Keep Calm and Craft

This project was something I made for demo to show how to upcycle old items. I based the projects around Cardmaking box set and a perfume box set I received. The boxes were just too good to leave lying around. Both boxes are decorated with the Parisienne Blue Collection from Docrafts and all the dies are from Xcut:   Haberdashery A5 Die Set, Sewing Patches Die Set,  Trim Boarders A5 Die Set and the Carnival Alphabet die sets. I have to say I love these projects. they hang from the back like a picture would and I used bakers twine doubled up and it was super strong and perfect for hanging.

I attached the Bakers Twine first so I could cover it with the paper when I decorated.When the boxes were decorated I took a simple Artists board and decorated it with the wording (which I embossed) , flowers, die cuts etc. I raised the artists board using 3D foam on a roll.I doubled it up to give a little height.

Well I hope you like it. I love mine hanging in the studio and the second one went to a great demonstrator friend of mine for her craft space. So have a look at your old gift boxes hanging around and see if you can convert them into a great gift for someone :)

3D IPad and IPad Cover Voucher Holder ------------- oh its good to be back :)

YAHOO.........................I am back.

I have been locked out of my blog and it wouldn't let me post since October and today it just started to work today for some strange reason................oh happy days.  So huge apologies for not posting and uploading my Christmas cards and tutorials but I hope to get back on track with my blogging over the next few weeks.

I am so excited to show you my favorite 3D project. These types of projects are my absolute favorite things to make. It always starts as an idea in my head and about two weeks later I am even dreaming about how to make it. Well this is exactly what happened when I heard my Brother in Law Pete was getting an IPad for Christmas last year. My daughter was getting him an ITunes voucher and so an idea on how to present it was born!!!

The photos below shows the IPad I made, It is the exact size of an actual IPad. The icons were a set of fridge magnets bought in the Euro shop and the background apple picture was found in a Google search.You can see the little pocket in the IPad cover to hold the actual voucher. Acetate creates a great screen for this project.

 

 This is the IPad cover when its closed.

I wrapped the IPad Voucher Holder in tissue paper and  I then built a box for it to sit in.

I have to say this was the most fun project I've worked on in ages. I am soooooooo proud of it :)

Happy Crafting Everyone.

A working clock card!

For the longest time I have wanted to incorporate a working clock into a card, don't ask me why ...........I just did! Well finally I have done it. These are the kind of quirky projects I love to work on.

My big sister asked me to make a card for her friend Nicola. Now my sister is a sweetheart and is so good to me so I wanted to make something really special. (my little sister who never got a 40th birthday card from me.............don't read this post!!!.....lol............it's coming, its coming!!!!)

I was walking around our local Euro Shop here in Bray and they had little alarm clocks for €1.00 so I took the chance and bought one. Hubby dismantled it for me and I built in into the card below. It is still working and so as not to be mean I dismantled the alarm so it wouldn't go off while it was sitting on her mantlepiece (there is no way to get at the back to turn the alarm off..........hehehe......she would not have been impressed).

When  I get an idea in my head I have to complete the project before the creative flow disappears so this was an all night project. I started at about 9pm and finished at about 9.15am. There was a lot of messing about with sizes, making something hating it, trying something else,  remaking, remaking and remaking. I have to say I love how it looks but at about 3.25am I was not feeling in such a loving mood towards it! Getting the vision of what I wanted and working out the dimensions to make it happen always tends to be my bug bear. So have a peak and see how it turned out. I would love to know what you all think.

This photo below shows the front of the card. I wanted to keep it quite simple as the inside of the card is the showpiece.

 In this photo you can see that the card had to be quite wide to be able to take the clock mechanism. To protect the clock the card has been reinforced with hard card so it it quite heavy and like a box. The side flap shown on the right is kept closed with 3 hidden magnets.

 Here you can see that the card has loads of concertina folds in it. These hold the clock in place and create a large gap for the clock mechanism to sit in. At this point it still hides the secret of what is inside.

Card opening.................oooooh............hehehe. See the bit of red tape on the side. That stuff is so static it sticks to everything. I obviously removed it before I gave it to my sister but I found it about an hour later stuck to my jumper!!!! I was so busy taking the photo that I missed seeing it in the picture!

