Feature Day at Gecko Galz

This month its 'Garden Bliss' so after doing something digital on the previous post I wanted to make something, albeit using Craft Artist 2 again.

I tried making a minizine a fair few years ago and well, lets just say it was umm, okay.. I gave it Delia as a little present and she smiled and said thank you. Probably still lurking in the dark recess of some drawer. UhUh.

This time I impressed myself - I love it when I do this.Makes me feel like a proper crafter!

So, this is how to make a mini zine:

Tip: I used 300gsm card and it folded and shaped a lot better than something lighter. I also practised with a piece of copy paper first - and you can see the folds in it as well.

Take an A4 piece of paper and fold & score it in half as in a5 card blank so you have a central crease.

Lay it flat and fold one side in to the central crease,

then repeat with the other side, so it looks like this:
















and closed:



then fold over on its self:


then again:



Open it back up and cut along the crease as in the picture:



Open the paper up and it should look like this with a slit along the middle where the scissors are placed.



fold it length ways and 'push' the paper apart



so it folds itself:



then fold it flat in to a little book




Once I'd folded, creased and folded again, I selected which three images I wanted to use and then browsed  The Quote Garden (my new favourite site!) and picked four quotes, one for the front and one opposite each image. I took everything into CAP2 and sized a green coloured square to 3.50 x 2.50 (atc size) and then added an image on top - I did this for each piece, so each one matched. It sounds complicated but it was the quickest matting and layering ever!

Then it was time to printout and construct my minizine, I added a few green pearls to finish it off.

Amanda xx

unusual shaped card/over the edge

Two for the price of one this afternoon, part of my prize pack from Mrs A, was a precut Butterfly shape card. So it was the perfect choice for one of the Gecko Galz challenges over on Facebook and once I'd finished it, I realised that it would fit the 'over the edge' challenge also.

 

Gecko Galz "Victorian Spring" papers no 7

Sticko  flowers

Tattered Lace mini dies

Hobby House - Light Blue and Sea Blue

Hobbycraft green pearl gems

Sentiment CAP2

 

 

entered into: Gecko Galz Papercrafting Challenge Group

                     Butterfly Challenge = O for over the edge

 

birthday

I had so much fun making the cute little calendar cards, I decided to make one for Andrews birthday.

 

Gecko Galz Steampunk Papers - Picture It

plane from Google search

washers

 

Using CAP2 I resized the backing paper, then imported the image and used the photo editor to blank out the white space surrounding the image, then turned it sepia to match the tones. I picked a font that I thought matched the theme of the card and printed the words out separately.

 

Ah! the words...... bit of an odd choice for a vintage by-plane, don't you think?? Well, yes but their referencing one of our favourite films 'The Mummy'.

 

I kept everything to scale and printed onto an A4 card, then assembled the front of the card whilst it was flat - using a promarker to go round the edges of the sentiments to make them stand out. The two washers came out of a tin full of diy bits and bobs.

 

Last thing to do was refold and glue.

there be treasure

Digital page done for a challenge over on the Gecko Galz facebook page, its a Closed group so you have to request to join.
The challenge name was Cruise the High Seas. When I saw the ship it reminded me of The Goonies *headdesk*
So I decided to go with treasure, when I googled that, the obvious link was to Treasure Island...Doh! -  I was still distracted by The Goonies *lol* A Wikipedia page came up and it the first line included the words "Buccaneers and buried gold" which was perfect for what I wanted.
Scrolling down the page there was a hand drawn map by Robert Louis Stevenson of Treasure Island, itself - which I used on the page, rolled up as if its just been found by the person who's looking for the treasure

the map details:

Original source: Beidecke Library

Transferred from cs.wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:Sevela.p using CommonsHelper.

 

background map Gecko Galz  'Old World Maps 1'

image Gecko Galz 'Life Altering'

map from Wikipedia (see notes)

compass Gecko Galz 'Od World Maps 2'

digi frame 'Shabby Chic'

 

 

 

 

C is for card

Had lots of fun doing this card, although when I was playing around with the design sheet on the computer, I nearly gave up, ended up just printing the image in the hope I had some paper in my stash that would work..... I did *lol*

Pushed my limits with this one, so I'm quite chuffed how it came out!

dictionary page

black versamark ink

bronze metallic ink

papers from 'Old Treasures' pack (The Works)

wooden button & twine/cotton from DoCrafts

paper clip

image Lunagirl 'animals at the zoo'

 

entering in: lunagirl moonbeams - animals

 

 

cockney queen

atc done for 'Down the Rabbit Hole' challenge over at Wicked Wednesday Atc blog.

 

image from Wonderland domino set by Gecko Glz

 

Using a black and a red watercolour pencil I drew, then coloured (roughly) the diamonds. I then smudged the colours together using a very small amount of water, left the atc to dry.

