Tag: paper

Paper serendipity

On By CarynIn Uncategorized

Sometimes, not very often, when I’m wrapping presents the paper pattern and the box size coincide and the fold at the back is a perfect continuation of the pattern. Ah.

Photo description: “let it snow” wrapping paper that has been wrapped around a box with the two ends meeting up to complete the snowman pattern

Throwback Thursday: silhouettes

On By CarynIn art, Craft

In April of 2016 I took pictures of my kids against the strong light of a window to get an image of their silhouettes. I then digitized the outlines and used my Cricut cutter to cut colored cardstock. My favorite result was where I layered the two cut outs on some beautiful hand marbled paper my sister gave me.

Photo description: silhouettes in dark green and light green on a marbled green background in a brass picture frame

I really admire the people with the skills to cut out silhouettes free hand. I leaned heavily on technology for this setup.

Throwback Thursday: Best DIY card holder

On By CarynIn Craft, Life Hack

In December 2015 I made my youngest a playing card holder from thin card board and duct tape.

Photo description: card board and “Minion” duct tape card holder sitting on my knees holding thirteen playing cards

The concept is simple, a slot made from two folds of card board, the back fold slightly higher than the front, then a wide base so the cards stay steady. The duct tape holds it all together. I left the card board exposed where the cards are inserted, so the cards will slide in and out easily.

Photo description: side view of the same card holder ten years later, looking a little worn, but still perfectly functional

My youngest can use this to play Uno, even when the hand has nearly thirty cards. I am amazed that it is still working well ten years after I made it, and that it gets frequent use.

Throwback Thursday: library sign

On By CarynIn Craft, throwback

In October 2015 I was volunteering at my kids’ elementary school library. They had stacks of old dust covers for books and we had the idea of making a library sign using the colorful printed paper. I selected portions of book covers with coordinating colors and made each letter of the word “library” a different color of the rainbow.

Photo description: large paper based letters spelling “library” and two cartoon owls made of book dust covers and chip board hanging on the wall of the library office
Photo description: closeup of the letter “R” showing how many individual book covers were used for their colors, and outlined with black chip board

I did write on the back of each letter the names of the books that went into making up the color. The owls were made to coordinate with a backdrop of a collection of owls that was already displayed at the library.

Ah ha moment

On By CarynIn Life Hack

It hurts sometimes. I’ve been struggling with my printer for longer than I care to admit, trying to maximize paper use and minimize waste. I try lying out a print double sided so that I can then cut them apart, but the printer doesn’t print consistently and the double sided is off set at best, or unusable.

After a particularly frustrating waste of 20 sheets of card stock, I walked away from the problem for a while.

Photo description: using a paper cutter to cut double sided 3.75×5.75 inch cards, card on the left is useable, but offset so that the text is right on the edge.

I don’t know why I’ve never considered cutting the card stock first. First. Then feeding it into the printer, which can handle small stock. I tested it the next morning, and had a 95% success rate. Much better than the 20% success rate of printing first. Bonus, I can get cut three 3.7×5.75 inch cards from a single letter sized piece of card stock. That is one extra per sheet than if I printed (which with my printing tolerances would be impossible to achieve).

Yeah for ah ha moments.