DAD Card

Father’s Day is coming up and today we’re sharing a really simple idea for a card for dad.

All you need is patterned paper, cardstock in the colour card you want to make and one for a layer, glue, letters to trace, and scissors.

First of all find some letters that you can trace and cut out. We are using the Silhouette to cut our letters, but if you don’t have one, no worries, just find letters in Word and in the font and size you want and print and cut them out to trace.

Pick a colour for your card first. We chose a dark brown for our card colour as it matches the patterns that we like. We made the card our regular 6 ¾ x 4 ¾ inches.

Now choose a layer the top. We went with Kraft as it matches the card and pattern well. On this layer, you are going to using a cutting machine to cut out or trace on top and cut out, the letters DAD. Our card is vertical but if you want to do a horizontal one, then that works too.

Pick one pattern or multiple patterns to put behind your DAD. Our letters are roughly 1 ½ x 1 ½ inches in size. We are using the same pattern for the top and bottom letter so we just glued one strip down for both and then a small piece of different pattern paper to go under the A. If you’re using multiple patterns then you can glue pieces of each behind the letters.

Now glue the top layer onto the card and you’re done.

We left ours blank inside but you can stamp or print words on the inside if you like.

Soooooo simple, but a really neat looking card for your dad this Father’s Day.

DIY Paper Heart Wreath

Happy Groundhog Day. I guess we should’ve made a card with a cute little groundhog on it. Oh well. We are still in the Valentine mood and this week we’ve come up with a fairly easy and super cute decoration that you can spruce your house, bedroom, or classroom up with this Valentine season.

We are going to show you how to make a heart wreath. It’s a very simple craft to do. All you need is some cardboard (or a paper plate), cardstock, patterned paper (optional), glue, something heart shaped to trace (you can use a cutting device if you have one, like a Silhouette), and some string or ribbon.

If you have some sturdy cardboard, you can cut out a ring for the wreath base. Ours is a 12 inch circle on the outside and the inside circle is about 9 inches. You can also use a paper plate as your base if you have one of the more flimsy paper plates. Using the really thick ones won’t allow you to flatten it down so that you can stick the hearts on. We tried! If you want to get even more Valentiney, you can cut a heart out of cardboard as your base and you will have a heart shaped heart wreath.

Next up we cut out a variety of different coloured hearts in a variety of sizes. We used Nicole’s Silhouette and a punch, but you can also find some different sized hearts to trace yourself and then cut out. Cookie cutters are always easy and good to cut out. You can also find templates online as well.

Another thing you can do, is cut hearts out of patterned paper. We are going with a red, white, and pink theme and have found patterned paper to match with that but you can do really whatever colours you want.

The amount of hearts all depends on the size of the wreath, but also on how full you want it to look. We just picked out a bunch of paper and cut a bunch of hearts until we used some of all the paper we chose. It’s better to have too many hearts than to have not enough and then have to cut more.

Start laying out the hearts on the wreath as you cut them that will also give you a better idea of how many you need to cut. Also, it might be a good idea once you’ve laid the hearts out as you want to take a picture so you can refer back to it while you glue.

We are going to use a couple of gluing methods. Some we are going to glue down with our glue tape; they will be more of the base hearts and as we build up on that base, we’ll glue some down with the glue tape and also use a glue gun to make some of the hearts 3D.

After you’ve got all the hearts just where you want them, attach some string, fishing wire, or ribbon to the top so that you can hang your wreath up for all to see and enjoy.

Take a look for some more inspiration:

http://happyhourprojects.com/heart-wreath/

https://typicallysimple.com/scrapbook-paper-heart-wreath/

https://www.theresourcefulmama.com/paper-plate-valentines-day-heart-wreath/

DIY Four Leaf Clover Lantern

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to everyone!

We’ve done something a little different this week and we’ve made a paper lantern with a St. Patrick’s Day theme.

We used the Silhouette/cutting machine to make this but you can easily cut and paste one yourself if you have the patience. If you’re using the Silhouette/cutting machine, pick a lantern pattern and cut out of a primary green paper. The one we chose had a heart/clover cut out pattern throughout it and the top had a scalloped edge with punched holes. We thought that was super cute. 

If you are cutting it on your own, you can scallop the top edge free hand or with a border punch or if you have scalloped scissors that would probably work best. You can make the hearts with a heart shaped punch or you can make another shape. You just want to make sure that you have some holes for the light to shine through.

Then we rolled it into a cylinder and glued the ends together. We used our glue tape with some scotch tape on the inside, but it did come loose after a while so it might be a good idea to use white glue or hot glue. An even better idea might be to use construction paper or regular paper as the cardstock can be a bit heavy for these sorts of things.

Next Nicole cut some clovers out in a variety of greens that we had and then glued them on the lantern.You can find a clover pattern and trace it and then cut it out.

Here is the finished product with a battery operated tea light inside. Cute! You can also put them in front of windows or just use them as decorative pieces. 

*Please make sure that you don’t use an actual tea light with an open flame inside. This may start a fire which would be not good.