Thursday, March 31, 2011

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Monday, March 28, 2011

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Saturday, March 26, 2011

February DT: Left Overs!

After I was done making my Design Team Projects this was what was left over....


With a few blank cards I turned it into these....


 

Friday, March 25, 2011

February DT: Baby Predictions Cube and Album

Usually when I am making an off the page project I start with a project in mind and look for the right materials to fulfil it of course this time around I already had the project, Urban Lily Sugar Cube, and the challenge was what to do with it!

Heres my list of possibilities:
  • Some sort of Jack in the box type thing just for fun.
  • A surprise inside- Hersheys Kisses or sweets as an 'I love you' gift for kids or partner.
  • Use as a 'vase' for paper flowers
  • A Baby Decor Item with Black and white shapes, numbers or letters on each face.
  • A little surprise for my daughters teacher.
  • A birthday calendar- turned out the opposite way for the second half of the year.
  • A photo per month of my sons first year. 
  • Or a photo per year of my daughters 10 years + Plus and title and embellishment.
  • Valentines Decor item
  • Buy multiple and hang them on a string with one for each family member.
  • Buy Multiple and stack them on the mantle with some letters like FAMILY, HOME or LOVE on the sides and decorated to go with our stuff.
  • Cut windows on the sides and use as a display case for a tiny item.
  • Carve or punch designs out of the faces.
I was also thinking that the box can be used:
  • completely sealed, 
  • always open, 
  • or only partially put  together
And options for the inside included:
  • a built in mini album/s
  • A free standing mini album
  • Scroll Album on it's own
  • Scroll album on a cotton reel
  • Some sort of pop-up
  • Just folded pieces of paper with messages, affirmations, suggestions of things to do, fortunes or who knows what on them.
As we are expecting a baby later this year so I thought it would be fun to have a baby themed project and I came up with a prediction album. 

I decided to paint the box first but of course I could have papered or inked it as well. I keep an old magazine by my table and use it when I'm doing messy stuff- if the page gets too messy I can just turn to another- great when doing lots of gluing.


Both side Making Memories Funky Vintage Deep Sea.


I used Adobe photoshop to pull together photos of us all as babies on the one print and got three copies just in case. The Black and White pictures help to give a cohesive feel and work well with the Kaisercraft papers. (And yes that is two different babies at the bottom of each column. :-)


Used my square punch upside down to ensure I got it in just the right spot.


Mounted us all on the Kaiser Papers.


And then used foam tape to pop us up off the box and add a little more dimension.


A question mark from AC Thickers- Foam to represent the baby.


I used Making memories Book Tape to join the box sides together. There are holes that allow you to tie each side with ribbon but that wasn't really my style. :-)




I used Metallic rub-ons to add some contrast to the edges of the box. These come in sets of seven coordinating colours and work simply with body heat. You rub it on your finger and then rub it on the surface you are colouring. They last forever and Caz has three different colour kits.


I then cut a cover and pages for my mini album. I like to make the cover about 5mm longer and wider than the inner pages.


Scored the fold of my pages and cover with my stylus and trimmer.


And lined them up ready for stitching.


Because I used paper and light card and only had 3 layers it was easy to stitch them all together- with a larger number of pagers or heavier card you may want to do the pages in sets and then tie or bind into the cover.


I also used 7 Gypsies Gaffer tape as a decorative binding on the outside of my cover- it add strength as well- not needed in this case but sometimes handy!


I quizzed my family and filled in their new baby predictions. Added a title to my cover and enclosed my mini album to the box and secured it closed with ribbon. Then added a loop of ribbon to hang the cube with and a ribbon tassel for decoration.


I wrapped some jewellers wire around a bead to anchor it inside my box and then pushed the wire through the corner diagonally opposite to my hanging loop. Cut even lengths of pink and blue ribbon folded in half and tied approx a cm from the fold I then looped my wire through the loop and twisted it to secure the tassel to my box.




I am really hoping Merenia's weight prediction way bigger than the real thing!! And I can't say I'm liking either of their choices for names.




Caz Dezign Supply List:
Other Supplies: Making Memories Paint- Funky Vintage Deep Sea, Ribbons Various Artists Stash, Bead, Wire, Marvy Square Punches x2, AC Thickers Foam, Cotton, Light Card- white, Smiggle Micro Liner Blue 0.5.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Yesterday's creating...


