The holiday season is a perfect time to craft with friends, kids, or to explore creative ideas independently. Last weekend one of our own Paper Source family members hosted an annual Mother-Daughter Holiday Crafting Tea at her home. With treats upstairs and creativity downstairs, the setting was ripe to organize a knock-your-socks-off craft that would be simple and fun for kids of a range of ages, yet interesting and sophisticated enough for parents. She also really wanted the final presentation of the craft to have that “wow” factor!   

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There are endless ways to get playful with creating different looks- more traditional or whimsical-depending on your choice of paper selection and size, patterned assembly, color choices, paper loop size, etc.

These trees look stunning in multiples of the same or varying heights! Group them on your mantel, feature them as holiday table décor, give it as a gift…this craft is sure to impress all! But not only that, a Holiday “Crafternoon” Tea is a wonderful new tradition to start that brings kids and parents together in a cozy, creative way!

Happy Holidays! Happy Paper Crafting!

Leah, Linda and Sally

Take treats for school in paper bags with adorable personalized labels. Run our large circle labels through the printer with our print template or write each name by hand. An adorable back-to-school design that is great for single lunches or an entire classroom!

Materials Needed: Read the rest of this entry »

When thunderstorms, heat waves or snow days keep the kids indoors lean on us to help you weather the storm. We went through our archives to find a few kid-friendly crafts that will keep you from getting caught in the rain.

Paper Source moms recommend keeping bulk packs, a Xyron machine and colorful pens around for stormy days. What do you recommend pulling from the craft closet in the event of a kid crafting emergency?

Being the mom/stepmom of three boys, the thought of hosting twelve boys (ages 7-11), at the Evanston store terrified me! How would we keep these boys engaged in the crafts we wanted them to test? (Especially since we planned to sugar them up with donuts during the hour they were with us!) As it turns out, the boys LOVED to craft!

Quiet and hard working, they started by testing our Ninja Kit concept. (Due in stores this Fall thanks to the overwhelming response from the boys!) This interactive kit creates puppet-like ninjas with jointed arms and legs for action-packed battles!

They then switched to building our Space Creatures Kit, and had a great time making the aliens and other-worldly pets uniquely their own. Read the rest of this entry »