This week it was my turn for the Topical Tuesday feature on Stamp Embellish Create (exclusive to members). Click on the image above to go straight to my tutorial. If you aren't a member yet go ahead and sign up - it's free!
Have a wonderful day!
Showing posts with label tutorial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tutorial. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Topical Tuesday - Simple tips for coloured pencils
This week it was my turn for the Topical Tuesday feature on Stamp Embellish Create (exclusive to members). Click on the image above to go straight to my tutorial. If you aren't a member yet go ahead and sign up - it's free!
Have a wonderful day!
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Paper flower tutorial
It took me a while, but I finally got there with my paper flowers tutorial that I promised in this post. Hope you enjoy it!
What you will need:
Pick the stack up and fold in half. Please ignore my horrible nails (yep, I'm a biter!)
Fold again until it forms a point.
Thread your needle and tie a knot at the end. Start sewing into the tissue paper at around 3-4mm (1/4") from the point, all the way around. You don't have to be overly neat with the stitches, but try to keep it even all the way around - not doing so makes for a lopsided finished flower!
When you're done sewing open up the flower carefully to check it out and make sure it doesn't look lopsided, and looks the way you want it to.
If you aren't happy with it you can close it all back up again and keep sewing. If you're satisfied, you can either leave it as is, or do what I do, and give it a bit of a crinkled effect by closing it again and smooshing the edges with my fingers.
To finish cut the thread about 5cm (2") from the flower and tie a double overhand knot. Pull it firmly, but don't wrench it - you might rip the tissue paper. Trim the excess and put a rhinestone/pearl or button in the centre and you're done! Here are some that I prepared earlier:
The flower I made for this tutorial is the big one on the right.
I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial! If there is anything that doesn't make sense and needs further explanation, please let me know!
All of the embellishments shown on the flowers are Kaisercraft.
What you will need:
- Six tissue paper circles (or flowers if you have a die-cutting machine and nestabilities)
- Needle (a mending/fabric needle is best)
- Thread (doesn't matter what colour, nobody will see it!)
Pick the stack up and fold in half. Please ignore my horrible nails (yep, I'm a biter!)
Fold again until it forms a point.
Thread your needle and tie a knot at the end. Start sewing into the tissue paper at around 3-4mm (1/4") from the point, all the way around. You don't have to be overly neat with the stitches, but try to keep it even all the way around - not doing so makes for a lopsided finished flower!
When you're done sewing open up the flower carefully to check it out and make sure it doesn't look lopsided, and looks the way you want it to.
If you aren't happy with it you can close it all back up again and keep sewing. If you're satisfied, you can either leave it as is, or do what I do, and give it a bit of a crinkled effect by closing it again and smooshing the edges with my fingers.
To finish cut the thread about 5cm (2") from the flower and tie a double overhand knot. Pull it firmly, but don't wrench it - you might rip the tissue paper. Trim the excess and put a rhinestone/pearl or button in the centre and you're done! Here are some that I prepared earlier:
The flower I made for this tutorial is the big one on the right.
I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial! If there is anything that doesn't make sense and needs further explanation, please let me know!
All of the embellishments shown on the flowers are Kaisercraft.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Handmade envelope tutorial
As you may have already noticed (if you've read any of the entries in my blog) I use 4" square cards more than any other size or shape. They're clearly my favourite, but the snag is that I can't buy envelopes for them (it's not that I can't find them, but they aren't cheap...) so I make my own. This is my preference most of the time anyway as I am a bit of a match-aholic and having a matching card and envelope just makes me so, so happy. I know, I need to get out more!
I bought the Crafter's Companion Enveloper Pro from the Fox Collection and it is a fantastic tool for making just about any size envelope that you can think of. There was a trial and error stage which I think just about everyone goes through with a new tool so I am going to share my methods for making it work for me.
As per the instructions, you need to have a square piece of paper. There are some popular sizes on the instruction sheet - and 4" square is listed among them. The silly thing about the Australian (metric) version is that it lists the paper size in cm but then the card size in inches. Well which is it?? Because my Fiskars paper trimmer is in inches I have to convert everything anyway, so I worked out that I need to cut the paper I am using to make this envelope to 6 11/16 (17cm) square.
