Issue 6 December 2011

Tutor ia ls

Giveaways

Chal lenges

And much more!

Chr is tmas G i f t Box Tu tor ia l

I re land’s f i rs t onl ine craf t magazine. . . .

Inside th is issue

Gatefold

Mini A lbum

Copic Tutor ial

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WELCOME to Issue 6 of Crafting Ireland!

Hello everyone and welcome to Issue 6 of Crafting Ireland. It is the last issue before Christmas so we have included lots of projects ideal for those last minute crafty preparations! It has been a fantastic year for us. We have loved getting to know you all and see your fantastic work that you share with us all through your submissions and on our Facebook wall. We had great fun with you all at our online Ustream class. The class proved very popular and we have plans for more of them in the future. You can see the recorded Ustream class here. We will be sure to let you know well in advance of the next class!

Submit your work—find out more at www.craftingirelandonline.ie

Remember if you organise crops or classed and would like

these published in the magazine let us know. Send the details

into info@craftingirelandonline.ie.

We also have a new submissions email address which is

submissions@craftingirelandonline.ie.

Don’t forget you can keep up to date with us on our BLOG

WEBSITE and FACEBOOK page.

All that is left for us to say is that we wish you all a very

Happy Christmas and a Crafty New Year!! Enjoy the holiday

season and all the joy it brings!!

Nico le T i m i

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E d i t o r s n o t e . . . . . . . . p 2

A r t J o u r n a l i n g 1 0 1 . . . . . . . . p 6

K i s s m a s B ox Tu t o r i a l . . . . . . . . p 1 2

R e m e m b e r i n g 2 0 1 1 M i n i A l b u m . . . . . . . . p 1 8

G i f t B ox o f C a r d s . . . . . . . . p 2 4

S u b m i s s i o n s . . . . . . . . p 3 0

C h r i s t m a s Wr e a t h . . . . . . . . p 3 5

2 0 1 2 C a l e n d a r . . . . . . . . p 3 6

G i f t Ta g B ox . . . . . . . . p 3 8

C o l o u r i n g w i t h C o p i c s . . . . . . . . p 4 0

P r o d u c t R e v i e w — L i l l y Pa d C ra f t s . . . . . . . . p 4 4

A l t e r e d Re c i p e B o o k . . . . . . . . p 4 8

C l a s s e s a n d C r o p s . . . . . . . p 5 2

I n t e ra c t i v e S c ra p b o o k L ay o u t s . . . . . . . . p 5 4

B a c k t o B a s i c s — B a s i c To o l K i t . . . . . . . . p 5 8

A l t e r e d N o t e b o o k . . . . . . . . p 6 2

S p o t l i g h t O n . . . . . . . . p 6 6

C ra f t i n g o n a B u d g e t . . . . . . . . p 7 0

H o w To B l o g . . . . . . . . p 7 8

Fe a t u r e d w e b s i t e . . . . . . . . p 8 1

E a s e l C a r d Tu t o r i a l . . . . . . . . p 8 4

C h a l l e n g e . . . . . . . . p 9 0

R e a d e r g i v e a w ay. . . . . . . . p 9 4

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Art Journaling 101—Art Journaling for Beginners!! First of all let me say that art journaling comes in many shapes and forms, there is no right or wrong way to do it, and therefore all of this is just a guideline. Many of you are already keeping journals and from what I’ve seen on your blogs, you need no help at all! But if you look at journals and think, “I’d like to do that but where do I start?” then read on because this article is for you!!! What I’m going to show you is how to alter an old book to use as your jour-nal. Then I’ll show you some of the hundreds of techniques that can be used to fill your pages. Art journals can be used for many things, as altered photo albums, a place to keep pictures from magazines that appeal to you, a place to list your goals and dreams and also a place to pour out your heart. Your art journal is just that – YOURS, I think it’s important to remember that it is a private place to safely write your thoughts that no one else will see unless you choose to show them. You will not be judged of criticized for what you put in there and a lot of the time once an issue is cast onto a page it feels “dealt with” and you can move on. You may not have anything but happy pages, in which case it’s nice to docu-ment those to look back on. Enough of my rambling…… the first step is to find a hardback book (not too thick, it will take ages to prepare) that you won’t mind altering. I have diffi-culty defacing books, but if they didn’t appeal to me (lots of physics books

Felicia Thomas

end up altered in my house!) and will end up being beautiful it eases my conscience! The preparation takes a little while because you have to have patience whilst the pages dry – for this reason I work on two at a time so that one or the other is ready to use. You need to glue about five or six pages together to form one new page, I use diluted PVA glue or Mod Podge for this. It is a slow process- spread the adhesive with a paintbrush on each page, cover with the next page, and use a brayer to remove any air bubbles. You will then have to re-move the next four or five pages so that the cover can hold the thicker pages. When the pages dry they will be strong enough to take paint with-out warping. I use sheets of greaseproof paper between the new pages to stop them sticking together. The last 1cm of pages at the back of the book are going to form a shadow box for mementos – to prepare this draw a rectangle on the page leaving a frame (of what ever size you choose) then using a sharp craft knife and a steel ruler start to cut through the layers.

Felicia Thomas

8

As you get close to the back cover it’s a good idea to put a cutting mat inside to protect it. When you have cut out all of the pages use your adhesive to glue the cut edges together. Paint the thick pages with Gesso, this will give you a blank canvas for decora-tion. If you don’t, the print will show through a little which can be a nice ef-fect but you will have more defined detail if you do. Dry with your heat gun. Put a piece of greaseproof paper be-hind your page and brush it with wa-ter. Now spray it with colourwash or ink, it will run with the water. Dry it with a heat gun, add some blobs of ink and use a straw to blow them, you can dab them with kitchen towel or dry them with the gun. You can see how the layers build up so keep doing this until you are happy with your base. The technique I have used for this page is printing on organza. This gives a ghost like image as the fabric is so fine. To do this, choose your image and

print it onto an A4 page – now you can see where to put your fabric. Tape the fabric (slightly larger than your im-age) to the page and print again. When you separate the organza from the paper you will have a very light image. The edges fray easily so I have used this as a feature. To add more layers to the journal, paint con-trasting colour paint onto some bubble wrap

and randomly stamp it over the book. Dry every layer with your heat gun so that they don’t all melt together.

I used metallic liners to create corner detail. This takes a couple of hours to dry so you might want to leave it until last. (Or use the time to do the shop-ping, vacuum the stairs and put on some laundry…….?!)

I cut a leaf from paper and sprayed over it with Perfect Pearls in a mini mis-ter, I then moved the leaf and used a charcoal pencil to go over the outline and added an organza one.

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The image had looked well with the backing paper but was too light against the blue page. To solve this I painted over the page with white acrylic.

On top of this I chose to write some song lyrics. I used a charcoal pencil but if you want them to be very readable a waterproof pen (such as an Artists Pitt Pen) would be better. Flashes of colour that add to the background layers were added with oil pastel and white or gold gel pens work well to add final detail. The edges of the pages were col-oured with water soluble crayons and then smudged with a wet brush.

So, now you have a partly altered book with one journal page completed, a shadow box cut out and your next page prepared.

