Wednesday 10 February 2016

Basket Tutorial...

Hello there!

Tonight, a while after being requested, I am sharing (finally!!!) the tutorial for making the little basket I made with the Tonic Kensington handbag die. This is the box that I was asked about.


It is very simple to recreate, and is just the Handbag die used upside down, and fastened up at the top, which becomes the base. Here's how... 

Firstly, take your elements from your die set - you will need the bag base, the side panels and the verso edge from the decorative lace panel (the outer edge). Cut out the sections below from Kraft cardstock. 


Next, you need to connect the pieces together. So, starting by putting tape on your side panels, or you can use wet glue (more ideal, but a little time needed for it to dry completely) along the tabs at the side. You can see the tape over at the right hand side of the picture.

Be careful you crease the side panel only at the outer edge tab and across the base.


Fasten your box together on the last side, ensuring that all edges are running evenly.


Fold all the flaps at the top and bottom in. To create the base and lid of your basket, you will need to cut some extra pieces of cards to a rectangular shape as shown.

The measurements for these are ........one piece at 13cm x 7.25cm, and one piece to 6.25cm x 12cm.
Score these two pieces at 1cm all the way around.

The last piece you will need to cut as shown is for the top embossed lid. Cut this layer to 10.5cm x 4.75cm.


In the scored sections, you will need to cut little snips into the corners as shown.



Use your glue, or a little red tape to stick the little snipped areas under the lid to create neat corners.


These are your two completed lids. Put them to one side for a few minutes until you complete the rest of your box. 



Use the verso edge from outside of the lace panel in your set to cut out two pieces of kraft card.


Once cut, choose an embossing folder and run each piece through your machine to emboss the design. Make sure the pieces go in the same way each time to keep the pattern uniform. You will also emboss the piece of cardstock you cut earlier for your lid top.  


Colour around the design using your Distress Inks, or chalks to get the effect you want. Repeat this on all three sections.


Stick the embossed panels onto the sides of the basket using wet glue. Take the lid section made to fit the smaller end of the box (which would have been the top of the Kensington Handbag). This will be glued onto the bottom of the basket to seal and finish it. It is now the base of the basket. 

**I hope that makes sense - basically, you are creating and fastening the Handbag upside down!**


Once the smaller end is securely fastened, you can attach the embossed panel to the lid of the basket, fold in the flaps and place your lid over the top. This way, you can fill the basket with your goodies and it will be sealed perfectly.


This is how your basket - (aka upside down bag) is going to look, now it's completely up to you if you want to attach a handle, and decorate up as you wish.


I hope you find this tutorial helpful. If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to leave me a message over on Facebook, or by emailing me, or leaving a comment. 

Until next time! xxxx

Tuesday 9 February 2016

Manchester Event City Feb 2016

What a busy February we have had... 

Firstly, we had our first show at Sandown Park, doing workshops for Tonic and very busy they were too. We only had small classes all day, but it was lovely to catch up with some familiar faces and see some new ones too. 

And this past week, we have been up in Manchester with the show at Event City. We had workshops to run from the Thursday though to Saturday, and boy, it was busy all weekend. Every class was fully subscribed, and alot of fun and giggles were had!


The team working on the stand were myself, Jo, and two new teamies, Denise Carey and Pam McGlade. It was Denise's second show with me, and Pam's first. 

We were all very nervous going back - I don't know why, but they say it's good to be nervous!!!! 

Denise has worked on the shows before so is very familiar with how things go, and she is well acquainted with doing workshops and classes, after running her own shop for a while until recently. She loves all things crafty, from cardmaking to decorating MDF items and sewing. 

Pam has also worked on the shows doing demonstrations and workshops for a few years. She loves all things crafty from papercrafting to bookfolding, so a few lessons were had on an evening too! Pam loves fiddling with bits of paper to create stunning flowers too! 

Here are two of our class attendees to came along to make our projects. We were using the Flip Flop dies, two from the range, this one which says Forever my Friend, which we created in blue and yellow, and also the heart one 'Love is....' that we did with red, black and white. A little more romantic for Valentines day. 


Over the weekend we had above 300 attendees that came along and made a card. Quite a few had never made cards before, so die cutting was very new to them. But they found it quite easy and enjoyed it thoroughly. 

So.... if you see a craft show near you, check it to see if we are nearby. The next one we will be attending is Glasgow at the beginning of March and then the NEC and ExCel. 

We hope to see you soon!

Enjoy Today....

Good evening all..... 

Yes, don't be shocked, but I'm back again with a blog post for you. I have tried to get things uploaded for a while, but the phone went on the blink and I couldn't find the cord for my camera to download the images. *sigh*. 

I hope you have all been keeping okay whilst I've been absent. We have been better here with a few problems this last few weeks, but we've shaken ourselves off and had to carry on... and are feeling less battered and bruised than before. 

However... I now have time to share with you a card I made for the shows from Sandown Park, the Weekender which featured the card layering dies - Bowscale and Harrop - by Tonic Studios. 


The card I wanted to share with you today, uses the Bowscale die to cut the layers into the stamped image  - so using the smaller parts of the dies - and you can then layer them up into a more dimensional card.

I started by stamping the image, which is from Dreamees, and I embossed in the Tonic Nuvo Gold embossing powder before colouring in with Tonic pens. There's a little technique I used, which I will come back to after Friday!!


You can see that I used a couple of the Bowscale dies to fit onto the image, which I had trimmed to fit onto the card front and layered onto gold mirror card. These were then stuck back onto the card with foam pads on the outer and inner sections to give dimension. You can see this more clearly on the bottom picture.

The die cut was our sentiment dies - Enjoy Today - and I love that wording. Cut once from white card and once from mirror card and simply layered together to create the drop shadow.

I finished off the card with the Tonic Nuvo Glitter drops. I hope you like the card today - I'm going to go and upload another one now... take advantage of finding the right cable me thinks...!
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