Milk Carton Box Tutorial

As promised, today's Fab Friday post is a tutorial for a milk carton box. Let me give credit where credit is due. I totally stole , um I mean, was inspired by this milk carton on Kerry's blog. Kerry has a wonderful tutorial on her blog. But, unfortunately the measurements are all in centimeters. Not much for those of us on this side of the pond. ;-)

Supplies:
8.5 X 11" piece of cardstock
Scor-Pal
printed paper, stamped image, etc. for decorating
ink & sponge (optional)
small binder clip
adhesive

Directions:
Along short side of paper, score at 2.5", 5.5" and 7.5"
Turn paper and score along long side at 2.5", 5", 7.5" and 10". Cut out bottom right hand corner and notch bottom tabs as shown in photo below. Add 1" scores halfway between 2.5" & 5" scores and halfway between the 7.5" and 10" scores, as shown below

To find the half way point, align your scores along the 3" and 5.5" marks as shown below. Score at the 4.25" mark. repeat for other 1" score.

Using your bone folder, go over all of your score marks. This will make your box much easier to assemble!

If you're going to ink the edges of your box, the easiest time to do this is before assembling your box. Also, this is the easiest time to add any decorative paper and/or images. Cut your printed paper to 2.25" X 2.75".

Next, add adhesive as shown below. I recommend using a dry adhesive since it grabs right away and you don't have to hold or clamp the box together while a wet glue dries. The second section is the best one to place your image on. The first and third panels are notched to form the sides of the box. The panel all the way on the right is where the sides of the paper are joined to form the box. This is best hidden at the back of the box.

The fourth bottom section has adhesive on the other side. This is the bottom flap of your box.and will cover the other flaps.

How to assemble the box is a matter of personal choice. I find it easiest to adhere the 3 inner bottom flaps to each other as I fold my paper into a box shape, then adhere the side seam of the box, leaving the last bottom flap as a final step. Some people may prefer to adhere the long side first and then worry about the bottom. (Kerry does it this way.) Experiment with how the box folds together before trying to glue it.

Use a binder clip to hold your box closed. You can find decorative ones in the store. Or, use your paper scraps and some adhesive to cover your clip. (This is a great way to use up any super skinny strips of paper.) Add a bow, if desired.

Voila!

Image: Penny Black
Paper: River Rock (SU!), My Minds Eye dp, pink cs (Bazzill)

One last tip. If you are making a lot of these, I would suggest scoring all the pieces of paper in one direction (i.e., along the short side of the paper or along the long side of the paper) and then score all of them again in the other direction. Once you get into the groove of scoring at certain intervals (no pun intended) it's easiest to keep scoring all the papers that way and then score them all in the other pattern. (As opposed to score, turn, score for each piece of 8.5 X 11 cardstock.)

Give these a try! They are a lot of fun.

Lisa

The Big 13

Today's the big day in our house. My youngest daughter turns 13 on Sunday and she's having her birthday celebration with friends tonight (dinner out and a sleepover). While bloghopping the other day, I ran across this great inspiration her birthday card: Teenage Birthday. (Coincidentally, Terri was one of my team mates on the Sweet Sketch Wednesday design team.) My daughter is also into the Goth look. Must be the preteen/teen thing, probably thanks in part to the "Twilight" series.

I really liked the papers she used, so I checked out the Crafty Chaos Designs website. I fell in love with so many of the papers! I wound up buying "Halloween Bride" for Ali's card. I knew I wanted to use this cute Pinky image from Tiddly Winks and thought these papers were a good fit for the image - girly yet Goth. Here's the finished card:

Supplies: Halloween Bride digital paper (Crafty Chaos Designs), Pinky (Tiddly Inks), Labels 4 Nestabilities, Palette Noir ink, sponge, Copics, black and pink cardstock scraps, ribbon, black brads, Cricut with Winter Woodland cartridge.

Isn't she sweet? (In a Wednesday Addams kind of way! lol!)

Go check out Crafty Chaos Designs! I'm not sure how long the sale runs for, but right now if you buy 3 items, you get 2 items free! Just be sure to use the code "CCDbonus" during checkout. See site for details.
Lisa

Fab Friday: World Cardmaking Day Contest

Wow, check out the prize package over at PaperCrafts World Card Making Day contest page!

They're looking for cards in five different categories:

a. Birthday

b. Christmas/Season's Greetings

c. Hello/Thinking of You

d. Love

e. Thank You

Cards must be postmarked by October 10th, so you've got plenty of time to enter! Get stamping! :)

Lisa

Fab Friday For the Books!

