Random on Purpose

Organizing on the Prairie (Urban, that is...)

First things first:  If you downloaded a calendar from my post yesterday, DELETE IT FROM EXISTENCE!!!  I tweaked the templates to fix a typo (January 2010 was misspelled "Janauary"), and now they're formatted so you can stack and cut all four pages at once (see instructions in yesterday's edited post).  This will make your projects MUCH faster and easier to execute!

Why did I need a calendar, you might ask?  Well, Sherry's having a birthday tomorrow (Happy B-day again, GF!), and we got together yesterday to celebrate in true papercrafting-geek style!  She has developed some food allergy complication-type issues, so going out for lunch was not in the cards, and we've been trying to get together for-freakin'-ever to play with some of our stamping/crafting stuff, so she said for me just to come over and do that.  I asked if she wanted me to come up with the "project du jour" and she was stoked to not have to think of something, so we made these:

 

It's a coaster box/desk organizer thingy, made with coasters and Basic Grey Urban Prairie papers...  This side has the calendar (no duh, right?).  The other three sides are:

 

A dry-erase side (transparency cut same size as coaster and attached over the top of the paper - I tried it and it really works!)

 

A cork board side...  I have some thumbtacks around here somewhere that I'm going to add bling to to use here, but I haven't located them yet - may have to buy more...

 

A Post-It and flag side...  Where are the flags, you're most likely wondering?  Yeah, still at the office supply store - I'll buy them when I get my new thumbtacks, I guess.  They'll go next to the little bee...

Want to make one of your own?  Splitcoast Stampers has complete instructions here.  I made a couple of changes.  The first one is that I followed Sherry's thought of punching holes in the bottom coaster and looping the ribbon through them, instead of gluing the bottom on:

  

and I made a divider for the inside.  To make the divider, cut 1/4" off the top of two coasters (cover both sides with dp first), then slit one halfway up from the bottom, and the other halfway down from the top, then slide them together and slide the whole unit inside the coaster box.  I don't have anything holding them in place, they sort of just stay there on their own.  And that's the whole story!

Sherry says I should post the card I gave her here, even though I posted it already looooong, long ago!  She mentioned when I first made it that she wanted it, but I never got around to giving it to her until yesterday (great friend, huh?!)  Anyway - here it is (again):

 

Okay - I'm out, kiddos!   Have a great weekend, and see you next week!

Aloha!

So, we have another domino effect today, but a GOOD thing, for a change!  It's Sunday, which means "featured stamper" day on Splitcoast, and today's FS is Jaymerz.  As I was looking through her gallery to select a card to CASE, and the one I wanted to do was this one because I loved the layout and color combo.  Frou Frou - another SCSer - sent me some images she stamped for me from the Tickled Pink set (flamingos - love 'em!), and I've been wanting to use them and thought this card would work, but then I looked at the swiss dot embossing on the orange panel, and thought "I wish I had a hibiscus embossing folder - the swiss dots just don't do it for me with flamingos..."  Then I remembered about this tutorial that Mel posted on her blog showing how to make your own texture plates, and so that's what I spent the day doing!  First off, here's the card:

 

I obviously didn't CASE the one I thought I was going to...I CASEd this one instead.  Changes include color and theme, orientation, added layers, and I moved the circle off to the side, included the sentiment on it, and changed it to an oval.  I watercolored the images with smooshed inkpads and water.  The shadow is a Prismacolor 10% cool gray marker.  On to the fun stuff!

I'm not going to write this as a tutorial, since it was Mel's brilliance and she's written a fab tutorial already, so refer to hers (link above) for full instructions.  I'm just going to show you a couple of the things I did that may be helpful.  First off, I trimmed down two pieces of a cereal box to 5 1/2" x 6 1/2" - one to use as the base of my texture plate, and one to use as a shim with it.  I made them this size because they filled most of the Cuttlebug plate this way:

  

and if I want to do a 5 1/2" square, say, instead of just a standard A2, then I'll have that capability.  Mel suggested using a light-colored or waterproof ink (like StazOn) to stamp your images to cut out, but I just used Versamark, so there's ZERO chance of color transference or bleeding.  If it's hard for you to see where to cut, then use something that works for you.  I used the smallest hibiscus stamp from Close to My Heart's Hang Ten stamp set and stamped it repeatedly all over more of the cereal box pieces.  It's easier to do the inside cuts first, before even cutting the images apart from one another - more to hang onto to move the cardboard around as you cut (I used a glass mat and a craft knife):

 

After I got them all cut out, I arranged them how I liked them on my base piece, then glued them on with Royal Coat decoupage medium.  Following Mel's lead, I also sealed the entire thing with Royal Coat after everything was stuck down.

 

Here's a closeup of the embossed panel:

 

And a pic of the whole piece attached to the card base:

 

Pretty darn cool, eh?  The embossing isn't quite as defined as I'd really, really like, but I think it's because I didn't mist it lightly with water before running it through the Cuttlebug.  That would be due to the fact that I have yet to locate my mister (Mr?) since the reorg...  Still, all in all, I'm content with it as is!

Okay, beddy-bye time for this girl!  Thanks for stopping by, sweet dreams, and I hope your week starts off fabulously!

Stamps: Stampin'Up! Tickled Pink, sentiment from Studio G; Ink: SU! Tangerine Tango, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, So Saffron, Creamy Caramel, Yo Yo Yellow, Certainly Celery, Versafine Onyx Black; Paper: SU! Tangerine Tango, white, black, watercolor; Accessories: Cuttlebug w/DIY texture plate, oval and corner punches

Tutorial: Punchy Bunnies

It's been awhile since I did a tutorial, and it's also been awhile since I've played with my punches - heck, it's been awhile since I posted anything fun!  So, without further ado, I bring you tutorials for THREE punchy bunnies:

The first one was inspired by the shapes of a bunny I saw on a card online.  It was a stamp, not a punched bunny, but I took note of the shapes and how they were arranged, and came up with this:

 

To make it, you will need:

 

• White cardstock punched as follows: 1- 2" round circle, 3 - wide ovals (EK Success, purchased through Stampin'Up! - the pic only shows 2, the third one was AWOL when I took the pic), 4 large ovals (Fiskars large oval squeeze punch)
• Pink patterned paper punched into 4 - medium ovals (Fiskars medium oval squeeze punch)
• 1 small pink heart brad
• 2 black mini brads
• 1 smallish bow

If you don't have the same punches I used, you can obviously use what you have on hand, including Coluzzles or whatever - just sort of pay attention to the sizes in proportion to each other, and you'll be fine!  Start by sponging ink around the edges of all of your white pieces:

 

Next, take two of the large ovals and adhere them to the side and slightly behind the circle (sorry the pic is blurry - forgot to hit the macro button...):

 

Adhere the pink ovals to the other two large ovals with regular adhesive, and to two of the wide ovals with dimensionals as shown below:

 

On the remaining wide oval, poke a hole in the center (vertically), but slightly to the left of center (horizontally), then two more holes to the sides, with the one on the left being slightly closer to the center hole:

 

Insert heart brad into center hole, and black mini brads into other two holes to create eyes and nose, then draw a mouth and eyebrows, if desired (it's cute without them, too...)

 

Pinch a little dimension into the base of the ear pieces (large ovals w/pink centers adhered w/regular adhesive), and put a dimensional into the pinch:

 

Adhere to the back of the head:

 

Turn head over and put a narrow strip of dimensional foam on very edge of "chin":

 

Then adhere to top of body section:

 

Adhere feet with dimensionals, overlapping toes a bit:

 

Add the bow, and you're done!

If that was more ambitious than you're in the mood for, here's an easy one that I discovered on Cindy Motherway's blog:

   

I changed it up just a bit, but I can't really take credit for the idea, because it's obvious where I got it!  For this one you just need a scalloped circle, two ovals and a pom pom:

 

I inked up the edges again, and also pounced a little ink where the tail was going to be, so it'd have a little dimension, too:

 

The just adhere the ears behind the scalloped circle and stick the pom pom on with a glue dot!

