Getting back into the swing of things - interactive card (and blog changes coming soon)

(Sorry couldn't resist that groaner!)



First, I just wanted to let you know that you may see
some changes around here, while I tweak the blog,
so please forgive any disorderliness.

In order to get back into the swing of things blog-wise...
...I've signed up for Sister Diane's online class
that starts on Feb. 13th

(Click the image if you'd like to check it out)

I'm a long-time fan of Diane's &
I'm so excited to be able to learn from her
& get some ideas on how to be a better blogger.

Hopefully,

Bit by bit, over the next year,
I hope to work on
these goals for the blog:

1) Make it easier for you to download papers or images, while keeping print quality (and avoiding ads or sign-up). Blogger does bad things with image quality, so this is trickier than it might seem.

2) Post much more often (by trying to cure my debilitating self-doubt & perfectionism) lol

3) Connect more with You & the community (learn to manage my time better, so I can respond more to comments and so on). I hope to learn how to make sense of the details of the subscription services like the ever-confuzzling feedblitz. :0)

4) Get the blog reconnected to support favourite bloggers, stores, & craft sites. Get their buttons & links back up (without the bad pop-up that made me delete everything)

5) Archive things so they are easier to find... the free templates, papers, images, techniques, round-ups, etc. etc.

6) Work on a more pleasing visual design.

7) And last but not least I hope to learn how to make video tutorials & post them (I bought a video camera for that purpose; I just need to buy more cords & thingamabobs and learn how to use it all).

Anything You'd like to see
added to the blog?

the card is for the SCS

(make your own stripes challenge TLC363)



This 5 and 1/2 inch square card is for the SplitcoastStampers TLC
(Technique Lovers' Challenge) TLC363 ~ Make Your Own Stripes brought to you by Joan.

The swing stamp is a fave from My Favorite Things:
Pure Innocence stamp - Start the Day with Whee!
(I drew the motion lines on & changed her mouth a tiny bit with a
fine permanent black pen, to make it look like she was smiling more).

The DIY stripes were so fun (such a clever idea, Thanks Joan!)
They are just random strips of paper...



(If you'd like the blue raspberry Vine digital paper,
you can find it free in my last post, here.)

The heart hangs off of the card:



The heart is only attached by baker's twine, so it swings when the recipient opens the card. It's so fun to play with that to make her go back and forth! (Yup, I'm 3 years old at heart) :0)

The heart shape is hand cut (just let me know if you'd like the heart shape; it's hand drawn so it's rough, but I'd be happy to share it).

The back of the heart has the sentiment on it:



Looks like it was trampled on in a school playground,
but I was going for a distressed blackboard look. :o)

• MFT Pure Innocence stamp - Start the Day with Whee!
• Hero Arts new Large Flower background cling stamp
  
• Archival black ink, clear embossing powder & a heat gun
• Paper Crate - Paper Heart 6x6 pack (for her dress)
  
• Copic markers, fine black permanent pen to draw motion lines
• Cream cardstock scored with raised stripes using a Scor-Pal tool
• Echo Park - For the Record 2 measuring tape border
  
• Flower button: K & Company Brenda Walton Flora & Fauna Typewriter key stickers (the edge is coloured red with a R35 Coral Copic marker) on white seam binding ribbon
  
• Baker's twine, Tim Holtz Trimmings Lavish Ribbon
  

Hope your day is going swingingly!
(ynuk ynuk)


P.S. Full Disclosure: This post is entirely unsolicited as usual, but K & Co did send me the lovely typewriter dimensional sticker for free and I also received the MFT Whee stamp for free (when I used to be on the design team).

P.P.S. The moving swing card image is an animated GIF made at gifninja. Disclaimer: They offer a nifty, easy-to-use service but I find their Gallery of GIFs sort of ick. I won't expound on the contents to spare you; just thought I'd mention in case your taste doesn't run along those lines. ;0)

P.P.P.S. Still working on the patterned papers, so more to come in that department.

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... "packages tied up with string"

A random card for a random week. Mouse (the cat) and

I have been sick & we're all sleep-deprived.
(Though Mouse has been sleeping during the day):

(in the recycling basket) heehee

I have some kinda nasty bug, again. And she's in heat, again. She's been so reactive to medication and she's so tiny that we've been afraid to have her fixed. She lives on the 15th floor so no worries about boys... But we have to give in: next week is the date to take her in. I'm worried silly (as only a crazy fur-mommy can be). Sigh....

Anywho, here's the details about this birthday card:

The gift images are from an MFT stamp set called Top Shelf.
They're stamped on digital patterned paper from TracyAnnDigitalArt on etsy.

And they're popped up in the most affordable way possible.
(Those of you who love foam dots may cringe at this,
but I don't really like them much).
Sometimes, they're just too thick & do you ever wonder
how they stand up to the test of time?

