Monday, February 8, 2010

5 Mediums that Rock My World

I love the tactile experience of working with paper. The feel of scoring and folding and the sound of the snipping. And once you're hooked on paper, it's hard to stop there. I find I'm always on the lookout for other mediums that I can test out and put to good use. Here are five I've been using a lot of this year.


Freezer Paper
I can't believe I've lived without this until now. Some day I will get a Yudu, but until then, I'm quite happy putting my $1 craft knife to work on a roll of freezer paper, then doing a little single-color screen prints with my $1 sponge roller. Pictured is a shadow puppet theatre I put together using this method along with some Elmer's glue to make some designs by batik. We also screenprinted a shirt for my husband for last father's day. Next I'd like to do a set of napkins.


Glassine
I love using this in combo with pretty papers. And adding a little envelope to a scrap layout would be the perfect place to tuck away tickets. If you go here, you can see what all kinds of talented artists are doing with the stuff. It also makes great gift wrap, just add a label (like these free printables) and you're ready to go.


My Sticker Maker
My daughter got a simple, inexpensive sticker maker for Christmas two years ago and the poor dear didn't realize she'd be sharing with her mother all the time. I love making tags and stickers out of all my pretty scraps. When I wrap up a gift in tissue paper, I just pull out a circle punch and cut a piece from some pretty paper and turn it into a sticker to make a pretty seal. This is also a fun way of making return address labels.


Milk Jugs
You heard me right. These little containers (from Family Fun) are made from milk jugs and are amazing for organizing little bits. I've just made a whole stack of them for collecting my scraps of ribbon, now as we make our way through more gallons of milk, I'm making a stack of these boxes to organize my paper scraps.


Thread
It is the simplest thing to wrap a gift with a straight stitch on my sewing machine. It's a lifesaver for odd-shaped packages. Why didn't I know this sooner?

8 comments:

sharon said...

OK Girlie girl!
What is with the milk cartons. They are too cute. I drink milk.
Can ya tutorial this? Please, please, please?
Sharon L

sherry said...

I so copied your sewn kraft paper packaging for Christmas. I loved it and so did the recipients. The little ones didn't mind it with gift wrap either.

Christine said...

I so want to know more about the milk just think. I went to your post but would like to know a lot more!!!

Blessings,
Christine

nancy said...

Wow, great tips!

AmberLee said...

Hi there! The milk jugs were something my daughter got this year at a friends' birthday party. I found out that family fun did a tutorial, and I've been hooked ever since. http://jas.familyfun.go.com/crafts/reusable-lunch-containers-785113/

aren't they great?

Unknown said...

There's a product you can buy called PhotoEZ which I used to use to make silkscreen prints. . .I used to use it for polymer clay. It uses sunlight or an artificial light to create the screen. It's a lot cheaper than a Yudu.

AmberLee said...

Wow, Alaina, thanks! Can't wait to try that!

Michelle said...

love this article! If ok, I am linking to this on my blog :)

 

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