The Scrappy Tree

Be mine Valentine!

2012-02-10T12:59:00.000-08:00

Today my project is a tag that I was playing around with for Valentine's Day (yes we're nearly there folks, don't forget your sweetheart on Tuesday!).

I sandwiched an acetate image from Crafty Individuals between two glass slides along with the caption (stamped letters which I cut out and stuck down with Glossy Accents) and put them into a memory frame; I then decorated a manila tag, keeping in mind the central placement for the slide and inked it with Fired Brick Distress Ink, Poppy Red Impress ink, gold pigment ink and black and brown StazOn. I added some red ribbon and black lace to attach the slides to the tag.

Happy Valentine's everyone! Happy scrapping and have a great weekend!

Gayle xx

Pinterest Inspiration

2012-02-08T08:57:00.000-08:00

Hello, Diana here; are any of you hooked on Pinterest? I amfor sure; this is the place to go if you are looking for inspiration. I have aBoard titled “I want to make this” these images are from that board

Pinterest Sources: Image1- lemonademakinmomma.com Image2- Ballard Design

I went to different thrift stores in searched of nice framesfor different projects I’ve been making. I painted this one in white usingRust-Oleum with Primer.

I purchased a roll of Chicken Wire at Lowes and measured itto be slightly bigger than the back of the frame.

If you have one of those big staplers it will be easier toattach the wire using that tool. Since my husband did not have a stapler hegave me these curved nails and a hammer, it took me forever but I got themission accomplished.

This is the finished project.

And here it is hanging in my room holding my jewelry, I usedTim Holtz Hinge and Hanger Clips.

Since I already had my fingers in pain trying to hold that tinynail and hit it with a huge hammer, I decided to add a small piece of thechicken wire to my next project, and this is how it came out

This Cork Board will go in my scraproom , the frame is alsofrom a thrift store and I painted it using Black Chalk spray paint, this painthas a very nice finish.

I’ve been re-decorating my scraproom and making a few moredecorations for the house, so stay tuned for future Pinterest Inspiration postslike this one J

Hope you all have an Amazing day
=Di

Quilted bag

2012-02-04T04:18:00.000-08:00

So for Christmas I had a jelly roll of material from Moda called 'Wing It' which I absolutely loved the colour of; recently I had some time to play about with my sewing machine and thought that I would try to make a quilted bag - this is my attempt...

I sewed together strips of the material to make a larger piece and then sandwiched some wadding between the front piece and a plain piece of calico for the inside. I then stitched it all together to make a bag, and stitched a longer piece lengthways for the handle. I wanted a bit of an accent on the front so found some red material and made a fabric flower using a tutorial from MollieMakes magazine.

To button the top I added a buttonhole at the front and a heart-shaped button from Cath Kidston.

I really liked the idea of this being a journaling bag so I put a notebook and pen inside and will be giving it as a gift to a friend :)

I went outside to take the pictures as the sun was shining and it really brought out the colours of the bag :) it looked so lovely I took some more pictures of the views from the back of our house and just thought I'd share them :) love that winter sunshine!

Happy stitching everybody! Have a great weekend :)

Gayle xx

A little splash of colour

2012-01-27T11:35:00.000-08:00

I was looking at layering this week when I was making a few cards, and had tremendous fun with pigment ink, spray ink, tissue tape, paper, doilies, images, flowers, pearls and punches while making these!

As with my last post, both images are from Crafty Individuals but I'm afraid many of the other supplies are ones that were floating about in my stash and caught my fancy :) although you might recognise a few flashes of Mr Holtz in the stamping and tissue tape department! If you look closely at the card above you can see the Eiffel Tower off in the distance ...just! lol

What I enjoyed most about making these was layering up a neutral background with cream, beige and gold, and then choosing a colour to accent; with the second card the spray ink I used seemed to quite closely match the burnt oranges in the image.

Thanks for visiting! Happy scrapping this weekend :)

Gayle xx

Paper Bag Gift Pockets

2012-01-26T11:37:00.000-08:00

Hello! It's Julie here today with a few new paperbag gift pockets for you to look at! I had mentioned in my previous paperbag pocket post that I had been inspired by Michelle Wooderson's paperbag pockets. Her's are truly amazing. You can check some out HERE.

To make my paper bag pockets, I start with a simple lunch bag that you can get at the grocery store or Walmart. I have the bottom flap facing up and the opening to my left.

I then take the right side of the bag (the side with the bottom flap) and fold over to the left, covering my original opening. Once you fold it this way, turn the bag so the opening is facing away from you.

Then fold down part of the bag with the bottom flap. I end up folding down approximately 2 inches. At this point you can either glue, staple or stitch the bag just the way it is.

I chose to stitch my bag with the sewing machine. I run from top to bottom.

You will be left with two pockets to stuff. The first is the little one in front.

The second is the pocket from the original opening. Lots of place to tuck and stash goodies. Now once you have done this, you are free to decorate in any way you would like. Here's a few new ones I made.

The first paper bag pocket has some wonderful Cosmo Cricket papers on it. I love those vintage girls!

I have three small blank notecards tucked into the far pocket of this one.

The next one has some of the awesome 5 and Dime October Afternoon papers! I love that line!

This pocket comes with a little handmade note pad.

This one is one of my favorites! I used some scraps for this one!

This pocket holds 4 bookmarks!

This pocket holds a handmade card that could be given to a good friend!

I love that you can be so creative with paperbag pockets! Anything goes! They are wonderful little gifts. If you have any questions about making them (because I stink at giving directions), please leave your question in the comments! Also, I did just list these at my etsy shop. There are a few additional pictures there (particularly with the final pocket shown). Thanks for stopping by !

~Julie

2012-01-25T07:40:00.000-08:00

Hello, Diana here with this weeks post; I just finished an online class from Big Pictures and would like to share two of the project I made.

The class was "Journey to Happiness: what Matters Most" by Lisa Day.

This is the Focus on what matters most mini album, it has my list of things I need to prioritize in 2012. I used a Mason Jar chipboard album from Maya Road and Studio Calico Memoir paper.

The Mason Jar stamp is from Cocoa Daisy and I used white embossing to make it pop.

This layout is my list of Prioritize Changes, the layout design is based on the the one Lisa Day made. I used leftover paper I had from the mini album.

To make the hearts I did THIS technique I saw in the Lily Bee blog made by Kay, very pretty, check it out.

That is all for today, hope you have a great day!

=Di

Dreamy card

2012-01-20T02:31:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to share a dreamy little card with you today :) Using My Mind's Eye Bella Bella paper for the background I stamped some Inkadinkado swirls in gold and stamped the PaperArtsy caption.

The dreamy looking lady is from a collage sheet from Crafty Individuals.

I added some ribbon, the flower and the green gems from an embellishment pack from Scrapagogo...

...and the butterfly is cut out from the Bella Bella paper with some gold Stickles added to the body.

Sweet dreams! And happy scrapping :)

Gayle xx

January Mini Album Tutorial

2012-01-18T01:00:00.000-08:00

Hello,Diana here with this month’s Mini Album Tutorial; I like the variety of printedbook covers 7 Gypsies has, but I don’t always like to use rings to hold thepages and I don’t own a binding machine. In this tutorial I’ll show you anotherway of using these nice covers.

The cover is 3.5” X 5.5”, I usedpaper from a 6” X 6” pad, I cut one side to 5” and folded them in half, andthese are the pages for the inside of the book.

The next three pieces are goingto join the covers. For the inside spine I cut a piece of cardboard 5.5” longand thick enough to fit a small eyelet, I also cut a piece of paper to cover the sideof the spine that will show from the inside of the album. The paper that will go on the outside of thespine is 5.5” X 3.5”, I scored a 1” line for the part of the paper that isgoing on the front and left the back part longer, I scored another line alittle bit wider than the cardboard spine. The image on the right shows how I punched a decorative border.

Once my three pieces were glued together I punched out two holes and added eyelets. This image shows the inside of the spine.

I glued the back cover.

And the front cover.

This is how the front looks.

I punched out two holes on the book pages and put a piece of ribbon through the middle of them, and then I put the ribbon though the holes in the spine tying a tight bow on the outside to secure the pages.

Here is the finished album.

This album is a gift I’ll be giving to my husband on our anniversary;the theme is the song The Story by Brandi Carlile that I dedicated to him, eachpage has a verse from the song.

Since the papers have so much decoration on them I left theembellishment simple and only used tags and paperclip dangles.

As always I hope I was able to bring some inspiration to your crafty world :)

Till next time.

=Di

Paper bag gift pocket

2012-01-16T08:22:00.000-08:00

Good morning! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Today, I'd like to show you a gift that I made for my Grandmother. She is a crafter so I knew she'd love a handmade gift. I love paper bags for crafting. One of my favorite things to make is a paperbag album, but I was in a time crunch so I had to make something kinda quickly. I was inspired by Michelle Wooderson's paperbag gift pockets on her blog.

Here's what I made:

I took a paper bag and folded it in half. Then I folded up the flap a bit to form an extra pocket for goodies. Once that was done, I sewed it with my sewing machine along the edges. Once my pocket was complete, I added my papers (mostly from October Afternoon) and my ribbon and little mushroom. The cute little girl was from the Little Princess Vintage tag line that I got from
Pretty Little Studio etsy shop.

I wanted to add a few little mini cards, some little banners and some trims to her gift. Here's a look at the trims I added.

I made the tags that the trims were on with a Papertrey Ink tag die using ledger paper and paper from October Afternoon. I added some seam binding, a button and twine to complete the look.

This is so easy to make! I hope you play around with a paper bag today!

~Julie

2012-01-13T08:43:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!! Winter is upon us here finally in Minnesota and I thought it would be the perfect time to share some Winter Twinchies with you.

If you are new to twinchies, I'll offer a quick explanation as to what they are. Twinchies are 2 inch by 2 inch squares that you decorate as you wish. They are a lot of fun to create. I find they are fun to do when you've lost your crafty mojo. They can jump start your creativity!

Here's my Winter twinchies that I made for a swap.

