"Box" Card

I added this to my blog tonight and thought I'd share it with you :) I find these little 'boxes' addictive once I get going :)



Is it a card or is it a box? Well it's both.....
This card looks like a regular card until you open it and then 'surprise' there's a little box attached.





I made these cards last year to hold school pictures of my boys I was sending out, so thought I'd take the time and share the instructions with you :)

You can use them for gift card holders or sending flat type embellishments to fellow carders as a little surprise :)



Materials:
Bone Folder
Text weight paper (sheet of computer paper)
Cardstock
Patterned paper
Embellishments


Instructions:

1. Cut the text weight paper to 8 1/2" x 11"



2. Fold your paper into 3 equal sections and score with your bone folder for nice sharp creases.





3. Open up your paper and take the left side and bring it to the middle and fold the edge back, do the same on the right, you should have what looks like 'french doors' now. Crease well!





4. Keep your paper folded and FLIP it over, fold the tips back BUT not t he 'door' flaps to make points at both ends.






5. Unfold tips and FLIP your paper over again. Pull the 'door' flaps down towards the bottom and do this for all 4 corners.









6. Keep everything folded and FLIP your paper over again, fold down the flap at each end.






7. FLIP your paper over again and UNFOLD everything, tucking the last fold INWARD at both ends.







8. Take the LEFT 'door' flap and fold it over the RIGHT 'door' flap, then pull the top LEFT section downward and fold, now do the same with the bottom section, then fold the 'door' flap back over. Repeat this for the other side.












9. Now you should have your little box!









To make up the card:

Base: cut your cardstock 4 1/4" x 5 1/2", put adhesive on the bottom (back) of your box and place it centered on your base.

Flaps: cut your cardstock 4 1/4" x 5 1/2", and then cut this in half and adhere the flaps of the box to the center of each flap.

You add patterned paper at this point if your wish to cover your flaps as well.

The center panel on my card is 3" x3" and you only adhere half of the panel to the left side flap.

Embellish as you see fit :)




Happy Carding!
Tamara

Side Accordion Album Video Tutorial

More pictures
and details of products you can check my blog

Enjoy !
Jana

SPOTLIGHTING WITH PUNCHES

I thought I'd share this tutorial with you - Spotlighting With Punches.

1. Stamp your desired image on two pieces of card stock. Set one aside to serve as the background for the spotlighted image.

2. On the first piece of card stock punch out the piece you want to highlight, then colour with markers or watercolours. Alternatively you can colour the area first and then punch.

3. Line up the punched, spotlighted piece with the previously stamped image on the second piece of card stock. Mount on coordinating card stock if desired.

4. There is no need to discard the second piece of cardstock, the hole can be covered with an embellishment - giving you two completed projects.

Here are my examples:

Fiona

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A note from Julie : This is such a cool idea ~ For further inspiration you can check out Fiona's blog HERE

Colouring with a difference !

Now this is just a quick plain card to show you the colouring i have used ...

I have been itching to show you this ! but needed a little practice myself first !
I can't say im great at colouring in - i struggle with blending and light and shade , i think most people can relate to that at some point !

Whilst trying to get a different look to my colouring , i started experimenting and came up with this ... now my friends at craft club have seen these colouring comparisons and they said there was a big difference in depth and vibrancy .

Theres also a special little tool you use to get the effect as well - more about that later !

So im gonna show you a few comparisons first ...

here are some images i had started to colour.....




here we have whisper pens on the left and prismas on the right
although i try to imitate the whisper colouring with the prismas - there is still a slight difference.
now then ... look at this one .
.



you can see the difference and ive only been practicing a few times with this .

How did i do it ?
Well i started off with a great little find ..... these little beauties !These are an absolute must and my special tool !


cut and dry pens nibs - these where brilliant for this AND also just for blending in tricky areas that are too small to blend with paper stumps and prismas. You still need paper stumps for large areas - but i wouldnt do without these now .. You get 10 in a pack - but you can sharpen the other end , then snip it to a point , which means its really 20 your getting. They last alot longer than paper stumps and theres no having to file to a point everytime. A little snip after many colourings would bring the point back.

First start as you normally would with you prismas.
draw heavily around the outline of the image and shade alittle in the middle lightly.

2. blend in the colour with a paper stump and sansador.Use small circular movements with the stump.



3. Next take a darker shade and go around the outline again and also where it would be shaded..
This time use the Pen Nibs , it is much more precise .

