New Paper Packs: Vintage Goodness for Paper Crafting

I've put together some more paper packs from a whole bunch of vintage books, maps, magazines and other bits and bobs!

 

I may add these items to my Etsy shop later this month but for now I'm sending invoices via Paypal. This is a very secure way to pay, Paypal handles all your payment info and will do any currency conversions, too. Because selling directly saves me money (not having to pay Etsy sales and listing fees) you save money too - I'm only charging exact postage costs and not building the fees or cost of packaging into my pricing.

I'm posting things safely via my local parcel postbox, and managed to get hold of some customs labels so I can post internationally, too. Hurrah! There will likely be delays due to COVID-19 disruption, but if you're happy to wait I'm happy to post stuff.

Get in touch if you'd like to make a purchase. First come first served :)

PAPER PACK A, £5 each + postage.

Includes clippings from bird & nature books, vintage craft books & magazines, maps and atlases, and a 1950s encyclopedia. Plus a piece of a tissue paper sewing pattern, a piece of faux woodgrain sticky back plastic, some shiny paper cake ribbon, and a strip of film negatives.

 
PHOTOS ARE A SAMPLE ONLY, EACH PACK DIFFERS! The largest piece of paper in this pack is approx 16 x 22 cm, each pack weighs approx 78g.
 

There are two sizes of paper packs available - standard ones for a fiver, and bumper ones for a tenner. The bumper packs contain a lot more paper with bigger pages and more full pages, too (vs the small packs which tend to be more clippings). The full pages are fab for cutting out images from, of course, but you can also use them to make homemade envelopes and wrap small gifts.

PAPER PACK B, bumper pack, £10 each + postage.

Includes pages and clippings from vintage craft books & magazines, a children's dictionary, bird books, houseplant and recipe books, maps & atlases, a 90s teen annual, & a 50s book about castles. Plus pieces of brown & metallic paper, a piece of faux woodgrain sticky back plastic, and half a gold doily. 

 
The largest page in this pack is approx 22 x 28.5cm and each pack weighs approx 180g. PHOTOS SHOW A SAMPLE PACK, EACH PACK WILL DIFFER.

These big bumper packs are so tricky to photograph to really show off all the contents, there's just so much paper and I have a limited amount of space on my desk!! For example, you can't really tell from the pics, but this next pack includes two very big pages from a wonderful vintage atlas (these are folded in half to fit in the pack nicely). 

PAPER PACK C, bumper pack, £10 each + postage.  

Includes pages & clippings from vintage children's books, maps & atlases, craft books, wildlife & nature books, and a 1950s encyclopedia. Plus 30 vintage stamps and a postcard featuring a vintage book cover. 

 
The largest page in this pack (excluding those big atlas pages) is approx 22.5 x 29.5 cm, each pack weighs approx 245g. THE PHOTOS SHOW A SAMPLE PACK, EACH PACK IS DIFFERENT.

Here's another of the standard sized packs! Each pack has a different mix of paper-y contents and I've made sure to include some fun extras in each as well, like the measuring tape and fabric scraps in this one. 

PAPER PACK D, £5 each + postage. 

Includes clippings from vintage maps & atlases, craft books, bird & nature books, children's books, a houseplant book, and a 1950s encyclopedia. Plus pieces of squared and floral paper, tiny Liberty fabric scraps, a piece of a measuring tape, a reproduction trading card featuring a train, half a pretty paper doily, and a postcard. 

THE PHOTOS SHOW A SAMPLE PACK, EACH PACK WILL DIFFER. The largest piece of paper in this pack is approx 16 x 22 cm, each pack weighs approx 86g. 

Aaaaand here's another big bumper pack, which also includes a couple of those huge atlas pages! 

PAPER PACK E, bumper pack, £10 each + postage. 

Includes pages & clippings from vintage bird & nature books, craft books & magazines, maps & atlases, children's books, and a 1950s encyclopedia. Plus a handmade wildflower envelope, and 30 vintage postage stamps. 

