Archive for the ‘Tutorial’ Category

Hello folks!

Today’s blog post is brought to you by Bug aka “Littlesall” on youtube!

This is Bug’s, err… Littlesall’s first crafting tutorial for kids.  We hope you enjoy it as much as she enjoyed making it!

  Filmed, edited, and Produced by: Littlesall
Starring: Littlesall

Thanks for watching!

Preproduction Outtakes:

Products used in this video:

Cardstock: The Paper Company 8-1/2”x11” Value Pack Papers Neutral 50-pk
Stamps:  Bitty Basics by Stampin’ Up!
Inks:  Mrs Elizabeth {bought at the DOLLAR TREE! whoot}
Ink Cleaner: Ranger 2 oz. Inkssentials Clear Stamp Cleaner

Thanks for watching!

Did I really sleep until after NOON today?!  SHOOT!  See what a little eggnog/rum late night combo does to me!  I had so much planned to accomplish today, and completed – nada!   Christmas Eve is only 3 days away and I have not wrapped gifts, grocery shopped, I even still have CARDS to mail!  OMG!  I have so blown this year.  Ba Hum Bug I say!

I cant find my list of things I mean to blog about either, so I am SURE there is something I should be telling you right now.  Instead, I’m just going to give you a freebie and tell you “how to” use it, roughly.  Then I’m going to THANK  YOU for stopping by and reading my rambling.  THEN I am going to wish you a very MERRY Christmas, just incase I don’t make it back before then. 

I love it, and am always so flattered when designers ask me if I would like to work with one of their products.  Sometimes, I even get brave enough and email my designer friends and ask them if they would like anything worked with.  Such is this.  I love Mrs Randi Oh .  She is one of the sweetest people I have met online.   I also enjoy her products.  So the other day I emailed her to see if she had anything I could do because I was bored and wanted something to do that wasn’t a “have to”,  you know?  She said Sure and sent me a couple of kits to play with.

The first one, the Bella Joy Bundle at scrapbookgraphics.com , I knew exactly what I wanted to do as soon as I unzipped it.  The reindeer and the journaling stack were PERFECT for a project I have been wanting to try.

Have you ever seen a tag sized notepad?  or an altered notepad?  Well, I saw one at a craft fair and LOVED the idea of it, so I had planned on attempting the project myself.  Here is what I ended up with.  I can’t tell you how much I LOVE how it turned out!!!

This is a hybrid project, so most of the planning happens on the pc.

I mocked up all the bits to fit on a 4 1/4 x 2 1/8 sized tag.  Once I was happy with sizing I printed it out on a heavy white piece of cardstock.

and gathered all my supplies

Notice I printed the reindeer twice. Ha.  This is because I knew I would screw up one of them cutting them out!  hehehe!

Next I cut everything out, and attacked it with my new favorite product – Mod Podge SPARKLE!

look how the Mod Podge makes everything bling!  It also makes it all a little more sturdy and moldable

Some of my photos did not turn out, so I will just have to type it all out for you and try to creatively crop the pics I do have.  Sorry.

First:  For the tag back, I Mod Podged the peice of paper I printed, to the tag.  Once dried and sanded it and grunged it up with a sanding block.  And then inked the edges with Distress Vintage Photo and my Ink Blending tool with a felt pad, not foam, I inked up my label.   The mod podge will help make the base extra sturdy for all the stuff we’re fixing to put on it.

While that ink was drying, I used a swirl stamp and embossed the reindeer with black INKITUP Pigment Ink and black embossing powder from SU!.  Then used my inking tool and did the edges up with the Distress Vintage Photo

Set the deer aside and assembled the notepad.  For assembly, I roughed up the edges with the sanding block and inked it up with Distress Vintage Photo.  Then rimmed it in Encore ink – Gold.  I also cut out several pieces of paper for the pad.  The white white of the papers was too much against my vintage looking pad, so I inked them up lightly with Distress Vintage Photo .  To attach it all I used a hole punch and made 2 holes at the top exactly where Randi had placed them on her element, and threaded them with some craft thread.  Tied in the back so you can not see the knot after assembly.

For assembly I attached the swirl using Tombow Mono Aqua Glue.  Using dimensionals I attached the notepad I had made.  Using dimensionals I attached the JINGLE BELLS label. 

Then using dimensionals again {doubled to make it extra high} I attached the reindeer.  I used some of the crafting thread to attach the 2009 tag to the top.  Then glued the butterfly down with Tombow Mono Aqua. 

To add the flower at the bottom, I drew on the leaves with Spica Clear Glitter Pen, and inked the edges with Distress Vintage Photo.  Then I glued the leaves down to the tagback with Tombow Mono Aqua Glue .  Next I placed 1 dimensional square and place the flower, and with my fingers bent all the petal edges up for a natural curl look.  Then I adhered the tiny red circle to the center to make the flower “pop”.

