Monthly Archives: September 2013

What to do with my colouring in?!?

30 Monday Sep 2013

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hello!

A few months ago I was quite sick and had to take a month off work.  (I’m all better now thankfully, in case you’re wondering 🙂 )

So – what to do when all you can do all day is lie around?   Colouring in of course!

I had a few pads of water colour paper lying around (have I mentioned I love $2 dollar shops and always have some craft supplies lying around?!?)   I used my StayzOn inkpad and stamped pages and pages and pages of stamps and gradually coloured them all in with my Stampin’ Write Markers.

I find colouring in sooooo therapeutic.  You don’t have to think too much, you feel like you’re being creative even if you’re not doing too much, and there is something so calming about choosing colours and then gently colouring in the image.  Maybe it has something to do with reverting to childhood as well?

Anyway … when I said I coloured in pages and pages, I wasn’t exaggerating!  I literally coloured in for days at a time because I didn’t have the energy to do anything else (I couldn’t even concentrate on television).  3 watercolour pads worth!

Here are just some of the pages I coloured in.

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Lately I’ve been figuring out what to do with all of this stuff – make cards of course! Stay tuned and I’ll show you how I turned these sheets into cards.

Caro x

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Cute cards using up old DSP

29 Sunday Sep 2013

Posted by in Bitty Butterfly, Cards, Elegant Butterly, General occasion, Punches, Using up scraps

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HI there

Sorry for the little break in posting.  I haven’t been doing much blogging – but I have been making lots of cards over the last few weeks so stay tuned.  I will try and find some time to show them to you soon.

You’ve probably figured out from this blog that a) I have quite the stash of pretty paper I’ve collected over the years and b) I’m trying to figure out ways to use it all up!  I’ve been setting myself a bit of a challenge lately of pulling out an old packet of DSP and trying to randomly pick a piece of paper and then trying to make some cards out of it.

Here’s an example.  I picked a piece of old DSP from a retired Stampin’ Up! set called Haiku.  Here’s the result:

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The card on the left uses the Elegant Butterfly and Bitty Butterfly punches with some rhinestone ‘bling’ as an embellishment.  Also note the horizontal lines from sticking 2 extra strips of card stock I had left over.

The card on the right is quite simple – but the scallop edge border punch gives it a bit of extra ‘something’ as do the rhinestones at the centre of each flower.

These were really simple to make – and used up a piece of paper in about 5 mins.  Nice!

I’ll try and post some more soon

Thanks for reading

Caro

Another handy card layout

21 Saturday Sep 2013

Posted by in Birthday, Cards, General occasion, Tutorial, Using up scraps

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Hi.  Thanks for dropping by!

Today I wanted to show you another handy card layout that you can adapt for a whole range of occasions.  For example, Mothers’ Day:

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Or birthdays:

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Or just general occasion:

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To make these you need the following pieces:

Base card – A6 card

DSP layer – 14.2 x 10 cm

Layer to mat the white/tie ribbon – 9.5 x 7 cm

White/vanilla layer – 7 x 5.5 cm

Ribbon

Decorate the white/vanilla layer however you like and tie the ribbon onto the mat layer and you have a simple card.

One tip for tying a ribbon bow on the card.   I find it easier to glue the ribbon to the back of the mat layer and then stick the mat layer onto the card before tying the bow.

IMAG0073It’s harder to put glue on the back of the mat layer when the bow is already tied – plus you will probably squish your beautiful bow!  I also find it much easier to tie a bow when the ribbon is already securely attached to the card stock so it doesn’t wriggle about!

Hopefully this has given you some ideas for another simple card to make when you’re a bit short on time.

Thanks for reading

Caro

Simple quintessential flower card

20 Friday Sep 2013

Posted by in 3D / pop up, Birthday, Cards, General occasion, Punches

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Hi

Just a quick post today to show you another way to use the Quintessential flower stamp from Stampin’ Up! (or the Five Way Flower stamp in the current catalogue).

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I love the layers you can achieve with a stamp like this and coordinating punches.  And I always love to put a little button in the middle 🙂

Enjoy!

Caro x

A quintessential balloon

18 Wednesday Sep 2013

Posted by in 3D / pop up, Birthday, Cards, General occasion, Using up scraps

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Hello. Thanks for reading Caro’s Pretty Things!

One of my first ever posts was showing you some layered cards I made with the Stampin’ Up! Quintessential Flower stamp.    Unfortunately this stamp is now retired, but there is a similar one in this year’s catalogue called Five Way Flower.  (Here’s a great video tutorial on how you can use these sorts of stamps by Karen Titus).

I have a box on my bookshelf with lots of extra embellishments or half finished projects.  Ever since I made those cards I have had a few layers of the quintessential flower sitting in the box waiting for me to figure out what to do with them.

And so now I present – some quintessential hot air balloons!

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I loved how these turned out so much I wanted to show you them separately.   The button in the middle (stuck on with a mini glue dot) just seemed to add that little bit extra for some reason?

I think that is the end of my hot air balloon obsession for a little while.  I wonder what I’ll obsess about next?!?

Thanks for reading 🙂

Caro x

A tip for punching small pieces of card stock

18 Wednesday Sep 2013

Posted by in 1 inch square, Cupcake Builder, Tutorial, Using up scraps

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Yesterday I showed you how I made some hot air balloon baskets with the Stampin’ Up! cupcake builder punch and the 1 inch square punch.

Making these baskets is a brilliant way to use up scraps of card stock.   Do you remember I made some Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer decorations a few weeks back?  Ever since then I have had 6 soft suede circles on my desk that I was trying to figure out what to do with, as well as a pile of off cuts.

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All very uninspiring … until I realised they could be hot air balloon baskets!

Today I wanted to show you a tip for punching small pieces out of scrap paper.  It can be very fiddly trying to get the small piece in the right place and keep it there long enough to punch.

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Solution?  Use a post it note to help you!

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This is a really handy tip for whenever you want to punch something out of a smaller piece of paper.

I hope this helps!

Caro

More balloon cards

17 Tuesday Sep 2013

Posted by in 1 3/4 circle, 1 inch square, 3D / pop up, Birthday, Cards, Cupcake Builder, General occasion, Kids cards, Punches, Using up scraps

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Hello

Yesterday I showed you some hot air balloon cards I made using the Stampin’ Up! A Little Treat stamp, which is now retired.   I said I would show you how you could make one of these cards even if you didn’t have this stamp set.   I thought of 2 ways you could do this: using the Stampin’ Up! cupcake builder punch and a square punch with a pair of scissors.

Method 1 – the cupcake builder punch

The first way is to use the cupcake base from the cupcake builder punch as a basket.

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You can see that the base is not quite ‘square’.  That doesn’t bother me when I’m sticking the hot air balloon on the card at an angle, but you can always cut just a small amount off to make it straight:

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Here are some hot air balloon cards made with the cupcake builder punch baskets:

IMAG0057You can also use the cupcake tops as clouds!

IMAG0066You can also give your basket a little ‘bling’:

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Method 2 – Using a square punch

Another way to make a basket is to cut a square and cut down the sides to make a basket.

IMAG0067Here’s a balloon made out of a square punch basket:

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(I can’t help myself and had to use up a tiny scrap of lace I’d had lying in my scrap pile!)

I hope you enjoy making some of these.

Caro

Balloon card

16 Monday Sep 2013

Posted by in 1 3/4 circle, 3D / pop up, Birthday, Cards, General occasion, Kids cards, Using up scraps

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Hello 🙂

I think I’ve mentioned before that a lot of my craft time these days is focused on making cards for my son’s various birthday parties?   He’s very interested in hot air balloons at the moment (no idea why!) so he thought he might like to give his friend a hot air balloon card.

I have a retired Stampin’ Up! stamp set called A Little Treat which has a hot air balloon at the base.  One of my quick ‘go to’ cards for several years has been to stamp the hot air balloon base and cut a 1 3/4″ circle out of DSP to act as the balloon.  Literally the 2 minute card to make and I’ve made many over the years.

This time I wanted to step it up a little and try for something a little fancier!   I had pinned these gorgeous cards several months ago so decided to make some of my own.   Here was the end result:

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They were so much fun to make I made a few!

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IMAG0034OK, I’ll confess, I may have made more than a few … more like lots!

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You may have guessed that they are a) very easy and b) very addictive to make!   You just need to punch out several circles from your 1 3/4″ circle punch.  Another brilliant way to use up scraps of DSP!   Fold each circle in half and stick them together until you have a ‘ball’ of circles for your balloon.

Here’s a close up of a balloon:

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And of the stuck together circles:

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These are so much fun to make it got me thinking – how could you make them if you didn’t have the basket stamp?    Interested?  Stay tuned tomorrow to find out 😉

Caro

Tea bag gift holder

15 Sunday Sep 2013

Posted by in 3D projects, Gift bags, Gift card holders, Using up scraps

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Hello.  Thanks for dropping by!

Yesterday I showed you a little folder I made to give away some photos to some family members.    Today I want to show you something else I’ve made previously using a similar idea – a little tea bag holder you can give to someone as a ‘get well’ gift, welcome to the neighbourhood card etc.   My Mum liked the idea of having some of these at the op shop where she volunteers for people who come in for a chat.

Tea bag holders

 

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These are made using a very similar concept as yesterday’s folders.   You use a piece of card stock, fold it up to make a pouch to hold the tea bags and glue the sides of the folded up piece so they don’t fall out.    I spent a little more time decorating these using strips of DSP and ribbon to tie them closed.   The tea cup image here is  a retired Stampin’ Up! a la carte stamp called Tiny Teacup, but there are lots of beautiful images in the current Tea Party set which would look equally good (or probably better, I have had my eye on that set for ages!)

This size would be ideal for gift cards as well.

Enjoy!

Caro

 

Gift folder for photos

14 Saturday Sep 2013

Posted by in 3D projects, Gift bags, Gift card holders, Using up scraps

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Hello!   Sorry for the gap between posts.  I had some time off work (a lovely holiday to Daydream Island) and then a very busy first week back at work.

While we were on holidays I had some beautiful photos taken and have printed off copies to give to various friends and family.    After I’d organised the piles of reprints on my desk I decided I wanted to make something a bit nicer than a boring envelope to put them in to give to people.

I have a whole collection of retired Stampin’ Up! designer series paper (DSP) lying around (it’s so gorgeous it’s kinda addictive!) so decided to try using up some of my stash.   Here’s what I came up with – some little gift folders just big enough to put photos and a small note card/message in:

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These are so simple to make!   Take a piece of DSP wide enough to hold a 4 x 6″ photo when folded in half, fold up the bottom to make a pouch and then glue down the edges of the fold so the photos won’t fall out.

This is very good for using up DSP in a variety of sizes.    Here are some of the little folders I made:

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One tip!  If you are using a narrower piece, make sure you have enough room to hold the photo after you’ve glued the edge.   I made this one and didn’t stick the glue close enough to the edge and it was a very tight squeeze to get the photo in!

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You could also make a smaller version of these to hold gift vouchers/gift cards.   They really are very easy!

I kept the front of these plain (other than the gorgeous paper) as I was in a rush.  But you could also decorate them like the front of a card.

Enjoy!

Caro