Paper and cardboard gifts: ideas and tips for making

Make a gift out of paper - what could be more boring, many will think. And they are wrong! Gone are the days when in the stationery department one could buy colored paper and cardboard, and nothing more. Metallized, corrugated, crepe, velvet, designer, paper for scrapbooking - a lot of options. Such material can be made from a simple but bright, beautiful, stylish postcard to a paper layout of Hogwarts.

Consider the option of a set of materials, if you are going to seriously engage in the manufacture of decorative objects from paper and cardboard. Suppose you want to make such homemade gifts in the future, because you expect to stock up on materials and tools thoroughly.

• A pair of designer cardboard / paper sets. They are sold in the departments of goods for creativity. You can find sets in A4 and A3 format, in one pack - from 10 sheets.
• White cardboard. As the base material is always needed. Fine, if it is a cardboard of interesting texture: embossed, imitating watercolor paper, etc.
• Glue. Glue gun is always needed, a bottle of PVA glue and glue stick are also useful.
• Color paper of different textures. Be sure to buy a set of corrugated paper, metallized, crepe, glossy. The more textures, the more choice and creative possibilities you have.
• Scissors. Two pairs is enough: large and small. Very comfortable and inexpensive scissors can be ordered at Asian sites.
• Braid, ribbons, cords, lace for decoration. Here you can add buttons, rhinestones, beads, sequins, which should be in stock.
• Paints, brushes, pencils, markers, markers. In short, all that will help put the final touch.

If you are going to a birthday party, what gift seems to be an undeniable classic, always uplifting? That's right - the cake. And it can also be made from paper. Either a dense design variety, or soft cardboard. The pattern makes the same “triangles” of the cake, which are subsequently decorated with rhinestones, beads, lace braid, etc. In each piece of paper cake, wishes for the hero of the occasion can lie twisted and tied with a thin ribbon.

There are many other options that are different in terms of work.

• Paper flowers-panels. This is something from which the author himself will receive untold pleasure, and the birthday boy will be happy for sure. At the preliminary stage, the author cuts out flowers or even individual petals from watercolor paper. Then he should make them colored: someone will have rich petals, lush poppies and bright cornflowers, someone will make the flowers beautiful with their fading, subtlety, decide in favor of nude shades. When everything is ready, the flowers are pasted on a canvas, previously toned. It remains to arrange all this in a frame (or otherwise).

• Paper Curtains (Fieran). This is a purely decorative product, but it may have a place in the interior. If there is a small window in the apartment, they will “live” there. Good looking paper curtains and in the boudoir area.On a large sheet of paper (a special format is purchased), first a sketch is drawn in pencil, the slits in which are then carefully cut out with a special knife. The thing turns out unique, work without exaggeration - thin.

• Vitinanka. The principle is the same as with paper curtains, but the amount of work is different. An exquisitely carved pattern (most often a plot one) is pasted on a contrasting background, framed.

• Bulk paper picture. Each element of this picture needs to be cut out (in some cases, made in color) and pasted at a distance to create a volume effect.

Suppose you want to attach a card with a surprise inside to the main gift. If such a gift is supposed to be given on behalf of a child, there are simple options for him, for example, a Christmas card with a dancing snowman. It turns out very fun, unexpected for an adult, to give this is always nice.

A card with a surprise (snowman) should be done strictly step by step.

1. Take a sheet of thick colored paper or cardboard. Fold it with a little book.
2. From white watercolor paper, cut one big snowdrift and two small ones standing in the background. Later they will need to be glued on the first sheet of the postcard, but not in a continuous layer, but only along the edges.
3. At the bottom of the first sheet with a stationery knife, you need to make a cut - such that a wooden medical spatula passes into it (but does not hang out). On this spatula you stick a snowman painted on cardboard and cut out as you like. The snowman in size should be such that it can completely hide behind the central snowdrift.
4. Glue the drifts on the center sheet, without touching the snowman on the stick. Draw snowflakes on the whole sheet (you can sprinkle the sheet with sparkles, rhinestones, etc.).
5. Inside the postcard must be with wishes.

When such a gift is presented, the snowman is not visible - only the wand is visible. It is necessary to show the person who receives the card, how a snowman can lean out because of a snowdrift. It will surprise both small and large: the best bonus to the main gift is emotions, a smile. Children love to make such "toy" cards, with A4 sheets it is easier for them to work. Although you can make a mini-version of postcards.

Below is another video on how to make a card with a snowman.

Corrugated cardboard is a godsend for lovers of manual creativity. What was previously not made of colored paper, so that it somehow changed its smoothness to relief. Now such tricks are not needed - get corrugated cardboard, make an appliqué or three-dimensional figure with your own hands.

For beginners to work in this genre of cardboard, you can make a photo frame.

1. Decide on the size, taking into account the standard parameters of the photo. Cut out the leaf base. Most likely, it will be the same corrugated cardboard, the wrong side of which is smooth.
2. For example, you can make a photo frame in a nautical style. Then the background should be blue or blue. From the same cardboard cut strips that will frame the frame. They are neatly glued to the base: the smooth side is glued “face” to a smooth background (i.e., the frame will be corrugated).
3. From all the same cardboard cut decorative elements: boat, cutter, gulls, clouds, palm trees, waves. If you want to add to the work of other materials, use and tape (wavy is great for creating waves), buttons, sparkles. You can glue the parts with glue-pencil or glue gun.
4. The gap between the base and the frame should be such that it is possible to stick a photo in the frame and keep it tightly enough in the frame.You can make such a card with your child: everything is quite simple, special artistic skills are not required.

A very interesting gift can be “corrugated food”. And if the idea of ​​the cake is considered not so original, then how do you sushi made of corrugated paper? If the gift is addressed to the lover of such a dish, he will obviously be flattered. The main thing is that such work does not take much work and time.

You need to lay the rolls on a sheet that resembles a plate or an elegant stand for this dish. Usually the plate is made on a sheet of white and very thick watercolor paper, and the frame for it can be made of black velvet cardboard (there is one too!)

For the rolls themselves you need several not very thick strips of multi-colored cardboard. Many small narrow multi-colored stripes are twisted into a roll, held together with glue. This is a filling. Around them is a white layer of “paper rice” made of white corrugated cardboard. And all this is crowned with a fixing black strip of cardboard (seaweed). Five of these rolls are stacked on top of each other, under the bottom you can lay ginger cut out of plain cardboard. It turns out very close to the original!

If you do a hand-made article with the child, accustoming him to manual creativity, you can remember the good old technique - papier-mâché. With toilet paper and glue, one could build anything — they usually started with vases. You do not need a scan, designer cardboard and other things that may not be at home. A child learns to glue, learns to wait (working with papier-mâché requires patience), learns to decorate the blank. At a certain stage, an adult can relinquish all obligations - the child likes to finish himself.

Teach children from a young age not to stay away from the gifts of loved ones to people. And let adults give something material, and the child puts his works in crafts, drawings, postcards. Parents help, but he works himself. It develops not only artistic skills, but also diligence, responsibility, self-discipline.