Fiskars Craft

Some snowman fun

We have a few gift cards on our Christmas list this year and I thought I would add a little giggle to their gift with one of these ...

They are quick and easy to make too.  There are LOTS of fun tic tac projects out there in cyberland, here is the link to the one that I used.  I modified the images so that you can print them on 6x4 paper (cut down cardstock to size) - here is the snowman (image is the perfect size for the medium Round 'n Round 1" circle squeeze punch) and the poem.  I used the standard Tic Tac pack and cut my cover to be 4 5/8" x 3", with the spine scored at 2" and 2 5/8".
 
Start by cutting and embossing the cover.  I have used my Fiskars ScrapBoss (Winter Wonderland stencil), Fiskars Mini ShapeBoss (Noel stencil) and Fiskars Texture Plate (Snowflakes) with my Fiskars Texture Tool and Fiskars Embossing Stylus.

Print off and colour the images, punch out the snowman using your small Fiskars Round 'n Round squeeze punch then mat - I used the large Fiskars Seal of Approval squeeze punch - this scalloped circle is the perfect fit!!!  Cut out the poem and mat.

I adhered the ribbon (18") to the centre line of the cover using double-sided tape then foam dotted the snowman on top for a bit of added dimension.

Here is a close up of one of the covers, where I have sanded the embossing to reveal the white snowflakes

Here is a close up of the inside, so that you can see the fun poem.  The Tic Tac pack is adhered in place with a dob of Helmar 450 Quick Dry but you could use a glue dot instead.


WISHING YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Tracy :)

Need some last minute tags?

Luckily you can rely on your Fiskars Mini ShapeBoss to help!!!

The great thing about hand embossing with your Mini ShapeBoss is that you can pick and choose the images you want to emboss and put them exactly where you want them to be on your project.



For my Christmas tags I hand embossed some Core'dinations Black Magic cardstock and sanded the embossed edges to expose the green core underneath, then added some red ribbon, red rhinestones and Stardust Stickles to bling them up a bit.  Two completely different tags made using the same Happy Holidays stencil.

Have fun with your last minute Crafty Christmas Preparations,
Tracy :)

PS - if you are looking for this fun embossing system, I know my local Spotlight store has both the Mini Scrapboss and the ShapeBoss and it is sure to be available at your local scrapbook / craft store too.

Thinking PINK for World Cardmaking Day

Here is the pink card I made for World Cardmaking Day

Do you know all the Fiskars tools that I used?

I always start with my green Self Healing Craft Mat and FingerTip Craft Knife.

Used my Mini ShapeBoss to dry emboss the sentiment with the Embossing Stylus.

The black paper lace was made using the Sunburst border punch.

The flower is made of pretty punchy layers, starting with a Medium Round 'n Round squeeze punch (a circle base that all the petals attach to). The green petals are large That's Amore squeeze punch hearts, the flowers are the Extra Large and Large Oopsie Daisy squeeze punches.  All the petals were sanded to show the colour core of the beautiful Core'dinations Whitewash cardstock then curled using a wooden skewer.  The green hearts were adhered to the circle, a hole pierced into the centre of it, as well as both flowers and they were secured together with a brad and adhered onto the card using Helmar 450 Quick Dry.

Hope you enjoy my World Cardmaking Day / Think Pink card :)

A punchy flower card for my Dad

Father's Day is just around the corner, so is my Dad's birthday and a couple of other birthdays too, so masculine cards are in demand at our house this month.

Dad loves his garden and I love making punchy flowers, so I thought I would combine our loves and ended up with this card.

The Core Amour cardstock from Core'dinations has a lovely texture and the grey-on-grey colour combo looks nice and masculine too.  I used my Mini-ShapeBoss to emboss "Dad", rounded the corners with my 1/4 Round Squeeze Punch, then lightly sanded off the top of the embossed letters and edges for added contrast.

Here is a close up of my punchy flower - do you recognise all the punches used?

To make the flower I start with a medium Round 'n Round squeeze punch circle for the base.  Next comes 4x large That's Amour squeeze punch hearts, curling them for dimension using a wooden skewer, attaching them to the circle base with some adhesive (I use Helmar 450 Quick Dry).  Then layer an XL & L Oopsie Daisy squeeze punch flower on top, finishing off with 2x mediume May Flower squeeze punch flowers.  Before attaching them all together I curl the ends of each petal then pierce a hole in the middle, so that they can be secured in place with a brad.  The "Dad" block is mounted on foam dots to match the dimension of the flower.

A quick change of colours or background pattern would make this card work for any occasion.

Hope you enjoyed seeing this card and I look forward to having you share some of your cards with us soon :)

A punchy card for my Father

My Dad's birthday and Father's Day are just around the corner, so here is one of the cards I have made to help him celebrate.

Do you know all the Fiskars tools I used?

Started off with my Mini-ShapeBoss and Embossing Stylus to emboss the letters, then took my large Seal of Approval squeeze punch to punch each one out.  As I used Core'dinations cardstock, I sanded off the embossing and outer edges to highlight them.  The XL Seal of Approval is behind the metal clock face (a lucky bargain on sale at Spotlight yesterday).

Next came the banner bits - I used the Jenni Bowlin Blue Ribbon squeeze punch (thanks heaps Lyn, that was the punch I won from you earlier this year) but only punched along a strip using the top section of the punch.

Last, but definitely not least came my Scalloped Sentiment border punch for the pretty edge along the striped paper.  The dots are embossed dots on Core'dinations cardstock that have been sanded back for contrast.

I had heaps of fun making this card and hope that my Dad likes it too.
Thank You for looking,
Tracy

FYI - I have entered this card in one of the challenges of the Core'dinations Hard Core online crop, so please wish me luck!

The colours and textures of Rango

Tami had some fun challenges to celebrate the Oscars on Fiskateers.

The 1st challenge was to create a project inspired by one of the films nominated for an Oscar, with the catch being that you had to have seen the film.  After searching and searching through all the nominations I finally found one that I had seen.  Rango was nominated for and won Best Animated Feature Film.  For those of you that haven't seen it, Rango is the main character, a cute little chameleon.  Here is the card I created thanks to the colours and textures inspired by Rango.  The Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch reminded me of the shape around his eyes, as did the XL Seal of Approval squeeze punch.  Put an XL Round 'n Round squeeze punch circle behind it so that the scallops had a bit more contrast.

How do you like the textures?

Dry embossing is so much fun to do.  The embossed "birthday" sentiment was done using my Fiskars Mini ShapeBoss and Embossing Stylus.

The green layers were embossed using my "Scales" Fiskars Texture Plate with the help of a Fiskars Embossing Tool and Embossing Stylus.

Next came the envelope challenge, so I created an envelope for my Rango card.  The card was too big to make an envelope for using 12x12 paper, so I was lucky to have a 6.5" square envelope in my stash and the card just fitted in.  After a bit of folding from the back, I was able to emboss the birthday boy's name on the front of the envelope using my Fiskars Mini ShapeBoss.

There are so many different stencils for embossing with your Fiskars ScrapBoss and Mini ShapeBoss and Texture Plates to suit any occasion.

Do you have an embossed project to share with us?  Send a photo through to us at fiskarscraft@yahoo.com.au so share your embossed creation here on the blog.

Fetchy Sketchy Friday - 5 photo Layout and step by step

one of my fave tools with fiskars has to be the Ultra Shape Express cutter. So this layout design is centered around that. (i'm also on a ripping, crinkled - distress kick)

Here is my layout:

 and the details

I used the following tools

Fiskars Ultra shape express cutter
Fiskars Leaf template
Fiskars A4 sized cutting mat
Fiskars Scrap boss with Zoo Stencil and embossing stylus
Fiskars Tripple Track Trimmer
Fiskars No 5 micro tip scissors

Here is how I did it:

