Candy Wrapper Advent Calendar # 7

A Christmas pudding for day 7. Very simply made using a 1 3/8" circle punch. Punched one circle from Chocolate Chip, and another from Whisper White. The white one I then cut freehand with a pair of snips to resemble cream. Some very small circles punched in black with the smaller side of the Cropadile for raisins, and also in Real Red for the berries. The leaves are punched out of Wild Wasabi using the Jewelry Tag punch, and then using a 1/4" circle punch to nibble away at the sides until I had holly shapes I was happy with. Scored down the centres to finish.

Little Bird Gift Bag Tutorial

I finally got round to finishing the tutorial for the bag in this post. For the tutorial I have done a Christmas bag with a robin, but the basic idea is the same. Obviously the bird and branches are optional.

Click on the image above to download the tutorial which is in pdf format.

Candy Wrapper Advent Calendar # 6

Number 6 is a funky little Christmas tree. I saw an image a few weeks ago when browsing on the internet, and now can't remember what the art work was on, but it included a drawing of a tree which gave me the idea to create one from circle punches. It's very simple, but quite a cheery little tree I think!

The little star on top of the tree is the only non-SU thing on the whole advent calendar - it's a little (purple) Woodware punch. I punched it from Daffodil Delight, and glittered it with Dazzling Diamonds. The spots on the dsp also have Dazzling Diamonds on them. Here's how I made the tree:


Punch out three circles - sizes as shown in the photo. Mark the 12 o'clock position on all the circles, and also on the larger circle mark 3 and 9 o'clock. The marks on the smaller circles need to be slightly further down than the positions on the largest one as in the photo.




Use a post it note, and stick at the bottom of the circle. This is to use as a handle to hold the circle in the punch, but also as a memory aid to not punch that part of the circle!


Place a circle in the punch and line up two of the marks on the edge as indicated by the red arrows. Repeat on the other side of the circle.



Repeat for all three circles. They will look something like this.


Trim off the pointed parts on the largest two circles so that they don't poke out above the piece on top when you assemble the tree.


To create the dsp edge you will need to use the three circle punches you already used, plus a 3/4" circle punch. Start with the 3/4" punch and punch out at the edge of the dsp as in the photo.


Next take the 1" punch and punch around where you punched before to make a crescent shape.

Repeat this step with the 1" plus 1 1/4" punches and then the 1 1/4" plus 1 3/8" punches. You will end up with three crescent shapes which will fit on the bottom of your three tree pieces. The largest one will look like the one in the photo above. The other two will not be such pointy crescent shapes - more like a portion of a ring.


Stick each strip onto its respective tree piece.


Trim off the excess.


Repeat for all three pieces.


Stick the three segments together, and add a strip of Chocolate Chip for a trunk.

You can then finish off the tree as you fancy.

Candy Wrapper Advent Calendar # 4 & 5

Sorry, I managed to miss posting number 4 yesterday, but here it is now - Rudolph, with his shiny Crystal Effects nose and rather fabulous antlers!

I used the owl punch again for his head, this time trimming off the owl's feet, and cut the antlers with the Sizzix Sizzlit Swirls Scribbles die. I just used the larger two circles from the owl punch for his eyes, adding little highlights with my white gel pen.

And today's box, number 5:


A very smiley little Angel, which Amy informs me is her second favourite box decoration. You'll have to wait to see number 24 for her favourite one!

The angel's dress is made from the Scalloped Circle punch, trimmed with scissors to make the sides. Her feet are two little pink circles, and her arms are from the Word Window punch. I used the feet from the Owl Builder punch for her hands. Her wings are the Butterfly punch, punched from Whisper White, and then glittered using Heat'n'stick and Dazzling Diamonds. To make her halo I punched out the small oval, and then re-punched to get a smaller one. Then used a craft knife to cut out the centre. Finally finished off by heat embossing with gold powder.

To make her face and hair, I punched the two different sizes and colours of card, then placed the pink circle on top of the yellow one, and made little marks on the yellow circle beside the pink one where I wanted the fringe to finish. I removed the pink circle, and drew a zig zag line between the two lines on the yellow circle, then cut along the line with my craft knife. Finally I inserted the pink circle in the zig zag slit to create the fringe effect, putting a little spot of glue between the two circles behind the fringe to hold them together. I then slipped the top of the dress between the chin and the hair with another little blob of glue between the layers to hold them together.

Her face was sketched on with a pencil first, and then inked over with a marker when I was happy with the expression. Her body is fixed on to the wings using dimensionals, and the halo is glued flat on the back of her head.

I'll do my best to get back with number 6 tomorrow!

Candy Wrapper Advent Calendar # 3

Just a simple little snowman for number 3 - made under the direction of my 8 year old . .. "I think you should use two circles to make him, with a black hat and a carrot nose and black eyes."
So here he is, according to my directions!

From snowmen to anniversary owls . . ..


After I had put the greeting on the card, it seemed a little bare in the space on each side, so I used the hearts and smallest eye circles from the Owl Builder punch to add a little embellishment on each side, and have to say that I'm quite pleased with how they look framing the Modern Label punch shape.

Back with # 4 of the advent calendar tomorrow.

Candy Wrapper Advent Calendar

Last year I made my daughter an 'advent calendar in a hurry'. I just made some sour cream containers from dsp with numbers on, added some punched tags with stamped numbers and threaded them on to some string which we taped to the door. Here's a photo taken a few days in with some of them already opened and the chocolate scoffed!


So this year I decided to make something a little more ambitious and used the Candy Wrapper die from Stampin' Up! to create the boxes. I cut the boxes from red and green card, and wrapped each one in dsp. Then started the ambitious part - a different Christmas themed punch art piece to decorate each box along with the die cut number. Good job I like doing the fiddly stuff! Amy and I had fun though, coming up with 24 different ideas - although we did cheat a little bit with counting a boy and a girl penguin as 2 different things!

All the effort was worth it though to look at that little smiley face. Here she is with all her boxes stacked on the mantle piece. They're not joined together, so she can rearrange them as the fancy takes her.



The good thing about the Candy Wrapper die boxes is that they don't need gluing to keep the ends shut, so can be folded flat and stored for next year!

Here is a closer look at the first two boxes:

# 1 has a little Santa owl made using the Owl Builder punch. Before punching the tummy part out, I stamped on Whisper White with the Santa jacket stamp from the Tags Til Christmas stamp set. His wings are the wings from the Bird Builder punch, which I also used for the red part of his hat. The hat brim is from the Word Window - punched once, then re-inserted and punched to trim it down. Finished off with a white circle which is the middle size eye from the Owl punch.




# 2 has a penguin also made using the Owl Builder punch. I trimmed off the ears, and stuck them on lower down to make little wings. His hat was made in the same way as the Santa owl's hat.




Another box tomorrow . .

Card/Paper: The boxes and die cut numbers are all made from either Real Red, Wild Wasabi or Garden Green and are wrapped in Real Red, Wild Wasabi or Garden Green dsp. Punch art uses a range of scraps of card and dsp.

Ink: Real Red for Santa jacket

Stamps: Tags Til Christmas

Other: Candy Wrapper Die, Owl Builder Punch, Bird Builder Punch, Timeless Type Junior Alphabet (numbers)

Spongebob

Another nephew's birthday card. This time Spongebob, and again using an image that I found using Google images. I re-sized in Photoshop and then printed out a couple of copies to cut out and use as templates to paper piece the card.

I began by making the card base from a strip of Confetti White card the length of the A4 piece and about 8cm wide. I scored at 12cm, 24cm, 26.5cm and 29cm, which left a small piece just under 1cm for a tab. I folded it as you can see in this photo from the back, and stuck the tab to the front to make a triangle. The score line in the middle of the bottom means that the card can be folded flat to put in an envelope, but that the card doesn't slide open and collapse under the weight of the front when standing up.



The body was stuck flat to the bottom of the card, and the face section mounted using foam pads for extra dimension. I cut all of the pieces using either scissors or a craft knife, just using the largest circle from my Sizzix Circles #2 die for the whites of his eyes.

Card/Paper: Confetti White, Whisper White, River Rock, Daffodil Delight, Chocolate Chip, Marina Mist, Regal Rose, Basic Black, Real Red

Ink: River Rock, Real Red, Pacific Point

Other: White Gel pen

Happy Birthday Bricks

My nephew is learning the art of bricklaying, so I wanted to try and do something involving bricks for his 18th birthday card.

The bricks didn't take as long as I thought they might to do. First I wheeled the Texture Jumbo wheel over Cajun Craze card stock using Early Espresso Ink. Then I wheeled using Cherry Cobbler at right angles to the first direction, to give some variation of colour. I cut the card into 1cm strips, and then into 2cm bricks and sponged all the edges using Early Espresso and a sponge dauber.

I created the wall by sticking the bricks to textured Sahara Sand card, leaving gaps to be the mortar. Then trimmed the card around the bricks.

The card base is Confetti White card, sponged with Old Olive and Marina mist to create a background. The wall was stuck on top of the background, and then extra bricks glued on to spell out HAPPY.


The balloons were stamped in Marina Mist ink onto Marina Mist card. I cut out the stamped images, but cut off the little balloon necks. Instead I used the feet from the owl punch to make the necks. I punched out the bottom portion of the owl body, and cut off the feet, leaving a little tab on them to stick behind the balloons. Then tied linen thread around the necks. Wrapped the thread around a brick, and tied again.

The birthday word was stamped onto a scrap of white card, then trimmed into a wonky rectangle using scissors. Sponged the edges with Early Espresso and then stuck onto a scrap of Early Espresso and trimmed around to give a border. Cut a little strip of Early Espresso for the sign post, and hand drew some lines to represent wood grain before sponging the edges. The little pile of mortar is free-hand cut from textured Sahara Sand card, sponged and little hump lines drawn on by hand. Used a craft knife to cut a little slit above one of the hump lines to insert the sign post.

Stuck the pile of mortar and the post on to the card base, then the brick and balloons, finally the birthday sign was mounted on top using dimensionals.



My favourite part I think was making the little trowel using some brushed silver card with a little rolled strip of Early Espresso for the handle.

Card/Paper: Confetti White, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Marina Mist, Whisper White, Textured Sahara Sand, Brushed Silver

Ink: Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Marina Mist, Old Olive

Stamps: Party This Way, Birthday Best, Texture Jumbo Wheel

Other: Linen Thread, Owl Punch, Timeless Type Junior Alphabet (numbers)

Card Size: 21cm x 10.5cm (approx 8" x 4")

Ribbon and Paper Shares

Everyone who participates in a share will have their name entered into a prize draw to win a free stamp set. You will have one name put in for each share that you take part in.

Please use the contact me tab at the top of my blog to let me know which shares you would like to participate in.

I am only able to offer these shares to you if you are in the UK, and they cannot count as part of a stampers ten order, or be part of any other special offer.


RIBBON SHARES



This is the yummy new In Color 1cm wide Ruffled Ribbon from Stampin' Up! There are five colours: Calypso Coral, Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, Pool Party and Wisteria Wonder.

I am offering a share of 1m of each colour for £5.50 including postage to the UK.





This is the equally yummy new 1.3cm wide Scallop Dot Ribbon. It comes in ten colours: Cherry Cobbler, Elegant Eggplant, Melon Mambo, Tangerine Tango, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, Basic Black, Old Olive, More Mustard and Marina Mist.

I am offering a share of 1m of each colour for £8.30 including postage to the UK.



And finally, here is the ever popular 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon. Stampin' Up! now carry this ribbon in no less than 17 different colours: Night of Navy, Daffodil Delight, Rose Red, Tempting Turquoise, Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue, Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Early Espresso, Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Rich Razzleberry, Real Red, Garden Green, Pretty in Pink, Marina Mist and Basic Black.

I am offering a share of 1m of each colour for £6.20 including postage to the UK.



PAPER SHARE



There are four new Speciality Designer Series Papers in the new catalogue: Mocha Morning, Flirtatious, First Edition and Holly Berry. There are also ten new regular Designer Series Papers: Paisley Petals, Beau Chateau, Beyond the Garden, Domestic Goddess, Frightful Sight, Timeless Portrait, Just Add Cake, Nursery Nest, Big Top Birthday and Well Worn.

I am offering a share of one 6" x 6" piece of each of the papers listed above for £21 including postage to the UK. They will come packaged as you see in the photo above, so would be perfect for a gift for someone as well. If you are purchasing for a gift, let me know, and I can change the greeting stamped in the top corner to something suitable.

Below is a picture of all the papers laid out for you to see. If you click on the image to enlarge it, and then click again, you should be able to scroll around the picture and get a good, close look. Although I have to say that the photo does not do them justice - the colours are more vibrant, and the speciality touches such as the glitter on some of the Holly Berry papers and the flocking and metallic paint on the Mocha Morning papers needs to be seen to be appreciated!

Also, please note that because of the package configuration for the Flirtatious paper, you will receive one colour only of the laser cut doily paper. This paper will be either Pumpkin Pie or Melon Mambo on one side, and white on the other (as shown in the photo). However, because there are 24 sheets of paper in the First Edition pack, you will receive two pieces of each of this pack.

So in all, that adds up to 90 sheets of quality designer paper for only £21 - 23p per sheet!

Clapper Card

It's my second daughter's birthday next week. Last year she graduated from film school, and is currently working on developing a career in cinematography. So I thought that a clapper birthday card might be fun! It came together pretty easily - just sticking on the white strips for the chevrons was a bit fiddly to get them lined up right.

The card is hinged to open just like a real clapper, and the top pulls out a card with the greeting on. The bottom portion of the card is a piece of black folded at the bottom and glued together down each side to make a pocket for the greeting part to slide in and out of. The top of the clapper is also a very shallow pocket, with the greeting card stuck between the two layers to hold it in place. The hinges are shaped pieces of card, glued to the base part, with the brad at the top being the hinge for the clapper.

The lines are drawn using a ruler and my trusty SU white gel pen. Then the writing is all done by hand also with the gel pen.

Card/Paper: SU Basic Black & Whisper White

Ink: Black Stazon

Stamps: Dot Happy Birthday stamp from Inca

Other: White Gel pen, SU pewter brads

Card Size: 17cm x 12.5cm