In the next issue we will finish the shadow box and look at some more tech-niques, I hope you’ll be inspired to fill most of your pages by then! Remember, there is no right or wrong way, if you don’t like the way it turns out, paint over it and start again, if you don’t like your handwriting print out your journaling, cut letters out of magazines or use stickers or rub-ons. If you‘d like to share we’d love to see your pages, or you can keep them all to yourselves. Happy journaling!!!!!

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Flourishes opened the virtual doors on their stamping boutique on July 27, 2007, in hopes of giving stampers something beyond what was on the market – beautiful and timeless im-ages for today’s paper crafter. To date, they have produced upwards of 100 beautiful stamp sets created on the finest photo polymer available. In this article Flourishes are going to show you how to make a beautiful Christmas gift box, perfect for the gift giving season! What you will need:

Grand Calibur

Grand Circle Die

Grand Scalloped Circles Die

2 sheets of 12 x 12” sheets of card stock

stamped & colored image Step 1 Cut 2 larger scalloped circles from card stock, one smaller cir-cle, 1 slightly larger cut circle for mat. Then cut 2 larger circles cut from designer paper. You will then need to cut two 12 x 2”strips for the box walls.

Flourishes Llc

Step 2 Score both 2 x 12” strips at 1/2 inch mark.

Step 3 Snip 1/2”section of strip every 1/4 inch, cutting up to but not over fold.

Step 4 Using larger circle die as a template trace a pencil line around the inside of the scalloped circle die. Use this as a guide for adding Scor-Tape around the box bottom.

Step 5 Gently form and attach snipped sec-tion of the box walls onto the Scor-Tape on the box bottom.

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Step 6 Trim 2nd piece of 2” x 12” scored/snipped card stock to approximately 7 3/4 inches. This will be more than you'll need and you may choose to trim this smaller. This will fill in the next section of box wall.

Step 7 Adhere designer paper to inside of box to cover snipped sections. Step 8 Place box top scalloped circle onto table and then place box bottom and wall over top, centering and lining up. Using a pencil, trace a 2” section around the edge of the box walls. This will give you the placement for where the box lid should attach.

Step 9 Trim leftover piece of 2 x 12” strip to approximately 2”. Attach with Scor-Tape along the marked line to the box top.

Step 10 Adhere a generous amount of Scor- Tape to the section of the box that will attach the inside of the box walls.

Step 11 Adhere to the inside of box. Then add designer paper to box top concealing snipped section. TIP: Use co-ordinating papers in dif-ferent patterns to add some interest to your box top and bottom!

16

Step 12 Add 2” wide ribbon to conceal box seams if desired. Decorate as desired.

Your gifts will look beautiful presented in a gift box like this and the recipient will love the box as much as the gift!! The stamp set used on the box is called Meet Me Under the Mistletoe and can be found here.

http://flourishes.org/

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I don’t know about you but I like to look back at the

end of a year and go through all those things that

happened through the year. That gave me the idea

to make a mini album that would have space for all

the 12 months. This is an accordion and gate fold mini, 2 in 1.

What you will need:

Chipboard for the cover

12 coin envelopes

Patterned paper

Embellishments

Step 1 First you need to attach your envelopes one after another and then cut the

marked triangle off each envelope to create a pocket. You need 6 envelopes

two times. You need twelve to have one pocket for each month in the year.

Timi Konya

Timi Konya

This is what the resulting pages

should look like

Step 2 Cut the chipboard in to 5 pieces:

1 back piece: The size should be a little bit bigger than two envelopes beside each other.

2 spines: The spines height should be the same as the back and its width about 1-1 ½ inch, depending on how chunky your album is going to be.

2 front pieces: Their height is the same as the above and the width

should be half of the back piece.

Step 3 Place the patterned paper down on you work surface. If you are using sev-

eral pieces attach them with some tape. Lay all the chipboard pieces down

and arrange the gaps in between. One gap should be approximately

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twice the thickness of your chipboard. Glue them

on the paper. I like to use spray adhesive for this.

When all the pieces are glued down, you need to

cut off the corners as shown on the picture to the

right.

Then fold all the edges over and glue them to the

chipboard.

Fold the cover into shape and let it dry. I like to let mine dry and set over

night, this way you can be sure that the glue is dry and also well cured.

Tip: You can hold the album into shape with a bull clip or large paper clip

while the glue is drying and curing overnight.

Step 4 Cover the inside with patterned paper.

To attach the pages to the inside of the album you need to use the envelope

flaps. Place them on the back and glue them down close to the crease be-

tween the back and the spines.

It will look like this in the

image to the right!

22

Cover all your pages and then fold

the album into shape again and set

aside to let it dry.

Step 5 Start to prepare your embellishments. You need to create titles for each

month. You can use stamps, your own handwriting or whatever you like.

Step 6 For the closure of the book you will need some trinkets: one Tim Holtz Ideol-

ogy hitch fastener and one garment pin (Making Memories). You will attach

the hitch on one side of the cover and the garment pin on the other. You can

secure the pin with a brad.

Step 7 Decorate your pages and the cover. Fill the album with pictures from

throughout the year and enjoy!

Top tip: Glue all the scraps down on a sheet

of paper with some multi medium

and seal it.

When this is dry you can cut it into

pieces to make tags into your book

that will co-ordinate with the al-

bum perfectly.

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In the Mini Album tutorial on page 18 Timi used the beautiful Alla Prima papers. When she made the album she had a lot of strips of 2”x4” and 2”x6” left over. The paper was much too nice to waste and I was determined to put them to use. I decided to use the scraps to make a bunch of cards and a gift box to match them. This makes a perfect gift for someone! What you will need

Kraft card

Paper scraps (or you can cut up paper too!)

Stamps & ink

Kraft card blanks

Glue Step 1 We will use two sheets of Kraft card to make the gift box, one sheet for the lid and one sheet for the base. For the base of the box trim your Kraft card down to 23.6cm x 18.6cm and score on all four sides at 4cm. Cut into the tabs at the top and the bottom. Fold along all the score lines and then fold the tabs in on themselves to form the box and glue into place.

Nicole Mullen

For the lid cut the Kraft to 24cm x 19cm and then follow the steps above. Do not glue the lid together yet though. Tip: These measurements create a box that will fit A6 cards and envelopes. You will have to adjust the measurements if you want to use bigger or smaller cards.

Step 2 You will want to embellish the lid before gluing it together as it is easier to work with when flat. I laid out some of the scraps on the lid and found a pat-tern of them I was happy with. I then scalloped the ends of these scraps and glued them onto the lid.

Step 3 When you have finished decorating the lid glue it all into place. Then using a circle punch make a slot on either side of the lid so that there is a place where you can easily get a grip to open the lid.

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Step 4 Now we need to create a set of matching gift cards to fill the box with. To do this I took some of the scraps of paper and laid them out onto card.

I made sure I was happy with the layout of the scraps and then glued them all down. This gave me a new sheet of designer paper. Repeat this a few times so that you have a few sheets of new paper.

Step 5 Die cut (or hand cut!) some shapes from your new sheet of paper. Each die cut will look different depending on where on your sheet of paper you cut from but because all the papers are co-ordinating they will all work well together.

Step 6 Create your cards! I went for a very clean and sim-ple look on my cards and created only two styles. I used a wood grain stamp on Kraft card for the background. I than placed a frame die cut on the card. This card can be used landscape or portrait For my second card I again stamped the wood grain background and simply placed two of the

butterflies on it. I curled up the wings and gave them some slight dimension for a bit of pop.

