Joy Fold Card

I went with the joy fold card and after a few problems it's finally finished :). The first pic shows the inside of the card ready to be stamped with a sentiment. The top paper is from the Prima Romatique 6" pad and has been inked with Aged Mahogany and Bundled Sage.  

The background paper is only distressed with the Aged Mahogany distress ink and is from Kaisercraft 6" English Rose collection. I had to pull the top layer off twice to fix mistakes. I used the old heat the tape up trick to peel it off. First time I positioned the top layer too low. The second time i realised I had left the the paper layer off. OOPS!

The next picture shows the bottom of the front. This section will anchor the uppermost section down. I have again distressed the pp with bundled sage. The paper is again from the Prima Romantique collection.

The edge has been punched with a Fiskars edger punch. The bottom circle is edged wiith Bundled Sage and The top circle with Aged Mahogany. The flower is another iamroses rose coloured with homemade gimmer mist. The circle is attached with foam tape in the bottom corner to elevate it and make it easier to anchor the top section.

I decided it still looked a little too plain, so I added a sentiment that says May your day be bright as a flower. The one on the inside says Live well, Laugh Often, Love Much. The stamps are Boho Blooms from TPC Studio.

I had a little foible with the circle when I tried to reposition it so I added more flowers to cover a lil tear in the bottom corner and more flowers just because. They are all from I am roses.

The next pic shows the top layer of the card. I used another TPC Studio stampset, Secret Garden Collage, for the front. I used Aged  Mahogany, Tumbled Glass, Worn Lipstick, Bundled Sage and Pine Needles Distress Stains to colour the image after clear embossing it. All the dimensions for this card are based on this  stamp so i didn't follow set measurements.

Phew finally done :). Just hope the person likes it and we are all good. I mounted the dragonfly with foam tape to make it easier to get off  if the person would like to reuse it on a page or somewhere else. I also shortened the dangles after I took this picture so they would sit better.

For more info on how to make this card google Joy Fold Card.




Happy Scrappin

Purple

A Quick Card and a Dragonfly

I made a quick card tonight following my daughters instructions, she made a butterfly the same way I made butterflies in the previous post. We used a TPC studio stamp for the background. We inked it with Dazzle Versamark and then used Ranger Superfine Embossing Powder. We then used Distress Stains in the colour choices of my daughter in her designated areas. The flowers are Barn Door and Tumbled Glass, the foliage is done in Pine Needles and Forest Moss, The swirl is Mustard Seed and the background is Dried Marigold. The middle butterfly is the one miss 8 made and  the other two are the ones I made the other night.
I learnt the technique for the background on stampyras youtube channel.

Love the watercolour effect you get when using an aqua pen and the distress stains.

The Dragonfly I made is for a friends card. When I adhere it I will use repositional tape so that if she wants to repurpose it she can.. The dragonfly uses skeleton leaves, microbeads, marabou feathers, stickles, rhinestones  and doublesided sticky sheets. I am thinking of making a joy fold card. With the same stamped image as above as the background. Just made with different distress stain colours for the most part.

I was aiming for a kind of shabby chic look. The flower antennae are iamroses buds.
I have been having a problem with the stickles flaking off. I think the reasons for that is I made this dragonfly quite large, big enough to hang over the edge of card if i don't angle it. Another reason is the stickles are quite brittle so any movement/bending of the wings and it chips off. I am thinking of doing a coating of Triple Thick over the micro beads before I stickle them next time... Or just make smaller dragonflies... and butterflies come to think of it :) lol Oh and yes I remembered after I shaped these that dragonfly wings are rouned. I am contemplating cutting off the pointy ends to make them rounded and restickling them :)

Anyways enough from me I must sleep. Need to finish the dragonfly card for saturday and I spend the day at my daughters school tomorrow so will need loads of energy to get it done! (will cheat and use ecraft for the measured cuts lol)

Happy Scrappin
Purple

DIY Butterflies part 1

I have seen several great butterfly tutorials and so far I have tried two of them.
Tonight I created some butterflies from a youtube video I watched by CreativeKelly4rmCali
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzlgh6uKEnk&feature=related

These butterflies are so easy to make. I threw some together on the spur of the moment.  All the flowers I used except for the top most pointy petal one are primas. The pointy petal one is from iamroses. The only requirement is that they be 5 petal flowers.