Cut out, resized then printed out the Queen. Fussy cut round her and then stuck her onto the atc, the mirror card heart was from my stash. Used black promaker to do the words.

 

 

entering into: wicked wednesday atc - down the rabbit hole

clowning around

Boy, this was a labour of love, took me all afternoon - doesn't look much to it but I had to use the cutout studio on everything but the ticket and the background - slowly. *lol*

 

 

1. horse & clown stood on stool from Lunagirl (freebie)

2. checked material from Ephemeras' Vintage Garden (tulip collage)

3. clowns face & clown acrobat from GeckoGalz (Clowning Around jewel sheet)

4. circus ticket from Google search

font used Carniavale Freakshow

5. background paper from Jodie Lee (Butterfly Garden paper n10)

 

The original image was of horse & stool attached, I snipped the two apart, removed the original horserider and placed the yellow clown on top. Then I used another image of a clown, digitally beheading it (for want of a better phrase) and sticking the head over the original image.

 

Using the tulip collage (freebie for members) I cut away part of it, leaving behind the chequered board.

 

Used a stamp effect and 'ripped' the edges on the ticket, changing colours to match the rest of the page.

 

Assembled everything together, changing colour tones and matching colours along the way.

 

Phew.

 

And I don't really like clowns.

 

cheerful stamp pad - anything goes

gecko galz - life is a circus

 

 

hello sunshine

an atc done for a challenge using one of my favourite retro ladies image from Lunagirl, with a new stamp from a magazine I bought this week, unfortunately it doesn't stamp so well so I used it with a pale ink and then used pencils to write over it. Hand stitched the 'sunshine' bit in the corner.

 

entering into: wicked wednesday atc blog - summer & sunshine

 

 

with nanny

Over on the Gecko Galz blog, the July challenge is 'seaside memories', on receipt of the July email freebie sheet, I spotted a lovely picture, well two actually, to maybe fit this theme - and a butterfly image which will fit perfectly with another blogs theme.

Gecko Galz July email sheet

Do Craft pastel ribbon

pale blue gems

 

Everything was imported into CAP2, I took the colour from the main image and used that to colour the background & sentiment tag.

entering into: gecko galz blog - seaside memories
                      digitally sweet challenges - anything goes (2nd entry)

eeek!!

My first Christmas card of the year.

Enough said. *lol*

Creata Christmas backing paper

Creata red mirror card

Gecko Galz image 'Happy Holidays'

Fripperies & Butterflies sentiment

Spellbinder diecut

 

 

entering into: Gecko Galz Papercrafting Challenge Group on Facebook
                       Fripperies and Butterflies page on Facebook

its a mans world

How blinkin' hard is it to make a male card????? Oh my goodness, family I'm ok with as I temd to use hobbies etc., but a leaving card for a colleague??

I did manage to fit it round a challenge theme though, even if it was 'anything goes' *lol*

 

Gecko Galz 'Industrail Age' stamp n19

stylish man ???

black card

 

 

I used CAP2 to fill in the stamps bubbles, and add some of my own to fit what I wanted to say in. I think the guy came from The graphics Gairy -- not sure, anyway all I did with him was increase the size to fit the design.

 

entering in: Gecko Galz Papercrafting Challenge Group

                    digitally sweet challenges : anything goes

if the shoe fits 2

another shoe card for the same challenge, this time for the lovely Vicki co-host and owner of cheerful stamp pad.
Love the expression on the ladies face as she spies another fabulous pair of shoes.

backing paper "Summer Bloom" DoCrafts

pink ribbon

hot pink gems

image from The Graphic Fairy

sentiment generated in CAP2

 

entering her into: cheerful stamp pad - shoes

if the shoe fits

Wow, its melting here today, the fur & feather babies didn't know what to do with themselves today.... but I did - sit and make 2 cards in the coolest room in the house *lol*

This is card is multi-challenged. as it is also for a swap over on DoCrafts, could be for this month, could be for another month.

 

image from Lunagirl Moonbeams

paper rose

pink posy roses

Docrafts pastel ribbon

doily

blue pigment ink

backing paper "Cottage charm" by NitWit

 

and the pink bow is my first ever one done by using a bowmaker! Woohoo!!

 

entering into: lunagirl moonbeams - shoes who is sharing her challenge with another great blog, cheerful stamp pad

summertime

another entry for the GG challenge group on Facebook - summertime

made an A6 card, love how it turned out.

flying the flag

Over at the Gecko Galz Papercrafting Challenge Group on Facebook, one of this months topics is 'flying flags'. I wanted to use the British flag - it was very hard to find a vintage/retro image with one. Finally found a couple over at The Graphic Fairy, this was my favourite.

