No Time To Stamp?

Well, we just upoaded my last post for this week of Guest Blogging over at the JustRite Blog!!   And I must say, my last project is a FUN one!!!  Here’s a little sneak peek:

You can go on over to the JustRite Blog to see the entire project with instructions!  And they also just listed a HUGE SALE.  You can click here  and also here to read all those fun details!!!  What a great time to stock up on supplies!!!

And I also just posted our Stamp Simply Challenge for this week.  It is one post down, so hope you can check it out - it’s a fun one!!!

As always, thanks for checking in — have a great weekend coming up!!!

Keyword ssnotime61 - There is no time limit. You can play this challenge and upload your project at Splitcoast and/or your Blog, anytime at all!  You (and that means anyone and everyone, blogger or not!) can play as many times as you like!!!  The point is to keep it simple, quick and have fun!!!  Please link back here.

For today’s challenge we are going to make some Fun Folds.  You are to make a card with any type of fold at all, OTHER THAN the standard top or side fold.  You can find examples of folds by checking out the SCS tutorials in the Resources section.  Try to photo the card so we can clearly see your fold.  Also, check out all of our designers listed below to see what they’ve come up with for inspiration.  This is a fun one — and you MAY do pocket cards if you like - you may do ANYTHING out of the normal everyday side or top fold card.  HAVE FUN!!! 

Again,  please bear with us all on Thursday night as we are uploading.  All samples should be here by Friday morning.  Thanks!

Check out Cathy Tidwell’s sample here.

Check out Julie Koerber’s sample here.

Check out Jennifer Buck’s sample here.

Check out Janine Orchard’s sample here.

Check out Tammy Hershberger’s sample here.

Check out AJ Otto’s sample here.

Becky Oehlers has visitors this week — have fun, Becky!

Dee Jackson is taking a much need break — get some rest, Dee!

You can see all Gallery Submissions here.

Are those great samples or what!!!!  Thank you girls!!!  Much appreciated!!!  

Here’s my project for today’s challenge:

This is my Tied Envelope Card.  Does anyone out there remember when packages in the mail were wrapped in brown paper and tied with string?  Or when a bundle of letters would be saved and likewise tied with a string or ribbon?  Oh, such a mysterious and romantic thought, don’t you think?  As far as I’m concerned, there is something to be said about having to untie a ribbon to get to the inside of a card – extending the wonder and excitement of what words may lie inside.  My blue panel behind the felt snowflake was just smooshed into a glue pad then covered with Dazzling Diamonds.  This card would look great also if that square were done with Iridescent Ice EP or done with the Cracked Glass Technique.  That’s what I really wanted to do, but time was really short!

Here’s the inside.  It is made by scoring at 1.5″ and 5.5″. The snowflake panel is attached to the top flap with mounting tape, but the ribbon has to be properly placed first.  Also, I used red line tape to adhere the ribbon to the underside of the snowflake panel, and then I used a little velcro dot on the flap to keep it down nicely.  It took 22″ inches of ribbon.  I do like this style card and will be making more - fun!!! And by using my felt for the focal image, no stamping required!!!

Stamps:  Many Merry Messages for inside sentiment   Paper:  White, Baja Breeze, Ski Slope DP   Ink:  Black   Accessories:  Felt Flurries, Taffeta Ribbon, Ticket Corner Punch, Glue Pad, Dazzling Diamonds, A Muse Twinkle Stickers, Mounting Tape, Red Line Tape, Velcro Dot

Thank you so much for checking in today!  Hope you can find some time to try out a Fun Flap card.  It’ll be fun to see what everyone comes up with!!! Hoping you are all having a great weekend. I am super busy as I have some special projects lined up for next week with the Holidays in mind — so be sure to check back soon.  I’ll be doing some quick, flat Christmas cards as well.   Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Grandma had a button box, Stampin’ Up! has the Pretties Kit, and now Stamp Simply has a Bare Necessities Box!  Talk about fun to make and put together!!!   I created this project for a fun *Girlfriend Gift*, and following will be a complete tutorial so you can make one, too — if anyone so desires!!!  This is one of those gifts that is as much fun for the giver as for the recipient!!!  I had so much fun filling up my little boxes!!!  Take a look:

Five small boxes within a sturdy, recycled box base, filled to the brim with fun things for your crafty girlfriend.  A kit filled with any crafter’s Bare Necessities!!!  And the fun Girlfriend card to give with this gift is a Joy Fold Card, another fun project!!!  I’ll show you a few more pictures, then we’ll get down to the nitty gritty of how to make a Bare Necessities Box for yourself.

