Enthusiasm Does Wane :(

I'll readily admit, I've not had a lot to do with my blog for a while.  I don't know about anyone else, but you just kind of have times where you don't feel like being creative or you just want to muck around without purpose.

That said, I did achieve stuff!  So I'm going to share a few pictures with you :)

I gave origami a try and love it :)  I'm not brilliant at it, but I've only been doing it for a couple of weeks.

I made a few cards but not much - took a break to build up creative juices hehehe  Gotta get stuck into the Christmas Cards again, though!!  Eek!

If you want instructions for anything below, let me know and I'll create a special post.

So without further ado:

 

A butterfly :)

 

A crane :)

 

Pig and cat finger puppets :)

 

One of those origami jumping frogs - I just added googly eyes and a curly tongue :)

 

A geometric ball thing - not very hard, took me a couple of hours or so ... looks amazing!

 

A lilly :)

 

A Star Masu Box :)

 

A Tatu Purse - you pull two triangles on opposite sides and it opens up and then easily goes back into place.  I have made another that I have filled with glitter and scatters, and have stamped a greeting inside, that I want to incorporate into a card somehow :)

 

I got some freebie embellishments with my Cardmaking, Stamping and Papercraft magazine so threw together a couple of quick cute cards :)

 

I felt creative today and so decided to make a card that looks like a pinboard :)  Could probably use some refinement, but for an on-the-spot concept, I think it came out ok!  AS you can probably see, I tiled the cork - I only did this becauase I was working with scraps.  Naturally you could just cut one piece to size.

 

It's been school holidays, too, so my son and I made a papier mache Volcano!  Was fantastic fun to build it together and then I just filled it with bicard soda and gave my son cups of vinegar mixed with red food colouring!  AWESOME!

 

 

 

 

Happy Chilling!

 

Dani :)

Collage Owl

 

Mini-Card:  FUN FOR BIG AND LITTLE KIDS!

Threw this one together today, felt like making something a little bit fun :)

1. It's pretty simple really:
2. On white paper (I used normal copy paper), scribble with a watercolour pencil, then roughly spread the colour around with an aqua brush (or brush and water) so that you get a wash with the scribble still visible in it.  Alternatively you could just use a patterned paper, it's up to you.
3. Once the paper is dry, tear out an owl body shape so that the edge of the owl shows the white tear of the paper
4. Tear some rough wing shapes out of newspaper or a book, create eyes with small circle punches or use googly eyes
5. Glue a stick to your card and hovering just above the stick, glue your owl pieces onto the card.  Draw a beak, 'feathers', ear detail, and legs onto the card
6. Roughly cut out little leaves and stick them on the card around the stick to create a tree branch - I created the paper for the leaves the same way that I created the paper for the owl
7. Apply your greeting however you want!  I liked keeping the "torn" theme going.  My greeting was simply printed from the computer and cut out.

Done!

Happy Hooting!

 

Dani :)

 

 

 

 

Wedding Fever

I have a friend who is getting married in October and I want to make her the perfect card. Don't know if I am there yet but happily throwing a variety of styles of cards together as practice to help me decide what I will finally make for her :)

One is in silver and white with a big lovely fabric flower and a skeleton leaf for a delicate splash of colour.

Another is going with more chocolatey tones, using my own stamps to create patterned paper and making it pop with a scattering of jewels and pearls.

And finally, I made a couple of simple ones, utilising heat embossing (which I love!). Minimalist and cute!

Hope you enjoy!

Dani :)

Happy As A ...

 

PIG IN MUD!

My friend and I were at the shops last night buying gifts for 6 year old girls (panic!) and in the card section my friend happen to exclaim at the cuteness of a pig card.  So, since I wanted to avoid cleaning today anyway, I made one for her!

...probably she just awww'd at it because she thought it would be cute for a 6 year old girl.

First of all, I cut out a bunch of pink circles with some punches I have.  Large one for the body, smaller one for the head, even smaller for the snout and teeny ones for the ears!  I edged them all with a similar pink ink.

Piece together as above picture.  To add some dimension, use foam tape between the head and body and the snout and head.  Attach the little ear circles to the BACK of the head.  Find some silly goggle eyes and glue them on.  And finally, use a regular hole punch to create nostrils with black card.

I wanted to have nice rounded feet but because the legs are really no more than a centimetre wide, it was a little tricky to achieve ...so I went for pointy, still using my corner punch to make it as neat as possible.  Of course, me being me, I changed my mind later on and quickly rounded off the ends :)

Anyway, I inked the edges of the legs just as I did the circles.

