Taking up the torch! Amber Ink purse card & box set

Woohoo! I'm on fire & I'm running.

(This is as close as I'll ever get to an olympic sport teehee)

I've been passed the torch, so today my Amber Ink project is
a simple little purse-themed set,with a whole whack of hand sewing
(and even more explanation.) ;-)



You can read all about the new torchbearers here.
(What a fun read. Man, these Amber Ink gals can write!)
& you can see what all the gals are up to in today's Amber ink post.

1... Amber Ink digital images & ipapers
2... details that went into making the purse card & box
3... Cheap tricks: DIY tinted thread & beaded purse handles
(tomorrow, the templates) :O)

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First, a mini-review-slash-rave:
The quality of Amber Ink's digital images is thoroughly impressive.
I found that you could even scale the TIFF images larger in Photoshop
and still get stunning printing- me likey!


(I printed these purses at 130%)

so... they have the sweetest "Oh What A Doll"
digital image collection. One of the paper doll gals sets
is this one, Wave Hello:

Cute, hey?

... but I used the beach bag from its matching
Day At The Beach Clothes set
as a purse for today's project:

[I dream of making an entire paper doll set
for my BFF's gals]



I also used this patterned digital
ipaper Schoolgirl Plaid

(Goldenrod Tiny)

...but printed in black & white

for grey plaid

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...on how this set was made:

the card:

To get two purse images...



I copied & pasted the original beach bag image in Photoshop:



I opened the image & did this stuff to get two purses:

1. Rotated the original image a little & then copied it.
2. Flipped the canvas horizontal & pasted purse #2 on
3. Moved the layer with purse #2 so that it was on top
   
4. Moved it down slightly, and that was it!

The image details:

Printing: I printed the purses & heat embossed the purses by...

A) Cutting a piece of 140lb watercolour paper (8.5 inches by 4 inches)
B) printing in my Canon MP 24o inkjet printer
C) heat embossing by quickly sprinkling clear detail embossing powder on the wet printer ink and melting the embossing powder with a heat gun.

(If you work quickly, you can heat emboss small digital images on many different types of paper. Results may vary with different inkjet printers & humidity etc).

The purses were coloured & then stitched with wee patterns:

(colouring using Copic markers: Cool grey tones for one purse & the other with just a hint of B-00).

The grey dots are teeny knots of thread and then I went a little
nutso with needle & thread:

...I doodled a teeny leaf pattern on the grey purse with white pencil & pierced holes in the watercolour paper (using a paper piercing tool) so that I could sew a teeny pattern of white stitching. Then I coloured some of the white stitching in with a Coral Sea BG23 Copic marker for a two toned pattern.)

There's a strip of the plaid ipaper on the card (dry brushed with white paint & hand stitched with turquoise thread). I also added a white on white leaf pattern:

I made a little doodle pattern piercing guide to get the stitched leaf pattern by...

A) Doodling on vellum & piercing holes in it
B) Then laying the vellum guide over the bottom of the card
C) and Piercing the pattern & stitching it by hand with needle & thread.

To get the pattern reversed, I just flipped the
doodle pattern piercing guide over & pierced some more.

The "hi !" sentiment is made up of stitched on seed beads:

and that's it for the card...



the purse gift box:

The matching stitching on the bottom of the purse box template
was made using the same doodled piercing guide:

(I love hand-stitching on watercolour paper, especially 140lb. It holds up so nicely)

More of that cute plaid ipaper made a liner for the purse box:

(I printed the digital ipaper first then printed the liner template
on the back of it & cut it out, dry-brushed it with white paint & stitched it.)

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(tinting thread & beaded purse handles)

DIY tinted thread:



If you don't have a huge selection in colours of thread, you can use Copic
markers--or any other markers--to custom dye white thread.
(It makes the perfect match to your colouring that way!)

