Squash Fold Card Tutorial

Hi everyone!  Happy Tuesday!!!

Tuesday means it is time again for a Tutorial here at Shelly's Images and today I thought I would show you how to make this super simple "Squash Fold" card.  

This card can easily be made into any square measurement.  I happen to have both 5 x 5 and 6 x 6 square envelopes so I chose to make a 6 x 6 card for this tutorial.  **Don't forget...it costs more to send square cards**

For my 6 x 6 squash fold card I am starting with a 12 x 12 inch piece of card stock.  For a 5 x 5 squash fold card begin with a 10 x 10 inch piece of card stock.  My card stock is Bazzill Yam.
Score at 6 inches.  For a 5 x 5 card score at 5 inches.

Now turn the paper and score at 6 inches (or 5 inches for a 5 x 5 card).  Your paper should now have 4 equal sections scored.

We are ready now to score diagonally from one corner of our card stock to the opposite corner.  Only make ONE diagonal score.  For the 6 inch card it is a little hard to fit it on the score tool.  So here I have lined up one corner at the top with the middle score line. 

Now carefully fold the card open and score from one corner to the middle point.   

 Repeat the last step for the other corner so you end up with one full score line going from one corner to the opposite corner.

 Now fold along each score line and use the bone folder tool to make a nice fold.  Unfold and repeat for all score lines.

 To fold our squash fold card just fold in the sections that are made with the diagonal score.  The diagonal score will meet in the center.

 Here is another picture that shows the card folding closed.

Be sure to check back on Thursday to see my finished squash card and all of the other wonderful projects from our DT. 

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial today.  And I hope you will try one of these fun folded cards!

TTT Challenge Winners - Tic Tac Toe

Thanks so much to everyone who played along for our Tic Tac Toe game.  It is truly one of my favorite challenges and we got so many wonderful entries.  The DT worked hard again this week to come up with our favorite 3.  This week's winners are....

The Gold Medal Award winner is Rina from Scrapbook Fashionista.

Rina, the DT and I were completely in awe at this project.  I have truly never seen an explosion box more beautiful than this one.  Aaaamazing!  I am sure the bride and groom who receive this will treasure it.  I will be emailing you very soon with your $6 gift voucher.  Please also be sure to grab your Gold Medal Badge here.

Our Silver Medal Award winner is Lyndsey from Handmade with Love, Gems and Pretty Things.

Lyndsey, your project was one of my personal favorites and I was so pleased when it was also a favorite with the DT.  The colors you used are just so striking.  And the gems and beautiful flower just finish it off perfectly.  Love, love, love this project.   Please be sure to grab the silver medal badge to display at your blog.  You can find your badge here.

And, Our Bronze Medal Award winner is Jenny from Dragonllew's Spot.

Jenny...sometimes simple is just better and that is definitely the case with your beautiful project.   We loved the soft colors, lace, and beautiful corner embellishment.  Please be sure to grab the bronze medal badge to display at your blog.  You can find your badge here.

Thanks again to everyone who entered our challenge.  Your creativity always inspires us.    If you didn't win today please be sure to visit www.shellysimages.com and click "Monthly Digi Giveaway".  Then just enter your name and email address to enter for our October giveaway.  Be sure to enter once each month for your chance to win.  

Our new challenge has already begun.  Come join us for our "Spooky" challenge.

SPOOKY - TTT Challenge

Hello to all and welcome back to another fun challenge here at Shelly's Images!  

As you know, Halloween is right around the corner and Shelly has 'brewed' up some fabulous images for us to use on our Halloween creations.  

Today's challenge theme is:

S-P-O-O-K-Y

(interpret as you will)

and the design team has created some AMAZING projects using Shelly's "LOVE POTION" image.  You'll want to get your hands on this image ... another FABULOUS set!

LOVE POTION SET

Now for some amazing inspiration from the Shelly's Images design team!  I don't know about you, but I just LOVE seeing all the unique creations using the exact same image ... what fun!

MIRANDA

AMANDA

 DARLENE

JACKIE

MARIANNE

PRISCILLA

 SAMMI

 MIN

WOW!  Now that should help get your "SPOOK" on!  

We look forward to seeing YOUR "SPOOKY" creations and we'd appreciate you following our few simple rules (shown in the sidebar).  Most of all, we hope you have FUN!!

 

Tutorial/Technique Tuesday

DID YOU KNOW . . .

that you can mail your dimensional cards in a clear box?

That's right!  I learned this recently and wanted to share it with all our Shelly's Images readers.

I have grown to LOVE making homemade paper flowers and hated to see them get smashed & out of shape when trying to package them for mailing!  

I wanted to put them on a card and send them in the mail to my friends without having to house them in a ton of tissue paper and a bubble bag.  Even for those store bought dimensional flowers (as used on the card below), this process works GREAT!

I have purchased both A2 & A6 size plastic boxes online at clearbags.com.  When I make a card with a lot of embellishments or homemade flowers on it, I immediately place it in one of these clear boxes.

 If I am preparing these for sale at the local craftshow or to my family/friends, I add a section of tissue paper (enough to wrap the card so it's still a surprise when opened), along with a 3' section of white organza ribbon and a small white tag.

 If you want to HAND DELIVER the card, you can wrap it in the tissue paper OR, you can simply wrap the outside of the box with the ribbon and place your sentiment on the little tag! 

 If you choose to MAIL it via the US POST OFFICE, you only need to follow a few easy steps:

• Use a piece of clear packing tape on the ends to secure it from popping open,
• Place your address label on the front,
• Adhere $1.95 (US) postage.

