Leap Day Tutorial - Graphic 45

How about a Leap Day tutorial?! Since we have an extra day, maybe we can use it to make some stuff! I cannot think of many better ways to use up an extra day!

I created this altered notepad in the fall sometime. It's one of those projects that has been sitting here, waiting patiently for its turn on the blog! With the end of the school year fast approaching, this project makes a perfect teacher gift. Add a gift card to it, and your favorite teacher will be in heaven! (As a homeschool mom, I never get teacher gifts...but then I don't have to make any either!)

This is a long envelope, with a skinny notepad attached to the front. You can use the envelope to hold notes, receipts, and such.

To create the project, I used an envelope from a Graphic45 Black Policy Envelope Album. The envelopes are about the same size as a business envelope, and have a top opening. 

Cover the front and back of the envelope with Graphic45 paper, trimmed to approximately 4 x 8". Make sure the envelope flap is free and is on the reverse side of the project. Now you can stick items inside the envelope!

To create the holder for the skinny notebook, trim black cardstock to 5 3/8 x 8 1/8". Score at 2 5/8" and 2 7/8" (for a 2 1/2 x 8" notepad). (Designer idea: if you cannot find 2 1/2 x 8" notepads,  your local office supply store will trim 5 x 8" notepads in half for a small fee.)

Cover the top of the notepad with a scrap of Graphic45 paper, then glue the pad into the holder. Attach the back of the holder to the envelope. Decorate the front of the notepad holder with cardstock and Graphic45 papers.

If you want the notebook to stay closed, you can create a band for your project by trimming out the ruler from the School Days paper. Wrap the ruler around the project and attach together at the back. Make sure that the band is not too tight. You want to be able to slip the band off and on easily.

Stamp your message onto kraft paper, then use a die cutting template to trim out circles from the kraft and black cardstock. Attach the circles to the front of the band. Tuck a pencil inside the band, next to the notepad.

Add a chipboard button and some twin to the envelope flap. You can also add some small magnets or hook and loop tape to the flap to keep the envelope closed.

You now have an envelope to hold receipts or other items, plus a note pad for jotting down your notes! This project makes a great teacher's gift!

Supplies:
Graphic45 papers:
An ABC Primer: Jumping Joan, Alphabet Soup, The Three R's, School Days
Graphic45 Staples: Graphic45 Policy Envelope Album, An ABC Primer Chipboard 1

Partner products:
Clearsnap Colorbox Graphic45 Decades Photogenic dye ink
May Arts twine
Spellbinders™: Die templates S4-114 Standard Circles Large, S4-116 Standard Circles Small

Other:
Office supply: Note pad and pencil
Stampin' Up! Basic Black, Kraft cardstock
Bazzill: Haley cardstock
Papertrey Ink: stamp

In Prayer - Graphic 45

Today I am sharing an ensemble that has "been around" for a while. I originally made this set of projects for a publication. The publication did not feel it was a good fit, so I reworked things a bit and submitted the ensemble to Graphic 45 (last spring) for use on the blog. Well, it's be sitting around, and finally has a chance for some lovin'! There is a tutorial at the end, so keep reading!

I created a card, prayer card holder (or it could even be a gift card holder), and a treat box. I used Once Upon a Springtime papers.

I love the pink and green with chocolate brown. It is a combo that makes me happy!

I used Our Daily Bread Designs stamps that match Spellbinders die templates. If you love that tiny flower, read on for a tutorial on how to make it!

I like scripture stamps. I buy them all the time, I even make my own on the computer (digi stamps). You cannot have too many stamps with the Word of God on them!

I created this little folder to hold papers for jotting down prayer requests and praise reports. But it is also the perfect size for a gift card.

You could change out the inside sentiment if you wanted to place something else into the folder.

My amazing friend Jacquie (who now has a blog!) taught me how to make this treat box. Maybe she will put a tutorial on her new blog!

