random.on purpose.

Tutorial: Pullout Album

Remember this project?

 

On the post of the original one I made, I said I wasn't going to post a tutorial for it because I didn't want to take away from the girl whose blog I had seen it on.  She didn't post a tutorial, I just sort of figured it out from her pics, but I've seen this project several places since, so I don't really know who to give credit to for originating it.  That being said, I've decided that since it's out there, anyway, I may as well share my version here.  So, here we go:

 

Here's what you'll need:

• Two 3" x 12" strips of cardstock
• One 4" x 9" strip of designer paper
• Two 4" squares of designer paper
• One 3" x 4" strip of designer paper
• Two 4" square coasters
• Coordinating papers for embellishing pages
• Decoupage medium - Royal Coat, Mod Podge, etc. (not shown)
• Ribbon - two 18" pieces and two 8" pieces (not shown)

 

Score the 3" x 12" strips at 3", 6" and 9".  Accordian-fold each one and set aside.  These will become the pages for the album.

 

Using the decoupage medium, adhere a 4" square of designer paper to one side of each coaster.

 

Adhere the other side of the coasters to each end of the 4" x 9" strip.

 

Center your 3" strip over the gap and overlapping the coasters, and adhere.

 

Flip the whole thing over and run your bone folder along the edge of the coaster to "set" a crease.  This will help your album open and close more easily.  Set the covers aside to dry while you decorate the pages of your album.

 

Deocrate each panel of your accordian-folded strips, leaving the last panel blank on one strip, and the first panel blank on the other.  On the opposite end of the strip, deocrate the end panels to match (as seen in the picture above).  This is a view of the opposite sides of the completed strips:

 

The following pics give you a few ideas for decorating your pages, but you can do them however you want to!

 

Cut two 1 3/8" squares, and adhere them in opposingi corners of a 2 3/4" square.

 

Mat a 2 1/2" square with a 2 3/4" square.

 

Center a 2" x 2 3/4" strip on a 2 3/4" square.

 

    

Each of these squares is 1 1/2", set on the page just slightly inside the edge (so there is the same "border" as on the other pages), and with the corners overlapping slightly in the center.

 

     

Background square is 2 3/4", square turned on point is just a hair under 2".

 

Cut a 2 3/4" square from each of two designer papers, then cut them in half diagonally.  Use one of the resulting triangles from each.

 

After all of your panels are decorated, fold them up into little "books", with the matching pages on top, and tie one of the 18" ribbons around each one.

    

Your coaster covers should be dry by now, so inspect them and carefully sand the edges of the paper even with the coasters, if necessary.  Be especially careful where the gap between the coasters is, as this area is less reinforced and more fragile.  If it's not perfect, you can ink the edges up (you may want to, anyway).  Put adhesive on the back of one of the 8" ribbons, center it over the seam of the two papers on the cover and adhere.  Repeat for the other side.

 

Wrap the ribbons to the inside and adhere in place.

Put adhesive on the back of each little book and place them in the center of the inside covers.  Make sure that you have the edge with one fold and two free pages toward the inside of the album, and the edge with two folds toward the outside of the album.  This is what it looks like all finished and fully open:

 

 

Now just add whatever embellishments you'd like to the front cover, and you're done!

That's it for this tutorial, but I also wanted to mention a new thing I've done to make it easier for you to find all of my tutorials.  In the "More About This Blog" in the column on the left is a link titled "Tutorials" (duh!) that will take you to a list of all the tutorials I've done.  Click on the title of the tutorial you want, and it will take you to the post for that tutorial.  Right now the list is just in order from most recent to oldest but, when I have time, I'll rearrange it so it's alphabetical.  I'm trying to make this blog as user-friendly as my limited techie knowledge will allow, ya know?

Okay - bedtime!  It always takes me about a week to get used to the not-daylight-savings-time-anymore thing.  I'll be draggin' in the meantime...  As always, thank you so much for stopping by!

Tutorial - Flip Top Box

I know when I posted about the blog candy yesterday that I said I didn't know when I'd be posting again.  Well, as fate would have it, I have been under the weather yesterday and today, and so today I blew off work and everything else to alternately nap and work on the promised tutorial.

Remember that I said Greg came in handy sometimes?  Here's another reason:  he is a smoker (I love him dearly, but wish he'd quit FOR GOOD - he's quit for temporary several times...), and when I went to take out the trash a while back, one of his cigarette packs was right on top.  I was going to just toss it out, when I noticed that it was kind of a cute shape and size (refer to my earlier comments on the random weirdness that is My Brain), so I plucked it off the pile, opened it up, measured and made a template, and now I'm sharing it with you!  I don't want to call it a "cigarette box", though, so I'm calling it a flip-top box:

 

Materials needed:

• Cardstock 3 7/8" x 9 1/2"
• Cardstock 3 7/8" x 2"
• Designer papers, stamps, etc. of choice
• Paper trimmer
• Scoring tool
• Adhesive

I apologize in advance for the quality of some of the pictures, and for my very lame template pictures in particular.  Understand that I am just trying to give you visuals to go by, and not some polished production.  With that being said, let's get started:

Score down the entire 9 1/2" length 7/8" in from each side.  Score remaining scores according to template pictured below - blue lines are scored only from scored line to scored line, as opposed to across entire width of piece.  Measurements are where you will place the paper on your guide, not the distances between lines:

 

The red areas and lines are where you will cut.  To get the cutting lines that are angled, mark as follows:  1/2" below line scored at 1/2"; 1/2" and 7/8" below line scored at 2 7/8"; and at outer corners of bottom edge.  The funky cut (it's sort of angled) from the 7/8" mark to the blue scored line at 2 7/8" is just to make this area of the box a bit more stable, and I didn't measure and cut - just sort of eyeballed it.  You just want it to meet up with the other cut at the inner point, but it's not critical that you make it all pretty, or that the two sides match - you don't see them when the box is folded up.  After you've made your cuts, fold along all scored lines, folding the line at 2 7/8" the opposite way (this is the hinge of the box top).

At this point, decorate the box as you desire - stamping, designer papers, whatever - but bear in mind that the 1 1/2" section at the top and the lowest section at the bottom will be the front of the box when you're done, and that the lower section is upside-down as you are looking at it now.  To make it easier on myself, I used a pattern that was not directional.  You could even do one strip up the whole thing (or make the whole box out of double-sided paper if it's heavy) and call it a day. The sections that don't have the striped paper will be inside the box, so I didn't cover them:

This next template is just to give you a reference for the folding and gluing part of this project:

 

Fold and glue as follows:  Flap A to box bottom A; flap B to box lid B; flap C to outside of flap B/C; 1/2" flap tucked to inside at box lid, as shown below:

 
 

Also fold in and glue the sides of the box. 

Now, take your 3 7/8" x 2" piece of cardstock and score 7/8" from each edge (2" is the length).  Then use an oval punch or a pair of scissor or whatever, and make a cutout:

 

then round the edges with your scissors:

 

Insert and adhere this piece to the inside of the box so that the corners are 1/2" above the edge of the box opening:

 

This is important, because it keeps the box shut without any help at all!  Your box is now finished and ready for embellishing:

 

So, what do you do with a box this size?  How about a set of cute little cards?

 

These were all made with "Precious Paisley" papers and the "Angel Sent" stamp set from Close To My Heart.  I paper-pieced their dresses, colored their skin and hair with Bic Mark It markers, and their wings and halos with a Sakura Gelly Roll glitter pen.  The heart the one little angel is holding has Cotton Candy Stickles.  All the ribbons are Offray, and I used some punches (of course!)  I wanted to add dimension without bulk, so I inked the edges of the papers and punched shapes.  I did use foam tape to mount the angels to their cards, though.

Whew!  I'm ready for another nap now, so I'm signing off.  If you make one of these, please please link back to this post so we can all see!  Thanks so much!  Ta!

Tutorial: Tri-Fold With a Twist

 Friday's "Limited Supply" challenge on Splitcoast was to make a shaped card, but I didn't get a chance to do one until this morning, and thought I'd do a tutorial at the same time.  Here's the card:

It opens like this:

 

And here's how you make it:

Cut three shapes that will stack nicely:

 

Cut a piece of patterned paper slightly taller and twice as wide as each of the top two sections:

Fold the paper in half with the pattern on the inside, and adhere the cut shapes to their corresponding paper.  The center shape should be hanging off the edge of the fold ( just a little!) at two points on the right (my pic is upside-down - sorry!), and the top shape should be hanging off the edge of the fold at the upper left point.  This will create your hinges:

    

Trim around the shape through all layers (be careful not to clip through your hinges), and ink the edges, if desired.  Open the center section and lay it flat on your work surface, with the single layer on the left, and the double layer on the right.  Center the bottom shape over the single layer and adhere:

 

  

When closed, it should look like this:

  

Open the center section again, and place the entire (closed) top section in the center of the bottom piece, making sure that the hinge is on the upper left point, and adhere:

 

When you open it, it should look like this:

When you close it all up again - center section first, then top section - it should look like this:

Make a mask the same shape as the top section and slide it under the closed flap to position it properly, then open the top section and stamp designs outside the masked area onto the center section.  Remove the mask and stamp a sentiment in the center, as shown here:

 

Open the center section.  Punch out a circle (or other shape that will fit) from plain paper or cardstock and adhere it to the center of the bottom section for a personal note and/or signature, as shown below:

Embellish as desired, and you're done!

