Friday Find…..Of A Different Kind ~ Part 2

Continuing with my shots for Rinda’s Summertime Photo Scavenger Hunt.

Given the chance I love to hang my washing out on the line, but the opportunities for that have been few and far between this Summer. I like the contrast of the red brick and the blue sky. So much so, I seem to have focussed on the wall not the clothes!

I also took the opportunity to capture a shadow shot, while the sun was out, although it probably won’t be my final entry. There’s still time. I’m hoping for an Indian summer so that I get a chance to wear my lovely new maxi dress, seen hanging here.

I seem to have snuck into this one.

That’s it for now. I’ll share a few more shots over the next two Fridays and my final run down on the 21st September. It will be back to my usual kind of finds after that.

Tomorrow is Stampin’ Up Saturday around here and then it’s over to Sian’s place for Storytelling Sunday. Enjoy your weekend.

Simple Gift Card Tutorial

The card itself may be very simple, but photographing the stages and putting it into words…..not so much!

I needed something to present a gift card in and a birthday card in a hurry recently. This little project was born out of that necessity, as it serves both purposes. There are many beautiful examples of gift card holders to be found around the web, but they all seemed overly complicated to construct. I wanted something very quick.
I watched this video tutorial on Jennifer McGuire’s blog and that was my starting point. It was fairly close to what I had in my head and with a few changes I made it work for me. Not everyone is a scrapbooker (No! Really?) and won’t necessarily have 12” x 12” paper to hand and my modified design can be made with A4 card.

You will need:

• One piece of 8 1/2” x 4 1/4 card
• Two pieces of 6” x 4” heavy weight patterned paper or light card
• One piece of 4” x 4” heavy weight patterned paper or light card

Score the two larger pieces of patterned paper at 4” and the card at 4 1/4”. My paper is double sided but it doesn’t need to be. I’m scoring on the reverse, because I prefer to fold away from the ‘valley’. I think it gives a cleaner look.

Fold both pieces as shown. The sections with the larger pattern on are the two you will be gluing together, to form the pocket for your gift card.

Put a line of glue around the edge of your patterned paper (as shown by the orange line on the copy paper) and press together firmly. You could use double sided tape here. The width of my tape meant it would be a very tight squeeze to get the card in and I prefer the ‘wriggle room’ that using wet glue gives me.
To make it easier to get the card back out, I cut a half circle from the top edge of my pocket, using a 3/4” circle punch.

Glue the finished pocket piece inside the back of the card, just to the right of the fold. Next put some glue on the front of the paper section and close the card to stick it down. Add the 4 x 4” paper to the front and decorate as you like.

A few observations:

• It takes around eight times as long to put together a tutorial on making a gift card holder as it does to make a gift card holder.
• I prefer to work in inches on paper crafting projects, although I was taught in metric throughout my entire school life.
• Card comes in A4 size in the UK, which is different to the US 8 1/2” x 11” format, but not by much.*
• If I can alter a project to avoid the use of a craft knife, I will.

* By cutting a 4” strip across the width of A4, you’ll end up with a finished card that is not quite square. I don’t mind this as it’s less wasteful and I just trim 1/8” from one side of the 4 x 4” piece of paper, to make the borders equal on the front.
With any luck this will all make sense, but if you have any questions just shout.

What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday #169

…..or tales from the kitchen table.

A bit of early morning crafting going on here. I grabbed the opportunity before there were children wanting to eat breakfast. Pushed to the back, the remains of last night’s ‘kitting’ session. At the front, the beginnings of a birthday card, featuring my favourite way to make butterflies right now.

My next job is to photograph the stages of putting together a simple gift card holder, but the light is very poor here at the moment. The tutorial should be up tomorrow for those lovely people that wanted to know how I made it. I’m off to Julia’s place first though, to browse a few desks while I drink my tea. See you there.

Stampin’ Up Saturday ~ Reason to Smile #3

I’m back after my little break and I’ve a simple gift card holder for you this week using the smallest stamps in the Reason to Smile set.

You may remember that I mentioned this is a 2-Step stamp set. The stamps are intended to be used in pairs, which I haven’t shown up until now as the designs work so well individually. I randomly stamped the solid in Calypso Coral and then stamped the outline over the top in the same colour.

