a little tutorial on making butterflies using corner dies

Good morning. Here's a little tutorial by request on how to make a beautiful butterfly using your corner dies.  When choosing the die to use, you need to make sure that it forms a nice "V" shape- that is- there is no flourishes etc coming from the centre of the die OR that the die doesn't go straight across (If you only have dies that flourish out, simply cut off the florish into a nice V shape).  The die I have used here is the La La Lands corner die- it is the perfect shape and size.  There are two ways you can cut your "wings". The first is to fold your paper (I like to use vellum and mulberry paper) like I have in the picture, overlaping the corner section over the fold- this way you cut TWO die cuts.  The other way is to cut FOUR die cuts and glue two together ONLY AT THE CORNER SECTION (you want to be able to separate your wings so they look like they are flying) - you would use this technique if you are using something with a print on it.

whichever technique you use, you will end up with two wings that look like this:

then it is a matter of gluing the two wings together.  I like to twist my wings down, giving the look that one wing is larger than the other.  You may need to trim excess corner from the centre.

There are numerous ways to decorate the centre body.  You can use adhesive pearls or rhinestones, use liquid pearls or similar and use little flower stamens for the antellas... Or you can get fancy and add real beads! Heres how:

the wire you want to use is 22 or 24 gauge.  24 is thinner and you would use this for beads with smaller hole in the centre like a bicone crystal. You need to thread two pieces of wire through your bead so I suggest buying the thinner wire and you can use it for all your beads unless you are going to make tons! Here I have used a purple 22 gauge wire.  Thread wire through your beads, and then thread it back through the same beads. Using a round nose plier hold the loop while you pull the ends tight with another set of normal pliers.  It is easier to pull only one wire at a time.

trim the antellas and curl them around your round pliers

The it is a matter of gluing your body to your wings.  I use and recommend Crafter's Pick Ultimate Glue, but you could use a jewellers cement or even hot glue.  I wrap my top wings around the beads a little not only to give a more adhesive hold, but it makes the wings stay in flight.  Viola! a beautiful butterfly!

I hope you have found this little tutorial helpful... let your imagination run wild!

Thanks for stopping by, Stay safe XOX Tania

box tutorial for cards

Hi there. A really quick post today with the tutorial for making boxes for square cards.  I thought I had a tutorial on this, but cant find it, so here it is:

You can adjust measurements to suit your cards.  Basically what you do is measure you card- I make my cards 14.8cm square ....  Add 4mm to this measurement.   This is going to be the base of your box.  I do my boxes 2.5cm or 1 inch deep, so you need to add this to the cardstock measurement X 2.  So in total you should have a 20.2cm piece of cardstock for the base box (that is 15.2cm + 2.5cm + 2.5cm).  Score each edge 2.5cm or 1 inch.  then score each little corner on the box diagonally (the first picture may best describe what I mean).  then it is a matter of gluing the corners in.  I find it helpful to fold up all the score lines before gluing and just hold the corners with a paper clip until the glue takes hold.  Do exactly the same technique for the lid EXCEPT add 0.3mm to the size of the cardstock... so you will have a piece of card 20.5cm square, scoring at 2.5cm or 1 inch around each side.  You need this extra little bit so the top sits over the base.

Take a look at the pictures below, they will be much more helpful in explaining how to make these boxes. If you have any questions, please drop me a message.

Stay safe XOX Tania

Mo Manning Baby Fairy Flora plus tutorial on folding the card

Good morning.. sorry I have not made a post seems like forever!!! I have been shopping over at Mo's Digital Pencil and just had to buy this adorable little baby... isn't she cute?? She is called Baby Fairy Flora and you can get the digi version  here  OMG I love these images (I bought a few- so stay tuned!!).  I have done a different card, one I saw on a google search and then went and made my own dimensions.  I have used paper from Paper inklings, dies from cheery Lynn and Susanas Custom Art and Card.  I have flattened bead caps and glued dew drops onto them.
I have put this card on ebay along with some other stuff :-)

I will put directions with cutting and scoring dimensions of this card below if your interested.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly: Flower Power 

One Stitch at a Time: Use a Digi

Divas By Design: Anything Goes
CMC Copic Challenge Group: All about Kids

So to fold this card, you will need a piece of cardstock 15cm X 25cm.  I find cutting the card first helps.  You are going to make two cuts.  each horizontal cut is going to be 5cm apart from each other.  The first cut is going to be 5cm from the top.... start cutting 5cm in from the edge.  cut 10cm long.  The second cut is going to be 5cm below that cut, only cutting from 10cm from the edge of the card again cutting 10cm long.  

You are going to score vertically.  In the top section you will score at 5cm scoring down to the start of the first cut, then score at 10cm, scoring from the top of the card and down to the start of the second cut (you will be scoring through the first cut).  Then score from the end of the first cut (this will be 15cm in- you can see why I find cutting first is easier!) down to the bottom of the card. Finally scoring from the end of the second cut down to the bottom of the card.

