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Get Creative with QR Codes
I’ve been adding QR codes recently to some of our business stationery and marketing materials, and being struck by their creative potential for hidden ‘secret’ messages and creativity, decided to experiment a bit. QR codes are very easy to create and download, and you can have them link to a webpage, a special photograph or piece of artwork you have uploaded somewhere, or simply reveal a line of text when scanned. When it comes to text, the shorter and simpler the information, the simpler and bolder the QR code created will be. I found that when printed at a reasonable size, the QR code becomes a piece of artwork –…
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Artful Origami Heart Cards
I discovered these origami hearts when I was invited to review Origami for All. As I mentioned in that post, I have always found origami rather challenging, but these origami hearts which are included as a project in the book, (and which you can also find out how to make here), are really so simple to make that even I can do it. They look fabulous made from children’s paintings and drawings, or indeed decorative paper of any kind, and I used them to make a selection of Valentine cards. They have a wonderful 3 dimensional quality to them, and a little ‘pocket’ at the back which is perfect for…
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Experiments with Doodlebots
We recently visited Manchester’s latest Mini-Maker Fair. There was lots there to entertain my 2 boys (or 3 if you count the husband) – especially my eldest son. Amongst the various activities on offer, he did his first soldering session to make a flashing badge (and has a small burn to show for it) attended a Minecraft hacking session, and 3D printed a miniature robot. We also attempted to make our own doodlebot. This involved using a simple motor which was wired to a battery, and taped to a piece of card. Holes were punched into the corners of the card, and the tips of the pens pushed through. We…
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Snow Paper
Christmas is such a wonderful time for making things and my head has been buzzing with ideas for projects recently – I just wish we had the time to do them all, but it’s also the busiest time of year for Artful Kids, with lots of orders to fulfil, so time is frustratingly in shorter supply than usual. To make sure that I squeeze in some time for creating, two things tend to slip – housework (that’s my excuse anyway) and browsing online 🙁 Our latest project has been making some ‘Snow Paper’ – a really simple thing to do, with lots and lots of different uses afterwards. To begin…
