24 Sept 2017

Learn to make an Organizer with Paper Beads: Recycling Paper Craft

Summer vacations just got over and schools had just restarted here in the UAE when we had another long weekend with the Islamic New Year holiday. So, back after the long weekend, here's a small recycling craft tutorial for all of you crafting buddies out there.

Tutorial by Art Hours


We did a lot of crafting during the summer vacations and we have also posted some tutorials earlier to recycle magazine papers and use them for crafting purpose. 

We posted an easy tutorial on making paper beads for jewelry, you will find the tutorial on this link. Do visit this post if you wish to make some paper beads jewelry. It's an easy and fun crafting activity for the girls especially.
Paper beads Jewelry

Also, we posted a tutorial earlier on making the beads and make a photo frame using those paper beads. You will find the link to make the photo frame by clicking on the here. It's an excellent crafting activity for children, be it a boy or girl. Most of us like to show off their photos and crafting out a photo-frame all on your own is an addition to not only show off your photo but your crafting skills too!
Paper beads Photoframe

Finally, here's another little tutorial from our summer vacation crafts that will show you how to recycle magazine paper into something useful. Magazine papers? Well yes, they are shiny and glossy and are available in many colors. And crafting with them is fun. 

Now, this tutorial is for children who love crafting, for women who love to spend doing something useful on hot afternoon days staying indoors and for all crafters, of course, belonging to any age group. Also, if you don't like painting but would like to get crafty all the same, then this craft activity is a must try for such people. 
Just select colorful magazine papers and get crafty! 
No paints, no messy hands!

So this small recycling project can be basically be done by anyone and you don't need any special crafting skills. All you need is some patience and time in hand. 

However, for kids, I would suggest a little supervision under adults while they do this project. Take help of adults around you especially when you need cutting the magazine papers.

Materials required for this project
You will need magazine papers, crafting glue, paper cutters, skewer stick for making the paper beads and that's it.

Procedure 

Step 01:
As shown in the picture below, you need lots of magazine paper for this project. You can select and remove only those colored papers as per your liking. Thereafter, you will need to fold the paper in half longitudinally and cut it either with a pair of scissors or a paper cutter. Give it another fold lengthwise and cut it along.

Step 01: Cutting the magazine paper into long stripes.
For this step, you can take a couple of sheets together, align them well and cut them all together with a paper cutter. This will save time.

Step 02:
Since we used an A4 sized magazine, from every sheet, we got four long stripes as shown in the right inset in the picture below. Once your long strips are ready you can start with step 02 and that is making the paper beads.

For step 02, take a skewer and use it to roll the paper strips as shown below in the left inset. You will need a lot of patience in this step. Kids love this activity but may start getting bored after making 4-5 beads. So don't attempt to finish this activity in one single day. My kid spent many afternoons just making the paper beads. She would watch some cartoons on the television while she made these paper beads. 
Step 02: Start rolling the paper strip to make the paper beads

Step 03: 
Once you near the end of the paper strip, apply glue to seal it and leave it to dry. Keep rolling the paper strips one after the another on the skewer stick, apply glue at the end, and slide out the stick from the paper bead.

Step 03: Applying glue to the end of paper bead
After a couple of weeks, we had a row of paper beads all lined up and sorted colorwise. And they lied there all the same till we decided what to do with them.

Finally, we took a rectangle waste carton that was a tea package. We measured the size of the beads and cut the carton as per the height of the beads. Once the carton's height matched with the beads' height, we applied glue to the carton surface and stuck the paper beads one by one, covering the entire outer surface of the carton.

For gluing the paper beads on the carton box, I would suggest the use of good quality liquid glue or a glue gun; this will ensure that the beads are securely stuck on the surface of the paper carton. We used white liquid glue and neatly stuck the beads on the rectangle carton box.

Rectangle Organiser made with Paper Beads
Actually, once the paper beads are ready, all you need to do is use them to make something beautiful. You can make many such organizers to stock your medicine bottles, or cosmetics or anything. You can decorate an old picture frame or an old mirror using the same paper beads. Since these beads are made from magazine papers, they have a glossy and shiny look and give a good finish without having the need to paint them.

Some Aesthetic Tips:

  • To get the right look and effect, it all depends on what color magazine papers you have selected. For example, if you want all greys and white beads, you should choose the magazine papers of those shades only. So decide the color scheme you want to use and select the magazine papers accordingly.
  • Also, the consistency in size of beads is very important for this project. The more consistent the paper beads are in terms of thickness and size, the better look you will get in the final product. 
Hope this tutorial for recycling magazine papers is useful.

Try this activity and let us know your feedback. We are looking forward to constructive comments.

Thank you for stopping by...Have a good day.

----

19 Sept 2017

Shubho Mahalaya


Today is Mahalaya; the day we welcome Goddess Durga on this earth. 

Seeking blessings on this day, a small tribute to the Goddess through this painting.

Painting by Art Hours - 'Shubho Mahalaya'

Wishing you all a happy and festive week ahead.

Thank you for stopping by.
---

18 Sept 2017

Monday Musings: Life is Beautiful



Life is beautiful indeed. We just need to look around us. 

All of us go through ups and downs. Everybody has sufferings and struggles in their lives so you can't say that a particular human being is always happy. You can't compare and belittle anyone's struggles or hard times. You can't say that life is being unjust to you only and compare your struggles with your neighbors and friends.

Each person goes through his unique journey called life. However, there are small moments - some happy moments that make your journey, called life, beautiful. 

"Life is Beautiful-Just Look Around" - Watercolors by Art Hours

If you still feel that you are lonely and you are the only one suffering and struggling, then look around you. Absorb the beauty around you. Nature has a lot to teach us. 

