Wedding/Anniversary Gift

Here is a simple yet impressive gift to give a wonderful couple or to put on your own wall.  The states in this particular craft represent where the happy couple met, married, and live.  You can personalize it as you like.

 

You will need:

 Cutting Mat

 Exacto Knife

 Metal Ruler

 Pencil

 Scissors

 Glue

 Frame

 Dark Cardstock

 Background Paper

 State Templates

 Heart Stickers

1.       Print out templates of states.  You can search online for silhouettes or outlines of the state that you want.  In my case: Wisconsin, Texas, Maine

2.       Cut out templates and trace onto desired cardstock paper

3.       Cut your background paper to fit the frame

4.       Glue on silhouettes

5.       Place heart stickers on city locations – in this case: Madison, Austin, Portland

6.       Place in frame

TP Roll Decor Project

TP Roll Project for the Girls' Room

I have been collecting toilet paper and paper towel rolls for quite a while with the intention of making one of the wall art ideas that I have been seeing on Pinterest.  When I took the last tp roll downstairs and really paid attention to my pile, I realized it was high time to get to work.

After you have collected all of your rolls, you will need to flatten them in order to make them easier to cut.  My three-year-old actually enjoyed helping with this step.

Next, you will cut the rolls into strips.  Try to make them all the size size.  I cut mine approximately 1 1/2 inches long.

Now, you get to make your shapes and designs.  I like to keep the pieces held together with clothespins. 

 However, doing this with the starburst design is just not possible.  I laid out my design first and then started gluing.  I love my hot glue gun, and since it dries fast, I was able to remove the inner clothespins to reuse as the starburst got bigger.

After the glue is all dry, you get to pick your spray paint color.  I chose all white for the girls' room just so it would be sure to match when they get their new quilts from great-grandma.

All that is left is to hang them up and enjoy!

Paper Box

I have had a few requests to include this tutorial in the blog, but have been very slow in doing so.  The paper has been cut and sitting next to my computer for well over a month!  I love making these paper boxes and am very grateful to Aunt Michelle for teaching us how to make them.


1. Start with 16 sheets of coordinating 8" x 8" paper.  You could use origami paper, but I usually cut down scrapbooking paper.  I would recommend against cardstock as it is difficult to fold.  I can get a packet of 100 sheets of scrapbooking paper for $5 at Wal-Mart. If you would like the lid and bottom to match up, use two sheets of each pattern.

2. Start by folding 1 piece of paper from corner to opposite corner.  Repeat with the other corners.

3. Next, fold each corner of the square to the center fold line.  This will form a smaller square.

4. Unfold the top and bottom triangles.  Take the point of the bottom triangle up to the line at the bottom of the top triangle.  This will form a shape like an envelope.

5. Take the right-hand side of the envelope to line/meet up with the bottom triangle.

6. Fold the bottom rectangle back.

7. Fold the paper so that the center line matches up with the line of folded paper to its left.  (I understand that this is a confusing step, but I don't know how else to explain it. So do your best to make yours look like the picture below. If you are having a lot of trouble, please comment so that I can try and explain it better)

8. Repeat steps 2-7 with the remaining 15 pieces of paper.  This may seem daunting, but once you get the hang of it, the folding goes pretty quickly.

 9.Now it is time to assemble the box.  Split your paper into two piles of eight each.  Slip the let-hand side of one piece of paper in between the folds of the right-hand side of another piece.  Try and keep the papers tight together.  Repeat with the remaining pieces for your pile until you have formed the bottom half of your box.

10.  Flip your box over and square the sides tightly.  Fold over the white points under the white scrapbook paper underneath them.  When you have finished, you will end up with an octagon with a beautiful colored starburst in the middle.

11. Repeat steps 9 and 10 for your other eight sheets of paper.  If you want the paper patterns to match up when the box is closed, pay attention to the order you are assembling the box.

12. Now you can put your box together!

It is fun to experiment with different colors of paper and even different sizes.  The small one is made of 6" square paper (it is also quite beat up as my girls play with it).  I prefer the 8" squares, as I feel they are easy to assemble and are a great size for gifts.  I have filled them with bags of cookies the last couple of years and given them as gifts for my daughters' teachers, Sunday School teachers, and Daisy troop leaders.  They are a fairly easy craft that makes a great impression!