RedThreadDIY

Oct

Paper: Printable Projects, Free Clip Art, and What Can I Do With It?

Paper is awesome. No seriously. You can do anything with paper. I mean.. it may not hold as well as metal or anything like that, but it’s still possible. That was such a lame opening. I am so sorry. I’m not so good at openings, eh?

Um.. well, here are some fun paper links that I’ve collected.Whether you’ve got fancy schmancy card stock, old magazines, old books, scraps, construction paper, newspaper, or you name it, there’s so much you can do!

If you haven’t seen it already, please check out my other posts: Books No One Wants: What Can I Do With Them? Blank Notebooks, What Can I Do With Them? and Paper Bags: What Can I Do With Them? because those, of course, involve paper. Of course, there are misc. paper items involved in other posts, so if you’re really hardcore, you can just search for the term ‘paper’ and find a bunch o’ other stuff!

As I find more links and tutorials, I just add them to this post. Really, none of my posts are complete. I’m ALWAYS adding when I find new links if they fit under the post’s subject! Enjoi!

Misc. Tutorials (because I didn’t know what to categorize them under)
Paper Technique Tutorials
Clothing Tutorials
Accessory Tutorials (oh yeah!)
Home Decor Tutorials (because you’re that awesome)
Free Clip Art to use in your own projects (vintage clip art that is freaking unique – and I love it)
Halloween Clip Art (that looks awesome)
Printable Projects (that you can assemble, or print out and be done with!)
Halloween Printable Projects

Misc. Tutorials:

The Making of an Origami Koi in Stop Motion: Mabone Origami on flickr

How to Make Japanese Paper Dolls: Kimono Reincarnate

La Calavera Lino Cut Memory Cards: AZCentral

Scalloped Note Card: Andrea Walford

Russian Nesting Doll Card: ZakkaLife

Paper Witch Shoe Favor Box: Skip to my Lou

How to Make a Gift Bow from a Magazine Page: How About Orange

Paper Boxes for Holiday Gifts: Softflexgirl

Triangle Box: Split Coast Stampers

Easy Christmas Baskets: Small Fry and Co.

Paper Technique Tutorials:

Herringbone Technique: Scrappin’ Out Loud

Clothing Tutorials:

Sew a Newspaper Dress: Instructables

Accessory Tutorials:

Paper Bag Purses: Small Fry and Co.

4x6 Accordion File Purse Tutorial: Stampin Inspirations

Paper Bag Purses: The Creative Boutique

Recycled Newspaper Pin: The Crafty Chica

Home Decor Tutorials:

Paper Silhouette Art: Lisa Freedman

Mexican Paper Flowers: Mad in Crafts

Paper Tree Tutorial: jodireeves on flickr

Tissue Paper Pom Poms Tutorial: Blue Cricket Design

Susan's Tiger Wallpaper: Design Sponge

Decorative Chair Backs: Martha Stewart

Album Cover Tutorial: Freckled Nest

Magazine Paper Doll Magnets: Ruffles and Stuff

Paper Christmas Wreath Tutorial: TheRedThreadBlog

Making Woven Paper Baskets: Gingerbread Snowflakes

Making Perfect Boxes: Lovely Design

Free clip art to use in your own projects:

Thrift Store Paper Cutouts: CraftZine
The Graphics Fairy is an excellent blog that uploads vintage photos for you to download!
I can’t forget to mention The Vintage Moth – which has free antique and vintage images for mixed media artists
Oh yeah – check out Vintage Printable too!
Why not? You’re on a roll, right? I know I am! Grab some ideas and some clip art from Just Something I Made

Halloween Clip Art:

Thanksgiving Clip Art:

Vintage Thanksgiving Postcard: The Graphics Fairy

Printable Projects:

How About Orange has an excellent variety of printable crafts that you can print out right at home!
Printable Chore Chart for Kids: Mod Eco Kids
Printable Moving Announcement: How About Orange
Full Bloom Flower Card: Aileen’s Musings
NaniBird Birdie Projects: NaniBird
Bun Box: Super Cute Kawaii

Halloween Printable Projects:

Halloween Toe Tag Invitations: Brooklyn Limestone
Haunted Paper Toys: Ravens Blight
Halloween Boxes: HelloHappyBlog ah so cute! Perfect for packaging little things in for Halloween!
Jack o’ Lantern Seed Orange Jelly Bean Labels: Can’t Stop Making Things
Chocolate Covered Witch Warts Raisinettes Labels: Can’t Stop Making Things
Halloween Pop-up Card: Can’t Stop Making Things

I’m really just a huge fan of the clip art – not gonna lie. You can basically do anything with that – so your options are endless. I <3 Paper. Glad I saved my magazines, too!

If you know of ANY other examples or tutorials, please comment below so I can add them to this list. Thanks!

