Issue 10 May 2012

I re land’s f i rs t onl ine craf t magazine. . . .

Inside th is issue

Chipboard A lphas

Origami Gi f t Box

Mi lk Carton Favour

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WELCOME to Issue 10 of Crafting Ireland!

As always we have a fun tutorial packed issue for you all. We

have another guest contributor—Katie Brett. If you would like to

submit to be a guest contributor send us an email with an out-

line of your proposed tutorial.

We are also announcing our new Crafting Ireland Design Team in

this issue. We can’t wait to introduce our team of talented la-

dies to you! Their work will feature from Issue 11 so keep an eye

out, there will be some fabulous tutorials coming up from them!

We had our first ever Crafting Ireland crop on Saturday the 26th

May. It was a super fun day, even though the sun was shining

outside we had plenty of people coming along and cropping

Submit your work - find out more at www.craftingirelandonline.ie

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away. A big thanks to our generous sponsors; Create With

Kate, An Siopa Bui, Hill Agencies and Crafty Cutting.

We hope you all enjoy this issue!

Don’t forget you can keep up to date with us on our BLOG

WEBSITE and FACEBOOK page.

Nico le T i m i

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E d i t o r s n o t e . . . . . . . . p 2

M e e t t h e D e s i g n Te a m . . . . . . . . p 6

T i s s u e B ox C o v e r. . . . . . . . p 1 0

O r i g a m i Tr i n ke t B ox . . . . . . . . p 1 6

A r t b a r R e v i e w. . . . . . . . p 2 4

S u b m i s s i o n s . . . . . . . . p 2 8

F l o p p y D i s k N o t e b o o k . . . . . . . . p 3 0

M i l k C a r t o n Fa v o u r. . . . . . . . p 3 4

A l t e r e d P h o n e C a s e . . . . . . . . p 3 7

C l a s s e s a n d C r o p s . . . . . . . . p 4 0

C o l l a g e C a r d s . . . . . . . . p 4 2

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S p o t l i g h t O n . . . . . . . . p 4 6

S c ra p Pa p e r S t o ra g e . . . . . . . p 5 1

W f o l d m i n i . . . . . . . . p 5 4

C ra f t i n g o n a B u d g e t :

C h i p b o a r d A l p h a s . . . . . . . . p 5 8

P e a t P o t G i f t B ox . . . . . . . . p 6 2

C ra f t y S t o ra g e I d e a s . . . . . . . . p 6 8

L ay e r e d M i n i A l b u m . . . . . . . . p 7 2

B a c k t o B a s i c s . . . . . . . . p 7 6

Wo r k i n g w i t h S ke t c h L ay o u t s . . . . . . . . p 8 0

C u s t o m m a d e Pa p e r. . . . . . . . p 8 4

S c ra p z v i l l e S w a p . . . . . . . . p 8 8

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We recently held a design team call to find crafters who are passionate about paper crafts. We received fantastic submissions from talented crafters from all over the world. It was really difficult to pick from all the applications! However we were finally able to narrow it down and chose eight crafters who will be our very own Crafting Ireland Design Team. Let’s introduce them to you! Aideen Fallon Aideen is from Co. Galway, Ireland. Being stay at home mom who works only one day a week allows her to craft which she loves. Her favourites are mini albums, layouts and altered items. Aideen’s blog: http://www.piecesbyaideen.com/

Aki Iinuma Aki is from Tokyo, Japan. She works full time for a software company. She scrapbooks mostly about her children. Aki loves the simple but messy style. Aki’s blog: http://kawaiisb.blogspot.com/

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Mary Jo Rhoda Mary Jo is from Missouri, USA. She has scrapbooked since 1998 and she loves that she can tell stories of her family and children through her layouts. She travelled to Ireland in 2009 and since then she has been using the pictures on her scrapbook pages. Mary Jo’s blog: http://scrapbooktreehouse.blogspot.com/

Krissy Clark Krissy lives in a suburb of Houston, Texas, USA. She started scrapbooking in April 2009 because she was taking time off from work and wanted something to do that would fill up all her free time. Krissy developed an absolute passion for scrapbooking and that branched off into re-purposing or "upcycling" things and working with 3-D projects. She is 75% Irish (her great-great grandparents came to America in the late 1800's) and she kissed the Blarney Stone during a trip to the Motherland two years ago so she has been as-sured the gift of gab… Krissy’s blog: http://krissyclarkmckee.blogspot.com/

Eva Birdthistle Eva lives in Limerick, Ireland. She began crafting in 2004 as a way to keep some sort of creativity in her life. She started with card making as she wanted to do quick projects, then she was intro-

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duced to Scrapbooking by a wonderful crafty gang she met online. Eva was quickly hooked and realised that techniques she learned could be used for all types of crafting. Eva recently started Scrapbooking Limerick, a monthly class not only for scrapbooking but all types of paper crafts. Eva’s blog: http://evabirdthistle.blogspot.com/

Robin Chernosky Funge Robin is originally from Canada, but now lives in Co. Wexford, Ireland. She started scrap-booking after she received a gift of a scrap-book done for her by her Mom for her wed-ding!! Robin’s scrapbooking started to slow down when the 3 kids came along and she slowly started making cards since they are quicker to finish then a layout when you are short for time!! One of her favourite styles is clean and simple, but she also loves to do more shabby vintage cards with flowers, sewing and bling. Robin’s blog:

http://bosenberries.blogspot.com/

Felicia Thomas—Senior Design Team Member Felicia is originally from Kent in South East England but has lived in Killarney, Co. Kerry for 20 years. She has 3 children aged 21, 18 and 15, a very patient partner and a dog named Toby. Felicia comes from an artistic family and was always working on some craft

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or other. Her Mum taught her to knit and use a sewing machine. Later when discovered paper crafting a whole new craft world opened up, which lead to mixed media art. Felicia’s proudest moment so far was having her Christmas card designs displayed with an agent at the Surtex licensing show in New York. Felicia’s blog: http://scrapzville.blogspot.com/

Eve Louw Eve is from South Africa, but has lived in Co Kildare, Ireland for over 6 years now. She is a photographer and scrapbooker. Eve enjoys creating mini albums. She shows how to create them at her monthly classes, Crafty Queens. She has just had her first baby, so we all wish her all the best! Eve’s blog: http://www.craftyqueens.ie/

We hope you enjoyed meeting our design team. We are super excited to see what they create for their first projects. You will see their work starting in Issue 11. We can’t wait!

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I always have a box of tissues on my craft desk. I buy the small square boxes as they take up less space than the long flat rectangular ones. The only problem is that they never look good. Sure some of them come printed with designs, but they are never my style! I tried to find a wooden tissue box cover that I could alter. However it was hard to find anything and then expensive when I did find something suitable! So my solution was to alter one of the boxes I have for future use. What you will need

2 tissue boxes the same size (If you can find one slightly bigger than the other that would be great and would save you a lot of effort!

Paint

Wet glue, modpodge , gesso and paint

Patterned paper of your choice

Embellishments of your choice Step 1 Decide which of your two tissue boxes you are go-ing to be altering. Try to use the one in the best condition and try to make sure it is not too worn, a new or relatively new one is best.

Nicole Mullen

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Step 2 Carefully cut the bottom off the box and then open the two sides like shown in the image below.

The reason for opening the two sides is so that we can change the struc-ture of the box. If you just cut the bottom off it wont slide over the top of another box, unless you can find a smaller tissue box. So by opening the sides we can widen the box to as wide as we need. In the view above you can see with the two side flaps opened the other two sides of the box can be pulled apart to widen the box.

Nicole Mullen

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Step 3 Pull the box sides out to widen it. Before the box is widened it looks like the photo on the left below. After you pull the two sides apart it looks like the image on the right.

I had to move the sides out about a centimetre on each side. To see how much I needed I held it together with paper clips and slid it over the un-cut tissue box to see if I needed to let out or take in more. Make sure you test that it fits! Step 4 When you are happy with the fit keep one side paper clipped together. On the inside of the other side mark with a pencil where the two sides and the flap are positioned. Then re-glue the flap down into its new position. Use wet glue so that it dries fully non-tacky. If you used tape etc it will retain its stickiness and possibly stick to the box you are covering with it.

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Step 5 Because you have changed the shape of the box the bottom of it will no longer line up perfectly. To fix this simply trim the small excess of the box off with a scis-sors. You will notice on my box there is white showing up on either side of the barcode. This is be-cause when the box is printed on they only print on what you will see. Because we have wid-ened the box we can now see the un-printed part. Step 6 Prime the box for painting. This is necessary as the boxes tend to have a shiny finish and paint won’t take too well on it. I used gesso to prime the edges. There is no need to do the entire box as you will be putting paper on it.

Step 7 When the gesso is dry paint over it in a colour that will complement your paper choice. I used a Mushroom paint dabber. Tip: If you don't want to use paper on your project you could fully paint the box at this stage. If you decide to paint only you could add interest by using a contrasting colour and a stencil!

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Step 8 Now you are ready to cut your paper for your box. You will probably notice that two sides of the box are still square. These two sides you can measure and cut a square to fit easily enough. The two not so square sides (parallelograms? I can’t remember enough of primary school maths to be sure what we call this shape!!) will be a bit more difficult as we cant measure. So I simply laid them onto my DP and drew around the side as a template and then cut on the inside of the pencil line. Step 9 Glue the paper onto the box. Unless your cutting and measuring skills are a lot better than mine you may find you have some gaps because of the slop-ing edges. This is why we painted our edges, so that we couldn’t see the busy tissue box pattern in the gaps.

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For the top of the box I traced the outline. I then drew around the opening from the inside of the box to mark where to cut out the oval. I also used a contrasting paper for the top. Step 10 Optional: Cover all the seams with decorative tape—I used tissue tape. I felt that this step bound the papers together better and looked more finished. Step 11 Paint a layer of Modpodge over all the papers & tissue tape. This helps seal everything and give some added strength to the box. It also protects the pa-pers from grubby crafting fingers! I used gloss but you can use matt if you prefer. You can embellish your box as you wish at this stage. I originally was going to embellish mine but I liked the papers so much I chose to just let them be the focus! The papers are the BoBunny Weekend Market just in case you love them as much as I do. Enjoy your new pretty tis-sue boxes!

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Our sometimes roving reporter Katie Brett recently attended a workshop by Lynne Gilbert from Crea-tive Expressions. Lynne has kindly allowed Katie to share with you the fantastic creation . You will need

Two pieces of chipboard measuring 4.5 x 4.5 inches, and one piece meas-uring 4.5 x 2.5 inches

Brown framing tape (available from all good picture framers)

Acrylic paint

Two sheets of 12x12 patterned paper

A circle of mount board or wood

Clear ultra thick embossing powder

Coloured ultra thick embossing powders

Mica flakes

Heat gun

Distress Ink

Rubber Stamp & Archival Ink

Ribbon & Embellishments

Glue

Step 1 Arrange your three pieces of chipboard with the two largest pieces on either end, and the smaller piece in the middle.

Step 2 Attach together using brown framing tape, but make sure you leave a 4-5mm gap so that your cover will be able to fold.

Katie Brett

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Step 3 Use the framing tape on both sides and trim off the edges with a pair of scis-sors.

Step 4 Your chipboard pieces should now look like this photo on the right below.

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Step 5

Paint all of the edges on both sides with acrylic paint, and attach a long piece of ribbon across the chipboard pieces, leaving enough at either end to form a closure.

Step 6 Now it is time to make our origami box. This is made using one sheet of 12x12 patterned paper. To start, fold in half, open up, and fold in half again the other way. Using a bone folder will improve the finish of your box.

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Step 7 Open up the sheet of paper again, and fold a corner into the centre. Contin-ue with all four corners, folding them into the centre.

Step 10 Then, fold each side into the centre as seen in the photograph. Repeat for the other side, and then open them out and do the same for the other two sides of the square. (Image below left)

Step 11 Unfold your piece of paper until it looks a bit like a boat as shown in the pho-tograph. (Below right.)

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Step 12 & 13 Push in on either side of the folds and you will find that it all just comes to-gether and folds inwards to form a box! If you want to, you can also cut a piece of cardstock to fit in the base and glue it in place to give it extra stabil-ity.

Step 14 Ink the edges of your box with Dis-tress Ink to give it a more finished look.

Step 15 Now, we are going to make our 'enamelled' disc to decorate the top of the box.

Take your mount board or wooden circle, cover in Perfect Medium.

Do this by pressing the disc into the inkpad, and sprinkle over the entire thing with clear ultra thick embossing powder.

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Step 16 Heat with your heat gun until melt-ed and allow to cool.

Repeat this step, adding 3-4 more layers of Perfect Medium and ultra thick embossing powder.

Step 17 Heat the disc again until the layers of embossing powder have com-pletely melted again and you can see the molten powder moving around.

Sprinkle in areas of coloured ultra thick embossing powder and melt until you are happy with the colours and design.

Step 18 Again, while all the powders are molten, sprinkle in mica flakes and continue to heat.

Step 19 While the powders are still molten, ink up a rubber stamp with Archival ink and press into the molten em-bossing powder, and leave to set for 5 minutes. (image overleaf)

Step 20 When you remove the stamp, you should have something that looks like the image on the right overleaf!

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Step 21 Glue your origami box onto the base of your chipboard base and lid cover, and decorate the lid and back with patterned paper. Attach your embossed disc and you are done!

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A big thank you to Katie Brett for re-porting on this class for us.

Also a big thank you to Lynne Gilbert for allowing us to fea-ture her fantastic workshop!

We hope you en-joyed it!!

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Derwent Artbars are highly pigmented water-soluble tringular bars that are perfect to use in your paper crafting projects. They are really easy to use and very versatile.

They are absolutely fantastic to create layers of texture in your projects. There are accessories you can get for them that really help you create some fantastic effects. Artbars are available in 72 colours individually or in tins of 12, 24, 36 or 72.

The Shave’n’Save and the Scraper are fantastic accessories to help add more layer and texture.

If you only want a light colour tint to your page, you just need to shave a few bits off the Artbar. Dilute the shavings with water and you will get a very transluscent medium. If you apply the Artbar directly on the page it will give you a more opaque effect. On this art jornal page I was experimenting with the Artbars and found them really good to include as my everyday craft supplies kit.

Timi Konya

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First I added some colours (three different yellows) to the centre of the page. I brushed over with a wet brush and just watched the colours moving on the paper. Since this product is not permanent after drying, it is easy to make different textures effects in it. For example: after drying the first layers of colour, I spritzed a few drops of water on the page and after a few seconds I pressed a piece of dry paper towel on the page to soak up the water. This will leave interesting marks on the page.

As you can see the lighter patches on the picture to the right.

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Then I tried out the Artbars with a stencil. I applied some back and beige colours onto a craft sheet and watered it down. I placed the stencil on the journal page and with a sponge (dunked into the watered down colours) I stenciled the images I wanted. Artbars are great to use as a stamp.

Just dip them into the water and use one end to create triangles on your page.

One of the accessories I mentioned is the Scraper. It is a piece of metal that can scrape different textures on the paper. The more colours you layer the more visible the pattern will be that the Scraper makes. In the previous picture there are some grey lines that I created with the Scraper. Because of the creamy texture the Artbars are great to stamp simple images.

Here, I cut fun foam into a chevron shape and used it as a stamp.

I dipped the Artbar in the water and just applied the colour on the stamp. You can see the result in the picture on the bottom

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of the previous page. A little bit messy, but it gives more interest to the page.

Because of the triangular shape the Artbar can be used to write words. You will not get very crisp writing but again this only adds interest to the project.

After experimenting with Artbars I was very pleased with how versatile a product it is. The colours are beautiful and the fact the it can give an opaque effect will give the user lots of possibilities for on their scrapbook pages or art journaling. You can buy theArtbars from your local Art & Hobby Shops. If you get a set and try them out post up pictures of your projects onto our Facebook page!.

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Summer Fun

Call for submissions….Calling ALL crafters – we want to publish you!! For each issue we will give you a list of themes to work with. We would love to see what you create inspired by these themes. When you submit an image of your project, please make sure it is clearly photographed straight-on with a neutral background or scanned. Please make sure you only submit projects that have never appeared online or on a blog before, and it can not have been published previously. The themes for this issue were:

Weenie Thomas

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Submission Note For the next issue we will not be having submission themes. However we would still like to feature peoples work so we would love for people to post their work on our Facebook page to share with us!

Aideen Fallon

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As well as being a craft-a-holic I will admit to be-ing a bit of a technology geek. I do love a good gadget and am pretty attached to my computers (yes-plural!) and my smart phone. I also love vintage and retro things. So what is better than a bit of technology related crafting that has a retro twist?! What you will need

Floppy disk x 2 or CDs

Hole puncher (crop a dile is perfect for this)

Printer paper or paper of your choice for the in-side of your notebook

Binding rings Step 1 If you are lucky enough to have found brand new floppy disks like I did you will just need to stick the label onto the disk you are using for the cover. If you are using an old disk the label may have text on if you don't want to show. If this is the case you will need to cut out and stick on a

Nicole Mullen

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new version of the label, going for a retro look or just using DP to pretty it up. You will only need a label for the front cover floppy disk. For the back cover of the notebook the label side on my notebook will be facing inside the note-book. This is so that when you look at the notebook closed the front will show the front of a floppy disk and the back will show the back of a floppy. Step 2 Take a sheet of printer paper and cut it into smaller sheets to fit the inside of your floppy disk. This will be about 8.9cm by 8.5cm. You can make your pages smaller if you wish. Cut one printer paper sheet up—you will get about four pages from your notebook from this. Test the pages fit ok inside your floppy disk. Then go ahead and cut up about eight sheets of printer paper. This will give you about 30 notebook pages. Step 3 Measure where you want your binding rings to be placed and punch two holes in both the front and back cover floppy disk. Work out the corresponding placement for the holes on your sheets of pages and do the same.

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Step 4 Place your pages in between the two floppy disk covers and hold in place with the binding rings.

This is an incredibly simple notebook to make. But it makes a great gift, especially

for the men in our lives or for any gadget and technology lovers. You can experiment try-ing this with CD’s, circuit boards , book covers and old games, the only limit is your imagination—and whether or not you can punch a hole in it to bind it! Have fun—but make sure to check the disks you punch holes in are not important disks that may be needed again first!

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Would you like to advertise in Crafting Ireland? We offer very competitive prices and a readership of

over 50,000 per issue. Contact us at info@craftingirelandonline.ie for

advertising rates.

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In the close future I am going to organise a housewarming party and I couldn’t stop thinking of how to thank people who might attend. While I was browsing on the internet found the idea of a favour box in a milk carton shape. I fugured a milk carton shape is easy to turn into a house shape. What you will need

Double sided patterned paper

Milk carton template (free download from the internet)

Sentiment stickers or stamps

Step 1 Print a template and trace it on the patterned paper. Cut it out. You can find lots of free milk carton templates online.

Timi Konya

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TIP: If you have an electronic cutting machine, you can find lots of templates to use with your machine.

Step 2 Score and fold the sides and glue them together. Don’t forget to fill the carton with treats before you glue the bottom closed.

Step 3 Choose the paper for the roof. My carton was 2 inches wide, so I took a 2”x12” piece of paper.

I cut this long strip into 5”, 4” and 3” pieces and then shaped the edges with an edge punch.

Step 4 Curl the edges of the pieces with a pencil and then glue them togehter into a shape of a roof.

Step 5 Glue the roof on the top of the house.

Step 6 Add a sentiment to the side.

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You could glue some windows and doors on the little house if you wished. That would all depend on how many flavour boxes you would like to make and how much time you have. This was a very quick and easy idea, I hope you liked it!

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I recently saw a very cool steampunk phone case. I fell in love, however did not like the €150 price tag! After having a rummage in my craft room at some bits and bobs I was hoarding I figured I would have a go at making one. What you will need

Trinkets– cogs, charms, watch parts etc

Blank phone case, silicone

or hard case

Very strong adhesive—I rec-ommend E6000

Alcohol inks in colours of your choice, but I recom-mend rust, gold and copper

Step 1 Take your choice of colours and ink up your case to give a good base. I used Copper, Rust and Hazelnut Alcohol Inks on mine. It needed two or three coats to get the effect I wanted. I only covered the back of the case and the edge of the front. I did not do inside it as I did not want alcohol ink possibly rub-bing off onto my phone.

Nicole Mullen

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Below you can see the front and back of the case. Step 2 Lay out all your trinkets onto the back of the phone in a pattern you like. Try to make sure they all sit flat on the back so that they stick well to the case. I would suggest taking a photo once you have them all laid out so that when you start sticking things down you know exactly where they go.

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Tip: When laying out your pieces make sure you play around a lot. If you find a layout you think you like snap a photo. Then play around some more and keep taking photos until you find the perfect one! Step 3 Glue all your pieces down. If you use the E6000 be very careful—it is STRONG glue, make sure you follow the instructions on the pack to the letter! Make sure you coat the back of each trinket well, you want it stuck down all around the edges as well as the centre. Let the glue cure

as per the instructions. When the glue is well cured pop the case on your phone and enjoy! Just a word of warning—none of these trinkets are sealed so if you put the case down onto a surface or into a bag be careful, they may scratch surfaces. I also do not know how your phone will react to the glue and alcohol inks so attempt this one at your own risk!

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We would love to publish your classes and crops here. Whether you are a shop running crops and classes or just a group of crafty people looking for like minded people let us know. Simply email your details to submis-sions@craftingirelandonline.ie

Card Art Kilcoole http://cardarteventskilcoole.blogspot.com/

Crafty Angels All places must be booked in advance. Crafty Angels, Cutlery Rd, New-bridge, Co. Kildare. Ph : 045-446678. http://www.craftyangels.ie

Scrapbook Store More info can be found on the website http://www.thescrapbookstore.ie/workshops.php or contact Annamarie at workshops@thescrapbookstore.ie

Jackies Cardmaking Workshops http://jackiesworkshops.blogspot.com/

Scrap n Yap Check out Scrap n Yap on Facebook for more information.

An Siopa Buí Check out An Siopa Bui’s website for all class information.

Inspiring Ideas Visit http://www.inspiringideas.com/ for more information.

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Archangels craft club Archangels Craft Club - we meet in St. Gabriels Clontarf every Tues-day 7.30 - 9.30pm and do all sorts of crafts - knitting, cross stitch, card making, beading and scrapping etc. We are in our 9th year - all very informal but it’s a place to craft with like minded individuals. We are always on the lookout for demon-strators and enjoy the social aspect of crafting (along with the tea and cake!) If anyone is interested in coming along to join us, or may-be there is another club out there who would be interested in doing a Christmas craft day together please do contact me. Contact Chris-tine at christinehelenokelly@gmail.com or on 0857151759

Create With Kate Workshops in card making, scrapbooking and mixed media. We also are a mobile craft supplies shop. Visit createwithkate.com for more information or phone 087 984 1196.

Scrapbooking Limerick Create beautiful scrapbook pages & crafts at our crops & classes Bookings: 086 3817677 www.facebook.com/scrapbookinglimerick

The Polka Dot Craft Club Cardmaking and scrapbooking workshop Killarney The Polka Dot Craft Club Facebook page

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Collages are very popular nowadays. Collage tech-niques are used by a lot of well-known artists on scrapbook pages and in art journals. I am going to show you a few tips how to use these techniques to make cards. What you will need

Printable collage sheets—you can find these online in a lot of digi shops

Old calendar page

Playing cards

Scrap pieces of patterned paper

Glue stick

Gel medium

Acrylic paints

Inks

Card 1 This is a very quick and easy card to create.

All you need to do is to de-cide on the theme and find some collage sheets to match the theme.

Then choose a background, a focal image and something to make the card pop (in my case this was the red, polka dot paper) .

Timi Konya

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Lay the elements out and ar-range them in a way you like.

When you are happy with the layout stick the elements down onto a card base.

Tip: Make sure to use a good glue and also to make sure you get all the edges stuck down so that no part of your focal image starts to curl up off the page!

And there you have a lovely Bon Voyage card.

Card 2 In this card project we will do a little bit more work on the background. Start with collecting the piec-es you want to use: the back-ground (old book paper) and the focal image. You can pick your embellish-ments later. Start with applying a little bit of white acrylic paint with an old credit card onto the book paper.

Make sure you don’t cover the whole page though. When it’s dried, start inking the whole page with a few different colours.

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The acrylic paint will resist the dye ink, and you will achieve an interesting effect.

When the background is dry, glue down the focal image and the embellishments.

Add a sentiment and you are done!

Card 3 Here we will work even more on the background.

Again gather all the bits and pieces you need. Glue down the background pa-pers onto a card blank.

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Apply gel medium with a brush, but don’t cover the whole page. When it’s dry, take some acrylic paint in a colour you like and water it down. Brush over the background with the watered down paint. The gel medium should resist the paint.

When it’s all dry you can achieve an even more aged effect with a piece of mask-ing tape.

Place the masking tape on the background and pull it back. It should remove the top layer of the paper giving an aged effect.

Glue down the focal image and the sentiment. Here I chose an old calendar page as the focal image.

The date on the calendar page is the birthday of my friend.

I hope you liked these quick and simple techniques and ideas to create collage style cards.

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Heather Doran In every issue we will be spotlighting the work of an Irish based crafter. We will look at paper crafters, scrapbookers, and altered art aficionados. If you think you know someone who you think sound be spotlighted let us know at info@craftingirelandonline.ie

This issues spotlight is shining on Heather. Here is Heather to tell us a bit about herself and her work.... I’m originally from Co Wicklow and now live all of 7 miles from home in Co Kildare. I work share, so I work 4 days one week and 1 day the following week. Besides papercrafts, I love hill walking, reading and sewing.

When and how did you get involved

wi th paper craf t ing?

I started stamping about three years ago. A friend was teaching a card making class and I went along to help out with

stamping, cutting etc. This was my first experience of card making and I was so impressed with what could be achieved with some stamps, card and inks.

So the next day I bought some supplies to get me started and I’ve been hooked ever since!

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What is your favour i te aspect

of paper craf t ing?

I love making cards/projects and learning new techniques, but my ab-solute favourite aspect of papercraft-ing has to be the wonderful friends I’ve made all around the world through this shared passion for pa-percrafts.

What are the techniques that

you use most of the t ime?

The techniques I enjoy most are using distress inks, embossing (dry & heat) and incorporating fabric/stitching in some way on my cards.

What are your "can ' t do wi th-

out" products?

My first reaction to this question was that my list would be very, very long! But if I have to whittle it down to a few here they are: Stamps – My favourite stamps are He-ro Arts. I love the brilliant range of de-signs and the Hero Arts Blog http://heroarts.com/blogs/club/ and Hero Arts Flickr group http://www.flickr.com/groups/heroarts/ are places where I’ve learned so much about card making and made really good friends.

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Tools – Cuttlebug, heat gun and a curved nail scissors. Inks – Distress inks and VersaMark.

What inspires you?

I find inspiration in many different places. It can be from various websites, blogs and in magazines. I could be

inspired because of a colour combination I’ve spotted when out and about or because of a particular phrase I have in mind or maybe even a technique I want to try. Don’t ask me why, but often ideas come to me when I’m wan-dering around the supermarket or cooking – my mind often drifts off to pa-percrafts!

How do you descr ibe

your s ty le?

I find it hard to describe, as I don’t think I stick to any one particular style, I just do whatever I feel like at the time.

Do you blog?

I never thought I’d blog but I started blogging a couple of years ago at

http://stampingandstitching.blogspot.com/

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Where can we see your work?

Are you on any design teams?

You can see my work on my blog http:/stampingandstitching.blogspot.com/

and on my two Flickr photo-streams http://www.flickr.com/photos/38067075@N02 and http://www.flickr.com/photos/63641688@N08

Have you any plans for the fu-

ture?

I recently received a Silhouette Cameo for my birthday so I’m planning on having lots of fun with that.

I’m enjoying submitting projects to Paper Crafts magazine in the US and have been lucky to have had projects picked up for pub-lication.

Otherwise I have no partic-ular plans, but I know that no matter what I do in the future, I will always love playing with stamps, ink and card.

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A s c ra f t e rs w e a l l u n d e rs t a n d t h e n i g h t m a r e o f t r y i n g t o o r ga n i s e p a -p e r s c ra p s . I h av e t r i e d a l o t o f t h i n g s i n t h e l a s t fe w y e a rs b u t I t h i n k I h av e f i n a l l y h i t o n s o m e t h i n g t h a t w o r k s p e r fe c t l y fo r m e ! I u s e d t o u s e a b ox fo r my s c ra p s . I t s t a r t e d o f f s h o e b ox s i ze , t h e n t u r n e d i n t o a s e c o n d s h o e b ox , t h e n t h e b ox s t a t e d g e t t i n g b i g g e r a n d b i g g e r. I d o u s e a l o t o f my s c ra p s u p b u t t h e y j u s t s e e m e d t o b e s o h a r d t o s o r t t h ro u g h t o f i n d s o m e t h i n g t o f i t a p ro j e c t t h a t I d i d n ’ t u s e t h e m a s m u c h a s I s h o u l d . W h a t y o u w i l l n e e d

A n A 5 r i n g b i n d e r

P l a s t i c w a l l e t s

H o l e p u n c h

L a b e l m a ke r o r s o m e w ay

t o l a b e l t h e w a l l e t s

Pa t i e n c e t o s o r t t h ro u g h y o u r s c ra p s !

S t e p 1 Ta ke y o u r A 5 b i n d e r a n d d e c -o ra t e i t a s y o u w i s h . I p a i n t -e d m i n e a n d s t a m p e d o n i t . O f c o u rs e i f y o u w a n t e d y o u c o u l d j u s t l e av e i t p l a i n .

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S t e p 2 Ta ke y o u r s c ra p s a n d s o r t t h e m i n t o p i l e s b y c o l o u r. I t o o k t h i s o p p o r t u n i t y t o c l e a r t h e s c ra p s o u t a l s o , t h ro w i n g o u t a ny -t h i n g s m a l l e r t h a n 1 ” s q u a re a n d a ny t h i n g I h a d ke p t fo r a g e s b u t d i d n ’ t a c t u a l l y l i ke . T h i s t o o k a w h i l e a s t h e r e w e r e a l o t o f p a p e rs a s y o u c a n s e e i n t h e i m a g e o n t o p r i g h t . B u t I s o o n g o t t h e m a l l s o r t e d b y c o l o u r. I g ro u p e d s o m e c o l -o u rs t o g e t h e r. F o r exa m p l e g r e e n s , y e l -l o w s a n d r e d g o t g ro u p e d a s I d o n ’ t t e n d t o u s e m a ny o f t h o s e c o l o u rs s o d o n ’ t h av e a l o t o f t h e m . B l u e s g o t t h e i r o w n fo l d e r a s I u s e a l o t o f t h e m !

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S t e p 3 Ta ke y o u r p l a s t i c w a l l e t s a n d w o r k o u t w h e r e y o u n e e d y o u r h o l e s p u n c h e d . P u n c h t h e h o l e s b e -fo r e yo u p u t t h e p a -p e r i n , o t h e r w i s e y o u h o l e p u n c h t h e p a p e r t o o ! S t e p 4 F i l l t h e w a l l e t s w i t h y o u r p a -p e rs a n d p u t i n t o t h e fo l d e r. S t e p 5 U s e y o u r l a b e l m a ke r o r s o m e o t h e r m e t h o d t o l a b e l t h e w a l l e t s . I t r i e d w h e r e p o s s i b l e t o u s e t h e w a l l e t i n t h e c o r r e s p o n d -

i n g c o l o u r t o t h e p a p e rs . H o w e v e r a s I b o u g h t t h e w a l -l e t s a s a p a c k t h i s w a s n o t p o s s i b l e fo r e v e r y c o l o u r. S t e p 6 E n j o y b e i n g a b l e t o o p e n a fo l d e r a n d f l i c k t o t h e c o l o u r y o u n e e d fo r o n a p ro j e c t a n d s e e y o u r s c ra p s s t ra i g h t a w ay !

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This is a very easy mini album to create. Especially as you only need double sided patterned paper to make it! What you will need

8 pieces of 12”x 6” double-sided patterned paper

Embellishments & ribbon

Inks

Step 1 Put two pieces of your patterned paper aside. We will use these for the cover later. Take three pieces of the paper and score them at 1”, 6” and at 11”. Fold them as it is shown in the picture below. This reminds me of the shape of a ’W’, hence the name. This will be called Page ’A’. You will need to make 3 Page ’A’s.The 1” flap will be used to attach the next page to this one.

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Step 2 Take two pieces of paper and cut them down to 6”x 10”. Fold them in half. This will be called Page ’B’.

You will need to make two of these.

Step 3 To use up your extra paper you can create additional page inserts. Cut one piece of paper into 5”x 5”.

Score this at 1” and fold as it is shown in the picture (right).

To use up all the paper you can create two insert pages.

Step 4 Arrange all the pieces starting with a Page ’A’, then a Page ’B’, then again a Page ’A’ and so on. You will end up with an accordion-like shape as in the image bottom right.

After the Page ’B’s you can add the small insert pages if using them. It is very important that the first and the last page are a Page ’A’ because the flaps on them are needed to attach the cover to the album.

Step 5

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Fold the pages as shown on the picture below (left) and glue the bottom closed. Use a liquid glue, so every page can be used as a pocket. If you use dry adhesive it will never dry and tags you put in these pockets can get stuck.

You also need to glue the sides together - the sidesare going to form the spine of the book. You can see this in the picure (right).

Step 6 Now get the two pieces of paper that you set aside at the start. To create the cover, you need to score and cut the papers. You can choose how wide you want the spine and the cover page will be. In this case I wanted a 1” spine and the front and back cover were 5 ½” wide.

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Score the paper according to the measurements. Glue the album pages onto the cover paper. Use only one sheet first. Step 7 Now it is time to glue together the two cover pages. Here you can add ribbons for the closure in between the two cover pages.

Step 8 Decorate the front cover, fill the pocket with tags and enjoy your W Fold Mini Album.

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I recently found quite a stash of chipboard alphas tucked away in a drawer in my craft room. I had obviously used them on a previous project as there were a lot of letters missing. I could not seem to make up any words out of them so I decided to put them to use some how. So I created a mini album cover! What you will need

Chipboard alphas

Cardboard/chipboard

Glue

Paint

Ink

Paper

Glimmer mist/sprays Step 1 Cut your chipboard down to size for your front and back covers.Mine were approxi-mately 18.3cm x 13.4cm. Step 2 Make sure your letters all fit onto the cover. I laid mine out in rows. You may notice a word in there. I could not make many words from the letters but I did manage to spell out love. This will be the title of the album.

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Step 3 Paint the cover whatever colour you want. I went with white. Step 4 When the paint is dry lay your letters back down. To help with the positioning I had taken a quick photo before I moved them to paint them. Glue all the letters down. I used Gel Medium for this. Step 5 When the glue is dry paint over all the letters in the same colour of your cover. Step 6 To make your title pop paint or colour it in a contrasting colour. I used my Inktense pencils to col-our the word love. Step 7 To make the album cover pop even more I decided to cover the inside of the covers with red paper to match with the title. However I first decided to give the paper a bit more impact. I used the negative of the chip-board letters sheet to spray sil-ver glimmer mist though.

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Step 8 Simply cut the paper to the size of the covers and glue them on. I used the gel medium again to glue the papers down. Step 9 I bound the album with red ribbon. I punched holes in the covers with my crop a dile and simply threaded the ribbons and tied them in a bow. When the pages for the mini album are done I will hole punch and eyelet

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set them and then thread them onto the ribbon inside the cover. For a bit extra impact I also sprayed the cover with Diamond glimmer mist. I also used this same technique to make a card with some left over num-bers. I simply cut a piece of card 8cm x 8cm and painted it blue. I laid the numbers out the same as the album then added it onto my card. I highlight-ed the 21 to make it a 21st birthday card!

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I recently saw a blog where someone had taken a peat pot (little biodegrada-ble pots that you plant seedlings in the garden in) and turned it into a cute little gift basket. I thought this was a cute idea but I wanted to go one step further! I created a whimsical gift box from peat pots! It is a super cheap way to make very unusual gift boxes. What you will need

Peat pots x 2

Paint

Small hinge

Brads

Poking tool

Embellishments Step 1 Paint the peat pots in your colour of choice. I did a base coat of teal and then a top coat of gold. Because of the rough texture of the peat pots it is easy to do a rough top coat and still have the base coat showing through.

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You can see here how the top coat lets a lot of the base colour show through. Step 2 Paint your top coat over the base coat. Al-so paint the inside of the peat pots. De-pending on what you are putting in the pots when finished you may have to paint the entire inside of both of them. For mine I only half painted one of the insides and fully did the second one. You will see why later.

Step 3 When the pots are fully painted and dry place them one on top of the other. You will notice they have a little rim on the edges. You will need to trim away some of this rim so that your hinge can sit flat against the pot.

To find out where you need to trim hold the hinge up against the side of one of the pots and mark on either side of it. Then cut out this section between the marked lines. Then line this top pot up with the bottom pot. Use the top pot as the template to mark where to trim off on the second pot. This step is not necessary but it does make the pots sit together when hinged and lot better.

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Step 4 Mark the holes for your hinges. To do this hold the hinge up to the pot and mark with a pen the spot where the holes are. Then use a hold punch or a

punching tool to punch through the pen marks.

The hinge I used is a butt hinge, picked up in a hardware store for around €3.50 Step 5 Fix the hinge on with brads. The hinge will probably come with screws, but the brads are all we need for this.

The brads will simply fold out flat inside the pot. If you wanted to hide the prongs you could cover with DP or an embellishment.

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Now your box is ready to decorate!

Step 6 Embellish the box as you wish. I filled mine with raffia and created a closure with some ribbon and a G45 metal staple. Place your gift inside and you are done! Tip For the inside of the lid I stamped some butter-flies on acetate and cut them out but left a long tail of acetate on them. I then glued these to the inside of the lid. When the lid is opened it looks like the butter-flies are flying around inside the top of it. It is hard to capture in a photo due to the shine on acetate, but it looks great in real life!

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I embellished with flourish and butterfly die cuts. To make the closure I punched a hold in the top pot and threaded ribbon through and knotted it on the inside. I then fixed the G45 metal staple flower to the bottom pot using a brad. The ribbon simply wraps around the metal flower to keep closed. You could use a small hook and clasp or even just a small brad and ribbon for your closure. Whatever you have on hand in your craft room is my motto!

For the top I embellished with another G45 metal staple flow-er and some skeleton leaves, feathers and flourishes. Enjoy creating your peat pot gift boxes, enjoy and be as cre-ative as you like!

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If you would like to advertise in Crafting Ireland email us at

info@craftingirelandonline.ie with advertising in the subject line for more information. Below are a list of some shops that we shopaholics like to order all those es-sential supplies from. All these stores are either located in Ireland, or else ship to Ireland with reasonable rates.

Ireland Cardz’n’Scraps – Cork Art Supplies http://cardznscrapz.com/ Scrapbook Store http://www.thescrapbookstore.ie Crafty Angels http://www.craftyangels.ie/store/

Scrapbook Store http://www.thescrapbookstore.ie

An Siopa Bui – The Yellow Shop http://www.ansiopabui.ie/

Create With Kate www.createwithkate.com

LillyPad Craft Supplies http://www.lilypadcraftsupplies.ie/

Crafty Cutting www.craftycutting.com

United Kingdom Artist Trading Post http://www.artisttradingpost.com/ Artistic Stamper http://www.theartisticstamper.com/ Craft Barn http://www.thecraftbarn.co.uk/ Craft Emporium http://www.craft-emporium.co.uk

WOW Embossing Powders http://www.wowembossingpowder.co.uk/

Wild Orchid Crafts www.wildorchidcrafts.com

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In this new series we would like to gather and share ideas on how to store craft supplies. In this issue one of our readers, Val Thorpe, has shared her craft room. Val Thorpe lives in Johannesburg, South Africa. You can find more about her and her creations on her blog: http://valbellesramblings.blogspot.com/ Let the tour start! “I live in South Africa so we are very blessed with lots of space and since my kids left home I have even more space. I have taken over the guest room downstairs which opens up onto the garden.”

This is from the door that leads to the garden. On the far wall I got kitchen cupboards made and left them open so that I could see what I had... for me out of sight out of mind. The cupboards underneath store all my plain card-

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stock – sorted by colour. Mini albums that I still want to alter plus all my big embellishments. On top of the counter are A4 plastic boxes that house all my small chipboard letters, and embellishments. On top of these on one side I have plastic boxes that have floss in them and a basket of big flowers. Between them in plastic boxes there are small see through boxes with alphabets in them, one box for each letter. Above the boxes on the right are small see through tubs with buttons in them – sorted by colour. I also have two small baskets on here that hold my flower soft and on the other side small spools of ribbon. Above there is all my patterned papers – stored by colour – vertically in box-es made to hold files. Above that I have small (fishing boxes) that hold all my embellishments by colour and in front of those are little see through tubs that have small bits of ribbon. Above those in the blue plastic boxes there are stickers, rub-ons, die-cuts and so on. I have all my flowers sorted by colour and stored in see through paint cans, and the shelf above – which you can’t see holds all of my al-bums... about 35 now I think :D I have two desks in here... one against the wall which has my computer and my printers, my sewing machine, silhouette and slice, so all the cables are underneath. The centre desk is where I create and I have all my tools close at hand. I have two big plastic drawers which hold all my stamping supplies, inks, blocks and so on and on top of my desk in tin buckets there are all my pens, inks, glues tools, brushes, markers etc... On the far wall is a book case that holds all my favourite magazines. In this corner I have more cupboards and the drawers underneath hold all my punches, tapes, masks and stencils and stuff like that. On top of the counter I have cardmaking paper in A4 plastic drawers with my array of paints and mists on top for easy access. I also have my Cuttlebug sta-tion here.

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In the white boxes there are all my Cuttlebug folders and dies. I have a nice range of Nestabilities which I have suspended on a rod on two cup hooks under the shelves. It al-so makes it easy to access. The black folders between the white boxes hold all my acrylic stamps sorted by theme. The big blue tubs going up the right hand side hold all my block mounted stamps and they are also sorted by theme. Above the paints also in boxes I have stored all my alcohol inks, glimmer mists and gel mediums and that sort of stuff. The other boxes hold stuff like felt, wool, fibres and that kind of thing. In the corner bottom two shelves hold all my embossing powders and UTEE. Under this window I have a free standing cupboard which holds all my photos pre-digital and also ephemera I have col-lected over the years. On top I have these baskets that hold bigger chipboard letters and my bling and also other bits and pieces and of course my music which is my inspiration.

On the next page you can see how I sorted my paints and a close up of my ribbons and flowers.

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You can also see the little box-es that have for my embellish-ments and on the outside I put a paint chip so that I could see the colours immediately.

My inks are stored in a drawer and all my pens, scissors and things in these little buckets. I hope you enjoyed my little tour around my room :D

If you have some great ideas on how to store craft supplies, let us know and we will feature your craft room in our next issue! Email us at submis-sons@craftingirelandonline.ie

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In this mini album project I would like to show you how to add extra dimension to a mini album page using only the patterned paper of your choice and some chipboard elements. This technique works well with those papers where the pattern is more geometric and not really flowery. If you are good at fussy cutting, flowery patterned paper will work very well for you too. I used the My Mind’s Eye Kraft Funday Happy Days collection. What you will need

1 ready made album (Prima Build a Book)

1 pack of designer paper ( My Mind’s Eye)

1 sheet of chipboard elements

Cover page Choose a few pieces of designer paper that you like. Try to make sure the patterns work well together. Cut them into different sizes. First you will need a background, this piece needs to be the biggest. Then arrange the smaller pieces as you like.

You could sketch out some simple layout ideas before you start if you wanted.

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Here, I have added some twine to the page before I started to glue the papeprs down.

For some added dimension distress the edges of all the papers with an edge distresser or scissors. Start layering the papers. You can use dimensional adhesive to raise some of the pieces of paper. To embellish the page, look for a pattern that you like on the designer papers and cut it out. Here I added a banner that I cut out from one of the papers I liked.

I found the background too dark, so I brushed over it with some white acrylic paint to balance it out a little bit.

Page 1 Try to use the same method. Pick the papers that you like. Cut the background piece bigger. Cut some embellishments from the patterned paper.

It is always good to have the photos ready and printed when you are working on an album. I often find that I create and album and never fill it with photos if I don’t do this. It is also easier to plan a page when you have the photo ready.

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This paper pack was really easy to create with, because the pattern was inspiring me in how to add the em-bellishments.

For some additional interest you could create a pocket behind one of the raise pieces of paper and slide a tag in it.

Page 2 On this page I used the same meth-od again. But this time I picked one of the chipboard elements from the collection to add as an embellish-ment. The background paper I used had already been cut into. (I had cut one of the banners out of it. It was an interesting shape, so I used it as the background.

You can again layer the papers with some dimensional adhesive for added di-mension.

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Page 3 Sometimes the photo you may want to use may not be the greatest quality. If you want to use it anyway, you will need to find a way to fix this problem.

Here, there was a polaroid style frame in the chipboard elements sheet. I thought it would be a great solution for the bad photo quality. As I did before I cut the papers and layered them with some dimensional adhesive. I glued the frame on the photo and cut off the excess from the photo. I added the frame to the page.

To embellish the page I used another piece of the chipboard element sheet. There was a sentiment on the frame that I didn’t particularly like, so a piece of twine was the perfect solution to cover it up. As you can see these pages are really quick and easy to do. You don’t need to spend a lot of money on several matching embellishments if you don’t want to. I can also imagine this paper pack and album created for a Father’s Day present. Or even just as a simple masculine project that we crafters always seem to struggle with.

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In this article I would like to give you an insight into the world of inks that are commonly used in paper crafting. Inks are very popular to use in crafting. I would even say they are essential to use in some techniques. Dye Inks are waterbased, transluscent and have a thin consistensy. They dry quickly. Some dye inks will fade over time, unless they are archival inks which are permanent and fade resistant. Pigment Inks are opaque and have thicker consistency. They take longer to dry. Pigment inks will not dry on glossy surfaces unless they are heat set. Many times these inks can be used for heat embossing because of the longer drying time. Distress Inks are dye inks with special capabilities. They are jucier than normal dye inks and have more open time, which means they dry slower. This allows the crafter to use it for heat embossing. Permanent inks are solvent based and designed to be permanent on non-porous surfaces. There are lots of manufacturers producing inkpads for crafts. However I am going to focus on the two main companies and their most used inks and ink pads: Ranger Inks and Tsukineko

Ranger Inks Adirondack Pigment Ink Adirondack Pigment Inks give opaque coverage that air dries on matte paper surfaces. They are

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embossable and can be heat set on gloss paper, vellum, shrink plastic, metal and glass. There are 24 colours and reinkers are available.

Adirondack Dye Inks There are 48 colours available. They are acid free and non toxic. Reinkers are also available to buy for them.

Adirondack Alcohol Inks These are acid free, transparent, fast drying, dye based inks specially formulated for use on glossy paper, metal, dominoes, shrink plastic and simplar surfaces. There are 48 colours available. Alcohol Blending Solution is available to lighten colours and to clean inks from surfaces. Alcohol Inks can be used with an Ink Aplicator.

Archival Inks Archival inks are permanent on many surfaces. They airdry on matte paper and have to be heat set on glossy surfaces. Once dried they become waterproof. They are available in 24 shades and in Jumbo pads. You can also buy reinkers for them.

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Distress Inks Distress ink are acid free water-based dye inks. They are perfect for creating aged, distressed and weathered effects. They are great for layering and photo tinting. Distress inks are available in 36 colours and there are some seasonal limited editions available too. You can also buy reinkers for them.

Tsukineko The most popluar and used inks from Tsukineko are Memento, Stazon and Versamark. Memento Ink is a fast drying and fade resistant dye ink. It is widely used for colouring images with Copic or Letraset markers. They are available in 24 colours.

StazOn Ink is a fast drying solvent based, permanent ink. It is designed for use on non porous surfaces, but they work perfectly on paper.

They are used a lot in art journaling and mixed media arts because it is water proof.

Versamark is a pigment based ink that allows you to perform a number of techniques: watermark and resist techniques. It is very sticky so powders like pigment powders or embossing powders will stick to it.

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There are so many kinds of inks and colours that are available, it can be overwhelming to choose the one that you need. If you are a beginner crafter I would advise you start building up your ink collection with buying browns and blacks. Black ink is great for stamping sentiments and images and browns are great for inking the edges of paper pieces. You would need to buy a dye based ink pad in black, like Memento and a permanent one like StazOn or Rangers Archival Ink. That would be a good start and as you learn more techniques you will find out what kinds you really need. Buying a lot of ink pads can be hard on your wallet. It is not worth buying the cheap ink though. Try to buy good quality inkpads and follow the manufacturer instructions on storing them and you will find they last long.

In the next issue—Sprays....

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I like to work with sketches when creating a layout or a card. It is inspirational and challenging in the same time. There are sketch inspiration/challenge blogs for card makers and for scrapbookers all over the blogosphere. In this short article I would like to show you how can you use the sketches and give a few tips on using them as well. A sketch is a guideline of what kind of elements you need to use on your project. Generally if you want to enter a sketch challenge you will need to follow the sketch quite strictly. Sometimes I just look around among the older sketches. I find some that inspire me and I create along them. One of my favourite blogs is Creative Scrappers. I chose one sketch from their archive to work with.