Now the special part !
Take your whisper pen ( pic 1) - chose a slightly darker shade than the prisma colour.
outline a small part , this is important - only do small areas at a time and work quickly

dip your cut and dry nib into sansador , and spread the whisper colour this time with strokes AND circular movements - sliding the ink away from the edge - the ink should sort of slide on the card. (pic 2) This is because you have used prismas and sansador first.
dont colour or go into the the lighter parts of the image.



Pic 2.



Do this again - building the depth up deeper with this layer and dipping the pen nib in sansodor - dont rub card as this will make it too wet.

TIP .. If colouring with blue - rub some red onto a piece of plastic ( or acrylic block) and lift off the colour with the blue whisper pen - add that to the final outline and shading to jeans and wow if gives it a beautiful violet blue overtone !

So after your third layer of dark blue , take your white prisma pencil, and lighten all the parts that catch the light now because the vibrancy is strong with whispers colouring the white really does show up well.


continue in this manner until all the image is coloured .




Now i am going to show you how i made the little decorative brads in the middle of the flower stamps on the card.


In the middle of the flower there is a brad in fimo.


Right ... first thing is to roll two small balls of fimo and flattern with the pad of your finger
.

Next roll two smaller white balls of fimo and again flatten each one
.

Place ontop of the larger flattened balls .
Using a straw , push into the middle and twist out, do the same with the other end of the straw on the next flatterned ball. This will be your hole for the brad.

bake in the oven as per instructions on the packet ( very important to have right temperature !)
When baked push a brad into the middle .

next i stamped a mini stitchels flower stamp and cut the image out .coloured the image and then i outlined the image with a white pen -
I cut some flourishes from some paper and outline this with white pen again . I attached the brad and fimo to the flower image and then attached to the flourish.



Now throughout this tutorial - i was interupted by something with pink ears ... to find out please take a visit to my blog ...It also has the supplier of pen nibs and fimo .
madimaginations

Magazine storage binder tutorial.

Hi all :)

In the past week, i must have read at least a dozen requests for advice with magazine storage on various sites. This is always going to be an issue as long as the publishers keep bring out great crafty mags!

In the past I've mentioned wooden storage racks that I've made, but these aren't quite so easy to knock up in your craft room in 20 minutes. This however....is!

I thought of all the ways I'd seen magazines stored before, and when i was 12 years old, i subscribed to a magazine which i bought the binders for. I've modelled this crafty version on that storage idea.

All you need is an A4 ring binder, some pliers, some ribbon lengths and an eyelet setter.
Ok, here we go....first take your standard A4 ring binder.....

Now we want to get rid of the metal ringcontraption in the middle. This is going to be the hardest part of this project. It is only held in with two eyelets, but they are tough little fellas, so i got some pliers and sort of pinched the edge of the eyelets together until you could shove it back through the hole in the binder.

Take it off back and front, eyelets too. You should be left with holes like this.

These can be easily covered up with a strip of card/paper.

The outside bit gets covered up the same, however you can fancy this up a bit more, even write a label so you can see what is stored inside. You may even want to have a folder for each brand of magazine, in which case you could be ultra organisational and include the name of the mag.

Now to work on what holds the magazines in the binder. Using a Crop-A-Dile, punch a hole at either end of the binder. Ensure you leave a few millimeters so you can slide a magazine in.
Secure the eyelet, nice side on the outside of the binder.....looks prettier that way!

Now you want a few lengths of ribbon, thin ribbon is fine. Make sure they are a couple of inches longer than the binder as you will need the extra length for tieing a knot. Tie your first ribbon at one end, just tie any old secure knot, pull it tight..but not overly tight that you can't fit a mag under it.....then tie it off at the other end.

You should now have this....

You will need a separate ribbon for each magazine, so just add them all either at the start when you make the binder, or add then as you buy each magazine.
Here I'll just do two for the tutorial.

As you can see, if you do them singularly, you end up with a knot for each ribbon. I've just checked and i can fit ten bits of thin ribbon through an eyelet. If you find this tricky, there is nothing to stop you adding a couple another couple of eyelets either side of this one.

Now open your magazine to the centre pages, and slide it under the ribbon.



Close the first magazine, and you can see below that you have the next ribbon waiting to take the next mag.



Insert your next magazine exactly as you did the first.....



Hey presto.....here you have a quick, easy and affordable way of keeping your magazines safe and in good condition.



Hope this helps.....it's also featured on my blog here, thanks for looking. :)