Bow Tree-topper

Last year my boyfriend's sister and her husband celebrated their first Christmas as a married couple.  They didn't have a tree-topper (unacceptable!), so I offered to make one for them.  And since paper is my preferred medium, I made them a folded paper star.  Cute, but not terribly durable. So, I figured this could be the start of a tradition; each winter I would make the lovely couple a different, disposable tree-topper. 

This year's model was inspired by the paper bow tutorial I mentioned last post. It could easily be adapted to make giant paper bows for any giant presents you may be giving this year. 

Cut wide (1.5-2 in) strips of decorative paper.  I ended up using two 12 x 12 pieces of paper in complementing patterns/colors. However, depending on the size of the topper, you probably won't use up all of the strips. You'll also need to cut out a circle of card stock with a diameter roughly four inches smaller that the size of the  bow that you want (1).  Place glue on the end of a strip of paper, patterned side facing up (2).  Fold over to form a cone (3). Trim off the rest of the paper (4).  Finally, glue the back of the cone to the edge of the card stock circle (5).

Alternate gluing down the different colored cones until you have made a border almost all of the way around the perimeter of the circle (6). In a gap between two of the cones glue a coiled piece of floral wire to the circle. This will be what attaches the star to the tree (7).  To provide some reinforcement, glue a scrap piece of paper over the glued down wire (8).  Continue gluing down cones, still trying to alternate patterns (9 & 10).  It doesn't have to be exact though, bows are often somewhat chaotic and messy.  Finish off the bow with a loop of paper glued to the very center. 

Recycled Gift Packaging

If you're anything like me, the holidays aren't just a time for snow and poinsettias and thoughts of dancing sugar plums. They're also a time for junkmail.  And lots of it.  However, thanks to some creative re-imagining over at How About Orange you can turn those piles of catalogs and coupons into gift packaging!

Out of magazine advertisements I made miniature gift bags based on the newspaper gift-bag tutorial and a version of the magazine gift bow. I also adapted the yellow page bow tutorial to make the miniature decorative/magazine paper bows shown below. 

The steps are basically the same, I just used thinner, shorter strips of paper and only four (~ 9 cm) large and two  medium (~ 7.5 cm) sized strips. Fold and glue all of the strips into loops (2 & 3). Then place a dab of glue on the inside of each loop (except the smallest one) and pinch the loops closed (4). 

Glue the loops in an overlapping pattern, start with the four largest (5-7) and continue with the two medium ones (8 & 9). Finish with the smallest loop (10). 

Wouldn't they be just adorable decorating these miniature paper boxes? 

Flower Ornaments

Happy Holidays! Here at Paper Pendulum, we are celebrating this season with twelve days of Christmas-themed crafts.  Or Craft-mas if you will. And true to form, the first craft features coffee-filter flowers.

Cut out small four-petaled flowers out of coffee-filters, mine were about nickel-sized (1).  Then, tie a loop of ribbon (2) and bend a length of wire into a "U" shape (3).  Attach the ribbon to a small Styrofoam ball with the wire (4).

Bend small lengths of wire around beads (5).  Pierce the center of the flowers with the wire loop (6) and attach them to the Styrofoam ball (7 & 8). 

And voila, Craft-mas Ornaments!

Paper Bead Bracelet

A while ago I posted about these paper buttons that I'd recreated from a tutorial seen on Splitcoaststampers.  Unfortunately, I don't often have much of a use for buttons.  Beads, however, I can always find a place for.  The steps are similar, just adapted slightly.

Punch out eight circles from card stock and two circles from decorative or scrap paper (1).  Glue four of the card stock circles and one decorative circle in a stack.  Repeat with the remaining circles (2).  Varnish and age the bead halves.  I mixed a little bit of wood stain in with the varnish to achieve the antique effect (3).  Glue a thin piece of wire to the back of one of the bead halves (4) and glue the halves together.  Clamp the bead until the glue dries (5).  Apply several coats of varnish to the bead and hang to dry (6). Finally, clip off any excess wire and bend it into loops on the side of the finished bead.

Coffee Filter Chinese Lanterns

Happy Halloween!

Look!  A seasonally appropriate post!  Unfortunately, this post doesn't technically fit into the series of coffee-filter flower experiments, since these aren't really flowers. According to Wikipedia, the papery lanterns are actually the plant's fruit.  Regardless, they are charming and feel very 'fall'. 

The lanterns are very easy to make (I think I say this about all of my projects). Cut out four-petaled shapes from coffee-filters (1).  You can experiment with different sizes; I just folded a large coffee filter into fourths and then cut out the rudimentary shape.  Using watercolor paints, color the 'flowers' orange (2).  Allow them to dry.  Pierce a hole in the center of the 'flower' (3).  Next, cut out four 3-3.5 inch sections of thin wire (4).  One inch from the top, wrap the wires together (5).  Wrap this inch in brown floral tape (6).  Insert the taped section through the hole in the 'flower'.

Spread out the four wire sections to line up with the four petals (7). Using masking tape, tape each wire to the middle of each petal (8 & 9).  Trim any excess wire or tape that extends past the end of the petal. Finally, bend the petals downward to form the lantern shape (10).  Attach them in a row to a thick piece of floral wire using more brown floral tape (11).

I hope you enjoy making these and I hope you all have a safe and happy Halloween!

Coffee Filter Daisies

In one of her movies, Meg Ryan says that daisies are the friendliest of the flowers.  On this subject, as with many issues, I agree with Meg.   There is something so cheerful and bright about the plant!  So, in the midst of a time filled with ghosts and ghouls, severed hands and spiderwebs, I thought I'd make a few dozen daisies to help offset the fear with some friendliness.

The basic flower is rather simple and pretty easy to make in bulk.  I think that the separate center helps give the flower some dimensionality and depth.  To make the center, cut out several quarter-sized circles from a coffee filter (1).  Next, fringe the edges of the circles (2). Twist a loop at the end of a piece of thick wire (3) and slide 7-8 circles onto the wire (4 & 5).

Cut out a quarter-sized circle from card stock (6) and cut a slit in it (8).  Form a cone with the circle around the wire stem (8 & 9).  Slide the cone up to meet the rest of the center (10) and color it a vibrant yellow with markers or watercolor paints (11). 

With the center completed, we now want to focus on the petals.  To save time on tracing and cutting, I fold the coffee filter in half (13), and then into quarters (14).  Next, I fold the resulting fourth of a circle in half (15) and then in half again (16).  One of the edges will give you a pretty good guide to the size of your petals. Cut out thin, slightly rounded petals (17 & 18).

One coffee filter should produce four 'flower layers'.  After applying glue to the base of the flower center (20), slide the layers onto the stem. Press the top layer to the center to form a cohesive flower (21).  Then wrap the stem tightly in floral tape and you're finished.  Make a dozen of these and you'll have a touch of spring to counteract the spookiness of the season!

Watercolor lilies

This was a project that I actually completed a while back.  And since we obviously don't care about seasonality over here at Paper Pendulum, I thought I'd go ahead and post it! When searching the internet for inspiration for more coffee filter experiments, I came across some beautiful pictures of oriental lilies. However, the coloring of these flowers was a little too detailed for the coffee filter medium.  Watercolor paper, on the other hand, worked rather well.

The materials are pretty basic: watercolor paper, watercolor paints, floral wire, floral tape, and thick green paper. I found I was able to make two flowers out of a single sheet a paper, making up for the added cost of the paper.  

First, cut out the rudimetary petals of the lily.  They should be about 3.5 inches long and 1.5 inches at their widest.  One end should come to a narrow point and the other should be rounded. You will need 6 petals for each flower. If you draw a template on plain cardstock and then the petals onto the back of the watercolor paper, you can cut down on wasted paper (1).  Next, comes the actual painting.  Remember to paint on the correct side of the watercolor paper!  You can of course tailor the coloring of flower to your own tastes. I first painted a wide swatch of pink/red in the middle (2). Next, using a finer paint brush, I colored the center a darker pink.  At the pointed end (the one that will be the center of the flower) I painted a triangle of yellow (3).   After letting the petal dry, I made a series of pink dots; more concentrated at the center, the distance between the dots slightly increased as I worked my way up the petal (4).

Next, using the scrap water color paper, I cut out 5-6 thin 1.5-2 inch strips.  These were colored yellow on both sides and allowed to dry (5).   After being arranged in a bundle the strips were attached to the floral wire with floral tape.  A thin dowel was then used to curl the ends of the strips (6).  The petals were then attached around the center of the flower.  Three petals should be attached first in a group.  The last three should be arranged in the gaps between the first three petals and then fastened down with floral tape (7).  Using the dowel, I carefully curled the petals downward (8).

After you're done, the flower should resemble the one in step 9.  Finally, cut out long, thin leaves from the green cardstock.  Bend them slightly in the middle (10).  Attach two to the stem of the flower and cover the rest of the wire in floral tape (11).  Bend the head of the flower slightly downward, and you're finished!