Pinwheel Card - In Development

PINWHEEL CARD

A Developing Project

This is really still an idea in development.  I woke up this morning, saw some gorgeous pinwheel pictures on Pinterest and decided "Heck yeah!  I'm doing a pinwheel card!"

I was bleary-eyed, cranky and determined but suffering a typical dose of early morning laziness- and I'm sticking to those excuses!

So yeah, if it has rough aspects or doesn't look quite right, that's because it's still an idea I'm trying to forcibly rip out of my brain!  Eventually I'll see if I can make it a proper working pinwheel but I suspect I'll need to find brads with longer stems for fastening.

 

 

Because this is for a card, I really needed to make a cute petite pinwheel.  So I figured out that, really, the biggest you want to work with is about a 5cm square.  Choose paper that has a nice pattern on one side and a bold contrasting colour on the other.

Also, from the same paper, punch out a little circle.  My little circle is 1cm in diameter.  It will be used to kind of tidy up the front (as you'll see below).

 

 

Fold your square in half, into a triangle, and then open it out and do the same in the other direction.  These folds form a guide.

Using a piercing tool and a foam mat (I use a cheap old-style mouse pad), make a small hole in the centre of the folds.  This will be where the pinwheel will be pinned together.

 

 

Now cut along the folds, about 3/4 of the way to the middle.  Pierce every second corner of the triangles, as shown.  Also pierce the centre of the small circle.

The block colour side is going to be the back of the pinwheel so I have pierced from that side to make it a little easier to poke the brad through in the following steps.

 

Stick your brad through the circle as it will be at the front of the pinwheel.  Remember when you're doing this, you're working from front to back.  The centre of the pinwheel is the LAST thing you put the brad through.

 

Now, turn your prepared pinwheel paper (try saying that 10 times as fast as you can!) over so the patterned side is up and start gently folding (but not creasing) each pierced corner over.  Gently push the brad through each premade hole.

This is kind of fiddly work because it is small scale.  Pinwheels this small probably need a nice flexible thin paper but it rips too easily so because I'm using thicker card, I have to deal with the "spring" of it.

So, I'm making use of a pair of clamping tweezers.  They are designed to hold on when you let go of them and open up when you squeeze them, so they're very handy for holding together the stuff you have already poked the brad through so you can focus your attention and fingers on getting the the brad through the rest and fastening it.

 

 

I decided to soften the look of the pinwheel by rounding off the corners.  I also trimmed off any bits sticking out from under the centre circle.

(And yes, the brad is different, I admit this is a "something I prepared earlier" pinwheel hehe - I actually like the white brad better, it looks softer and a smidgy bit bigger)

 

I'm attaching my pinwheel to the card with a 3-D Zot - for those not familiar, Zots are awesome and so handy!  You can do dimensional work without having foam dots that can be very obvious when you look from the side.

 

Put the pinwheel aside and prep the other parts of the card!

I am scalloping the edge of my card (which is about 8cm by 12cm when folded) with a Fiskars border punch.  This just adds a nice soft detail to the white card.

You can't see it in most of the pictures but it actually makes the front shorter than the back, which I quite like - just don't forget about it when you're filling out the inside of the card!

I have used the same card as the pinwheel to prepare my greeting.  I stamped my greeting on the block colour side and inked the edge in a similar colour.  I prepared a backing design piece that is the patterned side of the paper and inked its edges with the same colour.

As you will see below, the backing design of the greeting will be fixed  onto the card with regular double sided tape.  The greeting will go on top of that using zots or foam tape so that it stands out.

 

I have also punched out a postage stamp shape to sit behind the pinwheel to help it stand out more.  You could always just cut out a square and ink the edges of that if you don't have a stamp shaped punch.

The postage stamp will be stuck directly onto the card with regular double sided tape.  The pinwheel will be stuck to this using the Zot.

 

 

 

Assemble your card!  I added some little red pearls for something a little extra.  Done :)  I plan to find some exciting new papers with good contrast and colour to attempt this again.

If you make something like this or develop my idea further, I'd love to see what you do!  People can be so creatively different, it's amazing to see people take a starter idea and make it their own :)

 

Happy Pinwheeling!

