Christmas Tags & Pouch Tutorial

I thought a tutorial was way overdue, so here is one for a quick, easy & inexpensive gift. I am going to give out afew as early Christmas presents, but they could easily be made up with birthday tags to be used throughout the year.Materials required:
6x6 page protector
8.25" x 6.5" cardstock (I've used Purely Pomegranite)
3.5" x 3" cardstock for tag base
Designer Series Papers (DSP - I've used Holiday Harmony)
Extra cardstock for matting (I've used River Rock, Purely Pomegranite & Always Artichoke)
Word Window Punch
Vintage Brads
Crop-a-dile
Length of ribbon (I've used River Rock Double Stitched Grosgrain)
Stamps (Season of Joy & Tags for All)
Ink (Always Artichoke & Purely Pomegranite)

1st step is to cut the binding holes off the 6x6 page protector.Be careful to cut between the two seams on the side - you can see this clearer in the pic below. You will be left with a clear pouch that is open at the top & has 3 closed sides.

Lay the trimmed page protector onto your 8.25" x 6.5" cardstock as above, lining the bottom edges up. The open end of your pouch should be at the top, with an overhang of cardstock above it

Fold the extra cardstock over the top of the page protector. If you wanted to score this first the measurement is 1.75". At this point you can stamp on the front of the folded cardstock, you may also like to place a 6x6 piece of DSP into the page protector.

Place the page protector back into the folded cardstock, making sure that the open end is under the fold. Using the large hole of the crop-a-dile, punch a hole about 0.5" from the top. Push the crop-a-dile all the way in, on the side of the cardstock. Do this on the other side also.

Thread some ribbon through the holes & tie a bow at the front. Your tag pouch is now finished - on to making the tags to go inside.

For each tag you will need:

3.5" x 3" piece of cardstock

3.5" x 3' piece of DSP torn in half

stamped image from Tags for All

cardstock mat for your stamped image

1 x brad

piece of cardstock punch using the word window punch.

Adhere the layers in the following order - 3.5" x 3" cardstock, torn DSP, cardstock mat, stamped image. Fold the word window punchout in half over the edge of the tag & use the mat pack & paper piercer to pierce a hole through all the layers. Insert your brad through the hole.

Your pouch will easily hold all the above tags & more.

When putting your tags into the pouch, there is no need to unthread the ribbon. The holes will be far enough apart that you can undo the bow, lift the flap & slide the tags in.

I used Stampin' Up! Dashing DSP to make this Christmas Card Pouch, I had also made a sample using Wintergreen DSP, but gave it away before I took a photo of it, so will have to make another one.

HOpe you have enjoyed & understood this tutorial :-)

Multicoloued In Colors

I love colouring onto my stamps with Stampin' Write Markers to give a great multicoloured image, however the In Colors don't come in markers, so you need to improvise. Above are some of the things I have used to get a multicoloured image using In Colors:
Bold Stampset - I'm using Tart & Tangy
In Color Inkpad & Reinker - Wild Wasabi (I will also use Purely Pomegranite, but it's not in the picture
Blender Pens
Stampin Write Marker - I'm using Real Red
Masking Tape
Baby Wipe

The first & probably the easiest was is to ink the whole stamp in Wild Wasabi & then use a baby wipe (or cotton bud) to clean the ink off the stamp in the areas it is not wanted. I then used my Real Red Stampin' Write Marker to reink the area with the desired colour.

Another way is to make your own In Color Markers using blender pens & reinkers. You can soak the pens in a small amount of ink, which works well if you are using it straight away, however the ink does soak up the pen if left awhile. I place a drop of ink into my inkpad lid (then there is no mess to clean up) & give my blender pen a little soak in it each time I reuse it. You can then use in the same way as a marker to ink your stamp. This is great if you want to use two different In Colors to colour your image

This last one I will show you is using masking tape. I quite often use masking tape, but usually when I don't have to cut the tape into any shape. So I could cut the tape to be the right shape I placed it on my stamp & coloured over it with a pencil, this will leave a mark where the edge of the leaves are. I then cut it out & replaced on the stamp, inked the stamp in Wild Wasabi, then removed the masking tape so I could colour the rest of the image with my marker - abit fiddly, but it does work.

Do you know of different/easier way to stamp a multicoloured image using In Colors?? If so, I'd love you to leave a comment & let me know.

