Autumn Accents Ornament Wreath Tutorial

Thank you for all your lovely comments about my little autumn decoration, both on here and elsewhere on line.

As I mentioned before this was based on the Holiday Ornament decoration on the front page of the new Autumn Winter catalogue and I just used the same technique to make this.

First of all cut 20 large leaves using your Autumn Accents die and More Mustard card stock

 (you will need about 3 1/2 A4 sheets) and another 20 smaller leaves using Old Olive card stock

 (less than 2 full sheets of A4)

  

Ink all the edges using a sponge dauber. I used Pumpkin Pie ink on the More Mustard leaves and Always Artichoke ink on the Old Olive leaves. 

 

Then stamp all over each leaf using the script and water splash stamps from French Foliage. Again I used Pumpkin Pie ink and Always Artichoke ink.

WARNING! Now you may notice in the picture above that I have die cut, inked and stamped the oak leaf, which was fine and dandy until I realised that it wasn't symmetrical and that I couldn't fold it in half to make a mirror image - whoops!

 

So then I die cut another twenty of the smaller leaves - now these are not quite symmetrical either but they are close enough that when you ink the edges you don't really see the bits that don't quite line up.

If you really wanted to use the oak leaf you could do this by folding your card in half BEFORE running it through your big shot. If the fold of your card runs down the middle of any of the leaves then you will end up with a mirror image leaf.
Then I took 5 of the More Mustard leaves and 5 of the Old Olive leaves and set them to one side. I scored the remaining 15 leaves in each colour down the centre using my Simply Scored tool.

 
 HELPFUL TIP!: You might notice that I have marked lines on my Simply Scored. This makes it easier to make sure you are scoring the correct line as the Simply Scored has so many grooves on it. I just used a Stampin' Write marker and ran it down the 2", 4", 6", 8" and 10" lines.

Now you need to fold all your scored leaves in half

 

Glue the three folded leaves together, making sure the shape lines up, and then glue these on to your unscored leaf base. I used my tombow liquid glue for this.
 

Once your leaf is assembled it should look like this.

Then I used the largest flower from the Fun Flowers die as a base. You don't need to do this but I found it helpful as it has 5 petals so it makes it a bit easier to place your leaves evenly. The next one I make I would probably put the leaves a smidgen nearer the middle than shown in the photo below.
I used a hot glue gun to attach the leaves at this stage.

I then cut 5 lengths of Cherry Cobbler Scallop Tulle ribbon - about 4 scallops long in each case and sort of pinched the middle and folded them in half before gluing them in the spaces between the 5 larger leaves using my glue gun.

I then cut 5 lengths of linen thread, folded them in half, and tied a knot. Use your glue gun to place a large dollop of glue in the middle of your wreath and then add the linen thread so it more less lines up over the large leaves.

Add another large dollop of glue in the middle and add the Old Olive leaves.
A mini rosette was made using a 1/2" strip of paper cut from the Candlelight Christmas Speciality DSP and finished off with an antique brad.

To finish it off I cut a small length of Old Olive 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon and glued this on the back to make a loop to hang the wreath up.

Hopefully that is clear but if you have any other questions please do let me know.

Tutorial Tuesday - Mini Sewing Kit

I have agreed to do a craft fair soon which is a charity fundraiser to raise funds for a little boy who is very ill - see sidebar for more information.

So I have been very busy making up lots of cards and other goodies to sell. One of the items I have been making is a mini emergency sewing kit so I thought I would do a quick tutorial on how to make them.

This is what we are making:

  And these are the finished kits all prettied up in their own little packages:

 Start with your mini sewing kit.

Then you need the following:

Base (wisteria wonder in this case) 10cm x 9.5cm - score halfway along the 10cm side ie at 5cm,
and score along the shorter side at 3cm.

Tab (also wisteria wonder) 3cm x 5cm

Designer series paper (Berry Blossoms - retired) - two pieces - one 9.5cm x 6cm and one 2.5cm x 4.5cm

Two flowers punched out using Boho Blossoms punch

A brad.

You may need to rejig the measurements if your sewing kit is bigger or smaller. I use my grid paper from Stampin' Up! (106587 Grid Paper (100 sheets) £7.95) to help with measurements when I'm making up these type of projects - I find it really helps to be able to sketch it out before cutting out card stock that might be the wrong size!

Using sticky strip fold up the card along the score line to make a pocket for your sewing kit.