Dani :)

Layered Butterfly Card

LAYERED BUTTERFLY CARD

Butterflies are a sure-fire way to guarantee a cute card!  Who can resist them??

 

This design makes use of my beloved cuttlebug (which I just don't use enough!!) - but if you don't have one, you could recreate something like this using a large punch instead.  See what's out there, get creative!

 

One of the things you'll need is clear acetate, which you can usually find in online scrapbooking stores.  I've even been known to use the "throw away" plastic sheet from new acrylic stamp sets!

It's not the end of the world if you don't have any, I just think it's a nice way to jazz up the layering a bit!

Cut a square bigger than your cuttlebug cutter and run it through your cuttlebug - for the acetate you'll probably need to run it back and forth through the cuttlebug several times becauase it's pretty strong stuff.

 

 

You will also want to run a patterned piece of cardstock as well as a block colour cardstock through the cuttlebug with the butterfly cutter.  These make up your three layers.

 

 

Because the acetate doesn't cut as easily, you will probably need to do some quick tidying and cutting - I found that the more detailed end of the butterfly (with the feelers) didn't cut out like the other end.  It's pretty cruisy to finish the cutting job because it's cut through most of the way already, which helps guide your scissors.

 

KINDY GLITZ!!!  I love this stuff hehehe

I like to squirt things like kindy glitz and paints into  plastic disposable spoons.  It keeps things neat.

Now you're going to glitter the heck out of your acetate butterfly!  Use a brush if you want, it all depends on the look you want.  Personally I smear the stuff on with my finger most often because it gives better control (especially when glittering edges of things), can give a good textured look...and I like liberal sparklies!

Take a coffee break while the glitz dries :)

Next, ink the edges of the cardstock butterflies.  I like to use something very similar to the cardstock colour to add some depth without it being too OTT - a nice shadowy effect that softens the cut out.  As you can see, I've also gently bent the wings (delicately at the edge of the 'body' - do NOT fold) on the patterned and acetate butterflies. 

 

 

Once that's done, stick the layers together. As with pretty much everything, I use a thin double sided tape - in this case, right down the middle of the body.  Don't put tape on the wings (except underneath the block coloured butterfly) because those are the visible layers!  And don't worry if you can see the tape through the acetate - it gets disguised by a few rhinestones anyway.

Now choose your sentiment stamp and stamp it onto a scrap piece of paper and cut out closely around it.  Also use a scrap piece of paper to plot the shape you want for the "glitter trail" behind the butterfly.  By doing that on scrap paper, you can move things around and figure out your layout.

Once you've got that sussed out, stamp your card for real, stick your layered butterfly on, and stick the rhinestones on in your chosen pattern!  When you stick the butterfly down, the bottom layer (the block cardstock) should remain flat on the page - this is the only butterfly that should have its wings stuck down.

Don't forget to put a few rhinestones along the body of the acetate butterfly - it adds a little je ne c'est quoi to the butterfly as well as hiding the tape beneath it.

Now gently tease up the layers of the butterfly so they sit the way you want - Done!!  Quick and easy and cute :)

Happy Card Making!

Dani :)

Mini Mushroom Card

MINI MUSHY CARD

Getting Your Pun On!

I wanted to make something simple for Mum's birthday that was in-keeping with my dodgy sense of humour.  I'm certain she'll roll her eyes when she sees this!!  My Mini Mushy Card!

 

Stamp your mushroom image onto watercolour paper.  Colour the image in your preferred style (one option would be this).

 

Fussy cut your mushroom!!  This means cut around every little bit of it.  Scissors with awesome control and a fine tip are good for this task and I recommend ones like mine, which are spring loaded (like pruning shears).

I envy those of you with neat and creative handwriting!  Personally, my handwriting looks like it was written with a baboon's butt so...I cheated and typed up my sentiment on the computer!

Cut to size (about 7cm by 2cm).

Cut out the coloured pieces of card.  I have nice shimmery rockmelon and lime coloured card - I cut the rockmelon coloured card to be about 8cm by 3cm, then I cut the lime card to be about 9cm by 4cm.

Once cut out, ink the edges of the rockmelon and lime card pieces with ink of a similar colour.  This is a simple and subtle way of adding a tiny bit of dimension to your card.  Edge inking is also awesome for disguising dodgy cutting! hehe

Not seen in my pictures is also a postage stamp shaped piece of rockmelon card, which I will mount the mushrooms on - I had previously cut this out with my Cuttlebug.  This was a last minute addition -  Ink the edge of this also!

