Decoupaged Pressed Flower Greeting Cards, and a Real-World Practicum in First Aid

My Girl Scout troop's Folk Arts IPP meeting is a wrap!

Alas, for I did not meet my goal. At one point I asked the troop to start cleaning up after soapmaking while I went to see if the beeswax and coconut oil were completely melted for candlemaking. I swear I was gone for approximately fifteen seconds, but I came back into the room to the following:

KID #1: "[Name Redacted] hurt herself."
KID #2: "I see blood."
NAME REDACTED (bleeding profusely from the head and dripping blood onto the floor) begins to fall over.
KID #3: "I don't feel well."

And scene!

I also can't say that my first aid administration went perfectly, because how do you situate a kid when her head is bleeding so needs to be elevated, but she's also losing consciousness so her feet need to be elevated? Do you just prop her up like a little pretzel with her butt on the ground and her head and feet jacked up? Keeping her conscious felt pretty important so my co-leader and I put her feet up high and her head just on a pillow, but I'll clearly have to ask more scenario-specific questions at my next re-certification.

 But the good news is that the injury was actually just a side quest, and nobody actually got injured during either the cold-process soapmaking (during which the kids wore long sleeves, gloves, and face shields) or the poured container candlemaking (which, tbh, was pretty chaotic, so I think we just got lucky).

We did get a chance to press flowers in the microwave, but our first aid practicum used the time previously intended for decoupaging our flowers, so we'll save that for another meeting.

But until then, I was left with SO MANY flowers that I'd already pressed to give the kids plenty to work with, and since I'm uninterested in figuring out how to safely keep pressed flowers in my already overburdened craft supplies storage, later that week I snookered my own kids into helping me decoupage them, in the process further refining my almost perfect technique.

And now that technique IS perfect!!!

My old method for making pressed flower bookmarks came from this tutorial, which came from a magazine article, which came from a vintage Boy Scout manual. All of them called for decoupaging the flowers first onto waxed paper, and then using the method of your choice to adhere the waxed paper to a more structured paper.

My incredible innovation is just to... ditch the waxed paper. Decoupage the pressed flowers directly to the material of your choice, saving yourself a step and, I think, improving the overall look of the finished product. I also changed out the glue to one that dries stiffer, which I think makes the work sturdier and requires fewer top coats.

To test out this innovation, the kids and I made SOOOO many greeting cards! Will has a ton of thank-you notes to write and we're out of nice cards, so this was a good chance to replenish our stash.

To decoupage your own pressed flower greeting cards, you will need the following:

• pressed flowers. I do have a new and improved microwave pressed flowers tutorial coming up, but until then, my original microwave pressed flowers tutorial does work well. 
• backing material of your choice, ideally one with structure. I used this hemp watercolor paper and this Strathmore watercolor paper, and of the two I preferred the hemp paper. I really liked how the off-white color and visible fibers add to the overall look.
• single ply of the cheapest disposable tissues you can find. If your tissues are multi-ply, separate them into the individual sheets. 
• clear school glue. I used Elmer's clear school glue leftover from Syd's slime-making phase. 
• paintbrush. A stiff paintbrush works better than a soft one. 
• matte medium. I use this Liquitex matte medium. It's weirdly expensive, so I think you could play around with cheaper sealants, too.

1. Cut and fold paper to make greeting cards.

Will and I did this with a guillotine paper cutter, but you could do it by hand. If you've got 8"x12" pages, you can make two 4"x6" cards from each page. We made some that hinged at the top, and some that hinged on the side, mostly because we weren't paying attention to what we were doing.

2. Arrange pressed flowers on the greeting card front.

Queen Anne's Lace

This part is really fun! It was definitely assisted by the huge stash of flowers I'd already collected and pressed. Seriously, I took trips to the local parks to take little snippy-snips of the wildflowers growing there, waded around vacant lots next to strip malls, and sacrificed many of the lovelies from my garden.

Rose of Sharon

But having such a large selection of flowers to choose from made that completely worth it!

3. Use clear school glue to paint a single ply of tissue paper over the entire card front.

Gently set the tissue over the card front. Use your non-dominant hand to gently hold the tissue and the flowers in place, and with your dominant hand dip the paintbrush into clear school glue, allowing a generous coat of glue to remain on the brush.

