Use What You Have Paper Craft

Paper Bag Plant or Flower Wall Vase

This is a fairly easy way to make a wall pocket or gift tag, without a pattern or without expensive papers. It can be made from brown paper bag material or card stock.

The strongest, thickest, and best brown paper bags are made by Weyerhauser or International Paper, which are used in most grocery stores. The worst are from Safeway grocery store: they tear too easily and fall apart when they have to carry something. Just look at the bottom of the bag to see where it is made.

Fold a piece of brown paper and draw half of the shape of your choice. This one fits over a door handle. IF you are not certain, just hold it up to a door handle and try to estimate the size. You do not have to have a perfect pattern. Any mistakes can just be covered up with decorating.

After you make your pattern, cut another piece the same size, minus the handle, and glue three sides. I've used hand made flour paste. To keep the handle from being too flimsy, just cut another piece and glue it on top of the other one.

Hold it together with clothespins til it dries. Make some other varieties while waiting for it to dry. If you like a rustic or primitive look, you can leave it like and add some appropriate decorations, such as clip art, buttons, string, fabric.

Here is a really large one, about the size of a large vase. I have cut a small notch in the handle to make it hang better, and have also cut a little dip in the front piece so that flowers will display better.

To make your own flowers, cut stems from paper, white or colored, and make 5 petal flowers to glue on top. Add a set of leaves to each one. Place each stem inside the pocket. Though they do not look like much right now, when colored with crayons, they look fabulous.

Here is one of the wall pockets left as brown paper, with stickers and buttons applied, and some fake flowers.

This is the small one, and it is one layer, as it is only a gift tag made of card stock. You could make it from anything you have, though, including cardboard from any box you have in your kitchen. Just cover it with the paper you like.

If you don't have fancy paper, cover it with white construction paper or any plain paper and add your own clippings.

Here is the other size, which also fits a business size envelope, if you want to make a card out of it. It has been painted with craft paint, and a rose sticker added, from the dollar store. These come in sheets of about 24 stickers for a dollar.

This is the pattern for the one above. Highlight it and see if you can put it on another document on your computer and print it out.

Unfortunately, there are some lines showing from the other side of this. The one you copy is the darker lines. This is the tag and the other size of wall pocket or card, plus the flower pattern. The stem is on the other page.

Now for the wall pocket on the top of this page: It has been painted with a craft paint, and let dry. After that it was brushed with clear glitter glue and let dry. Then, an oval was cut out of an old calendar page (Janet Kruskamp was the artist). A faint decoration was made above and below the image, with a rubber stamp.

If you do not have a stencil with ovals and squares and circles, you probably have things in your house you can use: the bottom of a glass or cup, a salt shaker, a spice jar, or, remember all those "windows" that are on boxes of spaghetti, or in some other box, such as a box of soap? Use those for your ovals and squares and circles. Just collect the pieces and trace inside them when you need a shape.

Rick rack trim from my sewing stash was glued down and held with a clothespin til it dried, and the oval was outlined with tee shirt paint, which is sometimes only about 50c and lasts for a long, long time. I've had some of that paint around for years and found out you can use it on paper crafts. It gives you a chance to use up some of your craft supplies. To make your own rick-rack or decorative edging, just use special shaped scissors and glitter paper or craft paper. If you don't have those supplies, you can draw your own on paper and cut them out and glue them down. You do not have to buy things to be creative. You can find a lot of things at home from old cards to pictures on boxes. If you have a sticker-maker, you can cut things from magzines and make your own stickers.

If you want to put a living plant or a bouquet of real flowers in this wall pocket, here is how you do it:

Dig up your plant, or pick your flowers.

Put the stems or roots inside a plastic sandwich bag or any plastic bag, and add water.

Put all that inside another plastic bag, such as one of those white grocery bags.

Slip it all inside of the wall pocket.

Brown Paper Bag Bonnet

It is hard to imagine this was made from a paper bag...

...but here is how to do it: Just trace a large dinner plate and a saucer or bowl that is smaller, on to one layer of a large, heavy brown paper bag.

Then, put the saucer inside the large circle and cut the circle out.

Put short pieces of masking tape inside the small circle of brown paper, leaving the sticky side facing the outside of the circle, like this. Masking tape is a paper-like tape that works best on brown paper.

Cut a long strip, about an inch or two deep, and attach i to the tape on the round circle, and cut it where it meets the end.

Put more tape inside the strip and attach the large circle--the one that has the hole in it. Do all the taping and attaching from the inside so that it will not show on the finished product. At this stage, you can either leave it brown and rustic looking and add appropriate trims, such as raffia straw, or you can...

Paint it with folk-art or any other craft paint (which sometimes is only about 33c a bottle) and cut a strip of fabric for a ribbon. Then cut another strip, fold it in half and role it up like a rose and attach with a large safety pin on the inside. Add stickers, and outline the edges with glitter glue. This makes a great centerpiece for a table.

This hat actually fits the head of a two year old. If you want to make an adult size one, just use your largest pizza pan, or bowl, and then try a cereal or soup bowl for the crown.

Paper Bag Doll

This is a doll made from a heavy paper grocery bag. Our bags are very thick and hold an enormous weight of groceries. This is a special paper that has many uses. The materials you will need are: scissors, black marker, craft paints, white glue.

This is how to make a pattern: fold a piece of paper bag in half and draw half a doll on it. I drew one with an attached dress for the doll you see, above. Then, cut out your shape, open it up and lay it on another piece of brown paper bag to make another piece the same size, for the back.

Draw your face and hair and dress details on one piece, before you glue it to the back piece. You will paint it all after it is glued together.

On the other layer, glue a thin line of white glue, and press the top piece to it, securing it here and there with clothes pegs.

When it is dry, cut a line down the back, and fill it with fiber fill, polyester or cotton stuffing, tissue paper, paper towels, or anything you have that would work. Tape it back together with MASKING tape, a brown tape that will match better and hold it better.

After that, follow your outlines with darker pens for the face and hair. Paint with craft paints (not watercolor) for the dress. Look, she even stands, if you lean her against something.

The pattern should fit a regular sheet of printer paper. Paste it to cardboard and trace around it for your pattern. I forgot to show that you can glaze the finished doll with decoupage glue and it looks wonderful, with either high gloss or matte finish glue. Try painting the entire project with the white school glue for a nice finish.