New Year, new (ish) challenge

Hello folks (if there is anyone still out there) & a happy new year to you.  Not quite sure what happened to December, things sort of ran away with me.  It didn't help that my craft room is used as a dumping ground for all the last-minute-tidying-away-before-the visitors-arrive.  That's going to take a while to excavate.

 

Which is why this post is purely digital.  These cards were created using Silhouette Studio (free to download - you don't have to buy a Silhouette machine), along with Pink Petticoat papers.  The reindeer is a freebie, here. I used the trace feature to get the deer outline, then subtracted it from a square & used the result to crop the papers.  Any simple outline or font could be used.

 

Using dottie paper in crimson from the Fairy Lights collection

Using berries paper in willow.

 

 

Using vintage stars paper in soft silver.

The cards are sized so I can print 3 out on one sheet of A4,  all one layer, easy to send.  I also used this image for some of my Xmas decor this year - printed on photo paper & hung in simple frames from Ikea that usually carry other pictures:

 

 

If you know the your friends' colour schemes, you could send a card to match!

 

Linking to:

One-Layer Simplicity Challenge: #1 ~Re-stocking the shelves

 

 

Merry & bright

Die: Quilt Cuts 2 (WPlus9)

Other: glossy photo paper; snowflake punch

Just 'cos I haven't been postin', doesn't mean I haven't been lookin' (& investin'...).  Yes I have taken a break from the tyranny of the paintbrush to use my lovely new dies that came in the post last week from WPlus9.  They are fab; lovely geometric quilt cut designs, just right for an obsessive such as myself!

 

This card was inspired by the Runway Challenge this week, & also CAS(E) This Sketch:

 

 

 

I didn't have any red stripey paper, so I drew some lines in Silhouette Studio & printed them out on glossy photo paper.  I also did the sentiment, using CAC Pinafore, Book Antiqua & Century Gothic fonts.

I placed the die on the paper to ensure that the stripes would run in the direction I wanted, then arranged them as shown on the kraft strip.  The red & white bands are also on glossy paper.

The kraft was embossed using the scoreboard at 0.5 inch intervals.

Having put it all together, it looked a little bottom heavy (don't we all?), so I added the snowflakes to balance things out.

 

Linking to:

Runway Inspired Challenge: ric#22 ~ Tommy Hilfiger

CAS(E) this Sketch: Challenge # 1

 



It's getting wetter...

It looks as if what passes for summer in the UK has definitely finished.  It is cold & gloomy here (just another excuse for poor photos...), with lashings of rain.  So what better than a cheery pair of wellies?

 

I made the digital stamp from some clip art, & used digital paper too, printing on to glossy photo paper to get some shine.  I cut out 2 versions, so I could pop up the front boot on sticky pads.  It was very tricky to cut out, as it is so small.
 

 

The corners of the white panel were rounded with my corner chomper, as was the card base.

PS Is anyone else having trouble with blogger at the mo?  It's playing very hard to get.  It took me >5 attempts to load these pictures today; kept saying server returned invalid response.

 

Linking to:

CASology: Week 12 ~ Shoe

CAS-ual Fridays: CFC71 ~ Fall Fun

Less is More: Week 86 ~ 3 challenges (wk 32 seeing double, wk65 sketch, wk73 paper piecing)

Faux newspaper flower

Stamps: Text Sstyle (PTI)

Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)

Paper: Ribbin Stripes (Pink Petticoat)

Other: Aqua ProMarker

Listen.  Can you hear that?  Yup.  Nothing.  No kids rummaging through the Lego box.  No cat yowling.  No builders hammering.  It's just me.  For the first time in months.  Hurrah.

 

So I thought I'd have a go at something a bit different.  I saw this idea for a flower ages ago, & squirrelled it away in my head. 

 

I used my Silhouette SD to create & cut out the leaf shapes from 3 diamonds, stamped them with the text pattern, then coloured the outside edges with ProMarker.  By folding the outside diamonds in half & sticking them behind the middle diamond, you get a nice 3D effect.  All 8 were then stuck on a circle to create the flower.

 

 

Adding a brad & a couple of punch squares coloured with the same pen finished the embellishment.

