Colouring bare chipboard shapes

Hi everyone,

It is Timi here today, and I am going to show you how I like to colour my chipboard shapes to add to my projects.

First of all, I would like to say a big thank you to Scrapfellw.com for their kindness in providing all these absolutely fantastic chipboard shapes.

They are great quality and they come in so many different shapes that you will never be stuck for ideas.

 

Their original colour is lovely too, but I like to add a bit of colour to them.  Here I show you how great these chipboard shapes are to be coloured with markers. I colour them with my Promarkers, but I’m sure other markers would work  perfectly too.  You can also use different inks, acrylic paint, mist and stains.

 

 

Distress Crackle paint is a great little pot of paint in anybody’s stash. It creates this crackled glaze on the chipboard shapes giving it a distressed look.

In the picture below you can see some shapes that I covered with Glossy Accents. This is one of my favourite techniques with these chippies. I just love the raised shiny coat.

Distress Stickles add an interesting “sugar like” coating to the chipboard shapes.  They are fun to use too.

It is really like it is covered in sugar!

Stickles, you have got to love them!! They add a nice cover to the chipboard shape. I really like the shine of them.

It will be less shiny when it dries though.

Do you have a Meltpot? Why not try to dip the shapes in melted UTEE. I had some UTEE in my pot that was coloured with some perfect pearls. First I coloured the chipboard shape with a marker.

When the UTEE was melted I dipped the shape into it.

The UTEE covers the chipboard beautifully. Please be careful when working with UTEE, it’s extremely hot!!

And here’s a few cards I created using these chipboard shapes…

You can see the close up of the shape that was treated with Crackle paint.

Another close up of the shapes that I covered in Glossy Accents.

I hope you liked this little tour and will show some love to Scrapfellow.com.

Happy Crafting,

Craft Ireland Team

Masking & Spraying

Hi All,

Nicole here today! Quite often when we look at our ink sprays we think more mixed media. I love using my sprays on cards and here I will show you one way to do this.

Step 1:

I stamped the butterflies on scrap paper and cut them out. Make sure your scrap paper is thin or else they wont work very well as masks. Place them on your panel (I used white).

Step 2:

Place in a safe place to spray – I use a mini pizza box from a kit. Spray as heavily as you like. I used turquoise Dylusions spray.

Step 3:

When this panel is fully dry mat it onto black card stock. I also stamped the butterflies in a light blue inside the masked off area and stamped a sentiment on the panel too.

Step 4:

Stamp the butterfly again and ink it lightly for colour. Then cut this out carefully, curl the wings to give some dimension and adhere it onto a butterfly on the panel.

Step 5

Put all your card elements together. I matted my striped paper onto balack card and then made a pink card base for it. I added some sequins as embellishments, trying to make them ‘flow’ up the card.

Here is the completed card. I love the fun effect the masking, spraying and stamping gives on it.

Thanks for stopping by today,

Happy Crafting!

Steam Engine Mini Album – Timi Pek- Biro

Hi Everyone,

Summer arrived in Ireland and we cannot have enough of the sunshine.

On a beautiful day like this our fabulous Guest Designer Timi will show us a mini album that she created to gather all the memories of her son’s first year in kindergarten.

In Hungary children are assigned a sign, a symbol to their name and all their belongings are marked with that Symbol. This is because in that age they can not read and this helps them to be able to identify their own things ( clothes, shoes etc…)

Timi’s son, Balint has a steam engine as his symbol, and that gave Timi the inspiration to create a Steam Engine shaped mini for the memories of the first year in the kindergarten.

Timi drew the steam engine shape by hand and traced it onto a sheet of chipboard. All the chipboard shapes were the covered with patterned paper. For the cover Timi cut out a little window to place her son’s picture in it.

 

Close up of the cover page:

 

 

 

Timi gather all sorts of photographs that were taken during the first year of the kindergarten and placed them into the album: the building, the symbol, first steps on the first day.

 

If you are creating a huge project like this one, you may want to reduce the amount of embellishments. Timi used lots of chipboard pieces and washi tape to decorate her pages.

The patterned paper that Timi used were pretty busy and bright in colours to achieve a very happy atmosphere to the album.

For extra journalling spot she added some little booklets that can be opened and maybe extra photos can be placed there.

Timi has kept some of the keep sakes, like the embroidered engine symbol and she added it to the album.

