Translucent Bead Necklace

Just completed another polymer clay necklace/earring set. The beads are made of translucent clay with silver foil and bit of alcohol ink. I'm still playing with wire wrapping so the herringbone weave around the focal bead is not perfect. The earrings are wire wrapped but I can see that where the wire meets the jump ring needs to be redone. I still like the overall look.

The Dawn of a New Craft

For the past few months I've been hankering for a new craft. Don't get me wrong I still love to make cards and color with my copics. But I inherited the "craftaholic" gene from my mother and in a moment of weakness I caved to the urge.

What new craft you ask??  Polymer Clay!  Several years ago (aka BTF - before the flood) I played around with polymer clay and made a few figures. I had a few tools and some clay but put it aside for awhile. In September 2009 we experienced a pretty bad flood that resulted in 5 ft of water in our garage and my husband's workshop. All my crafts except my scrapbooking stuff were a total loss. I can't begin to think of the monetary value - we're talking tons of stuff from sewing patterns, material, decorative paintings supplies, clays, cross stitich, needlework, etc. My husband loss more - all his power and woodworking tools. We even lost our boat and SUV.  So now any craft results in a trip to Michael's or ordering online to replace all the things I once had.

For the past few weeks I've been playing around with PC (polymer clay) and rather than making figurines I wanted to learn how to make beads for jewelry. Now this is a fabulous craft - I just love it!!  Each week I buy more clay, more jewelry findings, more tools, more wire - it's endless. I so enjoy making the beads and then stringing them into a necklace and earrings. I've even begun to play around with wire wrapping to add a more decorative touch.

Below are two sets I made and sent to my sister in NJ. She was supposed to pick one for herself and give the other as a gift. I just learned she kept both but then mom stole one. Now she's telling me she wants something "lime green".  I would like to hear your thoughts on these creations. My photography isn't the best but I hope you can see that the set in the first photo is bronze/gold mokume gane beads. I learned this technique from Cindy Leitz's Polymer Clay Tutor website.  The second set happens to be a favorite of mine. It's supposed to replicate onyx. While I would like to take credit - I actually got the step by step instructions from Carol Blackburn's "Making Polymer Clay Beads" book. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning this craft. I'm a beginner but there are so many techniques that I'm sure advanced clayers would find it useful as well. 

I have another set ready for the camera but I want to work on building a photo tent so my pictures come out better. All comments are greatly appreciated!

My Magnolia Stamp Index

This week is one where we find ourselves with no baseball games.  It's slightly weird not packing up the cooler, folding chair, and preparing to chant - 1-2-3 GO COUGARS! The boys played in the District Tournament this weekend and came so close to moving up in the bracket. Their last game against a very strong local team found our boys ahead 11-0 at the bottom of the 3rd inning. All they needed to do was hold the home team and the game would be over. Unfortunately, the boys lost a bit of the "eye of the tiger" and thought they had the game in the bag before it actually ended. The other team ended up winning 11-12.  Funny thing is - I think the parents are taking the loss a lot harder than the kids! Go figure!  We have no tournaments this weekend and Georgia State tournament next weekend. Regardless of how it turns out - this has been a summer of a lot of fun, making new friends - parents and kids alike!

Anyway, many of my "Maggie" friends on the Magnolia-lious Yahoo group have been hoping someone would take the time to create a database of all the Magnolia stamps available.  Someone (I am really sorry I don't know who it is) created an Excel spreadsheet that included the name of the stamp along with the corresponding collection. I decided to take this spreadsheet a little further.

I created the index in MS Word since it would allow the image to stay within the table. This index isn't completed yet but it does start with 2007 Summer Collection and continues through the latest 2011 Sweet Rainbow Collection.  The index includes the stamp name, collection, image, and a check box so you can check off the stamps you have already purchased. The file was so large I had to split it up. The first contains stamps from Summer 2007-2008. The second file are all the stamps from 2009-2011. I will warn everyone - the two files total 129 pages right now and roughly 23 mb so be prepared with lots of paper and ink if you plan on printing it out. You may want save the file and take it to Office Depot or Kinko's and have them print it for you. I'm not sure how much they'll charge but it may be cheaper than doing it yourself. You can always just keep it as a "soft" copy if you'd like.

I will update soon to include the older collections and any news that come in. I hope everyone finds this helpful.