Randi Oh is so nice!  I asked her if I could give you guys the print out I used for my tag.  She said YES!  So if you would like to attempt this project, just print out this pdf and get to assembling!

Complete Supply List for this project:
Digital Kit – I used Bella Joy Bundle by Randi Oh!

Papers:
White Cardstock
manilla tag

Inks:
Distress Ink: Broken China **
Distress Ink: Vintage Photo **
InkItUP: BLACK pigment ink
Spica Glitter pen
Encore Ink: Gold
Embossing:
SU! Black EP

Adhesives:
Mod Podge Sparkle **
Glue Glider Pro **
Tombow Aqua **
foam dimensionals

Tools:
hole punch – I used Making Memories Toolkit
sanding block
Tim Holtz Inking Tool **
scissors

ok, I have to get SOMETHING accomplished today.  Thanks for reading!

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I couldn’t sleep last night.  You know, one of those nights where you lay there and stare at the ceiling?  That was me last night.  My brain just wouldn’t slow down and let my eyes close.  So, I got up. 

I got up.  My eyes didn’t want me to.  They were so heavy, and burned.  I made some hot tea.  mmmmmmmmmmmmm…

While I was sipping on my sleepytime tea, I got the idea to make a few gift boxes.  I’ve meaning to make up a few.  After chatting with Randi Oh for a bit about working hybrid, I had the gift boxes on my mind.  So, I grabbed my sketch pad to take some “Notes to self”.  I always do this.  Pre-planning, especially when doing something hybrid, is almost necessary. 

Once you have your general idea down on paper, you can gather your supplies, and get to work!  I always sketch out my ideas, and of course mid-project I usually change my mind or realize somethings just aren’t possible. LOL!

After gathering all my supplies, I looked thru my stash of digital supplies to see what kit I wanted to use.  Did I even want to do this “hybrid” or did I want to use up some of my paper stash, hmmmmm?    In the end, I decided to go with Candy Christmas by KimB.

So the first step to doing hybrid is the prep work. 

The next step would be creating and printing all the digital items you will need for your project.

For this project I measured the dimensions of my gift box template, and sized my digi-supllies as needed.  Then I just printed them out.  It’s important to use a good heavy card stock, not just printer paper.  Regular printer paper will just fall apart and tear if you try to work with it with glitz and/or glue.  I also change my printer setting from “economic” printed (which is the ink saver setting)  to “High Quality” printing, which is the setting you would use for photographs (ink hog).  This is because I want FULL RICH COLOR.  This does present one problem though.  Cardstock just SUCKS the ink up.  You will need to make sure to let the papers you print DRY before you start working with them.  Otherwise you will end up with smears, smudges, and fingerprints everywhere!  So print it out and set it aside.

While my printed paper was setting up to dry, I went a head and embossed up my label.  For this project I used a Stampin Up stamp set, and Stampin Up white craft ink, stamped onto white card stock. 

Then for embossing, I decided to try this Zing! just one more time.  I wasn’t really happy with it when I used it the first time the other night. 

I guess my issues the other night was the embossing ink I tired to use, because this time it melted right up.  Nice thick and gooey!  YAY!

Using Distress Broken China and my Ink Blending tool with a felt pad, not foam, I inked up my label.  Isn’t it pretty!

Then I had to cut out my label.  Note to self: please invest in some small GOOD scissors!  Please! 

Now its time to cut out the box, using the template.  Its real easy.  Just flip the paper you intend to use for your box body – over, and lay the template on it.  Use a pencil and trace it out.

Then just cut it out! 

Then, I had decided (see on my sketch…) that I wanted my flaps to be a different pattern then the whole of my box.  So here you see me trace to trim out my flaps.  I always trace on the BACK of my printed paper.  This keeps the pencil lines hidden.  If you trace on the printed side, you may see the pencil lines, or worse you may smear your print if you try to erase them off!  Home printer ink is soooo easy to muck up!

Then I wanted to do something snazzy to the little prezzie embellie I printed.  What a better way to test out this new Sparkle Mod Podge!  OMG, if you only knew how happy this makes me.  “Bling makes me happpppyyyyyyy!!!!!!”

Mod Podge on inkjet ink.  ooo.. tricky.  As long as you brush gently and quickly, and don’t do TONS of rubbing etc, it should be ok!

Once it dries completely you can do what you need to do.  I cut it out once it was dry.  Look!  BLING!  weeeeeeeeeeee…

Then I took some Smooch, and painted the blue circles on my pressie.  Just do give it a little dimension, so it wouldn’t look so “flat”.

Once that dries, it’s just a matter of sticking it all together…  I used my Glue Glider to get everything into position, and then any loose areas (like the edges) I added a little extra glue.

Once EVERYTHING was dry, I used my sanding block to clean up the edges of my papers…

Then its just a matter of assembling everything!

ok…
hope you likey.

Im out!

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