Tutorial - Make Your Own Flowers - part 1

Here is a tutorial on how to make some flowers - there is another tutorial on how to make some different flowers just after this post. Both tutorials will suit both experienced and novice crafter so no matter how confident you feel, you can give it a go!

To make these flowers you will need: scissors, pencil, compass and glue. These flowers took me around 30 minutes to make which included adding them onto a card.

I printed two papers from the Candy Doodles cd but printed them as A5 size and double sided onto 100gsm glossy white paper.

I then drew 3 different sizes of circles using the compass - 3 on the blue paper and 3 on the green.

I then randomly snipped pointed petal shapes around the edges of each circle.

I then cut a little deeper into the centre of the flower so I would be able to curl and ruffle the petals.

From the left over scraps, I cut some thin strips and then curled them using the scissors

I then ruffled the petals to make them 3d and also layered the flowers - smallest in the centre and then alternative colours.

I added the curled strips to the centre of one of the flowers

I added them to a card. The coloured panels were cut from the remains of the paper and I doodle stitched around the edges.

The sentiment is also from Candy Doodles.

Vintage Christmas

A Very Vintage Christmas

Is this weeks Winter Wonderland challenge.

I dug out my remaining chipboard embellishments from last year and found enough backing paper to make this card. The buttons are from my stash as too the ribbon.

I've rounded all the edges and inked them too with chestnut Whispers to give it a bit of a vintage look. As you can see, this was quite a quick card to make but it's another one into the Christmas box!

• Backing paper and sentiment: Downloads from Mad About Cards
• Image: Chipboard embellishment from the Pound Shop
• Ribbon and buttons: From my stash
  
  

'Tis The Season

And here is the other new wordbook download from Funky Hand - Tis The Season.

It's a traditional Christmassy coloured download - predominately reds and greens. Again, a full alphabet set with numbers 0 to 9 and an extra alphabet and numbers set in case you want to layer up. And 4 complementary backing papers.


I've printed these letters off in the default setting (A4 paper size) and then cut them out and added them onto acetate strips which I tucked the ends underneath the backing paper.



The backing paper on the card was first printed off as A5 size and then I used a left over piece from the letters and layered it over the top (the spots are different sizes). Added some red ribbon and also punched some holly out and added 3d paint for berries.

I do have another sample from this collection but it is work in progress (time is not being kind to me at the moment!) so as soon as that is ready, I'll share it!

• Backing papers: Tis The Season Wordbook download from Funky Hand
• Everything else: My stash
  

Blue Christmas

With all the Birthday frivolities over the weekend and the bump to earth on Monday morning, I forgot to show you my sample (only one so far - the other is work in progress!) for the brand new download from Funky Hand!

It's a Christmas themed wordbook called Blue Christmas and it is a great fun wordbook! You could actually use it for those difficult male cards too as some of the papers are quite generic, which is great news as it means it is so versatile!

You get all the letters of the alphabet including numbers 0 to 9, an extra set of the alphabet and numbers in a different colour font (if you want to overlay them) and also 4 backing papers.

The hardest decision for me was what Christmassy word I could use!! I ended up going for Frosty purely because of my neglected Sizzix snowman die could get used!

I printed the letters off in the default setting on my computer (click on the image you want and then click on the print icon) and then used the A4 papers to print on the reverse. I've dotted around the edges of the letters with a silver gel pen and punched some snowflakes from shiny blue card (I knew I'd find a use for it one day!) and silver card then added pale blue gems to their centres.

I cut Frosty from hammered white card and paper pieced his hat and scarf from offcuts from the word book. Edges have been lightly inked and a bit of glitter glue was added too!

I'm in the middle of making another sample from this collection, so as soon as its completed and photographed, I'll share it!

Come back and visit me tomorrow as Anice didn't only just release this Blue Christmas word book, but another Christmas themed one too! So I have a sample of that to show you tomorrow too!

• Backing papers: Blue Christmas word book from Funky Hand
• Dies: Sizzix Snowman
• Punches: Snowflake
• Everything else: My stash
  
  

Fairies do Fly!

And this fairy is called Isabel! After the boys joint Birthday party on Saturday, and because I enjoy the sounds of children shrieking loudly, we went to another Birthday party on Sunday morning! This time it was for Isabel who is Jacob's special little friend at nursery! She is 4 days younger than him and usually we end up having the parties on the same day, but this year we had managed to co-ordinate quite well and Isabel and her little sister Emily came to the boys party and they went to hers!

When I saw the challenge on Scrappy Frogs to make

A 3D Project

I decided to make her a flying fairy Birthday card!



The backing papers are from Candy Doodles and were scraps left over from a previous project (waste not want not!) The letters are also from the Candy Doodles cd and I printed them at A5 size so they would fit on the card. Edges have been cornered and inked too on all cardstock.

The image is from Dustin Pike which I have coloured with watercolour pencils and to make her fly, I've added her to a strip of acetate.

I'm quite pleased with myself in making this card so I think I'll be making more in the future!

• Backing papers: Candy Doodles cd from Polkadoodles
• Lettering: Candy Doodles cd from Polkadoodles
• Image: Dustin Pike coloured with watercolour pencils
• Everything else: My stash
  
  

Happy Birthday Samuel!

Just look how my baby has grown! Here is Samuel at 3 months old looking like a little chocolate pudding (he used to laugh uncontrollably when we said this to him!)

To today, on his 6th Birthday riding his brand new bike. He fell off not long after into a pile of stinging nettles. I told him to look on the bright side and be fortunate that it was not a pile of dog poo. We did find some dock leaves which worked wonders.

Happy Birthday Samuel!

Party!

Well, I survived! 34 children in total and not one was sick or had to go to hospital - so good party! We had a big bouncy castle and footballs and nets and loads of space to run around in! I didn't actually take many photos during the party but here are the ones of the cakes!

It seems the practice last week for Samuel paid off as he blew all these out in two attempts!

Jacob was the usual pro!

I couldn't have done it without the help of family and wonderful friends - so thanks to Claire, Aunty Susan, Lynsey, Karen and Liz. Same time next year ladies?!

And thank you to Samuel and Jacob's friends - it wouldn't have been a party without you!

Poppies are Red and my Photos are Wonky

Well, I stumbled across a brand new challenge blog - I say stumbled because it just sort of leapt out at me! My fellow Polkadoodle DT mate Boni is part of Digital Ink DT and this is their first challenge!

The digital image of the poppy is free to download from the blog and the challenge this week is to use it!

So I have! I really must apologise for the wonky photo - I just don't know what happened here. possibly the elation of it still being light when I got home from work. Not sure, so just tilt your head slightly and it will look fine!

I've used plain cardstock for mounting the image onto - black green and red, all from my stash. I've rounded and inked edges too to soften it.

I've coloured the image with watercolour pencils - it was really an easy image to colour and it's the first time I've attempted a flower, so quite pleased with myself!


The ribbon is from my stash and the red chunky button is Woodware (I never knew they made buttons, but they do, or at least brand them!)

Great challenge and I'm looking forward to next weeks!

By the time you read this (I've set it to publish at a specific time) I shall be hopefully sufficiently organised for a joint Birthday party for both boys this afternoon. I'm expecting around 35 kids and have hired a sports hall. Personally, I'm looking forward to the egg and spoon race that I have organised.... heheheheh!

• Cardstock: My stash
• Image: Freebie to use for the challenge from Digital Ink, coloured with watercolour pencils
• Ribbon: My stash
• Button: Woodware

Polkadoodle Challenge 17 - Anything But A Card

It's Friday again and its another Polkadoodle Challenge! This week I challenged the Design Team to make:

Anything But A Card

And the ideas and projects that they created are truly stunning! So pop over to the challenge blog for more details and also how to enter this weeks challenge.

