Day 11: Holiday Magnets

This is a simple and fun way to use your left over holiday brads. Simply cut of the shank of the brad, glue to your magnet and you are done!

Happy Crafting!
- Beaverton Paper Zone

Folded Tag Flower

Hello from Portland! A few weeks ago our super creative sales associate Mary made this lovely card for our store and it's become one of our most asked-about samples. It's a simple flower embellishment made with gift tags! You can customize it about a million ways and it's a great way to use up scraps. Today we'll show you how to make it with some of our holiday 12x12's.
Here's what you need:2-sided paper, tag & circle punch, 1/8 & 1/16 hole punch, scissors, adhesive, bone folder, brads, pencil, and metallic marker (optional).

Start by punching 8 tags out of your paper. Our tag punch doesn't make a hole, so we punched an extra tag out of scrap, folded it in half, and punched a 1/8" hole at the top. We used this as a template so the hole would be in the same place on all the tags. Fold the tag diagonally, using the tag's scalloped top as a guide. The left edge of the tag should be right under the scallops. Flip it over and cut off the excess so it's square. Fold the right edge (the one you just cut) back over itself, and crease with a bone folder. You can use a metallic marker to outline the edge, so it really pops.Repeat 7 times!Punch a circle out of paper. If you're using scraps you can choose a coordinating color, but we had enough to punch a circle out of the same 12x12 we used for the tags. You can use any size circle punch, so long as it's big enough to hold all 8 tags, and small enough that it doesn't show over the top of the tag. Our circle is 2 1/2". A little tip from Mary: it's easiest to attach the tags in quadrants. She punched an extra circle out of scrap, folded it in quarters, and snipped the top edge of each corner. Lay this template over your circle and mark a line for each quadrant. She also put a hole in the center so we could pre-punch a 1/16" hole for the brad we'll add later. Put adhesive on the backside of the tag, underneath the scallops. We took the opportunity to try out our new Stamp Runner from Tombo, and it worked perfectly! Stick your tags to the circle--points towards the center (above the hole for the brad), and the diagonal fold up against the pencil marks.Once you've got 4 tags stuck down in your quadrants, you can fill in the empty space with your 4 remaining tags.Pop a brad in the center and you're finished! You can attach this to a card, a scrapbook layout, the top of a gift box, or......Make another tag flower with the folds on the opposite edge, and you can stick them back-to-back for a super cute ornament! We're can't wait to put up our tree and cover it with tag flowers!Happy folding!-Portland Paper Zone

Pretty Felt Flower Pins!

These pretty felt flowers feature some new products we are carrying at all of our locations. First, we now carry 9x12 sheets of felt in 20 different colors! It is made from 100% post consumer plastic bottles. It is great for home, school, and everyday craft projects. It's soft, cuts cleanly, sews easily, is machine washable and shrink resistant. So, not only is it multi-functional, but it's 'green', too! The E6000 is a great multi-functional, industrial strength adhesive. It's flexible, paintable, waterproof, non-flammable, and safe for photographs. Unlike most glues, this is nice and thick which makes it easy to work with and great for all types of projects! The pinbacks are also new to PZ. They come in a value pack of 60, have a safety clutch, and are 1 inch long. These are great for changing any craft project into something wearable!

Tools Needed:

Felt, Crop-a-dile, pinbacks, E-6000 adhesive, and brads. It always helps to play some good music while you're crafting, too.

You can cut out flowers free hand from the felt, but I found it easier to punch out a template from cardstock.

Then, using a pen (I used a Sharpie) trace the flower shape onto your felt.

Next, using sharp scissors, cut out the flower, carefully.

Cut out one more the same way in another color.

After that, stack the flowers, and use your Crop-a-dile to punch a hole. I used the Crop-a-dile because the felt is too thick to be punched through with a regular hole punch.

Then, place a brad through the hole. This is an easy way to play around with the look of your flower by using different color brads, jewel brads, pearl brads, fabric brads, etc.

Now it's time to make your pretty flower into a pin! Place a bit of the E-6000 adhesive onto the back of your flower.

Next, place a pinback onto the glue and press firmly. Hold for a minute or so to make sure it adheres properly. Then, set it aside and allow about 30 minutes for it to completely dry.

Voila! You have now made a pretty felt flower pin! Another idea is to forgo the pinback and use the flower as an embellishment on a card or scrapbook page.

For more ideas on making pretty felt flower pins, come to a free make and take instructed by Whitney Henne at our Tukwila Paperzone on Saturday, March 12th, from 12-2pm. An example from her make and take is below.

-Malyse