Teddy Birthday Card

While playing with my punches I decided to make a birthday card for my nephew. Hope teddy bears aren't too cute for a 7 yo boy.

What do you think, too cute? Maybe I need to make one with cars or Lego for back-up.

I used a 3/4 inch square and a small funky flower punch for the present and the balloons are just a large balloon punch.

I think the bear would be cute for a Christmas card as well. Skip the baloons and maybe add a pine wreath.

Here's the instructions for the bear:

Corn Maze

My sister is planning on a birthday party for her stepson. He's turning 7, so the corn maze sounds like a great idea. I made this cute invitation for the party.

It's fairly fast and simple to make. I printed the words on cardstock then punched them out with SUs decorative lable punch. Then mounetd this on a s. giant 72 mm oval, PB.

The corn husks use one punch. They can be made in several sizes as any oval will work. It's a rather versatile theme as well. Change the colors to suite and use for many themes BBQs, Picnics, Thanksgiving, Halloween, farm, movie night/popcorn ... etc.

I'm planning on making more to use on the scrapbook pages once I have the photos from the party.

Here are the rather simple isntructions:

Kleenex box cards - part 2

Here are close-ups of the remaining cards and the bookmarks I made from the recycled tissue box.

Tools used: s. giant circle punch (56 mm) by PB, large and mega contemporary heart punch, PB. The expression stamp is SU.

 

Tools used, the ovals were cut with my trusted coluzzle, but you can easily achieve the same with nesties. Expression stamp, modern label punch and decorative label punch (dbl punched) by SU and the 42 mm scallop square punch by PB.

 

Tools used: expression stamp by SU, decorate label punch, SU and a s.giant oval (72 mm) PB. The rectangle was cut using my scallop edge Fiskar scissors.

 

Tools used: expression stamp by SU, modern label and decorative label punches by SU, s.giant oval (72 mm) PB and 42 mm scallop square by PB. Large oval was cut with my coluzzle. I also coloured this one with painty pens.

 

Tools used: expression stamp by SU, 42 and 52 mm scallop oval by PB. Again I accented the blossoms with gold liquid pearl.

Last card. Tools used: 34mm, 42 mm and 52 mm scallop square, PB, expression stamp SU.

and last but not least, the bookmarks:

The first doesn't use any punches, all pieces were cut with my paper tirmmer. The second uses SUs decorative label and PBs 72 mm oval, as well as medium oval punch by Emagination under the eyelet.

Hope I've inspired some of you to recycle your own tissue boxes into something fun and useful.

Kleenex box cards

I've read a few MB posts on several scrapbooking/card making sites where people have posted that they recycle tissue boxes and make cards with them.
I thought this was a great idea and decided to challenge myself to see how many unique cards I could make from one box.

I ended up with 12 cards and 2 book marks (using every usable scrap possible).

 

and here's the bird's eye view

This is the tissue box I started with:

Pretty good use of a scrap box if I do say so myself. And to top it all off, I had a blast working on this challenge. (The tissues are Real Canadian Superstore noname brand, just love the daffodils)

Here are some close ups of my favourites

 

tools used: expression stamp is SU, contemporary heart punch (large) by PB, scalloped square (42 mm) by PB and curly label and decorative label punches by SU.

 

 

tools used: expression stamp by SU, scalloped square (52 mm) PB, mega vase by Nankong. I trimmed the flowers from the box and accented the blossoms with gold liquid pearl.

 

Tools used: expression stamp by SU, decorate label punch, SU and a s.giant oval (72 mm) PB.

I coloured this one using paint pens to give it a more spring like feel appropriate for Easter.

 

 

Tools used: s. giant contemporary heart (PB) expression stamp by SU, s.giant circle (56 mm) PB.

Tools used: expression stamp by SU, curly and decorative label punches by SU and the giant scallop square (42 mm) by PB.

 

and last one for today, really simple. SU expression stamp and gold liquid pearl was used on the blossoms.

 

 

Back to School

Today was a very busy day at our house. I took both my teenage boys out for back-to-school shopping. We bought everything from school cloths to supplies.
We ended the shopping trip with an early dinner at Ricky's and arrived at home rather exhausted.

With the back-to-school theme in my head I decided to relax and make this cute card.

My boys may be too big for cute school cards but I'm sure I'll find a use for it somewhere.
The street was free-handed and the clouds and grass are punches (s. giant Emagination cloud talk bubble and Nankong mega grass).

I think this bus would look great on a back-to-school scrapbook page as well. Or if you change the greeting use this as a Thank You card for your child's school bus driver.

Here are the  instructions for the bus (I used 2 of my new SU punches):

Craft Punch Company

When it comes to punches available on the market today, alot has changed since I started collecting  and creating punch art projects.

Many of the great punch manufacturers from 10 years ago are no longer around; although one can often find retired punches on eBay.

I think the most well known punches currently are EK (which includes Stampin' Up (SU) and Martha Stewart (MS)). I do own quite a few EK punches, but the bulk of my 700+ inventory consists of other manufacturers.

Due to having been collecing punches for over 15 years many of the punches I love to play with are made by companies that are no longer around. I've always stuck to more basic shapes rather than very specific images (IE characters such as people, witches, small animals etc). I find generally the more basic the shape, the more design possibilities ther are.

My ever growing collection consists mostly of the following:
Punch Bunch (PB)
EK
Nankong
Emagination
Family Treasures
Marvy Uchida (MU)
McGill (McG)

Unfortunately Nankong, Emagination and Family Treasures do not exist anymore. A few of their popular punch shapes were however picked up by PB.
For the best selection of basic shapes PB is your choice. It's incredible what one can make from a few basic shapes.
Take a look at their website for all they currently offer: 





The Punch Bunch



It's well worth the look at over 1000 punches to choose from.

Jolly old St. Nick

Last but not least here is my lightbulb Santa card. Just like the previous two designs I kept the card relatively simple.

Again, the background was created with the PC swirls Cuttlebug embossing folder. For a little added sparkle I used some liquid pearl on the hat brim and pompom.

Full instructions to make your own lightbulb Santa below.

Santa's little helper

As promised, here is the second Christmas Buddies character, the little elf, punch art card I made using the light bulb punch for the head.

Again I used the PC Cuttlebug swirl embossing template for the background. I added an actual little gingle bell to the tip of the hat for that special touch.

Here are the instructions for making Santa's little helper. I think he'd also look really cute on a treat box or bag topper.

Instructions for the last of this happy little trio will be in the next post.

Christmas Buddies

As you may have already guessed, I really like the s. giant light bulb punch for a head shape.
I've used it again to make my Christmas buddies.

First up is everyone's favourite reindeer - Rudolph.

I used some Ranger's Glossy Accents on his nose to give it some shine.

Background paper was embossed with PC Cuttlebug swirls embossing template.

His antlers are a bit of a cheat as they are actually a Sizzlits die.

If you want to give him a try, here are the instructions. As always I've tried to list substitutions for the punch shapes no longer available.

Next post will be the elf - Santa's little helper.

Baby It's Cold Outside Take 3

Last but not least, today I have the Mr. Bear of my winter buddies punch art.

Again it is a window style card. I didn't emboss this one, instead I stamped small snowflake images on the cardstock.

I used some 1" ribbon under the greeting, nothing fancy but it did the trick.

The stamp is from Stamp Studio. It's one stamp with 3 little flakes on it

The inside is simple as well:

If you want to re-create this bear, here are the instructions:

Here's a sneak peek at what I'm working on at the moment:

Cute, aren't they?

Baby it's Cold Outside Take 2

Here is the 2nd card I made using one of my winter buddies punch art characters.

Although Mr. Penguin likes snow, he's not fond of snowstorms. Hence he's looking out of his igloo waiting for the storm to pass (I know I have a wacky imagination). Here's the inside of the card:

I used a Tim Holtz embossing folder and inked the paper a little with silver ink. Stamps are SU and Stamp Studio.

The basic punch art design of the penguin is the same as my snowman from my last post.

Here's some helpful images regarding my substitution suggestions:

for the bell, use a trimmed large oval (SU):

For the lightbulb use a trimmed large oval (SU) and a small (14 or 18 mm) scalloped square (PB) 

 

 And here are the full instructions for the penguin: