Technique Tuesday by Gin

Bazzill Institchz..I love them. They are just the perfect touch to finish off a layout. The first way to use them is the obvious, but in this layout, I made a border using the Granny Stitches, I also used the Flowers template to stitch a large flower then cut it out to be used as an embelishment.

Another way to use them that isn't as time consuming as actually stitching them, is to use the paper piercer to punch out the shape, then use a pen to "connect the dots". In this example I used the Angelic Uniball White Gel Pen to connect my dots and it looks like the stitching has been done, when really it hasn't! Try using different pen types and sizes to get different looks!

 

 

My last example is my most favorite technique. Take some cardstock or patterned paper that has either a white core or colored core like Core'dinations has, punch your design on the backside, then flip it over and sand over the design! For a little more added color lightly rub with ink or chalk to help accent those designs. I used the circle template here:

I hope I have inspired you to pull out those templates you may have been afraid to use! If you have any Institchz examples or tips to share with us please do! We'd love to hear about them!
Ginnifer Maloney

Technique Tuesday

Today I'm going to show you how to make fun dimensional flowers using your scallop punches.

I use 2 different sizes...the 2" and the 1.5". I punch out my paper using each punch..so I have 2 scallops. I then take the larger one and cut the 'petals'...I cut a heart shape...just slice every two notches...and then I bend the 'hearts' together...almost in half...and just bend all the petals upward. (you'll see what I mean once you try it)

Then with the smaller one I cut a slit on every scallop...and fold these all inward a bit.

Then I just attach the smaller one to the larger one...fan out all the petals a bit so they can curl up...add a fun button to the center and voila!!

I love doing this with different colors and textures of paper!!

Have Fun! Jenn :)

Technique Tuesday 11/24

I love making these pocket cards. They are easy and so cute. You can put a gift card in the pocket or goodies!!

Cast of Characters:
Kraft Kutz round die cut paper
scrap from Sassafras Lass/Monstrosity
stickers/SL Monstrosity
jute or hemp

Directions:
1. cut round die cut paper in half.
2. leave a 4" space in the middle-so the card will fit.
3. score at 4" and 8" on die cut paper.
4. fold sides in toward the middle.
5. overlap one side over the other.
6. tag is about 2" x 2" - punch hole in top for jute.
7. card size is 3 3/4"x5 3/4" - punch hole in top for jute.
8. finish decorating the card and front to your liking.

Technique Tuesday 11/19

Ranger Misters and Perfect Pearls
Everyone who knows me, knows that I love flowers, on layouts as well as on cards. With the holiday season approaching, I like to add a bit of a festive glow to my flowers without the fuss and muss of glitter. How is that accomplished?? Easy peasy - grab your Ranger Mini Mister, fill with water and add some Perfect Pearls to your water and shake well. You will have instant glitz for masking and to jazz up your flowers. I sprayed a beige Prima Sprite and viola! Subtle sparkle without the glittery mess! Now, another little trick I learned from Wendy Vecci at CHA - you can make lovely watercolor designs on your embellishments by taking an ink pad and rubbing it onto your non-stick Craft Mat and then spraying the ink with your pearlized water - then gently lay your embellishment onto the beaded ink and you will have 2 colors and some glitz. You can also put some ink into your pearlized water - re-inkers work really well - alcohol inks are fabulous, but in a pinch you can always get a Q-Tip really inked and stick it in the water and you will still get decent color. I really put alot of color into the mister to make this plum color - with deep colors you can use the tinted mister water to make a mask.
Have fun with this!
Dee

Technique Tuesday 11/10

Altered Thickers - Lisa Harris

Materials
Chipboard or foam Thickers
2 shades of acrylic paint
Foam paintbrush and/or sponge
Drywall tape
Ranger Rock Candy Distress Paint
Wax paper

Step 1: On wax paper, spell out your title. As you can see, I had to “borrow” a couple of letters of a different color – this doesn’t matter, because you’re going to be painting them anyway.

Step 2: Paint letters with base color, let dry.

Step 3: Lay strip of drywall tape over letters and sponge on top color, let dry.

Step 4: Coat with Rock Candy Distress Paint, let dry.

Step 5: Apply to layout! Voila!

Technique Tuesday 11/03/2009

My mind has been on end of the year activities for my customers and I'm thinking of doing an open house or "free" crop for my customers and I want a "goody" for them-but something that will "work" for me also. Calendars are routinely given out at the end of the year for the next year - so that's my idea!

Cast of characters:
cardstock 3 3/4" x 4 1/2"
patterned paper ( I used Lime Ricky) 4"x 4 3/4"
hemp or twine, ribbon
large button
calendar
Thickers ( for year)

Directions:
1. Go to time and date.com and create a calendar
2. Pick out papers and photos or business cards.
3. Cut cardstock, patterned paper and calendars to size.
4. Edge patterned paper with scallop edge or one of your choice.
5. Use crop-a -dile or hole punch to make a hole in center top part ( to hang)
6. Use hemp, ribbon or twine to attach button - for hanger
7. Add year with Thickers

Put these by their seat, in a bowl in the center of your table or drop down in a goody bag. You could also put  a free crop coupon, or % off product on the back.

I had fun making these and can't wait to give them out!
Connie

Technique Tuesday 10/20/2009

Basic Grey Shaped Card

Materials from AC Bailey:
Basic Grey Indian Summer Paper Pack
Basic Grey Take Note Journaling Cards with transparencies
Basic Grey Indian Summer Woolies
Bazzill Paper Pack – Indian Summer
Flora Doodles Paper Florettes – For the Guy
Kaiser Craft Bling
Maya Road Chipboard Letters – Noah
Tim Holtz Distress Ink – Worn Lipstick
Stickles – Fruit Punch

From my stash:
Ribbon

I started with Basic Grey Take Note Journaling Cards with transparencies for the shape of the card. I folded a piece of 6 x 12 cardstock in half and placed the fold to the left.

I traced the journaling card onto the cardstock.

I cut around the card leaving the fold intact.

Then I cut the brown edge off of the journaling card, so that, when I glue the journaling card to my cardstock base, I will have a nice red edge around my card. I traced the inside of the brown border on a piece of white cardstock to use as the inside of my card.

I cut around the card leaving the fold intact.

Then I cut the brown edge off of the journaling card, so that, when I glue the journaling card to my cardstock base, I will have a nice red edge around my card. I traced the inside of the brown border on a piece of white cardstock to use as the inside of my card.

I glued the Journaling Card and Transparency to the front of the card and I added some Flora Doodles, Woolies, and ribbon embellishments.

I inked The Maya Road Chipboard Alphas with Worn Lipstick and then added Fruit Punch Stickles to create the glittered alphas.

I cut out the white card insert and glued to the inside of the card and added a Flora Doodle. (Note: the Flora Doodles gem is green in color, so I carefully removed the green gem and added a clear gem for color matching purposes.)

I hope you have fun making this little shaped card!!!

Enjoy!
Kristii

Technique Tuesday 10/13/2009

I love buttons – I love the look of them in little jars separated by color – I love spilling them out to select the perfect one for the center of my flower or to use as an accent on my pages. I love using twine to tie through the holes instead of using embroidery floss, and I have seen buttons tied with ribbon and raffia, like the one Audrea did here.


I love filling the holes with Stickles or Dimensional Pearls. The last few weeks though, I have seen buttons used in some of the most unique ways.





Buttons can be used to make a snowman by stacking one on top of the other like this.

Scalloped edges have become very popular in scrapbooking and card making – but did you ever think about making a scalloped edge with a row of buttons like Amy did here:









I always turn to buttons for the center of flowers, but did you ever make a flower or tree from buttons? Yvette did a fabulous job on these two cards where she made a topiary on one card and made little trees out of buttons on another.

I am thinking that buttons could be made into Lollipops, or used to replace wheels on a Bus, Bike, Car, Baby Stroller.

Buttons can be used for bullets to accent journaling or in place of brads to accent a curve or a corner. They make fantastic photo frames too!


There are lots of ways to decorate buttons. They can be inked with Staz-On, accented with Stickles or Dimensional Pearls, and can be decorated with a rub-on like this one.

Buttons can be decorated with a Sharpie, Slick Writer, or Signo Pen.
Crackle Paint will not stick to a glossy button, but it will stick nicely to a cloth button.





Buttons can also be accented with brads like shown here and here .

I really hope that this has given you some new ideas about buttons – or maybe serves a reminder to use buttons on your layouts and cards more often. Whatever it may be – can’t wait to see!
Dee

Technique Tuesday 10/6/2009

As you all know, I live in New England, I am definitely a Yankee.
I have Yankee ingenuity and Yankee pride, and I am Yankee shrewd.
After all, I hang my clothes out to dry, we heat with wood cut and cleared off our land, and since it is fall -I scrap with stamps made of LEAVES!

Yes, you heard me right- I use leaves, REAL LEAVES, when scrapping, why not? look at our trees (pic 1) the ground is covered with them- may as well put them to good use. Dee found this website "Trish B Design Studio" and it showed how to do "leaf printing" - that Trish Bayley must be a New Englander too (hahaha) and I decided to give it a try- I was not feeling too optimistic when I first started out, but I love how it turned out ad will definitely be doing more of this.

