When is a soup carton not a carton?

Why when it is turned into a vase of course!   We all look for ways to up cycle and recycle items and this is a great one for giving new life to what would normally be discarded.  I believe in some cases Tetra pacs can now be recycled, but this way they get more use before that.

At my lovely german demo friend Sylvia's last year she has removed the outer printed layer of paper from a similar carton and stamped on the outside.  I was keen to try and looked online to learn more.  I found that it is a popular pastime to stamp on them.

I changed it to a different route because we currently have the absolutely beautiful Peaceful Poppies designer series paper from Stampin' Up! 's spring mini.  In particular the sheet that has two 12" x 6" border designs which if you cut down the centre gives you two pieces perfect for this project. Of course you can use any sheet of designer paper and you could cut it slightly differently depending upon the size of your carton but mine wrapper around just perfectly and allowed me to cut of the rough top edges from the opening to get to my soup.

So to create your vase firstly remove the outer layer of paper. This isn't difficult but on some stubborn bits you'll need patience.    Once you have cleared all the paper you can measure up your carton and cut your designer paper accordingly.  

I then used Modge Podge matt and painted it onto the outside of the carton to adhere the paper onto the carton.  Make sure the adhesive goes all the way to the edges and you can carefully use paper clips to make sure the edges stick down flat.   The whole thing may feel a little floppy but it returns to a reasonably sturdy box once dry.  Give this plenty of time to dry, I left mine overnight.

I then added a thin coat of Modge Podge onto the designer paper.  Again give this plenty of time to dry.

I added a piece of cardstock to the bottom of the box to hide, although no one will see the base, any bits of the original coating which seemed difficult to remove from the base.

The great thing is that the inside of such cartons are coated in plastic to keep the soup inside and so nothing needs to be done to the inside.

Once all completely dry you can buy flowers to go in your vase and add some simple ribbon bows for a finishing touch and let the paper and the flowers do the talking.

My tulips have needed a regular top up of water and I pop a finger inside the carton to judge how far to fill it.

The biggest difficulty is finding the right flowers to coordinate with your new vase.

It's a simple process so why not give it a go.

Happy crafting

Zoe x

Ah hoy there!

The March Challenge at Moving Along with the Times starts today.  We're sharing anything but a card projects and asking you to join us and share your projects over on the MAWTT blog HERE

I've used one of Stampin' Up! 's mini pizza boxes and decorated it to make gift packaging for a present for the men in your life.  I've used some of the Golden Honey specialty designer series paper which is a free gift with purchase when you spend £45 in my Stampin' Up! shop until the end of March or while supplies last.  

I cut pieces of the paper as follows

Top   31/4" x 314" 

Sides 3/4" x 3 1/4" and you need 4. 

To the top of my gift box I added some embellishments made using the Stampin' Up! set Sailing Home from the annual catalogue and the coordinating dies Smooth Sailing.  The anchor and compass were heat embossed in gold before either being die cut or punched out with the 1 1/2" circle punch. Some gold foil rope die cuts and a sentiment from Label me Bold makes it a perfect gift box.  

The compass is really neat as the needle can be die cut separately and then using a brad can rotate on the compass face.  

The pizza boxes can double as treat boxes and are just the right size for a tasty cookie for work colleague gifts or kids treats. The inside of the box is food suitable with a lining to stop any cookie flavour leaking through.  

I hope you'll join us at MAWTT this month and thanks for stopping by. 

Happy March 

Zoe x

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Spring Hope with Timeless Tulips

Signs of spring are emerging, although I wish it was warmer, less wet and far less windy so that all the folk facing a long slog with repairs after the damage of flooding and storms can start sooner rather than later.  My thoughts  are with them and I know yours are too! 

For our blog hop this month we are sharing a technique chosen by Kelly in the USA.  We're all creating a 3D effect using punches.  I have a feeling there might be one or two using this fabulous Tulip punch. 

I've created 3 flower heads using the punch several times for each one, in fact 5 times.  I then used Pattern Party and Basic masks to add some tone on tone detail to each piece before folding each petal in half.  I then connected each petal to the next sticking one half of the back of each one to the opposite reverse of the next.  Of course you stop at the two ends and they are adhered to the card.  I also stamped and punched some leaves using the same punch and stamped stems. I inked the stamp up each time with Old Olive ink then added some dots and dashes of Garden Green using a marker pen.  Before stamping I ink gently once more on the Olive ink pad to blend the two shades and then stamped.   I did this for leaves and stems.

 I created a vase using window sheet that tucked through slits I cut with my Stampin' trimmer on both sides of my whisper white design layer.  I stamped the window sheet with a design using black StazOn ink.  Be careful if you do this to stamp carefully but firmly without allowing your stamp to move to avoid smudging.  You can of course clean off the design using StazOn remover and start again if it goes horribly wrong.  Let it dry before you try to add the piece to your card.

You can see it more closely in this picture. 

I also added a sentiment and ribbon to finish off the design.  I love Tulips they are a sign that summer isn't too far away, although a little early right now it is a sign of hope for brighter days to come. 

All these items are from the Stampin' Up! Spring catalogue.  You can order online in my Stampin' Up! shop and can choose free gifts with qualifying purchases.  Buy the Timeless Tulips stamp set with the coordinating punch at the same time and you save 10% on the bundle.  

Enjoy our share of different ideas using this technique and have a great weekend. 

Keep safe all,

Zoe x

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Floral Essence for a Botanical Brights design

Stampin' Up! has changed this years new catalogue to showcase products more clearly and allow you to see lots of inspirational pictures along with much clearer embellishment and tool pictures.  One that caught my eye very early is the Floral Essence stamp set.

I chose to use bold brights to create a botanical explosion of colour and florals and Floral Essence was the perfect choice.

I started with glossy paper/photo paper and dropped ink spots from a re-inker bottle across the paper. I then spritzed it with water in a Stampin' Spritzer.  The colour ran and and was spread out.  I then added another colour and did the same process allowing them to blend. In all I added 3 colours of Melon Mambo, Poppy Parade and Gorgeous Grape.  I took off some of the excess water lightly with a paper towel and also gently used my heat tool to dry the design.  I then added white heat embossed flowers.  Using the Stitched Rectangle dies I created a 'wonky' frame by adding the central rectangle at an angle.  I then stamped with Gorgeous Grape to extend the flowers outside the frame. I did this by eye and lucky placing and they are stamped onto the thick whisper white card base. I replaced the ink spot layer and added the frame on Stampin' dimensionals.

I stamped an additional flower on watercolour paper in versa mark before adding white embossing powder and colouring it using an aqua painter and ink from ink pad lids.

The greenery is created by stamping the leaf stamp from the stamp set and punching it out with the co-ordinating leaf punch and some sprigs with the Sprig punch using Granny Apple Green card and ink.  Some leaves were created by first stamping the stamp on a versa mark pad and then onto Granny Apple Green onto vellum and adding clear embossing powder before heating.

The simple sentiment is embossed in white onto black card. You can also see I added some splatter by putting the marker pen nib into it's lid partially and flicking it outwards.

It's a "here I am guys" kind of card, but fabulous for brightening your day and I'm proud to say it was published in Craft Stamper magazine last month.

I hope you like it too!

Thanks for stopping by and do visit my online shop to see this and many other fabulous stamp sets and more.

Happy crafting

Zoe x

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This Little Piggy - Danced a little jig

For our June my fab friend Kelly Acheson in the USA has chosen No Line Watercolouring for our technique in our international Stampin' Up! demonstrator blog hop.  I haven't used this technique very often so I'm learning with you.  I am quite happy with my Little Piggy dancing a jig though. I teamed my watercoloured image with one of the new Heirloom embossing folders and it's coordinating Heirloom framelit.  They are really easy to use and create either an oval or rectangular frame which could be used for cards like this or photo frames or scrapbooking.  The possibilities are endless. I created my frame with my new fave colour Pretty Peacock and matted it onto a Very Vanilla embossed layer too.  This was embossed with the 3D Tin Tile folder.   

To show you the basics of no line watercolouring I have taken some pictures whilst using the technique with this pot of paintbrushes from Stampin' Up! set Crafting Forever.  

Step 1

Ink your stamp with a very pale colour like Sahara Sand or Petal Pink. Stamp off on grid paper a couple of times leaving very little ink on your stamp and then stamp onto watercolour or shimmery white paper.  

Step 2
You'll have an only just visible image and you can now use ink from the inside of your ink pad lids to colour your image.  You may need to blend colours on an acetate sheet or clear block.  I find that painting the section I wish to colour first with water only from my aqua painter then allows the ink to flow and cover the moistened section.  You can remove excess water with a paper towel.

Step 3

You can once you've finished a section dry your image with a heat tool to set the colour.  