It's September, which means back to school time (for those lucky souls who weren't already back in August!). And back to scool makes me think of BOOKS. so this week's Fab Friday has a book inspired theme.

On my Cricut yahoogroup, one talented crafter posted a link to this beautiful bookmark:

Check out Christie's blog, Creations by Christie, for more beautiful bookmarks! Bookmarks make wonderful gifts so many people - teachers book club buddies, etc.! I'm inspired to try making one of these myself.

Lisa

Fab Friday: Paper Bag Albums

It's back to school time for many of us. And don't brown paper bags remind you of school lunches? So, this week's Fab Friday is all about paper bag albums. Remember those? They were really popular a few years ago. They've had sort of a rebirth, apparently, and all I can say is - wow, paper bag albums have come a long way! It's hard to tell that some of them are actually made from paper bags.

This is one of the best tutorials I saw:



This is a different variation of the album. Supposedly this is easy enough for beginners - she certainly makes it look easy! I may have to try this one.



 Have a great weekend! Hope you find some time to do something creative. I'll see you on Sunday with another DigiStamp Boutique card.

Lisa

Fab Friday Tutorial

Yikes, what a busy yet unproductive day! Took Ali to her clarinet lesson - with drive time, 1.5 hours. "Stopped' by work - left 1 hour later. Took Jess to her 1:30 doctor's appointment - he was running late, so we didn't get out until 4:00 PM. Went to work picnic - had a great time, but was gone 2 hours. I did walk the dog and color my hair. (Just would've been nice to remember before 10 PM that I planned to color it tonight!)

So, without further ado, here is my promised tutorial for making my mini-notepads. Excuse the photography - it was late so I had to use flash.

Supplies needed:
cardboard/chipboard
printed paper for covers
cardstock for matting image on front of notepad
paper for notepad pages (I buy copier/printer paper when Staples has it on sale really cheap)
adhesive (I prefer some kind of tape runner or other dry adhesive)
stamped image or other decoration
binding equipment (I use a Bind It All and o-rings)

1. First, cut your covers, printed paper and inner pages.

What sizes? Well, assuming your cardboard is an 8.5 X 11" sheet, cut that into quarters (4.25 X 5.5") for your covers. Your covers determine the size of everything else. General rule of thumb:
- inner pages should be .25" smaller on both sides (e.g., 4 X 5.25" for our 4.25 X 5.5" covers)
- the paper for covering your covers should be 1" bigger on both sides (e.g., 5.25 " X 6.5" for 4.25 X 5.5" covers)

2. Place adhesive on cover, then center on the back of the printed paper. Miter corners as shown below.

3. Use adhesive to glue down flaps. Then cover the back with a piece of paper (cardstock or printed paper, it doesn't matter) that is 1/8" smaller on both sides than the cover.

4. Punch both covers and all of your pages with your Bind It All or other binding system. I don't have a set amount of pages that I include. Your pad's thickness will be determined by what size o-ring (or other fastener) that you use. My pads are usually approximately 1/4" thick.

5. Assemble your cover and pages and bind them together. If you're using a Bind It All and have trouble remembering what order to put your covers in before you bind them, check out this great tutorial: Bind-It-All Basics Part 2. In short, put your pad in order of the finished order (front cover on top of pages on top of back cover), flip the back cover up on top of the top cover, then insert your o-rings.

If you're using a Bind It All, remember these 4 things:
- pull out the black "T" on the back of the BIA. It serves to stabilize it against your surface as you pull down on the lever
- make sure your using the right setting based on the size of your o-rings (that's what those white lines on the binding surface are for - they correspond to o-ring sizes)
- be sure to hold your o-rings flat against the surface of your BIA to help ensure that your rings close evenly/properly
- occasionally clean out your BIA (there's a little "hatch" on the side) because it doesn't punch well when it gets full

6. Next, add your desired image and any embellishments to the front of your notepad. Voila!

I used this cute little Olivia image from DigiStamp Boutique and colored her with Copics (of course). The dp is from the "Simply Delightful" stack by My Minds Eye. It's a great stack because it has so many different patterns and color schemes!

And don't forget that Sally-Ann is still running a 20% off sale at the DigiStamp Boutique site. The discount is good on all the images in the shop.

Lisa

Fab Friday Find

While checking out the stamping and scrapbooking section of my public library, I ran across this book: The Encyclopedia of Greeting Card Tools & Techniques by Susan Pickering Rothamel.