Beaded wire handles:

To make unique handles for a little purse box,
just slide seed beads onto wire:

A) Choose wire in a gauge that will fit inside your beads.
B) Cut it to length (longer than your handle, leaving room for loops a the ends).
C) Make a loop at one end to keep the beads from escaping while you slide them on
D) Slide seed beads onto the wire.
E) When you have enough make another loop to finish.
F) Adhere to the inside of the box (or wire loops into eyelets or something)
(If you adhere using strong double-sided tape the way I did here, you can cover over the loops with a paper liner or bits of cardstock.)

...and that's it for the purse box:



(I'm going to put a gift card tucked in some tissue paper in it,
as a pick-me-up for a friend.)

• Purse image from Amber Ink digital set Day At The Beach Clothes
• ipaper from Amber Ink Schoolgirl Plaid -Goldenrod Tiny (printed in black & white)
  
• Strathmore 300 series Watercolour paper (coldpress 140lb--It even let me heat emboss the image using ink jet printer ink & clear embossing powder!)
• Copic markers (different greys & turquoises)
  
• Stitching stuff: Paper piercing tool, needle & thread (white & grey)
• Purse template (free below), scissors, scoring tool & double-sided tape.
• Wire, beads & pliers.
  

Thanks for letting me ramble!

P.S. Don't miss those new flames! :-) And for anyone who still uses printed templates, tomorrow night, I'll load the new purse templates for ya.

Bad news & Great news: Carrying the Torch!

Hi All,

Some bad news and
some Great news.

Bad news:
I'm so sorry to have been missing so long.
I'm on day seven of a migraine marathon, (UGH)...

but....

I'm back to blogging now
with some

Great news:

The Amber Ink gals, Amber & Pam, have asked
me to join them to take up the torch:

Which is a fun way of saying there will be a lot more crafty
projects on here this month than there has been of late,
& they'll be made using Amber Ink's sweet images & ipaper.

Best of all, will be the fun of getting to know
these inspiring ladies (my fellow torch-taker-uppers):

The Paper Princess; Paula; Suzanne; and Adrian!

Curious about what the gals who are passing on the
torch have created? You can check out their
lovely projects in yesterday's Amber Ink blog post.

Want to follow along?

Amber Ink Blog --- and The ShopTheir group on Paper Craft Planet
Facebook --- Twitter --- Flickr

Hope you're having a lovely week so far,

Veggie Garden update & we got a new 2nd plot!!!

The community garden is growing beyond our expectations:



'Lettuce' eat salad!

These happy greens are:
Romaine (the 4 big ones)
& left to right
Pak Choy & Butter Lettuce (very left)
Brunia (the babies) West Coast Seeds
mixed lettuce (butter, leafy green...)
Merlot (also West Coast Seeds)
& in the back, spinach, carrots, 'n' Super Sweet Peas!
(with green onions as a companion plant)

All that digging & amending & tending
is paying off in crunchy harvests.

Hard to believe that it used to be this...


Then we spent some time amending soil
and planted some seeds
&
then it looked like this....



When things popped up a little,
it started to look like this...



now it's flourishing into
this!


I can't wait until we can pick fresh sweet peas!
(It's been years since I've tasted one, you?)

And guess what else we are awaiting?
Wee baby grapes:



(We've heard that they'll grow up to be tasty red eating grapes) :)

And we're celebrating another delightful thing
that we never dreamed was possible:
we got a second plot this year!

Normally, we'd have to wait until next year to

get another plot at our community garden
(if there was one available)
but
this one needed a little immediate loving:



It had an over-sized 7 foot greenhouse that was
shading the neighbours veggies out.
&
Guess what menace lived in that greenhouse?

Man-Eating 14 foot weeds!!!

(That's a dose of hyperbole, of course...
but only a little. The weeds were taller than us!) ;)

I swear they were trying to get out of there:



If you look closely, you can see the little ropes
that the weeds have rigged up on the
roof of the green house:



They were planning on swinging out of there! I just know it. ;)

Methinks they were trying to take over the world:



But we fixed their wagon:



(Well, we're working on it...)