You can then come back and add shading neat ink that you can wash with the aqua painter to create shading. 

This is where I come unstuck as I'm not very patient and you need to be to build up the coloured sections and complete the image. 

You need to try to work on sections not connected to avoid bleeding of the colours so with this image move from one paintbrush on the right to another on the left and so on.  Mop off excess water and revisit each section when dry.  I also find having one aqua painter for just adding water and one for adding ink works well.  You can clean the inky one on kitchen paper between colours.  It is very satisfying and for me will need more practice, but you can become a faux artist and have fun colouring in.

Please visit the other ladies in the hop as I know some of them will be far more skilful than me. To see their designs click on each picture link below. 

Thanks for visiting and I'll be back with more designs and tips soon. 

Happy crafting 

Zoe x

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Monochrome Colour for Moving Along with the Times Challenge Blog

Stampin' Up! 2018 - 2019 catalogue will soon retire so don't miss out on those goodies you've had your eye on.  However I'm sharing a little sneak peek today as my design team card for Team A's challenge set by Penny over at Moving Along with the Times. She's challenged us and you to share cards that are monochrome  - colour ie all in shades of one colour.  I've got mainly green and only used white for my sentiment and a touch of bakers twine.  You can join us for the challenge over at MAWTT. 

I've used a new stamp set called Daisy Lane which coordinates with the ever popular Daisy Delight stamp set and matching punch.  This new set will have a matching punch and clearly more images as there isn't a Daisy in sight on my card today. Instead I've used this fab fern leaf stamp and a small dotty stamp from Stampin' Up! set Painted Harvest to fill in the gaps between the leaves.  I've used shades of green with specific colours being Garden Green and Soft Sea Foam.  To create a darker tone as my matting layer I swiped my Versamark pad across the edges of the Garden Green layer and added clear embossing powder which I melted with my heat tool, to give a little more detail.

I've also used a new set of layering dies simply called Stitched Nested Labels to cut a hexagon from the top layer to reveal the darker green below.  I also used my Stamparatus to make sure I stamped the 'smile' in the right place.  The stamp positioning tool makes it easy to position the card stock, lay on the stamp in the place you want it face down, then pick it up with the Stamparatus plate so that the top layer of card can be removed and the Garden Green piece remain in place for stamping.  You'll notice I also used my Versamark pad to stamp some subtle design around the sentiment to carry on the design in the aperture.   The rest of the design was stamped and white heat embossed before being punched out with the Classic Label punch.  I've added a handful of the Soft Sea Foam Basic Adhesive Backed sequins to give that bit of bling you know I love.

The card is for my daughter who has just started working in London this week.  It's been a big adventure and I'm so proud of her.  She's there for 6 months before she returns to her Uni for more lectures before starting another internship next year.

Do come and join us at MAWTT and look at the other design team cards for inspiration.  Also if you don't have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and are in the UK, The Netherlands, Germany, France or Austria and would like to see more of our new products please mail me your details for a copy of the catalogue.

Happy day

Zoe x

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#Simplestamping for Totally Techniques

 Welcome back lovely readers. It's been a while but not only has it been Christmas, I've been recovering from surgery on my ankle to turn my big toe muscle into a new Achilles Tendon.  It's improving slowly and my physiotherapy has started in earnest so I'm hoping to be able to spend more time in the room of craft and share the new Spring catalogue with you.

However today along with the fabulous Totally Techniques team I'm sharing a #simplestamping card using just stamps, ink and paper.  We're sharing single layer cards that anyone from a beginner crafter to an avid crafter can do and often has need for.  I've used a new incoming set called Bloom by Bloom which has bold solid stamps, but you can use bold colours or any you prefer. I've used Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight and Granny Apple Green.  It is indeed a simple stamping card, but I have sneaked in a version of the masking technique.  Using a post it note I've masked a section of each card giving me a 'white space' once I've stamped to add a sentiment.

We all love to make 'special' cards, but at times need quick and easy cards that we might need in bulk, for example thank you cards to send out for all our awesome Christmas gifts or you might be a teacher and want to send a simple birthday card to all your class and need something that is fun and cheerful, but not too time consuming. This stamp set and our note cards and envelopes are perfect for these types of cards. You can see above how I used different shape post it notes or cut them to the size I wanted maintaining as much of the sticky strip as possible to hold the mask in place. 

This is a great way for a beginner to start stamping. I've used just 3 ink pads and a stamp set for the design. I have used another for the thanks sentiment, but you could write in your own and look at growing your stamp collection over time with sentiments being next on your list. 