But most of all, You can see them from the side.
(Crafter's O.C.D. all the way, baby!)


(Paper instead of foam dots
under images for dimension)

Sooooh... if we're going to go to all the trouble of adding special
touches to a card why have foam undies show?

Here's my fave, free (and acid-free)
alternative to foam dots.
It's nothing revolutionary: paper...



Scrap paper for dimension:

1) Stamp your image on paper.
2) Then, stamp the images again on scrap cardstock.
3) Cut the scrap paper out so that it's smaller than the image.
4) Stick the layers together with your adhesive of choice.



Flexible options: Stamp several times so you can
cut out more scraps for various levels.

I love that paper is so flexible that way. You're not limited to one width,
of whatever foam dot you have; you can add however many layers of
paper you want to add under an image).

Hard to tell from the photo, but the bottom gift has more layers
of paper under it than the top.

Then they all have thread
stitched around them to look like string.

The bow is pierced & stitched by hand, onto the pressure embossed argyle.

The vellum cardstock tag is stitched on too.
To get a heat-embossed font on it was easy peasy:

1) Cut a piece of vellum cardstock in half (to fit the printer).
2) Type out your text in a word document & colour it.
3) Have clear embossing powder ready to go.
4) Print the text out on the vellum cardstock.
5)Quickly sprinkle clear embossing powder on wet printer ink.
6) Gently heat with a heat gun to melt the embossing powder.
7) Use your heat-embossed computer sentiment however you like...

If you're curious about how the flower was made with a
circle punch, there are directions here.

Other Supplies: Kraft, White, Blue, & Vellum cardstock; Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 5 (with the sides trimmed off); Argyle Cuttlebug embossing folder; Blue, green, white & black thread; YG00 Mimosa Copic marker & white souffle pen to make leaves.

This is the ledger I used here (printed on kraft cardstock).
You can download it from this older post, here:

(or on Flickr here).

The lined paper white cardstock
is here with some other freebies:

Hope you're having a lovely week,

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Happy World Card Making Day (and Merry Kissmas?)

Happy World Card Making Day,
Everybody!

And Merry Kissmas?

Are ya starting to notice Christmas cards popping up everywhere?
Guess it's that time again, hey?

Here's an little idea for a card & box set
using a sweet ol' MFT stamp called Merry Kissmas
Or if you prefer digital, you can find it here.

The image is cut out & stuck onto a heat embossed background
and a torn piece of white cardstock for a hill.
The little girl's coat & the snowman's hat are paper pieced (old S.U. paper)

The card base is 14o lb watercolour paper embossed with
a large Cuttlebug folder (the Winter Wonderland set)

The matching gift box:



Just a super simple box made with pale blue & red cardstock to fit a gift
and a little snowflake embellishment on the bow made from the
EK Success/Martha Stewart snowflake punch & a crystal.

The mistletoe is fancied up with teensy pearl beads stitched on
& shaded with grey marker to make them stand out:



The mistletoe leaves are cut out so that they look clean against
the heat embossed snowy background.

The snow heat embossing effect was made this way...

1) Stamp & heat emboss a dotted background two times: once in pale blue ink embossed in clear embossing powder & once on white pigment ink with white embossing powder

2) Sprinkle loose white embossing powder over the sky & heat it from behind to set it in place (but not have the air from the heat gun blow the loose powder away).

There's a full pictorial for the sprinkled heat embossing here:

Thanks for having a look. Hope you
get a chance to craft today,

P.S. On a personal note:

Bye Bye Mean Old Mister Migraine Monster!

Sorry I've been missing this week--migraine & flu, but YAY: methinks the cause of the recent return of the killer migraines is rooted out! We had switched dishwasher detergents trying to find the greenest brand. The migraines seem to be fading now that we have switched back!

It always seems to be scent or chemical triggers, for me. Now, we use only baking soda, vinegar, Doctor Bronner's all-in-one Castille soap, and ultra green shampoo & conditioner by Carina (grapefruit & deep conditioner) which surprisingly has made my hair 10 times nicer). But finding the right dishwasher soap has been problematic... Anywho, just thought I would share all this in hopes that it might help some of you fellow sufferers out.

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MFT Book Worm Office Hours sign

Thanks so much for sharing your stories of your messy craft rooms.
It's so great to know that we are chaotic kindred spirits! ;o)

And for your kind wishes about banishing the migraine beast.
It's relatively tamed but curled up in my head snoring and making
my brain icky. lol

Did you know that my sweetie, Charles, is a bookworm?

Yup! And this strange little project is an Office Hours sign I made for him
a while ago to put up on his door at SFU (while he was an English T.A. there)
but we didn't feel comfortable sharing it then since it had such
personal work details on it. But now I can show ya!

It is very distress-y...