 And voila..........the inside of the card. When my husband took the clock apart  I cut a piece of hard cardbord to the size I wanted and decorated it. I punched a hole in the middle and placed the section that holds the clock hands through the hole. Then I got Gary to reattach everything and get it working again.  The card needed to be strong enough to hold both the clock and the battery to make it work.. I then trapped this card between the front folds of the concertina fold frame I had made so that it was suspended and had space at the back for the mechanism. .

A card this big needs a box to hold it, thee photos below show the box I made for it to sit in.

As I type this I have just received a text from my sister saying her friend, the guests and the staff at the resturant loved the card  so that's Happy Days for me :)

Ok, time for me to go for a sleep as  I have just spell checkd this blog post and had to add in loads of words I missed out and change some very unusual spelling!!!

Happy Crafting everyone :)

Have yourself a very Boofle Christmas :)

Well I went a bit mad with making Boofle cards so this is going to be a loooooooooooong post!!!

My favorite card is the little window box card below. It uses the Penguin stamp from this stamp set. I masked the penguin with a post it note and built a big pyramid of Penguins. The little penguin at the top has been stamped out and then I very cruelly cut off his arms and  stuck them back on in a different position so he looked like he was a little bit of a cheerleader :)

This card is made from two pieces of card the exact same size (a front and a back) To create the side frame pieces for this card I cut two pieces of card to the height of my card and 2" wide. I scored the pieces of card  down the length at ½, 1 and 1½.. Fold them in an accordion fold so you end up with 2 M shapes. They will get attached either side to both the front and the back pieces of the card. If you haven't done this type of card before just have a bit of a play and you wil be able to work it out...........promise :)

Cover the front piece of card in your patterned paper using a glue stick to ensure that the paper is stuck down solidly everywhere then cut out your aperture.  Now just stick it all together. Have a look at the photos and hopefully you can work it out. Any problems just give me a shout and I will do a quick tutorial on it, give it a try first though as you may surprise yourself :)

This next card is made by folding over a piece of acetate and again using our M fold (like in the card above) to join it together Have a look at the second picture below and you'll see how its done. I attach it all together and then fold over some paper punch a boarder into it and and attach it to the top fold of the acetate.I cut strips of paper to cover the joins back and front at the bottom of the card and attach them on and then just pop on my decoupage and embellishments.

Front

Side View

Back View

 This is a little gift card holder. I took a square card and folded the front piece of the card in half back towards the spine. Then on the inside part of the flap (see second picture) I cut a slit large enough to hold the gift card but not too big as I need the gift card to fit in and stay snugly in there.I then seal up the front half  flap to the back half flap with double sided tape all around the edges. Pop an image on the front half flap making sure its large enough to hide the Gift Card when you insert it into the card.

 This is a penny slider card (I use 2cent coins to make this work). Some of you will know how to make this card and for those of you who don't I will be making up a tutorial shortly to show you how. I love how the penguin just runs from side to side doing a few little flips when it on its way :)

 

 

 This card is just using the Penguin decoupage ( any chance that by now you are realizing that I love penguins!) I used left over papers from other projects and cut them into strips. I then glued the strips diagonally onto a piece of card creating my own unique background paper. Taking this piece of card  I cut it into 3 sections to create the staggered background. A couple of snowflake embellishments and gems and of course the every fabby Irridecent Glitter glue and a cute little card is born.

 A couple of quick and simple cards made with papers, decoupage and an Xcut boarder punch.

This is a little bouncer card. It fold flat for posting and if I was going to post it I would use a doubled over piece of strong accetage to hold the top bouncer image rather then the wire.

 I love the little donkey in this card. Being the lazy little thing I am I stamped the donkey on grey, cream and red and just cut out the different sections in red and grey and layered them all up onto the one full printed cream colored image. Not a Promarker, Copic maker or coloring pencil was harmed in the making of this card :)

 This is a three layered card. I started with a large square card and decorated it.