Use your bone folder to get crisp folds :0)

Hope this makes sense.

Til next time, Stay safe XOX Tania

Krista Smith's Springtime

Good evening.  Another saturated Canary card tonight :0) This time its the lovely "springtime". Coloured with copics, and added a splash of stickles and dimensional magic.  I have edged the bottom cardstock with a martha stewart die "double loops".  The flowery DP is from a We R Memory Keepers stack called Love Struck. The flowers and leaves are of course from wild orchid crafts. A nice short and sweet one tonight, no challenges :0)

A little tutorial on doing the looped surround:
  I had to play around a little to get the measurements right..so to save you the effort, if you're interested in doing this edging, I cut the green cardstock square at 14.9cm before using the edger.  This will give you an edged square that measures 14.6cm in total and allows all the loops to align.  The centre I did a little smaller and cut a square cardstock at 13.8cm to align the loops.

Stay Safe XOX Tania

Another Krista Smith Bubbles + tutorial to make and color acetate butterflies

Hi again! thanks for dropping by.  I have a tendancy when printing digi images to size them and copy two prints to one A5 page so I then have two images to colour.  Moral to the story- my poor visitors have to put up with two of the same image on my posts :0)  I do try and colour them differently though if that makes a difference LOL!!! This is the lovely Krista Smith's "bubbles" you can get from her store here. The gorgeous DP is from We R Memory Keepers called "Cindy"- good day sunshine collection. The pics dont do the paper justice- it has lovely swirls and glitter over it- it is just divine.  The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts, the ribbon is from my stash.  The acetate butterfly is hand made....please scroll down if you are interested in how I colour my acetate butterflies. the image is cut using a spellbinder nestie.  Hope this offers a different look on my previous "bubbles" card.  Stay safe XOX Tania.

Aren't these butterflies cute??? I do them by hand from plain clear acetate....you can too! Here's how:

Supplies: clear acetate,  Staz on Ink, butterfly stamp (my butterflies are from a 2001 stampin up! set called wonderful wings), dimensional magic - avail in my shop here (must be dimensional magic as products such as diamond glaze etc are too thick and will crack when dry) glitter (I use glamour dust- it doesnt have the green highlights you get with crystal glitters) copics or permanent markers such as Bic or sharpies to use to colour your butterflies.

stamp your butterfly onto your acetate using Staz On ink (I use the colour Jet Black) 

In a little pot/bowl, mix some glitter into your dimension magic and paint a thin layer over your stamped image (the staz on side)

Let dry...you can re paint another layer if you want it ultra sparkly. Let Dry.

You need to paint the glitter mix completely over the stamped image or your staz on ink will bleed into your pens.

colour your desired colours over the dry glitter.  cut around your butterfly,  turn over and viola! one sparkly butterfly

Note: you will only be working on one side of the acetate so the other side stays smooth and shiny.

I fold the wings up in the centre to add the feeling of them flying away

Tutorial for acetate favor / flower storage box

Good morning! Happy weekend....and I am actually having a REAL weekend off YAY!! (I shift work, so normally work most weekends and have weekdays off).  any who, I thought I'd share a little tutorial on an acetate box I make to store my flowers in.  You could also use them for wedding/engagement favors or kids lolly boxes.  I have done the tutorial in red paper so you can see what I am doing better, but down the end I pictured my acetate box version. An A4 piece of card will make a 9cm box. you will end up with two parts of a box which glue together like linking two "U" shapes together.

 Ok, so start with an A4 piece of acetate/card (perhaps you can try it out with a piece of cardstock cheaper than acetate).  On your long side, score at 9cm, 18cm and 27cm....you will have a section about 1.5cm left for the tag that folds into the box.  Turn your cardstock around and score at 1cm, 10cm, 11cm, and 20cm.  Your score lines will not only provide your creases for your box but will act as cutting guides. 

  I have marked two dots that will be your lid flap that will tuck into the box.  you need to cut up to those dots from both ends using the first score line as a guide.  Now you want to "soften" the flap by cutting about 10 degrees into the flap like below:

 

 this is what you will end up with:

you will now have 3x 9cm sections and your flap.  On the first line down you are going to cut across to your second 9cm box, cutting up the small flap to "soften" the edges, do this to the other side of the section, then cut straight across up to the flap like so doing the same to the opposite side of the 9cm section:

 

that part of the box is now complete.  With your second part of the box, "soften" each of the sections so when you fold them in, they glue nice and easy.  You will end up with this:

 

 These are the two parts you will end up with: 

I use double sided tape to glue my box together, but you can use any adhesive.  The picture below show's the flaps to glue..... Note, do not glue the section marked "flaps"....these are what fold over in the top of the box to help hold the lid down.  the lid is the top left hand section, the base is the right hand section. The front of the box is the middle square of the bottom piece.   It glues together like two "u" shapes

this is the finished product:

hope it makes sense, would be much better for me to video it, but that is WAY to technical for me LOL!

magnolia book card thingy hehe (with a little tutorial)

Hello!! I was so excited when I got this book card thingy finished (well that's what I call it hehe!)  I saw this type of paper project over at Malin's  and remember thinking..."How awesome!!". Mine is nothing on hers, but I had to try making one!!!  I have used two magnolia images for this one- Fancy Romantic Tilda and Longing Tilda.  As you can tell, I am still getting used to colouring with copics...... I would like to say I am getting better, but I am still struggling a little.  BUT... I don't think it looks TOO bad right???  I have cut the lacey circles with my spellbinder die, used flowers from wild orchid crafts and ribbon from stash.  I have been wanting a Martha Stewart butterfly punch, but with postage cost, just haven't been able to afford it, so I went down to Sam's Warehouse (like a $2 shop) and got this beautiful butterfly  punch for $15.  The swirls are cut with my cricut and I've lathered it with pearls and stickles.

I would like to enter into the following challenges:
Wild Orchid Crafts: anything goes
Cute Card Thursday: a touch of sparkle 

When you open the inside, this is what you get..... some more flowers and crystal chandeliers from WOC and the beautiful longing tilda.  this next picture gives a better idea of the boxed card which stops the flowers from getting squashed.

thanks for stopping by, please read further if you would like to know how I did this book

Stay Safe XOX Tania

so, do you want to know how I did this box??

You need two A3 sheets of 600gsm multiboard (I bought mine from officeworks and it comes in packs of 25). One sheet you need to cut 6 x 14cm squares.  From the second sheet, you need to cut a strip 14cm x 29.5cm (the width of the sheet) put this aside for later... now, cut the rest of that sheet into 4 more 14cm squares.  You want to take your squares and cut the centre out of them to make a frame.....I have cut a frame depth of 2cm around.... you should have 10 "frames".  It doesn't matter if your square frames are not perfectly the same dimensions- it adds to the book effect! On one frame glue your patterned cardstock- let dry, turn upside down and trim around the frame.  Glue all your frames together, stacking them on top of each other trying to keep them neat, but not necessarily perfect!  With your 14 x 29.5cm strip, you need to "cut to score" 14.3cms from each edge- this will leave you with 1cm in the centre for the spine of the book.  Fold the book covers in, glue in your stack of frames on the bottom of the book and you are ready to decorate once dry.

Hope this makes sense

Take Care XOX Tania

Valentines swing trifold Card + Tutorial

Goodmorning! As promised last night (well very early this morning LOL!) here is the tutorial for the swing trifold card. Start with a piece of card 14cm x 28cm or 5.5" x 11". fold in half then fold the top opening flap in half again. I like to put my design paper on here as it is easier when you cut your swing..... so for my heart paper, I cut three pieces- 2 @ 13.6cm (2 5/8") x 6.7cm ( 5 3/8") and one piece @ 13.6cm (5 3/8") x 13.6 (5 3/8")

To make your swing, choose your desired nestie shape and place it central over the two smaller sections. you are going to cut your swing out of the second section. Place your top clear pad over the second section....NOTE: your die will not be completely covered with your clear shim! Run through your machine as normal.

you will end up with the above

out of your base colour, cut two shapes with the same size die as you did your swing part....one will be glued over the front swing, the other will go on the inside of the to write on (the inside heart should be directly under the swinging section so when the card is closed you wont be able to see it)...you can use alternating nesting die for the top layer in a different design paper.
decorate as you desire...here I have used ribbon, a key charm, flowers from wild orchid crafts and crystal chandeliers also from wild orchid crafts. ... I ran out of large red roses, so misted a cream rose with glimmer mist "red Velvet"
Hope this helps you and is easy enough to follow...have fun experimenting...

I am entering into the "Anything goes" challenge over at Papertake weekly with the addition of hearts
take care XOX Tania

Tutorial on Tri Fold Card using cm not inches

hello thanks for stopping by tonight. I thought I would share a template of how I do my tri fold cards. Many I have seen are in inches, but in Australia we use cm's so I have done up a quick drawing above of your cut lines and measurements.
Take a piece of bazzil and cut it down to 30cm by 30 cm. Cut this in half giving you two 15cm x 30cm cards. I like to make my cuts first as I dont like to score throught the "T" piece. so (at about the 10cm and 20cm mark) measure down 4cm (these are your guide points for your cutting line)....line those points up and cut from 5cm to 25cm ....turn your card around and do the same for the other side. get your scorpal (or scoring tool) out and scor at the 5cm mark- BUT ONLYscor down to the cuts! then score at the 10cm and 20cm going completely from top to bottom. again, with the last scor (at 25cm), you are only going to scor to the cuts. Fold along the scors and viola ....a tri fold card!

I am not the best person at describing things, but hopefully by looking the the picture you will make sense of what I mean! Please feel free to message me for anything you dont understand. Thansk for popping by XOX Tania