I misted all of them with my home made glimmer mists. The large black flower was actually a pp prima so I used black soot stain and black home made glimmer mist. I misted first but my mist wasn't dark enough so I grabbed my distress stain. I then painted with triple thick and set the rhinestones in it.

For the rest I used glossy accents to adhere the rhinestones. Please excuse my dingy craft mat lol. Well used :D

As you can see the glue on the purple one hasn't even finished drying :D I wanted to try out different shaped flowers. If I find more different styles i will try them too. So long as it's a 5 petal flower it should work...
Happy Scrappin'
Purple

Choosing an electronic die cutter.

Buying a machine is complicated. There are unfortunately many factors to consider.
First of all the cricut. Do you like cartridges? Do the cartridges suit your needs? Do you want to be locked into a proprietary cartridge only based system?

The cricut as do the black cat, gazelle, craft robo, eclipse, pazzle and slice all use a mat.
The ecraft does not. However the ecraft does cut better with a stabiliser ( a piece of cardstock under the piece of paper or cardstock you are cutting) but it can be reused infiniately once you know the right pressure settings for the materials you are using.

What type of materials will you be cutting. Each die cutter is different and can cut different things. The most expensive machine, the Black Cat can cut the thicker chipboard as can a couple of others if you purchase extra attachments. The ecraft cannot cut thick chipboard. The thickest it goes seems to be cereal packets.

Do you want to to be able to work with your computer? If so what type of things do you want to do? With all but the cricut you can use programs to use free files found across the internet called svg's (scalable vector graphics). You can also purchase files from different sites where people create and then sell their own designs.
In this way you can use a good mix of free or paid for images ensuring you always have what you need for a project.

Do you want a portable Machine. The larger ones are just not that easy to lug around. The slice, craft robo and silhouette sd are light weight and eaier to carry about.

Some machines have the ability to engrave or emboss objects. Is that important to you?

I chose the ecraft first and foremost because there is no sticky mat to worry about. I have a skin condition (psoriasis) and having a sticky mat really put me off buying one. As between that and a cat who jumps everywhere I figured the mat would not stay sticky long.
The other reason I chose the ecraft was the ability to use any svg file I could find to cut images from. I still plan to buy another image card one day but at the moment most of ecrafts cards don't appeal to me. I have searched out a good few thousand images that I have stored on my computer in categories, ready to cut whenever I need.

So in short personal preferences and what you plan to use it for come into play when looking for a die cutting machine. Mat vs no mat, proprietary vs non proprietary and what types of materials and cost are all important factors.

The point being electronic die cutters are definitely the way forward for crafters. Which machine you choose depends solely on your individual set of requirements. Research well so when you do get your machine there are no hidden surprises in the way of what you will and won't be able to do.

This link is helpful as it explains each machine, lets you know what it can and can't do and gives an estimation of costs

Top ten die cutting machines of 2011 reviews

Happy Scrappin
Purple

Sure Cuts A Lot 3

Well I have just downloaded SCAL 3.

I like that I can cut straight from my computer to my ecraft.

I am going to have to watch some tutorials on how to do stuff of course because apart from importing an svg, resizing it and sending to ecraft to cut I don't know how to do anything else.

I bought SCAL 3 because it was on special through my grafico for only $30 and that seemed like a brilliant deal when MTC is on sale for ywice that much and it's ecraft plugin is only in beta.

So the svg file I imported and cut worked great :D So I know it works at least lol.

I found a free scalloped circle with a butterfly border and am trying to learn how to edit it. I want to erase the antennae but when I tried in inkscape it deleted the bits that still need to be cut as well. If you haven't guessed I have no idea how to do any of the svg things. The ecraft is my first cutter so I am new to it all. TThe thing is somehow this file is the opposite of most svg shapes where you can take the eraser and erase the bits you don't want. When i do that with this file it erases things that need to stay. At least I think it does lol.

So I know svg cuts has some nice tutorials, I will be watching then I am sure. Pretty sure youtube will have some as well.

I also downloaded the free library component of scal. Not sure how that works either. Can I import svg files on my computer to scal?

I don't like that when I hover over buttons they don't tell me what they are for. I have to guess using the thumbnail pics as a guide... UGH lol I need SCAL 3 for dummies!

I am sure I will figure it out eventually lol

Happy Scrappin
Purple

Blogs!!!

