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eCraft Tips & Tricks Videos

Rock On!!!

Some days you gotta dance

Live it up when you get the chance

‘Cause when the world doesn’t make no sense

And you’re feeling just a little to tense

Gotta loosen up those chains and dance… Dixie Chicks

In the hustle and bustle of daily life we sometimes forget to actually LIVE!  Life is so short and time passes us by faster than a mom hauling her kids to practice…not that I speed, mind you o:)  But I’m just as guilty as the next person when it comes to slowing down and taking notice of the world around me and the people in it.

When was the last time you paid someone a compliment, even one as simple as ‘Good job!’?  Its not that you don’t appreciate them or that they didn’t do a good job; its that we all suffer from what my mom calls ‘But First’ disease.  Your start out your day with the best of intentions, you’re going to knock off a few items on that ‘To-do’ list…BUT FIRST, there’s that mail that I need to open…BUT FIRST I really should call my friend of mine that I’ve been meaning to call… BUT FIRST I really should put those dishes away.  In the blink of an eye, you’ve been struck by ButFirst Disease.

Today, focus on telling one person in your life that they are appreciated and why.  Compliments are hard to come by and enjoyed by everyone; but that doesn’t mean it has to be all formal-like!  Kick off your shoes, get comfortable and let someone know that you appreciate them, even if its for something simple…  You can even make it… *brace for it*

FUN!

Yes its silly, but you smiled when you saw it…didn’t you?  Wanna see some more?  Too bad!  I’m showing you anyways 🙂

For those of you that are new to card making, this is a Tri-Shutter card, sometimes referred to as a Tri-Fold card.  Either way, they are fun…both to make AND receive!

What I used:

Mischief – my Pinc eCraft
DCWV ‘Collage Musings’ stack
Mr. Cricut Crazy ‘Friends, Friends’ stamp set
Lettering Delights ‘Paper Dolls’ and “Here Comes Treble’ svg sets
Glimmer Mist ‘Black Magic’ (Hobby Lobby)
Ranger Distress Ink ‘Vintage Photo’ (Hobby Lobby)
Martha Stewart Scoreboard (Michael’s)
Decorative Scissors (Michael’s)
Tweezers
Small Paint Brush (Michael’s)
White Pencil
Glue Glider (Michael’s)
Ruler
Journal Embossing Folder or Journal Stamp (Hobby Lobby)
Small Square Foam Adhesive (I can never remember what those are called!  lol)
Zig Glue Squeeze and Roll Fine Point Pen (Hobby Lobby)

How I did it:

I used the very musical and very cool card stock that came in DCWV’s Collage Musings stack and I cut the base of my card out using my eCraft (more on that later) — My base is always 12” wide and 5 1/2” tall, its a great size and provides lots of options when it comes to decorating.  To make the base using a hand-trimmer; take your piece of 12×12 card stock, measure 5 1/2” up and cut across.  Your end piece will match mine — 12”w by 5 1/2”h.  Next place your cut piece on your scoreboard and score it at 2”, 4”, 8” and 10”.  Take the base off the scoreboard and get out your handy, dandy ruler.  Measure 1 1/2” from the top and again from the bottom.

Once you’ve marked (very lightly) 1 1/2” from the top and again from the bottom, take a craft blade or your trimmer and cut from the first score mark all the way across to the last score mark.  Your base should resemble my very elementary diagram…  From here you’re going to want to ‘Mountain Fold’ your score lines.  2” score folded away from you, 4” folded towards you, etc.  Once your ‘mountain’ is done, you going to take that center ‘row’ and folded it opposite of the top and bottom rows – see above pictures to help visualize.  My preference is to create a card ‘front’ so to speak, but many cards made like this don’t — its entirely up to you.  I like having a full front panel to decorate and I feel that it adds stability to the card.

Now that the base is complete its time to DECORATE!  woot woot  *sings*  Shake your grove thing, shake your grove think Baby!  Show em how we do it now!

For the front — The audience is an svg file that I made, email me and I’ll send it to you; same goes for the stage curtain.  To add a little depth to the curtains I used a white pencil to create fold lines and then painted on some of that drool-worthy Glimmer Mist.  I also put Glimmer Mist on ALL of the music notes, the stars in the banner and even on the ‘You Rock!!’.

Speaking of ‘You Rock!!’ that niffy phrase came from Mr. Cricut Crazy — don’t you just love how it looks hand written?!?!?!  I do!  In fact, the entire card was based on that single stamp…  The banner cut-out came from the MTC gallery, but there are plenty of banners out there to be had…  The banner and my rocker-chick (my daughter’s idea) are adhered with those little foam squares.  For the rockers, give yourself plenty of time for cutting and assembling; there are LOTS of pieces and its a lot of work, but the end result is SO worth it!