I made a Birthday Book. Mainly because I have scraps of paper with dates and names written on and I've lately been missing Birthday's. I've used Candy Doodles and various thicknesses of card and paper to make the book. I've written a tutorial on how I made the Birthday Book and its immediately before this post.

I've used my Cuttlebug Baby Face alphabet set to create the lettering on the front, added a few ribbons and there you have it!

The Polkadoodle Challenge 17 is open until Sunday 20 September, and remember to leave a link on the challenge post so the Design Team can have a look at what you have created!

Good luck and I can't wait to see your creations!

• Backing papers: Candy Doodles cd
• Dies: Cuttlebug Baby Face alphabet set
• Template: From Dolly
• Everything else: My stash
  
  

Tutorial - Birthday Book

Here is a tutorial for you to follow or adapt as you see appropriate - I've made a Birthday Book. Really because I have Birthday's written on scraps of paper and then I can never find them when I need them and miss Birthday's so I decided to do something about it!

The actual cover template was created by the very talented and generous Dolly who kindly sent me the file so I could use it (thanks Dolly!)

I've used Candy Doodles cd, you'll also need a ruler, pencil, pair of scissors, hole punch or similar tool, embellishments to decorate and two large jump ring binders. Aside from all the printing, it took me around 2 hours to assemble the book.

The above picture in more detail: The black target sheets are the front and rear covers of the book, you can see the template too (printed onto an A4 sheet so you get an idea of the size) and also the tags which I have printed the months of the year onto. The dandelion tags, printed onto 160gsm card are from the Candy Doodles cd - I cut and pasted the image onto a word document, added in the background colour and also the text. I did this in word so you don't need any fancy photo or picture editing programmes as long as you are familiar with Microsoft word.

The pages of the book - one for each month have been printed directly onto pre printed sheets of 100gsm smooth paper. I've used Microsoft excel to make up the months, making sure that the lines were evenly spaced and that I had enough days for each month! You will see my writing on the edge of the sheet - this is so I knew what months to print on which coloured sheet so that I wouldn't get the same colour opposite each other! It took a bit of planning and working out, but I got there in the end with the excel spreadsheet!

I double sided printed the actual pages onto 200gsm white hammered cardstock - a different colour was printed on the reverse - the months (above) were then layered on top (in case I made a mistake and didn't want to waste the lovely hammered card!)

The book covers were printed onto 300gsm card stock, traced around the template from Dolly and then stuck the sheets back to back for more rigidity.

Here are all the tags cut out and inked - I ended up using a hole punch to make the holes in the tags (much simpler on the muscles!)

I then cut down the sheets of printed card which will be the pages of the book - I rounded the edges and inked them too. The pages fit nicely inside the covers - I measured from the start of the circle to the opposite edge.

I then cut out the months, rounded and inked the edges again. It may help if you keep a note of the number of days in each month. Just so you don't stick the wrong month down!

I added the ring binders through the top and bottom of the book and here it shows two of the months side by side. The tags are not adhered to the pages - they can be turned over and can be moved too.

Now if I'd have really got myself organised, I'd have made a little pouch on the back cover for scraps of paper that I have yet to transfer into the book. Mind you, I've yet to write all the Birthdays in - I don't want to spoil it!

The front cover looks really plain (it has been inked too) so I used my Baby Face Cuttlebug dies to create the wording from silver and black card.

Add a bit of organza ribbon to the rings (matching with the colour of the pages!)

And it's completed!

This can be adapted for any type of book project and with Christmas just around the corner, Birthday books would make an ideal gift!

Hope you have found it easy enough to follow - if you get stuck or have any questions, please let me know!

Oh, I've just remembered - I have the spreadsheet for the months if you want to follow the project - my contact details are in my side bar - and I'll happily send it to you!

Edited to say - the template is on my 'old' computer (which is a little poorly) and I am in the process of transfering all the files, so bear with me if you've already emailed me - I will get the file to you!

• Backing papers: Candy Doodles cd
• Dies: Cuttlebug Baby Face alphabet set
• Template: From Dolly
• Everything else: My stash