Saturday, 23 February 2013

Tilda Gift Card

Hi, I`m back with another Tilda card, this image is Tilda with Balloon from the You are so Special collection.
I`d like to enter this into the new Inky Chicks Challenge, this time around it is Mothers Day or Birthday.




I`m trying to get ahead with my Birthday cards for the year ahead and this one will be for my friend Sally who reads as much as I do and she`s always asking for people to give her book vouchers for Birthdays and Christmas. She`s not a crafter so she won`t see this on my blog!



I`ve coloured Tilda with distress inks and markers and added a bit of glossy accents to the balloon. The backing paper is K&Co water colour bouquet.



I found the sentiment on a website that has free verses for card makers and I just used my home computer to alter the layout of the verse and add a different font.



The front flap under the Tilda image lifts up and I`ve created a space you can slide in a gift card, this one fits any of the credit card size gift cards that are popular nowadays. I just punched two holes with a crop-a-dile and used a craft knife to slit in between them to create the slot for the card.



I also decorated the inside of the flap using an SU sentiment, nesties labels four and Cheery Lynn small fanciful flourish dies.
This isn`t the gift card I bought her, this is one I was given at Christmas and haven`t spent yet! how restrained am I? LOL!! I just used it for the photo.

Products also used are WOC flowers, hobby house flowers SU taffeta ribbon and dotty scallop border punch.

Thanks for looking in, bye for now and happy crafting xx

Monday, 11 February 2013

Distress Reinker Unit


After the success of the Distress Ink Pad shelf unit I made, I fancied having a go at making another unit to house my reinkers. I`ve only got 8 at the moment but they were precariously balance on the edge of a slim shelf on my desk and were forever falling over. It is my wish to collect all 48 eventually so I decided to make a unit that would house all 48 once I have them.... and this is what I came up with....


I hadn`t originally planned to put another unit on top for my distress markers but as I was building the unit I came up with more ideas so the unit evolved LOL!
I started by cutting 12 pieces of chipboard 11cm x 11cm


I then cut 24 top and bottom pieces measuring 4cm x 10.8cm and 24 side pieces measuring 4cm x 11cm - my poor fingers were sore after this as I could only cut them using scalpel and metal ruler!


Using the "Jim the Gentleman Crafter`s" Construction strip method I used for the ink pad shelf unit, I glued the top, bottom, side and back pieces together to create 12 open fronted boxes.


I used a scrap piece of cardstock to make a template for the holes I wanted to thread the dowels through to make sure I got each one in the right place and level on both sides, I did this with a crop-a-dile.



Then I glued 4 of the boxes together in a square making sure they were lined up as neatly as I could get them.

I repeated this three more times to make 3 shelves, each that would hold 4 sections to house 4 reinker bottles creating 48 spaces in total. Then covered the insides with Bazzil Basics Paper - Antique Script and coating them with a couple of layers of Claudine Helmuth Studios Multi Medium - Matte. Then stuck the three layers together one on top of the other.


I used wooden barbeque skewers for the little dowels, you can get them in a large pack from most garden centres and they are dirt cheap, I think this whole pack only cost me 99p!


Can you believe I didn`t have a lick of black paint anywhere in my house! so I resorted to squeezing a little StazOn reinker into a saucer and using a paintbrush to apply it to the skewers! my fingers were totally black at the end of it and the ink took a fair while to dry but the end result was great and as the ink is permanent they didn`t need varnishing afterwards and they dried to a nice matte finish. As luck would have it, the smallest hole punch in the crop-a-dile was exactly the same width as the skewers too!


I used the top notes die from Sizzix (available through Stampin` Up) to cut out 12 pelmet pieces for the top of each box, this looks decorative but also hides a multitude of sins as the areas where the shelves are glued together don`t look perfectly neat and I`m a neat freak so I had to hide that area! I just covered them in matching paper and inked the edges with black soot distress inks.
I also cut 4 long strips of chipboard and covered them in matching paper to hide the sides of the joined boxes and glued those in place. I used a combination of strong double sided sticky tape and glossy accents for the whole project. I know it`s an expensive way of using glossy accents as a glue but it is a very strong and permanent adhesive so it was worth the added cost.


The top section was made using the same construction strip method of combining 4 pieces of chipboard and then I put in the shelves using the same method I used for the shelves in the ink pad unit I made a few weeks back.
I made a collar underneath it so it slides into the top and can be removed. I hadn`t planned this in the original construction like I said, but when I glued the four pieces of each shelf together it left a handy storage void in the top which seemed a waste not to take advantage of, so this is what I did with it ...the top lifts out....


....And reveals the space underneath which I have stored the offending water colour jar in that caused me so much strife when it fell of my shelf a while back (read previous post to find out the ensuing destruction!) so it won`t fall off my desk and cause me such a headache in the future!



I just covered the inside in the same paper (I had a few scraps left from the rest of the unit) and varnished it with more of the multi matte.

The top part then can be turned upside down and I can put the jar inside it while I am water colouring and I can`t knock it over my desk (which I have done before now also!)

The final piece was to add a spinner to the bottom and I found a great company through ebay that provides swivel bearings all different sizes, no postage cost and it arrived the next day! how`s that for service so thank you to Engineers Mate Ltd.
This one is a 4" swivel bearing. I used brads and hot glue to fix it to another piece of chipboard and then I hot glued that to the bottom of the unit. The whole unit then got covered in a second layer of the Mulit Medium Matte just to seal it and ensure the covering paper wouldn`t lift and it would be hard wearing.



And that was the unit finished. I am very please with the outcome, as I said I haven`t got all the reinkers and markers yet so it can store my stickles and other little bottles of products for now but as and when I get more reinkers I can just slot them into place.

Thanks for looking in, bye for now and happy crafting xx














Wednesday, 6 February 2013

Cheeky!


Here is another sample I did for Sir Stampalot with Bonny Tilda, coloured with distress inks and markers.
Other products used are Go Kreate die 6" pointy frame, Nesties hearts and scallop hearts, Cheery Lynn - Fanciful Flourish, Magnolia Papers - peaches and something old, Bo Bunny double dot ribbon, Hobby House flowers, stickles - icicle for the wings.

The arrow was created using one of the hands of the Marianne Clock die, I just snipped a bit off the ends and out of the middle which kind of works? not sure, but I didn`t have an arrow die or punch and all my attempts to hand cut one just looked awful so this was the next best thing (although I think Tilda`s aim is off a bit LOL).

......And after I handed it over to Janice at Sir Stampalot I realized that I haven`t grounded Tilda in this image so she`s kind of floating in mid air LOL ! but as Louise pointed out to me she does have wings so maybe she`s hovering! thanks Louise LOL !

I`d like to enter this into the Inky Chicks Challenge, this time around it`s Valentine or Anniversary card.

Thanks for looking in, bye for now and happy crafting xx