First you gather your supplies, (pic 2) you will need leaves, paper, pigment ink, an acrylic stamp block, and paper towels.
Then you ink the leaves. I place the leaf on top of the ink pad and push down. You could also place your leaf on scrap paper and turn the ink pad over and ink the leaf that way too. Carefully pick up your leaf and place it on your paper where you want the image to be. Quickly place the acrylic block over the leaf and push it flat to gain all the leaf detail on your paper. (pic 3) Do not rock or the image will distort. Carefully remove the block and leaf and TADA!! You have a leaf print image!

Repeat this process to fill your paper as you'd like. Use different leaves and different color inks. (pic 4) They do not even have to be earth-toned.

And, each leaf is different and each SIDE of each leaf is different, so if you are not happy with the image stamped, turn the leaf over and try the other side.
When the paper is dry, you can use it however you want. I cut mine and created this great fall card (pics 5 and 6) and I had pieces leftover.

The pics get cropped when doing the collage thing, so here is a pic of it all by itself too.

Give it try! Post your leaf creations here by noon on Friday- I will draw a name from a hat and send someone a RAK for trying! I am still giving away stuff! That is so much fun too-

Gail

Technique Tuesday 9/29/2009

Corner Book Mark - By Connie!

Cast of Characters:
3 1/2 X 3 1/2 cardstock
3 x 3 patterned paper coordinating
Corner rounder, 1" circle punch, scissors, bone folder.
Powder puff ink (I used Mocha Mama)
rubber stamp ( made by...)
Bazzill corner chips

Instructions:
1. Fold at top of cardstock - to find center. Fold one side to the middle and then the other side.
2. Take your 3 x 3 patterned paper & corner round the ends and then do the cardstock piece.
3. Ink the edges and adhere to cardstock.
4. Cut off square corners with scissors
5.Cover your chip board corners with a contrasting paper & attach in point. ( makes roof)
6. Take your rubber stamp & stamp on contrasting paper made by.... punch out with 1" circle punch and
adhere to back-so it will stay closed.
7. Add trim and embellishment to front & you are finished.

When I make these I always make several. You might as well-they are that fast when you get going. These would be a great M n' T for your Fall class or crop. Use your scrap papers and one package of Bazzill corners will make 12 M n T's. Put supplies in a cute bag and be sure to add your business card and your open house schedule or your next crop. You can even cut and paste this tutorial and put it in with the supplies. Anything you want to promote, this is great place to put it!

Technique Tuesday 9/15/2009

Covering chipboard "AC Bailey Style"!

(The pic's are from L to R)
Row #1
(a.) Cast of Characters : patterned paper, chipboard shape, Tim Holtz hand sander, Xyron 510, QQ powder puff inks.
(b.) Step:1 insert paper into Xyron to adhere adhesive
(c.) Step:2 peel off Xyron adhesive paper & stick on chipboard shape

Row #2
(a.) Step:3 sand edges with Tim Holtz hand sander.
(b.) Step:4 sand curves with basic Grey small file.
(c.) Step:5 view of sanded edges- complete

Row#3
(a.) Step:6 ink sides-Quick Quotes Powder Puff ink ( Mocha Mama) My ink of choice
(b.) Step:7 Completed.
(c.) Step:8 Another look at the products used.


That is my process on covering chipboard shapes or a coaster. All the products I used are in the e-store. This is a very simple process but you would be surprised at how many girls don't know how to cover chipboard ( AC Bailey style! )
Connie

Technique Tuesday 9/8/2009

Since yesterday we talked about the Top Score Multiboard, I thought it would be fun to show a card using lots of scoring - and being card challenged myself, I am always on the lookout for cool cards and I found this. The tiny little card sits right into the card itself.


4 x 4 Inch Side Step Card

The card design, illustration and original text was created by Penny Wessenauer. I changed the directions slightly for easier understanding.


Cut cardstock 8 inches wide by 4 inches high.

Cut a slit 1 ½ inches from top of cardstock – starting ¾ inches from the left and stopping at 2 inches from the right ( as indicated by heavy line).

Score vertically stopping at the slit at ¾ inches, 1 ½ inches, 2 ¾ inches, and at 6 inches

Score from top to bottom at 4 inches (center of card – crossing over the slit).

Fold at score lines.

Have Fun!
Dee

Technique Tuesday

Today I'm going to show you a simple stamping technique called masking. All you need is a piece of white cardstock, a scrap piece of copy paper some ink and 2 stamps - a central image stamp and a background stamp.
First, stamp the central image stamp twice: once on the cardstock and once on the scrap of copy paper.

Now cut out the stamped image from the copy paper and lay it over the image on the cardstock. I like to use a bit of re-positionable adhesive here so that it doesn't move around.


Now stamp over the whole thing with your background stamp and remove the scrap of copy paper.

Eeasy peasy technique which gives your stamped image a bit of flair and uniqueness!

Join us next Tuesday for another interesting technique!
Elisabeth