Tutorial: Tissue Box Landscapes

While Lo was away on business this week, The Boy and I made...Oh you guessed already? How'd you manage that? Well you're right! We made Tissue Box Landscapes! This is a sweet and satisfying craft the whole family will get a kick out of.

Here's how we did it!

Tutorial: Tissue Box Landscapes

For this project, you will need:

• one tissue box per person
• a piece of corrugated cardboard
• a variety of paper scraps (I used odds and ends from various past projects like this one and this one. The hand-painted bits and pieces are especially fitting for a project like this!)
• ruler
• marker or pencil
• utility knife
• pair of scissors
• glue
• clothespins for clamping
• large needle
• string
• black craft paper (optional)

Step 1:  Gather your tissue box, utility knife, marker and ruler.
Step 2:  With the ruler and marker, draw a straight line roughly 1/4 inch (6mm) from the top edge and all the way around the box.

Step 3:  With the utility knife, very carefully cut off the whole top of the tissue box along the marked line using your ruler as a guide.
Step 4:  You might find that the corners of the tissue box have pulled apart while cutting. Glue them back together and clamp them with clothespins. Allow the glue to dry.

Step 5:  Measure the inside width and length of your tissue box top and transfer those dimensions to your piece of corrugated cardboard. Cut out the resulting rectangle.
Step 6:  Gather some pretty paper scraps.

Step 7:  On your cardboard rectangle, place scraps of your paper in a pleasant sequence down the length. Play with the placement of papers until you're happy with what you see. Without messing up the sequence you've created, slip the bundle of papers off your cardboard and off to the side. Notice the edges of my paper scraps are ripped. This will give your landscape a soft look. If you want more distinct lines, cut the edges with scissors.
Step 8:  Now take the bottom-most piece of paper from your sequence and glue it onto the cardboard. In my case, the bottom-most piece was at the very top of my sequence.

Step 9:  Continue glueing the pieces on the cardboard just as you had them in your sequence.
Step 10:  Once they're all in place, flip the cardboard around and trim the paper scraps to the width of the cardboard.

Step 11:  (Optional) At this point, I realized that my landscape was very similar in colour to my tissue box frame. To create contrast between the frame and artwork, I cut out a simple mat from a piece of black craft paper. I used the hole in the tissue box as a guide, and made the hole in the mat slightly smaller.
Step 12:  (Optional) I glued the mat into the frame.

Step 13:  Now I glued the landscape into the frame being careful to avoid putting the glue too close to the inner frame edges. While the whole thing dried, I placed a few rocks on the back to ensure good adhesion between those layers.
Step 14:  Finally, I used a large needle and some string to make a simple hanger for my little landscape!

Here's The Boy's landscape arrangement pre-glueing...

And here it is at home in its tissue box frame...

Sweetness!

I guarantee this little craft will bring out your inner artist, no matter how deeply she may be hiding... So let her out and watch her make her own Tissue Box Landscape!

♥M

Tutorial: A Yarn Painted Greeting Card

As you will soon discover (if you haven't already), I love making things using stuff I find around the house and in the recycling bin, one of my favourite places (especially since I cleaned it, yesterday). This project is no exception! A yarn painted card!

Let's get down to business. Here's what you'll need:

Take your sheet of card stock. Make it the size you want and then fold it down the middle. My card, when folded, measures 4"x 5". Small.

Take your mesh bag and cut a piece of mesh that is a bit larger than your card: about 1 inch wider in both length and width.

Now you can, on a separate sheet of paper, draw out a design, but I just jumped in and improvised to my heart's delight! Do whatever works for you.

I took my yarn needle and threaded in some yarn. And then I began weaving the yarn into the mesh.

I wove in a little yellow circle going in and out of the mesh in a spiral. Note that I don't worry about the ends. They just hang around in back and the mesh holds it all in place.

Um, time for another colour!

Oh. It's growing! I'm just filling up the mesh with colourful yarn.

And now I've filled the whole thing. Now, I have to admit that this is a time-consuming little project. Make sure you REALLY like the person your giving this card to. It took me about 2 hours to fill in this 4"x 5" space, so they should be WORTHY!

So now, I machine-sew the mesh to the card, roughly a 1/4" from the edge of the card and all the way around.

This is what it looks like from the front so far.

See the white machine stitching there...

Now trim the edges of the yarn-painted mesh just past the edge of the card.

So it looks like this. Now you'll notice that the yarn at the top and bottom of the card is just sort of hanging there. What I do to rectify this situation is to run a thick bead of craft glue at both the top and bottom of the painting...

...Like so...And that holds everything in place quite nicely.

Let the card dry on a plate.

And voilà! A yarn-painted card for someone you LOVE!

Today I'm linking here: Favorite Things Friday at A Few of my Favorite Things, Look at Me I'm so Crafty at Fun to Craft and Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous.