Memory Box - construction

Instructions for the box I shared yesterday.

SUPPLIES:

*it is best to start with a pre-made paper mache` box if available*

3 pieces of 12 x 12 card stock 

chipboard

double stick tape

ruler and stylus (or scoring board)

paper cutter 

hobby knife and straight edge

It is MUCH easier and far less time consuming to use a pre-made craft box as your base. If you don't have one, you can make your own such as I did. The two previous Memory Boxes I made from paper mache boxes, but I didn't have any more "in stock" and there are no craft supply stores nearby so I improvised.

I started with scratch paper, 12 x 12 in size, so I could figure out the dimensions and how I wanted to construct the box. It required three pieces of 12 x 12 card stock as well as chipboard to cut to fit inside to make it sturdier. My original idea was to construct the box out of mat board then cover it with card stock, but after thinking about it a bit more, I decided the lid would be tricky . So this is what I came up with (adjust dimensions as you'd like):

Cut two of the sides and base out of one piece of 12x 12 card stock.

Cut the other two sides out of a second piece of 12 x 12 card stock.

Cut the lid out of the third piece of card stock.

Apply super sticky double stick tape to the tabs that will adhere the sides and bottom together.

Carefully attach the pieces. Start with the bottom, two sides piece then wrap the other two sides piece around. It can be a bit tricky, especially if your tape is very sticky (only expose one piece of tape at a time to help avoid the wrong parts sticking to the wrong pieces of tape).

I recommend lining the card stock box with chipboard to make it a bit more sturdy, especially if you are adding a lot of embellishments to the sides. You don't want it to get warped or saggy looking over time. Cut chipboard to fit snugly inside the box. A couple of pieces may need to be trimmed a tiny bit smaller to fit properly. Adhere with double sided sticky tape. Insert the base piece first. To attach the sides, you'll want to slide it in away from the card stock. Tilt the top away while you scoot the bottom of the chipboard towards the bottom fold of the box. This will help you line it up square as you are pressing the sides up to the top of the box because once your tape is stuck to the card stock, it is very difficult to remove if it is not properly lined up, square.

Glue a piece inside the lid and around the inside edges if you'd like. Make sure the lid is loose enough to allow the chipboard to fit. I made the mistake of not allowing enough space when I made my box so there is no chipboard around the inside edges (mine was cut and scored to make a 5 7/8" square top, not quite enough room). I adjusted the pattern shared here to make a 6" square lid, more than enough room to line the edges with chipboard.

Your box is complete and ready to decorate !

For a different version of a box, not as sturdy more room for many more photos, look here. 

Anything But A Card Challenge #1

There is a new challenge blog that debuted this past week - Anything But A Card ! This is one blog /challenge I had been looking forward to since hearing  about it (I don't normally participate in challenges). Funny thing is, when I typed in what I thought was the URL (because I didn't have it saved...), I came across another : Let's Create Anything But A Card ! TWO new anything but a card challenge sites debuting in one week, awesome. Oh so many creative projects to look at on each, wow. 



I have always been "crafty", making all sorts of 3D items. In fact, I ran the school holiday bazaar for several years, personally working on handcrafted projects year round for it. I do miss those days of creating all year long for others.

I have so many things I want to craft still, boxes of supplies and projects to make and shelves of idea books. I don't need more holiday decorations and such so I haven't gotten around to completing them. Maybe these challenge blogs will give me more incentive to get busy working on those projects, whether I think I don't need them or not!

I'm submitting a memory box to this first Anything Goes challenge at ABACC as well as Challenge #1 at Let's Create Anything But A Card. I finally completed it for my cat Ringo that disappeared earlier this year. I didn't want to make one for him just yet, holding onto hope he would return home. Despite signs and ads , searching the property as well as our old barn even looking into animal shelters, there was no sign of him. It has now been 8 months, past time for his box to be made and displayed on the bookcase aside the two others I've made for Cassie and Mulligan. 

I will be writing additional posts with details about each side as well as how I constructed the box. If you like this idea, be sure to see the Memory Box Urn I made for my dog Cassie and the Memory Box I made for my cat Mulligan. You should be able to see them if you click on their names in the label section to the left. 

Lastly, if you have seen my recent posts regarding the Fiskars contest I entered, I am back in the running (if they are indeed able to fix the problems). If you would take the time to vote for my projects I'd really appreciate it. Take a look at the gallery, there are nearly 250 inspiring ideas to choose from, you may find others you'd like to cast votes for since you are allowed 5 votes per day ! Voting has been extended until September 25th due to the many technical issues they've been having (I think they should erase all votes, have everyone start over at zero because some people were beating the system and have thousands of votes in two days time!) 

Click the links below to be taken directly to my projects. THANK YOU !

TREE OF LOVE  

https://www.facebook.com/fiskars/app_416658965052303?view_entry=2710209&app_data=view_entry:::2710209

Butterfly Thoughts Frame

https://www.facebook.com/fiskars/app_416658965052303?view_entry=2696738&app_data=view_entry:::2696738

Thanks for looking  =) 

Color Challenge Card #2

This was the first card I made for a new challenge site, Color Me Beautiful. The colors are from Stampin' Up!'s color palette: Basic Gray, Rich Razzleberry, Perfect Plum, Wisteria Wonder and Lucky Limeade - that's a lot to work with !

It was created with My Digital Studio from Stampin' Up! since I don't have all of the colors in actual supplies. Although I was pretty pleased with it,  I decided to make another card that used less white and more of the challenge colors. It was posted yesterday along with the TIP I shared on how to make Wisteria Wonder basic designer digital papers out of colors that are already in the program palette.

This is a 3.5" x 5" tri fold landscape card. If you were to print it, it would fold up so you only saw the large flower on the outside, then it would "grow" when it was opened with stem portion only in the middle, grass and words on the last portion.

I wanted to make a blue sky with designer papers or overlay stamps reduced in opacity , but it would not work properly since I needed to cover the tails of the ribbon bow with paper filled punches. They could not be reduced in opacity to match the background otherwise the tails would show. Of course I could have used Bashful Blue at full opacity for the background,  which I did try but didn't really like. 

My Digital Studio software and items in the program used to make the card:

Stem, Leaves, Grass = Lucky Limeade Grosgrain Ribbon and Bow. Cover the tails of the bows with square punches filled with Whisper White.

Fun Flowers punches filled with Designer Papers - Perfect Plum small polka dot, Rich Razzleberry grid and "Wisteria Wonder" soft flowers. I had no Wisteria Wonder basic designer paper so I made my own. I filled a punch with Almost Amethyst then copied and pasted in place, filled with Perfect Plum paper in the same design and reduced the opacity to 40%. Copy and paste once more, filling with Bashful Blue at 25% opacity. 

Jumbo Pewter Eyelet from the Hodge Podge hardware embellishments set.

Center green brad from Everyday Enchantment embellishments set.

Text box, Basic Gray text for the sentiment, rotated 90 degrees.

Basic Black stitching embellishment around the edges.

Thanks for looking =) 

Color Me Beautiful Challenge #1

There's a new color challenge blog, Color Me Beautiful, that I found out about from an internet blogging friend who made the design team ( congratulations, Margaret !). They posted their very fist challenge this week:

The colors are from Stampin' Up!'s color palette: Basic Gray, Rich Razzleberry, Perfect Plum, Wisteria Wonder and Lucky Limeade - that's a lot to work with ! 

Originally I made a different card, a trifold card with My Digital Studio, but felt it had too much white so I made this one concentrating on using all of the colors. I'll share the other one tomorrow. 

So here is how I made my digital card and a tip for My Digital Studio users.

Basic Gray textured card stock background with Basic Black stitching around the edges for the base.

Three flag punches elongated and filled with small polka dot designer papers: Rich Razzleberry, Perfect Plum, "Wisteria Wonder". Notice that I added quotes around the Wisteria Wonder name? I did that because there is not a digital designer small polka dot paper in Wisteria Wonder, I had to try to create one on my own. 

It will take a little bit of patience as you are trying to line up designs on the papers as well as trying to figure out the color combination, opacity. This process will work well enough to get some colors close enough to those that are not available in the basic digital designer papers if you need to. However,  I've read that MDS2 has a recolor feature that will make it much simpler to recolor items, especially embellishments. I've not seen it first hand though. I'm patiently waiting for the new program to come out on disc (and hopefully go on sale, fingers crossed!!). 

Enough rambling,  here is my TIP, how I made Wisteria Wonder small polka dot designer paper: 

I used a base flag punch of Almost Amethyst small polka dot paper, 100% opacity.

Copy and paste in place, fill with Perfect Plum small polka dot paper at 40% opacity.

Copy and paste in place again, this time fill with Bashful Blue small polka dot paper at 25% opacity. This combination of colors and opacity levels made a fairly close match to a digital  punch I had filled with Wisteria Wonder sitting on top of the project for comparison. I did need to play around with lining up the polka dots a bit (and if you were to look really closely at the image full size you'd see they are not in perfect alignment). I imagine you could do this with any of the basic designer papers that use one color and white to make the digital designer paper, obviously those with more intricate designs would take more work to line up.

