Curious Farms Market
Where Vintage and Farm Meet
Fall Art
Whenever I find random items in my garage or a garage sale I like to see what I can do with them. For this project I use a mesh joint tape to add some fun texture to the board. For the bigger board I doubled the tape for a thicker frame. You could also slice the tape in half lengthwise for thinner frames.
The paper I used was Roycycled Treasures Fall Pumpkins. There are so many large and small pieces on this paper that you could make several projects with just one sheet! I made a large art board, a small art board, and still have scraps left over for another project.
Paper Birds
This project is a combination of several recent products, projects, and videos I have done recently, plus a little three-dimensional fun! In the most recent video, learn how to make one of these 3D birds, and add it to a cloche board or anything you have! Tips, template, and tutorial below!
Tips:
- Print on sturdy paper
- Print the water color template on white, or the outline on book, patterned, plain, or watercolor paper
- Decorate, paint, or color your bird if you print the plain outline on plan paper. If you like it, make a copy onto plain white paper and make duplicates!
- Cut out the 3 pieces
- Cut the additional slits and tabs
- Put together the head first
- Add the front and back
- Attach as per video
- Use card stock or chip board strips to reinforce the legs and feet
- Add to any project, or set up in a fun place!
Cloche bird project
- Fall board from Dollar Tree
- Roycycled paper
- Roycycled cloche stencil
- A piece of scrap wood for a ledge
- Metal trim, painted and distressed
- 3D paper bird
Free Templates
Projects & Ideas to make Bird Cloche Board
Products for Bird Cloche Board
Bird Tutorial
Paper Bows
I do a lot of paper folding projects! This one is not too difficult. In our video tutorial you can follow along.
What I like about paper bows for gift decorating is they can be recyclable, compositable, or just less waste that big fabric or nylon ribbon style bows. I also like that you can make them any color, design, or theme to match your gifts or presents!
These bows are not only ideal for embellishing gifts, but can be used on buntings, place settings, wall decorations, cards, or wall art.
Tips:
- Start with a perfect square (size depends on bow size)
- Use a paper that you like. Not too heavy or flimsy
- Crease tightly
- Do not cut all the way through paper when shaping the “ties”
- Trim shorter “tie” different lengths for different looks
- Iron final bow to keep it crisp and together
- Seal, stamp, distress, or other embellishing for a unique look
- Try using wrapping paper for bows!
Tutorial
Another paper bow idea
3D Pumpkin Cloche
We have having fun “filling” all these cloches! For this project I wanted to make mine more three dimensional looking. I used one of the Dollar Tree boards I have used for a few projects lately and I tweaked how I used the cloche stencil.
For my pumpkins, I just drew and water colored them on water-color paper, layering them as I drew to a size a little wider and shorter than the cloche.
You can do the same, or find an image online, in a magazine, or almost anything! Go beyond pumpkins. You can do fruit, flowers, shapes, almost any image you like that is just a bit longer and a bit shorter than the cloche will work.
For the background I drew a few more pumpkins. You can do the same for your background. Use the same image, duplicate it, and cut out some of the items (fruit, pumpkins, flowers, etc.).
Tip:
Use a heavy, quick drying adhesive for the tabs. Be sure to attach and adhere as close to the fold and edge as possible.
Other products I used for this project:
Little Paper Turkey
Fun little turkeys for your fall or Thanksgiving table! Use them as place settings, food labels, or just fun decorations!
Download the free Turkey template and follow the video.
Tips:
- Make the same size or try enlarging/ shrinking for different sized turkeys
- Print on kraft paper or other colored papers
- Use stamps, transfers, paint, crayons or markers to decorate your turkey
- We used feather stamps! IOD Pavo, Heavenly and Indie Folkart stamp sets all have feathers.
- Use different color inks and papers
- Attach feet to cards, or try something different.
- Add a note, name, or label.
Mini Piano Stationary Scrolls
We have made a few other projects using many of these ideas and concepts. Here I combine them to make this neat stationary scroll that you can keep together as a journal or cut apart as individual stationary pieces. Look below for some of the previous projects we have done using some of the same inspiration and concepts.
This is also a great project to use up your SCRAPS!
Products I used
Inspired by these other projects
Free Pumpkin Printout & Ideas
Download the free pumpkin image, crop, modify, and edit as you like- then print to add to your fall decorations, goodie bags, cards, and more! Whatever you do, Have Fun!
Vintage Evelopes
If you have some old sentimental envelopes or postcards, if you find some in your attic or local antique store, or if you just want to download these, you can get creative with real ephemera!
I began by cleaning up the personal information, but you can leave in as much as you want.
Tips
- Scan in old envelopes
- Use graphics program to remove address or other unwanted elements
- Print with space around the envelope
- Cut out a generic envelope template shape around the image
- Add a paint or ink mask over any elements you did not digitally remove that you want removed
- Add stamps, paint, transfers, and other fun embellishments to the outside
- If you do not have your own vintage mail, you can download and use the free templates below!
The Home Book
I was lucky and got this wonderful vintage book. Because I wanted to use it and share it, and also keep it I decided to digitize the entire thing!
I added a few sample pages to our Freebies page. If you already have access to our digital library. we added a few additional pages there as well.
For the entire digitized book (700+ pages total!) we have them available on USB flash drives. Each page has been scanned in with high resolution (600 DPI) and available as a single jpg file on the drive.
This book is full of so many fun pages! Drawings and art, stories, information, activities, music, maps, Bible stories, knowledge and so very much!
Whether you want to use an entire page for a scrapbooking project, print and bind the book for yourself or a gift, or use the neat artwork in frames- the possibilities are endless.
Revamped Dollar Tree Board
Look at these boards I found at the Dollar Tree! I thought I could do something else with them. I really like the industrial look. It is simple, black and white with just enough aged look. I used my old dictionary papers and some fun IOD transfers to make these simple boards. You could use your favorite decoupage papers, transfers, stamps, paints, stencils or whatever you like depending on the look you are going for! But for $1.25 you can’t go wrong with this fun work surface!
Tips
- Don’t forget to sand off the glitter before decoupaging!
- Water down paint if you want to add a wash
- Try using colorful transfers that pop against your dictionary paper
- Try using heat embossing for stamps to add dimension
- Try using decoupage paper for your background (paint the board a solid color first)
- Try to frame the board by masking off an edge and painting
- Add sari silk, ribbon, or jute to the top of the board to hang or embellish
Products I used
