Embossed Pram Baby Card

 I seem to have lost my mojo lately and Hubby needed a  baby card for tomorrow.

Rather than let him down I dug out a card I made about 10 years ago and re-made it in different colours.

The overall size of this card is 8" X 8" so it is quite large but as there are going to be a few people signing it,  it needs to be a little bigger than usual.

The wheels I made by punching out a large daisy in silver card twice and sticking the flowers onto a punched circle that is slightly smaller than the daisy. Note..   I punched the circles from the same cardstock I used for the background.
Then trimming off the tips of the petals to the edge of the circle.

I punched two more silver circles larger still and adhered the smaller inner wheel on top.
The flowers were made using a smaller daisy punch  inking the tips of the petals and the sticking on on top of another and adding a small blue gem stone.

The background paper is from the Subtles DSP stack from Stampin up,  the colour I used  is soft sky.
The heart lace  was made using a Martha Stewart Border Punch.

The pram I cut from  white pearlized card and embossed.

Here's hope my mojo comes back soon...... need to be making new stuff, not going backwards in time.

Faux Book Tutorial

To write a tutorial including every instruction, every material,  every tool used and tips for achieving best results would take me forever. Especially as there are two versions of this book.
 So I have decided not to include instructions for decorating. 
Which gives you free reign on how to decorate your faux box card.

For the Economy version of this book.....

You will need 
Materials

Three A4 sheets of cream card 
I find photocopy card is best as it is thinner.

Two  A4 sheets of  sturdy card
One sheet of acetate
 Glue.

For the full Version of this book
You will need 
5 sheets of cream  card
3 sheets of sturdy card, unless you do the top frame the same colour as the pages.

Further instructions for
the full version are in the tips at the bottom of this post.

 Decorations.

charms,  feathers, lace and sticky back crystals.and a large flower or something to                                                                      act as the focal point.






Tools
Stamps and of your choice.
A score board with 1/2" markings
A Bone folder.













Cut two squares 7 x 7  inches. Using a score board score lines down both squares every 1/2 inch to the end of the card.

Cut two rectangles size 5 X 7 inches  place the these pieces of card on the score board  so the short 5" side is flush with the top of the score board.Score every 1/2 inch to the end of the card.

Begin folding the card in a concertina  fashion. Use a bone folder to crease in the folds you need folds and they should all stack up neatly. This is  an important step... if you don't have a bone folder a small rule will do the same job.

All four pieces need to be folded in  this way. 

                Take your time over this step as any mistakes will show big time.

Lay the two shorter  pieces at top and bottom of your work space and bring in the two  longer side piece as in photo. 

Make sure that you have the concertina'd pieces all the same way up.

 By that I mean the last strip on the inside of each piece should be pointing up. 

This won't work out properly if they are all pointing in different directions. 

                       

 On the last section of the bottom panel, add a small amount of glue to the corners.

Bring in the side panels and overlap the corners of the sides and end piece making sure this joint is completely square.

 Repeat this on all four corners,  keeping the corners square.

 Begin interlocking the corners, by folding one fold of the top down then fold in one fold on the right side , then the one fold in from the bottom and finally one fold in from the left. Repeat this pattern until you have folded in all the folds.

 DO NOT apply glue to these folds.

 When you reach the top  apply a small dot of glue to secure the top folds  just as you did at the start to stop it coming apart.

OH Dear!!!  My corners could have been better here .

At this point I strongly recommend you measure the overall size of the frame as you now need to cut a sheet of card exactly the same size and shape as the frame. If your frame is slightly out you'll need to compensate for that.

To make this stand out better I chose to make the surround frame a different colour, so you can see it better.

On my original card it was the same colour as the pages with some additional inking.

 Cut a panel to go in the back of the frame and decorate anyway you want.
Just be sure to leave half an inch clearance on all the edges as you will be applying glue to these edges to mount the frame onto.

When you are happy with the back panel mount the page from onto your panel Checking  it's squarely mounted

Preparing  the cover.

 This may seem like a cock-eyed way of measuring up for the  book cover,
but it works for me and I don't waste half as much card getting it wrong now.

  A4  card stock in  colour of your choice put it on the score board in landscape position. Then score at   5  1/2 inches. 

Turn the card around 90 degrees and score again at  5  1/2 inches.  

This will create  a narrow  panel  in the centre of the card just over an inch wide that will act as the spine of the book.

 Cut a sheet of good quality acetate,  slightly smaller (about 1/4 ") than the outside edge of the page/ frame.

Apply double sided tape to the edges of the acetate and position very carefully over the page/ frame. 

Do take care to get this straight and square FIRST time.