 

This is a huge project with so many pictures and details. I’m sure that her family and son will really cherish this album.

I hope you like it too, we definitely do!

Happy Crafting

Crafting Ireland Team

 

 

 

Structure paste technique – Andrea Kovacs

Hi Everyone,

Today Andrea will show us a very interesting technique using structure paste.

Step 1

Take a sheet of chipboard embellishments, pop out a few of the shapes and now you have a frame to make the same shape, but this time from structure paste. Place the chipboard frame on the poly-pocket and fill it in with structure paste. Take the chipboard off and let it dry.

Step 2

When it is dry, peel it iff the poly-pocket. You can sand the edges or you can leave it as it is for more distressed look.

Now you have a set of home made embellishments that can be perfect addition to you shabby chic pages.

This is what I created with my embellishments.

What I used for the layout:

-          Sizzix Framelits Set 8 pk – Circles

-          Sizzix Bigz Die – Tiny Tabs and Tags

-          Tim Holtz Distress Ink – Walnut Stain, Black Soot

-          Bo Bunny papers and comment tags

-          Martha Steward – Doily lace edge punch

-          Chipboards by me ( most saját nevemen, azaz Sapimanó néven fognak futni a chipboardjaim, nemsokára feltöltöm őket etsy-re )

-          Webster’s Pages pearls

-          Dusty Attic chipboard – Label / Title

-          Flowers, twine, watercolor

-          Viva Decor – Glossy pen, Clear stamps

-          YABO craft cardstock

We hope you liked this great idea on how to recycle these sheet of chipboards. Big thanks to Andrea to share it with us.

Happy Crafting,

Crafting Ireland Team

Fridge magnet with sticky notebook – Katya Ivanova

Hi everyone,

Today is Katya’s turn to show us a fantastic little project for the home.

This is what she said:

“Are you always looking for a scrap of paper to jot down something important or to make your shopping list? Well look no more, because today I am going to show you how to make a fridge magnet with a sticky note block.”

Materials required:
sticky note block
some thick cardboard or chipboard
patterned paper
magnets
die cut
cotton lace
flowers
pearls

Step 1
Cut out the base of our magnet from some thick cardboard/ chipboard. Iu sed the cardstock that was left over from a printer box. I cut the
base 1cm wider than the note block,  then I put the die cut where I approximately wanted it and added a few more cm to the length.

Step 2
Cover the front of the magnet with double sided tape, glue it to the back of patterned paper. Then I cut of the corners of the paper and go over the outline of the base with score tool to make sure we get a nice crease. Then glue the edges to the base.

Step 3
Now onto decorating of the front part. I cut of a scalloped circle to use as focal point, but depending on what your focal point is you can use a circle, oval, frames, photo etc.

Step 4
Lay your details where you want them.

Step 5
I want to use a little white chipboard house as embellishment but I only have one that is a very unattractive brown colour. So I trace the
house on a thick piece of cardstock (mine was a Lidl rice box, that chipboard is so thick and solid!)

Step 6
Cut out the house and cover it with 2-3 coats of white acrylic paint.

Step 7
Distress the chipboard with distress ink. I have used Vintage Photo.

s
Stamp the sentiment at the bottom of the scalloped circle. I do itvnow, as later I am going to put the chipboard house on foam dots.

Step 9
Using hot glue gun I glue the die cut leaf and flowers onto the magnet.

step 10
Now onto the back of the magnet,  we need some patterned paper and magnets.

Step 11
We need to cut out patterned paper measuring 5mm less than the base.

Step 12

I am using fridge magnets that come free with some children’s yogurt.

My sister very kindly gave me all her doubles.

Step 13
I used 3 magnets as the note block was quiet heavy.


Step 14
And here is the finished project. Something you can use and something that would be a good housewarming gift.

This is great!! We hope you like it too.

Happy Crafting,

Crafting Ireland

Fun and Funky Notice Board – Aideen Fallon

Hi Everyone,

Aideen is here with us today today to show how she created this fun notice board.

 

You will need:

Chipboard

Paint

Magnetic board

Hole punch

String

Patterned papers & moustaches or other embellishments (I just love moustaches!!)

Step 1

First I cut some chipboard a bit bigger than the magnetic board and painted the edges

Step 2

I rounded the edges with my round-it-all

Step 3

I stuck down the magnetic sheet down onto the chipboard

Step 4

I punched holes in the top and bottom using my bind-it-all

Step 5

I then used packaging string for the hanger and also for the notice pins!

Step 6

Altering these little clothes pins is so easy! I just glued on some patterned paper and attached an awesome moustache-my friend Emily cut me a whole bunch of moustaches!!!

TAA DAA the finished board-a quick, easy, cheap, fun and funky notice board !!

 

We hope you like this fantastic idea and will make it for your home too.

Happy Crafting,

Crafting Ireland Team

 

Shaker Card

I used an adorable stamp set from Waltzing Mouse Stamps to create a super fun shaker card. The set I used is called A Cottage Home. I love this set as depending on how you colour the image it can be a general house, a christmassy house, a haunted house, the possibilities are endless!! This technique is very easy but looks great….

Step 1 – Colour your image as you like. I used Inktense pencils on mine. Cut it out.

Step 2 – Using a craft knife cut out the windows. Partially cut out the door so that it opens.

Step 3 – Using acetate cover the windows and door opening from the back.

Step 4 - Using foam tape tape all around the edges of the image. You want to make sure there are no gaps in the foam pieces, you need to create a full seal. Mine doesn’t look pretty but it does the job!

Step 5 – Fill with beads, sequins or confetti. Make sure whatever you fill it with is not any taller than your foam wall. Cut a piece of backing paper to the size of your foam wall. This will be the back of the house and keep all the beads in place.

Step 6 – Admire your house!

Step 7 – Prepare your card base. I used a fun mix of pink, yellow, grey and orange striped DP and matted this onto grey card. I then created a grey card banner to mount the house on. I created some ribbon loops with some fun polkadot ribbon. I also added a sentiment on a strip of pink paper.

Step 8 – The finished card….Front door closed over….

Front door opened….

And a close up of the house again….

This is such a fun way to get more out of your stamps!

Junk Bows – Andrea Ockey Parr

Hi everyone,

Today Andrea Ockey Parr, our fabulous DT member is going to show all our readers how to create beautiful bows from some ribbons that we all have lying around.

Andrea says:

“If your craft stash is anything like mine, you probably have a tangled pile of random ribbon, yarn and lace, not to mention a few hundred half-used ribbon spools lying around!  I buy these with a specific project in mind, but after I use a bit here and there, I never know quite what to do with the rest of it and it can really stack up if I’m not careful.”

The solution?  Junk bows!  Junk bows are created from all of those leftover strands and strings that have been lying around in our craft stash for too long.  Junk bows are unique and a snap to make, but best of all, they’re a great way to give your leftovers a wonderful new purpose.

Start your junk bow by cutting pieces of similar-length strips of coordinating ribbon, yarn and/or lace.  You can cut them straight on the ends, or angled, or even fish-tailed like I’ve done with the piece of bird ribbon.

Start with the widest strip of ribbon on the bottom, then layer the other strips on top going from widest to most narrow.  Don’t worry if your edges don’t line up or if your middle strips are longer than your base strip.  They are supposed to look sort of unplanned and “junky.”  Do remember to keep one strip aside, however, to tie the bow together in the center.

Use the narrow strip you set aside and tie it around the center of your ribbons to form the bow.

Once your junk bow is finished, you can attach it to all sorts of things!  Since you can make junk bows in any size and in any color, they’re great for hair accessories, scrapbook or card embellishments and for gift-wrapping.  You can attach them to a rosette base, like I’ve done, for another fresh look.

Junk bows can be made from any scraps, even if the ribbons or lace don’t seem to “go” together.  The point of them is that they’re made from strays and spares and leftovers.  Go crazy with the scraps and remember that even though these are called “junk bows,” there’s really no such thing as junk to a crafter!

What a great idea!! If you would like to see more of Andrea’s creation, visit her blog.

Happy Crafting,

Crafting Ireland Team

Ways to Washi!!

We all love washi tape right? We are all probably at the stage where we have just a ‘few’ rolls of it knocking around our craft room. Its a perfectly healthy obsession We all probably tend to use it in the same ways. However we decided to ask our fantastic Design Team how they use washi tape. We can up with a great list of really unique ways to use washi tape….

Nicole – Borders and trim

I love to use washi tape to add in a little bit of trim onto the edges of projects. In this tag my patterned paper was a bit to short to fit on the tag size. So I used a contrasting pattern ziz zag washi tape under it to make it a feature instead. The patterned paper is 3D mounted on the tag so it gives a great dimension look with the washi under it. I also used thin strips of washi at the ends of my twine on the tag to make it look like those caps on the end of shoelaces. You can see more info on this tag here.

Karen – Journalling

Karen used washi tape in a very unique way on her fantastic art journal page – you can see the page here. Karen used the washi tape to create a city on her page! So fun and a very clever use for the washi tape.

Aideen – Amy Tan style Day Book

Aideen used a lot of her washi tape collection to help in her creation of an adorable day book all about her cute little dog that you can see here. This is a great way to get to use a lot of your tapes on one project. You can use them as embellishments, binding for pages, holding photos in place etc.

Mary Jo – Framed Easter Egg

Mary Jo used washi tape to create this super framed Easter egg art piece. She used some beautiful tapes to create and adorable easter egg. You could do this idea with any shape and it would make a fantastic gift too!

Timi – Patterns on a Layout

Timi created a fantastic scrapbook page and used washi tape to create some fantastic elements. You can see the full details on her layout here. She used washi tape on the layout in lots of ways – in combination with paint to create a pattern, as a backer for some alpha stickers and even more ways too – spot the washi!

Katya – Embelishments on a mini album

Katya is not as addicted to washi tape as the rest of us but still puts it to fantastic use as embellishments on her gorgeous mini album….

Draya – Washi Spools

Draya created superb vintage looking washi spools. This is such a different and clever use of washi. They would look fantastic in a shadow box, as decor and much more!

Abby – 5 projects!

Abby has a super post up on her blog here that shows 5 different and fabulous ways to use washi tape. There is lots of inspiration on the post so make sure you check it out….

We hope you enjoyed these ideas on different ways to use our beloved washi tape stash!!

Happy Crafting

The Crafting Ireland Team

Summer Fun Beach Tag Mini Album – Abby Henderson

Hi everyone,

Today DT member Abby is going to share a fantastic tag book tutorial in summer theme. For more ideas from Abby, check out her blog

Step 1

First I gathered all the supplies and materials that I wanted to use for this project. Since crafting is such a creative process I added additional items and omitted some that you see in the photo.

Step 2

To start with I created the tag front and back cover by using a Kraft tag. I made a score mark at 1″ from the bottom edge of the tag.

This creates a book like fold so you can flip through the mini.

Step 3

In this step I’ll show you how I created my tags for the pages that go in the mini. I wanted some texture so I used some corrugated card stock . As a template for the tags I used the Kraft tag and a few others in different sizes.

Now that the tags are cut to the sizes I want, I used my Kraft tag as a template to snip the corners. Some of the paper I chose was single sided, so I cut another piece of card stock to make it double sided and I used some Scor-tape to seal them together.

Here you can see the completed tag pages. I scored the completed tags at 1″ as I did my covers so they too would bend easily in the mini.

Step 4

I die cut a fence from some banana paper for my cover. Since it’s a beach themed mini I wanted the look of a weathered wood fence you’d find on the beach.

Step 5

I wanted to add some texture to some of my tag pages so I used some modeling paste and mixed in some Alcohol Ink for color.

I spread the colored modeling paste on a stencil directly onto the selected tags.

Step 6

I used some Distress Ink to color my hole reinforcements so they would match the color scheme of the mini.

Step 7

I wanted to add some wood elements so I used some chalk ink on my wood word sentiment.

For additional texture I added some craft paint to the edges.

Step 8

For the final steps of creating the construction of the tag mini, I took some twine and cut it into strips. I put some eyelets on the front and back cover tags for extra stability then I simply pulled the twine through each set of tags after I punched holes in them.

To secure the tag mini I tied each set of twine strips in a double knot.

For the rest of the tag mini I just simply had fun by adding embellishments, trims, metals and photo mats . You can really let your creativity flow when working on a mini like this. Below I have some additional photos of the completed Summer Fun Beach Tag Mini. I can’t wait to fill this up with my summer family photos.

We hope you got inspired by this fabulous tagbook and will create one for yourself and fill it with summer memories.

Thanks to Abby for this fantastic project.

Happy Crafting,

Crafting Ireland Team