Just one pattern paper

Have you ever had that issue when putting together a layout where the patterns you want are on the same piece of paper?
I had that last week when creating a layout for my Disneyland adventures.  I decided some creative cutting was needed as I really wanted these two patterns.

So I cut carefully a 10" square from my paper, but I did it is such a way that I only needed to do three cuts

Then I carefully flipped over the 10" square and placed it in the hole.

I adhered the two pattern pieces to a Kraft cardstock so that if there were any gaps they would not show.

I was very pleased with the end result of my layout.

I cropped and adhered my photos and added a journaling card and a small piece of washi tape that will be a recurring theme on my Disney layouts.

My Christmas Gift Tags

OK, I admit it. I am kind of getting excited about the arrival of summer and of Christmas.  I always struggle at this time of year because both my daughters have birthdays about now.  I like to concentrate on them first before I starting doing Christmas stuff.
This year I am feeling prepared for the second birthday this weekend and so last week I made our Christmas gift tags.  I am really pleased with how they have turned out.

I cut the ornament shape using my Silhouette Cameo, then stamped the 'To and From' on the back.  Using Copic friendly cardstock I stamped lots of little  Christmas robins.  I coloured these using my Copics and Spectrum Noir pens.  I added a touch of Clear Wink of Stella to all the areas coloured red.
I punched each Christmas Robin out using a 1 1/4" circle punch.  Then inked the edges with Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide ink.  I adhered these circles to the front of my ornaments and lastly added some glittered thread to each ornament.

Now all I need are sine gifts and a tree to put them under.  Roll on Christmas Season.  But, first lets enjoy thanksgiving.

Journaling Strips

I had such a great week.  Two days this week I have been able to sit in my craft-room and scrapbook.  I am not saying this to brag (OK maybe a little).  On Monday, seeing as it is school holidays, my daughter was able to arrange with her friends for them to come round. This meant, I was banished from the house (honestly, it was what I wanted, six 18 yrs olds was just a little bit much for me)  So I was able to enjoy my craft room and finish of a few layouts that I did at the workshop last weekend.  Don't you love that feeling when a layout is complete - title, journaling, the lot.  Very satisfying.

Well, yesterday I was able to have another day of scrapbooking. It was amazing, I managed to complete three layouts.  I am trying as I go to be sure each layout is complete including journaling as these are layouts from my trip to the US and I don't want to forget anything.

One of the layouts I decided to try something new for me.  To add journaling in strips.  I have seen layouts with this over this years and thought they looked good, but was never confident enough to give it a go.  Or they were done using computer journaling and I wanted hand written journaling.  So this is what I did.

I cut a piece of cardstock about the width of the space I had available on my layout.
Then I cut it a bit shorter than I wanted it to be when finished - knowing that when I cut the cardstock into strips I would want to spread them out a bit down the space.

I wrote my journaling in pencil first to be sure to get the spacing right.  I was strange to write with huge gaps between each line.  But this was so I could cut each line apart easily when the time came.

I wrote over my journaling in brown pen to match the feel of my layout (sometime black is too harsh)
Once the ink was dry I erased the penciled journaling.

Then it was time to bite the bullet and cut them apart. I used my trimmer and carefully cut them apart.
I would cut one strip at a time then place that strip on my layout so I would not mess up the order.

Once my journaling was cut apart and laid out I lined up my layout on the grid of my cutting mat, then lined up my long ruler down the edge where I wanted my journaling to go and adhered each strip in place.  Having the ruler as a guide so all the strips lined up down the left hand edge was a great help.

I was really pleased with the end result.

Beyond the Stars

I have been playing with a new technique for card-making.  I have to admit I have had fun with this.  I don't normally like getting messy, but this was a fun messy.

For this you will need inks that will blend easily.  I found using bright colours was a lot of fun.  I used the Distress Oxide Inks from Ranger.  But I understand you can use the normal distress inks and some die inks.  For the black I used Momento's Black Tuxedo ink.

