Paper Cubed (P3) February Valentine Challenge

Time for our February challenge at Paper Cubed!

This month is, you guessed it....Valentines! 

I've had this image of a heart of roses in my head for a while, and I finally had a reason to make it! It's too much for a card, but works great for a box! Is there anything better than roses and chocolate...together? (Ok, maybe diamonds...but I did put pearls on it!)

Here's the top:

And here's the inside:

I found the template for the triangle box HERE, enlarged it and printed it out onto pink cardstock, and cut it out and assembled it.  Then I made some hearts for the top and bottom also out of pink cardstock, with some smaller hearts as accent pieces for layering.

I made the rolled paper roses (There are several video tutorials for rolled paper roses on YouTube) out of 3 different shades of pink cardstock, these are tiny...I started with 2 inch square pieces of cardstock, spiral cut them, and rolled them around a toothpick!   You can see in the photo, the roses are a bit smaller than the Hershey kisses. I stuck them together with  tiny dabs of  CTMH Liquid Glass, and inked the edges in a deeper pink color for some definition.  Then I and added some seed pearl beads to the centers for some pretty bling. Once I had them all made (it didn't take that long, I did them while watching a movie), I glued them all onto a heart shape of pink patterned paper, edged it in gathered CTMH pink crochet ribbon, and stuck it down onto the pink cardstock heart top. I finished it off with a double bow out of pink satin ribbon, with a pearl center accent. After it was all together, I thought the sides of the box needed something, so I stamped heart images on it, added some half pearls, and finished the edge with pink satin ribbon. 

The finished size of this box is roughly 6"W x 6"L x 2.5"D.

I filled it with Hershey's caramel kisses for the photo, but I think I'll use this pretty box for a small gift. This would be perfect for a gift of jewellery or maybe even event tickets. Not sure just yet who the recipient will be...but I have a couple of weeks until Valentine's Day to decide.

Do you enjoy making more than just flat cards and scrapbook pages out of paper? February is the perfect month to try your hand at a gift item, altered item or home decor piece!  Or maybe you have a fabulous 3D card fold or mini album to show off?  Why don't you join us at Paper Cubed?  You have the entire month to play along.  We'll choose the Top 3 entries as well as have a random prize draw at the end of the month.  Pop on over to P3 now to see what the talented Design Team has created for February.  We'd love to have you join us! 

Thanks for visiting today!

Lorrinda

Recipe:

Cardstock: CTMH in Cotton Candy, Hollyhock and Blush

Pattern Paper: pink polkadots on white from CTMH Sweetheart Level 2 kit

Stamp: CTMH D1245 In My Heart

Ink: CTMH Hollyhock and Blush

Ribbon: CTMH Z1384 Pink Collection

CTMH  Z1336Pearl opaques

Seed pearl beads from my stash

CTMH  Z679 Liquid Glass

Scor-Tape used to assemble box

Triangle Box Template from http://elizabethallan-blog.blogspot.com/

First Challenge of the Year!

It's January! Not only is it a brand new year...it's time for the Paper Cubed Jan. 2011 challenge!
The first challenge of the new year is to create a 3D project with SPORTS as the theme. Pretty much rules out cards, but anything else is fair game! (did you catch the clever sports metaphor there?)

I don't know about you, but I always get a little rush putting out all the new calendars on New Year's Day.  It's like a fresh start, leaving all the baggage of last year behind and vowing to try harder, accomplish more and be better in the year ahead.  I don't make New Year's Resolutions anymore (they tend to fizzle out by the end of the week), but I always start the year with more motivation and focus. 

On that note, here is my SPORTS themed 3D project for January at P3:
I went with a handy dandy new desk calendar that features extreme sports.

(As always, you can click the pic for a detailed view)

I must thank my upline, Diane Fischer, for this idea. She made a stand up calendar in a workshop last year that I thought was so cute. There are 4 panels, 2 on one side, which can be flipped around mid-year to show the 2 on the other side. I fashioned a center support with a velcro tab to make this standing desk calendar stay up.  The finished calendar is 5"x10"x3", the supplies I used are listed in the recipe at the bottom of this post. I found the calendar printable at http://www.printfree.com/ 

And here are the close-ups of the other panels:

I'm not sure who is getting this yet, but it definitely isn't girly.

For more sports-inspired 3D crafts, head on over to Paper Cubed to see what the rest of the super-creative design team has come up with.  Get yourself all revved up to create some sporty crafts of your own, then link them up so we can all cheer!

I hope 2011 brings you health and happiness

and all the crafting time you want!

Lorrinda

Recipe:

Stamps: CTMH D1432 Extreme

             SU Extreme Skateboard and Extreme Snowboard

Papers: CTMH Aspen Level 2 Paper Kit 

            CTMH Simple Pleasure Level 2 Paper Kit

            CTMH You Rock Level 2 Paper Kit

            CTMH Zippidee Level 2 Paper Kit

Inks: CTMH Twilight, Cocoa, Desert Sand, Smokey Plum, Cranberry, Versamark

Brads:  CTMH Black, Cocoa, Outdoor Denim, Cranberry

Images and sentiments heat embossed with CTMH Black Embossing Powder

Tools:

CTMH Euro Paper Trimmer, Bone Folder, Piercing Tool Kit, Craft Heater

Other: Velcro dots, Printable Calendar from www.printfree.com

Get Organized! P3 challenge 12-1-10

It's a crazy time of year for most of us. I don't know about you, but I am drowning in lists. To do lists, grocery lists, shopping lists, wish lists from the kids, gift idea lists (and I always seem to forget someone), scribbles of menus being planned etc, etc...

The challenge at Paper Cubed this month is to make something to help us say organized this holiday season, some kind of to do list or organizer. What perfect timing! I made this Holiday Planner for the challenge, and it took all my will power NOT to start writing in it before I got photos to share. Trust me, it's covered in my scribbles now, and how handy to have all my lists in one place!

Here is my pretty Holiday Planner before I started filling it with my notes and lists:

Closed it is the size of a wallet to easily fit in my ginormous purse.

When I open the flap, I find my handy calendar and a pen.

And inside are all my lists, with handy pockets for stamps and receipts.

You can click the pic for a closer look...

How's that for organized? Pop over to the Paper Cubed Challenge Blog to see what the fabulously organized DT has come up with to inspire you.  You have the entire month to create a planner, list, calendar or something else that will help to keep you organized (I suggest you start now, only 24 more days until Christmas!), play along with us and link it up to the December challenge. You could win a prize!

I have seen these file folder organizers before, but I didn't have a file folder so I made one with what I had in my stash. Because it's almost Christmas, and because I love my followers, I made up a tutorial for you!  Actually there are 3 tutorials included, instructions to make the planner folder, a link to a cricut tutorial, and a faux leather tutorial.  This is going to be the longest post in history, so if you don't want to view the tutorials you can just scroll to the bottom to leave a comment :) 

For those who want to see how this was made, read on...

HOLIDAY PLANNER TUTORIAL



You will need 2-12"x12" solid cardstock for base, 2 or 3 coordinating patterned pages for embellishing, neutral 81/2x11"cardstock for labels, plus a coordinating color of cardstock for matting, a paper trimmer, score board or bone folder for scoring, plus strong adhesive (I used 1/8" and 1/4" scor-tape) and 2 brads plus a fancy brad or button for front. I also used Versamark clear ink, clear embossing powder and a small ball stylus to make the faux alligator front flap.

Take 1st piece of cardstock base, trim off 1.5" from one side.

OK, I am Canadian and do know the metric system,

but for this tutorial I am going to use inches because it's just easier.

Now score along the shorter side at 3.5" and 7"

Rotate the page and score at 8.5"

Fold bottom flap up and press well along score line.

Then fold along vertical score lines as shown.

Now take 2nd piece of cardstock and score it at 3.5" and 8"

Now rotate it at score at 8.5" too.

Now you need to trim out the bottom pieces as shown, the bottom flap is trimmed below the 8.5" score line at 3.5 inches and 7" (that is 1" in from the vertical 8" score line) Hope I didn't lose you there.

Now fold along the score lines as shown.

Measure in 2" from the right flap, make a pencil mark,

do this along the bottom edge too.

Use a round object, line up those marks and trace the curved outline.

Cut out along curved edge to make the wallet flap.

I used 2 brads on the back for my closure, but since I have completed this project I have thought of several other ways I could have done it. Isn't that always how it happens? Well, they are in my pics so I thought I should explain why. I put the brads in at this point so I can hide the prongs on the other side as I am decorating it. You could make a belly band or a strap/buckle type thing to hold this wallet closed as well, if you prefer that, then skip the brads.

Time to adhere the 2 pieces of cardstock to create the folder. Use a strong adhesive so it doesn't fall apart.  I like Scor-tape, but the red line tape would work well too.  Apply the tape to the left flap as shown.

 Place the 1st piece over top of the taped flap, make sure the edges are straight.

Press it down good and tight.

My favorite part is embellishing with the pattern papers. Here, I used 4 pieces cut at 3.25" x 6", don't worry about them being short, the bottom flap/pockets will cover it.

You need a fine strip of glue for the flap/pockets. 

 I used 1/8" scor-tape, but a fine bead of strong glue would work too.

Fold the flaps over and press down. Embellish as desired. I used 3.25" square pieces of coordinating paper, the middle 2 are actually little envelopes to hold small things like stamps and gift cards or receipts.

For the labels, I printed them with my computer, spaced out on the cardstock. I then used the center point function on my cricut to cut them out. If you've never used this function on your cricut, I highly recommend you check out THIS VIDEO on YouTube and learn how to do it. It's fast and way easier than storing a bunch of punches or die cuts. You could use a punch or die cut system, but I spent alot of $ on my cricut and it does all these things for me, once I figured out how to use it.

I matted the labels on a contrasting color of cardstock, also cut (a bit bigger) with my cricut.

I used foam dots to mount them so the paper/list inserts would easily slip under them.

The page inserts are free printables I found at http://www.organizedchristmas.com/

FAUX LEATHER FINISH

If using this finish on your Holiday Planner, it may be easier to do before you embellish the inside.

For the faux leather finish on the flap of my wallet, I first masked off the part I wanted to do.

Apply versamark clear ink generously over entire surface.

Cover well with clear embossing powder.

Use a ball stylus or other dull small edge (a dried up ball point pen would work) to drag fine lines through the embossing powder. No need to be straight, irregular lines look better anyway when done.

Gently tap off the big crumbs of embossing powder left over from the dragging. (Don't put these stray bits back into your embossing powder jar unless you want lumpy hard chunks in it)

Now melt it with your heat gun!

I just love heat embossing, the image appears right before your eyes like magic.

I then popped a pretty brad on the flap, and for the closure...I wrapped a piece of stretchy silver cord around the brads on the back so I can do this:

...and wrap it around the front like this:

As I said before, I now have thought of a better way to do this. I don't like belly bands because I always wreck them, but I think a strip of faux leather embossed cardstock to fold over from back to front, with a velcro tab to hold it under the fancy button would work great. I'll try that next time. Maybe you can think of a better way to hold this closed. This stretchy cord works great though, and expands if the contents get bulky (and they will).

Try one for yourself, or make something totally unique to get yourself organized,

and link it up to the Paper Cubed Challenge Blog for our December challenge.

I wish you all an organized and stress free Christmas!

Lorrinda

Recipe:

CTMH Products available on my website:

#G1014 Mistletoe Worksop on the Go Kit , contains the cardstock, pattern papers, stamp set and beautiful brad embellishments.

CTMH inks in #Z2114 Cocoa and #Z2120 Garden Green for distressing edges and #Z2116 Cranberry for the ornaments.

#Z1088 Chocolate Waxy Flax on ornaments

#Z671 Clear embossing powder

#Z891 Versamark clear ink

#Z338 Fiskars Paper Trimmer

#Z1204 Bone Folder

#Z555 Craft Heater

Other products used:

Martha Stewart Scoring Board

Scor-Tape in 1/8" and 1/4"

Scissors

Stretchy silver cord from SU

Cricut Expression and Storybook Cartridge

Printables from www.OrganizedChristmas.com

Red Stickles on the labels

Post it notes

Ruled paper

Red pen

Techniques:

masking

Faux leather heat embossing



P3 Challenge 11-1-10 Wineglass Candle Lampshade

Where has this year gone? I can't believe it's November 1 already!
Time for a new challenge at Paper Cubed!
The challenge this month is to create a candle/votive holder, luminary, wrap or decoration of some kind. It can be any theme.
So, whip out your candles and your craft supplies and create a 3D project that shines!
Head on over to Paper Cubed to get all inspired by the rest of the fabulous design team, then upload your project so we can all "ooh and ahh" over it!

Here's my contribution this month, I went with a fall/leaf theme for my friends south of the border who celebrate Thanksgiving this month:

I made a wineglass candle lampshade

It starts with a mismatched wine glass that's just collecting dust.

(You know, the one way in the back of the cabinet that used to be

part of a matching set until you moved and broke a couple?)

Just plop a real votive or battery operated candle inside:

(If using real candles, please don't leave unattended!)

Here's a pic of it lit up, it looks really pretty with the light glowing through the leaves, but it's difficult to capture with a photograph:

The shade is made out of vellum cardstock, which is heavier than vellum paper.

(You could also use cardstock and punch a design out of it to let the light through.)

I dug out my ancient Fiskars border scissors for the top scallops, and sponged it with Sorbet ink. Then I stamped it in Sorbet, Autumn Terracotta, honey and Barn Red with scrolls and leaves from CTMH stamp set B1355 Timeless (available only with the Olivia Workshop on the Go Kit), which were then embossed with clear detail powder because the ink seemed to be taking forever to dry. I added a hand-gathered 1" paper ruffle (pattern paper from CTMH Felicity promo kit) to the inside of the bottom edge, and hid the glue which showed through the vellum with a strip of stitched honey color ribbon. Then I attached the edges of the shade together, overlapping them by about 1/4". I used 1/8" scor tape for the whole project so it won't fall apart. Then I used the same ribbon to accent the stem of the glass, with some curly vines made by wrapping some chocolate waxy flax around a cocktail stick to curl it. Added some fabric leaves from my junk drawer under the glass for an extra pop of color.

These would be really pretty (and cheap) to make for a wedding or any party table.

Here is a template I came up with for this lampshade. I printed it as big as I could get it on an 81/2 x 11" page. You may need to resize it to fit your wineglass.

Join us at Paper Cubed this month for an illuminating challenge! ;)

You could score a $15 gift certificate to Papertrey Ink!

There are also a couple of openings on the Design Team...see P3 blog for details.

Thank you for visiting my blog,

Lorrinda
**********************************************************
EDIT:
I have had many emails requesting help with the ruffle edge:
.
For the box pleat ruffle, I used 3 strips of pattern paper cut at 1"x12", (there will be a bit of scrap ruffle left over from this)  To fold the ruffle, it's basically a valley fold, mountian fold, mountain fold, valley fold (with the valley folds touching under the pleat) for each box pleat. I found a video by the master Tresa Black that shows it for those who need a visual HERE.

To attach it, I ran a strip of 1/8" scor-tape (any strong double-sided tape will work, I just like scor-tape best for curved lines) along the INSIDE bottom edge of the decorated vellum shade, and attached the ruffle box-pleat side down, overlapping the edges of the 3 strips of ruffle to look like one continuous strip (trim off any excess, I had about 3" ruffle strip left over). Then flip it over, run another strip of scor-tape along the OUTSIDE bottom edge for the ribbon to hide the adhesive and uneven edge of ruffle that show through the vellum.  Then, when the shade is fully decorated, run another strip of scor-tape along one of the straight edges, curl the shade, overlap the straight edges by 1/4 inch and stick together. Ta-da! Pretty vellum shade! It is much easier to decorate the shade while flat, then curl it together last.

I hope this helps those who are having difficulty with the ruffle edge! 
Thanks for your comments!

P3 Challenge 10-1-10

October1, time for a new challenge at Paper Cubed!
This month, the challenge is to make a 3D project using acetate. Anything goes (except for cards), so get out your acetate and create something fabulous, and share it with us. You have the whole month to play along, and you could win yourself a prize!


For me, October means Halloween, and Halloween means CANDY!

So, here's what I made:

Here's the 3D tour:

BACK

SIDE:

And here's one of the acetate candy cartons close up:

To make this Halloween treat holder, I used an adorable template from Lauren Meador called Milk Made, which you can get HERE.  I modified it a bit, because I wanted the sides to be bigger, and I used 2 stuck back to back to make it hold 4 cartons.  The acetate I used is just overhead transparency sheets, which I put together with glue dots. The glue dots are visible on the seams, but when they are full of candy you don't notice them. The spooky trees were cut with my Cricut and Stretch Your Imagination cartridge, the circle tags using Plantin Schoolbook cartridge. The cool fence border is a Martha Stewart punch. I used Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Four for the title label and some of the tombstones. Rounded tombstones were cut freehand. Other details are sponged backgrounds for the tag stamps and threaded buttons. 

The only difficulty I had making this project is resisting the urge to eat most of the candy (I may have had 4 Reece's peanut butter cups and a handful of the Reece's Pieces, but I can't confirm or deny it since I was distracted by the mess on my table).  I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, now I have to decide if I want to keep this or give it away!

You must check out what the fabulously talented P3 Design Team has created this month! Go on over to Paper Cubed and check them all out, and do go to their blogs and leave them some love! These ladies are so creative, and I get so much inspiration from them.  Once you get all inspired, please join us at Paper cubed this month, and create something using acetate! Upload your project and play along! This challenge is open all month!

Recipe:
CTMH products:
      Inks in White Daisy, Black, Pansy Purple and Goldrush
      Cardstock in Black, Pansy Purple
      Stamps D1442 Thriller and D1311 October Word Puzzle
      Black buttons
      Black hemp
      Mini glue dots
      Liquid Glass
Solid black cardstock from SU
Acetate overhead transparency sheets from office supply store
Martha Stewart fence border punch
Inkadinkado Stamps 98302 Cats and Bats, 98303 Creepy Crawly
Spellbinders Nestabilities - Labels Four
Cricut Cartridges Stretch Your Imagination and Plantin' Schoolbook
Halloween ribbon unknown...had it in my stash
Template: PTI My Timeless Templates by Lauren Meador - Milk Made
Techniques: sponged backgrounds, masking, die cuts

Thanks for visiting my blog!
Lorrinda

P3 Challenge 9-1-10

First, I'd like to apologize to all of my followers for being absent this summer...it has been busy with the kids at home, and camping, and weddings, and reunions, and shopping for back to school...
I've really mised my crafting time, and now that school has started again and our routine is somewhat back to normal, I hope to get back into my craft room!

Today is Sept.1, and that means a new challenge from Paper Cubed!
The challenge this month is to make a Book Mark!  Here's what I came up with:

Recipe:
CTMH  D1306 Treasure Life My Acrylix Stamp
CTMH  X7090B Silhouette Paper Pack (retired)
CTMH  Z1300 Just Blooms Paper Flowers
CTMH Z1034 Designer Ribbon Rounds Black Collection
CTMH Inks in Z2105 Black, ZZ2163 White Daisy, Z2118 Desert Sand
Spiral clip, Brad and eyelet in pewter

I first stamped a dandylion flower image in white pigment ink onto bamboo cardstock, then I stamped the verse in black ink over top. I matted it onto black cs, then layered it onto a printed background paper, then another piece of black cs. The finished dimension of this book mark is 8cm x 20cm.

I then embellished it with some paper flowers, spiral clip, brad and eyelet. I kept the embellishments fairly flat. I threaded a length of ribbon through the eyelet, and secured it with a very tight black bead.

Join us for this month's challenge! Just pop over to Paper Cubed, check out the rest of the talented design team's fabulous creations for inspiration, and play along! You could win a Martha Stewart punch!

Thank you for hanging around this summer,
Lorrinda