For this design I used a small square post it and stamped the border from the set over the mask to create a complete 'white' square in which I then stamped the flower and thanks.  It gives depth but is still just a single layered card.

1. Zoe Tant - UK - You're here
2. Shannean Moncrieff - Australia
3. Barbara Meyer - Austria
4. Annette Elias - The Netherlands
5. Kelly Acheson - USA  
6. Marine Wiplier - France

Totally Techniques Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Blog Hop - Polished Stone

Hello all, welcome to November's  Totally Techniques Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Blog hop.  You might have just checked in from my lovely friend Kelly over in the USA.  She's sharing an awesome design, so be sure to right around the hop to see hers (if you started here) and all the other demonstrator designs.    This month we are sharing the Polished Stone technique. It's really simple and you can create your own designs and then die cut or use as a patterned paper.  

For my card I used the shadow/aperture left once I had die cut the largest snowflake from the very very soon to retire  snowfall thin lets as a frame over my polished stone piece.  I've added a galvanised metallic snowflake and one of glimmer paper.   The sentiment is from Stampin' Up! Winter catalogue set Merry Christmas to All and is heat embossed with whisper white on black card.  To add more sparkle I wrapped several rounds of silver thread across the base of the card having 'knicked' the two sides with a 1/8" circle punch.  I've added a matting layer of the galvansied metallic foil card and a snowflake trinket.  

To create the Polished Stone 

1. Soak a cotton wool ball/pad in rubbing alcohol.

2. Add drops of ink to the pad this can be a single colour or two or three. You can experiment with colour mixes, but darker probably needs less drops so as not to over power the lighter tones.

3. Squeeze and dab the pad all over glossy card stock. 

4. Allow to dry a little it doesn't take long as the alchol evaporates.

5. As it dries soak another cotton wool ball with rubbing alcohol and add drops of another colour ink and a drop of shimmer paint.  There are four to choose from in the current Stampin' Up! winter catalogue Bright Copper, Champagne Mist, Frost White, and Vegas Gold.  I used the Champagne Mist for this design. 

6. Gently squeeze, while dabbing to spread the shimmer and additonal colour across your work.  

7. You can revisit with the first colours if you wish or create a lighter version on an additional piece of glossy card stock to create another project. 

To this particular piece I also added some splatter. To do this I put the nib of a Stampin' Marker into carefully into the marker lid and flicked the nib out repeatedly to splatter ink over the polished stone which then gives the impression of more texture within the faux stone. 

I used Pool Party, Balmy Blue inks and Champagne Mist shimmer paint.  The Poppy Parade marker was used for the splatter. 

Enjoy the hop! 

Zoe x

Blog List 

1. 1. Zoe Tant - UK - You're here
2. 2. Shannean Moncrieff - Australia
3. 3. Nadine Weiner - Germany
4. 4. Lynsay Mahon - Canada
5. 5. Barbara Meyer - Austria
6. 6. Kelly Acheson - USA

You can find these products in my online shop

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#onstage2018 Team Swaps

When you are a presenter at Stampin' Up! #Onstage2018 events you are very lucky as you receive early access to products that no one else has seen or will have their hands on for a little while after onstage.  This means that it is extra special to share a design with your team. I made this as my team swap for the recent onstage using the Needle Point Nook suite and in particular the Needle and Thread stamp set and coordinating Needlepoint Elements dies.

I love the new dies that offer a stitched design for your projects and it really adds to the overall effect.  The sentiments are simple and suite specific occasions like thanks and get well wishes plus more.

This set also allows you to introduce lots of colour to your design similar to the designer series papers that accompany the stamps and it called Needlepoint Nook just like the suite.

I've used some Share What You Love pearls also.  The colours used include Berry Burst, Old Olive, Highland Heather, Crushed Curry, Poppy Parade and Flirty Flamingo.

For the sentiment I stamped in Memento Black and here's a top tip.  Those strips that you cut off your whisper white to make matting layers, don't throw them away save them for simple sentiments like this. I've just scissor cut the ends.

The base card is one of Stampin' Up! 's whisper white notecards and envelopes so just the right size for thank yous and also you can stamp the envelope too for a little more detail. Brighten the Postman's day hey!

For more NEEDLEPOINT NOOK inspiration from my onstage presentation you can see this Needlepoint Nook post.

Thanks for stopping by.

Zoe x