Orlando Roomie Gifts

Hi!

I'm back now from Orlando, and I had a wonderful time!

Today I have for you the gifts I made and had made for the ladies I shared a house with in Orlando. While on the hunt for Australian flag pencils for my swaps, I found these pens. Perfect!

I started with the same backing paper as I used for the pencils, but the only pieces I had left went sideways, not longways. I couldn't do a bag topper as I did for the pencils, so I went with a belly band instead.

I only had 6 to make, so I decided to stamp the kangaroos and colour them with my Blends. It was an extra special touch for some special people. I layered the kangaroos over a pair of Pool Party circles. I love the starry paper from the Twinkle Twinkle DSP pack, a bit of a nod to the American flag.

I wanted to make the gift extra special, and a little more personal, so I had some tote bags made up by Vistaprint to commemorate the trip.

Here's the tote. It's the perfect size for 12x12 papers, so I can see myself using it a lot - yes, I did have one made for me too. Hopefully the others find it just as useful!

Bye for now,

Tina

Orlando Swaps Part Two

Hi!

Today's post actually has my second and third swap items. I hadn't intended to make a third, but somehow I found it on the go before I'd even finished swaps one and two! Oops!

Let's start with swap two, which was actually my first idea. I had decided early on that I wanted to do something around an Australian flag pencil. Do you think I could find an Australian flag pencil without paying ridiculous prices? In the end I found these Aboriginal Art designs, which I think worked much better with my colour scheme.

I've used the Animal Expedition DSP again, as I wanted to use the large kangaroos this time. There are two leafy designs - this one with the frogs, and another with little birdies. I used a mix of the two as my backing piece. The bags are in the Annual Catalogue.

I used my Stamparatus to stamp the 'g'day mate' sentiment on the Stitched Circle. It's very cliche Australian, but I'm hoping that the American demos will love it! I made 24 of these swaps.

Finally, I have my last minute swap. I happened to be in Coles when my favourite Twinings Tea, Australian Afternoon, was half price. It was the smaller packs with individually wrapped bags. I grabbed two to take to the US, but when I realised they fit with the Australian theme of my swaps I decided to add them to the mix.

I didn't have enough Animal Expedition DSP left to use, so I decided to use some of my Garden Impressions DSP. I used my Envelope Punch Board to create a little tea bagged size envelope, which I topped with a Stitched Labels Framelit. I stamped a pair of sentiments from Balloon Celebration and then used part of the big floral die from Springtime Impressions for the little cluster of flowers. A few rhinestones finished off the design.

I wonder which of my swaps will be the most popular - the Tim Tam Slam, Pencil or Tea? What do you think?

Bye for now,

Tina

Orlando Swaps Part One

Hi!

How exciting - today is the first day of OnStage in Orlando. I wrote this post a couple of weeks ago, but still, I bet I'm going to be excited on the day!

Normally on a Friday I'd have the latest Just Add Ink post for you, but to cater for OnStage, last week's challenge actually runs for two weeks. Click on the link to check out the challenge details.

Instead I have for you one of the swaps I made to take to Orlando. Did you know that most Americans have never heard of the chocolatey goodness that is a Tim Tam? Did you also know that you can buy a box of 150 individually wrapped Tim Tams at Officeworks? What a perfect opportunity to educate some people on the delights of Tim Tams!

I started by working out how I was going to package the Tim Tam. I ended up deciding to use my Envelope Punch Board and the Crafty Owl's Box Buster to create a little box. This is the shape I ended up with, after starting with a 5 1/8" square piece of DSP.

I had to do some additional trimming on the bottom left and top right corners, as they wouldn't fold nicely into the box if I didn't. Once I'd folded along the score lines and snipped to create flaps, I turned the piece over and used my SNAIL to adhere some instructions to the inside of the box. Yep, I'm going to educate my fellow on how to do the Tim Tam Slam!

I then popped a Tim Tam into the box and folded the instructions over the top. I then started folding the box. I worked out that if I folded the larger long edge, followed buy the two short edges and finally the shorter long edge, I could get away with using one of my demo labels to hold the box closed.

If I tried folding in the short edges first there wouldn't be enough of the flaps exposed to stick to the label.

Here's the bottom of the box with my label attached. Now - how to decorate the top?

Aww, how cute! I made 40 of these swaps, as that's how many little kangaroos there are in two packs of the Animal Expedition DSP. I had very sore hands after hand cutting all 40 kangaroos and 80 branches! Thankfully, for the stamping I was able to use my Stamparatus for super quick production line stamping.

I'll be back on Monday with my other swap.

Bye for now,

Tina

An Expedition Gift

Hi!

I wrote this post a couple of weeks ago, but by the time it publishes, I will have been in Salt Lake City for a couple of days with my friend and travel mate, Judy May. If all went to plan, we would have spend the weekend checking out the city and listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with fellow travellers Kathryn Mangelsdorf and Rachel Palmieri. We are off to tour Stampin' Up! Head Office today. How exciting, to see where it all happens!

Today's post is about the card and little gift I made and had made for Judy. She did an amazing job planning and organising our trip, for which I was very grateful.

I used paper from the Animal Expedition DSP, as it's so cute, and I thought a perfect choice for the card. I really love the birdie paper! The sentiment, from Treehouse Adventures, is also the perfect choice for the card - I fee like we really are off on an adventure.

I stamped and then coloured the Kangaroo with my Blends. I used the Soft Suede, Smoky Slate and Petal Pink combos. Can you see the silver around the edges? I ran out of Silver Foil paper, so I sponged the edge of the card with Versamark ink and then added Silver Embossing Powder before heat embossing. Too easy!

I also had a bone folder engraved to commemorate the trip. My friend, Alisha and her hubby did the engraving for me. I was so pleased with how it turned out!

To make the case for the bone folder I took a strip of Berry Burst cardstock that was a little wider and nearly twice as long as the folder. I rounded the corners and then scored lines for the fold at the bottom and the flap at the front. I then took a piece of Animal Expedition DSP and wrapped it around the cardstock, adhering it to the cardstock at the back. You need to do this with the bone folder inside the cardstock, otherwise it may end up too tight a fit. I then tied a length of Berry Burst ribbon around the whole thing.

How sweet is this sentiment and tag? The stamp is from the Bunch Of Blossoms stamp set, and the tag is from the Window Box Thinlits set. I punched a small heart from Silver Glimmer Paper using the Cookie Cutter Builder Punch.

I hope Judy enjoys using her bone folder while remembering our trip for many years to come.

Of course, I had to get one for myself too!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #433: Just Choose Colour

Hi!

As you're reading this (assuming you're reading it on Friday!), I'm on my way to the USA to attend Stampin' Up!'s OnStage event in Orlando, Florida. How exciting! I've been planning this trip for a long time, it's the trip of a lifetime for me!

But for now, I have this week's Just Add Ink challenge card. Actually, this challenge will run for a fortnight as most of the JAI Design Team will be attending various OnStage events. I wish they could all come with me to Orlando!

This time we have a gorgeous, bright set of colours set by Jo. I really love them - so happy and fresh!

This card was made using a heap of scraps I had on my craft desk. I had a stack of triangles left over from making my swaps using the Animal Expedition DSP, and once I realised that some of them were Berry Burst and Lemon Lime Twist, I decided they'd be perfect for this card. The Blueberry Bushel triangles came from the Best Route DSP.

Originally I was trying to recreate a toy I had when I was a kid - you may have had one too. It was a sort of black and white 'snake' that you could twist and bend into nearly any shape you could think of. Do you remember the toy I'm talking about? I couldn't quite get that to work on my card, so instead I used the concept to create a series of 'L' shapes on the front.

Once all that was done, I kind of got stumped on what to do next. I then remembered these wooden words I had left from an old catalogue and decided to colour them. I first pushed it into my Blueberry Bushel ink pad, but the result was a bit darker than I'd hoped. I was able to soften it by painting over the top with some Frost White Shimmer Paint.

Thankfully, I had enough triangles left over to complete the inside. This card is going to be given to a North American demonstrator who was kind enough to arrange some Paper Pumpkin kits for us, so I thought the 'you're the best' sentiment was perfect for the inside. I can't wait to stamp and put together the kits with her and my housemates in Orlando.

Are you in love with this colour combo yet? I am! You can see what the rest of the Design team has made over at the Just Add Ink blog. Remember, you've got two weeks to join in the fun this time.

Bye for now,

Tina

K For Kaleidoscope

Hi!

This week at Just Add Ink our challenge is to Just Add K. You can see the card I made for the challenge here.

Today's card is a reject card for the challenge. Don't get me wrong - I like the card - I just decided to go in a different direction.

So the "K" in this card is the technique - it's called a Kaleidoscope card and you can find instructions for making it here. Basically you create a little triangle template from acetate and use it to outline each of the 8 wedges in the card. They are then fussy cut and arranged in a circle.

This card ended up quite large - about 6 inches square. What I thought were smallish triangles turned into a big card! Those hippos were just begging to be turned into a kaleidoscope, don't you think?

To make the the strip across the bottom of the inside, I used my trimmer to cut a straight line. I lifted the blade when I ran into a hippo and dropped it back down after it. I then used my snips to fussy cut around the hippos. A little bit of extra effort, but worth it I think.

So now I'm off to think about what other DSP I have that I could use to make a Kaleidoscope card. Are you thinking about it too?

Bye for now,

Tina