Birthday card

Here's what I did with the stencil that I ink blended through. I stamped the sentiment/banner and propped that up with a foam strip before adding sequin butterflies and tiny rhinestones.

Congratulations card

So I took the piece I stamped the flowers on and made it into a congrats card! I used twine (that I gave a little variety to with brown ink pads) to make a bow and added rhinestone accents. I also propped it up with foam.

Watercolor

Papercrafting techniques!

So I know this is totally not the place for papercrafting stuff but until I get my new blog/shop under way (soon now!) I need somewhere to share stuff and this is the best place I have! So if you're interested in papercraft, bookbinding, and cardmaking, stay tuned, because I have some stuff to show you and will be posting here when I've got the shop set up.

So I'm taking the Online Card Class called Background Check, my first one, hosted by some of my favorite papercrafters, Kristina and Jen and Laura. Here are some of the things we tested out in Day 1:

A lot of stenciling. I used the stencil as an embossing folder (first time) in the upper left, after ink blending over it. I used craft foam as an embossing pad in the Cuttlebug and used another embossing folder as a shim and it worked fine. It was a tight fit, but worked. The bottom one is stamped with Versamark to bleach it a little bit but it can hardly be seen. Probably didn't use dark enough ink. 

 Watercolor time! This is something I enjoyed before papercrafting. The left one is a light wash of a few colors, the middle is a sort of abstract butterfly, and the right is...whatever it looks like.
Here's Day 2:

This was even more fun. I got super into ink blending as you can see (used it on 3 of the four panels). The top has clear embossed flowers as a resist. The middle is just ink blended stripes stamped over with Charcoal and Soft Gray chalkboard hearts. The bottom left is just a bunch of flowers all from one stamp set and the right is ink blended over stencil (I love this even though it ruins the foam) and stamping over stencil (it did leave a mark on the stencil but I'm not too worried. It's a stencil).

Can't wait for Day 3! See you tomorrow. And of course, see my Instagram for bookbinding and watercolor. @firefox9799 

Paper crafts! (new handmade notebook process)

Hey guys! So I've started paper crafting...honestly I didn't want to make an entirely new blog for this (I have, like, 5 now?) because I start some new hobby every week, pretty much. Before this it was watercolors. But I've been making notepads and notebooks and soon I'll start card-making too. But I've decided to share some of my work/process here! Also, I've got a shop set up for my paper crafts.

So here's the first thing I made:

It's a notepad. The pages are lined and I printed them from Microsoft Publisher. Every third page has the flower design on the bottom. I used cardboard for the front and back, and covered the front in scrapbook paper with some decorations. I glued it all together so that the pages can be torn out as you use them. 

Now for the big project. I'm into bookbinding now, so I started with a nice hardcover journal/notebook. The pages aren't lined.

Now here are some parts of the process. I didn't include everything, but enough to give you a general idea.

(1) I folded printer paper in half—10 signatures of 4 sheets each. 40 pages total.

(2) I sewed the signatures together.

(3) I glued the spine with PVA glue.

(4) I made decorative headbands and glued them to the spine.

(5) I glued the decorative endpapers on—they are made of light blue cardstock. Each piece is 8.5"x11" folded in half.

(6) I glued a piece of cardstock down to reinforce the spine.

(7) I cut medium weight chipboard (instead of bookboard—works just as well) for both covers and the spine. 

(8) I used clear packing tape to tape two pieces of scrapbook paper together because one wasn't big enough.

(9) I glued the chipboard down on the paper and folded the sides back before gluing them down. After this (not pictured) I centered the text block in the middle and glued one of the endpapers on each side to the inside cover. 

(10) I used cardstock to make the name plate. And voila! It was done.

This is up in my shop, so if you want to make this yours, you can for only $22. There will be more coming soon!

(note: If the cover looks a bit scuffed in places, it's because it's supposed to—it's part of the pattern. Annoying, I know. I just loved the stripes so much.)