Scallop envelope gift box

25 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by Carolyn 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.

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:

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!

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

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’.

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.

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

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Christmas in July, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, sweet treat cups

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:

Here’s a closer look:

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!

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:

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

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)

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!)

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!

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 🙂

Punch art Santa hat

19 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by Carolyn in Boho Blossoms, Christmas, Extra Large Oval, Punches, Scallop oval, Tutorial, Word Window

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Christmas in July, punch art, Santa hat

Yesterday I showed you my Christmas in July (in August!) themed easel card with a cute little punch art Santa hat.

I got the idea for the Santa hat from a blog called Denise’s workshop. It took me a little while to figure out how to make the hat using the punches I have (all Stampin’ Up!) so I thought I’d show you how I made it.

First I punched out a red oval from the Large Oval punch:

I then used the Word Window punch to cut out a section on an angle to make the shape for the curve of the hat:

Next I cut a white pom pom out of a flower from the Boho Blossoms punch:

Then I cut out the fur trim on the hat from the Scallop Oval punch, and trimmed across the top:

I stuck the pom pom onto the hat with a mini glue dot and trimmed the bottom of the oval for the hat:

Tip: see how the cut where I trimmed off the bottom of the oval is not straight? I found when I cut straight across the bottom of the oval the hat itself ended up looking a little ‘wonky’. After a bit of trial and error I discovered it was better to hold the ‘fur trim’ across the hat and just judge by eye where the right spot to cut was. Each time I made a hat it was a bit different, as each time I’d punched the Word Window section at a slightly different angle.

This picture shows you what I mean – judge how the hat should look and then figure out where to trim the bottom of the oval:

Stick on the trim and you’re done!

I decided to use these as place settings for our Christmas lunch.

They looked really cute all lined up together!

Hopefully this might inspire you for some Christmas craft a little later in the year.

Thanks for reading!

Caro

Easel cards part 2

13 Tuesday Aug 2013

Posted by Carolyn in 3D / pop up, 3D projects, Cards, Extra Large Oval, General occasion, Kids cards, Punches, Tutorial, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

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3D, cards, Kids cards, Punches

The other day I showed you some drink labels for a party I’d made using an easel card layout. This is another card technique that is really quite simple – but usually gets a ‘wow’ from the person who opens it up. Who doesn’t love minimum effort and maximum wow?!?

Easel cards are really versatile – labels, place settings, cards, grown up, kids … anything really! I’ve found that kids particularly love these because they have to figure out how they work. It can also be a nice way to display a photo on your desk or kitchen bench.

Today I want to show you how to make the card. First though, some pictures! Here’s an example of a kids one from the front:

And as an ‘easel’:

And some “grown up” butterfly ones:

I think this last one is the first card I ever made after going to a class run by the very talented Sally Ann Williams (check out Sally’s blog at http://www.sallycancraft.com)

[And yes, I’m still sorting through my old photos!!!]

Making the cards

To make these cards you need 2 pieces of card stock. I like to use these dimensions: Piece 1 – 21 x 11 cm and Piece 2 – 11 x 11cm. Why these dimensions? Well, an A4 piece of card stock is 21cm along the short side, so it’s easy to just cut at 11cm to make your first piece.

Step 1 – score Piece 1 across the short edge at 5cm and 10cm in from the long edge.

Step 2 – fold the 10cm score line over as a valley fold. Then fold the 5cm score line as a mountain fold (ie, back on itself)

Step 3 – decorate Piece 2 (11cm square) however you like. This will be the front of your card. I’ve found it can be quite effective to leave your square plain and actually decorate a separate 10.5 x 10.5cm piece of card stock and layer that onto the front of the card. This gives you a nice layered/framed effect. In the two butterfly cards I’ve shown you above I’ve done two layers – a 10cm x 10cm white piece and a 10.5 x 10.5cm mat.

Step 4 – put some glue onto the ‘folded back’ section. This is where you will stick the front of the card. I’d recommend using Snail Adhesive from Stampin’ Up!. I’ve tried other glues from Officeworks and $2 shops but in my experience they are not strong enough for an easel card and lose their stick after a few days.

