4th of July Bi-Plane Tutorial

I love making off-the-page projects to celebrate special occasions. In particular, it’s so satisfying to design decorative items for parties. They create a festive atmosphere and is often an interesting topic of conversation for the guests.

Since Independence Day is just around the corner, I’m sharing my 4th of July Bi-plane inspired by the early aviation designs of the Wright Brothers.



Tutorial :

This is the template I created using Best Creation's I Love America collection. You can substitute with any other pattern paper you prefer.

1. To create your own Bi-plane, start with an empty 24oz beer can. Cover the sides with pattern paper and make a ¼” hole in the bottom.
   
   
2. Cut out the three propeller pieces from the template. Insert them in this sequence through a straw. Insert the straw through the hole in the can
   
   
3. Cut out the four tail pieces from the template. Glue the two halves of the tail wing onto a 2” circle. And cut a ¾” slit in the circle.
   
   
4. Glue the tail wings on the top of the can, making sure the pull-tab pops out of the slit in the circle. Glue the tail piece onto the pull-tab.
   
   
5. Here’s how the assembled tail looks.
   
   
6. Glue on the two wings. Assemble the two wing struts and insert them between the wings as support.
   
   
7. There you've completed your bi-plane. All ready for celebrating 4th of July !
   

Thank you Dana for accepting my tutorial as a featured artist article for Scrapbook News and Review.

Linking up to these parties.



I Love America Supplies : Expressions chipboard, Combo Stickers, Paper IA001, IA003, IA004 and IA011 Other supplies : Beer can, straw

I Love America Cards

Wishing everyone who celebrates : Happy Independence Day. Here are two cards I made for a Fourth of July swap mixing three Best Creation collections - Travel Forever, Splash Fun and I Love America.

These cards went out to Eve and to Michelle

Sorry for the sneak peak photos of the next two cards which are currently out for publication at Scrapbook News and Review. But it would be pretty anti-climatic to show them after July 4th. I promise to update this post with the proper photos once the publication blackout is over.

Both of these were swapped with Angela

I used the paper toile technique to make them. It's easy to do because there are two of each pattern in the 6x6 glitter pad. I chose the double-page balloons-across-the-sky papers. The first sheet I used as my card base. From the extra sheet, I cut out the elements like the balloons, hat and flag. Then used pop dots to glue them on top of the same image on the card base. The result is an interesting three-dimensional look.


Linking up to these parties
Best Creation Supplies : I Love America (Giltter Element Stickers, Combo Stickers, Expression Chipboard, 6x6 Glitter Pad), Travel Forever (6x6 Glitter Pad), Splash Fun (6x6 Glitter Pad)Others : Basic Grey brad, ribbon

Take a Trip with Me

Anyone out there who's a fan of travel collections ? I am because to me they hold such wonderful promise of places to visit and things to see. Here are three projects using Best Creation's Travel Forever collection. It's versatile enough that I can create non-travel projects too. So happy that KCK is stocking them in store now.

Living Life is for Rachel

First up is my Living Life card inspired by the bullet nose shape of the Eurostar. The little pink scooter and the striped arrows add to the sense of movement (and I must admit my angle of photography helps too). For fan fonts, I used AR Christy for the sentiment.

Sent out to Shirl

Next is a altered box using a plastic divider that I found. In this opened view, you can see the customised compartments I made to hold my tags and labels. You can see sneaks of the collection's papers on the lid where I used part of the 6x6 paper pad cover.

And here's the cover for my box. You actually get the car, luggage, wavy road and die-cut border in one 6x6 sheet. However to play with scale, I stuck a larger car and two sets of luggage on top of the existing ones. Propping the 'N' on the plane's wing is my favourite thing from this project

This final card is meant to serve as a relocation announcement. Making it was a joy as I really enjoy 'pile-it-on' type projects. And this style seemed well suited for a card about packing all your belongings and going somewhere else to live.
Best Creation Supplies : Travel Forever 6x6 mini-pad Living Life supplies : Basic Grey Wanderer rub-ons, Basic Grey Pyrus epoxy sticker Tags n Labels supplies : Pink Paislee Starlight alphas, Basic Grey Capella brad, plastic divider We Moved supplies : Safari Boy 6x6 mini-pad, twine, grommet

Sandy's Challenge #4

Welcome to Sandy's Challenge #4. June is when school is out for a whole month in Singapore and many families take their vacations. So I thought it'll be fun to set the theme for this challenge as :

If you need some inspiration take a look at this post.

The Prize :

Lolly Chessie, who designs for Prima and Crate Paper, will be our challenge judge. She will pick her favourite entry to win this Basic Grey Wander prize :

10 pcs of 6x6 paper
Assorted die-cut shapes and tabs

The Nitty Gritty :

•any type of handmade project - layout, mini-album, card, altered object, ATC, home decor, sewn item
•you can link up new or old projects (even those created before June 2011)
•multiple entries welcomed
•feel free to combine your entry with other challenges
•mention Sandy's Challenge #4 if you can
•link up by 22 July
•the winner will be announced on 29 July
•I'll ship the prize worldwide






Hope you'll play along and have fun creating !!

June Blog Hop Giveaway Results

My giveaway goes to : Natalek

Please email your mailing address to angsandy@yahoo.com.sg so I can send out the Splash Fun supplies to you.

Try a Kit

After all those structured projects this month, I'm experimenting with my 'messy' style again. Sassafras seems to be the my go-to brand when I want to make something loose and unstructured. To improve, I challenged myself to mix in other products on this project.

We laugh, we learn, we live went out to Kirsty

Since kits are hot in scrapbooking now, I decided to try creating my own. My inspiration was the colours of a lazy, hazy day in late summer. I'm pretty happy to get six different brands to work with the two Sassafras papers. And the the texture of the metals (charm, push pin, staples) offsets the femininity of the butterflies and doily nicely.


The self-made 'kit' that was used for this card.


The actual card came together really easily. Just a lot of piling things on, some gentle distressing and playing off the unexpected colour combination. I feel super creative after making this one. Baby steps, but I'm starting to be more confident doing this sort of look.

Linking up to these parties.

Supplies : Pattern Paper - Creative Imaginations Double Vision, 7gypsies Umbria, Cosmo Cricket Everafter something new, Sassafras Mix and Mend handmade hobnob, Sassafras Apple Jack translate, Fancy Pants Wildheart titles and tags Embellishments - gcd studios Artsy Urban die-cut borders, American Crafter Mementos Festive, push pins, doily, twine, staples

Splash Fun Projects

Best Creation has organized a fun weekend.
If you hop over to the Best Creation blog on June 17th & 18th, you will find lots of water-themed projects. There are guessing games with prizes to be won and many of the designers are having giveaways on their blogs. For a chance to win this, leave me a comment by June 24th :

Cityscape (OPP #2)

After using up those chic ladies on OPP #1 card, I turned my attention to those little sewing patterns and phrases. And used them in a completely unexpected way.

As I flipped through my holiday jotter book, I saw lots of doodling on torn map sections. The most interesting bits talked about discoveries made when I got lost. This card is inspired by all those streets - some traversed, others not taken.

Source : Michelin Edits des Voyages Paris

Like a fold-out map, my card is sized long and tall. I used small geometric scraps to lay out a skewed grid pattern. My streets interconnect, intersect and often end in cul de sacs. Squares and traffic circles were represented by little sewing patterns cut from the my OPP paper.


This card went out to Christie

I threw in a couple of metallic snap buttons and clasps for contrast. In my mind, they represent the people journeying in this imaginary cityscape. Here's a close-up of one little wanderers. For the rest of the OPP paper, I used them as matting for these M Monograms back in January

October Afternoon Supplies : Thrift Shop (last one paper, Word stickers), Daydream (lanterns and poppy garden papers), Detours( gazebo paper, journalling card), snap buttons, clasp

Linking up to these parties.

Crazy About ... (OPP #1)

The first thing that grabbed my attention were the three chic ladies on this paper. So they are center stage on my June OPP #1 card which I'm calling Crazy About.

OA : Thrift Shop Last One

Crazy About is for Ana

I separated the lady with the handbag from her friends and placed her on the left. She anchors the card and the repositioning created a visual triangle. To pull them together, I used a white flower in the middle. Their length fits in perfectly with the long phrase sticker that reads : People seem to get nostalgic about a lot of things, they weren't so crazy about the first time round.

For June OPP #2, I'll use up all those sewing patterns on the top right. Check it out here.

Linking up to these parties.

Supplies : October Afternoon Thrift Shop (last one paper, word sticker), Cosmo Cricket Early Bird ribbon sandwich, Echo Park For the Record sticker, Hero Arts Gemstone, beads, ribbon

One Paper Projects (OPP)

Oh pretty paper. . . cutie, cutie paper . . . come home with me baby.

As I said in last month's blog candy conversation on Supplies, I love paper. Especially what I call really 'hardworking' papers. Papers whose patterns provide opportunities to make a variety of distinctive projects. For a frugal crafter like me, they really stretch my dollars.

OA : Thrift Shop Last One

So I'm starting a One Paper Projects (OPP) series on this blog. The idea is to chose one paper from my stash like this one released by October Afternoon in January 2010. Create at least three projects from it to completely use up the paper.

Making Memories : Passport Ledger Teal

Next month, I'll be playing with something positively ancient -this paper released by Making Memories in June 2008. And I'd love for you to join in. If you have a hardworking paper to recommend, leave me a comment. Better still, if you've used one paper for two or more projects let me know.

Now go here for June OPP #1.

Mini-van Treat Box Tutorial

Thank you to everyone who left such nice comments on my Caution : Dino Drivers post. I promised to show you I made the mini-van treat boxes. So here's the tutorial.

Tutorial : I used one piece of 6"x6" paper to make my van which measures 3"x1.5"x1.5". You can adjust the template proportionally if you wish to make a bigger van.

Cut out this template from pattern paper. Making two slits on the roof were the red lines are

Glue up the two tabs along the front of the van

Glue up the two tabs along the back of the van

Put your treat inside

Going round in a clockwise direction glue up the bottom flaps

Here's the van's bottom secured

Cut out four 0.75" circles for the wheels. If your treats are heavy, sandwich your wheels between metal washers

Embellish the windscreen, bumper, headlights and windows

Make a giftcard topper measuring 2.75"x2"

Slot into the slits on the roof of the van

I hope you enjoyed this paper construction project. If you make one, leave me a comment as I'd love to come see your version.

Linking up to these parties.