 

 

 A couple of strips of stripey paper for ribbons & 3 tiny squares in the bottom corner to balance things out, et voila.  I just hope it's CAS enough for the challenge.

 

 

Linking to:

CAS-ual Fridays: CFC70 ~ B&W plus one



Quacking day

Paper: Chevrons (Pink Petticoat)

Font: Century Gothic

You can't beat a good pun!  The duck was created from a digital photo, using Silhouette Studio, & then filled with Pink Petticoat digital paper & printed on to aqua card.  I re-sized the chevrons so they were to scale with the size of the duck.  Sentiment was printed out, cut to size with a knife & the notches made with a square punch.

I like this shape.  I see more ducks in my future... (At least it will be a break from Tagxedo!).

Linking to:
CASology 5 ~ Pond

You float my boat



Stamp:  Tremendous Treats Valentine (PTI)

Ink: London Fog (Memento); Aqua (Ranger Adirondack), Christmas Red (HobbyCraft)

Paper: " Peas in a Bucket, Sheryl K Designs, Shabby Princess

Font: Migraine Sans

Here is my entry for this week's Less is More - paper piecing, hurray!

I printed the sentiment then masked off a square using torn edge paper for a softer finish.  I stamped the boat then sponged in the sky with aqua ink.  Originally, the sea was sponged with darker blue, but it looked all wrong, so I paper pieced it instead.  The heart & flag were sponged with red & cut out - the heart has sellotape over it to give it a bit of gloss. 

This is very similar to a card I made a couple of weeks ago using another stamp from the same set.

Linking to:

Less is More: Week 73, Paper Piecing

Make a Post It Note holder

There are a lot of these to be found on the web. I think this version is a bit beefier than some I have seen, so may be a little more robust.

This is a bit of a photo heavy post, so you may want to grab a cup of tea first...

To make this you will need a cereal packet, plain paper & patterned paper.   Measurements are to fit a standard Post-It Note & the pencil I have used.  You may have to adjust things slightly, depending on your choice of writing implement.

First, cut  3 10 cm squares from the cereal packet.  

I have found that scoring lightly with a knife allows the glue to penetrate the cardboard a bit better, & make for a stronger finished item.  If you are using dry adhesive, omit the scoring.

Glue the 3 layers together & leave under a heavy book for a few minutes.

When the the square is dry, cover it with the plain paper.  Make sure it is a little wider than the square & just over twice as long.  Sit the square to one side, allowing an even border on 3 sides.  Draw around the square & cut as shown.

Stick the square in place with dry adhesive &, using an embossing stylus (or old biro) score around the edge, to make folding the paper easier & give a neat edge.  Fold & stick the 3 small flaps first & then the large one.  The side of the square where the flaps meet will be the BACK of the note holder.

To make the front piece, cut the patterned paper to the same width as your covered square.  Depending on the thickness of the plain paper you used to cover the square, it may have grown quite a bit, so re-measure.

The pencil I used needed a 1cm square hole to middle piece back through the hole.

 Apply strong adhesive as shown by the red lines.  This is actually red line tape, which is super sticky, so that the front piece won't come away. 

Orientate the covered square so that the flaps meet on the back, on the pencil side of the holder.  This way, the major join will be hidden when the front piece is in place. 

Carefully place the front piece in position & stick it down, folding the small flap around the back.

Finally, stick the note-pad in place.  Don't just rely on the sticky back of the notes, use some double-sided tape.

Chevron patterned paper is from Pink Petticoat, colour is tangerine.  Pencils were a lucky find in Sainsbury's last year - from the kids' party bag section.

Well congratulations if you've made it to the end.  I think this post took longer to write than it did to make.  Enjoy!

50th birthday card

Stamps: Star Prints, Text Style, Polka Dot Basics II (PTI), mesh (Visible Image)

Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)

Paper: Orange Soda (Crystal Wilkerson)

Sentiment: Migraine Sans

Card base: 9.9cm square, linen white (Paper Mill Direct)

This was a new technique I tried out, & I am very pleased with the result. 

I printed out the sentiment on the card base & stuck on the template below with temporary adhesive.  To make sure I got the holes in the right place relative to the sentiment, I pressed them up against a window so I could see the text through the card of the template.

