Tombow USA - Blog » Craft Products

Best of… Gift Ideas

Joanna — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 14:00:10 +0000

While skimming through past posts I found that a lot of our projects are not only gift oriented but food oriented. Sharing recipes is just as special as sharing a secret. Add on to that a special layer of pretty paper and it’s probably the best gift ever! I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we all like to share our passions with others. Everyone from musicians playing music for others or authors sharing a good book, it’s almost a right of passage. Sharing things that you love with someone else is it’s own non-verbal way to show you care. For crafters giving a little gift that is presented in a special way or made from your own hands seems to send a message above and beyond the intended gift purpose. This fun Peeps in a Jar project was so popular in the spring but doesn’t have to be just for the Easter. Have you seen the Red, White and Blue Star peeps out there? I know that they’re out with a vengeance during Valentines, Halloween and Christmas. Apparently these squishy candies are available all year round and with a little color tweaking this project works for anything. (and trust me, it’s yummy all year round!)

You can find April’s full instructions and recipe here.

If you liked this you might also like “Welcome to Holland” Tulip Cookies, Candy Bags (which would be adorable filled with trail mix for camp!), and Cherry Coke. What about you? What have been your favorite gift posts? Remember that we’ll post a winner Monday. Enjoy your weekend!

-Joanna Wallace

Best of….. Tombow Tots

Joanna — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:00:06 +0000

My favorite project that I’ve done with the kids has to be the SPARKLE COASTERS… super easy, super cheap, super great gift, super fun to make and SUPER CUTE!

These are super easy and super cute. My daughter and I made these up for Teacher Thank You gifts. They’d make fun Christmas gifts from kids too. Click HERE for the original post and instructions.

If you liked this then you might also be ineterested in…

Summer Picnic Plates and a fun Finger Puppet Board Book too!

Best of… video clips.

Joanna — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:00:17 +0000

This week we’re pulling out a few of our favorites over the last year… just in case you missed them the first time around. and just because I’m feeling generous and super summer-y let’s throw in a giveaway for good measure. Just take a few minutes to look through our archives and then comment on any (or all) of this week’s posts with your top 2 favorite posts since we started …. winner announced next Monday!

Today’s ‘best of’ is a favorite video…. Summer Paper Hibiscus, watch the video HERE.

If you like this you might also like the Vintage Paper Roses and the Daisy with Dragonflies video’s too.

Altering Clean

Debbie — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:18:30 +0000

Someone gave me this little plaque as a gag gift of sorts and I wanted to make a little home decor project for Tombow using Paper Posies kit that they sent me.

Our bathroom is in SERIOUS need of being redone. But money and time is tight right now. Even if you have a room (or whole house LOL) that needs redone, you can still do little things to make it look nice until you can get to it. I could get discouraged by how bad it looks OR do little things to keep it looking as nice as possible considering all that needs done.

Okay, I digress, back to my project.

It is soooo easy and yet adds a fun little element to the room. I cut patterned paper to fit inside the frame and attached it with Tombow’s Mono Adhesive Power Bond. Then I used the same adhesive to attach these fun letters that were in my Paper Posies kit. Perfect word for a bathroom don’t ya think? Ü I could have left it like that, but it needed just a little bit more. I printed the verse out on cardstock and attached it to the chipboard tag with the Power Bond adhesive and then stamped a flower from Darcie’s set and grunged the edges a bit, added some vintage rayon ribbon and there you have it.

Here is a tip for cutting smooth rounded edges: It is hard to cut rounded edges to look nice. Just cut and adhere to chipboard and then sand the edges with an emory board. Makes it smooth and look more professional.

Super easy, super fun and super cute. What do you have around the house that you can alter with some pretty papers to pretty up your home? Don’t forget to check out Paper Posies all this week for more fun.

Guest Designer- Jennifer Weight

Joanna — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:03:46 +0000

Guest Designers are my favorite! Not only because we get new ideas and perspectives but because it’s so fun to introduce you to some amazing designers out there! Today it’s all about Jennifer Weight. You may have seen Jennifer win the Gypsy Design Challenge last fall her winning wedding centerpiece was seriously insanely beautiful! Thankfully, I’ve been lucky enough to have known Jenn since I was 8 (and yes, she’s always been that creative and talented!). She currently lives and works in Eagle Mountain, UT. Check out this creat Thank You Card (and Gift!) she made just for us…

We all have many gift giving occasions and in this day and age, many of us have a limited budget to work with. Here is a quick, simple and inexpensive way to give a heartfelt, hand made “thank you” to a friend. This project includes a very simple card and a small arrangement of “forever flowers” (because flowers made with paper never wilt or die).