 Next I used the same size card as above but just cut a bit off it on two sides to make it  fit neatly onto the card. Don't try to cut the bit off at the spine..............no seriously I did that without thinking!!!!! Shouldn't work so late at night sometimes

Home for Christmas

These were just the most lovely papers and stamps to work with. The projects flowed and a lot of them were for some reason food based!! Not all the photos of my projects are here as most never survived to the picture stage!!!! All the chocolate sliders were eaten either on the way home from demos or by Gary and Hannah when I got home!!

For this project below I bought a large lollypop in Tesco's for under €3.00. The front cover is actually part of the front packaging of the 12 x 12 Home for Christmas Papers. I covered up the advertising part with a tag and some gems and then popped a ribbon on. The back of the lolly is just covered with a Kraft card circle and decorated with another tag. Cute Project isn't it. :)

 

With this card I just used part of the paper for the front of the card (layered onto red cardstock) and then cut out matching baubles and snowflakes from the same paper to decoupage it. A sweet little greeting and its done.

I used the Baubles Stamp Set for the main picture. Here the baubles are stamped plainly but I have made a few where I embossed the baubles and it look gorgeous.  The background is made using the Homespun Stamp Set. I stamped on green card in White embossing ink and covered it in white embossing power and then heat embossed it. A little bit of layering for the front image and then a greeting attached to the side. Lovely :)

Yep, you guessed it. My favorite little project from this range. A cute little tiny handbag. I just used some excess paper I had left over and wrapped it around a miniature chocolate bar (I buy them with 5 in a pack in Tescos). Then I took another piece of leftover paper and gently wrapped it around the bar to get an idea of where the folds should be. This is a little guess project as each time I made it, it managed to look a bit different. Make sure the folds holding the bar in place are tight to the chocolate so that it doesn't fall out of the handbag. I actually attach a little bit of double sided tape to the bottom of the wrapping on the bar to hold it in place. Before I seal the flap for the handbag I make 2 holes in the flap score line and run my twine through to make the handle. It is just secured with little knots underneath as this project is all sealed up and they won't been seen. The idea is that you just slide the chocolate out of the side of the handbag leaving the chocolate wrapping in place. Trust me this can be done as I have had to replace the chocolate numerous times because it accidentally fell into my tummy!!!

 

 Well the fabulous Nikki Smith reminded me of this fold. I had only ever seen it done with round tubes and Nikki being Nikki took it further. I am sure she will do a tutorial on this at some stage as it is just a beautiful project to do and I had a great time showing everyone at my demos how to do it. Big shout out to my Mom here as she scored hundred of pieces of paper and put loads of double sided tape on so that everyone at the demos could have a go at making a mini version of this.

 Using the Homespun stamp again. I stamped it in Purple Pigment Ink and threw over clear embossing powder and embossed it with a heat gun. I then took the completed background and cut it into 3 equal sections and mounted them onto purple card.Ribbon was run the width of the card and then the three panels were lifted up on 3D foam with a slight gap between each piece. An embossed tag and greeting then finish off the card.

Well I hope you enjoyed these projects. I had a blast making all of them.

Happy Crafting Everyone :)

Pretty Wardrobe Card

Hi Everyone, today is the day that I felt like having a little bit of pretty on the blog. I made this card for demo and it got a great reaction from everyone, I have to say that its one I really really like.. The sides of the card have been scored at about 1/4 inch to add some height so the decoupage wouldn't get squished (hehehe... love that word!)

This card uses the decoupage, papers and a greeting from the fantastic Lucy Cromwell Ultimate pack, some bright pink card, 2 brads and voila a pretty card is born :)

 

Happy Crafting Everyone...... :)

Beautiful Butterflies

Just a quick post today. I have had a manic couple of weeks so I thought I would show you one of the demo samples I've been making for the last couple of months. You can find my tutorial for this project  here : Surprise Box Tutorial

 In the last few days I have demoed in Cork, my baby girl has turned Thirteen, she graduated from school last night and her last day in junior school is today so it has been a bit  manic around here lately!!!

I have used the Papermania Capsule Bexley Black 12 X 12 papers to cover the box. The Anitas Dimensions Wings - White  were popped onto the top of a strip of acetate, a small score at the end of the acetate gets hidden under a little Papermania All Ocassion Sentiment.  All finished off on the outside with another Sentiment and a beautiful big Dimension Wing Butterfly.

Happy Crafting everyone.