I created three of the butterfly cards and three of the frame cards.

Step 7 To make these cards as useful as possible I chose to supply the recipient with sentiment toppers. This means that they can personalise the cards as they wish, depending on the occasion. I cut out six rectangles and six ovals. I did rectangles and ovals so that you can choose which shape you would like to add to the card. I placed a strip of dou-ble sided tape to the back and left the covering on the back of the tape.

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When a gift card is needed the person can simply pick out the sentiment and shape that they want, peel off the backing and stick it onto the card.

Step 8 To package the sentiment tags up I simply grouped them by shape and then used a mini peg to hold them together.

Step 9 Place the cards and the toppers in the box and you are done. I had some left over butterflies so I added them to the box lid for a bit more décor.

Would you like to advertise in Crafting Ireland? We offer very competitive prices and a readership of

over 50,000 per issue. Contact us at craftingireland@gmail.com for

advertising rates.

30

New Year Celebration

Call for submissions….Calling ALL crafters – we want to publish you!! For each issue we will give you a list of themes to work with. We would love to see what you create inspired by these themes. When you submit an image of your project, please make sure it is clearly photographed straight-on with a neutral background or scanned. Please make sure you only submit projects that have never appeared online or on a blog before, and it can not have been published previously. Thank you to every one who submitted for issue six. The themes for this issue were :

New Year Celebration

Show Some Shimmer

Robin Funge Www.bosenberries.

blogspot.com

Aideen Fallon www.piecesbyaideen.com

Show Some Shimmer

Geraldine Reardon littlesnippetsblog.blogspot.com

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Geraldine McCormick cards-n-chocs.blogspot.com

Weenie Thomas Dublin, Ireland

Robin Funge www.bosenberries.blogspot.com

Issue 7 Submission themes For issue 7 we have two themes for you to work with. Again you can submit cards, layouts or altered art projects. The themes are: Thank You—Show us projects with a Thank You theme With Love—Get a early start on those Valentine’s cards and show some love!

Please email your entries along with your name and blog address to

submissions@craftingirelandonline.ie by the 9th January

Remember your submitted projects can not have been pub-lished online or in any other publication before. You can find

guidelines for submitting your work on our blog.

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32

In issue 5 we featured a alter-able wreath. This quick and easy project can be found on page 86. I just wanted to show everyone how easy this wreath is to alter to match the sea-sons. Of course you could make more than one wreath, but I know that I have storage issues in my house, so something I can make work year round is always good in my book!

To update my wreath I simply removed the flowers, leaves and cream ribbon. In their place I added some paper die cut snowflakes, red bauble/cherry decorations and red ribbon. So simple and fun! I hope you all enjoy decorating a quick easy and budget friendly wreath!!

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Are you ready for the New Year? Here is a short tuto-rial how to create a pretty calendar from the simple ones you can buy at the stationary store. You will need:

1 calendar

Patterned paper (I used Cosmo Cricket Artist's Collage Kit Odds & Ends)

Gel medium

Few flowers, buttons, number stickers Step 1 Cover the calendar’s cover with a very thin layer of gesso. It will tone down the original colour.

Timi Konya

Step 2 Cut pieces of patterned paper, ar-range then as you like. Using gel medium glue them on the cover.

Step 3 When it’s dry, seal the whole cover with another layer of gel medium.

Step 4 Decorate with some die-cuts, flowers and buttons. Stick the number stickers down too.

Seal the numbers and the die-cuts with gel medium too, just to make sure that the cal-endar won’t fall apart in the coming 12 months.

Enjoy and have a very Happy New Year!!

38

In the grocery store tea, sweets and other items are nicely packed in paper boxes. Sometimes they have a great shape or have a little closure on them, so you can use them again. I have found this paper box that I felt it would be great to remake and fill with some gift tags. After Christmas it can be a box for a mini album. You will need

1 paper box that you like (recycle)

1 sheet solid card stock

Some festive papers

Embellishments Step 1 You need to take the box apart. Be careful not to

rip the sides. You need to undo all the glued

parts and lay the paper box flat.

Step 2 Trace it on the solid cardstock and cut it out. Score all the lines that you

need to fold. Use the original box as a guide for this.

Timi Konya

Step 3 Glue the sides together. I used

Core’dinations card stock so that when it

was assembled I could age and distress the

box a little bit.

Step 4 Decorate with patterned paper and

embellishments.

Step 5 Fill it with gift tags. You

can use up your scraps or

paper from last season to

make these.

Single sided paper works

well here. You just need to cut a piece that will fit your box, fold it in half,

punch a hole for ribbon and you

have the gift cards ready.

This makes a great gift for the

giving season, or just a very pretty

way for you to store your lovely

handmade gift tags!

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This is the second instalment of the Colouring With Copics series that the amaz-

ing Sandie Dunne is presenting. In Issue 5 Sandie started us off with the basics

of Copics and understanding the Copic system. Now we are ready to move it up

a notch!

Understanding Light Source Light source: The direction from which light originates. Highlights: Where light hits first on an object Shading: Where light hits less, but is not the darkest part of the object. Shadows: The darker areas on an object that receive little or no light. Cast Shadow: Formed due to light not being able to pass through an object. e.g. - a tree cast-ing shadow onto grass. One of the biggest questions people have once they are ready to colour any im-age is "How do I determine my light source?" Before starting to colour your image, I suggest that you study the detail to de-termine where you want your light source to come from. Light and shadows visually define objects. The placement of your light source affects every aspect

Sandie Dunne

This is the second instalment of the Colouring With Copics series that the amaz-

ing Sandie Dunne is presenting. In Issue 5 Sandie started us off with the basics

of Copics and understanding the Copic system. Now we are ready to move it up

a notch!

Understanding Light Source Light source: The direction from which light originates. Highlights: Where light hits first on an object Shading: Where light hits less, but is not the darkest part of the object. Shadows: The darker areas on an object that receive little or no light. Cast Shadow: Formed due to light not being able to pass through an object. e.g. - a tree cast-ing shadow onto grass. One of the biggest questions people have once they are ready to colour any im-age is "How do I determine my light source?" Before starting to colour your image, I suggest that you study the detail to de-termine where you want your light source to come from. Light and shadows visually define objects. The placement of your light source affects every aspect

of the image. Before you can colour the light and shadows you see, you need to understand how light and shadows work as this will help you iden-tify where to apply your lightest and darkest colours. Take into consideration the face {if it is a character} or main focus of the image as you would want to have your highlights focused on the most im-portant parts of the image. There are a few popular ways to help you with judging where to put your light and shadows: 1. For many people it is easier to identify the light source if you physically

draw it. The best way to do this is to draw a sun and its rays onto piece of acetate and lay it over your image.

2. Taking something as simple as a pen and point it directly in the line that you want to have your light source coming from.

3. Use a Lighting Guide Template - a tool used to find your light source on each area of your image.

Once you have identified where your light is coming from, you can start adding colour to your image. We are looking to see where the rays of sunlight first hit the image. This is where the image will be lightest, and where you will use your lightest Copic colours. Adversely where the rays are farthest from the sun is where the darkest ar-eas or shadows will fall. This is where you will use your darker Copic col-ours. The sample below demonstrates how the image shading is affected by the light source direction.