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On this first layout I tried to follow the sketch as closly as I could. I used all the elements from the sketch, but some of them are maybe smaller or bigger than on the original sketch. You can always resize the whole sketch and make a miniature version of it with lots of white space. On the right is a second layout using

the same sketch. Somewhat similar,

but still different. I used paint and

ribbons to create some of the

elements instead of using the

patterned paper.

You can turn or rotate sketches. Most challenge blogs allow you to do so, as long as they can recognize the sketch. Here is another layout I created a while ago. This was made following a sketch from Sketchy Thursdays. Unfortunately the blog is closed down now.However you can still see the sketches, if you are in need of inspiration. This is the sketch I followed.

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Sometimes I want to make a layout with a landscape picture. So then I just simply turn the sketch and follow it that way. I turned the two semi-cirle elements into huge flowers on my page. Sometimes I don’t find co-ordinating papers or ones I want to use together. In this case I try to replace paper with some paint, inks, flowers or other bits and pieces I have.

Another example of turning a sketch and using it in a different way is another layout of mine which was made following another Thursday Sketches Sketch. Here is the sketch.... and the layout.

This is a bit different from the sketch, but you can still recognise the sketch elements. You don’t have to stick to the sketch so much, just let the creative juices flow. Here for the biggest element I used stitching. I just put my white cradstock under the sewing machine and created a frame with it. If I had a panorama photo I would have used that to create this layout. That would have looked good too. To summarize what I was trying to demonstrate above:

A Sketch is inspiration, let your imagination flow

To add interest to your page try to replace paper with other materials

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when creating a sketch element

Resizing, rotating or even using a mirror image of the sketch will sometimes give a beautiful result

Some of the sketch elements are only indication of embellishments. If there’s a star you don’t necessarily have to use a star.

Some of my favourite blogs where you can find sketches: Creative Scrappers Got Sketch Page Maps Pencil lines – sadly closed down this year Sketchy Thursdays – sadly closed down this year, but you can still find inspiration on their Facebook Page I hope in this article you found some creative ideas on how to work with sketches!

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There are lots of companies out there producing designer paper. However sometimes our budgets don’t allow us to purchase all the ones we want. Or perhaps you are working on a specific project and need a paper to match a theme. If you can’t find a paper that works, or can’t afford one I have a possible solution. Create your own digi paper! I will split this tutorial over two issues. In this issue I will show you what you can create with a programme such as Microsoft Word. In the next issue I will show you how to create more complex papers using Adobe Photoshop. The Programme: Microsoft Word 2007 Graphics Source: The Graphics Fairy Microsoft Office is going to let us create some patterned paper. However it is a very basic programme. As a result we will get very basic results! Paper 1—Bee Theme I decided to create some bee themed background paper for a card I wanted to make. I downloaded a bee image . You can find it here. Step 1 Open a new blank document in Microsoft Word Step 2 Click on the Page Layout Tab and Click on Size Step 3 In here re-size the page to the size you need. You can create an A4 page but

Nicole Mullen

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Nicole Mullen

it is more work so I prefer to make my pages A5. You can find this in the size list or click on More Paper Sizes and type in A5 dimensions. These are 21cm x 14.8cm Step 4 Click on the insert tab and choose the Picture option. This will let you browse on your computer for where you have saved your image to work with. I inserted my bee image. It will come in large in size. You will however see a bounding box around it with small circles on it. These circles allow you to resize the image. If you want to rotate/turn the image you can use the green cir-cle at the top of the bounding box. Resize the image to the size you are happy with. I want to have my pattern repeat on my paper all over so I made it quite small. Step 5 When you have the image the size you want you now need to duplicate it to layout your paper. The easiest way to do this is to copy the image and paste it back into the same document. You will do this as many times as you need the image. It could take a while! You can use a random pattern or you can

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set it out in order—whatever you prefer. Tip: If your image wont let you move it around you will need to click once on the image. You will then see a Format tab coming up under Picture Tools. Click on Wrap Text and choose In Front Of Text. This will allow you move the image to wherev-er you want. Step 6 For my image I arranged one row in the way I wanted it. I then used a handy tip to duplicate this row. Single left click on the first im-age. Then hold down the Ctrl button on the keyboard. Hold this button down and single left click on each further image. You will see a bounding box ap-pear around each image. Now go to Picture Tools/Format and Group. Click on Group. You have now grouped all the images. They are now acting as one image., Now it is easier to copy and paste this row to create your paper. Step 7 Once you have your image laid out on

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your page as you wish simply save it and print it. As I said previously this is a very basic method to creating DP. You will find that when you insert im-ages you can’t place them too close to one another as they will have a white area around them. If you go to close to another image this white area will overlap on anoth-er image blocking part of it out. However with a bit of creativity you will find you can create quite a lot of things.

Here you can see two cards I made with this paper. I printed the bee DP onto plain white card on one, and onto cream card on the other. They are both the exact same card but the different colour paper they are printed on gives them each a different effect. In the next issue I will look at using Photoshop to create more advanced effects.

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We have decided to replace our regular challenge with a Swap instead. The

wonderful Felicia of Scrapzville has kindly agreed to host the swap. Some of you may know that Felicia used to run Scrapzville Swap. Well we can hap-pily say that Scrapzville Swap is back in conjunction with Crafting Ireland!! For the swap you will be assigned a partner and a theme to follow. You then create a mini album to send to your partner, and you will receive one in re-turn. We will start off on mini albums first and will look at other projects shortly. The rules for the swap are quite simple;

The album should be no bigger than 6"x6"

It should have at least 6 pages including the front and back covers.

Please remember that your swap partner (probably) doesn't know you and the work you send will be their first impression of you - so make sure that you are proud of your work and would be happy to receive something similar.

Please do not sign up for this swap unless you can complete the swap, your partner may be overseas and you are responsible for postage fees.

You must have an email address to enter - this means you can contact your swap partner to discuss favourite colours etc.

Sometimes people send extra goodies with an album, this is a lovely gesture but NOT compulsory, therefore it is up to you. Please do not expect to receive extras!

The last and most important rule is.... Enjoy creating!!

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To join the swap you will need to email your details to Felicia at; felicia@craftingirelandonline.ie

How to join in

Issue 10 Swap Theme—Vintage

Sign up deadline—Sunday the 3rd June by 1pm GMT. You must have emailed Felicia your details by this date and time to be includ-ed in the swap.

Swap partners announced—Monday the 4th June. You will be told who your swap partner is, and given their email address so that you can get in contact to exchange postal addresses, style preference, etc

Albums must be in the post by— Monday the 2nd July (or sooner). Try to get the album posted as soon as you can so that your partner can hopefully receive it before the next swap is announced!

The swap is open to everyone, no matter where you live.

When you have finished your album consider taking a photo of it be-fore posting it, and email this photo to Felicia. We will then publish these photos along side the next swap announcement.

We will publish them without names just in case your partner has not yet received your album—we wouldn't want to ruin the sur-prise!!

You can see some photos of the Issue 9 swap albums on the next page. Fabulous work eve-ryone!!

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Article submission If you have an article or tutorial you would like to get published please email us about it at submissions@craftingirelandonline.ie

out on 9th July....

Make sure to check out www.craftingirelandonline.ie for more

information on future issues