Category Archives: Big Shot

Giftwrapping

26 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by in Gift tags & wrapping, Labels collection

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One of my favourite things to do is wrap a present.  I don’t know why, but something about choosing colours and playing with ribbon is very therapeutic.   And we are all about making things pretty here at Caro’s Pretty Things!

We recently went to a close friend’s 40th birthday party.   He is just a little bit into red wine (understatement of the year!) so of course we bought him a very nice bottle of red wine for his present.

Here’s the present all wrapped up.

photo-5I used my Labels collection framelits for the base of the gift tag and printed out an image ‘Keep Calm and Drink Red Wine’ I found on the web.   This was tied on with Bravo Burgundy ribbon from Stampin’ Up! (the same colour as the die cut label) – which seemed rather appropriate given the gift.

Hopefully he’ll enjoy the wine as much as I enjoyed wrapping it!

 

 

Scallop envelope gift box

25 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by in 3D projects, Boxes, Dies, Gift tags & wrapping, Scallop envelope, Tutorial

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Today I wanted to show you a little gift box I made for a present.   Anyone who has been reading this blog lately would know we recently had a Christmas in July (in August!) party at our house.    We had a Secret Santa and one of the recipients loves orange (he says it’s his signature colour!).     I found some orange travel toiletries and wanted to make a little box to present them in.

I made this little box using the Stampin’ Up! scallop envelope die.

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You will need 4 pieces cut from the scallop envelope die to make the box.  You will also need one piece of card stock for the base of the box measuring 8 cm x 8 cm.

Step 1: identify the ‘outside’ and ‘inside’ of your box.  I like to use the scalloped edge on the outside.  If you’d like to do the same, fold each piece at the score lines like this:

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Step 2: cut one side flap from each envelope.   It doesn’t matter which side you choose – just make sure that you choose the same side on each piece!

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Step 3: stick a row of sticky strip (double sided tape) along the outside of the remaining flaps, like this:

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Step 4:  stick the 4 pieces together to make a long row, as shown. I could only fit 3 in the picture but you need to stick all 4 together in a row.  I also like to glue down the scallop edges, but I have also made the box leaving them as ‘flaps’.

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Step 5: fold in the base flaps to make the bottom of the box and stick the remaining sides together.   Glue the square of card stock to the base for extra strength.  I also glued some ribbon around the top for extra decoration.

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This is also a great sized box for storing things on your desk.  Post it notes fit really well!

If you don’t have the scallop envelope die you could try making a box using 4 of a normal envelope template.  There are lots of printable templates available on the web.

Thanks for reading!

Caro

PS: I know I have seen tutorials on the web for this box but I can’t recall where I saw them first so apologies for not crediting (please ping me if you know and I’ll happily edit this post!)

Rudolph sweet treats

22 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by in 1 3/4 circle, Big Shot, Dies, Sweet treat cups, Tasteful Trim, Top Note, Tutorial

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You’ll have seen from my last few posts I may have gone a little overboard on the decorations for our Christmas in July (in August) weekend?     I have another type to share with you today!

As part of my “research” I came across this  Rudolph ornament by Marie Shaughnessy using Stampin’ Up’s sweet treat cups.   My husband also bought me some red heart shaped lollies during the week, which got me thinking of red noses and Rudolph and what I could do.

I ended up making a table centre piece of Rudolph’s in a vase, with lollies for each guest to eat:

photo-4Here’s a closer look:

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The faces were made of a Top Note die cut out of Soft Suede card stock.  I cut 2 for each Rudolph.

I was hunting around for things that could work as antlers and thought about using my Tasteful Trim die.   When I cut it out however, I actually thought that the spaces between the cut out trim might actually work better as reindeer antlers than the trim itself!

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I cut up little bits of the trim and stuck them to the back of the card piece I was using for the front of the face:

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They all looked a little different.  I think the one on the bottom left probably looked the closest to real antlers?

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I then stuck on eyes* and cut a hole with my 1 3/4 inch circle punch (which is the size that perfectly matches the sweet treat cups)

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Next step was to stick the sweet treat cup on the front and then turn it over and fill up with lollies.   (Tip: make sure you stick the cup on really well.  Run your fingers around it a few times sticking it down.  I let my little boy stick a couple on and they needed to be restuck later!)

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I then stuck another top note on the back of the first one to hold the lollies in – and ta da, some Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeers!

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Please contact me if you’d like to get your hands on some sweet treat cups and try some of these for yourselves 🙂

Caro

* I will show you how to make the eyes in a separate post.   I played around with a few different methods so I’ll save you the time 🙂

Birthday thank you card

15 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by in Big Shot, Dies, Kids party, Thank you, Top Note

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Hello!

