...A tutorial for the witches hat

Well, Halloween is fast approaching and there's lots to do so just incase anyone feels like making a witches hat like the one on top of my Witch Jar - here's the how-to. The pic should get bigger if you click on it.

Step 1
On a piece of black card draw a circle 8 inches in diameter - mark the centre carefully so you can see it later. Stamp assorted spiders and webs - adding clear embossing powder as you go.

Step 2
Heat set the embossing powder and once the paper has cooled and the powder has set, cut out the circle.

Step 3
Find the centre mark and use a protractor to divide the circle into three equal segments. Cut apart. Each segment will make one hat.

Step 4
Apply thin, really sticky, double sided tape carefully along the back edge of one of the straight sides of the segment.

Step 5
Spend some time encouraging the segment into a sharp cone shape before you remove the tape cover and carefully stick the hat edges together. Don't overlap too much or your hat cone won't stand level.

Step 6
Decide what size of a hat brim you want (- I used a nestabilities circle to cut mine). Draw a circle of appropriate size on black paper and stamp and emboss with spiders and webs as before. Cut the circle out.

Step 7
You might like to mat the circle onto another, slightly larger, scalloped circle of contrasting colour. Now's the time to do that.

Steps 8 - 9
Decide on a suitable ribbon for the hat band and make a buckle by cutting a small rectangle from shiny silver card. make two slits or slots in the rectangle to allow the ribbon to be threaded through - I used my slot punch tool but slits would work equally well. I rounded the corners of my wee buckle with a pair of small scissors. Take a piece of ribbon - my piece was about 6 inches long, and thread on the buckle, pushing it to the centre of the ribbon.

Attach a little extra strong glue or tape to each end of the back of the ribbon.

Hold the buckle up to the front of the hat cone, about quarter inch to a half inch up from the cut edge. Smooth the ribbon away on either side allowing it to follow the shape of the cone. It will end up inside the cone - press firmly to adhere the glue - see pic 9.

Step 10
Your hat should look like pic 10 now with both ends of the ribbon disappearing up inside the cone. This finishes the cut ends away nicely.

Steps 11 - 12
Decide now whether you want the hat to be for decoration or whether you want it to open up revealing a secret compartment.

To seal the hat and make it into a decoration - take 4 little strips of scrap card and put double sided tape on one side of each. Fold each strip in half, and attach to the inside of the hat so that half of each strip hangs out. the strips of card will hang out of the hat and will stick to the hat brim once you set the cone on top of it. If you have used extra sticky tape it will not come apart.
it should look like pic 12.

Step 13
To make the hat open, use only one strip of scrap card as a hinge. position it at the back of the hat. Make another hat cone but without the stamping and embossing - refer to steps 1-5 for help. This is the liner. Snip about an inch of the top of the liner and put it up inside the hat cone affixing it with tape or glue. Now you can't see the hinge inside the hat.

Stick the hat cone onto the hat brim using the hinge. Disguise the hinge on the hat brim by cutting a wee strip of black card, or even a wee circle of card to stick over it. I stuck a strip of black card over my hinge and folded the edge back on itself so that it would provide something for the cone to close down over - the tiny bit of friction helps the hat stay closed when i'm moving it about.

As always, I'd love to see any that are made!!

Hope it tickles.

... Blog candy winner

Thanks to all who left house cleaning tips, there are many that I will use and some made me chuckle!! I went to the random integer generator a few hours after midnight(up with sick child).

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

19

Timestamp: 2008-09-27 07:42:25 UTC

The 19th comment was:

IamDerby said...

Love this card Claire. I have no house cleaning tips... well except one, if your Mother in law offers to vacuum... let her. I used to get all upset like she was insulting me... now I just take the help!

24 September 2008 21:44

Congratulations IamDerby!!! If you can email me your email address I will be sending some blog candy your way!!!

The prize is a gift certificate for PapertreyInk!! Hope you like.


That ends my blog candy for now - but you never know there might be some more sometime soon.

...six santas snowflake thing and box

Welcome to my PTI Bloghop post, if you don't know what the bloghop is check out this link.

