Accordion Photo Card

Here is the accordion photo card I gave to my sister, that I had made during the Saturday on-line crop.

Here's how I made it:
Take a 12x12 piece of card stock and cut 4" off (you'll have a 8x12 piece of cardstock). Fold down the middle, so you end up a 4x12 piece, then score every 3 inches. Fold it into 4 individual pockets and I used wonder tape to adhere at every fold and the ends (this will make individual pockets).

Punch a scalloped edge on the front part of the card and adhered the ribbon (only on the 3" on the front of the card). Once you fold the card, see if there is any overlapping on the front section. If there is, try and punch with an overlap so that it looks right when it's folded. Otherwise, you might have a little "extra" showing. Does that make sense?

I embellished with a matchbook card (instructions given on previous blog from 8/16/08) and an unfolding/exploding card, so she could place even more pictures! On the pull-out tabs, I used my shape cutter and again for each of the little red circles. You could also use a punch, if you have ones that would fit.

On the unfolding/exploding card, select the size that you want your bottom piece to be and then cut out 4 more pieces, with about 1/4" added. Score the 4 pieces 1/4" in and then glue to the bottom side of the card, as you fold over each other. Place a brads and a thin piece of ribbon and tie (as you would seal an inter-office envelope). Adhere to card. Tie ribbon and give it to someone you love to enjoy, your save it for yourself!

Cricut Cartridges used: Palm tree is from Doodlecharms cartridge, the Boys Rule is from the Locker Talk cartridge, and the letters are from the George and All Mixed Up cartridges.

Hope you have a wonderful week! Thanks for stopping by the cottage!
Peggy
www.MyCraftCottage.net

Key Lime Crop

Okay, I'm ready for all of you to call me nuts on this one!

You know what a fan I am of Scrapbook Memories. Well Stacy Julian, a frequent guest co-host on the show, started her own website (www.BigPictureScrapbooking.com). Stacy's website sponsored a 30 hour "Big Wig Bash" crop, which was run by Key Lime Crops (www.KeyLimeCrops.com). Yup . . . you guessed it . . . I registered for this crop and actually stayed up for the whole 30 hours! I still can't believe it! The online crop started Friday @ 2:00P CST and ended tonight @ 8:00P CST. I hadn't ever even heard of an "online" crop before! Who would have thunk?? Well these two gals, that started Key Lime Crops, did an awesome job! Every hour there would be a challenge, which you would try and complete within that hour time frame. Some examples of the challenges were to create a card or page with numbers on it, create a page with your best "big" hairdo (saw LOTS of 80's hairdos on that challenge), to create a card or page with scallops, and to create a card or page with strips.

I'm including some of the cards that I submitted, for a couple of the challenges. I didn't win any of the drawings, but it was still a great time! Here's the one I submitted on the numbers challenge. I plan on giving this to my husband on our anniversary . . . so shhh . . . don't tell him! You can't tell on the picture, but I Stickle'd the diamond part.

For the strip challenge, I submitted two entries:

I "scraplifted" this idea, off the strip gallery/message boards. I just thought it was too cute AND easy!

When they were closing the crop tonight, there were talking about doing another "online" crop sometime in January. If you get a chance to go to either of these websites, be sure to sign up for their e-mail newsletters! This way you're in the loop too!

Thanks for stopping by the cottage!
Peggy
www.MyCraftCottage.net

p.s. I made the cutest accordion picture book, for my sister, during the crop. I do have one more little section left to do. I'll post pictures on Tuesday, with the instructions, if you'd like to duplicate it. The website I got the idea from used a 12x12 paper folder . . . but it made 14 individual little pages. Oh . . . that's WAY too many for me! So I improvised and made it out of a piece of 12x12 cardstock. I'm pretty proud of the way it turned out! Okay . . . I'm off to bed to hibernate now!! :o) Talk to you on Tuesday night!

Matchbook Card

As usual, I was watching my DVR'd Scrapbook Memories shows, on Saturday morning. Julie showed how to make a Matchbook Card (show #1003) . . . oh my! The creative juices were flowing, once again! I didn't have any small ribbon, so I improvised with DMC floss. Whatcha think??

I cut out the "Thank You" from my All Mixed Up cartridge @ 1.5".

Here's how you make it:
1. Cut a piece of card stock 3"x6". If you want a decorative edge, add it now on one edge.
2. Score 3/4" in from decorative edge. If you have a scalloped edge, as I did, this scoreline should be from the furthest edge (top) of the scallop.
3. Make another scoreline 2 3/4" from the first scoreline.
4. Fold edges in and punch two holes and tie ribbon (floss) through the holes. Once you punch the holes, make sure you can see through the holes . . . if not, trim a little off the bottom (straight) edge.
5. Add decorative paper or embellishments to the front and you're done! This is a great way to use up small pieces of scrap paper too!

