Scrapping by Design

Today’s mail brought a beautiful pink-toned birthday card from another member of the CST (Canadian Stamp Talk) email group.

My scanner seems to be distorting color lately, and even Photoshop hasn’t restored the image of this card to make it look as great at the original.

The card is a monotone with shades of pink. I love monotones. There’s something so elegant about them.

Here, the ribbon in the middle is the palest of pink, and the other parts of the card are various tones of pink and rose. The entire card has a faint glittery effect. I’m told that the sparkles were made with SU (Stamping UP) Paint.

The flower on the top left appears to be a punched shape, punched with a felt or felt-ish paper. A clear rhinestone makes up the center.

The sentiment, reading, “May every part of your Birthday have happy in it” is a stamp.

Thanks so much for this lovely card. It’s much appreciated.

I made these pop-up photo cubes and the holiday ornament ball using the Sizzix BIGZ Dies 3D Ball PopUp.

Its cut on the Sizzix 655268 Big Shot Cutting-and-Embossing Roller-Style Machine, and you need a Sizzix extended cutting pad to handle the Bigz die.

If you haven’t used the Big Shot, I have to tell you it has quickly become my favorite crafting tool, right after my Fiskars Paper Trimmer. There is a video demo of the Big Shot at this link.

These photo cubes will be Christmas gifts for two little boys, and the blue ball makes a neat Holiday ornament. Although the shape lends itself well to Christmas and the holidays, these balls would work well at any time of the year.  Using black and white images makes a truly elegant photo cube, based on some pictures I have seen.

I like these little pop-up balls quite a bit. You can flatten them in an envelope or between folded card stock and mail them. When the envelope is opened, the balls pop up. The high tech items that make them work are good old-fashioned elastic bands.

The balls are easy to make, once you know how. I am not particularly skilled at figuring things out, so I confess that I struggled with the instructions for quite some time.

I have made video demonstrating how to make these 3D pop-up balls.

As for the photo cube, I have to say that sizing the digital photographs and printing them out to the right size and shape was a time consuming project, at least the first time I did it. It was much easier the second time around when I made the second photo cube.

Don’t know how to resize or shape your digital images to use them in this photo cube? I have a post describing how to resize and shape your images using Photoshop CS or Photoshop Elements.

In the meantime, how about these other great Bigz Dies at eBay? I need to win the lottery.

This Holiday craft project is a candy holder made with card stock, acrylic and a ribbon. It couldn’t be simpler, but of course, you could decorate it any way you choose.

The inspiration came from a make and take at Clipper Street Scrapbook Company, a craft store in Langley, BC. It was one of the make and takes at their annual Christmas open house.

In the video demonstration below, I used a Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Scalloped Circles Die Template to cut the shape in the middle. At Clipper Street, we used the Spellbinders S4-220 Nested Pine Trees Die Template. That’s the one shown in the picture above.

One tip: if you’re going to do this using a die cut machine (I used the Sizzix 655268 Big Shot Cutting-and-Embossing Roller-Style Machine
), its a good idea to tape your die in place before cutting. Otherwise, it can slip a bit during the cutting and that destroys the symmetry of the candy holder.

Here is the video demonstration:

Although this little 3-D candy holder is made as a holiday or Christmas craft project, you could adapt it easily to make wedding favors, or to make a holder for Valentines Day, birthday parties, Easter, Halloween or any other holiday or special occasion.

This hand made birthday journal was inspired by a project I saw on a crafting community called Life on the Scrap Beach.

The journal is called My Year, and its a gift for a friend’s birthday.

I made the project 100% from my stash, since I’m trying to use up the supplies I already have before I buy yet more. The downside of stash-using  is that not all pages coordinate well. The upside is that in addition to saving me some money and reducing the piles of craft supplies in my home, it also forces me to use more hand made embellishments and to strive for more creativity in design.

Each page in this little book  has a title and contains tags for journaling.  The book has a wire binding, made with the ZUTTER BIND IT ALL SCRAPBOOK & PAPER CRAFT TOOL. The titles and a die cut on the front and back covers are made with the Cricut Expression 24-Inch Personal Electronic Cutting Machine.

I’ve never been a huge fan of the Cricut because for quite some time I could not get it assembled correctly. Now that its working the way it should, I am warming up to it.

Here is my video demo of my hand made birthday journal:

I have used a number of techniques that I have demonstrated in other videos.   People new to crafting or people unfamiliar with the tools and techniques  might want to check them out:

1. Video Demo of the Zutter Bind-It-All
2. Video Demo of the Sizzix Big Shot Universal Die Cutting and Embossing Machine
3. Video Demo of the Burnished Velvet Glitter Technique
4. Video Demo of Basic Rubber Stamping, Masking and Coloring
5. Video Demo of Heat Embossing

This hand made birthday journal is in the mail now. I hope it arrives in time for the birthday.

This Halloween House is a cute Halloween craft project, at least in my opinion. I made it using the same pattern that I demoed in an earlier video, St. Patrick’s Day House Craft Project

I cut the pattern pieces out of a light cardboard box and covered with the pieces of Halloween scrapbook paper left over from the Halloween cards that I made a few days ago.

I embossed the roof and the pathway with a Cuttlebug folder (Elegant Swirls) used with  the Sizzix Big Shot Cutting-and-Embossing Roller-Style Machine.

Many of the embellishments are store bought Halloween stickers, but I made the larger items myself.

The “ghost” in the doorway is fashioned from a flexible, lacy paper with “eyes” glued in the appropriate location.

As for the tombstone in front, reading  RIP, I cut that from card stock and wrote the letters with a glaze pen.  After I took the picture, I removed the RIP tombstone and put it at the bag, along with a second stone reading “Izzy Dedyet.”  I decided the tombstone in front gave a cluttered look to the project.

The jack o’ lantern pumpkin is done with paper piercing, drawn freehand. I used an orange glaze pen to mark the pumpkin’s veins and draw the facial features. I applied 3-D dimensional glue (yellow) to the eyes, nose and mouth.

The Halloween House was an economical project. Other than the stickers, I made it entirely from items in my stash.

I plan on donating this Halloween craft project to the community center where I take my Tai Chi classes. They have a lot of children passing through and I expect the kids will like it.

Awhile back, I posted a video tutorial showing one way to make paper flowers with punch art.

I invited site visitors to show me their punch art flowers. A few days ago, site visitor Carol Westover sent me a picture of these these lovely flowers she made with punches.  One of the punches is by Stamping Up. I don’t know who makes the other two.

Carol’s blog is Welcome to my Home. She teaches classes at Picture Perfect and Stamps of Approval craft store in Tehachapi, CA.

Carol writes: “It’s (my web site) fairly current right now (for a change) as I’ve recently pulled off the very old work and posted the newer handmade greeting cards, ATC’s (Artist Trading Cards), and color postcards. I’ve made handmade cards for 20 years and have created Artist Trading Cards for the past 6 years. I teach workshops on techniques, greeting cards and ATC’s at Picture Perfect and Stamps of Approval. I was stamping artist of the quarter last fall so my photo is (hopefully) still there under the artist of the month/quarter area.”

Thanks Carol, for sharing your lovely floral punch art and the link to your site.

Note: Carol sent me an email saying, ‘The other two punches are by EKSuccess, and I believe they’re sold by SU, but am not positive about that.” TY for clarifying.

This is an Easter Bunny House craft project that I made yesterday.

The top picture is the front view. The bottom picture is the view from the back.

It’s made using the same pattern as the St. Patrick’s Day House I made awhile back. You can get the pattern and a video tutorial for the St. Patrick’s Day House at this link and adapt it to the Easter Bunny House.

This time I added a little pink chimney with a tulip growing in it, and some little wooden shapes that they sell at Michaels. Otherwise, its scrapbook paper, some of it embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder done on the Sizzix 655268 Big Shot Cutting-and-Embossing Roller-Style Machine

At the back, I placed a small bunny picture that I decorated with the burnished velvet glitter technique described in an earlier post

This is a video demo of the Easter Bunny House. I didn’t show how its made since I showed that in the St. Patrick’s Day House video tutorial linked to above.

This Happy Spring greeting card combines rubber stamping, coloring with Twinkling H2Os, heat embossing, dry embossing with a Cuttlebug border embossing folder and scalloped shapes cut with Wizard Nestabilities Die Set: Classic Scallop Oval Large (5 Dies).

The flower stamp is Spring Tulips Sketch from Hero Arts.  The Happy Spring sentiment is from Memory Box.

I quite like this little Easter Card.

This Easter Card has a vintage image with a Christian theme. As before, its finished with burnished velvet glitter and has flowers and ribbons.

There is a video tutorial showing how to do the burnished velvet glitter technique at this link.

The vintage image is by Crafty Secrets. You can purchase Collage Sheets on eBay and elsewhere. They come in all shapes, sizes and themes.

This Christian-themed Easter card is also made using the burnished glitter technique that I talked about yesterday.

The image is from the Crafty Secrets Heartwarming Vintage collection and I’ve used Be Creative tape and  Crystal’s Glitter Ritz.

I have an embossed border, made with the Cuttlebug border die used with the Sizzix 655268 Big Shot Cutting-and-Embossing Roller-Style Machine. I truly love my Big Shot

I’ve added a bow of cream colored ribbon.

I wish the burnished velvet glitter would show up better in the scan. On these pictures you can really not tell that there is glitter at all.

In real life, it is apparent and makes quite an attractive Easter card.