Friendzy Friday at Two Scrapbook Friends - Accordion hearts

I know I've been a bad blogger recently, but the sun has been shining so nicely, and we've been enjoying my parents company, so what can I say?!!  I will try to behave from now on and visit regularly.....promise!

It's time for another Friendzy Friday over on the Two Scrapbook Friends Blog and Forum, so I'm here with a quick tutorial for creating accordion hearts.

Most of us have created accordion flowers of varying shapes at some point and Christa gave us a great Freindzy Friday recently for one variety, but I quite often use accordion hearts on cards and scrapbook pages, to add a 'heartfelt' variation to this popular embellishment.

Here goes:

1. First I determine the overall finished size of the heart by deciding upon the width of my strip of paper. For this example I've cut a strip 1 1/2" tall, and as always, I keep the length to 12". This size works great on scrapbook pages as it's quite a good size, however it's probably a little large for cards, so I tend to reduce the measurement to 3/4" or 1" by 12".

2. Score the strip of paper at the 6" point and fold.



3.We then have to create a template, so I cut a piece of cardstock the same size as the folded paper I'm working with.....in this case 1 1/2" by 6".



4. On the 'template' card, we need to freehand draw the following shape.......it doesn't have to be perfect as long a it follows the general outline.




5. Cut out the template, then place on the folded patterned paper and cut around the shape.



6. Open out the paper and proceed to score at regular intervals, as you would to create any accordion flower. I score at 1/4" intervals, but the choice is yours.



7. Accordion fold at the score lines and you should end with something like this.



8. Glue the two ends together to form a circle.



9. Press the circle flat to create the heart shape....remember, the straight edge should be in the center and the curved edge on the outside. The narrowest part of the strip can be a weak point and possibly tear, so I tend to hold this section as I press the heart flat. I also usually cut an extra smaller circle to adhere the heart to and keep things in place.






You can then add gems or buttons etc...........



This little card uses a perfect image and sentiment from Bugaboo , and made it's way to my parents for their wedding anniversary......I know they'll appreciate the humour.........46 years and still going strong (the sentiment says it all! :)

These hearts also look great on layouts where the options are endless for what you can add on there...........

I do hope you'll give these a try as they really are super easy, and you can re-use your template over and over again.
Have fun and I'll see you next time,
Jayne.x.

An apple (or maybe a bookmark) for teacher!

Good morning!
Sorry I've been a little absent this week........it's true what they say about the best laid plans!

Anyhow, it's time for Friendzy Friday over on the Two Scrapbook Friends Blog and Forum so here I am again.

The end of the school year is drawing to a close here in Canada, so my thoughts are turning to cards and gifts for teacher.

I'd thought I'd share a simple little idea I'll be running with this year......a bookmark card.

They are really easy to make and who doesn't like a card with a little added bonus - I know we're probably hoping for cash here, but you can't have everything!

All you really need to make one of these are papers and embellishments of your choice, plus a perforating blade on your trimmer.  If you don't have one of these you could still achieve the same results by using a ruler, a piercing tool and a little patience!

So, a bookmark card in three basic steps:

Step1

Take a 5"x7" card.  You can use any size, but I find this works well as it gives you plenty of room to fit everything on there.  Cut a 'bookmark' sized section from the front cover only......I've cut 1 3/4'' from the right edge on the front panel.

Step 2

Using this same measurement (1 3/4") score along the back panel only using a perforating blade.  I scored 1 3/4" from the right edge on the back panel.

Step 3

Decorate as you wish.  There are no restrictions as to how you decorate the 'card' portion, however my only word of advice is that you keep embellishments fairly flat on the 'bookmark' section of the card, as it will eventually be lying between the pages of a book.  I usually add some ribbon, twine, beads or charm etc. to the top or bottom of the bookmark, to ensure there is something to protrude from the book.

Finally, one last point which I'm sure is common sense, remember to decorate the two sections (card and bookmark) as two separate entities, to ensure the recipient is able to detach the bookmark easily!

There we have it, one down.........a few more to go!

Your deadline for completion is two weeks from today :-) so have fun , and I'll see you next time,
Jayne.x.

Let's talk 'Tape'!

Well it's Friday and here I am again!

It's my turn for Friendzy Friday over on the Two Scrapbook Friends blog and forum this week, and to say I was running a little behind with my preparations, is somewhat of an understatement!  However, the true professional that I am would never back down from a good challenge, so here goes.

Today I am here to talk "Tape"!

Washi, Trendy, Tissue, Decorative........whichever way you describe it, or whichever variety you have, it all boils down to one thing.........pretty tapes that we can't get enough of!

If you are anything like me though, as soon as this product arrived on the market a little while ago, I was intrigued, immediately ran out to buy myself a small collection, then got home and thought "Well what am I going to do with this?"

Hence today's post.

I thought I would set myself the task of exploring a few other ways of using these little gems, other than the more obvious 'cut and stick on the page' method, which is still one of my favourites by the way!

I believe all of these tapes are re-positionable, and can be applied to a number of surfaces, which really does make them a pretty versatile embellishment to have in your stash.

So here goes.

If you think of the tape as a ribbon with it's own adhesive backing, you can......

ruffle it...........

or pleat it.......

I even tried it on a 'Gluber'.......a touch fiddly, but it worked quite well........

The beauty of these tapes, is that they are fairly sheer, which means after adhering to cardstock, you're still able to cut them in a variety of ways.

