How-To: Box Covering

Do you remember I mentioned that I ordered boxes for my button cluster necklaces that were way too small? Well I ordered new ones which are the perfect size, but the wrong colour, so not one to shy away from a little extra work I decided to cover the boxes in wrapping paper. Or rather the little OCD voice in my head wouldn't allow myself to leave them plain card and not matching the other boxes. So armed with a scissors, wrapping paper from Pennies and A LOT of double sided tape I covered 12 jewellery boxes(btw I get my double sided tape in the €2 store, don't attempt this at home if you are paying the normal ridiculous price from a craft shop).

After doing the first one I worked out a system. Firstly cover two of the long sides(if rectangular) with tape, bringing the strips around the corners by about an inch. Then do four strips on the underside of the box. Also put four strips on the inside lip of the box too. Now your box is prepped. 

Cut out a piece of light wrapping paper that is at least 2 1/2" bigger on all sides. Remove the backing from the tape and place firmly face down on the reverse of the paper.

Make a cut in the paper that run parallel to the longest side of the box, repeat this for the four corners. What you should be left with are two long strips either side that you can fold up and two smaller ones in the middle.

Trim the edges of these longer strips by about an inch on all four sides. Then remove the backing for your tape on the one of the long sides of your box. Delicately fold up the paper, you are left with two tabs either side that can be folded around the corners to go onto your overlap of tape. Repeat this step on the opposite side.

Now remove the tape from the inside of the these side panels. Because my box was quite shallow I didn't need to make any cuts in the paper, I was just able to fold them down.

You are now left with the two side panels. Just add some double sided tape to the two edges, and fold up repeating the last two steps above.

If the bottom part of your box is visible you can cut out an insert of paper to go inside to cover the last panel, just tape in with double sided tape.

Repeat all the above parts of the tutorial for the lid of your box, and hey presto you have a pretty box. This seems like a lot of work the first time you do it, but you find yourself getting into a rhythm pretty quickly.

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How-To Lavender Sachet

I got a call the other night from a friend asking me to making a present of a lavender sachet for a 90 year old woman, not a request I get every day! I have never made one, but years ago my sister in-law Shelly taught me how to make crane bags, and when I was around 10 I made a tonne of them. But it had been a while, 20 years, since making the last one. 

1. Get a large dinner plate or lid and trace out a circle on two different, but matching pieces of fabric.

2. For a bit of extra decoration to the outside of the bag I added small pieces of matching fabric, composed them together and pinned in place.

3. I used a zigzag double layered stitch on my machine to applique on the extra bits of fabric, you don't need to do the edges of the circle as these will be sewn later.

4. This is what it should look like.

5. Get your second circle of fabric and face them both inwards, if it helps pin the two circles together. I also wanted to add a lace trim(as the lady who this was intended for is 90). With the frilly edging facing inside your fabric leave a small edge peeping out, see image above.

6. Sew together in small straight running stitch, I set my machine to No.2. Leave a small gap at the end.

7. Turn your sachet back around to the right side, take your time, you'll get there in the end.

8. This is what it looks like after being reversed, notice the small gap, this will be fixed later. About 3/4" in from the edge sew a straight running stitch all around the diameter. I forgot to take a picture of this stage, but you can see it in the picture below.

9. This is the really frustrating bit. You need to insert string or ribbon into the gap that has been made around the diameter of the circle. I Cellotaped my ribbon to some circular knitting needles, these are perfect as the have a pointy end but are flexible.

10. Persist with this stage, you make muck it up and have to start again, go slowly and try not to force your needle through your seams.

11. With a bit of hand stitching tidy up the gap that was left, turning in the edges. If you used lace make sure to sew the two end together.

12. Fill with lavender and pull tight to close it. I'm allergic to lavender hence there is no sight of it in these photos! To add the extra loop to hand the sachet in your wardrobe you just add one extra loop before lacing it as normal. Like tying your shoes but adding one extra loop step. Sorry it was too hard to do that last step and take a picture, I don't have a third hand.

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How-To Paper Collage Bookmarks

Yet again I found a great tutorial on Pinterest, this how-to by SEI Lifestyle is for making magnets, which is what I intended to make, but as I started working on the I changed my mind. I made bookmarks instead since I'm now running a second hand book stall, and I thought they would be nice to have if someone was buying a gift.

 I ended up not using some of the above items, so here is my revised list of what you will need.
Kraft Card 12" x 12" sheets
Lots of scraps of fancy patterned paper, I have tonnes of this left over from cards.
PVA glue mixed half and half with water.
A brush or sponge
Brown aging ink
Scissors
Pen
A corner cutter
Sewing machine
Varnish
Card for a printer

I grouped my scraps of paper into coloured themes, this gives a more cohesive look especially since the papers are all in clashing patterns. I have been saving up these scraps of paper for years, I have loads of it, so I'm delighted to find a use for it.

 Cover your 12" x12" sheet of Kraft paper with you glue mix, then lay out the scraps of paper, gluing the backs of each of them too. Try to think about what colours sit well beside each other, and also add interest by ripping some of the sheets in stead of having a cut edge. Also try to remember that this large sheet will be cut into smaller strips, so try to layer up using lots of small bits(but not too many either or will never be able to sew around them all)

Allow the sheets to completely dry out.

On the back measure out 6" x 2" strips and cut up your sheet using a scissors. I then used my x-cut corner punch to round the edges. After cutting up the strips I decided I wanted to back them on something more substantial, so I cut out 7" x 3" strips on Kraft card to sew my collaged pieces onto.

Since these were going to be bookmarks i wanted add quotes/saying to them. So after a bit of Googling I came up with a few short lines. I used photoshop to lay them out in long narrow strips in a font that I liked, and then I printed them onto some glossy card.

I carefully used my sewing machine to sew around each of the paper scraps, take your time at this bit, it's fairly tricky. I sewed the coloured paper onto a larger piece of Kraft card, do all my central stitching. When this was finished I sewed around the edge onto a second piece of Kraft card. What this does is hide all the unsightly stitching from the central panel and sandwiches it between two pieces of Kraft card.

I then used some brown stamping ink to age the edges and add some more interest and texture. When this was done I varnished the bookmarks back and front and waited for them to dry.

Hey Presto! they're done. I'm pretty chuffed with how they turned out, and I'd really like to adapt this method to other projects too.

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Moonlighting at Etsy Ireland

Over the next month or so I will be helping out a great deal with the Etsy Ireland team blog, organising posts, inviting people to write article, and writing quite a few of them myself. So firstly if you're reading this and you've never checked it out then pop over, it's a great collection of Irish etsy crafters showing their wares, giving tips and generally talking about crafty things. There is the loose structure of

Introducing Modays: where a new seller introduces themselves and there work.
How-to-Tuesday
I'll show you mine Wednesday: artists show us a view into their studios
Tricks of the Trade: inside tips of crafting, and a guide to some supplies sellers around Ireland, I'm really looking forward to doing one in Limerick.
Fresh 5 picks on Friday

I'm delighted to be working with the team, I love blogging and writing, so it will be good to get my teeth into a new project!!!
Update: Check out my first post here....a tutorial in photoshop design.....jeez it took a while to do it but I'm really happy with my first ever tutorial, next time I may do something simpler....feedback would be great, go check it out!!