Magnolia Stamp Index 2007-2008

Magnolia Stamp Index 2009-2011

Birthday Cake Card Tutorial

I need to apologize to everyone who was hoping a tutorial for the birthday cake easel card would be posted shortly after I posted the card. We are "baseball central" at our house. Our 10 year old son is playing on a youth all-star baseball team this summer. For those of you who have no idea what this means let me put it this way - it's baseball, baseball, baseball - EVERYDAY! I'm not complaining but it doesn't leave any time for blogging. My son will practice two or three days per week and then play in tournaments four or five days per week. Oh yes - don't think you're given notice to plan because that doesn't happen. For instance, he has a game this friday at 5pm, and two games on Saturday - one at 2pm and another at 6pm. However, Sunday is "bracket" day which means we could play one game or three games and who knows what time. Absolutely crazy!! But we love it and our son is having an absolute ball - no pun intended.

Ok I digressed... I have been asked to create a tutorial for the birthday cake easel card I made back in April. I do not take credit for "inventing" this masterpiece. I wish I knew who did because they deserve a big applause. I saw this card on several blogs over the last few months and found one written in Swedish that I was able to follow. So, since this is the blog I used to create my card I will give credit to Elein Malein. I used her directions and added a bit of my own embellishments to create my card. If you are interested in step by step directions in English here's my tutorial - I do hope you make one and let me know the results!!



Supplies



Supplies Needed:

Card Base: (1) cardstock 12” x 5 ½”

Card Front: (1) designer paper 2 ¼” x 5 1/8”

             and (1) designer paper 2 ¾ x 5 1/8”

Card Inside: (1) designer paper 4 ¾” x 5 ¼”

Candle Box: (1) cardstock 3 ¼ " x 4 ¼"

Cake Top: (1) cardstock 2 ¾” circle

Cake Side: (1) cardstock at 1 ¼” x 9”

Extra designer paper for decorating - optional

Extra cardstock for matting - optional

6 birthday candles, ribbon, small piece of acetate,

embellishments for decorating,

paper cutter, scissors, glue, bone folder



Step 1: Card Base

Step 1

Card base: Cut cardstock at 12” x 5 ½”. Use your favorite scoring tool and score 3", 5 5/8" and 6 3/8".




Step 2: Card front



Step 2:

Card front 1: Cut designer paper at 2 ¾” x 5 1/8”

optional: adhere to cardstock mat cut at 2 ¾” x 5 ¼”.

Card front 2: Cut designer paper at 2 ¼” x 5 1/8”

optional: adhere to cardstock mat cut at 2 5/8” x 5 ¼”. Cut a piece of ribbon 11” long and adhere to card base front from edge toward 3” score line. Adhere “card front 1” to card base, centering it over ribbon.

Adhere “card front 2” to card base, centering it between 3” score line and 5 5/8” score line.

Step 3: Cake side

Step 3:

Cake side: Cut piece of cardstock 1 ¼” x 9” and score it at 1/4" and 1" on long sides.

Step 4: Cake Side

Step 4:

Cake side: Take cardstock and cut small triangle from edge to ¼” score line and repeat on opposite side. This will allow paper to wrap around the cake top without creasing.

 

Step 5: Cake Side

Step 5:

Cake side: Cut cardstock at 1 ¼” x 9” and use border punch to create decoration for cake side.

Step 6: Cake Top

Step 6:

Cake top: Using your favorite circle cutter (i.e. Nestabilities, Cricut, etc.) to cut a 2 ¾” circle from cardstock. Optional: cut slightly smaller circle from designer paper and adhere to cardstock circle.

Step 7: Cake Top

Step 7:

Cake top: Punch six holes around cake top same diameter as candles.

Step 8: Cake Top

Step 8:

Cake top: Decorate cake top as desired. Optional: Use snow maker marker to simulate frosting.

Step 9: Cake Assembly

Step 9:

Cake assembly: Bend all the small triangles away from center of cake side strip and apply glue to them. Wrap strip underneath cake top as seen in photo. Use small piece of tacky tape to inner end of strip to close it.




Step 10: Candle Box

 Step 10:

Candle box: Cut cardstock to measure 3 ¼ " x 4 ¼" - this will fit 6 candles. Using your favorite scoring tool, score the shorter side of paper at 1/2", 7/8", 2 3/8" and 2 3/4". Turn the cardstock 90° and score at 1/2", 7/8", 3 3/8" and 3 3/4".

Step 11: Candle Box

Step 11:

Candle box: Cut away the shaded areas in the photo to the red lines. Cut on score line indicated by green line in photo.



Step 12: Candle Box

 Step 12:

Candle box: Trim tabs and fold score lines as shown in photo.






Step 13: Candle Box

 Step 13:

Candle box: Cut small rectangle in center of candle box – be careful not to go past score lines.

Cut small scrap of designer paper to measure 2 ½” x 1 ½” and punch small decorative window in center and adhere to box top covering slightly large window. Adhere acetate to inside of box.


Step 14: Candle Box

Step 14:

Candle box: Use small scraps of designer paper to decorate sides of box if desired.

Fold at score lines to create box leaving one top end open to allow access for candles



Step 15: Card Inside


Step 15:

Card Inside: Cut designer paper to measure 4 ¾” x 5 ¼”. Dry fit candle box and cake to mat. Use pencil to lightly mark location of candle box. Do not adhere mat to card base yet.



Step 16: Card Inside



Step 16:

Card Inside: Using the pencil markings created in step 15 as a guide – cut small two small slices (indicated by red line) on mat to feed ribbon.



Step 17: Card Inside

 Step 17:

Card Inside: Cut matching mat for designer paper at 5” x 5 3/8”. Adhere designer mat to cardstock mat making sure ribbon has already been fed through slits. (Photo shows candle box and cake already adhered to mat but this is more easily done in step 18)



Step 18: Card Inside

 Step 18:

Card Inside: Cut ribbon at 11” and glue to inside of card base from the 6 3/8” score line to edge. Adhere card inside mat to card base and center over ribbon. Adhere candle box and cake to mat.




Step 19: Card Finish

Step 19:

Card Finish: Use ribbon to close card and have some fun decorating card front. For example, stamp a cute image and color, add a sentiment and flowers – be creative!

Birthday Cake Easel Card

There have been a few versions of this card on the web and I fell in love with it immediately. It wasn't until the other day that I found directions. I copied off the instructions but failed to write down the link to the blog. I am so sorry about that because this person's card was very beautiful.

I will at some point create a tutorial on how to make this very creative card so check back soon. It was really much easier than I thought!  The stamp is "Leaning Tilda" which I won from Jacque's wonderful blog. I colored with Copics - BG000, B02, B05 (top); R32, R35, R37 (pants); E00, E11, E13, R20 (skin); and C3, C5, C7, C9 (hair). I even put a little border around the cake for additional decoration using a Martha Stewart border punch.

I hope you enjoy and once the tutorial is uploaded you must make one yourself!

My Version of a Mini Purse Album

A few days the very talented Cabio posted the cutest mini album that I just had to make.  These little album's will make wonderful teacher and mother's day gifts. This one is made using the endearing "Brother & Sister" Magnolia stamp feature Tilda and Edwin.  I just couldn't resist.

The frame mat behind Tilda & Edwin was cut on my Cricut with a SVG file I obtained for free from Penny Duncan's wonderful blog. You must stop by and grab some for yourself. I believe this one is called "Half Moon Scallop Frame".



I colored the image with Copics and Tilda's slip is diamond Stickles. I used G20, G21, G24 on Tilda's dress and B91, B93, B95 on Edwin's overalls with Y21, Y23, Y26 for his shirt. 

When you lift the flap on the purse it reveals a space to adhere a photo

on the left and a gift tag in the pocket.

Here's a photo of all the Copics I used. It's much easier to include a photo

then an entire list since I used so many.

Maggie Triangle Tri-Fold

It's spring break and I have the week off which has resulted in all these posts in one week.  Who knows I may just post again tomorrow!!

This lovely little card is a Triangle Tri-Fold from SplitCoast Stampers. If you've never been to that site it's a must see for all papercrafters.  The stamp is my favorite - Tilda with Hawaii Flower - just love her!!  I used my i-rock to adhere the rhinestones on the scalloped oval Spellbinder nestabilities.  The designer paper is DCWV "The Blossoms & Butterflies Stack". I also added a touch of diamond stickles to the lace on Tilda's dress.

Jacque's Romantic Window

After receiving my candy from JACQUE I knew I had to get to work and create a card. My goody bag included the beautiful flowers you see from Shabby Chic and Leaning Tilda AND Romantic Window. How lucky can I get???  I decided to make to go to SplitCoast Stampers and find something special. I thought a recessed window card would be perfect.  I used my craft knife to cut the window out of the stamped image and used pop dots to make Tilda appear to be truly leaning out of the window.

