Monday, January 31, 2011

Mojo Monday #176

Well, that has to be a record for me. It usually takes me a long time to make a card - finished this Mojo Monday #176 card in less than an hour! I love this ruched ribbon technique (details on one of my previous posts). I think this turned out to be a really elegant card. I used one of CTMH's new paper packs 'Bliss' - perfect for weddings, special occassions and heritage craft projects.





Supplies - Card size is 5" x 5"

Stamps - Gracious Greetings D1265 (CTMH)
Paper - Bliss B&T paper, Colonial White cardstock (CTMH), brown cardstock (Bazzil)
Inks - Desert Sand (CTMH)
Accessories - 1" ribbon (fabric store), Opaques Gems - Pearl (CTMH)
Other - fine sewing needle, thread

DIY Light Box for Photographing Your Art

Taking pictures of your artwork can sometimes be a challenge. I found this great tutorial on Tracey Mason's blog on how to make your own light box using a cardboard box, tissue paper and packing tape. No more waiting for the sun to come out from behind the clouds for some daylight. You can also take great pictures at night. This light box cost me $1 for the tissue paper. I won't go into any more detail since Tracey does such a good job - check it out. I am still playing with my light sources a bit, but all in all I am quite pleased with the result (my biggest problem was trying to find space in my craft room to set it up).


Sunday, January 30, 2011

Mojo Monday #175

Alright, so I have already missed one Mojo Monday, and am just squeeking this one in before the new challenge tomorrow. Hopefully, I will find more time in the future.

For this weeks sketch I chose to do a Valentine's Day card for my husband. I usually do a more sentimental card, but thought I would try something a little more fun this time. I love the great new stamp set from CTMH - Birthday Blast (C1436) - as soon as I saw it in the new Idea Book I wanted to do a Valentine's card like this one.





I made a light box for taking pictures of my artwork, but still have to tweek the lighting. All in all I am not too unhappy with the result. At least I don't always have to wait for sun to co-operate. I will post a picture and details tomorrow.

Supplies - al products are CTMH - card size is 5" x 7"

Stamp Set - Birthday Blast C1436
Paper - Wings B&T, Juniper, White Daisy, Black and Tulip cardstock
Inks - Staz-On Jet Black, Juniper, Bamboo, Sweet Leaf Exclusive Ink pads, Tulip, Sunny Yellow and Blush Exclusive Inks markers
Accessories - Pewter Designer brad, pewter brads, Black Organdy ribbon (retired), Black Grosgrain ribbon
Tools - Fiskars border punch, Spellbinders circle and scalloped circle nestabilities, water brush, computer

Monday, January 24, 2011

CTMH New Spray Pen


One of the new products in Close To My Heart's Spring/Summer 2011 Idea Book is the Spray Pen (mister). Now you can make your own spray mists to co-ordinate with the rest of your CTMH products with just water and reinker, or add a little Create-A-Shade Pearl paint to give you some shimmer.





Spray randomly on your scrapbook page or card where you want colour, or use stencils, die-cuts, chipboard or things around the house (lace, wire mesh etc.) to create a pattern. The possibilites are endless.

Please note:

1. Fill the pen to the seventh line with water (some people use 70% isopropyl alcohol instead of water because it dries faster - I found the water worked just fine and the dry time was minimal), add re-inker to the ninth line, then add 3 - 5 pea sized drops of Create-A-Shade Pearl Paint (if the nozzle clogs use less paint) - shake well and you are ready to go.

2. I put a couple of small beads in the spray pen to help mix

3. It is best to hold the pen at least 8 inches away from your paper, this can cause some overspray so you may want to place your work in a cardboard box to protect your work area. I sprayed the first couple of sprays against the side of the box to make sure it was spraying evenly before I sprayed my artwork.

4. Especially when using paint in your mix, remove the nozzle from your pen when you are done, stick the end of the tube in water and pump until all of the re-inker/paint mix is cleared from the tube and nozzle (be sure to aim the spray into the water and not the wall), put the nozzle back in the pen and put the cap on. This will prevent the nozzle from clogging.

 Here is a quick card that I put together today to try out this new spray pen. I used Sweet Leaf re-inker to spray the base of my card. Although it doesn't show up very well in the picture, it gave a soft shimmery green to the background.


Supplies - All products are CTMH- card size is 3 1/2" x 8"

Paper - Miracle Level 2 Paper Pack (New)
Stamps - Bohemian Alphabet E1019 (New)
Inks - Bamboo Exclusives Ink Pad, Crystal Blue Exclusives Ink Pad, Sweet Leaf Re-Inker, Create-A-Shade Pearl paint
Accessories - Crystal Blue brads, Sweet Leaf RicRac, Irresistibles - Miracle, Spray pen, 3D foam

Friday, January 21, 2011

Paper Roses Instructions

Life has been busy this past week and I am also working on a couple of contest projects that I can't share yet, so I don't have anything new this week. What I would like to share with you is some instructions to make paper roses. This is by no means an original idea, there are a couple of You Tube videos out there.


I created these roses to decorate small gifts of chocolate bars and boxed candy. They are really quite simple to make and you don't need any special tools that you don't already have in your scrapbooking room.

Start with three squares of paper (for the small roses on the wrapped candy gifts I used 2" x 2" squares, for most of the following pictures I used 3" x 3" squares to make it easier to see) You can use whatever size squares you like to give you the size of rose you want.

Take each of the four squares and fold them in half to form triangles. Then fold each of these over to the left (or right if you are right handed) forming a smaller triangle, and then fold over to the left again (or right) for your final triangle shape.







Draw a cone shape on the triangle with pencil and cut out, using this shape as a template to cut the other two triangles. Cut the tip off the bottom of the cone of each.




Open out each and you will have three 8 petal flowers. Ink the edges of each flower.



Take one flower and cut out a 2 petal piece along the fold lines, giving you a 2 petal and a 6 petal piece. Take the second flower and cut out a 3 petal piece, giving you a 5 petal peice and a 3 petal piece. Take the final flower and cut out a 4 petal piece and a 1 petal piece (discard the remaining 3 petal piece). You should now have six pieces - a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 petal piece.


Take the 6 petal piece and apply glue to the front face of one of the end petals. Fold the opposite end petal over top and adhere - this gives you a 5 petal flower. Do this with the 5 petal piece, the 4 petal piece and the 3 petal piece.

Take a toothpick or whatever round tool you require and fold the edge of each petal around it to curl the petals on all pieces including the 2 petal and 1 petal piece.

 After curling the petals of the 1 and 2 petal pieces, lay the toothpick along the inside edges and roll up into a small cylinder and glue as shown in the picture below.



You should now have 6 flower pieces with curled petals as shown in the picture below.

Take the 4 petal piece and apply glue to the bottom outside (I used liquid glass), and insert this piece into the 5 petal piece.

Continue adding each piece in this manner (adjusting the petals until you get the desired effect) until you have completed building your rose. Cut the tip off of the 1 petal piece to make it easier to insert.

 Making the leaves - for the 2" square roses I used a 1 1/2" circle punch, punch out two leaves from each circle as shown.



 For larger leaves use either a larger punch or another circle cutting system. Lay each leaf on a foam mat and using an embossing stylus draw a line down the center of each leaf and draw veins on each leaf being careful not to tear through the cardstock. Turn the leaf over and rub green ink over the surface with a sponge to highlight the veins you have created. Ink again with brown and then some red to get the desired effect. Attach the leaves to the rose with glue dots.






Chocolate Bar and Cany Wraps Instructions





To make the chocolate bar wraps (Hershey's Bliss) and the candy wraps (Jelly Belly) cut the following
Cardstock - 8 3/4" x 5 5/8"
Printed paper - 8" x 5 3/8"
Score the chocolate wrap at 1 1/2" , 2", 5 3/8" and 5 7/8" on both the cardstock and paper
Score the candy wrap at 1 1/2", 2 3/8", 5 3/8" and 6 1/4" on both the cardstock and paper
Punch a decorative border at the end of the cardstock piece closest to the 5 7/8" or 6 1/4" score line. Fold the cardstock and the paper along all of the score lines using a bone folder. Apply glue to the inside of the paper piece and attach to the cardstock starting at the non punched end and folding both the paper and cardstock along the score lines as you do so. If you try to apply the paper to the cardstock while they are both lying flat when you try to fold the wrap around the candy you will run into problems (when scoring the paper piece be generous with your measurements - this will facilitate the above process). Once you have adhered the paper to the card stock, run a line of glue runner to the front straight edge, wrap around your candy and adhere.

Pop up a tag on the front. Attach a multi-looped ribbon and your rose with glue dots and liquid glass and you have a perfect little gift.




Saturday, January 15, 2011

Colouring With Copics and Ribbon Roses

This card features two of the skills I have been working on in the New Year, colouring with copics and making flowers with ribbon. This 'Sweet Tilda' image from Magnolia Stamps, was supposed to be part of a white-on-white card with a lot of ribbon flowers, as you can see she ended up being something else. I received some of the new product from Close To My Heart's Spring/Summer Idea Book this week and couldn't resist using some of the new paper. This is a sneak peek at one of the new paper packs 'Sophia' which will be available to customers February 1st. In the end I used only one of the ribbon roses that I made, (the rest will be ready for a future project).



I should have done some shading around the Tilda image, but I was afraid I wouldn't like the result, that's a skill I will work on in the future as I get more confident with my colouring.

Supplies - Card size is 5" x 7"

Paper - Neena Classic Crest Solar White (for image), White Daisy cardstock & Sophia B&T (CTMH)
Stamps - 'Sweet Tilda'  (Magnolia Stamps)
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics - Face - E0000, E00, E01, Hair - E42, E44, E47, Clothing - R81, R83, R85, R89, Shading - C1, C3, 0
Accessories - Blush brads (CTMH), Pretty Pins (CTMH), 3/8" and 1" white sating ribbon (fabric store), 3/8"  white organdy ribbon (CTMH), Spellbinders - Labels 10, 3D foam tape, needle and white thread

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Mojo Monday #173

I hope to do all of the Mojo Monday card sketch challenges this year. Here is week #2. I have a niece that is due to have a baby at the end of February so I thought I would make a baby card. Don't know what she is having yet, so I will have to create a little girl card at some point.

One of my goals for this year is to teach myself to colour with Copic markers. I didn't have the exact colours that I wanted for this sweet little mouse from House-Mouse stamps, but I managed to colour it with those that I do have. I'm not happy with the gray aura that I put around the whole picture, oh well, too late now.




Supplies - Card size is 5" x 7"

Paper - Neena Classic Crest Solar White (for image), White Daisy & Sky cardstock, Magnifique B&T (CTMH)
Stamp Sets - Sleepy Baby (House-Mouse), Tender Tags D1350 (CTMH)
Inks - Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics - E31, E35, E42, E44, E47, Y11, Y21, B000, B21, R20, C1
Accessories - Buttercup buttons, Splendor Designer brads (CTMH), blue floss (DMC), ruffled organdy ribbon (fabric store), 5/8" Lt. blue satin ribbon (Offray), Polka Dot embossing folder (Crafts-Too), Spellbinders plain oval (large and small), Bow-easy, 3-D foam tape

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Check Out "52 Weeks of Wonder"

If you haven't visited Jeanette Lynton's blog (CEO of Close to My Heart) before, now would be a good time to start. Each week for the next fifty-two weeks she will be showcasing a new stamping technique with instructions and beautiful artwork.  Here is a sample of the first week 'Generational Stamping with a Twist' posted on Friday, January 7th, 2011.


Bookmark her site today and check back every week for more inspiration!

Friday, January 7, 2011

Ruched Ribbon Technique

I have had a few requests to explain how I gathered the pink ribbon on my Mojo Monday card posted on Thursday, January 6th.

The technique used is called ruching. Use a long thin needle with a small eye and sewing thread (if you find your thread breaks when you pull up the gathers you should try a stronger thread like a beading thread). Use white thread for light ribbons and black thread for darker ribbons, I have also used invisible thread but it is a bit tricky to work with. The amount of ribbon you require will depend on how tightly you pull the ruching and the weight of the ribbon. For yesterday's card I required a length of ribbon about 3x the length of my finished piece. I left my ribbon attached to the roll until I had finished stitching and gathering the ribbon to the desired length and then cut the ribbon for less waste.

Below is a picture showing the zigzag pattern that you hand stitch onto your ribbon. Begin stitching at the top edge, starting with a couple of back stitches, (do not knot the end of the thread and start that way as the knot will most likely not hold and will pull through your ribbon when you start pulling on it for gathering), and make small running stitches diagonally to the other edge of the ribbon. Take your stitch over the edge of the ribbon (I have tried to show this in my hand drawn diagram), make a right angle and continue stitching back to the top edge.