Here’s a peek inside!!! Ooh, I just smile looking at this!!!  I’ll try to contain myself, but honestly, this was THE most fun project I think I have EVER done!!!  I SO love all these type of things.  Hope the recipient does, too!!!  Lush ribbons, pretty buttons, vintage/recycled pieces of lace, satin flowers and all sorts of pretties — pearls, pins, crystals and charms!

Here’s the Joy Fold Card — so fun to do!!! A great tutorial on this Joy Fold Card, complete with all measurements, can be found at SCS in this tutorial written by Beate — thank you, Beate!!!  This is a quick and fun fold that packs a lot of punch with very little effort!

In this shot I’m just trying to let you see how the card functions!

Here’s the card opened fully.  This fun girlfriend sentiment, as well as the girlfriend greeting on the front, are in a set called Glamour Girls by Crafty Secrets.  I got mine from Joan’s Garden.  And now that you’ve seen the completed card, here’s how I did it:

The card base is 4.25″ x 8.5″, and using my Mini Scor-it, I scored at 3″, so when folded my card base is 4.25″ x 5.5″, a standard sized card.  The smaller card that will be on top is cut 3″ x 8″ and scored at 4″.   That’s it.   Add your DP and assemble as shown in photos or, better yet, refer to Beate’s tutorial linked above.  Can you see my scalloped top (Martha Stewart Scallop Punch) ?  The DP is attached with double sided tape to a piece of SU cardstock — so it is quite thick, but I scored the embossed line above the scallops on my Mini Scor-It without any problems whatsoever — a beautiful embossed line — just a subtle detail, but it’s all the little details that produce a great end result.  Here’s a close-up:

Can you see the detail?  I love it! I think adding a bit of embossing with the Scor-It or Mini Scor-It adds so much, with so little effort!  If you’re not in the habit of scoring lines for embossed detail — give it a try — I think you’ll like it!!!  And, oh YES, my pretty pin!!  This post will be continued tomorrow, and tomorrow I will share information on sources for these beauties!!! And the *Necessities* monogram was done with JustRite products, discussed further down!  Fun!!!   OK, now on to the details for making the Bare Necessities Box.

We’re going to start by covering a recycled box base.  The box I used was 7.25″ square.  And I know many of you may actually HAVE this same box at home.  It is the base only of the box containing the Harmony Circle Stamper III Ensemble.  As you look at the pictures below, my box is pure white and your box will have the graphics of the JR product on it — but it’s the same box.  When I got my Ensemble it was a prototype and just came in the plain box — that’s all!  OK, now to cover our box:

Start by measuring how tall the sides are on  your box.  My box has sides a little over an inch tall.  I wanted to cut my paper about 3 times the height of the sides, so I cut my paper so I had 3″ wide strips.  Then cut your strips as long as the sides of the box - in this case, 7.25″.  Cut 4 strips and then score them right down the middle lengthwise, which for this strip was at 1.5″.  I am using the Scor-It, and as you’ll see above, I am scoring with the paper upside down.  I want the brown side to be the right side — so I want the valley side of the fold on the right side — and to do that I must score with the right side down/wrong side up.

Here’s my 4 scored strips.  This is really an easy way to cover the box and get good corners without much fuss at all.  I cut 4 small pieces to cover the corners, as shown.  I also took a brown marker and colored on the top rim in the corner area – I’m just a bit paranoid about any white showing through - LOL!!! To adhere the paper to the box, my choice is Mod Podge.  I like it for covering projects as it sticks nice and tight and it never peels up  once adhered.  Its quick to work with, but can be a bit messy on your fingers.  But in my opinion it’s worth it for the nice result it yields. OK, once your corners are all covered, take one of the scored strips, lay it on the rim, as shown, and press it to the inside with your fingers and to the underside, tightly creasing both creases as you press.  Once you have formed it to the shape of the box with your fingers, take it off, you will probably have to clip out a bit at the lower inside corner where it goes along the box bottom, and then paint your Mod Podge over the inside of the strip, making sure to cover it all.  Then quickly adhere that strip to the box, again pressing with your fingers — but it’ll go right into place easily as you had already formed it before you had any glue on it.  Press to make sure all the air bubbles are out, then continue on to do the other 3 sides.

When you get the inside done, it’ll look like the box on the left above.  Cut a piece to fit on the inside, which in this case was slightly less than a 7.25″ square, cover the back of the piece with your Mod Podge and adhere in the box, again pressing out all air bubbles.   The 2nd photo shows the completed inside.

