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!

Are you ready for Easter?

Today sees the beginning of Easter week so it's time to think about finishing off those Easter projects and getting those cards posted :)

There are chocolate eggs of various shapes and sizes hidden away around our house ready to be cracked open on Sunday :)

We're also making preparations for our family meal on Easter Sunday (everyone is making a different part of the meal so we're all looking at recipes and finding ingredients).  I'm lucky to just be making part of the starter because I'll be working.

What do you have left to do for Easter?

Gayle xx

Layered tag... and a change of plans!

Hi and welcome! It's Saturday and although I should have been winging my way up to Birmingham for the ICHF show the weather has put paid to our plans :/ but thank you Scrap 365 for the tickets, it was a great prize but just not meant to be this time around!

My post this week is my old favourite, tags of course!  This has more layers than I care to remember :) I nearly chucked it away!  I was persuaded to keep on adding layers (thanks K!) and I like the way it came out :) 

I used a vintage image at the bottom of the tag, some torn paper on the edges, some tissue tape and just layers and layers (and layers and layers - you get the idea!) of Distress Ink and Distress Stain.  The stamps are mainly Stampers Anonymous but I have some Andy Skinner text in there, and some butterflies from Craft Stamper magazine :)

 Yes, I managed to catch some rare sunshine in this pic and couldn't resist sticking my tag right in the beams!  Always love how everything looks that bit different in the sunshine :)

Don't forget to check out our Twitter, Facebook page and Facebook chat group to see if you're a winner of a RAK for Craft Month this March... it could be you!

Have a great weekend and wrap up warm :)

Happy scrapping!

Gayle xx

Where did you get that hat?

Finally! It's taken me on and off since Christmas to get done with this project but at last I'm done ;)

This is a Tando Creative cardboard Mad Hatter hat which was bought for me at Christmas by my Mum from The Stamp Attic (I believe Wendy might still have some in the shop) - one each for me, my Mum and my Nan to work on when we got together at Christmas.  Mum and Nan had finished by New Year, me not so much...(!)

The kit comes as a flat pack but you glue it together into this 3D shape. I decided it needed the Andy Skinner treatment (yes, still loving this technique!) but no book this time - I moved onto a Mad Hat!  Of the additional pieces, some were included with the hat kit itself but Tando also make an extra small kit of parts which go with this set - teacup, 'drink me' sign etc.

 I made a small rose from card using the Tattered Florals Alterations die and sprayed it with black and red spray inks, and found a large Prima rose which seemed perfect apart from the colour so I sprayed it to match.  I added some Idealogy cogs to match the metallic look of the hat, and tied lace and ribbons around the base of the hat.

The '10/6' label is part of the kit (painted and then inked, with a layer of glossy accents on the letters) and the pins tucked behind it are Papermania Vintage Notes.
I thought it would be fun to add a little signature Mad Hatter trinket, so used a 7Gypsies photo holder with a circle of card cut to size and inked, and then covered over with Glossy Accents to look like glass and hung from a piece of brown twine.

Thank you so much for visiting today and coming to take a peek at my hat :) it was really fun to make and I'm quite pleased with how it came out :) hope you're getting lots done for National Craft Month, don't forget to keep an eye on the Facebook page, Twitter and our Facebook chat group for some little surprise RAKs that will be announced for our followers :)

Gayle xx

Happy Mother's Day UK!

A very happy Mother's Day from The Scrappy Tree! Hope you have a wonderful day and know how much you're appreciated :) xx

Altered watch box

Hiya folks, hope you're having a good weekend!  This week I wanted to share a project I worked on recently during one of our regular Scrappy Tree Skype sessions! Love how easy it makes 'socialising' with your friends from far away :)

I've altered quite a few items with this technique now from Andy Skinner's 'Book of Secrets' workshop; I was lucky enough to attend the class with him in person but it's available as an online class now so the weblink in this paragraph leads you there.

This time I had an old watch box in the shape of a book...

It was a lovely little box in its own right but not too exciting as it had the manufacturer's name embossed on the front so....

The 'metal' plates and rivets are part of Andy's book of secrets class, with a Tando Creative die cut bookplate on the front and die cut cog on the back, and a few Ideology gears.

I cut a piece of manila card to size and stamped it using tiny letter stamps with the word 'wish' in coffee Archival ink, then inked around the edges in frayed burlap Distress Ink.  I filled in the centre with Glossy Accents to give it a glassy look.

And here's the back with the larger Tando Creative cog.

I've got a bigger project to share with this technique very soon once I can get some good pictures, just love it!  Want to put it on everything! Thanks Andy :)

Just wanted to remind you that this month is National Craft Month and we're sending out a RAK every week this month to a follower from the blog (Kirsten this week), our Facebook page and chat group, and our Twitter account, so come say hello and let us know what you're making :)


Happy scrapping!

Gayle xx

A Wedding Hello

Hello! It's Julie here today with a quick card I made up for a weekend wedding.

I wasn't loving any of the wedding stamps I had so I chose to focus on hearts and love as the theme.

Supplies used: Dear Lizzy chipboard shapes, washi tape, October Afternoon and Studio Calico paper, Fiskars border punch, 3D pop dots, stamp sentiment from Simon Says Stamp.

This card was very easy to put together. All I did was cut and place everything and I stamped my sentiment last.

National Craft Month Part 1

Hello all!  So March is National Craft Month and we are excited! So we're going to be sending out a few goodies into the world :)

Starting here today, next week on our facebook page, the following week on our twitter page and in the final week of March in our facebook chat group we'll be sending out some Scrappy Tree RAKS!

We wanted to say thank you to you our followers for your comments and your chat, so we'll select at random someone who interacts with us in each of those formats :) starting this week with Kirsten at Isis Imaginings!  Kirsten does some beautiful work, please visit her blog and say hi!  But she's also kind enough to find the time to visit us here and leave lovely comments too, so we want to say thank you Kirsten and happy craft month!
Shoot us an email with your posting address to thescrappytree at hotmail dot com and we'll send you some candy :)

To everybody reading, join in the fun, like us follow us tweet us and chat with us :)

Look out next week for another Scrappy Tree RAK on our facebook page :)

Have a great week!

TST xxx

Wishing Spring was here again...

So I'm kind of tired of this stinky weather... bring on the Spring! Not so much the British summer (because it rains the whole time!) but Spring could really be something to look forward to :)

However!  It is March the 1st today which sees the beginning of National Craft Month in the US (and we don't mind joining in these things from the UK, do we!) so definitely something to feel cheery about!  We'll be celebrating over the course of the month in our own Scrappy Tree way, so keep your eyes peeled :)

Now onto this week's piece!  I made this card as a thank you to my most recent placement mentor, she was very lovely and looked after me well!

I used a free stamp from Craft Stamper for the central image (which is raised on foam squares), stamped in coffee Archival on manila, and the background card is an IndigoBlu script stamp coloured with the Spring Distress Inks (Shaded Lilac, Squeezed Lemonade, Peacock Feathers) with some Dusty Concord around the edges.

I added the purple ribbon from my stash because I loved the colour, and the black edging also has some sparkle!

I really hope she likes it, I won't see her to give it to her in person but I know she is a crafter too :)

Happy scrapping!

Gayle xx