The beautiful flowers that look so lively 
Also, wither and dry one day, 
The tree that is deeply rooted to the ground
Doesn't hesitate to shed its leaves during Fall,
The cloud flies over the hills and dales 
Showing that nothing lasts forever.
The darkness of the night, 
Makes us want the light of the dawn.

So appreciate the beauty while it lasts. Nothing is permanent. Not even life!

Have a great Monday...

Have a great week ahead.

---

17 Sept 2017

Recycling Craft: From a USB to a KeyChain using Air Dry Clay


With speedy technology up-gradations happening each day, electronic devices become defunct too soon. Now wasn't iPhone 10 launched few seconds within the launch of iPhone 8? That was a real quick one! 

Keeping pace with technology isn't easy on a common man's pocket. And what to do with all the electronic gadgets that are of no use to us now thanks to technology upgradations!

What should you do with all those defunct or damaged electronic devices, say, for example, mobiles, USBs or pen drives, laptops or tablets, and so on...Neither do we recycle them nor do we reuse them. After all the money that we spend on these electronic devices, we do not have the heart to throw them away. Hence, once they become defunct, they would be stacked in some dark corner of our houses and there they would RIP!


I am amazed to find that some people actually upgrade their smartphones once in every two years. So what do they do with their old devices? Do they throw them away or sell them or give them away to the needy? I have no idea...but personally speaking, I don't have the heart to just give them away...so here's what we did with one of our old electronic defunct USB that was lying in our home for quite some time now. We recycled it into something useful and something beautiful. 

And here's how we went about it...

The size of the USB was around 8cm in length.  We used super light air dry clay that is really light weight and easy to work with. We covered the entire surface of the device with a thin and even layer of white colored super light air dry clay. Thereafter we added the details such as the flower and leaves as you can see below in the picture. We adorned it further by gluing a couple of craft stones.

We left it to dry for around 5 hours. Thereafter we added an old key chain ring to the model and done. Thus, we succeeded into recycling an old defunct USB into something useful and aesthetically pleasing too; a beautiful key chain that we could actually use. 

Recycling an old USB into a useful Key chain

This recycling project is a very easy one and you should give it a try..in fact, I completed this with my kid, who enjoyed making it with me. Below is a clear view of the key chain after we left it to dry.


The Keychain decorated with super light air dry clay

In fact, after the success of this project, I am planning to make something useful out of all the old electronic models that are stacked somewhere in some corner of our house..let's see in future what can I come up with!

What do you do with the old and defunct electronic devices? We can't even sell them and we don't have the heart to throw them since we have spent a lot of money on it. So what do you do? Let us know your ideas. We are open to creative comments.

Have a good day.
---

11 Sept 2017

Monday Musings: Embrace what makes you different!

Good Morning...

As I was jotting down my lesson plan for my students, I was making some doodles for them and searching for some ideas on the internet when I came across the cartoon character of the Dumbo elephant. I am sure many of you would have watched the movie. It's all about a circus elephant who is born with large ears and given the cruel nickname Dumbo. He is taunted by kids, he is made to dress like a clown and perform dangerous stunts and so on...Everything changes when Dumbo discovers that his enormous ears actually allow him to fly and he astounds everyone at the circus with his new talent. 

Pencil sketch by Art Hours - Dumbo Elephant
"Embrace what makes you different"

What I am trying to convey here today is that don't be ashamed of yourself or your shortcomings. You may be short and stout or tall and lanky, you may be fat or thin, you may be dark or fair...none of that matters. We were all meant to be different. Each one of us is born with a gift and that is our strength. What matters is how we can move ahead in our lives with resilience and the inherent goodness in us.

Hence, do not fret when you feel unequal or feel being unjustly treated by others because of some physical shortcomings in you...show the strength you have and what good you can do with that strength. Embrace what makes you different. Make your weakness your strength.


Have a great Monday...have a great week ahead.

Thank you for stopping by.
---

7 Sept 2017

Origami Rose


Life, like the financial markets, has its bulls and bears. One minute you are flying high with the wind and the next minute you are down with a bump, flat on your ass! One day you may gain, the other day you may lose. Nothing is certain in life.

However, each day as the sun rises, we have a new hope, a new beginning and new opportunities waiting for us ahead. So let's take life positively and make good memories while they last.

To keep myself sane in this crazy world with its ups and downs, I often resort to tickling my creative side which keeps me alive and going. So, here's what I did yesterday. I folded a beautiful origami rose. As you see in the picture below, it lies there beautifully on my laptop.

Origami Rose folded by Art Hours

Here are few details about the Origami Rose.

Designed by: Jordi Adell
Folded by: Art Hours
Material used: Origami paper, 17.5 cm x 17.5 cm.
Level: Intermediate

A quick search on the internet and you will surely find the video link with instructions for folding this rose.

Thank you for stopping by.

Have a good day!

---

4 Sept 2017

Monday Musings: Have Courage

You must have come across a thousand situations in your life where you thought that you won't be able to carry yourself further anymore. Your fear stops you from going ahead. At this time you are looking around for strength, support, and courage from your near and dear ones. If you have no one around you...doesn't matter. Don't lose your heart but have courage. Have the courage and hold on to your dreams.

Have Courage

Say to yourself that you have come this far and you will live through this situation however hard it might seem then. Take it as a challenge. After all, what is life if there are no challenges!

Remember, your experiences will teach you to take care of yourself even if you are alone. Just have the courage and don't give up.

'Have Courage' - Creative Handlettering by Art Hours

Have a courageous Monday!

Have a great week ahead...

Thank you for stopping by.
---