Monday, October 24, 2011

Having the kids go batty!

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!










Saturday, October 22, 2011

Halloween Party!


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♥

Friday, October 21, 2011

Halloween inchies and blog party news!

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

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Accordion Mini Album Tutorial

 Hello, Diana here with this month’s Mini Album tutorial. In my search for new ways of making mini albums I went to the library and walked out 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 it in a bigger size.

 You’ll need a Wide Strip of paper that is thin enough to fold in both directions.
To be able to take a picture of the two first steps I used a piece of cardstock, for the album I used some craft type wrap paper I purchased at Michaels.

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



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



This will be the body of the album. For the cover I used a Pink Paislee 4”X6” Flash Card from their Daily Junque ephemera pack, and for the back I cut a piece of carton and painted it with acrylic paint.
Here are the three parts of the album:




Now comes the part where we decorate the accordion, I used different papers from Crates Restoration collection, unless your folds were perfect (mine were not) I recommend that you measure each space before cutting the paper pieces.

This is how the front looks



And the back, I added a manila envelope to the end. 
Both ends are left without decoration because that is where 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. The fun part of this album is to be able to tuck stuff in the pockets, I used tags and Maya Roads Kraft and Transparencies Doilies.

Here is a view of the closed album




And a view of the open album



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



Thanks to the pocket design I was able to add 20 photos plus the 5 I put inside the manila envelope. Here is how I did it:
Each pocket has a photo glued to the flap.



The tag inside has photos on the front.



And on the back.



This is how I used the manila envelope



The Photos that are kept inside


I left the back of the album simple only adding pictures.




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



The one on the book was left with no decoration inside and the covers were made out of playing cards, I plan on making 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


Friday, October 14, 2011

Masking! Birthday card and tag

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

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Card Set

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

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



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





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




Best Wishes for the week, till next time.

=Di

Friday, October 7, 2011

Scrappy chest of drawers

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

Monday, October 3, 2011

World Card Making Day


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

This was inspired on a color challenge by Danielle.



Like that Chevron pattern? She posted a tutorial HERE




My next card was for the stitching challenge by Roree. I used a Maya road Kraft Doilies and chipboard shapes from October Afternoon 5 & Dime.


Karola shared two templates to make Shaped Cards. The paper is from Basic Grey’s Out of Print collection and the butterfly from Tattered Angel.


This card has a beautiful Color Combo that I would have never thought of putting together, posted by Michelle from 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