Circle Shaker Tag Tutorial

Hello friends! I hope you are well! We had a good weekend, with mostly sunny weather. Yesterday, Leo and I went on a partly new walk which included ice cream, cows, a new playground and a fun old fashioned water-pump.

Today I have a shaker tag to share with you, which can easily be turned into a card instead, or you could just use one or two of the techniques and skip the shaker part.

At the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have a Going Around In Circles theme this week. I love circles, so this was a great theme for me. Don't miss the last project by our May guest designer Cath Wilson, with her gorgeous blog Inky Fingers.  

I made a circle shaker tag and also included circles in other forms, sequins, doodled circles and stamps. One of the great things about circles is that they can be combined in countless ways, bigger and smaller circles, solid and open circles and circles in any other form. For the background and the windows I used Distress Ink, Distress Oxide Ink and alcohol ink. Let start with the tutorial.

Die cut the SSS Repeating Circles from a tag.

Die cut another two tags from Clear Modeling Film or acetate.

Smear Distress Inks on a non-stick craft sheet and press the tag into the ink. Continue until you are happy with the look.

When the Distress Ink is dry, continue in the same way with Distress Oxide ink, but only touching the tag to the ink. Dry the tag in between.

Place one of the acetate tags on top of the paper tag so that you see where the window till be. Color with alcohol ink using a felt applicator. Then add a few tiny drops of Alcohol Blending Solution to each circle (this is why we want to see where the windows will be).

Turn the tag around, place the paper tag on top and stamp circles, flowers and sentiments in the circles.

Stamp the paper tag with a dot stamp and Forget-me-not ink.

Adhere the colored modeling film tag to the paper tag and then place foam tape around the windows. Fill with Tim Holtz mica flakes and place the second modeling film tag on top to create a sandwich.

The tags are backed by a white tag which was misted with homemade glimmer mist. Place a tiny bit of Perfect Pearls into a mini mister and fill with water.

I wanted to repeat the orange from the snail, but didn't have orange sequins. Instead, I colored SSS Moonshine sequins with orange alcohol ink.

Doodle circles and dots with a white gel pen.

The cute snail from Under the Sea Animals was stamped on white paper and colored with Prismacolor pencils. Then I added white highlights with the gel pen. Adhere it with foam tape.

Doodle a trail for the snail and stamp a sentiment.

If you remove the white backing tag, which was just tied to the main tag, the windows are see-through. It looks really cool, but some of the detail is less visible.

With a white surface underneath, you see the inking in the windows better.

Shake the tag and the mica flakes move around.

The mica flakes gives a really nice shimmer and work great for shakers.

If you don't have sequins in the right color, you can always use alcohol ink to color them.  

I hope you will join us this week in our Going Around In Circles challenge. You have a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until next Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog today!  

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Rainbow Blocks Page

Hello friends! I hope you are well and getting some crafting time. Today I have a bright and colorful scrapbooking tutorial to share. If you scale it down you can make a card instead.

Here the weather is slowly warming up after a cold May so far. The apple trees are so beautiful with all their flowers.

I used double-sided patterned paper from Whimsy Stamps. The set is called Rainbow. They came in the Simon Says Stamp April Card Kit. The kit is sold out, but you can still get the papers. I just love their bright and happy color, the circles, stripes and splatters. When I can't decide which paper to use, I like to do a blocked design so that I can use a lot of papers at once. If you are making a card instead, just use smaller squares.

The journaling is on the back of the layout and is about these corona times, since I felt that I wanted to document it. The photo is from a couple of years ago, but simply happened to be on a my desk, so I used it, even though it wasn't taken recently. It was also taken in my parents garden and I miss them now when we haven't been able to see them for months.

Cut nine 3x3 in squares of Rainbow paper and sand the edges slightly to reveal the white core.

