Helmar Creative Team

Christmas Gift Journal

Hello there, it's Kisha here and  I'm so excited to share a few Christmas items I created for a dear friend. I really enjoy creating mini albums and giftbags for all occasions, especially Christmas.

 Here is a view of both items together. The mini album fit's perfectly inside the giftbag, which can also be reused for gift giving.

 To start I used a basic chipboard album and covered each page with Helmar Decoupage and craft paste.  This is done to adhere pattern paper to each page and what's great is, Decoupage craft paste doesn't cause bubbling like most store brand paste. 

 

After adhering your pattern paper, smooth the page using the opposite end of your adhesive applicator.  You can also use a brayer or any other smoothing tool you have.

Next comes the fun part, adding all the layers of embellishment.  Here I'm also using my Helmar Decoupage and Craft paste to adhere this crochet doily to the page.

Next let's add a few pockets on a page using  Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive.

 To decorate the pockets, I like to add a bit of dimension.  To achieve just the right amount of dimension I using  Zapdots 1/4" round.  This process was continued until the holiday mini album was completed.

I used the same process to complete the giftbag as well.

Use the Helmar Decoupage and Craft Paste to adhere the decorative layers to your bag.

 To add additional embellishments I used Helmar's 450 Quick Dry adhesive.  This gives me a bit more time to move things around if I don't like the original placement.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial.  This is great for handmade holiday gift giving.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Star Garland

Hello everyone!  Nicole on the blog today showing my Christmas decorations and how I put together a simple star garland to finish off my fireplace mantel.  You all know my love for book paper and here I used it again to tie my Christmas decor into the rest of our living space.  

  I trimmed dictionary paper down to (roughly) 1.5 x 1.5 pieces.  I inked the edges with a brown ink pad.  

Using Helmar Decoupage and Craft Paste I attached all the book paper to a piece of chipboard.  It is a piece that was on the back of 12x12 paper pad.

Apply the paste in a small area with a foam brush and lay the pieces overlapping each other.  

I filled about 3/4 of my chipboard with the book paper squares.  

Wait for the Helmar Decoupage and Craft paste to dry before moving on.  

Next I used a star paper punch and punched out a bunch of stars.  

I cut a long length of red baker's twine and took two stars and placed quite a bit of Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive on the back of a star and sandwiched baker's twine between two stars.  

 

I held the stars together between my fingers (making sure they are lined up) and held them a bit for the glue to do it's job.  Any excess glue that comes out the sides can quickly be whipped away leaving a nice clean edge.  

You could measure for the next step, but I just randomly added the rest of the stars down the length of the baker's twine.  

I added this simple garland to the length of greenery running across the front of my fireplace mantel.  

Simple, but just the little extra touch I was wanting to add.  

Thanks for stopping by the Helmar Blog!  Happy Crafting, 

 

DIY Icicle Christmas Ornaments

Christmas is fast approaching and it is my favourite time of the year, I love all the decorations and glitter and sparkles that are a part of our festive decorating.

There are many tutorials on making DIY icicles on the net and here is another one for you. This one is recycling the faithful old toilet paper roll (tp roll).

As a crafter I love to recycle and find new ways to use things a lot of people throw away, by disinfecting your tp rolls they are ready to use. Just give them a spray with some alcohol or Isocol Rubbing Alcohol to get rid of any germs.

What you will need:

Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive, tp roll, glitter, paint of choice, scissors, paint brush and decorating items.

Cut open your tp roll, flatten out and cut two triangles approximately 2 inches across at the top.

Work the shapes back and forth between your hands to break up all the fibers in the cardboard which will make it easier to roll up. Run a bead of Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive along one long edge and fold the other long edge over it. Trim the top edge even.

Once the glue has dried you can paint in the colour of your choice, be sure to paint a little inside the icicle just to finish it off nicely.

Allow the paint to dry and then attach a trim of your choice to the top of your icicle using Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive and wind the trim down towards the bottom tip, glueing at regular intervals. The diagnal flow of the trim will help give the 'icicle' look.

Using Helmar PVA Craft and Hobby glue and a small paintbrush, apply a little glue between the trim and sprinkle with glitter, allow to dry then attach some pretty pearl trim to the top rim using Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive along with a little hanger and some lovely tinsel inside the top to finish it off.

And there we have it, simple little icicles to hang on your Christmas tree.

 

I hope you like this tutorial and as this is my last post before Christmas, may I wish everyone a wonderful and happy time with your family and/or friends over the fesitve time.

 

Jeanette xxx

Tamiko's Coffee Gift Card

Wow, I can't believe it's December already! This is the time of the year where I tend to give the most. :) Many of my friends and I, LOVE COFFEE or TEA! I mean I really LOVE COFFEE! I am excited about being able to create anything within that theme!  I figured, with the weather getting colder now, what better way to say thanks, than with a gift card. (smiles)  As I said. I LOVE COFFEE, so as hard as it is for me to part with these pieces, given to me by my BFF, I have finally decided to create with them!  Ok let's go on with the project...

    

First I covered my chipbboard pieces ( the cup and sleeve), with  patterned paper. I applied Helmar Professional Acid Free Adhesive.  It goes on super thin and sticks pretty fast! I took my finger and pushed it around and smoothed the paper out, to make sure I had no air pockets. 

 

Then I took some wooden snowflakes and after spraying them gold.. I added some Helmar Gemstone Glue and then poured some multicolor seed beads.  I really like how fast the glue takes to set the seed beads.  I was able to handle my project almost immediately and that's important to me.  I don't always craft in traditional spaces.  It's comforting to know, after a few minutes my project and I, can be moved!

   

I then placed the flakes on the sleeve, which one was adhered with my favorite, Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive! I love how that glue seems to almost snuggle between items and the HOLD is MARVELLLOUS!! (chuckles)   I also used it on the coffee sign. I wanted my other snowflake to appear RAISED, so I used  Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots. I put a big clump of it down and mounted that other flake.

 

Then I added my gift card and I used my clear dimensionals!  Yes clear ones!  I figure if i am going to use something that MIGHT get stuck to the card, might be cuter if it was a clear square scrap dot!  I opened the sleeve and just put a few dimensionals there to hold the gift card in place.

 so sorry they are very hard to see, they ARE clear! (HA). 

 

Below is just a few close-ups on the sleeve, that went around my faux coffee cup!

 

 

Hope you enjoyed seeing this as much as I enjoyed making it..  

 

Enjoy & Happy Holidays!!