I used some Pink Paislee paper as my base. I love the ledger look of it! Since Winter was the theme, I chose to add a snow flake to it. I did have some smaller snowflakes that would have fit completely on the 2 inch by 2 inch square, but I really liked the big snowflake and the way it looked by just showing a portion of it. The snowflake die is from Papertrey Ink. Once I got my snowflake cut on my Cuttlebug, I used some Dune ink by Color Box to ink edges of both the snowflake and ledger paper. I applied some Beacon 3 in 1 glue on the snowflake and applied it to the ledger paper. Once that was done, I cut some red and white twine and tied a bow. Simple!!!

If you have never tried twinchies, give them a go! They can really be fun!

Grow to be Happy, Loved and Creative.

2012-01-11T08:22:00.000-08:00

Hello, Diana here to share a fewdecorations I made for my scrap room. I wanted to make something personal formy room; the idea came from a question Julie asked on our The Scrappy TreeFacebook Branch group. If you could go back in time and see yourself as a childwhat advise will you give?

Grow to be Happy, Loved andCreative.

The pieces I used were a 5”x5”canvas, 3 different sizes of embroidery hoops and a 7 Gypsies Mini LibraryDrawer. Paper and embellishments are mainly from Crate Paper Portraitcollection.

For the Canvas I painted a wood letter D and part of the canvas with Jenni Bowlin Dabber paint in Stick Candy, I added the cute camera because taking photos is part of the things I love to do, the flowers are from Prima Marketing.

This is my main title, I mixed fonts from a Glitz flashcard, a chip piece form the Portrait collection, the letter b is from Prima Marketing and the e is from Donna Downey Canvas word Create, I used Glimmer mist to paint it.

The word happy is also from Donna Downey, I used Glimmer Mist to paint it, and the flower is from Prima Marketing.

My friend Erica gave me this pretty Tart Tin, I punched out a 2" circle and added stickers and brads from the portrait collection.

The inside of the Library Drawer has the word Creative, I used the remaining letters from the Donna Downey canvas word create and misted them in different colors, the rest of the letters, little flowers and acrylic flowers are from Prima Marketing, assorted lace, stickers and buttons completed the design of each space.

For the top I added the "&" with a clothespin and put a vintage wooden spool that my friend Erica also gave me, a few flowers, gems, ribbon and a button on top, the dangles and charms hanging from a piece of lace are from 7 Gypsies.

Have you made any decorations for your craft space? go to our Facebook branch group and post the pics so we can get some inspiration from you . You can also post the link to your blog there.

Have an Amazing Day!

=Di

Out with the Old, In with the New!

2012-01-08T22:43:00.000-08:00

Hi Everybody,

Kristin here, wishing you all a Happy New Year! For my first post of the year, I am going to focus a bit on our theme for the month and talk about Project Life. First up, our theme!

When TST girls and I brainstormed recently about our plans for the new year, we came up with some really fun and exciting ideas!! We are sure you'll are going to love them as much as we do! There was some talk about exploring new techniques, and textures, getting back to good ole' scrapbooking and lots of talk about classes and things we want to try...BUT the best news, we plan to share it all here!
One thing we knew for sure when we discussed each topic was that we each needed to organize a bit before we could tackle these awesome feats! I mean after all, we had one heck of a year between the four of us. Some of us got married, some of us bought our first house, got published in a scrappy magazine, got promotions at work, had surgeries:( , celebrated birthdays :) ,went on amazing vacations, found local FUN, visited family, attended craft fairs, opened Etsy stores, went back to school, met online scrappy friends, and met online friends in the flesh! Mostly, we enjoyed our lives and created lots of memories! With that, comes some stories and projects we plan to share and lots of pictures we have taken and gathered up, just waiting for the perfect project for them to be joined with. Okay, okay, I'm getting ahead of myself, back to organizing! One way we are going to do it this year is by selecting a Theme to keep us focused and hopefully to help spark our creative juices! We will announce it here and challenge you to join us each month!

This month’s Theme we thought had to start at the beginning, right? So here we go!

January's Theme is...Out with the OLD, In with the NEW!

Now, hold the phone! That doesn't mean we are not a fan of OLD, in fact many of us are too fond of old (if you know what I mean ). In that old antique that will be a perfect addition to our craft room or make an amazing repurposed project! What we mean by this month's theme is, let's leave the old worries, the old to do lists, the old unfinished projects and stress behind and bring on the New! The new projects, the new ideas, the new to do lists and the new opportunities!

So with that in mind, I ordered the Project Life kit by Becky Higgins, you can scope it out HERE if you haven't seen it already. This stuff is really cool! It makes scrapping easy and I really love that she has thought of everything. Watch this video to get a better idea!

What I personally like about it is it takes the pressure off finding your materials and gathering all those embellishments and really puts the focus on the pictures and the memories. I often comtemplate so much with with the design piece and this takes that out of the equation. It allows me to just remember the fun and the moments but most importantly, I get those moments and thoughts into a book I can share for years to come. I definitely will still create scrapbook pages and projects from scratch, I have way too much of an addiction to (hoarding) I mean buying scrappy supplies and designing my own combos, colors and layouts is still way too fun. I think of this program more as a way to KEEP UP, not get behind, not forget to scrap that funny or endearing moment. The beautifully designed cards and the uniquely organized pages, make it fun and easy to do so, that's for sure!

I chose the Clementine set, made up of oranges, blues, pinks, stripes, words, script and much much more. I did buy an album, only because if you can believe it, I have never owned a 12 x 12 album before now! I know, crazy right, that's what I said! It is a beautiful tangerine color that may loose style eventually but for now, it is cheery and matches great! You can use any 12 x12 three ring binder with the system. I also bought two different styles of filler pages. There are lots to choose from, just to keep it interesting. I did not choose more scrappy paper, which is another awesome thing about the system, you can pick and choose what part of the kit you need/want. One more thing and maybe my favorite feature, is the journaling cards come with a sturdy box to keep all your stuff organized, LOVE that!

Here are a few of my pages so far:

Overall all three took me about an hour (and ya they kinda look like it) but hey, I have Christmas in the can for the first time....ever and New Years is close to being done, so Yea! My last note and a few tips: Have some extra paper handy. As you can see, I used some kraft throughout to fill in the holes in case my pictures ended up being slightly larger or smaller than where I wanted to put them. You may also note I cheated a bit, there is some Washi tape in there, a stamp and some twine just to add a little something something. One complaint, all of the journaling cards are printed portrait but fit landscape in most of the places I wanted to put them....hmmmm.

Well, that's it so far, thanks for stopping by! I hope you find something Old to leave behind and something New to begin 2012 with!

Cheers!

Kristin xx

TST update and some inky fun!

2012-01-06T07:35:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone and welcome to my second post of the new year! Hope you've all had a great first week of 2012 and that your resolutions are still holding fast (although I'm still in the process of making mine so if you're a bit behind that's ok too ;)

Just wanted to let our blog readers know that since we have had to move our community site from Ning because of the costs, we've now opened a new group on Facebook called The Scrappy Tree Facebook Branch where we'll be able to share projects with you and chat about scrappy-related stuff, and hopefully it will be a place where people can share their projects with us too! Julie has been posting a few scrappy questions over there so if you want to join in come and visit us :)

We're really excited about being able to interact more easily with everybody there as a lot of people now use Facebook, and of course you can also still find us on Twitter.

My project for today is a birthday card using some scraps from my stash and also some of the new goodies I had for Christmas :) The 'H' and the coloured paper are scraps left over from my November Scrapagogo kit and there is also a journaling spot from the Pink Paislee Vintage Vogue ephemera pack and a Tim Holtz ticket tucked in behind these.

The background to the card was made by spraying some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists in Candy Apple Red and Irridescent Gold onto the blank card, and then stamping some swirls onto the card afterwards in Poppy Red Impress Ink. I added a Dymo caption and some handwriting for the sentiment.

Happy Scrapping and we hope to see you soon!

Gayle xx

Online Classes

2012-01-04T01:00:00.000-08:00

Hello, Diana here with my firstpost of the year, I think it iswonderful that our craft has a huge variety of online classes, I like theinspiration and motivation I get from the talented instructors and there isalways something new to learn.

Today I’ll share a few layouts Imade in a couple of online classes I took last year.

From Amy Tan’s The Good Life atBig Picture Classes. We did a project a week for a month and learned how to doher famous reverse appliqué on T-shirts, here is a layout I made from thatclass.

I’ve heard a lot of Shimelle andwanted to try one of her classes, so I signed up for Pretty Paper Party.

We were encouraged to usedifferent papers from our stash.

And to Mix colors and patterns we usually would not.

This was a 24 day class; it was fun to receive daily emails filled with sketches and incredibly creative ideas from the team she put together.

The class did put a dent in my existingsupplies and I scrapbooked a lot of photos.

Last but not least, Journey toHappiness by Lisa Day; this is an ongoing class at Big Picture Classes so I’llhave more to share later.

Are there any online classes you would like to recommend us? share in the comment section bellow :)

Wishing you the best and especially a lot of creative moments for this year 2012, till next time

=Di

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T10:38:00.000-08:00

Hoping that you all had a great Christmas and wishing you a wonderful New Year from all of us at The Scrappy Tree! 2011 was a busy year, but we're looking forward to sharing more of your company in 2012 :)

My project to share with you today is a calendar I made as a Christmas gift for my mother; I've been making one of these every year for the past few years. In different years I have used different themes to choose my photos; I've used copies of old family pictures, I've used pictures from over the course of the previous year, and this year I used pictures from our family holiday to Florida for my wedding in September. This year I also made a calendar for my grandmother who joined us for the celebrations.

I used a plain Papermania desk calendar as the base for the project - they make these in a larger size if you prefer your layouts to be more 12x12 sized but the smaller size makes for a more manageable project, especially if you're making more than one! The limited size also means you're not tempted to use more of your alphas than strictly necessary just to fill up the space, there are a lot of months to get through!

I mainly used paper from my November Scrapagogo kit and added buttons, flowers, alphas and other embellishments for decoration.

I love that as the year goes by you get a nice surprise and some happy memories every time you turn the page for the next month :)

We'll have some more to share with you soon but for now thank you all so much for your support and your comments, we'll be trying to visit everyone to say happy new year in person but for now have a great 2012!

Happy Scrapping!

Gayle xx

Stitched Notebooks Tutorial

2011-12-21T01:00:00.000-08:00

Hello, Diana here with this month’s Tutorial. Today I’llshow you how to make cute notebooks.

Some scrapbook lines have made pretty fabric paper, I reallylike the 3 designs from the Donna Downey canvas collection and thought of usingthem as covers for my notebooks.

The materials you’ll need: computer paper,a couple of cardstock pages, thin cardboard and fabric for the cover, assortedribbon, twine and embellishments of your preference to decorate the cover.

This is a 6”x4” notebook, to make the section books start bycutting the computer paper in an 8”X6” size, arrange the sheets one inside thenext and fold in half.

Trim the fore-edge with a scalpel and a ruler. You’ll needto make several cuts to trim through the whole book.

You’ll need an Endpaper and a Cover Sheet; to make those cuttwo pieces of cardstock (see next image). The length of your cardstock willdepend on how many section books you are adding to the notebook, measure thethickness of the section books and add that number to 8”. Mine has two sectionbooks and my cardstock pieces measure 8.25” X 6”.

On both cardstock pieces Score a 4” line from left to centerand a 4” line from right to center, there should now be a thin spine on thecardstock. Mark four stitch holes along the inside fold for each section book,pierce the holes.

These are the parts you should have to stitch together.

Start stitching one section book to the endpaper and coversheet, continue with the second section book. You now have your book block.

To make your cover cut three pieces of cardboard, two willbe for your front and end cover and one for the spine. Measure your book blockand make the cardboard pieces slightly bigger.

Cut the fabric a few inches bigger as shown on the image.Glue the cardboard pieces to the fabric; I like to use Fabri-Tac glue.Diagonally cut off each corner of the fabric within 3/16in of the corner of thecardboard. Fold and glue the short edges of the fabric. Tuck in and glue thefabric around each corner. Fold and glue the long edges of the fabric.

The final step is to glue the complete endpaper to theinside of your cover, but before you complete this step read my next note.

Note: before you glue the endpaper you can add some ribbonand twine to the front cover, I also added a piece of lace to the spine.

Another idea is to add a piece of ribbon between each theendpaper and the front and back cover to provide a way to close your notebookwith a knot or a bow.

Or decorate with brads and embellishments.

If you are still short a few stocking stuffers, avoid thecrowded malls and shop your supplies, these are easy to make and are nicegifts.

Till next time!

Christmas Gift Wrapping

2011-12-14T08:40:00.000-08:00

Hello! Diana here, I’ve been seeing on my favorite blogs andon Pinterest beautiful gift wrapping made with scrapbooking supplies.

I wanted to try it myself; I used White paper wrapping, paper doilies, assorted colors of curling ribbon, hemp twine, Bazzill Basics die cut shapesand Chipboard pieces.

Doilies are so pretty and a great decoration for any project.

You might be thinking why take the time to decorate if theyare going to rip it open in seconds and toss everything in the trash.

Well, that is why I used curling ribbon, it is not expensiveand adds nice color to the gift wrapping.

Paper Doilies are also sold at a very low price, and you can use those extra Christmas embellishments you've been saving from past years.

For that hostess gift that does not need to be wrapped anice handmade bow and a thank you note will look great.

You can make it out of ribbon or paper, here is a tutorial: Holiday Gift Bows

Gift wrapping is my least favorite thing to do, but adding a little creativity to the task made it easier and fun.

Hope you all have a great day!

=Di

December album

2011-12-09T14:51:00.001-08:00

Today I thought I'd share with you my album for this December :) I know a lot of you will be aware of projects like December Daily and Journal Your Christmas(if not you need to go check it out!); well, this year is my first attempt to go right the way through the holiday season and out the other side with Shimelle! My album is an A5 album from Paperchase (totally awesome for stationery by the way!)...

...which I decorated mainly with paper and embellishments from the My Mind's Eye Lost and Found Christmas range; really loved the vintage look of this paper and red and gold are two of my favourites.

I added some Thickers and some Making Memories alphas for the year numbers on the front and sides of the album.

In Paperchase, there were also options for different pockets to go in your album; I decided on some A5 pockets for full pages (which I filled with pages cut to size from the double-sided My Mind's Eye paper) and then added business card pockets inbetween which I intend to use for journalling, extra pictures and ephemera from this year's Christmas :)

I hope you're having fun with your Christmas albums, whatever you've chosen; would love to hear about any awesome supplies you've discovered!

Happy December :)

Gayle xx

A Christmas Paper Bag Album

2011-12-05T08:43:00.001-08:00

December is here! :) Boy, these months seem to fly by! It's Julie here with you today and I would like to share a paper bag album that I'm going to record the holiday happenings in! In this album, I used Webster's Pages papers and stickers, Webster's tinsel trim and vintage laces. On the cover I used a Papertrey Ink snowflake die and then used glitter to make it sparkle!

I had found some vintage Christmas sheet music at an auction a while back so I thought I would use that to dress up my pages. Now I will most likely cover those pages with a photo or two but I thought it would be nice to have a bit peek out!

I also used a glassine envelope covered with some sheet music as well as the middle pages of my album. I have tags tucked inside so I can record some precious memories.

Finally, I finished my album off with some sheet music and Webster's trim!

I hope you enjoyed this mini album today and I hope you have wonderful Christmas memories to put in one of your own! :)

Accordion Binding with Gate Fold Cover

2011-11-15T14:30:00.001-08:00

Hello, Diana here with this month’sMini Album Tutorial. The inspiration from today’s album is from the BookRe-Bound by Jeannine Stein, I used part of the binding technique from herTwelve Month Organizer to make my album.

The materials I used: 6 large kraftenvelopes and 2 small ones, cardstock to make the accordion, one piece ofcardboard for the back, glue, assorted pattern paper and assortedembellishments.

To make the accordion measure theLength of your biggest envelope, mine was 5”, so I cut two 5” pieces out of a12X12 cardstock.

Using a Scoring board or Bonefolder, make 1” marks along the upper and lower edges of both pieces ofcardstock.

Notes from the Author: when creating an accordion binding, go slowlyand make sure the folds are even and neat, resulting in a sturdier book.

Since I have 8 envelopes, and I’llneed a back and a cover that makes a total of 10 spaces, that is why I cut twopieces of cardstock, I joined them to add the four extra spaces I needed.

For the Back Cover cut a piece ofcardboard to the same length you did your accordion cardstock, for the width measureyour envelope and cut it little longer.

To make the back part of the gatefold cut a piece of 12X12 cardstock to your previous Length, you’ll be scoringtwo folds that will make the flap of the album, one will be part of the closing and the other willgo over your pages. Since a 12X12 was not big enough I added an extra piece ofpaper using a border punch to decorate the part where I glued them together.

Adhere your envelopes from backto front, starting with your back cover; I rounded the corners of theaccordions two edge parts to give it a nicer look.

Decorate your envelopes beforeyou add them to the accordion, each accordion fold is 1”, to prevent me from decoratingthat space I marked a line with the same paint I used around the edges of mypattern paper.

Very Important, Score a 1” lineon all your envelopes, this is to make it easier to flip the pages, I forgotthat step and ended up with a stiff album.

If you have been following mywork you’ll know I like to use envelopes on a lot of my projects, this isbecause where ever I go I save what I can use as memorabilia, in this case Ijust tucked in each envelope what I kept from the day.

I used glue to adhere my pages tothe accordion; you can also use Binding Snaps.

Next glue your pages to the accordion,it is very simple, just add glue to one fold, adhere the page, add glue to thenext fold and adhere it to the page, add glue to the back of the fold, repeat.

For the cover I used a thinnerpiece of cardstock to give it more flexibility.

To make the closing of the foldgate I used two brads and layered them on scalloped circles.

I adhere and extra piece ofcardstock to the flap to make it sturdier, the circle scallop you see on theflap is hiding the metal pieces from the brad.

To decorate my pages I used a lotof pattern paper scraps, fabric squares from Basic Grey, decorative tape,punched out shapes and assorted embellishments.

Here is a view of the open album.

As always I hope my monthlytutorial was inspiring and that you’ll soon be making one to keep yourmemories.

Have an amazing day!

=Di

Thank you Mickey!

2011-11-12T12:58:00.001-08:00

I was looking for a simple design to repeat on several thank you cards to send out to our family and friends after our wedding, and really liked the circular patterns on this button mask by Creative Expressions.

which I felt matched well with the roundness of the Mickey shape (our wedding was at Disneyworld so the invites also had this shape on them). I sponged Poppy Red Impress ink onto the card through the mask and punched out circles of black card in two different sizes for the Mickey shape.

When I also found a curved 'thank you' stamp in my stash I loved the way it seemed to curve around Mickey's ear! I stamped the words using black StazOn.

I added some gold Stickles to the buttonholes to give it some sparkle and I'm ready to go! It was easy to do a batch of these to send off quite quickly and I just had to leave the Stickles to dry. Now I just have to pick a nice picture of the wedding to pop in the card for our guests that weren't able to share our special day - that'll be the hard part! :)

Happy scrapping

Gayle xx

Christmas Planner

2011-11-09T01:00:00.000-08:00

Hello, Diana here. Christmas is avery busy season for a lot of us, so how about making a Planner to keep you organized;this is the one I made.

I used this Mixed Media Albumfrom Basically Bare; it has four envelopes and a chipboard separator in themiddle.

The paper line is from FancyPants Tradition collection, alphas are from KI Memories and Making Memories GlitterStickers, the embellishments I used to make the star is Pink Paislee house ofthree Flair and a vintage button from my stash.

Because the album has envelopesmy planner can be used year after year, I just need to tuck in the specificlist and toss it away once the holiday is over.

If you need help figuring outwhat to put in your book, just Google Holiday or Christmas planner and you’llfind a few sites that offer ideas, some even have downloadable PDF lists.

This is the chipboard separator; I made a 5^thenvelope with the pattern paper to add an extra list.

The last two envelopes have thefold facing inside so you can appreciate a little better the shape; I alsodecorated the backs but did not embellish them.

As extra embellishments I used alpha stickers from October Afternoon, twine and assorted brads, this paper is so pretty that it did not need that many decorations.

This is how the planner looks open.

As always I hope I was able to bring some inspiration to your day.

=Di

A vintage inspired mini album of thanksgiving

2011-11-07T12:53:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! It's Julie here today with an album of thanksgiving, and I'm not talking about the meal. This album is made for keeping track of what you are thankful for this time of year. I'll show you how I made this one that I'm going to sell at a local craft show.

