Clock Class at The Stamp Attic

Just a quick post to share with you my make at Andy Skinner's class at The Stamp Attic yesterday.

This uses one of Andy's Tando Creative chipboard clock kits and lots of lovely paint techniques :)

I highly recommend taking one of Andy's classes if you're a lover of all things distress, always something new to learn! 

Have a lovely weekend

Gayle xx

www.andyskinnercrafts.com

www.thestampattic.co.uk

Daybook

Hi, Diana here. Pre-made albums also known as Daybooks have made my scrapbooking easier, I like to make my own mini albums but I have been falling behind on my scrapbooking and I needed a little help.

This 6X6 Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic Spiral Daybook is so pretty, it already comes with the cut out banner, I only added a little twine and paper to the back of it, a few layers of paper, a doilies, a tag, a brad and some alphas completed the cover design, simple and fast.

The ribbon helps to add a little more color and tying a knot in the front adds another detail to the covers design.

I made some pockets in the inside pages to be able to add the invitation and some extra memorabilia. 

Most of the inside pages are already so pretty they only needed a photo and some journal. 

Well, hopefully I will be able to create a little more often, but it is not looking that way lol

Till next time

=Di

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th Of July

From The Scrappy Tree

Wishing you and yours a 

happy and safe 

4th of July. 

Pregnancy Journal

Hello, Diana here, it has been a long time, almost half a year, but I am finally back in the scrappy world. My baby girl is nor 5 months and 3 weeks old, I am trying not to fall behind on scrapping her photos, but first I had to finish my pregnancy journal and the baby shower mini, today I will share the first.

I used an old moleskine book I had, I thought it would be hard to embellish because the book is very  thin, but it turned out to be very easy and I like the size of the pages. 

My title for this book is "Positive" as in a positive pregnancy test; because of the small size of the pages I was able to gather a lot of paper scraps, for the cover I used a few layers of paper and lace to tie the album.

I like looking at the side because it shows all the different elements I used.

My cover is very simple, but these days I can only handle simple.

Our talented Julie send me this adorable tiny album, I decided it would look great as part of the outside decoration, and I believe it does.

It holds pics of the nursery :)

Here are a few of the pages inside, I used a lot of random embellishments and paper, punches and ribbon.

The tiny amazing album Julie made came in this adorable bag with the cutest tag. We received a lot of thoughtful cards, some of them handmade by my talented scrappy friends, I wanted to keep them all in one place for Eliza's keepsake, and used Julie's bag and tag as the cover, love how it turned out.

Hopefully I can keep up with my scrappy mojo, being a mom has been such a great blessing, I hope I don't bore you all with my pink creations and baby photos lol

=Di

A little Copic

Hi everyone!  It's Julie here today with a little Copic work I did over the weekend. 

I started with a little CC Designs cutie. I just love her on her tree swing. (Will update later with stamp name!)  I used Copics to color her. I added a touch of Glossy Accents on her eyes and some stickles on the butterflies. I cut her out with a little white around the image. 

Then I went about selecting papers for my card. I had this great paper in pretty purples that I decided to use. I had a light lilac card stock piece that I die cut and embossed with a cloud embossing folder from Darice. I lightly sanded the clouds and adhered the piece onto of some ribbon. 

The sentiment is from a Simon Says Stamp set and was stamped on a scalloped oval from a Fiskars punch. I used a tiny demensional to pop the sentiment just a bit. 

I thought the card front still needed a little something so I added some punched flowers because I actually do not own a single purple flower!  Gasp!!!  I added a little purple stickles to the flower centers as well. 

Below are pictures of the outside as well as the inside of the card. 

Thanks for stopping by!!

A knitting post

Just a quickie knitting post today, if you've followed our blog for a while you'll know I pop up with these from time to time!

I've been trying a few things to move on from knit stitch and the inevitable scarf, and with the arrival of my lovely friend's beautiful little girl (congratulations D!!) I went looking for a simple pattern on the internet so that I could send a handmade gift.

I had a small cardboard box hidden away in my stash of things to alter, so covered with some scrapbooking paper and added a little bling thinking it would be useful for keepsakes :)

The booties are knitted from yarn in a very pale yellow/cream colour, with a pink ribbon threaded through to fasten them.

I admit my very first attempt came out at a size to fit a toddler rather than a newborn (I swear I used the right size needles!) but after trying again with smaller needles I was much happier with the size!  I managed to find a cute pair of Mary Janes to match the scrapbooking paper so that baby E would have something stylish to wear too :)

Hope you've had a great weekend, would love to hear about any projects you have going at the moment different to your usual habits :)

Gayle xx

Enjoying the Process

Good morning!  It's Julie here today with a post about the creative process!  This isn't a post with a finished product like a card, but a post about how getting there can be all the fun!!

Sometimes I feel pressured by deadlines.  There's always laundry, etc. to do that need to be done and there's always a person's birthday or an event that I need to make a card for and sometimes that pressure means something falls through the cracks or I rush and try to do everything and that means (for me at least), not doing anything well or thoroughly.  For today's post.....I'm enjoying the process!!!

