Paper chains and doilies…..pinteresting!

Well I am spending far too much time trawling  Pinterest but it does throw up so many inspiring ideas.  One was a page from a french book with a diagram for cutting a chain of birds….it’s such an old technique  (remember cutting paperchains of dolls) but while we forge ahead with new exciting craft ideas we forget the simplicity of older techniques.

Less is More has Aqua as its colour theme (big HAAAAAPPPPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!   to them and congratulations on a very successful year, you deserve a big pat on the back for not only providing an inspiring blog but bringing so many crafters together).

The theme was perfect for revisiting the cutting idea…I cut a strip from an old envelope (Liz Earle’s promotional stuff has just the right colour for the challenge…. I do like Liz Earle products). After folding the strip into four panels (concertina style) sketched a little bird on the back, he is sitting on a branch which will create the joining element…..then cut it out.

“Voila”…..one little row of birds ……ok so they still look a little prehistoric…..ala the bird stencil I created a couple of weeks ago……….. but they are hopefully recognisable (will really have to practice sketching birds, I didn’t take art at school because I couldn’t draw…..seems it was a wise decision…but then I promised myself many years ago that I was not setting out to be an artist…but that shouldn’t stop me having fun creating and crafting!!!!).

Not sure if I did the right thing but I decided to tone down some of the “white space” with more colour  (real reason was I was disguising a reject card that I had scored incorrectly).  A quick flick with and old toothbrush and some watered down emulsion paint and a bit more aqua was added.

The other Pinterest find was creating an envelope from a doily….I changed the idea a bit as I felt it needed a liner. I have lot of large doilies left as Katie bought a big packet at Christmas to make some angel place cards (works xmas dinner)with the smaller ones (they had doily bodies and wings and a proper photograph of each persons head ….they looked so funny….especially the blokes!!!!!!!!!!!).

As I make a lot of my own card blanks I am always keen to make my own envelopes as well.   I simply used a matching piece of paper cut the same width as the card but folded round with a slight overlap.

I placed this on the doily and folded the doily sides in. With a glue stick I attached the doily only where it came into contact with the lining paper.

The eagle eyed amongst you will notice that I decided the birds needed wings…now not sure????? I truly am the most undecided person I know….or am I?!?!?!!!!!

I would also like to submit this for DYSU challenge this week as anything goes!! This is another lovely friendly challenge site and massively popular…. and as anything goes I will also include a pic of a little thank you gift I have just made with the scraps left over from my project….I needed to make some packaging for my Handmade hand scrub …..also inspired by Pinterest!!!

….and if you check out Pinterest…..warning ….it is quite addictive…and can seriously reduce your crafting time.