First, I needed paper bags and I chose two plain lunch bag sized paper bags and one pink bag.

Since I decided to work on this while watching football, I had to drag down my whole scraproom and set up shop in the living room. Sadly, I do not have a tv up in my scraproom. Now if you'd like to make a paper bag album for yourself, you certainly don't need to have a ton of supplies ready. I'm just one of those crafters that experiments with all kinds of stuff until I settle on something that works. A few of my essentials include fabric pieces, bingo cards, sheet music, old notebook paper, Cuttle Bug and Papertrey Ink Dies, as well as Papertrey Ink stamps.

I started by folding the bags in half. I alternated the openings of the paper bags so all my inserts would be on different sides when it's open. I appologize for that green loop which appears to be growning out of my album. I had a crafty bag on the floor and that is the strap! Sorry! :)

You will need to sew the bags up the middle with a sewing machine.

For my cover, I measured the paper bag front and cut out a piece of fabric the same size. I used my sewing machine to stitch around the fabric BEFORE I adehered it to the front. Once on the front (used Yes Paste), I added various vintage goodies until I got it the way I wanted it to look.

This is my first interior page. I frayed the edges of the fabric and stitched all little embellies on before I adhered to my album.

My next set of pages used one of my favorite supplies, old papers!

Above is a different angle of the pages. I used Papertrey Ink Gratitude Journal stamps for this project.

My next set of pages! I just loved the doily die from Papertrey Ink and I decided to use it with vintage sheet music. I also used some 7 Gypsies tape under the die cut. The little tags with pink satin ribbon were also made using a Papertrey Ink tag die.

When looking for fabric, hit up the thrift stores! You don't need yards and yards, just a scrap will do nicely on a page!

I also love vintage lace and use it whenever possible.

Here's a pic of the inserts I made using the Papertrey Ink tag die as well as a vintage Bingo card and Vintage postcard. These items peek out of the paper bag openings. Perfect for journaling and leaving your thoughts.

My back cover.

I hope you enjoyed looking at this paper bag album and get inspired on making one for yourself!

Bonfire Night and Happy Anniversary

2011-11-04T14:48:00.000-07:00

In the UK, the 5th of November is Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes Night, which means a LOT of fireworks! Either in a public display or in the garden at home, there are usually lots of bonfires, sparklers and big bangs! Guy Fawkes Night is celebrated every year on this date in memory of the foiled attempt in 1605 on the life of the monarch at that time, King James I. A man called Guy Fawkes led a plot to blow up the House of Lords with gunpowder to take the lives of the King and the Government, but the plot was discovered and Guy Fawkes was executed. The survival of the King was celebrated across London with bonfires, and all across the UK to this day, every November 5th is celebrated with bonfires and fireworks. Sometimes a 'Guy' (a man's shape made up of some old clothes stuffed with paper) is put on the bonfire, after the children take the figure around to collect a penny for the Guy. I remember as a child that the bonfire at the public display was always enormous, but the fireworks were always my favourite :)

If you'd like to know more about the British traditions behind Guy Fawkes Night you can click here but to celebrate like a true Brit all you really need are some sparklers and fireworks and the will to light them and enjoy them :)

In our house, the 5th of November is also my parents' wedding anniversary; we used to buy fireworks every year to set off in the garden but since we now have five dogs it's not quite as important to us to celebrate at home; there are plenty of local firework displays so hopefully we'll be able to catch one tomorrow night :)

In the meantime, I'd like to share with you my card for my parents; I had a lot of fun with this card and it got a little grungy in the end! The borders are scraps of BoBunny paper, embossed with swirls and then inked with gold ink and Fired Brick distress ink. The central image is stamped in black StazOn, with the heart shape cut out and then inked in spiced marmalade and dusty concorde Distress Ink, with the central heart shape outlined with a black Posca pen.

I am actually addicted to small sparkly gems, so of course I had to use some to outline the heart shape, and then added the caption using letter stamps on some leftovers pieces of the BoBunny paper.

Thank you so much for visiting us today!

Happy scrapping!

Gayle xx

Making a Card Kit

2011-11-02T09:23:00.000-07:00

Hello, Diana here; today I wouldlike to share a bunch of cards I made.

What do you do when you buy avery nice paper collection for a project and when you are done you still have a3^rd part of it left over? Well,because of situations like this is why I started making cards.

I gathered all theleftover papers and embellishments, in this case it is the My Minds Eye’s Stella& Rose Mabel line, since all the papers have matching colors it makes thejob easier and faster.

I also matched ribbon, twine,flowers and other assorted embellishments. And to get even more inspired I took anonline class at Big Pictures called Cooking Up Cards and made 9 cards using theirrecipes.

Here are the cards I made:

So Happy.

Thank You.

Silly.

One Special Day.

Kind.

Together.

Happy Birthday.

Thank you.

Thoughtful.

Celebrate.

I still had a few chip shapes touse, so I made these three small cards.

There was even enough paper tomake a double page layout.

So next time you have a lot of leftovers from one paper collection, make a Card Kit :)

Hope you all have a great day.

=Di

Halloween Party Giveaway Winners!

2011-10-31T12:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween everybody! We were so glad to have so many people visit us for the blog party on 22nd October :) and now it's Halloween we can announce the four winners! There were four sets of goodies to win, and our four winners are:-

Magaly Guerrero said...
"It wouldn't be Halloween without' Witches, of course! Can you imagine the dullness? And not cackling. What kind of All Hallow's Eve would it be without cackling? Happy Fanciful All Hallow's Eve!
OCTOBER 22, 2011 5:28 AM

Kelly Jeanette Swift said...
It wouldn't be Halloween without a little fright. It fun to have a good scare.Happy Halloween!
http://kellysalteredart.blogspot.com/2011/10/ghost-adventures-wannabes-halloween.html
OCTOBER 22, 2011 8:25 AM

Maggie said...
It wouldn't be Halloween without my niece giving me all of her Reese's peanut butter cups!
OCTOBER 22, 2011 7:46 PM

Jennifer said...
Wonderful post! I loved it! So creative and sweet! I must say "It wouldn't be Halloween without the Halloweentown movies on the Disney channel!"Happy Halloween!
http://broomsticksandlace.blogspot.com/2011/10/happy-halloween-fanciful-twist.html
OCTOBER 23, 2011 8:38 PM

Congratulations winners and thank you everybody for sharing your Halloween must-have's with us - we really enjoyed reading them all and visiting your blogs too!

Winners please e-mail your contact details to thescrappytree(at)hotmail(dot)com and we'll send your treats out very soon.

Happy Halloween everybody!

The Scrappy Tree girls xx

Happy Halloween Party! PART II

2011-10-30T23:59:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween Everybody !

Thanks for stopping by today. We hope you all are having a Safe and Happy Halloween. First things first, don't forget to come back later today to see our Halloween Party blog winners! 4 lucky comments will be chosen to receive our blog candy from the Halloween Party blog hop we took part in last weekend.

Now, welcome to part II of my Halloween Party prep and projects

This year we are taking a break from the Big party, so I chose a few smaller projects to decorate the house . Michaels had these fun mini grave stones and of course what is a spooky Halloween scene without some spiderwebs, coffins and burlap.

My major projects for this year were the two pumpkins (orange and black) made from one fake carvable pumpkin I cut in half and sprayed with glitter. Last week I showed you the black one, this week, the star is the Orange one, top right. Complete with an Evil looking tree, a witch flying over the moon and some spooky jack-o-laterns next to a gravestone. All the items are added by being glued to black painted kebob sticks, that I then stuck into the pumpkins soft surface. In the bottom right picture, you can see some of the ATC's I traded with some friends for Fall/Halloween, they are super cute!

Next up is the Happy Halloween banner. I chose Martha Stewart papers, black, ivory and natural burlap as the bases and some misc. embellishments. Again Michaels had these cool skeletons on twine that I just stretched out, added a quick twine extension to and used as my banner base. They also had some awesome looking fake barbwire, that lines the front of the banner. All or most are hot-glued in place. The letters are just inked with 3-4 distrress ink Halloween colors.

Below: Some of my favors and treats this year for the neighborhood kids that alwasys stop by. When we have a party these work for party displays or as favors. All of the pine wood and bolsa wood boxes and such Michaels craft stores offer every year are very economical and make great ways to be creative. They also make awesome and cheap ways for the kids to create some Halloween magic of their own. These lovely trinkets are for all ages, all you need is a little seasonal candy and some craft paint to dress them up!

My favortie thing to make for a large party is a Homemade brew of some kind. Enoy this Home-made apple cider that warms the heart and is always a hit!

Ingredients

o 8 -10 apples ( I used gala for a less tart or intense taste)

o 1/2-1 cup sugar

o 4 tablespoons cinnamon ( or 4 cinnamon sticks)

o 4 tablespoons allspice

Directions

1. Quarter your apples (no need to remove peel or seeds).

2. In a large stock pot add your apples and fill with water--just enough to cover the apples.

3. Add your sugar.

4. Wrap your cinnamon and allspice in a doubled up cheese cloth and tie, and add this to the apples and water.

5. Boil on high for one hour (uncovered) checking on it frequently.

6. Turn down heat and let simmer for two hours (covered).

7. Take off the heat after two hours of simmering and let cool.

8. Remove spices and mash up the apples to a pulp like consistency (a potato masher works well for this).

9. Once cool pour into a strainer over a large bowl. When most of the juice has drained away, put the remainder of the pulp into a doubled up cheese cloth and squeeze over the bowl until no more juice comes out.

10. (At this point you can either restrain the juice to get out the little bits of pulp that remain with a cheese cloth draped inside the strainer to catch them or just leave it like I do).

11. You can store in an air tight container in your refrigerator for up to a week or you can freeze it for later use if you like.

12. Reheat in the microwave or on the stove and enjoy either plain or you can add caramel syrup or caramels, whipped topping with cinnamon or, like my neighbors did if you like it really sweet, with marshmallows or marshmallow creme.

13. also you could make this a diabetic recipe by omitting the sugar and adding diabetic sweeteners to taste in place of the sugar or none at

A few other favorites are roasting pumpkin seeds and making popcorn balls, my Mom made both every Halloween! See the links below for some simple receipes.