 Round the corners of your card tab and the designer series paper (dsp) tab using a corner rounder and glue the dsp on to your tab base. Score down the middle of your tab (at 2.5cm).

Attach tab to your base.

 Scrumple up your flowers to break down the fibres in the card and then carefully peel the two layers apart.

Layer all four flowers, use your paper piercer to make a hole, and secure with a brad (I used one of the the FREE brads from the Everyday Enchantment offer - last chance to order today!)

Attach flower to your designer series paper (approx 2cm-2.5cm from the edge).

Glue paper to base and then  fold up like a book.

Use the flower to catch the tab so that your little case stays closed up.

If you liked this tutorial and found it useful I'd be really happy if you left me a comment to let me know :-)

Tutorial Tuesday - Get Well Soon Tissue Box Card Tutorial

I promised you last week that I would post a quick tutorial on how to make the tissue box card. 

This time I made a more masculine version using soft suede and naturals ivory card stock and papers from the Beau Chateau designer series paper pack.

To make the mini tissue box first of all cut your designer series paper to 3½” x 2¾”.
Score at 1/2" and at 5/8" on all four sides.

If you are using Stampin' Up!'s Simply Scored Tool you are going to want to have your markers at notches 4 and 5 from the left hand side. Now the second marker won't sit in but you can place it along side so you remember which line to score/

Once you've done that your piece of designer series paper should look like this. (I've flipped it over as the score lines show up a bit better on the reverse).  Hopefully you can see the score lines ok.

 Now go ahead and cut off all four corners. You want to cut along the innermost of the two parallel lines in each case (or the one in line with notch 5 if that makes more sense!)

Use the Simply Scored tool to mark the centre of your paper as shown. It doesn't matter how noticeable this is as you are going to punch out the centre anyway using the large oval punch. Go ahead and do that now. I don't have a photo of this step cos I know you can manage to punch it out without a diagram!

 Fold your box along all score lines.

Take a scrap piece of Soft Suede card stock and use the large oval punch again - not too near the edge. Then using your scallop oval punch cut out the frame as shown.

Attach the frame to the top of your tissue box (its underneath in the photo below so you can't see it), and then fold in the sides of your box. Put glue on all four corners and hold it down while it dries (or use a handy half pack of designer series paper or whatever you happen to have lying around your craft desk to hold it in place, nothing too heavy though).

 I used Tombow for this but you could use Sticky Strip if you prefer.

 

When it's dried it should look like this upside down.

Then just add a tissue. I found that about a third of a standard sized tissue folded in half is about right.

Take a small piece of soft suede card stock approx 2½” x 1¾” and round the corners.

Glue the underneath of your box, making sure the tissue has glue on it as well and attach to the card stock.

And there you have it - one small tissue box to go on front of your get well card.

To finish off the card I distressed all the edges. I also crumpled up a piece of card stock and then carefully peeled the two layers of card stock apart. This gives an almost leathery effect which doesn't show up too well in the photo, that is great for masculine cards in place of ribbon.

I hope you found this tutorial helpful.

Back tomorrow with some more cards.

Square Scallop Punch Christmas Decoration

This was the little bonus project for the last Christmas class - we only touched on it briefly towards the end so I thought I would post the tutorial online.

Step 1: Punch out 6 squares using the square scallop punch - I am using a sheet from the Too Cute designed series paper.

Step 2
Fold over each corner as shown

Step 3
Do the same on all 6 scalloped squares


Step 4
Glue the folded bits together as shown on 5 of the squares (I used the Tombow Multi glue - loving this! Now my glue of choice :) Step 6
Before you add the last square either thread a hat pin from the pretties kit through your cube diagonally, or a piece of silver or gold elastic cord.

Step 7
Add the final side and attach a small piece of gingham ribbon for decoration.


You can combine more than one for a large decoration - I also used the circle punch to make a round decoration.

Word Window Punch Tutorial using the Scallop Circle punch

OK I know some folks are sad that we don't carry Stampin' Up!'s word window punch here in the UK (yet!) but here's how to get the same effect using your scallop punch...ta, da!

First stamp your sentiment. I'm using the "Happy Halloween" stamp from the Occasional Greetings set, using Pumpkin Pie ink on Sahara Sand cardstock.

Then turn your scallop circle punch upside down and position it so that there is a scallop at each end of your word(s) and punch out.


Trim off the rest of the scallop by cutting straight across.

And attach to project of your choice...

I then used mine to decorate my paper pumpkin (inspired by US Stampin' Up! demo Dawn Griffiths)