Spring is in the air, a short tutorial with another freebie

 Hello friends, hope you are keeping well!

Here in Edinburgh Scotland, where I live, it is slowly turning warmer and there is a first feeling of spring in the air. This inspired me to create another paper collection, which I have called "Spring is in the Air", and like usual I have created a project tutorial and a freebie for you to enjoy. Let's start with the projects:

This is a little folder with two pockets and space to hold a little notebook or journal inside. They are good fun to do, in fact I enjoyed it so much I made two, just a little different from one another. They would make a great little gift for someone, just a bit more elaborate than a card, and who would not want to receive a special little gift made by you?

Here is the second one, just a little bit different from the outside, but made in exactly the same way. Below you can see what they look like from the inside. The elastics in the middle are there so you can slide the notebook underneath.

This is the one, it has a little tuck spot that can hold a bookmark or something in the flap.

This is the other one with the flap on the other side. Below are some instructions on how to put it together:

Project instructions:

This is what you need: I made mine out of a piece of mat board that was 12 by 12 inches, but you could make it equally well out of a piece of A4 strong card, or by slightly adjusting the sizes out of 81/2 by 11 card.

The bit that will make the cover is cut to 11 3/4" by 6 1/2" and scored at 4 1/2, 4 5/8 and 4 3/4; - so 3 score lines with 1/8 between them, this is to provide a slight curve when folded with space to hold the things inside. Then you score again at 9 1/8, 9 1/4 and 9 3/8  the space that is left is for the flap. I rounded the corners, but that is not needed, I just like the look of it. For the pockets you need 2 pieces of 3 1/4 by 4 1/2 . Cut at an angle by measuring 2 1/2 along the short side, making a mark and then cutting a straight diagonal edge to the bottom corner. For the closure you need to cut 4 larger (I used a 1" circle punch) and 6 smaller circles. Glue 2 larger and 3 smaller ones on top of one another like a little tower. The smaller ones will "lift" the larger ones from the backing, to provide the space for your ribbon or twine closures. Once everything is covered with paper they are then fitted to the cover with the help of eyelets. There are many tutorials on YouTube on how to do this, here is a link to one. I decided to round the corners of my pockets, as they are cut at an angle, you can't do that with a corner rounder punch, so I just used one of the circles to draw around.

 
After your basic construction is done, all you need to do is cover it all with papers of your choice. As I said at the start I used the Spring is in the Air collection that matches the freebie, but obviously you can use any papers you like.

The little book that fits inside is made from papers that are approx. 5 3/4 by 5 3/4  folded in half and then stitched together with a simple 3 hole pamphlet stitch. I always like to zig-zag around my projects, but of course that is totally optional. There are about 4 or 5 double pages, some design and some coffee stained as you can see below.

Below just a few close ups still, I decorated with a mix of embellishments of the freebie and the collection and some laces and cheese cloth.

                            And here are some of the tags still that I made to fit in the pockets. They are just made with left over bits of the paper and then decorated in a similar way as the pockets of the folders.

And now for the freebie, like usual, if you want the full resolution for printing please email me as the file is too large to add to a blog. All you need to do is CLICK HERE

Well, that's it for today. Thanks for your visit and happy crafting!

xxxxx

Some easy Valentines project tutorials and a freebie

 Hello friends, I am back much quicker than I usually am, but that is because Valentines day is getting so close already and I wanted to share some projects with you that use my new Valentines Collection, it's called Romantic Roses, and I have created a freebie for you to go along with it.

The projects are easy and use mostly tags. Here's the first one:

This is a little wallet, made from a size 12 tag. These tags are 10.5 inches tall and 5 1/8" wide. If you don't have one of these you could of course cut one from A4 (8.5 by 11") card, or 12 by 12 scrapbook paper. Next you score the tag along the long side at 3 7/8 and 7 3/4", which leaves the rest to form the flap.

I wanted mine to become like a little pouch to keep some ephemera in, so I cut two pieces of coffee stained paper 2" wide and 3 3/4" high, and accordion folded them every half inch.

I then covered the inside with book paper, leaving the flap for later and then glued the accordion folded bits in place like you can hopefully see from the photo.

Time to start decorating the outside. You can obviously do this in whatever way you like. I took one of my printable papers and cut it to size, covering each little panel with a separate bit. I also sewed around it all, but of course that is totally optional. It's much easier to do this before you fold the bottom part of the tag up to form the pocket!

Once you have covered all panels of your tag, fold up the bottom bit and attach to your accordion folded paper strips to form the pocket. Mine closes with a tiny magnet, but you could also tie a ribbon around it.

Hope the photo above makes this step clear. 

Now all that is left is to decorate your little folder in whatever way you like. Because the papers I used have a shabby chic feel to them I used lace and bits of coffee dyed cheese cloth plus some further elements from the paper collection and freebie. 

The next project is a little accordion folded tag booklet. It's made from 3 size 8 tags, but they can obviously be any size. I made a smaller one from the tags that come with the collection also.

                                                    This is what it looks like from the front

And here you can see how it is made, just three tags which you decorate with papers and embellishments. They are then laid out next to each other and then attached with bits of lace. I use Fabri Tac glue for this which is excellent as it dries super quick and is totally invisible. Most of the decorations used are from earlier freebies.

Here is the other side, a bit more grungy, using bits and pieces from my stash. Because the lace binding is flexible, you can fold the tags in a variety of ways, making it fun and interactive.

I have closed it with a little binder clip decorated with some beads and ribbon etc.

Below is a second smaller one, made in exactly the same way, mostly using just elements from the paper collection that you can find here

                                                                            The front

                                                                               The outside

                                                                                The inside.

The final project is a Valentines card, made entirely with bits from the freebie. I specially added some larger pieces to this freebie, so you can use them for cards.

. All I did was mat it onto a piece of background paper from the collection which I printed on card. Then I added some lace and a little metal embellishment from my stash. I sewed around it and it was done, super quick.

Well, that's it, below the freebie, - like usual you can get the full resolution one for printing by sending me a quick email.

Have a lovely Valentines Day on Sunday and happy crafting

xxxxx

Some journal inserts (with video links) and a Friday Freebie

 Hello friends,

Let me start by saying that I hope you have had a good start to 2021 so far. Where I am we are still in full lock down, so life is rather quiet, but at least that leaves lots of time for creating.

Today I want to share a couple of small projects, that are good fun and simple to make. I have used a new downloadable collection from my Etsy shop, plus the freebie you will find at the end of this post, but obviously you could make these with any papers and embellishments you have.

Rather than give complicated instructions, I will give a brief description with a link to a YouTube video which I used to make mine, though in each case I adapted them to what I wanted to use.

The first project is a little folder made from one sheet of A4 (8.5/11") paper printed on both sides. I used a little tab to close it and sewed around it, just because I like that look, but that is really not necessary at all.

Below is what it looks like from the back:

Here you can see what it looks like from the outside when you open the flap.

 I embellished it with some bits and pieces that come with the freebie. The flap(on the left) that closes the folder, is a separate bit of paper. Unlike what is shown in the video, I attached mine on the outside, so it looks like a kind of spine.

Here you can see the inside, the pockets on the side come about through the construction of the folder as is shown in the video. The front pockets are separate bits, that I decorated with bits and pieces from my stash.

And here are the tags that fit in the pockets, the larger ones are part of the collection, the smaller ones are cut with a large punch and then decorated with bits from the collection and other bits from my stash.

Here is the link to the videos (there are two) that describe how to make a folder like this, though the finished look is very different. Video 1 and video 2

On to project number two, this is a little origami folder, again heavily adapted, but in principle the same as described in the video linked further down.

I made mine from a piece of 11.5 by 11.5 sugar paper (trimmed to a square from an A3 piece). It was a rather nasty yellow colour, so I inked all the edges and then covered all the sides with papers from the collection.

Here you can see the back of it. These clever folders have 6 pockets, two on the outside , two right on the sides, and two on the inside. If you watch the video it will all become clear. Making the folder this size meant that the tags in the freebie are just the right size to fit.

Here you can see the inside of my folder, it looks quite different than the ones in the videos, but that is because I covered the inside pockets with extra paper.

Above you can see all the tags that fit in those pockets, plenty of space for journaling if you decide like I did to insert this folder in a larger journal.

I made a larger matching journal card still from one of the elements that come with the main collection and both  fit into a matching pocket that is part of a journal I am working on, but more about that at some other point.

Above you can see the journal page with the matching pocket. And here is the link to the video that describes how to construct the little origami folder :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2PstrI4Ges&t=1160s

And below finally is the freebie which like usual you can get in full resolution if you email me

Enjoy and happy crafting!

xxxxx