How many of you are on Pinterest? Do you love it, and pin with abandon? (I’m HeatherDubarry there if you want to follow me and see what catches my eye.)
Are you completely flummoxed by the idea of it? I love Pinterest. It’s a great way to organize and save and curate ideas you find in your web travels. (Think of it as a giant bulletin board!)
Do you ever make anything inspired by what you collect? I’ve made a few things based on ideas or projects I’ve found through pinterest. My friend Kristie Sloan at Artful Adventures put up a Father’s Day Pinterest challenge, where everyone can link to a project they make based on something found on Pinterest. Thru Pinterest I found a fun recycling project on Spoonful where you can turn a waxed half gallon carton into a wallet/change purse.
Materials are very simple, and the instructions are pretty clear. Helpful tools that I had on hand that not everyone would is my bone folder and the circle cutter set from Creative Memories. (I hate trying to cut a circle with scissors. It never comes out as smooth and even as I want.)
Things that novice crafters might have trouble with: folding the accordion folds for each side. Getting those lines to meet up evenly is hard enough (try not to move the paper while tracing the folding lines onto your carton) but trying to create new folds over preexisting ones is very tricky. It can be done, but requires you to be patient, and to pay attention. It helps to try to create the fold by working from both the outside and inside edges of the score line towards the middle. Just remember, you want to fold each line in opposite directions relative to each other. (What origami calls valley (v) and mountain (^) folds.) If you start by folding the side flaps in, you’ll have the correct orientation to start your accordion.
This was so fun and easy, except for folding over the spot where the carton originally was folded. I decided to see how easily this could be adapted to cardstock.
Answer: Very easily! The score marks were easier to make and see, so the accordion fold was a bit easier to create. After debating with myself on how to create a closure for the cardstock version, I went with a couple small squares of magnet. Make sure they stick together and don’t repel each other before you adhere them! (Remember your high school physics and that magnets have positive and negative poles!)
These are just the right size to use as change purses or gift card holders. I thought they might work as coupon holders as well, but they’re a little short. You could make a wider version by putting a bit of space between the two sides of the template, and I may do that. (My husband needs a place to keep his coupons!) Lots of options!
Have you made anything inspired by Pinterest? Do share!