Brooch Tutorial

You may have seen a few brooches made with paper, usually something Christmas time like a poinsettia or snowman, well I thought I would put a different spin on it and make a fall brooch.  I used the Sunflower image from Prairie Fairy Designs.

Print and color the image three times.

Cut out the full flower less the stem.

 Cut out the second flower leaving the back petals off.

Cut out the third flower leaving only the front petals and the greenery.

Paper isn't strong enough to survive being a brooch on its own so you will need to put a thin layer of Crystal Effects over each cut out flower to give it strength.  I did this over a scrap piece of transparency to protect my table top in case I got messy.  Set aside and let dry.

I used my Silicone window adhesive to do the paper tole effect.  You can see how the small dollops of glue show up on the flower in the picture below.

You can buy jewellry pieces at a variety of places from craft stores to dollar stores, just look in your local area to see where you can get the best deals.

Using Crystal Effects to get a strong solid bond, apply a strip of adhesive to the back of the flowers and adhere the brooch back.  Let dry.

The finished product.

Think outside the box to make your jewellry and show me what you come up with I would love to see it!

A-maze-ing Tutorial

I bought the mazes from Stampin' Up, there are 3 in a package and they make great party favors for kids and even the young at heart!  I used Monster Google from Prairie Fairy Designs to keep it playful, I love how his nose almost is dead center in the maze.

This is the front of the maze in the kit.

 Back of the maze in the kit.

I traced the outline of the outer shell of the maze with pencil around my Monster.

Carefully remove the back of the maze without losing the balls, they are so tiny you don't want to have to search for them.

I used the back card to trace around my monster as you can see it inside my originally traced line.  Cut on the inner line.

Sponge the outer edge. I matched it up with my Monster's eyes.

Carefully place it in the back of the maze.  This is super easy and super fast, give it a try!

Nail Care Gift Box Tutorial

Well this time I created a nail care gift box that I think any lady would love to receive.  I used the Bath'n'Bubbles Gilly digi stamp from Prairie Fairy Designs as it so appropriately depicts getting pampered.  I was inspired to create this by Laurie a fellow online creator.  However, I had to change the dimensions to fit a 100ml or 3.38 oz. of nailpolish remover.  Plus I added an extra flap in the box to add sturdiness to the box.

Rear view

 Cut two pieces of cardstock 9" long and 6 3/4" wide.  Then score pieces at 2" from each of the short sides, that means you will have two long lines.  Turn the paper and score at 2 1/2" on one end.  Then proceed to cut the sides out until you get a capital letter T.  Go back to scoring, on the long 2 3/4" strip near the narrow end, score in at 1 3/4", at 5.5" and again at 7" from the outer edge.  Turn the paper and score in 1/2" on each of the ends of the short side.  At the top of the T you will see where you have scored a section of 1/2 x 1/2", trim these out as shown in the picture below.  Also on that same section trim in 1/2" on both sides of the center strip where scored.  This creates a flap.  Take a  1 1/4" circle punch and punch out a circle centered in the middle of the 1 3/4 x 2 3/4 section of only one of the T's.  Do not discard the circle that has been punched out.

Bend each of the scored lines in a mountain fold except the top one, bend it in the valley fold.  Add strong adhesive to the four edges shown (they are the flaps for creating the box).  I used 1/2" Sookwang adhesive.

In the photo below you can clearly see where I had you trim in 1/2" on each side to create the flaps.  Remove the adhesive from this flap and attach it to the adjacent piece.  Repeat on the other side.  This will create the bottom of the box.

Then one side at a time remove the adhesive and attach to the adjacent piece.  Do the same with the other side, this creates the back of the box.

You now should have a piece that looks like so.

Repeat these steps to create your second box.

Lay the flap with the circle punched out over the other flap and trace the circle with a pencil so that it lines up exactly.  Lay your punch over the drawn circle and punch it out.

Cut out the following pieces of patterned paper:

2 - 1 3/4 x 2 1/2" (front of boxes)

2 - 2 1/2 x 3 1/2" (inside of boxes)

1 - 1 1/2 x 2 1/2" (top flap)

4 - 1 1/4" x 1 3/4" (sides of boxes)

Attach the pieces to your boxes centering them on all of the appropriate parts (except for the top flap).

With dotto adhesive (or any other temporary adhesive) adhere the two short edges onto the back of the top flap, centering it.  This ensures you have your circle marked exactly where you want it with your paper centered.

Draw with a pencil the circle on the paper.  Remove the paper from the back of the flap and rub off the temporary adhesive.

Line up the 1 3/8" circle punch over the drawn circle and punch it out.

Attach it to the one flap.  You should now have two boxes as shown below.

Add a strong adhesive on the top side of the top flap that does not have the patterned paper on it. 

Line it up and adhere the two boxes together, keeping the one with the patterned paper on top.

Top view

Time to decorate.  Now to make a rosette, take a 1 x 12" strip of patterned paper and score it ever 1/4".  Fold it in an accordian style with mountain and valley folds.

Use a strong adhesive to glue the two outer folds together.  I used Crystal Effects.  If you use Crystal Effects hold it in place for a minute or so as it is a liquid adhesive.