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Copics Used - Hair: E21, E23, E25, E27. Dress/Ladybug: R22, R24, R29. Tights: W1, W3, W5, W7, W9 In the same way as light sources determine light and shadow on character im-ages, it also applies to foliage. Below is an example of how light source affects how a tree could be coloured. Copics Used - Leaves: YG03, YG05, YG63, YG67, G20. Tree Trunk: E31, E33, E35, E37 The tree on the left has the light is coming from the top right, while the tree on the right has the light coming from the front. There are amazing free resources on the internet, in particular YouTube. The most important thing is to practice and play around with colour combos until you find ones that work for you.

Next time we will be looking at Advanced Skin Tones.

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Recently a company called LilyPad Craft Supplies sent us a few products to review for them. LilyPad Craft supplies endeavours to fulfil all your craft supplies needs at a rea-sonable price and also to source beautiful and unusual pieces to make your craft making even more astonish-ing! We decided to use these products and do a quick mini tutorial on them, while letting you know what they were like.

First up—a wooden unfinished Christ-mas tree. For this I used some gesso to prime it and some acrylic paint to paint it. I then decorated it with the LilyPad Wool Felt Christmas shapes. The Product The unfinished tree, complete with stand. It is a lovely light weight prod-uct that is very well finished. I love that the stand comes with it too. It is a lovely size also for home Christmas dé-cor! Step 1 I primed the tree with a coat of gesso. The coverage was brilliant on the wood so only one coat of primer was needed which was great. I then painted the tree green. I used a paint dabber and

opened it up to paint with a brush for a under-coat. For the second coat I used the dabber top to get some texture. Step 2 When the paint was dry I wrapped twine around the tree. You could also use ribbon at

this stage. I like the rustic look of twine however.

Step 2 Time to decorate our tree! For this I used the LillyPad felt Christmas shapes.

These shapes are adorable, there are six dif-ferent shapes and four of each one so great selection. I used the ornament and stocking shapes on my tree. I attached them using mini pegs. You can also purchase these mini pegs at Lilly Pad crafts. To finish my tree off I used one of the felt snowflakes as a star on the top of my tree. I really loved working with this tree, it was so quick and easy to alter and it looks ador-able as part of my Christmas decorations!! Unfinished Shadow Box frame

The shadow box frame comes in three different sizes. I used the small one. It is a very cute size and perfect for what I wanted to do!

46

Step 1 Take the unfinished shadow box and separate the front frame part from the back box part. Prime with primer or gesso and then paint the colour of your choice.

Step 2 Decorate the inside of your box. You could line it with decorative paper or stamp on it like I did.

I also glimmer misted the inside of the box to add some extra sheen and sparkle. I also glimmer misted the front of the frame. You can never have too much sparkle and shim-mer!! Step 3 I stamped on the glass of the frame using Stayz on ink. You need to use an ink designed for non porous surfaces for this stage as other inks wont dry and will smear.

Step 4 To finish off my shadow box I filled the box with small jingle bells. These are also avail-able from LilyPad Crafts. This is again such a quick and easy project, made even quicker and easier by LilyPad Crafts!

(In case you are wondering why my frame is blue, it is because I do a blue and silver theme for Christ-mas in my house!!) I had placed a personal order from LilyPad Crafts before this review and was very impressed my the speed which my order was proc-essed and the speed of delivery. They have a fantastic range or products and superb customer service. I hope these little tutorials inspired you to get crafty for

Christmas. LilyPad Crafts will certainly be happy to help you along the way!!

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Christmas is approaching and I’m already thinking about what I am going to cook and bake. I like to try new things and I also love all those recipes that my mother used to cook when I was a child. This is where this idea came from. I wanted to create a recipe book full of Christmas recipes but with room for Christmas photos too. I grabbed an old recipe book that I didn’t really like and thought that would be

the perfect size for my altered book.

What you will need:

1 old hard cover book

6 sheets of sketch or watercolour paper

Patterned paper

Tim Holtz File Tabs die

Step 1 Fold the cover of your book backwards, so you can clearly see where the

pages are attached to the cover. Take a sharp craft knife and cut all the pages.

We will replace these with new ones.

Timi Konya

Step 2 Cover the front and back covers inside and outside with gesso. When it’s

dry you will need to paint the front with a colour that matches your pat-

terned paper. I used the new Prima North County papers and an Espresso

colour dabber. Do the same on the inside. I didn’t cover the whole page

just to save some paint.

Step 3 Choose the papers that you want to use

for the lining of the inside cover. Here I

used three pieces.

Don’t glue them down yet though!

Step 4 Cut the sketch/watercolour paper to size.

In my case I needed 6X4 inch pages, so I

cut the paper 6X8 inch and later I folded them into half.

Step 5 In order to cut the file tabs you

need to prepare your die a little

bit. I marked a straight line with

masking tape, so every time I used

my die I ended up with the same

size.

Timi Konya

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Before you put the papers and the die

through your machine secure your

paper with a little piece of masking

tape. This stops it from moving when

it is going through the machine.

Step 6 Prepare three signatures. One signa-

ture has two sheets of paper in my

book.

Step 7 Now you need to sew all your signa-

tures onto the centre piece of you in-

ner lining paper.

To do so use a paper piercer and pierce

two holes on the crease of your signature

as well as on the lining piece.

If you want to make sure that you are

working straight draw a line on the lining

piece of paper with a pencil.

Take some embroidery thread and pull

through the holes. Tie them in the

back. Repeat this step with all of your

signatures.

This will be the spine of your book.

Step 8 Glue the lining pieces on the cover.

It is important to use very strong

glue here like gel medium.

If you use too weak a glue it wont

be able to hold the book pages into

your book!

Step 9 Decorate the pages and the

cover.

I left lots of space white for

the recipes.

You can hand write your recipes or

you could type them up on a com-

puter and stick them in, whatever

you prefer.

Enjoy making your own recipe

book and share it with us on our

Facebook page!

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We would love to publish your classes and crops here. Whether you are a shop running crops and classes or just a group of crafty people looking for like minded people let us know. Simply email your details to info@craftingirelandonline.ie

Card Art Kilcoole http://cardarteventskilcoole.blogspot.com/

Crafty Angels All places must be booked in advance. Crafty Angels, Cutlery Rd, New-bridge, Co. Kildare. Ph : 045-446678. http://www.craftyangels.ie

Scrapbook Store More info can be found on the website http://www.thescrapbookstore.ie/workshops.php or contact Annamarie at workshops@thescrapbookstore.ie

Jackies Cardmaking Workshops http://jackiesworkshops.blogspot.com/

Crafty Alley www.craftyalley.com

Scrap n Yap Check out Scrap n Yap on Facebook for more information.

An Siopa Buí Check out An Siopa Bui’s website for all class information.

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Inspiring Ideas Visit http://www.inspiringideas.com/ for more information.

Archangels craft club Archangels Craft Club - we meet in St. Gabriels Clontarf every Tuesday 7.30 - 9.30pm and do all sorts of crafts - knitting, cross stitch, card making, beading and scrapping etc. We are in our 9th year - all very informal but it’s a place to craft with like minded individuals. We are always on the lookout for demonstra-tors and enjoy the social aspect of crafting (along with the tea and cake!) If anyone is interested in coming along to join us, or maybe there is another club out there who would be interested in doing a Christmas craft day together please do contact me. Contact Christine at christinehelenokelly@gmail.com or on 0857151759

If you would like your classes or crops listed here free of charge email the

details to info@craftingirelandonline.ie

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Have you ever felt that you wanted something extra on your scrapbook page? Or that you wanted to add jour-naling, but didn’t want to the whole world to see it? In this article we are going to show you how to make your scrapbook pages interactive with a few very easy tricks. Hidden mini book On the first layout there is a hidden mini book below the photo. It is really

easy to create a booklet like this.

All you need is a piece of cardstock and a little patterned paper. Here the

booklet is 2”x2”. To create this you will need a 2”x12” piece. Fold it like on the

picture below and glue the pages together, so you end up with a little booklet.

Timi Konya

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Place it on the layout and decorate it as the part of the page.

You will be able to hide your journaling, add additional pictures or some

memorabilia.

Envelope On the second layout I used an

envelope to place the journaling

card in it.

To incorporate an envelope in your layout you can alter the en-velope or use it as it is. Here, I have covered it with some book paper and added a closure on it for more texture. There is a journaling card inside and there is some more space for another picture too. Envelopes are a great way to store your bits and pieces that you kept from

maybe a travel or an occasion, but you don’t want to glue it down on the

page.

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Pocket On the third layout I made a pocket. It was the easiest to do. Creating a pocket

from patterned paper is very simple.

Take a piece of paper that you like, score three edges of the paper at 1/4” and

cut the corners where the score marks cross each other.

Then fold those 1/4“ pieces in. This creates little flaps to glue the pocket down

on the paper.

You can decorate the opening edge with a border punch.

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You can also take a piece and glue it down on three sides, but then the pocket won’t be able to hold thicker items. Remember always use wet glue when creating pockets, because dry ad-hesive will stay sticky and tags that you want to place in the pocket can get stuck.

If you create some interactive layouts, share them with us on our Facebook

page!!

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When you start creating cards or scrapbook pages you will need a few basic tools that are hard to work without. In this short article we are going to show you what these must have tool are to fit all budgets. Scissors Depending on if you a card maker or scrapbooker you will need different sizes

of scissors. Short blade scissor for fussy cutting and longer blade for cutting

bigger pieces of paper. The most popular brands are: Fiskars, We R Memory

Keepers, Tonic Studios, Martha Stewart

Craft Knife Craft knives are suitable for fussy cutting images or for cutting where it is hard

to reach in with scissors. It is well advised to use sharp blade and change the

Timi Konya

Timi Konya

blade often, because a blunt blade can ruin your project. There is a great va-

riety of craft knives available for purchase from cheap to more expensive.

Craft mat When working with craft knife you need a craft mat to protect your work

surface. Self-healing craft mats are great addition to your tool kit and they

aren’t too expensive to buy. Sometimes you can find small craft mat as free-

bies in magazines. Watch out for them, they are perfect to bring along for

crops and classes!

Paper cutter (trimmer or guillotine) The next item on your list for paper cutting is a paper trimmer or guillo-tines. There are several types available of these and sometimes it is hard to decide which to buy. When searching for the perfect one for you, you have to consider a few things: Craft space: how much space is available for you to create? If you are work-ing on the family dining table probably a portable paper trimmer is a better choice than a desktop one. Also if you wish to attend crops and classes then a portable trimmer is easier to carry with you. Blade replacement: it is important to buy paper cutter to which you can

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easily get a replacement blade whenever you need. Measurements: there are paper cutters with only inches marked on

them, if you are working in centimetres watch out when buying to make sure

that there are centimetres marked on it.

Paper piercer A paper piercer is a very useful tool to have. It is great to pierce very small

holes and superb to hold down very small embellishments. It can be useful to

push something through a hole and to create faux stitching on your card or

scrapbook layout.

Storage If you are a beginner crafter and just started to buy your tools, you will soon realise that some kind of storage is necessary to keep your tools organised! Plastic boxes and containers are great to store your tools and if they are trans-lucent then you can easily see where your tools are.

In the next issue we will be looking at: Punches and die-cutting.

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Recently I got some supplies from a fantastic Irish

company called Crafty Cutting!They manufacture

all their own products. It is wonderful to be able to

use products that are made in Ireland. Their website is just the tip of the ice-

berg—they do a huge range of products. They even do custom jobs too if you

need.

For my altered notebook I used one of their Kraft albums. These are superb

quality and very easy to work with. I wanted a quick and easy way to alter the

notebook, so here is how.

What you will need

Kraft album

Gesso/primer

Paint colour of your choice & paint brush

Stencil of your choice

Inks

Step 1

Remove the covers from the al-bum. They can be taken off the binding quite easily.

Step 2

Paint the covers front and back with your gesso to prime them. You can get a nice smooth finish if you want by using a good brush or a foam brush.

Nicole Mullen

I kept mine with the rough brush strokes showing in the gesso for some added texture.

Step 3 When your gesso is dry you need to place your stencil over the cover in the position you want it.

I am just stencilling on one of the covers. My stencil is a 12 x 12 stencil so I simply placed it on the cover where I wanted the pattern to show on my notebook cover. When you have your position chosen paint with your chosen colour of paint.

Step 4

Let your paint dry fully. This is

very important for the next step!

If you don't let your paint dry

fully the paint could smudge at

the next stage.

Step 5

Take your inks of choice and ink

over the cover of the notebook.

Nicole Mullen

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Make sure to cover the front and back. If your paint is not dry it will

smudge so be careful! I used two ink colours to give a nice build up of

colour. I love the colour combination of mustard and teal!

Step 6

The pages of these albums are actu-

ally double pages. They are a lovely

cream heavy weight paper.

To make my notebook that extra bit

special I glued the bottom of the

pages shut and left the tops open.

This means that as well as being able

to use the notebook for some favour-

ite quotes/notes I can also add some

tags or ephemera into the pockets that this created.

Step 7

Embellish the cover a bit if you want. I added some gems to the centre of the

flowers on the tree.

I love how quick and easy these albums are to alter.

You could also alter them by covering them with papers but I love the effect

the painting gives. Make sure to check out Crafty Cutting for all your supply

needs!

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Deirdre Horgan In every issue we will be spotlighting the work of an Irish based crafter. We will look at paper crafters, scrapbookers, and altered art aficionados. If you think you know someone who you think sound be spotlighted let us know at info@craftingirelandonline.ie.

Our third issue spotlight is shining on Deirdre Horgan. Here she is to tell us a bit about herself and her work.... Hi, my full name is Deirdre Horgan and my screen name on some online places is Deirdre - Irl. I am from Cork and am back living in Cork af-ter a four-year stint in Chi-cago in the early noughties. I am a Domestic Engineer aka Stay at Home Mom with two boys and a wonderful hubby. I love to colour and find cre-ating very soothing in a hec-tic taxi schedule of school, football, hurling, swimming etc!. I also love sail-ing and photography.

When and how did you get involved wi th paper craf t ing? I have been crafting in one form or another since I was very small. My Mom and Grandma used to sew, knit, do leatherwork and paint. I think I just learnt by osmosis - growing up in that craft rich environment.

Deirdre Horgan I always played with paper but when my son was born in 2002 I created invitations for his christening and my love of paper crafting was cemented.

