Category Archives: Punches

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!

Simple scallop frame with punches

06 Tuesday Aug 2013

Posted by in 1 3/4 inch scallop circle, 1 3/8 circle, Punches, Tutorial

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Yesterday I showed you my favourite baby card to make.   One of the clever tricks involved in making that card is the scallop ‘lace’ around the neck and legs of the jump suit.

I wanted to show you step by step how to do this – as it is a really good trick for making a scallop border as well.    To make these ones, I used the Stampin’ Up!  1 3/4″ scallop and 1 3/8″ circles punches.   You could use any size punches though, as long as the circle punch is slightly smaller than the scallop punch.

Step 1:  Punch a circle, leaving enough room around the edges for the border

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Step 2: position your scallop punch around the punched out circle to make an even border

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Punch – and voila!   A gorgeous little scallop border.

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If you were going to make the baby onesie card, you would need to cut the border roughly in half (always measure against the card!) to stick around the ‘leg holes’ or ‘neck hole’.

I like this technique though as it also makes a really nice border for a stamped image. It can also make a cute flower.

Such a simple technique, but really effective.

Enjoy!!

My favourite baby card

05 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by in 1 3/4 inch scallop circle, 1 3/8 circle, Baby cards, Cards, Tutorial, Using up scraps

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One of my favourite things to make is a card for a new baby.   Today I wanted to show you my favourite card to make of all time – a little “onesie” baby card.

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It might look a little tricky, but it’s really quite straightforward once you get the hang of it.   The main tools you’ll need here are a craft knife and ruler and/or straight hands with scissors!, a scallop punch and a circle punch that is just slightly smaller.   I’ve used the Stampin’ Up! 1 3/4″ scallop circle punch and 1 3/8″ circle punch.

I’d love to say I came up with this idea all by myself – but I used a tutorial kindly shared by Stampin’ Up! demonstrator Becky Jensen.    This is such a great tutorial – step by step instructions with pictures of each step.

The only changes I’ve made to Becky’s basic design (which is in inches) are:

  • I’ve used standard Australian sized card (10.5 x 14.8 cm)
  • I’ve cut the arms at 4.5cm
  • I cut small strips of scrap designer series paper to decorate the arms instead of using the scallop edge punch for the arms.
    I have made these cards using the scallop edge punch to decorate the arms as well (it matches the scallops at the neck and legs) but I must have given them away so don’t have any pictures.  I’ll have to make some more!

Once you’ve made a few of these, you will probably feel you can use your trimmer to cut the section out to make the arms and body (ie, cut in 4.5cm and then cut down to the leg).  Once you master that, these cards are ridiculously quick to make.

These are so much fun to make I always seem to make them in batches.  These cards are another good way to use up little scraps of paper you don’t want to throw out.

Here are a few more pictures:

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Here are some packaged up for sale.  They look so cute all lined up together!

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I hope you enjoy making one of these cards next time you have a new arrival to celebrate!

Caro

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

 

 

 

Leftover hearts?

01 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by in General occasion, Punches, Small Heart, Using up scraps

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Hi

The other day I needed to punch out some little white hearts for something else I was doing.  As you do!

It seemed a shame to throw out the strip of white paper with all the empty hearts I’d punched.    So I glued it onto another piece of card stock I had lying around and voila.  Really simple, but I think it works?  What do you think?

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A little green heart in the top right corner was a little extra touch.  I think the whole thing took less than 5 minutes to make.    Next time I’ll pay a little more attention to the spacing between the hearts though …

I’m sure you could do the same thing with a flower punch layered over some floral or spotty paper as well.    I think I might have to go and look at my punches in a new light now and see which other ones might work as cut outs or frames!

Thanks for reading

Caro

Simple – but stylish – gift giving

15 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by in Butterfly (retired), Full heart, Gift bags, Gift tags & wrapping, Punches, Small Heart, Using up scraps

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Hello!  Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Yesterday I showed you some cards I made using the Stampin’ Up! full heart punch.  I mentioned that you shouldn’t throw away the spare punched heart – and here’s why not.