My cards are much simplier than many of the wonderful artists who share their treasures at the Magnolia-lious Yahoo group. I'm very slowly adding stuff to my cards which are typically one dimensional.  Perhaps in the not too distant future I will feel comfortable enough enter a Magnolia challenge. Until then I'm practicing and loving every moment of it.

Tutorial: Post-It Easel Card

In February I posted an Easel Card that also holds post-it notes. Some have asked for instructions on how I created it. I've never created step-by-step instructions before for any card I've made so I hope this comes out ok. I'm not sure who created the original Post-it Easel Card but I first saw it on Stephanie Hester's blog - My Card Shack - so I'll give her the credit.  I changed her dimensions a bit in order to fit 3x3 post-it notes. So I hope these instructions work for you and please send me links to your own Post-it Easel Card!

Supplies Needed:

Paper Cutter

Bone folder

Scissors

Small circle punch

Permanent Adhesive

Cardstock for base:  4 1/4" x 9"

Cardstock for box: 4 1/8" x 4 1/8"

Carstock for card: 4 1/4 x 4 1/4"

Cardstock for card mat: 4 1/8" x 4 1/8"

Designer Paper for card mat: 4" x 4"

Step 1:  Take cardstock for box that is cut at 4 1/8" x 4 1/8" and score 1/2" from edge on all sides. Cut score lines from edge to next score line. Do this on two parallel sides as shown above. Fold all sides inward using bone folder.

Step 2:  If you'd like you can cut 4 strips of designer paper at 1/4" x 2 7/8" and adhere it to the back side of the the box. It's a lot easier to add the strips at this stage prior to the sides being closed than after. On one side punch a notch using small circle punch. Be sure to only punch half a circle.

Step 3:  Place a bit of permanent adhesive on the small tabs created on each corner. The adhesive should be on the outside of the tab. Adhere the tabs to create box. Photo was take without the strips. I learned the hard way that this should have been before this step.

Step 4:  Take cardstock for base that is cut at 4 1/4" x 9". Use paper cutter with bone folder or scoring blade to score cardstock on long end at 4 1/4", 4 3/4", and 6 7/8".

Step 5:  Use bone folder to create a valley fold at 4 1/4" and 4 3/4" and a mountain fold at 6 7/8".

Here's another view of what the base should look like folded

Step 6:  Place strong adhesive (I used scor-tape) from the edge of the card base to the mountain fold (edge to mountain fold measures 2 1/8").

Step 7:  Take cardstock for card that is cut at 4 1/4" x 4 1/4" and adhere it to the base. The edge of cardstock base should match the top of the card. This will means the top half of the card is double layered. Adhere box to card base - if you leave 1/2" space all around the box will be centered.

Step 8 Optional:  Adhere the cardstock mat cut at 4 1/8" x 4 1/8" to the card, and then place the designer paper cut at 4" x 4" on top of the mat. Decorate as you wish. 

Spring is in the Air

The sun is finally shining and the temps here in Georgia are rising. It's a beautiful spring day and sweet Tilda is out enjoying the day as well.  I have been coloring, coloring, coloring and completely forgetting to actually assemble a card. I signed up for Angie Hunt's Distress Ink watercolor class over at Color Me Creative. I've been practicing but still not quite happy with the results. I suppose we are our own worse critics. Once my finished image meets my standards I promise to share!

The stargazer lily was made using a poinsettia svg file I found on the internet somewhere. I cut it using my Cricut with white cardstock, airbrushed it with Copics RV11 and little dots on the pedals were made with Zig's colorbrush "cola". Card recipe is:

Designer paper:  DCWV Pocket full of Posies

Image:  Tilda with Hawaii Flower and Wheelbarrow

Stamp Ink:  Memento

Tilda's Hair:  E21, E25, E29

Tilda's Skin:  E00, E11, E13

Tilda's Dress:  BV00, BV02, BV11, BV17 and Diamond Stickles on lace

Wheelbarrow:  C3, C5, C8, E31, E33, E35, E37

Leaves & Grass:  YG91, YG93, YG95, YG97

Flowers: RV11, RV13, RV17, RV19 with a little Diamond Stickles