A Little Glass Jar

I have three of these gorgeous little hexagonal glass jars sitting on my craft table waiting to be fabulourized! This first one I covered with pretty papers from Basic Grey's Capella range, then embellished with some trim, a charm, ribbon and a built up Prima flower. I haven't decided what to put inside it yet, but was thinking along the lines of bath salts or potpourri... I was going to go for chocolates but I have a feeling I would need to replace them several times before they actually got to the receiver!

Snowman Easel Card

Here's the little snowman from my previous post. I put him in Christmas colours (or the Rabbitohs colours... if you follow the footy) and stuck him to a round, scallopped easel card. The card is only about 4" in diametre, so it's a cute little size that's quick and easy to make.

Snowman with Ornament

Free Printable #62 Designed: 17.08.10
copyright Beccy Muir

Technique Class - Tunnel Cards

It's time to learn a new card folding technique that's both eye catching and very easy. Isn't that the combination we all love?! The card I'm going to show you today is called a tunnel card, and in it's simplest form it only requires two card blanks and a couple of clever folds.

Requirements:
2 card blanks + a scrap of matching card
Double sided tape / tape runner
Die cutting tool of choice (I used Nestabilities)
Bone folder
Embellishments

1. Print a sentiment in the centre of one of the card blanks. (You could substitute the sentiment for an image or an embellishment to get a different look).

2. Fold the printed card blank in half as you would a normal card.

3. Find a tool or die that will fit around your sentiment but DO NOT CUT IT OUT. Set the printed card blank to one side.

4. Cut 1/4" from the length and the width of your second card blank. I used a contrasting colour for effect.

5. Fold the second piece of card in half.

6. Now fold each half in half again in the other direction so that you have the shape created below.

7. Using your cutting tool, cut an oval (or square, heart, rectangle, circle, etc...) from the centre of the card blank. The cut out should not reach as far as the two outer folds.

8. I cut a slightly smaller oval from a scrap of card and adhered it to the wrong side of my second card blank to give a framing effect. You could use a scalloped or decorative edge or simply skip this step altogether.

9. Place adhesive on the two outer sections.

10. Adhere the second card blank to the first card blank, remembering that you will have a small border from where you trimmed the second card blank.

11. Embellish both the inside and the front cover of your card and you're done. Told you it was easy!

Bunch of Grapes

Free Printable #61
Designed: 18.08.10
copyright Beccy Muir

Shades of Green

I really enjoyed colouring these grapes, particularly the leaves. I love foliage and have always enjoyed drawing, colouring or painting it in it's various shades and hues... especially new leaves or gorgeous autumn coloured ones.

This card would be great as a "Thank You" or to give to someone who loves a drop of the good stuff. I'm sure there are lots of puns relating to wine or fruit that would also go well with the image.

Shabby Chic Hat Box

As you can see from the project I've been working on, I've been in touch with my feminine side! This is a plain, paper mache box that has been spray painted, lightly sanded, then embellished with patterned papers, ink, self-adhesive pearls, gorgeous Prima flowers, leaves, lace and ribbon. It wasn't difficult to do and was very, very satisfying to the lady within.

P.S. Have a close look at the bow tied with ribbon... see that hat pin? It collects dust no more! Heh heh...

Bon Voyage

We're packing our bags and heading off to the U.S. in just two more days!! My hubby has the opportunity to attend a Microsoft convention, so we thought we'd tie that in with a holiday to see his family who live in Portland. The convention is being held up in Seattle, which is only a few hours drive away from some serious Grandma time for our kids!

I have scheduled a few automatic blog posts for the time I'm away, including a couple of new designs that I hope you'll enjoy. See you all in a couple of weeks!!

Nell on a Bicycle

Free Printable #60
Designed: 20.08.10
copyright Beccy Muir

The Wind in Your Hair...

Here she is again, this time throwing caution to the wind as she speeds along on her push bike, bloomers in view, pearls flying and her basket full of wild daisies and a crusty loaf of bread.

The inspiration for "Nell on a Bike" comes from a story my grandmother told me about a motorbike ride she took as a young woman with one of her boyfriends (yes, there were many). It was during the war years when the American soldiers were here in Australia, and yes, she even had one as a boyfriend. Anyway, while out riding they hit a cow, of all things. Both of them came off the bike and the poor old cow went on to greener pastures, but all my grandmother was concerned about was her string of pearls that had broken in the accident and were now scattered all over the road. I don't think she ever told me what happened to the boyfriend!

Nell in Swimmers

Free Printable #59
The idea behind "Nell is Swimmers" comes from my Grandmother's preference for short shorts! Not quite underwear revealing, and certainly not skin tight, but definitely up there! I always admired her for those shorts... not because she had great legs (I guess they were average for her age) but because she simply felt comfortable in her skin and didn't care about the opinions of anyone else. If only we could all have her attitude.

