Archive for January, 2008:
Yahoo, it’s blog candy time folks!
Subscribe to the comments for this postHappily Ever After
Once upon a time there was a happy paper artist named Beth. She lived in a humble-sized condo, with a fabulous art studio. It was filled with lots of goodies, and had fabulous storage space.
Then, one day while Beth was pulling out a bottom drawer, the drawer above came tumbling down. “Oh, shoot,” she said. “I better fix this so Donnie doesn’t know what I did.” Well, no matter what she did another drawer would fall. And then another and another. “Oh brother, I wonder how I created this problem” she muttered to herself. She didn’t know if she should be angry, or worried. So, two days later she gathered enough strength to tell her dear Donnie. “Donnie” she said in a low voice, “somehow my drawers to my unit in the studio fell apart.” Quick as a jack rabbit, Donnie ran into the room and tried to fix the problem. After some time, he decided he needed to call the carpenter who built this massive unit, complete with 4′ x 4′ drawers and 12″ x 8″ storage compartments. With broken drawers, Beth continued to work in the studio all through the Christmas holidays, when all of a sudden, the carpenter called to say he was coming out. “Great” she thought, “when I get back from teaching my card class, my drawers will be back in place.” With an excited skip in her feet, she bounded up the stairs…
and this is what she saw. Just like in the movies, she arrived just in time to hear the carpenter say, “well, I can’t figure out the problem. After adding in these re-enforcements, the drawers should go in smoothly.” Beth’s heart sank. As she listened to “..but I promise to make new drawers if securing the unit doesn’t do the trick in a couple of days” she grew weary.
Looking around the room, she was convinced her problem would never get solved. Beth even went so far as to tell herself that building the storage unit was the biggest mistake of her life. Being under renovations for almost three years was finally getting to her. Her blood pressure was already high (note to Beth–get to the doctor) for months, and this just made things worse.
As she looked around the two rooms, she felt sadness. Then she saw Donnie’s disappointment because he thought he made things worse, instead of better. It was at that instant in seeing Donnie’s sad face, that Beth felt like the Christmas grinch. All of a sudden her blood pressure dropped and her heart grew two sizes that night. She knew that it may be a week before she could create again, but decided that it really was a small thing to get in a tither about. “This really is a silly thing to get upset about.” So, putting all things into perspective, she realized it was just another stone in the roadway of life. Her worries about losing readers because she wasn’t getting cards posted was put behind her. She decided that blog candy would be posted on Thursday, which would carry her through until she could make, and post, cards once again.
Tutorial Tuesday – Tunnel Card, Part I
Welcome to Sunflowers and Dragonflies’ weekly edition of Tutorial Tuesday. Most of you may be familiar with the tunnel card. In creating my version of a tunnel card, I thought I would post a generalized version so that you have the base knowledge of this card. Next Tuesday you will see a spicier version of this card. Let’s get started, shall we…
Supplies:
3 – 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ cardstock
(two for inside and one for outside)
1 – 3 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ cardstock
(coordinating colour for your circle or oval)
Place 8 1/2″ x 11″ cardstock into your paper cutter, so your widest part of the paper is horizontal. Cut cardstock in half at the 5 1/2″ mark.
Stamp images over the top of your cardstock, in colours pleasing to you.
Place cardstock into your cutter, in a horizontal fashion, once again, and score cardstock at 2 1/8″, 4 1/4″, and 6 3/8″.
Centre Coluzzle. With a close watch on your score lines, you should not have to measure and mark your centre. If you do not feel comfortable just eyeing the centre, you can use a ruler and pencil.
Cut a coordinating paper larger (approx 3 1/2″ x 3 1/2″) than the circle, or oval, you just cut. Next, cut a second circle, or oval, one size smaller than the previous cut. Glue around the edge opening on the backside of your main cardstock (in this photo, my main cardstock is on the bottom) Glue does not need to be wider than 1/2″. Reinforce coordinating paper by placing scotch tape on all four sides.
Here is another view for you.
Using a ruler, line up the centre of the inside cardstock and stamp sentiment. Small embellishments may be placed around the sentiment, using stamps or other items such as coloured gems/crystals.
Bend card front score lines, back to front. Cut double sided tape 2″ wide and place on the card front. It is important you do not place double-sided tape over the score line. Tape must be butted up to the score line. Your card is now finished.
Top view of the tunnel card.
The outside of your card is ready to be finished. Here, I took my 3rd 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ cardstock and trimmed it to fit onto the outside edges, with a little margin showing. You may wish to adhere the full 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ to the card.
Kimono Cards
Last week’s tutorial was colour wash scrunch, using Adirondack’s colour wash. The final product highlighted a kimono card, using the colour wash scrunch. Today, I am showing you the same card, using patterned paper, with and without, embellishments. This first card is quite feminine and was achieved by way of using pretty papers, and colourful ribbon, as well viewing the gown from the back side of the kimono.
This second card uses masculine colours and paper. The pattern is busy enough without adding embellishments.
Last, by not least, this third card appears masculine, but I wanted it to be feminine as well, so I heat embossed red images onto the patterned paper.
If you are interested in making a kimono card, click here to be taken to Stamper’s Mall, where you will find the template.
Where I can be found
Well, it’s Sunday and soon time to go back to work. Did you have a nice weekend? I’m getting up to attend my return-to-work meeting tomorrow morning. Wish me luck.
My 9 drawer storage unit that was custom built buckled on me, and all the 4 foot x 4 foot drawers collapsed. Ugh! Thank heavens Donnie came to my rescue. He took all those drawers out, all the “stuff” on the top shelves, and six cubby holes, and put them in the spare bedroom. Now I have to clean up my 6 foot wide desk, collapse it down, and clear space to allow my closet unit to be pulled out and repaired. Am I happy? Ask Donnie. Thank heavens he is the calm one in all of this.
How does this affect you? Well, I need to work hard finding photos that I haven’t used yet, so you think I’m busy creating “new” stuff, and maybe even give you a sneak peak into the mess I’m in.
In the meantime, I’d like to direct your attention to Next Generation Stampers. Trish Bee runs this wonderful Yahoo group. She loves creating backgrounds as much as I do. I’m learning some really cool things which I’ll work on in my kitchen while my studio is under de-construction. If you sign up, give me a shout. I’d love to hear from you.
I’ve Been Tagged
Taava tagged me,
“Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times.”
I’m tagging:
Kim
Ila
Maria
Kim P
Sarah
Angie
Heather
Malieta
Tammy
Pam
Dare to be Fabulous
There are thank you notes to go out to several of my blogging friends, which was the inspiration for creating these cards. Dare to be Fabulous is a wonderful sentiment. My studio is a terrible mess and I can’t put my finger on my set to give the credit, nor can I find my cattie, but I’m sure you recognize it. How do we get ourselves into such messes? Do you get as frustrated as me? If you look closely in the upper left corner you will notice some bling.
The image of the girl is from Stamper’s Anonymous. Embellies: button, ribbon, flowers. Card layout came from Page Maps.
Have a great weekend. Doing anything exciting?
Eye Candy
Oh my goodness, check out Beryl Taylor’s site here. I first became familiar with Beryl when her cloth arch was on the cover of Cloth Paper Scissors Winter 2005. Today, I stumbled upon her again, and couldn’t wait to share her site with you. Beryl’s Book Mixed Media Explorations is on my to-be-ordered list this month. With the Canadian dollar being on par with the American dollar, The Bookeeper, here in town is offering US prices on all books in-stock, and special order until the end of January.
My girlfriend, Kim, and I both love the look of cloth journals and are swapping pages with each other this year. That said, guess I better get right on it!
RAK’s
This stunning set came from Maria. Believe me when I say that this photo does not do justice to the beauty of this card set. I was so intrigued to discover that the pouch on the right held a packet of cocoa. Isn’t that neat. Maria, thank you for your friendship girlfriend! Hugs.
Look at the loot that I received from Malieta. The cute little cat card had a reminder inside that I won this as a player in her “pay it forward.” How awesome is that? I was blown away by her generosity. I’m so excited about the images she sent me too, and I’ll be showing you what I created with them. Thanks, Malieta, you are a doll! Hugs.
Poll Results & Updated Pic
Now, onto my poll. Thank you for your participation. It was risky asking if you liked, or even wanted, my tutorials, because I could have found out that no one cared about them. I am happy to report 98% of you like my tutorials, so I will continue posting them every Tuesday.
What do you want to see me post? 88% of you said cards, paper crafts, with a mix of surprise.
Links of interest? I’m happy to report that 81% of you would like me to continue them. I will treat you to one or two favourite sites here and there.
Surprising to me, it was almost a 50-50 split with posting daily versus posting a little less often, but with higher quality. Because I can, and it’s my blog, I’m siding with the 57% of people who would like a little less postings and higher quality. For the 42% who beg for daily postings, please know that I will try my best. My goal for 2008 is to set my goals higher and demand higher quality for myself.
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