Cup of Thanks Card

A friend of mine is doing me a big favour this Friday so I've made a card and bought a little gift.


If you have small scraps from a patterned paper collection or in my case, left overs from a 6 inch paper pad, this card format of a die cut repeated over and over is a simple but really effective design. It works best with small scale patterns.


I've had this bunch of tiny jewelry tags for ages but never had stamps small enough to use with them...all solved now!

Supplies:
Stamps- Papertrey Ink Tea for Two Additions
Die- Papertrey Ink teacup
Paper- Pink Paislee Queen Bee 6 inch paper pad
Cardstock- Papertrey Ink smokey shadow
Ink- versafine onyx black
Other- jewelry tag

Papertrey September blog hop challenge: Sharing the love

This card is all about THANKS. Thanks to all the crafters out there who gladly share their ideas, knowledge and experience with us just for the love of it.


Actually I found this quite a hard blog hop, just because it was a real challenge to pick something to focus on- I mean, everything I know about stamping I have learnt from a fellow stamper so it was kinda hard to narrow down! In the end I decided to go with my latest favourite PTI set and a technique that I haven't seen used around the traps so much lately, so hopefully it will be useful info for someone out there.

The idea is basically to use household bleach as an ink, but particularly on this card it was used inside the stamped outline to bleach out some of the cardstock, which makes it easier to add colour on top later. I think I learnt about this from a magazine quite a while back. It gives a striking effect on dark cardstock.


This shows the letters bleached on the left and unbleached on the right. I stamped the letters using Versafine and heat embossed them with clear powder- this makes it much easier to keep within the outline with both the bleach and the colour. I just used a fine paintbrush dipped in regular household bleach and coloured pencils with dimensional medium over the top (see photo below). The stitching is pure Nichole Heady (I always admire her use of stitching) and the simple use of bold patterned papers is inspired by Kristina Werner.


Thanks for hopping by, and thanks again for taking the time and effort to do tutorials, answer questions, share ideas and give encouragement. You know who you are.

Kaisercraft desk organiser 'Restored"

I've been away on holidays ignoring the blog. BUT it hasn't been a complete papercraft disaster, because it did give me a chance assemble and decorate the Kaiserkraft large desk organiser. I love it, it has completely transformed the top of my telephone cabinet (seriously, I'm too embarrassed to show you before and after photos!)


This is my favourite part of the project, the three small drawers in the center. The knobs are by Tim Holtz. *swoon*. All the papers & die cuts are from Crate Paper Restoration collection.

If you are thinking of making one for yourself, my tips are:
- Assemble all the parts before starting and mark with a pencil the surfaces you want to cover and the edges that will be visible.
- I used a few coats of varnish on undecorated areas that are likely to collect dust.
- Adhesive fabric is fantastic for the thin edges if you don't want to bother with paint.
- I inked the edges of my paper before adhering with Vintage Photo distress ink.
- I found it necessary to use some glue to keep the whole thing together. I find dimensional medium great for this because it has an easy to control tip. I suggest you apply it where needed and lie the organiser on one side, with a small amount of folded newspaper supporting the main side (b/c of the border around the base, it will not lie completely flat on its side). Place some heavy books on top of it and let it dry.

If you have had a go at transforming this desk organiser, I'd love to see it- leave me a link in the comments.

One day wishes

Back online after our internet went down for a few days and a couple of things to share:


My entry for the last round of Scrap That Ad. This one really put me to the test. Especially the traditional fairytale element, all I could think of was princess stuff and since I have no little princesses, it was tough! Loved working with the new Restoration collection from Crate Paper though.

And if you are in the mood for a giveaway, you should pop over to the Paislee Press blog. There is a fantastic $150 voucher up for grabs.

Scrap that Ad round 5

So the challenge this week was based on the Evolution ad by Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty, so I decided to a do a digital layout featuring my very own "beauty product ad" so to speak.

Supplies: Katie Pertiet (designer digitals), Paislee Press, In the Making Designs, Songbird Avenue. Layout designed using Gimp 2.