Every year I promise myself I'll make something nice to put on the wall - every year I start something but don't get it finished - This year thanks to Bloghop I had the motivation to start early.

I made a picture, wall art, decorative item (can you see me in the reflections?Lol) - not sure what to call it but I have a feeling it's the first of a few - I want to remake it in different colours.

It started as a snowflake made out of PTI stamps but it got sidetracked. All images are stamped and emossed in white. Thinking it would be the ideal opportunity to try out some sparkling H2o's or twinkly watercolours that I got last weekend - I got out my only 3 colours which happened to be the only 3 colours the LSS had. I'm not jumping up and down with excitement about the colour of the trees. In fact I downright dislike the shade of 'green' also i'm not ecstatic about the red either...I like how the colour works - ie - it twinkles but I don't like the shades - I love earthy colours - mossy greens, that sort of thing... again sorry about the reflections...


However - how good will this look remade in shades of blue and white with Made-of-Snow snowmen stamps that I am waiting on (impatiently)!!!!

I finished it because I needed it for bloghop and also because there are more UFO's here than I care to mention.

I used a sponge (a really bad quality dish sponge! Lol) to daub dark chocolate, gold and some co-ordinating green ink around - wanted it to look like it was glowing and the bottom pic shows that up quite well - I took it before the glass went on - you can just about see the wee blingy diamonds as well - definitely outside my comfort zone, I don't even wear jewelery!! Lol

I spent ages making a gorgeous quilted frame for this but despite the fact that the colours matched well, the two styles were laughing at each other so I put it away - I'll do something with Quilters Sampler for it. Ended up chopping up 3(!!) sheets of my precious Dark choc cardstock to make a surround.

I'm much happier about...

the box
I love this wee box which is still at the prototype stage but it kinda goes with the picture so...

What's neat about it is that it's lined with a contrasting paper which can either fold into the box or stick out like wee fins at the side depending on what tickles your fancy.

It's a hanging box which is designed to be viewed from below by my kids while it hangs on the christmas tree tantalizingly above their heads, full of sweeties!!

It's got a bell so's I know if someone's trying to open it before they should.




NOTE - don't forget to scroll down - there's still time for the Blog Candy!!!!

...a little blog candy

It's high time I offered a little blog candy. I have reached nearly 20 000 hits on my counter - ok 19 000 were probably me checking to see if anyone was looking but nonetheless - anyone who suffers my blog on a regular basis needs a little pat on the back - I'm not going to tell you what the candy is - I have nearly finished organising it but not quite, tho' the one thing I will say is that PTI fans will like it for sure.

What I want you to do is leave me your best house-cleaning shortcut tip in the comments to this post, I'm anxious to cut down on housework so's I can stamp. - I'm going to let it run until midnight (my time) on Friday 26th sept (so's all the bloghoppers get a chance to play too!) and then I will get a number randomly picked - there must be a generator somewhere on the internet that I can use.

I will post the winners name on the blog hopefully on Saturday.

Oh look - I managed to squeeze in one more fimo snowflake!! lol.

Hope it tickles.

...a ribbon tree

Wondering what to do with all those teeny scraps of ribbon, ( i don't throw anything away!! I always imagine it'll come in handy some day) I had an idea to make a little string tied christmas tree. I tied wee bits of ribbon to a length of string and then trimmed it up and down the sides into a christmas tree shape. I threaded the string through two eyelets that I set into a cream rectangle and mounted it onto a scalloped rectangle.

Made a backing paper with Guidelines and First fruits stamps and matted it onto the green - added a sentiment held on with string and I have to say I quite like this. Might make a few more - when I find something good I kind of beat it to death!! - you may have noticed the fimo snowflakes!! Lol.

Hope it tickles.

Stuff used.
Card Base: Kraft cardstock from my local Print supply, Vintage Cream, Dark Chocolate and Spring Moss cardstock All PTI, Ink - Versacolour white - LSS. Ribbon - Aqua Mist, Dark chocolate and Spring moss assorted scraps - All PTI. Nestabilities Long rectangles - Grid stamp - Guidelines set. Leaf stamp - First Fruits, Sentiment from Holiday Wishes. - ALL PTI. String - back of my kitchen drawer. Mini Eyelets - Papermania.

