Hold on to your hat . . . no your broom, or er um I mean your shoes . . . your witchy shoes that is! Take a look at this fabulous teacher gift (or friend gift, or neighbor gift or co-worker gift - you get the picture)
I can't take credit for the idea for this uber cute witch's shoe, I scraplifted this from Carlene the Pink Scrapper - her video tutorial is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHAeeM30sU0&feature=plcp and the template can be found here:
http://www.skiptomylou.org/2008/10/28/paper-witch-shoes/ (another great blog).
So I started with a template that looks like the one below (a little further down below) and used an embossing stylus to transfer the image onto my paper. But let's back-up a step. As always, the first thing I did was go through my Robin's Nest paper stash and found the PERFECT paper for this project! This paper is called Halloween Swirl. Click on the paper to fly right over the website and pick some up.
After cutting out the template from plain white copy paper and folding it to see how it came together, I new how I wanted to lay it out on my paper. I knew I wanted the top of the shoe (part where toes stick out) to have the swirl with some of the swirl going up the side of the shoe. So I decided to use the corner with the most dense amount of swirls (bottom right in the picture above). I turned my paper upside down and positioned my template so that the tip of the toe went as close to the corner point as I could and taped it down. I then put the two papers on a 12x12 paper pad (bottom side) for my inexpensive embossing table. I traced over the entire template, pressing pretty hard.
When I lifted the template off the paper the lines were visible for cutting out the shoe (just be careful not to cut the score marks (those are the dotted lines). The great thing about doing it this way is that you have already scored every line that you need to fold, making it super easy for this shoe to go together fast! And, on the plus side, Robin's Nest papers are such a nice heavy quality and this one is double sided so you don't even have to line your shoe (the template comes with a liner that I didn't bother with) and talk about saving time . . .whew! I plan to make these for a number of the teacher's at school so the less time involved the better.
Once I glued the shoe together (again, you can access the video tutorial through the link above - but really you won't need it - it's so easy) I knew it needed something more. I played with the idea of a buckle but decided on a rosette like the ones you can buy a die and run through your die cut machine; really, these are soooo simple you don't need the die to make them (and this way they are the exact size you want). What you will need is a score board of some kind (or a lot of patience). Decide first the diameter of the flower you desire, then cut that in half and cut a strip of paper that size (but trim just a bit more off (maybe a 16th of an inch to allow for the hole in the center which takes up space as well - I had to make mine over because the first one was a little too large because I didn't count the hole in the middle). I scored mine every quarter inch all the way down.
Once you've done this, you can bring it around and attach the two ends together.
Next, you will put your thumbs on the top and push down and in towards the middle while allowing the bottom to flatten and flare out (you can find many youtube videos showing how to do this if the written instructions are confusing - if you've never seen it done it can sound daunting).
I use just a small piece of scrap from the paper (oh yeah, for this rosette I used a scrap strip of the back side of the paper I was already using - no waste!) and glue it right to the back. And, since we are not worrying about acid free for this project . . . break out the glue gun - yay!
I added a small glitter circle which I cut from scraps of black Glittered Chipboard and an orange dew drop to give my rosette a finished look (click on pictures below to get some). When it was complete I just added my "treat" for the teacher with a tag and coordinating ribbon and . . . voila . . . teacher gift for Halloween!
So. . . what do you think? Leave a comment and let us know what you think. Be sure to check out the
Robin's Next website for these and other really fun products.
You can check out the Robin's Nest blog at
http://chatteringrobins.blogspot.com/ Thanks for looking at my project.
~ Make Today Count
Wendy
