My Cards for You

Another mixed media canvas

2012-02-03T00:00:00.000+13:00

Last year, I gave Carol and Jude (friends from Card Making World forum) some die cuts and stamped images to challange them to create something a little different. This is what I came up with using the same stamps, die cuts and ribbon.

The die cuts were made using a Tim Holtz Alterations Die. I painted the die cuts black then added some gold to the dress form. Wound fancy wool around the thread card and tied a knot in the button with the same thread. I used some fancy knitting netting to make the dress and dabbed alcohol ink onto it to give it some colour. Added a flower to the top. Wound the ribbon around the waistline to make a belt.

The stamped images were from a Toodle Binks set which was a freebie from Craft Stamper last year when I renewed my subscription.

The canvas black was painted black then coloured using alcohol inks and gold paint dabber. Applied a floral paper serviette with Mod Podge to give more colour on the background. The wish word was also die cut and painted with Worn Lipstick Crackle Paint.

My First Pop up Card!

2012-02-02T22:13:00.000+13:00

I saw a really good demonstration by Klo Oxford over on a Pazzles forum. She showed how to make a pop up card using the Funtime Software program that I got with my Black Cat. So I had to give it a go - don't I usually when there is something new to figure out???

This is the outside of the card - embossed with the hearts and swiss dots folders using the Cuttlebug. The heart is the freebie from Craft Stamper this month and I added the word Love to the centre of the heart and attached to the front over the ribbon.

The centre of the card shows the pop up that I did in the software program. It worked really well and I only had to do a couple of trial cuts. I have been having a problem with the machine cutting smaller than the dimensions I put into the program, but, thanks to Tracie on another forum, I have got that sorted now!

I stamped another heart and cut it out then attached it to the heart that was cut as part of the cutting file.

Entered this in the Allsorts Challenge and the Craft Room Challenge - just click on the links on the sidebar to go to these blogs!

February already!

2012-02-02T21:36:00.000+13:00

Time does fly - already it is the second month of the year!

Time was the theme for the Monthly Challenge over at Card Making World and Carol and I (the DT) each made a couple of items as samples for the challange.

This card was inspired by the sentiment - Great things take Time! The background was stamped with white chalk ink onto the black card using a damask-type background stamp - reminiscent of old fashioned wall coverings and curtains.
The images on the top layer include a da Vinci pencil sketch stamped onto a page from a novel and a leaning tower stamped onto a piece of music - all of these things relating to the fact that it takes time to write a novel, do a painting, write a piece of music or build a famous landmark.
The text was printed onto card, then the label (from Gina K) stamped over the text and cut out using a Nestabilities die. The colour was introduced by smooching Antique Linen Distress Ink onto the card.

Just to be a little different this month, rather than another card, this is a canvas inspired by time!
The clock, gear wheels and wings were all cut using Tim Holtz Alterations Dies. The clock was given a weathered look by colouring with Vintage Photo Distress Ink then given a coating of Rock Candy Crackle paint. A face image was stamped on the inside part of the clock and inserted into the clock face.
The wings were coloured with Fired Brick Distress Stain then sprayed with a red/gold spray. They were then attached to the back of a clock face.
The gears were painted using a copper paint dabber then a gold one to give some texture and depth of colour. The gold was also used to colour the metal corner pieces.
The word was made from clear letter pieces attached to black card using Glossy Accents and edged with gold paint.All were attached to a canvas board which had been painted black and old music paper layered on top.
Entered this in the Tanda Teaser this week and in the Try it on Tuesday challenge!

Congratulations!

2012-01-22T22:00:00.000+13:00

I had to make a card for a couple who have just become engaged, and this colour scheme seemed to be right for the couple.

I cut all layers out using Spellbinders Nestablilities, except for the sentiment.

I ran the top layer through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots folder and added a ribbon to the top 2 layers.

I stamped the sentiment onto the same card as the base card and layered it onto the brown.
A simple, but quite effective layout.
Entering this in the Craft Room Challenge this week, as the theme is Clean and Simple!

Another Challenge

2012-01-22T21:46:00.000+13:00

The email with the latest Card Patterns sketch arrived today and it was quite lovely. Since I had just downloaded the latest freebie from SVG Cuts as well, I thought that this was an opportunity!

I used one of the scalloped shapes from SVG Cuts Scalloped Circles to make a base card. I welded two circles together and cut them to make a folded base then cut another slightly bigger scalloped circle for the top layer. A red circle completed the cutting!

I used the dune stamp designed by Sue Law to stamp around the edge of both layers, then stamped a heart using the freebie from the Craft Stamper magazine this month. I cut this one out and covered it with 3 layers of UTEE, with a sprinkle of gold on the top layer.

I added ribbon and lace to the centre of the circle then attached the ribbon roses and leaves.

The sentiment is from a Hero Arts words collection that I use a lot. I attached the heart with foam dots to make it stand out a little from the rest of the card.

Mixed Media

2012-01-19T15:56:00.000+13:00

I have long been amazed at some of the very creative people around in blogland and have been promising myself to get into a wider range of crafting activities.
I have also signed up to Nathalie Kalbach's Creative Jump Start this month and it has been really good seeing all the interesting creative things that the team demonstrated.
So recently, I sat down at my desk and was determined to get to work with a book that I made last year - started painting the pages but did not get any further.

First page (left hand side)

I made the book from A3 sized sheets that I tore, rather than cut down to size. For this 2 1/2 page spread, I painted the background blue, then added a paua coloured paper napkin to part of the first page. I used Mod Podge to apply this, then added the netting. I stamped around the edge of the pages with a free stamp from CS Magazine.

I added bits of torn paper from an encyclopaedia page with a shell theme, used various shell stamps and cut little fish shapes from orange and silver tissue, which I applied with Mod Podge.

I also used acrylic paints to provide a bit of additional colour around the page. I edged the fish with white paint, then went around the outside of that with a black marker to make the fish stand out a little more.


Second page (middle)

The seaweed is strips of paua coloured tissue and I stamped over that with silver paint, using a tree stamp from a Claudine Helmuth set. I attached the little sea shells on the netting. The words were stamped then cut out and attached to the pages.

This is the half page on the right hand side of the spread.

Overall, I was quite pleased with the outcome - I did get the ideas from one of the Creative Jump Start team, but you do have to start somewhere!!

Card Patterns Sketch 148 Challenge

2012-01-19T15:33:00.002+13:00

I loved the look of this sketch at the Card Patterns blog when I saw it, so thought I would have a go with the challenge - along with lots of others!!

I wanted to make a card that had a sewing theme and had some lovely vintage type papers as well as a neat set of Toodle Binks sewing themed stamps that I received as a free gift for subscribing to Craft Stamper recently.

I cut the strips from the vintage themed card and stitched them to a backing layer, which I had cut along one side of with pinking shears to provide a zig zag edge. I used a zig zag stitch around the strips to complement this.

I stamped a rectangular card using vintage sepia Versafine ink and stitched the buttons to it. The lace was applied across the centre of the card before attaching the button card. Finished it off with the sentiment stamped with vintage sepia and a button attached with embroidery floss.

New Year 2012

2012-01-03T11:43:00.000+13:00

Already it is three days into the New Year of 2012 and I have started my card making with a real bang! On Boxing Day - I made 17 Christmas Cards!!

SVG Cuts came out with a lovely new set recently - Everyday Cards. I loved it and have made four of the cards from the set.

Happy Birthday with 3D letters.

3 D letters add some dimension

Mary has designed the cards to fit together really well and the frills and scallops are well structured so they do not grab and rip the paper - this is a bit of a problem sometimes with the Black Cat as the blade does not swivel quickly when it is cutting scalloped shapes.

I also found recently, some lovely cardstock sets from First Edition Papers. They are great for cutting with the Black Cat and with the Cricut.

The base cards are also cut from the files and they are all a little bit different.

The Hello You card is a nice one. The centre part is actually cut out and has a layer underneath, instead of on top! The shape of the front is also cut as part of the base card file.

Love the layered frilly look!

The flower centres are cut through all layers.

The Calendar

2011-12-03T12:25:00.001+13:00

Here it is! The calendar for the Craft Barn 12 Week Calendar Challenge.

I painted the 20"x 24" canvas with black paint to which I added some iridescent paint. This has given it a lovely shine that makes the tags stand out. I decided not to do anything further to the canvas as the tags themselves provide the decoration!

Now I shall have to find a place to hang it next year!!

Final Calendar Challenge

2011-12-02T16:08:00.001+13:00

Well, Week 12 of the Craft Barn Calendar Challenge is here and almost done. The theme this week was Red and Green with some sparkle and a pine tree!

To make this tag, I used a Tim Holtz Sizzix embossing folder to emboss the pine trees onto the tag. I then coloured them using copic markers. colouring over the embossed areas gives the tag more dimension. I used Faded Jeans and Stormy Sky distress inks to colour the sky. I stamped a background of hills using weathered wood distress ink then covered it with white flocking to make it look like snow. I added some silver glitter to the "snow" to make it sparkle. I also added kindiglitz to the pine trees so they looked frosty.

I added some red baubles and an embellishing fragment that I glued onto a piece of Christmas paper with holy leaves and berries. The stamp is one of Tim Holtz Ticket stamps and I used Tombow markers to colour it before stamping it onto a ticket. I used Fired brick distress ink to colour my ribbon that is attached to the top of the tag.

The calendar is layered onto black card then attached to the tag. I now need to attach the tags to my canvas that I have prepared. I might have time to get that done tomorrow!

Advent Calendars

2011-11-23T19:38:00.001+13:00

I have been busy making some advent calendars for the family to enjoy during December.

Both are made using the Advent Calendar Kit from Kaisercraft. I stained the wood using vintage photo distress stain then fitted the pieces together.

For this one, I used a 12x12 sheet that I cut down to fit the back of the box and lined the edges of the box with the same paper. I made a tree using a Nellie Snellen die, fitting 4 trees together and added little gold ornaments and a star. Made little presents to put under the tree. Along the top of the box, I placed three poinsettia flowers that I cut from SVG Cuts file - 3D Wintergreens.

I got a little more adventurous with this one! I cut some little house frontages using the Christmas in the Village set from SCG Cuts. To make them stand up, I made little boxes from acetate and attached the houses to these, then glued them into the box.
The tree is made with the smaller of the tree dies from Nellie Snellen. I cut 8 trees and folded them in half and glued them all together to make the 3D tree. I also cut a couple of sets of houses using the Tim Holtz on the edge die and glued them behind the three houses.

The Santa and his reindeer were cut from the Christmas in the Village set and mounted with foam pads over the moon! Added a Merry Christmas banner to finish it off.

Craft Barn Calendar Challenge Week 11

2011-11-23T19:25:00.001+13:00

The challenge this week over at the Craft Barn is to make a calendar using pale yellow and grey wth bare branches.

I used a pale yellow cardstock tag for this challenge. The bare tree is cut from dark grey card that I embossed the tree on. The embossing folder is one of the Tim Holtz folders. The background for the tag was stamped with Weathered Wood Distress Ink. I used stamps designed by Sue Law for the hills in the background, the tiny flying birds and the grass tufts around the base of the trees. The clouds stamp is from Rubbadubbadoo in NZ.

I finished off the tag with a ribbon made from seam binding that I coloured with Weather Wood Distress stain.

One week to go!

Craft Barn Calendar Challenge Week 10

2011-11-16T19:25:00.001+13:00

The theme for this week's calendar challenge at the Craft Barn is Autumn colours and leaves with the added option to use Tim Holtz tools and products.

The tag is embossed with the woodgrain folder from Tim Holtz Texture Fades range and coloured with frayed burlap and brished corduroy distress inks. The leaves were cut using Marianne Creatables dies as the tattered leaves dies were a little big for this particular project. For the leaves, I first coloured glossy cardstock with Ranger Alcohol Inks in autumnal colours then cut them with the dies. These dies have a great texture built in and the close up photo below shows the detail on the leaves.

I also cut some little acorns from brown card using the same set of dies then covered them with Glossy Accents. I attached these with foam pads to make them stand out from the tag.

I blended wild honey and rusty hinge distress inks on the edges of the calendar to give it a more auntumnal look as well.

The ribbon is seam binding coloured with Spiced Marmalade distress ink.

Can't wait for the last two weeks challenges because I am eager to see the whole calendar put together on the canvas I plan to buy tomorrow!!

I have just seen on the stats for my blog that this is my 150th post!

Craft Barn Celebration!

2011-11-13T21:43:00.001+13:00

The Craft Barn at Lingfield, in Surrey are celebrating 600 followers on their blog with a little giveaway! Actually it is a big giveaway and looks just stunning.

