The countdown is on! 2 more day of school til summer, I’ll miss my 3 hours of “alone” time in the morning but I WILL NOT miss dragging the kids out of bed 😉
Last night I helped my kids make gifts for their teachers. We made decoupaged clothespins, I’ve wanted to try this for quite an while and they are easy enough for my 4 and 6-year-olds to do. I think they turned out adorable:
Tip: I used the cellophane bag theat clear stamps come in to package the clothespins! (See, told ya I never through anything away!)
OK, I admit I made the bag topper but the clothespins were all their handiwork! To make them is easy but when crafting with kids have EVERYTHING ready and laid out before you begin. You will need: wood clothespins (a pack of 50 was $1 at target), white glue or decoupage medium, a foam brush for each child, pretty paper scraps trimmed to fit the clothespin (about 3 1/4″x 5/16″), waxed paper to protect the work area and for the clothespins to dry on, and a couple of small containers to pour glue in (plastic lids work great for this). Simply brush a thin coat of glue on the clothespin with the foam brush, place the paper on top and brush a layer of glue over it. Let dry then repeat on the other side. you can glue magnets on them if you like or leave them as is, they are handy for closing chip and produce bags, in fact we have some plain ones holding out chip bags closed, I’ll have to get the kids to spruce them up!
So I told you I had a cheap embossing solution for you. This is so easy and looks so cool I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before.
This technique will work with any shape you can cut out either by hand or punch or die cutter. First cut the shape the size of the embossed area (mine was 2″) then cut a larger circle (2 3/8″ and I stamped on it) then using my Big shot I placed the spacer, cutting plate, 2 sheets of rubber gasket, my larger stamped circle face down, the smaller circle centered on that and the top cutting plate and I cranked it through. Viola an embossed circle! I inked the edges to make it stand out, can you believe it is that easy? If you don’t get a good impression you can add a sheet or two of cardstock between the rubber pad and the bottom cutting plate. Too much pressure and it will cut/crack the paper rather than emboss. It may take a couple of tries to get the right combo but when you figure it out you can emboss any shape! I’ll post a card tomorrow using a fancy bracket shape that I cut with my cricut and embossed and who knows maybe a freebie too. Until then happy crafting!
The Frugal Crafter Blog 