And here’s the outside after covering the sides, then after covering the bottom.  In this case, I used a piece just about 7.25″ to cover the bottom.

And now that our box base is done, on to all the little boxes.  The measurements provided below are to fit the above-referred to box.  If you do this you may have a different sized box base you are using.  In tomorrow’s post I will teach you how to determine what sizes you need to cut your paper and where you need to score, for whatever size boxes you need to make.  Please check back tomorrow if that’s something you’d like help with.

All specific measurements for each of the 5 boxes will be listed at the end of this post.  The process is the same for all of them.  Once your box is cut and scored (see measurements below), cut your slits as shown above and apply adhesive of your choice to the corners.  I have them marked with an X above. There is one major difference here from a normal box.  Normally you would adhere your corner tabs on the INSIDE of the box — NOT SO with this box. I want the insides of these boxes to be the nicest sides as that is what we see, so we are going to adhere our tabs on the OUTSIDE of our box, as shown in the photo above.

And here’s a pic of all the boxes in the base.  You can see they are not squeezed in there super tight as I still needed room to attach my labels and I also wanted them to be loose enough that I could easily removed any filled box without a struggle, and I can.  I have also shown my labels partially done.  They are made using the Damask Border Starter Kit I by JustRite, but I used a different font rather than the font in the Kit.  I chose the Special Occasions font for my labels, which can be purchased separately. I used markers to color my Initials and my borders - Real Red and Chocolate Chip — to go along with the the SU Bella Rose DP I’m using.  Once stamped I cut, embossed and framed them using my Petite Circle Nestabilites by Spellbinders.  But this photo does not show the finished label.  If you’ll refer to the finished Bare Necessities Box, you’ll see that I also added a pink scallop framing behind the brown solid matting.  The label as seen above was adhered to the inside of the box and I then adhered the pink scalloped framing to the outside of the box — just gives a more finished look.  And can you see how/why I decorated my labels as I did?  I wondered if anyone would ever get this — R for Ribbon, B for Button, L for Lace, F for Flowers and P for Pearls, Pins and Pretties!!!  (Cute, huh? LOL!!!)

Here’s another front view of the completed Bare Necessities Box.  My Necessities label on the box front was made with the same Special Occasions Font mentioned above and the Small Letter Set for Round Monogram Stamper.  Rather than placing my letters in the round border formation you so often see, I just placed them in the center grid and got a straight word.  I stamped my Necessities first, and then I stamped the N over it. And I’ll wrap it up here with the measurements for each individual box.

One thing that makes these boxes so easy, is that they are all scored exactly the same - 1″ from each edge.  I put my guide/stopper at 1″ so scoring all these boxes was an effortless breeze.  Once scored, cut slits on the score lines as show in this photo and photo up higher in this post, adhere tape to corners and tape.  Remember, as I said above, for this project adhere you corner tabs on the OUTSIDE of the box.  You’ll be done with this project before you know it!!!!

Ribbon Box - Cut paper 5 x 7 - Score 1″ from all 4 edges

Button Box - Cut paper 4 1/8 x 5 - Score 1″ from all 4 edges

Lace Box - Cut paper 6 x 6 - Score 1″ from all 4 edges

Flower and Pretties Boxes - Cut paper 3 15/16 x 4 15/16 - Score 1″ from all 4 edges

These are just so quick and fun to make and could serve any number of purposes.  I hope you get creative and come up with some more fun things to fill up a box you might make!!!  If you’d like to read more about the Scor-It, they have a lot of good info on the Scor-It site.  To purchase either the full sized Scor-It or the Scor-It Mini, you do need to go through a retailer.  My friend Joan over at Joan’s Garden just got her order of Scor-It’s in, I know Ellen Hutson usually has them in stock (listed under Tools), and Marco’s Paper also carries the Scor-It Boards.  These are all great places to deal with!  And if you have any gifts to buy for crafters in your family or circle of friends, consider a Scor-It — I think you’d make someone VERY happy!!!

Thank you for bearing with me though this LONG post.  It will be continued tomorrow with information on how to determine measurements for your own box, of any size, as well as information on the pretty pins I’ve used.   It’s super easy!!!  Thanks for stopping in and I hope to see you all again tomorrow!!!  Have a great day!!!