Please check out the Craft Barn - they have such a great selection of goodies for crafting and I just loved my visit there last year. I hope to get back again next year when I am in the UK. They also do a great postal service.

Enjoy! and Congratulations to the Craft Barn!

Craft Barn Challenge Week 9

2011-11-11T16:43:00.001+13:00

The Calendar challenge for Week 9 over at the Craft Barn is to

use old paper and red lines. The paper is a creamy colour with graph gridlines all over it. It is from a DCWV Mod Retro Stack collection which is a set of cardstock with a '50s look to it. I used the cardstock to cover the tag, then cut some more of the flowers from the bottom of the cardstock to create a 3-D layer that I attached to the card, just below the flowers on the tag layer. I edged the tag with Barn Door distress ink then added some cream paper flowers with red bling in the centres. Finished the tag off with a cream ribbon around the bottom and a seam binding ribbon coloured with antique linen distress stain.

Christmas Things

2011-11-11T16:25:00.001+13:00

I recently bought the svg files to make these Gingerbread Chalets from SVG Cuts! I just love the things that Mary and Leo come up with and they are so helpful if you have a problem. I cut the files with my Black Cat Cougar and everything cut really well - like a hot knife through butter!

The roof of each chalet comes off and you can put little electric tea lights inside so the light glows through the holes in the walls and the vellum on the doors and windows.
Posted this to Joyful Stamper: Inspire Me Fridays too!

Other stuff

2011-11-02T19:06:00.000+13:00

This week it is my daughter-in-law's birthday. They came for dinner last night and we gave her this card to celebrate.

The card is made from brown card. The top layer was stamped with a couple of darkroom Door stamps using sepia ink. Used distress inks in pinks to colour the card then edged with vintage Photo. The underneath layer is pink stamped with a word stamp from the same set in sepia, as is the sentiment, but this was stamped with a Gina K Best Wishes sentiment.

The roses are made from cream paper and spritzed with glimmer mist.

Finished off with the cream ribbon and a bow.

This frame was made for Mum. I had a wooden frame from IKEA that I painted black then did a crackled effect using PVA glue and a creamy coloured paint.

The flowers were made from pale pink paper then spritzed with a pale pink glimmer mist. The leaves were cut with a Cheery Lynn die from pale green paper, then spritzed with green, which also made the curl a little.

The frame was just the right size for the photo of the great grandchildren in Australia!

I saw this idea for a tealight candle holder in a magazine recently and thought I would try it out. I had some memory glass that I stamped with embossing ink using a crackle stamp from Tanda Stamps, then embossed with gold and heat set.

I used copper tape to edge the top of the glass sides then used the tape to fix the sides together in a square. I glued the sides to the bottom, then covered with the copper tape.

It looks very effective with a tealight candle in it! I have entered this in Crafty Hazelnut's C hristcmas Challenge. - Whatever lights your candle!

Calendar Tag Week 8

2011-11-02T18:51:00.000+13:00

The Craft Barn Calendar Challenge theme this week is a dark colour and circles.

I chose to use a black spotted backing paper for this one then used red to introduce some colour. I added a frill of red pleated fibre ribbon ( the sort that is used to decorate hats and fascinators) over which I placed a white ribbon with black bling dots.

The flowers and flourishes were cut from red card. The flower die is a Marianne Creations die and it has little circles in the petals! The flourishes are cut with the Tim Holtz Elegant flourishes die.

The ribbon is seam binding coloured with Black Soot Distress Ink.

Calendar Challenge Week 7

2011-10-28T17:01:00.002+13:00

This week, the challenge for the Craft Barn Calendar Challenge was to use purple/lilac and dry embossing.

For the tag this week, I used a craft concepts emboissing folder on the tag then coloured it with milled lavender and dusty concord distress inks.

The butterfly is a die cut from Marianne Creations and was cut from a heavy silver paper. I bent the wings up a little and added purple rhinestones to the centre for the body.

I cut the flourishes from silver card using the elegant flourishes die from Tim Holtz. The ribbon was coloured using the dusty concord distress ink.

Only 5 more to go!

When I have finished the 12 tags, I plan to mount them on a canvas as a calendar for 2012!

More play!

2011-10-20T20:08:00.000+13:00

Yes, I have been playing with my new toy again! I had to make some cards with a New Zealand theme and I had downloaded a piece of clip art that I made into an svg file using Inkscape. This kowhaiwhai pattern is a good one to cut as it is not too intricate for a first trial. For these cards, I cut the top layer of the image in black cardstock using SCAL and the Black Cat. Then made a shadow layer and cut it from red cardstock.

Below is a closeup of the diecut.

For the next set of cards, I cut the actual cards out using the BC. The kowhaiwhai pattern was cut out from the front of the card, then I used the die cuts from each card to inlay onto a contrasting card. The effect was quite nice. I added strips to the sides of the cards to add a little more interest.

Red, black and white are modern colours used in Maori art. Red and Black are also the colours of Canterbury, used by all the sports teams that represent our province.

Turquoise and Lace

2011-10-20T19:48:00.000+13:00

The challenge over at the Craft Barn for this week's Calendar Challenge is Turquoise and Lace.

The biggest challenge was actually finding the turquoise colour. There are so many blues and greens and shades thereof that it was hard to find the right colour. Eventually, with the help of a turquoise ring I was able to find a paper to match!

The stamped images are from one of Claudine Helmuth's sets - stamped with a turquoise ink then overstamped with Versafine Onyx Black. The edge of the tag is coloured with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The lace bow has been attached to a Nellie Snellen Lacey Circle die and layered onto a scalloped circle in black. The butterfly is a wooden button I picked up in Kuala Lumpur and threaded with a piece of baker's twine. The ribbon is seam binding coloured with Tumbled Glass Distress ink.

My New Toy

2011-10-17T18:25:00.000+13:00

It has finally arrived - my new toy! A Black Cat Cougar machine with a 13" cutting bed. I am so excited!!!

I spent most of the day today uploading software updates, installing other software and playing with the machine. It is a bit different from my Cricut Expression - bigger and gruntier and does not require cartridges for the designs. Can do those on the computer and cut straight away.

I had some new svg files that I bought from SVGCuts recently and wanted to try them out. I chose this card to try out first.

It has two layers and I needed to cut both layers. It only took 3 goes to get it right! Amazing really!!! I also used Make The Cut software to do the design.

After I had cut both layers, I decorated the front with a background stamp (brushed corduroy) and edged the card with spiced marmalade DI.

For the centre of the card, I stamped the sentiment onto the piece that I had cut out (on the front section of the card) with Timber brown Stazon then edged with scattered straw and spiced marmalade.

I edged the inside of the card with the same colours and stamped a Happy Birthday on the bottom corner.

I glued the two layers together, then added the sentiment piece. I had some little brown flowers that I attached to the front with some green swirls and added orange dots to the top of the flowers.

I really enjoyed my playtime today!

A New Calendar Tag

2011-10-14T20:42:00.000+13:00

Back from a few days away and have to catch up with the latest calendar challenge from the Craft Barn Challenge. The theme this week is Pink and Birds.

I cut my tag in pink cardstock then stamped the floral corner stamp in Vintage Sepia ink. I then edged the tag in Spun Sugar and Worn Lipstick distress inks.

The birdcage was cut from the Songbird cartridge with the Cricut and stained with Vintage Photo Distress stain. I then coated it with Distress Crackle paint in Rock Candy. The bird is a wooden embellishment from Kaiser that I painted with gold paint.

The flowers were sprayed with Tattered Angels Cherry Blossom and fixed with a brad. I put kindiglitz on the brad to make it sparkle. The leaves were punched from green cardstock and layered underneath the flowers. Finished it off with seam binding ribbon coloured with Spun Sugar distress ink.

I am entering this in the Think Pink Challenge at Whimsie Doodles this month as well as it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Postscript: Just found out that this tag won the challenge for this week at the Craft Barn! Rapt!!

Feline Friends

2011-10-05T17:53:00.001+13:00

Over at the Craft Room Challenge this week, they are featuring felines. I thought this was a good opportunity to use some of the feline stamps I bought last year from Tanda Stamps.

I made 2 cards but couldn't decide which one to post for the challenge! So I am showing you both cards!

For this card, I stamped the gorgeous feline on white card then heat embossed it with black. I cut the image out using the deckled rectangles from Spellbinders and cut a further 2 rectangles - one black and one white to use as layers.

I made a top fold base card from black card and scored the lines on it using my ScorePal. I stamped a sentiment and heat embossed it with white and added a ribbon.

This card used the same Tanda stamp that Zoe used for her sample card. I used wild honey, rusty hinge and brushed corduroy on the stamp which gives it a bit of a distressed look. I cut it with a circle die from Spellbinders and added brushed corduroy and walnut stain around the edges before I removed it from the die.

The background was stamped with another Tanda stamp - a spiderweb that I used pumice stone and black soot on to get a variegated look to the end result.

I rounded the corners on the layer and added to a top fold black base card. The image was mounted onto the card with foam squares to raise it a little from the card.

I couldn't resist showing you a picture of our own feline - Didi. She was lying on a duvet that I had taken off the bed and was most comfortable there when I took the photo!

13 Cards from 1 Sheet!

2011-10-04T13:40:00.001+13:00

Well, maybe 2 sheets plus the base cards and some other bits and pieces!

I found this 12 x 12 Christmas paper from Pavlova Papers in my stash a couple of weeks ago and thought I would see how many Christmas cards I could make using this sheet of paper. I also used a 12 x 12 sheet of green American Crafts card as an option for layers underneath the Christmas paper.

As you can see from the pictures, I also used additional cardstock to provide embellishments and layers other then the red and green. However, I did use the Christmas paper on every card and ended up with just a few little scraps left over.

The stamps I used were from my own collection of many stamps, including Montarga, Stampers Anonymous, Rubbadubbadoo and others.

I used some Nellie Snellen dies (Christmas Trees) and Spellbinders Nestabilities (deckled rectangles, ovals and scalloped ovals) and a Tim Holtz On the Edge die.

This was a fun exercise for me because it made me think about different ways I could use smaller bits of paper. It also helped me to get started with making my Christmas Cards!

In making these cards, I used 1 sheet of 12 x 12 christmas paper, 1 sheet of 12 x 12 green American Crafts cardstock, 13 red base cards (A5) and 4 pieces of A5 cream card, some ribbon, embossing powder, inks and brads. I estimate the cost of making these cards to be about $6 (NZ). Not too bad really, especially if you are on a budget!!

A Yellow Calendar Tag

2011-10-02T19:29:00.001+13:00

The Calendar Challenge over at the Craft Barn for this week is for the calendar to use Yellow and to use masks.

For this tag, I chose to use scattered straw distress ink on the base. I distressed it by screwing up the tag, colouring it and wetting it then dried it and ironed it flat again!

I used mustard seed DI to colour up the masked images which are from Tim Holtz. I put these at the top and bottom of the tag. I then used the negative of the same mask to make a design on the calendar with the mustard seed DI.

I edged the tag with wild honey and rusty hinge to give it a bit of depth. I also added some brown paper flowers and some elegant swirls cut from green card. The ribbon is seam binding coloured with mustard seed DI.

I am entering this tag in the Craft Your Days Away challenge (Tags) and the Allsorts Challenge (5 Flowers) as well.

Triangle Star Card Video

2011-09-29T17:27:00.000+13:00

I have just finished another video on making a triangle star card.

Katie brought the instructions to us at our workshop day for Crafty Girls recently and it was a fun little card to make.

The written instructions for making a card like this can be found here.

New Video

2011-09-28T23:37:00.003+13:00

I spent some time last weekend making a couple of videos that I have finally finished editing.

The first one is making a pyramid card that some of my friends have been asking for.

Check it out below! The written instructions can be found here.

A Perfect Pear

2011-09-28T10:00:00.002+13:00

This week, The Stamp Man Challenge is entitled "A Perfect Pear" and when I saw this, I immediately thought of the lovely pear stamp I bought from Montarga a few months ago.

For this card, I stamped the image onto green card and heat embossed it with gold EP. I layered it onto gold paper and created a very fine border then laid that onto green corrougated card that I had wrapped some fine gold braid around the end.

I punched the corners to make little insets and threaded the same gold braid from corner to corner to create a frame. The picture truly does not do the stamped image justice!!

This card also fits the Allsorts Challenge this week - Keep it Simple.

12 Week Calendar Challenge

2011-09-27T22:47:00.002+13:00

I was blog hopping the other day, catching up on all the things that are going on in blogland and I came across this neat challenge from the Craft Barn.
The challenge is to create a calendar each week for the next 12 weeks.