Photo Credit: razorfrog on flickr

Tags: about, Accessories, Accessory, accordion, accordions, album, albums, announcement, announcements, antique, art, back, backs, bag, bags, basket, baskets, bean, beans, bird, birds, blank, bloom, blooms, bone, book, books, bow, bows, box, boxes, bun, buns, button, buttons, calavera, Card, card stock, cardboard, cards, cardstock, chair, chairs, chart, chocolate, chore, Christmas, clip, clip art, clipart, construction, cover, covered, covers, craft, crafts, cut, cut out, cut outs, cutout, cutouts, day of the dead, Decor, Decoration, Decorations, decorative, diy, diy crafts, doll, dolls, dress, dresses, easy, fairies, fairy, favor, favors, file, files, Flower, flowers, free, full, gift, Gifts, graphic, graphics, Halloween, Haunted, heart, hearts, herring, herringbone, Holiday, holidays, home decor, home decoration, how, how to, how to make, Ideas, Inspiration, invitation, invitations, jack-o'-lanterns, jack-o-lantern, jackolantern, japanese, jelly, jelly bean, jelly beans, kids, label, labeled, labels, lino, made, magazine, magazines, magnet, magnets, make, making, memory, Mexican, moving, nesting, news, newspaper, note, note book, note books, note card, note cards, notebook, notebooks, notecard, notecards, notes, old, orange, out, page, pages, paper, paper bag, paper bags, papers, perfect, Photos, pin, pins, pom, poms, pop, pop-up, popup, Postcard, Postcards, printable, purse, purses, raisinettes, recycle, recycled, recycling, Russian, scallop, scalloped, scallops, scrap, scraps, seed, seeds, shoe, shoes, silhouette, silhouettes, stock, store, stores, tag, tags, technique, techniques, Thanksgiving, thrift, thrift store, tiger, tigers, tissue, tissues, to, toe, toe tag, toes, toy, toys, Tree, Trees, triangle, triangles, turkey, turkeys, tutorial, Tutorials, up, vintage, vintags, Wall, wall paper, wallpaper, walls, wart, warts, weave, weaving, witch, witch's, witches, woven, wreath, wreathe, wreathes, wreaths

posted by Katar in Craft Ideas,Tutorials,What Can I Do? and have No Comments

Oct

DIY Halloween Costume Awards Tutorial

I was shopping at some store (can’t remember which one) and went down the Halloween aisle. I saw these freaking awesome trophies that are usually given out as prizes for Halloween Costume Contests. I also checked out Spirit and Halloween USA to see what they had to offer for costume awards. All of the stores had pretty ridiculous prices. (Something like $10 for a trophy and $5 for lame buttons that said “first place, second place, etc.)

Because the prices were ridiculous, I decided that I was going to look around Micheal’s to see if anything sparked my creativity. I LOVE making things myself – the items are so much more original, cheaper, and of better quality that what you can buy at cheap stores.

I’m not having a party… but heck! Why not give awards to random trick-or-treaters that I feel are deserving!? Yes. That is a great idea!

I did find some awesomeness at Micheal’s. Here is my tutorial for Halloween Costume Award Pins:

Materials Needed:

Halloween Wood Cutouts (I bought a pack of 4 shapes at Micheal’s for $1) – You can also use foam cutouts!
Paint (I used acrylic paint)
Thick Paintbrush and Thin Paintbrush (Thick for painting the overall color and thin for painting details and the letters)
Halloween Ribbon (I paid $1.50 for a ribbon spool at Micheal’s at 5/8 inches by 3 yards. This should exactly cover your ribbon needs for your 4 awards)
Hot Glue Gun with Glue Sticks
Pin Backs (So it’s wearable!)
Construction Paper (If your cutout has holes in the middle)

Most of these materials I already had, so I only needed to buy the ribbon and the wood cutouts. Pretty awesome result for $2.50 and my time, right? Onto the instructions! I made the cat awards by using the default steps, but I’ve also included some Time Saver steps which I have used on my other awards (The pumpkins and the skulls) that turn out just fine!

Step 1: Paint the front side of the cutout a solid color. Then paint details after it’s dry. For lettering, I just free-handed it. You most certainly can use tracing paper with a printed out word if you aren’t comfortable with your writing. Some examples of what the awards could say are listed at the bottom of this tutorial.

Step 2: Cut 24 Ribbon Strips of 4.25″ in length if you want the ribbon looking like it is going in the same direction on the award.

TIME SAVER STEP 2: If you don’t really care if the ribbon is facing the same direction and want to save time, cut 12 ribbon strips of 8.5″ in length.

24 of these, or 12 of twice this length!

Step 3: Using your hot glue gun, glue the ribbon strips together facing opposite directions as shown below.

TIME SAVER STEP 3: You don’t have to do this step, because you already have the desired length!

Step 4: Glue the ribbons on top of each other in a star formation as shown. Make sure that you are gluing them centered!

TIME SAVER STEP 4: In order to find and glue the middles together without measuring, fold the ribbons in half, making a visible crease.

Step 5: Turn your ‘star’ over, and hot glue each piece to the center of the star.

Step 6: Choose which side of the ribbon that you want to be in the front, and hot glue your cutout to the center of the ribbon.

Note: If your cutout has cutouts in the middle, you will need to glue construction paper to the back before gluing on the ribbon, so that your ribbon has something to attach to. Examples are shown with the pumpkin and skull awards at the bottom of this tutorial.