How To Make Pop-Up Cards with Recycled Greeting Cards

We made these pop-up Christmas Cards for my daughters' teachers using cards from Christmases past. Here's a how-to for this really easy craft.

First, gather your supplies: in addition to scissors and glue, you will need:

A selection of greeting cards - for images to cut out for the pop-up (you could also, of course, create your own image!)


Scrapbook paper (optional) - can be used for the inside of the card


Card stock or construction paper (approximate size 8 1/2 x 11) - to be used for the outside of the card, and for the inside, too, if not using scrapbook paper. We made them both ways!


Cut your card stock in half so you have 2 pieces approximately 4 1/4 x 5 1/2.

Fold them each in half.


Cut 2 slits about an inch long each and about an inch apart on one of the cards.


Fold the paper between the slits to one side and crease.


Open the card and push the folded piece through to the other side.


Now you have a nice little box to attach your artwork to!


Glue the card with the pop-up box to the inside of the uncut card.


Decorate the inside of the card. Be sure when gluing to the pop-up not to extend the artwork past the bottom of the square.


Decorate the outside of the card (you can do this before gluing the 2 pieces together). We put our art "upside down" so that when the card sits open on the teachers' desk the outside artwork would actually be "right side up". My 8-year-old put a collage on the outside of her card.


My 3-year-old drew "pictures" :)

Mini Graham Cracker (Gingerbread) Houses

Here's a how-to on the houses. This was a very successful craft and an easy way to do Gingerbread Houses. However, the construction of the houses is quite difficult and time consuming and takes a lot of patience. This is not a craft to do quickly. It probably took me over an hour to construct the houses. I did that the night before so the frosting would have overnight to dry. The inspiration for these houses came from a Martha Stewart Living postcard. I did not have the directions - so I found advice on the Internet and in magazines and winged the rest! You can see the postcard in the background of the tomato paste photo.

For 6 mini houses you will need:
1 box of graham crackers
1 can store-bought frosting (NOT whipped)
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
large knife
some canned food from your pantry
various candies for decorating

Add the 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar to the frosting and stir to make it stiffer.



The front and back of each house uses one full graham cracker with the top cut into a triangle to make the peak. The cutting of the cracker is tricky. The best technique is to place the cutting edge of a large knife from the point of perforation on the top to the point of perforation in the middle (see photo) at the same time. Apply gentle pressure rocking the knife back and forth until the piece breaks off.









The sides and the roof of each house use a half sheet of graham cracker.










Now comes construction. You HAVE to construct the sides in this order or the roof will not fit (speaking from experience here!) Put one of the side pieces down flat. Pipe frosting on the top edges of the cracker. (I used a pastry bag with a writing tip, but you could also use a gallon size plastic baggie with a small hole cut in the corner - no precision is needed for the simple houses that I made.) Put a triangle piece down sideways on each line of frosting. Use cans to help the sides from falling as you pipe more frosting on all sides to shore up the construction. Add the other side on top and very carefully try to pipe extra frosting inside. Carefully set the house right side up.






Finally, put on the roof pieces. I had a big gap on the top of my roofs, so I just piped frosting across them to look like snow.














As for decorations, I was on a time and money budget, so we used only candy I was able to find at Target. I limited the colors to red and green to give a more cohesive look to the houses (also, the Martha Stewart houses are monochromatic, but use candy store candy). I cut candy canes into 2 pieces - sticks and arches. I found the best way to cut them without breakage was to use a sawing motion with the knife.










We used ice cream cones for trees, coconut shavings for snow, sticks of gum for doors and walkways, square pieces of gum for windows, licorice for roofs, M&Ms for roofs, and many other candies for decorations (Dots, Cadbury chocolates, licorice bark, gumdrops) and the same frosting recipe as "glue". We added some Teddy Grahams as the houses' inhabitants posing outside their homes! The scale is perfect.










Of course, real Gingerbread House have to be 100% edible (as these are), although we are not eating ours - we have enough leftover candy to keep us happy for quite a while!

Plates

I recently completed a project re-making some old platters I've had forever. I bought these plates several years ago on clearance at the Pottery Barn. They have a very cool purple and red iridescent color, but I was never able to find a use for them, so they've pretty much stayed in storage.












I used general metallic black acrylic craft paint, large glass beads, and tacky glue to adhere them to the plates.




I plan on hanging the plates on the (newly painted) build-out above my kitchen cabinets.

