10 Items or Less: Paper Punches!

Hello Again!

Today's focus will be on using a couple of paper punches. We love the effect that a border or corner punch can give a card. It adds a little fun to each card you use! We'll also be using up some more of our scraps, so get those out too! Let's get started!

What you'll need for these cards:

Card 1:  Let's Float Away

• White cardstock (other half of Card 1's cardstock)
• Blue-Grey cardstock scraps
• Cerulean Blue cardstock scraps
• Let's Float Away sticker
• Lace Border Punch
• Corner Punch

Card 2: The Only Way is Up

What you'll need for this card:

• White cardstock cut to 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" (Save the other half for Card 2)
• Yellow cardstock scrap
• Sky Blue cardstock scrap
• Navy cardstock
• The Only Way is Up sticker
• Sky Blue ribbon
• Lace Border Punch
• Corner Punch

~ ~ ~

Card : Let's Float Away

These are the cutting dimensions for the outside of the card:

• 3 squares of Cerulean Blue cardstock cut to 1 1/2" x 1 1/2"
• 3 squares of Blue-Grey cardstock cut to 1 1/2" x 1 1/2"
• 1 strip of Cerulean Blue cardstock cut to 1" x 5 1/2"

 Step 1: After you get your squares cut, you're going to use the corner punch to punch two diagonal corners. Make sure which ever two corners you choose on your first square are repeated exactly the same on all other squares. It will make a totally different look if you flip-flop.  ** The Let's Float Away sticker was square so I also gave the same punch effect on it. **

Step 2: Fold the card in half. Then use the lace border punch on opening side of the card as indicated in the above diagram.

Step 3: Apply the squares, alternating between the Blue-Grey and Cerulean Blue cardstocks. I put my focal sticker at the top right corner, but it will really look good in any of the squares.

 Step 4: Let's add some charm to the inside! Take your strip of Cerulean Blue cardstock cut to 1" x 5 1/2" and use the lace border punch on one side. Then take the straight edge side and line it up with the outside of the card. This way when the card is closed all you see is a pretty blue strip but when it's open you get a lace surprise!

All done!

Card 2: The Only Way is Up

These are the cutting dimensions for the outside of the card:

• Yellow cardstock cut to 5" x 3 3/4"
• 3 squares of Blue-Grey cardstock cut to 1 1/2" x 1 1/2"
• 1 strip of Cerulean Blue cardstock cut to 1" x 5 1/2"

Step 1: Take your other half of White cardstock and fold it in half. Use the corner punches to  round off the outer corners of the card where it opens.

Step 2: Take your Yellow cardstock and use the lace border punch on one of the 5" sides and the corner round punch on the opposite two corners.  Layer the Yellow on the White.

Step 3:  Only punch one side of the 4 1/2" Sky Blue cardstock leaving 2 pointed corners on the opposite side. Layer the Sky Blue on the Yellow, matching the rounded corner side with the other rounded corners and the pointed edges with the lace side.

Step 4: Now we're going to add a border to the Only Way Is Up sticker by laying it on the Navy cardstock and cutting around it to leave a little edge. 

Step 5: Take the Sky Blue ribbon and slip it through the opening on the newly backed sticker. It looks very cute if the edges get clipped to look like it has an inverted triangle or "flag" effect.  Apply adhesive and lay across the entire card.

And you just got through 2 more cards that take so little time or product! We hope you are enjoying these and come back for more! Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or comments. See you soon!

The 3 Chicks,

Hannah, Marisol & Joyce

New Video on YouTube!

Hello Everyone!

You can head on over to our YouTube channel to see how to make a 

Kusudama Japanese Flower Ball! It's really fun and easy to make. We hope it comes across clear and easy to follow! Please contact us with any questions or comments!

The 3 Chicks,

Hannah, Marisol & Joyce

Click Here to see this tutorial!

Pinterest Ideas

I love all kinds of baked goods! If you keep up with our IG account you will see that I have made many cakes and cupcakes. So it will come as no surprise to you that I purchased a cupcake stamp :) I couldn't resist! Plus its calorie free lol But my ideas weren't flowing on how to use it so I decided to check out Pinterest....Who doesn't love Pinterest right!? I searched for cupcake cards and picked 2 that i liked most and decided to share with all of you just how easy it is to use ideas from Pinterest 

                              These 2 cards were my inspiration

  To start I cut some pink card stock  4 3/4" wide (Its an odd width I know but I wanted lots of room to work with)

I  found some scraps that were pink and green like the picture i cut them 2"x2 1/4. Don't forget the white paper which is 5 1/4" x 4 3/4" 

 I cut a smaller piece of the same pink card stock to 2" x 2 3/4" (Just a little longer then the pink and green squares in the last step) And then took the same white paper and cut it 2" x 2 1/4". Wow! my brain hurts from all those measurements lol As you notice my white paper doesn't have pointed corners I indented them. There's no way you can mess it up just eyeball it 

 Are you ready for the fun part? Lets assemble the card!  Glue the white paper to the pink card 

                                    Glue on your 4 scrap pieces 

 Here's the cupcake! I stamped it and colored it on some white paper  (you have read about this in a previous tutorial) and then i accented it by sticking it on black paper and cutting around it to make a border so it pops (You have also learned about this. Remember? ;) 

                                                Glue these pieces

 Now its time to put it all together. But its still missing the finishing touch...

