Beaded Pen Tutorial

Okay, here it is! These are so easy to make, and they are a great gift! I will let you in on where I get most of my supplies for this before I start the tutorial. The pens you can get a lot of places. Easiest is Walmart - a 2 pack is $1.06. You can get them at office supply stores in larger quantities and they are most likely cheaper that way.

The microbeads themselves you can also get a lot of places. I prefer one place for both my beads and my O'So sticky tape/sheets. I go to PennyWiseArts for all these items. Not only are they a great price there, but they are super nice and helpful too! I have been extremely please with the items I have gotten from them. For the pens I used 1/8 inch O'So sticky tape, 6 x 8 O'So Sticky Paper Backed Sheets, and Mini Micro Beads Clear - CB-1000. I could not recommend this store more, their products are the best, and they have the best prices too!



Beaded Pen Tutorial

Supplies:
Pentel R.S.V.P. ball point pen
O’so Sticky Sheets – piece cut to 2 ½ in x 3 ¼ inch
O’so Sticky Tape (or red liner tape)
Dazzling Diamonds Glitter
Bowl or Container long enough for a pen
Patterned paper (or Stamped paper) cut to 1 3/8 x 3 1/8 inches
Microbeads


Step 1:
Put red liner tape along both edges (lengthwise) of your patterned paper. The side you want to see on the pen should be facing down.









Step 2:
Removed one of the red strips and stick that part onto the barrel of the pen. Then wrap the paper around the pen very tightly. Remove the second red strip and adhere the end of the paper to the pen. Your paper should overlap slightly.















Step 3:
Remove one side of backing from your o’so sticky sheet. Very carefully (when it is stuck down, it is hard to move!) stick this onto your pen. I try to line it up on the opposite side of the patterned paper seam.






Step 4:
Very carefully, adhere the sticky sheet to the pen. When you reach the first edge of sticky paper, start there and remove the other side of backing. The end of you sticky paper should overlap your beginning seam. If they do not over lap, or there is a gap – this is easily fixable. Just cut another strip 3 ¼ inches long and just wide enough to cover your gap. Then stick it on the pen over the gap. This won’t be noticeable when the pen is finished, but a gap would be!


Step 5:
Pour microbeads into container. Drop sticky pen into beads and roll around to completely cover sticky paper.



















Step 6:
Hold bead covered pen over container and roll between your fingers. This helps to get any loose beads off the pen and also kind of “set” the beads into the tape a bit more.








Step 7: (optional)
Hold beaded pen over container of glitter. Sprinkle glitter all over pen as you roll it around in your fingers. You want to really coat the pen with the glitter. Then tap it off several times (or thump one end with your other hand) to shake off excess glitter. I like the glitter because it fills any tiny gaps left from beads. Plus it just makes it sparklier!





That’s it! You’ve got a gorgeous, sparkly, beaded pen!

I made a few more just to show off different papers. In my experience, the darker designs or inks will look better with the beads on top. Lighter ones tends to get a little washed out by the beads. Have fun with it!

**ETA** I was asked how many pens you can get from one container of beads. I purchased a 5 oz bag at least a year ago. I still have over half of it left. I have made at least 30 pens so far as well as a few other projects. A little goes a long way with microbeads. And no, the beads do not fall off when the pen is used. I have some that are two years old and the beads are still on there!

Post-It Note Holder Tutorial

So here it is! This is my tutorial on post-it note holders. I learned how from this thread on Splitcoaststampers.com. Please let me know if there is anything that doesn't make sense!

Supplies:
Cardstock
Paper trimmer with scoring blade
Post-it note pad
Embellishments (optional)

Step 1: Cut cardstock to 7 ½ inches long.

Step 2:
Cut cardstock to 3 ½ inches wide.

Step 3:
Score cardstock at 3 ½ inches and again at 4 inches.

Step 4:

Fold cardstock on score line. Then flip it over and fold the other side, both sides should be folded in towards each other.

Step 5:
Put adhesive all around the back of the post-it note pad.

Step 6:
Place post-it pad on cardstock with even border of cardstock all the way around. It should fold together like this once it is in there.

Step 7:
Embellish as you like! I used narrow organdy ribbon, my mega scalloped circle punch, dimensionals, Happy Harmony from SU, and a sentiment from Wordsworth.

And here is the final product! These are really simple, make great gifts, and can be dressed up many ways!

I will be giving this one away to one lucky blog reader. All you have to do is post a comment on this tutorial and tell me what you would like to see me do a tutorial on! Please, let me know what I do (or may what I can learn to do) that you would like to see a step by step tutorial on. I will choose a winner Wednesday, January 17th at 10pm. Your suggestion must be posted before 9pm CST.

Enjoy!

It's UP! It's UP!

I am so excited! I've been working on this for awhile and now it's up! I did a tutorial on how to make altered picture frames. I used frames that I purchased at Michael's for $2.99. They are fairly easy, wonderful to personalize, and usable! Fits all my qualifications for a great handmade gift! Anyway, I will put the tutorial on my blog as well, but not til later this week. Here is the link for the one posted on Splitcoaststampers.com.

Jackie G inspired me with these frames. She brought one as a door prize to a stamping event here in the DFW area. I fell in love with it and decided to try my hand at it. I have made several myself and I taught a class here at my house on them.




I also wanted to share two more that I did for Christmas gifts. I made these for my little brother and sister. Since my brother is in college, I wasn't sure if he would really use anything I could make for him. I figured that if I made it kind of "manly", and put a picture of my boys in it, he might put it out in his dorm room or something. He seemed to like it, not that he would tell me if he didn't, but at least he acted like he did! I think the paper I used on his was Arctic Frog - although I have had it for a long time and I am not entirely sure.



I also made this one for my little sister. I absolutely LOVE how this turned out, if I do say so myself! You can't really see it, but it has so much sparkle! I found a use for stickles that nothing else beats....I outlined the flowers on this Basic Grey Lilykate paper with Stardust Stickles! I did it AFTER I modpodged the paper. I tried using Dazzling Diamonds glitter from SU, but it just kinda flaked off.....the stickles stuck on there much better. I am happy to say I found a good use for the stickles - Thank you again, Jackie G! Beth seemed to like her frame as well. She loves lime green and I figure what 17 year old girl doesn't like a little sparkle?!?! Since her frame was kinda girly, I didn't put a picture of the boys in it. I left it open so she could put a picture of her and her friends or something in it.


Anyway, I am so excited to have my tutorial on SCS. This is the second tutorial I have done for them. I always feel like I have learned so much from that website....it's weird to teach something there. In honor of this event.....I have a FREEBIE! I am going to send one of the frames that I made to a lucky blog reader! Here are the details:


Respond to this post by 10pm (CST) Friday, January 5th.

Tell a friend about this giveaway!

My husband will pick a number from the replies and that will be the winner!

This is the frame you will win!

Diamond Fold Book Tutorial

Okay here it goes! I learned to make thesethis summer. I was helping out at a scrapbooking convention and got to sit in on a class that made them. I hope you like them, please let me know if you have any questions!


Diamond Fold Book

Supplies:
2 coasters 4x4 (or chipboard, bookboard, cardboard, etc)
2 pieces of patterned paper cut 5 ¾ x 5 ¾
3 pieces of cardstock weight patterened paper that is double sided (thin will not work for this) cut 7 ½ x 7 ½
Adhesive – mono adhesive or double stick tape, and also something stronger – mono multi or red liner tape (o’so sticky strip)
1 piece of ribbon about 22 inches long ( I prefer narrow organdy ribbons for this)

Step 1:

Adhere coaster to back side of pattered paper. These will make up your front and back covers on your book.

Step 2:
Trim the corners of the paper at an angle so you have ¼ inch at the corner. Do this for both front and back covers.













Step 3:
Adhere opposite sides down to coaster. Only do these two sides. (Top and bottom, for example.)















Step 4:
Use your bone folder (or in my case – pampered chef scraper) and fold in corners. Then adhere those last two sides to the coaster.













Step 5:
Take your 3 squares of cardstock. I usually use 2 that are the same and one that is different. This makes for a nice look when the book is unfolded. Take one square and fold it in half, scoring as you go. Open it up and fold it in half the other way, score again. Open it up. You should have a large square with 4 small squares visible from the folds. Now fold it diagonally in half and score. Repeat this sequence with all 3 squares.




































Step 6:
Take one of the folded papers. To fold into the diamond shape, you must fold the 2 solid squares (no fold line dissecting the square) towards each other. You do this by pushing in the triangle shapes in between. You want the two outer pieces to be folded with the triangle edges tucked forward and the one middle piece to have the triangle pieces tucked behind. When you have them into a folded square, score all edges again.




































Step 7:
Adhere all 3 squares together. You will put the paper you want to see when you open the book facing you when you stick them together. The two squares that are folded “forward” will be the two on the ends. The one folded “behind” will be the center sheet.

























Step 8:
Fold entire book together and score again. You should see the 3 squares in a kind of accordion look now.


















Step 9:
Take the front cover of your book. Use a strong adhesive around the edges and a spot in the middle. Lay ribbon across the middle of this cover.



























Step 10:
Adhere one end of your diamond folding to the cover. Repeat with the other cover on the other end of the book, but do not use ribbon on this part.













Step 11:
Embellish as you like. I often print photos that I have removed the color from to glue inside the book. I have also cut squares slightly smaller than the ones inside the book, then cut them diagonally and used those triangles to decorate the inside of the book. Have fun with it and make it your own! I can’t wait to see some of yours! Please post here and show me!

Teacher Gifts

I got teacher gifts ready for Alex and Adam's preschool teachers today. I am giving them decorated lunch tins with 10 cards and envelopes inside. The cards are various ones from stamp camps, swaps I made extras from, and other random cards I had. This is the tin Adam chose for his teacher. Since he loves red, he decided that his teacher does too. And this was the only tin I had with red on it. I won't get into how I made the tin, because I already wrote a tutorial on it. You can find it here.






Alex chose this tin for two reasons. He said it had to have green on it (his favorite color) and he liked that it looked like a rainbow. Ok, whatever works! He chose not to have prima flowers on top though.


I hope that they like these, I am always nervous about giving gifts that I made. I mean, I like these, but who knows if other people do! I have sold them in the past ($35 with 10 cards and $20 without) so I guess that means some people like them, right?