Sarah Jane's Craft Blog

A couple of weeks ago I made some sun catchers for Valentine's Day using tissue paper and clear contact paper. Which made me think...could I run tissue paper through my laminator? I have one of those inexpensive laminating machines that takes the laminating pouches, so if I could put tissue paper in one of the pouches, I could make more sun catchers, or something else with that fun stained glass effect. So, I grabbed a couple of laminating pouches and a stack of colored tissue paper. I started by using a scissors to cut strips of tissue paper of of the ends of the folded stacks of tissue paper. I cut them in strips between a quarter and a half an inch thick. Then I cut the strips at the folds. I tried to cut them different lengths and slightly different thicknesses. I wanted things to be a bit mismatched. Then I opened my laminating pouch and started laying the strips of tissue paper onto the sheet. I tried to overlap and angle the tissue paper, b...

One of my most popular projects on the blog has been alcohol ink washer necklaces . I've tried them stamped , flamed , and even applied with plastic wrap . I've tested several way to seal them , and I can't wait to try out even more ways to decorate washers with alcohol ink! Check out the whole collection of washer necklaces here: washer necklaces .

A couple of years ago I made a heart shaped bowl covered in heart shaped tissue paper . During this project, I learned how to punch tissue paper with a paper punch. So, for Valentine's Day, I decided to pull out the old paper punch and tissue paper yet again for another project. I folded up my tissue paper into several layers (If it's not punching, adjust your layers. A couple of layers of paper is usually not enough, but if it's too thick, you may have a hard time punching through it.) and punched a pile of hearts. I also cut two pieces of  clear contact paper ( clear sticky vinyl shelf liner ) that were roughly the same size. I peeled the paper backing off of one of my pieces of clear contact paper and laid it on the table sticky side up. Then I began setting my hearts on the sticky paper. I intentionally laid them on haphazardly in all directions and sometimes overlapping to avoid any clear patterns. I continued to stick my hearts on th...

Each year I participate in a Valentine's Day card exchange. I try to make the cards if I can. For last year's exchange, I made a set of cute narwhal cards using my spray paint marbled paper . I started out by making a watercolor background on my card stock. I wanted to make an ocean blue pattern and I knew that watercolors were the easiest way to do this. I taped down a frame so the edges would be clean (ish). and so that the paper wouldn't warp too much with the water. Well, there's a reason why they make special paper for watercolor painting. I did my best to use a few shades of blue and do a color wash that gets a bit lighter towards the top (like the ocean), but the paper came out pretty wrinkly. I used a heat gun and some air drying time on all of the cards and as soon as they were relatively dry, I shoved them under something heavy to try to smooth them out a bit as they finished. It sort of worked and the wrinkles reduced, but it wasn't per...