Fiskars Craft

Inspiration after PAPERIFIC - got me some washi tape

Last weekend I brought my first lot of "washi tape" to have a play with.......OMG.....I love it!

I also purchased a pack of 6 felt owls.....and sat down to have a play..................grabbed my favourite FISKARS TOOLS....

.......and had making this fun GIFT BAG made from an envelope....

I learnt this technique after doing the Make'n'take on the ENVELOPE SOLUTIONS STAND last weekend at PAPERIFIC in MELBOURNE.......SO EASY TO CREATE!! So on SUNDAY I snaffled the envelope that Rod was given for Father's Day....and have already started to create.......LOL!

As you can see I have had fun distressing the edges a bit with fine sandpaper......and I just have to cover the front with an embellishment......maybe another owl....not sure yet......

SAMUEL (my grandson) shall get the first bag which I'll fill with sweets for his 3rd birthday next month.

I have also finished his birthday card which I'll share soon.....and I've also finished creating GEMMA'S 1st birthday card....

We have 4 family birthday's in the next month so I have been having fun personalising some fun cards......shall share them all soon on here with you all......

 

xoxo

Lyn Dwyer

Lots of Punching Fun

Hello all.

A few weeks ago I challenged the girls here at our Adelaide Fiskars Crop with lots of fun with punching.

At this crop we had fun creating an off the page item, a topiary tree. I wanted to show the girls different ways to create flowers using many different Fiskars punches.

Here's what we created...

Can you see all the Fiskars punches that I have used to create the different flowers ?? I even managed to create one using one of the new Fiskars interchangeable border punches (the spiky looking flower).

And who knew there was so many different types of flowers that you can create using the Fiskars Scalloped Circle Squeeze punch !

As you can see from this photo I got the girls punching to the hearts content... hehehe or not.. We played around with one of the new Fiskars interchangeable punches to jazz up the bottom of the pot.

The finished result that the girls created was amazing. I loved seeing them play around with the punches.

We all agreed too that the new Fiskars Interchangeable punches are so nice. Both designs and storage of them is great. I cannot wait to play wth the punches so more.

Happy crafting !

TFL, Michelle x

For my Princess

Today is a very special day for us.

Today my little princess, Miss Kiah, turns 5.

I often wonder where five years have gone, as it has flown past that is for sure.

I cannot believe that next term Miss Kiah starts school as it seems like only yesterday I was rocking her in my arms.

We have faced a few little adventures with her that made life a little bit of a challenge but we wouldn't have had it any other way.

We are truly blessed to have her in out lives.

She has come so far in the past year and bit since she got her glasses and has completely changed from the demanding high maintenance child to a truly confident little girl.

She has truly blossomed and changed so much.

She will always be the princess of our family (personality based through and through!).

So for her birthday this year she wanted a card with a princess on it. So I got busy with my water colour pens, lots of bling and my Fiskars Interchangeable Border punch.

Here's a card fit for a princess that's for sure !

Happy Birthday Princess.. we love you lots and lots poppet!

TFL, M x

Hydrangea Spring Wall Decor

Difficulty rating: Beginner

Designer: Cheryl Waters

Spring is in bloom and there's no better way to celebrate an 'Ode to Spring' than to craft with lovely colors and tools. One of my favorite seasons, I love the colors that Spring offers, the beautiful blooms and the soft fragrance.

Robin Williams says that Spring is nature's way of saying, 'Let's party!'" Oh how true. I love the adventure of Spring as things blossom and bloom. I love finding sweet birds nests with eggs soon to hatch. Spring is a lot about life and you might also say that of crafting and art as well. Like art, Spring radiates beautiful color, texture and movement. Christopher Morley shares that 'April prepares her green traffic light and the world thinks Go.' With that, letís get started on how to make your own Hydrangea Spring Wall Decor.

Instructions:

1. Remove the contents of the frame including the glass. Keep the paper from the frame as a template for the area in which you will create your wall decor piece.

2. Trace the 'frame paper' onto watercolor paper to ensure size of Hydrangea Wall Decor fits inside frame and trim.

3. Draw an oval with a pencil as your flower blossom shape. Don't worry if itís not perfect. That's the beauty of it.

4. Next punch several shapes with squeeze punches from patterned paper. These shapes will be used as the petals for the flower. This is an ideal project us use up your scraps.

5. Fold the punched shapes in half and then in half again. Crumple slightly and open them back up. This gives your petals and overall flower 3-D dimension.

6. With a thick coat of Mod Podge, cover flower blossom area (oval).

7. Place the 'petals' (punched shapes) inside the circle.

8. Next with a pencil draw a stem for your flower and leaves.

9. Using your drawn stem and flower as a template, form a piece of floral wire into the same shape. Trim with Titanium Snips (the Ultimate Crafting Scissors).

10. Once you have your wire shaped into a stem and leaves, erase the pencil drawing.

11. Trace leaves that are slightly bigger than the wire onto fabric. Cut out the fabric using Razor Edge scissors.

12. Secure fabric leaves behind the wire with embroidery floss and needle.

13. Secure stem with Mod Podge and hold down until attached.

14. Watercolor a garden for your flower.

15. Lastly using Fiskars Henna Petals and the Easy Stamp Press, randomly stamp in your flower garden.

16. Replace your Hydrangea back into the frame without the glass.

17. Enjoy your Hydrangea. You can create just one Hydrangea Spring Wall Decor piece or a couple to create a garden. Enjoy all the glory this season that Spring has to offer.

Cheryl Waters Cheryl is one of the lead Fiskateers, #002, and enjoys teaching, scrapbooking, altered arts, fine art, and drawing. Cheryl enjoys ‘thinking outside the box’ with her projects and her style of scrapbooking leans more towards Shabby Chic, although she enjoys all styles of scrapping. Cheryl’s Blog on Fiskateers.com

..................................................................................... I found this article by LEAD FISKATEER Cheryl Waters over at  http://www2.fiskars.com/Activities/Crafting and wanted to share it with you all.......Cheryl creates amazing Mixed Media Projects.......for further crafty inspiration make sure you drop by  http://www2.fiskars.com/Activities/Crafting

xoxo

Lyn Dwyer

Flower making Tutorial x3

Hi all... I'm on a flower making fettish at the moment and decided to share it with you. ;)
Also a good way to use up your bits of scrap paper.
Some of these have been adapted from other Tutorials from the internet.

The First flower we will be making is....
Scallop punch flower.

1. Punch 3 Scallop Circles with the Fiskars XL Sealed with aproval Squeese punch

2. Cut at every second dip in the scallops (there will be a one bump left- but never mind that)

3. one spray of water onto each scallop circle

4. Squew up the flower carefully and then make it flat again

5. Quick dry the scallops with a heat gun.

*******See "Footnote" here for variations before going further******

6. Glue the layers ontop of each other

7. Put your chosen flower center in the flower

Top to bottom.... Flowersoft Heather, Kaisercraft rhinestones, Cloud9 raindot --- the centers are endless in what you can put there.

****foonote***
Before gluing the layers together try:
a. inking edges in darker ink pad such as Early Espresso ink pad by Stampin Up!

b. Gold or silver heat emboss the flower petals

 

.

Second Tutorial: Boarder Punch Flower Tutorial

The aboved flower is made with the Fiskars Grass boarder punch. Cool aye.
1. Punch the grass boarder punch

2. Cut the strip at 2cm mark on the fiskars SureCuts Trimmer

3. Punch out a circle with Fiskars L circle squeeze punch

4. Spritz the punched boarder with water

5. Squew up the boarder and then make it flatish again

6. Get out a good strong tape glue or a hot glue gun and use the circle as a base.
Start out in them middle working around till you finish the boarder strip.

I made sure the petals wher pointing up and not flat at first when I was working it.

7.  Trim the circle to the base of the flower, flatten out the flower with your fingers and add some Flowersoft or your choice of center and that flower is done!

 

 

.

Flower Tutorial number 3: Ultra Shape Express flower

1. This flower is done with the Ultrashape Express cutter and Cupcake template.

Cut three of the flowers out from the template

2. With a foam pad and a Fiskars embossing stylus mark out lines from the petals on the font side

3. With the larger ball of the embossing stylus on the back side of the flowers lightly shape between the embossed lines... then flip it back over to the front side and emboss the middle of the flowers...

4. Glue all the layers together as shown...

5. now add your choice of center and you are done!

 

.

Now no lot of new embellishments is any good without some packaging to help display your new goodies!
Get a cereal box and cut a piece from it to fit into a ziplock sandwich bag...

Now blue tack the flowers to the cardboard and put into the bag.

Now your new embellishments await your very command!
(I find pre-making and putting my embellishments in bags helps keep their shape and are easy to use straight away without having to make some extra thing when doing a layout/project or card etc)

Happy creating!

If you do a layout using this sketch we would love to see it.
email us: [email protected]

Debbie Buckland
artycrafty.wordpress.com

Crop Teaser!

Just a bit of a sneak peek of what we will be getting up to this weekend.

Just to let everyone know too that the extras you will need to bring are: -

* Fine paint brush

* Paper piercer

* Craft knife with sharp blade

* Orange stick - if you have one

* Tweezers

Can't wait to catch up with everyone.

TFL, Michelle x

Fantastic February - Sketch Time!

Sorry for the Delay.... February's Challenge will over lap into March so you have until 3/10/12 to upload your submission! Thank you to Helmar Designer, Connie Mercer for her February Challenge Idea!

Yes it is that time again to get your glue on and join us in this months Fantastic February Sketch Challenge!! Lydell Quin worked her magic again and came up with a fantastic sketch that will sure to please~so get your glue and get ready to make a beauty!

And here's my take on the sketch

By taking the Helmar challenge and uploading a project you are automatically entered to win a random drawing for Helmar products! Each month they pick a random winner to get some Helmar goodies!

What a fun way to play along! Head over to the Helmar Design Team Blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have been up to.

Get Crafting, TFL Michellex

Altering to my hearts content!

OMG! I have been dying to share this with everyone since I finished this last week...

I have been sharing a few sneak peeks on my facebook page as I have gone along.. but held off from showing everyone the completed project.

Let me explain.... We had a new cheap "junk"shop.. and I mean junk in the nicest way, I always find lots of goodies in these types of shops.

Anyways.. a few month's ago I saw a photo (sorry cannot for the life of me remember where) of a shopping centre that had displayed umbrellas that had been decorated by school children and hung upside down with things suspended from them. I was in love with that idea. So when I new went to the shops I checked out my favourite "junk" shops and found some Chinese fabric parasols.

They have been sitting on my desk for a while as I have been snowed under with study... plus to honest my mojo had gone north for a holiday I think..lol

So.. I finally decided it was time to start what I had envisioned. With no real plan in mind I started on recovering the umbrella with a clean base to start with of calico using some Helmar 450 to adhere it to the umbrella base. Because it is quick drying it was finished in no time and I couldn't get impatient.

 Next I made up some paper vines using some brown paper lunch bags, ink and some of Helmar's Kids Craft Glue.. my kids weren't very impressed when I stole it back to use..lol.

Still not having any clear plan at to what I was doing.. I then adhered some tulle to the umbrella using Helmar 450 , as I knew I wanted to create some dimension to the butterflies that I would be adding later. So with that all done after using lots of Helmar 450, Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots and Helmar Kid's Craft Glue I finally had what I had envisioned.

Here's it is.

It was a little hard to photograph as it is suspended from the ceiling in my youngest two girls bedroom. Plus the fact the size also at it is about 50cm in diameter! and has butterflies suspended down from it, which move, using fishing line.

My two girls spent half an hour laying on the flower beneath it... must admit I was laying there with them too.. just looking up at it.

I am so happy with how it has turned out and I know my job was made some much easier in creating it with a LOT of help from my Helmar adhesive goodies.

Gotta love thinking outside the box with Helmar!

TFL, Michelle x

Totally Noteworthy

Hi all
This year I am doing a little "faithbooking" - Faithbooking is a scrapbooking form of your faith. This year I am doing challenges from http://triplethescraps.blogspot.com

Anyone can do "faithbooking" just take your faith and scrapbook it. No photos needed if you don't have any. Its also another form of journalling. You don't need to be a Christian to do it. What ever faith you have it is worth putting on paper right?

The bird “cameo” was made by me out of Creative Paperclay/stamps and Mold Putty.
I used Fiskars interchangeable boarder punch cartridge “noteworthy”
corner punch used below is Fiskars 3 in 1 “Summer Fun” squeeze corner punch.

And the page opened up….

The base of this page is the cardboard from the back of an art pad and the flap is packaging from a set of embellishments.
Scripture pictures where printed from 365 Promises a great blog telling you a promise from God every day. Worth visiting in the morning and thinking about the daily scripture for the rest of the day.

Thanks for looking.
Debbie Buckland
artycrafty.wordpress.com

Seeing Circles !

Had fun scrapping up a storm with my Mad about Scrapping DT kit this month.

The kit was full of Christmas fun and I loved playing around with the more traditional Christmas colours for a change. I created 3 Christmas Layouts using the gorgeous Authentique Christmas Range.

This is just one of the layouts I created using this kit

and YES.... My Fiskars Ultra Shape Xpress Cutter

and Circle template

was used in a big way to cut out all those circles.

Made my job so much easier thats for sure!

TFL, Michelle xxx