Rabbits and rinchies

I know a lady who wanted 60 cards, 60 ATCs, and 60 inchies, all with rabbits on them, for her April birthday.  She got the large cards, not problem, and most of the ATCs, but hardly anyone she knows does inchies, so I decided to whip some up for her today.  While I was at it, I made some rinchies (round inchies) too.

The round inchies are for the April lottery at inchies_onexone.  Inchies are so small, it is hard to compose something that is even smaller.  The ATC has an Easter image on it, I know, but I just liked it.  It had a nice stained glass look that appealed to me.  Some of these are pretty simple, but the iridescent paper from Papertemptress really elevates them.

So, to the challenges:
Card Creations and more - not a card or layout
Stamping Vacation - April
Wags and Whiskers - use a punch (every circle and square is punched)
Art Impressions - use an animal
Amber's Crafts and Stuff - use a digi (all the rabbits are digis)
Tip Top Tuesday - Squares


Thanks for looking!

Easter eggs

I was making deviled eggs last night, when I realized that I did not show you my family's Easter eggs.  It's a little late, but I think it is still worth seeing some of the ones I have left.

These eggs were done by my 19yo daughter.  She was experimenting with masking tape, trying to make plaid eggs.  It was a very ambitious attempt, and I don't think she was very happy about how they turned out.

These were done by my 14yo son.  For the egg on the left, he used masking tape to keep the eye white while he dyed the rest of the egg purple.  He then colored in the details with a glaze gelly pen, not realizing how long they take to dry (which is why it is a little smeared.  For the Rasta egg on the right, he first dyed the whole egg yellow, then patiently dipped and held each end in place to add the red and green.  The Lion (of Zion) was drawn last.

These eggs were done by my husband, or at least the one on the left is (the one on the right might also be by my daughter, I'm not sure).  He likes the crayon resist method.  After coloring the stripes, he submerged the egg in dye, then slowly removed it for the ombre effect.  The one on the right is also a resist method - dots of yellow glaze gelly pen were allowed to dry completely (which is why I think my husband did it), then the egg was died blue.

I did not use any resist techniques this year.  The egg on the left was died, then colored with tiny dots of souffle pen (souffles dry opaque).  It was very hard to keep from smearing the ink before it dried.  The other egg was doodled over with a fine tip of a marker.  This was really hard to do on an egg, and was also prone to smearing.

It took the four of us over an hour to color 18 eggs, and now you can see why.

Red and Gold

Red and gold is the final challenge this month at Gingersnap Creations.  This is a card that I had in my head since I started being the Monthly Muse, to juxtapose the geisha stamp (from TAC) with a fan, almost as if she were holding it.  The double-sided paper is from GCD Studios. The fan is from my tutorial; I just can't stop once I get going.

Challenges:
Stampin' Royalty - sketch
Ladybug Crafts - fashion
Card Cupids - punches (used on fan)
Digis with Attitude - Asian
Stamptacular Sunday - at least 5 layers

Candy bags

As Passover is ending, I decided to use up the last of my matzah by making Matzah Candy.  I have a few girlfriends that have come to expect it every year, so I thought I would make some little gift bags and glam up my presentation.

These are 2-5-7-10 bags made from some double-sided paper I picked up at Tuesday Morning.  The flower tags were punched from scraps. 

Do they fit any challenges?  Of course they do!
Claudia and Co - clean and simple
Going Grey with Scrap-Creations - flowers
Aly's Sunday Challenge - baker's twine
Shannons Sentiments - anything but a card
Stamp. Scrap, and Doodle - add a tag
Crafty Ann's - fancy folds
InStyle Stamps - color challenge

Tutorial: A Fan using the Dahlia fold

Today I want to show you how to make a fan embellishment for your paper projects that will lie flat.  Of course you can make an accordion folded fan, but it will not fare well once you stuff it in an envelope.  This fan is deeply dimensional, but flattens nicely.

The two main things you will need are double-sided paper and circle punches.  The radius of your fan will be the diameter of the circles you will need to cut.  For example, if you want a fan that is two inches wide, you will need a one inch circle punch.  If you don't have double-sided paper, then color the back by brayering or burnishing with a dye ink.

If your paper has a repeating motif, try to punch your circles so that they are identical.  

This paper doesn't have a repeating motif, so I tried to simply make sure they looked as similar as possible on the top edge.

Crease each circle into quarters by first folding it in half vertically, opening it back up, then folding it in half horizontally, then opening it again.  This is the back of my demonstration piece.   I cannot stress this enough - keep track of the top of your circle!  Double-check before you fold!