What is your favour i te aspect of

paper craf t ing? The fun in blog land with all the other wonderful paper crafters.

I love that I have made friends with other crafters from all around the globe.

What are the techniques that you

use most of the t ime? Colouring with Copics, distressing and blending with distress inks and using

digital images.

What are your "can ' t do

wi thout" products? My big shot, dies, Copics and my sewing machine.

W h at i n sp i r es y ou? I tend to find inspiration in lots of places – I visit Moxie Fab World, Paper Craft Con-nections, Hero Arts Blog and Penny Black Blog on a daily

basis. I also get inspiration from nature, magazines and everyday life.

How do you descr ibe your s ty le? My style is definitely clean and simple. I am a less is more – I would love to be able to do the wonderful vintage or shabby chic style that I so admire by other designers but I find it so difficult.

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Do you blog? Yes – you can find my blog at http://colourandink.blogspot.com/

Where can we see your work? Are you on any design teams? I have been part of the Paperplay Challenges DT since October 2009.

I have also done stints on Mami Doodles, Tiffany Doodles and Guest design-ers spots with Pollycraft Monday Challenge, Sketch Saturday and Jane’s Doo-dles.

Have you any plans for the

future?

I hope to continue with my existing DT work and who knows what good things the future holds!

Edi tors p icks

The editors each picked one of their favourite projects from Deirdre’s work to share with you below..

T i m i says . .

I love the colour on this card, the neutral colours are beautiful and classic. The pop of colour from the yellow flower is just perfect. I love the sentiment and how perfectly it goes with

Nico le says . .

I love this thank you card. The col-our is fantastic and it is so clean and simple. The cork leaf die cut with the but-ton tied on is just an adorable top-per to the card and really makes it just perfect in my opinion!!

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Welcome to our Crafting on a Budget section. As usual we will be working on a budget and using supplies you will probably have in your crafting stash!

Altered Christmas Decorations This is a great way to dress up the cheap Christmas baubles you can get in

stores. A lot of us work to a tight budget so it is nice to be able to make very

chic looking decorations from cheap plastic ones!

What you will need

Paper of your choice – I used Christmas sheet music from The Graphics Fairy

Cheap baubles or other ornaments of choice

Mod Podge or a similar medium that acts as a glue and a sealer

Paintbrush

Clothes hanger

Small piece of thick foam

Patience!!

Step 1 Cut or tear your paper into rough strips. Then tear these strips up into

smaller pieces.

Nicole Mullen

Step 2 Take your piece of foam and cut a circle out of the centre. This allows you to

make a small stand for the rounded baubles so that they don’t keep rolling

off the edge of your desk.

Step 3 Apply a good layer of Mod Podge to the top

half of the ornament. I should also note at this

stage that I put the little hooks that you use to

hang the ornaments onto the ornament.

This was so that as I added more glue I had

somewhere ‘safe’ to hold the ornament by!

Step 4 Place a piece of paper onto the glue. Start at

the top and get up as close to the silver top

piece as you can.

You could also remove this piece to get a better

coverage but this would be quite time consum-

ing.

Press the paper firmly down into the glue. The

paper will wrinkle and fold as you get it to con-

form to the rounded shape of the ornament.

This gives a lovely vintage look.

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Step 5 When you have the paper all fully pressed

down apply a thin layer of Mod Podge over

the top. This seals the piece of paper and also

provides some more glue so that we can over-

lap the pieces of paper.

Repeat step 4 and step 5 until the ornament is completely covered and make sure that all of the paper has a layer of Mod Podge over it to

fully seal it. Step 6 Hang the baubles up to dry. I find a clothes dryer is

fantastic for this step. You could also use a clothes

hanger too or a clothes line.

This can be a very time tedious pro-

ject so is a good one to do in front of

the telly or listening to the radio to

avoid complete boredom. However

when they are all dry

you can hang them on

your tree and enjoy ! Or

pile them all into a vase

for some extra Christ-

mas décor. I added a few

glass stones and beads

to add a bit of extra

sparkle.

This really quick and easy project is great fun to do. I love to group a few of these jars in the garden to give a subtle glow. I also like to put some on my porch step or on the path up to the front door to ‘lead’ guests up to the house! What you will need:

Jar of any size, washed and with the la-bel removed

Paint brush

Glow in the dark paint in a colour of your choice

Step 1 Get some of the paint on your paint brush. Place the paint brush inside the jar, going in about half way. Flick the paint brush back and forth in the jar.

As you do this the handle of the brush will hit off the neck of the jar. This helps to splatter the paint inside the jar.

Tip: If you find that when you do this the head of the paint brush is touching the edge of the jar and giving painted streaks instead of splatters then you can make the neck of the jar smaller.

The easiest way to do this is to make a circle with your thumb and forefinger that is smaller than the opening of the jar.

You could also use a sheet of cardboard with a hole in it for this stage.

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This is a image of how I use my hand to make the opening of the jar smaller Step 2 Decorate the lid of your jar. In this case I just painted it black. You can however decorate it whatever way you like.

Step 3 Leave your jar exposed to a strong light source, the sun, or a lamp works well. Place it where you want and when it gets dark enjoy!

Note: It is very difficult to take a

photograph of a glow in the dark

jar at night time so I promise this

does look better in real life than in

the image!!

A lot of us are guilty of having papers in our stash that we just can’t seem to cut up. I have found a perfect solution to this issue – make boxes from them! You can use the boxes for gifts or just for storage. Either way the box will be put to good use and will look great and it will be one less sheet of hoarded paper. I love that this box can be made with and entire sheet of 12 x 12 card and there is no need for multiple complicated cuts and joining of different papers!

What you will need

Sheet of very heavy weight designer paper or light weight card. For this tutorial I used Bazzill light card for the 12x12 box and Core’dinations for the 6x6 box

Scoreboard or else a ruler and scoring tool and a surface that is safe to score on

Scissors

Glue (I used glossy accents)

Step 1 We are going to make the lid of the box first. The hardest part is picking which papers you are going to use! I used non patterned papers for this tutorial so that you could see clearly what I was doing.

Step 2 Place the paper on your score board or work surface. Score the full length of the page at the 2inch mark (approx 5cm). Scoring at 2inches will give us a 2inch deep box.

If you scored at 3inches you would have a 3inch deep box, and so on.

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Step 3 When you have scored all four sides of the page you then need to cut into the tabs at the top and bottom of the page. You can see in the picture where to cut. Make sure only to cut in as deep as the score line. You will end up with four small square tabs.

Step 4 When you have these cuts made fold along all of your score lines. Use your bone folder to help you to get a nice sharp line on the folds.

Step 5 Fold the small square tabs inside the box. The small tabs should be on the inside so that the outside of the box looks nice and seamless. Glue the tabs in place with a wet glue like glossy accents. This is so that the glue dries fully when set.

Step 6 To make a small cut out on the lid to help you open it easier you can use a semi-circle punch. If you don’t have one of these (like me!) then you can use a circle punch. I simply made a small mark on the punch at the halfway point of the circle. I now know that if I just slide paper in to this half way mark I will just get a semi-circle punched out.