Tip - when using the Enveloper Pro to score (for this card I need to score at "B" each side) I find it is better to go from right to left. This stops the paper from buckling which can cause the scoring to be uneven which then skews the finished envelope. This presented me with a quandry though, as I couldn't see where to score. The problem was solved when I used a Sharpie to indicate the right spot (as shown in photo above right).
When folding the scored lines to make the envelope I find with heavier papers (100gsm and above) it's easy, but with lighter papers (90gsm and below) the folds aren't as defined so they can easily become skewed. I came up with a simple solution - a guide which fits the inside square/rectangle of the envelope made of strong card. I used 290gsm for mine. I then place it in the middle of the paper within the scored lines and fold, using the guide to make the folds straight.
I fold the whole envelope with the guide inside and then slide it out. I adhere the bottom flap and it's ready to go!
I also read somewhere online that a better tool to use is a metal stylus for scoring. I haven't tried this yet but I will - the purple bone folder/scorer that came with the board seems to be wearing away from overuse!
I hope this tutorial is helpful to someone out there. Please don't hesitate to leave a comment or email me if you have any comments or questions, I'd love to hear them!
I bought the Crafter's Companion Enveloper Pro from the Fox Collection and it is a fantastic tool for making just about any size envelope that you can think of. There was a trial and error stage which I think just about everyone goes through with a new tool so I am going to share my methods for making it work for me.
As per the instructions, you need to have a square piece of paper. There are some popular sizes on the instruction sheet - and 4" square is listed among them. The silly thing about the Australian (metric) version is that it lists the paper size in cm but then the card size in inches. Well which is it?? Because my Fiskars paper trimmer is in inches I have to convert everything anyway, so I worked out that I need to cut the paper I am using to make this envelope to 6 11/16 (17cm) square.
Tip - when using the Enveloper Pro to score (for this card I need to score at "B" each side) I find it is better to go from right to left. This stops the paper from buckling which can cause the scoring to be uneven which then skews the finished envelope. This presented me with a quandry though, as I couldn't see where to score. The problem was solved when I used a Sharpie to indicate the right spot (as shown in photo above right).
When folding the scored lines to make the envelope I find with heavier papers (100gsm and above) it's easy, but with lighter papers (90gsm and below) the folds aren't as defined so they can easily become skewed. I came up with a simple solution - a guide which fits the inside square/rectangle of the envelope made of strong card. I used 290gsm for mine. I then place it in the middle of the paper within the scored lines and fold, using the guide to make the folds straight.
I fold the whole envelope with the guide inside and then slide it out. I adhere the bottom flap and it's ready to go!
I also read somewhere online that a better tool to use is a metal stylus for scoring. I haven't tried this yet but I will - the purple bone folder/scorer that came with the board seems to be wearing away from overuse!
I hope this tutorial is helpful to someone out there. Please don't hesitate to leave a comment or email me if you have any comments or questions, I'd love to hear them!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Happy Birthday
Today's card is my entry into Simplicity's One Layer Wednesday challenge for this week. The challenge is always to use one layer of cardstock folded in half but this week the stipulation was to mask a background. I decided to try sponging for this since I've never done it before and I always like to try things once!
Here's my card:
The butterfly stamp is from an Inkadinkado set I bought recently. There's some cute little birdie stamps in the set too which I need to try and use sometime soon.
I also took a few photos and made up a short tutorial of how I made the masking for this card in the hopes that my trial and error can save others some hassles!
More Masking - Tutorial
Choose a piece of card stock that can be cut to fit the width of your selected cardfront. Begin by punching two squares/shapes next to each other at a respectable distance. I made mine 3/16" apart.
I wanted to make a 4" square card so I cut the width of the masking template to 4" across after using my centering ruler (where would I be without it?!) to work out the exact middle between the two squares.
The farthest this punch can punch into is 1/2" so I cut the length to 3 3/8" which meant I didn't have to worry about lining up the top sides of the squares, just the sides.
I then drew lines going down the left sides of both punched squares to the bottom of the template to indicate where the left edges of the punch should sit when punching my remaining two squares.
All of this measuring allowed me to just slide the punch straight up as far as it would go into the paper and use the pencil line guides to make the squares evenly spaced. Here's the finished mask:
(click on the image to see it closer)
Then it was simply a matter of applying some removable adhesive and choosing a colour to sponge on! Here's the sponging finished:
(click on the image to see it closer)
I lined up the masking template with the sides but eyeballed the top and bottom (I wanted it up slightly higher than the middle to make room for the sentiment).
To mask the stamp I wanted to use within the sponged squares I used the sponging template to trace around each square on a post-it to guide where to punch. I used a little bit of extra removable adhesive to make sure that it didn't move around at all when using it as a mask, and then stamped the design.
I added the sentiment and that was it! I hope this tutorial is helpful to someone out there. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.
Size of card: 4" square
Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock (+ a scrap piece for the mask template), post-it
Stamp - Inkadinkado "Flourishes", Hero Arts "Classic Messages"
Ink - Versacolor "Petal Pink", Versafine "Onyx Black"
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Sullivans 1" square punch, UHU poster tack, makeup sponge
Challenge: OLW8
Here's my card:
The butterfly stamp is from an Inkadinkado set I bought recently. There's some cute little birdie stamps in the set too which I need to try and use sometime soon.
I also took a few photos and made up a short tutorial of how I made the masking for this card in the hopes that my trial and error can save others some hassles!
Choose a piece of card stock that can be cut to fit the width of your selected cardfront. Begin by punching two squares/shapes next to each other at a respectable distance. I made mine 3/16" apart.
I wanted to make a 4" square card so I cut the width of the masking template to 4" across after using my centering ruler (where would I be without it?!) to work out the exact middle between the two squares.
The farthest this punch can punch into is 1/2" so I cut the length to 3 3/8" which meant I didn't have to worry about lining up the top sides of the squares, just the sides.
I then drew lines going down the left sides of both punched squares to the bottom of the template to indicate where the left edges of the punch should sit when punching my remaining two squares.
All of this measuring allowed me to just slide the punch straight up as far as it would go into the paper and use the pencil line guides to make the squares evenly spaced. Here's the finished mask:
(click on the image to see it closer)
Then it was simply a matter of applying some removable adhesive and choosing a colour to sponge on! Here's the sponging finished:
(click on the image to see it closer)
I lined up the masking template with the sides but eyeballed the top and bottom (I wanted it up slightly higher than the middle to make room for the sentiment).
To mask the stamp I wanted to use within the sponged squares I used the sponging template to trace around each square on a post-it to guide where to punch. I used a little bit of extra removable adhesive to make sure that it didn't move around at all when using it as a mask, and then stamped the design.
I added the sentiment and that was it! I hope this tutorial is helpful to someone out there. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.
Size of card: 4" square
Supplies:
Card/paper - Quill white cardstock (+ a scrap piece for the mask template), post-it
Stamp - Inkadinkado "Flourishes", Hero Arts "Classic Messages"
Ink - Versacolor "Petal Pink", Versafine "Onyx Black"
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Sullivans 1" square punch, UHU poster tack, makeup sponge
Challenge: OLW8
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Masking tutorial
This is a tutorial for how I did the masking technique in yesterday's card.
What you will need:
A blank card
Stamp of choice - something that will look nice repeated or even a background stamp
Ink of choice
Ruler - to work out corners
Pencil - to mark corners
Post-its - the sticky part should be as long as each side of your stamped area
Take your blank card. Mine is 4" square Quill white cardstock that I cut and scored using my Fiskars paper trimmer.
Work out how much white space you want around your stamped area. I've chosen roughly 1.8cm (5/8") each side. I used my centering ruler for this which made it really easy, but any ruler would do the job. Once you've worked out where your corners are, indicate them with your pencil (press lightly, you'll want to erase these later!)
Then line up the post-its with the corners. Try not to let them overlap too much - the height can cause parts of the stamp not to stamp properly.
Once you have all of your post-its lined up according to your pencil marks you can erase them and start stamping. I have used the same SeeD's stamp from yesterday's card, but I've had success using this technique with a variety of stamps from borders to shapes. The key is to experiment - you never know what you'll come up with!
The picture below shows my stamped area finished:
As you can see there are a few areas that didn't stamp great over the post-its. A way to avoid this would be to press harder over the post-its without rolling and distorting the stamp. Lesson learned!
All that's left to do is take off the post-its (keep them somewhere handy - they can be reused for your next masked card) and you're done!
Well that's it - pretty easy huh? I really hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and as always, if you have any questions or comments please don't hesitate to contact me!
What you will need:
A blank card
Stamp of choice - something that will look nice repeated or even a background stamp
Ink of choice
Ruler - to work out corners
Pencil - to mark corners
Post-its - the sticky part should be as long as each side of your stamped area
Take your blank card. Mine is 4" square Quill white cardstock that I cut and scored using my Fiskars paper trimmer.
Work out how much white space you want around your stamped area. I've chosen roughly 1.8cm (5/8") each side. I used my centering ruler for this which made it really easy, but any ruler would do the job. Once you've worked out where your corners are, indicate them with your pencil (press lightly, you'll want to erase these later!)
Then line up the post-its with the corners. Try not to let them overlap too much - the height can cause parts of the stamp not to stamp properly.
Once you have all of your post-its lined up according to your pencil marks you can erase them and start stamping. I have used the same SeeD's stamp from yesterday's card, but I've had success using this technique with a variety of stamps from borders to shapes. The key is to experiment - you never know what you'll come up with!
The picture below shows my stamped area finished:
As you can see there are a few areas that didn't stamp great over the post-its. A way to avoid this would be to press harder over the post-its without rolling and distorting the stamp. Lesson learned!
All that's left to do is take off the post-its (keep them somewhere handy - they can be reused for your next masked card) and you're done!
Well that's it - pretty easy huh? I really hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and as always, if you have any questions or comments please don't hesitate to contact me!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Covered notebook tutorial
Here are some simple directions for covering a plain notebook. It can be as embellished as you want or need, making a heartwarming gift for that special someone for little cost.
Start by measuring your notebook. Mine is the unlined type of which I bought several last time I went to the bargain shop in the Valley. I find that the thermal-bound ones are easier to cover than the ring-bound ones as there is less fiddling around with the hole punch.
Since the black band matches the colours of my design, I'm not going to cover it - just the front and back flaps up to the binding. Once you've got the dimensions for the front and back cut the patterned paper you have chosen using your paper trimmer.
Glue on the patterned paper to both front and back flaps up to the binding. I use a glue runner to adhere mine.
Once both sides are covered with the background patterned paper you can embellish away... for this manly notebook I cut out some circles from the "George" paper in the Shaken not Stirred collection by Kaisercraft.
I hope you enjoyed this quick little tutorial! Please let me know if you have any questions or comments :)
Supplies:
Card/paper - Kaisercraft patterned paper "George" and "Roger"
Ink - none
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Bostik glue tape, Cre8tive spring scissors
Start by measuring your notebook. Mine is the unlined type of which I bought several last time I went to the bargain shop in the Valley. I find that the thermal-bound ones are easier to cover than the ring-bound ones as there is less fiddling around with the hole punch.
Since the black band matches the colours of my design, I'm not going to cover it - just the front and back flaps up to the binding. Once you've got the dimensions for the front and back cut the patterned paper you have chosen using your paper trimmer.
Glue on the patterned paper to both front and back flaps up to the binding. I use a glue runner to adhere mine.
Once both sides are covered with the background patterned paper you can embellish away... for this manly notebook I cut out some circles from the "George" paper in the Shaken not Stirred collection by Kaisercraft.
