Tutorial Thursday - Easel Card

This week for our first Tutorial Thursday I have a little tutorial on how to make an Easel Card.

The beauty of this card is that you can make it pretty much any size you want and the way you make it stays the same!

Take a piece of card and fold in half. (I used an A4 piece of card cut to 6” wide.)

Fold one side in half again.

Trim your patterned paper/coloured card to the size of the card and add glue to the bottom half of the flap. Stick the paper to the card so that the top part is ‘free’.

 Add paper to the bottom of the card. Decorate the top.

Make up a small panel to go on the bottom of the card and attach with foam pads, this will hold the easel in place. (I made mine 2" wide and positioned it about 3/4" up from the bottom of the card but you can put it wherever feels right to you.)

Add any extra embellishments and you are done!

Simple design to make once you have the hang of it and they look really effective. Just be careful if you are sending the post as due to the foam pads it will probably be larger than just sending a normal card.

Have fun creating some easel cards,

Happy Crafting,

Maxine xx

Birthday Planner Tutorial

Want to stay organised this year and keep up with all the birthdays you have to buy for? Why not make yourself a Birthday planner that you can keep in your bag and keep a record of presents you have bought and ones you need to get. This planner can also be made into a Christmas planner if you don't need a birthday one or maybe make yourself both!

You will need:
2/3x 12"x12" pieces Cardstock
Printer paper/light card
Patterned Papers (scraps will work too) I used Echo Park Dots & Stripes Candy Shoppe
Bone folder (or something to score lines with)
Brads
Chipboard or Greyboard (optional)
Planner pages (you can download from our website for free here)

1.Take a piece of 12x12 cardstock that you want to use as the base for your planner. You will need to make 4 score lines. 1 line at 3", 1 at 6" and 1 at 9". Then rotate your cardstock 90 degrees and make another score line 4" in from the edge.

2.Now fold the bottom edge of the cardstock on the 4" line into the middle. This will be the pocket.

3. Concertina the card on the other lines. Fold in half at the 6" line (so the pocket section is on the outside) then fold inwards on the other 2 lines.

You will end up with something that looks like this:

4. From another piece of cardstock cut 3 or 4 pieces measuring 2 3/4" x 7 3/4". These will be the inserts for the pockets. In my birthday planner I used the same colour as the base of my planner but in my Christmas one I used another contrasting colour.

5. Now you need to print out the calender, gift ideas, card list etc pages.

You can find the different printable pages here. Choose the ones that you want to use and print them on a light weight card.

6. Trim each element so you are cutting just inside the border lines. This will ensure that they fit onto the card inserts you previously cut. Attach the pages to the card inserts with a brad so that you can swivel the pages. 

7. As an alternative to having a 4th page element you can also create a pocket that you can store lists, receipts etc in. To make this you will need a piece of cardstock measuring 91/4" length x 6" width.  Score a line at 2 1/2" and 5 1/4" (from top to bottom) and another 1 1/2" from the top. Cut off the 2 corner pieces and then fold on all your score lines. 

Put some adhesive on the edge of the large flap and stick on top of the small flap. This will then give you a pocket that is open one end and with a flap at the other end. You can seal the bottom of the pocket by wrapping a piece of decorative paper around the bottom.

8. Now you can decorate your planner.
I kept mine quite simple and just stuck some patterned paper and stickers on the pockets. You don't want to add any bulky embellishments or you will struggle to close the planner!

9. For the covers I covered 2 pieces of 3" x 8" chipboard and stuck them to the cardstock but you could just use some card or patterned paper to decorate the front if you don't want to use chipboard or greyboard.

10. Add some ribbon so you can tie the planner closed (optional) and you are finished!

Here is my Christmas Planner example, you can also find all the pages to create a Christmas planner on the page with the Birthday planner pages here.

I hope that you will find this planner of use and if you make one I would love to see. Feel free to share a picture on our Facebook page or a link to it on your own blog in the comments below.

Happy Crafting,

Maxine

Please note: these instructions, photos and files are copyright of Creative Hobby Supplies 2015.  If you wish to link to this tutorial please feel free, but do not copy this and claim as your own. Thank you!

What's the difference? - Mod Podge, PVA & Decopatch Glue

The other day I was asked the question 'What is the difference between Mod Podge, PVA and Decopatch Glue?'. So this weekend I decided to test them. Now I use all of these glues for different projects and after reading up on it I've realised that it is quite a lot to do with personal preference as to which glue you use, but I thought I would do a little run down of my findings and let you know my opinion in the hope it might help some people choose which glue to use.

I used:
Mini Paper Mache Boxes
Red Decopatch Papers
Matte Mod Podge
Gloss Mod Podge
Decopatch Glossy Glue
PVA Glue

This is what the boxes look like to start:

And this is how they looked once they were covered and dry.

Matte Mod Podge

This was the first time I had tried the Matte Mod Podge and I am very impressed with the outcome. It has a definite matte finish and looks completely different from the other 3. If you are after a smooth non shiny finish then this is the one to use.


Gloss Mod Podge

I have used gloss Mod Podge quite a few times before but I normally use it when glittering items (such as glasses) and haven't used it for decopatching before. I found that it is a very similar finish to the Decopatch glue. It is glossy and shiny but I can see the brush strokes, although this could have been down to the paintbrush I was using.

I have heard that quite a lot of people are put off of using Mod Podge for this type of project because it can feel tacky to the touch even after it has dried. Now on this box I haven't found that at all but I have in the past use it to coat some paper beads I made and after several coats I have found that they do seem to have stayed tacky, so it could be how thick you layer the glue. This is where the personal preference comes into it, depending what project you are doing.

Decopatch Glossy Glue

This is the glue that I normally use for this sort of project. I have decopatched a small paper mache horse, some shelving and some Christmas decorations and have always used this glue. Now after doing this I see very little difference to the gloss Mod Podge. It is glossy and shiny but again I can see the brush strokes. Decopatch glue is slightly runnier than Mod Podge but is non toxic and has less of an odour so is better for using with children. The one difference I can feel is that it seems to be a harder coating but this could be down to the different shapes of the boxes. I will probably continue to use Decopatch glue for this type of project because of the potential for the Mod Podge to stay tacky if you use too thick a coating.

PVA Glue 

I normally use neat PVA for sticking down embellishments and papers and I use it a lot when making mini books to ensure that my papers are well stuck to my covers. For this project I used it watered down as it was too thick to use straight from the bottle for decopatching. Again how much you water it down comes down to personal preference but I have seen the ratio of 2/3 glue to 1/3 water. This box is not as glossy and shiny as the Decopatch and Mod Podge but not as matte as the matte Mod Podge. Again some people find that PVA can stay tacky depending how much you have used. On this box I found that the lid was not always easy to remove but this could be due to the shape. If you are looking for a cheap alternative to the other glues then this would suffice but just isn't quite so glossy.

I have seen people suggesting that if you add a few drops of a water based varnish to the water/glue mixture that it makes it more glossy and like Mod Podge, this is maybe something to experiment with.

Conclusion
My final conclusion is that there is not a massive difference between them (except the Matte Mod Podge!) and if one works for you then there isn't really a need for you to purchase another. But if you are like me then you have your preferences for each glue for different projects. I will still continue to use the Decopatch glue for decopatching (or the Matte Mod Podge if I want a matte finish), the PVA for mini books and the Mod Podge for glittering things. But if I ran out of Decopatch glue and had the urge to decopatch something then I know I could still use Gloss Mod Podge or PVA as an alternative.

I hope that this has given you some idea as to the differences between the glues and what you might use them for in the future.

Happy Crafting,
Maxine x