In addition to the great info, there are lots of inspiring samples. You can a lot by reading the book but you'll also be inspired just looking through the samples. There are also biographical entries for several stamping professionals (including Dee Gruening, whom I used to watch on the Carol Duvall show years ago) which also feature examples of their work. The book also includes tips on card composition and card submissions.

Check it out!
Lisa

Fab Fourth Fab Friday

This week's Fab Friday post has a 4th of July theme. I recently signed up to receive emails from Bo Bunny (love their paper!). I received an email today promoting their free desktop calendar themed wallpaper. This month's wallpaper has a patriotic red, white and blue theme. Great! They even have a detailed PDF file with instructions on how to upload your own photos into the wallpaper template. Fun! I can't wait to try it out! Here's the link:

Bo Bunny Freebies

Today's card isn't exactly Fourth of July, but it does feature this Kraftin Kimmie bathing suit beauty, Eleanor. For me, Fourth of July means hot weather and swimming at the lake! (Oh, and fireworks, too, of course!) I am so happy to finally have time to participate in one of Kraftin' Kimmies challenges again. And this week's challenge is "Make a Splash". This was perfect as I own three swimming themed different Kraftim Kimmie stamps.

For all those in the U.S. - Have a wonderful holiday weekend!
Lisa

Fab Friday Giveaway

I found the coolest blog candy today! Pink Paislee and Glimmer Mist have paired up to offer one great prize package on the Create blog.

Does these colors say "Summer" or what?

So, head on over to the Create blog and enter yourself!

Lisa

Fab Friday Freebies!

It's been a while since I posted a Fab Friday post and even longer since I posted links to some free stuff. So, here are some goodies for you. :)


Are you into digital scrapbooking? Or maybe you wanted to try it, but didn't want to invest a lot to find out if you liked it? Check out ShabbyPrincess, home of free shabby designs for scrapbookers

This next site has been around for a long time - you can find just about any template imaginable on Tami Matta's site.

And you only have a few more days to grab the cute Dino freebie over at DigiStamp Boutique.

Enjoy the freebies!
Lisa

Fab Friday

A while ago, I ran across a terrific tutorial for combining digital images. Check it out:
Creating a Scene

And for some great tips on recoloring digital images, check out this tutorial:
Modern Flowers
(Although this tutorial uses Page Plus, you could achieve similar effects with Photo Shop or whatever picture editing software you own.)

I'll be back soon with another card!
Lisa

Springtime Basket

Welcome to Fab Friday! Recently, Gina K posted a link on Facebook for a video tutorial for springtime baskets.
Craft Segment-Springtime Baskets
 

You can download the template for the basket here:
Gina K downloads

These looked so simple that even yours truly could make them, so I decided to give it a try. I wanted something green to put out for St. Patrick's Day, so I used some green cardstock, some shamrock dp and a few green Prima flowers to make this decoration for my mantel:

I'm planning to make another one for Easter. It would look cute with some dyed Easter eggs, wouldn't it? And it would be even better with some Easter chocolate! :)

Lisa

Fab Friday Freebies

I've rounded up several freebies for this week's Fab Friday.

First up, this cute little Whoopsi Daisy spring digi. I am more than ready for spring!
Spring free digi

And this cute little cupcake on the DigiStamp Boutique site. Sally-Ann offers a great new freebie every month!
DSB cupcake freebie

The Angel Company has several great freebies on their Downloads page, including this seasonal project:
St. Patty's Day candy wrapper
For more St. Patrick's Day ideas, be sure to visit the Savvy Projects blog here:
Seeing Shamrocks blog hop.

Lisa

Fab Friday Technique

This week's Wednesday with Wings card featured some bandana print paper. I remembered seeing this technique online several years ago, so I went in search of tutorials. (Using your favorite search engine, a search on bandana technique tutorial will yield lots of results.)  However, all of the tutorials required glossy paper, Staz-On ink, ink refills and a spray bottle. This seemed way too involved for a little piece of paper to use as background on one card! So, I came up with this quick and easy version.

Supplies needed: solid color cardstock (I used TAC's Scarlet), black ink (I used Memento because I wanted something that would show up well against the deep red cs), paisley or other background design stamps (I used a retired TAC set) and a white gel pen.

