TIPS AND TECHNIQUES

Sunday, May 25, 2014

FINALLY THE OSW CARDS

Finally I'm able to post the OSW cards I've been talking about.  I think the ladies had fun making them and they all turned out so nice.  Although the very first one I had them construct was the simplest, it took nearly 2 hours for it to get done.  Had to laugh...thought we'd be working on the remaining 7 for the next 10 hours!  Actually once they all got the hang of it the rest went just fine.  The template used was from Seongsooks blogspot.  Super easy cutting.  We used the papers from a clearance pack of Stampin Up called Candlelight Christmas.  I took (what was considered the ugliest pattern in the pack by the ladies) and made all the sample cards.  Each of the ladies in our group was then given 1 of the remaining patterns in the pack and directions for cutting.  Here's the sample ones I made.

Now on to the groups creations.  Not everyone finished all 8 cards but most of the cards were completed.  See for yourself...they are all so cute!



I like them all !  Truly I don't think any of them can now be considered "Ugly"paper!  

I found another OSW I'd like to try and I'll get to those later this week.  Until then....

HAPPY CARDING!

Sunday, May 18, 2014

SCRAP ATTACK

Isn't it insane how much scrap we accumulate?  I swear I had just emptied my basket and now it's nearly full again.  I always try to use every little thing I have.  Extra punched pieces go into jars as well as small bits of ribbon.  Waste not want not....but boy we do need to set limits on how much we save.  I try to sort out alot every 3 months or so.  Alot of the die cuts go into a box for my granddaughter to use or I stash them into bags for my niece.  The same is done for card stock.  some of the pieces I measure and fold into card bases for them to both use.  Other pieces of DSP get put into clear bags for them also.  Then once in awhile I come across a little scrap of DSP that I absolutely loved from another project and just have to use it in a card.  I don't know where I got the green floral paper but I love how "Springy" it looks and the Daisy?  Well I was trying to show a few different sizes to my daughter-in-law for a project she was doing so with the little extra flowers I thought I'd at least use one of them.  A very simple card but I like it.
I also had this really bright green stock that I believe I used around Easter time.  My granddaughter had placed some bright dotted scraps in the basket as well and I thought they all went together pretty well.  So now I have a base and no clue what to put on it.  Don't you hate that?  Gather some papers..try a new or tried and true fold....fiddle with the matting and then??????????  Brain fart!  No idea where to go next.  Well in my world you place it in another basket as a TBA card! Heeheehee.
Any ideas????   I'm open for suggestions. 

Last for today...there were some itsy bitsy pieces of scraps.  Why oh why do I keep these?  Must have been one of my real "insane" moments.  Of course "Waste not waste not waste not"  keeps running through my head soooooo...make a tag!  What the heck a tag can always be used at some point right?  So here's a little tag.  I basically cut NOTHING!  Amazing right? All the little pieces were there. Just sat around fiddling with the tiny scraps and voila a tag!
Definately a tiny tag...only about 3.5" long from top to bottom point, but it works!
So go attack you scraps.  You never know what you will still be able to get out of it.  I believe I still have a card or two that can be made out of my scraps before I sort it all out to the kids!


HAPPY CARDING!



Friday, May 16, 2014

UGLY PAPER??? NOT!

So I was given a Challenge...I was thumbing through the clearance section on line from Stampin Up.  Found a paper pack on clearance for under $5 I believe. Decided what the heck...I can always use Christmas paper and placed it on my list to give my demonstrator.  SO when my ladies group saw what I put on my order they all bought the same pack... because someone (I won't mention who LOL) thought the pack contained some pretty ugly papers and not at all "Christmasy" enough,  The pack was the "Candlelight Christmas pack".  I observed, when I got the pack, that the papers weren't that bad at all.  In fact....I pretty much liked them.  Now to prove to the ladies that even undesirable can make pretty cards.  I decided we would each take 1 of the sheets and use a One Sheet Wonder Template.  The ladies have no idea how those shapes are to be positioned on the cards but will soon find out on the 23rd of May when we will be making 8 cards each with each of us using a different 
12 x 12 sheet from the Candlelight Christmas paper pack.  Each of us are to bring what ever Christmas embellishments, dies, ribbons, buttons....etc that color match or accent the paper sheet we were assigned.  This is going to be so much fun.  I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with.  I have already made up my 8 and the paper I was given was what was considered the worst.  I absolutely love my final look but sorry......I can't share yet.  Some people might be peeking.  So check back after the 23rd and I will have posted the "Sample Cards".
  In the meantime I C.A.S.E.'d this card from Janeleescards.blogspot.  She made this card in 2012.  She ABSOLUTELY loves the Candlelight Christmas pack!  The one sheet that could be a bit difficult to use is the acetate flocked one.  She made a super simple card that I duplicated below.  I'm putting together a couple different ones too.  I'll admit that I would have never bought this acetate sheet at the store since I'm not a huge fan of flocked acetate, but I have it so I might as well use it.