Ok, time to get sticky!  I prefer double-sided tape to glue because it's less messy and there's no drying time.  BUT once it's stuck that's it, no little adjustments.

I've applied double sided tape to the backs of the Mushy sentiment, lime card and also (not pictured) the postage stamp cut out.

I've applied foam tape to the mushrooms and the rockmelon card to give the card a bit more dimension.

One your card layer lime, rockmelon and sentiment at the top.  Beneath that, centred, layer the postage stamp and then the mushrooms.

VOILA!!  Done!

 

Happy Card Making!

Dani :)

Oops!!

S...TUFF HAPPENS!

 

 

Things don't always go to plan, or end well:

Look at me, all organised!  I'm going to totally NAIL this card!  It'll be cute as heck!  YEAH!!!!

*!grunt!*

Oooh pretty flowers, I love Petaloo flowers!  Ok, so I'll lay those out and I've got it all planned so what the heck, I'll stick the flowers down.

Great, now for the sparkle.  I am sort of OCD about things being symetrical so I'm going to have swirly sparkles going up the left and the right side, it'll be GORGEOUS!

Ok, peeling carefully...slowly....*pop* oh crap, a jewel fell off!  It's ok, it's ok, deep breath Dani...I'll stick it back on.

Ok, right side done, now the left side...carefully...slowly peel...

*!popPOPpopPOPpop!*  NOOOOOOOOoooooo!!!!!

WhatdodIdo?whatdoIdo?whatdoIdo?THERE'SNOLEFTSIDE!!!!!!  It's ok, it won't be even, It's just gonna sort of  "sweep" up the right side of the card and then we'll whack a greeting in the left top corner.

It's not sweeping, it's not sweeping!  It's sooooo uneveeeeen!!!! *!sob!*

Maybe a few little glittery bits dotted around....ack, now it looks like it's got fleas or something!!

No sweat, it might still be passable...I just need to make more friends with blurred vision...

Ahh, stamping, this is more in my comfort zone....HAPPY....BIR...oh god, the stamp fell off the acrylic block!!  Ok...I'll just press it down where it is, it'll be fine....er...smudgy...

Oh forget it.  I give up!

Sometimes "stuff" just happens  - sweep it under the carpet, ladies, and move on! lol

Happy Stamping!

Dani :)

Creating Backgrounds

BE CO-ORDINATED

Create Your Own Backgrounds!

 

I hear other scrapbookers rave about their love of papers and buying coordinated stuff and I get jealous.

There's two reasons for this:

1)  Scrapbooking costs money, especially papers and their coordinates - and I have a rightly suspicious husband who knows full well I'd blow our entire bank account on scrapbooking stuff if I had the chance.  Additionally...well...I just suck at lying, being stealthy, and keeping secrets!

2)  I don't have a colour-coordinated bone in my body and my tastes tend to run simple.  When I look at a huge wall of paper choices I have a panic attack and get overwhelmed!

So whilst I still buy bits of scrapping paper for specific projects or ones that I think are kinda cute (or on sale!), the majority of my cardstock is plain white, plain cream and plain colours.  And this is why:

Get prepared!  Choose your ink/s, some itty bitty stamps, your piece of card and even a paint brush!  I also recommend a scrap piece of paper for underneath.

Tip:  Work on a piece of card considerably larger than you actually require - first of all, the off cuts are awesomely handy for other projects, but mainly, it means if you do make a boo-boo, you can choose which sections of card you want to trim off later!!

Ink up your first / only stamp.  I chose a cute little rose, which I am inking with pearlescent beige - I love this colour becuase it almost looks like gold but it's softer.

 

 

I always start at a corner and work out and across from there.  Now the reason for the scrap paper becomes apparent.  You want the design to flow across the page 'seamlessly' so stamp over the edges rather than leaving an edge gap!

 

Gradually work across the page, changing between stamps and colours if you want.  My second stamp is of some leaves and I've stamped them in olive.

It doesn't have to be a perfect pattern, the main thing I aim for is keeping the colours evenly "woven" (ie: don't do a bunch of flowers all together and only a few leaves).

 

 

Now, I'm one of those people who get a bit of a twitch if they see annoying gaps in their works (I don't criticise the the works of others so harshly!).  I found a simple solution for these gaps - dots!

Just dip the end of your paintbrush handle onto your inkpad (I have chosen lavender for some contrast) and press or roll the tip in a tiny, gentle, circular motion onto the page to make dots!

 

And there you have it!

By making these backgrounds, you can coordinate your inks with your backgrounds or more create a background to coordinate with other cardstock you have!

Here are some more that I did last night, they're so quick to make:

 

 

Why not use lots of words?  I pieced this together from a stamp set I bought.  And the silver ink is a good way to make a card that could go either way (boy or girl).  It takes a little extra planning because they're bigger stamps in a variety of sizes, but it's so effective!!

Also - why not use rhinestones instead of just doing dots to fill gaps?  It makes the design fun and a little more dimensional!

 

And this one is very simple, done with one stamp and gold ink!  As you can see, it's not perfect, but you can choose which section you want to use, plus it's the background, you'll draw focus away with something else anyway!

Go nuts, be creative!!

Dani :)

Colouring with Water Soluble Inks

 

HOW TO USE WATER SOLUBLE PENS TO COLOUR A STAMPED IMAGE

I don't consider myself an artist by any means, but I get a tiny thrill whenever I produce a little picture like this that I can share with my loved ones via greeting cards.  I especially adore adorning cards with these gorgeous mouse stamps from Penny Black!

Copic markers are all the rage now and they produce beautiful results.  But my messy, heavy handed style isn't really suited to them, and I find these water soluble markers much more cost effective because you don't GENERALLY require shades.  It's simply a case of adjusting the water to ink ratio when colouring to get the shades you want!

First of all you want to stamp your image onto watercolour card.

You can do this on regular cardstock, but you may get pilling, bleeding, tearing and holes.  Watercolour card is made of cotton and allows you the freedom to move ink and water around a lot without damaging the image.

Also very important is the type of ink you use - you want a fast drying solvent ink.  I recommend StazOn.  You basically want something that dries quickly and won't be smudged by water!

Next select your colours!  You need to use water soluble markers such as these ones from Stampin' Up or Tombow markers.  They are double-ended markers - one end has a large brush-style nib and the other has a fine pen nib.
The above markers are all the markers I use in the Tea Cup photo - not many!

Rather than scribbling straight onto the page, you want to scribble some ink onto a plastic surface, using the brush end of your marker - I use one of my stamping acrylic blocks (just make sure to put some white paper underneath so you can see the ink well).

Next you need an aqua brush.  You can use a standard brush and dip it in water but you get better control using these aqua brushes because they are designed to maintain a good level of moisture on the bristles.

Depending on how much colour you want, use the damp aqua brush to pick up some ink.  I recommend starting with just a little bit of ink until you can determine how dark you want the colouring to be.

 

Your first colouring layer is a gentle wash of colour over the image.  Moving in a circular motion can give a nice even application.  But it really depends on what kind of look you're going for!  The beauty part is that watercolour isn't supposed to look perfect and neat.

This is the image with the wash layer finished.  Now you need to use the same colouring technique to add any additional layers of colour. 

In this layer you can add lighter and darker shades if you want, but the shadows are "officially" done a little further on when you can take a look at the almost complete image and see where you think shadows should be.

This is the image now that the additional layer of colour has been added!  I have added orange to the mice, allowing some of the yellow to show, and coloured their cheeks with the light pink.

Now you use the fine tip of the pen to create accents and definition to the image.

For instance, in this picture I have used the pale pink to colour the tail and noses (as they are quite fine).  And I use the orange around places like ears and arms where there would be bold shadows.  I also use a red marker to colour the tiny berries on the mug and the green marker to add some definition to the leaves.

 

And your final step - the shadows!  Figure out where you think your light source is and do darker shades accordingly.  Don't stress about it being perfect - mine aren't but still look effective!

 

And there you have it, the completed image!  I just love the softness of the colouring and the casual, perhaps old-fashioned, feel it has!

Here are some more of my mice (I am obsessed with them!), of which I actually have a LOT more!

Happy Colouring!

Dani