Since he is a pig in mud, I used a brown ink pad and some cotton buds to gently apply some "mud" to the feet.  I started with a rolling action, to carefully apply the ink, then started to smudge it around a bit.

Stick the legs to the back of the body so that they're the desired length.  Smudge some more "mud" over the rest of the pig, wherever you like really!  No sense in having a happy pig in mud if it's clean!

I also used a cotton bud with pink ink to accentuate the ears a little, as well as shadows at the tops of the legs and under the chin.  I drew a mouth directly onto the pig's face because, you know, it's happy!  Plus without a mouth it was starting to give me the creeps..

I created the pig pen mud with brown card that I cut a gentle wavy design into the top of.  I then used the off-cut wavy design as the front layer of mud that the fence posts sit behind.  The fence is made, obviously, from ice cream sticks.  For the standing posts, I trimmed them down to about 3/4 length.  I roughly, but generously, rubbed a brown inkpad across each stick before sticking the mud and fence onto the card.

The order is:  Mud, fence, mud top layer, pig.  I used foam tape between the mud top layer and the fence; and the pig and the fence.  The pig's feet are stuck directly onto the top layer of mud.

I drew a curly tail directly onto the card (it's short in this picutre but you'll see I later extended it).  I had big plans for using string or wire or something curly but at the end of the day, this seemed easier  and less busy on an already busy card.

Next I decided (yes, I was working without a plan!) to add some colour so it would pop a bit more.  I created some tufts of grass by cutting out thin green triangles and then fussy cutting the spikes at the top.  Then I put a little tape behind them, slotted the bottom tips of them under the mud, so they were positioned against the fence, and stuck them down.

See?

I also decided to shorten the top layer of mud a bit.

The finishing touches:

• Lengthened the tail
• Using the same technique as with the grass, I punched a circle and fussy cut spikes to create a little sun to fill the top right corner  I trimmed it to fit the card after I stuck it down so that it would fit the corner perfectly.
• Fussy cut a little apple and leaf for the bottom right corner, again just to add a little colour
• Used my computer to create the "Happy as a ..." and " ... in mud!", cut them out and stuck em down!
• Used colour markers to draw tiny highlights onto the apple, leaf, grass and sun.
• Done!

Happy as a ...

Dani :)

Whale Of A Time!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! :)

This year, my husband and I will have been married for 8 years - together over 10 years :)  We're celebrating this by taking a little whale watching cruise!  So in honour of that, I've themed the card I'm giving him.

I make the effort to annoy my husband and show him EVERY card I make.  He's patient but only glances at each card and says "Cool." - it's not his cup of tea.  So it's become tradition for me to make him cards - mostly because I like being annoying!

I quickly got over my phase of thinking he'll cherish these cards, so I never make much of an effort - and generally I like to make them super cheesy!  Strangely, they often end up being amongst my favourites, anyway.

This card was simple:

1. First I used publisher as a quick and easy way to find a  cute picture of a whale - I love this one because it was a good cut out that sits neatly at the bottom of the card.  I also created my greeting on publisher.
2. I fussy cut the whale and cut use a paper trimmer to cut your greeting strips.  When I fussy cut the whale, I trimmed off the spurt of water.
3. I cut white card 12cm x 24cm and then folded in half.
4. I cut a strip of blue card, about 3cm wide and slightly longer than the card.  I used a border punch to create the "waves".
5. I edged the blue card with dark blue (Versa Magic 'Night Sky') and stuck it onto the bottom edge of the card.  I trimmed the sides and reinked the side edges of the blue.  (I'll admit now, also, that I trimmed the entire card a little, which is why it looks a little more slender than square).
6. I stuck the whale onto the bottom edge of the card, over the blue card.
7. I created my own spurt out of sticker gems, stuck on the greeting strips and embellished the top left corner with a few more sticker gems

And that's all there is to it!  I plan to stick a folded up "keepsake" copy of the booking for the whale cruise inside the card :)

Now I'm off to stock up on Sea Legs!

Happy Anniversary! :)

Dani :)

 





Updated: Welcome Zahlia :)

 

So yesterday I became an aunt for the second time :)

Welcome, beautiful little Zahlia!

So, naturally, the first thing I do is dash out to my nearest scrapbooking store (45 minutes away).  Yes, I braved the papers and actually picked some out - am quite proud of this because picking patterned paper frightens the heck out of me!  I knew I wanted butterflies so just went for it!

This is the quick and simple page I made for my sister - I did the same thing when my other niece was born :)  I don't put the photo on there - I just think that if it's going to hang in their house, they should pick their favourite picture or picture that best suits!