Spring Mini Fun Day Invitation & tutorial

To celebrate World Card Making Day (October 4th) & the arrival of Spring I will be having a Spring Mini Fun Day on the 11th October. There will be lots of fun things to make, things to learn, prizes & giveaways - so make sure you contact me if you would like to come - alana@aussiebroadband.com.au . I will be donating $5 per attendee to the Wee Waa Hospital, along with 10% of any sales.
This is the invitation I made to send to afew of my loyal customers & friends. They were lots of fun to make & of course I forgot to take a photo of them all before sending!
I thought I'd do up a really quick tutorial to show you how they were made - enjoy :-)

Supplies:

12cm x 10cm piece of cardstock (I used Real Red in this example)

Paddle Pop Stick (again, I found some red ones to tie in with my colour theme)

Horizontal Slot Punch

Corner Rounder Punch (not pictured)

Scalloped Circle Punch

Small piece of ribbon

The other items pictured are optional, I used them to embellish the front of my paddle pop invite - Old Olive & Real Red Markers, 1 1/4" & 1 3/8" Circle Punches, Stamps (Tart & Tangy), Snail, Real Red, Wild Wasabi & Whisper White cardstock

Firstly fold your 12cm x 10cm piece of cardstock in half

In the middle of the right hand side punch 2 holes with the Horizontal Slot Punch. For the first hole I pushed the punch in as far as it would go & punched, then I moved it downwards about 1cm to make the second hole - you can see this abit better in the next picture
When making this example I forgot to round the corners - so if you wanted to, you would need to do this now. Most Stampin' Up! punches don't cut through 2 layers of cardstock very well, however the corner rounder does, so I punched mine with the invite closed, you also don't need to punch the top right hand corner.

After punching the corners, insert the paddle pop stick through the punched holes as pictured

Usind the Scalloped Circle punch out the 'bite' mark in the top of your invite. I punched out the front one first, then closed my invite & used the front as a guide to punch the back 'bite'

Tie your piece of ribbon around the paddle pop stick

Your invite is now basically complete, just print off the party details & stick on the inside & decorate the outside.

My outer embellishment was very simple - I coloured the strawberry (or apple) from Tart & Tangy with my markers & punched out with a 1 1/4" Circle & layered on a 1 3/8" Real Red Circle & Wild Wasabi Scalloped Circle
Whenever I am using my punches I always hold them upsidedown - this way I can always see exactly what I am punching. This is particularly helpful when punching out a stamped image as it allows you to make sure the image is in the centre of the punch
Stick the strawberry/apple on the font & you have a cute little invite! You can see that the invite on the right has the corners rounded & the one on the left does not.

If you were paying close attention you may have noticed that I have used Wild Wasabi cardstock & an Old Olive Marker - they don't really match, but I thought they were close enough. I have since changed my mind, so check back tomorrow & I will show you a couple of different ways to use an inkpad to create a multi coloured image.

Card Compendium Instructions

Look familiar? These are some more card compendiums I made to sell for our football club, I also used afew for hostess gifts. You can see my crop-a-dile tutorial for how to make the embellishment on the front, but I thought I'd also put up some instructions on how to make the rest of it!
Cut a 12x12 piece of cardstock so it measures 28cm x 25cm. Score along the shorter side at 17cm, then turn the cardstock & score along the longer side at 13.5cm & 14.5cm. In the pic above I have drawn along the score lines in pen so you can see them abit clearer.
Once you have finished scoring simply fold the bottom section up, the 2 score lines in the middle make the 'spine' of you card compendium. Pop some cards in one side & matching stamped envies in the other & you have yourself a really easy to make gift.
To make the belly band around the middle I just folded a 6x30cm piece of cardstock around the compendium, abit of supertape at the back to hold it together & some ribbon tied around it to make it look pretty. If you have any questions please send me an email - alana@aussiebroadband.com.au

Crop-A-Dile Tutorial

My favourite tool out of the new catalogue is without a doubt the Crop-A-Dile. This tool can punch a hole through anything with ease - cardstock, chipboard, CD's, tin & leather. It also sets small & jumbo eyelets & also dry embosses circles on cardstock (I have also heard it will do this on chipboard & CD's, but haven't tested it out yet). One of the really cool things you can do is set two eyelets, back-to-back, to create a 'grommet', which is great if you are making a project that you can see both sides of - no more messy eyelet backs to look at!


Above are the items that I used - my Crop-A-Dile, 2 Jumbo eyelets, a scalloped circle punched shape & 2 circle punch shapes.


Firstly I attached the punched out shapes together as above - the 2nd circle is on the other side.

