One thing I can say about this year’s Paper Piercing Challenge is that…I’m glad I’m not a judge! Everyone who voted said that it was really tough to decide, and to give you an idea how close it was, there was just one vote separating the winner from the other entries, and all entries got votes! So, without further ado, here are the winners:

Designer’s Choice Award – Nanc A-3 : (wins $25 plus a $5 gift certificate from Gem’s Cottage)

This is not a card but a box! The judge, my beloved friend and designer, Debbie Bastian, chose this entry because “I love the details of the scalloped edges and then the little mouse being 3D along with the wonderful paper piercing was what won me over.”  She said that it was tough choosing because every project was so good!

Popular Choice Award – Susan M-1: (wins $25 plus $5 gift certificate from Gem’s Cottage)

One of you who voted remarked, “I really like the card done by Susan, the snowflakes give it a nice touch, and so does the glitter.”

Lottery Winner Award – Cheri M: (wins $15 plus $5 gift certificate from Gem’s Cottage)

One voter said, ” I vote for Cheri M’s – it’s nicely done!”

Congratulations to the winners and to all who entered! To everyone who made this challenge a lot of fun, thank you!

For the winners, please watch out for an e-mail from Gem’s Cottage! If you want to see all the fabulous entries, check them out at the Gem’s Cottage Gallery!

Remember those punched-tin lampshades in country folk art magazines? Well, here’s  a paper version!

I wanted to do a proper wineglass shade template that  fit on the regular-sized papers. I’ve computed and re-computed the dimensions I wanted, and finally came up with a solution (well, sort of, LOL):  cut the digital template in half so that it can be printed on an 8½” x 11″ paper, print two of the templates, cut and put the two together -  now you have a working template for a wineglass shade that will fit on a 12″ x 12″ piece of cardstock.  Tsk, tsk, tsk, that is one long run-on sentence, English grammar teachers are probably shaking their heads right now, LOL, and I bet I confused you. Let’s start over again, shall we? LOL

First, here is the template for the wineglass shade:

Print two of the template above on regular paper, taking note of the print size. Cut the two templates (remember to cut right on the line, this is going to be the master template, so be as precise as possible), then glue them together (again, be as precise as possible).  The put-together template should now look like this:

Use the template to trace an outline of the shade on a 12″ x 12″ card stock. 

Cut out the shade. Embellish as you wish! For the paper pierced shade pictured above, what I did was print 5 copies of Battenburg Corner 3 from Corners and Frames for Cards (well, it’s not just for cards anymore as proven by this project, LOL), then arranged them symmetrically on the shade as shown below. The best part is when I get to do the paper piercing, yay!

When you’re done embellishing, glue the shade ends together by putting adhesive on the tab (use either double-sided sticky tape or rubber cement). You might notice that the shade tends to “pull” on one side where the seam is, just “massage” the paper toward the opposite direction until it is a perfect cut-off cone shape.  Grab a wineglass, put a battery-operated tealight and ta-da! you have an elegant and functional decoration for those special Christmas dinners (ummm, yeah, I’m still thinking of the Christmas-themed Paper Piercing Challenge which I hope someone will join because until now there’s not a single entry!).

The last time I updated my blog,  Southern California was still in the mid 80’s;  this week, we  sweltered  in triple digit temperatures. Yup, we were due for this, and I thank God for His blessings of electricity, airconditioning and fans: it makes summer more tolerable. (When our aircon broke down last Thursday and was repaired yesterday, it made me appreciate these amenities even more, LOL).

Aside from going to the beach and flying kites (something I haven’t done since I was about 10?), here’s what I have been up to – more paper piercing cards with a Christmas theme:

I really liked how this one turned out. The double matting was cut with  Cricut/SCAL2  using the inside oval templates from Corners and Frames for Cards, and the paper piercing came from the same set. The sneaky Santa image is from Tina Wenke’s Traditional Christmas at www.pccrafter.com. Foam tape was used to give that wonderful depth to the card:  it’s like looking through a window in time.

For this next card, I wanted to challenge myself to come up with something quick and easy, but should still use the inside templates of  Corners and Frames for Cards. I like the simplicity and the innocence of this next project:

The angel on this card (again, by Tina Wenke, from the set Nativity Advent Calendar at www.pccrafter.com) is framed by the inside templates. However, no cutting was done, it was printed, so it is in the same layer as the angel. I did the paper piercing around the piece, then mounted it onto the yellow card base.

I hope this gives you some more inspiration for the 2nd Paper Piercing Challenge. I haven’t had the time to promote this challenge actively, so I will be extending the deadline to Thursday, July 29, 2010. Come join in the fun and have a chance to win!

Good Saturday morning!  It’s so nice to sleep in and be lazy a bit… then make a card…with paper-piercing…then post it here to share with you (*sleepy, contented, sigh*). Yup, now you know how I spent my Saturday morning…and here’s the card I made (is it obvious that I’m in the Christmas-in-July mood? LOL):

The wonderful image is from Karla Dornacher’s set, “Pure as Snow”, at www.aimeeasher.com, the paper piercing pattern is from the newly released “Corners and Frames for Cards” – which also includes the template for the beautiful cutout shape that framed the image (I used a Cricut with SCAL2 to cut the shape, but it can also be done with a pair of scissors).  

I hope this inspires you to do some paper piercing and join the 2nd Gem’s Cottage Paper Piercing Challenge!

That title just makes me laugh…it conjures images of sassy, tattooed girls, but I wasn’t thinking of those when I made these cards – and yes, they are paper-pierced with a summer-in-the-beach theme. 

The above cards are 5″ x 7″ and uses images from Serenity Beach; the paper piercing pattern, including the cut out shape template, is from Corners and Frames for Cards.

