Projects at-a-glance for April 2010

 Project  Notes:

PUNCHED STARS:  The stars are made with the Faux Suede technique.  Click on the screen shot here to go to Dawn's tutorial and see how Faux Suede is done!  It's very easy ~ and kind of surprising!!!

By the way, I have included more stars in your kit than you will actually need, for in case you mess up one (it's easy to pull off a tip of a star, since it's so tiny; so just be careful), or in case you want to mix up your colors more, or in case you want to add a star or two to your envelope or the inside of your card, and/or in case you want to do four instead of three stars.  (The prototype below has four; I preferred the look of three, but you're welcome to do four if you want!)

LOWER BAND:  Two techniques are used on the kraft band:  The top edge of it was "roughed up" with the cutter tool (or you can use serrated knife (the less sharp, the less likely you are to cut yourself), and then a row of holes are made with the paper piercing tool and template along the bottom edge of it.

TYING THE KNOT:  There are two great knot-tying tutorials on this web page.  The first one, where you tie your ribbon around the top of a bottle, is really fun and different, and uses the least amount of ribbon ~ if you're into saving that!  However, to get longer tails on your tie, instead of tying it around the very top of the bottle, you'd tie it around either the middle part, or the widest part.  (Be sure to add more ribbon, since it will use more ribbon.)  Just take a look at her directions and this will make sense.

BACKGROUND:  I stamped my card with different star stamps.  The prototype card below used a wheel, but I don't have that, so I just ad-libbed with what I had.   ...  Dawn added white gel pen dots.  Since mine is a lighter brown, I didn't; but they look neat on hers!

SENTIMENT:  I gave you a few options, already punched with the Window Punch, so that you could make your card for a birthday, graduation, or Father's Day!

 Project  Notes:

THE LARGE CUT-OUT "F":  Stamp onto white, then cut all the way around leaving a narrow margin.

THE BACKGROUND OF THE "F":  I have stamped a few for you to cut out and adhere with either glue or, if you want it to pop, use dimensionals ~ on maybe even just one flower, so it overlaps a smaller one.  Most of these flowers were stamped, but again, I couldn't stamp them without doing the whole card for you, cuz the oval would have had to be sponged first.  ( I stamped more flowers than you probably need for the card, so you may want to save a flower or two for the envelope!)

THE FLOWER ON THE LOWER RIGHT CORNER: Stamp this onto white CS, then cut out leaving a tiny margin of white all the way around it.  Same with the leaves.  There's a pearl in your kit to add to the center!

THE SOFT SUEDE WIDE BAND:  Punch little holes across the bottom using the paper piercing tool.

THE RIBBON ON THE BAND:  The tutorial for tying a knot is on this web page ~ the first one.  (There's another one right below this, but I prefer the first one.) 

THE STAMPING ON THE MAIN PINK PIECE:  Stamp the longer scrolly stamp with a line across it (from the Vintage Vogue set) in "Pretty in Pink."  (If you want it more pronounced, then use Cameo Coral.)  They stamped the lower half with a Stampin' Around roller, but I don't have that, so I just used the ivy-ish stamp, and did a few of them.

THE SENTIMENT IN THE LOWER RIGHT CORNER:  This is also in the set, and I stamped it in Soft Suede.

THE WHITE SCALLOPED TRIM BELOW THE BAND:  Punch it all the way across and adhere to the bottom of the Soft Suede piece.  I trimmed it first so that it would not show behind the row of punched holes on the Soft Suede piece.

 Project  Notes:

DOTTED TANGERINE TANGO PIECE:  This is already done for you!  I ran it through the dotted embossing folder.

THE BEE:  Let's take each part of it, one by one:

Body:  Take the larger black circle and cut a few pieces, non-parallel, out of the middle of it.  Place them on the bee's middle, which is the apricot (or maybe it's "So Saffron") circle (the black stripes will be wider than the bee), and once you get them arranged how you like, glue them on, then turn the apricot circle over and trim off the edges of the black stripes using the edge of the apricot as your guide.

Heart:  Already punched for you.  Use a white gel pen to draw the two little marks you see in the picture.

Wings:  I didn't like the black I used for mine (above), so I made yours grey instead.  ...  Look at the card samples (above or below) to see how to arrange these ~ though you can certainly do them differently!  

Stinger:  This is just a free-hand point that I cut for you.  It's cut longer than what extends out his little hiney to give you something to attach to the back of the bee.  (I'd tape it rather than glue it to make it more solid.)

Head:  This is the shorter, wider black heart.  I drew on a mouth with the white gel pen, but I don't like it, and it was too late to start over cuz I already had the whole thing glued on!  As you can see in the prototype below, they didn't even do a mouth!

Antennae:  This is actually the taller black heart, cut down to form two antennae, but I left the bottom point so that it would be easier to attach to the back of the head.

Eyes:  I used 1/2-inch punched white circles and 1/4-inch punched black circles ~ with a white gel pen dot on the black part of each eye ~ however, my 1/2-inch circle punch quit on us early on in the project, so you have a couple of wiggly eyes in your kit instead!

THE MESSAGE:  Several Bee-based messages are included in your kit, but if you need another, with even more messages, click here.  ...  I cut the outer points of the "Happy Bee-day" banner by hand.

THE "FAUX STITCHED" APRICOT PATTERNED PIECE:  Use the paper piercing tool (and the template) to punch holes all the way around the edge.  You reeeeeeally have to stay focused on NOT letting the template slip, or you'll start going off.  There are two ways you can do this, and both work, just differently.  (And some gals prefer one; some the other!)

1)  Draw the line of black "stitching" with a ruler first, before you do the dots, and then punch the dots onto the line.  It's easier to keep the dots lined up this way.  Or...

2)  Punch the dots all the way around first, and then draw your line free-hand.  This is a little harder, but looks a little more real or "natural."

 Project  Notes:

THE BLEACHED FISHING POLE BACKGROUND:  Because most of you might not have a fishing pole stamp OR bleach, we went ahead and did these for you.  Actually Jean Merritt did them for you!!!  She came over to pick up her kits, and I just put her to work!!!!  (That'll teach ya to come after a class and offer to help!!!   ;-D )

GROMMET:  First punch a hole the size of the center of the grommet using the hole punch on the side of your Crop-o-dile.  Then press it on using the top.  (You'll need to refer to your directions as I can't really tell you how to do that.)  If you don't have a Crop-o-dile, just bring your card to the next class (or have me bring it somewhere that I'll be seeing you, or come up at a totally NON-class time!), and I'll help you get it done!  The grommet can be punched through either the top two pieces (grey and burgundy) or through all three pieces, including the black card base itself!  Because of the thickness of the grommet, it's more secure to go through all three, but if you don't like it showing on the inside of your card, then just punch it through the top two pieces.  You might want to use a glue dot in the lower left corner to make it stay better.

THE SQUARE-PUNCHED FISH AND FLY:  Again, I had a feeling most of you don't have a fishing set, so I just stamped and punched the fish and fly for you.

TWO BLACK BANDS:  They used black grosgrain ribbon in the prototype, but for this arrangement, I prefer the solidness of cardstock; it's much easier to get this straight than ribbon.

SENTIMENT:  I don't have this sentiment, which IS really cute, so I just used something from "  In fact, I used several stamps so you'd have some choices!