Calendar Layout

Today I want to show you a Calendar layout I made, December is a very busy month for us, especially during the weekends, my page does not have a daily photo, but 6 photos that describe what we did during each weekend of the month, and I used the 7th calendar block for journaling. This pretty calendar paper is from KI Memories, they have more fun colors and shapes, if you look close you’ll notice the stitching around the inside edge it comes with, isn’t that cute?

By now you might know my obsession with Collage photos, what I did was add 6 photos to a 4” x 6” to get them in a small size, I used a Marvy 1-1/4” scallop circle punch to cut ea small photo and layered them on a square that I had previously distressed. There are not that many embellishments on the page because I needed the space to add lots of journaling.

Here at TST we are happy to begin the year with a Charity Challenge “Fuzzy Friends” http://thescrappytree.blogspot.com/2011/01/fuzzy-friends-challenge.html

What you can do:

Create a Layout, ATC collection, journal page or whatever you can think of and introduce us to your family of Fuzzy Friends. The winner will take home some awesome animal themed scrappy supplies, some healthy treats for your Fuzzy Friends and TST will donate $30 to SPCA international, in your name.The challenge will run through the month of January, ending on January 29th. Please upload a link to your blog or online gallery below or upload your picture to our online Scrappy Community HERE.

I would like to introduce Sammy:

He is our 4 year old tabby cat, we adopted him when he was 2 months old, the day we went to the Shelter someone walked in with a bucket that had 5 kittens that were found in an alley, Sammy was ours the moment we saw him, we waited for him to get checked up by the nice shelter volunteers, filled out all the paperwork and took him home, since day 2 (he spent day 1 under the couch missing his brothers and sisters *sigh*) he has favored my husband, they have a special and cute bond, but he does let me know that I am also important to him every time he keeps me company when I am crafting or when he jumps on my lap to get pet. Sammy is a part of our tiny family, we love him very much and he is extremely spoiled.

Just as a reminder, if you like to make mini albums or would like to start making them I'll be back next Wednesday with my free Mini Album Tutorial Segment, I'll be posting a supply list this weekend here: http://thescrappytree.ning.com/group/dianasmonthlyminialbumtutorial

I hope you can join me.

Great Day Wishes!

=Diana

January's Inspiration Monday!

It's that time again; time for some crafty inspiration! I found this gorgeous little clutch purse from Anthropologie and I just knew instantly that this was a perfect jumpstart on a little project!

I was inspired by the pleats, the flower and the color in the tag I made below:

I used some Delphinium Glimmer mist on the background of a simple, tiny, manilla tag and then I inked the edges with a Pale Violet inkpad from Marvy. Then I took an old zipper and attempted to make a zipper flower. I will readily admit that it did not turn out perfectly. I found a lot of tutorials on YouTube showing how to make one but each of the ladies had bigger zippers than I did. I had a tiny zipper so this is how mine ended up!! I added some purple seam binding to the tag and adhered the zipper flower at the top of the tag!

We can't wait to see how the cute little clutch inspires you this week! Come on over to our Inspiration group and upload anything that the image inspired you to make!

~Julie

Fuzzy Friends Challenge

Hi Everyone,

I am pleased to announce our first charity challenge of the year! Today we are starting our Fuzzy Friends challenge to bring awareness to the SPCA and all the AMAZING work they do to keep animals from suffering everyday, year after year.

To learn more about their mission and how you can help in your local area, check our their website HERE.The SPCA supports so many animal programs it's hard to share them all now but their support of local shelters alone is phenomenal and what really has touched me personally.

I got my own very first dog, from a shelter and will never forget their kindness to her, their attention to all of the animals in their care and how someday I would like to volunteer and help too. So as a New Years resolution, I vowed to spend 1 weekend a month at our local shelter, to help bath and groom the animals there. My first weekend is the last Sat & Sun of Jan., so I hope to show you some of the friends I meet when the time comes. In the meantime, I will be brushing up on my bathing and wrestling skills :)

My dog was a 5 week old mutt, abandoned on the street and taken in by a local shelter. She was the best friend anyone could ever hope for. Her name was Indiana. What can I say, I was working for Disney at the time and we were opening the Indiana Jones ride, little did I know, George Lucas named Indiana Jones after his dog Indy, funny huh!

This was her, last year, around this time. She was 16 when this picture was taken but didn't look a day over 10 :) She loved running at the dog beach, chasing water and tennis balls and sun bathing outside on her blanket. We since have lost her but we will always be thankful for the time we had with her and the joy she brought to our house.

We since, have adopted our daughters Pit bull, since she moved into an apartment and can't have her there. I know what you are thinking, but please know, she is the nicest dog we have EVER had, give them a chance, please!

Meet Layla, the gentle giant :) She is 85 pounds and it's all in her legs and hips. This is her baby, Baby, a foot long black and white cow with 12 squeakies in it. When she picks it up, she actually trips on it as she tries to run :) She likes sleeping, hanging out with her baby and talking to the cat through the screen door.

Next up Knock Knock, named for his ability to do just that, on our front door, usually when he wants to talk to Layla :) He showed up at our house after a rain storm, I made the mistake of feeding him and he has been here ever since. We toyed with bringing him to a shelter, my Husband is severely allergic and I have a mild allergy but we know the shelters are packed and he will most likely be put down, so here he stays. My husband built him a house on our porch, he likes playing with balls of tin foil, sneaking into the garage and talking to Layla through the front screen door.



Okay, you've met my Fuzzy Friends, now on with the challenge!!!

We want you to introduce your animals to us and help the SPCA in the process.