The last one is just a rabbit's head, and is something of a "Wild Hare":

 

For this one, I just punched a heart with my Fiskars squeeze punch, and two of the large ovals, inked them up, added a brad nose, doodled some eyes, eyebrows and ear outlines, then added a bit of pink chalk to the inside of the ears.  Voila!

Since it took me all morning to make the bunnies and tap out the tutorials, I don't have time to make any cards to show you these guys "in action", but I'd love it if you'd link pics of ways that you might happen to use them!  Gotta go make a dollar or two now!  Have a fab day and thanks for stopping by!

FAST-Track? Really?!

WHOO-WEE-YAH!!!  What's that saying..."If anything can go wrong, it will?"  Can I just say, UH-HUH!!!  I've spent the last few hours trouble-shooting computer issues, after losing my Internet connection and trying unsuccessfully to uninstall a duplicate anti-virus/anti-spyware program that was wreaking havoc with my system.  All problems solved now, I believe, so I can actually post this!  (Now, if I could just do the same with my cell phone...right, Sherry?)

Tuesday we played with Hershey's Kisses, and I certainly don't want to offend the peanut butter cups or make them feel left out, so today we're going to make a little package for them - EASY PEASY and FAST and IDIOT-PROOF - gotta love that!  I'm showing a VERY bare-bones version, which I intend to bling up a bit later on, but I wanted to give you the fast and easy part here for Fast-Track Friday.  This is the project:

 

And this is how you make it:  First, you need to determine how many peanut butter cups you want to put in your little tube, so you know how high to make it, so stack 'em up and measure:

 

I wanted five, so I need my tube to be about 3 1/2" high.  The tube is made of a transparency (the office supply, write-on kind) cut to size.  Regardless of how many peanut butter cups, the circumference stays the same, so you will cut your transparency (or acetate or vellum or whatever) 4 1/2" x the measurement you came up with in the first step.  Mine is 4 1/2" x 3 1/2".

Apply a strip of 1/4" redline tape at one end (going the 4 1/2" way), then peel off the red liner and overlap the other end just enough to cover the tape.

Next, find a piece of ribbon that is about an inch wide, and long enough to wrap completely around the tube top-to-bottom (as opposed to around the circumference) and tie in a bow.  Apply redline tape around the top and bottom of the tube, with the ribbon UNDER the tape against the tube, forming the bottom and going up the sides (that way the tape is holding on the ribbon without an extra layer of adhesive - tricky, tricky!):

 

 

Cut two strips of patterned paper 4 1/2" in length x whatever width blows your hair back, peel the red liner from the tape, and adhere the patterned paper strips around the top and bottom.  You should put a bit of adhesive on one end to seal the little overlap where the two ends meet.  I did take a quick sec to trim around the hearts a bit before I stuck the strips on - I'm going to add some red heart sequins and a tag later on...

Then drop your peanut butter cups in and tie a bow - done!

 

If it bothers you to have the top open like this, you could put a punched piece or Prima or something over it before you tie the bow, but I figure after you add a tag and some bling, who's to care?

And there you have it!  Another quick-and-easy project for you to play around with!  Advance warning for tomorrow:  one of my good friend's father died a couple of nights ago, and the services are in the morning with a gathering after, and I'm helping with setup/cooking/serving/cleanup, so I won't be able to do anything fun and/or creative until much later in the day (we have to take Greg's daughter out to lunch for her birthday, too...)  HOPEFULLY I'll be able to do SOMETHING, but these days I just never know!

Have a fantabulous weekend, make something fun and link it up so I can see, and I'll be back ASAP, k?  Love you all, really!  Buh-bye!

Sweet Treat Slider Box

Sorry I'm posting so late - everything seems to be conspiring against me as far as an early evening...  I'm starting this post while the batteries for my camera recharge so I can get the pics off of it to add here (last in a long litany of oh-woe-is-me stuff for the day - week, actually, but that's another story).  I'm going to go ahead and keep typing, so when it's ready, I can just add the pics and they wil actually be here when you read this!