I removed the white space surrounding the image using photolab in CAP2, then started digitally crafting the page, everything came from a free DaisyTrail kit - Street Party. With the blue material I changed the edges to 'rough' and also colour picked the blue from the boys trousers, so the hues would look as similar as possible. The writing is in red taken from the flag. Added a few embellishments.

I would have rather fancied a more vintage looking material, but for some techno reason my transparency, and other right hand sided tools are not working, think I may have to reinstall CAP2 programme......... *eep*

did you know the whole 'Keep Calm' phenomenon started in Alnwick, Northumberland at the world famous second hand bookstore, they opened a box which had been stored for years and found an original poster in there....... and the phrase was reborn in various disguises.

seeing red

Over at wicked Wednesday, the challenge theme for this week is 'seeing red'

this is my atc, using Gecko Galz 'industrial age' stamp number 8, I resized it too fit an atc, put some text on it and printed it off, then coloured in the trellis/flowers (whilst watching Love Your Garden with Alan Titchmarsh - wowza, my life is so exciting!) using a red promarker. Finally stuck it onto a piece of card to ready for the atc backer.

 

entering into: wicked wednesday - seeing red

butterfly

Whilst flicking through my favourite blogs, I came across a Butterfly challenge blog and I love to use butterflies in my cards etc, so this was going to be perfect for me to join in with, so this weeks theme was flowers (with a butterfly)

this is my entry:

 

image from Gecko Galz 'Nature's Bliss'

backing paper Gecko Galz 'Coquette' papers n4

doily

pastel blue pearls

 

After choosing which image I wanted to use, I resized it to fit my card and then chose my baking paper, I didn't want a strongly decorated one as I wanted the card to be quite simple. I picked number 4 and then colour matched it to the blue in the butterfly wings.

I printed two of the images and decoupaged the butterfly. 

Sentiment was produced in CAP2, with the colour matching the background of the topper.

Printed everything off, and assembled the card. Looks very simple and graceful.

 

entering into: butterfly challenge blog - F is for flowers

 

 

heart to heart

now, that was a favourite program of mine whilst growing up, and now, of course we can see the delicious Robert Wagner as DiNozzi Senior in NCIS.
Heaven.

Anyhoo, on the card.

Black & white is the current theme over at Lunagirl, current as in the challenge closes in a few hours - just getting mine in, in the nick of time.

I found this adorable image over on The Graphic Fairy's site, and thought it would be perfect as a heart shaped easel card. Only problem was I had to find a template! Good ole' Google!!

found this lovely link to a template recipe  on a lovely blog  - craftycardmakers blog

backing paper from a digi-kit

Hobbycraft white pearls & heart pearls

image from the Graphic Fairy

black pigment ink

doCraft paper roses x 2

Docraft paper posy x 2

black card

Tattered Lace 'Cherished centres' die

white card

Using the CAP2, I drew the heart shape card, printed it and cut round, remembering not to cut the 'fold'. I then printed out the heart again, this time to use as the topper, printed out 3 lots of backing paper (needed to be a certain size) and using the topper, cut out the heart shaped papers and stuck them onto the relevant sides of the card. I imported the image and resized to fit the topper, printed it out and inked the edges with black pigment ink to give it a distressed edge and stuck it to the blank topper. I then inked round all the card edges with the black ink.

Started to assemble the card by affixing the topper onto the front (used pads to raise up so it stood out slightly), to make a stopper I used the Tattered Lace die 'with love' stuck on a black dot, but it looked a bit lost....... had a fumble round my desk and found the big paper roses, perfect! Stuck the sentiment next to the roses..... then the bottom piece looked empty.... another fumble and I came up with the paper posy's/posies and the 3 little pearl hearts.

entering into: lunagir lmoonbeams - black and white

                      cheerful stamp pad - black and white

butterfly

I love using butterflies, this card is a simple design though it was a faff in craft artist trying to get the punches right.

design paper - Fripperies & Butterflies

silver Stickles

white card

digi punch

 

Imported the paper into a blank page (a6 size) and used a square punch to punch the first border out of the paper, then decreased the size of the punch to do the second,thinner border. Found a lovely butterfly punch and used that to make the butterfly, which whilst still highlighted I used the decoupage button on - to give it a layered look. Googled butterfly quotes, and used my favourite of what came up, using a favourite font Crazy Girlz.

Opened an A4 page, copied and pasted everything from one to the other and then printed out, cut out, and then pasted onto the card blank, stickled randomly on the white space with silver glitter glue, and also round the edges of the butterfly. found some copper wire and fashioned a small piece into the antennae (sp?) of the butterfly.

 

entering into:

blue flowers

pretty little A6 card for a birthday.

 

 

 

image from Gecko Galz

backing paper from The Range

blue ribbon

doily

pearls

 

Very quick and easy to make, just resize the image and print out, then assemble the card.