Then I masked the holes off individually using post-it notes.  Only a tiny portion of the stamp was inked up, & then stamped through the holes.  The Star Prints set from Papertrey was ideal for this as it contains a huge variety of small scale patterns.

I cut out the numbers 3 times: once in paper & twice in card.  Before the layers were adhered together, I went around the edges with an orange felt tip pen.  The paper was a scrap left over from a previous project.

The numbers were then fixed on using sticky pads.

I can see this as a stand-by card, with a supply of numbers ready to hand at the last minute!

Forty & fabulous

Paper: Perfectly Pink (Crystal Wilkerson)
Tools: hole punch, corner chomper
Sentiment: computer generated (Modern No.20)
Card base: 9.9cm square, linen white (Paper Mill Direct)

Ran the card throught the printer to get the sentiment. Printed out a 40 of the right size & fixed the 2 'holes' with temporary adhesive.  Put sellotape over the paper for shine & punched out a random selection of circles with an ordinary hole punch.

Fixed tiny foam pad to the back of each circle & stuck it in place.  Decided circle in the wrong place, cursed, removed from card & repeated... This card took a while!

Finally, took off the corner for a bit of added interest at the top.



More desk-top storage

How to turn a smoothie box into something pretty & useful.

I needed some storage for my small Papertrey Ink stamp collection, so had a quick rummage through the recycling box.  This smoothie box was just the right size to fit a few cd cases in.

To begin with, draw an angled line on one side of the box.

Then carefully undo the box so it lies flat.  This line will be one edge of the finished item, so cut as straight as possible.  I used a guillotine.  Keep the piece you cut off & use this as a template for the diagonal cut on the other side.

When both diagonals have been cut, re-assemble the box.  The front & back ends will be a bit uneven & need a little more work before the box can be covered.

First, measure the width of the box. Cut a strip of card (cereal box is ideal) to that width, & mark off the height needed at the back. Cut to size & repeat at the front. Stick these well to the outside of the box. This gives strength as well as neat edges.

Inside the box, there will be a difference in the number of cardboard layers, which could lead to problems when lining. This is easily rectified by cutting pieces from the discarded box top & sticking them in the right places inside the front & back.

Now cut pieces of card to fit the 4 inside faces, using the box itself as a template. It is best to cut something slightly larger & gradually trim tiny amounts off until it is a snug fit. If you cut off too much, there will be gaps in the lining.

In addition to the 4 pieces shown, you will also need a bottom piece. These can now be covered in the paper of your choice.

A little care may be needed when lining up the patter. The paper I chose for the lining has a grid pattern on it, so I had to make sure that all my pieces were in line with the grid before cutting.

This box is relatively small & can be covered by 2 pieces of A4 paper. By using a design that is easy to match up & you can make 1 long piece by sticking the 2 together at an appropriate place in the pattern.

Use this to cover the outside of the box, ensuring that there are no joins on the front of the box.  Having folded this down over each edge & stuck down the folds, stick in the previously covered lining pieces. 

I find that double-side tape is best for covering the all the cardboard, or a glue stick.  I think wet glue may wrinkle the paper & would take too long to dry.

Ta daah!

Paper used is from a digital pack by Crystal Wilkerson, Orange Soda, a HUGE collection of patterns currently only $1.  There is a luscious range of colours & I have succumbed to more than one!

Hope this makes sense.  If you have any questions, leave a comment & I'll try to help if i can.

Quilt card from paper scraps

I cut a 12cm square of printer paper & found the centre by drawing lines diagonal to diagonal.  Using temporary adhesive I stuck a 3cm square of card in the centre.

 

I cut 4 strips of paper 4.5cm long by 1.5cm wide.  The edges were sponged with brown ink to give them definition. They were stuck around the centre, making sure the edges lined up by using a ruler as shown.  The centre square was then removed so I could use a brayer to ensure everything was adhered properly.

The next strips were 7.5cm long, & then as long as was needed to go across the paper.

Turning the quilted piece over, I scored along the original edge of the 12cm square, then folded the excess over & stuck it down.

The cardboard square from the centre was covered in paper, stuck in position & finished with a faux button & some twine.

The quilted piece was then matted on to Kraft card & adhered to a 5" square card base. 

Paper used is a digital design,  Love Cherries from Sheri K Designs.