded through a button and twisted underneath to form stems.

Actually the flowers are a bit of a pretext to share these little vases (made from an empty jam jar and herb container).  I was feeling a bit overly tired and wanted something that involved a minimal amount of brainpower (since I'm not very good at sitting in front of the TV and doing nothing with my hands) and saw these in a craft book from the 1970s - all the go back them, and making a revival now, I think.  Just pick a jar, get some string, and wind, coating the jar with a thin layer of tacky craft glue as you go.  I had some hessian trim in a contrasting colour to add as a feature but this is optional.  If you like to fold paper flowers or want a container for pens and pencils these are ideal - very low cost and even lower brain power required.

DISPLAYING ORIGAMI

ADD TO AN EXISTING DISPLAY

 You have probably gathered that I really like paper.  I find folding it to be a very relaxing thing to do, and I love the tactile aspect of many papers.  The problem (such as it is) is what to do with the end results as (much like this blog) its the doing rather than the end product that is the main attraction for me.

I rescued the dictionary from which these examples are made from the bin at work, and rather liked them, so I'm putting my mind to thinking about how to display little bits of origami around the house in such a way that it doesn't look like a tip.

DECORATE YOUR POTPLANTS

Here are a couple of ideas .


The motif is made from interlocked waterbomb bases with a split pin in the middle.

The butterfly is the Yoshizawa butterfly.  You'll find lots of instructions on-line if you want to make your own.

BREAD TAG MONSTERS

BREAD TAG MONSTERS

 Bread tag monsters are everywhere at the moment (just do an image search and prepare to be amazed).  Just looking at them gave me a hundred and one ideas of different things to do.

I promised to do a couple of kid's cards for an upcoming demo, so here is my version. I've kept it very basic.  The white ones have two eyes, the red ones one eye and the blue ones three eyes.  You could do all sorts of "educational" things to do with counting, colours and storytelling, but just making them is fun.

If sticking the googly eyes on is too difficult adhesive pearls would be fine and/or if really little people might eat them you could draw them on with a permanent marker.  ( Be aware that bread tags could be swallowed too!)