Stationery DIYs with our fabrics and paper!

Why buy when you can DIY!

With the Summer holiday’s in full flow and the Autumn term starting in a month we thought it would be fun to come up with a few easy peasy DIYs to upcycle and breathe new life into plain stationery. 

First up is covered notebooks. This is so simple it really doesn’t require a tutorial. Simply cut a piece of fabric that is 2cm larger than your notebook all the way around and stick the fabric to the front smoothing out the fabric, then do the same for the back. Cut triangles off the corners of the fabric, a slit at the spine and glue the sides and bottom down!

This is great for using up scraps and offcuts of fabric or why not treat yourself to half a metre of one of our new floral fabrics and cover a few notebooks and folders!

We’ve got some gorgeous bright fun prints in stock including tigers, flowers, and naked ladies…oh my!

Shop our cotton fabrics here

Instead of chucking your tin cans in the recycling why not make them into handy pen holders?! We used the Rico Tropical Spring Hot Foil Paper and Card pad. It contains 15 sheets of paper and card perfect for loads of fun craft projects.

Simply measure the depth of the can and cut a strip of paper the right length.  Wrap it around the can and secure it in place with glue or double-sided tape. This is a great project for kids and a good way to make coordinating storage for their bedroom while keeping all their pens in one place…for a little while anyway!

Check out our range of paper packs here

Another great use for offcuts of paper/ card magazines or our amazing paper packs (see what I did there…wink!) is some simple DIY Bookmarks, we used to make these as pressies for our parents when we were kids…I’ll be using this one for my planner!

We hope you all have a fab Summer and we look forward to seeing your makes over on Instagram! Don’t forget to tag us #samanthaclaridgestudio

Gift Wrapping ideas with Rico Paper Poetry hot foil tropical pack

I love giving gifts, nothing gives me more joy than choosing something to give someone which I know they will love. Wrapping it beautifully just adds to the excitement don’t you think? I’ve been having a play with the Rico Paper Poetry pads we have in the shop and getting inspired!

These pads have 30 pages so that’s plenty of paper for wrapping lots pf small gift and making tags and even bunting to go with it!

I’ve got a few pretty paper punches which I often use for making gift tags and with the addition of some pretty twine you can be gift ready in minutes!

This paper bauble was made by stitching together 6 circles on my sewing machine straight down the middle and then folding out each leaf of paper, this would make a really fancy gift tag for a wedding or anniversary gift!

These papers are so pretty that I’m sure whoever receives the gift will want to keep it and re-use it too…my Gran always used to joke about ironing wrapping paper and using it again…but I bet she did, and why not! Re-use and recycle is always best!

This pretty garland would be perfect for a birthday party or table decoration like this. It was really simple to make and I simply used a glue stick to sandwich some pretty twine between two pieces of card.

We’ve got lots of fun paper packs and stickers/ washi tape in stock.
Click here to shop!
DIY gift wrap Samantha Claridge Studio

Handmade Christmas cards and tags

Christmas papercrafting!

Hi all, I’m back again with another blog post but wait for it… this one doesn’t involve sewing! I know! Shocked faces all around! But Sam doesn’t just sell fabrics you know! The website is a true treasure trove of crafty potential! So this time I got one of her paper and card packs to make some Christmas cards and tags… yes people, hold on tight we’re getting festive!
 
I’ve dabbled with paper crafts in the past and I like clean, modern designs so when I saw this pack of greens, reds and monochromes with gold and silver foil I couldn’t help but see them as some very funky Christmas cards. What I’ve got here for you is a little tutorial on how to make your own using this pack of papers and some basic supplies which you can easily find on your high street or already in your craft cupboard. So let’s dive in!
Shop Rico Papers here

First we have what might be my favourite card in the set and I’m calling it ‘Golden Stag’! I used a square card blank, two of the paper designs, some peel-offs and a glittery gold stag which was in a pack from The Works. I cut out a square of each paper just slightly smaller than the card then I cut them in half diagonally. One of each of these triangles got glued to the card and I used a gold strip from a peel-off sheet to cover the seam. I put the gold stag topper in the middle and finished it off with a peel-off greeting. How cute is this?! Very simple and quick.

Next up is this ‘bauble’ wreath card which I made using four different papers and a circle template. I started by covering the card with a green square, again, just slightly smaller than the card. I cut out all my circles and places them on to check the layout, then I glued them on in a circle. I finished it with a ribbon and a peel-off greeting.
 

Here we have another bauble themed card. For this one you need a card blank, 3 circles in different papers, string or ribbon, gold pen and greeting. I used three different foiled papers which I thought looked great together and cut out my circles. I stuck them down with foam pads to raise them a little but glue would be fine. I used green ribbon for the bauble string (although I was originally planning on twine) and stuck a little gold paper square to the top of each bauble. I drew a gold box around the edge and added a greeting at the bottom. And it’s done – clean and festive!