...couple o' things

Edited 16th Oct 2008 - The resist was done by stamping in versamark, clear embossing and then sponging the red ink over after - hope that helps Tracy.

I was on the floor, picking up lego, playmobil - that sort of thing, in the girls room when i spotted a length of black thread poking out from under the dolls basket - I pulled it and instantly discovered two things I didn't know before - 1) spiders legs pop off if you pull too hard, and 2) I will push a one and a half year old out of the way in order to escape from large spindly spiders.

Right now I'm calming down with a cup of tea and posting a few cards.

I so love the leaf stamp in PTI First Fruits set - I think it qualifies as one of my all time favourite stamps. I made some background paper with it using what is apparently called the rock and roll technique. Added a sentiment, some ribbon, pure poppy card base (all PTI) and pouff!! All done.

The second card is the beginning of my Christmas production line this year - In a small, totally inadequate way i'm attempting to bring home the bacon this year (that's what I say when I'm asked but really, lets face it, it's all going straight back onto PTI goodies!!). Anyhow - I wanted to start with some simple easy to make cards that I can sell as wee sets etc.

Inspired (who isn't) by Pinefeather I did some resist snowflakes - the third card is the same as the first just finished differently - I think they're fairly self explanatory and I need stronger tea, but any questions just email me.

Oh aye, and I managed to use some bling - not a big fan but I'll let it go this time.

Apologies also for anyone who likes card recepies - I always for get to list these but I'm going to make a big effort to improve on that score.

Hope they tickle.

Stuff used.
Card 1: Pure poppy cardstock, Vintage Cream cardstock, Inks - Pure poppy, Plum pudding, Raw Sienna, Burnt Umber. Ribbon - Pure Poppy saddlestitch, Nestabilities Ovals - leaf stamp - First Fruits, Sentiment from Mixed Messages. - ALL PTI

Card 2:Kraft cardstock from my local printing supply. Versamark Ink and clear embossing powder - LSS. White versacolour Ink - PTI Aqua Mist ribbon and cardstock. Snowflake Serenade stamps and Mixed messages sentiment - both PTI. White sheer ribbon - Offray. Making memories slot punch tool.

Card 3: White cardstock from my local printing supply. Versamark Ink and clear embossing powder - LSS.Snowflake Serenade stamps and Believe sentiment - both PTI. Pure poppy Ink and ribbon - both PTI. estabilities long rectangle. Bling by Papermania - crystals on snowflake and star crystal on 'wishes'. Making memories slot punch tool.

... a few snaps

I do actually have cards to post but the light here was awful today and I'm not so good with a camera yet - I need natural light for good shots. Anyhow hopefully get them up tomorrow. In the meantime a couple more holiday pics - two views of Croagh Patrick with a photo of Cong Abbey in between. My eight year old climbed that mountain - I'm so proud of her!!

Note the turf stacks in the B/W photo - I love the smell of that stuff!!

...a GSS submission

ED - the sweets are Chocolate limes - little its of chocolate wrapped in a lime flavoured hard candy - easily available in Ireland - not sure about USA.






I had such fun making this dressed up jar for the GSS competition over at PTI - Congratulations to the winners by the way - some awesome creations - you should really go check them out here.

I intended my Witch jar as a hostess gift - since I'm hosting the Halloween party this year - I guess I'll be keeping it!! Lol.

The hat opens to reveal a secret compartment containing a pendant i made from black shrink plastic - I love how it looks like velvet when it is shrunk. - the wee hats are a cinch to make - they'd make great party favours and if you'd like to see how leave a comment and I'll make up a tutorial.

The witches cloak is actually a bag - you could use it for trick or treating or holding more sweets - liquorice strips etc. - Hope it tickles!!

I love the Spooky Sweets 2 stamps and the latest releases look fantastic too!! - All I have to do now is wait for that wee brown parcel...

...cookies

Annapurna said my fimo snowflakes reminded her of sugar cookies - she thought I should make some and try stamping them - So here you are Annapurna!! I'm real sorry you can't taste these tho' they're a bit yummy!!!