Start with the center of one flower, and gently paint glue onto the tissue paper covering it. The glue will seep through the tissue paper onto the flower, rendering the tissue paper translucent:

Use the stiffness of the brush to coax the tissue paper into all the little nooks and creases of the pressed flower, aiming for maximum adhesion of the tissue paper to the flower and card. 

Rose of Sharon and fern

The tissue paper will make lots of wrinkles when you glue it to the card, which is fine. What you don't want are air pockets between the flowers and tissue paper, because those will stay visible in the final product.

Queen Anne's Lace

Work your way across the surface until the entire card front is covered. Leave the excess tissue paper in place until the whole thing is dry, which should take about a day.

Rose of Sharon

4. Trim the tissue paper and add embellishments.

Trim the excess tissue paper from the greeting card fronts. If possible, it is highly desirable to have the assistance of both a teenager and a cat for this step:

You can do anything that you want regarding embellishments, but I entertained myself by finding fun phrases and conversations from this vintage Spanish textbook that I found in a Little Free Library once upon a time:

Although some is random--

--some, I think, is quite apt!

Dab a little more clear school glue onto the back of each embellishment to place it, then use the pad of your finger to thickly coat the entire greeting card front in matte medium.

Chamomile

Let dry. 

You can add additional coats of matte medium, which I did for a couple of cards but ultimately decided that it's unnecessary, especially because matte medium is so expensive!

And here are some of our finished cards!

It's that Queen Anne's Lace from Step 2!

Chamomile from Step 4

Fern

Rose of Sharon from Step 2

I still need to make matching envelopes for these cards, but then they'll be ready for thank-yous!

DIY: Super Easy Travel Journals

I strongly believe that journaling is one of the best things that you can do while traveling. Life happens especially quickly when you're on a trip, and you're likely to forget what you don't write down. And if it's a special trip--like once-in-a-lifetime special--there are details that you'll want to remember for the rest of your life. 

The frustrating thing about store-bought blank books for this type of purpose is that they're just too large. You likely don't want unnecessary bulk when you travel, and anyway, I think it's nicer to have a journal just the right size to record one single journey.

This DIY travel journal that I used to make with my kiddos when they were little, and which I most recently made with my Girl Scout troop before our Caribbean cruise, is just the right size for a 1-2-week trip. It's light as air, has some wiggle room as to number of pages it contains, supports a variety of paper types for whatever media you prefer, and can be modified to include all kinds of other fun and creative journal elements.

And it's easy as pie to make!

Here are the supplies you'll need:

• 6-8 8.5"x11" pages. Regular printer paper is perfect, but you can include tracing paper, watercolor paper (although that's thick enough that you might have to put in fewer pages), kraft paper (for bonus points, cut this out from brown paper bags!), cardstock, etc. 
• 2 pieces of cardboard or similar, at least 5.5"x8.5". The ideal size for this would be about 6"x9". My Girl Scout troop used some of my stash mat board, sized 7.5"x9.5", and it was maybe a little big but worked fine. You could also use cardboard cut from shipping boxes or food packaging, or even rip the covers off of those old books that hang around in your crafting stash.
• duct tape, at least 17" long. I used more stash duct tape for this, basically everything still left after Syd's duct tape dress form, and the kids had fun choosing their colors.
• stapler.
• large eraser.
• metal ruler.

1. Tape the cover. Set a piece of duct tape at least 9" long sticky side up on your work surface. With pretty sides down, put your two pieces of cardboard on the tape, leaving a gap of a scant 1/4" between the two. Fold the extra tape at the top and bottom over, then overlap with another strip of duct tape:

Use a fingernail or bone folder to press the tape into the gap and smooth it against itself and the cardboard covers:

2. Staple the pages to the covers. Stack 6-8 pages together, then fold them in half and crease them. Center the fold on the gap you created between the two book covers:

Hold everything carefully and flip it upside down, so that the pages are facing down and the duct tape spine and covers are facing up. 

Put the eraser directly underneath the first spot you'll staple.

Staple straight through the duct tape spine, center fold of the pages, and into the eraser.

Turn the book over and pull the eraser off the prongs of the staple. Use the edge of a metal ruler to bend the prongs down:

Repeat 2-3 more times down the spine of your travel journal:

Your travel journal is ready to go!

