paper Hibiscus / video

It's another cold wet winter day here in Oz but warm at heart with this paper hibiscus. Ive been so inspired by Joannes no tool flowers and asked her some time ago if it was alright to post a few of my own designs and this Hibiscus is one of them. This was also the last card i gave my mum in law when she was last in hospital.

you will need:

light weight card
inks
coloured pencils and markers
Med sun punch
glues
emboss mat
Pattern.
The Hula girl is a sizzix sizzlits die

Cut 5 petals from the pattern, 1 sun punch, 1 thick end of the stamen and 1 thin stamen top with 2 slits cut in the end ( refer to the pattern for measurements). ink all these.

next to add more colour to the petals i simply used a crayola pencil and a regular texter or marker.starting at the pointed tip and flicking the colour towards you.

to shape the petals i used my makeshift deet tool which is a knitting needle glued into a piece of dowel. start at the point pressing firm drag the tool along the petal and fan this out as you go always starting at the point

emboss all five. this kind of embossing will create the curl in the petals you want without doing any other shaping.

Cut a circle of scrap about 1" round and this will be the base to glue the petals to. You can draw some dividing lines as a guide if you like.

A range all five petals and let the glue dry.

Now roll the thicker bottom of the stamen and glue up.

colour glue and slide in the center the of the roll the top longer stamen with the slits.

Cut a circle from the center of the sun punch and apply some glue to the center. place at the top and roll the sun frill around ...

Glue closed and bend down the long center stamens...once dry with a strong glue attach to the center of your flower

add glitter to the stamen and some crystal glitter to the base if you can see some glue

leaves are easy using your emboss tool make a line down the center and veins on the sides and add some inked edges to highlight the embossing. make at least 3 leaves.

Use foam tape 3 layers think to support the petals. Remember to let all this dry before attaching to you card......follow this link for the Video Tutorial .....I hope you have enjoyed its been a labor of love ..Valita

When i taught this in my class my friend Joan came up with this double hibiscus! isn't it beautiful!! thanks Joan for your inspiration.

and a last thought

Dear brother, you have been given freedom:
not freedom to do wrong, but freedom to love
and serve each other.
Galatians 5:13

Using Plastic Stencils in the Cuttlebug

Hi all, Ive been really enjoying experimenting with my cuttlebug and I'm so pleased i bought one. Ive been able to drag out supplies i haven't used in a long while and use them now in an even easier way than before. So drag out all your plastic stencils and today I'll show you what i taught to all my Monday card ladies....enjoy

Open up your cuttlebug and put in your A plate then B plate on top and then your plastic stencil.

Next lay your card over the top of your stencil.

Now lay your silicone baking mat over the top of your card.

As a shim i use 4 layers of card....as you can see these are the backings off the emboss folders you get....this way you will all know exactly how thick it should be.

lastly lay your second B plate over the top to complete the sandwich and roll through. Remember to never force anything through your machine...if your silicone baking mat is thicker than mine just leave out one of the card shims....and the results.....

What i found most annoying was that hole they use to hang the stencils in the shop.....but I just cut around mine and colored it with chalks...here's a close up

Turned out like a fancy Lilly pad for my cute little frog. Well i hope this has inspired you to use some of your old supplies....see we didn't waste money buying all those stencils !! :)...until next post ....Valita

and a last thought

If you are angry, don't sin by nursing
your grudge.Don,t let the sun go
down with you still angry-get over it quickly;
For when you are angry you give a mighty
foothold to the devil
Ephesians 4:26,27

Gutter Guard Mesh embossed Baby Card

Hi All, Ive been playing around with my cuttlebug the last few days and and decided to run some Gutter guard mesh through to see what it would do. It was very cheap so I got a whole roll of the stuff some time ago to use on another project coming up. Its a flexible plastic mesh used here to keep the leaves out of your roof gutters. Anywhoooo :) i ran this through the cuttlebug and loved the results so much i needed to share the results with you all. This card is off to my twin sister who recently had a baby girl....and i love the spellbinder flower sets i won from Bizzy Becs site. So here's how i made the embossed background.
Open up your cuttlebug and put your A plate then B plate and the gutter mesh on top.
Next lay your card over the top.

Now use using a square of silicone baking sheet lay this over the top.

You will need a shim....i used 2 card backing off the emboss folder packages..for some strange reason i kept them all and they are the perfect shims for these projects. Go's to show you should'nt throw everything out!!

Lastly place on top your other B plate and roll them all through.

