A little Spring in my Step

Hi everyone and a very warm welcome to you!!  Hope everyone is having a wonderful day and that the weather in your part of the world is being kind to you.  We've had quite a lovely Autumn day in Adelaide today.  Nice and sunny with the temperature in the low 20s.  Could handle a lot more days like this one.

So, with our weather heading into winter, I thought I would take a step back and make a spring card.  Does that seem a bit on the silly side?  Well, I just felt like making something bright and sunny, and this is what I came up with.

 Have I told you that I really like making step cards???  Yeah, I think I might have mentioned that!!

 This one is a variation of my previous Crossover Step Card design.  Instead of using the pocket for tags, it has been closed and simply become part of the card itself and the crossover has been done in a double layer.  The papers were border punched with Martha Stewarts' Doily Die Border and some lace was inserted in between.  The papers used are a mix of Pion's Flower Frames and Maja's Vintage Summer Basics and I've done some stencilling with texture paste as a bit of added interest.  

 I've also tucked a few branches in between the card layers here and there.

 Added a couple of Vintage Brads at the bottom ...

 ... and here is a sideways closie of the flower cluster to which was added a twine bow.

The inside was lined with a sheet from Prima's Ledger Pad Paper pack and I made the pocket from a scrap piece of the Maja papers.

Thoroughly enjoyed making this card and it came together really quickly.  Love it when that happens.

I've decided to enter this one into the following Challenges -
Allsorts Challenge Blog - Spring Flowers
Challenges 4 Everybody - Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes

Thank you so much for stopping by.  I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

Mini Books and Box

Hello everyone and welcome once again to my blog.  

So lovely to have you visit and I hope you are having a fabulous day!!

Today I'd like to share with you a set of Mini books and the File Folder box to keep them in.  This is a design download purchased from Marion Smith Designs and it was great fun and very easy to put together.  The download includes templates for most of  the required pieces.  The only things you need to measure out for yourself is the outside cover of the File Folder, but she gives you all the necessary information to make this very easy to do.  Marion actually has a video tutorial on this project and, if you'd like to take a look for yourself, you can find it HERE.

The papers I've used for the outside of the box and for the covers of the mini Books are from Prima's Engraver A4 Paper Pad.

The pattern includes this concertina fold for both sides of the box.  It is simply a matter of printing it, cutting around the outside and then scoring the fold lines. 

The back view.

I haven't done a lot of decorating on this.  As a matter of fact, I've done very little.  This is the cluster on the top of the box.  The large gardenia was originally white.  I've simply coloured it slightly with some watered down Tea Stain Distress Ink to make it blend in better with the papers.  The skeleton leaves were cut with my Silhouette from green cardstock and I've coloured those with Walnut Stain Distress Ink for the same reason.  I've also added in some paper and fabric flower buds and some autumn leaves.  The autumn leaves and the gardenia are available from Meg's Garden HERE.  The paper bud is from Magnolia Ink and the fabric buds are from my stash.  There is also a small green gem spray from Magnolia Ink but that is a bit difficult to see here.

For the cluster on the front I've simply used the same skeleton leaves, some small Kaisercraft Roses and a white gem spray.  

The open File Folder showing the mini books snuggled inside.  You can also see the Velcro I've used for the closure of the folder ... 

... and here are all the little books.  The base of each of these is a print out and then you simply cover them with the papers of your choice.  You don't even need to measure your dp as there are templates for that too , including those for the flaps.

Just a closie of one of the books.  You can make up your own mind as to what kind of closure to use.  

This is the inside of the book.  You simply punch the holes through the cover and the paper and then thread through some twine and tie it off.  So simple!!

I've glued an ornate metal plate on the front flap and used Velcro to hold the folder closed.

This was a fabulous little project to make.  Really easy to put together.  The only fiddly bit was attaching the concertina sides to the cover but even that was not really difficult.  It just came together really well and I'm certainly going to make more of these.  I think they would make a lovely little gift.
Sooooo, I'm thinking you might be wondering what I'm going to use this for?????  Well, I needed somewhere to write down  all the bits and pieces used on the cards I make so that when I write up my Blog Posts I'll have all the information at hand, and that's what these little books will be for.  Am I clever or what?????  Actually I just have a pretty bad memory and am sick of having to get up a dozen times or more to find the name of what I've used on a specific card or project.  LOL!!
Will be so much easier now.  That is if I remember to write it down!!!!!

Thank you all so much for taking the time to visit and I do hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

Take care and God Bless.

oxox Marg

Easel Card with Meg's Garden Damask Collection

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.  Hope you are all having a wonderful day.

Today I'd like to share with you an Easel Card created with Meg's Garden's stunning Damask Paper Collection.  These papers were designed by Denise Boddey and have such a lot of fabulous detail on them which are perfect to use for card making or scrapbooking just as they are, but are also simply wonderful for fussy cutting.

