Hawaii birthday…

I have been a little slack posting but have been busy crafting (made 50 pairs of earrings this weeknd using my new 1 step looper) and going to a craft show. I have also had a couple of craft days with lovely friends, instead of crafting together we have changed the format so one teaches the other a new project. Such fun. Mine is going to be for mothers day so will post later.

My parents LOOOOOVE Hawaii.  Dad has also acquired many ukes and we now have some lovely Hawaiian friends from the uke circut. Dad’s birthday is coming up next week and I suspect uke 7 (I think) will be acquired from a special friend, and talented uke maker, Joe, owner (with the lovely Kristen) of Kanilea Ukulele.

I have made mini ukes (for the uke no. 2 that did not arrive in time for xmas), uke themed stepper cards and cards with every hawaiian islands sticker I can find in Brisbane.  All I could find this time was a 4 Hawaiian dancers.  But after the recent craft show doing stencilling I was inspired.

I cut the palm trees layers using my baby cricut and the stretch your imagination Cartridge, assembled.  I used the negative to stencil trees, using two shades of green for the leaves and two brown for the trunk so it looked like it had rings.  Layered on the cricut palm trees and coloured the palm leaves with copics to match.  Used some distress ink to create the sand,  added the hawaiin dances and voila!

Aloha,

Katrina

Quick wedding gift

I wanted to find something, not expensive to make or post but which would show some new overseas friends that we were thinking of them on their wedding day. Voila i found this great blog which is another variation to my congratulations decorated banner. Since I have used my stash of congratulations I thought perfect!

I raided my stash to find everything I needed except the right colour ring to join everything together and a crop a dile. But thats ok mum used to do leatherwork so dad will punch the holes for me. I was very impressed, in about 30 minutes I was done. This time included making a wedding card to include so they can see what to do with the gift.

Elegant on the outside and on the inside showing a little character of the bride (photographer) and groom (loves computer games, also a professional muso but that was too easy!). Phew I finally used that wedding scrapbooking paper I have had in the pile for 5 years and the vintage decoupage bride and groom.

Off to see dad to get the holes punched and buy a silver large ring.

Happy crafting,

Katrina

Everywhere I see christmas trees

So the family christmas card has been handmade by us for over 20 years.  Each year we must come up with  something a little better and a little different.  Yes there are expectations from those that receive them but it is also fun.  Sometimes I get an idea, sometimes mum likes bits and pieces she has seen in my cardmaking magazines.  Sometimes I need to do two designs as Dad decrees they are a bit cutesy for business use.  After quite a bit of playing around test designs were provided to the family for approval. Yes its serious business!

This year I was inspired by this tutorial on making a folded xmas tree from a half circle.  Great I though, I can use the cricut to cut the circles.   I was also keen to destash particularly brads.  I did have to buy some xmas paper with smaller designs but I did economise by choosing a pad which worked for these and our gingerbreads plus the 12 days of xmas tags I still need to make. 

Usually I split up the construction tasks between myself and mum but as I am not working and she is, its all me.  I have completed 1/4, 1/4 need some stamping, bases are 90% made for the balance of our 120 odd xmas cards.  A bit of stamping, colouring and attach our handmade stickers to the back and I will be done. Hope you like them.  I am quietly in love with every one.  

 

Happy crafting

Katrina

Electronic die cutting tip

OK I am currently cutting 85 sets of clothes for gingerbread decorations.  Took a little fiddling but have managed to get it right with my cricut so I do not have to cut by hand (phew!).

As I am not working at the moment but still wanting to get ahead with my Christmas crafts I am trying to be extra thrifty.  My big discovery… wait for it, 3m edge lock tape.   I might be behind the game but I have not seen this tip anywhere.

Use a 2 inch piece top and bottom of your paper (I have 6×12 inch matter so if you have a bigger one perhaps each corner) and if using chipboard each corner to hold in place.  Much better than glue sticking the mats and no more discarding once have been cut up badly.

Well back to it… only 65 sets to go..

Happy crafting

Katrina

Getting ready for christmas…

In September I pull out my christmas craft box – this has the carried forward craft items, U.F.O’s and any items I have bought on sale post christmas to make up for this year.  It also contains fronts of christmas cards saved from last year (I am also gifted these by family and friends).  So what do I do with these?

Post christmas I toss any damaged, marked, not my style type cards. The rest I rip apart and keep the fronts. I then look at these in September and look at which ones can be upcycled – framed designs are good, small ones can be used on cards as an element and bigger ones on gift bags. This I find is best done with a cup of tea, a small guillotine, a recycle bin at the ready and a big pair of scissors.

And, the craft box, well that will be another post but I am happy with what is in it.  Those will be future posts!
Happy crafting

Kat

Copics,

I have not understood what all the fuss has been about Copics. I have always just bought what is on special not even bothering to pay attention to colour. So when I needed to replace green and brown markers I decided to buy a few to see how they went.

I headed off to my local store with a colour card – showing each colour, brand and number so I did not double up should in my excitement I want to buy more! Do make yourself a colour card not only is it useful when you go to the store it is also great to remember what colour is which when colouring. Mine is a long off cut of white card slightly longer than a bookmark.

Well I was restrained ending up with two green (one shade difference), one brown and one purple. So when my mum requested a happy retirement card in 2 days for one of her staff I thought it would be good to try out the copics. She asked for a an A5 sized when folded card so it could be sent around work for signing, the recipient loves flowers and it should say happy retirement.

