Tea Bag Tiles

I haven't had much time this week for crafting, but I have had a little bit of time to play with Kaleidoscope Kreator and I made some square, round and octagon shaped tea bag tiles.  Here are a few.   If you would like to download any of them, click the one you want to open it in full size, then right-click and save the image.

You can find tea bag tile folding instructions on my web site at http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/teabaginst.html.

Square tea bag tiles:

 

 

 

Round tea bag tiles:

Octagon tea bag tiles:

Pop-up Box

I got the idea for this box from some junk main one of my co-workers received.  If you push down on it, it flattens out so that you can put it in an envelope, but when you take it out of the envelope it springs into a box shape.  I thought it was just about the coolest thing I'd ever seen, so of course, I had to figure out how it was done.  The secret is that it has a rubber band inside.

The box my co-worker received was hexagon shaped, but I thought it would be easier to start out with a square.  Here's mine flattened out in my scanner:

I used Kaleidoscope Kreator 3 to print the graphics for the sides.  Next time, I will make sure that the flowers on the top half of the box sides are right side up.  Oops!

For the top, I punched out a square with my scalloped square punch, stamped Happy birthday and added some punch flowers.

And here's another view of it popped up:

You can download a copy of the box template and instructions from my website at:

http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/miscprojects.php

Sympathy Card with Parchment Flowers

Here is a sympathy card I made recently for a friend. The flowers are made from parchment.  I've always admired parchment work, but I've only done one other piece. This card is an extremely simple example of parchment work which is usually much more elaborate.

Here's a closer look at the flowers.

Here's what I used to make the card:

• Parchment paper
• Flower pattern from PCCrafter's Daisy Bears collection by Lori Gardner
• Coluzzle regular and large nested circle templates.
• Green vellum for the leaves
• Paper from David Walker Studios
• Small, medium and large ball embossing tools.
• White gel pen

After making the card I found this excellent tutorial for doing parchment work and discovered several things I did wrong!

Awards and Some of My Favorite Blogs.

 Julie, one of my best and longest-time card making friends gave me these awards.

First I am to list 5 things I am addicted to:

1. Well, I don't know that I'd call it an addiction, perhaps obsession would be better!  Number one is my family, particularly my granddaughter.

2. Paper crafting, which encompasses a multitude of techniques.  I don't like to be tied down to any particular one for very long and tend to go through phases.

3. Kaleidoscope Kreator 3.  I really liked version 2, but version 3 is oh, so much better.  I could spend hours creating designs from my photos and graphics collections.

4. My website and blog.  I'm always looking for something to add to them and I check the statistics almost every day.

5. Clip Art.  I am a clip art junkie.  Right now my absolute favorite place to go for clip art is PCCrafter.com. 

From here I am to pass these awards on to 5 Blogs I love to Visit and let them know I have awarded them! I am sending these on to:

1. Lori Jean -  She has a a wide variety of crafty creations on her blog including tons of free downloads, yummy recipes and frugal gift ideas.

2. Frances - I love the imagination and creativity she puts into her card layouts, and man, can she color stamped images!  All of her creations look so professional.

3. Faith - Another extremely talented stamper and oh, I am SO envious of her stamping room!

4. Susan - I never know what I'm going to find on her blog.  She does EVERYTHING and does it so well!

5. Giovana - I met Giovana through an MSN group I ran for a while.  Her creations are cheery and upbeat and I love the selection of music on her blog.

Some Bunny Loves You!

I had the day off today, so of course, I spent some time making cards.  Here is a Valentine's card I made that combines iris folding and 3-D decoupage.

 

For the iris folding, I drew a heart with one of my graphics programs and used it as a pattern for the cut-out.  I used the largest triangle from my iris folding triangle template which can be found here:
http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/pdf/triangleIris.pdf

The iris folding paper is gift wrap I purchased some time ago at the dollar store.

For the crowning touch, I used this little bunny from Colleen Parry's Petals and Patches collection at PCCrafter.  Isn't she adorable?  The decoupage was done in five layers and didn't take very long at all.  When using more than three layers for decoupage, I use card stock between the layers instead of double-stick foam squares, otherwise it makes the card too thick to mail.

List of materials:

• A2 Red glittered card blank from DCWV
• White card stock (print the bunny on this)
• Pink card stock (print Some Bunny Loves You on this)
• Fiolex Girls font
• X-Acto knife
• Drawing software (or draw heart free-hand)
• Three different colors of giftwrap cut in 1" wide strips (about 18" of each color)
• Heart jewel
• PSX Mini heart brads
• 5 copies of Bunny from the Petals and Patches collection at PCCrafter printed about 3 inches high.
• Precision tip scissors
• Glue

You can find detailed instructions for iris folding here:
http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/irisinst.html

A Victorian Valentine with Tea Bag Folding

I have been looking through the sampling of Valentine's Day cards in the Treasury of Greeting Card Designs from Dover and I find it interesting to observe the differences in today's Valentine's Day cards and those done in the late 1800's.

Two of the changes I noticed right away are that the cards of yesteryear used the color red much more sparingly and frequently incorporated violets, a flower which is not seen nearly as often in today's Valentine's cards. Roses were also popular, but were usually interspersed with other flowers as well.

Here's a card I made using one of the images from the Dover treasury as a base.

To create the tiles for the tea bag medallion, I loaded the image into Kaleidoscope Kreator 3 and zoomed in on the violets that were in the lower left corner. Here's the tile:

I printed it out at 1.75 x 1.75 inches. The fold I used can be found here:

http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/tbstar.php

After folding the medallion, I gave it a border by mounting it on two, two-inch squares of dark green card stock. I also added a little pink jewel-flower to the center.

Materials & equipment used to make this card:

• 4" x 6" card blank (ivory)
• Art from Treasury of Greeting Card Designs
• 8 tea bag tiles
• Gold peel-off border
• Queen & Co. flower-shaped jewel
• Tea bag folding instructions
• Dark green card stock.

Valentine, I love you beary much!

I love paper piecing!  It is a great way to use up scraps and you never quite know what you are going to end up with.  I wasn't sure if the brown paper I chose for this little guy was going to work out.  I was a little worried that he might look like he has chicken pox!  Now that he's done, I think he's cute!

 

I have a light box, so I scanned the pattern, then used the light box to trace the pieces directly onto the paper I planned to cut them from.  It's much easier than tracing and transferring. I also cheated a little bit on this one.  Normally, would trace the pieces in pencil, cut them out and mat them on black card stock.  After that, I would trim the card stock, leaving a 1/8 to 1/16 inch black border, but I ran out of black card stock and there weren't any craft stores open late at night, so I just traced the pattern pieces with black ink. That was MUCH faster, and I think it looks almost as good as the other way.

This pattern came from one of my favorite resources for paper piecing,  a book called 202 Paper Piecing Patterns by Annie Lang.  I bought my copy several years ago, so I don't know if you can still get it. If you can, it's well worth picking up.  It includes clear instructions on how to use the patterns as well as completed full color examples of each one.  And of course, the art is just plain adorable!

I have done several other cards using patterns from this book.  A few of them can be seen at: http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/paperpiece.html

Birthday Card

Here's a birthday card I made for my mother-in-law.

 

The paper is from David Walker studios.  I love the colors, but they didn't scan well.

Here's what I used to make the card:

• Coluzzle mini envelopes template
• Coluzzle tag template
• Coluzzle book plates template
• Uchida flower punch
• EK Success 1/8" hole puch (for flower centers)
• Studio g birthday stamp
• Paper Shapers decorative scissors
• Embossing tool

Once I decided on a design, this card went together fairly quickly.  The flowers were an afterthought.  I thought the card needed something else, so I added them.  I used the embossing tool to give them dimension.

Gift Bags From Old Calendars

Hopefully you haven't thrown out last year's calendar yet, because here is some more treasure from trash!  This idea came from my mother and they are so easy to make.  Even the handles are from recycled material, they were crocheted using plastic shopping bags cut in inch-wide strips.

These cute little gift bags can also be made from scrapbook paper, heavy weight gift wrap, or you can stamp your own design on plain paper.  In fact, these are perfect for stamping since you start out with a flat, unfolded piece of paper.

Craft Recipe:

• Gift bag instructions
• Page from an old calendar
• Scoring tool
• Ruler
• Hole punch
• Double-stick tape, or glue
• Scissors

You can view my other treasure from trash projects at:
http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/miscprojects.php

Another Basket

I'm a packrat.  My husband and sons will readily attest to that.  It annoys them, but sometimes it pays off.  I have been saving a Victorian calendar forever (I think it was from 1984) because the pictures are so pretty I just couldn't bear to throw it away.  As I was trying to decide what to use for my next basket, it occurred to me that the pictures on that calendar would be perfect.

Here's how it turned out.

 

 

Since calendar pages aren't nearly as stiff as cards, I cut a center layer from heavy card stock to make the pieces sturdy enough.

Craft Recipe:

• Basket Pattern
• Calendar or patterned paper
• Heavy card stock
• Crochet cotton
• Size 5 crochet hook
• Size 9 crochet hook (for shell border around lid)
• Hole punch

For the basket top, the bottom and each basket side, cut two pieces from the calendar/patterned paper and one piece from heavy card stock. You will end up with six hexagons (4 patterned and two from card stock) and 18 side pieces (12 patterned and six from card stock).

Mark and punch holes using the template for 1/8" holes.

Single crochet or blanket stitch around each piece (for crochet instructions see pattern).  Stitch or crochet the bottom of each side to a side of the hexagon shaped basket bottom.

Stitch or crochet the basket sides together. Single crochet around the top of the basket.

Basket lid:  Using a size 5 crochet hook, Single crochet four rows around the basket lid.  In each row, make two single crochets, one chain and two more single crochets in each corner.

The trim is just a simple shell border.  I stitched it with a size 9 crochet hook.  I'd write the instructions if I knew how. It's easier for me to draw, so here's a diagram:

Basket made from Christmas Cards

One of the things I remember from my childhood Christmases was a basket my mother had that my grandmother had made out of Christmas cards.  I don't know what became of the basket, but when my sister was visiting last month and we were trying to figure out what to do with a box of old Christmas cards, both of us thought of the basket.  Unfortunately, neither of us had any idea how to make one so that's where the conversation ended.

A few days later, I found this link to a basket that was similar, but it wasn't quite the same as the one I remembered: http://www.allfreecrafts.com/christmas/card-basket.shtml

As I recall, the basket my grandmother made was crocheted together, not stitched and the sides were curved, not straight.  So, I decided to try to make a pattern of my own.  Here is my first attempt.

 

I think it's pretty close to the one I remember.  I think Grandma's had a little more curve to the sides, though.  I'll have to show it to my mom and my sister and see what they think.

Here's a view from the top:

And another view from the front:

If you'd like to make one, you can find the pattern and instructions here:

http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/miscprojects.php

Be warned, though, I have never written crochet instructions before so they might be a little hard to follow.

Stained Glass Window Card

I finished the stained glass window on this card several years ago, but I never could figure out what to do with it.  Yesterday, someone sent me an e-mail asking if I had a pattern for a stained glass window, so I decided to dig this card out of the unfinished box and finish it.

The clilp art is from PCCrafter.  The bride and groom are from the November 2005 PC Hug Club "Topper" set.  The bird is from the Friends Forever collection by Tricia Santry.  I did the bride and groom in 3-D using three layers.  I started to use pop-dots between the layers, but they were too thick, so I glued three layers of lightweight card stock together and used that instead. It was a little more work, but the spacing is much better and I don't have to worry about the card being too bulky to go in the mail.

You can download the pattern for the window at: http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/irisfoldinst.html

If you've never done 3-D decoupage before, there's a brief description on my website at www.handcraftedgreetings.com/cfbirthday.html (see steps 10 and 11).