I used Close To My Heart's "Serendipity" Heart of Winter Project Pack and stamp set for my sample, in case you were wondering...  Have fun trying this out - maybe try a different shape - and link back to this post so I can see!

 

Tutorial: Matchbook Mini Album

As atonement for neglecting my blog last week, I've come up with another tutorial for you.  I love this project for two reasons:  You only need one sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" cardstock for the basic book, and it goes together REALLY fast!  The embellishing part is what takes the time (as usual).  For the purpose of this tutorial, I just used plain white cardstock, and scored lines are indicated with a pen.  When you make yours, use any color you like, and just score the lines - don't draw them.  Anyway, here goes:

   

Cut the 8 1/2" x 11" cardstock into strips:  One 2 3/4" wide, and two 2 1/2" wide, all 11" long.  Cut the 2 3/4" strip to 8 1/2" long, and the 2 1/2" strips into 3 1/2" lengths.  You will end up with six of these.

   

Score the 8 1/2" strip at 1/2", 1 1/8", 1 1/4", 5", and 5 1/8".  Score each 3 1/2" strip at 3/8".  Fold the long strip along all score lines and unfold.

   

Stack the "pages" (3 1/2" strips) with the scored ends aligned, and align the stack with the scored end of the 8 1/2" strip , with the "mountain" side of the fold toward the pages (if the book was done, the pages would be on the outside of the cover for this step).  Staple twice, from the page side.  Refold the cover along all fold lines.  This "wraps" around the pages and covers the staples, as shown above.

 

Tuck the flap in, and you're ready to embellish!  Again, here's mine:

Nina sent me the darling little "inchie" stamp for this month's challenge for Purple Faerie Paper Crafts, and I've had this music-themed paper for quite a while.  I used my new Cuttlebug to cut the scalloped squares, and Stampin'Up!'s word window punch to punch out the mat for my sentiment.  I printed the sentiment on the computer using the Monotype Corsiva font.  The larger scalloped square has direct-to-paper silver Colorbox pigment ink and silver embossing powder from JoAnn's, the smaller one has red glitter glue, also from JoAnn's (no Stickles yet...)  The ribbons are Offray, the heart brad is from my stash from forever ago, so I'm clueless there.  The inchie stamp was stamped with black StazOn and embossed with detail clear.  I also added some silver ink around the edges of the patterned paper.  Yeah, that's it...

Try one of these out, and post a comment to this post with a link back to your creation!  I always say this, and no one has ever done it yet.  Maybe nobody even reads these tutorials, I don't know...  Oh well - I'm having fun, anyway!

Okay, back to the grindstone.  Soon I'll have no nose at all...

Tutorial: Gift Card Holder

As promised, here is a new project, complete with tutorial:

   

Materials needed:

• 4 1/4" x 11" strip of cardstock
• 2 1/2" x 3 3/4" piece of cardstock
• 2 1/4" x 3 1/2" piece of patterned paper
• desired embellishment
• word window punch
• 3/4" circle punch
• 7" strip of cardstock or ribbon(s) (not shown)

   

Score the 11" strip at 3", 5 1/2", and 8".  Fold into a "W" shape, as shown.  The pocket in the center of the card (shown above) is made by making three punches into the center fold, as shown below:

         

Line up the edge of the word window punch with the edge of the fold, with the fold itself about halfway into the punch.  Punch this section out, then slide the punch to the other edge of the fold and punch again.  Now, line up your 3/4" circle punch in the center of the two previous punches, with the edge halfway into the punch as shown below, and punch again.  It will look like this when you're done:

   

The first pic below shows what your strip looks like fully open, and where to apply adhesive.  My tape runner was acting up, and I'm too impatient to start over, so it's not pretty, but still functional.  The second one shows what the inside of your holder should look like after you fold the center fold again with the adhesive applied.  This creates the pocket to put the gift card into.

   

Decorate the outside (and inside, if you want to), and make a "belly band" to slide around the center of the holder to keep it shut.  I used two strips of ribbon held together with adhesive where they overlapped, and sandwiched between a small piece of paper and the foam tape that the floral embellishment is adhered to.