                                                            ...GEMS! 

 Add the finishing touch to the 4 corners we indented and card #1 is finished!.....I think its cuter then the original. That was SO easy and FUN! Don't you want to make another? OK GREAT! 

 This card was much easier then the first. I started with brown card stock (Sorry about my messy table)

 I reused the pink paper from the last card and added this cute green flowered paper. I also found some paper string (You could use whatever you have around the house like ribbon or even an extra shoestring lol) I cut them all 4" long 

I used the same cupcake stamp but colored it a little different and then used a maybe a cupcake will help? stamp and outlined them both in black 

I glued the 2 pretty papers to the card. The green slightly overlapping the pink 

                                         Then add the paper string

Then then stamps to finish it off 

I hope you have enjoyed making these cards as much as i have. Pinterest ideas can look intimidating at first but remember you aren't coping your just getting ideas. If you notice I didn't have the the exact same stamp or paper as my inspiration pictures but I used the ideas to make something new. There are more Pinterest ideas to come :) Thanks for checking out our blog! 

Three chicks,

Hannah,Joyce,And Marisol

Masculine Shirt & Tie Card

Hello!

Today we'll be waking through a step-by-step tutorial of a great looking shirt and tie card for the men in our lives. 

We were going through Pintrest (a ridiculous obsession; if you've never been on there DON'T GO! Save yourself!) looking for ideas for some men's cards that we needed when we happened upon one that seemed pretty easy and pretty cute at the same time! There weren't any dimensions with the one we found so here is what we came up with. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did! 

Let's get started...

Supplies You'll Need:

• Base Cardstock: 8 1/2" x 6 3/4"
• "Shirt" Cardstock:  1" x 5 1/2"  AND  4" x 5 1/2"
• "Tie" Patterned Paper: 2" x 2" AND 2" x 4 1/2"
• 1 Brad
• Adhesive
• Scissors (or cutting board)
• Scoreboard & bone folder
• Hole puncher

*** In this tutorial you'll probably notice that the "shirt" has texture on it. This was creating using a Cuttlebug and the Polka-dots folder. If you don't have one, but like the effect (as do we) that it gives; Michael's Craft Store (and probably Hobby Lobby or other craft store) has paper in stock by Bazzill Basics Paper that gives the exact same effect but it's already done! It's open stock and in lots of beautiful colors and if it's not on sale, it's $0.79 but check the website for a coupon to save you some money! And often they do have sales on open stock cardstock, so just do your homework first to save $$$. Enjoy! ***

** I apologize that it's a little blurred.**

Step 1: Take your Base card stock and lay the 8 1/2" wide side is against the measuring line. Score at 4 1/4" mark. Fold and run the bone folder against the fold line so that it's nice and crisp. Set aside for now.

Step 2: Take the 1" x 5 1/2" shirt paper out. This will be your shirt's collar. Lay it in front of you as shown. Mark the top of the 5 1/2" (the farthest side from you) at 1 1/2" from each side. Without turning the paper at all, we're going to make marks on the bottom of the 5 1/2" (the closest side to you). Mark the bottom at 1 1/4" from each side.

**I used heavy mark lines to show up on camera, but you'll want to make sure any marks get erased so that they don't show up on your final project.**

Step 3: Put your newly marked paper on your scoreboard. We're not going to be using the measuring line at the top of the board. Here you can see us lining up the marks to a ridge on a scoreboard then we'll score them. After one side is done, we'll line up the other marks and do the same.

Step 4:  Now we fold our lines. Before running the bone folder over your lines, you'll want to check that your shirt collar corners line up nicely. Sometimes things just come out a little wonky. So once you achieve this ... crease those folds!

Step 5: Now we move onto the tie! First we'll be working with the knot of the tie. Take your 2" x 2" paper and lay it in front of you. We're going to mark 1" on the side closest to you and then use that mark to draw a line to each opposite corner. You should now see a triangle. Cut out the sides, leaving the large triangle center as your knot.

Step 6: Now we'll work on the base of the tie. Take your 2" x 4 1/2" patterned tie paper and lay it in front of you so that the 2" portion is closest. You're again going to mark the 1" line on the side closest to you. Then you'll turn the paper 90 degrees and mark 1" up from the 2" side then go across from it and make the same mark. Return your paper to where it started. You should have the side with the three marks closest to you. On the side farthest from you, we're going to mark a 1/2" in from each side. 