After making the cards yesterday I needed a quick and simple gift wrapping idea to go with the cards.   Here’s a simple idea for a gift tag:

photo-5I used the cut out from the heart punch and another cut out butterfly on top (see how the wings aren’t fully stuck down to make it look like it’s flying?)   A little faux pearl and I think it looks perfect for a little girl’s present.

The tag is a mailing tag I got at Officeworks – you can get a box of 100.  I normally like making my own tags, but sometimes when you’re in a hurry this is a pretty good alternative!

I also have a stash of blank gift bags I get from $2 shops for this kind of occasion.    A few punches from card stock and scraps of pretty paper and you’ve got a lovely gift with virtually no effort.

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photo-4I think they look gorgeous (if I do say so myself!) – and certainly they don’t look the result of 2 minute’s effort.

If you don’t have any punches, you can still make a really pretty gift bag just by cutting pieces of paper to cover the front of the bag.

Have a look at some bags I made for my son’s daycare teachers last Christmas.  The designs were just cut out with scissors from some Stampin’ Up! designer series paper.

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Again, simple and easy – but really nice to receive 🙂

Thanks for reading

Caro

Simple card layout

14 Sunday Jul 2013

Posted by in Butterfly (retired), Full heart, General occasion, Punches, Small Heart, Using up scraps

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Hello

The other day I had to come up with 2 birthday cards for some lovely little girls.  And I had about 10 minutes max to make the card and gift wrap the presents.  (Note to self: make a few extra cards to have lying around the house for card emergencies!)

One of the little girls had had a lovely time playing with my Stampin’ Up! full heart punch when she came to visit one time, so I’d bought her one as her birthday present.   So I wanted to make a card using that punch to give her some ideas of how to use it.

Thankfully I have a few fail safe card layouts that are fantastic when you need a quick card that is still effective.   I’m not sure what it’s called, but I call it a ‘punch trick’ card.  I learnt this from Sally Ann Williams, whose blog is definitely worth following for lots of lovely (and simple!) card making techniques.

Here is the card:

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You can see I’ve cut a heart out of the front of the card and then another heart out of designer series paper.  (Don’t throw the card stock away!).   Stick the designer paper heart on the inside of the card and it makes a heart shaped “window” which can look really effective for a simple card.

TIP!  Don’t try and glue the heart on the inside of the card and hope to have the punched window and the cut out shape perfectly align.  It’s much better to close the card and stick the pretty paper through the window.  Perfect alignment every time!

I used some ribbon, another full heart punch from DSP and a punched small heart and faux pearl just to add a bit of extra detail to the front of the card.

You can see a bit better from this picture how the window and cut out works:

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And here’s a picture of the inside:

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Don’t think this layout only works with hearts either!  You could try birds, cupcakes, butterflies – or make a window to highlight a sentiment.  It’s a great card layout for using up small bits of pretty paper you can’t bear to throw away.

Here is what the same technique can look like with a butterfly punch:

photo-6photo-8[Sorry, those photos are pretty bad.  Must get my proper camera fixed!]

I mentioned that you shouldn’t throw out the heart/butterfly you cut out from the front of the card.   Stay tuned tomorrow and I’ll show you why not!

Thanks for reading 🙂

Caro

Dinosaur punch art cards

13 Saturday Jul 2013

Posted by in 1 3/4 circle, 3/4 inch circle, Birthday, Cupcake Builder, Kids cards

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Hello

Sorry for the long delay between posts.  Work has been very busy.  Add into that a 4 year old’s birthday party and some overseas work travel and there hasn’t been a lot of spare time lately!

I finally got to do some card making today though – with my 4 year old, which is always nice and can be challenging!  He is off to his friend’s dinosaur themed birthday party tomorrow, so we decided to try and make a dinosaur themed card.

We started by a little Google searching for inspiration, and he decided he’d like to try and make a dinosaur a bit like this one (made by Sandra Jayne Wingate).

First we tried a prototype:

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He was quite pleased with that one (as was I!) – but then he decided we could do better!

