Returning in June!

My soon-to-be-finished house remodeling projects have been using up all my creative energy. Crafting is so much more fun than tiling a kitchen floor, let me tell ya, but my 1951 home was just screaming for some TLC! I should be back up and running (both here and on Etsy) by the end of June at the latest.

From UTube to Blog

This week I have removed all my card videos from Utube. I'm not much of a videographer, and only put some on Utube for the benefit of some customers who wanted to see a card in motion. There were no new videos posted there since I discovered a while ago that videos could be added to Blogger.

So now I have added a link in the left column called "card videos", where you can view the UTube versions, added to my original posts here on my blog.

There are more to come, as its taking me time to find the original matching posts. The waterfall style card above and the cemetary card below were made awhile ago, and I can't seem to find a matching older blog post for them.

Miniature Paper Lily Cross Tutorial

Get your tweezers and toothpicks ready, this is tiny work here (1:6 scale). You will need some quick drying tacky glue, cardstock, typing paper for the petals, upholstery thread (red, black, or yellow), glitter pen, leaf, starburst, and heart punches, and ribbon for a bow. Plus maybe a magnifying glass :)

I've created this tutorial so that you can double click (enlarge) on the two pages, or you can print them out as two pages. All the instructions are right there next to the picture.

Have fun!

Busy Bee(s)

Detoured again! My hot air balloon pop-up was supposed to be finished by now :( Instead, this little bumblebee card jumped to the front of the list. The best part of this one is that those bees hover on paper springs. The slightest little movement causes them to buzz around! Simple and effective.

Simple instructions for this one: use an egg-shaped punch for the body, a heart-shaped punch for the wings (cut in half from vellum), two jellybean- shaped pieces for the heads, add antennae and some coiled paper springs cut from a circle-shaped punch. You're all set!

From Paper to Veggies?

A lot of the same design techiniques that go into my cards also applied to this vegetable flower basket. I even used cookie cutters as "punches".

Not a Pop-up Card...

I seem to be midstream on a number of designs for pop-ups, indecision about what to work on first has set in, and so I made baskets instead :)

Paper-pieced Lilies

I just couldn't find the perfect punch for Easter lilies, so these are hand-pieced, each petal is cut, scored, and rolled. The stamens are made of thread.