To start with add smooches of colour to your 6"x 4" plain cardstock - a light colour works best such as a white or cream.  I used four colours. I added the inks using the ink applicators from Ranger

Using a make-up sponge I added some black ink over the top of all the colours.  This will look as though you have ruined it.  Take it from me, you haven't, keep going. Let this dry, you can use a heat tool to speed this up if you like.

Add a bit of colour over the to and then dry again.  I added a little bit of the blue.

To finish off your galaxy flick some white paint over your cardstock.  Or you can add some white pen dots - varying the sizes of dots helps with the effect.

Now you have a galaxy.

Add to your card.  You can add stamps and other embellishments for finish your card.

Have fun and create something amazing!

Die-cut inlay card

Over the weekend I watched a You Tube video from one of my favourite card-makers Jennifer McGuire.  After watching the video I just had to give this technique a go.  A link to her video is at the end of this post, I do recommend that you watch it.  She shows you how to create the background and the die-cut so you can inlay your title of your card.

I loved creating the background so today I have created three more for even more cards.

I wanted to do this as I have a little friend that is desperate need of some happy mail, so I plan to make more cards and send them to her regularly.  I think we all need a little bit a happy mail sometimes.

Enjoy Jennifer's video and I hope you too will give it a go.

It's the little things that make life Big!

I hope you all were able to celebrate Father's Day yesterday (in NZ).  I made my Dad a cute little card and will be sending it shortly.  It just did not happen before Father's Day, but I did get to talk with him yesterday which was really nice.  My Dad lives in a little town up north, just South of Kerikeri.  I miss going out for a hot chocolate with him at a local cafe.

Ok last week I promised to do a colouring post this week.  So I have two cards here for you.  One of which I did use for my Dad's Father's Day card.  So I will start with that one first (I am hoping to do a video on how I did this technique soon - I miss making videos).

I created this card using Watercolour paper and Distress Crayons.  These are really nice to use. See the video below where Tim Holtz takes you through using Distress Crayons.

So I used my set of Festive Berries, Rusty Hinge, Fossilized Amber, Peeled Paint, Chipped Sapphire and Seedless Preserves.  I took each colour and added it to more watercolour cardstock to make an Ombre look.  Then I took a wet-wipe and carefully wiping from left to right and slowing down ward to move and blend the colours.

Once dry I stamped with my favourite dandelion puff stamp.  Later I added a sentiment 'For my Dad'
I was not totally happy with the blending but I am going to try this again on the smooth side of the watercolour paper to see if that helps move the colour and blend better.

Here is my second card that I made.  I really love how this one turned out.  Firstly I used one of my Party Paws stamps from Crafter's Companion and a sentiment stamp from Kaiser Craft.
To colour this I used my Spectrum Noir pens.  I used TN2, TN3 and TN4 for the teddy.  The TN3 and TN4 are from the 'Lights' set of pens, they give a really rich, warm colour to teddy.  So I started colouring this Teddy's head first and then the rest of the body.

When I was happy with how Teddy looked I went onto the gift.  I used TB1, TB2 and TB3 from the basic blues set of 6 pens.  TB2 is quite a different blue so I used that as my base for the side of the gift going over it with TB1 so it looks a little darker.

For the ribbon on the gift I used DR1, DR5 and DR7.  Use the DR7 sparingly as it is very dark.  To finish off I used EB1 for the tag and IG4 for the ground shadow.

Very happy with the result of my colouring for this card.

Title Spacing Trick

I love cutting out my titles using my Silhouette Cameo, but have often found once cut out I can't get the title to look good on my layouts as my letter and word spacing goes out the window.
Just last week, I cut out a title and took it will me to finish the layout at a craft group.  While at the craft group I started using the negative space of my leftover title as a guide as to where to put my letters on my layout.  Wow, it worked and was so easy.  Let me show you how I did.


First take you layout and place the negative space of your title onto your layout and decide where you want your title to be.

Once you are happy with the placement of your title start adding adhesive to the back of your letters and adhere them back into the space where they were cut from.

Carefully remove the negative space cardstock from your layout

Check out your perfect looking title. Here is the finished two page layout.
This has become a favourite way to get my titles looking the way I want them.  It helps to design and cut out your title using your Silhouette, Scan'n'Cut or Cricut so that it cuts the way you want it to look on your finished layout.

Working with Skin Tones with Spectrum Noir and Copic Markers

It was wonderful to get back into blogging last week and I thought it would be fun to share some more things I have learnt lately with my colouring.  As mentioned last week I like to colour with both Spectrum Noir and Copic Markers.  I also mentioned that I have been watching some great You Tube videos by Sandy Allnock about colouring with Copic markers.  I have been able to use what I have learnt and apply them to my Spectrum Noir Markers - as well as purchasing some Copics to have a better variety in skin tones.

Right lets jump right in with two images I have coloured.  The stamped image 1 was coloured solely using Spectrum Noir markers.  I was more interested in the skin tones with these images.  The girls with the brown hair, her skin was done how I always used to colour which was starting with FS2, then adding some shading with TN2 and then blending the two together with FS3, and lastly going over the whole skin areas again with FS2 for a final blend.

Then I tried something different with the blond girl.  I started like I normally would and coloured all the skin with FS2, but then for shadows and depth I add some LV1 (yep a very light purple) sounds crazy, but give this a go. Then I carried on like I normally would with the TN2 next, then blending with the FS3 and lastly blending with the FS2.  It just gives another look for skin that I had not thought of.

The stamped image 2 I used some Copic markers and had a play doing the same thing.  This time I did the blond girl with just E51, E33, E11 and E51 for the final blend.  Then on the girl with the brown hair I used E51, BV00, E33, E11 and back to E51.  Again I really like the extra depth the light purple gives to the shadowed areas. I coloured the rest of the image with my Spectrum Noir markers just the same as in image 1.

Another thing I have learnt is using a white gel pen to add some details.  On stamped image 1 I used a white gel pen to add dots to the blond girls pink dress.  It really adds another great way to add variety to things.  Such as patterned clothes.

Let me know what you think in the comments section below.  I would love to hear from you.

Happy crafting everyone!

Craft Out West - Card from Die-cut kit

I am so sorry it has been way too long since my last posting.  I so wanted to do better getting things up on my blog this year, but as you can see things really got away from me.

Well to make up for it I have a really fun card that I have created from a little giveaway set of die-cuts that I was giving away at Craft Out West last weekend.  The show was fantastic as usual and I truly loved meeting so many talented people.

I was giving away a set of die-cuts to those that purchased from me or mentioned my newsletters at my table during the show.  One of the die-cuts in this set looked like this:

I am sure some of you looked at this die-cut and thought, "What can I do with this?"  Well I am here to answer that question.  Here is a small card I created using this die-cut as the front of my card.

So to create this card, I took a 6"x 4" piece of cream cardstock and folded it to measure 4"x 3" with the fold at the top of the card.

Next I added a piece of ribbon to the die-cut piece.

Adhere some foam to the back of the die-cut piece then adhere the die-cut to the front of the card.

Using a 1" circle punch I punched out three circle from pattern paper and adhered them through the holes on the die-cut piece.

I hope you enjoy this little project.

I have another card project that I would like to share soon

Let's get crafty this weekend ...

Set of Four Cute Cards

I came across this idea for these cards from Jennifer McGuire's email that I received a few weeks ago. I watched the video and thought, "Hey, I could do that"  and it was so easy.

I just used some of my favourite little stamps that I have had for ages from Imaginisce and added a little sentiment from an older Inkadinkado stamp.  I coloured each of my stamped images using my Spectrum Noir pens.

Jennifer McGuire used some nested dies with stitching for her cards, but I did not have these, so instead used my Silhouette Cameo and found some stitched nested designs on the Silhouette Design store.

I cut out my designs and then layered them with foam tape.  To add variety I added foam tape to different pieces to put the different frames on different levels.  I really like the result.

Here is Jennifer McGuire's video.  I hope it inspires you too...

My new obsession - Glass Etching

Oh who would have thought ....

As many of you know I love my Silhouette Cameo, but now I love it even more as I can now use it to cut designs that I can now etch onto glass.  For some reason when I thought of glass etching I thought there was a machine you popped your glassware into and it 'tattooed' the design onto the glass - OK you can stop laughing at me now.  Well, I saw recently that you could get a glass etching kit for the Silhouette machines and I just had to look into it a bit further.  After watching the video on You Tube and saw how easy it was (click here for video), and that you needed no extra tools and just had to order the kit.

So my kit arrived, I opened it, watched the video then left it for about a week and a half before actually giving it a go.  I did not want to mess it up.  Well over the weekend I did another project with the glass etching and now I am wondering round the house and off to the Warehouse looking at glassware that I can etch.  It did expect the etching to be a bit whiter, but I still love the end results.

So here is what I did.

After cutting my design on the vinyl, I used the tranfer paper to add the design to my glass jar.  I taped of the top and bottom edges using some washi tape then added a nice thick layer of the glass etching cream. (be sure to wear rubber gloves for this).  I left this lot of cream on for about 15 minutes.

After about 15 minutes I scrapped up the excess glass etching cream and put it back in the bottle so it can be used again on my next project.  Then I gave the jar a bit of a rinse, to rinse off the last remaining bits of the etching cream.  Then removed the vinyl stencil.

Here is the finished result. I am happy with this, now what to put in the jar ... and now ... another piece of glassware hunt.

This Glass Etching Kit for the Silhouette is available to order from my online shop - click here

Starburst Card Tutorial

I came across a fun card and just had to give it a go and here is my result.  I am really pleased with how this star-burst card came together.  It was so much fun that I just had to share with you how to create one for yourself.

You will need:

3 3/4"x 5" cardstock
3 7/8"x 5 1/8" cardstock mat
Cut 1: 4 1/2"x 1 1/2" pattern paper
Cut 1: 4"x 1 1/2" pattern paper
Cut 2: 3"x 1 1/2" pattern paper
Cut 2: 2"x 1 1/2" pattern paper
8 1/4"x 5 3/8" cardstock folded in half to create your card base
2" circle punch
Larger scallop circle punch
Tape adhesive
Foam tape
Sentiment sticker or stamp

To Make:

Take each pattern paper rectangle and cut on the diagonal from corner to corner to create 12 triangles.

Using the rule of thirds and your star-burst will be bursting from the top third grid square as shown below on the 3 3/4"x 5" cardstock.

Arrange your triangle pieces round that point on the grid until you like the pattern from the triangles. Be sure there is a little space between each triangle so the background cardstock is showing through. Don't worry that they are hanging off the edge.
Once you like the look adhere the pattern paper triangles, you may even like to flip over some of the triangles and use the pattern on the other side of the paper.

Trim away the excess of the triangles to the edge of your cardstock

Mat your star-burst to the 3 7/8"x 5 1/8" cardstock mat.
Then adhere your matted star-burst to your card front

Punch a 2" circle form coordinating cardstock and add your sentiment sticker or stamp to it.
Mat your circle to a slightly larger scallop circle punched from another piece of coordinating cardstock.

Adhere your matted circles using foam tape to hide where the

star-burst triangle points meet.

Valentine's Day is just round the corner

There is only a couple of days left before Valentine's Day.  If you have not created anything for your loved one, well now is a great time to create this fun little Valentine's Pouch.  It is simple and only requires a 6"x 6" piece of double sided pattern paper and some simple embellishments (I used a couple of flowers and a brad)

The paper I have used is the Authentique Crush range, Spark pattern paper.  With this I was able to make four pouches.

To start with fold your pattern paper in half diagonally with the pattern you want on the outside of your pouch on the outside like this. Be sure the fold is along the bottom.

Take one of the lower corners of your triangle and fold it over to the middle of the other triangle side.

Take the other lower corner of the triangle and fold it over to the middle of the opposite side.

Take the first top point and fold it down to create your pouch. This will also show the inside pattern of you paper.  Very stylish.

Now you can decorate and fill you pouch.  Here I have added a couple of flowers with a brad.  I also added a little bit of adhesive tape under the flap where I attached the flower to hold in down against the front of the pouch.

I filled my pouch with some Hershey's Kisses wrapped in a piece of clear cellophane and tied using some pink bakers twine.

I am sure this will be enjoyed by your loved one - or maybe even treat yourself.

You can also use this with other papers and embellishments to give for any occasion.

You are Fabulous Card

It has been a while since I have been here on my blog.  It has been a busy summer of cycling, Regional Park visits, gardening, family and so much more.  I did not even have much time to do any crafting.  But it is a new year with new opportunities so let's see what this year will bring.

Something our family has decided to focus on this year is "Do something different!"  So it is going to be a fun year of trying new things, new ways of doing things and doing something different.

Well with that in mind I thought it would be fun to make a card using a masking technique that I had not tried before.  I used a post-it note and added it to the middle of a 6"x 6" card and then stamped round it using some of the fun Inkadinkado Gears stamps - I really love these gears stamps, as I like the steampunk look they can give.  Once I liked the look I removed the post-it note and added a sentiment, some pearl bling and white pen faux stitching.  I was very happy with the results.

What technique are you going to try this week?

Taking Time To Be Creative

With the silly season well and truly upon us, it can be very hard to find time to create.  This weekend was no exception.  Daughters needed to be here, there and everywhere all at once, which meant trucking them where they needed to go.  In between these times and giving my house a little clean (really it needs a big clean, but we won't look to closely will we ...) I gave myself permission to take time and create a couple of fun little cards.

Here is one I created using the really cool metal die set from Echo park.

I started with a very plain background cream cardstock and just went over it with the Distress Ink Broken China and the Distress ink tool.  I punched out the corners - I love this effect.

I cut all the clouds using a light blue Bazzill cardstock, then cut out the word 'sunny' and the sun from yellow Bazzill cardstock.

All these dies are from the Echo Park Sun and Clouds die set - available from our online shop

I also used some red washi tape for some fun contrast.  One of the plain clouds was adhered using foam tape seeing as it was in front of the others.  I really like adding dimension to my cards.

I also had a bit of fun with this little journaling card.  I saw an idea on Pinterest and thought I should give it a go.  I love this particular punch, it seems to be very versatile.

Basically I had two pieces of cardstock and then using this punch, I punched out a piece from the side of my lights cardstock

I matted my main two pieces of cardstock then added a scallop circle and two strips of cardstock.  I also stamped in the space that was punched out - this looks so cool.

I love getting more uses and ideas on how to get the most out of my punches.

A quick card

I ordered some papers last week and they arrived the other day.  As soon as I opened my parcel of papers I was inspired to create a card using a couple of the papers.  It was amazing how quick it was.

The papers I used were from Pavlova Papers - these are created and designed here in New Zealand.  I really like this set of papers, they have a lovely vintage look with the sepia tones and then the brightness of the reds and other colours.  These two papers are Rose Card Red (it has all the roses ready to use on cards) and Cocao Gold and I used the reverse side that reminds me of wallpaper a bit.

With just using these two papers, some Peels Craft stickers and some foam tape here is the card I created.

I cut three of the flower card pieces out, used one as a base then with the other two I cut out the roses and leaves and from the third piece just the red rose.  I layered the pieces using foam tape.
I cut a piece of the Cocao Gold to cover my card front, then added the flower piece and lastly added some Peel Craft stickers to give a sweet border round the card.  I wrote the sentiment with my Chocolate brown Zigwriter pen.

I am very pleased with the result, now to just send it to a deserving friend.  It is really nice to send cards to those you care about.  There is not enough nice post arriving in our letterboxes anymore.

You can find these papers available in our shop and online (click here or here)