Paper Fabric Heart Ornaments

Hello there! It's been a while!

I'm back on my blog today to offer you a fun holiday décor project. I planned this project a year ago when I was invited to do a short feature in a Christmas show for local TV. I enjoyed both the project and the actual TV-performance (although I can't stop laughing when I see or hear a recording of myself), and yesterday when I thought about the fun I had a year ago I felt it would be a shame if I didn't share the project with a wider audience. So here it is. I hope you'll like it!

Paper Fabric Heart Ornaments

You will need:

• a piece of white cotton fabric/muslin
• an assortment of thin papers (e.g. tissue paper, paper napkins, empty teabags, tissue paper that you’ve decorated yourself with permanent markers and paint)
• basic white glue + a pot for thinning the glue
• a plastic bag or Teflon sheet to work on
• a broad paint/foam brush
• embroidery thread/yarn for the hanging loop (25 cm/10”)
• glitter glue

Making the paper fabric

1. Prepare the papers by tearing or cutting them into manageable pieces (mine were about 5 cm/2” squares).
2. Thin the glue with water: about 1 part of glue to 2 parts of water.
3. Place the fabric on your work sheet and brush a generous amount of watery glue over the whole piece.
4. Arrange the paper pieces one by one on the wet fabric and brush watery glue over each piece.
5. Let the paper fabric dry flat overnight.
6. If the paper fabric has curled up while drying you can put it between two sheets of parchment paper and press it flat with a cool iron.
7. If you wish, you can decorate the paper fabric further when it’s dry: e.g. with permanent markers, acrylic paint or ink, stamps, stencils, etc.

Making the heart ornament

1. Draw your own heart, or use the template provided below and cut out four hearts in paper fabric.
2. Fold each heart in half, right sides together.
3. Spread glue on the back of one half of a heart and stick it to the back of a corresponding half of a heart. 
4. Do the same with the remaining two hearts.
5. Place a string of glue along the join of two hearts, fold the thread to form a loop and press the loop into the glue.
6. Spread glue over the back of two joined hearts and stick them to the other two joined hearts, with the loop in between.
7. Finish the edges with glitter glue as a final touch.

Have fun!

PS: Click on the label 'Paper fabric' in the cloud to the right and you will find more posts on paper fabric.

Stitched notebook

I was recently interviewed for the local newspaper about my interest in art and crafts (link), and the reporter then asked me for a simple project to share with the readers. Since I like to make my own books for art journaling, I suggested a very simple bookbinding project: a stitched notebook.

When you make your own books, you can use any paper you want for them. Pretty neat, right? Here are the instructions:

You’ll need

• paper for the pages
• material for the cover
• an awl, sharp needle or a drawing pin/thumb tack for making holes
• strong thread (e.g. waxed linen thread, buttonhole thread, beading thread or dental floss)
• a blunt tapestry needle to sew with

The pages
You can use any paper you like for the pages: e.g. copy paper, squared paper, drawing paper, watercolour paper. The thinner the paper, the more pages you will be able to fit in. Experiment to see what works. When the folded sheets are stacked inside each another, each paper will shift slightly and jut out along the outer edge. If you like, you can trim the pages after the pamphlet has been stitched, but you can also leave the edge as it is and make the cover wide enough to protect all the pages.

The cover
The cover can also be made from different materials: e.g. cardstock, fabric, felt, leather, selfmade paper-cloth. A cover made from cardstock can be strengthened by making it longer than you need and folding in flaps at either end, or by using contact paper. A fabric cover can be strengthened with another layer of fabric, fusible interfacing and a lining. Stitch and turn the cover, or simply zig zag the layers together. You could also wrap a pretty paper around the cover, or draw, paint or use stamps on it.

Method

1. Fold the papers in half and make the creases sharp.
2. Stack the pages inside each other until you have enough. This is your page block.
3. Measure your page block and make the cover a few millimetres (about 1/8”) wider than the page block on every side. Fold the cover in half.
4. Make three or five holes in the page block according to the illustration below. Measure with a ruler or eyeball it. Use paper clips if it’s difficult to keep the pages together while making the holes. Make sure the holes are exactly on the fold.
5. Place the page block inside the cover and make holes in the cover through the holes in the page block.
6. Cut a thread to measure two times the height of the book plus a little extra for tying.
7. Stitch the book according to the illustration below. Make sure you always pull in the direction of the fold when you tighten the stitches.
8. Check that the thread ends are on opposite sides of the long stitch when you return through the middle hole.
9. Knot the thread ends with a strong knot. You can also secure the knot with some glue.

3 holes vs 5 holes

Knot on the outside vs on the inside

If the thread later breaks, you can easily change it by re-stitching the book. Similarly, you can also change the pages or the cover should you want to.

I've decorated this cover with a selfmade stamp from craft foam.

This cover is made from selfmade paper-cloth.

Good luck with your book!