Thursday 20 June 2013

China Blue ribbon flower card

As well as the wonderful papers in the Ruby Rocket it China Blue collection there are lovely ribbons and large brads. Also a large tag collection too.
 
So I took a piece of the Steely Blue card and mounted it onto a card blank. I then wanted to make a ribbon flower.
 
 
The way I made this one was to cut 4 pieces of the wider white base ribbon and 2 of the thinner dark blue ribbon all the same length. How long will depend on how big you want your flower. Loop the pieces and stick together with double sided tape. Layer them on top of each other to the design you like and then stick all the layers down with double sided tape.
 
Carefully make a hole through all the layers with a craft knife and poke through your brad and open up its arms at the back.
 
Choose a tag from the tag set, add a sentiment to the tag if you would like and cut a piece of the dark blue ribbon and form a bow. Stick the tag to the card with the bow on top and then stick your ribbon flower down all using a wet glue. You might need a peg to hold them in place while they dry.
 
Of course you can add these ribbon flowers to anything, They would even make a cute brooch too!!

China Blue journal

Hi there, Katrina, design elf, here again.

 As soon as I saw the new Ruby Rocket it China Blue paper I thought of Austria. Those who know me will know that Austria is my second home, we love spending all our holidays there and hope to one day live there, in our dreams. I have several pieces of Gumunden  Pottery, from Austria that is the same blue and white.

 We are off to Austria in a few days and as I always keep a journal while we are away, somewhere to write all the wonderful things we did and also to keep all those bits and bobs I collect along the way, boarding cards, bus tickets, receipts and leaflets etc. Its also a great help when you get home and want to put your photos in order too. We still have them printed and then put them in a photo album. Anyway, the China Blue paper made the perfect choice for my holiday journal.


 
My journal is 6x6 and bound together with my Bind it all but you could easily use book rings instead. I just used packaging card to make the covers and to cover them I used China Blue Showpiece. Being 6x6 it meant I could get 4 pieces of out of the 12x12 so I used the reverse pattern on the inside of the covers. The edelweiss flower stamps and the journal stamp are my own hand carved stamps. The ribbon is one of the China Blue Trimmings

 
The inside pages are all the same, I like an area to write about my day and then a pocket to keep my little bits I have collected that day in. Again the edelweiss and the label stamp are my own carved stamps.

 
As you can see I used a mixture of the papers as they all sit so well together and being 200GSM and double sided they can be a page with out any help. I used Showpiece - for the cover, May Blossom, Dynasty and Diamond Jubilee.

  This would also make a wonderful mini book if you don't like to keep a journal on holiday.
       
                    What ever you have planned for this summer have fun
                                                                                                     Love Katrina

Thursday 13 June 2013

My little street

Hi there, Katrina here, design elf for the Fruit Pixie.  

  I love these house and tree chipboard shapes from Crafty Individuals, they are so much fun to play with. They come in plain white chipboard, so great to paint or ink but this time I decided to cover mine in the wonderful Keisercraft  Miss match collection. Here is how I did it.


I used - 

Crafty Individuals Chipboard houses
Crafty individuals Chipboard trees
Keisercraft Miss Match 12 x 12 papers
Red buttons from Button Assortment Britania
Stiff card from packaging
PVA  glue
Craft knife
Black pen

1. I cut a piece of stiff card from packaging to mount my little street onto, then covered both sides with paper.

2. I Chose the houses and trees I wanted to use and covered them with different papers ( TIP- keep all the little pop out doors and windows for later ). I used a craft knife to trim the papers and cut out the windows and doors but you could use scissors or the little snips instead. I then used contrasting papers to cover the doors and windows.

3. I then used an acrylic paint to run around the outside of the houses and trees. Once dry I used a black pen to outline the houses, trees and birds.

4. I then arranged the little street. As I wanted the trees at the back of the houses, I needed to put something at the back of the houses to attach them to the back board. I used the doors and window pieces I popped out at the start to put into the gaps between the back of the houses and the strip of cardboard at the back of the piece. They are ideal as they are the same thickness as the other pieces.

5. I then used PVA glue to glue it all together and cut out the letters for the word home. I then added the red buttons to the trees and the hooks to the front. 

That is how I made my little street but of course you could use any embellishments you want to to make the street you own. Just have fun with it.

 Happy Crafting!
                               Love Katrina