Uses for Paper and Craft Ideas

By

LizCar

You could do a search on "aging paper", and make the paper look really old, for old-fashioned stationery. Haven't tried it, but I've read you can age paper with coffee or tea, lemon juice (heat the paper to turn it light brown). Finishing touch could be burning the edges.

By

tracyjd

i have collected many free downloadable dingbats

you can print out a page full of your fave pics and then cover the back with geletin glue recipe let dry
then cut out and rewet to stick. works!

By Angela (Guest Post)

Karen - I would love the template to make memorable keepsake boxes for my mothers of my beautiful babies. Is this something that can be downloaded or e-mailed to me?

By E.J (Guest Post)

GO TO WWW.CRAFTSAYINGS.COM THERE ARE GREAT THINGS TO USE PAPER FOR AND SAYING TO PUT ON YOUR WORK GREAT WEB SITE

By

Mr. Thrifty

Have you considered taking the paper, shredding it in your paper shredder to stuff homemade animals?

How about taking all kinds, shapes ,and colors of paper and making into your own creation.

Then you have paper folding . I doubt many of us are up to the Japanese Art, but who is to say what just might happen .

I can remember as a child making a kite out of newspapers. Hey, it flew for a while anyway until a tree wanted to read up on the latest news.

Imagination -is not just for the children.

By

glomax56

I found one website that showed how to make little personalized note pads using a paper cutter (you could just use scissors and cut carefully, it just takes longer) and "padding cement." The padding cement could be bought online for $3.99. I bet there's a way to make it, too, but I don't know what the secret ingredients are. In Publisher and probably in other word processing programs, you can print four to a page designs and then cut them up and make notepads. You just vise-grip the pages together and put the glue on the ends, then let it dry and glue it again. Also, I found a website called crafterscommunity.com that offers different types of crafts to make from paper or other household items. Alot of really cute crafts are on their site with complete instructions. One of the crafts they show is a cute heart-shaped gift box made from a cereal box. It's definitely nice enough to make a beautiful gift! Hope this helps you!

By

glomax56

One very inexpensive gift is to stamp a set of blank index cards for recipes and cover the same size box in fabric that coordinates with the stamps. I priced the cards and box at Wal-Mart and it's $2 plus the stamps and fabric. I bought a sheet of fun foam for 33 cents and am going to try my hand at making my own stamp :) If you are artsy, you could decorate the cards with a little design yourself, or even with stickers. Some printers will also print directly onto the 4x6 index cards, making it easy to just do a personalized border on the computer.

Something I am doing for some of my family this year is I am collecting tips on saving money and making money go further and putting together a How To Save Money On.... notebook. Right now I am just gathering the tips and separating them into Word documents. Later I will print them out, maybe with a tiny color border or design (not a big one that will run me out of ink) on 8-1/2x10 plain paper and hole punch. You can get 3-ring binders at Wal-Mart for about $1.97, or cover an old one in fabric. You can also buy the binders with the clear plastic fronts and make a personal design on your computer to slip inside the front cover. I think they will make cute gifts, plus they're personalized (I am going to include my favorite frugal living recipes) and very inexpensive. They cost more time than money. Everyone I know is interested in saving money, so I expect these to be well-received!

By

kidseatfree

For the work I do, I use a lot of "scratch" paper. I take all my junk mail to work, fold them into nice squarish shapes while I'm on the phone, and use them as scratch paper. I get to "browse" through my junk mail and resupply, with what I would otherwise toss, my scratch paper supply!

By

lorac456

Karen I would be very interested in the template! It sounds adorable. Is it downloadable from the net?

Carol

By

lindal

I designed a cute personalized letterhead for my friends, and had it copied and bound into a pad at the print shop. I bought my own colored paper by the ream at the paper company, took it to the cheapest print place I could find by calling around. They will charge you the price they would charge for printing on their white paper or maybe a penny a sheet less. I designed the letterhead to be used on an 5 1/2 X 8 1/2 page, so 2 were abbled to be printed on each sheet "2 up" as they call it or side by side. I had them printed. bound like a regular pad with the sticky stuff on top and cut so each letterhead was separate from the other. Even the kids I gave them to loved having their own personal writing paper. With fonts and graphics the possibilities are endless.

By Elaine (Guest Post)

If you go to http://www.kookykards.co.uk/card_making_magazine_2/index.htm and scroll down to "Poems from the art room" you will find help to make your own poetry or quotes. Then you could print it from your computer in a nice font or use calligraphy, and frame it.

By Karen (Guest Post)

I have a template for making a "Grandma's Treasures" box out of 12 x 12 paper. It is a lidded box that when you take the lid off, the box opens and lays flat - on each section of the box, paste a picture of the grandkids. It is a gift box and a present all in one.