Step 7 To create the base of your box you will follow steps 1-5 above. The only differ-ence is that instead of using a full 12x12 page, you will have to cut it down by ¼ of a inch (approx 4mm). This gives us a slightly smaller size which will allow the lid we made to fit over the top. If you make the base too much smaller it wont stay inside the lid. You will still score at the 2inch (5cm) point all around the edges. When you have the base created the lid should fit nice and snugly on top.

Step 8 To finish off your box fill it with goodies and wrap a ribbon around it to keep it tied shut. Embellish with a tag or any other embellish-ments of your choice!

Making gift boxes is so easy once you get the hang of it! I made a smaller box from a sheet of 6x6 Core’dinations paper. To make this one I scored at the 1’3/16 (3cm) mark on all four sides. To make the base I trimmed a 6x6 page down by 4mm (approx 4/16th of a inch). Again decorate as you wish and fill with goodies or a gift!

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In Issue 5 I looked at why you may set up a blog. I also took you through a step by step on how to set up a blog us-ing Blogger. In this article I am going to give you some tips on running your blog.

Tips for Blogging

Be Yourself When you browse the vast blog land you find online you will notice that a lot of blogs on the same subject will all come across slightly differently. This is because all the blogs are being written by different individuals. Some people find writing comes very naturally to them and will have beauti-ful eloquent blogs. Other people may have a sense of humour that comes across in each of their blog posts. Others still may simply post their craft pro-jects with a step by step process. Some people bring their personal life into their blogs, family, kids, and pets. Others choose not to. So which is the right approach? The answer is to be yourself. Don’t try to force yourself to write fancy post or joke laden posts. Write what feels natural to you. Your readers are going to want to read your blog and get to know you. They don’t want you to be pretending to be someone else!

Blog content You need to ensure that you are writing about something that you are pas-sionate about. You have to want to write; otherwise it will feel like a chore you are being forced to do. When adding content to your blog remember the following:

Be honest

Be yourself

Be informative if you can – product lists, explanations of how you did

Nicole Mullen

something

Be careful of your privacy – don’t reveal your full address, be careful if posting pictures of family & especially of children and don’t reveal too much information about yourself. You may regret sharing certain details with the entire world after you have hit that publish post button.

Tip: If you want to be sure you are happy with your blog post you can save it as a draft then walk away for a while. Come back and read it later and make sure you are still happy with it before publishing!

Proof read – there is nothing worse than a badly written and badly spelt blog post!

Photos Having good quality photos on your blog is a huge advantage. Bad quality im-ages that are blurred, out of focus or too dark will turn people off your blog. You do not need a top line camera to take a good photo. Just make sure you are taking a picture in a well lit room and with a neutral background. If possi-ble try to take the picture in daylight. If this is not possible use a lamp as a light source to get more light for your camera. If your photos are still not coming out looking good you can always use a pro-gramme to process them. We will look at this in a later stage of this series. Be Friendly A lot of the reason people visit blogs is for inspiration. You will find by visiting blogs you will get ideas, tutorials and tips and tricks. If you find that you liked a post and found it useful it is nice to be friendly and leave the person a com-ment on the post. You will find the more you comment on peoples blogs the more visits to your own blog you will get in return. If people comment on your blog it is nice to return the favour and comment back on their blog. If you see something on someone’s blog and it inspires you to create a ver-sion of it make sure to link back to the original person and give them credit for their idea. People will be honoured that you were inspired by them, but they will not like if you try to pass off their work as your own!

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Blog regularly There is no point in having a blog and only posting once in a blue moon. If you start off posting every day and build up some blog followers you will find you will lose them if you suddenly rarely ever post any more. It can be a good idea to set aside time for blogging. Perhaps 3 evenings a week for 15-20 minutes, or maybe only once a week. Just try to pick a time frame that suits you and that you can main-tain. However if you have nothing to post don’t feel the need to just put anything up in a post because you were scheduled to! Sometimes if you are busy simply posting up a picture of a project you completed or are working on can be enough. You don’t al-ways have to accompany an image with a lot of text/instructions! What is your blogging aim? When you start blogging you need to know why you are doing it. We looked at this in the How to Blog article in Issue 5. It is important to know why you are blogging though. Having a reason will motivate you and encourage you to keep going. In the next instalment of this series we will look at photography for blogging. In the meantime please visit our website www.craftingirelandonline.ie and link up your blog on our blog roll. It doesn’t matter if you have only set up your blog a week ago, a day ago or a year ago. We just love seeing what you are all creating and would love to be able to stop by for a visit!

Life on the {Scrap}beach is a social network for all crafty-scrappy people who enjoy chatting and interacting with fellow crafters and share ideas, creations and passion for paper crafts. Crafting Ireland interviewed Kathryn, the founder of the network, to learn more about how it all started. Tell us about yourself! Where do you live? What do you do? When I started the site I was living in Miami, FL. We had just moved there due to a transfer in my husband's military orders and I had left my job as a safe environment coordinator at a non-profit organization in Washington, DC. Af-ter years of working in the child abuse prevention field, I was feeling very burned out and in need of a change. I needed a change in my life. That's when I decided to craft full time and now I couldn't be happier. Now we're back in DC and still going strong! How did the idea of Life on the {Scrap}beach network come up? It started with two wishes. I wanted to interact with my online crafting friends, YouTube subscribers and blog readers in a more direct fashion and in real-time. I also wanted to find an online site and message board that fit my needs and crafting style. That's when the idea of starting my own social net-work came about. It enabled me to build a community where I fit in, as well as interact with my online friends. We started with about thirty members that first day and it has really taken off since then. What do you think the key of popularity is? Willingness to adapt. As the network grew and evolved, I had to be ready and willing to make changes to the site to meet the needs of my site members. It

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couldn't always be about what I wanted and thought was best. It's not the same network it was when I started it, but that's because it's better. What are your favourite things about the network? I love how global the site is. People are equally welcome to participate in swaps, trades and other activities whether they are down the street or half-way across the globe. So even though my site was founded in Miami, FL, it can still be enjoyed by the readers of Crafting Ireland magazine. I think that's re-markable. Tell us more about the activities on the network! I think the network is most known for swapping. There is always some kind of swap going on, and the members will swap anything! They come up with some of the most creative ideas. Also we have two weekly USTREAM broadcasts hosted by me. We have scrap-ping, chatting and lots of fun every Thursday from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and again from 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. on the site's USTREAM channel. The after-noon show was specially designed for our friends overseas. We also have peri-odic online crops that are open to all members as well. The two we have com-ing up in the next few months are on New Year's Day and during the Super-bowl. These crops include a live video feed to my scrap desk to see what I am working on, challenges to jump start your own creativity and giveaways of wonderful prizes. Upcoming online event: New Year’s Day Crop with challenges and wonderful prizes Life on the {Scrap}beach is a great community to be a part of. As a member I have taken part in many swaps and they are fantastic, you can exchange beau-tiful handmade mini albums, flowers, charms etc… Sometimes you receive supplies that are really hard to buy here in Europe. And more importantly you receive welcoming and appreciation with every piece that you create and share.

If you would like to advertise in Crafting Ireland email us at

info@craftingirelandonline.ie with advertising in the subject line for more information. Below are a list of some shops that we shopaholics like to order all those es-sential supplies from. All these stores are either located in Ireland, or else ship to Ireland with reasonable rates.