Here are some creative components that you can easily add to this type of travel journal:

• fill-in-the-blanks template. This makes a good prompt for littler kids--to reduce bulk, you can hand-draw a template directly onto the pages of a travel journal rather than printing and pasting one. Older writers might still find a list of prompts helpful.
• embroidery. You can use this for pure embellishment, or to add travel routes to a hand-drawn map. 
• paperclip bookmark. This is an easy way to hold your page between entries. 
• envelopes. You could literally just tape an envelope to the inside cover of your travel journal, but I really like these stitched covers made from book pages. I often score old travel guides from my local public library's used book sale, and envelopes made from these are extra awesome for travel journals.
• travel journal holder. I made these out of felt for every kid in my Girl Scout troop, and they came in super handy! The kids could put their travel journals in them, but also their favorite pens/pencils, stickers, ephemera, etc. 

And here are some sneaky fun things that you can buy to bribe teenagers to fill out their nice travel journals!

• gel pens
• stickers
• photo printer
• travel watercolors

I am under no delusion that I'm not the only person who completely filled out their travel journal, dutifully recording every single day spent with my girls and my Girl Scouts. But I hope the memory of this practice, how easy and fun it was, how important I tried to make it feel, the room for creativity and personality I tried to leave, will inspire the kids to give it a try again on a future trip. 

DIY Washi Tape with Upcycled Materials and Simmering Holiday Resentment

 I ran out of washi tape this week, smack in the middle of trying to get out a bunch of Pumpkin+Bear orders (all of which are packaged using washi tape!).

I really didn't want to go out and face the post-Thanksgiving shopping hordes just so each of my packages can contain its customary three inches of washi tape, and also I'm very much deep in the Consumerist Pit of Despair at the moment, fueled by having done almost all my holiday shopping and OH MY GOD WHY DO THINGS COST MONEY?!?

And then I remembered "Syd's" sticker maker...

In the photo below I've got a wallpaper sample, comic book page, and scrapbook paper, and Syd's Xyron has the Permanent Adhesive cartridge installed:

I squared up each piece, then cut them into quarter-inch strips:

It actually made a lot!

I'm currently storing them in a binder clip tacked to my study wall, and I'm very curious to see how long they last before I get to try out some new papers:

I've just noticed all the washi tape of years past on that wall, lol!

Alas, I finished packaging all my Pumpkin+Bear orders before I had the idea to upcycle ephemera into washi tape (but do not be sad, because I used my favorite measuring tape tape to package my orders, instead), so I couldn't test drive my brand-new washi tape on the packages.

Fortunately, that Pit of Consumerist Despair that I'm wallowing in DOES mean that I've got another very important use for DIY washi tape!

Also, Matt committed my #1 Co-Parent Gift-Giving Foul: when I thoughtfully informed him of the latest Christmas gift that I selected and purchased and wrapped for our children (the one in this photo, actually!), his response was NOT "Thank you so much for this burden of emotional labor that you are lifting, and for the magical memories you are ensuring for our precious children. I've also been thinking about what gifts the kids would like, and my contributions will be wrapped and ready for the tree soon, with their recipients and dollar amounts recorded in the Excel spreadsheet so we can make sure we're under budget."

Nope, instead he wrinkled his nose and replied, "Where are we going to put THAT?!?" He insists that this question, asked whenever I come home with any object, whether it's a refrigerator box or a roll of washi tape, is asked purely for informational purposes, but you and I both know the truth. You and I also both know that from now on, there's only one person in the house who's going to know the contents of 99.9999999% of the Christmas gifts under the tree this year and Matt can be just as surprised as the kids to see the presents that they open.

And THEN he can figure out where we're going to put them!

How to Make Origami Hearts

This tutorial was originally published on Crafting a Green World back in 2016.

Curious about origami? Wanting to bust some paper stash? Make origami hearts! 

 These little origami hearts are quick and easy to make, and they look adorable. Here's how to fold them: 

  1. Start with a strip of paper. Any paper will do for this project, from brown paper bags to wrapping paper scraps to bits of your favorite scrapbook paper. You can also play with the size of your strip, although I tend to always use the same size strips that we use for our paper chains: 1"x6". 

 HINT: I work a lot with upcycled papers and scrapbook paper, and I've gotten into the habit of cutting down my scraps at the end of a project into the three types of paper ephemera that I use most often: 1" circles, 1.25" hearts, and these 1"x6" strips. They store more easily and attractively, and whenever the kids and I have the urge to do some crafting, we've already got a ready stash of our favorite supplies. 