Designed: 20.08.10
copyright Beccy Muir

Celebrate the Little Things

One of the requests I received was for designs of Seniors doing fun things. This brought to mind the personality and adventures (for want of a better word) of my own late grandmother who was quite a character! I've tried to capture her unique spirit in these designs.

Tips and Teas

I've been asked to give some basic Christmas card-making classes in November and December through the Logan City Council's "Tips and Teas" program. Numbers are strictly limited and you must register your interest through the library hosting the event or through the Logan City council website. I hope to see some of you there!!

Event Registration:

Greenbank Library 30th November from 1:00pm

Jimboomba Library 6th December from 1:00pm

Logan Village Library (my hometown) 7th December from 1:00pm

Technique Class - Mini Brad Album

I have always enjoyed making themed mini albums. They are wonderful to give as gifts, they sell well at craft fairs and they are really quite easy to put together. A lot of people avoid making them because of the expense or the difficulty of binding the pages together, but I'm going to show you how to make a little album that is bound with just a piece of cardstock and six brads!

Requirements:

10 A5 pieces of cardstock

6 long brads

Extra cardstock for making tags and binding

Co-ordinating patterned papers

Co-ordinating embellishments and ribbons of choice

Border punches of choice

Double sided tape and glue

Bone folder

Stylus

Piercing tool

Corner rounder

Trimmer and /or craft knife and cutting mat

Ruler

Pencil and eraser

Fine point marker

1. Measure 7" from the right hand side of each piece of A5 cardstock (landscape orientation) and score lightly with a stylus. Make another score line slightly to the left of the first to give the cardstock extra movement on the fold. These pieces of card with form the pages of your album.

2. Decorate the front cover as desired. Leave the area to the left of the folds, the spine, free of any decoration. This will be the area where you will bind the book and should be left blank on every page.

3. I want to have journaling tags that slide in and out of the top of each page of my album. Begin by making five tags from the extra cardstock and decorate them with journaling lines, patterned papers, ribbon, etc. Decide where you would like your first tag to slide from.

4. On the back of the front cover, position the tag where you want it. Run double sided tape along the bottom and sides of the reverse side of the front cover, leaving an opening for the tag to slide in and out of. Make sure you leave a little under 1/4" around the tag so that it slides in easily. Do not put any double sided tape directly over the score lines as this will inhibit the folding motion of your pages.

5. Decorate page two of your album.

6. Adhere the front cover to the second page with the double sided tape you added in step 4.

7. The tag should now slide easily into the pocket you created between the front cover and the second page.

8. Continue decorating each of your pages, and create pockets between each one. Remember to alter the position of each pocket so that all the tags are visible when the album is closed.

9. Adhere page three to page four, page five to page six and so on until the book is complete. Each page should now have a pocket for a tag to slide into.

10. To bind the book, cut a piece of cardstock the same height as the spine of your album. Use double sided tape to adhere it to the front cover, directly to the left of, but not covering, the score lines.

11. Flip the front page over and run your stylus down the binding directly beside the second page. Fold the binding over the second page and press the crease firmly with the bone folder.

12. Make a second score line on the binding, a little less than 1/4" from the first, and press the fold flat. (If you had more pages you would place the second score line further away to give the pages more room in the binding. The amount of pages you add to your album is limited by the length of the brads you choose - the longer the brads the more pages you can add.)

13. You should now have two folds on your binding and it should look like the picture below.

14. Turn the front cover back over so that you are working on the front of the album. Measure and mark even spacing for six brads on the part of the binding that will remain at the front of the album. I placed two brads 1" from the top of the page, two brads 1" from the bottom of the page and two brads in the centre.

15. Use a piercing tool to make holes where you marked the location of the brads.

16. Now use your front page as a template to pierce all the other pages. Keep the pages neatly lined up when you are making the holes or your pages will end up crooked.

17. Once all your pages have been pierced it's a simple matter of pushing the pins of the brad through each page in turn, starting with the front cover. When you have pushed the brads through the last page, open the pins and tap them flat with a small hammer. Notice that the brads go through the front of the binding and all the pages but not the back part of the binding.

18. Trim the piece of binding so that it reaches the score line on the back cover. Adhere it over the open brads with double sided tape as shown in the picture.

19. Replace all the tags in the pockets and your album is complete!

Christmas Album

I have a huge stash of beautiful Christmas patterned papers that I've been collecting for several years and decided it was time to put some of it to good use. I made this mini album to sell at my local craft store using two layers of cardstock as the base of each page. I decorated the front cover with a gorgeous Old World Santa diecut from Graphic 45 then added some poinsettia leaves that I drew, coloured and cut out. The big white bow gives it a kind of gift-wrapped appearance and helps to break up the darker background colour.

Penguin

Free Printable #58

Designed: 17.08.10
copyright Beccy Muir

Penguins Galore!

I may have gone a little overboard with the penguin cards, but he was just so cute and these little greetings were so easy to make that I just couldn't seem to stop myself. On the upside, my Christmas card stash is now nine cards healthier!