Remember "Thrifty Thursday" when I recommended that you separate your Hershey's Kisses into a Valentine group and a Saint Patrick's Day group (red + white in one, green in the other), and said that I'd show you what to do with them on Tricky Tuesday?  Well, I'm keeping that promise!  We're gonna make a cute little slider box to put them into!

All you'll need for this project are a 5" x 11" strip of cardstock, a 3" x 8" strip of heavy patterned paper, a scoring tool and adhesive.  First, score the cardstock lengthwise at 1", 2 1/4", and 4 3/8".

Turn the cardstock and score the width at 2 1/8", 5 1/8", 7 1/4", and 10 1/4".

Trim along solid lines as shown below, cutting away areas with an "x" in them:

 

Here's what it looks like all trimmed up.  You'll notice that I rounded the corners of my flaps.  In order to round the corners where there was an adjacent piece that prevented the corner from fitting into the punch, I just folded it back and put the folded corner in - the punch didn't reach far enough to punch anything but the flap, so no worries...

Fold along all of your score lines and add adhesive ONLY to the little flap at the end of the long strip, and stick it to the inside of the other end to create the sides of the box:

 

then fold the bottom flaps in and tuck in the other flap - this creates the box bottom.

Now take your patterned paper and score the short side at 1 1/4", 3 1/2", 4 3/4", and 7".  Fold along all score lines and adhere the 1" flap to the inside of the other end, making sure that you only overlap enough to make the end even with the fold on the flap.  This creates your box cover:

 

Now, fill your little box with the treat of your choice (I used my kisses, but Greg had already raided them, so it's not full...), slide the cover on, and embellish!

 

I'm still deciding if I like my embellishment, but I'm gonna leave it for now - just seems a bit foofy for me, ya know?  Ah well - it is what it is!  And that's it for "Tricky Tuesday", and another post for today!  If you missed the earlier one, just scroll on down...  Good night, all!

Paper: KI Memories Wild Thing Multi Stripe; Accessories:  Prima flowers, Making Memories bling brad, JoAnn Holiday Inspirations ribbon

Monogrammed Note Cards

Welcome to our first Fast-Track Friday!  Just a quick note before we start:  I'm changing how I post materials used on my projects.  I will list everything at the end of the post instead of interrupting the post itself with the supplies used.  Okay - today's project:

 

This is a set of 3" x 3" note cards, and they took 30 minutes start-to-finish, including cleanup!  They should have taken 15-20 minutes, but I lost time looking for my foam tape and figuring out the ribbon.  I'm telling you this because I'm "keeping it real"!  If you know where everything is before you start, and since I've figured out everything for you, you should be able to stay in the 15-20 minute time frame.  Here's the play-by-play:

1. Cut a 6" x 12" strip of cardstock.  Trim that into 3" strips (3" x 6" - you'll have four of them).  Score each of them at 3" and fold along score to create card base.
2. Cut a 2 3/4" strip of patterned paper, then trim it into 2 3/4" squares.  You'll have a little strip left over.
3. Tie a ribbon around each square of patterned paper about an inch up from the bottom (I just eyeballed it).  I tied a square knot and trimmed the ends at an angle. Adhere to card base.
4. Stamp an initial onto white cardstock, then punch or cut around it.  You'll need four total.
5. Punch or cut mats for your monograms out of the same cardstock as your base.
6. Mount the monogram onto the mat with a pop dot or foam tape, then adhere the whole thing to the card front with foam tape (I do small strips - one at the top and one at the bottom of the mat - to "straddle" the ribbon).
7. DONE!

I did two of my cards with punches, and two with just trimming around the monogram, so you could see that they're pretty either way.  And that's that!  If you wanted to take more time, you could ink the edges, add bling, punch corners, etc., etc. - but they're pretty even basic like this, I think...

Make sure to scroll down to yesterday's post to see if you're a winner of the blog candy dealie-o, if you haven't already!  I'm off to finish up all the sewing I need to do by day's end!  Ta!

