Lady Bugs Valentine Card

Today we have the next Valentine card from my buggy collection featuring two ladybugs.

The basic design is similar to my love bugs from the previous post. Supplies used:

Coluzzle for the background oval (any oval nestings dies would work) the heart my little couple is holding is a mega heart punch by Nankong, but any heart approx 1.5 -2 inches in size will work. The greeting is an SU stamp from an old set (Love Always). All edges were inked with Colorbox inks.

Full punch art instructions below.

Next up will be a cute caterpillar Valentine. Hope you come back to take a peek once it's available.

Love Bug Valentine Cards

Today I am sharing the first of my Valentine cards - my little Love Bug couple.

I hadn't planned on making 2 cards with this design, but when I showed my husband the finished pink card he stated that I needed to make a boy to go with it. Who am I to argue with him? So I made a little boy bug to match.

 

                                                  

I love how they both look so adorably shy presenting their little token of love.

Full list of punches needed to make these is in the instructions posted below. Other supplies used as follows:
Sentiments stamp is from an old SU stamp set (Love Always)
I cut the large oval each bug is mounted on using my Coluzzle (if you have oval nesting dies it's even easier). The smaller oval at the top is the super giant (52) oval punch (PB). I've inked all the edges with Colorbox inks and added highlights with a white marker. The yellow strip and background rectangle were cut with a paper trimmer.

I used a silhoutte daisy punch from PB to make the flower blossom but any 3/4- 1" daisy punch will work just as well.

Full instructions below.

I'll be sharing several more cute bug Valentine cards in the next week; be sure to come back and check out the instructions.

SU retired Key Tag Punch

As most of you know I am an avid punch collector. If there's a punch out there that I think has a vast variety of uses I want to own it.

Unfortunately when I went back to work full time outside of the home 6 years ago my time to create was seriously affected. Hence I didn't get much time to play, let alone keep up with what's new and current. As you may have guessed that means I missed out on quite a few punch shapes I wish I had been able to buy that are now retired.

Amongst my list of "wish I had" are SU's round tab punch, designer label punch, butterfly punch, key tag punch and a "maybe" for the slot punch.

I stalked Ebay for sometime and finally this last week I was successful in finding listings for three of these punches that would ship to Canada and were obtainable for a reasonable price. Reasonable is a relative term as one of them did go quite high but I think it was still worth it.

I managed to snag the butterfly punch, round tab punch and the designer label punch.

I had no luck in even finding listings for the key tag or the slot punches.

This led me to play in my craft room to see if I could find a solution to re-creating these two from other punches. I started with the key tag punch and I think I did pretty well.

I thought surely there are others out there that wish they had this punch and would love a solution/substitution so that they can create the great punch art that is out there which utilize those shapes.

So without further ado here is my solution (it’s 2 fold) for the key tag punch.

First, in researching this shape I had to try and obtain the measurements of the finished shape. Unfortunately I don’t know anyone that owns it whocould check, nor do I own an older SU catalogue that includes it.I found out from the web that the shape is 1 inch in width and based on images approx. the same length as the word window, which is 1 ¾ inches long. 

So I cut a strip of cardstock 1 inch wide and played around with my round and oval punches. I found that my large Punch Bunch (PB) oval works perfectly.

 

I inserted the strip lacing it through only one need of the punch, as shown below, and punched. I then marked of the 1.75 inch I need for the length with a pencil and inserted the other end to punch the finished shape at the marking.

 

I now have a very nice replica of the key tag shape (left image) but it's not quite perfect. I trimmed the corners slightly with scissors to take away the harsh edge and resulting in the slightly rounded finish. It looks perfect (right image) to me.

 

Now you may say okay, that's great, but what if I want to use the negative of the shape as a window? You can do that too, although it's not quite as clean edged and requires a different oval punch. I used an oval that is one size smaller,  the medium oval by Emagination (PB makes one the same size as well but I am not sure how it will work as I think the oval is oriented the opposite direction from the Emagination one)

Instructions as follows:
1) Mark with pencil the 1.75 inch length where you want the window.
2) Then punche an oval inside the markings on either end
3) use little scissors to cut across at the top and bottom to connect the 2 oval shapes to make the key tag negative.

And voila, you have a nice key tag shaped window.

 

Hope I've helped some of you that wish they had the key tag punch.
 

And just in case you haven't seen any great punch art using it, here's the link to my Pinterest board where I've collect a few ideas I've found on the web: http://pinterest.com/punchcrazy/su-key-tag/

Now I have to go and work on some recipes for the cute Valentine cards I've made and wish to share over the next couple of weeks (so far I have 8 punch art cards and have many more ideas floating around in my head).

Mrs Clown Birthday Tag

Today I am sharing my Mrs. Clown tag (can't have Mr. Clown without his better half now, can we?)

For this one only one punch other than shapes from SU's Cupcake builder punch was used- full instructions are below. Greeting/expression stamp is SU, ink used to color the edges are all Colorbox. The background for the clown is two 46mm circles. The tag is an Accut Cut die.

  

Hope you enjoy :)

Clown Birthday Tag

Ever since the first time I saw the SU cupcake builder punch I imagined clown hair when looking at the icing shape.
Last week I finally got around to using this punch to create some clown faces.
Here is the first of the two gift tags I made to go with my cupcake birthday card.

 

He's a fair size. To give you an idea, the tag he is on is 4.5" tall.

Supplies used (other than the punches for the clown as those are in the below instructions) are:

expression/greeting stamp: SU, tag: Accut Cut die.

The blue background is made from 2 EK flourish punch shapes. As always all edges where inked with Colorbox inks.

 

Full instructions for the clown below.



 

 

Next post will be Mrs. Clown.

Cupcake Card

Today I am sharing a card I made using my new SU cupcake punch.

 

It's simple, but rather cute, I think. This one won't require a recipe either.

The cupcake liners, icing, candles and sprinkles are all from the SU cupcake punch. The little plates under each cupcake are a large oval (PB). I inked all the edges with Colorbox inks and chalked the liners to accent the "waves". The letter stickers are Provocarft, but little letter stamps would work just as well. The banner at the bottom is a strip cut to the width of the large oval punch. I then inserted one end into the punch to trim it in  a rounded egde. Then repeated to do the same with the other end. I used yellow 3/8" eyelets and red ribbon to attached the banner to my card.  It's also popped with foam squares.

 

I made some cute gift tags for the birthdya theme as well, but those will require a recipe and I haven't had a chance to write it. So they will need to wait for the next post.

 

Sticky Note Covers

During one of my frequent visits to a local dollar store (Dollarama) I found several cute little sticky pads with little images one them.
This led to me making these cute little sticky note covers as stocking stuffers this past Christmas for the girls in our family.

I was going to add the instructions on how to make the actual covers when I came across this old post at the Paper Art Studio. As these are very similar to the ones I made I figure the link will be sufficient for the basic idea on how to make them

I customized mine to fit the size of my sticky pads (which are a little thicker then the regular 3 x 3" post it). I also added a little extra cardstock around the edges, especially the bottom as I wanted my covers to close.

I used Halo button snaps and string/yarn to make the closures. You can easily make your own snaps though using a 3/4" circle punch and 2 brads or eyelets.

the little gel pens are from Dollarama, they come in 5 packs.

Here is a closer look of each sticky pad and cover.

 

As you can see I matched my cover to the design on the notes. I also personalized tit with the recipient’s name. Punches used: SU Owl Builder, EK large Flourish Label and SU Word Window (double punched to shorten). The letters were stamped using an old MM magnet stamps set (Rumage). All edges are inked with Colorbox inks.

  

 

This one uses SU Blossom Builder and a 46mm circle. The rest is the same as above: SU Word Window (double punched to shorten). The letters were stamped using an old MM magnet stamps set (Rumage). All edges are inked with Colorbox inks.

 

Last but not least, we have the little owl one. SU Owl Builder, SU Bird builder and EK large Flourish Label punch. The rest, again is the same as the frst: SU Word Window (double punched to shorten). The letters were stamped using an old MM magnet stamps set (Rumage). All edges are inked with Colorbox inks.



TP Pillow boxes

Happy New Year everyone!

It's been a busy holiday season for us and work has been just as busy. Unfortunately this means I have not had as much time (in fact very, very little) to create. I do have several projetcs to share for this week though.

First up, little pillow boxes I made for Christmas stocking stuffer wrappings. These would also work really well for Valentine's. Stuff them with Hershey's kisses, candy hearts, cinnamon candy etc. for a cute treate.

I customized mine to the recipient’s favourite colour.

Each also uses a different shape of punches in various sizes.
 

These were really simple to make. I cut strips of paper to the width of the toilet paper roll. Then trimmed them to the length needed to cover a roll (this will depend on the brand of TP as the rolls  differ a little in size from one to another).
I sprayed the TP roll with spray adhesive and then covered each with a paper strip.

I then flattened the tubes and used a 1/2 circle punch to punch half a circle into each end. This is the little cut-out on the flaps that allows you to open the pillow boxes with ease.

I then used the round base of one of my super giant punches and a medium embossing stylus to crease the edges in half moons on both ends. You could easily use any little box or jar that is approx. 4 ins in diameter for this.
Now fold at the crease marks and you have a finished little pillow box waiting to be decorated.
 

Here are the close-ups of each of my boxes.

All the shapes were punched from scrap cardstock (even some left over embossed pieces). I inked all the edges of my punched shapes and accented the design with a little bling and a ribbon bow.

 



 

 

 

 

 

 Next post: little sticky pads with closable personalized punch art covers.