Fuschia step by step...

So, as promised, I'm back again to share a step by step on how I made this pretty Fuchsia card sample using the papers and precoloured images from my Fuchsia mini kit...

My card base is a 6x6 inch (14.8cm) square...

1. Print off the 3 coordinating papers and the precoloured Fuchsia image x 2 - I printed the image onto 4x6 sized paper (I often do this to save paper) and used Photo Size 3.5 x 5in
2. Cut the Pink circle paper to 13.5cm square and ink the edges - I used Picked Raspberry Distress Ink
3. Attach to your card base, using the adhesive of your choice
4. Cut a piece of the green Fuchsia stripe paper to 14.8 x 4.5cm (14.8cm should be the width of your card base front when folded, but check yours and adjust if needed) Ink the edges - I used Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide
5. Mat the green stripe onto a piece of white paper 14.8cm (or whatever width your card base is) x 5cm
6. Attach the green stripe panel (with white mat) to the centre of your card
7. Cut a piece of white paper 10cm square and attach to the centre of your card

For the aperture topper :

8. Cut a piece of the aqua Fuchsia dot paper to 10.5cm square and cut a circular aperture in the centre, using a 9cm circle die
9. Cut a piece of blue cardstock to 11cm square and lay your dot panel with the aperture on top, ensuring that all the border edges are equal.
10. Holding the dot layer in place, lay a slightly smaller circle die inside the aperture and secure with repositionable tape, then remove the dot layer before cutting. Adhere the two layers together.

11. Attach the aperture topper over the white cardstock in the centre of your card using foam pads.
12. Cut around the Fuchsia image leaving a white border and attach inside the aperture - you will need to use a combination of foam pads and glue to attach the image level.
13. I printed off 2 of the images and decoupaged some of the leaves and main flower, before adding a touch of glitter to the flower stamens
14. Print the sentiment from a graphics program, sizing to 4.5 x 3cm and matting onto a fuchsia coloured cardstock 5 x 3.5cm in size
15. Finish off with some 5mm pearls

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I hope that this little step by step guide is easy enough to follow along and that you will have a go at making something similar...and if you would like to use my Fuchsia image and papers, it is available as a mini kit in my Etsy shop HERE for just £2.40...

Right, off to tidy my crafty table before I think of starting again and don't forget, if you use my tutorial or any of my images, I would love to see what you create!

Crafty hugs,

Papercraft@Leigh...

Good morning, lovely Bloggers!  Firstly, I must say a HUGE shout out to everyone who came along to the Sincerely Yours Papercraft@Leigh Show over the weekend!  It was lovely to see some familiar faces and a lot of new ones, and to get some really nice feedback for my discs and samples...thank you so much for the support, it spurs me on to continue designing!

(You can view some of the cards I have made using the disc by scrolling down to the Labels section in the left hand side bar and clicking on A Play on Words)

As promised, I have put together some instructions on how I make my pop up box cards and just hope that you can follow them!! :)  Here's a couple of pictures of the finished items :

You can view photographic instructions on my Tutorials page, by clicking the Tutorials tab at the top of this blog.  You will also find the instructions on how to assemble my Box Frame which you can download the template here.  (IT WOULD BE GREAT IF YOU COULD LET ME KNOW HOW YOU GET ON WITH THE INSTRUCTIONS)

If you would like to print off written instructions with pictoral diagrams for the pop up box cards, to keep for future reference, you can do so here.

Once again, many thanks to all of you who came along to the Show and came to see me and I hope you enjoy using my tutorials to create some fabulous pieces!  Don't forget, I'd love to see what you make, so you can always send me an email with your creations, or a link to your blog post if you have one!

Big crafty hugs,

Paper bows...

Good afternoon, everyone!  After making a paper bow using my XCut tag die on my last card, I decided to have a little play with some of the other dies in the set and thought I would share my results!
Firstly, this is the die that I used to make the pink paper bow on my Extremely CAS card...

...I cut out 4 of the die shapes, curled 2 using the handle of my embossing tool (or anything round) and cut fishtails in the end of the other 2, then secured them together with a brad or flower.  So, here's the bows that I made from some of the other dies...