Leaves = 5 petal flower punch color filled with Lucky Limeade and enlarged.

Paper Daisies = once I have MDS2 on disc, I will have the capabilities to change colors of embellishments (the digital download trial version took 90 minutes and then didn't work for me)! I did try to add some color to the daisies by adding large drop shadows. Pixel offset is X:0 and Y:0, opacity is 100%, blur is full and I changed the colors to the three purples from the challenge. Drop shadow on the middle flower is Rich Razzleberry. Drop shadow on the top flower is Perfect Plum. Drop Shadow on the center circle punch is Wisteria Wonder. Also, I copied and pasted in place each of the flowers and center circle punch to make the color a bit more intense.

Center circle punch filled with Wisteria Wonder. Add one more circle punch, slightly smaller, filled with white and reduced opacity to 50%. Top off with a stamp image from Punch Bunch in Basic Black.

Thanks for looking =) 

Note: I know that some of the items from My Digital Studio can be recolored in Photoshop Elements, but it will be so much easier to do within the same program as I am working on a project in My Digital Studio once I get MDS2.

"Show Us The Possibilities" Contest Voting Begins Today

EDITED 6PM CST:

The links that were sent to the entrants did not work this morning, but they've since figured out why and told us how to fix them. I have them posted under each photo below. It is really easy, I just cast 5 votes myself ;) Simply click on the word VOTE by the picture of the project on the fiskars facebook page, that is all there is to it ! Then again, I am already registered with them and "like" them so , maybe that is why it was so quick and easy for me ? You can click it 5 times (or go to the gallery to find more to vote for) then it will give you a message to come back to vote again tomorrow. Thank you!

Tree Of Love

VOTE HERE

 Butterfly Thoughts

VOTE HERE

Be sure to stop by the Fiskars page on facebook, "like" it then check out the gallery of ideas submitted to their contest. You can vote up to five times per day now through 11:59 p.m. CT 09/16/2012. 

I've submitted the two projects above, Tree Of Love and Butterfly Thoughts. You can see more about them on my blog by clicking the titles. 

I checked the gallery at 8 AM Monday morning (9/3/2012) and my projects were on pages 6 (last entry on the page)  and 7 (fifth entry down).  There are almost 250 inspiring entries to look at. Up to the top 20 projects that receive the most votes will be considered finalists. The judges are going to have a difficult time choosing the top winners !

"Entries will be featured for online viewing through the Fiskars Facebook tab. Click Contest tab and follow instructions to vote. Voting begins at 09/03/2012. Voting closes at 11:59 p.m. CT 09/16/2012. Only five votes per person/email address/authorized email account per day. Up to 20 entries receiving the most votes will be designated as Finalists, subject to verification and validation. Vote totals will be displayed on the voting site. The Finalists' entries will then be judged by a panel of Fiskars Brands judges, who will rate the entries according to the following scale:

1. Creative use of the element - 10 points
2. Execution of the project - 10 points (Attention to detail - 4 points; Craftsmanship - 4 points; Clarity/quality of image - 2 points)

The five top Finalists will be declared Grand Prize winners, and up to five additional Finalists will be First Prize winners."

Many Thanks for the votes
should you decide to cast 
any for my projects =)

Round Easel Card

Stands up for display

Folds flat to mail

This is a round easel card. Basic instructions for an easel card can be found here.

All supplies used are from Stampin' Up!, unless otherwise noted.

Round scalloped edge note cards and envelope, Baja Breeze

Sweet Sentiments stamp set, inside

Happy Everything stamp set, outside

Build A Blossom stamp set and coordinating punch

Scalloped edge border punch

Corduroy Button

Embossing folder

Stampin' Pastels

Whisper White card stock

So Saffron card stock and ink

Certainly Celery card stock and ink

Chocolate Chip card stock and ink

Ribbon, bought at a craft store

Cropodile hole punch

I originally wanted to add little stick on pearls along the scalloped edge, but I did not have enough. I decided the punched holes along the edge would work well. I used a Cropodile hole punch so I could set the depth gauge on it, hoping to make the hole punches more uniform. Slide the scalloped edge in until it hits the depth gauge, eyeball the center and punch with the smaller of the two hole punches.

Cut out a circle of Whisper White card stock for the front and the folded piece for the inside. Cut out a circle of Chocolate Chip card stock slightly larger than the Whisper White piece for the front. 

