Jeans pocket card

Some time ago I needed a really quick birthday/gift voucher card done, and ended up with this one.  

Inside there's a jeans pocket to hold the voucher, and along with the black&white, hints of red and silver sparkle, it turned out kinda cool. 

words to live by

The last few weeks I've been busy with a new project: making a painting for the conservatory. I knew I wanted it to be reclaimed wood and a quote of some sort, but I didn't know it would involve that many steps! I'm pretty pleased that it's finally done. Pleased with the result also. ;)

 Like I said, I took scrap pieces of wood (some green, some white and some raw) and lined them up in some sort of disorderly order, and had my hubby help me screw them together. It ended up almost 170 cm long.
Then the hard work began.

To make the wood look really old and shabby I sanded, brushed with a wire brush and stained with a very strange and kinda nasty smelling concoction of steel wool, white vinegar and coffee grounds (wich by the way gave exactly the worn look I was after, great!!).

When it looked aged enough, I covered it with a thin layer of white paint, and once dry I started over from the top: sanding, brushing and staining. And some more sanding. Pew.

Finally time for the quote! I printed out the "enjoy life" and cut each letter out to make a stencil. For the rest of the quote I traced letters from another stencil and then filled every letter by hand with an itty-bitty brush... wich is, by the way, not the very best thing to do on the hottest summer day this year. I believe the paint dried already on the brush...

Then I sanded again.

I did it, and I like it! :)



 I also made two mini-paintings with parts of the stencil, one joy

...and one life.

I had a lot of fun making these and I'll be making more, soon.

Enjoy life!

Dress card tutorial

Ok, so this is a tutorial I've been thinking about making for a long long time. Thanks to a stranger I finally did it! :)
I got a mail from a girl who saw my Here comes the bride[card] and was curious about how to make it. After creating a very quick tutorial for her I figured I could just as well share it with you too.
Here goes.

First, here's my original dress card to the left, and the smaller template to the right.

Start with tracing and cutting a circle. This template is app. 12 cm in diameter. Mark out the center. Now it's time to measure where to score (in this tutorial I've drawn lines with a pencil, but you're really just scoring).
With a ruler, mark along the edge of the circle, 2 cm for the big piece, and 1 cm for the small one. You'll need 5 big pieces, with 4 small pieces in between each one.
Note: this is not an exact measurement, if your cicle is larger you'll need to adjust here. Also, if you want a wider dress you can make bigger pieces, and vice versa. The ratio is however always 2/1.
After scoring, cut at the top line and fold the others so that you end up with three parts facing up, and two down. The two remaining "flaps" will be the back of the dress. There you have it!

I added a lace petticoat but that, of course, is optional.

My template transfered onto scrapbooking paper. The top was made by first cutting the desired shape in plain white paper, folded in half for symmetry, and then traced and cut.

The finished result.