Fold Instructions for Bookmark

Hello!

Several bloggers have asked for instructions on how to make the paper Page Corner Bookmarks I featured yesterday. Here are instructions which I hope help:
1. Cut your paper to 6" x 6". This will give you 4 bookmarks from a single page of 12"x 12" paper.

2. Flip your paper over and mark its center.

3. Lay the paper on a flat surface, interior up, with a corner pointing away from you. This I will call the "top corner". Fold the bottom corner (opposite the top corner) up from the bottom to the center mark.

4. Fold the top corner down to the center mark as well.

5. Leave the bottom fold closed, but open the top fold.

6. The bottom edge will be the finished/front edge of your bookmark, so if you want to hole punch it, now is the time. Fold the bottom edge up to meet the top fold's crease line.

7. Turn the folded piece over. Hold the piece so that the long flat edge is away from you, with the triangle pointed toward you. Fold the right and left points of your triangle down to meet the bottom point of the triangle, making a square.

8. Turn the square over. You'll see that there is a pocket that forms when you separate the layers of the front (dotted) side.

Fold and tuck just one layer of the front into the pocket.

9. Next, you'll be folding the other layer and the two flap/pointy sides down and into the pocket as well. I find it better to use a scoring tool to mark along the edge of the pocket, or to fold the 2nd layer and pointed ends away, to get a nice clean fold.

10. Embellish and Enjoy!

Friendship Card -- "I'd Pick You"

Happy Saturday, Blogettes!

Finally, I have a Saturday where I have few plans. This means as you might expect for a time-challenged cardist (that's card-artist combined, a mish-mash word of my own invention) ... time to make the cards!

I still am working on a surprise for my followers that begins on Thursday, September 16, which happens to be my parents' 59th wedding anniversary. Until then, friends, I will try to keep up by creating and posting card art that pops into my juicy brain while up in the Craft Loft.

Tonight, I decided to play with a set of new clear stamps that I just got in, from "There She Goes" Clear Stamp Company. (This is a clickable link posted here, so if you'd like to see what they have, just click to be taken to their front page.) I'm not on anybody's "Design Team" and so I actually pay for all my supplies. (Imagine that!) As we know, this isn't a cheap hobby, in any scrap-stretching sense of the word. This little scrap set with 18 images was about $30 with shipping ... but I splurged because I really liked the images and the sentiments on this set.

This stamp set is called "Dream a New Dream" -- the title of the set is what should be inside every fortune cookie I open! The two stamped images here are the flower trio and the sentiment. I colored the flowers with Copic markers. I cut each square 2.5"x 2.5" and mounted the foursome on a card that's 5.5" square. I machine-stitched around the two flower paper scraps, and adorned one with a felt flower from the Creative Charms collection.

I can think of many uses for this card, so I may have to make several more. Well, tomorrow is another day! I hope you have fun things planned ... enjoy life!

Corner Bookmarks

Good morning, all.

Last evening, I began work on other projects that I will start posting next week ... you'll see! So I only had time for this quickie project for today's posting.

In my spare time (haha!), I enjoy reading novels. Most of my current reading is either business reports (blahh!), magazines or easy-carry on my e-reader (a Kindle). But, I still occasionally carry an honest-to-God book. I know, I know, you're asking, "Book? You mean, from the library?! Who has time for those?!"

Not only am I always losing my train of thought, perhaps my mind too, but I certainly also lose my place in the book. I can never have enough bookmarks! So I came up with this fancy-fold bookmark using a folding technique like that we used to use as kids to make newspaper hats. Remember those? Fold here, tuck there and voila!

So, using a miniaturized version of that on a 6"x6" piece of paper, I first punched the Double Loop pattern (by Martha Stewart) on the exposed side. This happened to be on a printed pink border on a green piece of cardstock. I gently folded where I wanted the creases to be, and then scored and properly folded the final version. This holds so tightly that no glue was necessary. I adorned it with a Creative Charms felt butterfly, and I'm good to go back to reading.

I hope you have a sunny day!

(P.S. For those fans who have told me that leaving a comment has been difficult because of the format I had initially chosen for this blog, try again! I've updated the settings and I hope it will be easier. I would love to know what you think about what I am making in my Craft Loft.)

Blessings at Rosh Hashanah

To my Jewish friends and neighbors, warm wishes for a happy New Year as you celebrate Rosh Hashanah ... high holy holidays.

To make this card at left, I used the Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) program to convert the image of a dove I found online. I then cut that image out of the cardstock, saving the off-cuts for use in future projects.

I lined the card with a glossy deep turquoise paper from the Mariposa stack.

I then created another multicut of the dove using the SCAL program and cut the twigs and leaves from gold glitter stock from the same stack. For the Star of David, I used the Cricut "Joys of the Season" cartridge, cutting on a glitter stock as well. I pre-printed the message on the card using my standard HP inkjet printer.

Blessings to all, with peace.

Baby Girls and Butterflies

Good morning, Friends!

Today, the butterflies have emerged from their cocoons -- much as they did yesterday in the Thank You card posted.

Here, I've made two slightly different cards for two friends whose Girl Babies are due shortly; each of these women is using "butterflies and flowers" as her theme for the baby's nursery.

The Cricut Cartridge I used to cut these butterflies is still "Cake Basics" -- one of my favorite cartridges of all time because its basic shapes are multipurposed. The shapes cut neatly and completely, no thin edges that snag or tear when removing from the mat.

To accomplish the layering, I cut the top butterfly from the main element (no shift or shadow), set at 2.5" Real Dial Size. For the second and third layers of the butterfly, I cut the image with "Base Shadow" button lit, at 3" and 3.5", respectively.

Stickles ... I love Stickles! ... add shimmer to the top and third layers. Swarovski crystals on gold bead wire (hot glued in place) complete the antennae. The sentiment was printed on the front, using standard HP InkJet printer and a free font.

Here is another take on a similar design, this one with stitching around one layer:

Now in terms of glue/adhesive,

I have some recommendations.

Hot glue is great for adhering the antennae, but I will say that I tried using it to adhere the butterflies at the belly (so the wings fly up) and was disappointed. [Remember, 90% of the fault is with the operator of the equipment, not with the equipment itself.] I highly recommend using Scor-Tape instead. It is a permanent double-sided adhesive tape that holds images securely. Follow THIS LINK to be taken to the Scor-Pal site and tape sizes available. I have this tape in many widths and it is VERY easy to use and works beautifully.

I finished these cards off with inside images, including the mini-butterflies cut from coordinating cardstock.

I hope you have a butterfly-sort of day!

Thank You Cards

Greetings, Friends & Followers!

Yesterday's baby shower for daughter Emily was a huge success. We had a beautiful day for the brunch at the Five Ponds Golf Club (Warminster, PA). Forty guests showered Emily and Baby Girl ("Charlotte Grace") with niceties and necessities. The candy buffet was a hit -- I can't believe all that candy (woosh) went and there are no leftovers.

Today was a day to unwind after months of preparation, and to make some Thank You cards for my dear co-hosts, who include the two other Grandmothers (Sherry Michaels and Margaret Cohick) and Emily's godmother Mary Beth Hume (my sister). They were all generous with their time and contributions, even though they live 6-10 hours away!

Here is the card I made for them. I used a Cuttlebug embossing card to create the raised swooshes, and cut the butterfly using Cricut "Cake Basics" cartridge. The butterflies were decorated using Stickles; their antennae were gold wires highlighted by Swarovski crystals. The raised "Thank you" sentiment was given dimension with pop dots.

I've made a few more cards this weekend, which I'll be unveiling in the days ahead. Stay tuned!

Nearing the Shower

...and still, more crafty ideas!


Tonight, Baby Mama Emily came over to my house to help me make the chocolate-covered pretzel sticks that will be part of the "candy buffet" at Emily and Baby Charlotte's shower on Sunday.


Here's how they turned out -- pretty great, I think! I still want to make more using white chocolate, so hopefully tomorrow night I'll find the time.


Meanwhile, as I was driving home from my day job, I thought about how cool it would be to make little "sour cream containers" for the Hershey's kisses I bought for the candy buffet.


So here they are! I whipped up about a dozen of these in an hour or so ... creating the idea takes the biggest amount of time, I think.



To make these, I cut six equal pieces of paper from a 12x12" sheet (each piece was 6"x4"). I taped one short side and rolled the paper into a tube. Then I pinched the one end shut, using a piece of double-sided tape and a crimper tool. I filled it with 6 Hershey's kisses, pinched and glued the top end sealed (I used double-faced tape), and crimped. Decorated using monkeys from the Cricut Zooballoo cartridge and Creative Charms flowers, ribbons.


What do you think?