Fold the top piece of the inside portion in half once more to make the "easel". Glue the entire bottom of the folded white card to the bottom Baja Breeze scalloped edge card. Glue the top only of the folded top piece to the inside of the top scalloped edge Baja Breeze card. You want to leave the bottom half of the top folded part (the part that is between the two folds) free, not glued down to anything so you can fold the card up into the easel position. Once again, a tutorial can be found here

Run the upper portion of the front piece of white through the Big Shot with an embossing folder. Lightly brush on Stampin' Pastels to the raised portions. Glue to the circle of Chocolate Chip card stock.

Cut two pieces of Chocolate Chip card stock the length of the Whisper White pieces and 3" wide. Punch the bottom edges of each with the scallop edge punch and tear along the top edge, lightly distress. Adhere a strip of ribbon along each.

Glue the decorative strips to the front and the inside of the card.

Stamp underneath each strip with Chocolate Chip ink.

Stamp and punch out the flower petals and leaves. Sponge ink along the edges of the leaves. Glue all of them down onto a small circle scrap of card stock. Punch a hole in the center, insert the button brad.

Attach to the front of the card.

This card will require extra postage.

Thanks for looking =)

New Challenge Blog Debuts 9/2/2012

http://anythingbutacard.blogspot.ca/

Have you heard the news? 

There is a new challenge blog on the Internet - Anything But A Card ! 

I've been looking forward to seeing what the design team comes up with since I like to make anything but a card projects. Go check them out at ABAC !!!!

Fiskars Fuse Contest Entry 2

This is the photo I am submitting to the contest

BUTTERFLY THOUGHTS FRAME

I used the butterfly die cut from the insert in Creating Keepsakes magazine as a dimensional embellishment for my framed butterfly photos project.

Cut out the butterfly portion of the die cut and embellish as desired. I watercolored, sprayed with glittery mist, added wire antennae, then slightly bent the wings up before mounting to the finished project with dimensional adhesive dots.

Print out saying and adhere to colored card stock, embellish as desired. I used colored rhinestone accents glued along the scallop punched edge.

Print out photos, trim and attach to decorative papers with dimensional adhesive dots. 

The Black decorative paper background is made by heat embossing clear embossing powder over Jumbo Butterfly Wheel (Stampin' Up!).

The frame is something I bought at a church rummage sale years ago - and broke as I was taking it out of my car. I kept it , determined to repair it and make something of it someday. I removed the hooks, sanded, filled the holes, painted. I did not have new glass cut since the project has dimension to it.
The black background paper has clear heat embossed butterflies.

I lightly sponged orange ink around the edges of the white card stock.

The photos are some that I took myself in my flower gardens.

Thanks for looking and if you would, take the time to look at all of the entries in the contest on the Fiskars facebook page. Of course all votes (five per day per email address) are much appreciated ! Voting starts September 3rd and ends September 16th. THANK YOU !

          

Fiskars Fuse Contest Entry 1

The latest issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine had an insert with two die cuts in it, challenging crafters to use them and post their creations for a chance to win the new Fuse die cut machine from Fiskars. I took that challenge and here is one of my projects using the die exactly as it came. I'll post the other tomorrow.

Unfortunately I did not take step by step photos nor do I have patterns. I will try to explain how I made it. 

This is the photo I posted to the contest page,
TREE OF LOVE.

BASE

I used an empty ribbon spool as my base. Cover the bottom hole with heavy duty tape, fill with craft pellets, sand, etc to weight it down then tape over the top hole. Paint the inside and edges with acrylic craft paint. You could wrap a strip of decorative paper on the inside rather than paint it.

Lightly sand the bottom of the spool to rough up the slick surface so adhesive will stick better; glue on a piece of felt or card stock.

Lightly sand the top of the spool to remove the slick finish before adhering embellishments. I used a large scallop circle die cut and made an accordion fold flower out of shimmery paper. Be sure to find the center of each item as well as the tape covering the hole on the spool. Punch a hole in each for the dowel rod to fit snugly into before gluing the pieces to the spool.

The "faux ribbon" was created by printing a saying onto a scrap of drafting vellum, trimming and gluing to the roll.

Here is another project I made using an empty ribbon spool as the base to a little display item: Boo Who

TREE

Paint the dowel rod, if you'd like, with acrylic craft paints.

I folded a piece of scratch paper in half and cut out a large heart shape to use as a pattern. I traced this onto four coordinating pieces of decorative paper (all from an old Die Cuts With A View paper stack).