THE PHOTOS SHOW A SAMPLE PACK, EACH PACK WILL DIFFER. The largest page in this pack (excluding those big atlas pages) is approx 22.5 x 29.5cm, each pack weighs approx 230g.

As well as all these lovingly assembled paper packs, I've put together some bargain bundles of leftover book pages. 

First up: BARGAIN TEXT BUNDLES, £3 each, plus postage.  

Each of these big packs contain LOTS (100+) of text-filled clippings and pages. Introductions, indexes, charts, and more. These neutral pages are so great for origami, collages, etc! The packs in the photo are examples only, each pack differs. The largest page in each of these packs is approx 22 x 29 cm. Each pack weighs approx 455g. 

Then there's some ENCYCLOPEDIA PAGE BUNDLES, soooo many interesting images and bits of text to use in your crafty projects! £3 each + postage. 50 random pages from a lovely 1950s encyclopedia. All black and white (no colour images included). The pages are approx 17 x 25 cm. Each bundle weighs approx 200g.

Finally, I've got a few LUCKY DIP LEFTOVERS BUNDLES available. About as much papery goodness as in a bumper pack but for the price of the standard one because the contents are a magical mystery! 

£5 each + postage. A bargain bundle of assorted colourful clippings and pages left over from assembling all my paper packs. Lots of papery goodness! Photos are examples only, each pack will differ. The largest pages in these packs are approx 22 x 29 cm. Each pack weighs approx 240g. 

Send me a message if you'd like a make a purchase, want a quote for postage, or have any questions about the paper packs and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

New: Paper Crafting Packs!

Last month I announced I was pressing pause on posting parcels, as I wanted to avoid going to the Post Office during this pandemic. I know some people are still shipping via their local Post Office but I'm trying to self isolate as much as possible to help protect my dad, and avoiding the P.O. feels like the right thing for me at the moment.

I'm still selling digital patterns but I missed posting stuff! It was frustrating having to just STOP when I had so many plans in progress for my little business, and I'd just bought a whole load of fun new stock that was waiting to be photographed.

So I started thinking of things I could post via my local Royal Mail postboxes. I took a ruler out on one of my state sanctioned daily walks and measured the slot in the postbox and came up with a plan...

... to make paper packs!

I spent a couple of very fun days chopping up vintage books and maps and gradually assembling a batch of 20 paper crafting packs - perfectly sized to fit through the letterbox slot, of course.

UPDATE: THE PAPER PACKS HAVE NOW SOLD OUT. Thanks so much for your orders!

The packs are £5 each and UK postage for one or two packs will be £1.40 (2nd class). Each pack includes vintage book pages and clippings, map pieces, a vintage Cluedo card, two reproduction trading cards featuring trains, ten vintage stamps, some colourful yarn, and a trio of buttons. I'll add lots of photos to the end of this post so you can get more of a look at the contents.

Send me a message if you'd like to make a purchase and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. I'm sending out invoices via Paypal, which are a secure and easy way to pay.

I shared lots of in-progress photos over on my Instagram then launched the packs yesterday and am THRILLED to say that there are now only 6 packs left in stock.

Huge thanks to everyone who's made a purchase so far, working on these and posting them has been a really enjoyable project and feels like a bit of my old "normal" back again. Also, real talk, the money is very welcome right now, too!

In other excellent news, I found a parcel postbox that I can safely walk to and have ordered a whole bunch of postage stamps from the Royal Mail's website... so I can start posting bigger packages again, HURRAH. Unfortunately I can only post within the UK and the EU at the moment as I don't have access to a printer to print out customs labels for non-EU packages, but I'm working on a plan for that (fingers crossed!).