Items needed:
Empty glass juice or drink bottle
Decorative marbles or rocks
Floral Wire
Dual Brush Pens
Lot’s of Adhesive (including double sided foam squares)
Paper
Flower stencil, die cuts or punch
Ribbon
Hot glue gun
Buttons
“Thank You” sentiment (stamped, written or printed)
Card embellishment (optional)

Skill Level:
Beginner
Approx. 20 – 30 minutes

First prepare your empty glass bottle. Empty juice or drink bottles work great! Remove the label and clean the bottle thoroughly. Next, fill the bottle with decorative marbles or rocks. These can be found in small inexpensive bags at your local craft store or Walmart.

Next you’ll need 3 lengths of floral wire. This can also be purchased at a local craft store or Walmart. If you are using pre-made lengths you may need to trim them to be shorter. If you are cutting lengths from a spool, cut each to be 12 – 15 inches long. Use a marker or pen and wrap the upper half of the floral wire around it to create a curled look on the wire. (Leave about an inch or so uncurled. The top and the lower half should remain uncurled.) These will be the stems of your “forever flowers” and the curl in the wire makes them fun and easy to position at different angles.

Next you’ll need 9 die cut or hand cut paper flower shapes. You can purchase pre-cut die cuts at a scrapbooking store, cut out traced flowers from a stencil or use a personal die cutter or punch. Different shades and colors on the same flower really make it pop! Each of your 3 “forever flowers” will use 3 layers. Two of the layers should be cut the same size and the 3rd layer should be cut 1/2 inch smaller. Here I’ve cut the larger flowers at 3 inches and the smaller at 2.5. Place a double sided adhesive foam square on the back of each of the smaller flower layers. Adhere the small layer to one of the larger layers and offset the petals to fill in the gaps. Adhere buttons to the front center of the small layer to enhance the center of each flower using Tombow MONO POWER BOND. I used a Dual Brush pen to draw a “stitched” border around the smaller flower petals for more dimension.

Now turn your flowers over and and place a large dot of hot glue on the back. Nestle the top of your floral wire into the glue while it is still hot. Then place your last large flower layer over the glue to cover and finish the back of the flower nicely. Repeat for the other 2 flowers. Arrange your flowers into your glass bottle. Pull on either side of the curled portion of the wire to extend a flower higher or push together the curled section to set the flower lower. You may also need to trim your floral wires further to achieve the levels you’d like. Wrap, tie and trim decorative ribbons around the lid of your bottle.
To create a small and simple card, simply cut the short side of an 8.5 X 11 sheet of cardstock in half. Now you’ll have an 8.5 x 5.5 piece of cardstock. Fold this in half to create a top fold card. Cut a piece of decorative paper or cardstock to fit your card front. Adhere decorative ribbon using Tombow’s MONO permanent adhesive roller and adorn with buttons and/or embellishments. Cut a small piece of cardstock and write or stamp a “Thank You” sentiment in the center. Now you can give a beautiful little handmade gift without breaking the bank! Enjoy!

~Jennifer Weight
Don’t you just love her?! You can see more of Jenn’s creativity here. Thanks girl for such a fun project. We love your creativity!

-Joanna

Tombow Tot’s- Wildlife Watercolors

Joanna — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:00:30 +0000

I value creativity. I am inspired by others and I am always trying to push myself with new ideas and a little out of the box thinking. I’m trying to instill not only the flair for creativity into my kids but the appreciation of it as well. Last week we were looking at watercolor art in a local restaurant and I was pointing out to the kids the way the colors blend into each other. While my daughter got the concept, my 7 year old Autistic son did not. He just couldn’t picture it. So instead he obsessed over it until I decided to work up a little hands-on art project. Now, I know I said that I value creativity but, I also value clean clothes. Nothing makes me more frustrated then kids ruining their newest $40 outfit with a $1 painted craft project. (yeah, it happened recently so I’m still a little bitter!) So, this week’s project was all about discovering clean watercolors!
Supplies:
Wooden animals (I found these great wooden creatures at our local Michaels. They were $1-4/piece and had TONS to choose from… run there QUICK!)
Water
Paintbrushes
Tombow Dual Brush Pens (even if they get a little on their clothes it washes out!)
Polyurethane Spray (or any other simple top coat)

For the watercolor effect on wood I dipped all the creatures in water for a few minutes first. Then I let them loose with the markers. It was fun to see them watch what was happening to the colors at first, then they really got into it and started dipping the brush end of their Dual Brush Pens into a tiny bit of water before coloring the animals! (They won’t loose their color, and it creates a completely different effect). The kids love that you can see the wood grain through the color too. Once they were done with coloring, they used the paintbrushes to blend in the empty spots and then we let it dry overnight and sprayed it with a light coat of poly to seal in the color. The kids loved learning about the effects of water and color and I loved that I got a chance to show them new CREATIVE ways to look at simple things (that and the fact that they were still so clean at the end of an afternoon of fun!). This was such an easy project I bet we have an entire zoo by the end of the summer!