I folded them in half and made a sandwich out of them, carefully keeping them lined up edge to edge. I ran them through the Big Shot die cut machine all at one time with the heart shape from the Movers and Shapers die set that was available through Stampin' Up!

Run lines of clear drying glue or clear dimensional adhesive (such as Crystal Effects from Stampin' Up!) around the edges of the heart openings and along the edges of the large hearts/tree. Apply glitter.

Tape a small piece of clear fishing line across each of the heart shaped openings, on the back side. NOTE: You could just do this to four openings so long as you note which ones they are and how they will line up so when the tree is assembled, each opening has a piece of clear line across it for attaching the photos.

Glue the sides of the tree together. Be sure to leave a small opening at the very top and bottom in the center for the dowel rod to slide through.

This is how my page looked in My Digital Studio, 

ready to be punched out.

Attach heart shaped photos with double stick tape, back to back, to each opening. I used the full heart punch from Stampin' Up! I also used My Digital Studio to make the heart shaped photos first. I opened a new scrapbook page project, inserted 8 heart shaped digital punches then filled each punch with photos. I printed them then punched them out. NOTE: my printer does not print from My Digital Studio properly so I had to make my digital heart punch/photo images larger than the actual punch size in the program to fit the paper punch properly. I did a practice piece first, altering the size (had to increase the digital punch size by about 1/2 inch) of the punch until it fit the actual punch nearly perfectly.

Hot glue small bows to the tops of each heart shaped window.

Pink Pirouette and Whisper White card stock as well as circle punches

from Stampin' Up! were used to create the tags. I wrote the names with a Sharpie marker. I applied Crystal Effects and glitter around the edges of the white circles. Poke a small rhinestone brad with a little piece of pink organdy ribbon through the hole at the top to make a bow. Attach a piece of pink organdy ribbon behind the tag and to the top of the tree. NOTE: I had to trim one of the ends off of each of the brads so it didn't show because of the position it had to be in to hold the bow in place properly, I could not rotate it to hide them.

Make a large bow out of pink satin ribbon and hot glue to the top of the tree.

Yes, this is yet another project featuring my pets rather than family. According to the rules of the contest, no people faces are allowed so I didn't want to have my project disqualified by using family !

Thanks for looking and if you would, take the time to look at all of the entries in the contest on the Fiskars facebook page. Of course all votes (five per day per email address) are much appreciated ! Voting starts September 3rd and ends September 16th. THANK YOU !

Swinging Roses Card

Most people refer to this type of card as a "swing card". I saw the instructions to make this type of card using  Framelits dies posted to the Stampin' Up! Demonstrator web site quite some time ago. Certainly by now there are numerous blogs with instructions as well as videos posted to show you exactly how to make one. 

I made the swinging base to it quite some time ago, but never completed it into a card until now. I wanted to make a special card for an internet friend that loves to flower garden. She has the most beautiful gardens !
Take a peek at her blog here, so many pretty plants and creative ideas. 

I used the Apothecary Art stamp set and coordinating Framelits dies from Stampin' Up!  YoYo Yellow card stock, Floral background stamp (what a gorgeous, detailed background stamp but it's difficult to see on this card) and YoYo Yellow ink were used to make the base.

A waterbased marker is ideal to ink the outermost edge of the rubber stamp image, leaving the middle design uninked. That way when you stamp it onto a piece of watercolor paper, you will get a nice dashed line outline and nothing else.

Line the image up with the coordinating die and run it through the Big Shot machine.

Stamp the next size up stamp image onto a piece of Always Artichoke card stock then use scissors to trim around the edge of it and flip it over. You want to make a mat for the white piece but there is no Framelits die the correct size to do this. (I think I should have paper pierced around the edge of the green.....)

Punch leaves from Always Artichoke card stock with the Two Step Bird Punch (Stampin' Up!) and a Martha Stewart punch. Glue them into a circle onto the white die cut piece.

I added some premade paper roses that I picked up at a discount store years ago. Little dabs of Stickles glitter glue to the roses and a few leaves here and there resemble dew.

A scrap of yellow organdy ribbon and a tiny tag dangling finish off the front.

 

The inside is the largest of the Apothecary Art images and coordinating die, stamped and water colored on water color paper. I also added touches of the Stickles glitter glue.

I glued a smaller die cut to the opposite side to write a note on.

I mailed this card in a padded envelope, requiring extra postage (it was $1.95!), so hopefully the roses won't get smashed.

Thanks for looking =)