This project yields 8 cards, from a 12"x 12" piece of cardstock.

Thanks for stopping by the cottage! Have a great week!
Peggy

p.s. Okay, I went a little overboard on the Matchbook cards?! They're so quick and easy, I couldn't help myself! Just try 'em, you'll see . . . they're addicting!

MyCraftCottage Drawing!

We had our drawing tonight, for a set of handmade cards. To keep it fair, we had Patrick (our youngest) draw out the name.

Thank you to everyone that signed up for the e-mail newsletter, to get their name in the basket. The lucky winner is . . . Steff Gromling!

Congratulations Steff!

We're going to have another promotion, September 1st - September 15th! Be sure to sign up for the mailing list, if you haven't already. Details will be given on September 1st.

Thank you for stopping by the cottage!
Peggy

Quick & Easy Card

Hope you had a wonderful week. I don't know about you, but between school about to start and crafting, I'm finding ourselves with something to do almost everyday until the end of August! We're super-Moms . . . we can do it . . . right?! :o)

I got a new font cartridge, All Mixed Up. I purchased this because I thought it would be cute on our boys scrapbook pages. It just looked "fun" for a kids font (see below link to view the die cuts). Although it is a "font" cartridge, I wanted to find something else to do with it - for a quick card.

Here are the directions:
1. Cut 2 - 5 1/2" flower tag , one in a decorative paper and one in cardstock. When cutting the cardstock, turn the cardstock upside down onto the Cricut cutting mat. This way, when it's cut out it will show the "pretty" side when glued to the decorative paper.
2. Cut a piece of cardstock 3"x 9 5/8" and fold at the following measurement: 1 3/8" and then again 4" from the 1 3/8" fold.
3. Cut a piece of decorative paper 1 3/8" x 3" and adhere to the first fold above.
4. Corner punch all your corners. I used a rounded corner punch, but you can use any corner punch you have on hand.
5. Punch two holes, on the outside edges of the card (on the shown decorative piece of paper). These holes will go all the way through the layers of the card. This is what will hold the outer card together. Place coordinating brads of your choice in the holes. Place a piece of ribbon. You now have the outer card completed!
6. To make the inner card, place wrong sides together of the decorative and cardstock flower tags.
7. Cut a piece of cardstock 2 1/8" x 3 13/16". You could make this any dimension you want. I wanted a bit on all sides, to show the decorative paper. Adhere this to the flower tag, sand all your edges, slip it in the outer card . . . voila . . . you're done!

To see the die cuts of the All Mixed Up cartridge, click on this link =>
http://www.mycraftcottage.net/LVAllMixedUp2.jpg. The flower tag is the fourth row from the bottom and the second one in, on the right side. The decorative paper shown is ProvoCraft Tuscany Scrap Pad.

Thank you for stopping by the cottage!
Peggy

Make a box!

I was watching Scrapbook Memories the other day, on PBS. I DVR the show everyday and then watch all the shows on Saturday morning, before our two 'lil men are up and about. If you've never watched, I highly recommend it! You can always come away with some type of new idea.

On one of the episodes, the gals were showing how you can make coordinated small gifts. They added decorative paper to a small box and then made coordinating cards to put them in. They even made a small accordion picture book to put in the box! Too cute! I ran into a little problem though; I've got the cards, but all the boxes I had were either too big or small. This got me to thinking . . . why couldn't I take the same process, but just make the box instead? So I did! I had no idea making boxes would be this easy and fun!

I measured the envelopes first (an important step, if you're planning on including the envelopes with your gift) and then added 1" to all sides. I then scored the cardstock 1" in, on all sides. When you're looking at the cardstock, you're going to end up with squares on each corner. Cut the card stock on each of the four horizontal scores to the vertical score lines. You will end up with four flaps. If you're planning on using brads, adding decorative paper to the top, gluing, adding embellishments, etc . . . I recommend adding these now, before you glue the flaps. I cut out the "For You" and the flowers using the George Cricut cartridge.

Glue the flaps and hold until glue is set. Do the same process over again, for the top, and you're done! I did make the top of the box about 1/8" bigger, to fit easier over the bottom.


Fill it with some of your handmade cards and you've got an awesome gift!

Thank you for stopping by the cottage! Enjoy!
Peggy

p.s. Here's a link to Scrapbook Memories website: http://www.scrapbookmemoriestv.com/