So, if there's anything listed on my Instagram sale account that you'd like to order do give me a shout. I'll be gradually adding new things there over the coming weeks, too. I won't be able to list lots of new things at once (like I was doing earlier this year with my weekend sales) as there's a limit to the number of parcels I'll be able to take to (and fit in) the parcel postbox, and I need to keep a close eye on how much packaging and tape I've got left. I should have some fun new stuff to share soon, though :)

In the meantime, here's a peek at my production line when I was assembling all the paper packs...

 

 

 

Much papery goodness!

Pun-tastic Valentines: 12 Fun, Easy, & Cute Cards to Make!

UPDATE: this project is now available as part of my Patreon pattern library.

Click here to find the Tic Tac Toe tutorial and to sign up to my Patreon. 

Subscribers get full access to a growing library of PDF patterns and tutorials, and emails whenever new projects are added. You can unsubscribe at any time.

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Today I’m sharing templates and quick tutorials for making cute and colourful Valentine’s Day cards inspired by silly puns.

BEE mine, I’m PINE-ing for you, You make me HOPPY - whichever card (or cards) you choose, I hope you’ll have fun making these!

P.S. Visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more crafty projects.

Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns:

Easy DIY Christmas Card Ideas #4: Christmas Trees!

Hello again! For today's entry in my DIY Christmas card series I'm sharing ideas for making crafty Christmas tree cards using washi tape, patterned paper, and festive stamps.

(Missed posts 1-3? Follow the links to make stripey washi tape cards, cards decorated with simple shapes and crafty scraps, and cards full of festive JOY).

 

UPDATE: follow the links to find all DIY Christmas card ideas in this series!

1. Washi Tape.
2. Simple Shapes and Crafty Scraps.
3. Simple Lettering.
4. Today's tutorial, Christmas Trees.
5. Baubles.

This tutorial originally appeared on The Village Haberdashery's blog - visit their shop for lots of crafty goodness, including Christmas paper pads and washi tape sets.

To make these easy Christmas tree cards, use my Christmas tree templates (click here to view and download the template sheets!) to cut out lots of tree shapes then use them as the focal feature your designs. There are three different templates to choose from: simple trees, mini trees for small cards, and fancy trees.

The minimal shape of the simple tree means you can go bold with the patterns:

Instead of using a blank card for this design, I used half a sheet of fancy festive card – cutting it then folding it in half, and pairing it with a brown kraft paper envelope.

I used the tree template to cut out a patterned green tree then glued it to a piece of white paper. I then carefully cut around the tree, leaving a border of white to frame it and help it stand out from the background pattern, and then stuck it to the card.

For this card I used two Christmassy stamps and a white ink pad to print a pattern on a blank card – the white ink stands out really well against the red! Then I added the tree shape and a handwritten “Merry Christmas” on a small strip of white paper.

To make this stripy tree, I cut out a tree shape from white card and covered it in washi tape stripes. I used gold tape for the tree’s trunk then used pretty festive tapes to cover the tree.

I then cut a piece of brown paper as a simple frame for the design and positioned the tree leaving space to write “Merry Christmas” underneath.

For small Christmas tree cards, use the mini tree template provided.

These are so quick and easy to make! I decorated one card with a stamp and silver ink, one with three strips of washi tape, and made the third from a sheet of patterned card... then added a little tree to all of them.

The fancy tree shape is a little more time consuming to cut out, but it’s totally worth it!

The first card shows off the tree’s shape, with a simple bit of paper to frame it – I chose a pale pink to make the dark tree really stand out. You could add a festive message at the bottom of the card, but I quite like the design as it is.

This is another simple design: I used four pieces of washi tape to make a frame, added a small piece of gold tape to the tree’s trunk then stuck the tree in the centre of the card.

 

You need a bit of patience to make this stripy card but the end result has a lot of wow factor.

Decorate a white card with stripes of Christmas washi tape designs, leaving a small gap between the tape. Start in one corner and work your way across the card, trimming the excess tape as you go.

Glue one of the fancy tree shapes to a piece of white paper or card and cut it out, leaving a narrow white border to frame the tree. Then glue the tree to the centre of the card.

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