March 31, 2010

Easter Basket Tutorial

Hi everyone! First off - Happy 26th Anniversary to my Mum and Dad!

This tutorial is a long time coming! Not that it took a long time to create - just an afternoon (three weeks ago!) You see, there was a....technical....problem. The light was awful for the finished object photos that night, and, well, Shanan and I may have eaten the props while we watched a DVD!

I created this basket specifically to hold Cadbury Creme Eggs. I've found Creme Eggs are a love/hate product - either you adore them, or think they're just awful! If you're in the awful camp, this basket will also hold any small chocolate eggs, painted eggs, or lots of other trinkets. At the end of the post I'll show you another version perfect for a small gift - think bath bombs, small lotion bottles - anything really!

Right, on we go!

To create the basket you'll need a 7 1/2" piece of cardstock. Score every side at 2".

Punch around all sides using the Eyelet Border Punch. TIP: Line your punch up with the middle segment - using the score lines as a guide, this way your corners will match up nicely later.

Cut between score lines as shown in the photo.

Trim 1/4" or so from the newly created "flaps" of your box. This prevents the punched edges overlapping and looking messy when the box is put together.

Using a strong adhesive like Tombow or Sticky Strip, adhere your flaps to the inside of your box.

Adhere strips of Designer Paper around the outside of your box. My strips were 1 3/4" wide. Don't worry, we'll cover that gap!

Adhere strips also 1 3/4" wide inside the box. Overlap these ones so there's no gap showing.

Cut a strip of cardstock 2" by 11". You can leave this plain, or scallop both edges and add a strip of paper as I did.

Adhere the handle to your basket, covering any joins in your paper. I used adhesive at the bottom of the handle, and a little near the top of the side of the basket to keep it steady.

Add a brad if you wish. The easiest way to do this is make a pencil mark, then pierce with a needle or piercing tool while your basket is sitting flat on the desk - this avoids transferring too much pressure and creasing the sides of your basket.

Now it's time to create the insert.

Cut a 5" square piece of cardstock and score each side at 3/4". Cut the corners off as shown.

Adhere a 3 1/4" square piece of paper to the insert.

Flip the insert over, and using a ruler and pencil, draw diaginal lines between the corners. Mark each line at 1 1/4" from the corner. Using a 1 3/8" Circle Punch, punch four circles, centering your pencil marks in the window of the punch. This gives us a nice even layout.

Your insert should look something like this. Score the sides and apply a little adhesive before putting the insert in your basket. You could make the sides of the insert longer so it stands inside the basket without needing adhesive - but I wanted to be able to see the paper inside the basket once the eggs are removed.

That's it! Your basket is finished and ready to be decorated as you wish.

I tied wide Vanilla Grosgrain around my basket and made a little tag using this cute image from Greetings Eight.

Don't have four creme eggs? (did your husband eat your props too?) How about a basket just for one...or for a fancy soap or bath bomb?

Here's a version you could use all through the year. The construction is exactly the same - just start with a 6 1/2" square base, score at 2". For the insert, use a 3" square piece of cardstock and score at 1/2".

Want that pretty border around the nesting space for your egg? Punch a 1 3/8" circle out of cardstock, then punch around the hole with the 1 3/4" punch. Instant frame!

I hope you'll make your own baskets - please leave me a comment if you enjoyed the tutorial and feel free to link your creations, I'd love to see them!


Stamps: Greetings Eight, Occasional Greetings
Punches: 1 3/8" Circle, 1 3/4" Circle, Butterfly, Small & Large Tag, Eyelet Border
Other: Clear Buttons, Watercolour Wonder Crayons, Eyelets, Linen Thread
E-mail me to purchase.

March 30, 2010

Project Tuesday: Altered Photo Frame

Hi everyone! It's time for another fun Project Tuesday challenge - and this week we're altering photo frames! You can choose to alter a purpose bought frame or one you've had sitting around a while, but get out your papers, inks, anything you feel like really and play along!

I chose to redo a plain wood frame I've had in my craft room for awhile. It had a nice flat front, perfect for adhering paper on, and I think it cost $2.

Shanan and I are celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary (14 years together!) on April 8th - so I decided to create a romantic frame for one of my favourite wedding photos...

There is no stamping on this whatsoever - but I did get to use lots of my pretty embellishments. First I roughly painted the frame white - letting a little of the wood show through. You won't be able to see it, but I dried some of the paint with my heat gun so it would bubble and crack. (Click the photo to enlarge and see all the details)

I modpodged the Basic Grey paper to the frame and washed over it with a light mixture of modpodge and acrylic paint. After that it was just a case of covering chipboard and finding the right accessories to finish it off! (I didn't create the crown, that was a gift - but they sit together in my room because they look great together)

I love these felt flowers - they are from the Flower Fusion Too pack.

Reusing a frame also worked perfectly for the recycling challenge at All Sorts this week. Head on over to Project Tuesday to see the rest of the fantastic design team creations, I hope you'll play along!


Other: Rub-ons, Chipboard, Flower Fusion Too Felt Flowers.
E-mail me to purchase.

Paper & Card: Sultry - Basic Grey
Other: ModPodge, White Acrylic Paint,
Cream Soda Thickers & Ribbon - American Crafts,
Pearl Brads - K & Company, Adhesive Pearls - Kaisercraft

March 29, 2010

Elegant Thank You Notes

Ok, I promise - after today, no more Razzle Dazzle for a week! I just can't seem to put this set down. As I was walking past my ribbon jars today this polka dot ribbon caught my eye, and I thought it would look great on a little set of Thank You notes.