How to make Popcorn Balls-

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/popcorn-balls-recipe/index.html

How to roast Pumpkin seeds-

http://www.wikihow.com/Roast-Pumpkin-Seeds

Lastly, my favorite kids game for every Halloween. Even if we don't have a party we set this up so the local neighborhood kids can come and partake. It's amazing how many come back year after year! Google Halloween mad scientist or Hallween body parts game for complete details. See mine below!

The way it works is, you need as many covered boxes as you will have body parts (I found these work best) Decorate/wrap the boxes, leaving a hole in the top of the box, that can be punched out or cut open slightly (see samples above). The trick is a DARK, spooky room and a good hostess, willing to play into the game. I use my hottub covered in white butcher paper with body parts hanging from the ceiling, squishy eyes and fingers on the table and a witches cauldron with dry ice, lite slightly for the center piece. Lay your boxes on a table, high enough that doesn't allow them to see into them(the dark helps with this), but low enough they can reach into it and feel around. Each fake body part that resembles a real body part goes in a box. We have the hostess read the poem on the boxes and only take one child at a time to each box. A flashlight is also a fun spooky accessory, either the hostess or the kids can use. You can get really creative with this one and if you do it year after year you have to because the kids catch on after awhile.

Some my favorties to use are:

Cooked spaghetti noodles oiled slightly for- the worms

Corn husk for: the hair

End of a pickle spear for: the nose

Hot dogs with almond slivers for: the fingers

Jello mold for: the heart

Frozen peeled grapes for: the eyes

uncooked popcorn for : the teeth

You get the idea...

Think textures and try them yourself. Have Fun!

Here is a link to some good text and food ideas; http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/food_crafts/80790

Well that's about it for my Halloween Party this year, hope you enjoy yours!

Again...Happy Halloween!

Thanks for visiting and
Don't forget to stop by later to see the 4 lucky winners!

Cheers,

Kristinxx

Pumpkin carving fun!

2011-10-30T02:38:00.000-07:00

This year, as we have no kids to trick or treat with, we decided to have a pumpkin carving party on the weekend before Halloween for all the big kids instead :)

We made little pumpkin carving kits, with tools and sustenance for the hard times ahead...

...and we made sure we had plenty of worm pie and other goodies to keep us going too (thanks K for introducing my Mum to this LOL)

We put Harry Potter on and then we got cracking! We had some carving templates from Asda but Disney also very kindly sent me a Halloween message with some Disney templates in so you'll spot a few of those too!

Of course some people also liked to make their own patterns too :)

We had a a great time, we definitely need to meet up to do this again next year; so much fun to all join in together!

Happy Halloween!

Gayle xx

October's Art Journal Friday

2011-10-28T10:20:00.000-07:00

Welcome to October's Art Journal Friday! The weather is getting more crisp by the day and we're fast approaching the fun that is Halloween :) I've been busy putting up a few decorations ready for our pumpkin carving party tomorrow...

..and been making a few chocolate skulls for our guests too! :)

Of course I'm also hoping to get scrappy this weekend also, and some art journaling would certainly be top of my list for this weekend :) if you haven't played along with Art Journal Friday before, we pick a new theme on the last Friday of every month to inspire you to create a page or two over the coming weekend - there are no rules here, you can use whatever medium makes you happy and we love to see your pages if you like to share them; just leave a link to your page in our comments section and we're happy to come visit and leave you some love :) come one come all, if you art journal all the time or you've never tried it before, have some fun experimenting!

This month's theme is... Something Wicked This Way Comes! This might conjure up fun Halloween memories for you, or remind you of a scary film you couldn't bear to watch more than once ;) it might be time to explore your naughtier side, or to indulge in some journalling about your deepest fears...
Get journalling this weekend!

Just to remind you , today is the last day to enter our Halloween party giveaway; if you'd like to enter please leave a comment on this post - we'll be announcing the winners on October 31st - Halloween!

Happy scrapping!

Gayle xx

Halloween Mini Album

2011-10-27T01:00:00.000-07:00

Hello, Diana again, this time toshare a Halloween mini album.

I normally don’t purchase minialbum kits because I like to make my own, but I just could not resist thecuteness of this one, designed by Ronda Palazzari and sold at Cocoa Daisy. Idid make a few changes on my cover, thanks to all the goodies that came withthe kit I was able to over embellish the way I like to J

The My Mind eyes Mischievous paperis so nice, I find that little scarecrow witch and owls very cute and the colorcombo on all the collection is amazing. The Flocked Web Transparency is from Fancy Pants and the Sheer Tab Album from Maya Road.

For the inside pages I took a little from the original design and combined it with my own style, this is my cover page that also has the title of the album.

And here are three of the pages Imade.

Happy Halloween!!!!

=Di

Day of the Dead!

2011-10-26T01:00:00.000-07:00

Her face is unforgettable and she goes by many names:Fancy Lady, Skinny, Bony, and Baldy. A fixture in Mexican society, she's notsome trendy fashion model, but Death (La Muerte).

La Catrina by MarioLópez Torres

Hello, Diana here to sharea little bit of one of my favorite Mexican traditions: Dia de Muertos, which iscelebrated on November 2^nd.

Every year TheNational Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago opens a beautiful exhibition about thecelebration, on this post I am including photos I took during my visits fromthis year and last year, forgive the bad pictures but most of them were takenbehind glass or without flash.

Photo from the Museums web page

A Little bit of theTraditions History

More than 500 years ago, when the Spanish Conquistadors landed inwhat is now Mexico, they encountered natives practicing a ritual that seemed tomock death. It was a ritual the indigenous people had been practicing at least3,000 years. A ritual the Spaniards would try unsuccessfully to eradicate. Aritual known today as Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.

Offeringfor the Dead by Olga Costa

Unlike the Spaniards, who viewed death as the end of life, thenatives viewed it as the continuation of life. Instead of fearing death, theyembraced it. To them, life was a dream and only in death did they become trulyawake.

Display in the Museums Lobby

Untitledby Oscar Soteno

Differing from the Roman Catholic imposedritual to commemorate All Souls’ Day, which is observed in many countries, thecustom established by pre-colonial Mexican civilizations become a ceremonywhere indigenous beliefs blended with Catholic beliefs. Therefore, the Day of the Dead in Mexico is not amournful commemoration but a happy and colorful celebration where death takes alively, friendly expression.

Cartoneria by Miriam Castañeda

Frida Kahlo Skeleton by Castillo Orta F.

Nun, Archbishop and Nun by Alvaro de la Cruz

The Day of the Dead isan ancestral tradition that blended with Catholicism to create a special timeand space to remember and honor the loved ones with offerings, the fragrance of the flowers, the light of thecandles, the aroma of special foods and the solemnity of prayers.

Altar commemoratingthe 200 year celebration of Mexico’s Independence

It is also a time to joke and make fun ofdeath through "calaveras", poetry allusive to a particular person,generally politicians; sugar, chocolate and amaranth skulls which are given toone another with their friend’s name so "they can eat their owndeath" and special crafts allusive to different aspects of the living,with skeletons representing daily activities.

Sugar Skulls by TheMondragón Family

Today, Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexicoand in certain parts of the United States and Central America.

It's celebrated different depending on where yougo.

In rural Mexico, people visit the cemetery where their loved onesare buried. They decorate gravesites with marigold flowers and candles. Theybring toys for dead children and bottles of tequila to adults. They sit onpicnic blankets next to gravesites and eat the favorite food of their lovedones.

Source: Bing Images

In the United States and in Mexico's larger cities, families buildaltars in their homes, dedicating them to the dead. They surround these altarswith flowers, food and pictures of the deceased. They light candles and placethem next to the altar.

I don’t have the information about this altar, but isn't itGorgeous? Everything on it is knitted.

The Altar

The altar includesfour main elements of nature — earth, wind, water, and fire.

Earth is represented bycrop: The Mexicans believe the souls are fed by the aroma of food.

Wind is represented bya moving object: Tissue paper is commonly used to represent wind.

Water is placed in acontainer for the soul to quench its thirst after the long journey to the altar.

Fire is represented bya wax candle: Each lit candle represents a soul, and an extra one is placed forthe forgotten soul.

NationalMuseum of Mexican Art, 2010

Ihope you found this little post interesting, Happy Day of the Dead!

=Di

Sources: azcentral and DayoftheDead.com

All-Hallows-Even (evening) Party!

2011-10-24T22:25:00.000-07:00

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Okay, well I think so at least :)

Hi bloggers, since Halloween is my favorite time of year to plan a party,I thought I would share some of my projects and prep for them.

To get you inspired, here is a nice link to the history of Halloween:

http://www.halloween-history.org/

First up, one of my favorite things to make around Halloween is chocolate suckers and all the like. This year I chose Witches and Mummies

For the Mummies, I used a foot mold, large marshmallows, white chocolate, black candy coloring, pre-made eyeballs, sucker sticks, bags and a few zip locks.

Simple steps: melt chocolate, color it to your preference or don't, your choice on what color you want your mummies to be. Let sit for a few minutes, place a six inch stick into the top of the marshmallow, dip the marshmallow in the chocolate, coating it all, then set aside to dry on wax paper. While those chill, fill a foot mold of your choice with white chocolate, place in the fridge to chill. Once the marshmallows are dry, trim the bottoms as needed. using the melted chocolate as glue, place some on the top of the feet toward the back and press the marshmallow body on to the feet. Next, use the chocolate as glue for the eyes, placing where you will see them best. Once dry (5 mins) melt more chocolate, but not too hot, move it to a zip lock bag, cut a small hole in the corner and drizzle the secondary color over the body and feet creating the mummified look. Place in a 1 pound decrotive clear bag with ribbon. (2) One pound bags of chocolate makes 12 bodies, all the feet and the drizzle need for the mummification.

These are a little more involved. Make the bodies the same as the mummies. I used light green chocolate and mixed yellow candy dye to make the mossy green. Fill the hat mold with chocolate,(dyed black), fill the witches shoes/legs with part green and part black, (see picture for sample. Once the legs are ready, drizzle orange over green legs to create socks. When the hats are done , use luster dust of your choice to accent the hats details. I used two different hats and super gold, bright orange and a shiny bright green. Add the eyes with melted chocolate, make the nose by using the end of a stick and build up the green chocolate where the nose will be, add a spec of black on the tip for a mole. Use a toothpick in red to make the mouth.Attach the legs as you would the mummie, place the stick toward the back top of the marshmallow. Next add rope licorice for hair, using the black chocolate for the hair glue. Next attach the hat to the backside of the hat, adhering it to the stick to secure. Let dry, place in clear bag and ribbon. They make great gifts!!

For the Witches: large marshmallows, witch hat and boot molds, light green, orange, red and dark chocolate melt-able chocolate, sucker sticks, bags, rope black licorice for witches hair, pre-made eyes and luster dust for painting.

Next up, the decorations! This year I am making a few things, the first thing I have already finished, my spooky pumpkin. I cut a fake carvable pumpkin in half, sprayed it in supper 77, added a layer of glitter, then used toothpicks and kebob sticks to attach some Spooky messages.

Join me for Halloween night and see what I do with this mess!

Thanks for stopping today , I hope some of my projects inspire you to get spooky and enjoy the purple, green , orange and black combo that only works this time of year!

Cheers,

Kristin

PS. Thanks to those of you for stopping by this past weekend for our blog hop Halloween Party, we appreciate you taking the time to leave us such awesome messages.

Having the kids go batty!

2011-10-24T12:32:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! It's Julie here with a simple Halloween craft activity to do with the kids. We are going to make a Halloween bat hanger that the kids can proudly display in your house. First we start off with some basics. We have: yellow, black, light purple and white cardstock. Construction paper will also work well. I have a small plate and a small circular lid as well.

The small circular plate is for tracing around and creating the moon for the Halloween hanging. Depending on the skill set of the child, the child could do this for themselves.

Once the moon is made, I took the smaller circular lid to trace around make the bat's face. Since I was working with 7 kids ages 4 and under, I did the tracing the cutting beforehand.

The bat's wings are going to be made with a child's own hands. Have them place their hands (do both) on the black cardstock and trace around. Watch for the giggles, it always tickles! lol

Cut out the moon, bat face and hands (wings).

Your bat may need some eyes. Cut or punch out two small white circles.

Once everything is cut out, start assembling. Your yellow moon is the base for the hanging decoration. Start by doing a dry run of assembling your bat. Don't use glue yet. Once you are liking the way it looks, begin to glue down. I started by having the kids glue their wings down. Then I had them glue the face on. At this point in the project, I thought our bat needed ears so I clipped off the edges of the leftover black cardstock to have pointed triangle ears. I had the kids glue them above the circular face piece. In the picture below, the kids have glued on the white eye circles and chosen to glue on some colorful googly eyes in the center of the white circles.

I thought we needed a happy bat so I cut out a smile from the light purple cardstock. We added a few white cardstock teeth and we were almost done our project.

Now all we needed to do was to add the finishing touches. Some kids wanted to add some glitter glue to their bats. There are so many fun ways to add some sparkle or additional accents to the bat. Be creative. Once the kids decorated their bats, we needed to make it into a hanging decoration. We used a small hole punch to put a hole in the top of the yellow moon.

Then the final step was to add string or in our case, green pipe cleaner through the hole.

Our finished bats! We had a lot of fun with this craft! Hope this inspires you to get the kids crafty at home!

Halloween Party!

2011-10-22T00:08:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Halloween blog party! Many thanks to A Fanciful Twist for hosting :) You can find a complete list of all the partiers below - please visit if you can!

We're all super excited for Halloween and have been collecting together some Halloween goodies for this party; after all, what's Halloween without some treats! There are decorations to put up, goodies to be baked, pumpkins to be carved and favourite games to play :)

As you may know, there are four of us here at The Scrappy Tree and each of us has a little giveaway for the party. You can see pics of the prizes below:-

And there will also be a Halloween/Autumn themed kit of scrappy goodness!

To be in with a chance of winning one of our Halloween treats, please leave a comment finishing the sentence 'It wouldn't be Halloween without....'
We'll close for entries on Friday 28th October, and winners will be announced on Monday 31st October.

Thank you so much for visiting us! You may have arrived here from The other side of Deb and if so you can continue with the party by visiting The Whimsical Cottage next, although there is a complete list of all the blogs taking part below if you'd like to visit in a different order :) You can find A Fanciful Twist's party post by clicking here. Have fun and happy Halloween!

The Scrappy Tree girls xx

HALLOWEEN PARTIERS ♥2011♥

Halloween inchies and blog party news!

2011-10-21T13:10:00.000-07:00

Hurrah, it's Friday! And nearly time to party :) I have some Halloween inchies to share with you today, and just wanted to remind you that tomorrow The Scrappy Tree is taking part in A Fanciful Twist's Halloween Party so call back this weekend for the full list of blogs taking part and for the chance to win some goodies! To see the full list now you can click on the Halloween party link on the right side of this post.

So Halloween inchies! I used Graphic 45 Halloween in Wonderland paper for the checked background and backed it with a square of black Core'dinations to make it a little more solid. I cut out some bats from the Pumpkin & Aubergine Halloween paper and edged them with black ink to make them stand out; I then covered them with a layer of glossy accents and left them to dry.

I put a stripe of Spiced Marmalade Distress Stickles down one side of each square, and when everything had dried I added the caption using my Dymo. I stuck a bat onto each inchie using foam squares snipped into small pieces so that the bat looks like it's flying :) Had fun making these!

We're all excited about Halloween(!), so starting with the blog party tomorrow we'll be posting some Halloween projects in the run up to Halloween on the 31st - hope you can join us!

Happy Scrapping :)

Gayle xx

Accordion Mini Album Tutorial

2011-10-19T01:00:00.000-07:00

Hello, Diana here with this month’s Mini Album tutorial. Inmy search for new ways of making mini albums I went to the library and walkedout with five books, today’s album is from: How to Make Books by Esther K.Smith. I really liked the Business Card Holder she made and decided to make itin a bigger size.

You’ll need a Wide Strip of paper that is thin enough tofold in both directions.

To be able to take a picture of the two first steps I used apiece of cardstock, for the album I used some craft type wrap paper I purchasedat Michaels.

Cut the paper to a desired length; fold the entire width ofthe paper to make the pocket flap.

Accordion fold the piece, leave a short fold at both ends tosecure the back and cover.

This will be the body of thealbum. For the cover I used a Pink Paislee 4”X6” Flash Card from their DailyJunque ephemera pack, and for the back I cut a piece of carton and painted itwith acrylic paint.

Here are the three parts of thealbum:

Now comes the part where wedecorate the accordion, I used different papers from Crates Restorationcollection, unless your folds were perfect (mine were not) I recommend that youmeasure each space before cutting the paper pieces.

This is how the front looks

And the back, I added a manilaenvelope to the end.

Both ends are left without decoration because that iswhere the covers will be glued to.

Affix the cover pieces to the paper accordion; you can add ribbon between the covers and accordion to tie a bow.

It’s time to add the photos. Thefun part of this album is to be able to tuck stuff in the pockets, I used tagsand Maya Roads Kraft and Transparencies Doilies.

Here is a view of the closedalbum

And a view of the open album

A close up of the first page, Idecorated the back of the flash card with some pattern paper.

Thanks to the pocket design I wasable to add 20 photos plus the 5 I put inside the manila envelope. Here is howI did it:

Each pocket has a photo glued tothe flap.

The tag inside has photos on thefront.

And on the back.

This is how I used the manilaenvelope

The Photos that are kept inside

I left the back of the albumsimple only adding pictures.

And there you have it, a veryeasy to make Accordion Mini Album.

The one on the book was left withno decoration inside and the covers were made out of playing cards, I plan onmaking one of those also to keep a few business cards handy.

I hope you get some inspiration from today's tutorial. Have an Amazing Day!

=Di

Masking! Birthday card and tag

2011-10-14T01:00:00.000-07:00

I went to the Cardiff Creative Stitches & Hobbycrafts show recently and picked up some masks and spritz paints - been dying to play with these for ages! I had a birthday card and gift tag to make and as one of the masks I had bought was The Crafter's Workshop 'Mini Numerals' this seemed like a good opportunity for a play :)

I used a yellow card from my stash and a small Size 5 tag from PaperArtsy. I sprayed onto the card and tag through the mask (moving it each time) using 'Sunset Strip' and 'Princess' Vibez Shimmerz Paints and 'Ruby' Spritz Shimmerz Paints. I dried the tag with a heat gun inbetween each layer of paint, and then added some extra 'Sunset Strip' to give the tag and card a yellow colour. I also gave the card an extra spritz of 'Ruby' (because by that point I was just having fun spraying stuff LOL)

I inked around the edges in 'Broken China' Distress Ink and then stamped the cog designs around the edges (these are for a male recipient so was trying to make it a little masculine!). I added a 'Happy Birthday' and balloon stamp in black StazOn (stamps by Inspirations) and coloured these with a Letraset marker and some gold and orange Stickles. I raided my stash for some random number stickers and added these to the card, as well as some stick-on gems from Papermania and some ribbon from my stash for the tag.

I really liked the idea of matching the card and tag design - the tag is definitely my favourite though! Do you match the stationery for your gifts? What are your favourite tips?

Happy scrapping!

Gayle xx

Card Set

2011-10-12T01:00:00.000-07:00

Hello, Diana here to share a cardset I made on NSD, I was on a roll making cards that day.

The design is very simple; I usedcraft cards and rounded the corners

The doilies are from Maya Road,also craft. To make the flowers I used myHeart Punch, and added an American Crafts Flair to the middle.

And to finish I tied some twineand added the sentiment decorated with a pearl or gem.

Best Wishes for the week, till next time.

=Di

Scrappy chest of drawers

2011-10-07T14:56:00.000-07:00

My Mum spotted this project in the July 2011 edition of Craft Stamper and decided that she really wanted it for her birthday this year; she's been very patient with me as her birthday was at the end of August! But I finished it recently and wanted to share it with you the next time I had a post here at The Scrappy Tree :)
It's a little different to the one shown in the magazine, mainly to do with the demands of the lady it was being made for :)

The drawers come from a company called Eco Green, as in the article. I used Docrafts Artiste acrylic paint in Linen and Baby Blue, and DecoArt One Step Crackle for the base colour of the drawers.

The drawers are stamped in StazOn Ink in Black and Saddle Brown using Tim Holtz stamps; the buttons on the front of the drawers are Graphic 45 metal button brads.

The embellishments on the side are two Tim Holtz die-cuts coloured with Antique Linen Distress Ink and covered with Glossy Accents. The dress form is cut from Tim Holtz paper. I wound embroidery thread around the 'reel' in a colour to match the Prima flower in the middle, and then added some buttons around them in contrasting colours. I will try to add a daylight photo when we get some (!) but for now thank you for looking :)

Happy Scrapping!

Gayle xx

World Card Making Day

2011-10-03T11:36:00.000-07:00

Saturday was World Card MakingDay and I got some inspiration from the Pink Paislee DT, unfortunately all mypink paislee paper is already packed in boxes because we are moving soon, so Iwas not able to participate in the challenges, but I decided to play alonganyway because I liked what the talented DT made.

Thiswas inspired on a color challenge by Danielle.

Like that Chevron pattern? She posted a tutorial HERE

My next card was for the stitchingchallenge by Roree. I used a Maya road Kraft Doilies and chipboard shapes fromOctober Afternoon 5 & Dime.

Karola shared two templates tomake Shaped Cards. The paper is from Basic Grey’s Out of Print collection andthe butterfly from Tattered Angel.

This card has a beautiful ColorCombo that I would have never thought of putting together, posted by Michellefrom an image she found on Pinterest.

Where did you spend WCD? link your cards here so we can go see :)

Hope you all have a great day!

=Di

September's Art Journal Friday

2011-09-30T13:40:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Art Journal Friday! It's the end of another month and with the weekend ahead I hope that you'll have some time to play around with your art journals!

Firstly, apologies for missing last month's edition; as you may already know I left the country at the end of last month to go and get married, and returned well into the second half of this month as if I had been on another planet! Again, apologies, and normal service resumes as of... today! :)

This month's theme is to be 'reflection' - I know certainly in my own life recently it has been a time of great reflection, of thinking backwards and forwards at the same time and taking stock of where I'm at. I've come to the conclusion that wherever that is, it is a happy place to be :) and so this month's page should be your reflection too!

We're having a few reshuffles with our Scrappy Tree places, so for now if you'd like to share a picture of your creations I'm going to suggest that you post a link in the comments section of this post so that we can come and visit you :) looking forward to it!

Happy journalling :)

Gayle

Halloween Twinchies

2011-09-29T19:21:00.000-07:00

Hello! Julie here today with a little post for you. I love Fall and all the holidays that happen in this great season. Halloween is one of the most fun times of year to craft for. I'd like to share a few Halloween twinchies I made with you today.

I used some new stamps from Stampendous and Prickley Pear that I recently picked up. I couldn't resist the pumpkin and that creepy cemetery scene.

For the twinchie on the left I started with a black cardstock base. I cut a few small white strips of paper and inked here and there with black ink. I then adhered them haphazzardly to the black base. Once satisfied with the arrangement, I adhered a second black cardstock twinchie to the back of the first to cover up my small strips of white paper. I took my pumpkin image (a cling stamp) and stamped with Versa Mark ink on white cardstock. I sprinkled black embossing powder on the Versa Mark stamped image and used my heat gun to set the powder. Once cooled, I used my Copic markers to color the pumpkin. Then I used Diamond Stickles on the pumpkin's bandages. Once the Stickles dried, I used foam tape to pop the image up on the twinchie.

For the twinchie on the right, I used my embossing powder once again on this Prickley Pear stamp creepy cemetery scene. I just loved how this scene screamed Halloween!! Once the embossed image was cooled, I put the image on foam tape and mounted that on my cardstock!

I made these twinchies for a swap and I can't wait to send them out! Hope you enjoy creating for Halloween today!

Halloween is coming! Join the festivities! :)

2011-09-27T09:10:00.000-07:00

It's nearly October and the Halloween parties are on their way! We're already getting excited about all things orange and pumpkin-like :) we spotted this blog party over at A Fanciful Twist and just had to join in; check out the amazing pictures!

They are still open for entries if you're feeling a little spooky already ;) Come back and visit us on October 22nd for some Halloween fun! I'll be posting a blog button linking directly to the blog party sign-up in addition to being able to link there from this post :)

Happy Halloween! We look forward to seeing you then!

Kristin, Gayle, Julie and Diana

A bit of ATC fun!

2011-09-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

Something fun for the weekend :) If you're not familiar with ATC's (or Artist Trading Cards) there's a good explanation here, but basically they are small cards measuring 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches which you can decorate however you wish :)

I think what I like about ATC's the best is that they're such a small space - sometimes working on something larger, like a scrapbook page can seem a bit overwhelming, especially if your scrappy mojo is being a bit elusive :)

For 'Two's A Pear' I used Creative Expressions 'Partridge in a Pear Tree' stamps (yes I have been digging through the Christmas stamps already!), Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber in 'Pool', black StazOn, Impress Dye Inkpad in 'Poppy Red', gold Stickles, Pearl Glimmer Mist and my Dymo for the caption.

For 'Flying High' I used a free stamp from an issue of Craft Stamper magazine, a piece of ribbon and a brad from my stash, gold Stickles and some Prima Essentials 'Jack and Jill' paper flowers.

Hoping that you get some time to craft this weekend :) even if it's just something small like an ATC!

Happy scrapping :)

Gayle xx

Good Old Fashion Scrapbook - Tutorial

2011-09-21T01:00:00.000-07:00

Hello, Diana here with this month’s tutorial. I’ve been planning some decoration in a few rooms; with the help of Pinterest and a lot of Blogs I’ve gathered images of ideas and decoration inspiration. But since I’ve also gathered images from magazines and paint chip samples I decided to put together an Old Fashion Scrapbook, something I can write notes on or bring with me to a store so I don’t forget a color palette. Because I’ll need space my book measures 9”X12”, I used a neutral color for the inside pages.

Score a line on each page using a bone folder or a scoring board; this will make it easier to flip the pages. Punch 4 holes and tie the pages together with a piece of cotton twine, as shown in the picture. I also glued the pages on the scored part to make it even more resistant to wear and tear.

For the back use a piece of resistant carton. Glue only the scored part of the last page to the carton; make sure to put pressure on it so it sticks completely.

For the cover you’ll need two pieces of cardstock. Measure the Width of your book and add 4 more inches. I used a Border punch and a piece of pattern paper to decorate the part where my two papers are glued together. To make the fold for the Spine measure the thickness of your pages and score it on the cover, this should leave a 3-3.5” flap.

The last step is to glue the flap of the cover to the back of the book.

Here are a few examples of the inside; I used a pen, glue stick, some decorative tape and my dymo.

For the cover decoration I grouped some embellishments and tags. The purpose of the distressing on the cover is also for durability

And there you have it, a fast and easy way to make a Scrapbook.

As always thank you for joining me with my monthly Album tutorial and I hope this brings some inspiration to your day.

=Di

Altered fence post

2011-09-20T06:18:00.001-07:00

Hello. It's Julie here with a little project that I made from a recent thrift store find. I found a plain wooden fence post (small, like the size for a garden) and I just knew that I could do something with it.

I started by painting the plain wood post with Antique White acrylic paint. I needed multiple coats. Once that dried, I used a Dune inkpad from Color box to ink around the post, giving it an aged look. I was at a loss of what to do with it after that honestly. So it sat around my attic craft space for a week or more. Finally, I was inspired by my new Diet Coke can (yes, that was my inspiration haha). The new can has just part of the Diet Coke logo showing and focuses on just a few letters of that logo. Hence, I decided to use letters on my post. The only chipboard letters I had were kind of ugly and very glossy so I sanded them to get the gloss off and then painted them the same Antique White as the post. Once those were dry, I inked them with the same Dune ink pad. I used my Yes Glue to glue them on the post. Since it is now Fall, I decided to use Fall leaf inspired crinkled seam binding ribbon on it as well.

There's my finished project. I took a 75 cent fence post and now have a fun Fall themed decoration!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

~Julie

Words to Live By-2nd Half of the Album

2011-09-14T01:00:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back I shared the FIRST part of this album from a class at Big Pictures, I was not able to finish all the pages before the due date, but I did finish them on my pace to complete my album.

The album I used is a Fancy Pants 8X8 Mixed Media Flower Book, all the papers are from Studio Calico’s Boardwalk Kit and the mixed embellishments are from my stash.

I tried something new for this project, my cousin Mimi gave me her old typewriter, I’ve been wanting one for a while; it’s been years since I used one so forgive all my mistakes, I could have really used some white-out J

GIVE

MOMENT
CHERISH

FREELIVE
EMBRACE

If you also made some pages share them with us, just link them up.

Hope you all have a great Week!

=Di

Two Cards

2011-09-06T17:54:00.000-07:00

Hello, today I am sharing two cards I made using Melissa Frances Flashcards.

For the first card I used a tag and papers from 7 Gypsies Avignon and Washi Tape from Hambly Studio.

The second one is a birthday card; I used papers and embellishments from October Afternoon’s 5 & Dime.

I hope you all have a great week, till next time!

=Di

All About You week 4

2011-08-24T01:00:00.000-07:00

Hello, Diana here with Week 4 of the all about you month. On THIS previous post I shared the details for Big Pictures free online class, if you have not checked it out I really recommend it, you’ll have until Aug/28 to post your 6X6 layouts or whatever project you make to be able to qualify to win amazing prizes.

The reason why I included this in the all about you month, is because the theme is Words To Live By, each instructer is sharing a word and making a layout about it, until now I’ve loved every word and have been applying them to me, and of course I made a mini album for my pages ;) For every word there is a PDF format, it is optional to use it, I like the design so I have been using it.

Here are some of the pages I made:

WONDER

LESS

ENJOY

NEST

Have you been already participating? Link up your pages so we can leave you some Love :)

Best Wishes to all!

=Di

August birthdays

2011-08-19T01:00:00.000-07:00

It seems that I know a lot of people with birthdays in August, including my own! The Wizard of Oz is one of my favourite favourite films (since I was 3 years old apparently!) and for a little while now I've had a pad of the new Graphic 45 Wizard of Oz paper (8x8) burning a hole in my scrappy supplies!