For a few years I admired all the paper crafters using their Copics and doing wonderful cards!  Their cards were so wonderful to me that it kept me from coloring mine!  I just didn't like the way my images came out (at the time I had no Copics).  My Copic collection has since grown and I'm enjoying playing with them. Each time I color with them, I am learning things.  Crafting can definitely be an evolution of learning; learning what works and what doesn't, learning what we like and what we don't!  I have come to love my Copics.  I just need more practice with them!

I just got some new stamps to enjoy my coloring process!  The images below are from C.C. Designs and The Greeting Farm.  The girls in these images are just perfect for coloring.  Please excuse my Packers cup!  As a Minnesotan, this seems likes a treasonous item to have but I like the Packers, just not as much as I like my Vikings!  Haha!  Anyway, on to the post!!!  ;)

I have stamped out a ton of the stamps on watercolor paper (for Inktense pencils) and Neenah White cardstock for Copic coloring!  Part of enjoying coloring for me is coloring in different mediums.

Part of enjoying the process for me is failure!  Haha! As odd as that sounds, failure does help me enjoy the process.  I learn what works and what doesn't.  I learned that I need A LOT of work on my Inktense skin coloring!  Check out the girls below!!  YIKES!!!

This image came out a lot better!  I used Inktense pencils on all of this Princess EXCEPT the skin!  I used a mix of two Gelatos from Faber-Castell to product the right color.  She still needs a little touch up but she is almost complete!

Then I played with my Copics!  I still need a lot of work on hair and skin coloring but again, learning is part of the process and part of the fun! 

 

A little YouTube on our The Scrappy Tree channel going through the process:

 

Thank you so much for stopping by today!  Please leave us a comment below and tell us what you enjoy about the creative process for your chosen craft!

 

A side step card

Hello! It's Julie here today with a side step card I needed to make for a local store's card challenge.

I was given a set of border stickers and a green card base that was already cut and scored to make the side step card. The challenge was to use the base and at least part of one sticker on the card. Anything else could be added.

I started by using the stickers first. I layed them all down on the front layer of the card. (Then I covered a lot of them up! Lol). I had had no inspiration on this card until late last night but when it hit me, it hit me and kept me up late.

I cut panels of light purple cardstock to cover all panels (even the stickers I set down at first). I made sure to leave some of the stickers visible. I inked the panels with a purple Hero Arts pad before I glued them on.

I used a Nestabilities scalloped rectangle die to cut a white rectangle. Them I set it aside. I stamped a Princess and a Prince from Penny Black on Neenah white cardstock with Memento Ink and I played with my Copics to get their color right. Stickles here and there added the finishing touches. I set those images aside and then stamped flowers from Technique Tuesday with Versafine black ink and colored with Gelatos. I added Stickles and a black pearl to each center and art aside.

My sentiment from Penny Black was embossed on a piece of white cardstock after I colored with Gelatos. Then I tried to figure out where I was putting everything. :)

I decided to ultimately alter the scalloped white rectangle. I used scrap paper to free hand draw clouds. I cut the clouds out and used them as a mask. I watered down a blue gelato and used a stipple brush to stencil the cloud background. I then placed it on the front of the card and added the princess. I didn't like having her float in the sky so added the flowers beneath her and a little ribbon.

I added some corrugated cardboard to the back step thinking it was like a fence or a hill for the Prince. I glued that on and added the Prince. I added the sentiment to the front of the card with pop up glue dots. I thought it and the second step were missing something so I found Studio Calico wood veneers and colored them with Gelatos. Then I added them to the card and carefully added Stickles.

So that is my card share today and since I ended up liking the side step card idea, I might do a tutorial on cutting, scoring and making one next week. :). Have a great day!

I dream of rosette flowers....

 A late post from me this weekend after a very busy few days!  I can't believe it's Sunday evening already, where did the weekend go??

I have a rosette flower story to share with you today. After falling completely in love with the snowflake rosette Alterations die at Christmas, I was rather hankering after the less seasonal version so I could start putting that on lots of things too!

I had a voucher for the craft store so managed to pick it up at a reduced price, headed home to try it out on the Vagabond and poof! Disaster!  Smoke started coming out of the sides of the Vagabond and that was that!  The retailer was very good and collected it and replaced it with a new one but it did take a little while, which is a long while when you have a brand new die to play with (I haven't yet figured out how to run these long dies through the Cuttlebug, any tips anyone?) but at last it came back and here is my first play with the rosette flower.

I put the flower together as in this youtube tutorial and used some spray inks to colour it, accenting with some Distress Ink and a sponge applicator around the edges.

The background tag was coloured with Spring Distress Inks and Dusty Concord and then stamped with Indigoblu script, Stampers Anonymous harlequin pattern, Inkadinkado swirls and a word stamp from Andy Skinner (I just wanted the word 'Dreams' so covered the other words on the stamps with the flower). 

I embellished with some Studio FX chipboard swirls which I sprayed with blue spray ink and then distressed the edges in brown, and added a pearl pin and some brown twine to finish off.

Hope you had a great weekend and got some crafting in, I'll be aiming for some this week for sure!

Gayle xx

A tag using Inktense pencils and Gelatos

Hello!  It's Julie here today and I'd like to share a little tag made for a friend using some of my favorite products, Inktense pencils and Gelatos. 

Supplies used on this tag:  Versafine ink (good for watercoloring), Stampendous stamps, Derwent Inktense pencils (used on flower stamp) , Faber Castell Gelatos (used on tag only) , foam adhesive, Goosebumps texture spray (used to add shine to the flower).

I also used Tim Holtz's tiny attacher to adhere the My Friend sentiment.

Here's a video how to from our YouTube channel!  Subscribe to us on YouTube and tell us what you'd like to see.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Say it with flowers!

Happy weekend to you all!  Hope you enjoyed your Easter break last weekend; I managed to fill my Easter week by meeting up with some wonderful friends and also got some much needed sorting done, so hopefully I'm better prepared for a busy time coming up :)

 I have a tag to share today using a set of Paperartsy background stamps I was lucky to pick up in the sale; I love doing backgrounds and I often have trouble covering them up with a main feature but I went for some embellishment on this tag with some small paper roses (made using die cuts from the Alterations tattered floral die).  The background colours are Distress Ink in shaded lilac, squeezed lemonade and peacock feathers with some ink splats in broken china and scattered straw Distress Stain.  The stamped images are black and coffee Archival and poppy red Impress Ink, with some overstamped script in picket fence Distress Stain.

You can also see a little strip of washi tape with the word 'faith' peeping out from behind the flowers at the bottom :)

You can find tutorials on how to make the paper roses online; I was taught how to make them by Hels Sheridan at a workshop so here's the link to her tutorial.

You can see the pieces I started out with here, stamped with script in coffee Archival Ink...

...and then coloured in Distress Ink (in dusty concord, peacock feathers and squeezed lemonade)...

...this is the rose assembled...

...which I then sprayed with a little black Dylusions Ink to grunge it up a bit.

Along with the flowers I added some brown cord, some Tim Holtz and 7gypsies tickets (torn and inked), some pearl hatpins, an Ideaology fragment with a piece of stamped manila card glued to the back (with my initial!) and some yellow baker's twine tying it onto the pin.

I finished up by inking the edges with dusty concord and frayed burlap Distress Ink and some black Archival, and by tying on some Basic Grey fibres I've had tucked away for ages; the colours seem to match really well!

Thank you for visiting us today, have a great weekend and hopefully we'll have some exciting news to share with you in the very near future so watch this space :)

Happy scrapping!

Gayle xx

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from The Scrappy Tree!  Easter weekend is here and I'm sure many of you are looking forward to exchanging chocolate eggs tomorrow and observing the rites and rituals that make up your Easter :)

At our house it will be chocolate eggs, but as usual my parents will be visiting my Nan several hours drive away so I've sent this little Easter something up to my Nan :)

 This card (love those bright colours!) are the Spring Distress Ink colours on a white card, layered and spritzed with water with a kraft ATC in the same colours in the top left corner and a manila square stamped and edged with coffee Archival ink.  The bunnies are from Craft Stamper magazine (love those free stamps!) stamped in black Archival on the main card.  The flourishes at the corners are Stampers Anonymous and I also added a line of small gems to the right side of the ATC.

Have to have some choccie eggs at Easter!  This is a plastic envelope for a card decorated with a strip of manila card coloured with peeled paint Distress Ink and some metallic Distress Stain. I stamped the same swirls in brown Distress Ink and added the Anita's bunny stamp (coloured with pastels), some coloured buttons and a strip of dymo tape.

Hopefully Nan will enjoy her choccies :) have a great Easter everybody!

Gayle xx

Easter tags for Kids using Copics and Inktense pencils

Hello!  Julie here today!  I hope you are preparing for a wonderful time with family this Easter!  I'd like to share some tags that I made for some special kids in my life.  I used Copic markers and Derwent Inktense pencils.

 

I apologize for the pictures.  It was the best my phone would do last night.  :)  The tag above was using Copics and the tags below were using Inktense pencils.

The above video is from our You Tube channel and shows a part of the process of making the tag with Copics.  For the most part I did not blend my Copics on these tags since they were for kids and would most likely get thrown away.  I went for quanity.  lol.  I also used my blue cotton candy Gelato to add some color to my white tag.

Once of the things I show you in that video is that I did not have the proper color gemstone for a tag. So I used my Copic marker to color a clear gemstone the proper color!  Easy Peasy and a great way to make a colored gem you need but don't own!  I used YR07  to get the right orange I needed.

The video from The Scrappy Tree's You Tube page below is using the Derwent Inktense pencils.  I just love these pencils.  They are an INK pencil, not a water color pencil.  They have a very intense color to them that is just wonderful!

The color did not come out to true to life in this video.  I think I'll only film during the daytime hours in the future!

Here's a peek at my stash of tags I ended up making:

I plan on tying (or attaching) these tags to a little gift of bubbles for the kids and also a little treat bag of some graham cracker bunnies!

We hope you have a wonderful Easter!