The above cards measure 4¼” x 5½”, the images also come from Serenity Beach and the paper piercing pattern, also come from Corners and Frames for Cards.

This set of 4 cards will be uploaded into our store by next week, so if you’re planning summer projects for those lazy afternoons, make paper-pierced cards one of them!

P.S. We’re going to hold our Paper Piercing Challenge again - so sharpen those piercing tools and get those pricking mats ready, there will be prizes and surprises! Details will be announced on Wednesday,  July 7!

Whew, I’ve been keeping my nose on the grindstone with the paper piercing templates,  (my nose is now all nice and smooth, thank you, LOL) and I’m taking a break to show you more of the cards I’ve done.  

First, here’s a birthday card using geraniums and hummingbird  from Window Reflections, I just love that cut out shape! The cutting was done on the Cricut with SCAL, but it can also be done by hand with a pair of scissors.

I’m also starting on my Christmas cards (a first for me, starting this early, LOL!) – and love how these two turned out:

The nativity image used in the card above is by Tina Wenke at www.pccrafter.com. 

This last one is my favorite so far. The graphics are by Gina Jane at www.daisiecompany.com, the oval shapes were cut and layered on top of the swirly paper-pierced frame.

For those who have been asking, I hope to have the paper-piercing set ready by Monday, June 28, thanks for being as excited as I am!

…on the new paper piercing patterns I’m working on? A lot of you have been asking for more paper piercing (for more than a year now, LOL),  but this has been an on-and-off project for me. Since the kids are now on their summer break, I finally get to sit down and finish it, yay! Here are two cards to whet your appetite *giggle*:

Both cards use images by Tina Wenke at www.pccrafter.com and the paper piercing pattern plus cutout templates will be up at Gem’s Cottage soon!

It’s a funny thing how coincidences work: I remember reading somewhere that there are no such things as coincidences, they are actually God’s small miracles.  My Dad, whose birthday should have been today, succumbed to cancer four years ago. While looking for something to honor his memory, I came across a  post of  Nora/NoraR on the PCCrafter message board, telling us of Lisa Cook’s card shower.  Jayme, Lisa’s sister, loves frogs and I was so touched by what was going on that I started working on a frog card for her.  Here is the card that I’m going to send her:

Inside the card, it says: “Ice Cream…need I say more?”  I hope this card makes Jayme smile.

For those who would like the image, just post a comment below: please specify if you want the colored or the digital stamp version.

After making several gift bags with a floral theme, one of my daughters said, “Make a guy one, Mom, and make it blue!”  I replied, “Are we talking about a gift bag, or are we talking about the movie with the blue people?”  LOLs…Well, I remember that Laurie Furnell had some gorgeous masculine graphics released in the May PCHugclub, and I also have some coordinating cardstock, so I said, “Sure, why not?”  So, here’s what I came up with:

… and here are the step-by step instructions with pics:

1. First grab a paper lunch bag and measure how wide it is. (Don’t have a lunch bag on hand?  Make it yourself with these instructions.)

2. Use this measurement to adjust the size of the Gift Bag Body template so that the base – the short side – is the same as the width of the lunch bag (scroll down to my May 26, 2010 entry to download the template if you haven’t done that yet). While adjusting the size of the template, make sure to keep proportions of the template by holding the shift key down (if using the digital template). If you traced the image with SCAL2 or MTC, make sure that the “keep proportions” box is checked before changing the size of the cutting file.  Don’t forget to adjust the size of the Gift Bag Handle template also.

3. Cut two pieces of the Gift Bag Body, two pieces of the Gift Bag Handle and two 1-inch wide strips from cardstock of your choice.

4. Glue the handle and the 1-inch strip to the gift bag body – I use rubber cement so that the paper will not wrinkle. Trim excess paper  when necessary.

5. Cut the top of the lunch bag so that it is about a half- inch below the handle opening.

6. Glue each bag piece to the lunch bag. Embellish as you wish (refer to the picture on top for the final “look”).

I haven’t been able to post last week due to the kids’ crazy end-of-the-schoolyear schedules and one kid getting sick. So this week, I’m posting several projects to make up for the non-post, LOL.

First up is this classy pink and black gift bag. I really like this color combination, and although it doesn’t show very well, the white strip is embossed with swirlies. The paper flower is made from 15 1-inch punched circles, arranged in 3 circular layers with 5 circles per layer. I wanted to lighten the color of the petals for added interest, so I bleached some parts of the flower. Yes, that’s right, bleach, LOL!  I dipped a paint brush in liquid bleach, then stroked on the areas I wanted to highlight.

This second colorful bag uses a paper carnation. The how-to link for this paper flower was shared by Shelly/catladyof5 on the PCCrafter message board. She used these instructions from Lynn Larson of Learn to Stamp and Scrap. Thank you, Lynn for the fabulous idea and instructions!

Here are two more:  instructions for the yellow paper rose can be found here - big thank you to Maria of Imagine, Create, Inspire! Thank you also to Nancy/Nanc on the PcCrafter message board for sharing the link! For the pink rose, I followed the instructions by Helen Croft of Scrap a Little – another big thank you!

Hmmm, I can see you’re getting impatient, LOL,  how did I make these bags? These were done using my trusty ol’ Cricut with SCAL2, but you can also use the trusty ol’ scissors. For those with a Cricut/SCAL2 (or MTC), trace the images below to produce the cutting files.

For those using scissors or who like to do some digital decorating, here are the templates:

You can see from the side view shots of the gift bags that I just used a purchased white lunch bag with the top cut off. It is really the easiest way to do, although you can also glue/tape a long strip of paper in between the two bag pieces.

Whew! This is one long post! I will be posting the entire instructions tomorrow (with pics and everything), but I’m betting that a lot of you can pretty much figure out what I did already, LOL!