TIPS AND TECHNIQUES

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Accordion Halloween Cards

Hi!!  I'm in the middle of a road trip my husband and I planned and I thought I'd taken a minute for a quick Card "Show & Tell".
Every year I make cards for my grand-nieces for Halloween and I try to do something different every year.  I'm sure one of these days I'm going to run out of ideas but for this year it will be Accordion fold card for the older girls and then different ones for the younger girls and 2 boys.  I decided on this after my grand-daughter made a accordion interactive booklet for her brother.  Here's what I came up with:
Closed


Inside

Back side

 I think the girls are going to love flipping through these little booklets.  I still need 3 more cards but they are for babies so no booklet for them!  LOL  I also have to decide what to do for my own grandkids!  Yikes!  It better be just as amazing Hahahahaha.

Well have to go back to my road trip....Oooooo I found an awesome scrap/rubber stamp store in Eau Claire Wisc!  Spent W A YYYYYY too much money.  But hey...mom and pop stores are hard to come by!  Ok so to be honest so far on this road trip I found a tiny one in Galena Illinois, and another small but WELL packed one in La Crosse Wisc...  Not exactly what my husband had in mind when we decided this road trip...hahahaha....oh well............

Til next time

HAPPY CARDING!


Friday, September 2, 2016

Homemade Embellies for Halloween cards and books

Ooooooo..............can't resist!  I love playing with scraps and what better way to use them than with making embellishments!
With my recent venture of making Halloween Mini Albums (I have another I'll be posting soon) and the need of Halloween cards I decided that while I was up at the cabin that I'd spend some time crafting little embellies.  Could only make so many because the humidity finally hit and all my papers started going limp.
Basic supplies are all you need. something to cut a straight line (or not so straight!  hahaha) 1" circle punch, glitter pen or glitter, scrap paper.  And remember to recycle too.  I've often gone into my recycle bin and grabbed paper bags and bottle caps to add interest.  Even soda pop can tabs can be an embellishment.  Check it out>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Flowers were made from paper bags and black card stock.  Just cut freehand a curvy circle about 2" in diameter, mist it with water, and crunch it up.  Once dried layer 3 together reshape by crunching then highlight tips with black ink pad.  Little banners I used a 1/2" x 8.25 piece of black cut curvy then cut another piece of paper bag about 3/8" x 8.25.  Layered them together, wrote BOO across then cut between the Boo's.  I added pop dots to the back of the black so they weren't so flat.  Seed packets pockets and coffins are on previous post with template.(Interactive Halloween book)  Little ghosts were cut out of DSP and pop dotted to 1" circles.  Witch's hat, Halloween bats trick or treat pumpkins were all from DSP.  Look for papers with small images or works that can be cut around and mounted on scrap card stock in Halloween colors.  They make great little add on's.

On the left is my clip made from a shower curtain clip and a bottle cap.  I popped a sticker inside and ran some scrap yarns and treads through a hole I punched on the bottom.  Attached to the treads I have some little charms.  Bottom left is another bottle cap stuck on a 1.25 green scallop circle with some purple scrap ribbon behind it.  A little book was made using cardstock and small raven clip art, some orange raffia was added to look like a book mark.  2 small buttons had bakers twine from dollar store threaded through them and tied in bows then just glued to a round stock circle.  Little spiders on top of picture had dimensionals under them to pop them a bit.  Spiders were from a Martha Stewart punch.  
As you can see it's easy to come up with a bunch of ideas.  For me they were all nearly free.  The only thing I had to buy was more pop dots!  Though I guess I could have used the grandkids fun foam and glue!  LOL
Well I hope I gave you some inspiration!

HAPPY CARDING!

Interactive Halloween Book

So Halloween is approaching and I loved all the various papers I've seen on line from Graphic 45, Tim Holtz, etc.  I want to use them all!  But I don't scrapbook so the next best thing for me is a Mini Album.  I had been gathering sheets for about 2 months now.  Locating them at local craft stores and my favorite Mom and Pop stamp store in Door County.  As well as eBay, Amazon, and Scrapbook.com.  And Here's what I came up with.