  2. Valley fold your paper strip in half. Crease the fold with the back of your thumbnail.  

3. Fold each side down to meet the center line. Crease the fold.  

4. Flip the piece over to the back side, and turn it upside down. 

 5. Fold each of the two top pieces down to meet the bottom straight edge. Crease the folds.  

6. Fold the corners of each of the top two pieces down to meet in the middle. This is the trickiest part to get even, since you don't have a vertical line of symmetry here to guide you. If you'd like, you can always fold that line yourself; you'll have two extra creases on your heart, but it won't affect anything.  

Turn your piece back over, and you'll see your heart! 

 If you'd like to make sure that your heart stays flat, you can always glue those top four corners down.

 These hearts are so quick and easy to make that you'll have a pile of them before you know it, and that's okay! They make good embellishments for Valentines, and cute embellishments or even gift tags for presents. Thread them onto floss for a simple bunting, or stamp your business info on them and hand them out with your handmade products. 

 Or, you know, just hoard them because they're so pretty. That's what I do! 

How to Embellish a Composition Book with a Coloring Page

 This tutorial was originally published on Crafting a Green World in 2016.

Are you into coloring books? My kids and I are! We listen to a lot of audiobooks, podcasts, and read-alouds, and coloring is a great way to pass the time. 

 This means, however, that we have LOTS of lovely completed coloring book pages. I don't really have a problem with re-using and recycling paper, but often the pages are so thoughtfully and lovingly filled in that they just seem too pretty to toss. 

 At the same, the kids also have LOTS of composition books that they use for lots of different subjects. Composition books all tend to look mostly the same, mostly so that kids can mix them up and fight over them, I think. 

 Why not solve both problems at once, then? 

Here's how to embellish a composition book with a coloring book page, giving that pretty work of art a place to be shown off, and personalizing that composition book  so that everyone knows who it belongs to and what it's for. It's a little time-consuming, but it's not hard, and it's going to look really awesome when you're done.

   1. Do you need to prime your composition book? Even though composition book covers are glossy, they do pretty well with paint. Nevertheless, I usually cover everything that I paint with a no-sand primer. I lay my composition books open flat on my work surface, with the covers both facing up, when I paint them; I don't mind a little if a little bit of paint gets onto the edges of the top couple of notebook pages below, but if you do, spread out newspaper between the composition book covers and the notebook pages. 

  2. Paint the composition book covers. I've used both interior/exterior house paint and water-based spray paint for these book covers. I usually save our craft acrylics for smaller projects, although you can certainly use them here. 

 Even though the coloring book pages will be covering the center front cover of each composition book, I generally paint the entire cover, just so I don't have to worry about my placement later. Do whatever feels right to you. 

 Let all the paint dry well before you start the next step. 

  3. Trim and prepare your coloring book page. We have a family policy that we photocopy coloring book pages and color the copy, and we usually do this on cardstock, because everyone likes the color saturation of Prismacolor or Sharpie markers the best. This means that I don't have to worry about the translucency of a coloring book page, or the possibility of it being printed on cheap paper that won't take glue well. 

If you're worried about the quality of your own paper, feel free to back it with a nice cardstock or high-quality typing paper. You could even use scrapbook paper and make a nice border around the page for some extra embellishment. 

 Don't forget, of course, that you don't HAVE to use a coloring book page to embellish a composition book. If you want to embellish a composition book with wrapping paper, cut-outs from a magazine, comic book or dictionary pages, or anything else that you're dreaming of, that will work, too! 

  4. Adhere the coloring page to the composition book cover. I like to center mine, and I'm happy with my results using either spray adhesive (not eco-friendly) or Mod Podge (eco-friendly!). 

  5. Seal the composition book cover. Several more coats of Mod Podge, or a couple of coats of a spray sealant (not eco-friendly) or one coat of polyurethane (not great, but better than spray sealant) will seal and protect the cover of your lovely embellished composition book. 

 In my opinion, you don't need a reason to embellish a composition book, because the result is super cute, but here's one: these embellished composition books make great journals and sketchbooks, especially if you've colored the coloring page yourself. They also make cute presents, either for a parent using their kid's art, or for a loved one using something that you know they'll like. 

I mean, doesn't everyone need another notebook with a hand-colored dragon on the front?