recycling craft

Howdy friends! I spent most of today with sticks and twine and vinyl preparing for a cub scout project this weekend, the boys are earning their craftsman weblo pin and we are making badge and belt loop display boards to commemorate their years of cub scouting before they cross over to boy scouts. My friend Kathy J had the idea so to give the den leader a hand we decided to prepare the craft. I wish I snapped a photo of the prototype since this is a blog after all with photo capability LOL! Oh well, I’ll get a pic this weekend I guess:) The other day I was playing in my studio with cardboard and hot glue and came up with two ways to make faux metal, first up pewter/silver:

And now grungy gold.

Try these techniques with the metallic paints you have in your stash, remember to use warm colors and browns in your warm metals like gold, bronze, copper or brass and blacks and greys in your silvers and cool metals. Have fun with it! Oh hot glue, is there anything you can not do? thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Yesterday I spent the morning in my son’s 4th grade class and I taught the kids gum-wrapper folding…Well, actually, an easier version with half as many folds! We used scrapbook paper, which is thicker than gum wrappers so it was perfect with fewer folds. Here are some of the projects we made:

For the large bookmark I used strips of paper that were 8 1/2″x1″ and for the bracelets I used strips that were 1/3″x4″. I wanted to work with a 4″ length because I could get the most strips from my 12″x12″ scrapbook paper with no waste. If you want to know the equation for figuring out how long and wide a paper needs to be, multiply the width of the strip by 8.5 or 9 if the paper is thick, or less than 1/2″ wide. Alternatively you can take the length of the paper and divide it by 9 to get the width. Don’t worry if it is too thick, you can snip a sliver off if you need too. Why an I explaining all of this? just watch the video!

So, at the end of the video I show you how to fold the paper with real gum wrappers, you can use candy wrappers too! That’s right, start saving your Starburst, Tootsie Pop and bubble gum wrappers and make yourself some snazzy stuff! BTW if the wrappers are square just cut them in half before you fold them:) Any paper will work for this; magazines, maps, scrapbook paper scraps, origami paper and even wrapping paper!

It did me good to craft with the children yesterday. They were so sharp and patient and creative not to mention polite! I would volunteer in that classroom any day Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!