Sunday 24 October 2010

SU meets Sheena


Real mixup of things for this one.

Layout comes from Friday Sketchers challenge blog.

Main image is from Sheena Douglass and is coloured with various R20 copic shades going up to r27. Edges were scuffed with the SU distressing tool before adding pumice, frayed burlap and walnut stain distress ink. 2 brown shades of copic were sprayed using the spritzer tool from SU. Flourishes from Sheena stamped in versamark before being dusted with a pearl toned pearlex.

Papers by K&Co and dcwv before they were heavily distressed with walnut stain and stamped with en francais background by StampinUp and SU gold ep. To keep with the distressed theme I deliberately only tipped the embossing powder over the middle and on card that was slightly damp. The sentiment is from Sheena Douglass and stamped on Chocolate Chip cs before being punched with one of the new SU punches. Matching choc chip grosgrain ribbon and twine from SU. Shhhh don't tell hubby but the button is the spare from my best coat. Well it had a lovely pearly sheen and with a few splatters from red & brown copics throu the spritzer it just had to be put to paper ;o)

Friday 22 October 2010

3 kings box


Inspired by Claudias 3 kings favour box in edition 5 of the Magnolia mag this is a fab shaped box and perfect as a gift holder for a small bottle of perfume/ pair of knickers. Having 2 girls and a maybe one day dil to buy for at xmas I can see me making several of these.

Template from scs, (search the download forum for 3 kings) I cheated and converted to scal and cut with the cricut.

Sugar Nellie coloured with copics, b00, bg10,15 y00, 28, yr20, g21, e71 & r27 and promarker ivory & blush.

Basic grey paper, prima flowers, leone em frond punch, cream lace from ribbon box, organza ribbon, copic spica glitter pen and a few gems.

Sunday 17 October 2010

Challenge card



I havent made a Tilda card for months so it was nice to be able to grab the copics and have a go with this one.


The sketch is from Friday Sketchers and the theme of Oriental from Saturday Challenge




Long copic list, sorry. bv02, 13 b00, 02, bg 10, 15, 23, v12, e71, c1,3, 5. Promarker black, ivory & blush. My first attempt at black hair and I'm not very happy with it, the promarker just didnt want to blend nicely with the copics.

Paper is a thin tissue stamped with a very old um in taken with teal and mounted on taken with teal cs. I'm still gutted that SU discontinued this colour but I've got a few packs stashed away safely lol . Ovals were cut with a creative memories system, tag with scal and edged with twt ink before a few ribbons were threaded through. All mounted on a pale variagated card I've had for years. Not colours you'd normally think of for oriental but I wanted them to go with a few mizhuhiki cords I've had for even longer than I can think. The knot was looking quite tidy until I used some pinflair glue gel to attach. While it's still not quite set I think I'll take it off and tie again. I'll use some tombow to stick it on, not much that wont hold tight.

Saturday 2 October 2010

Ink pad racks for pennies

Thanks to a mishap on a quad bike I've spent the last 8 weeks with my right hand in a cast, oops lol. Wasn't fun really as I could barely brush my teeth left handed let alone stamp. so I decided to tackle a job that I've been sort of tempted to do for a while but had kept putting off.. Sort my ink pads out.

Ok I'll admit I've got rather a few (stop laughing Angie) and my SU inks are all beautifully displayed in a nice wooden rack (not that cheap) but thanks to the new colour renovation I wasnt going to have enough slots to house the inks I'd intended ordering.

Brainwave time, make my own but I havent got the tools let alone ability to make one out of wood so I decided to see if cardstock would be strong enough. Armed with my mates hougie board (she hates it so I have it on a permanent loan, cheers Sara)I did work out that if I shoved an embossing tool into the cast and held it between my index & middle finger I could at least use a scoring board. Out came the rulers, quite a few sheets of strong card and a whopping great roll of strong dst.

It took a few goes but I managed to make my first rack. Woohoo, 1 down another 5 to go!



This is how my desk looks now with my new ink pad racks, it won't stay this tidy for very long.







Here's how I made them.