Stitch each square to the background with white thread and stitch a frame around them. I wanted to repeat the splatters on some of the designs and used Scribble Sticks in the same colors as the papers. Dip the tip of a Scribble Stick in water and then flick a paint brush against the tip to create splatters. It is very easy and they dry quickly too. I used colors from Scribble Sticks 1 and Scribble Sticks 2.

Here's a close up of the stitching. Remember to do the stitching before adding embellishments.

I die cut Simon Says Stamp Shimmer Butterfly from one of the patterned papers in the set and from SSS white glittery paper. I gave the butterflies a trail of pearls.

I also die cut two butterflies using Tim Holtz Scribbly Butterflies set. Bright colored patterned papers work so well for die cutting.

Here's a look at the Scribble Stick splatters. It is one of my favorite techniques with Scribble Sticks.

Simple white die cuts look striking against a colorful background. These flowers were die cut with the Simon Says Stamp Daisy Stem.

I wanted a little more glittery paper on the page, since I really like the look of this white glittery paper. Flourishes were die cut with Tim's Adorned set. I also added two Prima flowers and a sentiment stamped with the Simon Says Stamp Tabbed Sentiments set. I thought it fit well for the theme.

By offsetting the glittery paper a little you get just a hint of glitter under the butterflies. It looks particularly nice when the light hits it.

And the blue and green butterfly. Staple the two butterflies together.

The title was die cut from white paper using Tim's Alphanumeric Tiny Type Lower.

And a second glitter flourish and flower. The glitter paper sheds no glitter at all, which is one of the reasons why I like it very much.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog today!  

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Tiny Flower Book

Hello crafters! I have a tutorial for a tiny flower book to share with you today. The techniques can also be used for other types of projects. 

Here is the finished book. The background was done with a stencil and texture paste, which gives a nice textured surface to the book. You can use other stencils to easily change the theme of the book. Or do the stencil technique on a card or in an art journal instead. The book was made with Eileen Hull's Tiny Book die. During May the Eileen Hull Inspiration Team is sharing products with a flower theme. 

Die cut the Tiny Book from mat board. You also get all the pieces to the right. I only used the key.

Glue strips of old book paper to the cover with matte medium. I added Rose Design Tape to the spine, also with the matte medium, to make sure it stuck down completely. Add a layer of matte medium on top of the cover too. Then give it a thin coating of gesso (I forgot to take a photo of this step - I was listening to a lecture at the same time and might have been a little distracted).

I also forgot to take a photo of the stencil step, which is so weird since I set everything up for the photo. Apply matte texture paste with a palette knife through Tim Holtz Floral stencil. I adhered a piece of masking paper over the design tape, to prevent getting paste there. When the paste is dry, paint with watered down Distress Paint.

Paint the flowers yellow and add green to the leaves.

Cut inserts using your favorite sketching paper and fold in half. Arrange them into two signatures. I used seven paper in each, but it depends on the thickness of your paper. Pierce two holes down the spine.

Pierce corresponding holes in the spine. I had planned to leave the knots on the lower part of the spine, but had turned the book upside down, so they ended up at the top. I decided that it was fine anyway. 

Here's the inside with the string going through the two holes and then out through the holes in the spine.

And then attach the second signature in the same way. For an alternative way of binding the tiny books, check out my Tiny Books Tutorial, with four tiny books.

I also added a Clippings Sticker. The small size is perfect for these tiny books.

The key was painted pink and embossed with several layers of Tea Rose embossing powder, which happened to be on my desk since my Honey Bee ATC from yesterday. Attach a piece of lace trim by stapling it to the background and use as a tie.

I love the texture and feel of the paste and the way the words show through here and there.

You can make the flowers in any color. I just felt like yellow flowers today.

The back of the book looks like this, with the lace stapled to the covers.

Your tiny book is ready to be filled with flower sketches, journaling, notes, or anything else you can think of. It is also great as a gift.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog today!  

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Die: Eileen Hull Sizzix Tiny Book