I stamped with some of my “free” stamps and set to colouring. It has been at least 2 years since I have coloured anything, technique needs work but they are vibrant, blend beautifully and a dream to use.

This card came together in an hour thanks to some pre-assembled flowers, sticky pearls, coordinating paper and an essential sentiments pad from Hunkydory.

Happy crafting

Kat

My entry into the Australian Simply Cards challenge

I decided it has been far too long since I have entered a competition, sent in a submission, participated in a swap or been published.  So, before christmas I noticed that Australian Simply Cards was running a competition with great prizes on offer, the rules were a little hard to work out but with the help of the lovely Judy who was also going to enter and got in touch with the magazine to clarify the rules we were on our way.

It was great to be challenged, you needed to have an advanced, intermediate and beginners card using embellishments, stamping and new techniques and using materials currently available so recent acquisitions only.  Oh dear I thought perhaps this was too challenging for my first go.  As I have blogged previously I love the effect of embossing on standard foil board and really don’t understand why more people aren’t using it so I decided this was to be my base inspiration.

I came up with three separate cards, two of which are shown below.

The first card is a reverse gatefold with a nine patch “right” and “wrong” way gold foil embossed base with Kaiser Craft flowers, brad and ribbon.  The reverse has coordinating kaisercraft paper and a silver foil embossed square with a velcro dot to hold the card closed.

The second one uses my beloved butterfly stamp, definitely not one that is still in production by many others are available on the market.   Using a rainbow stamp pad I stamped 4 butterflies and layered them up on some curled wire which I shaped into antennae’s and mounted on coordinating strips of embossed foil board.

Even though these were returned to me and I didn’t win I was very happy with the results.  It also made me realise that I have been so bewitched  with all the beautiful embellishments you can buy now and my die cutting machine that I had forgotten all about watermarking, embossing and all the stamps I own.  So I am off to have a stamping session – pulling out some of my old favourite stamps, stamping them with archival ink of watercolour paper ready for me to colour when I am next in need of some inspiration.

Happy crafting

Kat

How to use few of my favourite things ….

My crafty friend Helen discovered this great place to pick-up ends of run and offcut card and paper quite a few years ago called Reverse Garbage.  It was a great secret – buying wallpaper samples, stardream paper, card, cardboard tubes for $1-$2 per kg shared by ourselves, teaches and a few eco-artists.  The sustainability movement is gathering pace in Oz and this has now become a fashionable and widely known place and they even know have their own facebook page.

So when I saw these sparkly little items I rushed in to purchase some for myself and the crafty gals for Easter as I knew they would disappear off the shelf quite quickly.  Whilst it is disappointing to have less bargains than we used to, it is great to see so many other crafty people trying actively to reuse and repurpose items.

A bag of pretties is always hard for you to use but where to start?  I opened the bag sorted into colours and see what came to mind.  As I sorted they reminded me of pretty flowers and I remembered a craft friend had given me a stack of small flowers in pretty colours and I still have heaps of brads (I really must stop buying them).  Bingo!  Now just to design the card… the result, simple but beautiful.  All I had to add was a small strip of patterned paper on the inside to cover the back of the brads.

Happy crafting all.

Kat

How to get your mojo back…

As much as I love crafting sometimes I am lost for inspiration. At these times I have found it helpful to pull out one type of item out my stash or tools on my desk and force myself to use it before using anything else. I don’t have to make an entire card but I do need to at least make something which will eventually be used for a card.

Here is an idea to get you started:

Grab edging things e.g. ribbons, washi tapes, stickers, cut yourself some plain white card slightly smaller than your standard card. Start randomly using the items to create interesting backgrounds until you run out of card or your stash items. Put these aside until later.

Next time start with your decorated base cards and your embellishment of choice (purchased stickers, flowers, brads, stamped images etc) and add these to your backgrounds. Then attach your backgrounds to your base cards.

Not only do you use up stash items, force yourself to be a bit creative but you can make a large volume using similar materials. I usually aim for around 2 dozen or so finished cards. Below are some I made recently doing just this.

Other ideas are to look for things you haven’t played with for awhile be it some stamps (stamp these with archival ink onto blank card or watercolor paper ready for colouring later), emboss some offcuts, cut and fold some blank cards, layer up some embellishment ready for adhering (colored images, background paper, paper flowers with brads etc). Just remember you don’t have to make the whole card in one sitting. Sometimes it is fun just to work on one part and work out how to use it later.

Till next time.

Kat
P.S. sorry about the quality of the photo this time, it has been grey, wet and rainy here in not so sunny Brisbane.

Aloha! How to make a dress card

This is a little Hawaiian dress card that I made whilst playing around with making shaped cards. I had an idea that if I could cut a dress shape from a folded 4×6″ card and cut a dress from some pretty patterned 6×6″ paper it would look pretty neat. So I set to work, after a few attempts I have come up with a design I am happy with.

Below is the card flattened out in case you want to make one for yourself. It’s just a matter of cutting the neck, the dress sides and the sleeves. I have deliberately made these cuts a straight line to make it easy to cut out by hand. I always have trouble cutting a perfect curves by hand.

You can of course embellish the dress with ribbon, pearls and buttons. That was my original intention but when I saw the way this gorgeous patterned paper sat on the card once cut out it really didn’t need much other than a little yellow highlighting on each flower.

Happy crafting.

Kat