Step 5 – stick on your card front! This picture gives you the idea of how the card is stuck together:

Step 6 – you need to add something to the base of your card to make the ‘easel’, ie, to prop the front of the card on so it will stand upright. You want a finished card that works like this:

What can you use to prop up the card? It can be anything that is thick enough for the front layer to rest on and stay upright. This could be a button, a piece of thick ribbon, or a punched shape raised on dimensionals as I’ve used here. (Dimensionals are double sided sticky foam dots sold by Stampin’ Up! which add height to embellishments on your projects).

Here is an example of how I’ve used punches and dimensionals to make a “prop” for the easel card:

I’ve cut 3 large oval punches in brown card stock and stuck them to the card base. I’ve then stamped and punched a white ‘For you’ image and used dimensionals to stick it in the middle of the punched ovals to give some height to prop up the easel card.

You can also use plain ribbon if it is thick enough, like this:

Or a button, like this:

Note: if you use a button the card won’t sit quite as nicely when the front is closed.

Hopefully that all made sense – feel free to leave me a comment if you’d like me to explain anything!

[BTW: The red card in the pictures is one I made while I was writing this post so I could take photos and demonstrate the steps. I broke my own rules and stuck the square piece on before I decorated it, so I could show you another way to prop the card up. I now have to figure out how to decorate the front!)

Thanks for reading – I hope you enjoy making your own easel card. Or if you have tips on how I can make mine differently I’d love for you to share them!

Caro x

Simple scallop frame with punches

06 Tuesday Aug 2013

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

≈ 1 Comment

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Punches, tutorial

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

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

Punch – and voila! A gorgeous little scallop border.

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

≈ 1 Comment

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baby cards, cards, Punches, scraps

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.

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:

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

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

Caro

Another favourite card layout

26 Friday Jul 2013

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

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butterflies, card layout, scraps

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!

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

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:

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.

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

Peg magnets

28 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by Carolyn in 3D projects, Beautiful Butterflies, Blossom Builder, Gift tags & wrapping, Notebooks, Tutorial, Using up scraps

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3D, DSP, gifts, pegs, scraps

Here is another idea I borrowed from the very talented Tanya Bell’s blog – this time, making magnets or paper holders out of pegs covered with DSP.

These are so easy to do! Step one, measure the size of your peg (cheap wooden pegs are the best). Step 2, cut out lots of strips of DSP (this is such a great way to use up tiny little pieces you couldn’t figure out what to do with but couldn’t bear to throw away!). Step 3, stick onto the peg! Snail adhesive works well but starts to lose its “stick” after a few months so double sided tape like Sticky Strip is best.

I turned my pegs into magnets by sticking some magnets onto the back side of the peg. One tip I learned here – if you want to use the peg as a magnet, either don’t decorate the reverse of the peg, or definitely use sticky strip to adhere the DSP to the paper. Snail adhesive is not strong enough to keep the DSP stuck to the peg once it is stuck on the fridge with a magnet!

Here are a bunch of pegs with the DSP stuck on, waiting to be decorated.

And here are a bunch more, after being decorated with butterflies, birds and flowers. I’ve used die cut and punched butterflies, the bird from the Stampin’ Up! bird builder punch, and various flower punches. Pearls and rhinestones can add some added ‘bling’.

They can look quite cute packaged up in cellophane bags for a small gift for someone.

Adding some pegs with a little covered notebook (see yesterday’s post) can also look really cute.

So next time you finish a project and have a thin piece of DSP left over, why not turn it into a cute little peg fridge magnet?

Covered mini notebooks

27 Monday May 2013

Posted by Carolyn in 3D projects, Notebooks, Tutorial, Uncategorized, Using up scraps

≈ 3 Comments

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3D, DSP, notebooks, scraps

Hi. Thanks for stopping by my blog!

I wanted to show you another cute use for some bits and pieces of DSP (designer series paper) or other pretty scrap paper you have lying about.

I got this idea from the very talented Tanya Bell, who posted some gorgeous covered notebooks, as well as a YouTube tutorial on how she made them. I get a lot of inspiration from Tanya’s blog, so encourage you to check it out.

I made mine a little differently, but the basic idea is the same. I bought some little notebooks from a $2 shop (I think I got 8 little books for $3?). Rather than covering the books just with DSP like Tanya’s tutorial, I wanted to make the cover a little sturdier so covered it with card stock first and then decorated with rectangles of DSP.

To make the card stock cover, I measured the size of the width of the front of the notebook and added 2mm on either side. This is the width of the card stock you’ll need to cut. To figure out the length you need to:

1 – measure the length of the front of your notebook (eg 8cm) and double it (ie, 16cm)

2 – measure the depth of the notebook (ie, the size of the ‘spine’) (eg 0.5 cm)

3 – add 2mm overhang for the front and back (ie, 0.4cm)

The total length would be 1 + 2 + 3 (using the dimensions in my example, this works out to be 16.9cm)

You then want to score the length of the paper where the fold for the spine would be. (Using these example measurements, you would score at 8.2cm in from either side of the long end of the card stock, leaving a .5cm fold in the centre of the card stock which would go around the spine of your notebook.)

Fold and make sharp creases on the score lines. I use a bone folder to get a really nice crease line.

Attach the card stock to the front and back covers of the notebook and stick down over the spine. You can use glue (eg Snail adhesive) to do this, but I found that using Sticky Strip (Stampin’ Up!’s uber strong double sided tape) gives a stronger hold.

To decorate the cover I used some leftover DSP and the snail image from the Button Buddies stamp set, with a button on the snail attached with a glue dot.

I have made these notebooks with all sorts of decorations. Butterfly punches can make them look especially gorgeous!

I have also used DSP and various punches and stamps to decorate plain spiral notebooks. These are super easy – just measure the front of the spiral notebook just to the edge of the spiral, then cut and glue on the DSP.

I decorated these ones with the Stampin’ Up! Blossom punch in Daffodil Delight card stock, and I used the wings from the Bird Builder punch to create leaves. A 1 inch circle punch made the centre of the flower and a cute button in Daffodil Delight finished it off.

These are so easy to make I hope you have a go. I’d love to see a photo of anything you make!

Thanks for reading

Caro

Gift card holders using envelopes and scraps

23 Thursday May 2013

Posted by Carolyn in 3D projects, Gift card holders, Gift tags & wrapping, Tutorial, Using up scraps

≈ 2 Comments

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gift card holders, gift cards, scraps, stampinup, tutorial

You may be sensing a theme here – but yes, here is another post on how I’ve been using up scrap pieces of DSP I can’t bring myself to throw away.

Today’s idea is a gift card holder made out of an envelope. I’ve used the Stampin Up Whisper White C6 envelopes here as they are nice and sturdy with a good sized flap. You could adapt the basic design to suit any envelope though.

I can’t remember where I got the original idea for this – somewhere on the internet I’m sure! It is really simple though and very effective for using up small bits of coordinating DSP.

Step 1: Take a envelope and fold it in half bringing the 2 short sides together. Score along the fold line to make a nice sharp crease. Then open it out again.

Step 2: Cut down the fold line on the envelope flap. I find it’s easier to make 2 cuts about 1mm apart – so you basically make a wide cut along the crease and discard the 1mm along the crease line.

Step 3: Lick, fold down and seal one half of the envelope. The other half will be the pouch for your gift card. These pictures show how it will look when decorated.

Step 4: Decorate!!! I also like to add a belly band made of a strip of DSP and some scallop circle/circle punches.

If you want to go the extra step it is also quite cute to use tag punches and (more!) scraps of DSP to make little name tags/gift cards. You could also use the Stampin Up jewellery punch.

I’ve also made these gift card holders for birthdays out of floral DSP for pretty feminine gift card holders, out of stripes for masculine gifts and fun spots with cute animal stamps for kids and babies.

UPDATED 26/5 – I found some pictures of some gift card holders I’ve made out of pretty florals.

I always feel slightly guilty in giving a gift card rather than a personalised present, but making a nice personalised gift card holder makes me feel much better!

I hope you enjoy making these – they are so easy but really effective. If any of the instructions aren’t clear leave me a comment and I’ll try and answer.

Thanks for reading 🙂

Caro

Caro's Pretty Things

~ My papercraft blog

Category Archives: Tutorial

Scallop envelope gift box

Rudolph sweet treats

Punch art Santa hat

Easel cards part 2

Simple scallop frame with punches

My favourite baby card

Another favourite card layout

Peg magnets

Covered mini notebooks

Gift card holders using envelopes and scraps

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