Now comes the fun part. Using the 3/16 hole punch on the side of the crop-a-dile punch a hole where you want your eyelet to go - it is really easy to see through to exactly where the hole will be. Just a small tip - if you are wanting to set one of our jumbo eyelets you will need to punch a 2nd hole, just slightly to the side of the first one, as the eyelets are a tiny bit bigger than the actual hole made. If you are only using one sheet of cardstock or DSP you won't need to do this, however if you are using anything thicker - 3 sheets of cardstock (like I am), chipboard, tin etc you will need to make the hole abit bigger.

These are the 'jaws' of the Crop-A-Dile, on the top you can see it has written 'base' - this side is used to set the back of you eyelet, on the bottom there is a picture of an eyelet & an arrow showing which way to sit the eyelet on the jaw.

Now to actually set the eyelet - if you can see in the above picture, the eyelet is face down on the bottom with the paper on top. For jumbo eyelets the base setting I use is '1' & the eyelet side setting is 'A'. To set you simply squeeze the Cop-A-Dile closed - it will set perfectly every time, no mess, no noise & most importantly no fuss.

I want to set another eyelet on the back to make my 'grommet' so have put the second eyelet on the bottom jaw of the Crop-A-Dile, turned my project over & placed it on top. The 2nd eyelet won't actually fit inside the 1st one just yet, but once you squeeze the mighty Crop-A-Dile jaws it will.

You will be left with a project looking like this & if you turn it over it looks just the same :). Check back tomorrow & I will show you the finished project that I used this cute embellishment on!

Faux Tearing

This is such an easy techinique & I think it looks great.

• Tear a piece of scrap paper to use as a mask & lay the torn edge along the front of your card. This will be where your Faux Tear will be.
• Stamp your card above the mask. You can use a background stamp, Stampin' around wheel or even just sponge the card.
• Move your mask down afew mm & use a sponge dauber & your inkpad to sponge ink along the tear line.

Here are afew examples I made for a workshop on the weekend.

Stamps: Paisley background, Heartfelt Thanks, Warmest Regards

Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Whisper White

Inks: Brocade Blue, Basic Black

Accessories: Wide Celery Grosgrain Ribbon, Paper Piercer, Mat Pack

Stamps: Leaves a la Carte Jumbo Wheel, Lovely as a Tree, Expressive Flexible Phrases

Cardstock: Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Choc Chip, Whisper White

Inks: Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Wide Chocolate Grosgrain Ribbon

Stamps: Paisley background, Both Way Blossoms, Simply Said

Cardstock: Regal Rose, Certainly Celery, Whisper White

Inks: Rose Red, Certainly Celery

Accessories: Wide Celery Grosgrain Ribbon, Rich Regal Brads, Aquapainter

If you have any questions or would like some more info on Faux Tearing, send me an email - alana@aussiebroadband.com.au

Spiral Punch Tutorial

I've been wanting to do a tutorial for a while, but didn't know what to start with, so thankyou Char for asking how the spiral punch worked, & here is my first attempt at a tutorial.

Above are the supplies you will need. A sheet of cardstock (I have used Stampin' Up! perfectly plum, you can also use patterned papers - the thicker double sided ones work best), Stampin' Up! Spiral Punch, anywhere gluestick, scissors & a spiral notebook. You can trim your cardstock if you like, however don't make it the same size as the notebook yet. I always trim mine after punching as it can be tricky to line up the holes for the spine.

The spiral punch will punch 2 holes, the other section has a metal guide. When making your first punch make sure the right hand side of the cardstock is flush against the guide. I always use the punch unspide down, as pictured, so I can see where I am punching. Continue to punch all the way along the cardstock, lining up the metal guide in the slit of the last hole punched!
At this point, if you have purchased a Stampin' Up! On Board Art Journal, the cardstock could be glued on the cover as the holes are the correct distance apart. However if you are using a spirax notebook you will need to add in a few more steps.
You will notice that the holes are too far apart at this point, so you will need to punch another set. Make a small mark in the middle of the first two holes (see white mark in above pic)Line the mark up so it is in the middle of the left hand side hole to be punched, as above. Continue punching along your cardstock, below you can see the left side of the cardstock has been punched once, the right side punched twice & the holes are alot closer together.

Once you have punched all the way along your cardstock it will be ready to glue on the front/back of your notebook.
I always glue onto my cover, them trim around the edge with the scissors. This way there is no measuring & my cover is always the right fit.

Here is the finished notebook, ready to be embellished. If you are interested in purchasing a Stampin' Up! spiral punch, or any other Stampin' Up! products, contact me via email - alana@aussiebroadband.com.au . Thanks for checking out my tutorial - Please leave me a comment if you have found it useful or have any thoughts on what could be better.