Tips and Techniques Wednesday

Hello blog friends!

Thank you for stopping by today, as you know it is Wednesday and that means I have a fun technique to share with you!

Since my little guy headed off to Grade 3 yesterday, I thought I'd spend some of my day making him some little back to school goodies.  Which resulted in you getting 3 little tutorials!

First up, I made a pencil topper, I used a similar technique to this one for the pennant flags, but I wanted to make it non-permanent.

 I started with a 1 3/4 " by 6" strip of paper.

 Then I folded it in half, careful not to crease the edge, and snipped the end to create my flag.  Then I inked all of the edges.

 Next, I stapled it around my pencil.  Here is a little tip for you, especially if you have young children..... put the open edge of the staple towards the front so you can cover it with your embellishments and thus avoiding sharp edges that can cut little hands.

Add a few embellishments, like your child's initials and voila! I used a really strong liquid glue to adhere all of the embellishments including the Thickers, to ensure they stay stuck!

Next up, I created this fun little note pad.......

 I knew my little pad would measure 4" x 4 3/4" , as that is the size of the patterned paper piece that I wanted to use for the front.  So I cut a piece of chipboard and some blank paper down to this measurement.

 Next, i layered my cover page, blank pages and chipboard backer up and stapled them together.  As you can see I used my Tim Hotlz Tiny Attacher, it did not work as I had too many layers.  I ended up pulling out a standard stapler to finish the job ;)

 I added a few embellishments and it was done! Super easy!

Last up, I created a book mark, as I hope he will enjoy reading this year.

 Start with a 4" x 4"  piece of paper of your choice, either cardstock or cardstock wight patterned paper is fine.

 On the back mark the centre point on each side and along the top.  I used a whit pen so you can see it better.

Next, punch a border along the bottom edge.

 Score the top left and right corners using the marks as guidelines.  (Tip - when scoring, have your front side facing down) And then fold along your score lines.

 To secure the back and decorate the front I cut a 3 3/4" square into 4 triangles and used one one the back and one of the front.  Again, with items that will see use, I prefer a liquid adhesive such as Glassy Accents.

I used paperclips to hold the triangles to the front and back for a minute while the glue set.

 Embellish the front as desired, I used a little bookworm I had coloured with my Copics several months ago.  It found it's way onto my desk last week while I was cleaning up and it seemed appropriate for this project.

 These little dot alphas got some liquid glue both underneath and on top.

And here it is put into action!

And the set as a whole.

It occurs to me that these would make fun crafts for kids, especially at birthday parties or sleepovers.  It would be really easy for them if you pre-cut all of the basic pieces and then let them go to town with embellishments to personalize them

Have a scrappy day!
Laura
xoxo