Easy Easter Basket - Metric Measurements

With Easter coming up, I wanted to share a very easy basket to make using the Metric Scor-Pal, 1 sheet of scrapbook paper, and 1 piece of coordinating solid paper.  This basket is not just for Easter - use this tutorial to make baskets at any time of the year.

I originally saw this basket done on the Scor-Pal blog.  I have re-done it here - in metric measurements - and with changes to the handle.  Click HERE to see the original project on the Scor-Pal blog, in American measurements.

And here is a link to a video I made a few weeks ago making the basket - HERE.

Supplies Used:

Metric Scor-Pal and cutting mat
1 sheet of Easter scrapbook paper (Oficina do Papel)
1 sheet of coordinating solid paper
Oval Punch
Doily Lace Trim Punch
Corner Rounder Punch
4 Brads
Ruler
Craft Knife
Double Sided Tape or Glue Stick
Pen or Pencil
Paper Cutter

Step by Step:

1.  Trim your Easter paper to 27cm x 27cm.

2.  Place it on the Scor-Pal and score - from top to bottom - at the 9 cm and 18 cm marks.  Turn the paper 90 degrees and score again - from top to bottom - at the 9 cm and 18 cm marks.  Your paper will have 9 boxes, 9 cm x 9 cm each box.

3.  Place paper on Scor-Pal cutting mat.  Using a ruler and an X-Acto Knife, make a cut from the top of the paper ONLY TO THE FIRST SCORE LINE - at the 3 cm, 6 cm, 9 cm, 18 cm, 21 cm, and 24 cm lines.  Turn the paper 180 degrees and cut again at the same points - again ONLY TO THE FIRST SCORE LINE.  

{your paper will look like this}

4.  Bend back the two end strips and the middle box.  Lay your ruler across the other 4 strips and cut 1 cm off the ends.  Turn paper around and do the same on the other side.

{your paper will look like this}

5.  Find the center of the middle square and mark a dot with a pen.  Lay your ruler from the dot to one of the corners and trim.  Do it again with the other corner.  Turn your paper and do the same for the other side.

 {your paper will look like this}

6.  Place double sided tape or glue on all the strips - except one of the end ones.

7.  Adhere the two end strips together, overlapping them about 2 cms.  Continue with each of the other strips, alternating between sides.

8.  Adhere tape or glue to the tip of the triangle piece and adhere over the strips.  Wrap the tip of the strip over the top.  Then do the other side.

9.  Using the scallop punch, punch out two pieces from the solid paper.  Lay them in the Scor-pal and score down the center.  Fold in half.

10.  Using a glue stick, glue each of the scallop pieces to the basket so that they cover where all the sides met.

11.  Using the decorative edge punch and the solid paper, punch a strip the length you want your handle.   Then cut a strip from the Easter paper you used for the basket, the same width and length as the solid strip.  Use a glue stick and glue the solid strip to the Easter strip.

12.  Trim the corners of the handle with the corner rounder.

13.  Using double sided tape, or a glue stick, glue each side of the handle to the basket.

14.  Using an awl or long reach hole punch, make two small holes in the handle and insert the brads.  This is not only decorative to the basket but will also help keep it sturdy.

Now fill the basket with chocolate, and Easter Egg, and other little gifts and give as a present!!

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial!!

~Michael

My First Video - Viva Decor 3D Stamp Paint

Hey everyone.  Hope you all had a great holiday and New Year.  Now, Resolutions....my main one is to start making videos for the blog.  I love my step by step with photos, and get lots of nice feedback, but, if you are like me, videos really show how things get done.  I am a very visual person and love videos.  So, without further ado, I give you my first video.

This video is about Viva Decor's 3D Stamp Paint, which is a very versatile product and in this video, I show all the ways to use it.  More videos will be done in the next few weeks showing specific projects using the paints.  Hope you enjoy.

Stamping Scrapping - Scrap Frame

Well, another Wednesday in October means another Stamping Scrapping project/tutorial.  

The story behind this idea - my niece's birthday was back in September and I had a lot of cute photos I wanted to show off.  Although I love photography, I am not a scrapper, and I wanted a way to show a lot of smaller photos without going the scrapbook page route.  One day I printed out a sheet of of wallet size photos - 9 to a page - and was wondering what I could do with it.  Then I saw this unmounted wood frame that I had bought at a craft store and the idea popped into my head.  A Scrap Frame for the wall.  Now Abigail can put this on a shelf and always be able to look at it. 

And, since I love to mount or layer photos, the Card Creator dies work perfectly!!

Supplies Used:

Card Creator A2 Matting Basics Set A

Card Creator A2 Matting Basics Set B

Square Wood Frame from Local Craft Store 

2 sheets of cardstock in 2 different colors (I used purple and green)

Double Sided Tape/Score Tape

Pop Dots or 3D Foam 

Wallet size photos (8 or 9) 

Acrylic paint to match one of your paper colors

Step by Step:

1.  Since the sides and inside of the frame might be visible after the photos are glued down, I applied a quick coat or two of green acrylic paint to the edges of the frame, and around the inside square.  

2.  Taking some of the smaller sized dies from both Sets A and Sets B, I layered them around the frame to see what would work best.  Your project might look different since you might not be using a square frame.

3.  Using the dies you chose, cut pieces of scrap xerox paper with your die cut machine so that you can lay them around the frame to get the look that you want.  I played around with the pieces until I got the look I wanted.

4.  For this frame, I cut and embossed the 4th largest die from Set A for the 4 corner purple pieces, as my base piece.  For the green pieces, I cut and embossed the 5th largest of the dies, also from Set A.  This is one step down from the die used for the purple pieces.  (Do not glue anything down until later in the tutorial).

Note:  since you are using two different dies, you can cut them each at the same time to save you time.

5.  To make the next layer, I switched the colors.  I cut and embossed the 4th largest die from Set B for the green pieces that will layer on top of the purple pieces, and I cut and embossed the 5th largest die from Set B that will layer on top of the green pieces.  

Then, using double sided tape, I glued each of the top layers to each of the corresponding bottom layers.

6.  Now that I know how many horizontal and vertical photos I will need, I printed a sheet of wallet size photos to use in the frame.  Then I cut them apart to use in the die cut machine.

Note:  I am not a Photoshop person.  The program I use for these photos is Picasa.  It's a free photo organizer/editing program from Google.  If you do not use it, I highly recommend you download it (for free) from http://picasa.google.com/  The easiest program to use for the home user and you can print photos in many different sizes.

7.  Next I took each of the photos and placed them around the frame until I figured out which photo I wanted where.  For the photos that are to be mounted on the green layer of cardstock, I cut and embossed the 5th largest die from Set A (this is the same die that you used to cut the green pieces in Step 4, above.  For the photos to be mounted on the purple pieces, I cut and embossed the 2nd smallest die (not the smallest die, but one up) from Set A.  

Using double sided tape, glue the photos to its corresponding layer.

8.  Adhere some glue to the frame and lay the corner piece.  Then do the other 3 corners.

9.  Cut 3D foam strips or use pop dots and place as shown below.  Then adhere the other photos so that they are a bit 3D above the photos glued to the frame.

10.  You're done.  Put on a mantle or a shelf and show it off to the world.  

Another Idea - for this frame, below, I used black and white cardstock.  I also screwed some hooks to the top corners of the frame, put a piece of ribbon through it, to hang on a wall.