Bowling - A Work in Progress

This scenic flats style pop-up is still in its preliminary stages, and needs some rescaling and respacing. The ball is too small and the pins too close together, among other things.

Baskets - a set on Flickr

Baskets - a set on Flickr See a sampling of my baskets all in one place... to go along with the pricing guide below.

Scrap Basket Pricing Guide

I've had a few requests for a pricing guide, so I'm posting it here! If you're interested in special color combinations, just ask at my Etsy shop. Shipping for these is based on the USPS postal website prices. You can double click on the guide for easier reading.

A Very Fairy Christmas

This is a repeat from last year, but I still enjoy making her. Not showing in the photo is theglitter on her dress and wings.

Awww, True Love!

Picasso's very protective of his cockatoo girlfriend....

The Back Lit Card

Vellum certainly has some fine qualities! In this case I wanted the window cut-out to let the inside show through, but not the sentiment. The vellum lining is only secured at the crease, like a wedding announcement.

Piano Pop-up

Pop-up keyboards have been around awhile, but I've never created one before. This is really origamic architecture, meaning the keyboard was cut from only one piece of paper.

S-T-R-E-T-C-H!

The accordian folds make this normal 5 1/4" x 4" card stretch to nearly 2 feet long!

Spin Away!

I'm pretty sure there's a tutorial already listed on my blog for a spinning card (This snowflake twirls when you open the card). Here's just another variation using a plastic, glittery tree ornament.

Kiss, Kiss!

My first attempt at the Victorian mistletoe kissing ball here! Only one change I would make, and that would be to upgrade the leaves to green velvet paper, because, well, what says "victorian" more than velvet?

Recycled Packaging

Yep, these are made from that plastic security packaging that manufacturers are so fond of using! I save it all year to make these Christmas snowglobes.

Chatterbox

We've had Picasso now for almost three months, and he talks all day long! It's been very easy to teach him new words and sounds as he tries to repeat everything he hears. We have to be very careful what we say around here lol.

Daisies on Birch

This aceo-sized woodburning was enhanced with oil pencil to give it a little bit of color.

Mini Pumpkins!

Just a little aceo-sized woodburning here, mounted to a note card so that it can be a mailable gift for an art card collector.

Whoooo's This?

He's just the cover of one of my free mini sample cards, that I include with my orders.

Tea Bag Folding

Squared Off!

I don't make too many baskets with corners, but here's a set of mini ones from a custom order.

MS saves me time!

I used to draw and cut these little haunted houses, but Martha comes along with a punch this year that saves me oodles of time!

I'm Back - Finally!

Well, what was supposed to be a month off of crafting for me turned into an entire summer, filled with home improvements, summer fun with the kids, and two new pets! These guys have been with me only a week. We rescued them from a couple in New York who didn't have time to care for them any more. Angel, the cockatoo, is a real sweetheart, and is too smart for her own good. I spent a half hour this morning chasing down the chinchilla, that she let out of his cage! Picasso, the catalina macaw, is simply beautiful!

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.

A big WOW for me!

Forgive me for 'tooting my own horn' here but this is my first ever item in Etsy's gift guides! (Top left) Wahoo!

Bridge to Nowhere!

Well, "Australia" certainly is a long movie - this is what I made while watching it last night....

Raves for "The Elements of Pop-Up"

A bit of personal info here... like most pop-up makers, I first started by reverse engineering other pop-up cards and books, not by purchasing a how-to book. Most of the pop-up books I have are children's stories, and most of them have been the damaged display books that all the little kids have opened and closed a thousand times. I would buy these at a discount (yea! because pop-up books are pricey), repair them, and leave the cello wrapped ones for the collectors out there. When looking for a book to buy, I'm not necessarily looking for different pop-up mechanisms, but more for ideas on how to express movement. What's the best way to showing something jumping, flying, stretching?

Back to David A. Carter and james Diaz' book. I threw all my preferences out the window, and purchased a new, cello-wrapped, not-on-sale, sight-unseen book about pop-up mechanisms, and was not disappointed! This is a fairly comprehensive book, complete with clear and concise examples of the geometry behind paper engineering. I was even happy to see that the pages were bound by sewing them in, not gluing them in! Kudos for having the forethought to realize that this reference book will be opened many times.

This book is not for the person who wants step-by-step instructions with print-out patterns, so you're going to have to use your imagination while applying these mechanisms to your own ideas. No pre-conceived notions, I like that!

Smaller, but not Easy!

These six minibaskets gave me some grief, I tell ya! The ultra tiny radius was difficult to work around. But it was a great way to use up some smaller pieces of cord that had been accumulating.

Snow Day

Snow in March is for the birds!

Cityscape

Find an assembly tutorial right below using this card as an example!

Scenic Flats Tutorial

This is a basic assembly tutorial for a scenic flats style card. Use these directions to assemble your own design, my measurements don't really matter since they can be changed to suit your ideas! Remember to use tacky glue for strength, and not a glue stick, paste, spray glue, or school glue. Speckled 100% recycled cardstock is used for this project.

Assemble your elements; for this card I've created 6 buildings, five that will be layered and have a 3/8" flap on the bottom. Double click on any pics to see what I'm talking about. The 6th doesn't need a flap, since it will be glued flat to the card.

arrange your elements on the lining of the card to determine positoning. Most times it will be the tallest in the back to shortest in the front.

On the back of the lining, very lightly draw guidelines to determine your spacing. For this card, I'm using 1/2" spacing. In this picture the first element is glued in: always start with the one closest to the crease of the lining, and work outward. A slit was cut on the guidline, and the flap/tab was pulled thru to the back and glued. This is called hidden tab construction, and makes for a neater view on the front. Tabs should also be glued towards the crease of the card.

Here all five elements have been attached....

...and this is what the front should look like so far.

Now you have to add more hidden tabs. Again start with the one closest to the card's fold. Since I am using 1/2" spacing, the tab will have to be 1/2" as well. Placing of this tab should take into consideration the size of the element, and whether it will be seen easily from the front. You'll want to hide it as much as possible. Make the slot for the tab from the back first, then glue it to the element second. Check placement for each element's tab immediately by opening and closing the card completely. If you don't do this you could wind up with a card that won't close right! Move on to the next element only after the glue is dry.

Correct placement will produce a vertical element that is parallel with the card.

If you did it right, all elements will be parallel with each other :)

A view from the top, and then you can finish the card as you would any other card. And here is the finished product:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=21561375