The Paper FX tool kit simplifies weaving and allows you to turn any scrap piece of paper into beautiful accessories, gifts and decorations in four simple steps! Tear it, crease it, weave it and make it!
This set comes with everything you need for weaving: weaver unit with middle bar, creaser, tearer, twizzle sticks, base maker, cable ties and instructions. You will need to supply your own coloured paper (or old magazines, posters, wrapping paper etc.) and glue sticks.
The weaver unit and creaser come with a big pink wheel on the side for easy turning by little hands. The paper tearer has two side flips: A and B. I love that it is so easy to use the tearer. Simply open the flip and insert the paper in to tear it. If you are using A4 size paper, you should not have any waste paper left. The side B measurement is for making the border for the weave pieces.
My late grandma loved making things, especially upcycling clothing or old magazines. She would turn a pile of junk into useful household items. Her items didn’t always look beautiful as she would mismatch the papers or materials, but they were always so useful. For example, she would weave the old magazines into small containers to store keys, nutshells, name cards and many more. I think I have inherited this love for crafts from her. Now I have this opportunity to use this Paper FX kit to show Ms C how to weave. She is visually impaired, but she is still able to perform most of the tasks slowly.
Tear It
Using the paper tearing device makes life so easy. It gives you the accurate measurement for each piece of paper and by pressing the flip firmly, it tears the paper very neatly.
Crease it
Next, you put your paper into the creaser and it will crease the paper to enable folding. These two steps are quick and easy, but the next thing to do is to glue them. This step takes a while to prepare. I find it best to use a glue stick to stick your paper rather than a liquid glue. If the glue is too wet/runny, it could ruin your papers when you press it firmly.
After we glued all the papers required for the container craft, we waited for a couple of hours to allow the papers to dry before we weaved them. So be prepared to wait! You could skip glueing the papers, but it might not be as a strong product in the end.
Weave it
Now place the slips of papers onto the weaver unit’s grooves and clamp them using the back bar and middle bar. Turn the wheel to lift alternate strips. Insert the paper in between the strips.
Make it
I mentioned my grandma’s useful container earlier and from that, I decided to make it to store the Chinese red packets. It looks so sturdy and beautiful. This is our first project. I left the strip of papers for both ends not glue. This is to tuck in the excess papers into the gaps and glue it. Then I glued the sides and used bulldog clips to secure and allow it to dry itself. Then used a yellow strip of paper to cover around the borders.
There were a few trial and error moments. There were times when we placed the papers in the wrong order or forgot to glue the papers etc. The kit does make it easier for us to weave, but it still took us a while to get the hang of it to put the paper through.
We also made a placement mat as it is so simple to make. It does not require folding and sticking. We do need to get it laminated and it would be waterproof to use.
I also remember my grandma used banana leaves to weave into a small basket. At the moment, we are not that skilful, but hopefully, in the near future, we could use banana leaves to make a food container!
I love that we can upcycle all sorts of materials into beautiful items, from handbags to purses, wallets to belts, as well as mats, coasters and more using this kit. It allows us to be creative and imaginative! It is a fun craft that provides hours of entertainment on rainy days. Paper FX is available to buy now from Argos and Amazon.
Disclosure: We received the sample for the purposes of writing this review, however, all thoughts and opinions remain our own. We have included an Amazon affiliate link to the product. If you click on this and buy, we may earn a small commission but at no additional cost to you.