Decorative Paste Papers & Cards
I came across this technique over at Art for Small Hands where there is a detailed tutorial for undertaking this as a classroom activity. It’s a traditional technique, which, like marbling, was often used in the 18th and 19th centuries for decorating the endpapers of books. As an activity it’s cheap, easy and a lot of fun, but (be warned) it is potentially very messy! It’s also something that is suitable for all ages, with even the youngest of children able to get ‘hands on’. The paste is prepared in advance using rice and wheat flours, water and small drops of glycerine and washing-up liquid. The mixture is cooked and…
Recycling Christmas Cards
The easiest way to recycle your old Christmas Cards is to take them all down to the nearest recycling point, but there are much more creative ways of recycling them. Here are a few suggestions: Cut them along the fold, and use the blank side of each for shopping lists, notes etc. (This is something which my parents always did, and I have adopted the same habit!) Use the pictures to make gift tags for next year, using decorative cutting scissors to create an attractive edge (again, this is a simple idea that has been around for years, saves money, and takes minimal effort). Cut up the pictures themselves, and…
Christmas Card Factory
Inspired a few other projects we had seen, me and my 2 boys (aged 5 and 3) sat down to start our Christmas card production line. You can see some of our efforts in the picture above, which displays one card by each of us. You can’t really tell from the photograph, which I’m not terribly pleased with as it doesn’t show the sparkle at all, but we used glitter paint for the trees and some snow, while the decorations were created with glitter glue, acrylic jewels and sequins.