There’s been several things that I haven’t done in ages — boxes and accordion fold cards.  Thought I would start today by doing an accordion fold card — love these!!! They are so fun to make, to give, and for the recipient to display!!!  And yes, I must admit, I was dying to use up that sheet of Penny Black stickers I started the other day, so — here you have it — almost all of the stickers (just a few left) and a few stamped sentiments.  Here it is:

I’d like to start with how I made and scored the card base.  Cut 2 pieces of cardstock for your card base — one is 5 x 11 and the other is 5 x 7.  I used my Mini Scor-It  for this project, but the full size Scor-It would work just as well. 

Starting with the 11″ piece, score at 3.5″, flip the paper over to the other side, and put your score line on the 3.5″ ruler marking and score, then flip the paper over again, putting the last score line on the 3.5″ ruler marking and score — you will have 1/2″ left over, and that’s correct.  Now, take the 7″ piece and score it in the center at 3.5″.  (The reason we are flipping that first sheet is because we want each score to fold the way it is supposed to, and with an accordion fold, each one folds the opposite way — so we need to flip the paper over — is that clear??  When you look at your score — one side is dented in and one side is humped out — see?  OK, the side that is dented in is the side that is on the OUTSIDE of the fold.)  Here are the sheets once the scoring is done:

It’s really hard to see on this purple paper, but on that 1/2″ strip, can you see the strip of red line sticky tape?  Well, just adhere the 2 pieces together as shown in the photo and your card base will be done, ready for decorating!  Now each panel  of the card is 5 x  3.5″, so I’ve cut my plum colored mats at 4.75 x 3.25, and the white panels 1/8″ smaller.  Here’s a close-up of the first 3 panels:

• Stamps:  Penny Black Stickers.  SU Small Script and Small Sayings
• Paper:  SU Elegant Eggplant, Prism Plumish color, PTI White, Basic Grey DP.
• Ink:  Versa Fine Onyx Black.  Love is written with a black Copic fine tipped marker.
• Accessories:  Ribbon from Wal-Mart (gingham and velvet), SU Aged Copper Hodgepodge Hardware, White Pearls, Black Rhinestones by Kaiser, SU Black Brad, Cuttlebug Corner Dies, SU Photo Corner Punch, Long Rectangle Nestabilites and Petite Oval Nestabilities by Spellbinders, Red Sticky Tape.

And these are the last 2 panels.  Love was handwritten.  Hello is a sticker.

Quite some time ago I did a post comparing the Scor-It to the Scor-Pal.  That post generated a lot of interest, and especially interest in a brochure produced by the people at Scor-It.  It’s really an interesting brochure that teaches us a lot about paper, grain and scoring. I have an improved copy of that brochure which I am happy to email you — again, I just can’t figure out how to link it, but I’m happy to email it to anyone who would like to see it — just shoot me an email (click CONTACT ME on the left sidebar) and put SCOR-IT BROCHURE in your subject line and I’ll forward it to you right away.  And you may have to SAVE the brochure before opening it. It is a full color brochure with pictures, and saving before opening will usually insure you get to see it in it’s completed form.

I demoed both the full size Scor-It (pictured above) and mini Scor-It (pictured below) at our small SCS gathering last week.  The girls loved them, but the universal question was — which one do I need — big or small?  Well, that depends on what you do.   They both are exactly the same, work the same, constructed the same — the only difference is the size.  The full size Scor-it has a longer measuring ruler and bed (6″ on each side of center) as opposed to the shorter measuring ruler on the Mini (4.5″ on each side of center).   For instance, the way I make cards, I always cut my paper 11 x 4.25 and score it at 5.5 for a top fold, or tent fold, card.  I realize this is not the common fold for most people, but it is MY common fold.  I can not do this score on the Mini — I don’t have enough ruler to be able to score at 5.5″.  But I can easily do this on the full size Scor-It. 

The Scor-It Mini works wonderfully when you score a standard side fold card — you need to meausure in on the ruler 4.25″, and you can — so for most of you — the mini works wonderfully on how you do your cards.  The Mini worked great for my Accordion card today.  Just remember, the ruler on the mini is only, 4.5″ from each side of center, so beyond that, you would need to use a full sized board.  And if you like to pack up and go, the Mini is really small and easy to tote along!!!!  (Though the full sized one is not hard to bring along either!)

Whichever board you use, the full sized or mini, the superior score made is the same.  Although you can get a ton of info on these boards from the Scor-It site, I don’t believe they sell directly.  I found both boards at Ellen Hutson, and her service is exceptional!!!

Well, hope that was helpful to someone out there!!!  Love my score-boards!!!

Hoping you are all having a great week!!!  Our Stamp Simply Challenge will be up as scheduled tomorrow (Friday), so hope to see you then!!!!  Thanks for stopping in!!!