Tails’ Blography

I did three takes of this card tutorial because I ran out of time (turns out 7min30sec is not enough to make a simple card – eep!) and fumbled my words.
    In the end, some stuff was already done to save on video time but if you do want clarification on anything, just ask! If you havent already, watch my How-To video on Heat Embossing which is used in this card.

Supplies:
:: 1x bright green A5 card, folded in half, with 1″x1″ window cut/punched out
:: 1x light green paper, cut to fit inside the card (eyeballed)
:: 1x 1″x1″ aluminum foil, decorated
:: 1x 2″x2″ white card, stamped/decorated
:: 1x yellow card, slightly larger than the white decorated card (eyeballed)
:: 1x funky coloured paper band (eyeballed, but roughly 1″x4 1/2″)
:: Easter greeting sticker/stamp

You could also make variations of this card with landscape folding, adding brads or ribbons, changing colours, adding more windows and foil, adding a leaf insert instead of the glued page, and lots more. I’d love to see your creations!

So, today I was feeling adventurous and decided to give a video tutorial a try (thank you to those who voted “yes please”). Oh. My. Word. So much planning! I’m using my Fuji FinePix for the video, and since I only have a 512meg card, I can tell you now the videos wont be longer than 8 minutes each.

I wasnt aware how much planning goes into this. Seriously. I briefly thought it over in my head, and kept realising more and more things to be aware of, etc. I’ll probably only do a video once a month, but hopefully I’ll do two (a How-To and a Tutorial). Tomorrow I’m filming the tutorial that will use today’s result, so do keep an eye out for it! It’ll be Easter themed (albeit a little late to actually make easter cards).

So, without further ado, my Very First How-To Video. I hope you like it (quality will get better as I play around with editing software – suggestions/help from fellow tutorial-makers welcome!!!):

Taken with my cellphone whilst waiting in the queue – it was a LOT busier than it looks in the photo haha

So today has been a real busy one….not usually my thing on a Saturday. But this time it was worth it. A friend told me about this scrapbooking shop just round the corner (thanks, Julie) from me called The Scrapbook Factory Shop, and it wasnt long before I found them on Facebook & joined the group, and then joined their blog as well. Well, as it turns out, they had a Grand Opening of a whole new section in their store (25% off everything), and if you signed up as a follower on their blog, you’d get a goodie bag when you arrived. Awesome!! And it couldnt have come at a better time too! I’m horribly broke this month, sniff sob sniff.

So, I woke early (8am!), dawdled a bit, showered, dawdled some more, then had a quick (but very decadent!) breakfast (seriously, one packet of chocolate chip Oatso Easy + not even a full teaspoon of hot chocolate powder = one very delicious, decadent breakfast! Its like eating soft chocolate paste, yum!), and off I went.

I got there just after nine and spent the next hour looking around. Its very nice – tons of paper, tons of transfers, lots of scrapbooking stuff everywhere. Since I make cards, not scrapbooks, it was a little limited for me, but I ended up buying 12 sheets of patterned paper, 1 pack of 100 brads, and 1 pack of 100 eyelets, and a really cool punch which I have no idea how I’ll use haha. I know I’ll use it, but just have no vision just yet. Then, in my goodie bag I got 2 transfer rub sheets (1x “Wonderful” and 1x “Reminisce”), 2 scrapbooking decal tags (not sure how to describe these?), and one hard cover flip notebook album in the shape of a tree! I was very impressed when I realised it was over R115 worth of goodies! Thanks Carolyn!! After all this – I might even start scrapbooking hehe! Although I always wanted to do my wedding album as a scrapbook…how cool would that be!!

My papers, brads, eyelets, and punch (with example punched out just below)

After that bit of shopping, I went to a craft market being held on the field around the corner from my parents (where we walk the dogs) and then went to the Rondebosch Craft Market to browse around. Then dashed to Kenilworth Centre’s Pick n Pay for some stuff and finally came home. The temperature must have been near 35 degrees today and HUMID so it was killer to be so active and busy in this heat – and my car has no aircon! Anyway, I’m off to shower and then off to a braai…hopefully tomorrow will be nice and relaxing…and maybe a little less humid please! As a final word, if you’re into scrapbooking and you’re in CT, then this is the place to go!

My ‘Goodie Bag’ items: transfer words at the top, tag decals just below, and the tree notepad

After much procrastination, I finally got around to taking some photos of our bonsais in their beginning stages. After even more procrastination, I’m finally uploading them and blogging about them haha.

My bonsai – dont make fun of his braces haha

The bf’s bonsai

Still much work to be done, but they’re only nearly 1 month into training…will keep updating every month or so. The wire on my bonsai should be coming off within the next two weeks, so hold thumbs the training took.

Margerita, the flamboyant, gay, Mexican/Latino octopus who loves to party!

Sometime last year I found a blog written by a girl who goes by the name Futuregirl. Her blog, being very well written and captivating, enthralled me enough to read it from start to finish. Amongst her lovely postings, was this adorable octopus who made a few appearances under the names Sigmund the Octopus and Octophrost, Santa of the Sea.

By the time I found it, her pattern was available, free of charge! What luck! I quickly downloaded, and then proceeded to take weeks to finally get around to buying the material need. Our material store had a limited selection of felt, but nevertheless I took ages deciding on what colours. I settled for a cheery, citrus green and yellow.

The material sat in my flat for a few days, what with me being the Queen of Procrastination and all, and eventually I got around to buckling down to make this octopus.

The pattern itself is fanstastically written, but I tend to overthink things and got flustered with the how-to’s of everything. Of course, futuregirl anticipated this happening to people (not me specifically, I’m sure) and made a tutorial on whip stitch. Yay!

After sewing and stuffing and sewing and stuffing, with the occasional frustrated grumble and bad stitching, I eventually got to the sucker part. No really, I mean sewing on the suckers. I threaded the needle, knotted the floss, sewed my first thread, put on a sequin, put on a bead….and realised my needle was far too thick for this little seed bead. Sigh. So, for every 48 beads, I hand-threaded each and every one onto the thread. Some of them even twice (after finding out there were two sequins instead of one, or the bead fell off, etc etc). Yes, I hand-threaded my octopus. Futuregirl, for the sake of people like me who dont think ahead, you might want to mention either a bead needle or beads that are large enough for a normal needle on your pattern haha.

Whilst finishing up on the last few touches, I was thinking of his name. Bonsai. But try as I might, he just didnt look like a Bonsai. So after more thought, I decided I’d call him Margerita. But, that named seemed rather feminine for him. So with more thought, I made him into a flamboyant, gay, Mexican/Latino octopus who loves to party. I even have his voice in my head (sounds like the hermaphrobot from Futurama in the episode “Fry and the Slurm Factory”…”Why you so stupid, stupid?”)…

And so, Margerita was born! A huge thanks to futuregirl!!! You rock!!