Out came the heat tool and the embossing powder and I soon had these cuties finished. Embossing was probably the thing that got me hooked on stamping and cardmaking. My wedding invites were all cream and gold embossing so it's nice to revisit this simple but elegant technique once in awhile.

I always think a Versamark stamp pad is one of the first purchases any beginner stamper should make. It's so useful to have in your stash. My favourite thing about Versamark is that it allows you to heat emboss using the SU! Classic inkpads. Just ink your stamp with Versamark, then your dye ink - stamp and emboss as usual.

For these cards I stamped the Razzle Dazzle image then quickly over stamped the sentiment before heat embossing with clear embossing powder. The image panel is bordered on the corresponding card stock and popped up on dimensionals.

A quick note from our sponser....If you're on my customer email list you should have received an email yesterday. Please check your junk mail if you missed this. Thanks!


Stamps: Warmest Regards, Razzle Dazzle
Paper & Card: Purely Pomegranate, Soft Sky, Groovy Guava, Very Vanilla
Ink: Purely Pomegranate, Soft Sky, Groovy Guava, Versamark, Black
Other: Clear Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Dimensionals, Tombow Adhesive
E-mail me to purchase.

Other:Polka Dot Ribbon

March 27, 2010

An Oldie but a Goodie...

Hi everyone, I hope your weekend is going well so far. Shan and I spent our Saturday in the craft room (I was stamping, Shan on the laptop) while we listened to The Gunslinger (Stephen King) audio book. I've read & loved the Dark Tower series, it's tied for my favourite series of all time - but listening to it in audio book format is delightful, it makes stamping time even more relaxing!

I'm finishing off my Easter cards, and decided to pull out an older set - Petal Prints. I don't sell my retired sets, I never buy a set I don't love so keep them all - and it's so much fun to dust off a set and have it feel new again!

I made this card for my Nana. I used the last of Silke's great challenges at OCC - This was a really fun sketch to work with, perfect for the set I wanted to use. It's probably only just visible if you enlarge the photo - but the background layer is all sparkly from Pearl Glimmermist and the flowers have a bit of shine courtesy of a glitter pen.

Super simple inside for this one - just a shadowy repetition of the flower image - I stamped off (ink, stamp onto scrap paper then on your project) once to get this effect.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!


Stamps: Petal Prints, Occasional Greetings
Paper & Card: Regal Rose, Whisper White & Certainly Celery Card
Spring Fling Designer Paper
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Certainly Celery, Sage Shadow & So Saffron
Punches: Small Corner Rounder & Slit Punches
Other: Pink Pirouette & Regal Rose Grosgrain, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Dimensionals
E-mail me to purchase.

Other: Pearls - Kaisercraft, Petal Pink Liquid Pearls, Pearl Glimmermist
Glitter Marker - American Crafts

March 26, 2010

Razzle Dazzle Razzleberry!

Hey there creative peeps! I hope your day is going well so far. I'm so excited it's Friday, the groceries are bought for the fortnight, it's steak night (no real cooking - lots of time for stamping!) and Shan will be home for two days so all's good in my world! I took advantage of some stamping time and played with the gorgeous Razzle Dazzle set again.

Just a quick reminder - you only have until the end of this month to grab this, or any Summer Mini set and to pick-up your free Sale-a-bration sets. Right, onto the card!

I mixed a bunch of purple on this card - Rich Razzleberry, Elegant Eggplant and Pale Plum. I couldn't resist adding some glitter again, this time I used the Pink Supernova glitter - which actually is a pretty good match when applied over Rich Razzleberry. Glitter is the challenge for SR#12 and purple is definitely a royal colour - so that worked out well.

I love the Top Note layer - I kept it simple and just stamped that with the Polka Dot Background. I scored a few lines on the white card for a bit of background interest - I love this look but always forget to use it.

I couldn't resist using that flourish on the inside too - this time embossed with White Embossing Powder. It's rare I make a card without using Designer Paper these days - but I love this one!


Stamps: Razzle Dazzle, Short & Sweet, Whimsical Words, Polka Dot Background
Paper & Card: Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry, Pale Plum
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Rich Razzleberry, Pale Plum
Punches: Slot Punch
Other: Rich Razzleberry Ribbon, Top Note Die, Supernova Glitter
Two-way Glue Pen, White Embossing Powder
E-mail me to purchase.

Other: Oval Nestabilities, Rhinestones

March 25, 2010

Hoppy Easter

Yippee - today has been a good craft day! I worked on next week's Project Tuesday offering this morning and I love the result - then made this card this afternoon.

I've had a chocolate frog sitting in my pantry for a week or so that I thought I'd slip into a card for my little brother. When I saw the Color Throwdown colours for this week it was meant to be! The combo is Certainly Celery, Garden Green and Baja Breeze. I haven't used Garden Green a lot - but it's a perfect frog colour!

The sketch for this one comes from Taylor. The watercolouring has a lot more depth in real life - but how cute is that wee frog? I really like this combo - Baja Breeze looks so different paired with two greens.

Here's a quick shot of the inside. I used an offcut of the embossed panel and repeated the scallops.
I took a quick shot of my "inspiration pile" before I started my morning project, lots of pearls, ribbon, lace....yummy! I can't wait to show you the finished product - it's very girly and so different from this card!


Paper & Card: Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze & Garden Green Card.
Urban Garden DP.
Ink: Garden Green, Baja Breeze, Certainly Celery
Punches: Large Corner Rounder, 1/2" Circle & Slit Punches
Other: Certainly Celery Ribbon, Brayer
E-mail me to purchase.


Stamps: Just So Hoppy - Gina K.
Other: Jumbo Brad, Spots & Dots Embossing Folder - Provocraft