Create a Layout, ATC collection, journal page or whatever you can think of and introduce us to your family of Fuzzy Friends. The winner will take home some awesome animal themed scrappy supplies, some healthy treats for your Fuzzy Friends and TST will donate $30 to SPCA international, in your name.

The challenge will run through the month of January, ending on January 29th. Please upload a link to your blog or online gallery below or upload your picture to our online Scrappy Community HERE.

We hope you join in on the fun and join us in making a difference in our animal friends lives today.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Kxx

Our Inchie set winner

Hello Everyone! This morning I had a little help picking out the Inchie Challenge winner!


And our winner is:

CONGRATS CORI!! Your inchie set will be in the mail to you next week! I hope you will have fun using it!

~Julie

Sketches-a Great Tool

Hello again, Diana here wishing you a happy Wednesday.
I used to think that if I used Sketches I would be betraying my creativity, but I was very wrong, a Sketch is just another tool, it can be used to make a layout based exactly on it or as an inspiration and starter point to a layout.

I now use this great tool a lot, especially when my photos start to accumulate, I’ve found that the best way for me to get back on track is taking an online class, the one I like best is Sketchbook by Kelly Purkey, I am looking forward to her 3rd class, Got Sketch by Valerie Salmon in also a great online class, this is just my way of getting motivated, but of course there are also some web pages that offer weekly or monthly free sketches like:

http://www.pencillines.com/
http://www.pagemaps.com/
http://studiocalico.typepad.com/studio_calico/2011/01/sunday-sketch.html

You will sure find one that will fit your scrappy style, because the best part of using this tool is giving it your own personality on paper.

I would like to show you two layouts I made based on this sketch from Pencil lines:

For this layout I combined my traditional mirrored double page and my usual load of paper layers:

In this case I used the sketch to get inspired, once that happened I gave it my personal touches, I inverted the photo, changed the title to the right and I omitted the 2nd photo adding instead a half circle and three tags.

For this layout I used a bunch of leftover paper scraps from some previous pages

This one is more like the sketch, but I adapted it to fit the size of my photos.

What do you think about using sketches? is there another sketch web page you'll like to share with us? leave your comments, we love to read about your input :)

Note: Remember to always give Credit to the sketch creator when you upload a layout in a gallery.

That is all for today, I hope you all have a great and amazing Wednesday!

=Di

Inchie Challenge

What in the world can you do with a 1 inch square??? Well, alot actually! Inchies are simply a 1 inch by 1 inch square that you can decorate any way you want. You can use fabric, patterned papers, punches, stamps, stickers, you name it! If it fits on an inch, you can use it. I have a photo below of a few basic supplies I used just the other day to make some inchies.





One of the most important things for me to have when I make inchies is my 1 inch square punch by EK Success. It makes it quicker to mass produce. I also have a new set of inchie stamps put out by Inkadinkado. They have quite a few stamp sets that are 1 inch sets but you can use any stamp on your inchie. You can use a portion of a larger stamp on your inchie if you wish!





Here are a few sample inchies. Remember you are only limited by your imagination! You can use anything on your inchie!

I would love to give away a set of Inkadinkado stamps (along with an acrylic block!!). Leave a comment to this post by Wednesday night and I will add your name to a drawing for this stamp set! The drawing will be held on Thursday!

Also, we'd love to see your inchie creations. We now have an inchie group over at our

NING COMMUNITY so upload any inchies you've made there!

WCP Challenge

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a great start to the New Year! I know Gayle's AJF prompt was perfect for me to get things rolling. If you have recovered from the holidays and need a nice project break to start the new year below is this months WCP Challenge.

This month I thought, we would take a stab at Tags, since some of you may been in tag withdrawal after Tim Holtz's 12 days of tags.

The Word this month is : Growth
The Color is: Green
The Photo is this one:


Remember you can use ONE of the WCP's or ALL of them when creating your project as long as it's on a tag.


Here is my go at it:

I inked the whole tag with peeled paint, distress ink. added the picture then used picket fence crackle paint around the edges of the picture. The arrows are My Minds Eye, the ribbon, Bazzill and some white chip board Thickers.

The curled up corners and end of the tag is my favorite effect.


The crackle paint is so fun to use, especially because I previously had to use the crackle paint on top of another coat to get the effect, what a pain! *Tip, I did use my craft dryer to dry the cracklepaint, works great for those of us who are impatient :)

I hope you feel inspired and join us over at our Scrappy Community to share your project or join in on the other fun. It's not too late to give Gayle's AJF a try!


Have a wonderful day!

Kxx

December Art Journal Friday

Here we are with the last Art Journal Friday of the year on the very last day of the year! If you haven't played along before, maybe think about making yourself a New Year's Resolution to try something new this weekend :)

To join in, all you need to do is to create an art journal page using any medium you like (paint, paper, fabric, collage etc etc etc) using this month's theme over the weekend, and if you'd like to share with us you can upload a picture here at The Scrappy Tree community AJF group - if you don't feel you want to share your page, by all means call in and leave some love anyway :)

For this month's prompt, I decided it was time to say goodbye properly to the old year and welcome in the new! I know that for many people 2010 has certainly had its challenges ;) my suggestion for this art journal page is that you write ALL OVER the page with all the things that you want to leave behind where they belong in 2010 - write whatever you like using whatever language you like and don't worry that anyone will see it because....

...then you're going to paint/collage/draw/write ALL OVER IT with all the good things that are coming your way in the new year! It could be good things you know are going to happen and are really looking forward to, or equally good things that you want to happen - you never know unless you ask, right? ;)

Hope you have fun with this one, I know I'm going to!!

Gayle xx