Tutorials

Picnic Basket

For this project you will need 2-3 pieces of heavy cardstock, good tape/glue, brads/eyelets, magnets(for optional opening), bone folder, and a pencil.


To begin cut 6 1" wide by 10" long strips and 4 1" wide by 12" long strips of paper(distressed if desired).

Lie down the 12" strips horizontally, side-by-side on a ruled mat, then lie the 10" strips vertically on top of them making sure they are in the center. There should be about 3" on either side of the 10" strips. Now, begin your basket weave on the area that over laps. you can start over or under, it doesn't matter. Just make sure they are nice and snug and stay central.  When done it should look like this...

(my apologies, blogger refuses to upload this correctly)


Next take your bone folder and score around the edge of your completed weave area and fold each score making sure they are nice and straight.


Should now look like this.



Now you will need to cut 6 1" by 12" strips of paper. Start with the long side and weave in three strips making them even with the other 12" strips. When done score along the weaved edges then fold and weave the first long side.. making sure you have that extra 3" or so at the end to round the the corner.. Next we will tape the first long side. As long as your weave is nice and tight you should only need to tape the top piece.



Here you can see the tape on every other one so it goes along with the weave. You will now go along to the first short side and weave as far as you can...



 ... should look something like this. Now find an inconspicuous area to tape and trim the pieces if you need to.  Grab one of your remaining 1" by 12" strips and figure out where you can attach it so it will not be visible from the outside.  Here's where I put my middle one...


... I slid it in behind that piece and then taped the two together so it looked like one long running piece from the outside. The rest should be done in a relatively similar fashion, then finish that side and tape the top piece down. Now continue your weave along the second long side and tape the top when finished with that.

When you get to the last(short) side your pieces will again overlap. Make sure you work from the corners in so you are able to cut off the excess correctly. Lastly you will need to tape the top of your just finished short side. You should now have a complete bottom looking something like this...


For the top trim of the basket you will need two more 1" by 12" long strips(distressed if desired) scored and folded down the center. Sorry, but I forgot to take pics of this part. Tape all along the top perimeter of the basket. Open your first strip and with the center fold even with the top of the basket(the overhand going in) start at the corner of one of the long sides wrapping around the short side and a tiny bit onto the next long side. Snip the corners so you can fold the other half down into the basket. Repeat with the other side begining with overlapping the slight overhang you made. When done it should look like this...


Again I forgot to take pics of the next couple of steps, but it's pretty easy. For my basket handle I used a 1 and 1/4" by 12" strip and punched a hole where it would have enough room to go over the end of the basket(about 3/4 of the way down from the top on both sides). For the top cut a 4"x6"(give or take) piece and a 2"by 3" piece, round corners on larger piece and distress if desired.  Center the 2" by 6" piece on the larger piece and tape/glue down and score along the edges so the ends can easily be moved up and down. Add trip to the bottom side of the 4"x6" piece...I lieft the 2" section w/o trim then fold the overhand of the 2" piece and tape or glue at least one side(I magnetized one side). You should now have a basket something like this...


Forgot the bit about the brads too, oops, sorry about the missing pics too...guess i got carried away. Now you can finish embellishing as desired.





Sassy Traveler

Hello All!! Autumn here, with your tutorial Thursday and today I'd like to share something I created myself. Some of the girls on the Dt thought this would be a great thing to bring along with you on a trip somewhere, hence the name, but it can be a great gift for anything. So, here is my Sassy Traveler...




Open:


And if you follow along with me today I'll show you how to make one too!

First, here are you basic needs:




Sassy images: 1 for the front, 1 for the matchbook, and more(wouldn't recommend more than 6) for the inside of the matchbook.

3 pieces of STRONG cardstock(I used tag board) cut to:
7&1/4, 6&1/2, and 6&3/4
(these will make up the base)

1 pc STRONG cardstock cut to 4&1/4 x 11&1/2
(for matchbook)

4-6 pieces paper cut to 4 x 5&1/2
(for images)

Strong adhesive, scoring board, perforator, ruler, eyelets or string,etc(for matchbook closure)

Let's begin by scoring our main pieces:




When finished fold on the lines and prepare them for adhesion. 



Here is how I applied my tape. Next you will want to put them together making sure the both of the in center pieces sides are on the inside.... Thus making your edges flush with the back of the card.



Should look like this when done. Sorry for all the junk in the background, there really wasn't a good place to photo this.

Next, the match book. We will again begin with scoring.

I'm not sure you can see that very well, so score at:
1/2",5/8", 6&1/8", and 6&1/4"

Next, perforate the papers you have already cut for your images to 1/2" from the bottom



After they are all perforated line them up together and choose where you would like your holes making sure they are about central in the 1/2" area but it doesn't really matter how close they are.




Then cover with the match book and punch holes into that and insert something to hold steady. I recommend eyelets as string can be to flimsy when tearing out the pages, but if that's all you have it will work.



It will look like this when finished.

Now you can decorate all the pieces how you like, just keep track of your openings and don't stick down the very front just yet. When it's all decorated you'll want to find a good way to either make sure your markers/colors stay put or make them removable. I had planned on using velcro this time around, but couldn't find it, so I opted for magnets. This...


... is what that looks like. I like this idea too cause if the child wants to take them out the matchbook and the markers will stick together.



Lastly, here is a closer view of how I decorated my message page and my matchbook...i like to leave that uncolored for older children.
Now, if your project is kind of heavy you will probably want to a ribbon around the whole thing...why I told you not to tack down the front just yet, but if you can come up with another way to close it, by all means go ahead. If you think your good, then you're done, tack on the front and all finished. If you do the ribbon you may want to add another piece of paper to the back to help hold it in place.

Well, that does it for me today. Sorry this has been so long, I tried to keep it as short as possible. If there is anything at all I missed please don't hesitate to ask. The images I've used today are 'Puppy Love' and 'All Wrapped Up' and are available at Funky Kits. If you try this out I'd sure love to see it so let me know and I'll stop by.









Snow Globe


Hello all! Today I have a special treat for you! Last year I designed a snow glob, shaker, easel card and today I'm going to share the instructions with you. First, here is my almost finished(the inside isn't done yet) card...



Sorry for the less than stellar pics, but it was super dark out when i finished and it's been cloudy since so I haven't been able to get a better on :( The show must go on as they say, so I'm afraid you're stuck with these. I've used Sammy from the Sugar Nellie Sassy line for card and you can find her here.

To begin this project you are going to need to print and cut out this...

(click to enlarge then save)

... template I have made for you. You will need one of these in full form and print an cut a second and just cut out the circle form. Make sure you cut along the outer edge of the lines and round the bottom corners.

Here is the paper I made and used if you would like it


(click to enlarge then save)


Other items you need are scissors, ruler, pencil, stiff cardstock(for base), very small pop-up dots/squares in two sizes...I used 1/4" and 1/8" thick, and some sort of trim to go around the edge of the circle. Once you have these you are ready to begin.

I have made some videos for you to follow and I'm going to apologize in advance for mishaps with the camera, my little ones, and my dog(she started going crazy at the end and it was because of the camera so there was no getting rid of it). Also it seem Ok, so has replaced hmm in my vocabulary and I said it way to much, sorry. Now, onto those videos...

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3


Ok, that's it. I hope I haven't left anything out and you were able to understand them ok. Thanks for stopping by I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial and if you decide to make one of these I'd love to see it!