Here is the card closed.

 All of the paper elements used here were taken from the papers.  Some are from leftover pieces from the 12 x 12 sheets and some from the Mini Pack.  I will leave a list of Meg's Garden products at the bottom of this post.

This is how the card looks standing up.

 I hand sewed around the edge with some embroidery cotton, added some strips of my favourite Washi Tape and dabbed a little gesso on the edge.  I like to add little touches like this simply to make it more my own.  The flowers were fussy cut twice and then slightly curled and layered.  I fussy cut the labels from another sheet of the paper and mounted them on some card for extra dimension and strength.  The chipboard flourishes are from a single piece which was coloured and clear embossed and then cut into pieces to fit in with the cluster.  The frame was also coloured and then clear embossed.  Unfortunately when I did the doodling on the frame it was quite late at night and I was very tired, hence it is not very well done but, having used a Sharpie, it also could not be removed.  One lives and learns doesn't one!!  LOL

 I've used a wooden flourish to anchor the card when standing and the small labels were fussy cut from the Mini Pack and mounted on some card for dimension.

 Just a closie of the labels.  Even though these are quite small there is still a lot of detail on them.

 A view of the inside of the card ...

 ... and some closies of the front.

 The gorgeous vintage brads used for the flower centres are also available at Meg's Garden.

This card almost didn't get completed.  I had all the elements laid out ready to stick down when I saw a card made by one of my Teamies (Heather Jacob no less) and she had used almost the same elements that I had.  Shock!!!  Horror!!!  In the end though, hers is very different from mine so I am glad I went ahead with it anyway.  

List of Meg's Garden Products -

Blue Belle Jardiniere 12 x 12 Paper - P6380

Blue & Green Damask 12 x 12 Paper - P6368

Framboise Fleur 12 x 12 Paper - P6371

Damask Mini Paper Pack - S120

Small Rectangular Parisian Frame - fr005

Vintage Brads - vpb

Thank you so much for visiting.  Please take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

Cherry Blossoms

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.

Well, here I am again and with yet another Art Journal page.  For someone who really only does these once in a blue moon, I've been quite prolific lately.  I've been experimenting because I could not get the hang of using gesso to seal the pages  and stop everything from seeping through the paper.  Every time I tried coating my page with gesso first I seemed to lose all the colour once I started spraying.  Used a few different brands but all I would be left with is the shimmer and not much colour at all. Well, this time I coated the page with watered down gesso and, when dry, sprayed with watered down acrylic paint and the colour actually stayed on the page.  Woo!! Hoo!!

Once the paint dried I was able to spray with Distress Inks as well, and it all worked.  I haven't quite got the effect I was after, but I'm hoping that will come with experience.

As stated before, I coated the page with watered down gesso and while doing that I added in a few cotton threads for a bit of texture. The orange  colour is the acrylic paint.  I simply mixed some Vermillion with Ochre Yellow  until I achieved the shade I wanted.  Then, when that was dry I also sprayed with watered down Broken China and Mustard Seed Distress Inks.  You can just see the watercolour type blotches on the side.  That was the effect I was trying for.  Hopefully, one day I will get it all over. 

 Used Urban Artist  'Mt. Fuji Blossom' Stencil with some homemade texture paste, coloured it with watercolour pencils and highlighted with a white gel pen and a black sharpie.  Then went around the blossoms with a black watercolour pencil and a wet paint brush so they would stand out a bit more.  Not sure if I should have done that actually as it turned out a bit messy.

Unfortunately I forgot to do the stamping before I did the stenciling so the surface wasn't exactly smooth and the stamps didn't work too well but, I'm just going to say it adds character to the piece. LOL.  The stamps used are Kaisercraft's Tiny Dots and a Chinese or maybe a Japanese Script stamp.  It is also a Kaisercraft stamp but I haven't got the name of it I'm afraid.

 I searched the net for a Confuscius quote, but they were mostly quite rude except for this one which I quite liked.  'Wherever you go ... go with all your heart.'
So, there you go, I finally managed to do an Art Journal page that didn't seep into the back of the paper and make a mess of the next page.  Yay!!
This will actually be the last of my Journal pages for a while.  I have also been making cards as usual, but I can't show any of them here just yet as they are mostly DT projects although I've also been working on a project I purchased from Marion Smith Designs and I will be showing that in the next few days so do please come back and take a look at that.
I thank you so much for visiting and enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

 

Art Caddy using Meg's Garden Damask Papers

Hi everyone and a very warm welcome to the blog.  Thank you so much for visiting.