Here's the finished result, I did have some problems with putting on too much glue (you only need a small dot). The glue dries clear, but does show up against the very smooth background. The picture doesn't really show it, but the beads are very shiny. I used three different kinds of beads, a bronzy brown round bead, a green round bead, both of which had a opalescent look, and a metallic looking silver rectangular bead. I alternated using two of each color on each plat, in different geometric designs.

Dirt Cake!

My son loves dirt cake, so he requests it for his birthday cake every year. There are many themes to the dirt cake; you can put it in a pail with gummy worms or in flower pots with plastic flowers. You can come up with many creative ideas! Here is how we make his "birthday" dirt cake.

Ingredients:
1/2 stick margarine or butter
1 8oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
31/2 cups milk
2 pkg (3.5 oz) vanilla instant pudding
12 oz. whipped topping
20 oz pkg Oreo cookies, crushed

Step 1

Cream butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar.

Step 2

In another bowl, mix the milk, instant vanilla pudding, and whipped topping.

Step 3

Combine the mixtures. (I use a blender for this, on low)

Step 4

The fun part! Put the cookies in a bag and make sure it is sealed : ) You may even want to double-bag. Then crush the cookies; we use a rolling pin.

Step 5

You are ready to assemble! Put 1/3 of the crushed cookies in the container. Add 1/2 the filling. Top with 1/3 of the crushed cookies. Add the rest of the filling. and top with the rest of the cookies. Put in the gummy worms. Refrigerate.

Eat and enjoy!

Easy Fabric Covered Bulletin Boards - Tutorial

I know this idea has been around the crafting world for quite some time, including a tutorial from Martha herself, but I am posting a tutorial as well because, quite frankly, Martha's way didn't work for me (and ditto for the other tutorials I found on the web). So, here's one more way (and a very easy way) to make fabric covered bulletin boards.I started with a package of four cork boards from Target. They cost about $5 for the package of four. I had my daughter pick out the fabric from JoAnn's, we ended up with quilt fabric that was on sale for $1.99/yard. I bought a yard and a half (which was way too much fabric, but I wanted leftovers for other projects - and I had no idea how much I would need). You could probably get away with 3/4 of a yard, or maybe even less if you don't make any mistakes. I also bought coordinating ribbon from JoAnn's for $1.99. I can't remember how many yards of ribbon were on the spool that I bought, but it was barely enough for three. Two spools would be a better bet. I also bought a package of brads from Michaels for about $1.99 and some picture hangers for about $4.

First I cut the fabric a few inches larger than the cork board.

Then, following the instructions from other tutorials, used a staple gun to staple the fabric to the cork and stapled the whole thing right into my dining room table! Yes, the cork is really, really thin. Luckily, I have an old, pine, country-style dining room table with lots of other nicks and character, so I wasn't too freaked out. Next, I tried a regular stapler, but the edges of the staples stuck out like little razor blades. So, I finally gave in. I went and got it. Yes, the duct tape. And it worked like a charm.

Fold up opposite ends of the fabric and tape down. Fold corners as you would gift wrap and tape into place.


When placing the ribbon, the tape is really handy because you can fold the ribbon any which way you need to in back and easily tape into place in order to get a nice, taut look in front.


Tack ribbon intersections with brads, I found a huge selection of brads in the scrapbooking section of Michaels. Pierce the brads through each layer of ribbon and fabric separately before pushing it through the cork to avoid bending them.


For hangers, I used the adhesive hangers pictured below, but only the bottom, round parts.

Yes, I duct taped them to the back of the cork boards. Other tutorials say to use D-rings, but I couldn't find them in the picture hanging section of Michaels and these are working well.

One of the bulletin boards I made into a fabric pocket for my daughter to put a book or notebook in (only one, these things are very light!) I folded the fabric around the board and cut to size. I folded down the top and *sigh* duct taped the seam. This was so I could attach brads across the front of the seam as a border.

School year memories

A new school year is starting soon and, if you are like me, you may be still trying to sort through your kids papers from last year : ) Each year I purchase a basic scrapbook with clear pages that I can simply insert papers. The front varies by year; depending on what is available at the store. The top photos show this years style with a spot for the child's photo. In past years I have used semi-see through covers and filled the first page with colorful papers and nametags from the school year. I sort through their papers and pick out examples of work they completed that year from each subject. They can then look back when they are older and see what they were studying each year. I also include report cards, certificates, drawings, and, my favorite, stories they have written.

R