Holiday Gifts for teachers at work

Thanks to Angelina Clark over at http://intatwynedesigns.co.uk, I made these cute holiday gifts for the teachers at school.

Instead of the gift card aspect, I simply made the top into a card.

When I took these photos I added a cheap copy of Ferrero Roche, but I have since switched them out for the real thing!

Then I found this lovely idea to make snowman tea lights. I'll add where I found the idea later, since I've forgotten at this time. Anyway it was pretty easy to make these two gifts, and I'm sure the staff at work will love them.

Now I'm getting busy with making the 31 student gifts. I'm making 2 types of decorations for them. When they are finished, I may make a tutorial for them.

Tutorial Trials

I thought I'd give making a card tutorial a try. The first had to be deleted as almost nothing was in frame. Please understand, I don't have any of the equipment needed to do this! Just a Samsung tablet that a friend got free when she signed up to a new bank account and she gifted it to me.

So the second one I just redid the card again. I just added a little more adhesive. It was okay, but in order to get everything in, I filmed it vertically. Of course the best videos need to be horizontal.

Now for the third. Figured out how to film horizontally so I gave it a try. This time it worked really well. I did forget however my scissors, so I had to go quickly to get them. Other than that I think it was a good video.

So here it is and don't forget to comment.

Thank you.

Back to card making

So now the summer is here I've been making a few cards. The one above is using a sketch mojo459 from mojomonday. I'll be adding a few more Christmas ones, as I go along. I wanted to post this one, as a test since I'm trying to make a blog post from my phone. Let's see if it works.

Card Swap Group

I joined a card swap a number of years ago, ensuring I sent at least 5 cards to my secret person during the year. I did it for a couple of years, and of course I sent more than 5. I also sent to others who celebrated birthdays and holidays. The first year I was matched up with someone who must have been a beginner. She sent me only 5 cards, and 2 of them were identical except for colour. The others were very basic, as though put together by a child.  The next year that person didn't sign up for it, and I got someone who was a bit more experienced, and it became fun.

The group was closed down by its owner, and although I have no one to send cards to, I still make them. A couple of weeks ago, one of the people who used to be in that swap group posted a call out to join a Facebook group. I decided it would be a great idea. The only concern I have is that at least 3 cards should be sent out a month. Hopefully I can keep up with that during the school year.

So here are the first cards:

Christmas in September

Black and White

Kite

Just because I am a little concerned that I won't get cards made in time, I have signed up for the October swaps already. Here are 2 of the 3 I signed up for, I have plenty of time to get that last one done.

Fancy Fold

Hallowe'en

So I am back in the card making mode, and I love having my creativity back!

Christmas in September

I saw this sketch and I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it. It turned out almost exactly as I imagined, I just ended up changing the colour of the background paper. So it came together probably the fasted I've ever made a card.

I love MojoMonday sketches, they inspire often, and they are offered weekly.

This is the one I decided to make:

I am sending this, along with some other Christmas cards to someone in a Facebook card swap group. I'm also sending these:

For a Black and White Swap

For a Kite Swap
I used a Wobble under the kite, so if you flick the bottom of the kite it wiggles

So after a really long time of not crafting, I've finally gotten back to it. Only problem is summer is just about over, and I've got to go back to work next week.

National Card Making Day

I knew I wanted to get some cards made today as it is Card Making Day, so I checked out my Pinterest to see what I had pinned to make at a later date. I also had decided I would be making Christmas cards as it's only 89 days away!!!

The first thing I did was to cut out a card base. I had just bought a pack of white card stock, so I decided it would be white. My son fished out 2 packs of white envelopes from the recycling next to the mailboxes in my building. Twenty five envelopes in each pack. Score! So I decided to use them. I thought I would just fold the cardstock in half, 8.5" x 5.5" in size, but it turned out the cards had to be cut to 5" x 7", so it was a bit of extra cutting.

Here is the first set of 6 that I did.

I thought it would be quick and easy, but I made tying those bows a lot harder than I should have. Then I decided to make 6 different cards, So these 6 cards took me 3 hours! Can you believe it? Three hours.

Then I went off to my meditation class and when I got back at 3 pm I had something to eat and drink. Can I tell you about my drink?

The most yummiest thing ever. I found this lemonade at Winners for $3.99, but it was pear flavour. It's made in France, and is labeled 'Gluten Free'. It is the most amazing sparkling lemonade ever. I have also tried their orange flavour and another one that I forget, because I left it at Maria's pirate party. I can't wait to taste the plain lemonade that is chilling in the fridge. Oh, and the bottles are reusable too!

Only about half a glass left in there!

So I got busy again with making cards. I saw this very simple one, that required next to no time at all. Red, white, black and silver cardstock, a few black jewels and a stamp.

Love, love, love these!

Finally I decided it was time to change it up. I subscribe to Freshly Made Sketches, and they often have fun and interesting idea, and I decided to use one I saw a couple of days ago. This one is definitely out of the ordinary.

So here is the one I made, not only changing up the style, but the colour scheme too.

I like that it is clean, and can be used for those who don't celebrate Christmas.

It's only 7 pm here in Toronto, so I'm not done yet. Perhaps I'll be back later tonight, but more likely tomorrow.

Happy Card Making my friends.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I had a lovely Christmas, especially since I was not one of the 300,000 who lost their power over the holidays. 

Thomas gave me a Kobo, a portable battery recharger for my phone, and a fantastic set of Henckel Knives that we use every day. From me Thomas got a new external hard drive, a DeLorean Lego set, another pair of mitts, (he keeps losing them), the usual underwear and socks, and a few other bits and pieces.

Here is the Kobo and the case I made for it, (from a bubble envelope)

Thomas's friend Kay came over for Christmas dinner. Thomas roasted a turkey breast, potatoes, carrots and celery. I made a lasagna, some steamed veggies and we ate all that we could. Poor Kay was one of those who lost power, and since she had no heat, she was finding it hard to sleep at night. She passed out on the couch, and we just let her sleep.

I set about deciding what I was going to do for my celebration space for New Year's Eve. It actually didn't come together until that day!

I only have one picture now, as the others are on my phone, so I'll post them later, here is the one and only I have now.

I love how it turned out. I had a bottle of sparkling grape juice instead of champagne, and picked up a hat and horn from the dollar store. I also got the 2 star things hanging from the corners of the mirror there too. The banner at the bottom I made with my Cricut. 

So to all and any who read this blog, Happy New Year, all the best for 2014.

Cards

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I didn't go out much due to a little annoying medical condition, that has now been corrected with medication. So it gave me some time to think about cards that I wanted to make.
First one is a Christmas card using Stephanie Barnards Framelits Flip it card die. I love it, as it is pretty easy to put together.

I got to use up some Martha Stewart Christmas papers, I've had for ages.
Then I saw a Happy Birthday card on Pinterest that I loved using the Cuttlebug Happy Birthday Embossing folder.

And finally a Fall card that I will be sending to some of the people on Papercraft Planet who are in a card swap group I am in. This was my own design, using a Fall stamp set that I have hardly used.

Experimenting with Flip It cards

While I was in Lockport NY staying with my friend Maria I went with her to a rubber stamp show and bought a ton of stamps and other related things. One of these things was a flip flop die. 

In the past when I have made flip it cards, I have used my scorer, big shot and a circular die. There is a little measuring involved, not too difficult, but I did want to see how the actual flip flop die worked.

Here is one that I tried without the flip flop die.

I used a circle die. Click on the link above to see the tutorial

And here is one with the flip flop die from www.stampdoctor.com

I decided that the way it folded didn’t suit me, so I was able to figure out how to center the flipped part of the cars, and I like it so much better.

Then a few days later I saw a Darlene DeVries youtube video on Pinterest that intrigued me. I watched and knew I needed to try it out immediately.

Mine didn’t turn out as well and I decided that I didn’t like all the score lines on it, so I made a slightly different version. This one the centre doesn’t flip all the way, but I prefer it.

With the ones I have tried so far, the last one is the one I like the most. The one with the actual flip flop die is a little faster, but I am limited to just a rectangular flip.

New cards with Stephanie Barnard's Trees4Christmas stamps

I love this set, I think it is quite versatile.

I still have at least 40 more cards to make. I may have already missed the mailing deadline.

Christmas card tutorial

I am trying to come up with a few ideas for Christmas cards for later this year. I posted these 2 on Paper Craft Planet and some of the readers were asking how I did the cut for them. So I thought I'd write up a little tutorial with a few pictures.

Using a two sided card stock, cut at 7 1/4" x 4 1/4"

 Then score at 2 3/4" and 3 3/4"

Take a die shape that is symmetric like a circle for example. (I mark the centre line on mine.)

Using a die cut machine, (I use my Big Shot) stack the white platform, first acrylic plate, paper, die. Place the centre of the die on the 2 3/4" score line. Then line the 2nd acrylic plate edge on the centre mark and send it through.

Do not remove the die or paper from the platform. Turn the whole platform around, line the top acrylic plate on the other score line and run it through the machine.

Remove the card. Fold the 2 3/4" forward and the 3 3/4" backward.

There will be score marks on the flip part, but you can cover them with another card shape.

I used a corner rounder and some stamps to complete this card.