On one of the circles you punched out from the top flap add some Crystal Effects.  Manipulate the cardstock to flatten into a circle and pinch it together in the center.  Adhere it to the circle, hold for a minute or so.

You can see that I didn't get it exactly centered but it holds it together and you don't see that part later.

Using circle and scalloped circle nestabilities I created the front for my rosette.  I stamped and sponged the circle and used matching patterned paper for the scallop circle.

Attach to the rosette.

Here is the front decoration for my nail care kit.  I used the circle and scallop circle nestabilities again.

Lay the boxes over your nailpolish remover. Attach 1/2" ribbon around the boxes with a strong adhesive, again I used 1/2" Sookwang adhesive.

Adhere your decorations to the front and back of the boxes, I off center mine a little, I think it adds a nice touch and it gives a better view of what is inside.

I cut strips of matching patterned paper and wrapped a few chocolates to sit inside.

Here's the goodies I am sticking inside the boxes.

The finished product.

Remember to create your boxes based on the size of your nailpolish remover bottle, you want it to sit about 1/2" off the table surface.  Another thing to check is the size of your cap to make sure you hole is big enough but not too big.  If you need it bigger you will need to increase the size of the top flap to accommodate the change.  Try it and share it with a good friend!

Masking a digi and paper tole tutorial

Ever since the Prairie Fairy Queen created the Hoisting Sails and Harbor Gulls images I have wanted to create this card.  Today's tutorial will show you how to mask a digi and using paper tole techniques how to give your images depth.

Print out the image you plan to use on cardstock as well as computer paper.  Cut out the computer paper pieces you want to mask.

Using dotto adhesive place this adhesive onto the backs of the computer paper boats and line up on your cardstock with the same image.

Here's a pic of the cardstock with the masks in place.

I then used a large post it note to define my horizon.

Using Pink Pirouette, Bashful Blue and Wisteria Wonder Stampin Up inks I then sponged from the horizon up, blending the colors softly.

Flip the post it note on the horizon line to now cover the sky.  This allows you to sponge the water I used Marina Mist in the center and Night of Navy Stampin Up ink to sponge the water.  I also sponged a little bit of Pink Pirouette down on the sides of the image to soften the break line.

Remove the post it note and the masks.  There will be a slight residue from the adhesive, simply rub your finger over the area to loosen the adhesive and it will come right off.  Color your boats as desired.

I printed out 5 images of Harbor Gulls all the same size.  I numbered the right top corner so you would understand the layering effect better.  Color your images.  You will see that I colored less of the image when it became more of the foreground.  I also placed red X's where I planned on cutting out that part of the image to show depth.  To decide how to do this look at your image and start by removing the object that is farthest back. 

In image 2 I will be removing the back wing of the sea gull in the background so I Xed it out and didn't bother to color it.

Image 3 I cut out the back wing and the body of the background seagull.

In image 4 I removed the entire background seagull and the pillar upon which it was perched.

In image 5 I removed the back wing on the foreground sea gull, I could have removed the tail feathers but didn't think of it.  Also even though I colored both legs and the top of the pillar I decided later that they would be better removed.

Now I am giving you the view of image 1 and 2 side by side to see that the back wing is removed from the image when cut.

Image 2 and 3 show the difference by removing the background birds back wing and body cut out.

Images 3 and 4 show the difference of the next removal.

I pointed out the parts I removed with pink arrows on images 4 and 5.

Whenever I do paper tole I like to add real elements to the images for more depths.  I added hemp for the ropes on images 3 and 5.  To add it to image 3, I had to cut a slot on the side of the front pillar to slide the hemp through.  I did three different pieces of hemp, I didn't wrap it around so it wouldn't distort my image by having it too taught.  I adhered the hemp using glue dots.

Use a round tool, either the edge of a marker, an embosser, or something similar to give the images curvature.  This keeps it from looking flat and adds dimension.  Do this on everyone of the 5 gull images.

To adhere the gulls to each other I didn't want to use pop dots they make the spacing too much.  In paper tole you use a silicone adhesive, as I live in the sticks, I went to the local hardware store and asked them what they had that would work.  It turns out that the window caulking is a clear silicone adhesive and much cheaper than at a craft store.  It comes with a nozzle tip so much easier for fine detailed work.  Squeeze out a dollop of adhesive several places on the furthest back image making sure not to put adhesive on the area removed of the next layer.  The depth you want is dependent on how much adhesive you add, you can always squish it down, just be careful not to put your adhesive near the edge or it will squish out.

Nozzle tip

Close up shot for you to see adhesive added to image.  Let dry for a minute or two between layers so that your image doesn't slide around.  It doesn't take long for the adhesive to set.  Continue to do this on each layer.

Side view of two images joined. 

Side view of all 5 images joined, you can now see how much difference it would have made if I used pop dots on each layer.

Front view of all 5 layers adhered together.

I attached my image to my card and then added my gulls with more silicone adhesive.  I had a little excess of my gulls hanging off the bottom of my card.  I just trimmed it level.

Challenges I am entering: