A Little BLAH BLAH BLAH…

Posted by Jen | ABC Friday, Tutorials | Friday, July 30, 2010

Pardon me as I dig myself out of my sorrow of not being at CHA and my current obsession with getting a Cricut Expression so that I can make and create with SVG files. I could go on and on and on and on, but let’s get on with it… :)

A *few* of you commented and hunted me down {wink} via email to ask me for more details on the ice cream cone card on Julee’s blog hop. Here’s a few “how to” pics to help explain…

Cut 3 small scallop circles {these are much bigger than I used on the card, just for this tutorial}…
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Cut off an equal amount from one side {”the bottom”}…
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Score down the center of each of the circles…
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Adhere circles together to create the “scoop” of ice cream…
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Put glue over area you would like to have glitter/sprinkles and dip into glitter {so you don’t get glitter everywhere!}…
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Ta-dah!…
ic8

So, I still didn’t have a lot of BLAH BLAH BLAH to go along with this post, but I hope it helped! See you tomorrow for another great sponsored SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY!

Learned Something New ~ A Tutorial…

Posted by Jen | Tutorials, cards | Wednesday, February 24, 2010

That’s what I love about this industry…you are able to learn something new {almost} everyday. Sometimes it’s can be something simple, sometimes it’s something really cool and other times you smack yourself on the forehead and say, “Why didn’t I think of that before!?” Well, the other day I was at Scrapper’s Boutique, my local scrapbook store where I work and teach, and the owner showed me this cool technique that she had done on chipboard with glitter and Diamond Glaze/Crystal Effects. It was one of those “Wow this is cool AND why didn’t I think of that?” moments, so I thought that I would share.

I’m actually going to start with the finish product/project and work my way to the details. This is the card that I made with the letter S having the Glazed Glitter technique {that’s just the name I came up with, call it what you will} applied…

susicard

By the way, the paper that I used might just be my new favorite. It’s the Quite Contrary line from My Mind’s Eye. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I got picked mine up from Emma’s Paperie.

Here’s a detail shot of the S tag on the card…

susicard_detail

This technique is really quite simple, but I thought that I would show the step outs on how it is done. It’s so much easier to show things in pictures instead of trying to “show” them just in words. I wish I had the time to make more tutorials. Maybe this is a start! ;)

Supplies needed: chipboard or thick cardstock die cut, Diamond Glaze/Crystal Effects, fine glitter, adhesive to apply glitter {the MS glitter glue that came with the glitter is shown}.
supplies

Apply adhesive to your chipboard. NOTE/TIP: I used a foam brush to ensure that I got a thin, even layer over the entire piece. Generously sprinkle glitter and shake off excess…
sprinkleglitter

glitterapplied

Apply Diamond Glaze/Crystal Effects over the top of the glitter…
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ceapplied

Allow to dry thoroughly and then attach to project.

Here are a couple more detail shots of the S. Pictures really don’t do it justice! It’s so smooth, shiny and glittery all at once. I really wish that I would have learned this before Valentine’s day so I could have done it on hearts on Valentine projects. I’m pretty sure that I will be doing this on just about everything that needs a little bling!
s_dry

s-on-tag_detail

So what do you think? Pretty cool, no? Let me know if you use this on any of your projects, as I would love to see what you come up with, too.

The Book, The Box and The Template…

Posted by Jen | ABC Friday, Tutorials, projects | Friday, February 20, 2009

First, I have to wish Tony a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! XOXO

WOW! I was amazed at the response here and through email about the Copic/Alcohol Ink book that I shared with you last Friday. You can read that post HERE. For those of you that are interested in purchasing a book, please EMAIL ME {link under my pic} with “Coloring Book” in the subject line. The books are $10 each and S/H will be $2 for those within the US. If you are outside of the US, I will have to get back to you on the shipping. I accept Paypal. Please note that all books ordered by Monday will ship on Tuesday. Here is a picture of the cover of the book published by Design Originals {click HERE to see the info page on their site}…
book_cover

Yesterday, I showed you a couple cards from the upcoming The Cat’s Pajamas release {Feb. 27} and today I get to show you one of my favorite projects that I have done with this release…a mini gable box. You can make 2 of these out of a sheet of 8.5″ x 11″ paper…talk about easy mass production. These are very easily personalized and embellished. For this project, I just used a rectangle Nestabilities die to cut out the window in the front, but I think it would darling with the Labels 1 dies or even stars!

gablebox

I am guessing that I will get a handful of people asking me how I Cuttlebugged this project. I embossed the box from either side and left the bottom of the box un-embossed.

