How to Make Paper Snowflakes Embellished Gift Bags

How to Make Paper Snowflake Embellished Gift Bags

Margot Potter for iLoveToCreate

(I'm stepping in for Avalon who is busy as a little bee with homework!)

Our favorite holiday movie here at Casa de Potter is Elf.  (We watch it all year round!)  In fact, we just watched it this past weekend.  One of my favorite scenes is when Buddy decorates the department store and makes a flurry of fabulous paper snowflakes.  It's been so long, I had to give myself a refresher course in how to make paper snowflakes.  Once I had it down, I decided to make some using upcycled magazine pages, we have a lot of magazines piling up around here and I hate to throw them away. 

Fair warning, this is very addictive.  Why stop at hanging them from the tree, when you can layer them on plain kraft paper gift bags and tags?  I am seriously smitten with these and plan to wrap all of our holiday gifts in snowflake embellished kraft paper wrappings this year.  

(I guess I'm not the only one with snowflakes on my mind, Megan Nicholay made some seriously cute snowflake stencil t-shirts yesterday!) 

Materials

Text printed magazine pages

Kraft gift bags

Kraft gift tags

Plastic rhinestones

White and Off White Buttons

Jute or hemp twine

Aleene’s Spray Adhesive

Aleene’s Tacky Glue

Tulip Beads in a Bottle in clear with glitter
Tulip Fashion Glitter ultra fine crystal

Tools

Small paper friendly scissors

Hole punch

Paper plate

Tulip Sponge Pouncer

Cut standard size magazine pages into various sized snowflakes.  Paper can be full size sheet or halves or quarters. 

Fold paper in half.

Fold paper in half again, don’t score, just pinch edge to mark center point.

Fold right edge with bottom edge at center point on an angle that lines up with the top left corner.  

Fold left side overlapping center as before with folded edge flush to edge of first fold, as in photo.

Fold this in half one final time.  (The folds should be on the inside.)

Cut excess paper from above top of smaller interior fold.

Use a marker to trace a series of cuts or just roll freestyle, don’t cut too much off of folded edge, or your design may become too fragile.  Simple, bold cuts work best.  

Mark placement of snowflake on bag, cut off excess edge.  Depending on size of snowflake, you can use the excess edge to make a second or third snowflake on bag.  Cut them in different sizes for multiple snowflake bags!  

Use spray adhesive or gently dab thinned Tacky glue from a paper plate using a sponge pouncer across back of snowflake, make sure to get entire snowflake covered with a thin coat of glue.  Starting from the edge, press snowflake flush to bag using your fingers to remove any air bubbles.  Take your time to prevent tearing paper.  (You can also opt to use a brayer here.)

To embellish: Use Beads in a Bottle or a thin line of glue and loose glitter to add sparkling accents around the edges of all cut outs.  Glue rhinestones and buttons to snowflakes with Tacky Glue.  Allow bags to dry. 

To create matching tags: Repeat process but use a smaller starting size of paper. Punch a hole in the top edge of tag and tie to handles of bags with jute twine. 

Sailing, Sailing Op Art Decoupage Canvas

Sailing, Sailing Op Art Decoupage Canvas
Avalon Potter for iLoveToCreate Teen Crafts

Avalon made this simply chic op art style canvas using old book pages and cardstock on an inexpensive craft store canvas.  This is so easy to make and the variations on this theme are infinite.  Fiskars has some great shape cutters that make quick work of cutting squares that are easily halved into triangles.  Piece them together and adhere to your canvas with Aleene's decoupage medium in matte finish and you have a fabulous one of a kind work of art.  Best of all, you're the artist!

Materials
Canvas
Various colors of cardstock
Old book pages
Collage Pauge matte finish instant decoupage medium

Tools
Shape cutter square template
Shape cutter
Scissors
Pencil

Use shape template and cutter to cut 3" squares out of cardstock and old book pages. (You may need to mark and cut with scissors if your book pages are brittle.) 

Mark half point on squares with pencil and cut with scissors into triangles.