Take some time, read through and see if you can work out the pics before attempting as there are a few small things that make a massive difference to the end result. You might want to grab a cuppa first as the instructions have seemed to resemble a novel, sorry. Each rack has taken less than an hour to make so please don't be put off. Once you get going it's quite easy.

This is the basic folding & cutting pattern for the shelves. The dashed lines are scores and the solid lines cut. If you look closely you'll see on lines a & b there are cuts both sides with just the section below the letters being scored.

If you've ever made a 3*3 memory book from a single sheet of 12*12 you might recognise the general principle.

I havent added sizes just yet, with there being more than a few common sizes it would get just a wee bit confusing. There are size diagrams at the very end of this post.

Worth pointing out that if you are making sleeves for supersized ink pads like SU you'll only fit 2 sleeves to a sheet of a4.


Here's the first sheet scored, pic is using the 2 panel sleeve for SU inks.








I've cut and folded the card. Doesnt matter which way you go but the horizontal folds have to be in the opposite direction of the vertical ones. Sorry if that doesnt make sense, it will in a minute.








Here's the first tip I found out the hard way. The dst needs to go the full length of the card, not just those two tiddly bits. You'll get a tidier rack if you get the dst as close to the edges as possible.







Sorry, the next step isn't something that worked in the pictures I took so I had to redo them.

I'm using a sheet cut and scored for the versamark size pads as this bit is the one that gets people flustered.

Ignore for now where the sticky is, this is all about how we fold them.

BTW I used a nestie circle in this one to make a finger grove. Bad idea as it really weakens the sleeve.











Bring A & B up and stick B to C. Try and make sure they're straight as you stick them.









Tuck C (along with a & b) underneath d








Bring D up and stick to E.



















Now the bases are stuck together it's just a case of sticking all the sides together. If you feel that you're handling a live octopus, first one is the worst. Now that you're sticking them together you'll notice that one side is very slightly shorter than the other. The shorter side is the one that goes on the inside. Be very careful and make sure the top of the longer side is lined up with the top of the fold on the longer side. You'll get a very lopsided tower if you dont!



That's the first of the stacks made. Now you need to make a couple/few more if you're as bad an inkpadholic as me. I wouldn't have more than 12 sleeves together though as they've surprisingly heavy when filled. That's not a problem when they're on the desk but you don't want to struggle carrying them to crops etc.

For stability it helps if you cut some card into the same height and depth and stick them to each side.

Now you've stabilised the stacks use the trusty dst and stick them together.

I used a1 centura pearl cardstock and made an outer shell with double fold sides. Not fun working with the hougie on my lap and the card dangling all over the place lol Pointless me giving sizes for the outer box as each depends on the thickness of cardstock used. If in doubt you're more than welcome to email me the size of your completed inner and I'll work it out for you.

Total cost of my rack, £1.50 tops and £1 of that was the a1 card stock.

It wasnt until I'd battled with the sheet of a1 card and finished the first rack that I had a 2nd brainwave.... washing (laundry) tablet boxes. They're often sort of the right size.

This was a 48tablet sized box. It didn't really fit 2 pads longwise iykwim but they worked quite nicely being put in sideways. Using the same principle I managed to make a set of really deep sleeves & drawers, perfect size for holding my tim holtz cutndry foam applicator and spare bits of foam.

Since taking the original pics I've turned a 24 tablet size box into a holder for my alchie inks. I did have to trim the sides down but I'm dead chuffed with it. It should be possible to adapt the sleeves to fit lots of craft toys, promarkers, embossing powders, cosmic shimmer mists.. I'd love to see what you can all come up with.


As promised these are the sizes

First one holds the pads with the narrow side showing, the 2nd with the long front showing. Reinkers/Alchie inks need scoring on 1, 2, 3, 4 & 4.74" and to be 2" deep for the shorter alchie inks, 2 .5 for distress reinkers.















One of my lovely docraft buddies Noreen came for monthly playday earlier this week and you can see the ones she's made on her blog Hers are posher than mine as she's taken the time to decorate them.