May's Art Journal Friday

Oh boy, this month I did a page that made me cry! This month's theme is... the sad truth.

As you may or may not know, I have been working over the last couple of weeks on a ward for older adults with dementia, and hearing some heart-breaking stories about the people that the patients were before their illnesses. It got me thinking about my own experiences about people in my life that had had their health taken from them and their existences after this happened, and it made me think about how people's stories get passed down after they are no longer able to tell you about who they were. Obviously family are a priority source of information in telling you about who someone is, and I journalled all over this page about my own feelings about how your identity comes out in this way. But it was really striking to me about how for example my bookshelf tells you so much about who I am, and about what's on my iPod would tell you so much about me, even if I wasn't able to explain to you why.

Your page doesn't have to make you sad ;) but for your journaling this month, really think about something that tugs at your heartstrings and try to journal about it. It doesn't have to be about people, or animals, but just something that really made you think and cherish your knowledge that little bit more just because you know that knowledge is very precious.

If you can share your page, or if you have any thoughts to share, I'd love to see them at our Ning community if you'd like to call in :) the link to the Art Journal Friday page can be found here.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend ahead and looking forward to seeing your pages and hearing your stories! :)

Gayle xx

Envelope Accordion Book

Hello, Diana here to show you two accordion books made with envelopes, when I saw this project I thought it was such a cool way of holding keepsakes, I’ll post a link with the instructions at the end of this post.

Ever since I was a kid I have liked to send and receive mail, and when ever I received a letter in an Air Mail envelope I knew it was from my grandmother, to date when she writes she uses the same type of envelope. I am a Fan of the Air Mail design, mostly because they remind me of her. For that reason I made my first accordion book using that type of envelopes, it will be a nice place to keep her letters.

This is the front part of the envelopes, I decorated a piece of white cardstock using Pink Paislee punch out die cut shapes and flip notes from there 365 Degrees collection

I cut a small piece of paper and punched out a nice border, added some ribbon, brads, gems and butterflies. And as a final decoration, a few of my favorite photos of her from the trip we took for her 90^th birthday.

For the Cover I used a Doily, and grouped a few embellishments to give it a trinket look, assorted fonts, more gems and a red ribbon to tie it all together.

My second accordion book is made out of Craft Envelopes; I left the decoration simple using only a Jillibean Journaling Circle and a Sticker to write down the contents.
This book will hold Ticket stubs, Etsy business cards and other miscellaneous stuff.
This is a very fun and easy project; decorated or barely decorated they make cute books to hold all kind of memorabilia.

As always I hope I was able to bring some inspiration to your day, till next week.

Envelope Accordion Book-How To

=Di

Ssh! Can you keep a secret?

I hope you don't mind, but my project to share with you today is... my wedding invitations! I know that with summer coming there will be a lot of weddings coming up, and mine is no exception! Ours will be more towards the end of the summer (beginning of September) but as we'll be going to Disneyworld in Florida I've got my fingers crossed for some great weather (in the morning at least!).

I've been working on these off and on for some time now, and although they may look quite simple I can guarantee you that it was suggested several times by my nearest and dearest that they should have been simpler!

I'll start with the invites themselves (I also made RSVP cards although at this point I already know most of my guests will be coming!).

I chose cream for the background card as it seemed more bridal (and less stark than the white) and embossed with a Tim Holtz/Sizzix swirls embossing folder. I cut out a background shape in red cardstock, and the words 'Happily Ever After' on plain cardstock, using the Storybook Cricut cartridge. I wanted the words 'Happily Ever After' to be written in gold but couldn't find card or paper that I was happy with the colour of, so ended up painting each one twice in gold acrylic paint (with the help of a very generous friend!). I cut out one big circle and two smaller ones from black cardstock using hole punches, and stuck these together into the shape of Mickey Mouse, with a trail of gold Stickles to make it look like a balloon. I tied the inner sheets into the card using red ribbon and tied a bow to make it look more decorative. If you like Disney, there are lots of Disney fonts available to download for free on the internet (I wrote mine in red and black ink!).

And here's the finished article!

The RSVP cards were much simpler! I had a circular RSVP stamp which was about the same size as one of Mickey's 'ears' so decided it would be just perfect to use this as the other 'ear'! I stamped the RSVP in black StazOn ink and then added a larger black cardstock circle and a smaller one to make it look like Mickey. I used small scalloped cards in the same cream colour as the main invitations.

And here are the two together! If you're tempted to try making your own my advice would be to play with a few designs until you find something simple that you really love! On reflection it would have been easier to theme the invites along the design of my RSVP cards, but I didn't start working on them until after I completed the invites, so maybe start there! Also, enlist the help of friends if you can - it was taking me forever to paint things in the shade of gold that I wanted and it was no end of help when a friend offered to help me out ;)

I'm hoping to get as many hand delivered as possible but will certainly be enlisting the groom's help as I'm doing some long shifts at the moment ;) hope you like them! Please excuse the photos, I haven't managed to be home much during daylight hours(!) but I hope you can see the idea :)

Happy Friday and happy scrapping ;)

Gayle xx

Memories Mini Album Tutorial

Hello, glad you could join me today for this month’s tutorial. Since May is the month we celebrate all mothers I decided to make an album using photos of my mom, my album title is “Memories”.

I got this carton jewelry box at a craft store; it measures approx. 8.5L x 6.5W x 2.5D. The album will be attached to the inside of the box using a ring binder like the one in the picture.

Step One is to make the flap longer making a cut on each of the sides of the back panel. If your box has the metal hasp like mine does, take them off and make sure that when you cover the box with paper you mark the holes for when you re-attach them.

Step Two is to cover the inside and outside of the box, I used Vintage Music Paper and reinforced the areas that fold with decorative tape.

Step Three is to add the Binder; Tim Holtz has these Ring Binders in his Idea-ology line. It’s fine to make wholes when you attach the binder since that will later be covered with pattern paper.

Step Four is to complete the Decoration of the box, since we need to cover the brads used to attach the ring binder, add a piece of pattern paper on the back panel. Add a stripe of pattern paper to the other three panels also, as extra decoration I adhered 3 layers of assorted ribbon and tied a bow with a little flower in the front.

Step Five is to reattach the metal hasp, and decorate the top of the box, I used layers of pattern paper from the beautiful My Mind’s Eye collection Stella & Rose/Mabel and a Felt Victorian Gate from Prima Marketing, added some flowers, brads, buttons, pins, a chipboard frame and ribbon.

For the album pages I used two different sizes of chipboard from a couple of 7 Gypsies albums.
The pages are decorated using rub-ons, flowers, ribbon and layers of paper, I tried not to make the pages bulky, but that is a real challenge for me since I tend to over embellish; to be able to get a better picture I opened the binder clip.

Here is a close up of a couple of the pages. I look at these photos and wish I could know the story behind them, fortunately in the case of this set of pictures the lake looked familiar to me, I googled the town and I was able to confirm the identify comparing the church in the background to a photo I found online :)

As always I hope I was able to inspire you to make your own mini album, if you have any questions post them in the comments or join the Group at our Scrappy Community.

=Di

A Twinchie Monday

Hello, Julie here today with a post about twinchies. I just love twinchies. There is so much you can do (surprisingly) with a 2 inch by 2 inch square. Here are two of the twinchies I made recently:
Here is a close up of my "tea time" inchie:

I used Crate Paper's Restoration line for this twinchie. I had a teacup sticker that I chose for the focal point. I inked it with Color Box's Cocoa ink. I used Papertrey Ink's Tiny Tag die for the little kraft flower and a little sticker that said tea time from Crate Paper. I used a tiny little vintage flower as the finishing touch.

The next twinchie is my "Smile" twinchie:

I used scrap patterned paper for the twinchie. I also had a scrap of old book paper so I tore it to add a bit of texture and I inked all pieces with Color Box's Dune ink. I thought the vintage pattern girl matched the paper nicely so I used her as my twinchie's focal point. I used Papertrey Ink's Tiny Tags to create the cream Smile tag. The Smile sentiment is also from Papertrey Ink's Tiny Tags stamps. I finished by using a tiny flower.

Thank you for looking today!

What have you got in your handbag?

If you're anything like me it's a load of junk that you shove in your bag (or in your pockets!) to sort out later and then never do until it's overflowing and you can't find anything!

Well lately I've been commuting a lot and my handbag has been filling up with train tickets and coffee cupholders (got to get 'to-go'!) so I decided to do something with them :)

Here are the raw materials:-

I started by coating everything at least twice in white gesso to cover the patterned surface and then used blue and pink Dylusions shades to coat the 5 tickets and the cup-holder, blue on one side and pink on the other. I stamped images on the tickets and cup-holder, using flourish stamps and some main images in black StazOn and green Peeled Paint Distress Ink. I embellished with gold Stickles and also added borders in gold ink to the cards.
I painted an ATC blank purple and folded it in half to fix inside the cupholder so that it would stop the painted cards falling right through.
And there you go! Why not empty out your handbag or your pockets this weekend and see what you can make?

I would love to hear the things you keep with the intention of crafting with them, and what sorts of things you use them for :) comment with your suggestions!

Gayle xx

Grads Money Holder Cards

Hello, Diana here sharing a couple of cards I made for two of my nieces that are graduating from High School. Since they are both going to College my husband and I decided to give them money.

The cards have a small 3.5X3.5in craft envelope in the inside, the perfect size to hold folded bills.

My inspiration for the decoration of the cards is based on each of there personalities, one has strong colors and a cute bird and the other one has a more feminine butterfly theme.

Don't forget we got a layout challenge going on at our Scrappy Community.

I hope you all have a great day!

=Di

May's Inspiration Monday

Hello! Today marks another Inspiration Monday! I hope this Mother's Day weekend treated you well, and that you are ready to get down to some craftiness!

The Inspiration image is from The Wedding Community. Let's see what this image inspires you to create!

Once you have completed your project, please take a moment to upload a picture of it to our Monthly Inspiration Challenge Group!

We'd love to see how you were inspired!

Happy Mother's Day America!

Wishing all the American Moms a very happy Mother's Day today from The Scrappy Tree!

Have a beautiful day and here's to being thoroughly spoilt today for everything you do all year round :)

Happy Mother's Day Moms - we love you!

Mothers Day Cards and a Challenge

Hello, Diana here to share three Mothers day Cards I made inspired by these cute puffie bird embellishments from KI Memories.

The card size is 3.5” X 3.5”, I used a Maya road chip frame that I covered with acrylic paint, added some ribbon and lace, a few extra decorations like brads and gems, and finally a rub-on with the word Celebrate.

And now a challenge, in honor of mothers day make a layout about someone in your life that is a mom, it can be your own mom, your mother in law, grandmother, an aunt or even yourself, post it to the Lets Scrap Group in our Scrappy Community, I'll post them here on May25th.

I made this layout of my mom using a sketch from Inspired Blueprints

In My Heart Forever

Wishing you all a Happy Mothers Day in advance!

=Di

Altered envelopes

Good morning! Today I wanted to share a little project that I worked on over the weekend. The project came about because I absolutely love Maya Rd. envelopes but I struggle with just how to use them. So, I decided I would alter them and use them as a card.


Here is the first one I created:
Here is a second one I created:

Supplies:

Maya Rd. envelopes

K & Co. stickers

Martha Stewart doily

buttons

ribbon

Thank you for stopping by today!

~Julie