Gifts for the AA groups meeting at our church

At Christmas our church tries to do something special for the AA groups that meet in our meeting rooms. We bring them cookies. Woot!! Who don't like cookies. Me like cookies. C is for cookie that good enough for me.

Whoops sort of lost track of my thoughts. Well we make them a package and this year I added a craft to each package. I made verse boxes. Here is one of them:

So each of the boxes holds about 30 cards. On the front of each card is a saying that I found from an AA inspiration page. Here are some of these quotes:

And then I picked bible quotes that echoed these thoughts, like this:

The little folders have an accordion side that allows you to put your favorite verses up front:

And they have the cutest little snaps to close them. They are snaps for baby clothes and when you add them to paper that has been laminated they provide a nice strong closure. You can see a packet of snaps in the bucket behind the verses.

Here is the tutorial for making the folders.

1. Download the MTC file (verse_box_share.mtc). And cut out one of each of the three shapes. In the file they are on different pages (box, trim, trim3) and they look like the shapes on the left. I wanted colours that looked nice together so I invited over my colour consultants (who are the most wonderful people and good friends to boot) to pic the colours out. I think they chose about 20 different combinations. The main part of the folder was usually cut out of 12x12 patterned cardstock and then the trim was a complementary colour.
2. Fold all the perforated sections before you laminate in order to make the folding after laminating easier.
3.  Then the next step was to laminate the folder with the trim in place. I did this by cutting a laminate folder to the width of the main part of the folder. With a tiny bit of glue to hold the trim in the right place. The pieces look like this going into the laminator. The laminating sheet only covers the patterned area of the folder.  
4. Once it is laminated, refold the perforated lines on the folder. I used my Martha Stewart scoring board but any method will work. 
5. Then you are going to add the snaps to the top and bottom of the folder. The snaps I borrowed from a friend and they are the KAM snaps. There are 3 different pieces and they look like this the below picture. A and B are different sides of the same piece. So at the rounded end of the folder you will attach the A/B piece to the Pin piece with the A side showing against the patterned paper. And at the square end of the folder you would attach the A/B piece to the Box piece. IMPORTANT: the square end of the folder has the box piece showing against the patterned paper
   
6. Now comes the fun part. I know it all seems so much fun so far!! I think I put together 120 of these babies and it gets easier as you go. So you are going to fold the tabs up. The tabs that are rounded (kind of looks like a bracket ) you will fold back and forth inward on the folder until it looks like this:
7. The last step is to attach the tabs together with glue and tabs. Here is a poor video to show you how. https://youtu.be/4JZKairJYo4
8. And le voile. Et fini.

A glide and slide nativity card

I found this tutorial for making slide and glide cards and thought it was adorable:

So I decided to make my own with a nativity scene. Here is what mine looks like:

Here is a video of it working:

I am going to pretty it up today (if I have the energy).

Baby Congrats card with swinging bassinet

A pop up baby card with a double slider front. No one ever said I was a simple girl or that I embraced simplicity. I made this card for a very dear friend of ours that just had a baby. Here is a video of the pop up card in action:


So the file is pretty detailed but essentially, the front part of the card is composed of a double slider base (MTC file front_base page) and then a print and cut page (front_pull_out page) is made of items that go onto the double pull out. Here is a instructional of how to do a double slider by Beccy: http://beccysplace.blogspot.ca/2015/04/tutorial-double-slider-card.html

Then the inside of the card is a pop up card with a swing on it.  The first page in the MTC file is the pop up card. Then the second page is all of the complementary pieces. There is a picture window, a wood floor with a rug and a pink wallpaper and then of course the swinging bassinet. There are pieces that match the wallpaper that go on the pop up tabs. It is all print and cut with a bit of gluing down.

Note: I did not put fold lines at the bottom of the chair or the dresser because it was such a tiny attachment.

Build me a snowman and Something old challenges

I am enjoying entering crafting challenges so thankfully my blog title still works. I created my own stamp placement tool. It is a dvd case that will allow you to restamp the same image over and over in the same place until it is fully inked. So a lot of my cards will feature stamps in the next little while. Here is a snowman that I am entering in fresh brewed designs build me a snowman challenge. Here is my card:

Isn't she a-dork-able. I love the sweet motherly type snow woman referencing the Game of Thrones.


I made another card for Beccy's Place Something old Challenge. This is a stamp that my mother-in-law gave me. He is quite a cute frog. I had a lot of trouble on this card. First I didn't put tacky spray on the grid so the page kept moving in the stamp placer. But I got that fixed but then I realized that the paper I used smudged. And then I got black ink all over the place. I learned from my wonderful sister that the best crafters take an error and make it a feature. So the smudges became glitter snow. The poorly cut banner had some washi tape added to it and the frog got redone on another paper and stuck on top of the smudged frog.

All in all, I am learning lots about stamping. I only have one stamp pad but I guess in time I will get more. I enjoy the short time frame needed to make cards.

Countries of East Gate Alliance Church of Ottawa

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Children Playing box card

MTC File: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxY0fZP9AEREdHJEU0dKMUs5UlU/edit?usp=sharing
SVG Files: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxY0fZP9AERESlpkbjh3NE84RXc/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxY0fZP9AEREdndVMWpzMUptLVU/edit?usp=sharing

Bucket o Flowers

MTC file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxY0fZP9AEREY0VIUEtlNkp5N1U/edit?usp=sharing
SVG file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxY0fZP9AEREbWRjZjIta0NuSnc/edit?usp=sharing

You will need to add flowers.