With the back side facing up, fold the curves towards the center, using the bottom and side creases as guidelines.  Because the back side is up, it is very easy to accidentally fold the wrong edges.  Double-check before you fold!

To complete the "petal", flip it over so the right side is up.  fold the two folded edges from the previous step to the center crease.  It looks a little open in this photo because I'm not pressing it down, but the two edges do meet in the middle.

Put an arc of glue on your base.  I like tacky glue for this because I can slide the petals around to adjust them.  This base is an ATC, and the circles I am using here are 1 1/4 inches.

Here is the completed card.  After I glued the petals in a fan shape, I put a doodad in the middle.  This particular doodad is a gold charm, and it already had a hole for a ribbon.   I like putting ribbons on my fans, a consequence of too many years at the ren faire.

You can go to any size.  You can see by the grid underneath that the circles are only slightly over a half inch in diameter.  Note also that I carefully punched the paper to give me identical circles, and lined them up so that the white flower is at the top.

It's an inchie!  a fancy brad is enough for a hinge.

Stripes are great for these fans, but one again, be careful how you line them up!  they will look good either horizontal or vertical, but terrible if you mix them up or don't pay attention.

This is a standard size card.  I used 2 inch circles, and to make the handle, I first punched a small flower out of gold cardstock, then punched a hole for the ribbon.  I wrapped the ribbon in gold wire to make a handle.  See how dramatic the stripes are?

I hope you will give this a try.  I would love to see your results!

 UPDATE:

Diane in Idaho sent me a photo of her fan.  She says that this is a work in progress, but doesn't this fan work perfectly with the image?  The heart brad at the hinge is terrific, too!  Then she made this one, using half-inch circles:

Jeannie has a great dahlia fold fan on her blog - you can see how great it looks when the papers in the fan are echoed in the layers on the card.  She also made a medallion using scalloped circles.

Becky Partan of My Paper Moon Stamps put made a card using the same paper in the background, the fan, and paperpieced as the kimono on her image .  She left the back white, and the contrast really pops!

Vicky did an awesome job using this fan in her vintage themed shadowbox. Not only geishas hold fans!

inchies for Mom

The one of the themes this month at Inchies_onexone is Mother. I had to choose between normal and realistic, or at least between what I think is expected for this swap and what is really representative of my mother.

This is what I think people would like to receive:

The paper is Poison Ivory Iridescent from PaperTemptress, lightly burnished with distress inks.  I no longer remember where I downloaded the images.  Of course, bling is essential on a one layer inchie.

I assure you, my mother would hate these.  She might even stick her finger down her throat.

As it happens, today I got an amazing treat in the mail.  Becky Partan of My Paper Moon gifted me a bunch of small stamps - ATC and inchie size - and as I spread them over my table to admire and sort this bounty of over 70 (!!!!) stamps, I noticed that there were stamps for the four card suits.  If you know my mother, you know she loves to play cards, so I immediately went down and made these inchies.

The backgrounds are made by by laying 1/8 inch strips of red and black cardstock on sticky paper and pouring white embossing powder in the spaces between, like grout.  You can see that I got a few stray flecks of EP.  The images stamped very crisply, but blurred a little when I poured UTEE (why UTEE?  I just like the texture) over them (you can emboss over distress ink).  These inchies are made entirely from scraps, which my mother would admire greatly.

So now I have two different sets of Mom inchies - which do you think I should swap?

Oh, can't forget the challenges!
Clear It Out - quilt your scraps
Creative Craft Challenges - embossing
Going Grey with Scrap-Creations - digital
Simon Says Stamp - embossing
Truly Scrumptious - vintage
Lexi's Creations - anything but a card
Our Daily Bread - no coloring

Easter Card on Passover?

Happy Passover!  This is not my Seder night, as my husband is out of town until tomorrow, and that is when my son and daughter will come for dinner too, so I quietly blessed and ate my matzah and went on with my evening.  I knew I needed a card for my mother in law, and I was absolutely in love with this image (cutest bunny ever!), so...

 
The image is from Sliekje, of course, printed on poison ivory iridescent paper from the PaperTemptress. The patterned papers are from an old CTMH set, Victorian Elegance, and so is the copper cardstock and copper brads.  The sentiment is from TAC, so you can see I don't really have any brand loyalty to anyone.  I just buy what I like.

Challenges:
Creative Belli - bunnies
For Fun - colors
Lil Red Wagon - Easter
The Paper Variety - Flowers

Fun with Shapes and More - animals
Crafty Catz - Furry Friends
Nettie G - color a favorite digi