Ireland Cardz’n’Scraps – Cork Art Supplies http://cardznscrapz.com/ Scrapbook Store http://www.thescrapbookstore.ie Crafty Alley https://craftyalley.com/

Crafty Angels http://www.craftyangels.ie/store/

Scrapbook Store http://www.thescrapbookstore.ie

An Siopa Bui – The Yellow Shop http://www.ansiopabui.ie/

Create With Kate www.createwithkate.com

LillyPad Craft Supplies http://www.lilypadcraftsupplies.ie/

Crafty Cutting www.craftycutting.com

United Kingdom Artist Trading Post http://www.artisttradingpost.com/ Artistic Stamper http://www.theartisticstamper.com/ Craft Barn http://www.thecraftbarn.co.uk/ Craft Emporium http://www.craft-emporium.co.uk

WOW Embossing Powders http://www.wowembossingpowder.co.uk/

Wild Orchid Crafts www.wildorchidcrafts.com

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I can’t believe another issue has come around, where did the last few weeks go! It only seems like yesterday that I was dressed up as the wicked witch from the west chasing kids around a haunted garden, scaring the 'bejasus' out of them! Such Fun!! Nicole and Timi asked me to share a couple of easy easel cards with you this issue, just in time for last minute Christmas cards! I have embellished the following easel cards with my Christmas stash, so any papers and embellies will do the same job! What you will need

2 pre folded cards of the same type

Scorer and Bone Folder

Patterned Paper

Embellishments

Double Sided Tape

Dimensional Embellishment Step 1 First, take one of the pre-folded cards (in this case I used a square card, but any size / shape will do) and score it width-wise across the middle of the front page. Fold up to meet the top of fold of the card. Crease with your bone folder.

Kate Walsh

Step 2 Take the second card and cut down the existing fold line, cutting it in two. This will be the top sec-tion of your easel card. Step 3 Matt patterned paper to your card base and top section. Assemble and decorate the top section of your easel card with your chosen embellishments. Step 4 Put strong double sided tape (I used red line tape) on the back of the top piece and stick it to the base of your card lining it up at the top, so that it looks like a normal square card. Step 5 Place a dimensional accent approx 1 to 2 inches from the bottom of the inside of the back page. This will act as the ‘prop’ for your easel card. You can use any kind of accent here e.g. gems, buttons, chipboard, punched shape or die cut. What I did: To decorate my easel card I embossed a separate piece of card and matted it on the top section at an angle. I then

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die cut a piece of patterned paper with Tim Holtz Ornamental Die and added glitter. I also die cut Tim’s Old Jalopy car from patterned paper and added a punched heart, gems and glitter. I threaded a length of ribbon through the windows. I used foam tape to add them to my top section leaving the ribbon loose at the sides. For my dimen-sional accent I used a die cut flower that I made using bits of fabric, a Christ-mas brad and Tim’s tattered floral die. I also added gems to the opposite side. Once I had the top section taped to the base I tied the ribbon around the back. The special someone who will get this card, will be advised to take the car off and use the ribbon to hang it on their Tree. They get a beautiful card and a fabulous handmade Christmas decoration in one! The second easel card follows the same principle as the first but using a large geometric die cut shape. I used Tim Holtz’s Ornamental Die. Step 1 First of all cut a sheet of heavy A4 cardstock in half along its longest edge, so it measures 10.5 cm by 29.8cm. Then score and fold it at

15.85cm. Step 2 Place the folded card on Tim Holtz’s Or-namental Die, making sure that the folded edge falls short of the die blade, so only three sides of the shape will cut.(Secure with tape if desired)

Step 3 Run it through your die cut machine.

Score the base card along the middle of the front page. Fold up and crease with your bone folder. This is your easel card base.

Step 4 Glue patterned paper to a sheet of card and die cut a single sheet using the

same die. This is the top section of your easel card.

Step 5 Decorate and assemble card as per the first easel above (step 3 to 5).

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What I did: I added glitter de-tail to my patterned paper top section. I then die cut two reindeers using Tim Holtz’s Reindeer die, one from pat-terned paper and the other from red felt. Next I added foam tape to the back of both reindeers and stuck them to the right hand side of my top section. I added a ‘Happy Christmas’ peel off in white and some pearls. I then stuck my top section to the base with red line tape. Next I added a pearl strip to the inside of my base card to act as my easel prop. Lastly I added a pearl and a star peel off to the eyes of the reindeer. TIP: If you don’t have a die or die cut machine you can cut the base card by hand using a template, I often do this to make tag easel cards! I place the tag onto the front of a folded card, going over the edge and trace around the two sides and the bottom, I then cut out. This becomes the base of my tag easel card. You will find more projects on our Blog http://createwithkate.com Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and lots of crafting time in 2012!! Happy Christmas Crafting xxKate

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In every issue of Crafting Ireland we will have a crafty challenge to help you all get your creative juices flowing. We will select two winners from each challenge. We will then publish the two winners projects in the next issue.

In this issue we have a sketch challenge to work with. As always you can sub-mit any type of project, cards, layouts, altered art and so on. We look for-ward to seeing your entries! The fantastic prize up for grabs for one lucky winner in this issue is my a

Minds Eye Dream Big Kit containing MME Lost & Found 2 papers, stickers,

die cuts and matching Prima flowers with instructions to create a 12” x 12”

scrapbook layout and a 5” x 7” greeting card.

We will no longer be accepting challenge entries by

email. Please go to our blog at craftingire-land.wordpress.com to enter your project on our chal-

lenge link—look for the blinkie in the sidebar!!

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Thank you to everyone who entered our Issue 5 challenge. As always the en-tries are stunning and we have a hard time picking just two winners. But this time the winners are.... Geraldine Reardon Weenie Thomas The BEAUTIFUL prize of a stamp set each was kindly sponsored by Flourishes LLC. Congratulations ladies, we will be in touch about claim-ing your prizes shortly!!

In Issue 5 Create with Kate provided a fantastic giveaway of some Dimension Fourth stamps as a reader giveaway to two lucky winners!! You had to post on the Create With Kate Facebook page to be in with the chance to win, and you got an additional bonus entry if you became a blog follower also. Kate being the lovely person she is decided to award one person from the Facebook page and one new blog follower a prize!! Facebook Giveaway: Congrats to Yasmine O’Connor who is the new owner of two dimension fourth stamps and a little surprise!

Blog Followers Giveaway: Congrats to Jacqui Byrne who is the new owner of another two dimension fourth stamps and a little surprise! Congratulations ladies, and make sure to email Kate to claim your prize at ; cinfinitydesign@gmail.com. The Create with Kate blog not only shows all the products they stock for us crafters, but also lists all the classes, crops and workshops they run. So if you are looking for crafting supplies or just for a class or crop to attend make sure to visit their blog!

www.createwithkate.com

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We have a fantastic reader giveaway kindly sponsored by Daisy Doodles. To be in with the chance to win the fantastic digi images below head over to Daisy Doodles Facebook page and let them know what image you like most on their site. Make sure to let them know the Crafting Ireland sent you over! This reader giveaway will end on the 19th December.

For the next issue we would love to see more of your work. Remember the submission themes are:

Thank You projects

With Love projects

Submission deadl ine is 9th January

Article submission If you have an article or tutorial you would like to get published please email us about it at info@craftingirelandonline.ie

out on 23rd January

Make sure to check out www.craftingirelandonline.ie for more

information on future issues.