Step 7: After you cut, you should end up with the above scraps and the perfect center tie!

Step 8: Lets start assembling!!! First we're going to attach the knot to the collar. Turn your collar over and place some adhesive (our favorite adhesive is our Advanced Tape Glider or ATG and you'll see it referenced a lot in future tutorials) on the collar's corners careful to only put adhesive where your knot will cover. We're going to line up the widest part of the triangle knot against the bottom of the collar line. Centering it in between the lapels.

Step 9: Attach the collar and tie to your shirt. On this shirt, one side has raised texture and the other has an embossed effect where the dots are inverted. You need to decide now which you want to be seen on your card. Which ever side you DO want, lay face up. Turn your collar and tie face down and give a generous amount of adhesive. Then line up the bottom of the "back" collar to the top of your shirt. Your collar should extend above your shirt.

Step 10: Now we're going to make a hole for our "tie clip" or in craft terms a brad. In most cases a hole punch would work great for making a hold for brads, however in this case, where I want the hole is too far for my hole punch to reach. Thankfully I have a trusty pin kept near my craft desk for such emergencies. 

Here's where we are now. Looks pretty good! Let's keep going!

Step 11: Now we're going to apply adhesive to the whole back side. Really go to town on this one because we want it to stick really good to our card back.

 

 

Voila! Our finished masculine card! We love it and we hope you do too!



**This isn't a standard size card. If you would like a tutorial on a matching envelope please feel free to let us know! Thanks!**

The 3 Chicks,

Hannah, Marisol & Joyce

10 Items or Less: Layers & Scraps

Hello!

We're really digging this 10 Items/10 Minutes or Less segment (as if you couldn't tell) so we're bringing you another one! We hope everyone is loving it! Today's cards will be focusing on layers and the use of scraps. We Chicks love paper so much that we hoard any and all scraps. Since this is not a cheap hobby, it's not hard to see why we would. However, that probably doesn't excuse the volume of scraps that some of us keep around. So to help sooth our guilt, we like to use those scraps to make pretty cards. 

Today's cards will have these items:

 Card 1: What's Up?

• Navy cardstock scraps
• Coral textured cardstock scraps
• Cream cardstock base
• What's Up? Sticker

Card 2: You Are My Sunshine

• Red textured cardstock scraps
• Coral cardstock scraps
• Sky Blue textured cardstock scraps
• Black cardstock scraps 
• You Are My Sunshine Sticker
• Cream cardstock base

Ok, now that you have your scraps and tools (you know, something to cut your paper, adhesive, and a pencil and ruler if you're not using a paper cutter) let's get started!

Card 1: What's Up?

We're going to start with a standard sheet of  8 1/2" x 11" cardstock that we'll cut in half to make a card at 8 1/2" x 5 1/2". ** Save the other half for Card 2! **

**Please excuse the resolution of some of these photos. My camera was acting wonky and so I don't think it gave true colors for some pictures.**

Here's our measurements for our layers:

• Cream card base (Folded): 5 1/2" x 4 1/4"
• Navy Layer: 5" x 3 3/4"
• Coral layer: 4 1/2" x 3 1/4"

Layer the Navy on top of the Cream and the Coral on top of the Navy.

Next, we're going to give the sticker a base by laying the sticker on the Navy cardstock and cutting around the sticker.

Don't worry about perfection, people will be so impressed you even attempted this that they'll love it no matter what!!

 Finally, we apply the sticker to the layered card stock! Here's the finished card!

 Isn't it cute?!

Card 2: You Are My Sunshine

Once you gather the scraps listed above and regroup your tools we'll get started again. .... Ready?? Great, let's get started! We're going to work just a tad harder on this one, but it will be totally worth it! Here are the measurement's we'll be using:

• 3 Coral cardstock rectangles cut to 2" x 1 1/4"
• 3 textured Red cardstock rectangles cut to 2 1/4" x 1 1/2"
• Sky Blue textured cardstock cut to 5" x 3 3/4"
• The other half of your Cream cardstock folded to 5 1/2" x 4 1/4"

Ok, lets get layering: layer the Black onto the Cream and the Sky Blue textured onto the Black. Then we're going to evenly space the 3 Red rectangles on the Sky Blue to take up three corners of the card. Then layer the Coral onto the Red. You'll notice we left one area blank. That's where our sticker is going!

Like we did before, we're going to be giving a base to our sticker:

 Apply the sticker to your card and admire your handy work!

Thanks so much for checking out our blog! We love doing this and we hope you give these suggestions a try! Keep checking back and we'll keep posting!

The 3 Chicks,

Hannah, Marisol & Joyce