I decided that I would make each month of the year on a large tag, cut using the Tim Holtz Tag die. So I started doing them yesterday - catching up on the first two weeks challenge themes and doing this week's theme as well.

The first week's challenge was blue and crackle, so I coloured the tag using Adirondack Snow Cap dabber then Faded Jeans distress stain. The paint underneath provided a lovely base for the stain and gave the tag a dappled look. I then edged the card and the calendar (January) with Stormy Sky distress ink.I stamped a Stampers Anonymous Life stamp on the tag as well.

The flower was made using the tattered florals die (TH again!) and I used glimmer mist in a frosty blue colour to spray the flower to give it a bit of a shimmer.

The crackle part of the tag is on the ticket, which I stamped with a Stampers Anonymous stamp in Versafine Black ink then edged with stormy sky DI. I painted it with distress crackle - Rock Candy and left it to dry before attaching it to the tag.

The second week's challenge was red and embossed. For this one, I covered the tag with Christina Re paper that had a red flourish on the corner, then distressed it eart and Wings TH die, then embossed with a spots embossing folder. On top of that, I inked both up with embossing ink and covered with clear UTEE. I did this twice and it produced a lovely shiny coating on the hearts. I then edged the hearts with a gold pen.

I made the roses from red paper and a 6 petal flower punch. I spritzed them with gold glimmer mist then attached to the tag along with some green leaves that I cut with a leaf die.

I cut the key with a CB cut and emboss folder then inked with walnut stain and vintage photo DIs and covered with crackle paint - Rock Candy. I attached this to the tag using some seam binding that I coloured with the barn door DI.

The challenge theme for this week was green and flowers with some embossing. I stamped a new flower stamp from Montarga on the bottom of the tag then embossed it with clear EP. I added a clouds stamp and embossed that before making a mask to cover it. I then brayered peeled paint DI over the top of the embossed image. I gradually added more colours with the brayer - tumbled glass then stormy sky. The claendar (March) was glued to the centre of the tag and I added butterflies that I stamped (Tanda stamp) and coloured blue and green with copic markers, then embossed with clear EP. The ribbon is seam binding that I coloured using peeled paint DI.

I really enjoyed making these tags and look forward to the next week's theme!

Card Class - Fancy Folds

2011-09-13T19:23:00.001+12:00

We are planning another card class at The Scrappin' Patch again. This month will be Fancy Folds and I have some sneak peek pictures of the sample cards.

This time, we have a slightly different take on the pyramid card - one that will fold flat and fit into a large square envelope.

Then we have a more complicated folded card that looks just stunning when it is completed. With a sheer ribbon bow and a lovely lacey doiley, the Spellbinders die cut sets it off nicely.

The last card here is a three fold card with a special scalloped border. It also has a nice slanted top on it. Adding some flowers and brads, just finishes it off well.

Check out the Scrappin' Patch website for more details and to book for the class.

Next month we will be doing Christmas Cards - in time for sending overseas. I also hope to be in-store doing some demonstrations using Distress Inks during October. Check out the Scrappin' Patch website for more details.

Father's Day

2011-08-27T21:42:00.002+12:00

It is Father's day here in New Zealand next weekend and I thought I would make a few cards.

For this card I used some patterned card that I made using alcohol inks and wiping the colours onto glossy card using a folded tissue. I wiped the tissue up and down as well as side-to-side to produce a plaid effect.

I stamped the ties onto white card and onto the glossy card that I had coloured, cut out the tie from the coloured card and attached them to the white card.

The stamps used for this card both came from Montarga.

For this card, I used a number of stamps to make the scene. The golfing stamps are from a set I purchased recently. The grass and the trees are Montarga stamps and the hills in the background are a stamp designed by Sue Law which I use for a lot of backgrounds.

To make the card, I stamped the golfball on the tee, then masked it and stamped the golfer. The background was stamped successively starting with the grass, the hills and the trees. Each was masked before stamping the next layer. Finally, I added the sentiment.

I coloured the golfer with Copic markers, then layered the card onto a red base card.
I have entered this card in the Craft Room Challenge this week as the theme is Masking! Thanks Zoe!!

I used the same technique of stamping and masking for this card as well.

The fisherman and the fish stamps are from the same set as the golfer.

The background stamp is the same as used in the above card.

Crochet

2011-08-27T21:15:00.000+12:00

I have been making this baby shawl for some time now and I finally got it finished.

It is for the new grandchild due in February! My son (the father-to-be) says it looks like a large doily!!!

The shawl measures almost 1 metre in diameter. and is made from 4 ply yarn crocheted with a 4.00 mm hook.

Snow

2011-08-02T21:34:00.000+12:00

I had to post a couple of pictures that I took after the snowfall we had last Monday.

We woke up to white stuff everywhere and it continued to fall throughout the day.

The cat hated it and she refused to go out and walk on the snow. DH made a little track for her from her cat door to the garden so she could at least get outside!!

The temperature that day was almost the lowest in the last 100 years. It never got above 1.9 degrees C all day. Would you believe, the next day was 16 degrees!

It is lucky there was someone in the house to shovel the snow off the path and driveway!

Most of the snow was gone by Wednesday afternoon but there were a few snowmen around the place that lasted a few days longer.

It is a shame that the snow didn't get to the skifields so, although they are open, the base is not that deep yet. Hopefully they will get a decent fall soon!

Clean and Simple

2011-08-02T21:23:00.000+12:00

The theme for the Card Making World Monthly Challenge for August is Clean and Simple. As one of the DT I had to make 2 sample cards.

I bought some new stamps from Gina K Designs a couple of weeks ago and they arrived on Thursday last week. Of course I had to use them for this challenge and I was quite pleased with the results.

The first card was so simple but very effective. I made a mask using a scalloped oval nestabilities die and laid it on top of my base card. I then inked it with Spun Sugar and Victorian Velvet Distress Inks. The stamp used is from the Garden Silhouettes Set (Gina K Designs) and I used Versafine Onyx Black for this image. The sentiment is from the Bold and Beautiful set.

This card uses stamps from the Garden Silhouettes set as well.

The layer card is from a matte set I bought years ago and had not really used many of the colours. I trimmed it to fit the base card with a little left over to back the sentiment piece.

I stamped the image using a Memento Rhubarb ink pad then cut the shape with an oval nestabilities die. I backed this with the scalloped oval die cut and layered it on the card.

The sentiment was from the same set stamped in Onyx Black (Versafine) and layered on the red and black layers.

I was so pleased with the effect of this card, I made another three in the same style but in different colours.

Is it really that long since my last post?

2011-08-02T21:01:00.000+12:00

Where has the time gone??? I can answer that - I have made about 50 cards in the last 2 weeks - that is where!

I spent some time last week with a Crafty Girls friend, Barbara, helping some of the residents of the home where my mother now lives to make cards. It was a fun afternoon and the time just flew by. Below are a couple of photos of people who made cards and were so excited by the finished products.

I had made a whole lot of flowers and other embellishments before the workshop so that people could use them to put cards together. Most of the people had never done anything like this before and there was a real buzz through the room.

Everyone went away with at least one card that they had made - either on their own or with a little help.

Barbara was a real help too - I think she enjoyed herself and we have been asked to go back again in a month or so to do another session for them.

Of course, my mother had to come and supervise! She said she didn't need to make a card as she could get me to make any that she wanted!!!

Using my Tanda Stamps

2011-07-15T12:30:00.000+12:00

I was having a play with some of my Tanda stamps a while ago when I bought a lovely white chalk inkpad. I hadn't used this stamp from the Retro Men Set 1 before and I wanted to try it out with the white on black card. Was quite pleased with the result.

The oval was embossed onto the card using the silicon mat and B plates through the Cuttlebug. The tag is one of the Spellbinders Grommet tags.

The sentiment stamp is from Montarga. I added some little corner peeloffs just to finish it off.

When I had finished this one, I decided to try the same stamp using black on white card.

I cut the ovals using the oval nestabilities. The swirly ends are made from one of the fancy tags (Spellbinders) which I cut in half and attached at the ends of the ovals.

The background layer was run through the Cuttlebug using the Swiss dots folder (which is starting to get a little worn across the fold from all the use it is getting!). Added a black spotted ribbon across the centre.

I thought about adding a sentiment but couldn't decide where it should go so left it off. This way the card could be used as a wedding card or an anniversary card.

New Techniques

2011-07-15T12:21:00.000+12:00

Was looking at the StampTV video this week and was very interested in the techniques demonstrated by Gina K for the Happy Day Card project.

I didn't have the stamps she used in the video but I did have a lovely stamp from Tanda that I thought would be lovely with this technique. I used Wild Honey and Brushed Corduroy Distress Inks. Stamped the first colour - wild honey over the whole stamp then put Brushed Corduroy around the edges. Had to clean the stamp between re-inking so that the darker ink did not contaminate the lighter ink.

This closeup show the detail of the two colours on the stamp.

The image on the sentiment was stamped as a second go - stamped on waste paper first to remove some of the ink, then stamped on the oval sentiment. Used Brushed Corduroy for the sentiment.

The swirly bits on the end of the oval shape was made from a fancy tag die cut (from Spellbinders) - cut in half then attached to the ends of the oval.

This example is similar to that demonstrated by Gina in her video except that I used a wax resist technique (also from StampTV) for the background.

I love the CAS designs that Gina comes up with! While I don't have any of her stamps, there are a lot in my stash that I can substitute.

Enjoy.

Butterflies

2011-07-11T12:05:00.002+12:00

This week the Craft Room Challenge and the Stamp Something challenge both have Butterflies as the theme and I had a card that suits this well. The card is made with a box base and the back part stands through the centre of the base.

I used the CB to emboss the layer on the background. The stamp was embossed with gold and cut out before attaching it to the sentiment at the front.

I did a video on making these box cards last year and you can see it here.

Experiments

2011-07-08T19:52:00.000+12:00

Over the last week or so, I have been experimenting with some different ideas.

This card is made from acetate that was folded then embossed using a textiles folder in the Cuttlebug.

The flower is a Montarga stamp that I coloured using my Copic markers. (They have been having a rest lately!) The shapes for the front of the card were cut with the Cricut. I added some pearl dots at the top of the frame to add a little something!
The sentiment was stamped on a Spelbinders Tag die then attached with foam dots to the bottom of the frame.

The card was finished off with a narrow red ribbon that I attached to the inside of the card with DS tape then covered it with the ribbon on the outside.

This card I made after watching a neat video from stampTV on double embossing.
The blue layer on the left side of the card was embossed with the Alterations Gridlock folder. I then brayered Versamark ink on the top of the embossing and added clear embossing powder. After heating, it came up with the really cool pattern. It really makes the embossing stand out.

Added some paper from my stash to the other side of the card, a black ribbon down the centre and topped it with one of my favourite gentleman stamps from Hero Arts. The Happy Birthday stamp is from Montarga.

I like this technique and will try it out on more cards over the next few weeks.

CMW July Challenge

2011-07-08T19:39:00.000+12:00

The challenge this month was to use a sketch. This was the sketch we used for the challenge and it was open to interpretation! You could use it as a rectangular card or a square one.

For this card, I used a really nice golden yellow ochre coloured card. I used the same card to make the top layer and embossed it in the CB large script folder. The corners were made using a Martha Stewart photo corner punch. The ribbon across the centre is a brown velvet ribbon - narrow so it does not detract from the central embellishment. I made the embellishment from a square memory glass that I coloured (on the back) with alcohol inks then stamped a leaf image on the front with Staz On ink. I attached a yellow card to the back of the glass using copper tape to edge the glass and hold the card in place at the same time. I layered this onto a piece of bronzed card - the same as that used for the corners. I used foam pads to attach the embellishment so it sits above the ribbon. The top layer was attached to the card using strips of board. This gives the whole card more of a 3-D effect.

For this card, I started with the centre - I was playing with one of my Lace templates and decided it would make a good centre for a square card. I used an Ezcut die to cut the corner embellishments from the same paper as the circle. The flowers were punched from 2 shades of pink paper and layered with pearl dimensional for the centres. The leaves were punched from a green card.
The sentiment is from a Darkroom Door flowers set and I stamped it onto a white card cut with a Spellbinders scalloped circle die.
I didn't put a ribbon across the centre (as in the sketch) because I forgot!!!!

Baby Boy

2011-07-08T19:33:00.001+12:00

One of my daughter's friends had a baby boy recently and because my daughter does not knit or anything, she asked me to make some booties. I knitted some cute little blue booties and made this card to go with them.
I used the onesie file from the New Arrivals Cartridge to make the card base on my cricut. I used Design Studio to weld the shadow file together at the shoulders, then cut that and the topper. I ran the top layer through the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder to give it some texture and highlighted the seams with a white pen. The elephant was also cut from the same cartridge and layered. I used Kindiglitz on the elephant to make him sparkle a bit. The sentiment is from a baby stamp set that I have had for ages. I coloured the hearts with a blue glitter pen.