As you can see, I didn't do too much with it.  It has a very busy background so wanted to keep things as simple as possible.  I just adore the pretty fabric flower and the skeleton leaves!

And here is the card I made!  (for those who saw this page previously, yeah it's a different card - I can't stop fussing!!)

I heat embossed the pitter patter stamp with silver and fussy cut in a circle around it.  Then I used a punch to make a bigger circle in pink.  The edges of both were distressed, no inking.  Stuck them together , affixed 4 skeleton leaves to the back in a sort of fan and then stuck it all onto the bottom right corner of the page!

Added some bejewelling, some teeny tiny paper roses and embossed the Rock-a-Bye directly onto the top left corner of the card.  Punched the botton left corner to soften it and to stop it from looking so neglected :)
Easy peasy and pretty!

Happy Families!

Dani :)

Black & White

 

ROCKIN' THE MONOCHROME!

When making cards, there's no denying that the monochrome look can have a terrific impact - it can  be eyecatching, sexy, classy, modern, masculine (or feminine!), and fun!

And there's no reason you can't tie that into your stamp colouring as well.  If you're  fan of using copic markers, the impact is incredible.  I use watercolour markers, a little more subtle but still fantastic!

I went for cute and fun in this card :)  I think it would appeal to girls in the 10-13 age range :)

I started out by stamping my image and colouring it with various shades of black, grey and white.  To boost the impact I did colour the skin properly and added one element of red, in the cherry, to make the picture pop.

I used only THREE pens in this colouring:  black, red and skin tone.  Any actual black colouring, I used the black marker directly on the card.  Grey was achieved with the black pen, but painted on with an aqua brush (click here for instructions).  I used the pen-tip of the marker to add texture to her hair.

I finished her off with a little jewel on her bow :)

I got a piece of black card with a faint design to back my coloured image.  You could probably use flat black but I think a faint design adds something.  At the other end of the scale, anything with a clear pattern will be too busy and your picture will be lost.

I distressed the edges of the backing card to relax the style and add some definition to the edges (the other side of the card has a design on white so it worked well because when I distressed the edges, the white showed).  I then mounted my image onto the card with foam tape, to give her lift.

I then mounted my image and card onto patterned paper (black pattern on white) that is only a little smaller than the size of my overall card.  The patterned paper I chose is flocked and also has a little shine to it - gotta love textures!

I added black ribbon to break up the pattern a little.

And to finish it off, I stuck the patterned paper onto my base card and inked the edges of the card with black - again to continue the relaxed feel of the card, but it also helps add some definition since you have laid white paper on white card.

I made a little tag - this one I cut out with my cuttlebug, but you could always cut out a rectangle and snip the corners at an angle at the end with the punched hole to give it a tag look.  I used bright red ribbon to embellish the tag, continuing the theme but not overdoing the red.

I then gave it one final touch:  a black heart on the tag with a little red jewel in it!

Happy Monochroming!

Dani :)

Quick Video Tutorial

SECRET MESSAGE CARD

My First Video Instructional

Ok, bear with me on this - it's my first instructional video!  For a card like this, a secret message card, you really need to have a video of how it functions - photos just won't do it!

Today I saw an instructional video on Pinterest on how to do this and so decided I definitely had to give it a go - so what you've seen is my "prototype" - it's obviously how I'll keep doing them but it's the first time I've ever made one so it's hastily thrown/fumbled together.

A Secret Message Card looks like a simple double-door style card.  When you open it you can see that it has a woven or panelled look.  When you open it the "secret" way, it reveals a whole other interior that will contain your "secret message".

The video I saw made use of large background stamps to make the inside of the card one big design, but as you can see I decided since I don't have background stamps that it'd be easier for now to just decorate each individual panel.  You can pretty much do whatever you want with it, but I don't think you can stick anything over all the panels to hide them or it wouldn't work.  I might experiment more with that.

It's a sweet little card that I think people of all ages will enjoy - my son, Brin, got a kick out of opening and closing it over and over!  And it reminds me of a "magic trick" my husband's grandfather made for me - so I guess now I know his secret!

I think I'd better make him one of these cards so he knows the jig is up ;) hehe

Anyway, I hope this video is of some help - I'm going to get a better tripod so that I can actually film from a reasonable distance next time! hehe

Happy Messaging!

Dani :)



There's A Use For Everything!

 

RIBBON SCRAP CARD

As a general rule, unless something looks truly hopelessly useless, I don't throw stuff out.  Most of the cards you see are made from whatever I have lying around.  I am sure I could make superb cards if I went out and bought new stuff everytime and planned ahead, but I'm a fly by the seat of my pants (impatient) kind of girl, so I work with what I have as best as I can :)

A card like this is perfect for using up scraps of ribbon!  Plus it's just plain cute!