Paper: Die Cuts With a View; Stamps: Inkadinkado Maison Alphabet; Ink: Stampin'Up! Ruby Red; Tools: Fiskars small oval squeeze punch, Stampin'Up! Curly Label punch; Accessories: Offray ribbon

'Tis the Season...

...to stay so busy you have no time to blog!!!  I'm so sorry I've been away so long - three parties this week, and packages to get postal so they get there in time, and all the other holiday hoopla along with the regular daily-ness of life!  Among the madness is a new tutorial for you, though - are you stoked?

It's time for "Gifts for the Girls, Volume 2" (the first go 'round can be seen in this post from last December), and I figured I'd snap a few pics and share the how-tos as I went along.  It's dark and the light is not good, so the pics are a tad murky, and the papers look a little washed out, but you'll still be able to get the idea...

This year I'm making office-y type stuff for them, and this project is only part of the package.  This is another of the dry-erase calendars I've made in the past.  I started with Jaclyn's, because it was easy to find the right papers - she's all about pink!

 

As a little background: these girls all work at Fabric Mill, which is a decorator's outlet for fabrics and trims, and I subcontract with them to make cushions, pillows, do upholstery, etc.  They wear cheetah print aprons, have cheetah-handled scissors, etc., etc. - cheetah goes with EVERYTHING, just ask!   So...I used the same fabric that their aprons are made out of as the background for each calendar.  More details as we move through the tutorial...

Tutorial:  Dry-Erase Calendar

 

Materials needed:

• 12" x 12" scrapbook page frame with glass (I got mine at Michael's when they were on sale for $5 - they're regularly $10)
• 12" x 12" paper or fabric of choice for backgrounds
• Enough paper to cut the following:  2 1/2" x 4 1/2" title block, 2 1/4" X 12" embellishment strip, 35 - 1 3/8" x 1 1/2" curly labels or rectangles, and seven small flowers
• Contrasting paper to mat title block
• Alphabet stamps (I used Amore from Close to My Heart), label outline stamp (optional - I used Cute and Curly from Stampin'Up!)
• Label punch (I used the Curly Label punch from Stampn'Up!)
• Border punch (I used a Martha Stewart one)
• Flower punch (I used one of the flowers in Stampin'Up!'s Boho Blossoms punch)
• 12" ribbon
• Desired embellishments
• Scissors
• Tape runner
• Redline tape

The picture above shows the labels all stamped and punched, the title block cut and matted, the headers for each day of the week stamped and cut, and a couple of strips border-punched.  You will notice that the border-punched pieces are not 12" long.  The papers I used came from a 6" x 6" pad, and the ends will be covered with the title block, so it's okay to piece the strip.  I prepare all my pieces like this before I start actually putting the calendar together.  I find it's easier to get the cutting and stamping mess out of the way before I add to the pile with the frame and all.  I used the "Thank You" stamp from Stampin'Up!'s Cute and Curly set, along with the corresponding Curly Label punch (yes, I cut the "thank you" off the stamp so I wouldn't have to mask it - it fits back in exactly where the hole is, so I can use it either way).  If you don't have a label stamp and punch, you could just cut rectangles and ink the edges - I've done that on previous calendars, and it looks great, too.  I punched this flower:

 

Then I cut off the top and bottom petals to make the shape I ended up with:

   

I stamped the letters first ("S" for Sunday, "M" for Monday, etc.) before I trimmed the flower, so I could see if I needed to make shallower cuts.  After you punch the borders on your strip(s), it/they will probably be 1 3/4" wide.  Now that you have all your pieces ready, we can proceed:

 

Remove the back from your frame and center it on paper or fabric of choice, making sure that the right side is down towards your work surface, and the wrong side is facing you.  Apply a strip of redline tape to the top and bottom edge.  Remove the liner and wrap paper/fabric to the back and stick it down well.

 

Repeat for the two sides.  Flip it over and it looks like this (at least, it does if you use cheetah...)

