CrazyDaisy

Tips and techniques

By Katie Turner

Katie here! This time around, I thought I’d do something a little different: offer up some tips and techniques on how to create your own embellishments using the various materials found in the kit (I’m using the July 2010 Main Kit, but you can use whatever you have around your craft space)! 

I like to mix things up and try to challenge myself to use products in a new way and not just straight out of the bag/off the sheet. I realized that while I described the process before, I never really offered up any tutorials, so I’m here to change that today! I’ve created four different tutorials to inspire you to use the goodies in your kit in new ways. Let’s get started!

custom metal charm:

grab your metal charm and the blue flower rub-on from the glitz design kismet collection sheet.
decide how you want to place the petals on your charm; i decided to use two petals and face them away from each other.

cut out the petals and center of the flower (if you want to) and rub it all on! i rubbed on in layers, so i burnished the petals down first, then the brown center, and finally a couple of the red bits on either side of the center. i also covered the charm in a couple coats of mod podge to seal everything in. all done!

textured flower:

cut out the red flower from the glitz design kismet collection sheet and place it on the moxxie joy of baking collection pinch of this paper with the circle side up. rub it on.

trim the paper around the flower (this doesn’t have to be perfect!) and, from corrugated cardboard, cut out a circle slightly larger than the outside of the flower you just cut out. tear one of the top layers of paper off the cardboard circle, the messier the better!

layer the elements, beginning with the corrugated circle on the bottom, the flower in the middle, and a brad from the kit to top it all off. the crop-a-dile is great for punching a circle through the flower and cardboard if you’d prefer to do that before fastening it all together with the brad. voila!
 

collage cards:

take the my mind’s eye life stories collection journaling card and use it as a guide to trace two more cards on the large vintage card also found in the kit; i traced over the lower right and upper left corners of the vintage card so that i’d get the vintage logo and “notes” sentiments on my new cards. cut the cards out.
cut out the bee from the glitz design kismet collection sheet and then cut it in half; place on one card as shown in the picture.

i printed out a very small picture to use on my card, but you could use a piece of patterned paper or keep the area blank to fill with alpha stickers later if you’d like. grab the measuring tape ribbon and pleat it, using the left edge of the card as a guide to help you decide how long the ribbon needs to be/how much of the edge it should cover.

stitch the ribbon on: grab your sheet of glitz design vintage journaling cardstock stickers and cut out the bracket journaling spot with the vintage music sheet motif; i had already used the interior of the journaling spot, so mine was cut out, but you can just cut around the edges of the sticker if you’d prefer. snip a long side of the sticker to use as a border on the top of your card — you’ll need to piece together some of the parts of the sticker to make it seem longer than it really is. see the picture for help!

cut out part of the leaf motif from the glitz design kismet collection floral patterned paper.
quickly cut a strip from the moxxie joy of baking collection pinch of this paper and trim it into random bits; it definitely should not be perfect! layer the bits along the bottom edge of the card and adhere with a light adhesive, then adhere the leaf motif you cut out in the previous step on top of it, just like in the photo.

stitch over the moxxie paper border you created. finished with card one.

for card two, grab the textured flower you created in the last tutorial, as well as another strip of the moxxie paper; this time, keep the strip as is and pleat it.
cut out a couple more motifs from the glitz design paper — i chose another branch with leaves and a couple flowers. layer everything just the way you want it (or use my picture as a guide) and adhere down. again, i used another small photo, but you don’t have to! the space is yours to do whatever you want with.
stitch over the pleats and add a couple more snippets from the glitz design journaling spot with the music sheet design as border accents. now you’ve completed the collage cards!

flower brad:

select a brad from your own stash. i used my i-top to make a medium sized brad which i covered with the glitz design paper, but it’s not necessary as the brad will be covered up. make sure the brad has a bit of an edge, though; if it’s too thin, the next couple of steps won’t work. also, cut out three leaves from the same paper. i chose to use the blue side for this. 
adhere the leaves onto the edge of the brad as shown.

use craft bond or pvc glue to circle the edge of the brad and then tie jute cord around it — the glue will help keep it in place as you work. make sure you’re wrapping the cord over the edges of the leaves; this will hold them in place so they won’t break off. once dry, curl the leaves downward.

cut and distress a very thin strip of the glitz design paper. my strip was about 1 cm x 6 inches — tiny! — and use a ruler or straight edge and bone folder to help you find the middle of the strip and score it.
fold the strip in half. i folded it so that the blue will be what shows when my flower is finished.
crush and twist the strip of paper until it resembles something like in the photo — again, it won’t be perfect, but that’s part of the process and beauty of the completed product!

using more liquid glue, slather the center of the brad and begin to twist the distressed strip into it, working from the outside in and in a vaguely circular motion. make sure you press down hard enough for the glue to hold. once you reach the end of your strip, fold it into the middle of the flower. the end!

i hope you enjoyed these tutorials. please let me and the rest of the crazy daisy team know if you create anything based on the techniques i just shared with you — we’d love to see what you come up with!

Thanks,

Katie