Saturday, November 26, 2011

Christmas Countdown (Pion Design and Scrap That! DT)

With both the Canadian and USA thanksgiving celebrations all done, it's officially the countdown to Christmas now. This year, I decided to give a KaiserCraft advent calendar a try with my gorgeous Pion Design papers (Waiting For Santa 2 Collection). Scrap That! is selling these calendars for only $20 (and also $20 for the Pion paper collection if you want that too). There is still time for you to join in the first of our Christmas / Holiday challenges!

Scrap That! Advent Calendar Challenge:
THE RULES ARE......THERE ARE NO RULES! You are only limited by your imagination and whatever supplies and papers you have to complete your advent calendar. Any theme, any style, any purpose. Heck - it doesn't even have to be Christmas themed. Why not make a cute storage box for beads, or jewelry? Final deadline for all entries is Dec 15th. but if your project is finished before then please email a photo of it to us!

Once all entries are in, the Design Team will each choose their favorite calendar project. Then Scrap That! MEMBERS will vote for their favorite!  The winner will receive a fabulous GRAND PRIZE PACKAGE loaded with scrappy goodness. Email all entries to info@scrapthat.ca (please resize to 500 pixels) please write Scrap That! ADVENT CALENDAR CONTEST as the subject.

We only have TWO advent calendars left, so hurry and order your KaiserCraft Advent Calendar so you can get started... and watch for more details and photos of all the prizes and there will be some incredible goodies to be won!  Email: Lori at friends@scrapthat.ca to order yours today.


OK, so on to the calendar that I made.

It took me/hubby 6-7 hours to complete (spread over 4 days). My husband helped by using a palm sander on the interlocking edges and he spray painted the frame pieces for me, plus both sides of the boxes. Then the next day, I assembled the frame and he gave it one more light mist of paint while I covered the front of the boxes, filed the edges and glued the boxes together. Hubby proceeded to watch football after all his "hard work" on this project, LOL.

On day 3 of this project, I "antiqued" the edges of the boxes with gold liquid pearls and an eye-shadow sponge applicator. The insides are nicely finished as well as the sides of the boxes with the dark brown spray paint. Since I had covered only the front of the boxes, before glueing together I could easily file the paper edges and ink them too for a rustic look. Most people cover the entire box with paper and double sided tape but I wanted an antique "brass" looking finish on the edges so I took the long road in doing these little boxes. On this day, I also used white crackle paint on the numbers and once dry, rubbed a bit of the gold liquid pearls on them to better show the cracks.

On day 4, I made the middle "layout". I didn't permanently glue it in so that I am able to change it later on if I want a different look. I am holding on to an extra set of these Pion papers for this reason. The title is a Dusty Attic piece that I inked with burgundy chalk ink and topped with distress Stickles. The bling is ZVA but... I completely reconstructed it to "fit" how I wanted it to. The pretty berry and poinsettia embellies are from Michaels - in their Christmas section.

It seemed to be the never ending project but my kids LOVE it -  so it was worth the time spent. I still need to spray mod podge the boxes to help preserve them from wear and tear - never ending, LOL!

I really do like how it turned out... but how can you go wrong with these gorgeous Pion Papers? BTW, the color palette inspiration for this project was based on an older TCR palette #77. I adore that inspiration site!

The kiddos are really looking forward to finding treats in the calendar each day :)


Friday, November 25, 2011

6-inch collection release

I hope all my friends in the USA had a great Thanksgiving yesterday! Here 's a little post to let you know that since Pion Design's Studio of Memories collection has been so popular, they have just released the collection in 6x6 size. This is perfect for all the card and mini album makers out there! It is such a beautiful, timeless collection. More Pion Design creations to be revealed from me next week too so stay tuned!


Happy "black" Friday!


Monday, November 21, 2011

Live Laugh Love (Green Tara)

I have been waiting a long time to scrap this photo then... when I saw these gorgeous Glitz Design papers in my November Scrap That! kit... and combined them with a generous amount of Green Tara embellies, I knew I finally had the right things to compliment this picture. This is a photo of my first son and I, the day after he was born. I was still really pale after an emergency c-section (with a lot of blood lost - he was nice and pink though, LOL). There is so much Green Tara goodness on this layout (product descriptions below). The papers and embellies were truly worth waiting for to scrap this picture. I am in love with the thick white lace and silk flowers with crystals on this layout!


Here is a close-up of my favorite Green Tara crystal flowers and awesome silver mesh ribbon. Aren't the pearl sprays and white lace divine too?


Lace, 3.8cm White (under picture)
CODE: L2862W

20cm Silver/Pearl Spray (around flower cluster)
CODE: XP0616

Silk Flowers with Swarovski Crystal Centres. 3cm White (used 5)
CODE: SDWhL

3mm Bead Garland, Silver (to dangle tag)
CODE: RBY06S

38mm Mesh Silver (around flower cluster)
CODE: RB6734S

Self Adhesive Xmas Trees 27mm 10m Roll Silver (cut tips and used as leaves)
CODE: RB717S

Thanks for stopping by!