The office hours are printed on vellum & heat embossed
with clear embossing powder. (I love doing that!)
Then glued on a library card with some bits of book pages
& hand writing.

The striped metallic paper in the back is from a
G.C.D. papier (Paris Nights) 12x12 paper pack.



That cute little worm is from the MFT set "Book worm"
(sorry I think he's discontinued)

He's stamped on a library card & cut out.
His glasses have clear lacquer on them for shine.
The book he's reading is paper pieced on book paper.

The frame is a piece from Comso Cricket's EverAfter kit
(which I am so excited to tell you, you can get in digital format
too! Here at Jessica Sprague!) I stitched on some beads.

There is a little dangling book hanging from
the sign on some thread:



The mini book has graph paper pages inside:



The stamping has a couple of snippets of book pages
collaged on & under it for texture:



another oldie...

The bookshelf stamping is on ledger paper
which you can find for free here, if you like it:

Thanks for having a peek!
Hope you're day is a lovely one,


P.S. Disclosure: This is a unsolicited post, but I was lucky enough to receive the patterned papers & the MFT stamp set free (a year or so ago) as part of design teams.

P.P.S. I am freaking out about Jessica Sprague digital brands & had to share. Who knew?!?

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Rinse Lather & Repeat-MFT Hop & Shop!

Welcome to the MFT Hop & Shop! :-)

Today, a speedy project for a change. I had a blast with the new Pure Innocence image ($9) and I tried to make this a quick project tutorial for those who have less time on their hands. :O)

Rinse Lather Repeat...



(Inside the box it says "Baby Yourself" heehee)

The bead bubbles are so fast, but they look real enough to give ya the giggles:



(They seem to look more bubbly in real life) :o)

1...Hop & Shop (My Favorite Things new releases)
2...How to make this QUICK Pure Innocence 4.5" box

-1-


If you haven't started yet & would like to hop
The hopping starts here on Kim's blog!

Next up is marvelous Megan!

-2-

make this 4.5" box

• 4.5" square box template
  
• New MFT clear stamp set: Rinse, Lather, Repeat (available here tonight)
  
• ...stamped on Perfect paper panels
• ...with Black Brilliance ink, clear embossing powder & a heat gun
• Copic markers
• Sweet tooth heavy weight cardstock
  
• TADA digital paper (flowers) from etsy & scrap of BasicGrey Origins
• Green & light turquoise cardstock
  
• Paper piercing tool, needle & thread,
  
• Beacon's 3 in 1 advanced craft glue & lots of clear seed beads
  
• Black Multiliner/permanent marker
• White cotton ribbon (from DressSew in Vancouver)

Step 1) Print the 4.5 inch square box bottom:

Print the MFT template for the 4.5 inch box bottom on green cardstock
Score it (where the tick marks show), cut it, & crease the folds.

(I used the version of the template that has no score lines on it, so it would be tidy inside.)



Step 2) Print & embellish the box lid:

• Print the template for the lid (this is printed on digital patterned paper)
• Score it, cut it, & crease the folds.
• Scallop the edges & trim the 4 flaps to fit behind the scallops.
  

Step 3) Add faux stitches with a black marker (speedy for a change!) ;O)



Step 4) Assemble the lid...



(tabs on the inside)



Step 5) Assemble the box bottom (tabs on the inside again) :o)



Step 6) Cut patterned paper to decorate the inside of the box bottom--4 1-4 inches square.



Step 7) Stamp & colour top of the tub with the Pure Innocence gal (from the Rinse Lather Repeat set.)



Step 8) Stamp & cut just the bottom for the tub (to layer under it) Colour the bathtub feet with metallic pen.



Step 9) Cheap trick: Stamp extra images to use a paper spacers (cut roughly.) Lately, I find this not only more affordable, but also more tidy than foam tape. (I guess I'm a bit cheap & a touch neurotic.) ynuk ynuk.



Step 10) Bubble the bath up with seed beads:

• Add clear glue to the bubble bath part of the image.
• Sprinkle lots of little clear seed beads on the wet glue.
• Add a second layer of glue & beads if you want it really bubbly.
• Fill in with single beads in spots that got missed.

(I used Beacon's 3 in 1 because it holds so well & dries SO quickly. It has a little give so it doesn' seem to crack when dry. I did the gluing outside, for lots of ventilation & used a plastic lid to catch extra beads.)



Neat thingy: Clear beads will pick up whatever colour you made the bubble bath on the image underneath. :o) I wanna do a rainbow coloured bath next time... and inchies with that ducky. (He is off the hook cute at about a half an inch square.)

and that's it....

Next on the hop
is Megan!

Thanks for visiting & hope you have a great Hop!

P.S. For anyone who can't wait a moment longer,
You can find all the Brand Spankin New set here.

(please click if you'd like to visit the blog
from an email or reader)

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