YES, YES, YES…I did a template for you! :) Click for a larger view
Please note that this is for PERSONAL use only. THANK YOU!
minigableboxtemplate

Enabler Alert! Cool Product Find…

Posted by Jen | ABC Friday, Tutorials, product finds, projects | Friday, August 1, 2008

Back in June when Susan and I ventured to the Great American Scrapbook Convention, we stopped by the Inky Antics booth. Of course they had their slew of adorable stamps, and Jackie was demonstrating coloring techniques. After admiring her coloring techniques and chatting with her for a minute, she pulled out a binding system. My mind automatically went into the “time consuming, bulky, difficult and expensive” mode. THEN she showed it off…and I bought it. LOL!! Turns out it’s not time consuming. I put together the book shown below in about 15 minutes {including cutting all the paper}. Not bulky at all! It can easily fit into a desk drawer! Difficult…nope. I’m pretty sure my mom could figure this out {hi Mom!}. Expensive…about $30…that’s $30 less than the Bind-It-All that I have {collecting dust}.

**Note…I do not see this on the Inky Antics site, nor do I know where else it is being sold. HERE is the customer service page if you wish to contact them. :) HERE is what I found trying to do a search with the product name/manufacturer {Carl Manufacturing Co. Ltd.}.

ETA: HERE is the link for the Inky Antics page that has this product.
Also, Taylor is also going to be selling these by the start of next week on her online store, Taylored Expressions! YAY!!!

**I checked to see if the BIA coils will work with this. It looks like it will be a very tight squeeze, but if you really wanted it to work, you could do it. You would have to hand squeeze them, tho.
**My chipboard is very thin. It was actually part of paper packaging.
**I do not know if it will need replacement blades. I imagine it’s more like a punch that can be sharpened with foil after several uses
.

Let’s put a little book together, shall we?

First, pics of the product…
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On this pic, the paper placement flap is folded under…
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I put together a book using thin chipboard, vellum cardstock {as dividers} and 60 sheets of copy paper all cut to 4.25″ x 5.5″. Please note that I said THIN chipboard. This is not made to go through the thick stuff.
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View of me lifting up where you slide the paper under to line it up. This is magnetic, so your paper won’t slide…YAY!
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Thin chipboard is all lined up…
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Flip down the flap that is used to line up paper. You can see the chipboard now hanging over the edge, ready to be punched.
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The punch is slid on and lined up in the grooves, ready to punch!
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Holey Holes…
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All done with one, now onto the rest…
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Not shown… A cool feature that the punch has is a plastic “catch” for all the punched pieces. Easy peasy clean up!

The book and the coil {which comes in MANY different colors} ready to get hitched…
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Here we go round and round…
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Viola {15 minutes start to finish!}…
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Are you saying, “Um, that doesn’t look done to me!” Well, I just wanted to show off the product today. You can add DP before or after punching. If you add it after, you will have that “seam” where the binding is. I am sure that I will be getting a couple of questions in regards to this product and I will be editing this post to answer those. Also, I am going to try to give IA a call and find out if you can order these through them.

Template and A Tease…

Posted by Jen | Tutorials, projects | Monday, June 23, 2008

Happy Monday! I have created a template to go along with the project from Friday. Remember this one? ;)

mft_june08_cardtrifold_outside_cover.jpg

More pics are in Friday’s post HERE.
Here is the template. Just as a friendly reminder, this is for personal use, not personal gain ONLY. Thank you!!

Click on thumbnail for a larger view…
crisscrosstrifoldtemplate.JPG

As I told you yesterday, I have been asked to blog this week on the JustRite Stamper’s blog. Here’s a teaser pic from my blog post today on the JustRite Stamper’s blog. Let me know what you think of the “big picture.” ;)

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