Here's the results, the one on the left was done with the silicone sheet and is the one I like best... love the puffy effect. And the right one was done without the silicone sheet using more shim layers still great.

So i hope you've found my little adventure helpful. Click here to see how to use Fiskars emboss plates in the cuttlebug also. Until next post ...have a happy sabbath....Valita

and a last thought

These words are trustworthy and true;
I am comming soon! God who tells His prophets
what the future holds, has sent His angel to tell you this
will happen soon. Blessed are those who believe it
and all else written in the book.
Revelation 22:7

Fiskars Emboss plate and your Cuttlebug

I recently came across a blog showing how to use Fiskars emboss plates in the cuttlebug machine . most of us have some of these plates poked away which looked like a great thing at the time but we didnt use them to their full, Classic case for me. Scince then the cuttlebug has made embossing so easy. So when i found this idea i thought great! i'll drag out those old Fiskars plates i have and see if this really dose work. I was so pleased with my results that i want to share with you what i found works really well. I hunted around the cheap shops for some silicone baking products that had a flat bottom and eventually found this baking sheet for $5 ...bargin because i have a heap left over after I've cut it to the size of the spacer plates .

So here's what i did. Make sure the silicone product you choose is flat. This baking sheet is flat on one side and the other has a slightly rough texture. Cut the siliconre to the size of the cuttlebug spacer plate. heres a close up of the thickness of the silicone done on a ruler with inches.

So once you have the silicone cut to size the sandwich gose like this. Place your A spacer in the cuttlebug machine
Then your Fiskars texture plate with the side you want to emboss facing up.

then you card
Then the silicone sheet...smooth side down...you can see here in this pic the texture of the rough side
lastly lay your C spacer on top

This completes your sandwich. Now run it through the cuttlebug. I didn't even have to use a piece of card as a shim. The silicone was the perfect width and it worked so well. heres a pic of the finished embossing. Remembering that the Fiskars plates are not etched as deep as the cuttlebug emboss folders so the embossing comes out a little less prominent but done perfectly.

Please remember whatever you run through your cuttlebug that is not designed for that machine is done at you own risk so take it easy the first time you run it through as the silicone you choose may be a different thickness as was Tamara's found here. well i hope i have helped inpsire you to use some of those prducts to there max as i have....now im off to see what other Fiskars plates there are that i dont have yet!......Valita

and a last thought

He has removed our sins as far away
from us as the east is from the west
Psalms 103:12

Mens Wallet card

Hi all, well its Monday again and im going to share todays card lesson i did with my group of ladies. I am always inspired by so much talent on the splitcoaststampers forum and this card was one of them. We are still in the thick of making mens cards which i sometimes find hard to come up with ideas. This card was really quick and easy and would look great in girly colours also. Inside you could put some money, a gift card, photo, etc for those guy's that are hard to buy for or those teens which would just rather some money for thier birthday. Some surfy style wallets would look great! I added faux stitching around the outside of the main wallet and around the wallet flap. Also adding a brad for the clip and a little velcro dot under that to keep it shut. I edged it all in black ink inside and out. Here's a pic of the inside with my play money inside for demonstration purposes.

I marked the middle of each folded half and punched a 1 1/4" half circle. I attached the wallet flap inbetween the main card and the inner pockets. Please note my measurments for the pattern are in centermeters not inches .
My DH was so kind to make me 25 pricking tools so all the ladies could use these for different lessons. I found that it was cheaper to buy a pack of large saftey pins then the same size needle i needed... then we clipped the pointed end off with pliers and set them in peices of dowl. They work really well.

Ive had a few requests asking how i made these tools so heres how.....I used 2 inch long safety pins and dowl the size of a pencil round. Cut off the pointed end of the safety pins with some large pliers. Next cut down your dowl to a lenght that suits the purpose and hammer a small nail into the end (make sure you hammer it in straight or your needle wont be). Pull the nail back out with some pinchers and you now have a hole for the needle. use a good strong glue ....i used Araldite, and put some of this on the blunt end of the needle then in the hole at the end of the dowl....leave standing up for the glue to set and its as easy as that!

And my friend Rita bought me in some beautiful lillies which.... oops ive already forgoten the name of them....if anyone knows let me know please! and below you can find my version of the wallet card pattern...take care and think of me this weekend on a camping trip cooking for 24 kids....hope it dosent rain or im in the car to sleep!...Valita

a pic of the second card we made today.

a wallet card made by Janet :)

And a last thought

Look at the lillies! they don't toil and spin
and yet Solomon in all his glory
was not robed as well as they are.
Luke 12:27