It was a wet afternoon and we needed something to do, so I scrubbed my snowflake serenade stamps clean and the kids and I stamped a few cookies before they went in the oven - we 'dry' stamped some and 'inked' some others by making a little food colouring ink pad out of a piece of kitchen towel on a plate.

I think they turned out interesting - think I might have to try it again tho' - might have made a nice gift if I'd had any left long enough to make up some packaging!! lol.

You might like to check out the PTI release on their website here later this evening - tho' leave some stamps for me - I have to get up at 5am to be in with a chance of filling my basket before they sell out!!!

Nighty Night.

...a huge Christmas card

I just got my latest PTI order and it's release time again!! Ho hum.

I was so glad I ordered the First Fruits set - It is outstanding. - I jumped right in and made a Christmas card (surprise, surprise).

I knew I wanted to make a wreath image from the leaf stamp I love how the shape works repeated in a cricle. I used 4 different inks on the stamp so that my leaves would all look different.

I love how the stamping turned out but I'm less happy with the card itself, I'm off to try again!! I was in such a rush to put it up that I photographed it straight away - it's night here and I normally wait for daylight but it'll do for now.

The card base is a sheet of Pure poppy cardstock folded in half !!- the card is a little on the big side Lol but it actually looks ok in real life lol.

Hope it tickles.

...a start on Halloween

I have a confession - I purchased a couple of other brand stamps. I was going to not buy anything other than PTI stuff till I had a whole collection of their images but Kimberly had some cute little cards done with Inkadinkado stamps that I had to give up and get a set!! But really, that's me. I will now not buy anything other than PTI till I have gathered all their sets...and cardstock...and ribbons...

Anyhow - I did manage to add a PTI bat!! - The first card is Inkadinkado trees and sentiment with a PTI Bat.

The second card was inspired by Niki's gorgeous witch in the moonlight card - I loved it when I saw it on her blog - check it out here.

I made my version slightly different - It is ok but I'll have another go later on - off to do a school run.

Decorative papers are by Tim Coffee.

Hope they tickle.

...surprise, a snowflake card!

Yep, another Fimo snowflake - sorry if you're tired of them already but I really like how they look when they're done - I bought some gold Sculpey and I'm goint to make some tree ornaments in the same vein but hopefully I'll have some Halloween stuff aswell soon.

The stamp was PTI Snowflake Serenade and the patterned paper is Basic Grey - (thanks Beverly)

Hope it tickles.

...a small request

This is just a quick wee note to any visitors - a shameless plug for my best friend!!

Bob has started a blog!! I'm so proud of her, she makes fab cards - if you've got a spare moment, skip on over to her blog and leave a wee word of encouragement to get her up and running - I know she'll appreciate it.

//bobscards.blogspot.com/

Many thanks.

...another snowflake card

It has been a busy week here - the first full week of school for two of my babies - we're all tired. Added to that i've just got home from the hospital with my wee mum, had to take her over to casualty this evening, but i'm happy to report that it doesn't seem to have been anything serious.

Haven't made much that i can put on the blog this week - I'm working away on something for the GSS at Papertrey which I want to keep secret till then!! I'm addicted to the bloghops and the GSS events at PTI.

Anyhow - here's a wee card I did make this week - moving on from the air dry clay I wondered what would happen if i used my stamps to make an impression in Fimo (I think Sculpey is a comparable product in the US).

I found a big tin of Fimo recently while clearing out a cupboard, together with a hand-full of sculpting tools that my dad made for me while I was at University. My dad was one of those people who could do anything. Must admit I had a lump in my throat when I found them - they brought back a few memories.

Rolled out the red fimo and stamped an impression of a snowflake (Snowflake serenade), then I baked it in the oven to harden it. Ink didn't seem to want to dry properly on the fimo so I heat embossed it with white embossing powder and that did the trick. Used the green fimo for the sentiment snowflake. I cut both snowflakes out using a set of snowflake cookie cutters.

I really like the leathery look it takes on and the way the deep impression of the snowflake stays red against the white embossed ink on the surface. These will make great tree ornaments this christmas.

TIP - if you plan to do this yourself, wet your stamp with a little water before impresing it into the Fimo/Sculpey - it will come out so much easier and leave the detail behind where it's meant to be.

