The other day I was rounding off the corners of a gift tag using my wonderful Corner Chomper which, for those of you who haven't come across it yet, is a heavy duty corner punch, and when I say heavy duty I mean Mount board!
As I started rounding the corners I had one of those all-too-rare 'light bulb over the head' moments all from rounding off the diagonal corners from a simple die cut square.
Anyone who regularly reads this blog will know that I love to play around with simple shapes and get the most out of them, usually with a simple, graphic card; well here's four for the price of one today, I was really pleased with the results, I hope you agree.
The first idea that struck me was to create a flower, so I wanted something strong and graphic like a..... poinsettia, as I was making it the other ideas popped into my head.
1. I started by cutting four red squares using the smallest die from my Framelits, squares set. With a shape like a square, although it is simple to cut by hand, using the same die over and over gives you that extra degree of accuracy which can be priceless. 2 & 3. Using the half inch punch i trimmed two diagonal corners of each square. 4. Next, I cut and trimmed four green squares before curling up one of the pointed corners on each red 'leaf'. 5. I attached each red to each green square.
I created the base card using my PC and printer before attaching each petal/leaf combo to the card with a 3D foam pad, The yellow centre was die cut using the Winter Elements decorated strip designed by the lovely Paula Pascual and finished with an adhesive pearl.
The Merry & Bright card was created in a similar fashion die cutting two set of three squares from pale blue and turquoise card. The snowflake is die cut from silver card, again, using the Winter Elements die.
The 'Feliz Navidad' card was created by cutting a selection of carefully chosen Christmas colours. Each of the 'leaves' has its top-left hand corner curled back and a pearl in the bottom right.
Finally, the little robin was cut from a brown die cut square onto which I first attached a red die cut circle prior to rounding off the corners the Base card was produced using the computer/Printer and the robin's legs are a lower case 'll' . I had a blast making these cards, hope you like them.
I love the new collection from the wonderful Brenda Walton, it is so classy and versatile. Some of the Bigz dies are inspired but I was immediately drawn to the large Sizzlits in the collection as there is so much inspiration packed into every square millimetre which means great value and versatility.
Debi and I have been using the dies for upcoming Create and Craft shows (Saturday 31st August at 10am and 4pm with yours truly where I will be demonstrating just how great these dies are. As a sneak preview here is a simple card which I will hopefully be demonstrating live at some point on the shows.
Simple is beautiful as I never tire of saying and never more so than here. I combined plain white, ivory and cream card stock from Inspire Me Papers which is top quality and beautiful to work with. The die used was a Sizzlits die Holiday Greenery by Brenda Walton 658731.
To begin I printed the legend "Thank you" onto a white card blank (18 x 13cm) using my PC, or, if you prefer you could use a favourite rubber stamp. Next I attached a strip of cream card across the base (18 x 7cm) before die cutting all the elements I needed from ivory card.
I used the tools from my Susan's Garden tool kit to add a little dimension to the leaves and petals. For a little more information on how to use this fantastic kit, follow this link. As you can see from the third picture below, they certainly bring the shapes to life.
Next, I attached the elements along the border between the white and cream card using a combination of 3D foam pads and PVA glue. Finally, I used adhesive pearls and gems to add a little bling. A combination of sizes and shades works really well.
I'm sure you will agree that even though the colours and techniques used are very simple, the effect is stunning. My secret?.....Sizzix of course!
Last May I was lucky enough to spend a week as the guest of Rayher who are based in Laupheim, Germany. I was demonstrating at their open house show where all of their Retailers go to find out about new ranges and pick up a few techniques and tips along the way.
While I was mooching about I saw a mini workshop where people were making the most gorgeous Christmas decorations from pearlised paper. One of the decorations I was particularly enamoured with so I filled it away in the old memory banks for later.
Last week my wife asked for a few ideas for decorating the windows of her office when the idea came back into focus, I hope you like it, it's a great activity for older kids to do as well and it looks really classy, you can just imagine it in the window of a posh department store at this time of year..... anyway I'll stop waffling and let you decide.
Start with six squares of pearlised paper ( I'm going with 13mm square) and I'm using Inspire me papers 160gsm Ivory Pearlised paper which is perfect for this project. Fold it in half along the diagonal and half again. Next, take a pair of sharp scissors and cut from the folded edge straight up the centre, stopping about 5-10mm from the edge.
After making the first cut make two more either side making sure that they are equally spaced, you don't have to measure though it's not that crucial!
Once you have finished cutting unfold the square. Take the two arrows in the centre and fold them back over each other and secure with a staple, the smaller the stapler the better, I use the Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher er Stapler which is ideal. Turn the square over and repeat with the next two arrows and repeat a further twice turning the square over each time.
You should end up with something like the first box below, these look great by themselves strung together in a variety of sizes. make a further 5 shapes and pinch them together by the tips before securing in the centre with a staple. Go around the shape with your stapler
joining them together. Finally, we should have a magnificent snowflake.
For the finishing touch, what better than the Sizzlits Decorative Strip Snowflake Rosette by
Tim Holtz. Simply cut from the same paper, decorate with a few adhesive pearls and pop it in the centre.
Quick, easy and above all great to look at. these are great if you make them in a few different sizes and colours too.
