Technique Tuesday {One Sheet Wonders}

Card #9

Have you heard of a card sketch? It's basically a layout or blueprint for a card. You can use whatever papers you want, but it gives you the layout, shapes, and basic sizes for the pieces of paper you use. It's a good way to try something different. 


I came across something pretty cool that involves card sketches on Splitcoaststampers a couple years ago. This was before I had discovered Pinterest, so I printed it off, put it in my idea binder...and forgot about it. I found it again this weekend and finally gave it a try. It was a great way to get several cards started. It is a template to cut out accent pieces for a total of 12 cards all from one piece of paper...some call these a "one sheet wonder".

Card #3

I tried and tried to find the original source for you to download on Splitcoaststampers and using Google but couldn't find it for anything! I decided to try Bing and found it in about 30 seconds. Seriously? I've never been a huge fan of Bing, but this experience may make me have to rethink that.


Enough rambling...you can find the original template and examples to download here. They are Word documents, so I can't show you the images here. :-( You can find a lot of these "one sheet wonders" on Splitcoaststampers, and I even found a few on Pinterest (though I didn't find the actual templates on Pinterest-just example cards).

Card #4

The template is for an 8.5x11 piece of paper, so I cut down a 12x12 piece. Then I was able to use the scraps to go with the other pieces I cut according to the template. According to the template, you can make 12 card, but I ended up combining some of the pieces and made 10. Two aren't pictured here though. I was photographing the cards outside in the wind and didn't get a good picture of one and I'm not sure what happened to the other one! :-(


NOW...if you were able to get through all my ramblings, here are the rest of the cards! The above cards are also below with a little detail about how they were made. You may have noticed above that the cards are numbered. The numbers correspond to the numbering in the original. I flipped all my cards to they were portrait. There were portrait and landscape cards in the original.

Card #8

 Card #8 is self explanatory. It's nice to put your layering pieces at an angle sometimes to create a little more interest.

Card #6

 I used a scallop punch and flower punches on card #6

Card #1

 I used a sponge to add color to the edges of card #1. Just ink up the sponge with your stamp ink. Also, the leaves of the flower are stamped directly onto the card and the flower is layered on top of them to create a little dimension.

Card #10,11,12

 The flowers on card #10,11,12 were stenciled using the leftover paper from punching out the flowers on card #6. I just held the paper in place and used my inked up sponge again like with the edges of card #1.

Card #5

I used the scalloped punch again for card #5.

Card #9

I used twine instead of ribbon on card #9, so I wrapped it around the paper several times to make it look a little thicker.

Card #3

 The edges on the background piece were torn to create the effect in card #3. If your card has a white "core" it looks best, but it works great with any paper.

Card #4

Card #4 is pretty self explanatory. Those "stripes" are just paper scrapes, but they look a little like ribbon.

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DIY Easter Egg Grass

Does that plastic Easter egg grass drive you crazy? I don't have too much experience with it since my little guy is so little, but I remember my mom not being a huge fan, so I figured I'd make an alternative.

I cut strips of paper about 1/2 an inch wide and then used my paper crimper (I think I've seen them at Hobby Lobby) to crimp the pieces of paper. That's it. Simple.

Here's a few things I've got planned for my little guy's basket. We're keeping it simple this year.

• The basket is a bucket with a shovel (he loves shovels)
• Crayons and animal coloring pages
• Toy bugs
• Sidewalk chalk (he's a little young but this is something I plan to do with him)
• Bath toys
• A book with stories about Jesus.

What are you putting in your little ones' Easter basket? I'd love for you to leave a comment with your ideas. 

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Paper Animal Finger Puppets

I've been trying to come up with some ideas for egg fillers other than candy. One of the ideas I found was finger puppets. A lot of the ones I found were made of felt, but I wanted to make mine from paper. What can I say? I have A LOT of paper, so I wanted to use some of it up.

Here's the basic instructions. I used tacky glue.

• Punch two circles from the same color (The sheep was actually one white circle and one gray scalloped circle).
• Cut ears and glue in between the two circles.
• Glue the "googly" eyes in place.
• Glue the "snout" in place if appropriate.
• Draw the face and details with a fine Sharpie 
• Create the pouch for the finger from a scrap of paper. I cut the paper into a strip, wrapped it around my finger to get the right size, folded the top over, and then glued the whole thing to the back of the puppet. I wanted the top to be closed so my little guy could use them without them falling down on his finger.

Pretty cute!

They all fit great into the Easter eggs too. :-)

Here's a great post with non-candy egg filler ideas or for more Easter ideas you can check out my Easter's A Hoppin' board on Pinterest.

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Woven Paper Birthday Cards {Use Up Some Paper Scraps!}

I saw something like the pin below and thought it would be an interesting technique to use on cards.

Source: google.com via Erin on Pinterest

I've been wanting to try this for a while, so when I was going through my paper scraps the other day, I decided to give it a try. It was just as easy as weaving a place mat with construction paper as a kid with a little more sophisticated look. :-)


I tried to match up similar colors and was able to make three different versions. 





Here are a couple close ups of the weaving.

These were fun to make and a good way to use up some of those paper scraps! I hope you're inspired.

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