I have a couple more of these to post over the next day or two.

Thanks for stopping by.

...a tutorial for my CD Receipt Organiser

Many thanks to loads of people who asked for a bit of info on how to make my CD receipt organiser that I made for the Blog Hop!! - Here are the instructions. If you click on the pic it should get bigger.

These are loads easier than they look.

Please note I made this sample with scraps of paper and card in response to the comments on my Blog hop post - it looks a lot simpler than the original because it is not decorated.

Personalize yours by stamping and adding decorations and embellishments but remember to keep them as thin as possible or it won't all fit in the CD case.

These directions work for a CD case only, they will not work for the Calendar CD cases.

Step 1
Cut two pieces of paper each measuring 12 inches by 4 and 1/8th inches.

Step 2
Score folds across the short width of the paper at the 2", 4", 6", 8", and 10" intervals - this is really easy if you have a scorepal.

Step 3
Turn the page over and score on the 1", 3", 5", 7", 9" and 11" intervals.

Step 4
Fold the paper concertina style noting the direction of the folds in my photo.

Step 5
Squash the folds together making sure your paper stack is nicely aligned on top of itself and doesn't veer off to the side.

Step 6
Repeat steps 2-5 for the other piece of patterned paper. It is real important that when you squash the 'concertina' together that you see the white side of the patterned paper.

Step 7
Cut 6 pieces of thin card each to measure 4 and 1/2 inches by 4 and 1/8 inches. Set one aside, it will become the front of your organiser file.

Step 8
Stand the concertina papers (white sides facing each other) up on the surface in front of you. Drop 5 of the thin cards in between the folds. You will notice that the cards should be oriented so's they match the height of the concertina paper. Spend a while looking at the step 8 photo so that you get the placement right.

Step 9
Squash it all down flat and punch 4 holes along the bottom all the way through. Do not go too close to the edge of the stack.

Step 10
Cut a 20" strand of thin ribbon in a co-ordinating colour and thread it through the holes. Tie a sturdy knot.

Step 11
Retrieve the piece of thin card left over from step 7. Stamp it or decorate it now.

Step 12
Adhere it to the front of the file section. I used extra strong double sided tape.

Step 13
Cut a piece of matching card 6 and 1/8" wide by 5 and 3/8" tall. Score and fold 3/4 inches in from each side - be very accurate here. Check it fits in your CD case, re-fold if necesssary. Trim the top 1 and 1/4" off the top of each flap.

Steps 14 to 17
Fold both flaps in and add extra strong double sided tape to each flap - now adhere the front section to the flaps to complete the file. The completed concertina file may be stck into the CD case now - I used extra strong double sided tape in discrete areas and attached some decorated paper to the exterior to mask the adhesive.

Step 18
Cut a front panel from the paper or card of your choice - I cut mine 4 and 7/8" by 4 and 3/4" and added stamping and decorations. I used extra strong double sided tape in discrete areas over patterned paper and rubbed it well down - it was nearly invisible over the patterned paper so didn't have to camoflage the front.

Stand back and admire your work - wasn't that easy peasy?

Well I'm off to bed now - I hope this works well for you - I'd love to see any that you might make!!

Thanks for stopping by.

...some snowflakes

Two cards inspired by Alli Miles little air dry owls. I'd been wanting to try this since I saw it on her blog - the only differernce was that I stamped the images (all from Snowflake Serenade stamp set, PTI) without ink into my Air dry clay and then left them to dry. I sponged the Dark Chocolate Palette ink (PapertreyInk) on afterwards so that the snowflakes would show up as white.

The simplest of simple treatments for the first card, I used three pieces, two snowflakes and a sentiment, outlined by embossed boxes courtesy of my ScorePal. Tiny little bow to set it off. I like how the white clay looks against the Dark Chocolate card from PTI.

For the second card I layered two pieces of ribbon (Spring moss and Dark chocolate ribbons - both PTI) and used my Ribbon flower technique to create a little frame to show off my snowflake. Little sentiment stamped on Spring moss card and two co-ordinating mini brads to finish.

Hope they tickle.