The one on the left is the one I first C.A.S.E.'d  The other 3 are a slight variation of another one I saw and of course I can't remember where.  I'm not super excited about these but it uses up the acetate sheet a bit.  I'll have to think of something else for the other sheet.
Till then........


HAPPY CARDING!

Thursday, May 8, 2014

ALL OCCASION OSW CARDS


All you OSW fans I did another group of cards last night.  I used a 12x12 double sided paper and was able to come up with 10 cards.  I had used an 8.5 x 11 template and with the scraps just cut out the extra pieces into various squares and rectangles.  I also used 3 sheets of
8 x 8 colored card stock in 3 different colors for mats.  All cards were made with white card and measure 4.25 x 5.5   I actually made these to give as a hostess gift if I ever needed one and have since decided that I may just make another batch for my granddaughter to give to her teacher as an end of school year gift.  I might make a different template.  Not quite sure yet.  I find that if you have everything cut, stamped and laid out it only takes minutes to put them together assembly line style.  Try this using various themes.  Example using all valentine designer papers for a pack of valentine cards. Or all Christmas for the holidays.  All fall type papers that can be used for Halloween and Thanksgiving as well as a fall Birthday.  Spring papers like flowers, butterflies, or birds for Thankyou's, Birthday's and Get Wells.  With OSW the possibilities are endless...Give it a try!  Your going to love this result.

  Below is a template to get you started...it's actually the one I used.  Like I said you will have scraps from you 12x12 sheet so just keep cutting more pieces.  


I got this from:  Mae Collins blog from the UK which she did quite a few years ago.  She called it her A4 OSW and you can find it as well as others on her blog at: maecollins.blogspot.com



Here are the cards I made with this template and using the extra scraps (since I used a 12x12 instead of a 8.5x11.


Have fun with it!!!



HAPPY CARDING











Monday, May 5, 2014

TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK

A  B  C  .....     1  2  3 ......    YOUR THE BEST                       
                       TEACHER FOR ME!


It's Teacher Appreciation Week and since my Daughter-in-law is a Teacher it's a big deal that her Daughter celebrates Teachers!  So on Sunday they came over here to use the craft room and created some adorable inexpensive "Teacher" mini gifts for every day of this week.  I just thought I'd share what they came up with in case you need some ideas.  So here's some photos.
Traced her hand and attached it to lotion, and an Envelope punch board bow of course!!

Mini Hershey bar, graham crackers & marshmallows

Box of Swedish fish 

Who doesn't like popcorn?

Soup cans, pencils and of course flower punchs!!!!

The perks my granddaughter has for having a crafty grandma with lots and lots of papers and tools to play with!!!!



HAPPY CARDING!

SATURDAY CARDING

Hi there and welcome to MAY!!!  Thought it would never get here.  The temps have still been a bit on the cool side but at least you can open a window or two for some of this long winter stale air to get out and let some fresh air in.  I spent my Saturday with a friend and fellow carder watching you-tube videos and trying to figure out a few different cards.  First of all I showed her my file card and she loved it so we went ahead and made a more springy one.  Below is a picture of the Christmas one finally embellished and the spring one we did on Saturday.
They are so darn cute and easy and we are definitely going to show the ladies how to do these on our next gathering.  The Envelope Punch Board from WE R MEMORY KEEPERS makes these cards so quick with limited measuring.  See my previous post for more info.

We then went on to another card we saw.  Not sure who's blog we were on at the time but she called it a "  K Card".  There wasn't a video but instead a written tutorial with photos.  Well it took us 2.5 hours and alot of scrap paper and when we finally got it together, it was the most ridiculous method of making a type of flip it card that doesn't flip and the card doesn't close flat.  Into the trash that went.   We then moved on to a "Chevron" type card.  Again we find a blog with no instructions just a photo of the of the completed card.  Another couple hours and we kind of figured it out.


I'll work on getting some directions for this because it is cute, but I can see where I needed some changes.  We used a standard 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch card and I was pretty sure we should have used a bigger card base.  Plus though my scraps worked, I'd like to actually plan out the color combination.

Next we went and did a card that June brought all the supplies for.  No idea where she found the card at in the first place but that too turned out cute.  Pretty sure it's a Stampin Up card since we used everything from Stampin Up.
Can you believe it!  It took us 10 hours and we only got 3 cards done!  But boy did we get alot of talking and laughing!  It was a great way to spend a Saturday.  Till next time!

HAPPY CARDING!

Friday, May 2, 2014

Tab Cards

Well my goodness...who would have thought that making a Tab Card would create such a mess?  Or cause me to have alot more scraps to add to my stash.  I suppose the millions of ladies who have approach this without watching at least 1 you-tube video have the exact same mess.
So now after many hours I think I finally got the dimentions right.  I hope!  So here's what I had so far.  After getting frustrated with measurements I decided to take a ready made card base ( mine just happened to be a 6.5 x 5 already folded)  I added printed paper (Michaels paper pack) measuring 6.25 x 4 6/8 and attached it to the front of the card and the inside of the card.  Then using my new Envelope punch board by We R Memory Keepers I punched 2.25 inchs in from both sides on the short edges .  On front of card I removed the tab areas on either side of the middle and on the inside of card I removed the middle portion..Hated it!  Maybe it's because the paper I'm using is just stuff I had on hand and not what I really like.  Still I don't like the outcome.

                    Closed                                                                                           Opened
So next I went to someones blog (can't remember who) and thought ok I'll try her measurements.  She gave dimentions of 5.5 x 8.5.  Score at 4.25 then on front side trim off either 1/2 or 3/8 (I guess it was your choice)   Then with punch board punch at 3 inchs on both short sides.  Ok didn't like this either.
                                                                             


                 This one is         This one is
3/8 trimmed                                 1/2 trimmed









Next I went to Catherine Poolers blog and did her directions.
This one was just a 5.5 x 8.5 card stock scored a 4.25.  Using the punch board punch both short sides at 3 inchs.  Remove bottom tab from front of the card and top tab from the back of the card.  Ok....not bad ... I think it would have looked better if I used double sided DSP but still I kind of wanted my back to have 2 tabs and the front have a tab in the middle.
Now that I have lots of practice and lots of flubbs I should be able to figure this out.  Finally I got it!  I made a base card of 5.5 x 8.5 then scored at 4.25.  Wth card opened and short end up I punched at 1.75 turned the card over and repeated.  Then flipped the card 90 degrees and did the same on that short side.  You now have a card when folded that looks like it has 3 tabs on the right side front and on right side inside.  On front you cut off both top and bottom tab and on the inside you remove the middle tab.  The front DSP is cut 5.25 x 4 and on the long side punch at 1 5/8 on both ends as you did for front.  Cut away top and bottom tabs.  The Dsp for inside is cut the same size and same punch but you only cut away middle tab.  When you glue them on you have a nice little border of the card base showing.
Left is the card closed.  You can just see a bit of the inside tabs.  On right shows the inside.  Now just to decorate.  It took me all day to come up with this the way I like it.  You can probably save alot of time and check out Catherine Poolers video on you-tube.  I'll post my finished card once I figure out how I want to embellish it.  That might take another day!  Hahahaha......Oh well now I'm exhausted.  I think it's naptime.  Dang...got to make dinner first!

HAPPY CARDING!