 Once the acetate is on  it will look pretty untidy so this is where the top frame come in. Add double sided tape to the back of the top frame and very carefully position over the  page frame.

Decorate the cover  to compliment the inside and s don't forget the spine.

TIPS

For a fuller, deeper book cut the two side panels to 7 inches by the length of the A4 Paper and the top and bottom panels to 5 inches by the length of the 
A4 paper. you will need to do a lot more scoring and folding and  you will need 5 sheets of  cream card  and you will need  two sheets of card for the cover which will need to be joined together at the spine of the book. 

You'll need to  measure the size of your  page frame add 1/2 inch  to both measures. then add another 1 1/2 inches for the spine. Then cut your card to this final measurement. Repeat this for the back cover of the book. 

You will have two spine panels, apply adhesive to one of the spines then overlap the spines pressing them together firmly . 

The join s will be almost invisible  and this double spine will be much stronger than the economy version.

 I have to say  the results are worth it.


To make it look more vintage sponge small amounts of  ink on the edges and folds of the pages.

To make  the flower I cut 6 flowers from quite a thick lining fabric  4 large flowers and 2 smaller ones. and held them over a burning candle until the edges of the fabric started to melt and shrivel  up  at little. then I stacked them up in a pile and stitched through all the layers and added a sparkly 
button to the centre .

The background
I did lots of over stamping, sponging and heat embossing for a vintage feel background.

A video would have been quicker but unfortunately I am having big problems up loading videos on to my blog. I spent all day yesterday trying to get one video on there. So I am stuck with doing tutorials this way until I can get help with uploading.

C.A.S.E by all means... but 

 Credit the Creator!!!  

Inked Sunset Scene

Last week I had the urge to try something a little different and here it is.
I thought it may be nice to create something I could put on the wall rather in a drawer or box somewhere buried for eternity.


The  background was sponged using a variety of SU ink s in red  orange and  yellow then over stamped using the "lovely as a tree" stamp set and SU's  black craft ink. I then used a little craft ink on a sponge dauber to add the bushes under the trees and to black out the land.

I have yet to find a frame to fit this creation. This maybe a little more difficult than I first thought as I didn't think about frame sizes when cutting my mount board. 
I will have to remember to hang this in place out of direct sunlight or it won't be long before the sun fades it.

Mother's day card and box.

Don't you just love this new stippled blossom two step stamp set. ( try saying that after a couple of glasses of your favourite tipple). 

I found a card very similar to this on another blog and fell in love with it so I just had to CASE it. Well,  almost, my card does differ a little.

After completing the card I still had the urge to play with this stamp set so then I made a box and decorated it with a panel created with the same set.

I  just couldn't put this stamp set down so here I tried  it in different colours, Giving some the vintage feel and leaving others  crisp and clean. They kind of remind me of vintage seed packets. I think it has something to do with the Style of the font on Perfectly Penned stamp set. The two sets compliment each other perfectly. I am really looking forward to the Easter holidays perhaps I will get to spend a day in my craft room and really go to town with these two sets.

These have to be my all time favourite stamp sets.

Well  Done  SU.

Washer Necklace

Morning Crafters, This idea was featured in an SU  publication and I have been experimenting with it . I have tried two different ways of creating this washer necklace.
This one was created by covering the washer with versamark ink and white embossing powder and heating until the powder had melted and cooled down.
 Using a sponge dauber  and Stazon  Saddle brown ink,  I covered the entire surface with ink ,  while the ink was still wet , I very, very lightly daubed  a couple patches of  Stazon Timber brown ink and allowed it to dry completely. 
I chose Stazon ink because it does what it says on the can... It  STAYZ ON .  The last thing I wanted to happen was for my inks to run when I added the crystal effects.
 If you don't like the effect you have created you can always clean off the ink with Stazon cleaner and start again.
I  added a  very delicate gold corner peel off  and stuck it to one side of the washer and trimmed back the excess.
Using  the dark brown Stazon, I stamped a couple of flourishes on opposite side to the peel off and allowed the ink to dry.

Then I covered the whole thing in a thick layer of Crystal effects and allowed it to dry over night on a completely level surface. This is very important as the liquid will run to the lower side if your surface is not completely level.
When completely dry,  I looped the cord through the washer and added a lobster claw fastener  onto the ends  of the cord.