I hope you enjoyed this quick little tutorial! Please let me know if you have any questions or comments :)
Supplies:
Card/paper - Kaisercraft patterned paper "George" and "Roger"
Ink - none
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer, Bostik glue tape, Cre8tive spring scissors
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Have a Happy Day - Colouring with markers
I've wanted to try Copics for a long time - ever since seeing the nicely shaded effect on someone else's card. I still don't have any Copics (they're a bit too pricey for me) but I've bought a couple of similar markers from an art and craft shop in a shopping centre near where I live - Shinhan 'Twin Touch' markers. They're only a few dollars cheaper than Copics but I've read they're comparable in quality and that few dollars cheaper could save me a bundle if I decide to buy more.
Together with my bic mark-its and sharpies I've got a range of colours now, which has allowed me to finally dabble in some proper shading using a blending technique.
I've taken some photos and made a little tutorial which I hope helps someone out there. Give it a go, it's such a fun and easy technique!
First, select some thick or cartridge-style art paper. I like to use the Eraldo di Paolo Field Pad which is suitable for a wide range of mediums including watercolours, pencils and ink. I folded it in half and then stamped my flower stamp with Versafine "Black Onyx" ink a few times (I'd like to say 'strategically' but it was really quite haphazard) and then added the sentiment using the same ink. I cut about 2" off one end to make it square-ish as my 'strategic' placement of stamps didn't suit the rectangular shape and there was way too much white space.
I then coloured the flowers with my Twin Touch marker in "Bareley Beige" (sic). As these markers bleed a bit I'm always careful not to go right up to the outline, just slightly inside and the paper wicks up the rest.
Using the "Peach Parfait" bic mark-it I very lightly drew lines on the flower where I wanted the darkest shade of colour.
Then I blended the darkest shade in with the light using the Twin Touch "Bareley Beige" (sic) again, going over the whole flower, making sure to keep within the lines!
I've added the photo below to show the difference between the final wash of the lighter colour and without (the blended one is on the left)
To finish the flowers I added a touch of "Pink Parfait" to the centers and then the card was done! Here's the finished product:
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial - it's a first for me so if you have any questions or comments please let me know!
Size of card: 4" square
Supplies:
Card/paper - Eraldo di Paolo A5 Field Pad
Ink - Versafine "Black Onyx"
Stamp - Tiffanys "Flowers" by We R Memory Keepers, sentiment from Sullivan's
Embellishments - Twin Touch marker "Bareley Beige" (sic), bic mark-it "Pink Parfait"
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer
Thanks for looking!
Together with my bic mark-its and sharpies I've got a range of colours now, which has allowed me to finally dabble in some proper shading using a blending technique.
I've taken some photos and made a little tutorial which I hope helps someone out there. Give it a go, it's such a fun and easy technique!
First, select some thick or cartridge-style art paper. I like to use the Eraldo di Paolo Field Pad which is suitable for a wide range of mediums including watercolours, pencils and ink. I folded it in half and then stamped my flower stamp with Versafine "Black Onyx" ink a few times (I'd like to say 'strategically' but it was really quite haphazard) and then added the sentiment using the same ink. I cut about 2" off one end to make it square-ish as my 'strategic' placement of stamps didn't suit the rectangular shape and there was way too much white space.
I then coloured the flowers with my Twin Touch marker in "Bareley Beige" (sic). As these markers bleed a bit I'm always careful not to go right up to the outline, just slightly inside and the paper wicks up the rest.
Using the "Peach Parfait" bic mark-it I very lightly drew lines on the flower where I wanted the darkest shade of colour.
Then I blended the darkest shade in with the light using the Twin Touch "Bareley Beige" (sic) again, going over the whole flower, making sure to keep within the lines!
I've added the photo below to show the difference between the final wash of the lighter colour and without (the blended one is on the left)
To finish the flowers I added a touch of "Pink Parfait" to the centers and then the card was done! Here's the finished product:
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial - it's a first for me so if you have any questions or comments please let me know!
Size of card: 4" square
Supplies:
Card/paper - Eraldo di Paolo A5 Field Pad
Ink - Versafine "Black Onyx"
Stamp - Tiffanys "Flowers" by We R Memory Keepers, sentiment from Sullivan's
Embellishments - Twin Touch marker "Bareley Beige" (sic), bic mark-it "Pink Parfait"
Tools - Fiskars paper trimmer
Thanks for looking!
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