Welcome Lukas! Hope Ali and Vicki are enjoying their new addition to the family!

CAS-ual Fridays challenge this week is a shaped card - this fits the bill I think!

Card Class Cards

2011-07-08T18:15:00.000+12:00

This month, the theme for the class at The Scrappin' Patch will be Fancy Folds including a tri-shutter card, a pyramid card and a twisted easel card.

We are going to do the twisted easel card because the class last month did not run (it must be too cold for people to come out!!). This, I made from Bazzill basics pale blue for the base card and the dotty Bazzill in a slightly darker shade of blue. The flowers were cut from the Tattered Flowers Alterations die (from Tim Holtz) and the leaf from the Tattered Leaves Alterations die. I embossed these with the Cuttlebug then layered them up and finished off with a diamante bling. The labels were cut using Spellbinders Nestabilities dies and embossed around the edges.
Before attaching the embellishments to the top part of the card, I embossed double lines along the side and bottom of the top layer, just to give a bit more zing! The embellishments were added to the top layer then that was attached to the front of the card.

The tri-shutter card is a favourite of mine, but I don't make it that often. It is a good card for formal occasions but this time I have made it a less formal card, just to try it out really!! (I like to try things out!!)

I used a white base card and layered it with pale blue card then paper from my stash. The flowers were cut with the cricut and edged with pen. The buttons were glued in the centres to link into the colours of the paper used on the layers.
I used a scalloped oval Nellie Snellen die to cut the white shape on the front then layered that with one of the fancy tags from Spellbinders. The top layer is a label die fromSpellbinders.

The third card for the class is a pyramid card for which I got the idea from one of my many crafting magazines. (I will add it when I find it again!)
The base card is cut from some blue card that I picked up at a stationery store on the West Coast a few weeks ago. I just love the tonings of the card and it has a lovely texture to it as well. The top layer is paper from my stash (I have had it so long...).
The rosette is cut using an Alterations rosette die (Tim Holtz again!) and is edged with faded jeans distress ink.

The sentiment is cut with a Nestabilities Tag die and I cut the centre part with my Cricut. The stamp is from one of the Art Deco sets from Tanda. It fits this die perfectly!

I do hope we get lots of people for this class! I love these cards!

Peony Cottage

2011-06-29T14:24:00.000+12:00

SVG Cuts came out with this gorgeous little cottage (designed by Mary Rudakas) recently and I loved it when I saw it - so I bought the file. Had it sitting on my computer for a few weeks then decided to do something with it - and here it is!

Using my Cricut Expression, I cut the base cottage from kraft card to make it reasonably strong. The wall coverings were cut from paper that I had in my stash for so long - I can't remember where it came from even!! The roof is cut from dark green Bazzil card and the tiles were embossed with the Swiss Dots folder in the Cuttlebug. I embossed the roof facing with the D'vine Swirls folder.

I wanted to add a fence to the house so I found a file on my Songbird cartridge that had a fence with a bird on it. I welded three together and cut them out with the Cricut then removed the birds from the fence. I cut from the same cartridge a sign with a bird on top and inserted the word HOME using George and Basic Shapes.

I coloured the fence with Distress Stain (Vintage Photo) then attached the leaves and flowers to the fence instead of the house - as it was in the original house.

All it needs is lace curtains to finish it off!!
Thanks Mary and Leo for this great design!

Birthday time

2011-06-29T14:10:00.000+12:00

Yes, it is that time of the year when the birthdays in the family start to come around again. The first one since March!!

My mother turned 86 yesterday and I made this card for her. I wanted it to be a bit special so I found a photo of her when she was about 18. I printed onto copy paper, tore the edges and layered it onto card using melted beeswax. I scraped away some wax from the centre of the card, then heated it a little and stamped a music stamp around the edges where the wax melted. I inked the whole piece with sepia archival ink.

The background is a tapestry paper from DCMW and I layered some old sheet music on top of this.

The roses were made from 6 petal flowers that I punched and made into roses then covered them with melted thick embossing powder which made them look semi-transparent in parts - quite a vintage effect. I layered these onto the lace trim that I coloured using distress stain (vintage photo) and threaded a pale blue ribbon through the lace.

The tag is a grommet tag from Spellbinders that I stamped with the sentiment using archival ink.

Mum thought the card was lovely and showed it to all her friends. She also had a lovely birthday!

Easel Cards

2011-06-23T20:24:00.000+12:00

I am going to be running some card making classes for Adrienne at the Scrappin' Patch over the next few months, so I thought it would be nice to put up some pictures of the sort of cards we will be making.

The first class will focus on easel cards, starting with a simple easel card, similar to this one.

These two cards are made using Nestabilities Labels dies and Cuttlebug folders.

The shape of these cards makes them look really special.

The final example is a Twisted Easel card. This one was made for a card swap with a white on white theme, but it looks very effective in other tomes as well.

I used Tim Holtz Tattered florals die for the flower and the Elegant Flourishes die for the flourish. The text is a cuttlebug folder and I used the Swiss Dots folder to emboss the flower.

I hope the class enjoy making these cards. I also plan to do some classes on cards made with fancy folds, tri-shutter cards and 6-fold cards.

Steampunk

2011-06-13T21:07:00.000+12:00

Sue's challenge over at the Tanda Teaser a couple of weeks ago was "Steampunk". It just so happened that I had just purchased the Stampers Anonymous Steampunk set designed by his lordship, Tim! So, since I was in the craft room this afternoon tidying up after yet another major aftershock ( a 6.0 magnitude earthquake), I decided to have a play with the set!!

I had a grungy looking base card that I stamped the three gentlemen on and embossed with Ultra Chocolate embossing powder. I then masked that image and overstamped in Rusty hinge a stamp that looks like a blueprint. I used a clock face from another set to stamp with walnut stain.
The gears were cut from Tim's gadget gears and stained with vintage photo distress stain.
The ticket is from a set of tickets and stamped with a sentiment from the steampunk set.

This was a fun card to make. I think there will be more steampunk soon...

Y and Z ATCs

2011-06-13T20:58:00.000+12:00

This month sees the end of our Alphabet Themed ATC swap over at the CMW NZ Crafters ATC Swap. For over a year, a group of about 8 people have been swapping ATCs with an alphabet theme and we have seen some really interesting ATCs.

For the Yin Yang ATC, I made the symbol using a MTC file on the Cricut. I cut it in both black and white and layered onto a circle.

The background is made from heavy card off cut which was coloured a jade green. I stamped it with Pumice Stone distress ink and a nice Grunge stamp from Kaiser then overstamped with an oriental lettering stamp (also from Kaiser) which I embossed with detail silver.

I then edged the ATC with Black Soot DI.

My Z ATC used a zebra stripe stamp from Tanda Stamps. I have had it for ages and had not used it before!

I stamped the zebra strip on the whote card then embossed it with black. I used Crushed Olive, Bundled Sage and Forest Moss to stamp the grassy backgrounds - again a Tanda grass stamp for the bottom and a "sticks and balls" stamp that I got from The Stamp Attic last year.

The sky is stamped with Faded Jeans and Stormy Sky DI. I used the dotty background stamp designed by Sue Law for this.
It will be interesting to see what other people come up with for the swap!

White on White

2011-06-13T20:42:00.000+12:00

The CMW NZ Crafters card swap this month is White on White. Haven't ever done this before so it was interesting to have a play with some different techniques.

I wanted to try out a twisted easel card so thought this was a good chance to experiment. I used a big script folder to emboss the bottom layer. The flower is made using the tattered florals die from Tim Holtz and the swirl is also a TH die. I embossed the flowers with the Swiss Dots folder and layered them together with a brad.

The piece on the inside of the card was cut with a Spellbinders labels die and topped with a die cut sentiment which I covered with KindiGlitz.

This card uses a large labels die that I embossed with the Victorian folder. The flower is the tattered florals die which I embossed again with the Swiss Dots folder.

The swirl is made with the elegant flourishes die.

I ran some card through a words embossing folder (You) and cut out the words I wanted to use. I layered these onto the card to provide a 3-D effect.

I do like the white on white effect!

Fancy Folds

2011-05-31T19:33:00.000+12:00

I have been playing around with cards made with different folds. I guess they could also be called pop-out cards as well.

The front of this card is layered with a swiss dots embossed layer, a rectangle cut from DCMV card, a tag stamped Happy Birthday (stamp from Montarga) and the piece cut from the card used for the inside of the card which I edged with fired brick distress ink and stamped with a little flower. The embellishment at the bottom is a bottletop run through the Cuttlebug - yes the Cuttlebug and the A plate and 2 B plates. I stress that you need to use a new bottle top for this - it folds the edges back beautifully. I coloured it with a gold Paint Dabber by Adirondack. The centre is a flower stamped with fired brick distress ink and punched with a 1" circle punch.

The inside of the card was cut a little smaller than the outer, folded in half then spellbinders label die used to cut the shape from the centre of the card. (That was used on the front of the card!) I cut a piece of contrasting card to attach behind the cut out piece and 3 smaller labels to make the floating piece - 2 red and 1 cream. I attached these to the foldout layer with a piece of gold braid that was glued to the centre fold on the inside of the pop out layer. Finished off the inside with gold corner peeloffs.

The second card is based on a card I saw in an SVG Cuts file (Peony Cottage). I cut and embossed the hole in the front of the card using a labels die from Spellbinders then used the cut area to trace the cut required for the underneath layer.

I then used a strip embossing folder to embossed the flowers along the bottom of the card. Faded Jeans distress ink was swiped over the embossed strip.

I cut 2 of the same sized labels from some paper in my stash and distress with Faded Jeans distress ink then cut a smaller label from cream card and again coloured that with Faded Jeans DI. The sentiment is from my favourite Hero Arts sentiments set.

To make the inside of the card, I traced half of the die cut shape along a fold a quarter of the way into the card so that it fitted into the cut out area of the front piece. The centre fold is opposite to that of the front layer so that it pops out.

The little girls stamp is from Crafty Individuals which I masked after stamping then added Sue Law's dotty stamp for the background and sponged some faded jeans on to simulate a sky.

These two cards are just some that I have been playing with over the last few days. Fun to do!

Trying things out!

2011-05-31T19:04:00.000+12:00

The ATC swap for the NZ Crafters Group on Card Making World is nearly at the end of the alphabet. This W ATC used the cover stamp from Craft Stamper a couple of months ago for the clock and the sentiment. Stamped and embossed the clock then cut it out. The wings are vellum, cut with a TH alterations die then cuttlebugged with swiss dots folder. I coloured the wings with Pink Pearlescence Brilliance ink and layered them on the back of the clock. The background was coloured with spun sugar, tattered rose and weathered wood distress inks then stamped with a wee cogs stamp from Zoe.

I cut the card for this side opening card from an A4 sheet - one piece makes 2 cards when cut in half down the long side. I used a strip folder to create the dotty strips down each side of the front then embossed a line along the edge of the embossed strip to "hide" the mark left by the folder. I embossed a 5cm strip with the Victorian folder and coloured it with tattered rose distress ink, then attached it to a wine-coloured layer before attaching to the card. I used the same distress ink on the Spellbinders tag and stamped it with a sentiment from Hero Arts. The same set had a lovely flowers stamp and I used that for the central image which I then cut with a scalloped circle die and edged with distress ink. Layered that on the same wine-coloured paper. The butterfly stamp is also from the same Hero Arts set.

I tried the same strip embossing technique with this card too. I really like the embossed look on the white card.

The stamp is from the same Hero Arts set that I used in the previous card. I used Tombow markers to colour the stamp and used Sue Law's dotty stamp for the background to the image. Layered on black scalloped circle and attached a bow made with my bow maker the the lovely DH made for me! The same sentiment was used on this card.

Craft Room DT Call

2011-05-22T20:20:00.001+12:00

My friend Zoe is working with the owner of the Craft Room, Julia, to coordinate a design team for the new challenge blog. Well, I thought to myself, why don't you give it a go as you need a bit more of a challenge at the moment! So here goes...

When we were cleaning up my mother's house, I found this box that she had kept pens in. She had it for many years and it was originally a box for tea! I decided to decorate it for her to keep then pens she needs in her new home.

I gave it a distressed look by painting it with a wine coloured paint then going over it with a cream colour using the PVA technique - painting a layer of slightly thinned PVA then covering it with the paint.

I coloured the additional bits of the swirls with my copic markers .