So after yesterdays read/write/create conundrum (oh poor me spoilt for choice). I raced off and gathered together the above from my fabric stash. And made these.....


I made the pinwheely one first before I  had to go grab the kids from Kindy.



It's a pencil roll based loosely on the design in Soulemama's Book, The Creative Family.  The Brown one is for Will and the other for Emily (and then eventually the baby) to go in their 'Netball Bags' which is a kit (books, pads, stamps, stickers and pencils) that we take to Netball Practice to keep the kids entertained when the weather is crappy or they are just too tired to play on the playground.



If you are a scrapbooker and you think that fabric looks familiar that's because it's the Basic Grey Figgy Pudding line which they do in both paper and fabric.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

February DT: Old Friends

This very simple double page layout came together pretty quickly except for one problem. I had some Doodlebug alphabet stickers that were perfect in colour and style but no letter s left in my stash. Easy solution- I cut out the waste area around where an s had been and placed it on my layout.


Selected a pen in the closest colour I had and coloured it in.

 

Removed the waste and voilà you can't hardly tell!




I also created a ribbon mat using two long and a bunch of smaller strips of ribbon which I attached to the back of my photo with glue dots. (I could have just used 7 long strips but I like to be a fairly thrifty scrapper.)


With the addition of some rhinestones, rub-ons, more ribbons and a brad it was all done!


Caz Dezign Supply List;
Other Supplies: Letter Stickers Doodlebug Simply Sweet (Various Colours), Smiggle Micro Liner Blue 0.5.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Monday, March 21, 2011

February DT: Shakespeare Bay

Carrying on the summer theme these papers really lend themselves to beach pages! 


I hand drew my wave design with a pencil and then cut it out with a blade. And I punched a border strip with the Fiskars Effervescence punch- while these are not standard Caz Dezign Stock I'm pretty sure Caz can easily get them in if your are having trouble finding them. 


I also hand cut a sun design for my page. I was originally going to just stick it down but it felt like it needed something more. I could have inked the edges in a darker orange tone to help my rays shine. But decided to emphasise the design with machine stitching.


I try and keep my sewing machine accessible as much as possible with thread and bobbin loaded to go because it means I am more likely to use it! And that's great because it's so easy and looks great. You don't need to use a thicker or stronger needle I use the same one for fabric and for paper. The only thing you need to keep in mind is that card does not bunch like fabric- so it helps to decide if something may need to be stitched off the page and then stuck down- or if you must stitch onto 12 x12 think about the best place to start as manipulating a rolled up piece of 12 x12 card stock through the middle of your machine can be a mission.


I love the texture and dimension you get when it's done and it is honestly super quick and easy.


One of the things that teachers should show kids at school is how to measure out a title to that is evenly spread across it's intended home. The easy way to do this is to write your title on a scrap of paper and then number into the middle from each side (including numbering the spaces between words). This lets you find the middle point which will either be a letter if your title is an uneven number of letters&space or the gap between two letters if it is an even number. You can see in the example below that the s was my centre so iI have placed that in the middle of my space along with the start and end letters- from there it's quite easy to space out the rest of the letters evenly.


This Penscore Mouldable Stamping foam is some very cool stuff. You can see in the picture below that I had previously used mine to make a negative impression of a making memories foam stamp. I used the heat gun to return the foam to it's natural flat state.


Once it is hot it is ready to take an impression.


I chose this Hero Arts Cloud stamp which I pressed firmly onto my heated foam. (Did you know you can order Hero Arts Stamps through Caz if she doesn't have the item you want in stock there's often a good chance she can get it.)


(If you want to see further examples of pen score then this craft critique post is great.) I inked the stamp with Color box Chalk Ink- which has a nice chalky finish.


And then stamped it around my sun for a subtle effect. I finished the Layout off with the date, a flower and some rhinestones to highlight my waves.



Caz Dezign Supplies:
Other Supplies: Hero Arts Clouds Stamp S5215, Colorbox Chalk Ink-Ice Blue, Scenic Route Alphabet Hip to be Square Stickers, White Cotton, Hibiscus Flower unknown, Smiggle Micro Liner Pen Blue 0.5.