Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Credit card insert for my notebook cover.

I wanted to have an insert in my notebook for cards so I found another great tutorial from Ray Blake Credit card insert  Well if you know me I do not buy anything if I can make it myself with what I have.. So though ok well I have made the inserts for the books and I had plastic book covers that I use to cut out stencils its really sturdy plastic that would do the job for the cards I thought.. So I have done a little picture tutorial on how I sewed it all together to make my card holder.. 


This is all my pieces cut out and ready to go.  My file folders already have 3 pre scored lines in the middle. So I just folded the outside 2 and measured from there to the size I wanted.. 110cm wide x 210 cm for the height for both sides excluding the middle fold.. So this was the size for my plastic for the cards, then I trimmed 10 cm off the length so it sat just inside the cover.. 

Next I grabbed a card and measured so it would fit and drew lines for my sewing.. 

Printed out some of my art work from my journal, cut to size and glued it to the outside.. 

Sewed the plastic in place with my sewing machine and then I trimmed the outside edges so it was all level.. 


Tried it out in my cover to make sure I did not have to make any adjustments. I made the notches in the sides with my circle punch so I can get my cards in and out easily like Ray did.. My circle punch so did not want to go through all this but It got there with a bit of persuasion. 


Inside view of my card holder with a few copies of my art work cut down to card size.. 




Outside of my card holder. I like the sewing showing but if you didn't you could always glue papers on after the sewing.. 









Top view of it all together I do like how it sits better with the wider middle part.. It seems to hold it all in straighter and neater, more even.. As 2 of my notebooks are watercolour paper they are thicker so think this would be the limit of how much my journal cover could hold.. I would like one of those plastic slide opening ones that you can pop bits and pieces in. Hmm I wonder how I could make that.. 

Have a great day 
Sandy :)

Monday, October 27, 2014

The altered playing card challenge week 5-8

I am playing along with Claudines art corner card challenge.. Each week Claudine posts on her blog a technique to do 2 playing cards.. I am pretty much following along with what Claudine is doing, so I am not going to repeat it all and go into to much detail here. Claudine has step by step pictures and details on her blog of how she does her cards so pop on over and see her great pictured tutorial instuctions.



Week 5 I used a Teesha Moore stamp and for the girl on the dream card I printed a picture from The last door down the hall, siblings There is some wonderful pictures there to use. Well worth browsing around and having a good look.. 

Week 6 Teesha Moore stamp for the graveyard stamp and the bat.. Tim Holtz movers and shapers die for the bird. 

Week 7 I used a stamp sets from Kaisercraft and another one from TJ Designs called Vintage by the sea.. 

Week 8 I used a Dina Wakley stencil for the stenciled red hearts on the one on the left.. My Grumbacher watercolour dripping is always fun.. My handwriting for the love on both.. 

Loving how my key ring is filling up this is so fun to have hanging on my desk will be fun with all 52 cards on it.. 

Have a great day.
Sandy :)

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Keep your eyes on the stars...


More fun to be had tonight with some collage.. I so love playing with the collage sheets from The artstronauts club..  This was some of my index cards printed out and cut up and magazine pieces too such fun to piece it all together and make it something completely different.  Some loopy swirls and spots of doodling.. Love that colour background in the turquoise blue from my Grumbacher watercolours. I will have to do more pages with that colour in the background so pretty.

Have a great day
Sandy :)

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Project life or notecards...

Today I did a journal page after watching Tiare and copied it on my printer to make some cards.. Sometimes I like to leave my pages as backgrounds so that I can print and cut them up for collage.. Fun to have some cards to send of my art or to use in my future project life albums.. 


Have a great day
Sandy :)

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

My Midori-style journal cover...

I had an old leather handbag that I no longer used. The zipper was broken and the inside lining was all ripped.. The leather was so lovely on it though and have been wondering what I was going to make with it.. Then I found Ray Blake's wonderful tutorial on how to make your own Midori-style journal cover  So today I made my cover and I love it. The leather is so soft as its already aged and I like the look of the stitching it all just adds to it. 



Front of my journal
This is the front of my finished journal. I had to add a trinket of an owl to it.. I followed along step by step with the youtube video and paused and re-winded a lot but I am so very happy with the way it turned out..  I used my bigbite for the holes as I tried my leather punch as you can see by the hammer but it did not go through it, maybe I needed to hit it harder.. So it was the bigbite that did the job and I am happy with the way it looks.. I used the smallest one the 1/8" hole punch.






Back of my journal














So now I am off to make more inserts as I think mine can easily hold 3 journals in it.. 

Have a great day 
Sandy :)

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Worrying...


What a fun page this was to do.  I really liked doing those numbers at the side and all the drips and spots well they where just therapeutic to do..  I loved those sunglasses so just had to figure out a way to put them on here. I have been doing too much worrying lately about things that there is nothing that I can do about it, so the quote was the perfect fit for me.  I so liked hunting for all the blue collage pieces for this so wont be my last page done in blue. 

Hope you like it too.. 

Have a great day 
Sandy :)

Friday, October 17, 2014

Journal cover


Just a quick update post about my watercolour Midori insert that I made the other week.. I have been having a lot of fun with collage, painting and drawing in this and will do a flip of all the pages when it is finished.. The cover was getting a bit mucky with all the art that I have been doing in it.. So I collaged on the cover with some of the copies of my index cards and popped packaging tape over it. Keeps it all wonderfully clean and is a pleasure to use when its got a nice cover on it..  This journal was made from the tutorial at My life all in one place with Ray Blake

Have a great day 
Sandy :)

Thursday, October 2, 2014

The Altered playing card challenge...

I am playing along with Claudines art corner card challenge.. Each week Claudine posts on her blog a technique to do 2 playing cards.. Its been going for 5 weeks now and I have done the last 4 so thought I would show this on a monthly blog post.. I am pretty much following along with what Claudine is doing, so I am not going to repeat it all and go into to much detail here. Claudine has step by step pictures and details on her blog of how she does her cards so pop on over and see her great pictured tutorial instuctions.

Week one... 
We had to Gesso all the cards...


Week 2... Dylusions backgrounds...


 Week 3... 
Tim Holtz stamps and die cuts with inky backgrounds...


Week 4...   Acrylic paint backgrounds with Gelli print houses and Paper smooches stamps.. I drew the cat lady and collaged her dress and her onto the card.. Doodled the sun with some spots. The stamp at the top says 'My door is always open'. 



Have a great day
Claudine's Art CornerSandy :)