The inside of the box was covered with a dark green card and the edges painted with gold paint.

To finish it off, I added the flocked chipboard letters P E N S which I had coloured using a gold dabber paint. This enabled to flock feature to remain a little textured.

Starngely enough, when I gave it to my mother, she asked if that was the box she had kept her pens in at home!! Alteration does not necessarily change!!!

The second project is a book I made for a friend. I haven't put the photos in it yet as I want it to be a surprise.

The pages were all cut using the Tim Holtz Alterations Mini Cabinet Card Die. I used heavy card for the base for each page and covered them with different papers from my stash. Each page was edged with vintage photo distress ink to give it an aged look.

The cover has a large flower die cut from the Tattered Florals die (Tim Holtz Alterations Dies). I cut the flowers from 2 different papers and alternated the layers. Each layer has been sprayed with Cosmic Shimmer (silvery colour) then edged with Vintage Photo. I shaped the petals on each layer to provide a bit of depth to the flower. The centre is a large diamante. I also cut two leaves and gave them the same treatment as the flower's layers.

Each page in this book is different.

The page inside the front cover has a journalling stamp so that I can write a message to my friend.

Some of the following pages have frames on them. The frames for the photos (which I will add later!) were cut using nestabilies dies from Spellbinders. I also embossed the frames to define the edges more.

Paper flowers and a crochet flower have been added to some of the frames. The flower on this page was coloured by stamping Versamark ink onto the petals then dusting with Perfect Pearl powder (green). A yellow brad was added to the centre of the flower.

Background stamps have been used to provide a little detail to the pages. One page was stamped with glimmer mist which I first sprayed on a foam pad then stamped the background stamp on it to pick up the ink. Another page was stamped using white paint from a dabber which I applied directly to the stamp.

I also used a mesh stamp to provide some interest on this page.

Some of the pages use different techniques. For instance, the next page is made like an envelope. I folded the card before I cut it and placed the fold just inside the cutting edge of the die. I then cut the top of one side with a tab die (TH again!). I added a couple of cards to the envelope with some nice sentiments from Tim Holtz. (I got some new stamps recently and wanted to use them - this project seemed like a great opportunity!)

I added a little die cut with a nice sentiment to finish this page off.

This page is made from a heavy card that I embossed with the patchwork quilt folder and inked up with shabby shutters, faded jeans, chipped sapphire and vintage photo. Added a little bird from Kaisercraft and a key cut with the cricut expression and rusted up with vintage photo distress ink and clear rock candy distress crackle paint.

This page is made from acetate which I coloured using alcohol inks in blue, yellow and green shades. Also added some metallic copper to give it a little depth. The acetate is attached to the base card with little dots of Glossy Accents. Amazing stuff as it does not show through the acetate.

This page has a lovely sentiment from Hero Arts - The future belongs to those who believe in their dreams.

I cut the tag with a nestabilities tag die and cut the backing by tracing around the outer edge of the die. This works really well to provide a shadow for these tag dies.

The flower centre is done by adding gold metallic beads with glossy accents.

The final page in the book explains the journey of the book. The sentiment stamp is from a Darkroom Door set and the poppies are from Montarga, stamped with rusty hinge and overlaid with a cute balls and sticks stamp (bundled sage) that I got from the lovely Wendy at The Stamp Attic in Wantage last year.

This is one of a series of ATCs that I made some time ago. It is a tri-shutter ATC, measuring 3.5 by 2.5 inches when it is folded flat.

I used tattered rose and weather wood distress inks to colour the card and used the same inks to stamp the delightful little cogs (designed by Zoe!). The Eiffel Tower stamp was one I picked up at the Craft Barn last year - I think it is by Crafty Individuals. The ticket was cut around the ticket stamp - Tim again!!

I would love to contribute to the Craft Room's Challenge Design Team. I love using a range of different techniques and enjoy teaching other people about using them. I also think that it would provide me with some more challenges that I am really ready for. Enjoy!

Digital Stamping

2011-05-17T19:33:00.000+12:00

I recently bought this digital stamp designed by Daisy Doodles from Card Making World. I loved the little toadstool house! I printed it out and coloured it with Copic markers then stamped the edges with Sue Law's cute dots stamp using Pumice Stone distress ink. I cut the shape with a nesties die and cut a backing piece to mount it on.

The backing paper is from Docrafts Daisy and Dandelion collection. I layered it on black then attached the ribbon. The sentiment is edged with Pumice Stone and cut from another nesties die.

The Tanda Teaser this week is Get Well Soon, so I think I will link it into the challenge there.

Another Challenge!

2011-05-16T11:32:00.000+12:00

Ok I have been busy over the weekend - finally got into some of the challenge blogs and got busy! This one is for the Whimsie Doodles Challange this week. The challange was to use an image that is not coloured! I really like this stamp from Montarga which I stamped on glossy card with Versafine ink. It took ages to dry properly too!

I cut the image with a Nestabilities die and embossed the edge. I used the small die from the same set to cut the shape for the sentiment and embossed it then coloured it with distress ink - Barn Door. The flowers were coloured with distress ink and I attached tiny buttons threaded with embroidery floss to the centres.

Do have a look at the lovely sale Whimsie Doodles are having at the moment too. They have some beautiful digi stamps!

One for the boys!

2011-05-16T11:13:00.000+12:00

Try it on Tuesday Challenge blog has a lovely one this week - One for the Boys.
I used distress inks - peeled paint, wild honey, rusty hinge and aged mahogany to colour the tag then stamped some "male" images on it - one from Tanda - an advert for fasteners and a saw and hammer stamp that was a really old school stamp from a friend. I cut a cog with the Tim Holtz Alterations Gadget Gears and embossed it with the clockworks folder. I then cut a tag from acetate and embossed it with the clockworks folder. Attached it to the tag with brads. The picture does not show it as well as it actually looks!

Card Sketch Challenge Card

2011-05-16T11:07:00.000+12:00

This week, the Card Patterns Sketch challenge is a stunner. I loved the idea of the circular card with the pennants!

So I checked out my stamp collection and found something that might be very good with this sketch. The stamp I used is from Montarga - our very own Christchurch-based stamp manufacturing company which has relocated twice since the earthquake on September 4th 2010!

I cut the base card with the largest Spellbinders Nestabilities scalloped circle die - about 10cm across. The fold of the card is at the top and has been covered by a single piece cut from the same die. I also embossed the edges but not easy to see in the picture.
I then cut a 9.5cm circle which I stamped with Scattered Straw DI with a lovely dotty background stamp designed by Sue Law. Makes a perfect beach scene! I then masked it and brayered the sky with a multicoloured blue Versacolour ink.
The image was stamped then coloured with my copic markers and cut out. I layered it on the card with pop dots to give it some depth. The sentiment was cut with a nestabilities tag die and stamped. The pennants were attached to a ribbon then placed on the card.
A nice piece of fun for a cool autumn day!

Motivated to create!

2011-05-14T11:04:00.002+12:00

After attending a great workshop hosted by Sanzi in Auckland, I felt motivated to create again and after popping into a few of the forums and blogs I haven't been looking at lately, found some more inspiration.

This card was motivated by the Card Patterns Sketch 114. The die cuts were from the new Spellbinders dies I bought while in Auckland and the flower is from the stash that was in the goodie bag from the workshop.

I ran the red trim through the swiss dots folder on the Cuttlebug, stamped the flower with a word stamp and added a large crystal that I coloured with alcohol ink and covered with kindiglitz. The sentiment is from a Hero Arts set.

Goodie Bag stash

This is the stash I got in the goodie bag. It included 2 Cricut Lite cartridges as well as a large pack of paper and card. I also won a Cricut Tool set and a magazine.


This is the stash I bought

At the workshop, Sanzi had a large number of accessories for sale and I bought several Spellbinders Die sets as well as some Tim Holtz Alterations dies. Altogether a very nice amount of stuff to bring home and play with!

These are some of the things we did at the workshop. It includes cards made with:

acetate,
printed papers done on the Cricut Imagine
pop- up cut with a die
die cut card (grand spellbinders die)
cut-outs using the Cricut Gypsy
Cuttlebug embossing folders and inks.

We also used the Yudo Card Shop for screen printing an image (on the box).
It was a very well organised workshop and the presenters were amazing! Thanks Sanzi!

It is May already... where is the year going?

2011-05-05T20:26:00.001+12:00

I had to make a couple of cards for the Card Making World Monthly Challenge again. The theme this month is Make a Shape - other than square or rectangular! I chose to do this pyramid card - I think the original idea came from a Craft Stamper magazine. It was a bit complicated to put together, but once I got it worked out - it seemed to work OK. I used a Happy Birthday background stamp on the card before I put it together to make it easier to stamp. Once it was assembled, I used three or four colours of distress inks to give the shading on the card. I love the Bundled Sage with the Rusty Hinge and Wild Honey distress inks.
The rosette was made with a Tim Holtz die and coloured before putting together.

The second card for the monthly challange was made by cutting a folded card with a nestabilities label die, then cutting several more layers. The image is from a Victorian CD and coloured with Copics. I used Pumice Stone to provide the shading around the image and the layer underneath.

I embossed a dark green layer then attached the other two layers to it, applying the whole to the base card. I tied the ribbon with the bow maker that my clever OH made for me! Makes tying bows really easy too...

I made this card for a friend. The image was stamped on card then a wax resist applied using embossed waxed paper ironed onto the card. A layer of distress ink was then applied to produce the patter on the background of the image. I covered the show with flowers and leaves and coloured the ribbon in a darker purple.
I scalloped a piece of black card for the background layer to the image then laid them onto a background embossed with the same folder I had used for the wax resist layer. Attached a scalloped ribbon to the bottom of the layer then attached to a square card.

The sentiment is from a Tim Holtz set and reads: Friendship can not be measured, only treasured.

I thought this little house was really cute when I saw the template on Stephanie Novatski's website.

I cut the base out of brown card then cut layers for the front, back and sides from the same card. These I textured with an embossing folder and the Cuttlebug. I added some lace curtains to the windows and rubbed some gold paint into the embossed door.

The fence was coloured with Picket Fence Distress Crackle Paint and layered onto the house. The trees were stamped with a freebie from Craft Stamper and the birds and bird house were from a stamp set designed by Sue Law.

The roof of the house was cut from thick crimped card and attached to the house.

Crafty Girls Samples

2011-04-06T21:33:00.000+12:00

Last week, we had a crafty girls get together and we did some wax resist and inked toppers for cards.

I saw the technique on Gina K's Stamp TV a couple of weeks ago and loved the idea, so thought we could have a play with it.This card was made with a digital stamp from Background Fairy. A piece of wax paper was embossed using an oriental lantern folder then laid on top of the image and pressed between newsprint with a hot iron. Distress ink applied over the wax resist image then cut with a nestie and layered on another card also cut with a nestie and embossed with the CB. The sentiment (from Tanda) was stamped then cut with a Spellbinders die.

Birthday card made using the wax resist technique. The backing layer was embossed with the same folder as that used to emboss the wax paper.

Close up of image on birthday card showing the resist.

I am loving this technique.
It can produce some very interesting results.

Yes, I am back again!!

2011-04-06T21:19:00.001+12:00

At last I have taken some pictures of some of the things I have been doing over the last week or so. Actually, the first is a picture frame I did ages ago after I came back from a few days in Melbourne. I got the wooden frame at IKEA. I covered the frame with TH tissue tape (what an amazing product), distressed it slightly with vintage photo distress ink to give it a little more depth of colour then coated it with mod podge to seal the tissue tape.
The flowers were made from music paper cut with the tattered florals die (again TH) and shaped into paper roses. I sprayed them with shimmer mist - red and gold, then layered them onto little branches punched from green card and sprayed with gold mist. The flourishes are cut with the TH flourishes die and layered onto the bottom of the frame along with sitcky pearls.

I had to make some Easter cards for the Card Making World Monthly Challenge.

The first one was done mainly using the Cricut. I used Make the Cut to do the egg shape, the shadow and the lattice topper. The letters were welded then cut and a shadow made as well.

The corners were cut with a Martha Stewart Photo corner punch and the centre strip was cut using a Fiskars scalloped edge punch.

The background paper is from my stash!

The second Easter card has a digital image from Tilly - Just Jenny with Easter egg and coloured using my copics. The background speckle stamp was one designed by Sue Law for a shop in the UK and I am loving it a lot! Thanks Zoe for sending it to me!!
The background paper is by Kaiser Craft and the edge shape was cut using a TH edge die. I topped it with a green ribbon. The sentiment and the card were edged with rusty hinge distress ink.

Long time, no blog!

2011-03-16T16:47:00.000+13:00

Hello again after a very long break. Things have been hectic since early February. First, we had a trip to Auckland with my mum to attend the dinner for the New Zealander of the Year Awards. Mum had been nominated for the Senior NZ'er of the Year and she was very keen to go to the dinner. Then 5 days later, she fell and broke her leg and ankle and was admitted to hospital in Christchurch. After some time there, she was assessed as requiring high level care, so we had to find a rest home for her to live in. Fortunately, a place was found that is very close to our home and she is now settled there. Much of the last three weeks has been spent getting her clothes organised and buying things that she will need there!

You are probably aware that we have had another very severe earthquake in Christchurch on Feb 22 which has devastated the central city and many suburbs on the eastern side of the city. This again has taken a toll - not just in buildings but also, many lives - to date about 165 people have been named as casualties with many thousands injured - some very seriously.

With all that has been happening, it is not surprising that I have not had a lot of time or inclination to be creative (apart from having to sort out my craft room after the earthquake!) so I have not had a lot to blog about. However, yesterday afternoon, a friend came over and we spent some time in the craft room, so hopefully, I will now get back into being creative.

This is a card I made for a friend on Card Making World NZ Crafters Group. The base was cut from the Cricut using an svg file from Make the Cut and the top layer was also included with the same file.
I stamped a Happy Birthday stamp from Rubbadubbadoo onto white card then cut with a nestie scalloped circle. The red and black shapes backing the top were also cut with the scalloped circle and embossed on the edges.
I cut red, black and white ribbon and attached that underneath the scalloped sentiment to add a little more interest.

Butterflies

2011-01-31T11:18:00.000+13:00

I was going through some of my Craft Stamper magazines the other day and found this card. I thought I would try it out because I liked the idea of using the different colours of distress inks together, but needed to do something with it.
I cut the base card (step card), then cut the layers. The layer on the side was cut with a Tim Holtz Edge die.
I used Bundled Sage DI to colour the centre of each of the layer pieces, then Wild Honey and Rusty Hinge, followed by Fired Brick on the edges. I love the way the colours blend so well and the red on the edges makes the rest of the colour really stand out.
I stamped the layers with a word background stamp and Rusty Hinge DI. The butterflies were from a Tanda Stamp set I bought last year. I stamped them on the layers then on another sheet and cut them out and coloured them with the same inks. The sentiment is from Hero Arts.
I layered the coloured card with black before attaching to the base card.

Wedding Anniversary

2011-01-31T11:08:00.002+13:00

We celebrated our 38th Wedding Anniversary last week. Wow! Where have the years gone?
I saw Gina K demonstrating this great idea using nestabilities die cuts to make a frame for an image and decided to try it out.
I cut and embossed 4 shapes with the nestabilities tags die and cut each one in half. These were then placed around the edge of a circle that I cut with a circle cutter.
I made a rosette using Tim Holtz rosette die and topped that with a heart that I stamped and cut out. I placed this on a black scalloped circle that I had cut with a nestabilities die. To finish off the top layer, I added some silver peel-offs to the corners.

We celebrated by going to a nice restaurant for a lovely dinner!
Postscript (added 14th May 2011):
I also entered this card in the Papertake Weekly Challenge which was to use die cuts! All the embellishments on the card are cut with dies except the heart in the centre!

Friends

2011-01-31T10:57:00.001+13:00

Friends need to be valued! Our theme for the CMW Monthly Challenge for February is Friendship/Love with a red and black colour scheme.

I made the embellishments for this card using my Cricut. The heart image was from the Make the Cut Gallery. I cut the red layer, then made a shadow for the bottom layer then off-centred the layers when I put them together to show a narrow band of black beneath the heart. I used Kindiglitz to highlight the swirls cut from the heart. The key was from SCAL and I added the word to it, welding it so that it cut together with the key. I added a shadow layer for the key as well.

The base card is white and I added a black layer then overlaid a red layer, half of the rectangle cut on the diagonal with fancy scissors. I then ran it through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss dots folder. The ribbon was added just below the edge of the top layer. To finish, I added some bling to the top right corner.

The second card was made from a black base to which I added a red layer, run through the Cuttlebug (Swiss Dots again!) and overlaid with a black spotted ribbon.
The image is from Montarga, stamped with Versafine Black ink. I cut the image with a Nestabilities die, embossed it then inked the edges with weathered wood distress ink while it was still in the die cutter. This produced a nice clean edge to the image which stands out against the black background.
I used the same technique with the die cut for the sentiment. The sentiment tag was attached with square brads.

I dared to embellish!

2011-01-13T17:36:00.000+13:00

The theme over at the Tanda Teaser Challenge at the moment is Dare to Embellish! The idea is that you make your own embellishment for the card.
I have been intending to have a go at making paper flowers for some time, so this was a great opportunity. I cut 8 scalloped circles out of light green hand made paper with the smallest die in the set. I then screwed them up and damped them with a spritz of water. I then laid them on top of each other and fixed them together with a brad. Starting with the top layer, I crumpled each layer around the previous layer to make it look like the petals in a flower. I then sprayed the flower with red/gold cosmic shimmer over top of a silver shimmer. It came out really well! Don't usually put gold and silver together, but it worked here. The leaves are made with a punch and the sentiment is stamped with a rainbow pad to give multiple colours in the words.

I layered the card with some DCWV cardstock that I had punched with a corner punch and attached a ribbon across the bottom. The card on which the sentiment was stamped, was edged with a gold pen.

Craft Your days Away has an anything goes theme this week, so might put this one in there too!

Another Challenge

2011-01-13T17:23:00.000+13:00

Card Patterns has a neat sketch for this week's challenge.
I chose a digital image from Tiffany Doodles for this one. I just loved the cute ladybug with the shoes and a cute face!
I coloured the image with copic markers and used a spellbinders scalloped circle die to cut it out. The edged shadowing was done with Bundled Sage distress ink, which I also used on the edges of the card. I layered the image onto a piece of red card that had also been cut with the Spellbinders scalloped circle die.
The background paper was a marbled paper that I found in my stash - not sure where it actually came from! I cut that into 4 squares and rounded the corners, then attached to a green background card. I then layered this onto a piece of red card. The sentiment is from a Hero Arts set.

A New Year

2011-01-13T17:12:00.001+13:00

I can't believe it is 13 January already and this is my first blog for the year! Happy New Year to my followers - hope it is a good one for you and I look forward to sharing more of my creations throughout the year.

Over at Stamp Something Challenge this week, the theme is Digital - stamps and backgrounds. For this card, I used a digital image from Joanna Sheen's Vintage Birthdays for the background paper and an image from Cuddly Buddly (Liliboo Girlies12) which I coloured using my Copic markers.
The sentiment is from Stampers Anonymous and is one of Tim Holtz Odds and Ends.

The design for the card is a sketch from Tiffany Doodles Sketch Challenge for this month.

A New Beginning!

2010-12-30T11:13:00.002+13:00

Over at Card Making World, the challenge for January 2011 is A New Beginning. It is also the theme for Try it on Tuesday (previously Tuesday Taggers). After much thought and suggestions from friend, Carol, I came up with the following.

SVG Cuts has a cute Happy 2011 cutting file on its freebie site here and it can be downloaded very quickly!
I cut the shapes from blue and white cardstock then layered them together. I put Kindiglitz on the words and numbers to make them stand out a little.
I cut a label with my spellbinders die, embossed the edge then distressed it with Chipped Sapphire DI. It makes the embossed edge stand out quite well.
I attached a ribbon with a knot to the bottom of the layer then attached the lot to the card, after I had rounded the corners. The bottle and glasses were from some sprinkles that I picked up at a local craft shop some time ago, but they worked out quite well! The card also fits the Stamp Something Challenge which is on this week as well.

The second article for the challenge is a Challenge Diary. I have been thinking for some time that I needed a diary to note all the challenges that come up each week/month. So I came up with this one. The cover is made from a sheet of DCWV paper which I cut to A5 size then stamped using Stazon Timber Brown and various distress inks in tonings of brown. I also used masks to cover off the images that were most important (the calender and the words). The back cover is left plain.
I made up a template for the pages and printed them onto A5 paper (doubled sided) with enough pages for 52 weeks of challenges!!! I then put them together and bound them with the Bind It All. I tied pieces of fancy yarn to the wires to add a little contrast!

The two tags at the top of the diary were made from shrink plastic. I stamped the shrink plastic using Stazon ink, carefully cut them to size, made holes in the top to accommodate the jump rings, then heated them with my heat tool.

I still have not finished my 12 Tags of Christmas, but I will get there!!

Enjoy.

Two more Tags

2010-12-24T15:04:00.000+13:00

I have now finished 7 of the 12 Tags of Christmas for this year!
This tag was firstly swiped with white paint dabber along the edges and allowed to dry. I then coloured the background using Tumbled glass and Broken China. The ink was wiped off the painted bits to retain the white colour. The snowman was cut from grunge paper using the Cricut. The hat, arms and nose were cut from another snowman and coloured using distress inks then attached to the white snowman (coloured with white paint dabber and edged with Pumice Stone DI. Merry Christmas stamped on the snowman's body.
The top layer is heavy acetate (an old package, recycled and cut to shape) and was embossed with the snowflakes folder in the Cuttlebug. Attached to the bottom layer with brads.
The Merry Christmas stamp is from a Hero Arts collection.

This tag was layered with Christmas Carol paper then coloured using Rusty Hinge and Vintage Photo distress inks. The rosette was cut from the same paper and edged with vintage photo DI. The embellishments are from a Tim Holtz collection. The words were cut using the Cricut and MTC software then attached and covered with Glossy Accents. The buttons are from my stash! The brads along the bottom were attached, then hammered to produce a vintage look. The bead embellishments attached to the top were put together from my stash of beads and findings.

Enjoy!

Have a wonderful, safe and happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

SVG Cuts

2010-12-20T11:27:00.001+13:00

Follow this link to the SVG cuts great giveaway today! http://svgcuts.com/blog/?p=8018

You could win a beautiful Cricut Expression!

They are giving away lots of other goodies too.

More Tags

2010-12-19T20:26:00.000+13:00

I have now finished a further four tags in Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas for 2010.

Again, I didn't have all the images that Tim used but used some of the stamps I already had and improvised! The pine needles is a Tanda stamp that I picked up in May. The pine cone was cut with the Cricut from the Joys of the Season cart.

Instead of using a stamp for the branch, I cut one using the Songbird card in the Cricut. The bird was also cut with the Cricut and stamped with a music stamp, then coloured using Fired Brick DI. The rosette was made following Tim's instructions, with tissue tape and topped with a button. The image is one I found in a Christmas set. I cut it out, then edged with Walnut Stain DI and stamped with joy stamp using walnut stain DI. The white specks on the tag were made using the snow cap dabber before I inked the edges of the tag. The DI wipes off the paint and leaves it standing out slightly.

For this tag, I cut the trees, deer and wreath using the cricut. The trees were inked with distress inks. The deer was embossed with the snowflakes folder in the CB, then painted with blue paint and sanded on the raised embossing to provide the multicoloured effect. The tag was coloured using blue distress inks and edged with vintage photo. The sentiment was stamped with fired brick and edged with vintage photo. Tissue tape was added to the bottom.

For this one, I cut some background paper and attached it to the tag. Added a santa picture that I cut from other paper. Edged the tag with stormy sky DI. The large clear embellishment was coloured with alcohol ink then the snowflake stamped with archival ink then wiped off before it dried. Stuck the embellishment to white card and cut it out. Added the bling to the bottom of the tag. The sentiment is stamped in fired brick DI.

Have really enjoyed doing these tags and hopefully, might get the rest finished before Christmas - only 5 days to go!

Happy Birthday Series

2010-12-14T21:39:00.000+13:00

I was playing round with my Cuttlebug and a Happy Birthday folder last week. I had embossed a number of pieces of card in different colours and decided to do something with them. I came up with these 6 cards, all of which follow the same basic layout, but with different colours and embellishments. I used Copic markers to colour the images.

Find more photos like this on Card Making World

Enjoy!

My Tag Number 1

2010-12-14T21:19:00.000+13:00

I was so impressed with Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas that I decided to challenge myself to do the tags as well - along with thousands of other t!m fans around the world!!!

I didn't have all the dies necessary to complete the tag the same as Tim, but I was able to cut similar shapes with my Cricut. So the house, tree, fence and wreath have all been cut using the Cricut. I used SCAL to cut the house and the tree, My Community cartridge for the fence and Joys of Christmas cartridge for the wreath.
I cut the house from grunge paper then embossed it with a woodgrain folder in the Cuttlebug. Covered it with white paint, then laide a layer of distress ink (walnut stain) on top of that. Wiped off some of the ink from the paint to give a more distressed look. The tree and the snow on the house are actually flocking laid over glossy accents (house) and paint (tree). The fence has a layer of crackle paint and that gives it a slightly distressed look as well. I used distress crackle paint (peeled paint) on the wreath along with some darker distress ink (forest moss and pine needles) then laid some distress stickles on top of that. The ticket is cut using the ticket die then stamped with a ticket stamp and christmas greetings. The star atached to the tie at the top was from one of Tim's embellishment sets that I picked up at a closing down sale yesterday!
I am quite pleased with the way this has turned out and plan to get to work on the rest of them in the next few days.

Monthly Challenge for December

2010-12-02T21:14:00.001+13:00

Over at Card Making World, we are having a monthly challenge. This month the theme is A Christmas Carol and cards entered must reflect a Christmas Carol in some way.

My first sample card for the challenge was based on the carol, O Little Town of Bethlehem. I copied the music for the carol and reduced it to fit on the card. Then I distressed it using the wrinkle method and coloured it with antique linen DI. I then spritzed it with gold perfect pearls and water in a mister. It I also inked the torn edges of the paper. The stamped image is by Montarga which I embossed with gold and added gold beads to the bottom of it to make it look a bit like sand! I stamped and embossed the image twice and cut some of the buildings out, which I added to the image to give a bit of depth. The sentiment is from a Hero Arts Christmas set. Finished it off with some blue and gold ribbon across the card and gold star brads in the corners.

The second card was made using a Nestabilities die set. I folded the base card the cut it with the largest die, leaving a bit of the die over the folded edge to create a fold.

I cut another single layer the same size to add to the base card, then embossed it in the Cuttlebug. I cut two other layers, one in the same colour and another in silver to provide layers. On the smallest one, I stamped the Partridge in a Pear Tree stamp (again from Montarga) and embossed it with silver. I stitched round the silver layer with the sewing machine (no thread) to provide a little bit more detail. A Christmas greeting is stamped inside the card.

Thanks for looking!

Challenge Cards Again

2010-11-28T20:49:00.000+13:00

Well, it is so long since I did any challenges that I thought I should get busy, especially since I have done most of my Christmas cards (and it is still November- wonders never cease!).

StampTV had a nice sketch challenge this week (STVSLSP3) and Lots to Do Forum Revisited had an embossing challenge so this one should "kill two birds with one stone" so to speak!

The sketch for the StampTV challenge is here.
I used a Christmas theme and stamped the image onto a patterned paper to give it a bit of a vintage look. The sentiment was also stamped on the same paper. I layered both onto wine card. I also edged the image with gold strips to make it stand out a little more.

The background card is embossed with a cuttlebug folder then layered onto the wine card. I layered the image with foam pads to make it stand out from the background too. The three stars are little gold brads.

Vintage Cards

2010-11-27T14:45:00.000+13:00

I have been making vintage birthday cards using images and background papers from Joanna Sheen's Vintage Birthdays CD.

This is a slideshow of the cards I have made and uploaded to my photo album on card Making World.

Find more photos like this on Card Making World

Back to being busy again!

2010-11-23T17:26:00.000+13:00

The last week has been a busy one and I have got something to show for it!
Found a neat gift card holder demonstration over at Gina K's website - stamptv. So I spent a bit of time making some and was very pleased with the results!
I made the holders slightly narrower than the dimensions given in the demonstration because the A4 card is slightly narrower than the card available in the USA. But it doesn't matter because you can still fit a gift card comfortably in the holder.

Have also been busy with Christmas cards as it seems to be the season again! I did manage to get the cards for overseas into the mail by the closing date for economy post for the first time ever, I think! Here is one of the cards I made this year.

I have been using the Joanna Sheen Vintage Birthdays CD again and printed off some lovely images and backing papers. This card uses an image and background paper. I cut the image using a Nellie Snellen die in the cuttlebug. I then threaded narrow ribbon through the holes in the edges and tied a little bow at the bottom. I thought it was quite effective. The image was printed on textured paper which provided a slightly more vintage look.

And I couldn't help doing a card with a coloured image. This image is called Rain but I am not sure where I got it from - I must catalogue my digital stamps properly!! Anyway - coloured it with copics and layered on dotty card with a dotty ribbon.

Back Again!

2010-11-08T19:39:00.000+13:00

Well it has been a month since I last blogged anything here - so I need to make up for lost time.

First up, a card I made for my mother to give to some friends for their 50th Wedding Anniversary.

The card used was metallic gold and cream card. Always nice to use this for a special occasion card.

I cut the corner flourishes with the Cricut using the Home Accents cartridge. The centre rectangle was embossed with the Divine Swirls folder on the Cuttlebug. The numbers were cut using the Songbird cartridge on the Cricut.

To finish it off, I placed tiny pearl bling on the centres of the flowers on the corner flourishes.

A few days ago, I was playing with some tags and Lord Tim of Holtz's book, Compendium of Curiosities and produced these tags. A variety of techniques was used and I had a lot of fun!
You will need to guess what techniques I used from the book, if you have it already. If you don't have it - it is really worth getting! Send me an email if you really want to know...

I really liked the results when I used acrylic paint dabber to stamp an image then distressing! Hint - there are 2 using this technique!

CMW Monthly Challenge

2010-10-07T11:12:00.000+13:00

Carol and I decided to try to revive the Card Making World Monthly Challenge group recently, so we chose the theme SPORT for October. Given that the Commonwealth Games are on in India at the moment and the Ryder Cup for golf has just finished, it seemed appropriate.

As part of the DT for this group, I made a couple of sporty cards to get ideas stimulated for the group. The first card is a golf inspired one. I have had this cutting file for some time (from SCAL) and have not had the inspiration to use it, so this was a perfect opportunity.

The golf bag was cut in the various parts using the Cricut Expression.

The oval backgrounds cut from a Nestabilities oval set. The top oval was run through one of my Cuttlebug folders and the edges of both ovals were inked.

The photo corners were punched using a Martha Stewart punch.

The surfer card was inspired by the digital image - hang ten Kody - (from Some Odd Girl) coloured with Copic markers.

The top layer of the card was cut with a Nestabilities Oval die and the "waste" used as the background. The lines around the edge are peel-offs which I coloured using a felt pen. Attached the lines then masked them and the outside edges before stamping the swirly stamp around the edges of the layer.

The digital image was attached to the back of the top layer then all attached to the card. The sentiment was stamped on a separate card and attached with foam squares, after inking the edges to make it stand out a little more.
This card was also a good one for this week's Tanda Teaser!
Really enjoying my Copics!

Thank you

2010-09-22T10:49:00.000+12:00

I made this card to send to a forum friend who sent a selection of lovely tags as a Hug gift. It was certainly much appreciated after the trauma of earthquakes and aftershocks over the last few weeks.

To make the card, I first coloured the image with copic markers. The image is a digital one from Whimsie Doodles (Swing Leah).

I then cut the oval out of the card using a Nellie Snellen die and the Cuttlebug. The image fitted really well behind the cut out. I carefully cut the feet and legs away from the main image and tucked them outside the lower part of the oval shape.

These are the lovely tags that Hilda sent me. They are from Shairon, Julia, Joy and someone who didn't sign the back. If it was you, please let me know!! Thank you, my friends on the Lots to Do Revisited forum.

Clean and Simple

2010-09-22T10:31:00.000+12:00

This week, our Crafty Girls theme was Clean and Simple.

To make this card, I first cut a Nellie Snellen circle die from a piece of card then used the piece I had left to make a mask. I then inked the base card with Antique Linen and Scattered Straw Distress inks to provide a coloured base. The sunflower stamp was coloured with Tombow markers then stamped on the inked design. The sentiment is from my favourite Hero Arts set and was stamped in brown ink.

I added a narrow ribbon in a matching colour along the side of the card to finish it off.

Enjoy!

LTD Swaps

2010-09-12T13:21:00.000+12:00

Hilda, from Lots to Do revisited, is hosting an ATC and Tag swap at the moment.

The theme for the tag swap is Letters. For these tags, I embossed them in one of my new TH embossing folders (Collage) because it has lots of words on it. I then used distress inks to colour the tags.

Stamped letters on cards then punched out and layered on the tags.

The theme for the ATCs was Pen and Ink. I found some lovely card with writing on that I used for 2 of the ATCs. I found one of my old rubber stamps of a fountain pen that I used on two of the ATCs, I coloured the images then covered them with glossy accents. The bottom ATC used a stamp that included the pen with the images. Again, coloured these and used GA on the pen image.

The edges of the cards were coloured using distress inks.

Stamps

2010-09-12T13:12:00.000+12:00

Carol from Hamilton set Jude (from Temuka) and I a challenge to use postage stamps in three different projects.For ages I thought about what I could do before I actually got round to doing it!

Lots to Do Challenge for this week is a Distressed Tag so I have combined the 2 challenges! I found some really old postage stamps on some letters when we were cleaning out the garage some time ago. They were all 1, 2 and 3 cent stamps! It is about 40 years since these stamps were used!!! Anyway, the stamps all had moths or butterflies on them so I used butterflies and wings on this tag along with the stamp to try to link it all together. I used distress inks to colour the tag and to stamp the images. I also distressed the edges of the tag with my TH distressing tool.

I found a little box with made with shiny card the other day, so used that to make the little box. I used alcohol inks to colour the box (which you can't really see in the photo) and collaged postage stamps on the top of the lid. Used lace and ribbon to trim the edges of the lid. Finished it off by adding a butterfly, which I stamped with postage stamp images and added distress stickles to the wings. Used gold wire to create the feelers.

The final part of the challenge was this ATC, to which I added a special issue stamp. The stamp was to commemorate NZ's involvement in the Shanghai Expo this year. I coloured the base card using Tattered Rose and Pumice Stone Distress inks, stamped the lettering with pumice stone, added the stamp and finished it off with the little coin.

An interesting challenge that made me think a bit!! Thanks Carol.

Back to creating again!

2010-09-10T22:16:00.000+12:00

After all the trauma of the last week, I had to get back to making things again, so went to the craft room today to make some cards and have a play with my Cricut again.

A friend asked me to make her a birthday card for her partner, who is a speed boat fanatic. I found this little boat and waves on the Going Places cartridge and thought it might be OK.

I also noticed that a couple of challenges this week called for layers and Happy Birthday, so decided that this card could fit all three "criteria".

Papertake Weekly Challenge #47 was a sketch, which I used for the design of the card. I had a square card that I used for the base then layered with a Cuttlebugged layer in blue, then a printed paper. The red piece was put through a crimper and the top layer was cut with the Cricut. The boat was cut from a square with rounded corners. I also cut the same from red and white card to provide the different colours and these were layered on the cutout. All the pieces were edged with distress ink with the top layer being edged with white. The Happy Birthday stamp was from a Tanda stamp set (Art Deco) designed by my friend Sue!

The Cuttlebug Challenge this week was for a birthday card with at least 2 layers because it is their second birthday!

And the earth moved...

2010-09-10T13:15:00.000+12:00

Last Saturday morning, 4th September at 4.35 am, we were very rudely awakened by the most violent shaking and loud noise as a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck near Christchurch.

The damage for some has been enormous - not just to property, but to people emotionally as the aftershocks continue - 6 days later. many people have lost homes as well as businesses. Virtually new homes have been lost to subsidence of the ground underneath, as new fault lines are discovered.

We were very fortunate that we did not sustain any real damage to any of the property apart from a couple of glass vases and a large planter in the garden.

In the spare bedroom, the large filing cabinet that sits in the corner of the room was tossed forward, possibly due to the weight of the drawers that opened with the force of the shaking. Books on top of the cabinet were tossed onto the floor, but the TV set stayed put!

The door to the outside has a cat flap in it and the cat was still able to exit because the lowest drawer left a gap that she could fit through.

In the lounge, a bookcase was thrown forward and came to rest against the sofa. A glass vase was thrown from the top of the bookcase and came to rest on the arm of the sofa. Other ornaments were also tossed onto the floor and only one thing sustained any damage - a small chip in the top of a pottery bottle. The bottom of the bookcase crashed against the wall and has left a small hole that is fixable! My old guitar didn't get any more scratches! The vase of flowers that was on the coffee table didn't move. Photos and a large, very heavy crystal vase were thrown off the piano - again, little damage there - only the stand of one photo frame - which is mendable.

Outside, one of two relatively new plant pots fell over and smashed onto the concrete paving. It is totally wrecked and we will have to try to replace it with another the same to match the one on the other side of the BBQ.

So, we were extremely lucky to have so little damage in such a severe quake. We are very thankful for this and our thoughts are with those who are not so well off at this time.

And the winner is...

2010-09-03T12:47:00.000+12:00

ME!

Check out this website! I won the Whimsy Doodles Challenge this week with my grunge paper brooches!

I was so excited as I haven't ever won a challenge before... Check out the pictures here.

Good Luck Gayle!

2010-08-30T11:03:00.000+12:00

Gayle is having an interview for a job today so I made this Good Luck Card for her.

I used SCAL and the cricut to cut the letters. It is hard to see but I cut a shadow for the letters as well. I layered the words onto card that had been punched along one edge, then attached it to the card.

The rosette is made by scalloping the edge of a 12" strip of paper, then scoring lines down from each of the scallops and folding to create a mini fan fold. Join the edges together to form a circle with the scalloped edge at one side and the straight edge at the other. You then need to push the straight side into the centre and down so that it goes flat. Have a circle or square ready glued or taped to stick the centre of the rosette on the wrong side. On the right side, you can add a scalloped circle and decorate it as desired.

I added some swirls to the underneath of the rosette then layered it on the card. Added a narrow black ribbon to finish it off.

Cricut Day

2010-08-29T12:54:00.000+12:00

Yesterday I had a Cricut day. I spent most of the afternoon playing with the programs on the computer - Cricut Design Studio (DS), Sure Cuts a Lot (SCAL) and Make the Cut (MTC) - then cutting some of the files with the Cricut Expression. How I love my Cricut!

I used the Songbird cartridge to cut the bird cages out of kraft card. Really pleased with these as I will be able to colour them a bit more with distress inks then paint with distress crackle to give a rusty, grungy look.

The frogs I cut with a SCAL cutting file. It is two different bits that make up the frog - the face and legs are cut in lighter card and the base in a slightly darker. The hardest thing is piecing them together! They do look cute though!

I cut some tags out of a manila folder. Cheaper than buying them and you can get different sizes as well!

I have to make a couple of Spring cards soon, so used the Walk in my Garden Cartridge to do the daffodils. These are a bit fiddly because you need to cut the tops out and then stick them together. each flower has 3 different parts to stick! The word was from a SCAL file.

The hearts border was a file I had for MTC. I thought it looked really cool in white against the red background.

I used SCAL again to do the gears. I used what was left of the kraft card to cut these out. The beauty of using the computer to design the cuts is that you can place them exactly where you want them on the sheet then cut them.

Pop up Box Card

2010-08-27T15:13:00.001+12:00

Well, after much promising, here is the next video! This time is is a pop up box card! I loved these when I first saw them and have been making a few. I did a demonstration for the Crafty Girls last month and decided it would be useful to have a video along with the written instructions that I gave them.

Hope you can follow this well enough to make the card.
You can also add a plain piece of card to the part that pops up if you want to add a special message, or you can write it on the box itself.

PS Yes Didi the cat made her first appearance on this one too! She was very vocal while I was making the video.

Goth Girls

2010-08-24T18:31:00.000+12:00

The pictures on these cards are stamps that Sue Law provided for us to have a play with Copic Markers when a group of us met up at Wantage in May. I have had these finished and mounted on card for ages and have just gotten around to blogging them.

All are coloured with copics and finished off with distress inks. The backgrounds are stamped with distress inks and layered on card that has been coloured with the same distress inks as on the top layers.

Grunge Paper Brooches

2010-08-13T22:03:00.000+12:00

Have been doing a bit of experimenting with grunge paper and making flower brooches. First saw these done by His Lordship Tim - not in person of course - but on a You Tube video, and I thought I could adapt the idea by using flowers cut on my Cricut.

I cut the different sized flowers using the Cricut - I forget which cartridges I used for these ones as it was a while ago that I did them!! Cut shapes from grunge paper and some pages of an old book then glued them together. Found that Mod Podge is the best as it still has some flexibility when it dries.

Used distress inks to colour the petals and distress stickles on the lower two (green and red) flowers. On the other two I used Kindiglitz as it gives a lot more sparkle. Fastened the three together with a brad then glued a brooch pin to the back of each one.

These three I completed today. I used more rounded petals on these ones - I think the cartridge was Plantin Schoolbook and cut the flowers bigger. The biggest was 2.5 inches wide. Again used distress inks to colour the flowers. The top one I used walnut stain distress stickles, the blue one, Kindiglitz and the pink one, I used silver kindiglitz and was very pleasantly surprised by the texture when I smoothed it out with my finger! Instead of using a brad to join these together, I used Glossy Accents as a glue and used bling for the centres of each of the flowers.

Quite pleased with the results!

Roses

2010-08-13T19:30:00.000+12:00

This card was made for a Tanda Teaser with the theme of roses.
I used a square white card as a base then added a top layer of red which I trimmed to leave a white border. The rose stamp is a Tanda stamp applied to whote card which was trimmed with fancy scissors then layered on black. I put a lace trim down each side of the black card.
For the corners, I punched corners from red and black card then layered them to produce the wavy line. I used extra black corners to form the wavy square in the centre, on which I placed the sentiment.

I coloured the rose with copic markers.

Since the card also has lace on it, I can put it in the Lots to Do Challenge for this week as well!

My ancestors

2010-08-12T20:41:00.001+12:00

Just found this on the internet and wanted to share it with my friends. This is the house my great, great, great grandparents built and lived in on Stewart Island, to the south of the South Island of New Zealand. Click on the link for a neat little video!

Lewis Acker and his wife, Mere Pii, a Maori woman, raised 9 children in this house which is a one room cottage. They originally had a lean-to kitchen at the right hand end of the house. Acker was a boat builder and trader when he lived here. Originally he came from the USA as a sealer.

Blogging again

2010-08-09T18:02:00.001+12:00

Well it has been a while since I put anything new on my blog. I have been busy, just not doing crafty things!
I have been busy over the past few days doing some ATCs, Skinnies and Tags for a swap. I thought I would blog them before I sent them off.

These ATCs are designed around the theme - Oriental. I used distress inks to colour the backgrounds with the spray technique - layer colours of ink onto a craft sheet, mist with water then lay the card down on the inks getting a good coverage of colours.

I used the same ink pads to stamp the images. The coin was stamped then embossed with thick embossing powder then stamped again while the powder was still liquid. The stamps were from Montarga, Rubbadubbado, Kaiser Clear Stamps and Tanda.

I used the same background technique for the next set of ATCS (Theme - Time). Again, I stamped the images with the same inks that I used for the backgrounds, except for the word stamps. The stamps used here were from Montarga and Paperartsy.

These skinnies were based on a theme - Scenic, which I took literally! The ones on the left and right used a photo that I "photoshopped" to provide a mountainous background. The pictures were taken earlier this year when we visited Mount Cook. Distress inks used to colour the pictures and again to stamp the images (except for the cats!). The bird and butterfly were stamped then cut out and mounted. The middle skinny used a Japanese picture which I coloured using Tombow markers then layered onto Japanese paper. I punched flowers from the same paper (which is why they are hard to see!) and added a bling flower to the centre of each one. Skinnies are made from a 3" x 5" piece of card.

These tags were made for a swap with the theme Paris/France. Used distress inks to colour the backgrounds and stamp the images. The tag on the left has a flower made from scrunched up circles of paper. The centre tag is embossed on the grey bits with weathered wood distress embossing powder and has a deliciously rough texture. The tag on the right used a kaiser stamp on the background, with another kaiser stamp (chandelier) and a paperartsy stamp. The tickets were cut with a TH die and stamped with ticket stamps I bought at the Craft Barn, then attached with a brad.

I really enjoyed playing with these, but I must make some more cards!!

New Challenge Blog

2010-07-25T10:43:00.000+12:00

Just found a great new challenge blog here - Craft Your Days Away - now that is really what I like! The first challenge starts on August 7th - so make a note of it in your crafty diary!

Please take a minute or two to go and have a look.

Thanks.

Challenge for Jude and Carol

2010-07-22T16:08:00.000+12:00

A couple of weeks ago, while chatting on Card Making World with Jude and Carol, I suggested a challenge using the flower stamp from a recent Craft Stamper magazine. The challenge was eagerly taken up by both Carol and Jude. What was the challenge? To make three completely different articles using the stamp - one of which could be a card. Jude, unfortunately did not have the stamp, so carol and I both sent her a heap of stamped images to use in the challenge.

The first article I made was an altered tin. I painted the edges of the tin with copper coloured paint (Adirondack Paint Dabber) first. Then I took some metal, stamped the image 4 times then embossed it from the wrong side to get the raised image. I also embossed a separate image for the add on flower. I painted the metal the same colour, but on the add on flower, I used a pearl paint as well to get a lighter image. I used a bright yellow copic to colour the centre of the flower then added some kindiglitz for sparkle. I mounted some leaves (cut with the Cricut) and glitzed them then added the flower with mounting foam to make it stand out from the tin. The metal strip was fastened to the tin with DS tape and tied with fancy yarns from my stash.

The card was made from a bright pink card base that I found in my stash of goodies, layered with an off-white paper that I punched to provide a fancy edge, then stamped the flower image 3 times with worn lipstick distress ink and embossed with clear embossing powder.
The lace edging was a piece of white cotton lace that I coloured using the worn lipstick distress ink then topped with a ribbon. I have not added a sentiment as I couldn't find a place to put it without it appearing too much!!

The third piece for the challenge is a pair of ear rings.
I stamped clear shrink plastic with black stazon ink, cut the flower images out then coloured with a pinky-coloured copic. I shrunk the images which then came out at about 1.5cm across. I added the beads and silver coloured findings to make the ear rings. (They actually are the same length - the picture is a bit off centre!)

SENZ

2010-07-18T18:07:00.000+12:00

Well, it was SENZ weekend here in Christchurch and it was the place to be for stampers and scrapbookers!

Lots of displays by retailers from all over NZ and lots of classes and demos for people to attend. Some of the Crafty Girls met up yesterday for a guided trip around the retailers and went home very happy with lots of goodies and a lot less cash!
I bought a few things, as you can see from the picture at the left - some darkroom door stamps, clear stamps from Kaisercraft, some plastic face moulds, distress embossing powder, a leaf punch and some other stuff!

Today, I went back again to do a vintage clock class. Mel and Ali from Kaisercraft in Australia were running the class and they were just lovely.

This is the clock I finished at home - it always takes longer to do something like this for the first time. The clock is a pre-designed set available from Kaisercraft and is made from MDF. Covered the square base with Kaisercraft paper and distressed around the edges with Walnut Stain. Others painted around the edges, but you know me and my penchant for distressing!! Added pearls to the edges which had been coloured with alcohol ink to make them look a bit more vintage. The keys and the numerals were cut with a cricut then coloured with walnut stain DI and painted with Distress Crackle paint. The frame was covered with another KC paper and the edges again distressed. I cut the flowers from another sheet of KC paper, rolled the edges and distressed, then shaped them a bit so they would stand out from the base. Glitzed with gold GM and attached using glue for the bigger flowers and foam mount for the smaller ones. The photo mount has some beautiful cotton ecru coloured lace along one side and the keys are attached with ribbon. The pictures in the photo mount are from a Victorian Birthdays CD that I sort of adapted to provide the sepia look. Of course, it looks so much better in real life than in the photo and I am quite pleased with the end result. Thanks Mel and Ali!
The other great thing that happened was that I won a prize in a draw in the class and came home with some lovely goodies from Kaisercraft - Thanks Kaisercraft - I shall really enjoy using them all.

ATC Book Part 2

2010-07-11T11:33:00.000+12:00

This is the second part of the making of the ATC book. It shows a couple of ways of putting the book together.

Enjoy!
Please leave a comment when you have tried making a book and a link to your blog or a picture!

Hats

2010-07-09T11:06:00.000+12:00

Made some ATCs for a swap and for the LTD challenge this week, but I may have missed it again!!
The theme was Hats or Crowns.
I used alcohol inks to colour the backgrounds, added some lace, stamped some hats and handbags, then added peeloffs that I had attached to other papers then cut out. To finish, added some bling on 2 corners and peel of corners on the others.

ATC Book Video

2010-07-09T10:37:00.001+12:00

The idea for this came from my friend Carol, in Hamilton, who sent me the instructions for folding the pages. A few weeks ago, I made a little book to keep ATC swaps in. Since then, I have thought a little more about this, redesigned the pages a little and produced another book.

Part 1 of the video describes how to fold the pages for the book. Each page is made from a sheet of A4 paper and folds into a mini-book of 4 pages, each with a pocket that will hold an ATC.

The second part show some ways to put the pages together to make a book. This will be uploaded in the next day or so.

Thanks for looking - please feel free to leave comments.