 

The rest of the construction was done just using a tape runner (I like the cheapo AdTech ones from WalMart - I think they hold better than Tombow).  First, adhere your punched strip(s) 5/8" down from the top edge, and making the ends even with the side edges - the gap in the middle is okay, if you have one, it will be covered later:

Now adhere your ribbon down the center of the strip, wrapping the ends to the back and securing them.  Also glue down the title block in the very center.  NOTE:  I used pop dots on the first one to get some dimension going, but when you put it in the frame, the glass presses it and makes it funky, so don't bother...

   

Now take all 35 of your labels/rectangles and arrange them roughly how you want them.  You will need five rows of seven:

 

I  like to "stack" the columns, so I don't forget what went where, but I get them out of my way. 

 

Next we need to sort out spacing to get everything nice and even.  The easiest way I've found to do this is to first adhere the first and last label in the bottom row, 1/2" up from the bottom edge, and approximately 1/2" in from the edge (it'll be just a titch over 1/2", because the backing is slightly over 12" - just make sure it's even on both sides).  Also adhere the label in the center, making sure that it actually is dead center.

 

Fill in the row with the remaining labels.  You can pretty much just eyeball the spacing side to side between the ones you've already adhered, but make sure you keep the 1/2" spacing from the bottom edge.

Next, go up each side, keeping the labels the same slightly-more-than-1/2" distance from the side edges, and about 1/8" between them as you go up.

 

Also do the center column the same way, making sure you're staying straight up the center, then fill in each row with the remaining labels.

 

Add the "days of the week" headers above their proper column, then bling it up any way you'd like to!  I used some of the "bangle bling" I scored a few weeks ago, and some K & Co self-adhesive gems.

 

Here's a closeup for (hopefully) a better view:

 

Now just put it in the frame, and you're done!

 

The glass is what makes it a dry-erase calendar - you can just write on the glass with a dry-erase marker, and it'll wipe right off!  The title block is where you write the month (I'm sure you figured that out already, but just in case...)

Okay, that's all I have time for right now, and bed is calling, anyway...  I'll post pics of the other three calendars when they're finished, as well as the rest of the "package".  If it includes anything tutorial-worthy, I'll try to do that, too, k?  Good night and good night and thanks for stopping by!

And So It Begins...

True to my word, I've begun the "Holiday Crafting Blitz".  Depending on how enthused I get, how much time I have, and what else is going on, I may do multiple posts in a day (or not).  We'll just have to see.  Also, I need to put a disclaimer right here:  These are experiments - some successful, some maybe not so much - but I'm sharing all of them because they could spark an idea that you get all stoked about and improve on or whatever...

First, to reinforce the "Queen of Cheap" title, know that I am all about the "dollar deal"!  I regularly scout Target's Dollar Spot, JoAnn's and Michael's dollar bins, clearance areas, etc.  I've mentioned before that I love sequins, but here's the latest purchase, just so you can get an idea:

 

Snowflakes, Christmas trees, and snowmen - how can you go wrong?  Those were found at JoAnn's by the registers.  An even more thrilling score:

 

From Michael's clearance - they're called "Bangle Bling", and the idea is that you glue them onto your plain bangle bracelets to bling them up.  A TOTAL waste of great bling, if you ask me!  These beauties belong on cards, candles, frames, etc., etc.!  Anyway, the pictures don't do them justice (of course), and there's a whole lot of bling in there for a buck!  The least in a package are the black and white ones with gold frames - there's only 18 in there.  The other packs have 75-150 pieces in them!  Just too cool!

Okay, today's installment (or at least this morning's...) 

TINSELTOWN:

I wanted to do some silver stuff, and had this brainstorm to do something with foil and the Cuttlebug and such-like. I knew from past experiments that regular household foil is too fragile, so I pulled out the Heavy Duty Reynolds and some punches and the Cuttlebug.  In order to make the foil stable enough to retain the embossing and so that it would punch without tearing, I first cut copy paper into quarters (4 1/4" x 5 1/2"), cut the foil approximately the same size, and glued them together with a plain old glue stick (make sure you get good coverage so corners don't lift, etc.). Then I ran them through the Cuttlebug (I used the textile embossing folder), and punched, etc.  Here are some of the results:

 

This is a garland made with embossed, punched stars, silver thread and star stickers. I punched some non-paper-backed foil (still embossed, though), and sandwiched the thread between the paper-backed one and the non-paper-backed one:

 

 

I spaced them about 3" apart, then stuck star stickers back-to-back with the thread between about halfway between the large stars.

