Happy Birthday Elise! (Paper Wallet Gift Card Holder)

Monday, April 11, 2011 by Cathe Holden

Tuesday is my dear friend, Elise’s birthday! What better day to celebrate than to be a part of my very first blog hop with lots of her friends?! The lovelies from the “Just Us Girls” Challenge, aka: JUGs, organized this fun surprise birthday hop for her! Elise, being the fabulous paper crafter/designer that she is, creates the loveliest of cards and stamped pieces and is a fabulous designer for several scrap & embellishment companies. I learned more about the scrapbook industry from her in one weekend at CHA than I could have ever hoped to on my own. Elise is also one AMAZING fine artist. AND, she’s my favorite cowgirl! So this project is a special birthday treat for her and a free download and tutorial for you. Please sure to check out all the links at the end of this post and when you find yourself at Elise’s blog, Mamacow Creations, I’d just love if you would leave her a nice birthday sentiment- Thank you.

For this paper wallet project, download the two free PDF files, No.1 HERE and No. 2 HERE. Print images to bright white cardstock using your printers finest settings. You can tell I don’t mind using my printer’s ink for some projects. I wouldn’t recommend printing multiples of this project, but if you are doing one or two, I think it’s worth the ink. If you are doing many, you may want to consider purchasing some brown cardstock or scrapbook paper to use instead of the brown textured leather images.

File No. 2 has a pocket image with HAPPY BIRTHDAY and another blank for other uses.

After printing and before trimming, you may opt to cover all with Contact paper, front and back for a more permanent piece. You can also create another long back pocket for bills. To make templates for creating wallets from beautifully patterned scrapbook paper, print the files in black and white at a reduced screen level.

Once pieces are printed, trim out each piece. Use only one of the angled pockets.

Score pieces to fold along flaps and fold back flaps. Create one or two scores down the center of the wallet front and back.Glue flaps back.

Use a rounder punch (or scissors as the very last step of the project) to round off the corners of all pieces where needed. Not all corners will be rounded, such as around the folds of the pockets.

Assemble all brown pieces stacked, back those up to the marbled hair image and head off to your sewing machine. Stitch around all pieces using a stitch that closely simulates a leather stitch.

To personalize, create a little name “tag” and either stitch to angle pocket under HAPPY BIRTHDAY before assembling pieces or sew an in-place zig-zag stitch onto your tag and glue in place after wallet assembly.
Once the wallet is sewn together, trim edges if necessary to complete. (I’ll be including a cute horse button from an old award rosette, perfect for the woman who raises horses.)

Now, tuck some goodies into the pockets! I included a photo of Elise with Tim Holtz, my favorite Elise Durenberger painting, The Jimtown Truck, and a gift card for a lunch date with me!

Happy Birthday Elise!!

28 Comments | Posted in Birthday Craft, Free digital downloads, Free PDF files, Paper Crafts, Uncategorized |

2011 Maker Faire Bay Area

Monday, April 11, 2011 by Cathe Holden

The 2011 Maker Faire is around the corner here in the San Francisco Bay Area so mark your calendars for MAY 21 & 22, 2011!My family and I had the MOST fun at this event last year in San Mateo. That says a lot with kids my ages and interests- they were completely entertained, educated, and fascinated, as were Jeff and I. This is the best outdoor event we’ve found as a family. I’d rather be here than Disneyland any day. If your kids like Myth Busters, they will freak over the Maker Faire. Just check out the small sampling of all the fun in this video. (You gotta love those Coke & Mentos fountains)

There’s a huge section inside one of the pavilions that is well represented by CRAFT. Lots of new techniques to learn and peeps to meet. I will be doing a demo again at the CRAFT stage on that Sunday. Same book repurpose project this year as last, but a few new twists and giveaways including fantastic heavy duty EK Tools by EK Success!! Please stop by and say “Hi”. You’re going to love the CRAFT area, it’s so hands-on, and there’s some fabulous vendors as well. (If I’m not there, I’m probably in line for those mini-donuts-in-a-cone.) AND, while at the Maker Faire, don’t miss the two-day Bazaar Bizaare craft show! I bought lots of goodies there last year and so did my kids.

Don’t fret if you’re no where near the San Francisco Bay Area, there are other Maker Faire events in Detroit and New York in July and September.

8 Comments | Posted in Maker Faire, repurposing, Uncategorized | Tagged 2011 Maker Faire

Dictionary Easter Grass and Nest Fill

Thursday, April 7, 2011 by Cathe Holden

Here’s a simple way to make colorful vintage-style Easter grass or nest fill using the very thin pages taken from an old, discarded dictionary. Keep the pages off-white or color them before shredding by using your computer and desktop printer.Begin by trimming the book pages to fit into your printer.

To color, simply create a very light block of color to fill a page using your software. I used varying hues of blue and green. Feeding one thin dictionary page at a time, print a color block onto each page. Yes, this is going to use ink, but not as much as you might think, just be sure to keep it pastel or screen back your colors to save printer juice. Also, I only printed one side of each sheet.

Once the pages are printed it’s time to shred. If you already have a paper shredder- bonus, although it may not shred the strips as thin as you may want. This morning when I worked on this craft, I first gave Martha Stewart’s fringe scissors a try. Not very successful as they really are meant for fringing and not so much for continuous cutting. Too difficult for this project unless you want only 3″ strips.

So, off to my awesome Genesis Paper Trimmer, I sliced small strips along the direction of the writing cutting several sheets at a time.I made a nice big pile of strips,

and fluffed, twisted and lightly squished the pile to separate and curl them a bit. (Then I had flashbacks of doing this with my brand new pom-pons in high school and was reminded of this shot.)

Ok, back on subject…Here’s the grass in action. ’Was hoping to find a few more colorful eggs in the coop this morning, but the ladies hadn’t finished their laying.

After taking the paper grass shots, I ran several errands before writing this post, dropping into my favorite thrift store in town between kid drop offs, only to find a little hand-crank paper shredder for 3 bucks. What are the odds? Seriously, this really is an easier way to go if you have one. But a paper trimmer works well, too.