No more greenhouse thanks to our fab Neighbourhood Rep Jim.
And we've made a fair bit of progress.
C's sister, Denise, is helping us out. She's amazing!
We're going back this afternoon to continue
placing & filling the raised beds we built.

Can't wait to show you some more leafy green after pics, in the fall. :0)

Well off to go dig dirt!
Hope your day is a delight,

Embossed Leather Look with Crayons (on a purse)

This purse box is a revamp of an old template you might recall.

It was made to give to

my cousin--and soul sistah--Shea.
(She adores red.)



Shea is also a big fan of butterflies, flowers, and
natural things with lots of texture.

The leathery texture on this is made by pressure embossing plain old red
cardstock; then adding the world's most affordable (and nostalgic) craft supply:



Crayons!

1... making a 'crayon rubbed embossing' purse (with a leather look)
2... cheap trick for cutting small paper bits (re-visited)
3... the free purse templates (an oldie)

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...make a crayon rubbed embossed
purse (with a leather look):

• Purse template (print 2) Free template linked at the bottom of this post, or well over 100 purse styles available in this link list.
  
• Cardstock in the colour of your choice
• Pressure embossing machine
• Embossing folder (This one is Cuttlebug's plum blossom folder from their Asian set)
• Crayons to suit the cardstock colour
• Stamps (if you want)
  
• Embellishments (I used embroidery threads, patterned paper, decorative brads, butterfly cut from BasicGrey Ambrosia paper & jazzed up).
  

This crayon technique is fast and ever so easy!
It gives you a leathery look to your embossing:


(It looks and feels more leather-like in person, honest!) ;)

Step 1) Print the purse template & build it.

Step 2) Print the template a second time on the same cardstock (use this second printing to cut panels for the front, back, sides & bottom. that you can pressure emboss)

Step 3) Pressure emboss the panels in a Cuttlebug, or a Big Shot or what have you.

Step 4) Rub crayon over the raised areas of the embossing. I used different red crayons ranging from light to dark red, with the papers peeled off, and rubbed the crayons on their sides. The crayon gives you a leather look. (Tutorial on crayon rubbed embossing here or Crayon Resist embossing here).

Step 5) Embellish however you like.

I pierced holes along the edges of the embossed & crayoned panels and then stitched them. They are added to the purse all over...


(even on the bottom)

The handle was made with red cardstock layered over black cardstock:



I heat embossed the red cardstock handle with a background stamp (a very old Paisley Stampin' Up background) in Versamark ink and clear embossing powder.

Then I adhered the red cardstock to a wider strip of black cardstock, pierced holes, and stitched it with embossing thread. (The ends of the stitching were hidden when I adhered the handle onto the purse box.)

It was secured onto the purse with brads, so it would be sturdy.
To cover the brad backs, I added roses:


They were embossed in black, coloured red, & cut from this...

...Victorian Rose stamp

from Impression Obsession
(I have no affiliation with I.O. I bought
the stamp when I was designing with
Paper Garden Projects) :0)

The middle strap over the top of the box is also attached with decorative brads:



I added BasicGrey Ambrosia patterned paper and more stitching. The butterfly is cut from BasicGrey 6x6 paper. Its body is a wee silver metallic bugle bead & the wings have glitter & clear lacquer glue to bling-ify them (and make the whole thing more durable).

And the little butterfly trail carries onto the back of the purse strap:



The trail was made by adding knots of red embroidery thread. (After sewing, I hid the mess on the back by lining the strap with red cardstock & then adding it onto the purse).

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(for cutting small paper bits)

If you're cutting little things from patterned paper
(like these wee butterflies) you might like to try this tip.

Paint the back of the paper with acrylic paint (or
gesso) to strengthen it before cutting:

(Click the pics to go read more here, if you like).

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(Two free purse templates & tutorials
for how to put them together)

Top note purse here:

Jeweled Purses here:

Thank You so much for having a look,
Hope your day is full of the kind of fun only a crayon can bring!