So I was going to upload some pics of crafty things I had done. But as I recently received my fourth ecraft (this ones working right now touch wood :)), I was adding ecraft blogs to those that I follow. I got carried away in Denise's purplepaperparadise blog catching up on ecraft posts by her lol. So here it is the middle of the night and I am only just getting around to posting lol.

On the upside I was reminded that I need to take my blade cap off to cut the thicker materials and then succeeded in cutting a piece of card I couldn't cut the first day I got my newest ecraft so it was worthwhile to be waylaid lol.

So firstly here is another mini notebook. This one I made for my mum. her favourite colours are red and aqua. It was a bit of a nightmare for me because even though the colours work well together I am not used to working with that much brightness...

I have used the sizzix heart shaped locket die again. I was going to do another opening heart but for some reason my grungeboard and my chipboard ended up being different sizes. I had no problem the first time. They are both painted, maybe I used different paints. But the grunge ended up being at least 1/2 a cm smaller than the chipboard bottom layer. We see a lot of the same elements in this design that we saw in the first design just changed up a little.
The above pic shows the embossing layer, this next pic shows the dangly bits :O

This is a very quick card I threw together for a neighbours lil girls birthday party. Watercolour pencils, prima flowers, triple thick (the bottom flower has one layer of it), pearlex and a quickutz trio stamp were used to make this card.

This next one is for a card I made a couple of hours before going to an 18th birthday party. As I find it hard to do man cards it took me a while to get my head around it, but I got there in the end. This card is also a gift card holder or even a money holder if you want it to be.

As you can see nothing flash but the birthday boy was very happy with it and that's all that counts...

Back to the subject of Blogs again. I have added some blogs that I follow to my sidebar. Some are ecraft bloggers and then there is Tim, can't leave him out as I think aat least 1/4 of my scrap supplies are his lol. Becky Flecks Page Maps. If you don't know who she is check it out. Awesome !!!! Maybe not quite so much. I have found a couple of other utterly brilliant blogs I will add in the near future.

Anyways I best get to bed as its heading towards ungodly o'clock again and I have loads to do when I wake up as usual...lol

Happy Scrappin'
Purple

The First One

So here I am doing my first proper blog... I tried this once before a long time ago. I think I posted twice and forgot about it lol... It was an msn in general type of blog from memory. It was years ago, never really gotten into it.
I have a facebook but not a twitter or myspace or anything else..
I follow a couple of other blogs and now that I have my own blog I will probably end up checking out more.
I am unsure how any of it works, so it will be a learning curve.
I did manage to upload a crafty display pic of an altered notebook that I made I will see if i can add another here :) Only one way to learn right?

The above image is of flowers I made using the flower shape at the top of the photo. The flower comes from the Ecrafts fundamental 1 cartridge.

This is another altered journal I made. The heart opens up to reveal the persons name this was made for. It uses pearlex, patterned paper, Prima notary stamp and prima flowers, acetate, grungeboard, gold crackle paint, the heart locket and key is a sizzix die, stickles, ink (mostly cranberry adirondack), Mindscape stamps for the clear embossed bacground, various ribbons, charms, brads and bling.

I am a slow scrapper. Seems to take me ages to get anything significant done. I am a messy scrapper. I always have a big pile of mess around me... Seems if I put someting I was using away I want it five minutes later lol. As I scrap In the kitchen and my paper/cardstock storage system in in the kitchen and my craft cupboard is in the loungeroom it can be annoying to keep getting up to get what I need. Although I could be much better organised. I am trying to learn techniques to be faster (any hints welcome).

I have been watching drew from youtube and ustream. he is amazing and extremely fast (cardofmyeye on youtube and ustream). Creating whole mini albums in a couple of hours. I wish! lol. But one thing I have noticed that might make it a little easier is that he tends to use either a paper stack or papers from the same range. I am going to try this and see if I can do something similar to create a mini.

Youtube is my best friend. The amount of video tutorials I have watched and the techniques I have learnt are unbelievable. If I post a technique that I learnt from a youtube video I will say. I am unsure if I can post links to other peoples things as of yet so need to learn how it all works. But I will tell you who and what where I can.

Anyways this post is getting long and rambly so I shall sign off and try to start crafting enough to post on here what I am working on regularly. Thats my aim anyway :)

Purple