Arrange triangles on canvas. Spread a layer of decoupage under each triangle and cover canvas. There will be overlap, go back after canvas is dry to cut this off. Cover entire canvas with decoupage medium, allow to dry. Do not worry about bubbles, they should go away when canvas has dried. You can use a wet finger to smooth them or a brayer. You can start in the center and work up and down canvas for a symmetrical effect.

(Disclosure: Blogger was provided some products and compensated for project, all opinions are 100% her own.)

Hooty Owl Hallowe'en Cards

Hooty Owl Hallowe'en Cards
Margot Potter for iLoveToCreate

Avalon has been busy as a little bee getting straight A's in her honors classes!  Can you say proud mama?  I can!  Go Avalon!  So I stepped in to whip up some fun and festive Hooty Owl Halloween cards today.
These are so easy to make and you can layer them however you please with whatever papers and embellishments you have at hand.  The lenticular owl came off a panel on a Puff's tissue box, which I simply could not throw away!  The other owl is a permission free Art Deco era image from Dover to which I've added text and is here for you to download if you'd like to use it.  I can't resist the urge to add googly eyes whenever possible.  Teens can use these for party invitations or greeting cards or even frame them for room or locker decor.  Fun, fast...and fabulous!

Materials  Hooty Owl Upcycled Hallowe'en Card
Lenticular owl image from Puff's tissue box
Cardstock
Patterned coordinating papers
Jute or hemp twine
Clear acrylic tile
Large orange rick rack or other ribbon trim
Glam-it-Up crystals
Googly eyes
Tulip fabric marker in black
Aleene's Tacky Glue
Aleene's Tacky Dot Runner
Aleene's Jewel It Glue

Tools
Paper trimmer
Scissors
Bone folder

Remove image from tissue box.  Create a frame for image out of patterned scrapbook paper using paper trimmer or scissors.  Cut cardstock with a small border around edge of framed image, fold and crease with bone folder, marker or scissor handle.  Adhere image and frame to front of card using tape runner.  Cut rick rack to fit along the bottom edge of framed window.  Adhere with tape runner.  Cut twine to fit edges of frame, adhere with Tacky Glue.  Attach patterned paper behind acrylic tile using tape runner.  Cut a small piece of paper to fit center of tile and adhere to front of tile with tape runner.  Write Boo! on front of paper with marker.  Use Jewel-It glue to attach crystals to right edge of tile.  Attach googly eyes to owl's eyes using Jewel-It glue.  Use marker to add details to frame.

Materials Hoot Hoot Card
Hoot, hoot owl printed on white paper
Coordinating scrapbook papers
Orange cardstock
Plastic rhinestone accents
Googly eyes
Aleene's Tacky Dot Runner
Aleene's Tacky Glue
Tulip fabric marker in neon orange

Tools
Paper trimmer
Scissors
Bone folder

FREE DOWNLOAD!

Print owl image.  Cut, fold and crease cardstock.  Cut coordinating scrapbook papers for background and right edge of image.  Use marker to add orange accents to owl image.  Adhere paper layers to card with Tacky Dot Runner.  Use Tacky Glue to adhere faux rhinestones on bottom and top edge of owl image.  Attach googly eyes to center of owl's eyes with Tacky Glue.

This blogger was compensated and provided products for this post.  All opinions are 100% my own!

iLoveToCreate: Tres Chic Cupcake Toppers

Avalon and I decided to throw an intimate soiree for #TeamPotter on last night's Craft Wars episode.  Friends and family all live far away, so we just made our own little party with Avalon's best friend and the three of us.  Av had a project due today for iLoveToCreate and I've been playing with my logo and we decided that cupcakes and decorations were in order.  So we made these super cute, super simple cupcake toppers.  You can make your own using permission free fashion images or photos or anything you like!  Aleene's dry adhesives made it easy and fun and we love how these turned out.  I think I may have to make some jewelry out of these!  Tune in next Monday and I'll share how I made the cupcake stand topper with the ruffled lace technique and talk about quick and easy ways to personalize your parties.

Materials
Toile/Damask scrapbook papers in coordinating prints
Black and white fashion image printed to fit in a 2" punch
Large wooden or plastic party picks
Flat back plastic rhinestones
Aleene's Tacky Tape Runner
Aleene's Tacky Dot Roll 1/2"

Tools
Fiskars shape cutter and circle templates (2/5" circle)
Fiskars 2" circle punch

Meet celebrity crafter, Kayte Terry! She shares two projects!