1. I tore a thick strip about 3" and adhered that to the middle of the background
2. I tore two 1" strips and crinkled it up by scunching them up into balls and then unrolling them but not fully
3. I stapled those to the layout top and bottom
4. Next I got out my Ultra Shape Express and freehand cut out my swirls then took my leaf template took off the orange spacer and cut out a leaf shape. I crinkled the edges of the leaf with my fingers.
5. I trimmed my photos
6. Then I took out my scrap boss and zoo template and used the stylus to emboss the monkey/branch on to the cardstock. Then took the sanding block out and lightly sanded the surface.
7. I stapled on the swirls and found some printed aceate cut out the leaves from that with the scissors and stapled those to the layout.
8. Cut out the embossed monkey from the cardstock and put Fiskars Adheasive Foam behind it to make it pop up.
9. Added photos and used a paint pen to draw on the Faux stitching. finished off by adding the leaf and journaled on that.

Done - thanks for dropping by!

If you do a layout using this sketch we would love to see it.
email us: fiskarscraft@yahoo.com.au

Debbie Buckland
artycrafty.wordpress.com

Punchy inchies

Inchies are one-inch square versions of the fun crafting technique of creating Artist Trading Cards (ATC's).  These can be amazingly detailed tiny, teenie squares, collected and admired singly, or they can be simple squares arranged to make designs or patterns when combined together.

Here is how I have made my latest punchy inchies.

Started by cutting up lots and lots of squares - 1" squares, 3/4" squares and 1/2" squares.

Next comes the punching, LOTS and LOTS of punching using my Fiskars 1/4 round squeeze punch.  To punch these tiny squares, all you do is take some post-it notes (or paper with a repositionable adhesive square in the corner), turn your punch upside down and line up your square for a neatly aligned corner punch.

Keep punching until each square has been punched on opposite sides.

Adhere the layers together.

Soon these inchies will be assembled together, but my next step was to dry emboss the sentiment "Baby Girl" on the card using my Fiskars Mini-ShapeBoss.  The most important thing to remember when dry embossing is that you are embossing from the back of your project and any letters or words will be a reverse image while you are working.  I have found that it is easier to mark out your words on a scrap of paper as they will look while you are embossing - it helps avoid any confusion and spelling errors, it also helps to get the spacing and placement of your letters right before you actually put your Fiskars embossing stylus to work.

The fun part is to make a faux quilt with all the inchies and adhering them to the front of the card.

Another fun effect is to rotate the blocks to the diagonal.  I think these would look great as a border on a baby layout.

One last handy hint to share - the post-it notes or a repositionable adhesive square in the corner of a piece of paper are also great for punching our shapes from all your odd little bits of scrap paper and cardstock.  You would be surprised just how much you can get out of your tiny scraps.  All I do is take a variety of pop-up and small lever punches, turn them upside down, lift the "confetti" trap open, so that I can see the punch design and then rotate the paper around until I find a section that fits.  Take a piercing tool or tweezers to peel off the bits of paper that get stuck on your punched pieces.  Bundle them all up into a resealable bag - you now have plenty of embellishments on hand for future projects and you have used up your odd bits of scraps at the same time, keeping your scrappy space neat and tidy.

Hope you all have a Punchy Day!!!

ScrapBoss ... scrap what???

Have you heard of a ScrapBoss or a Mini-ShapeBoss?

They are fabulous Fiskars embossing systems.

Using the Fiskars embossing stylus you can dry emboss designs from your embossing stencils on to paper, cardstock, vellum, even thin metal layers like soft drink cans (be careful of any sharp edges).

The stencils come in two layers, you put your project in between the layers, with the clear stencil labelled "top" on top.  If there is any writing, it will be a mirror image while you are embossing - when you are finished embossing and turn your project "front-side-up" the words will be the right way to read.

The orange pegs hold the stencils in place.  Insert some pegs along one side of the stencil, attaching it securely to the embossing unit, slip your project, aligning with the design you are embossing then insert the rest of the pegs.  Remember that you are embossing from the back of your project, so make sure that you have your paper or card inserted and aligned correctly.

The embossing stylus comes in two sizes and each has two different sized tips, one has smaller tips for finer designs, the larger one has tips for embossing larger areas.

Both the ScrapBoss and Mini-ShapeBoss come with all the tools you need to get started.  You can keep adding stencils to your collection so that you have some for every occasion.

I like to mix and match elements from different stencils to create my own designs.

Here is the start of a card, embossing the frame using the "Elegant" Mini-ShapeBoss stencil.

Next I have embossed a rose in the centre using one from the "Victorian" stencil.

It is so quick and easy to create an elegant embossed card.

Now for the ScrapBoss - it is not just for layouts, it works great on small projects too!

The "Romance" stencil has a beautiful flourish and rings that I thought would make a pretty wedding card.

For the rings I used the finest tipped embossing stylus and for the larger areas I used the biggest tip on the other stylus.  You just need to make sure that you press firmly and emboss all areas within the stencil design.  Of course, if you miss a bit, you can always insert your project again and fix any "missed" sections.

For my wedding card I wanted to include a layered bow as an extra embellishment.  First you adhere a strip of ribbon around the card, with the join in the middle at the front.  Cut 3 lengths of ribbon - 4", 6" and 8" - my super sharp Fiskars Microtip scissors are great for cutting ribbon.  Fold each ribbon into a flat loop, with the ends overlapping in the middle and adhere together (I use double-sided tape for this step).

Layer the ribbon loops together with the "join" side facing down and adhere them in place (I use Helmar 450 Quick Dry for this step).  I find that an extra spot of glue is needed to hold the bottom, largest loops flatter.

Take a short length of ribbon and adhere around the layered loops so that it fits neatly in the middle, with the overlap on the bottom side under the largest loop.  Adhere the layered bow on top of the strip of ribbon and the card is finished.

Are you ready to do some hand embossing now?

How about making an embossed card for Lyn's Think Pink challenge?

I look forward to seeing what you create!

Kidzors - Have you seen these?

I spotted these first in Spotlight Bayswater last week and then again today in SPOTLIGHT BAIRNSDALE.

How cute are these!! The kids will love having their own pair....I've got to have some to put away for SAM.....he's not even 2 yet....but it won't be long and he'll be able to cut with scissors as he is so keen to learn new tricks each and every day......I was surprised by the range of Kids Scissors that Spotlight now have on range.................looky what else I spotted today....hanging on those Spotlight shelves...the NEW LEVER and CORNER LEVER PUNCHES......woohoo...............

Funny thing was that whilst I was taking these pics....a customer dropped by to ask for help with some Fiskars Templates.....can you imagine her surprise when I said who I was and what I was doing in the store......LOL!  So after a few minutes of chatting and talking about what this lady was looking for with her son......we settled on the mixed set of Fiskars Templates......so another happy customer today!

This in turn led to a discussion about the Ultra Shape Express and the Fiskars Craft Mat.....as an extension for using the product that she had purchased today.....one happy lady and child!

....but wait.....................there's more.....

and more..................

and some good oldies as well...............

It's great to see these smaller SPOTLIGHT stores like Bairnsdale taking a greater range of Fiskars Tools

......crafters in EAST GIPPSLAND are going to be in their element now shopping for Fiskars Tools!!

So what are you waiting for......why not check out your local SPOTLIGHT store this week to see these fabulous Fiskars Tools for yourself.....and if you would like to see a Fiskars Demonstration in your local Spotlight store...............ask them......speak to the Craft Manager in the store!

For an update on all the latest Fiskars Tools to hit the SPOTLIGHT STORES...just click on the SPOTLIGHT LOGO on the righthand sidebar of this Blog....and you can see for yourself....

I'm spending a few days crafting with my good friend Kay this week....we are creating a fun Christening Card tomorrow and some other fun BABY PROJECTS.....as we are both grand parents now...started some painting with Kaisercraft paints this afternoon....ooh love getting all messy when I'm having fun and immersing myself in crafting for pleasure!!!  I have mess spread all over the place.....but it sure is fun.....LOL!

Happy Crafting!!

xoxo

Lyn