Travels

At Mel’s request, I’m posting the finished product here that I blogged about last time with my Wicker Basket Tutorial.  It was a card for my grandparent’s sixtieth wedding anniversary! I enjoyed our visit to celebrate their anniversary so much and I took lots of pictures! SO, I have decided that I’m going to make an album for them and give it to them at Christmas.  I don’t want to post all the LOs here (I hope you don’t mind), but you can see my progress thus far here. I’ve been pretty busy with that particular project and all my preparation for work in the fall, so I haven’t had a whole lot of time to blog (or visit).  I hope to remedy the latter soon!  Thanks for reading/looking!

“Wicker” paper basket tutorial

So I’m working on a rather largish project at the moment, but I thought I’d give you a sneak peek by way of a tutorial.  One component of this project is a “wicker basket” made out of paper strips.  I got my inspiration from a quilling book, but decided to take it a step further to see if I could really make it look like wicker.  You might notice that the original number of vertical strips was reduced at the end, but that’s not that important—I think you’ll get the idea.

I started by cutting 6 5mm wide by 11.5cm long strips (vertical strips) out of white copy paper. Use a paper cutter.

Then, using a hand shredder (or you can buy white quilling strips), I made 25 3 mm wide by 7.2 cm long strips (these will be the horizontal “weaving” strips).

I placed all the strips on a piece of paper, and then rolled a brayer over them covered in distress ink–first with Antique Linen, then with Scattered Straw.  Allow them to dry.  If you use copy paper or some other lightweight paper, the paper will become quite wet, but you get good color saturation.  I didn’t want uniform color as I was going for a more “natural” look.

I arranged the vertical strips on a piece of paper, leaving no more than 1mm between them.  Glue the top edge of the strips down lightly (be prepared to trim this part off later as you’ll probably pull up some paper with the glue). Weave in the horizontal strips, alternatively starting over and under with each row. This will take some patience. 🙂 Don’t be afraid to do a loose weave and then adjust all the strips at the end. Once you have all the strips where you want them, strategically glue the strips on the perimeter so it will keep the weave in place. Reserve one or two of the horizontal strips.

Cut a trapezoidal shape (inverted) out of chipboard or other heavyweight paper (this will be dependent on the size basket you want, but mine was 3.8 cm at the top edge, 3cm at the bottom, with roughly a 4.8 cm vertical median)

Flip the weave over (inked side down) and glue down the chipboard in the center, making sure you have enough weave on all sides to fold over. I recommend using a smooth glue so that you can cover the entire surface of the chipboard .

Fold the strips up over the chipboard, trimming as necessary.  Glue and secure with paper strips. Allow to dry.

When dry, flip the basket face up and make a spiral quilled strip with one of the reserve horizontal strips. Glue this to the top edge of the basket (not pictured–yet).

Using a foam brush, coat the entire basket with a layer of Mod-Podge. Use several layers and allow to dry in order to give your “wicker” a lacquered look. 🙂

Voila! You know have a paper “wicker” basket ready for use in a project (coming soon!)

The basket here has not been “lacquered” yet and does not have the ornamental spiral edge. You’ll see that when I’m finished with the entire project. 🙂

Summer’s Here!

And with it…my return to crafting! 🙂

I’ve been getting back into quilling and will be excited to share my projects here. I also plan to keep posting at Going Green Crafters and Artists (I’ve just put up a post on using die cut negatives).  Here are a few recent Thank You cards I’ve made for my annual music charity walk.

Made from scrap stash except for scalloped green cardstock (Paper Source). PP is Basic Grey Wisteria Collection.

PP is from BasicGrey’s June Bug collection, mounted on Bazzil “Dotted Swiss” (Phoenix).

Die cut scraps on Bazzil Dotted Swiss (White)

It doesn’t show up in the photo, but I applied Pearl Glimmer Mist to the flowers on the left and right (not the center–I forgot, lol).  The scallop squares are a die cut (Provo/Cuttlebug), and I used ribbon from my stash. Cardstock is Bazzil Dotted Swiss (White).

THANKS FOR LOOKING!

First Tri-Shutter Card & More

Well, since my last post, here’s what I’ve been up to:

Left to Right:

A) Sympathy Card

B) Sympathy Card detail

C) Grunge Valentine

D) Welcome Baby Boy Card

E) My first tri-shutter card! (Birthday)

F) “A note of Thanks”

(Click on hyperlinks to view in my Scrapbook.com gallery and for specifics)

Thanks so much for looking and for your comments!

New Year Crafting Resolutions!

Ok, so it is no secret that I have all but disappeared off the crafting radar screen.  I hate that.  I love my job, but I don’t love that it does not afford me time to craft or cook. SO, for the New Year, I am going to try the following: for ever two hours (minimum) of work I do on the weekend, I can craft for an hour.  This doesn’t mean that if I do four hours of work I’ll automatically spend two hours crafting, but I have to do at least two hours of work to earn my hour of crafting time. I think 1-2 hours per weekend is all I can afford, but we’ll see.

For Christmas I received a Cuttlebug from a dear friend!  I was so excited.  And as you can see below, I’ve already put it to good use.  I wanted it mostly for dry embossing, but now I think I’m going to be very into die cuts too! I love it.  I only have the die cuts and embossing folders it came with and the Winter Bundle embossing pack, so I’m clearly going to have to expand my collection. 🙂

Anyway, here are four thank you cards–the fruit of Saturday’s labors.

light blue cardstock; “Winter Woods” embossing folder (Provo); Pearls by Mark Richards (Crystal Stickers); letterpress tag (Paper Source)

lavender cardstock; white cardstock; Wisteria Paper Collection (BasicGrey); “Celebration Stamps” Embossing/Die set (Provo Crafts); “Salutation Phrases” MiniMarks Rub-ons (American Crafts); Quickie Glue Pen; Baby Pink ultrafine glitter (Barbara Trombley)

TECHNIQUE:  here I filled in the indented part of the embossed heart stamp image with my glue pen and sprinkled it with ultra-fine glitter for a little extra bling

white cardstock; “Phoenix Dotted Swiss” cardstock (Bazzill); “Christmas Wreath” embossing folder (Provo Crafts); white gel pen (Sakura); Accessories Book 2 MiniMarks Rub-ons (American Crafts)

TECHNIQUE: I liked the embossed image on the textured paper.  I decided to bring it out by outlining particular parts of the wreath with a white gel pen.  If I had all the colors I want, I would have outlined the image using various colors…but I think the white and red keeps it simple.

“Chicken Pox” June Bug Collection PP (BasicGrey); stash items; Sticker (Target)

I’m not a “bright color” person, typically, but every once in awhile a project calls for it and then I’m left with scraps! So, in an effort to use up these scraps I made this card.  I’m actually quite pleased with it. I apologize for my finger in the shot, but I couldn’t get the colors/light right otherwise.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Almost there…

Well, I’m ALMOST on break.  But it looks like this is going to constitute my Christmas crafting this year:

I heard about them over at Going Green Crafters and Artists which re-blogged the tutorial from How About Orange?

They are really fun to make and super easy and a great way to use up old magazines.  I think they can lend a modern look to a package as well. As mentioned at GGCA, maps would also work. As would scraps of wrapping paper.  The possibilities are endless!

Magazine Gift Bows

I learned about the magazine gift bow tutorial at All About Orange, via Going Green Crafters and Artists, a wonderful new blog focusing on eco-crafting (and to which I OCCASIONALLY contribute!)

This idea isn’t just neat because it is a great way to re-use paper, but the bows themselves can really make a package unique.  Check it out!

Yep…still here. Barely.

Well, tonight, out of necessity, I made the time to make some cards!!  One is a belated birthday card for my father, and the other is for my godson/nephew.  I also made one for my MIL, but on the chance she checks out this blog, I won’t post it until AFTER her birthday. 🙂

I’m busier than I’ve ever been before in my life.  I wish that was an overstatement. I miss my crafting friends and my crafting time, but at least I am happy professionally (something new).

I’ll be here when I can!

This card (for my dad) reuses some “junk” mail.  I say this as I don’t mean ANY disrespect to the organization that keeps sending me these paper Tibetan prayer flags.  I just don’t have use for a lot of them, so I’ve decided to incorporate them into some craft projects.  Here I’ve used two “flags” against BasicGrey Marrakech line paper with a letterpress tag from Paper Source.  I also inked/distressed the edges of one of the flags with “Dark Moss” Chalk Ink (ColorBox).

This card uses double sided cardstock (#NT104-Far Out) from The Paper Loft, a letterpress tag (Paper Source), Hero Arts “Printers Type Alphabet” lettering stamps,  “Penguin with Presents” stamp from Savvy Stamps and I embossed with “Rainbow Sparkle Lite” ep and Color box brown pigment ink.

Sunday Scrappin’ July 26, 2009

Please join us over at Sunday Scrappin’! All you have to do is post your papercrafting “ta-da”s and “to-do”s for the week and participate in the optional challenges!

I just got back from vacation so I don’t have much to show. I did make a card for my grandmother’s 80th birthday before I left and I don’t think I posted it, so here ya go:

She likes country decor, so I kept that in mind when making this card.   I used this “Country Hearts” stamp kit (RubberStampede) that I don’t use very often due to the fact they are foam stamps and I don’t like foam stamps. 🙂 But the little squares make up a nice quilt look. I stamped on Martha Stewart PP instead of directly on the cardstock. One of the stamps had an extraneous ink mark, so that is how the photo corners came to be on the card, LOL. I actually like how it looks. I colored in the squares with colored pencils, and then added eyelets and ribbon (“pool” from Paper Source), and used some Martha Stewart jewel embellishments but stuck them to the ribbon so they’d look like charms (they don’t show that well in the photo, for some reason).

In addition, I am now a contributor at Going Green Greetings! Check it out for ideas on how to be a little more environmentally sound when it comes to papercrafting!

TO-DOs:

I’m getting caught up on work.  But I need to make a birthday card for my stepfather, so I’ll try to get that done this week.

Sunday Scrappin’ July 12, 2009

TA-DAs

• I’ll include THIS because it is a paper craft, kinda.
• I also managed this little card for some friends who are getting married on Saturday. I quilled the flowers and the pp is BasicGrey’s Wisteria line:

• I also managed an anniversary card for my husband (we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary with a lovely day and a half in the Berkshires…Tanglewood, Hancock Shaker Village (my new favorite place) and the Norman Rockwell Museum) but I wasn’t absolutely thrilled with the results. The pp is BasicGrey’s Wisteria line, the swirl stamps are Rhonna Farrer, and the letterpress tag is from Paper Source.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do Christine’s red, white and blue challenge.

TO-DOs:

I’ll be surprised if I get any crafting done in the next 10 days because I am going on VACATION!  To the other side of the country, in fact. 🙂 I’m very thrilled about this, but will miss crafting while I’m gone..especially since Amy’s challenge for this week is so enticing:

…pull something out of your “someday” file and give it a try. Always wanted to try a certain technique? Been thinking about experimenting with a new layout or embellishment? Let’s get one of those things crossed off our list this week!

But I hope everyone else has a stellar crafting week!