The second version was done by punching out a circle from glossy paper  the same size as the washer  and punching a second hole in the centre  (the same size as the hole in the washer)  glue the paper onto the washer and repeating the process of  daubing, stamping and adding the peel off and crystal effects.  (as above).                                                       

I have to say the easiest option was the paper. But it doesn't cover the edges of the washer as the embossing powder did,  so you can still see the metal edges of the washer.    If  I do this version again,  I think I would paint the washer  edges  first.                                              I have also done a couple of these using patterned paper rather than  daubing and stamping white paper.  Which is far easier and quicker . Instead of using a peel off   I used tiny gem stones but I added them too soon to the crystal effects and they sunk into it,  so they no longer sparkle.  Hence I have not photographed them.   Next time, I think I'll wait until the crystal effects has almost dried before adding them. ........Ahh,  We live and learn.

Well I think I have covered everything.... I hope I haven't made too many mistakes on this post. If any thing is unclear feel free to send me your questions I'll be more than happy to answer.

Laura X

New Baby. A card for a boy called Ioan

First I must apologize for the dreadful photography on this one but I was in a rush to get this one in the post this morning. So cardboard box had to do for the background.

I said I had had a busy morning, this is the second project I had to complete before lunch today.

This card is far easier and quicker to make than you may think. I was  a little disappointed at how quick it was and felt like I hadn't actually worked at this one at all. So I decided to decorated the inside and the back too.

The inking around the edges is not as obvious on the  actual card but  some reason in these photos it does stand out more. I used the baby tees wheel stamp and cut out the romper suit leaving  a good half inch of paper  above the sleeves , I then scored along the  shoulder/ sleeve line and folded the  excess paper over the coat hanger and stuck it down over the hanger with a foam pad.
The coat hanger I made from a paper clip using jewelers round nose pliers. I  rubbed the hanger over  a Versamark pad and dipped it in white embossing powder and heated with a heat gun. The  brads / paper fasteners for the drawer and door handles  were treated the same way.

Paisley petals card

This card was found on a lady s blog in the U.S. I was stunned by this card  and just had to reproduce it.
It is made from Stampin' ups marina mist card with the paisley petals DSP. I also used  the background stamp En Francais for the  text on the flower and strips of  card which I daubed the edges with soft suede ink.
The flower stands  out quite a bit on this card so instead of using an envelope I decided a Clear dvd case with no moulding inside would make the perfect case for it.
This card  won't be  going any where I am keeping this one.  I love it.

Toilet Roll tube Pillow Box

Here  we have a darling little pillow box. I think this is so cute and believe it or not it is made from a toilet roll tube.

This is so easy to make you hardly need me to give you instructions but just in case you need them  here are the basics.

Flatten a toilet roll tube that has been in the microwave for  ten minutes to sterilize it. Place it in and embossing folder and run it through the bigshot or  a similar device.

Take something like a large circular die (the nestabilities are perfect for this)  and place it over the end of the tube and  score  a semi circle from one side to the other using the die as your guide.

 Do this on both sides and at both ends of the tube.

 Gently bend the  semi circles in to form the pillow box ends. 

Make your belly band and decorate anyway you like and attach around  your pillow box.

I used the always elegant wheel stamp from Stampin' up with choc chip ink.

 I punched 3 red different size circle, which I sprayed with water and screwed up several times and then  flattened.  When they were dry I  inked the edges of the circles and  popped a brad through the centre,  added two leaves and glued the flower to  the belly band.

Hey Presto!  one very cheap gift box.

Fresh Vintage

Yet another card using the floral flourish from the Fresh Vintage stamp set.

This time I used Baja breeze card, seam binding  and ink.
I have to say I have CASED this card from another demonstrator   I saw her version of this card and thought it was lovely. Mine is not as neat or as well planned out as Dawns but it will give you another idea for your Sale-a-bration stamp set.

Fresh Vintage in Black and White

Just how versatile is this Fresh Vintage stamp set from Stampin' up.

Here is a black and white card using the Fresh Vintage stamp set along with a sympathy greeting from another set.
How classy is this. Yet it is so simple to make. I don't think I even need to explain this one.
I will say that this card measures 6x6

Curvy Verses

Apologies for the poor quality of photo here.
This is another card you may recognise It's my version of one of the ideas in this years  Sale-a-bration catalogue.
I made a few changes because I didn't have the stamp set they used. 
 I used the curvy verses  stamp set as the background stamp and I ruffled my seam binding and attached it to the card with snail adhesive instead of sewing  it to the card . It was far too much effort to get my sewing machine out.
The flower was cut using a flower die from S.U but I can't remember the name right now.

outlined occassions

Another Card using  a set of the sale-a-bration stamp sets..
This  one is called outlined occassions. I really like this set. as you know I am not fond of colouring in as I have  difficulty staying with in the lines. My optician says it's an age thing.
Anyway back to this card I stamped the greeting  and  very carefully coloured in the lettering. 
I  punched out a few pennant s and assembled the card.
 A very simple but effective card.

sale-a-bration fresh vintage

This is certainly not my favourite card but it does show the use of markers on stamps well.
For the novice stamper, this where you use  different coloured markers to ink up your stamp instead of a single colour ink pad.
Once you have coloured all the areas over your stamp with ink you then take a deep breath and huff all over your stamp   to re moisten the inks and print the image onto your card stock.
It does take a little longer  stamping this way but hey,  think of it this way..... there is NO  intricate colouring in to do Whoopie! I am not a love of colouring in.... I can't stay inside the lines. lol.

