A little splash of colour

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

 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

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

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

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

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

The next three pieces are going to join the covers. For the inside spine I cut a piece of cardboard 5.5” long and thick enough to fit a small eyelet,  I also cut a piece of paper to cover the side of the spine that will show from the inside of the album.  The paper that will go on the outside of the spine is 5.5” X 3.5”, I scored a 1” line for the part of the paper that is going on the front and left the back part longer, I scored another line a little 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, each page has a verse from the song.

Since the papers have so much decoration on them I left the embellishment 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

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

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.

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

Grow to be Happy, Loved and Creative.

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