Tag Archives: simple craft

December 18

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20171216_091304 (1)This is cute for anything! You can write a Christmas story, a letter to Santa or a Christmas wish in a tiny little notebook.

Start by making a square then quartering the square. I cut up 3 sheets of paper to make 12 squares.

Cut 5 of those qurters in half. These are your pages and will make 10 pages.

Fold the half in half lengthwise.

Fold in half.

Fold each open end to the creased end to make an M (or W) accordion fold. Do that with all 10 pages.

Line the pages up alternating between M and W open ends up.

Slide the right leg of your M into the left leg of the W. This creates a bigger accordion.

Do that with all 10 pages.

Take a new square and fold in half.

And again.

Wrap around your pages, pinching the spine to create crease marks on the corners.

Fold and pinch to crease mark the other end as well. You will fold the flaps in.

Take off and view crease marks. Fold spine marks to crease more.

Fold the open ends inward from the crease mark.

Insert one end if the book cover flap into a page to hold in place. Wrap book cover around and repeat on the other side.

It will hold on its own but may flare out. Squish to crease more. Or wrap a string around! You can now decorate and write in your mini book!

December 14

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Part xylophone, part tree. A symphony of fun!

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Cut paper lengthwise in a variety of widths. The first 5 should be the whole 11 inch length. The top tiers, use half of the length (5.5″)

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Fold each strip in half but only crease the corner to mark the center of the width of each strip. 

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Cut each strip from the corner to the top center where you marked with a crease. It doesn’t have to be perfect so scissors will work fine too!

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For the top tiers, use a 5.5″ strip and cut by hand. 

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Roll all of your strips into paper beads and finish ends with glue. If you’re having trouble keeping the bead tight, add glue as you roll. 

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Roll the teeny tiny ones as tight as you can! They are the tedious ones. 

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Use a string, Popsicle stick, or strip of paper as your trunk and glue beads on from smallest to largest.

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Trim off any excess trunk from the bottom and add your ribbon to hang. 

This is really pretty with magazine or printed paper. Play with different widths, trunks and paper to have a forest of recycled trees! From tree to tree!

 

December 12

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Let’s keep curling strips of paper! While gluing the first three pieces of my garland I stopped and said, “Aww!! A snowman!”

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These are about 1/4″ width. 

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Curl the strips varying in tightness. I glued the ends so they don’t flippy flappy around. 

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Glue the three together then add your ribbon to hang. 

Aww! Hi snowman!

December 10

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Start with 5 strips of paper equal in width. One short strip, two  little longer equal in length, and two longest strips equal in length. 

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Gather the strips together and glue together at the bottom as pictured. 

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Glue the other end of the center strip and bring the second strip up to stick on to the center section. 

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Repeat on the other side. 

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Next, take the longest piece and adjust how much space you want in between the sections. Glue to the bottom and trim off excess. 

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Repeat on other side. 

Another way to do this is to gather each end and staple. Glue on your ribbon to hang! Try other shapes like circles, hearts, teardrops and more!

Draft Snakes

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Maybe it’s the below freezing rut the northeast is stuck in, but I’m having a lot of trouble finding these draft snakes! I found some online through amazon and Etsy but I’m not really looking to spend $20 per snake when I need 6.  I told myself to check Walmart and if they don’t have it, I will have to make my own.

So our little Vermont Walmart didn’t end up having them but they do have a pretty good craft section. $15 will get you 2 yards of duck fabric and 2 bags of fiber fill. They have a lot of fabrics to choose from, some less expensive, some more, but they are all folded 2 yard bundles.

10 inch sections will get you 7 tubes (folded in half and sewn). 2 bags of fiber fill will fill about 6 depending on how much stuffing you put in.

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