In the picture below, you'll see the initial steps:
LEFT SIDE: original cardstock
RIGHT, UPPER CORNER:  medium size paisley design stamped onto paper
RIGHT, BOTTOM CORNER: small flowers added to fill in empty spots

Next, white accents were added with a gel pen. I found this worked best when I kept my accents confined to a small area. It was easier to get a smooth, solid application of white gel ink.(Notice the paisley in the middle where I attempted to fill in the outline. I wasn't happy with how it turned out, so I decided to add the white dots around the paisleys instead.)

Some day, I will probably try to make "real" bandana paper with reinkers, glossy paper, etc. But if you want to make some bandana print paper in a hurry, try out my technique. Be sure to let me know if you do!
Lisa

Fab Friday Freebie!

For this week's Fab Friday I want share with you the February Freebie on DigiStamp Boutique:

Isn't she the cutest? I made this card with some of the other Love Bugs:

Also, check out this month's specially priced collection of images. This month's Offer of the Month is the adorable little Grace.
Lisa

An Almost Not-So-Fab Friday

My original Fab Friday project had some, ummm, "technical difficulties". But, I have a wonderful project link to share with you instead!

I ran across this adorable Valentines project on Laurie Schmidlin's Just Give Me Stamps blog the other day and bookmarked it:  Heart-Shaped Goodie Box . I've been looking for an excuse to buy those heart-shaped Nesties. ;-)
 
You'll have to scroll down part way to find the heart shaped box tutorial. On your way down, check out the link for her mini notecard holder. It's pretty awesome, too!

Have a wonderful weekend! I'll be checking in on Sunday with a new DigiStamp Boutique card and I may even sneak in another card on Saturday.

Fab Friday

I ran across this adorable Valentines project a week ago and knew it would be perfect for Fab Friday!

Valentine Mailbox

I wanted to try this out first. It was a really easy project to put together, in part because of the great tutorial. I love step-by-step photos! (My apologies for the photo - my project doesn't show up very well against my work surface. Once my craft room renovations are complete, I hope to move my "photo studio" to another area of my craft room.)

(The sentiment is from a TAC set (Mice Day-T3301). The cardstock and dp were from my stash.)

If you're in the mid-MO area and would like some hands on help making this project, I'll be hosting a Valentines workshop on Sunday, January 29th. We'll be making one of these mini-mailboxes, as well as a candy bar wrapper and the Mice Day Valentines Day card recently featured on my blog. If you're interested in attending, please email me (lisajtmo@yahoo.com) no later than Thursday January 27th.

Fab Friday Returns!

As I mentioned earlier this week, I'm revamping my posting schedule with the new year. One of the changes I'm making is the return of "Fab Friday". What's Fab Friday? Well.... it may be a freebie I've found, it maybe a link to an amazing tutorial or whatever else I think is Fab that week. ;-)

This week's Fab Friday is about organizing your crafting supplies. There's something about a new year that just lends itself to a major reorganization & cleaning. That's certainly what I've been doing since the start of the new year.

Today I ran across this invitation to a craft room blog hop: Bella's Link Party/Blog Hop. Check out the blogs that are linked at the bottom of the post. There are some great tips out there! My favorite one was Karen's Sew Many Ways craft room makeover. Not only because it looks FABULOUS (don't you wish you had that much space?) but because it has a lot of great, low cost tips.

I subscribe to BHG's Scrapbooks Etc. newsletters and the most recent one featured lots of articles/links on organizing your craft supplies. I have to say that I don't normally find their tips all that useful, but I found some good ideas here: Low-Cost Scrapbook Storage Solutions and Mini Storage Solutions. (I still hate that you have to page through the tips one at a time.)

My plan for this weekend is to finish my room so that I can join in Bella's craft room blog hop. I can't wait to be done so I can sit back and enjoy crafting in my room. :)

Fab Friday Freebies!

Since my PWCO boss, Peg, has so nicely given me the day off from posting, I decided to share a "Fab Friday" with you all instead! I came across these free printable templates today:

http://www.waltzingmousestamps.com/collections/freebies

Pretty cool, n'est pas? I'm going to try making some of the stocking stuffer gift card holders for the upcoming Hatton craft show.

If you don't have plans this evening, please join us in the PWCO chat room for the latest Rachelle Anne Miller stamp release. It's going to be a blast! :) Check out the blog for details.

A Punchy Fab Friday

While reading the 7KidsCollegeFund blog, I found a link to this awesome tutorial:
Bordering circles and ovals with your border punches

You can find another sample on the 7KidsCollegeFund blog:
7Kids card (it's the pink Tilda card - you have to scroll down past a few others)

I started playing around with the technique myself tonight. You do really have to cut almost all the way through to make the strip bendable.