I put a candle into my box. I think I was out of candy the day I did my photo shoot, if you want the truth! You can put anything you want in there! It's perfect for flavored tea bags, treats, and more.

Ok, now here is that tutorial for making the tiny rolled rose.

Supplies Needed:

Spellbinders™ Presto Punch™Machine
Spellbinders Presto Punch Starter Pack Punch Templates - Flower
Cardstock or heavy weight designer paper
Ranger Stickles Glitter Glue - Star Dust
Paper piercing tool
Sharp scissors
Glue (Tombow Mono Liquid or similar)

1.Using the Presto Punch machine, punch 4 flowers with the flower punch template. (Note: you can make the flower with any one inch flower punch or die cut.) Yes, these are TINY!

2. Cut one flower into a spiral with sharp scissors.

3. Roll the spiral flower onto a piercing tool or similar.

4. Glue the bottom of the flower to the rolled shape, to create a rose.

5. Cut a slit between two petals of flower #1. Cut out one petal of the flower #2 (it will look like a piece of pie).  Cut two petals from flower #3, as shown.

6.  Wrap flowers 1, 2, and 3 into a cone shape and glue. Cut the points from flowers 2 and 3, as shown below.

7.  Assemble the rose by stacking each layer, and gluing together. Place the rolled rose into the cone created from flower #3.

8. Once your flower is glued together, you may add some Stickles or glitter to it, or even spray it again with a sparkling mist.

See, tiny! Smaller than a quarter!

Project Supplies:
Graphic 45 paper: Once Upon a Springtime (Fairy Folk, Woodland Fantasy, Primrose Cottage)
Cardstock: Bazzill, Neenah, American Crafts
Stamps: Our Daily Bread Designs, StampingScrapping
Ink: Clearsnap Colorbox Fluid Chalk (rose coral, chestnut roan), Memento rich cocoa
Embellishments: ribbon from the fabric store, glitter glue from Ranger Stickles, eyelets from We R Memory Keepers
Tools: Machines from Spellbinders (Grand Calibur, Spellbinders Presto Punch), Dies from Spellbinders (Labels Eighteen, Labels Five, Labels Four Small, Fleur de lis Accents, Presto Punch flower), Scoring board from Scor-pal, Crop-a-dile from We R Memory Keepers, Bow Easy from Posi-Bendr Company
Adhesive: Scotch 3M, Tombow

Happy Easter - Graphic 45

I have shared this card with you before, but I just found it in my stash the other day and was thinking how much I like it...and that Easter is just around the corner...

I love vintage images, and this one of the fairy and the little chick...adorable! It reminds me of a simple time, when receiving a letter or a greeting card had such deep meaning for people. In our fast paced world, with email and cell phones, we are forgetting the art of actually writing letters and sending cards. Even me. I make thousands of cards every year, but I mail out only a handful. How sad is that?!

I do donate cards and give them away for others to use. I even sell a few. But I have boxes of them sitting around here. I need to mail them! My challenge to all of you (and to me) is to mail an actual letter, note, postcard, or greeting card to someone during the month of March.

Flowers and butterflies are such a symbol of hope for me. When I see a new bud on a tree or bush, when I see a butterfly, I am reminded of the hope I have in Jesus Christ. We have "hatched" butterflies in our homeschool a few times. Last spring we had a chance to see a Painted Lady come out of the chrysalis! It was such a miracle of God's perfect design.

I wish you the Joy of the Lord this spring.

A Few Spellbinders Projects

Good morning, Blogger Buds! I have a few projects to share that I made for Spellbinders™ back in the summer. I've said before that it's pretty rare for me to be able to share my projects here on the blog since they are always for Spellbinders' use in other areas. However, here are a few that they shared in the Idea Gallery, plus a few of my "rejected" projects. What I mean by "rejected" is, sometimes I make something that does not quite meet the needs of the team, so I go back and rework the item. I will occasionally keep the original item. I have a few of those to share.

This is a gift bag I made last July, using the Retro Mod Clocks die templates.

I used the clock die templates as "ribbons" and a gift tag. Very "out of the box...er bag" for me! {grin}

This next bag was a different take on the project. This one did not showcase my assigned die templates enough, but I loved the flowers, so I kept it for my own use and made the bag above for Spellbinders.

 I cannot remember if I shared this baby card before or not. I love the pink and green combo, plus those amazing Anemone Flower Topper and Blossom Tags And Accents dies are stunning!

And check out that bow tied so nicely with the Bow Easy tool. Love that thing!

This last card is another "reject" from the Winter Blog Frenzy. Here is the card that ended up being used in the Frenzy. It is a window card. However...

The one below was my first card. Not a window card, and I used printed paper in the hole behind the flower. There is not enough contrast to show off the flower. It looks great in person, but not on camera. And camera is king in this biz!

Hope you enjoyed seeing a few things showing the fantastic Spellbinders die templates! The possibilities are endless. If you have not seen the new catalog, click the links to download or purchase it.

Spellbinders Supplies:

S4-114 Standard Circles LG
S4-116 Standard Circles SM
S4-125 Classic Scalloped Circles SM
S4-312 Blossom Three
S5-029 Nested Lacey Pennants
S5-074 Retro Mod Clocks
LF-190 Grand Labels Four
E8-006 Classic Petal
LF-005 Grand Peony Creations
S5-050 Rose Creattions
S4-351 Spiral Blossoms One
S5-027 Labels Twenty-One
S5-067 Anemone Flower Topper
S5-072 Blossom Tags And Accents
S5-029 Nested Lacey Pennants
S5-102 Aster Flower Topper
EL-002 Regal
E8-007 Classic Edges One
E8-012 Classic Decorative Inserts Four
Spellbinders™ Grand Calibur® Die Cutting Machine

Preferred Partner Products:
Waltzingmouse, Fancy Phrases Stamps
StampingScrapping, Design Fancy Accents Stamps
Gina K. Designs, Showtime Stamp Kit Organize It! Stamps
Want2Scrap, Say It With Pearls Pink Pearl Embellishments

Cross Promotional Partner Products:
Cosmo Cricket, Odds and Ends Remnant Patterned Paper
My Mind's Eye Paris and Company Patterned Paper
Echo Park Paper Co, Little Girl Madison Plaid, Jody Stripe, Betty Bird Patterned Paper
Bazzill Basics Paper, Kraft, Watermelon, Petal Soft, Lemonade Cardstock
Clearsnap, ColorBox Yellow Cadmium, Warm Red, Rouge, Yellow Ochre, Ice Blue Fluid Chalk Ink, Ink Applicator
Scor-Pal, Scoring Tool,Scor-Tape
Glue Dots, Mini Glue Dots
Beacon Adhesives, Zip Dry Glue

Other Supplies:
White Cardstock; Pink, Brown, Light Blue, Teal Textured Cardstock; Brown, Cream Dye Ink; Twine; Ribbon; Jewel Brad; Transfer Tape; Liquid Glue; Foam Tape; Gift Bag

Graphic 45 Kraft Reflections and Copic Marker Tutorial

On Valentines Day I shared a card I made using Graphic 45 Kraft Reflections paper (see the project HERE), which I colored with Copic Markers. I think the technique of coloring the kraft paper is very cool, and wondered if maybe others would like to see how I did it. Therefore I decided to share a tutorial with you. {See how I take care of my Blogger peeps?!}

Here is a tag that I made using paper created from the coloring technique.

To make the tag you need the following supplies:

• Graphic 45 Paper: Kraft Reflections: Bed of Roses; Curtain Call: Moulin Rouge
• Graphic 45 Staples: packaging tag from Flowers Staples
• Copic Markers: R81, R83, R85, R39, R59, B23, B24, B26, B37, G43, G46, G28, Y13, YR02
• Postage stamp punch (Fiskars)
• Lace (American Crafts)
• Satin ribbon (Really Reasonable Ribbon)
• Pins (Maya Road)
• Black dye ink (Tsukeniko: Memento Tuxedo)
• Stamped sentiment (Gina K. Designs: Framed Greetings)
• Adhesives: Scotch 3M tape runner; Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L foam squares; Glue Dots adhesive dots

Instructions:

1. To create the colorful paper, trim a 4 x 6 inch section of Kraft Reflections Bed of Roses paper.

2. Color all kraft sections with Copic Markers. For each section, start with the lightest color in your chosen color family. For the rose, begin by coloring the entire flower with R81.

3. Next, shade some areas with R83. Make sure to place scrap paper under your project as the ink will soak through the Graphic 45 Kraft Reflections paper. This is normal.

4. Next, add R85.

5. Shade a few areas with R39. Add YR02 to the center.

6. Continue coloring, light to dark, until all areas are colored. Experiment with color choices. You may color an entire sheet of 12x12 paper with one color scheme, or trim the paper into four smaller sheets and color each with a different color scheme.

7. To create the tag, cover a Graphic 45 packaging tag with your colored paper, and trim.

8. Wrap lace around the top of the tag.

9. Stamp sentiment onto the kraft side of a scrap of Bed of Roses paper. Punch sentiment with postage stamp punch and edge with black ink. Attach to tag with foam tape.

10. Trim Moulin Rouge postage from Curtain Call paper and color with R39. Attach to tag. Trim Paris postage and attach.

11. Add pins and ribbon.

Have fun coloring your Graphic 45 papers. The paper is a high quality, cardstock weight paper, which makes it easy to color with Copic Markers.

Easter Projects

I have a trio of cards for you today. I made these cards March 2011 for the Christian Paper Crafts private online gallery. CPC has since been purchased by Our Daily Bread Designs, and it's been a year since I made these projects, so I think I can share them with you. (I am pretty sure the private gallery closed after October 2011.)

None of these cards is in a vintage style. They are in what I call my "Copic Style." A girl needs to keep people guessing! Right?!

I colored the flowers and the jar with Copics, then fussy cut everything.  My favorite flowers are red and white tulips! Mostly because they were my dad's favorite. He used to dream of going to Holland to see the tulip fields. He never did make the trip. Maybe someday I'll go in his place.

I colored this cute digital stamp with Copics. I adore this little girl. And her bunny.

I don't often use blue and orange, but this combo was so pretty together, soft and sweet.

The scripture is from Our Daily Bread Designs. I love their scripture stamps!

I even decorated the inside of this card. I normally decorate the inside of cards that I plan to use. The ones I make for DT work sometimes get glued closed for display purposes, so I don't always jazz up the insides.

And another cutie image, colored with Copics. Love me some Copics!

I even used Copics on the flowers, so that the purple would match.

Hope these projects give you some Easter hope and inspiration!

Supplies:
Spellbinders: Grand Calibur die cutting system, Classic Ovals Large, Classic Scalloped Ovals Large, Lacey Circles, Standard Circles Small, Classic Scalloped Circles Small
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Friendship Jar, Friendship Jar Spring Fillers; Spesch Bonnie; Our Daily Bread Designs Grow in Grace; My Favorite Things My Basket of Eggs; Close to My Heart sentiment; Inkadinkado sentiment
Card Stock: Bazzill, American Crafts, Stampin' Up 
Designer Paper: My Mind's Eye Stella and Rose Hazel, Mabel; Basic Grey Kioshi 
Ink: Copics, Memento Tuxedo Black, Quick Quotes Powder Puff Pink Cheeks, Clearsnap Colorbox Chalk Tangerine; CTMH Grape 
Accessories: May Arts twine, mini tag punch, buttons, ribbon, floss, Martha Stewart punch; Recollections pearls, Wild Orchid Crafts flowers and lace