Hi Everyone I have an altered project up on the Echo Park Blog today. These bookend drawers using the fabulously colorful Paradise Beach Collection are sure to brighten up any child’s bedroom (or your own desk if you can’t bear to part with them..) I painted and assembled the drawers, but decided the plain blue color was too bold so I took a paint dauber and some white paint and just softened the stark color a little. It actually looks like surf too which was an added bonus! Each drawer is decorated with a few handmade embellishments – and you can see below just how I made these. Many of the Echo Park Collections consist of papers and stickers – which leaves plenty of room for incorporating other tools you might have in your scrap-stash. I bet heaps of you have got Cuttlebug dies lying around and might not use them much now, especially if you have a digital die-cut machine, but I love them as they can cut quite thick material such as cardboard. Here is how to make your own glossy chipboard embellishments. Cut two layers of cardboard and one of paper from your chosen shape Glue the […]
Hi Everyone I love this project – I do this every so often for my kids and they just always think it is so much fun! It involves making your own dinosaur “fossils” with small toys and Plaster of Paris OR read on for instructions on how to make a GIANT fossil in the sandpit… Mix up the Plaster of Paris according to instructions Place your mold onto a solid surface Pour a little of the plaster mix into the mold Add your mini dinosaur into the mix Top up with plaster and leave to harden as per instructions Give your little one a few tools and let them get excavating! To make this an economical project I bought a HUGE 20kg bag of Plaster of Paris from my local builders merchant for about $20 – which was a great buy seeing as it was $13 for 500g at the craft store… You can of course use anything as a mold (yogurt pots, ice cream containers) and below you can see a series of pictures showing how you can make a really big one in your sandpit! Here is how I made a BIG fossil in the sandpit which took […]
Hi Everyone My first official Design Team Post is live at Echo Park – check it out here! For regular readers of my blog you will recognize this technique as one of my all-time favorites, but I have updated my tutorial and this fabulous new This and That Charming Collection really shows it off 🙂 I have used the latest This and That Charming Collection to create this simple mini with some recent photos of my family. I have a tutorial below showing how I created it and as you can see from the following picture, the weight of the Echo Park paper is perfect for this kind of technique as you can get a crisp fold without absolutely no paper cracking. After I created the base, I then used strips from the Elements and Alpha stickers to decorate the tops and bottoms of my pages – don’t forget to use the negative pieces left over too, or you can cut the wider strips in half to stretch them further. The camera sticker looks great on the cover against the Chevron print of the Border Strips (reverse) paper and this fabulous Snapshots flag from the Elements Stickers. For each page […]
Hi Everyone Last week I shared this mini-album idea and today I am sharing a detailed tutorial showing how I made it! Following the exact directions below will result in an album measuring 2″ x 2.5″ containing 11 double-sided pages but you can adjust the dimensions of the folds to yield an album of any size. The starting size paper for this exact album is 10″ x 12″ Mini Album Tutorial Score at 2″ intervals along the 12″ long side of the paper Rotate paper and score at 2.5″ intervals along the 10″ long side of the paper Fold at score marks to define the creases Make cuts as shown (details in diagram below) Begin to fold into pages, alternating pages of the book Continue folding each page until all are complete Leaving one page at each end, create album pages by gluing pages together Continue gluing until all pages are complete Cut a strip of paper 2.5″ wide Adhere one end of strip to front of book Wrap strip around book and glue onto back Your book is complete! As with all projects like this – I suggest you practice on scrap paper a couple of times so you […]
Note – please follow on Facebook as in January 2013 there will be a free pdf and cutting file download with full instructions on how to create this project! Hi Everyone Today was an exciting blog day for me today as I reached the 1 million page-views AND 1500 followers mark. A HUGE thank-you to everyone who reads along and comments on my projects! Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and I have a few more ideas to share this week. I saw this idea at the weekend and I just had to try it! It’s a 3-D, open-up card, love message bookmark kind of thing – and it’s a really fun idea! I based it on the great tutorial shown here on the Word Up, Nerd Up blog. I used 3 sheets from the Echo Park Yours Truly 6 x 6 Paper pad (trimmed to exactly 6 x 6 inches) to create the pages, Elements Stickersfrom the Echo Park “Yours Truly” Collectionalong with a few Rhinestonesto decorate The bookmark is based along the same lines of a “squash” album and instead of hand cutting the hearts as shown in the tutorial, I used my Cuttlebug and 3″ heart die to […]