So here is Dinosaur Mark II – with added spots, buttons for nostrils and bigger whites behind the googly eyes.

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Here they are side by side:

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These were pretty easy to make.

The orange card blanks were standard C6 size.  The pale blue was cut 10cm x 14.3cm.

The dinosaur body was a strip of paper approx 1 inch x 4 inches (they are slightly different on each one as I was using up scraps).  The rest of the shapes were punched from Stampin’ Up! punches:

Head –  1 3/4″ circle

Mouth – Extra large oval

Eyes (on Dinosaur Mark II) – 3/4″ circle

Nostrils (on Dinosaur Mark I) – circles cut from the Cupcake Builder punch

Clouds – cupcake top from the Cupcake Builder punch

Spines & teeth – edges cut from a star punch (retired).  You could also use petals from any flower punch, the tip of the bird’s wing or tail from the Bird Builder punch or just cut some triangles from a strip of paper (or divide a square punch into 4).  You could even use the ends of the Modern Label or Word Window punches … the possibilities are endless really.

I hope the birthday boy enjoys his dinosaur card!

Thanks for reading.  I’ll try not to have such a long break before the next post

Caro

Rudolph bottle topper

01 Saturday Jun 2013

Posted by in 1 3/4 circle, 3/4 inch circle, 3D projects, Bird Builder, Gift bags, Gift tags & wrapping, Large Oval, Word Window

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HI there

As you have probably noticed, most of my blog posts so far have been the result of sorting through all photos of things I’ve made and sharing them with you.  This post is similar!

At Christmas time we always seem to have lots of bottles of wine as gifts for family and friends.  (I’m not sure if that says more about them or us!)  I got a bit sick of buying bottle gift bags this year so thought I’d come up with something a little more personal.

The result was this little Rudolph bottle topper, and I think it’s pretty cute (even if I do say so myself!)

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I used some offcuts of Riding hood Red card stock I had lying around so didn’t measure the width but it was roughly 7 cm wide.    I used my largest circle punch to punch a hole for the bottle to go through and then scored below it and folded.

To make the Rudolph I used my small oval punch for the head, a 3/4 inch circle punch for the red nose, half of a 1 3/4 inch circle for the body, the ends of a word window punch for the ears and the leaves from the bird builder punch for the antlers.

I used a snowflake image from a retired stamp set to decorate the background, but any small flower stamp in white ink would probably look like snowflakes?

The bottles looked really cute under the tree with their little Rudolph neck covers 🙂

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Next time I might try making birthday or general occasion bottle toppers – I may never buy a bottle bag again!

Thanks for reading

Caro

Kids robot cards

31 Friday May 2013

Posted by in Cards, Decorative Label, Horizontal Slot, Kids cards, Modern Label, Owl, Punches, Small Heart, Tag, Uncategorized, Word Window

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I while ago my little boy was invited to his friend’s robot birthday party.  So of course me being me, I had to think of a cute little robot card I could make for him.     After a bit of hunting around on Google, I saw this cute little card by Teneale Williams (someone else who’s blog gives me lots of great inspiration).

Modifying Teneale’s idea a bit, here is what I came up with:

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I used some corrugated paper I found at a $2 shop as it seemed to be very ‘robot-ey’, but normal card stock would work too.

My little robots are put together out of Stampin’ Up! punches:

Head – Tag punch

Body – Decorative Label punch

Arms and ears – Word Window punch (Tip: glue a word window on the reverse side of the head to make the ears)

Legs – Modern Label punch or Word Window punch

Mouth – Horizontal Slot punch (this is retired now but you could use a smaller circle (eg the eyes from the owl punch), the candles from the cupcake punch, or cut down the word window punch or draw on a mouth)

Eyes – I used the eyes from the Owl punch with some googly eyes stuck on, but any small circles would work.

For decorations I used the Small Heart punch, the heart and waistcoat from the Owl Builder punch.   One one of them I stuck lollies on the body.

These were so fun to make I soon had a little robot army!

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