As this card is for a friend I loved this image of the Scarecrow and Tinman together, and the gorgeous warm yellows in the main image and the background paper so I accented this with some Jillibean Soup 'Beanstalks' twine and some Prima Essentials 'Jack and Jill' flowers (believe it or not I didn't see the names of the designs until after I had put the card together!).

I added some Mustard Seed Distress Ink around the edges, a Dymo caption and some brads from my stash and felt this was a perfect summer birthday card :) happy birthday to all those celebrating in August! :)

Gayle

All About you Week 3-Mini Album Tutorial

2011-08-17T07:32:00.001-07:00

Hello, Diana here with this month’s tutorial. Summer is almost at its end, continuing with the All About You theme the topic of the mini album will be about your favorite summer weekend, day or event.

I found this cute 6X4 SEI album at Archiver’s; I liked the variety of colors but settled for this green one, I also got an extra package of page protectors because I needed more then the 10 pages the album already comes with, all of the papers I used are from Lily Bee design This & That and Happily Lost.

I kept the cover simple. Start by making a Ribbon Banner, fold and stitch as shown in the photo.

Cut two paper banners; make sure one is slightly bigger. As a final decoration make a paper rosette and add some crocheted flowers to the top.

Put it all together and add your title.

The Tools I used for the pages are: a variety of 7 Gypsies Stamps, Paper Punches, a Stapler and a Dymo.

For this album I made 6X4 mini layouts. On the image bellow I show the paper pieces I used for each page, I also added ribbon and twine, and a few extra punch shapes.

The stamps, dymo word, staples and journaling add the final details.

A side view of the complete album.

And here are a few of the finished pages.

I hope you all have had an amazing Summer :)

Till Next Week

=Di

All About You week 2

2011-08-10T01:00:00.000-07:00

Hello, Diana here continuing our “All About You” theme projects.

Today I‘ll share two layouts I made. The first one has a theme we can all relate to: Our Craft; rather it is art journaling, scrapbooking, card making etc. Journal about why you chose that particular craft and how it makes you feel

To add an image I took a picture of a few of the mini

albums I’ve made. The papers I used are from Glitz Afternoon Muse collection and a KI Memories Sew Cute Calendar.

I used random embellishments from 7 Gypsies, Prima, Pink Paislee and Making Memories.

My second layout theme is a recap of the first half part of the year, highlighting my favorite parts of it. It’s unbelievable how we are already past midyear.

Tha papers are from Sassafras Lass and Cosmo Cricket. Embellishments from Jenni Bowlin and Pink Paislee. I used Glimmer mist on the Pink Paislee mistable scallop ribbon.

I hope these themes inspire you to make a few layouts.

Before I go I would like to share with you this FREE class at Big Pictures, check all the details HERE I am signed up, I love getting inspiration from talented ladies :)

Have a great week.

=Di

All About You week 1

2011-08-03T06:56:00.000-07:00

Hello, Diana here welcoming you to my first post of ideas to scrapbook about YOU. Most of us make our loved ones the center of our craft, that is perfectly fine but we should also focus on us, so put aside those family pictures for a moment and dedicate a project a week for this month of August on something you want to tell about yourself.

I’ll start with this “The past 10 years in numbers” Tag book, you can also make this a layout, in fact I saw this theme as a layout (forgive me because that was a while back and I do not remember the name of the creator). This is a very versatile theme because you can make a list of the last year, five years, ten years etc.

I used three sizes of tags and leftover papers and chipboard sticker shapes I had from the October Afternoon 5 and Dime collection.

Here is a close up of the individual pages, as an extra option you can add journaling to the back of each tag.

How about a self portrait, make a layout about a Goal you have.

I hope you liked these 2 themes.

Till next week.

=Di

July's Art Journal Friday

2011-07-29T14:52:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to Art Journal Friday! This month, oh boy, where is the time going?? Are we nearly in August?? Seriously?!?

Once again I invite one and all to join us in an art journal exploration, whether it's the first page in your first book or a middle-ish one in your umpteenth :)

This month, our theme is the earth! To be honest, the UK summer seems to have happened back in April but I am determined mentally to be enjoying the onset of the best that nature has to offer in the summer season. Close your eyes, imagine lush greenery and the warm breeze brushing past you (or if you live somewhere with a summer head outside!) and take pen/paint/paper to page! I am relying on you here people, I need to live your summer vicariously through you ;)

If you're feeling generous and you'd like to share, please post your photos at our Ning group here - looking forward to seeing them!

Happy journaling! :)

Gayle

July Mini Album Tutorial

2011-07-20T01:00:00.000-07:00

Hello, Diana here bringing you this months mini album tutorial, the theme is part of my All About You craft campaign, in my next four posts I’ll be giving you ideas on making projects that focuses on you, the one behind the camera.

My album title is “At 35 I….”; I made this before my birthday as a way of remembering how I was at that age, on each page I added what stood out to me about my personality and during that year.

The album I picked for this project is a Donna Downey 4X 6 Canvas Album, I like the nice canvas pages inside and the photo sleeves were perfect to add more pictures.

Today’s tutorial will be on decorating the album cover, as you might know by now I like the look of layers.

Layer 1

Three pieces of paper, one 4X6 cardstock piece and two pattern papers with a punched out border to add extra decoration, glue them together as shown on the step 2 image bellow.

Layer 2
Glue a piece of lace all across the paper piece, add ribbon long enough to tie a knot or a bow, tape each edge to the back of the paper. Glue the complete piece to the album cover.

Layer 3-Upper Part
I used Maya Roads Chipboard Scallop Mini Triangle Banner, painted them with Jenni Bowlin’s dabbers in Malted Milk and Stick Candy and added a finishing coat of Glossy accents. The banner is put together with a piece of twine.

Layer 3-Bottom Part
A pink doily that will be under the number 35, and some cute flags that are part of the decoration.

Layer 4
I applied the same paint and glossy accents to this Maya Road Chipboard Tag, and added an orange scalloped circle under one side just to give a pop of color.

Layer 5
A nice rose with leafs for a feminine look. Once the rose is positioned where you want it to be tie the ribbon in a knot or bow.

Layer 6
Time to glue the letters for the title, I also added a few flower brads and gems.
The front of each page has my topic and a photo to match it, on the back a few journaling lines with an option to add more inside the craft envelope.

A few more of the inside pages.

A side view of how it looks with the picture sleeves.

Once again I hope I was able to inspire you and that you’ll make an album with a very important theme “you” :)

Till next time

=Di

Inspiration Monday!

2011-07-11T17:08:00.000-07:00

Hi again everyone! Julie here with a second post for today! Inspiration Monday snuck up on me and I wanted to share July's Inspirational image with you so you can be inspired to create this week. The image is from Take A Walk On the Creative Side. I love the vintage girls! I need to get creating!

If this image inspires you, come on over to the Monthly Inspiration Group and post what you were inspired to create! We'd love to see it!

A few little minis

2011-07-11T16:22:00.000-07:00

Hi! It's Julie here today with a quick little post about minis, and I don't mean mini albums. I am talking about mini cards! I love to make small cards (smaller than 4x5). I think they are a great way to use some scraps and cheer up someone's day. I have two minis to show you today.

On the card above, I used scraps that I found in my scrap drawer and I do not recall the manufacturers of them! I just played around with the layers and did my sewing BEFORE I adhered the layers to my card. There's nothing wrong with sewing on your card base but be aware that your sewing will show on the inside of your card. I had also used my Fiskars border punch on one of the scraps to add a little design element. I used Hero Arts and Papertrey Ink stamps to complete the card!

This card also used some scraps. I used Hero Arts stamps on this card, as well as my Fiskars border bunch and some Hero Arts metallic gems!

I hope this inspires you to make you own minis today! They are a lot of fun to make and even more fun to give!

A little gift for the man in your life...

2011-07-01T09:03:00.000-07:00

This is actually a father's day gift but I couldn't share with you earlier due to some camera problems! I think something like this would make a cute gift for a birthday, father's day, or even a thank you gift (change text as appropriate!).

The journal has a grungeboard cover, coloured with Distress inks and sealed with Mod Podge; I added some travel-themed stickers from my stash (I think they're by SEI). I also added part of a card clockface (Tim Holtz) just because I like it!

The card was also made using a Tim Holtz die-cut for the black cog silhouettes, with cogs stamped in gold ink on the background and the caption added using a Dymo label-maker.

I do sometimes find it hard to make something masculine that I'm happy with (I am addicted to adding flowers to most things!) but was quite happy with this, although when I find my black StazOn I want to grunge up that cover a little ;)

Happy Friday!!

Gayle xx

Scrap Your Pet Challenge

2011-06-29T01:00:00.000-07:00

Hello, Diana here sharing another layout of our dear Sammy, I bought that holiday neck piece for him to use this past Christmas, and he was fascinated with it, it’s like he knew how adorable he looked and even posed for the camera.

Remember this challenge I posted HERE. I would like to share two lovely layouts made by Jean and Michelle

He hearts the lake by Jean

Kitty by Michelle

Aren’t there Furry friends the cutest?

Thank you ladies for participating in this months challenge, you always amaze me with your beautiful layouts.

=Di

June's Art Journal Friday

2011-06-24T12:24:00.000-07:00

Welcome welcome! When did the summer arrive? Here we are at the end of June and it's time for another Art Journal Friday :)

Same rules apply as usual - all welcome! Create a page or pages around the theme for this month, and if you can come and share your creations with us at our Ning site - lots of love to be had!

This month's theme... I thought after going with a quite emotional theme last month, this month we could look at something a little less emotive - technique! An integral part of any journal page is the background, and for me it's often the part I have the most fun doing :) for this month's page I decided to gesso the page as usual and then drip different coloured alcohol inks onto it in blues, greens and golds. I LOVED this effect :) and because of the gesso it didn't bleed through the rest of the pages (as it will do if you don't protect your page, look out!)

I'd love to see what your favourite techniques are for creating backgrounds on your pages - are you a gesso girl? Do you love using acrylics, or do you prefer watercolours, or collage? Or a mixture of them all? Let me know!

If you'd like to share your background with us we have an Art Journal Friday group over at our Ning community where you can upload your page, leave some love and receive some back :) come visit and say hi!

Happy Friday :)

Gayle xx