 

For the inner phrases, I nabbed those off of another sheet of card stock from *can you believe it* that same DCWV Collage Musings stack!  There is some serious variety in that pack!  I used decorative scissors to give them a funky edge and then glued them to a mini-panel that was cut to fit that section.  The panels and pre-printed word pieces are the only items that were not cut on the eCraft.  For the journal panel, I used an embossing folder since none of my journaling stamps would fit — darn it, guess I’ll have make another run to Hobby Lobby heeheehee I used my Ranger ink on the edges of the journal panel to give it a little border…

 

And there you have it!  A fun way to show someone that they are appreciated!

 


Categories
eCraft General Information Scrapbooking

Of birds and bees… well, mostly bees!

If you’re a Dean Martin fan, then these words have danced in your head before…

“Let me tell you ‘bout the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees, the moon up above, and the thing called love.”

Now don’t start fidgeting in your seat, we’re not going to talk about THOSE birds and bees, we’re going to talk about another kind! More colorful, but not in THAT way…goodness gracious the places people’s minds go… With spring coming up (and hopefully SOON), its time to start getting in gear for gardens, sunshine and of course — birds and bees! Its a new year; time to shrug off the old and embrace something new. And that’s exactly what I did!

Have you ever noticed that when you shop for supplies you tend to migrate towards the things that appeal to you the most? Do you tend to come home with the same styles, colors and themes? Have you looked at a paper stack, gave it that old high school ‘up and down’ and then, with upturned nose, walked away? Well I sure have! I’m the queen of avoiding anything yellow, orange or containing realistic bugs. I mean seriously, how can THAT ever = cute?!?!?

Here’s how!

Not bad for a first attempt out of the proverbial ‘box’!

What I used:

eCraft aka Mischief – of course!
DCWV ‘Collage Musings’ stack
Mr. Cricut Crazy ‘Friends, Friends’ stamp set
Black Pigment Ink
Black Embossing Powder
Heat Embossing tool
Lettering Delights ‘Bee Yourself’ svg set
Glimmer Mist ‘Black Magic’
Ranger Distress Ink ‘Vintage Photo’
Ranger Blending tool
Brads
Craft knife
Glue Dots
Small Paint Brush
Embossing Tool/Pad

What I did:

The main portion of the card is made from a single sheet of card stock from the DCWV stack…  I love how realistic the flowers are and I wanted to really make them POP!  So I selected some of the petal and I cut along the edges with my craft knife about 3/4 of the way around the petal; I left it uncut where the petal connected to the center of the flower.  I also did this with the ends of the ribbon and the two flower buds at the top of the card.  Once I ‘freed’ those portions, I flipped the paper over and embossed the back of the pieces, being careful not to tear the paper.    Then I folded my card, but not the top flowers.  TIP if your embossing tool is skidding or ‘squeaking’ when you rub the paper…rub the embossing tip across some wax paper to help it slide better.

I found the bees on Letter Delights’ website, they’re part of the ‘Be Yourself’ svg cuts file.  Those were for Mischief, my eCraft, to cut out…and OMG what an amazing job she did!  Do you see those teeny tiny legs and those almost not even there antennae???  Crazy!  The more I use my eCraft, the more I’m impressed with what it can do…

WOW.  Mischief, you really out did yourself on those bees.  Good job!

Ok, back to the task at hand!  One of the other things that I really love about the paper I chose is the sparkle!  DCWV added the perfect amount of sparkle to the flowers and their stems and I wanted my bees to really look like they belonged.  To do that I used ‘Black Magic’ Glimmer Mist and the effect was perfect!  But instead of spritzing the glimmer mist on the paper, I used a paint brush.  I wanted to make sure that I didn’t miss any spots, especially with those tiny parts…  I used mini glue dots to adhere them to the card.

Mr. Cricut Crazy Stamps had the perfect phrase for this card… ‘You’re the Bees Knees!’  Such a cute, old fashioned saying!  And since this card is all ‘garden’, I used another piece of card stock from the same DCWV stack that looks like wood.  I used Mischief to cut out my ‘piece of wood’ and the holes for the brads.  I used the Ranger Ink and Blending tool to deepen the color of the ‘wood’ and also to ink the edges of my ‘sign’.  My stamping skills are a little rough, and yeah…so are my heat embossing skills.  LOL  But, nothing ventured, nothing gained and those are two techniques that I wanted to learn this year.  Once that was done, I popped in the brads and adhered my little ‘wooden’ sign to my card.

All in all, a challenging but very fun card to make…  And proof that the old adage is true; If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.  So the next time you see a paper stack with colors or embellishments that are not what you tend to buy, instead of passing it by, why don’t you buy it and challenge yourself to break out of what you’ve always done…because you just might like when you get!