Such as for alpha's to co-ordinate with your scrapbook pages...........

or with most varieties of dies.........

You can even still use it with your border punches..........

Following on from this, it will score or fold nicely too.......

You might have noticed it was even used to cover and co-ordinate the button in the center there too!  Thanks to my scrappin' friend and button coverer extraordinaire Carola for this idea......there you go Girlfriend, you got your mention :)

These tapes are certainly versatile, so with a few snips of the scissors, together with a stick pin or toothpick, we can create mini flags for cards/layouts or cake toppers.........

and if we combine with twine, we have beautifully co-ordinated handmade banners............

Well I hope I've given you a few ideas for the use of your tape collection.  I'm sure there are many more, and I would love for you to share your own ideas by uploading to the gallery or forum.

Most importantly, have fun using it, and I'll see you next time,
Jayne.x.

Friendzy Friday at Two Scrapbook Friends - Tickets please!

Good morning, we interrupt the current programming.....(that is my recent DT creations using the Echo Park line) to bring you something different.

It's time for another Friendzy Friday over on the Two Scrapbook Friends blog, and it's my turn to deliver the goods, so here we go.........a quick and easy way to make tickets for your cards or scrapbook pages.

All you need is paper of your choice, mine being Authentique which I love right now (and you can find of course at the store!), a perforating blade on your trimmer, a hole punch and basic computer skills.

 

First of all I created two rectangular shaped text boxes in Word and added the text I wanted to appear on the tickets.

I then cut around these using the perforating blade on my trimmer.

When you've torn away the extra pieces, you should end up with something like this.......

I then used my hole punch on each of the corners to take out a small section, and inked along all the edges.

You can then use them for whatever you like.........I placed them on a card which was literally put together within 10 minutes.

I do hope you'll give these a try as they are super easy and perfect when you're searching for that elusive sentiment........invent your own!

Don't forget to upload your creations to the gallery as we always love to see what you come up with.

Have a very happy Easter weekend,

Jayne.

Friendzy Friday at Two Scrapbook Friends.

Hello and Happy Friday! It's my turn for Friendzy Friday this week over on the Two Scrapbook Friends blog, so I thought I'd cover a little technique I use on most of my cards, using Distress Inks and Nestabilities.

Most of us use Nesties or similar dies on our cards or scrapbook pages to cut, but it's often forgotten that they can be used as stencils too. Most of the cards I make contain coloured images, and I use this technique on 90% of them. Not only does it look effective, it can stop the image 'floating' so to speak.

So first of all as previously mentioned, you'll need Distress Inks in the colour of your choice, a Nestabilitie/Sissix or similar die, and a Blending Tool. You can of course find all of these at the Two Scrapbook Friends store.



First lay your die over the image you are using on your card.....I tend to use a little sticky tape on the corners to keep things in place.




Ink up your Blending Tool with your chosen Distress Ink and using a circular motion, start to blend the colour into your framed image. It's quite useful to dab off any excess ink on a scrap piece of paper before you actually start to blend......you can always add more ink, but taking away can be a problem!




I've found also that it looks more effective if your 'inked' area is not too regimented........you need to loosely follow the outline of the image, leaving maybe half a centimeter of white space. I've drawn a dotted line on this view to show what I mean.



Once you've covered the whole area, remove the die and voila!



Don't forget you're sentiments too..........




Just remember not to rub the blending tool over the print as some inks, especially printer inks will smudge.

When you're feeling more adventurous, why not reach for other dies in your stash and experiment to create interest in your backgrounds such as hills or waves. Blue's work awesomely for skies, and as you can see here, I used a flower die........



to create clouds............



I do hope you'll give this technique a try the next time you reach for your dies, and don't forget to upload your creations to the gallery. We always love to see what you've been up to, but most importantly, have fun.

See you next time
Jayne.

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Friendzy Friday at Two Scrapbook Friends.

Hi there, me again!

As a new member of the Design Team over at Two Scrapbook Friends, it's my turn to host Friendzy Friday. For my debut I wanted to talk about the 'Shake It' products you can find at the store.

This really is an awesome line that takes all the hard work out of creating 'shaker' projects, in a variety of shapes. There are two parts to the system, a plastic cover, and a paper overlay........

First, you will need to decide what you would like to appear behind the shaker window. This could be a stamped image, patterned paper or even a photograph....the choice is yours. I coloured a stamped image using my Copic markers.
You then need to carefully place whatever you want to use as your shaking elements, in a small pile in the center of your background. Again here the choice is yours, but I decided upon a combination of micro beads and sequins.


The next step can be a little tricky as we need to adhere the plastic cover to the background, and micro beads or glitter often develop a love affair with static! First, remove the clear film on the back of the shaker window.........

.......then move fairly quickly to stick it down. I've found that the more you hover, the more the beads will move around, so decide where it's going and put it there!

Next we need to adhere the overlay. I tend to use a double sided sticky tape such as Scor-Tape as it creates a good firm bond. If you'd like to 'pretty' the overlay in any way ie. inking, distressing etc., do this before you stick.
I chose to emboss..........

You can then go ahead and put your shaker onto your chosen project. Again here the options are endless....... a card, gift tag, scrapbook page.....almost anything.

Mine found it's way onto a gift box I'd made, to hold a handmade set of cards.

I do hope you'll give these a try as they really are fun, so much so that my kiddies enjoyed making a few over the Christmas holidays.

Have a great day.
Jayne.x.