Stamps, Paper, Scissors

The Carousel Notes Purse Book Tutorial

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Being a patchwork Irish person (a little Irish here and there), I consider myself fully Irish on St. Patrick's Day. I talk in a corny Irish accent to my kids and husband (which they hate, but OH WELL, I LOVE IT!), wear my green, plus I usually cook a nice St. Patrick's Day dinner of corned beef, cabbage, onions, potatoes, and carrots, plus bake a batch of soda bread. Yes, I know that corned beef is not really Irish, but this whole holiday has been Americanized to the extreme. And Irish ham is not that available over here.

Anyway, I can no longer resist. I really feel we must MOVE ON off this dang Carousel Notes Purse! And we will not have closure on this blog until you all get your way and I make a tutorial. So, since I am SO NICE, I'm doing it!

Now, once you see how simple this is you are going to be smackin' yourself upside the head and saying, "Well, DUH! That's easy!" It is easy! And I'm not going to show you a blow by blow of how I decorated it; I'm just going to give you some basic construction instructions with dimensions and pictures (including all the ones from the original post so you can just print the whole thing and get goin') and let you go from there. So here it is:

The Carousel Notes Purse Tutorial

This is what you need:

Carousel Notes (3 or the notes, 1 of each color and 2 envelopes)
Live Your Dream Stamp set
Pick a Petal Brass template (optional) with stylus and paper piercing tool
Afternoon Tea Paper
Scallop Circle Punch
Groovy Guava, Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Soft Sky cardstock
Hodgepodge Hardware
Jumbo Eyelets to match Hodgepodge
Cropadile to set the eyelets
1 1/4" circle punch
Chocolate

Punches, ink, and stamps to decorate the inside. Note that there is no chocolate in this picture. That is because there is no chocolate in my stamp room. None. It's amazing that I'm even coherent enough to talk, let alone type, but I am SO NICE that I am making this tutorial anyway.

Cut a piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock that is 6" x 6 3/16" for the bottom of the purse. Chocolaaaatteeeee.....oh, wait...that's cardstock...never mind!

Score the cardstock at 3" from the long side, dividing the cardstock into two 3" x 6 3/16" sections.

Open the two Chocolate envelope flaps and lay them so that the flaps are next to each other, with the scored Chocolate cardstock bottom between. Chocolaaaatteeeeeee......no, those are ENVELOPES and CARDSTOCK, not real chocolate!!

Put adhesive on each side of the envelope flap and next to the fold line.

Adhere the bottom of the purse to each flap.

Fold the center of the bottom up.

You now have a W shape that is the front, bottom and back of the purse.

Now you start decorating. I cut my front and back papers 5 3/4" x 5 3/4". The striped pieces are 1" x 5 3/4". The chocolate is absent.

I used the brass template to emboss and pierce the Carousel Note that makes the top of the purse. I used the largest circle on the Coluzzle circle template (4 3/8") to cut the circles I used on the top of the purse and on each of the sliders. It's easier to score the patterned paper and Carousel Note separately before adhering them together...it just looks nicer. I used two Jumbo Eyelets to make the holes for the purse handle, which is two pieces of ribbon, 5/8" Chocolate Chip grosgrain and Double-Stitched Groovy Guava grosgrain adhered together. (chocolate? No, that's RIBBON...not chocolate! Pay attention!) I attached the ribbon to the underside of the Carousel Note top with Sticky Strip and I attached the back of the top to the back of the purse with more Sticky Strip.

The front scallop decoration is also attached with Sticky Strip.

The inside pieces (for the base of the book) have these dimensions:

Cardstock for left and right sides: 5 1/2" x 5 3/4"
Patterned Paper for left and right sides: 5 1/4" x 5 1/2"
Patterned Paper for Center: 5 3/4" x 5 3/4"
Chocolate: at least 2 oz...if you have any. I don't.

Adhere the left and ride side patterned papers to the cardstock, then cut a notch in each using the 1 1/4" circle punch inserted halfway in the middle of the long side (right for the left side, left for the right side.)

Make sure, when you adhere the left and right sides to the envelopes, that you do not put adhesive in the place where the cardstock goes over the envelope opening...you will not be able to slide the sliders in and out!

There you have it! Now go out and make your own! Preferably with chocolate on hand!

Reverse Masking Tutorial or Why Do I Do This To Myself?

I really would like to know.

Part of the reason I decided to do a tutorial for y'all, in spite of the fact that:

a) I have a workshop and a class coming up that I should be working on

b) I have a filthy house that I should be cleaning and relatives coming on Saturday

and

c) I haven't finished shopping for birthday presents for Laurel

is probably because ONE of the workshops I had coming up this weekend got postponed and my meeting with the hostess, set for this morning, is off too. It unhinged me, making it seem as if vast vistas of time had opened up, making it possible to wedge in a tutorial for those of you that are mystified by Reverse Masking. (See?!?!? Making comments is a GOOD thing, because then I know when I have blown something right over your head! Remember...no comments - BAD, comments - GOOD. Yes, I am pitiful. Let's get that straight right now.)