The other day I showed you a simple layout for a quick thank you card.    I needed to make some thank you cards for my little boy’s recent birthday party so we made some together on the weekend.

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As it was a rugby themed party of course we had to have rugby themed thank you notes – which means we definitely needed to use Wallabies colours!

These cards are so easy to make – cut an A4 piece of yellow card in 4 pieces to make the card backs.   Fold a white A4 piece of card into 4 pieces then run it through the Big Shot with the Top Note die.  Hey presto – 4 lovely white shapes for a message.    A thank you stamp and you’re done.

Although in this case we weren’t quite done.   Mr 4 wanted them to match his rugby party so we had to find a picture of a rugby ball!  I cut and pasted from a web photo into a word document.  I made the image the same size as the large oval punch so we could punch out the balls.  Then a whole bunch of “copy and paste” and we had enough balls for all the cards.      [Actually, most of the cards.  We didn’t make quite enough so we had to decide which people weren’t big rugby fans to not get a ball!  I didn’t have the heart to break it to him that most people would probably fall into that category!]

Anyway, about an hour and we were done.  Perfect for a 4 year old attention span as well 🙂

 

A simple thank you card

09 Friday Aug 2013

Posted by in Big Shot, Bird Builder, Dies, Kids party, Thank you, Top Note

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You may have noticed a recurring theme on my blog is ‘simple’?  Simple cards, simple layouts, simple tricks.    As someone who works and looks after a family, I am usually pretty time poor.  So simple is good.  Simple works!

Here’s another idea for a simple thank you card.

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I made these a couple of years ago as thank you cards for my son’s birthday party.    I divided an A4 piece of card stock into 4 pieces (this is Pacific Point).  I then ran some white card stock through the BigShot using my TopNote die.  You can cut 3-4 at a time so it’s really fast.

I decorated this with the branch from the Bird Builder punch and a bird and thank you message from the Cheap Talk stamp set.    But pretty much any thank you stamp and decoration would work.

I need to come up with some thank you cards for my son’s birthday party this year (I’m running just a little late …)  I might use this idea again as it’s so simple.  I’ll show you what I come up with!

Thanks for dropping by 🙂

PS Most of my posts so far have been the result of me going through photos I’ve taken of cards I’ve made over the past few years.  I’ve been so busy lately I haven’t had much of a chance to do anything new – other than kids birthday cards!   I can’t wait to have some spare time and create some new stuff.   One day!

Another baby card

08 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by in Baby cards, Framelits, Labels collection

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One of the saddest things for me about the end of the 2012-13 Stampin’ Up! catalogue was the retirement of the Two by Two stamp.  I loved that stamp for making baby cards!

There is another gorgeous baby one to replace it though (Fishin’ Around on p58 of the new catalogue).  Stay tuned – I may have to buy that one!

I wanted to show you a couple of the cards I made using Two by Two:

IMG_1400IMG_1399As well as being a super cute stamp, this is a good example of how a single image in a frame can work really well as a feature.

I used my Labels collection framelits to cut the background shapes.   The pink card is a good example of how you can use these framelits to make borders for added depth.

Thanks for reading.

Caro

PS If want to get your hands on a Stampin’ Up! catalogue, please drop me a line at carosprettythings@gmail.com

 

Pirate birthday party card

05 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by in Big Shot, Cards, Cupcake Builder, Decorative Label, Dies, Kids cards, Kids party, Modern Label, Owl, Punches, Top Note, Using up scraps, Word Window

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Hi

It seems that lately the only crafting I get to do is with a 4 year old sitting on my lap being the artistic director!  (I’m not complaining, I love it!)  It does mean though that most of my craft time is spent thinking up fun ideas for cards for kid’s birthday parties! This past weekend’s challenge was a card for a pirate themed birthday party.

So off to my office/craft room we went and did a little Google searching for inspiration.   Mr 4 was most impressed by the idea of an owl pirate – and he thought we should make a pirate like this one on Lynn Starzi’s blog.

I’m not too sure about this card (remember Mr 4 was the artistic director!) but here it is:

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Most importantly, both my munchkin and the lucky recipient thought it was great – so I guess that’s what matters!

The waves were made from some scraps of Pacific Point.  I’d saved some off cuts from cutting out some Top Note shapes, and the edges of where I’d cut out the Top Note actually worked quite well as waves!

The rest was the card was a mix of free hand cutting and Stampin’ Up! punches.

