5 Tips For Making Cards with Kids

This past weekend I worked with the youth group at my church to make holiday cards for elderly and sick members of the congregation.  I wasn't sure how many of them had used rubber stamps before, especially the teen boys, so I made a few simple cards to give them some ideas.  And came up with these few simple tips and ideas.

 

1. Discuss Why

We started out discussing the value of sending a card instead of an email or text.  And then brainstorming what they might write inside. This definitely helped focus them and they had some wonderful ideas.
  
2. Limit Supplies

I have a whole studio full of supplies that I could have brought with me, but I kept it simple so as not to overwhelm them with choices.  I gave them several stamp sets and punches to choose from plus a limited palette of markers and ink pads, a few sheets of patterned papers and card stock.

3. Keep Clean Up in Mind

• I had lots of baby wipes on hand to clean the stamps and fingers.
• I provided rhinestones and glitter pens to add sparkle, I decided against loose glitter for obvious reasons.  Buttons and ribbon also add interest without the mess!
• I put little trash cans right in the middle of the table to make clean up easy.

 4. Image Choice

This might be obvious, but the stamps that appeal to kids are:

• Easy to color, like this retired Stampin' Up! set call Frosty.  
• Bold shapes, like the star above, that are easy to stamp and cut out.
• Cute images, like the reindeer below.
• They also had a lot of fun with different shaped punches.

5. Display Proudly

I set up a little gallery area for the kids to display their finished work and so I could take pictures.  They did such an awesome job and I wanted them to be proud of their work.

I had such a fun morning working with these thoughtful, young people.  It was 2 days after the horror in Newtown, CT and it was good to focus on something so positive in the shadow of such sadness.  The same group of kids are making snowflakes this Sunday to decorate the new school for the Sandy Hook Elementary School children in January.  I'm so proud of them!

Ali

6 Ways to Wrap Gifts Using Vintage Paper

 

I've been having a lot of fun including vintage paper in my holiday gift wrapping this year.  I thought I'd share with some ways that you could incorporate some lovely old book pages or vintage sheet music into your packaging too.

1.  Vintage Paper Gift Wrap

Use old book pages to wrap the entire gift.  This works well for small gifts because you're restricted by the size of the pages.  Here I used vintage sheet music to wrap an iTunes gift card and finished it off with seam binding and a gold accent.

2. Vintage Paper Bows

Cut strips of old books to form a bow.  Here I used over sized dictionary pages - the large loops were cut to 1" wide and the smaller inner loops on top were cut to 1/2" wide. I finished off the center with a vintage button.

3. Vintage Paper Bag Toppers

Transform a plain bag into something special by creating a bag topper from vintage paper.  I just folded a rectangle of sheet music in half, stapled it to the top of the closed bag and hid the staple with a bow.

4. Vintage Paper Belly Bands

Cover the gift in regular wrapping paper, then create a belly band from vintage paper to bring it up a notch.

5. Vintage Paper Tags

Use a die cutting machine or handheld punch to create tags from old book pages and sheet music:

6. Vintage Paper Accents

Cut a piece of an old map or sheet music and glue it to the front of a parcel.  Here I used spray adhesive to attach a map of the East Coast to a gift wrapped in simple kraft paper.

There are more pictures of my Christmas packages in this post.  Got a great idea for packaging gifts using old book pages?  Leave a link and/or comment below.

Linking to:

A Crafty Soiree
Hodgepodge Friday
Crafty Happy Scrappy 
The Shabby Nest

Savy Southern Style

Happy Wrapping!

Ali

Book Page Cards

I love to make cards using pages from old book pages and I plan to share lots on this blog.  Here's one to get us started.

This page was torn from an old gardening book.  I rubber stamped a leaf onto it and then again onto cream card stock.  I cut out the card stock leaf and mounted it onto the page with foam dots.  Nice and simple!

Tip: for a more organic and natural look, tear the book page to the size you need it, rather using a paper cutter or scissors.  Then, run the torn edge along an ink pad to highlight it.

Made a card using old book pages recently? Leave a comment here with a link or contact me.  You never know, you could be featured on the Vintage Page Designs blog!