...To see what the bow shapes would turn out like, I just cut them from whatever scraps of paper happened to be on my crafty table, but with a bit of thought and some inking, this is what they can look like!...

...I wasn't sure about the very rounded tag shapes at first, but layered up together, I think they make a great bow for on a box or present and it means that you can create them in papers and colours to coordinate perfectly!  I shall definitely be using more paper bows in the future and hope this has given you some inspiration to maybe look at your dies in a different way?!  Thanks for looking and I'll be back soon with a card, hopefully. 
I have my Sister and nieces coming over later (they live in Ireland so don't get over too often!) and Mum's coming too, so I don't know if I'll get chance to share a crafty creation today, but in the words of Arnie...I'll be back!!
Hugs,
Lisa x

Take one daisy flower...

Hi guys!  I am snowed under at the moment with card orders and design work, so don't have a project that I can share with you at the minute.  Because of this, I thought I would share a little tutorial with you using mulberry paper daisy flowers...it's amazing how many different flowers you can make from one, TBH quite boring, little paper flower, so here goes...

To begin, take one daisy flower...

Cut in half...

Using one of the halves, place glue on one of the outer petals...

 Fold the opposite edge petal around and stick the 2 petals together...

Attach a pearl or gem in the centre using Pinflair glue or similar...

Flower number one!

Okay, so on to flower 2...

Once again, take a flower and cut in half.

Using one of the halves, place glue on the centre semicircle, as shown in grey...

Fold 2 of the outer petals in, so that they line up with the 2 centre petals...

Fold the opposite 2 outer petals, so that all the petals line up...

Now place glue on the bottom of the flower and fold in half...

Take the second half of the daisy flower and place glue on the centre semicircle, as before.  Lay the folded flower on one of the outer petals...

Wrap the second half around the folded flower centre...

This is how the flower looks from the top...

And there you have flower number 2!

A variation on this flower is to add extra layers to make it fuller...

Take another daisy flower and cut out 3 petals...

Using the larger piece, place glue on one of the outer petals and attach to the opposite edge petals, to create a cupped daisy...

Snip the point off the previous folded flower (flower number 2) and attach inside this cupped daisy with Pinflair glue or similar...

You can leave it there, or take it even fuller by adding a third daisy.

Cut 2 petals from this third flower and, as before, glue the 2 outer petals together, then snip the very point from the flower above and attach inside...

So that's flowers 3 and 4!

The 3 petals that were left over in making number 3 can also be used for small 'filler' flowers...

Place glue on the central quarter circle and fold the 2 outer petals inwards, pinching the base of the flower together to adhere...

So that's now 5 flowers!

Okay, I have one more for you...

Once again, take a daisy flower and cut in half, then, cut away another petal on each half...

Again, place glue glue on one of the outer petals and fold round to attach to it's opposite edge petal, to create a 4 petalled flower...

Repeat with the other daisy half, then attach the 2 flowers together, one inside the other, snipping off the point of the inner one if needed...

Et voila!  There we have number 6!

I'm sure there are many other combinations and you could also do the same using punched flowers.  Hope this gives you some inspiration to look at those boring, flat flowers a little differently!  Thanks for dropping by and happy crafting!  Lisa x

Templates and tutorials

I know it's taken a week, but Val and Laura, you'll be glad to hear that I've managed to sort out the tutorials for the front step card and calendar cube card that you wanted!  I hope that they are easy enough to understand!

So, Val (and anyone else of course!), you can download the .pdf tutorial for the front step card from 4shared here - I've done it in photographic step by step instructions (though the light wasn't great), so I'm hoping it will be easy enough to follow...

This is one of the calendar cube cards made for a workshop last year

...and Laura (and anyone else again!), you can download the template for the calendar cubes here and there's also the card template here which you can print onto A4 card, cut off to 21cm and score and fold in half (A5 half fold) to make a tent fold card.  Score between the grey lines along A5 Gate, then cut along the grey lines up to the score line.  Pop this section down to create the 'shelf' for the cubes to sit on. Hope you understand this once you've printed the sheet out!  If you have any problems, let me know and I'll write some instructions, though it's quite simple...famous last words!

Enjoy!

Decided to make instructions for the cube card anyway, so you can download them in .pdf here.