That's all there is to it!

After showing my mother & her gentleman friend my "special" cards and how to send them in these clear boxes, this is what they have been doing for those "special" people who don't live close by or that they don't see very often.  They said they always get wonderful comments back from the recipients saying "what a fabulous surprise they received in the mail today"!!

I'm sorry to say I don't know how this process would work for our friends 'across the pond' ... but you could put one together, take it to your mailing facility and see what they say!

Well that's it for me today!  PLEASE come back on Thursday when we will have another fun challenge to share with you!  Hope to see you then!!

Papers and Pixels - October 2012 Issue

Shelly's Images is SO very honored to be featured in the October 2012 issue of 

Papers and Pixels!

If you aren't familiar with this amazing magazine then please be sure to check it out.  Each edition is stuffed with great ideas, tutorials, and inspiration.  And freebies!  Shelly's Images was happy to provide a great freebie for the October issue.  

The October issue is even more special for Shelly's Images because our very own Darlene Pavlick from our DT is ALSO featured.  

TTT Challenge Winners - Show us your SHAPE

Happy Thursday everyone.  Today is a little sad for me.  Darlene has been here visiting me in Kansas since arriving Monday evening.  But today she has to fly home.  :(  Thanks so much for visiting me Darlene!  Before we race off to the airport I wanted to post the winners that our DT chose from our "Show us your SHAPE" challenge.  

The Gold Medal Award winner is Debbie from Crafting When I Can.

Debbie this is such a fantastic shape project and a wonderful fun treat for 1st graders.  All of the papers and embellishments work together so well.  And I love the sparkly shoes!   I will be emailing you very soon with your $6 gift voucher.  Please also be sure to grab your Gold Medal Badge here.

Our Silver Medal Award winner is Pat from Paper, Markers, Ink, Oh My!

Pat, the DT and I truly were in awe of this project.  The layers of circles are so beautiful on the face of the card.  But then you made the round box which is absolutely amazing.  Please be sure to grab the silver medal badge to display at your blog.  You can find your badge here.

And, Our Bronze Medal Award winner is Nikki from NM Card Creations.

Nikki this card is just PERFECT for our "Show us your SHAPE" challenge.  So many cool shapes!  Such an interesting easel card.   Please be sure to grab the bronze medal badge to display at your blog.  You can find your badge here.

Thanks to all of our creative crafters  who entered our challenge.  If you didn't win today please be sure to visit www.shellysimages.com and click "Monthly Digi Giveaway".  Then just enter your name and email address to enter for our September giveaway.  Be sure to enter once each month for your chance to win.  

Our new challenge has already begun.  Come join us for a fun game of Tic-Tac-Toe.

TTT Challenge - Time to play Tic - Tac - Toe!!!!

Happy Thursday friends!

Shelly here...and this week I get to host the new challenge starting today.  We hope you will join us in a little game of crafting Tic-Tac-Toe.

To play along enter a project using the items on our "Tic Tac Toe" game board.  Use the 3 items which make either horizontal, vertical, or diagonal lines across the board.  In the past we have even had entries using all of the items on the board.

This week the DT will inspire you with our project using the "Grave Invitation Set"

As you can see from the thumbnail above, this set comes with three different versions of the digi stamp and some sentiment files to help you with your projects.  Be sure to visit the store to get your "Grave Invitation Set" Digi Stamp. 

Darlene really added to the "spook" factor with the scary spider in the corner.

Tic-Tac-Toe - Ribbon, Embossing, Digi

Marianne chose green, purple, and black for her scary project.

Tic Tac Toe - Bling, Free, and Embossing (on the cute kitty)

Jackie used colorful orange, purple, and green for her frightening project.

Tic-Tac-Toe - Punch or Die, Free (Glitter), Ribbon

Amanda has her monsters all tied up in this amazing coffin box.

Miranda made this lovely project with traditional orange and black.

Tic-Tac-Toe - Color Orange, Bling, Punch or Die

Shelly (that's me) invites you to open the gate....if you dare.  

Tic-Tac-Toe - Punch or Die, Free (Bling), Ribbon 

 I hope we didn't scare you off.  :)  Please join in on the fun and play along with us this week.  I can't wait to see what you create.

We have just a few simple rules.

Challenge Rules:
1. Link directly to your blog post entry,NOT your entire blog.
2. Shelly's Images are NOT required (but we'd LOVE to see them).
3. New projects ONLY ... NO back linking.
4. Your entry must follow the theme.
5. Only FIVE entries per challenge PLEASE. Any additional entries will be deleted in an effort to keep our challenge fair for all participants.
6. Challenge entry ends at 12:00 Noon (CST) on October 17th.

7. Please turn word verification off at your blog if you would enjoy a comment from us. It is just too time consuming to type in word verification at each challenge entry. Thank you for understanding.

How to make your own "Pearl" Embellishments

Ready for another tutorial here at Shelly's Images?

Today I am going to show you my technique for making Hot Glue "pearls" or embellishments.  

Hot Glue Pearl Template File
http://www.4shared.com/file/T8qDazvY/gluepearltemplate.html
(technical difficulties...to get this file just copy and paste the above link into your internet browser)

I hope you enjoy our tutorial and I hope you try this technique.  If you use our tutorial be sure to share your projects with us.  We love seeing projects inspired by our tutorials.

We have many, many tutorials here at Shelly's Images.  Visit the labels area on the right side of our blog to see lots of categories for our projects and tutorials.  Or click our "Tutorial Library".