Cathe Holden’s Inspired Barn | Creative Lifestyle

Guest Post: Paper Flowers by Katie Wade of Lemon Jitters

Monday, April 9, 2012 by Cathe Holden

My dad passed away last week and I am in Texas for his services. I’ll be back later in the week, but for now I have a fun project to share with you thanks to Katie Wade of Lemon Jitters. Katie was one of the winners last Fall of one of my big blog giveaways and I found myself instantly smitten with her charming personality and crafting style. I asked Katie if she could help me out while I’m gone by sharing a project. I hope you’ll welcome her by leaving a kind comment and checking out her lovely blog. Thank you everyone. -Cathe

Paper Flowers by Katie Wade of Lemon Jitters

Hi there, JSIM readers! I regularly craft over on my blog, Lemon Jitters but I’m so glad to be joining you guys today. I’d like to share a paper craft that I’ve been working on. I am making a paper flower bouquet for a friend’s wedding. I’m using my Cricut to cut out the petals for that (and you can check out my blog for updates in the near future). So I started thinking about an easy way to make flowers without an electronic cutting machine. I’m pretty happy with the results and can’t wait to put them on my desk at work tomorrow!

You will need:

Circle craft punch (I used a 2 inch)
Various papers
Scissors
Abit of tape (any kind will work)
Glue or glue dots

After you cut out lots of circles with your punch, you will need to trim them into pizza shapes (or pie shapes, if you’re the kinda gal with a sweet tooth). These are your petals. The amount of petals you need will depend on how big you want your flower and how many layers you want. I made about 20 pieces for a 3-4 inch flower with five layers.

Next, take one of your circles (I actually used a smaller circle in the photo – any size will work), and cut a slit in it. Then pull the two ends together and tape the seam. This should form a little cone. This is the base of your flower and really the most crucial aspect of 3D flower making. Oh – I’ll tell you a secret – the second time I made a base, I ran the circle through my Xyron sticker machine (which I won in a giveaway right here on JSIM!), and it worked really well. Plus, I didn’t have to use any glue on my first layer of petals!Put a bit of glue or glue dot in the bottom of your flower base. I used glue dots because they are easy to use and provide a little pop-up action for my flower petals. If I had actual pop-dots, I would have used those to make my petals look more realistic. Start placing your petals down into the base. Two-three petals fit on one glue dot. I bent my petals to add dimension.As you are adding layers of petals, it should start to look something like this. With each layer, I placed the petals in between the petals of the last layer so the flower would look full and realistic. I also trimmed my pizza slices down as I went along. That way the very inner circles of petals are smaller, like a real flower. No need to be precise when trimming, it will look good, I promise!See? I really love how this one turned out. I used vintage notebook, graph and textbook (Chinese textbook!) papers as well as some new notebook papers. I placed a little pearl flower in the middle (from JBS Mercantile). I also made a couple of more flowers using scrapbook paper (card stock weight). I found that card stock and lightweight paper both work well. I only used 11 petals on the blue one and I think it makes the flower look more cutesy. So, if you want cutesy – use less petals. And on the yellow flower, I didn’t even try to coordinate which print went where – I just stuck them down. And I really like how it turned out!

27 Comments | Posted in Uncategorized |

Vintage Recipe Card Wreath and Rosette

Monday, April 2, 2012 by Cathe Holden

I’ve been playing with vintage recipe cards from my collection again!

The first project is a super easy one that you can craft using your own cherished recipe cards without any damage to them. With a few cards, a wreath form and tiny hinge or bulldog clips, those hidden treasures become sweet decor. Head over to my post on SC Johnson’s Family Economics for the step-by-step directions and final wreath image!While I had my recipe cards out to make the wreath, I scanned them into my computer and created a FREE printable of mini vintage recipe cards for paper crafting and scrapbooking. Simply download the image (click to enlarge), print to letter-size cardstock and trim out the individual images. Use a light brown marker to color the cut edges of the cards for the best visual effect.

I fanned my little cards around a round piece of cardstock (a large circle cut from a paper plate,) and combined that with some other fun items: Acordion folded vintage shelf paper, a vintage crocheted trivet, the center cut from a paper doily, doll utensils, a milk bottle cap and coordinating ribbon and trim.

And here’s what I made- a cottage kitchen rosette!

Disclosure: I am a paid blogger for SC Johnson.

21 Comments | Posted in Family Economics, Free digital collage sheets, Free digital downloads, Free Jpgs, free vintage art, Paper Crafts, SC Johnson, scrapbooking, Vintage Ephemera |

Vintage Card/Label Holders and Free Printables

Wednesday, March 28, 2012 by Cathe Holden

Collecting vintage items has always been more fun for me when they are actually things of a practical nature that I can use. One of those collections is my vintage hardware card and label holders. I wrote about finding and collecting them in my post at SC Johnson’s Family Economics, here.

So while I was thinking and writing about my holders, I searched through an old hardware catalog that my dad gave me dated 1940 and found some great product illustrations.

I scanned those illustrations and modified them complete with tiny screws into free label printables of faux card holders that you can download over at WorldLabel.com and print directly to their full sheet label stock. The kind folks at WorldLabel.com created text fields in the label files so you can type your own text in before you print.You can also print to label stock with the centers blank and take them a step further-

Create a window section by placing a piece of clear pvc plastic, new or cut from a section of product packaging, over a card holder frame, flush with the top of the edge of the hardware piece. Trace a rectangle just outside the center area along the heavy folds in the frame illustration with a permanent marker. Trim out window section.Trim out the frame.

Use a brown marker to color the white cut edges of the label.

Hold the frame backwards up to the light and draw circles where the screws are. Lay the label upside down onto a stack of paper and with the pen, fill in the circle to create an embossing.

Remove the backing paper and attach the window plastic, flush with the top of the label.

Place onto your final surface and slide a labeled card cut to size into the holder.This darling 12″ x 12″ vintage class photo paper is from Jenni Bowlin’s JBS Mercantile.You can also photograph your own vintage hardware to use for labeling, or download mine for free here.

And finally, here’s more freebies for you- images of one of my favorite card holders attached to the front of a card cabinet with a section of cigar labeling tucked inside.