Piercing has been a decorative accent for a very long time. Think of punched tin pie safes and lanterns from days gone by. More recently, we have fallen in love with stitching through punched holes to make fun accents on our cards and pages. One particularly elegant look that has been a favorite in Europe is the art of piercing many tiny holes into vellum for a lacey look.
Have you ever had a project that seemed to cut by bouncing from one spot to another on the mat? First it cuts in the top right corner, bounces down to another corner, then back up to the middle and keeps moving back and forth. This is a very inefficient way to cut because it wastes time and energy.
I have several vices (lipgloss, sunglasses, and chocolate among them) but we do not have time to cover ALL of them. So the addiction I am confessing to at this moment is to flourishes! I can't help it, I love them! I love how a single flourish can completely transform my projects in to elegant pieces of art. I never have enough flourishes either and I am always on the hunt for more. So as I was contemplating what to do for this tutorial and thinking about the kind of things that make me really excited about creating new projects, flourishes came to mind. I set out on a mission to perfect the art of making flourishes.
This lattice window box and card are the perfect way to present a special cupcake to someone you love.
Christmas break is over, New Years Resolutions are already broken (or not) and the demands of having your children back in school are Priority Number 1. Recently, my daughter asked for help in creating a way to encourage her triplets to learn their kindergarten sight words.
There are so many amazing new features in the Inspiration Studio Pro software that I would have a hard time deciding which one is best. My favorite at the moment is the Fit Object to Path feature. Maybe it is because Valentine's Day is fast approaching and my head is full of hearts, flowers, frames and other fancy stuff.
This Warm Thoughts card has a clever pocket for a packet of hot cocoa or apple cider mix. It’s the perfect antidote for the winter blahs.
I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday Season! My house was filled with family including children and grandchildren. There were 22 of us all together! That gave me many opportunities to take pictures to remember the fun and the love we shared. I am sure many of you did the same. Now, I want to use some of my favorites to create scrapbook pages and gifts. Since I am not a professional photographer I will need to crop my photos to remove unwanted hands, heads etc. I especially love to crop into ovals and circles; it gives such an elegant feel to the photo. The trick is how to match my photo mat or frame to the cropped photo. I am sure you will not be surprised to find out that there is a great cropping tool in the Inspiration Studio Software.
Only four days to go until Christmas! If you are like me than you probably trying to wrap up your Christmas shopping and get everything wrapped and under the tree. For me, that's about the time I realize that I need a lot of boxes in a lot of sizes that I don't have for gifts like necklaces, cookies, and ornaments. A pretty box can make all the difference when getting a gift.
Does your house have the smells of Christmas? Gingerbread, spice tea, rum balls and sugar cookies are some of my favorite holiday scents.This house shaped box is the perfect holder for some of those yummy Christmas goodies. Add to the fun by hiding some cute photos of the kids or special messages to the recipient behind the windows.
Today’s ornament for Pazzles’ 12 Ornaments of Christmas was the inspiration for the beautiful candle holders in this Tricky Tuesday lesson. The candle holders can be made in any size just by changing the dimensions of the circles. Since glass votive and tea light holders don’t come in a standard size I have created a video tutorial to show you how to adjust the opening to fit any holder. I will also be featuring the measuring tool and some of the justification tools. Even if you are an experienced ‘Pazzle Person’ I’m betting that you will be surprised at my trick for making the holder opening the same depth when creating holders of successively smaller dimensions.
What is Christmas without the sparkling lights, the glitter and the shine? Indeed, Christmas would not seem Christmas at all, if it no longer glistened. What better way to remember Christmas than to make that twinkle, a part of the memory. Now, is the perfect time to use glitter cardstock and rhinestones to add shine to your projects. Together they make your Christmas memories reflect the sparkle, just like you remembered it.
