Crystal's Cards & Crafts: 2012

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Carving the Turkey

It's Thanksgiving weekend in Canada, the time when we all go comatose from all the Turkey we gobble down. To celebrate I thought it would be fun to carve my last foam pumpkin to celebrate.

If you have been following my previous posts you would know that I picked up 2 foam pumpkins from a year sale and already carved one, which I found surprisingly easy. I wanted to up the challenge for the second one so I selected the Harvest Turkey pattern from ZombiePumpkins. I know I mention them a lot on my blog, and no I'm getting paid to endource the site, I just love the patterns and attention to detail that Ryan puts into everything from the patterns, to the site design.

This was was more difficult to carve due to the fact that there were so many more holes to cut. It took me 2 evenings, due to the fact I have Toddlers to chase which made it harder to do in one sitting.

I used a craft knife live my last venture, I think I'm going to get a pencil grip to slide on the handle so my hands don't hurt too much when I'm done.

I've been asked where I thought the pumpkins might have originally been sold from, my best guess would be Michaels craft store. The wall are fairly thin with uniform consistancy. Funkins sells pumpkins as well but I've heard the thickness can vary and is a bit thicker.

Anyway here is the final product, I hope you all enjoy your Thanksgiving long weekends.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Carved Pumpkin...Finally

I know I haven't posted anything since May, but life has a habit of keeping you busy. Now with a new house and a new job, I'm back! I sat down last night and carved my first foam pumpkin. I have to say I don't know what I was so worried about, it wasn't any more difficult to carve than a real pumpkin, and I have to tell you it was a lot less messy.

I first thing I did was choose a pattern for my pumpkin. It is important to consider the size and shape of the pumpkin, as well as your skill level when choosing a pumpkin carving pattern. Since I was trying a new medium of pumpkin carving I choose a simple pattern, from Zombie Pumpkins called Pretty Posion. To transfer the pattern, I first resized and printed the pattern on my printer and then I used Seral brand blue transfer paper to transfer the pattern to the pumpkin. I find this method works well on both real and the foam pumpkins. If you are using a real pumpkin. make sure the surface is nice and dry.

I didn't want to spend a lot of money on my adventure, so I used a craft knife that I purchased at the local dollar store to carve the design in the pumpkin. Next time I plan to take a foam pencil grip and put it on the knife handle to help stop my fingers from getting sore while carving.

I would have to say that for my first attempt I am quite happy with the results. Now I just need to get some battery operated lights to light up my pumpkin. To save time I just set it on top of my bedroom lamp to show you all how nice it looks lighted.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Foam Pumpkin Plans

If any of you have met me in person the one thing you know for sure is that I'm absolutely, insanely, head over heals, in love with Halloween. So when I saw these pumpkins at a yard sale I knew they had to be mine.

I have been wanting to try my hand at carving foam pumpkins for a while now but was too afraid of spending a bunch of money on a pumpkin just to ruin it, So finding these for $2.00 each was a steal.

I'm a dedicated member of the webite and forum Zombie Pumpkins which was created and is run by Ryan Wickstrand. This site is amazing and if you are into carving pumpkins or just Halloween in general I recommend you check out this site. There are great tips on carving, both real and foam pumpkins and everyone on the forum is willing to share their ideas and techniques.

I'm hoping to try to pick out two patterns for my first time and once I'm done I"ll post what techniques I tried and my overall experience of carving foam. Stay Tuned....

Monday, April 2, 2012

Easter Decorations

Today I had the chance to make some homemade easter decorations. It allowed me to use some of the tools that I don't use very often. To make garland I used my Fiskars shape cutter in Ovals. This was one of the first tools that I purchased when I started scrapbooking.

To give the ovals more texture I used 5 different embossing tools, one for each color I used. 3 of the folders were for my cuttlebug, and 2 of the plates were from Fiskars. I have found that by using a silicone baking sheet that I purchased from the dollar store as an embossing mat that I can run the Fiskars embossing plates through the Cuttlebug machine.

I used a needle and some fishing line to string the ovals together to make the garland. Beside this is the picture of the finished product. Please excuse my camera as the picture is a little blurry.

Angry Birds Anonymous...lol

I've recently started playing the Angry Birds game on Facebook and I can say those little birds are quite addictive, but they are also the inspiration for the following cards. Please keep in mind that these characters are the property of Rovio Entertainment.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Rocking Horse and Logo Stamp

I've recently fallen in love with the art of paper piecing. During my searches I came across a great site called Little Scraps of Heaven Designs. They have some amazing patterns there and they are all very affordable. There is even the weekly freebie available for those of us on a budget.

I have a lot of births happening to people I know so decided to try out their Rocking Horse Pattern. You may have noticed that the picture is mirrored. This is due to the fact that I cut these by hand and I don't like to show lines as I am bad at cutting on the lines and it hides my mistakes. :)

The ribbon I used was bought at Winners and is American Crafts brand. The cardstock was from Michaels and Dollarama.

Today I also recived something I have been waiting for for a month now and I am super excitied to have it. I was on e-bay and I saw someone selling personalized stamps, and I knew I had to buy one.

Now everyone who ends up with one of my cards will have my blog address and will be able to know what I used and my thought process in creating it. It also allows me to give credit to the artists in which I used to create the cards.

Please excuse the picture quality I was in a bit of a rush when I stamped and took the picture.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Wallpaper Cards

I decided to add a second post tonight as I wanted to showcase a set of cards that I made a while ago, but never shared with anyone before now.

As most of my close friends know, I love getting things for next to nothing or free. One day I was in the local building supply store and I mentioned that if they were ever getting rid of their wallpaper sample books that I would love to take them. As a result I was given the book with this paper inside and I thought that it would make some lovely cards.

I think I was right.

Thanks a Latte Card

I decided that this card is as good as any to start my blog. I started by using a card blank. I prefer to use them as they come with an envelope already.

I'm no longer sure what brand the paper is. I bought it at Kent Building Supply on discount when they stopped selling scrapbooking supplies. The cup stamp is from Close to Your Heart as is the word latte. I used a watermark stamp pad and embossed them using a metallic copper embossing powder. As I final touch I added some ribbon.

I'm quite happy with how this turned out and it fits well with my philsophy of K.I.S.S (keep it simple...stupid.)