The front just has small decorations of a banner, homemade flowers from grocery bags, a tea stained doily.  A bottle cap attached to the side of the book with a clip from old shower curtain rings has various yarns and charms added to it for texture.  Inside left orange page has a seed packet pocket with a tag inside that you can turn over and attach a photo. The next page (the striped one) has a 3 flip waterfall and photos can be add to that as well.  What can't be seen is a triangle double pocket with 2 more tags to put photos on.  The next orange page has a coffin on an angle which opens up to hide another photo or 2.  Last but not least the far right page has 2 photo mats.  My granddaughter just loves this book!  In fact since she wouldn't leave it alone (and I needed it for a display for ladies night)  We had a sleepover and she made her own.



And she did a great job!  Instead of photos though she opted to use stickers on the blank mats.
Since I was getting together with the ladies I made all their book bases and a bunch of embellishments and templates.  So I decided to add the project sheets to this post.

HALLOWEEN MINI BOOK
BASE OF BOOK
1 sheet heavy 110# black card stock  8.5 X 11   scored at:    3.5,   4,   9,   9.5
1 sheet heavy 110# black card stock 8.5 x 6   scored at:     3 and 3.5 with 6"side at top of scoreboard
Attach the 9.5 side of previous paper to the 3" side of second paper
Total size of glued book is 8.5"  x 15  5/8"
 
Waterfall
3 pieces Orange card stock cut 3.5" x 4"  score at 3.5"
 
Seed Packet pocket
1 piece lime green card stock  6 x 5  scored at 1.75 and 4.25 with  6"side at top.
Turn so 5" side is top and score at 1" and 4.5"
Remove all 4 corner pieces and round the flaps.  Fold and glue
 
Other inside pieces
Template for tomb stones, witch hat, triangle pocket and small photo mats.

Well have fun and I'll answer any questions if you have any.

HAPPY CARDING!

Thursday, September 1, 2016

GLUE TIP tip.

Well...............I know it's been a long time.  Crazy summer here, unfortunately not all good stuff but I got through the bad moments and it's time to brush off and get back to my obsessions!
So today we are talking glue!!  Well not really...... but the glue bottle tip.  Alot of people I know have been using the Art Glitter stainless steel glue tip (found here art glitter tips ) Many people use it on their Art Glitter Glue (found here art glitter glue)  for adding glitter details to their cards.  I love this tip!  I have used it on my Dollar Store liquid Adhesive (found here  dollar tree).  I have an obsession with this glue.  For a dollar it has held my cards together better than ANYTHING else I have ever used.  The tip goes on smoothly and I absolutely love the fine lines you can make.  One thing about this glue is you have got to work quickly as it dries real fast and once stuck it is STUCK!  But I work pretty quickly so that's OK for me.  Now back to the stainless steel tip. I had heard some reviews of the little pin getting stuck in the tip when left for a few days or another review of removing the tip and cleaning and then not being able to get the glue to come out like something is stuck.  Personally I have not had any problems with the tip on any glues I have used but I also remove the tip at the end of the day and clean it out.  I never gave a thought to the cleaning until one of the ladies in our group indicated that she was having a problem with her tip.  So to the sink I went running hot water through her tip but something was clogging it and I couldn't get it out.  I kept sticking that pin in through the top and then from underneath until finally a rock hard little ball of glue popped out.  What a pain!  Then once home and after using my glue I went to clean the tip and thought Hmmmmmm.....is this why mine doesn't clog?  I have always used the little brush that came with my granddaughters Dr Brown bottles. (extra ones..lol not the one I actually used on her bottles) These little brushes are to clean the flow devise inside the bottles. I don't remember why I started using it except 8 yrs ago it was sitting on the window sill and I just decided to use it I guess. (look for it here).   I have never had a clogged tip.  Now in all honesty I have NOT been using the Art Glitter Glue either.  No reason except the Dollar Tree Glue is cheaper!  And Hey I'm on a budget.  So the tip for the day is to clean your stainless steel tip (no matter what brand you may choose) and give the inside a little scrub with a Dr Brown brush!

Til next time
HAPPY CARDING