The pirate was made from the owl punch.   The pirate’s shirt had to be “red and stripey” apparently, so I found an old bit of Poppy Parade DSP (now retired).   Please note the peg leg!   Made from the candle from the cupcake builder punch.  The eyes were cut from the owl punch with “goggly eyes” stuck on top with mini glue dots.

The pirate’s hat was the side of the decorative label punch, flipped horizontally.

The boat was a large oval punch cut off across the top (Soft Suede card stock).  I cut the mast, the sail and ‘the plank’ freehand.   And a white Signo pen was perfect for drawing on the crossbones (no skulls for me).

Mr Artistic Controller was most insistent that the card had to say “Ahoy, me heartie!”, not “Happy Birthday”.    Given that my stamp collection doesn’t quite stretch to pirate messages, I wrote in on in pen.  (I’m still not convinced I spelled ‘heartie’ correctly but what can you do?!?)

The frame for the message is a modern label punch and the white is a word window punch.

There you go – our owl pirate card!

Caro x

 

 

 

Another favourite card layout

26 Friday Jul 2013

Posted by in Beautiful Butterflies, Big Shot, General occasion, Tutorial, Using up scraps

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Hi

Just popping by for a quick post to show you another one of my favourite card layouts.   This one is also really simple – but because it’s a little different to the cards you usually see in the shops it can have a bit of a ‘wow’ factor.    But check out how easy it is to make!

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This is a gatefold card.   So when you untie the ribbon you get to open up the card to see the message inside.

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The dimensions will depend a bit on the size of your envelope!  My square envelope for this card was 14 cm square.  So I wanted to make a 13cm square card to fit inside.

This means I cut a piece of cardstock 26cm x 13cm.

To make a square card that opens the normal way you would just score and fold the long side at 13cm to make a 13cm square card.     To make a gate fold card you need to fold in from either side to make the ‘gates’.   So you score and fold at 6.5cm in from either end of the long side.

Here’s a little sketch to show you what I mean:

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And here’s another picture of the card showing a little more of the inside.   I’ve used some butterflies cut out with my Beautiful Butterflies die to decorate it.

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The strips of paper on the front are 12.5 cm x 6 cm.  And the strip at the bottom is 13cm wide – I can’t remember how high but it really doesn’t matter.    This layout is another good way to use up those little scraps of paper you can’t quite bring yourself to throw out because they are so pretty!

You can add the ribbon in a couple of different ways.  For this card I’ve just glued the ribbon across the back of the card.   You can also punch holes in the front of the card and thread ribbon through and tie a bow.

You can use this layout in so many ways.   I will try and post some more examples of cards I’ve made using this layout soon.

Thanks for reading!

Caro x

A music note card

18 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by in Big Shot, Birthday, Music Notes, Perfect Polka Dots, Wheels

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Hi

Just a short post today to show you one of my favourite card layouts.  I have made this in lots of different colours – this one is Stampin’ Up! Crumb Cake and Marina Mist.

IMG_1398 I used a Marina Mist C6 card blank and ribbon with a Crumb Cake card stock layer and ink.   The music notes come from a Stampin’ Up! wheel (“Music Notes” with a little happy birthday greeting.   I ran the top of my Crumb Cake layer through the Big Shot with my Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder for a little extra texture.

I’ve made this card with Night of Navy, Melon Mambo and Bravo Burgundy (now retired) – but I can’t really think of too many colours this wouldn’t work with!

Caro

PS This was a card I had wrapped up in a cellophane bag to give to an Op Shop to sell.  Next time I’ll photograph it OUT of the bag!

Elmo invitation

29 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by in Big Shot, Circles #2, Dies, Invitations, Kids cards, Large Oval, Scallop circle

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The other day I showed you the invitations I made for my son’s 4th birthday party this year.   I’ve already had some great feedback about how excited the kids were to open the card and see a big ball pop up!

That all reminded me of an invitation I made for his birthday party when he was 2 and obsessed with Elmo from Sesame Street.

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I used the Stampin’ Up! Scallop Circle Die with my Big Shot to cut out all Riding Hood Red circles for the invitations.    The white eyes were cut from the Circles #2 die and I think I used my smallest circle punch for the black centres (you could also use the larger circles from the Stampin’ Up! Owl Builder punch).    The nose was cut from Tangerine Tango (but Pumpkin Pie or More Mustard would also work).    The black mouth was half of the largest circle from the Circles #2 die.

I stamped a basic invitation block on the back and I was done.

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Too easy – and the kids adored them!