Ok, so I selected my main card size as 10.5 x 14cm (it will be white, as usual!).

Now cut a piece of coloured card at 5 x 13cm.  One centimetre in from the right edge, cut a slit.  I used my paper slicer to do this, however as it's a rotating blade, it's hard to gauge where it is cutting in instances like this.  I went for "safe" and extended it out with a hand blade.

As you can see it's straight but a little dodgy at one end - NOT a big deal!  You don't want a big gaping hole or anything, but the ribbons will disguise this anyway.

Next I got some contrasting paper (about 6 x 13cm) with a colour in its pattern that matched my coloured card.  I used an edge punch to pretty it all up a bit and stuck it to the front of the coloured card, at the left side, leaving roughly a centimetre of the coloured card (to the left of the slit) visible.  I trimmed the left edge of the patterned paper so that in total now it is 5cm from left side to scalloped side.

As you will see in the picture below, I also got the same patterned card (another piece about 6 x 13cm), and stuck it to the underside of the coloured card with about a centimetre and a half sticking out the right hand side of the coloured card.

IMPORTANT:  Don't stick down the coloured card to the right of the slit or you can't feel ribbon through it!

Ribbon time!

Pick out a menagerie of colourful ribbon scraps and and slide them through the yellow slit upside down.  Take the time to decide what order you want them in and what colours work for you.

Now fold each ribbon over and, imagining your worst enemy, jam a reeming tool through the ribbon and card (in the centre of the ribbon, a few mm from the edge of the coloured card).

I use a cheap thick old-style foam mouse pad for "reeming tasks".

Once folded and reemed (ooer!!), carefully hold the ribbon in place while you replace the reeming tool with a mini brad.  I started with the two end ribbons, then did the middle ribbon, then finished up with the rest - just to make sure the spacing was ok.

It gets a bit messy flipping it over each time you stick a brad in, so let it sit in there and keep doing the same to each ribbon.  It actually helps everything stay where it should be while you work because the brads are wedged into the foam mouse pad.  Then, once all the brads are in place, carefully lift the card up, flip it over and secure the brads properly.

Trim the ribbons to look how you want them to look - generally the front half of the ribbon is shorter than the back half.

And now the finishing touches -

• Affix your ribboned card onto your main white card, keeping the margins even on top, left and bottom.
• One square coloured card 4 x 4cm layered beneath one square white card 3.5 x 3.5cm.
• Stamp greeting on white square, embellish if you wish
• Stick to the middle of the top patterned card

Done!

Happy Scrapping!

Dani :)

When I Should Be Sleeping

WHAT I DO WHEN I SHOULD BE SLEEPING...

Here I sit, so bleary eyed that I'm seeing triple.  I have been booted out of bed by a sick child, snoring husband and snoring dog!  So rahter than nap on the couch, what do I do?  Make cards!

Just some very simple ones and I admit to a bout of middle-of-the-night laziness so didn't get step by step photos of them - trust me, you won't need it :)

My Button Card

Simply string together some colourful buttons and stick them down the card!  I have wrapped the string around to the inside of the card and covered them with a large "sticker" I created with my mini xyron.

Then I stamped my greeting and surrounded it by my favourite mini buttons and some jewels!  Done!

My Swirly Card

I have a set of stamps I used that are of a whole lot of swirly designs - I just stamped the ones that I thought looked best!  Stuck on a couple of little flowers (the ones pictured are actually brads), some jewels and a greeting.  Finally, I layered it with contrasting card and that's that!



Sugar n Spice Card

This was one of those cards where I had so many ideas that they started to merge - and I like it!  It's got sweet and it's got spice :)  Plus it's quick and eye catching!

Put black card through the cuttlebug with embossing folder.  To give the card some more "gloss", I ran a black ink pad over it.  Wrapped some purple ribbon around, wrapped some sheer ribbon (with a buckle) around the purple ribbon.  Attached to the card with foam tape.

Cut out butterfly with cuttlebug, bejewelled and applied a ribbon.  Stick to the card with foam tape.  Attached this to the main card and inked the edge of the card in an eye-catching colour!  Done :)

Happy brainstorming!

Dani :)

Book Card

WHEN DOES A CARD LOOK LIKE A BOOK?

Just had to make a faux book :)  Saw a pic of one in passing and decided to try and make one up as I go along!  So the below instructions are how I muddled my way through it - no doubt there are better/easier ways!  I patched and coloured as I went and am still happy with my cute little book :)

It is a very fiddly project, but I think it's worth it for something a little different!

I started with a piece of white card, 14.5 x 8.5cm.  On the back of it, I used a ruler and pencil to mark lines on every side at the 1cm mark and the 3cm mark.  You can see I tried lots of ideas, it's a mess, but nobody will see it!

What you're making with this is the inside of the book - the 'pages' - essentially a little white box.  the folds along the 3cm lines will make the walls of the box and the folds at the 1cm lines will form a little lip that will be used to attach the "pages" to the book cover.



Now trim, cut and fold as above picture shows.  Easier to show than describe!  What you trim off is the small squares in the corner and the small rectangles beside them along the long edges of the card.

Along each "wall panel" (on the visible side), you need to rule a series of lines (in black, grey, brown, gold, silver - whatever works for you) very close together and matching as well as possible at the corners.  This is to make the box look like the bound pages.

Just as when you make a box, apply glue or double sided tape to the large square tabs and fold the sides up and fasten.

Fold over the 1cm lips that have the additional tabs (on the short ends) and fasten the tabs inside the box.

Fold over the 1cm sections on the long sides to complete the box.  Set this aside.

Now we move onto the cover.  You need a piece of chipboard 15.5cm x 20.5cm.  Score 9cm in from the ends so that you have two 9cm sections and a 2.5cm spine.  Gently fold to make sure that it's even and that the box sits comfortable inside it with overhang of about 0.5cm around it on the covers.

It's ok if the chipboard breaks up along the folds, it will be hidden (and held together).

Cut a piece of patterned cardstock 18.5 x 23.5cm, this will cover your book.  Stick the spine down with double sided tape first, making sure it's centred.



Now you need to fold up the cover before sticking the rest of the cardstock onto it.  If you don't, it won't have the freedom to fold afterwards.  When sticking the cardstock down, smooth from the spine across to the other side.

Ok, I'm first to admit, this is where things got a little dodgy for me.  I trimmed it up the same way that I would contact a school book., however this wasn't much good when I'm trying to hide the chipboard.  But anyway, this was what I did (above) and folded over and stuck down each edge.  THEN, because there were bits showing, I cut little triangles to hide grey sections where the cardstock didn't meet properly.

See?  Still not perfect but I'll tell you a secret - I dodgily fixed up any more exposed areas later on with a pen of a matching colour! LOL  PLEASE - if you know exactly how to do it neater, do THAT instead of my way!!  I was playing by ear :)

For the visible inside cover (inside the front cover), I cut some patterned cardstock with a design that would compliment the cover but stand out on its on.  This piece was cut at 9cm x 15.5cm but I did trim a couple of mm off the top and side so that it wouldn't go quite to the edges.  I inked the edges with an ink that matches the cover and stuck it inside the front cover of the book.

I also then inked every edge of the book, inside and out, including the exterior spine.  This just gives it a little boost!

I decided a bookmark would be a sweet little addition for my book and so stuck this on next.  It was a length of ribbon, about 30cm long (give or take), with a knot tied on the end and a charm threaded onto it.  I stuck this down a few mm from the spine, taking it about halfway down the cover to anchorn it well.  What you have hanging out needs to be long enough to go over a 2cm wall of your box, down the entire front and hang out the bottom of the book by at least 2cm.

Next I got some scraps of cardstock, about 8cm long and stuck them roughly to the back of the box (onto the lips).  This is to provide more area for the glue to grip and hold the box on properly.

Stick the box onto the back inside cover, pressed right along the spine.

I used a standard crafting glue, but if I could go back, I think I'd use hot glue.  Better hold, faster drying.  Anyway, I applied more glue to the spine of the book and then held it shut, making sure the box was still firmly pressed against the spine and sitting where it should.

I then sat something on it that was heavy enough to hold it shut firmly but not heavy enough to squash anything...and left it overnight to dry properly.  The problem area you need to make sure sticks properly is the spine.  You only want the front cover to be able to open and close.



Once dried, I completed the inside.  I cut a piece of coloured paper to fit the front of the box.  I then found a crappy book I had lying around and I cut a page out of it!  I trimmed it down and stuck it in the centre of the box.

Now, using double sided tape, the book mark is stuck down along the inside edge of the box and left to dangle at the bottom.

And finally, I applied the greeting.  Mine says "Many dreams to live ... Many adventures to have ... Many stories to share ... Have a Wonderful Birthday!"

Now you can decorate the cover however you want!  I kept mine minimalist as usual :)  A flower, some pearls and a greeting, "Life's Sweet Journey" (I wanted it to sound like a book title).



Done! :)

Happy Book Making!

Dani :)