That's all there is to it!

I used my scallop circle punch and a 1/8" hand punch to make the brown piece, then used a flower punch to make the green leaves, then a daisy punch to make two layers of pink petals, then a small flower punch to make the white center.  All the layers are pop-dotted for dimension, and I put a small brown brad into the white flower before adhering it.  The patterned paper is left over from my "Cowctus" card.  The colors for the SCS color challenge last week were Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, and Chocolate Chip.  I have none of these colors in actual Stampin'Up! products, but these colors are pretty close, I think.  The cardholder itself was the technique challenge, too.

Okay, I think I'll go see what the Mr. is up to now - thanks for stopping by and have a great evening!

Tutorial: Border Punch Squares

I had to come up with a gift for Greg's boss's girlfriend - we're going to her 50th birthday party in about an hour (so why am I doing this now, you may ask?  Because I'll forget or otherwise get sidetracked...)  Anyway - she's one of those that pretty much gets whatever she wants on her own, so it's hard to know what to get her.  I decided to make her a dry-erase calendar, and it looks like this:

   

These are not very good pics, because by the time I finished the project, pretty much all the natural light coming in my window was gone, so oh well...

These are made using the frames you can get at Michael's (and other places) that are intended for a scrapbook page.  The glass is what makes it a dry-erase calendar - you can write on the glass with a dry-erase marker, and wipe it right off!  I made these for all of my kids a couple of Christmases ago, and they all liked them, so I decided to make one for Carol.  I wanted to keep it neutral color-wise, and kind of on the elegant side, because she carries herself that way, so I don't really think she's into "cute".

I used the papers from CTMH's "Creative Basics Silhouette" collection, SU's "Carte Postale", CTMH's "Playful Petals", and a few punches - Marvy Uchida Scalloped Squares in two sizes, and Fiskars lace border punch.  The alpha stamps are some generic foam-mounted ones I dragged home eons ago.

The tutorial is for the fancy-schmancy lacy-looking squares I made for the individual days.  I cut my squares 2", but found out (after the fact) that if I'd cut them 2 1/8" instead, the squares would have been even prettier.  This is what I mean:

But, it is what it is - cut yours 2 1/8", okay?  Then, grab your border punch and go to town:

   

Center the square in the punch and punch it, then flip it around to the opposite side, center it, and punch it again.  Then do the other two sides the same way:

     

You'll have some funky little raggedy things on the corners, so clip 'em off (if they were all consistent like this example, you could leave them if you wanted, but these things all come out slightly different):

   

Voila!  You now have a bee-yoo-ti-ful square:

NOW COME THE WARNINGS!!!  First, you will end up with a pile of "waste" that looks like this:

so if that will make you cry, or you are in any other way a "paper miser", don't even begin this project!  Side note:  You can get 36 2" squares out of one sheet of 12"x12" paper, and you need 35 for this project, so it's not as wasteful as it appears, but... 

Also, there will be a little strip left in the punch, since you're not doing a continuous border.  It looks like this and you will need to remove it EVERY TIME, or it will prevent you from putting the square fully into the punch:

Final tip to ensure success:  MAKE SURE THE PAPER IS CENTERED EACH TIME YOU PUNCH!

Okay, I think that's it...  I've used this punch a LOT, and have some other fun things you can do with it that I'll share another time, but I have to go to a birthday party now.  In parting, here are closeups of the title strip detail, and the dry-erase marker that I covered with matching paper (I also tied and glued a 24" piece of ribbon around the end of it, and tied the other end to one of the hardware things on the back of the frame):

Okay - gotta run!  Buh-bye!

Tutorial: Faux Tumbled Tile

I've been playing with ideas for a swap I'm hosting, and sort of tripped over this technique and thought I'd share.  I wanted the look of tumbled tile without the weight or thickness, so...

Materials Needed:  Chipboard, tissue paper, white acrylic paint or gesso, decoupage medium, stamps and inks of choice.  I used CTMH stamps from "Vintage Valentine" and "Love You" sets, CTMH Vineyard Berry and Desert Sand inks, and SU! Purely Pomegranate cardstock.

   

Cut your chipboard the size of the image you plan to stamp (my example is 2 1/2" square).  Get the chipboard damp and distress the edges by running along a countertop, tearing off small pieces, etc.  (The idea is to get rid of all the obviously straight edges)  Also crumple it like you do cardstock when you're distressing it.  Smooth it out and let it dry.  After it's dry, paint the entire front and the side edges with the paint or gesso to cover the raw chipboard.

   

Stamp your image onto the tissue paper, then tear around it, leaving enough extra to wrap to the back of your "tile".  Spread a layer of decoupage medium onto the front and edges of the chipboard and smooth your image onto it.  Spread a little more around the edges of the back and smooth the excess tissue paper around the edges and onto the back.  Spread another coat of decoupage medium over the front and sides of your "tile" to seal it, and let it dry.

   

"Antique" your tile by dabbing desired ink color with a baby wipe, then wiping over surface of tile.  Sponge more around the edges, if desired.  You're done!  Here's what I made with mine (I promise the colors match in real life - the camera changes it somehow):

I was hoping this would work for the swap but - alas! - it's just too big!  Back to the drawing board, I guess...

Tutorial: Tri-fold Planner

It's been a while since I posted a tutorial, and I just completed a project that I thought might be a fun one for you to try, so I'll give it a shot.  First, the background on this whole deal, though...

I was going to make an address book and an event calendar as part of my whole getting organized and remembering the people I love resolutions for the new year, and I found this cool little trifold planner at WalMart that made me re-think my plan:

   

I bought it with the thought that I would just alter it with paper to match the notebook and gratitude journal, but I liked it too much to cover it up, plus I wanted to do the inside a little differently.  I wanted an "event calendar", as opposed to a regular one (you know - it  has birthdays and anniversaries and such in it so you can remember), and a pocket to put stamps in so they'd be handy.  So, like I have a tendency to do, I started to examine how it was made to see if I could just duplicate it.  This is what I came up with:

Materials Needed:

• Chipboard:  6 1/4" long by the following widths:  3 1/8", 3 1/2", 3 5/8", 5/8"
• Patterned Paper for Outside Cover:  7 1/2" long by following widths:  5 1/2", 7", 3 1/2"
• Patterned Paper for Inside Cover:  2 pieces 6" long by 7" wide
• Patterned Paper for Inside Pocket:  3 3/4" long by 4" wide
• Cardstock:  2 pieces for cover of Calendar, 6 pieces for pages of calendar, each 3 3/8" wide by 6 1/8"long
• Blank address book with cover removed, and patterned paper cut to fit for new cover (approx. 3 3/8" wide by 6 1/8" long)
• 2 magnet strips 6 1/4" long - one 5/8" wide, and one 3/8" wide

Using the old cover from the address book as a guide, punch holes in the patterned paper for the new cover.  Assemble and set aside.  Also assemble the pages and covers for the calendar (any way you choose to - I robbed an old notebook of it's o-wire and used one of the covers as a guide to punch holes) and set it aside.

   

On backside of 5 1/2" wide patterned paper (outside cover), glue the 3 1/8" chipboard and the 3/8" magnet strip, spacing them 1/8" apart.  Repeat with the 5/8" chipboard, 3 5/8" chipboard and 5/8" magnet strip on the back of the 7" wide patterned paper, again spacing them 1/8" apart.  Fold and adhere excess on outer edges to inside, mitering corners, leaving the top and bottom edges free.

   

Spread the two pieces you've finished to this point apart far enough to allow placement of the 3 1/2" chipboard between the 3/8" magnet strip and the 5/8" chipboard strip, allowing 1/8" between, as shown in photo.  Carefully remove 3 1/2" chipboard, apply adhesive to patterned paper, and replace chipboard on top of adhesive to make entire unit.  Carefully flip unit over and center remaining piece of patterned paper over chipboard to cover.

   

Flip unit back to front side again, and apply adhesive to top and bottom edges of excess patterned paper.  Fold them to the inside, pushing paper down into cracks between chipboard pieces with a bone folder.  Starting from left side, apply one piece of patterned paper for inside cover over raw edges of outside cover to finish.  Work your way across the piece, again working paper into cracks with a bone folder.  Repeat with remaining piece and beginning from right side.

   

This is pretty much what it should look like at this point.  Make a pocket for the left panel by scoring the 3 3/4" x 4" piece of patterned paper:  3/4" across bottom, 1/2" from each side.  Trim excess paper out of corner, fold along score lines to form pocket, and adhere to lower edge of left panel.  Adhere calendar to center panel, and address book to right panel.

   

Embellish everything - inside and out - as desired, and you're done!

Now that I've finished this little item, I have a complete set to keep me organized and functional:

I'm STOKED!!!  The first full week of the New Year, and I'm doing great so far!  Woo-hoo!

Tutorial: Keychain Mini-Album

Okay, so it's time for another tutorial.  I saw these little cuties on eBay, spent some time figuring out how to make them, and decided to share.  They'd make great party/shower favors, stocking stuffers, whatever!  Here we go:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Materials Needed:

• 2 strips of cardstock 2 3/8" x 11 13/16"
• 16 squares of cardstock 2 1/4" x 2 1/4"
• 16 squares of patterned paper 2" x 2"
• 2 squares of patterned paper 4" x 4"
• 2 squares of chipboard 2 1/2" x 2 1/2"
• 16" ribbon
• split ring
• lanyard hook
• 2 identical punched pieces approx. 1 3/4" - 2"

 

   

Cover chipboard squares with 4" squares of patterned paper, mitering corners.  Score long strips of cardstock at 2 3/8", 4 3/4", 7 1/8", and 9 1/2".  Accordian fold strips.  (The last panel on each strip will be 1/16" shorter than the others in the strip.)

   

Overlap the two shorter panels as shown and adhere to make one long continuous strip.

   

Mat patterned paper squares with cardstock squares, then adhere them to panels on strip, alternating patterns and leaving the first panel on each side of the strip blank.   Make sure you have the panels right side up (if they are words or other patterns where it matters) on the back of the strip - it's easy to get confused.

   

Put adhesive on blank panel on front side of strip (you can't see it in the picture because you have to fold it to the back to attach it), center on inside of cover piece and adhere.  On inside of back cover, put adhesive across the center, then adhere ribbon, placing it so that you have 5 1/2" of ribbon extending from right side, with remainder extending from left side.  Then adhere blank panel of back side of strip (again, you have to fold it to the back) to this cover piece, completing the book itself.

   

Punch a hole in the upper left corner of the panel attached to the back cover (this will include the cover itself, of course).  Attach lanyard hook and split ring through hole, as shown.

   

Wrap long end of ribbon across front, and tie book closed at right side.  Slide one punched piece under ribbon, centering as shown.

   

Adhere second punched piece on top of first, sandwiching ribbon between, and making sure everything lines up properly.  Embellish as desired.  All finished!  Here is a view of it open:

Okay, that's all for now - too much to do today to stay on the computer - but have fun creating, and I'll be back another day with more!

Tutorial: Creating Tickets

Okay, as promised, I've finished the first in a series of tutorials.  I have no idea how well it will translate to this format, so please be patient if I have to learn how to tweak things a bit.  Here we go:

TUTORIAL:  Creating Tickets

 

Items Needed:

• Paper Trimmer (not shown)
• Ruler
• Rotary Tool with Perforating Blade
• Ticket Corner Punch
• 3/8" Round Punch
• Stamps/Inks of Choice

 

 

Measure the outline stamp you plan to use for your tickets.  Add 1/4" to the width and 1/2" to the length to determine the finished size of your tickets.  For this example, Close to My Heart's "So Sweet Seasons" stamps are used.  The outline stamp measures 1" x 1 3/4", so the finished tickets will measure 1 1/4" x 2 1/4".  Use the paper trimmer to cut a strip the finished width of your tickets (for this example, the strip is 1 1/4", as determined above).

Use the ruler and rotary tool with perforating blade to mark perforations close to the very end of the strip (this will be torn off and discarded), then at the measurement of the finished length of the tickets down the entire strip.  For our example, the lines are marked every 2 1/4".  There will probably be an uneven leftover at the end of the strip.  Tear this off and discard, as well.

 

Align the 3/8" round punch so the perforated lines are centered and the edge of the paper is not quite halfway into the punch.  Punch out this area at each perforation down both sides of the ticket strip.

Use the ticket corner punch to punch the corners at each end of the strip.  If you do not have a ticket corner punch, you could use the round punch as described above before you tear off and discard the excess at each end of the strip.

This is an example of what your strip should look like at this point (although it will probably be more than three tickets long...)

Stamp the outline stamp in each panel of the ticket strip. (Alternately, you could just use a pen and ruler to mark the outlines.)  Stamp a word, number or sentiment at each end of the ticket panel, then use a pen and straightedge to "define" this area.

Stamp desired image in center of each ticket panel.  Color as desired. You can leave your tickets in a strip, or tear them into individual tickets, as shown here.

And that's all there is to it!  Ta-freakin'-da!  Hope this is helpful for you, and you have some fun with it.  I'd love to see what you come up with, so please email me or post a comment to this blog!

That's it for my first tutorial - more to come in the not-too-distant future!