ANYWAY...I made this tutorial and it's a bit on the discombobulated side, so bear with me. In contrast to what so many of you seem to think, to my eternal bemusement, I am not a goddess, unless goddesses are chubby suburban housewives with dirty houses who film tutorials and only notice after they are done that they should really have looked closer at their fingernails before they started. WHAT was I thinking?!

So here it is:

REVERSE MASKING TUTORIAL

You need a piece of freezer paper, the Coluzzle, some Dotto or other temporary adhesive, and some cardstock, stamps and stuff to make cards with.

I cut my freezer paper the same size as the piece of cardstock I will be putting it on...makes it easier to figure out where to put it. So put your coluzzle down on the freezer paper (shiny side down) on top of the cutting mat in the same place where you want your hole....er...the hole in the PAPER, not in you. No cutting holes in you...we all have enough holes as it is...um...let's just get back to stamping, shall we?

Cut the hole in your freezer paper. Note that I am holding the blade straight up and down; this is where a lot of people have problems...hold it straight up and down and put it all the way in the channel until the plastic around the blade hits the template. That way you do not nick the sides of the channel. That way you LOVE the coluzzle, not curse it and consign it to oblivion in your stamping stash. The coluzzle is LOVE. Be the coluzzle. Embrace it. You love the coluzzle.

And now I have a holy piece of freezer paper...o holy freezer paper.....da da da dum...er...sorry! Back to the tutorial:

Put some Dotto on the back (shiny side)...arguably you could leave this step off if you are confident in your manual dexterity and hand to eye coordination, but I am not that confident. I can be a klutz, I admit it. So I stick mine down.

Put the freezer paper over the cardstock, shiny side down.

Sponge some color on top.

At some point, you may say, "OH CRAP THIS COLOR IS TOO DARK!!!" and you may do as I did and flip the cardstock over and change colors quick. 'Cause I'm not perfect, just great at thinking of solutions to my own ineptitude.

Eat some chocolate...trying new things can be stressful. I got these at Target...sooooo gooood....

Stamp some images using the same color as you sponged to get that soft look.

Remove the mask...and say OOOOOHHHHH PRETTTTYYYYYY!!!

Take your adhesive lift thingy or use your (clean, not chocolate stained) finger to rub off the bits of Dotto stuck to the cardstock. When stamping I almost always have chocolate or ink on my fingers, so I like my adhesive lifter thingy for this.

Speaking of chocolate....have some more...and some Diet Coke too!

Now start stamping more and embellishing and fussin' and flinging stuff everywhere as you stamp and making a huge mess...kind of like this one:

And believe me, this aint' NOTHIN'! Usually it's worse!

But if you're lucky and you are just such a creative genius (though not perfect!) you'll end up with something like this:

Ingredients: Stamps - Stem Silhouettes, Curvy Verses; Cardstock - Basic Grey, Purely Pomegranate, Whisper White, Soft Sky; Ink - Soft Sky, Basic Grey, Purely Pomegranate; Other - Basic Grey Taffeta ribbon, Pretties Kit, Crafter's Tool Kit, Coluzzle, sponge wedge, Photo Corner punch, sponge dauber.

THIS is the one reason I wanted this set, so I could use a sponge dauber to color in those empty flower heads and make them bloom. I've been itchin' to do it ever since I saw it, but until this set went on sale, I was trying to resist. However, I should have realized that Resistance Is Futile and now that you've seen it, you Stem Silhouettes fence-sitters, I hope I have pushed you off with my powers of PSYCHIC RESONANCE, BWAHAHAHAHAHAAH!!!!

I'm evil...I know!

Now, just a bit more blathering and showing off and I'll let you rush off to make your very own reverse masking creation!

Guess what came in the mail yesterday...my stuff from All That Scraa-aapps (said she in a sing song nasal tone!)

My hunt for more ribbon storage solutions was a fruitful one. I've had a hard time finding the 3 x 3 drawer that fit those 3 x 3 ribbon cards and as for the ribbon clips, I have never seen them before! (but now that I have them you could save those little clippies that come with dress shirts...they would be PERFECT FOR THIS!!! just not as pretty as these!) The little jars are flock...black and white. And the EZ mount is the reason I went to this website to begin with...oh, I am a bad, bad stamper...

'Cause after I had stuck all these in my cart, I clicked on stamps and found these:

I have a thing for cats. Can't have one, 'cause Dan is allergic to them, so we haven't had a kitty in a long, long time. But this cat is named "Fluffle" and "Fluffle" is one of my pet names for Emily...short for "Curly-Fluffle-Head". I have to say I am the only one allowed to call Emily this name, so don't you do it or she will give you the Emily Death Stare Look (she's very good at it too...I myself have escaped death by ducking quickly when I see it coming!) So when I saw Fluffle and how cute he is, I could. not. resist.

Now, for the showing off:

Ingredients: Stamps - Haunting Halloween, Batty for You jumbo wheel; Cardstock - Basic Grey, Only Orange, Lavender Lace, Green Galore, Whisper White; Ink - Basic Grey, Basic Black, Green Galore, Only Orange; Other - black gingham ribbon, word window punch, keytag punch, watercolor pencils, blender pen, star punch, silver brad.

This is the OTHER card for Paula's workshop. Isn't it...c'mon everyone, STINKIN' CUTE?!?!?!

YILM!