-Joanna

Queen Bee Clipboards

Marie — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:00:49 +0000

PINK PAISLEE WEEK, keep the comments coming! I love clipboards! I tend to be a bit obsessed with having them hanging around my office so I can quickly grab them to use while taking garden notes outside or for planning, sketching or doodling on my lap when sitting out on the deck or watching TV. When I saw the ravishing paper and embellishments from the Pink Paislee Queen Bee Collection I knew I wanted to embellish yet another clip board.

To cover a clipboard with decorative paper you need two essential tools; a sanding block and MONO MULTI Liquid Glue. A bone folder is also handy. I really like the wooden clipboards from Walnut Hollow. The hardware can be easily removed for easy covering of the board. Cut the paper pieces slightly larger than the board and use the wide applicator end of the Liquid glue and cover the back of the paper lightly with glue. Use the bone folder to burnish down the layers of paper and crease the excess paper down at the edges. When dry, hold the sanding block at a 45° angle and ‘cut’ the excess paper away by sanding. This gives a beautiful flush edge. Replace the hardware and add decorative accents, gluing down with the MONO MULTI. The glue is very strong and even embellishments glued to the hardware hold fast, even with heavy use.

Tombow Tots – Covered Notebooks

Debbie — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:00:24 +0000

This is such a simple, quick and thoughtful idea! Perfect for a kids projects. They’d make great teacher gifts or party favors. I’m adding this to a few graduation cards I made up. I used paper and die cuts from Pink Paislee’s 365 Degrees line and Tombow’s MONO Adhesive Dots. This notebook is a mini composition book. It measures 4 1/8″ x 5 7/8″. Perfect for sticking in your purse for list makers or to write down your dreams and goals.

The Perfect Party!

Joanna — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 14:00:26 +0000

Don’t you love it when one good idea spurs on another? and then another? and then another? That’s what THIS set by Print Your Party did for me. I made up the invites (in about 10 mins!) added a few pearls and rhinestones (because you can’t have a girly-girl party without tu-tu’s, pearls and rhinestones) held tight with my Tombow MONO MULTI Liquid Glue. Then that creative endeavor set off a birthday banner project to match! Check out this awesome Webinar over at UnKit. They love Tombow (and said the nicest things about me!). Seriously,My projects this week couldn’t have been easier or funner! Aren’t you loving all the classy creative juices pouring out from the girls over at Print Your Party? Not only that, it’s fun to see that the cool

kids use Tombow too! This set is my favorite. I printed it out, cut it with my scallop trimmer, added a little bling and still had enough energy left to make up some fun extras! Since it’s a kids party I decided to use the water bottle labels and put them on juice boxes and since that was sooo easy I made up the party favors too! Just a box of crayons with the drink labels wrapped around but, I love the added touch! Seriously, 12 sets for invites, drinks and favors…. time? less than 15 mins… not joking. It’s official the secret is out and I’ve decided that the girls over at Print Your Party must be the craft fairy themselves! No one else could have made something so cute, so fun, so crafty and still made it so affordable and sooo simple! Oh, and they’re making your wishes come true! A $25 gift card to one of you! To qualify just leave a comment on any of this weeks print your party posts here on Tombow and we’ll announce the winner tomorrow! Have a creative weekend!

Tombow at the National Art Materials Trade Show

Lauren — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:08:27 +0000

Last Thursday through Saturday, we attended the National Art Materials Trade Association show in Indianapolis. We debuted 12 Dual Brush Pens, manga and professional.

Our Manga Dual Brush Pens, which are named for the popular Japanese comic art form, feature sets named after the two primary manga segments, shojo, or girl, and shonen, or boy. Shojo Dual Brush Pens have bright purples, blues, pinks and reds, while the Shonen Dual Brush Pens contain variations of warm browns, oranges, yellows and greens.

The Professional Dual Brush pens were created with the professional artist in mind. The new sets are offered in 6- and 10-packs, and grouped by the most common types of art that professional create – primary, secondary, landscape, portrait and grayscale. The new Dual Brush sets will be in stores soon. Click here to see all of the sets.

Be sure to stop by our Facebook page to look through our NAMTA photo album!