The Paper FX Dream Weaver lets kids create beautiful accessories, gifts and decorations by recycling and transforming any sheet of paper! Not only do the tools included help make preparing the paper (tearing lengths, creasing folding, and weaving) easier but they also include tools for creating paper straws that can be plaited, twisted, flattened, and curled to add accessory details to your creations.
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Page Contents
What’s In The Paper Fx Dream Weaver
The Paper Fx Dream Weaver box contains
- weaver unit with loose bar
- creaser
- tearer
- twizzle sticks (for making straws
- base maker for makingbases/buttons)
- cable ties
- detailed instruction leaflet
There is currently no glue included but a small glue stick or tacky white glue is perfect to use.
You will also need sheets of A4 lengths of paper to tear into strips. You can use larger pieces of paper but to start with it’s easier to start with lengths that are approximately A4.
What Can You make With The Paper Fx Dream Weaver
The Paper FX Dream Weaver can make most straight-sided objects. It works by weaving flat sheets that are then connected together to make 2d and 3d objects. This could be flat table mats and picture frames, or 3d boxes and bags but you can also curve the sheets to make cylinders!
How To Prepare Your Paper For Weaving
The first thing users need to do is to tear strips of paper using the included tearer. This is relatively easy to do as long as you press down firmly on the tearer, whilst you pull up and tear the paper. If you don’t the paper could slip and tear unevenly. We managed to tear 5 pieces of paper in one go after a bit of practice which helped speed up the paper prep!
The torn strips are then fed into the creaser. Again, we fed more than one strip at a time to make things quicker. It actually protected thinner pieces of paper from tearing by creasing more than one piece.
Next, fold your strips in from each edge for neat paper lengths.
The outside strips of your weave need to be left open but internal strips are glued shut to make the finish neater.
The tearer has an internal length measure that is used to shorten strip lengths when required.
Once all your strips have been made the correct length and glued where necessary it’s time to start weaving.
How To WEave With The FX Paper Dream Weaver
The instruction leaflet comes with quite a few projects to make. All the projects tell you how many strips of paper you need and what lengths are required. It’s worth starting at the beginning with the simpler projects to start with so you build up knowledge of how to finish off and connect the woven flat sheets.
Strips of paper are laid on the weaving unit and clamped in place using the top bar. The middle bar is placed just above the paddles to enable the paper to be lifted for weaving. Turning the paddle bar at the bottom lifts the odds or even strips so you can slide your horizontal paper strips into place.
The middle bar has to be lifted on and off with each horizontal strip, which is a bit fiddly. So we ended up using a small piece of wood as it was quicker.
When finished the ends are tucked back into the open strips for neatness are finished off by gluing a finishing strip around them.
Bases, buttons, straps, hooks etc are then made using the additional tools that come with the kit or are part of the weaver unit.
What did we think of the Paper FX Dream WEaver
This isn’t a quick craft but it’s also not overly long and and great way for kids to learn a new skill and unwind. But it is a little fiddly and younger kids will probably need a little help when using it.
The instruction booklet is ok and includes a nice variety of projects that get increasingly more complicated. It’s a mix of images and text but it can be difficult to follow. Especially the finishing instructions when tucking in the edges etc at the end.
Using a glue stick is perfect for gluing down the strips pre-weave but a paintbrush and white glue is easier when tidying up the sides as the glue stick is just a bit big to get inside the gaps. And some bulldog clips are handy just to keep things in place whilst the glue dries.
Our finished projects were a pencil pot holder and a really cute clutch bag that everyone loves! Both items are really strong and sturdy which means that at the end of a project you end up with a useable object!
Paper FX is available from Argos and Amazon