Now this one might not be for everyone but I couldn’t help but use this monochrome paper for a tree themed card. This paper has silver foil accents amongst the white, black and grey and I simply used the triangular shapes to cut out three different sizes of triangles or trees. I glued the large to the centre of a square card blank then used foam pads to stick the two others down on top. Then I added silver stars from a pack from The Works. I drew a silver line around the edge of the card and finished it off with a black glittery greeting. This one is super modern, but I love it!

For my final card I used a piece of A5 green card folded in half. I cut out a triangle from the spotted paper and then cut it horizontally into strips which were glued to the card front. I used some thin silver ribbon, made into a bow, to top the tree and I randomly placed some silver gems which were the same size as the dots on the paper. I put a greeting at the bottom and more gems in the corners and, voila, another one finished!

I also made some tags with some scraps of the papers by cutting out simple boxes, triangles and circles to make presents, trees and baubles. I think I made the circle template from drawing around the lid of a glue stick. Again, a really simple and effective idea.

 

The problem is once I’d started I couldn’t stop! So I also made a paper bauble from 6 circles of card. I have a circle punch but you can draw around a glass or something similar and make your own template. I then folded them in half and glued one half to another and so on. I finished by glueing the string down the centre before glueing the last circles together.

This simple heart is made with two different papers and a bit of string. I cut two lengths of each paper 22 x 2cm and 2 other lengths of each in 13 x 2cm. I stuck two different designs of paper together to make 2 long and 2 short and then layered them long, short, short, long. Hold one end and fold the outside pairs into the middle and staple. 

I hope you’ve found some inspiration here and will give it a go yourself. These are absolutely gorgeous quality papers and I have plenty left for more crafty goodness, both Christmas and otherwise! For all of these projects I wanted the paper designs to be the focal point. I’ve kept them super simple, which may not be for everyone, but you can easily jazz them up as you fancy, just have a play!
 
Thanks Sammy for the card and paper pack, I really enjoyed prepping for this post! Roll on Christmas!
 
 

Papercrafting for Xmas Part 2!

Paper garland making

This Christmas project is inspired by these beautiful paper garlands that I saved on Pinterest…it’s nice to actually be making something that I’ve saved…finally!  

Once again I’m reaching for the Rico Confetti paper pack! If you havent seen I already wrote a gift bag tutorial perfect for all your xmas gifting! Read here

These paper packs are so versatile and such good value for the quanitity and quality of the card. I think I’m going to make gift tags with any remaining card and string them with gold ribbon 🙂

This is so simple it doent really need any sort of tutorial but I would recommend buying yourself a good paper punch! I got my from a well known craft store and it’s a 2″ punch…I’m tempted to buy a star shaped one too!

You could always cut these by hand…or do different shapes. Triangles would work well…or just random shapes!

Layer 2 or 3 of the circles on top of each other and stitch together on your machine back to back in one long line with a regular straight stitch making sure you leave a nice long length of thread at either end so you can string it up!

Once they are stitched together simply un-fold each set of circles to give a 3D effect!

I love how simple but effective this is! It’s a lovely way of using up paper scraps too. 

Tag us on #scblog if you make one. We’d love to see your take on this fun craft!

Papercrafting for Xmas!

DIY gift bags with Rico papers

Not your traditional Christmas colour combo I know, but anything with gold counts right? When I saw this pack of Rico papers and card in their confetti design  I knew I wanted a modern theme for my decs and wrapping this Chrimbo…and I wanted to get started right away!

This simple craft will add the extra wow factor to your xmas gifts! It’s really simple and you can make them any size. The Rico pads are A4 and this makes an (approx) A5 size bag.

All you need:

One sheet of paper

Glue/ washi tape

Hole punch

String/ ribbon

Fold the short edges of the paper to the middle, over-lapping by 2cm and glue them together.

Fold up the bottom…the bigger the fold the bigger the bottom of the bag

Fold the sides in flat creating two triangles

Fold the top and bottom in towards eachother so they meet in the middle 

Tape in placeusing washit tape or clear tape depending what you like! Then push the sides out creating your bag!

Now you can fill your bag with goodles…this is great for jewellery, homemade sweets and cookies…or the best gift, sewing accessories!!

Punch a hole in the top and thread through some string or ribbon. I also made a gift tag with some matching card from the Rico paper pad.

I’ve made about a tonne of these with any bit of paper I can find in my house…it’s addicitve let me tell you!! Tag us if you make some using #scblog and take a look at our gorgeous range of Rico Papers and xmas trimmings …trust me it’s way more fun that buying normal xmas wrap!