You can do this by eye, for an arty look, or to line them all up more accurately then the Stamp-a-ma-jig comes in very handy. Stamp the outline onto the clear sheet and put that over your already stamped solid. Put the tool in place, slide in your stamp block and hey presto, the two images are perfectly aligned.

I randomly stamped the inside with the outline stamp and used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to place a sentiment in Soft Suede on the front. You could of course use patterned paper for a much quicker result. There’s a flap to hold the giftcard safely in place and it’s very easy to put together. I’ll do a tutorial next week, if anyone is interested.

Details of all the products I’ve used and the special offer bundle can be found here and as always you can contact me on angelfishcrafts{at}gmail{dot}com.

Don’t forget if there is anything you fancy from the Summer Mini, then you only have until the end of this month to order. Some items will carry over into the new catalogue, due out on the 1st October, but some, including that lovely pleated ribbon, will be gone for good

Next week I can start showing you all the lovely new ‘seasonal’ goodies that will be available from September 1st. I’m not sure I dare say the ‘C’ word just yet!

Friday Find…..

…..of a different kind.

We spent a lovely, if rather damp, week in Derbyshire and this was what marked the boundary of our campsite. A beautiful BORDER of dry stone walls and wild flowers.

We arrived home on the Monday afternoon and I had to get up early on Tuesday morning to catch this TRAIN. It took me to Exmouth to see two gorgeous girls, that I was lucky enough to share my college years with. Happy days.

As you may already have worked out these shots are brought to you courtesy of the lovely Rinda’s Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt 2012.

I’ll be back tomorrow with Stampin’ Up Saturday. Hope to see you there.

What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday? #168

It’s been a couple of weeks since I joined in with the desk hopping madness. The Mechanic has some time off work and I’ve had a little break from blogging in general. We had a wonderful week in Derbyshire, despite the terrible weather and are now home again and helping The Inlaws to downsize to a bungalow.

I needed a couple of gift card holders come birthday cards for my niece and a friend’s daughter. The makings of those can be seen on my kitchen table today.

Head on over to Julia’s place for the low down on why I’m sharing my desk today.

Stampin’ Up Saturday ~ Reason to Smile #2

I’ve got a very quick and simple card to share with you this week, using the Reason to Smile set. I hope I’m not boring you to death with this colour scheme, but I love it.

This stamp is designed to work with the one I used for the focal image on the mini milk carton last week. The idea being that you stamp the colours using this one and add the outline over the top. Also known as Two-Step Stampin’.

I was after more of a water colour effect for this card, so I just used the solid stamp. By squeezing the case gently before opening, ink is transferred into the lid. This can then be picked up with a blender pen and used to colour the rubber.

Add a sentiment and some pretty ruffled ribbon and you’re good to go. Simple.

Moving on to beach huts. A couple of folk asked for a tutorial to make these….

I used the Mini Milk Carton die from SU to make the base of mine, but it is possible to construct a milk carton yourself by cutting and scoring a piece of cardstock. There is a great tutorial by Beate Johns here if you’d like to have a go. Mine is smaller with the ‘wall’ panels being 4 x 5 cm, the roof 4 x 3 and the base 4 x 4cm.

To get the plank effect I ran the cut and scored card through my Big Shot with the Stripes embossing folder. I did that twice to cover the roof and walls, no need to worry about the base. If you don’t have that embossing folder, a scoring tool and ruler would give you a similar result.

I cut a door, 2.5 x 3.5cm, in a contrasting colour and embossed the ‘planks’ in the other direction. The little heart came from the Owl Builder punch and adds a nice finishing touch. I made the mini bunting by using just the tip of the Pennant Builder to punch the shapes and strung them on baker’s twine.

The beach hut colours are Pear Pizazz, Baja Breeze and Blushing Bride.The pink and green will be retiring soon, as will these lovely pleated ribbons. They are only available until the end of this month, so if you’d like some it’s your last chance to get hold of them. It’s £5.95 for 1 metre of each colour including UK P+P.

For all the details of the products I used for the birthday card, see last weeks Reason to Smile post and don’t forget the special offer, which is still available. As always you can contact me at angelfishcrafts{at}gmail{dot}com

I’m taking a short blogging break, so there won’t be a Stampin’ Up Saturday next week and I’ll probably be incommunicado between the 13th and 20th. If I don’t answer your email, I’m not being rude, just have no wifi access!

Hoping the sun will shine on us and you next week, wherever you are in the world.