Interactive Shaped Card - Dagger Shaped Card

Dagger Shaped Card

Dagger Shaped card

Shaped cards are so interesting and cute.When I first started making cards I used templates from the net or books,nowadays I try to design my own templates as its quite a lot of fun!I had a lot of fun designing and jazzing up this dagger shaped card !

Dagger Shaped card

I stuck pearls and inserted golden brads to glamorize the handle of my dagger shaped card.

Dagger Shaped card

On pulling the handle of the dagger, it slides out of the sheath to reveal a golden glittery blade

Dagger Shaped card

I used 3 D holographic shiny paper for the dagger blade.It think it will be a fun card for a little boy to play with!
On the other side I used  wood colored paper recycled from an old wedding card.Added a Happy birthday greeting on the dagger inside the card !

Dagger Shaped card

Here is the closeup of the handle with a flower on the brad!

Dagger Shaped card

I actually created the dagger shaped card by playing around with my scorpal but the tutorial for that is too lengthy and boring so designed a simple template for the dagger shaped card.

Shaped Card Template

Make the dagger with thick card [or stick 2 card pieces together] as other wise it will be floppy  when you draw it out.  Bend the tabs inwards,apply glue and stick to complete the sheath of the dagger shaped card.

This card is surprisingly quick to make and doesn't require a lot of embellishing..It will be a fun card for party invitations or birthdays especially for little boys.
Linking to Beyond Grey Challenges[Shaped Birthday Card],
Edited:This card was featured on Beyond Grey Challenges as the most daring creation! Thank You BCG!

Recycling Craft Inspiration from Katy

Hi Friends

Recently I  held a recycling challenge at Yvonne's Do More with Less and chose 5 super talented ladies as winners to feature on my blog here. 

This is the first time I am featuring someone on my blog and I feel so excited and happy to share the talent of my first guest who is Katy of http://iliketocutandpaste.blogspot.in

Katy

Katy recycles an amazing variety of objects including plastic bags !--- she floored me and I am sure will enthrall you too!!

Katy do tell us a bit about yourself and your crafting journey.

Hi!  My name is Katy, and I live in sunny Florida, USA.  I live with my husband, 2 year old son, and our 2 cats.  We love going to the beach, Disney, swimming in the pool and being with family and friends.  When we aren't making memories, I am trying to scrap them :)

I started scrapbooking over 15 years ago.  My introduction to scrapbooking was a scrapbook I made for my high school band class.  Later, a friend reintroduced me to scrapbooking and from there I got into cardmaking.  It wasn't until I went to a few Creating Keepsake Universities (a scrapbook convention that is nothing but a weekend of classes and crops) that I really really understood how big this craft is and how to incorporate techniques and different materials into projects.

Recycling Craft

An example of what she means is this beautiful project which has lots of recycling too[Details here] 

In June of last year I took my love of paper crafting to the Internet.  Ilovetocutandpaste.com  was born.  My husband is my biggest supporter in my blog.  Every Tuesday I do a Tidbit Tuesday which can range from a product to a technique, to a full project. On Fridays I post a project that way my blog is active at least twice a week. 

I participate in online challenges that help stretch my creativity, and I also share them on my blog.  I visit other blogs (including Dr. Sonia's) and find so much inspiration and knowledge.

Katy do tell us more about your crafting passions 

Paper crafting is my favorite hobby.  I mostly make cards and scrapbook pages. Lately, I have begun making tags which is great if you are short on time. 

Here is am awesome tag in which Katy incorporated some amazing household stuff --details here

Recycling Craft

Sometimes I will alter a box or a jar.  Mixed media projects are also becoming one of my favorite things to make.  If I can use something that would have otherwise been thrown away, I am that much happier.

Some Recycling ideas and tips from Katy..

I think that you have to look at household items in a different way.  For example, if you have a manual cutting machine (Cuttlebug, Vegabond, etc) you can cut cereal boxes and make flowers or whatever dies you have on hand.  Then you can paint them so now you have a customized embellishment.  You can also use ads and newspaper to do the same thing.  Or even wrapping paper left over from an opened present.

One of my favorite things to make is to take a flap of card board and decorate it and turn it into a wall hanging.  For these I go where ever my creativity takes me (after I use what the online challenge called for.) I can incorporate any number of techniques in creating these.

Recyling Craft

This beautiful wall hanging was made from a diaper box  and here is how Katy did it: Recycled Wall Hanging Tutorial

Katy  transforms plastic bags into beautiful objects---[I loved these and almost jumped with joy!!]

Plastic Bag recycling crafts

I like to think of ways to use plastic bags because I always seem to have an abundance of them.  I bought a small loom because I wanted to make flowers.  I can’t crochet or knit so I thought this would be perfect.   A friend suggested I look at YouTube for instructions.   So not only did I learn how to use my loom, but the video also showed using plastic bags. The lady on the video made it look so easy to get the bags cut and onto the loom. I found it worked better if I cut the bag into strips, taped the stripes together and made “yarn.”

Plastic Bag crafts

 Now I have my flowers! Drop over to Katy's blog to see her detailed step by step tutorial on How to make Plastic Bag Flowers

Plastic Bag recycling craft

 I took my flowers a step further and added colors to the bags.  Because plastic bags are non-pourous you can use Ranger’s Alcohol Inks on them.  Too much fun!

Plastic Bag Recycling

A few months ago I bought some Cosmo Cricket Glubers (really big and super sticky glue dots to make ribbon flowers) and used strips of inked plastic bag to make the flowers.  It is a bit tedious because the plastic bag easily sticks to the Gluber but what a wonderful result when it is finished!

Plastic Bag recycling

Drop over to Katy's blog to learn how she made this gorgeous plastic flower : Plastic Bag Flower Tutorial 

I have also made 3 dimensional ghosts out of white plastic bags.  For these, googly eyes are a must!
Here is how Katy made this adorable project:Plastic Bag Ghosts Tutorial

Plastic Bag Ghosts

I loved exploring Katy's works and here are some words of wisdom from my new found blogger friend..

Thank you so much Dr. Sonia for having me as your first guest!  It has been a true honor and pleasure!  Recycling is a lot of fun and is friendly on your budget!  Until next time my friends…Reduce, Recycle, and most important Reuse for your art projects! 

Isnt she just amazing....Do drop over to Katy's blog to see her amazing work and tutorials.

Wishing Well Pop Up Card and template

Wishing Well Pop Up card

Wishing Well Card

Fairy tales and wishing wells fascinate me. I was just playing around with the scor pal today when by accident I designed this wishing well...it was amazingly easy to make and here is the wishing well pop up card.

Wishing Well Card

I wanted to create a merry scene for the wishing well and so used 2 happy frogs with lots of flowers

Pop Up card

. Especially love the bit of cotton in little frog's dandelion flower!

Wishing Well Card

Here is the other froggy hopping from the flower vines!

Wishing Well Card

Sharing the template just to let you know it needs just 2 pieces of card and some folds to make it! Once I take the photos shall share the pop up card tutorial.

Pop Up card Template

Do forgive the blurry photos--its the side effect of being crafted and photographed past midnight!

Wishing Well Card

This wishing well pop up card is inspired by my friend Jessica's wishing well project.
Here is the link to the 3D wishing well flower vase also inspired by her .

Recycling Craft- Pen stand from sketch pens

Recycling craft

Recycling is so fun when we can transform throwaway objects into beautiful or even useful objects!

Recycling craft

I hoard many crazy stuff including dried up sketch pens and tin cans and every now and then try to create something with my "junk"!

Recycling craft

Here is my daughter teaching Goldy our "ever  curious" Cocker spaniel how to use glue [without getting sticky ears!]

Recycling craft

Snowy [ the Lhasapso] was more interested in posing for the picture!

Recycling craft

This was a quick though somewhat "sticky" recycling craft !

Recycling craft

Jazzed it up a bit with some lace to make a colorful container.

I got this idea from my friend Jessica's Altered Can Project. 

Do tell me how you liked this simple idea to reuse those used up markers and pens.

Pop Up Wreath Card Tutorial

Pop Up Cards

Here is the promised Pop Up wreath Card Tutorial.The earlier pop up wreath card was made with basic materials but I went all out and used a variety of my beloved punches for this fancier pop up Christmas card.

Pop Up Cards

Materials required

Card stock- Sturdy card stock is required . I used a folded A 4 card to make the base and scraps to make the tabs and wreath

Scoring tool- Even though I use my beloved Scorpal as its so much easier and quicker, just a blunt knife or an old pen [whose ink has run out] will do.

Glue- white glue- I use fevicol MR

How to Make a Pop Up wreath card

Cut a circular shape, fold it in half and cut out the center - size it as you wish- mine is around 4 inches in diameter

Pop Up card Tutorial

Make 4 supporting tabs from thick card stock by scoring 2 inch strips at 0.5and 1.5inches to give a tab which measures 1 inch in the middle and 0.5 inches at either end.Valley fold all the creases. 

Pop up card tutorial

Take one tab and apply glue as shown and stick it to the folded wreath as shown

Pop Up card Tutorial

Take another tab ,apply glue and stick to the central upper part of the other half once  a day your pop up wreath as shown.Note the direction of the supporting tabs and the area where the glue is applies on the lower supporting tab.

Pop Up card Tutorial

Stick the lower tab flush with the central crease of the base card. Apply glue on the area shown on the upper tab and stick it to the other half of the base card again flush with the central crease as shown.

Pop Up card Tutorial

Add 2 more supports at the 2 edges of your wreath in a similar fashion.Apply glue on the tab as shown,fold over your wreath and stick the glue tab.Apply glue on the other end of the tab as shown and close the base card and allow the tab to stick. In a similar fashion stick the tab on the other side of the pop up card .

Pop Up card Tutorial

Tip: You wont go wrong in the pop up mechanism if you glue one part of the tab to the wreath and then apply glue to the other part and let it find its own sticking point by folding the base card!

Pop Up Cards

Making the wreath was so easy I became a ambitious and added a 2nd pop up element on top of the pop up wreath!
How to make a Pop Up bow

This is a super simple pop up mechanism and you can use this pop up bow on a box, wreath or maybe a baby's head!

You can hand cut a bow shape as I did in my first pop up wreath card or 

create a quick bow from 2 punched hearts as shown here.

Pop Up card Tutorial

 I scored the edges of 2 hearts as shown, cut off the edge of one heart and stuck it to the folded edge of the other heart to make a folded bow for the pop up card.

This bow even looks like a butterfly so this mechanism can be adapted to make a pop up butterfly!

 Score and fold 2 supporting tabs.The size depends on the size of your bow- My tabs are 0.5 inches at either end and 0.75 inches wide in the center.

Pop up card making Tip:Slope the corners of  tabs for a smoother sticking and pop up mechanism ease

Pop Up card Tutorial

 Stick the tabs as shown on the underside of your bow.Fold over the bow and apply glue to the tabs as shown above.

Pop Up card Tutorial

Stick one glue tab near the central crease of the pop up wreath and fold over so that the other glue tab sticks by itself .Here is how the pop up bow mechanism looks.

Pop Up Cards

The Pop Up wreath card techniques can be adapted to a variety of pop up objects - like maybe a tiara, a doughnut, a ring ,a table, a cake...

Pop Up Cards

Warning: Making pop up cards does require a bit of concentration but I guess that is just what we need sometimes to distract over selves from life's stresses!

This one is especially for you my friend Jessica since you love wreaths so much!

This is inspired by Jessica's beautiful wreath card 
Here are links to more pop up card tutorials
If you prefer to make less technically challenging cards here is a compilation of card making tutorials

Pop Up Wreath Card

Pop Up card -Christmas Wreath

I love making pop up cards and designing one from scratch is fun though I must admit I it does get a bit crazy at times when things dont work out just the way I want! 

Pop Up card -Christmas Wreath

Making the wreath and the popping up bow was easy but getting the Santa and the Reindeer to peek out from under the pop up wreath did require a bit of paper engineering hair pulling! 

Pop Up card -Christmas Wreath

This card is made entirely from easily available stuff and I have not used any kinda punch or fancy tool.

The green holly leaves were handcut from locally available glitter paper, the red rhinestone berries are "bindis" [ used by our Indian ladies to adorn our foreheads!] and santa and the reindeer are stickers.

Though not made of exotic materials this type of card does have a lot of fun element  and you dont need any fancy stuff to make it just paper,scissors and glue!

Shall share the pop up wreath tutorial in the next post