Purple Basket

Yesterday I made a little basket to put all the purple goodies in to give to our neighbour. I found the instructions for making this basket via Pinterest, which directed me to this blog. I decided to alter it somewhat – making it twice as large (a 12 x 12 in sheet rather than 6 x 6 in, and even so, it comes out quite small) and also to make a single handle rather than the two in this design. I am grateful to Rachel Ricks for her template.

Here is my piece of purple 12 x 12 card, scored and cut as per the instructions.

I cut several strips and panels to embellish the outside of the box. I made a bit of a booboo over this (more later) because I didn’t fully visualise how it was going to work!

I began by embossing these panels, using one of Tim Holtz’s embossing folders, “Damask,” and my Cuttlebug.

After this, I inked the raised embossing with Seedless Preserves distress ink, using my brayer.

I wasn’t happy with the result as the background was too pale, so I inked it with Dusty Concord distress ink, which looked a lot better. I did most of the inking on this project using Inkylicious Ink Dusters.

Turning to what would be the inside of the box, I thought the plain purple card was far too boring, so I smooshed a background using Dusty Concord and Seedless Preserves distress inks, rubbing the ink pads on my craft sheet and spritzing it with water.

I felt it needed something extra so I decided to put my new Brushos to use, and sprinkled on some purple, and spritzed it with water. I am not sure whether this was a component part of the purple or whether the crystals had got contaminated with another colour, but some little gold flecks appeared which I really liked! Unfortunately the photo doesn’t do this justice – it looks really rich in real life.

This is a set of butterfly stamps I got a few months ago.

I heat-embossed these on the inside of the basket, using gold embossing powder.

Returning to the panels for the outside, I heat-embossed the raised embossed surface of the panels, applying Versamark with my brayer and embossing with clear embossing powder.

After this I added more Seedless Preserves distress ink to darken the background still further.

The final touch was to add some Treasure Gold gilding wax very sparingly over the embossed surface. Just the effect I was after!

It was at this point that I realised that I had not made any panels for the ends of the basket. I tried to remember what I had done, and they didn’t look the same at all! What I should have done was to look at the photos I’d already taken but I didn’t think of that… chemo brain… Anyway, I quite liked the result even if the panels did come out lighter than the rest – let’s call it “contrast” lol!!

I also realised that I should have cut the strips into short lengths to cover only the cut strips of the template, and not to have a piece going across what turned out to be the ends of the basket, so I cut off the embossed parts and disposed of the middle part. I stuck them down with my ATG glue gun. I had cut them 1/8 in smaller all round (apart from where they joined the fold) to give a matted appearance. The pale square in the centre is the bottom of the outside of the basket.

The next step was to assemble the box. If you look at Rachel Ricks’ blog you can see how it all comes together.

I glued the strips to each other in turn, and to the triangular flap underneath, trimming off the excess to give a nice neat edge.

Here is the basket being assembled. I used Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive which is a good strong wet glue. When I make this project in the future, I shall use this to attach the panels too, because as I flexed the strips to assemble the box, some of them started to come away at the edges and I had to squirt some of the adhesive between the layers to secure them.

I punched two pairs of circles to cover the join where the strips all came together, and also to cover the backs of the brads to attach the handle.

The larger circles were cut with a 2 1/2 in scalloped circle punch and the smaller ones with a plain 2 in circle punch. I embossed and inked these as before.

I folded each circle in half before sticking them together, and then stuck half the circle to the outside of the basket on each side.

To make the handle, because my Cuttlebug embossing folders are not long enough, I placed the narrower (1 in wide, 11 3/4 in long) strip onto the opened embossing folder and hand embossed it with a ball embossing tool. I could probably have folded it in half and embossed it in the normal way because the fold wouldn’t have shown once it was stuck down to to the other piece, or embossed each end in turn, but it looks OK. This narrower strip was cut from the same pale mauve cardstock that I used for the panels.

The wider piece was 1 1/4 in wide and 12 in long, cut from the same purple cardstock as the basket. I rounded all the corners with a corner rounder punch and stuck the two layers together with Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive, curving the handle as I went, so that the two layers would stick together in the correct curve without any separation or buckling. I chose two decorative brads to attach the handle to the basket.

I made a hole on each side through the half circle and all the layers, and discovered that it was much too thick for the brad to go through and its ends be spread apart to attach it. I therefore got my craft knife and carefully trimmed away some of the layers until I was satisfied that the brad could be attached securely.

Once this was done, I threaded the brads through the ends of the handle and attached the handle to the basket. The final step was to fold down the other half circles and glue them in place, hiding the trimmed away layers and the brad backs.

This finished the basket apart from a few little embellishments to go on the handle.

I punched three butterflies with my Stampin’ Up butterfly punch from some of the altered purple paper stuck to a layer of card, and chose the Tim Holtz Bitty Grunge set of background stamps to heat emboss them in gold.

Here are the completed butterflies. I had inked them on the backs with Dusty Concord and Seedless Preserves distress inks, rubbing the butterflies directly across the ink pads.

I made a bow from purple ribbon, using my bow maker, and stuck this to a cream and gold bow I already had in my stash. The final touch was to add a little “made with love” heart charm in gold. All the embellishments were attached to the handle of the basket with Pinflair gel glue and left to dry overnight.

Here is a detail of the embellishments.

The completed basket with the gifts inside.

Today I made the lavender bag to go in the little box, and picked some lavender from the garden to make a nice little spray to go in the basket. I was hoping to make a small notebook with some of the purple paper I have left, but unfortunately there was no time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This afternoon we went across to see our neighbour and she absolutely loved her little basket full of goodies – she said her favourite colour was purple and she loves butterflies – both of which I knew! So nice to hit the spot and shed a little happiness – she’s had some hard knocks recently.

I am delighted that this little basket is just large enough to take the square card I made, and the other bits and pieces too. It makes a nice presentation of a collection of small gifts, and it’s definitely a project I shall be doing again. Thank you again, Rachel, for your lovely design. I hope you approve of what I have done with it!

Valentine Bon-Bon Basket

I am grateful to Carol on the Extreme Cards and Papercrafting blog:

http://extremecards.blogspot.com/2011/02/froebel-weaving-valentine-candy-basket.html

for sharing the design for this gorgeous little hanging basket of sweets. I know I shouldn’t be encouraging the hubby to eat such things – I’m actually trying to encourage him to lose weight, but I couldn’t resist this, and everyone deserves spoiling sometimes.

Here are another couple of shots to show the sides in more detail.

I cut the shape and the strips from the .svg file I downloaded. The basket shape had slits cut in it, through which you weave the strips of coloured card. I also made an extra .svg file the same shape as the basket but without the slits, to be cut from red card to line the basket so that the backs of the woven pieces don’t show.

I’m going to hang it on his desk lamp so he sees it when he gets up. What’s the betting all those little sweets will be gone by lunch time?

ARTHaven – Pegboard Accessories

My pegboard accessories arrived today – great excitement! I have put them up, but of course I shall have to live and work with them for a bit to see if they are how I want them. The joy of pegboard is that you can change things around so easily, so it’s no problem.

Here’s a general view of the work corner of my ARTHaven, showing the new Ikea rails and the pegboard complete with accessories.

A couple of different views:

These are some screw-top plastic jars. The lids remain clipped onto the pegboard, and you unscrew the jar from underneath. They will be useful for paper flowers and other small things. Alongside them are some open-topped plastic bins which I am keeping my stickles and alcohol inks and one or two other things in. Below the jars is one of two tool racks that I bought – I am not using the second tool rack at the moment but may have need of it in the future. I would like to find a way of inserting tubes into some of the holders so that I could use it for pens – perhaps a metal cigar tube would do? Something to explore… I have also put up a couple of ordinary pegboard hooks on which I have hung my Stanley knife and my brayer. (On the subject of craft knives, I have tried a few, and find the Stanley knife to be by far the best – it’s a lot more substantial than a lot of smaller craft knives, and seems to cut through without as much pressure. The blades are also readily available in any DIY store.)

Here are the plastic bins with some things in them – as you can see they are not yet all filled. I am sure they soon will be! I also bought 3 of the towel rails, and have put my kitchen roll on one. The others will be used for ribbons – I have got a large pack of ribbons due to arrive in the next day or two, more than will fit on the remaining 2 towel rails, but I can always get more of these if I need to.

Finally, I got a couple of wire baskets, which I am using at the moment for my small stamp pads and peel-offs, and for my heat-embossing stuff, and my flowersoft pots. Underneath I have put a hook to hang my heat gun on. Across the top there are 2 small wooden shelves which my hubby made for me, supported on long pegboard hooks. The small cardboard boxes on top contain card scraps, my stash of cards that I’ve made, and other bits and pieces. I have quite a large collection of these small, strong boxes with hinged lids, from a mail-order company where I get supplements and beauty products, and eventually I want to cover them with decorative paper and put pretty labels on the fronts.

I got the actual pegboards from Amazon (they are made by a company called Sealey), but the accessories proved quite difficult to find in the UK – the USA is blessed with many suppliers of a superb range of things, including coloured pegboards and clear acrylic shelves, and hooks which do not fall out easily, etc. etc. My new accessories do not seem to suffer from this problem, but the standard hooks can be a real pain. Apparently the best way to secure them is with cable ties, once you have decided the final place you want them.

After a lot of searching online, I came across a UK-based company which appeared to be the only place which sold any decent and interesting accessories. They are called Garage Furniture, and here is the link to the pegboard section of their website:

http://www.garagefurniture.co.uk/pegboard-accessories.shtml

They have been an absolute pleasure to deal with throughout; nothing has been too much trouble and they have been so helpful and friendly. The gentleman I spoke to on the phone was interested to know how I would be using their products, and he expressed an interest in getting into the crafting market, which I agreed would be a good idea; he is thinking of investigating the craft show circuit, and I am sure that if he had a stand, it would attract a lot of interest. I told him that there is a severe shortage of stuff available in the UK, and it might be worth exploring importing some of the US products.

Ed.: It now appears that this firm might have gone out of business. I have tried to access their website and it doesn’t seem to exist any more. What a shame. There doesn’t seem to be anybody else doing the full range of accessories.

Now I have got to spend some time working in my new environment and making sure it works for me! Being so adaptable, I am sure that it will be easy to change things round to suit my needs. If I want to put more accessories on (the most likely thing is more towel rails for my ribbons) I can move the shelves to the top of the pegboard, and make more room. I’ll let you know how I get on!