I used the beautiful Fresh Vintage stamp set for this card. This stamp set was a free set from Stampin' up ,during the Sale-a-bration period. Every customer  spending  £45  got a free set of stamps.
I used the Stamp and Write markers to colour in my stamp. Old olive grosgrain, Razzleberry, Pretty in pink  and Whisper white card stock.

Teneale's card.

 

Today I have three cards which I have to say I CASED the first is one  I  am showing you  was I found on the VERY, VERY talented Teneale Williams website. I am a great fan of Teneale s work, she manages to come up with some fantastic and romantic designs and shares them with likes of us plebs, ( sorry  folks I mean, the NOT so talented). Not only are her designs beautiful, they are extremely well  made. To put it  in the words of my husband " the build quality is excellent". he hee. I adore her work as you can probably tell.
The card above is as close as I could get to her design. She used a scalloped edged  heart and a ribbon banner  greeting. Not having these things I had to adapt.  I copied Teneales card after I had made the card below.  An  interesting experiment try is what I did here. I had seen  Teneale's card fallen in love with it, studied it and then went to bed. The next day I tried to make the same card without referring to the original. The card below is the result. As you can see I missed a lot of the detail in the original card. But I still like this. Then I went back and copied the original as best I could.  I recommend that you try this, You'll end up with a card that is your own rather than a copy of somebody elses.

The background was created by inking up the inside of the  SU embossing folders with crumb cake ink place your card in the folder and emboss. The ink transfers to the card while you embossing. It's a great effect and very easy.

Sewing themed cards

Two more cards with the sewing theme.

I kind of like the clean cut look of this card, the blue and white together make it look crisp and fresh.

After stamping the button card, I stitched the button s onto the card.

I stamped the taped measure onto blue card and heat embossed the end of the tape with gold embossing powder to make it look like the real thing.

After stamping the cotton reels I coloured them with copic markers.

The next card is mainly cased from another demonstrator.

I have no idea where I saw the original so I cannot tell you where I found it.

I have added a cotton reel to this card, which I was planning to place on top of the tape measure. but I messed up and had a nasty mark to hide so the reel was placed higher than originally intended. I added a corner of text to represent the patterns instructions. Which are always printed on cream paper and look like old newspapers with smudged ink . Well they do after I have used them a few times . Hee hee.

Again I stitched the buttons onto the button card and stuck the button card on the card using double sided foam tape.

I didn't have a mount block long enough for the tape measure But I found a clean, plastic ruler worked very well as a mount block.

Serene Snowflakes card

A very simple card using the serene Snowflakes stamp set from stampin up and Whisper white card stock, Marina mist ribbon and ink

I really don't think you need me to waffle on to explain how I made this one, but if you do email me and I will happily email you back the instructions.

Oh , I did add some small sparklies and a touch of dazzling diamonds to this card but they don't show up very well in this photo.

paisley petals scissor holder.

I started to make a container using the petal cone die from S.U for some reason I didn't complete the project I didn't even finish cutting the out the pieces for it.

Not wanting to waste the pieces I had cut out from the beautiful paisley petals paper. I played around and came up with this little sleeve for my scissors.

I have cut and stabbed myself with them a few times. Hopefully this scissor protector will prevent a few of my little accidents.

Creative Elements in Pumpkin pie

 Here I have used the  new Creative Elements stamp set from S.U.  I used the flower with pumpkin pie ink and stamped the background.  Then  I stamped the very vanilla card stock  with the same stamp and ink then using a blender pen  dragged some of the ink from the outline to fill in the petals. I added some grosgrain and assembled the card.

Baby blossoms card

As promised here is another little card using  the small oval embossing folder and from S.U and the baby blossom stamp set. I am so impressed with my  free hand  positioning of the  leaves.  You may think I used the  stamp-a-majig,  ha ha .

But I promise you I didn't.

 I used pretty in pink, ruby red and old olive inks for this double stamping technique.Below I used Marina Mist and Pacific point.