Kayte Terry is one busy gal in the crafty scene. She runs a popular blog, ThisIsLoveForever.com, is a former magazine editor and currently works as the merchandising manager for Anthropologie stores. Yes, she's the one who gets to decide what all those cool decorations are going to be!

But the real story? She's a hardcore crafter - like all of us, she loves to make things! Kayte has a new book out called, Paper Made!: 101 Exceptional Projects to Make Out of Everyday Paper ($16.95, Workman Publishing). She recently came by my hometown of Phoenix, Arizona and I had the chance to lunch and craft with her! Here are two projects we made! Enjoy!

iLoveToCreate Teen Crafts
Rage Comics Inspired Father's Day Card
Avalon Potter

Avalon has become obsessed with Rage Comics memebase.  We have to literally peel her phone out of her hands to get her to focus on something else.  She drew this AWESOME Rage Comics inspired whale recently and we knew it would be perfect for a Father's Day Card.  This is the 'Sudden Clarity Whale'.  You can have your teen draw their own version and scan, size, print and use on a one of a kind greeting card to make Dad feel super special on his super special day.

Aleene's Dry Adhesives make it super easy to make great cards in a flash!

Materials
Blue cardstock
White printer paper
Patterned coordinating paper
Whale image printed to fit front of card
Words: Dude! and I'm literally a Happy Father's Day card!  printed and sized to fit card
Aleene's Tacky Tape Runner

Tools
Small scissors
Paper trimmer
Fiskars Shape Cutter template word bubble and brackets

Print your whale image to fit card.

Cut out printed whale. 

Cut frame, word bubble and waves using shape templates and cutting tool. 

Use Aleene's tape runner to assemble front of card. 

Use tape runner to assemble card interior. 

Visit us on Facebook!
Craft on!

iLoveToCreate Retrofabulous Crafts: One 'Cool' Mom Mother's Day Card

iLoveToCreate Retrofabulous Crafts

One ‘Cool’ Mom Mother’s Day Card

Designed by Margot Potter

“These are your grandmother’s crafts...

...ya gotta problem with that?”

It's almost here...are you ready?  This Sunday is Mother's Day, my fine friends.  No one works harder than mom and no one deserves a day off more than she does.  Take it from this hard workin' mama, we really, really, really appreciate the love.  What better way to show mom how much you love her than with this wickedly funny retrofabulous card you can make yourself using Aleene's FABULOUS dry adhesives?  Take her somewhere special and let her kick her feet up and relax, she's earned it.  Believe me.  

Materials

Dove gray and soft pink cardstock

Damask scrapbook paper

One flat back large faux gem

Vintage images (digital downloads here)

Print out vintage typewriter text  18pt.: “Happy Mother’s Day, to one ‘cool’ Mom.”

Aleene’s Tacky Tape Runner

Aleene’s Tacky Dot Roll 3/16”

Aleene’s Tacky Sticker Sheets

Tools

Fiskars Shape Templates (Stars and Banners)

Fiskars Shape Template Mat and Cutting Tool

Fiskars Paper Trimmer

Fiskars Scissors

Bone folder

FREE Digital Downloads FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY-NOT FOR RESALE

1.  Print out digital downloads and text.  Use paper trimmer to cut. 

2.  Cut graduated layers of pink and damask paper for backgrounds using paper trimmer, see images for reference.

3.  Use bone folder to crease center of gray cardstock.

4.  Attach paper layers using Aleene’s Tacky tape runner on edges.  Make sure you center each layer as you stack.  No Sweat on front, Relax on inside cover.

5.  Cut out shapes.  Three stars starting with the smallest in grey and graduating in the next two sizes in pink and damask.  Cut thin banner shape in damask. 

6.  Use sticker sheets to layer stars on lower left hand corner of front of card.

7.  Use Aleene’s Tacky Dot to adhere faux gemstone.

8.  Attach damask banner to center of inside of card using Tacky Sticker Sheet, add text with background using glue runner.

Visit us on Facebook!
Craft on!