 

I punched two pieces with the round tab punch - one embossed foil, and one black (which I heat-embossed with Stardust embossing powder), made a thread hanger, and added some "bangle bling".  This is a view of the back before finishing to show you the construction:

 

These are snowflakes punched and sandwiched together with a thread hanger - one with sequins and bangle bling to make a dangly one, and the other just a single snowflake:

 

I punched a few other shapes, too, just for grins:

I also have a whole stack of doilies like this one:

 

so I did a couple of projects with them, too.  The first one, I cut down the doily into pieces and reassembled it, then added a snowflake from Stampin'Up!'s "Snow Swirled" set, stamped and embossed in silver, with bling in the center (I didn't add a hanger yet):

 

I cut another doily in half, formed each half into a cone, and added wired-ribbon handles:

 

I haven't decided what I'm putting in them yet, so they look a bit unfinished...  Last up is my favorite out of this morning's play session:

 

The black is cut with one of the Cuttlebug dies from the Heritage set, and the center is a button (plastic and velvet, believe it or not) that I've had for years.  I just clipped off the shank and pop-dotted it, then added a thread hanger.

That's pretty much it for the first installment of the blitz!  I hope you got an idea or two from these experiments.  I didn't show them on a tree or anything, because we haven't pulled our Christmas stuff out of storage yet (Greg's waiting for me to finish this post and get going, so we can do that...), so maybe later...  Meanwhile, I hope you're enjoying your Thanksgiving and thanks for stopping by!

Tutorial - Scallop Circle Punch Basket

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig!  I'm so proud of myself for actually accomplishing a task ahead of schedule!  I'm one of those that makes the card (or gift or whatever) in plenty of time, but doesn't get it postal until way later than it should have been!  Hooray for me, right?

Anyway, here's the promised quickie project:

 

And the promised quickie tutorial for it:

 

Here's what you'll need:  Six scallop circles punched from double-sided paper, adhesive, and a scoring tool.  Yep, that's really it!  My sample is made with a 3" scallop circle punch from EK Success and papers from Stampin'Up!'s "Bella Rose" designer papers. 

 

Count the number of scallops on your circle (mine has seventeen), and determine spacing.  This is what I mean:  I wanted the sides of my basket to be four scallops high, so that takes up eight of the scallops.  Since seventeen divided by 5 is 3 2/5, I knew that 3 of my circles would have three scallops for the base, and two would have four scallops, giving me my total of seventeen.  This will make more sense later, so if you're doing a different size than I am, read the whole thing and then come back to this...  Score and fold each of the five side circles appropriately:  Three circles will have a score line across three scallops, then across four adjoining scallops on each side, then across the top for the remainder.  Two circles will have four, four, and remainder.  (I know it sounds confusing - just follow the pics or something - it really is easier than it sounds) One circle - the base - is not scored at all.

 

Begin adhering your sides to each other as shown.  Remember to alternate the three- and four-scallop bases so it comes out even.  Mine are 3-4-3-4-3, but when finished, two of the 3s will be next to each other - that's okay, there's still symmetry.

 

Loop your strip and adhere the first and last circles to each other to form a ring.

 

Put adhesive on all of the base scallops on your ring (trust me, it's easier this way), then carefully line them up and adhere them to the base circle.  You're all done!  Here's a view from the top (notice how it forms a pentagon?  I told you there was symmetry...):

 

And this is a view from the side:

 

Now you can fill it with whatever you want, and give it away or keep it for yourself!  I opted to put Primas in mine, because I get so aggravated trying to feed them back into those paint tube-looking things they came packaged in (cute, but not practical for me...)

