Hump day crafts: Where did the summer go?

I’m a little sad that my last post had end of the school year gifts and here we are a week into the new school year. Where have I been? And where did my summer go? Last weekend it was in the 80s, this weekend they’re predicting rain and 60s. Bummer. But I’ll get over it. That’s what we moss backs in the Pacific Northwest do.

Even though my summer seems to have ended way too soon, we did get some crafting in. Here’s 10 crafts I did (some with help) during this short summer:

1. Knitted legwarmers – for my niece’s 8th birthday

2. Vinyled clipboards – made one for my sister-in-law as a gift, plus a couple for Things 1&2.

3. Knitted mini-Jayne Cobb hat – gift for my husband. (Yes, we’ve got a teeny bit of Firefly geek in us.)

4. Toilet paper roll joke book – The kids picked and illustrated the jokes to make a book to send to their dad.

5. Screenprinting – actually I should just say buying a Yudu since I’ve only done 2 projects so far.

6. I spy bottle – to entertain the kids on the pier while we waited for The Cat’s submarine.

7. Flannel boards – another pierside entertainer, except that we could only use these on the bus to and from the pier because the wind blew the laminated flannel backed pieces off the board.

8. Tie dye – my 10 & 13 year old niece and nephew visited from the midwest, so we had to break out the tie-dye kit to make some souvenirs. (I was too busy tying and dying to take pics of the process, but maybe I can get some from my mom later.)

9. Crafting for money – I sold some stuff this year — personalized for my mom’s soccer academy. She benefits from marketing and increased word of mouth, I make a little money to put toward a new cutter (hoping to be able to say goodbye to my cricut soon), and the kids get a special one-of-a-kind personalized useful something. I made water bottles for the kids and car decals for the parents.

10. Tenth anniversary print and cut card – I made this with SCAL and my cricut, plus my Canon MX870 printer.

I’d go on with details about each, but the school bus comes early this year, so I better call it a night. You can always post a comment asking for details. Happy crafting!

Hump day crafts: Valentine special – Wobble spring valentine and TP roll album

This edition of hump day crafts is a day early in honor of Valentine’s day. (It would’ve been up on Valentine’s Day, but we lost power here for nearly 12 hours!)

These valentines were inspired by one of the ladies over at the smartbuygal.com forums. She had made a motion birthday card and shared a link to this video tutorial on using or making wobble springs. I knew Things 1 and 2 would love that, so I got on it.

Luckily I had everything I needed on hand. Some great graphics (they were freebies for Valentine’s Day!) from the great folks at Lettering Delights, some 28 gauge wire, a 1″circle cutter and some cards. I decided to go with 6×6 inch cards for some extra impact. I used various cardstocks from my stash and a Cuttlebug embossing folder that came in an cut and emboss set (something to do with love, maybe?).

(I took the video after the kids got a hold of the cards, thus the twisted look to them.) I also used the Lettering Delights Monster Love alphabet for the inside sentiment:

I showed them to The Cat and he said they were cool. (That’s saying something, because usually he just nods and hands them back.)

Speaking of The Cat, I made him something special for Valentine’s Day: a mini album! This was my first try at one of these. I’ve been collecting toilet paper rolls for a couple of months trying to decide what would make a good album theme. I finally decided on “10 things I love about you”.

For this album, I tried so many new things: sewing, inking and sanding edges (my new Close to My Heart distressing kit came in handy for this!), aging photos, spritzing Tim Holtz’ distress inks, and (best of all) binding. I got myself the Cinch for Christmas (The Cat was out to sea) and this is the first project I’ve used it on. It’s so much fun, I can’t wait to find time to put together some more books. Here are some photos of my toilet paper roll album with tag inserts:

Happy crafting!

Hump day crafts: Quick paper crafts for The Cat

Everytime The Cat goes out to sea on his submarine, I send him with a box of cards and goodies. I try to make sure there’s a card for him to open each week, plus a few extras for holidays and stuff. Here are a few quick cards I created for this patrol:

I also try to send out a new page for his 6×6 inch scrapbook. I used to struggle to finish the scrapbook page until I discovered collage prints. I can upload 4 photos and have them printed on a 4×6 photo with a colored background. Even a title if I want! When I get it home, I trim a little of the long ends and throw it together with a few embellishments and a cheesy poem to finish off the page. This year Thing 1 started kindergarten, so a first day of school page seemed appropriate. Of course, now I have to do another first day page, since Thing 2 started preschool as well.

Enjoy and happy crafting!

Hump day crafts: Celebrate card

I signed up to be in a monthly Close to My Heart club for 10 months. Each month I have to order $25 in merchandise and one month I get hostess benefits. I’m not sure if I’d do it again, but I am enjoying my new toys. Here’s a recent stamp of the month I ordered — they were just too cute!

Here’s a card I made for my mother-in-law’s birthday. I never know what to get her — or what kind of card will appeal to her. But this is cute without being too…anything. I colored the stamped hedgehog in with prismacolor pencils and then handcut it and attached it with pop dots (or similar). I’m trying to use my Cuttlebug more, so I embossed the background behind the “celebrate” stamp. I like the way it turned out, but unfortunately I messed up on when her birthday was and sent it a few days late. Oops! Hopefully she’ll forgive me soon.

Enjoy the card and happy crafting!

Hump day crafts: card gift pack

Every once in awhile G’ma hints that she wants me to make her a card for someone. She never really asks, and so I never really get around to it. So, for her mother’s day gift I thought I’d give her a pack of homemade cards. Now, making a card always seems to take me forever, so this is a bigger gift of my time than it sounds. I did get a little smart about halfway through and started making two of the same (or similar) cards at once. The extra time was negligible and it helped build up my stash of cards. (I never have any ready ahead of time, which means I’m always scrambling the day of an event.) I also decorated a little box to hold them all (plus some postage stamps and a nice pen). Below are a few that I included:

        

Plus my first card from my Wild Card cricut cartridge, which I just got 2 days before Mother’s Day:   

Happy crafting!

Hump Day Crafts: Birthday cards

Things have been busy (aren’t they always), but I thought I’d do a quick post of a couple more birthday cards I made for family members back in March.

The first was for my brother-in-law, so it’s a little more masculine than some I post on here. I was playing with a new Cuttlebug folder and some aluminum foil. I mostly added the foil, so I could play with my new alcohol inks from Tim Holtz. I have no idea what I’m doing with them. LOL

I also was playing with my new Dymo embossing label maker I picked up at my local Goodwill. The front says “Do the math” and the inside says “you’re getting old” with the same paper sanded labeling. It’s a little family joke, since I’m 6 months older than him.

The other card was for my sister-in-law, who I picked up a gift card for. I wanted to make a card that would hold the card, and match it, since it was covered in shiny flowers. I found a pop-up idea somewhere (sorry, can’t remember to give credit where it’s due), and thought I’d try it with a cut out to show off the gift card.

The finished card is 4″x6″ and is made from a 6″x12″ piece of cardstock. It’s scored at 4″, 6″ and 8″, so it can be folded, slit and glued to make the pop-up piece.

For this card, I had to cut the circles carefully. I used my Fiskars shape cutter with circle template. The front is decorated with various Quickutz squeeze dies, some colored with Perfect Pearls pigments used as paint. I also used them on the embossed stamped butterfly. The grass is handcut. I did have to create my own template for an envelope for 4×6 cards, but we’ll save envelopes for another day.

Happy crafting!

Hump Day Crafts: Flower Shaped Card

March is a busy month for birthdays in our family. We have four who married into our family who have birthdays plus one of my nieces — all within the same week. It’s enough to make a card maker jump for joy! And enough to get me to post hump day crafts a whole night early for once. Woohoo!

Here’s a card I made for one of my sisters-in-law. I wanted to try a few things I hadn’t tried before: making a circular/shaped card, using lots of patterned paper, and coloring a digistamp. Here’s the result:

Not the best photo, but you can see the idea. I cut the large flower, leaf and butterfly with my Cricut. If memory serves, the flower and leaf (stem cut off with scissors) were from Potpourri Basket and the butterfly from Everyday Paper Dolls. The small flower is an old die I cut with my Cuttlebug. The stamp was stamped on glossy paper with a resist ink and then rubbed with a dye ink. (Also a new technique for me.)

To make the card, I cut two large flowers and scored the top petal on both (although now I know I just needed to score the back flower) and glued together above the score. I put the leaf on to keep it from rolling when stood on a flat surface. Plus, I liked the brightness the green added. I used a variety of foam dots to add some depth. And I used glitter, which is rare for me.

Oh, and the digistamp? It’s on the inside. It’s a free sample from Whimsie Doodles.

I’m still new at coloring stamps, so I just have a few decent pencils and some odorless mineral spirits. I figure I’ll learn to blend better (after I buy more pencils or markers!), but even now I’m hooked! Bring on the coloring books, I see quality coloring time with my kids in the near future.

As a unexpected bonus, I get to do something else new with this card. Participate in a challenge! Want to see the other happy spring-y flower cards? Head on over to Fantabulous Cricut  blog!

Hump Day Crafts: Simple cards – Paper Pups

I like to make simple cards. A little paper, a little glue, and — ta-da — in under 10 minutes you’ve got a card that will impress your non-cardmaking friends and family (if you’re lucky enough to have some).

I like my Paper Pups Cricut cartridge, because it makes this process so easy. Here’s a couple of examples:

I used my Cuttlebug with a Fiskars texture plate on the left card (plus some Glossy Accents on the nose and eye) and some ribbon on the right. (Make sure yours goes on straight!)

I’m going to keep this post like these cards: quick and simple. Have fun crafting!

Hump Day Crafts: Easel Card with Paper Dolls

Our family has a lot of birthdays in January. They tend to sneak up on me after the holidays, so I don’t always get to create something cool for them. But this year, I just couldn’t let them all pass by and leave my cool new tools (yes, I’m talking about my Cricut Expression) sitting idle. So I designed this easel card for my nephew’s 8th birthday.

Looks a little schizophrenic, eh? Well at first, I just wanted to try an easel card, but the siren song of my two Cricut paper dolls cartridges was simply too strong. So I designed a fold out “closet” for the doll’s clothes and accessories and made three “outfits” for the doll.

I’d never made an easel card before, so I started my research at Split Coast Stampers. I decided on making a 6″x6″ card so my 4 inch paper doll would easily fit. This also made it fairly easy to cut from 12×12 paper. I used a 6×12 inch piece of green for the base (scored at 3″ & 6″) and a 6×6 piece of blue for the front. Here’s the inside. (Note the brad in the corner. That’s where I’ve hidden the closet.)

I used foam 3-D dots with a cardstock sentiment (double layered for sturdiness) to hold the card upright. So, the easel part was done, now I had to design the closet. I wanted it to be hidden for the most part, but easily accessible. I decided to place it underneath, with the aforementioned brad as a pivot point for rotating it out.

I cut the paper for the closet at 6″x11″. I scored it at 1″ (which might not have been necessary, but I’d do it again anyway – you’ll see why in the last photo) and 6″. I placed the brad 1/2″ inch from the corner on the card and closet, allowing it to easily rotate out to open.

I wanted to make the closet out of a glossy cardstock, so the reusable adhesive on the back of the doll and accessories wouldn’t pick up fibers from it easily, but I didn’t have any in the house. So, instead I used foil from the kitchen. Strange, I know, but sometimes you have to make do. Besides, I told myself, it looks a little bit like a mirrored closet. Well, if you squint and use your imagination anyway. Here it is with the closet open.

I added a decorative paper clip on the left side to hold the closet in place while the card is folded. And, because of that extra scored line on the closet, you can also use the paper clip to hold the easel card together and stand the whole thing up like this:

Let me tell you, this card was a hoot to make. Paper dolls are probably more fun to make than play with. (Although I hope my nephew enjoyed them a little.) I’ll definitely be looking for more ways to add paper dolls to my cards in the future. Enjoy!

Hump day crafts: Tri-fold shutter card

Some weeks you just need a little boost to make it to the weekend. In this spirit, I offer hump day crafts. Just a little project or idea on Wednesday that you can either take a short break to do or think about to get you through until you have time to tackle it on the weekend.

This week we’ve got a tri-fold shutter card. I made my first one following this tutorial. Even though I didn’t have much time to embellish mine ( I was late for my mom’s birthday party), it still wowed everyone. (Some days it’s good to be the only cardmaker around.) Here’s my take on it:

You’ll need a piece of cardstock (5.5×12 inches for a 4×5.5 card), something to score it with, a cutting tool (x-acto knife), and paper and various things to embellish it with.

Steps 1 & 2: Score at 2, 4, 8 and 10 inches. Cut from the 2 to 10 inch scorelines 1-1/2 inches from the top and bottom.

Step 3: Fold. Using the top and bottom portion, fold at 4 and 8 inches making a Z (with the front of the card as the top of the Z). For the center portion, the fold will go the opposite direction at 4 & 8 inches. You will also fold back at 2 inches and forward at 10.

Step 4: Decorate. It’s best to cut your paper for each section, so it doesn’t buckle or pull when folded. Here’s the front of mine:

Not perfect, but it was a first attempt done in a short time.

These are a lot of fun to make, to give and to get, so start planning your next tri-fold shutter card now! Happy Hump Day!