Once you have stitched as much of the ribbon as you think you need, pull on the thread and gently gather the ribbon, pushing it towards the start end. Pull it as loose or as tight as you like depending on how you want the finished piece to look. I leave my threaded needle in the ribbon in case I need to add more stitches. Once you've got the finished length take a few back stitches and cut the thread and ribbon.



I hope that is clear. Leave a comment if you have any questions.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Mojo Monday #172

I like the Mojo Monday card sketches and would like to do each week's challenge,  but am not sure that is going to happen. I did manage to complete this week's sketch though.





Supplies - Card is 5" x 7" - All supplies CTMH except where noted

Paper - Neena Classic Crest Solar White (for image), White Daisy, Chocolate and Crystal Blue cardstock, striped paper - Cherry-O B&T (ret'd), Chocolate print - Topstitch B&T (ret'd)
Stamp Set - Piece of Cake D1407
Inks - Memento Tuxedo Black, Staz-On Timber Brown, Crystal Blue, Copics - R81, R83, B000, B00, E25, E29, Y15, W00, W3
Accessories - Crystal Blue Bigger brads, 7/8" Swiss Dot Lt. Pink ribbon (Offray), Spellbinders - plain circles, 3-D foam tape, needle, thread

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

One of My Favourite Cards

Here is a card that I created a few months ago. Some of you may have already seen it since it has been posted to my Close To My Heart website. I am posting it here because it was inspiration for half of my blog title and I just really like it. (I will be posting the inspiration for the second half of my title when I get it completed).


This card features the peacock image from the CTMH stamp set Circle of Love. I heat embossed the image in gold and using a water brush painted it with Pear, Lagoon and Pacifica inks. I made the box pleats from one of the B&T papers from the CTMH paper pack 'Magnifique'. I cut two strips of patterned paper 1" x 12" and hand pleated using the pattern on the paper as my guide. You can also create box pleats by scoring the strips lightly at 1/4" and 3/4" intervals and then using these lines as a guide to form your pleats. If one strip is not enough, glue the second strip to the first after you have pleated the first piece so that you can tuck the end in and the seam won't be visible. I also used two 1/2" x 7" strips of cardstock - I glued my pleated strip to the first one using Tombow and liquid glass and then glued this strip to the right side of my card. I prefer this method as opposed to gluing the pleats directly to the card since you do have to fiddle with it a bit to get everything straight and if you make a mistake you haven't ruined your card. I glued the second 1/2" x 7" strip over the left edge of the pleats to give my ribbon a nice smooth surface to adhere to (satin ribbon shows all of the ridges of an uneven surface).



Supplies - Card is 5" x 7" - All supplies are CTMH except where noted

Paper - White Daisy and Lagoon cardstock, Magnifique B&T
Stamp Sets - Circle of Love D1438, Birthday Script B1208
Ink - Versamark, Gold embossing powder, Pear, Lagoon, Pacific inks
Accessories - Blue/Green sparkles, Aqua 5/8" satin ribbon (Offray), Water brush, Bow-Easy

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Happy New Year!

Well, here we are at the start of another new year. I am looking forward to all of the exciting possibilities that each day will bring and I wish all of you a happy and prosperous 2011.

As you know Close To My Heart is switching to a program of 2 Idea Books a year as opposed to the 3 that you are used to. That means that our Spring/Summer Idea Book will be valid for 6 months from February to the end of July. To bridge the gap in January a small brochure called 'Inspirations' was created for this month. Click on the icon to the right to view.

The ‘Key’ to the specials offered in this brochure is the ‘Wings Workshop on the Go Kit’ found on page 3. When you purchase this kit for $33.50 you then unlock and are eligible for the following specials:
·         Special pricing on all of the My Acrylix stamp sets in the brochure
·         Purchase up to four different  items in addition to the Workshop on the Go kit and you can get the January Stamp of the Month (pictured at right)  – ‘Find Your Style’ – at a discount or for Free! – see the chart on page 7
If you do not wish to purchase the Wings Workshop on the Go kit, you can purchase items from this brochure or the Fall/Winter 2010 Idea Book the same as you usually would. You will earn a discount on the January stamp of the month based on the total dollar value of the sale as you would in the past.

***Note: All of the products in the 'Inspirations' brochure will be available in the Spring/Summer 2011 Idea Book

Purchase any of these great products on-line on my website (click on icon at right) or contact me and I will order the products for you.

Enjoy your day!