 

So, another fun, quick, no-stamp project that you can play with!  I will, of course, try this with other sizes of scallop circle punches and I will, of course, report back to you an how that goes!  Meanwhile, have a great day, thanks for stopping by, and be sure to link back to this post if you try this, so I can see how much fun you're having!

Tutorial: Pullout Album

Remember this project?

 

On the post of the original one I made, I said I wasn't going to post a tutorial for it because I didn't want to take away from the girl whose blog I had seen it on.  She didn't post a tutorial, I just sort of figured it out from her pics, but I've seen this project several places since, so I don't really know who to give credit to for originating it.  That being said, I've decided that since it's out there, anyway, I may as well share my version here.  So, here we go:

 

Here's what you'll need:

• Two 3" x 12" strips of cardstock
• One 4" x 9" strip of designer paper
• Two 4" squares of designer paper
• One 3" x 4" strip of designer paper
• Two 4" square coasters
• Coordinating papers for embellishing pages
• Decoupage medium - Royal Coat, Mod Podge, etc. (not shown)
• Ribbon - two 18" pieces and two 8" pieces (not shown)

 

Score the 3" x 12" strips at 3", 6" and 9".  Accordian-fold each one and set aside.  These will become the pages for the album.

 

Using the decoupage medium, adhere a 4" square of designer paper to one side of each coaster.

 

Adhere the other side of the coasters to each end of the 4" x 9" strip.

 

Center your 3" strip over the gap and overlapping the coasters, and adhere.

 

Flip the whole thing over and run your bone folder along the edge of the coaster to "set" a crease.  This will help your album open and close more easily.  Set the covers aside to dry while you decorate the pages of your album.

 

Deocrate each panel of your accordian-folded strips, leaving the last panel blank on one strip, and the first panel blank on the other.  On the opposite end of the strip, deocrate the end panels to match (as seen in the picture above).  This is a view of the opposite sides of the completed strips:

 

The following pics give you a few ideas for decorating your pages, but you can do them however you want to!

 

Cut two 1 3/8" squares, and adhere them in opposingi corners of a 2 3/4" square.

 

Mat a 2 1/2" square with a 2 3/4" square.

 

Center a 2" x 2 3/4" strip on a 2 3/4" square.

    

Each of these squares is 1 1/2", set on the page just slightly inside the edge (so there is the same "border" as on the other pages), and with the corners overlapping slightly in the center.

     

Background square is 2 3/4", square turned on point is just a hair under 2".

 

Cut a 2 3/4" square from each of two designer papers, then cut them in half diagonally.  Use one of the resulting triangles from each.

 

After all of your panels are decorated, fold them up into little "books", with the matching pages on top, and tie one of the 18" ribbons around each one.

    

Your coaster covers should be dry by now, so inspect them and carefully sand the edges of the paper even with the coasters, if necessary.  Be especially careful where the gap between the coasters is, as this area is less reinforced and more fragile.  If it's not perfect, you can ink the edges up (you may want to, anyway).  Put adhesive on the back of one of the 8" ribbons, center it over the seam of the two papers on the cover and adhere.  Repeat for the other side.

 

Wrap the ribbons to the inside and adhere in place.

Put adhesive on the back of each little book and place them in the center of the inside covers.  Make sure that you have the edge with one fold and two free pages toward the inside of the album, and the edge with two folds toward the outside of the album.  This is what it looks like all finished and fully open:

 

 

Now just add whatever embellishments you'd like to the front cover, and you're done!

That's it for this tutorial, but I also wanted to mention a new thing I've done to make it easier for you to find all of my tutorials.  In the "More About This Blog" in the column on the left is a link titled "Tutorials" (duh!) that will take you to a list of all the tutorials I've done.  Click on the title of the tutorial you want, and it will take you to the post for that tutorial.  Right now the list is just in order from most recent to oldest but, when I have time, I'll rearrange it so it's alphabetical.  I'm trying to make this blog as user-friendly as my limited techie knowledge will allow, ya know?

Okay - bedtime!  It always takes me about a week to get used to the not-daylight-savings-time-anymore thing.  I'll be draggin' in the meantime...  As always, thank you so much for stopping by!