It is that time of year again and I love the little gifts that are already arriving! My mailbox is flooded with flyers, catalogs and advertisements. I used to look at them as an annoyance, something to toss in the trash before even looking at them. Since I have my Inspiration I look at them in a completely different way. I actually look forward to their arrival this time of year. They bring me the gift of ideas.
I love Paper Piecing. It adds such wonderful dimension and character to a design. In fact, Pazzles began as a company that sold Paper Piecing patterns. I designed Paper Piecing characters and themes and sold the printed pattern. You then traced the pattern onto paper and cut the pieces out by hand. Goodness, that seems like ages ago, so slow and primative! The Inspiration electronic cutter has made the process so much easier by eliminating the tedious hand cutting. Still, there are times I would like to speed the process up even more. That is when I like to use a trick I call Faux Paper Piecing.
A few months back when I was invited to a bridal shower, I went to the store not really knowing what I was going get. I had rhinestones on the brain because I had been spending weeks finding the best way to create rhinestones with the Inspiration. So when I saw an adorable t-shirt and short set on sale a light bulb went on.
I know Halloween is just behind us and Thanksgiving is still 3 weeks away, but it is time to think of Christmas cards if you are going to make your own. Rich greens, deep reds and gold evoke Christmas elegance. This beautiful card has an abundance of all those elements.
Last week I shared how to add color and shading to Pazzles Window Cling to make decorations for Fall. I hope you were excited to try the easy method of using alcohol-based markers on the cling plastic. This week I wanted to give you some ideas of how to use the Printable Window Cling that is included in the kit.
Ok, I know it isn't a Tricky Tuesday but I just simply couldn't wait to share more information about the new rhinestone feature in the Inspiration Studio Pro software! I have to tell you that the new rhinestone colors came in to Pazzles this week and they are so gorgeous! The pictures just can't do justice to all the sparkle and beauty of their color. I love them all and I think you will too! This video tutorial will show you how you can create your own rhinestone designs using the Inspiration Studio Pro software.
I can remember how much fun it was to decorate the windows with seasonal designs using Window Cling kits I ordered through a catalog. (This was wa-a-y before the internet!!) The kids and I had so much fun deciding which piece went where. When we drove up to the house we could see the designs from the outside too. I loved it because I didn’t have to deal with tape on my walls or thumbtacks making holes that would need to be filled later on. Sometimes I was disappointed that I couldn’t find a set for the event I wanted. Now, I never have that problem since I can cut my own window clings on my Inspiration using the Pazzles Window Cling kit.
All the fun with none of the mess! 9 different faces that you can mix and match for tons of options!
There has been a lot of buzz lately about Print and Cut. Everyone is asking, “Can the Inspiration cut around clipart?” ”Do I need to get a special cutter and printer?” I am proud to say that here at Pazzles we have been cutting around clipart for years without any special laser eyes or registration marks. I honestly don’t understand the fuss; the Pazzles method is so easy and very accurate. Did you know that you can also create your own clipart in the Inspiration Studio Software?
I know that many of you love the nested shapes; those diecuts that get progressively bigger and bigger. When layered in different colors and paper patterns the effect is quite striking. The question is, how do you recreate the same look using the Inspiration Studio Software? There are 2 different ways to make copies of a shape: the Outline tool and the Condense tool. Each one works in a slightly different way and sometimes that makes a lot of difference. Let me show you how to choose between the two functions.
Create beautiful cards that have cut away edges for any occasion. 3 cut-away cards for the holidays plus a video that will show you how to make any design into a cut away card using a framework of 2 rectangles!
These Flowers are 3 D but you don’t need any special glasses to see the 3rd dimension. If you are a scrapbooker you might find yourself stuck in two dimension, limited by the need to keep the page flat. The fabulous flowers shown in this tutorial may entice you to expand your projects to include home décor, gifts and card making. Packages of petals to make similar flowers are available in craft stores and on-line sites. But if you are like me, the Inspiration for an idea doesn’t happen in advance. I hate waiting to get what I need and I certainly don’t need to waste time and money on a fruitless search.