Today I'd like to share with you a Caddy I created from scratch.  I have to warn you though that this is going to be a pretty long post as I've created a Step by Step Tutorial as well.  So, I do hope you won't be put off.  Anyway, here goes.

First up, a little sneak peek of the finished piece.  

I hope this will entice you to stay till the end.  LOL!!

Step 1 ...  You need to determine what type of box you want.  In my case, I needed a box in which I could keep my Art Journals and a few supplies, such as Water Colour Pencils and Crayons.  So for that purpose, I decided I wanted a Caddy so I could have my Journals in one side and my supplies in the other.  You also need to decide what size you want your box to be and that, of course is determined by what you wish to keep in the box.  I measured the height, width and depth of the Journals and supplies and this is the design I came up with.

Step 2 ... Work out what pieces are needed for the box and the size they need to be.

As you can see, the size of these pieces corrolate to the dimensions on the original drawing.

Step 3 ... Cut out the pieces needed from your choice of product.  You can use cardboard or chipboard or any other material which has some strength to it.  I have actually used paperboard which is available from the Newsagent.  This is very similar to Chipboard but it does work out a little cheaper.

As you can see, the sizes of the pieces cut out are the same as the sizes on the drawing.  For the centre panel, the straight edge is 8" high and then I used a plate to draw the curve.  The heart shape was cut out using a Fiskars Cutter and Heart Template.  It didn't actually cut all the way through the board but I simply cut the rest of the way with a craft knife.  On the base, draw a line at the half way mark.  This is the guide for placement of the handle.  You should also mark the half way point on the longer side pieces for the same reason.  I forgot and had to do it after it was put together which was a bit of a pain. LOL

 Step 4 ...  To join the pieces together you need to cut some strips of card stock.  They should be about one and a quarter inch wide.  Then score them down the middle lengthwise and place double sided tape on each side of the score mark.

 Step 4 ...  Adhere the joining strips to each piece of the box.  For the base you will need to adhere a joiner on all sides as shown below.

 For the sides you will only need to adhere a joiner on one side edge of each piece.

For the handle you will need to adhere the joiners on both sides at the bottom and also on both sides of the side edges but only up to the height of the box.  In my case that was 5". 

 I have only shown it on two sides here but you will have to place the joiners on the other side edge as well.

Step 5 ...  Now we can start to put the box together.  When joining the side pieces to the base I found it was a good idea to first, take the backing off the double sided tape and then stand the side piece up along the base and push the joiner onto it making sure it sticks down really well.  

As you can see below, it leaves that little bit of space between the two pieces which is necessary for movement in joining the side edges together later.  If you butted these two pieces together, you would not be able to lift the sides up to join them.  

Make sure you have one side joiner at each corner of the base. Here you can see how it looks with the sides attached.  

Now you can lift up each side piece and join the corners together ...

 ... and here is the basic box all joined up.  Now it's time to insert the handle.

Take the backing off the double sided tape on one of the bottom joiners, line the handle up to the centre guideline and stick the joiner to the base of the box.  Then stick down the joiner on the other side of the handle base.  Once it is stuck to the bottom you can then adhere the handle to the sides, lining it up on the guideline as shown. 

 Here is the basic box all ready to be decorated.  I really do hope you are still with me.  I did warn it was going to be a long post, didn't I ?????

So now I can show you the completed box.
TA!! DAAAAA!!

 To cover the box, I have used three different papers from Meg's stunning Damask Collection.  I will give you a list of all Meg's Garden products used at the bottom of this post.

 Although these papers don't need a lot of enhancement I did decide to do some masking and stenciling to make it more uniquely my own.

I've also used some Washi Tape and did some fussy cutting  as well.   Ran the frame on the front  through an embossing folder, coloured it with Black Soot Distress Ink and Versa Color Gold, and then it was clear embossed.  The quote was printed on some scrap DP and also clear embossed.  The clock  and the label were fussy cut from Meg's papers. 

 The sides were decorated with stencils, stamps, washi tape, a bling flourish and some flowers. On this side I fussy cut the label from another sheet and mounted it on some paperboard to give it a bit of dimension.

 I also fussy cut some of the leaves from the papers.

 A closie of the stamping and stenciling.

This is the other side before ...

 ... and after decorating.

 The inside ....

... and the handle.

I had a great time making this box and I hope I made the instructions clear enough for you to follow.  I also hope I didn't bore you to tears with such a long post and thank you so much for your patience.

As promised, here is the list of Meg's Garden Products used

Blue Belle Jardiniere 12 x 12 Paper - P6380
Blue & Green Damask 12 x 12 Paper - P6368
Framboise Fleur  12 x 12 Paper - P6371
Forget me Not Mini Pack - S113
Old World Time - 1037
Small Rectangular Parisian Frame - fr005

Thank you so much for visiting and enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless
oxox Marg