August Scrap That! Reveal

I'm leaving for a mini holiday tomorrow so I'm posting this a little early. The August Scrap That! kit is SOOOO packed that when I received it I didn't know where to start. This will be a long post since I did 5 layouts and STILL have loads of embellies from the add-ons to play with... good thing I have the paper add-on to use all of them up later! This kit featured the Girl's Paperie, Paper Girl collection and a TON of fabulous goodies to play with.

This first layout is me as a wedding flower girl at almost 5 years old but I was the size of a three year old... hence the French "Trois" title. The picture is horribly faded but it is the only one I had and really wanted to do this shabby chic layout for my parents.

The flowers are my handmade ruffled and shabby ones and the tutorials can be found in the right sidebar of my blog.

This kit had amazing Prima butterflies and ribbon. Please note the white square doily was from my stash that I bought at Michael's.

Design Tip: Use ribbon to create a frame around a title plaque (which can be cut from patterned paper).

My second layout "Little Darling" is my daughter last summer. I had bought some Dusty Attic gates (bought from www.staytruetogod.com along with a lot of other goodies) and I had to scrap this perfect picture for the gates with the floral paper in the kit. I used the terrific sketch by LG Belarmino included in the kit as inspiration (just flipped it). I loved the clean lines appeal to it.

I made the large shabby rose and small dark pink buds (tutorials to follow soon). The other light pink flowers were not handmade and will be sold through my soon to open Etsy shop in the Fall.

Design Tip: Cluster blooms on floral paper for a beautiful finish.

My third layout "sweet" is me again. As soon as I saw this paper I ran to my mom's and stole this framed picture in her kitchen (scanned and returned the original). The paper matched my dress too well not to do this layout.

Amazing Jenni Bowlin butterflies and Prima pearls included in this kit.

Here are more of the flowers that will be available through my Etsy shop opening in the Fall.

Design tip: cut florals out of a pattern and place flower embellies for a 3-D effect.

For my fourth layout "Sweetheart", yes me again (working on getting some stuff done for my parents)... I went for a homespun look since again the picture was not a great one (but camera's were horrible in the 70's). Again I used some of my flowers. Included in the kit was this great blue ribbon and stunning pins so I just attached the ribbon with the pins instead of glueing. Please note the pink paper is from my stash.

Design tip: try making origami embellishments to add a fun interest to layouts.

And for my final layout "the Pout", this is my son after getting in trouble while camping last year. I wanted to do a cutesy layout and I modified the blue die cut paper to better suit the layout. Included in the kit were adorable buttons and I had saved a portion of the Prima swirl from my "sweet" layout for the umbrella handle. Please note the orange paper is from my stash.

Design tip: Create your own embellies by cutting shapes out of cardstock.

I used some Martha Stewart daisies from my stash... but I plan on making these easy blooms in the future with a flower punch and craft pom poms from now on.

Well, I hope you enjoyed these layouts and I will be back to check comments at the end of the week when I get into town. Hopefully I will be able to work on some flower tutorials next week too. Thanks for all your support, i really appreciate it!

August SCRAP THAT! sneak peek

Here is a little peek at what will be revealed on Monday from the Scrap That! Design Team:

MME Sketch Challenge

I took a little break from my August Scrap That! DT work to sneak in a layout for the MME "hope" sketch challenge #13.

This is my daughter at 9 months old... the photographer had this huge paper mache easter egg, too cute. I used a few different MME "bella bella" collection papers. A lot were my scraps from a project I am making for the local store I design for. Left over Prima bling from the other project too!

Design tip: Use the Martha Stewart lace punch and cut up the strip and glue sections behind a circle to create a scallop lace border.

OK, so if you're wondering where I got the pink shabby flowers, blue roses and the doily from? Well... they are unique products I will be selling in my very soon to open Etsy shop(at very reasonable prices). These are not your run of the mill dollar store flowers and doilies either... they are archival safe paper-crafting ones. All of my products will be acid free and alterable.

Some of these items will also be featured in an upcoming Scrap That! kit so stay tuned! There is so much more product to be revealed soon.

Shabby Crinkle Flower Tutorial

Here is a smaller, easier flower than my elegant ruffled flowers... for those who like the tattered look (and don't have the patience to do the other ones, LOL). They are more "forgiving" that the ruffled ones, a lot easier to manipulate and so much faster results. My flowers are 2 inches in diameter, using 1 and 2 inch flower punches (but use any die cuts you have). It's a great way to use your scraps since you don't need a lot of paper!

Here is what you need... 3 medium flowers, 3 small flowers and something for leaves (a green pointed petal flower works well), tweezers, water mister and glue. I lightly pre-inked the edges.

Step 1: Lightly mist the 3 medium flowers and crinkle them into a ball.

Step 2: Immediately unravel and use tweezers to gently twist each petal and push towards the center. Before removing tweezers gently pinch in place. Also mist the 3 small flowers and do the same twisting (they are too small to crinkle and there is no need). Let them all dry now.

Step 3: Gently unravel the medium flowers and 2 small ones. For the last small one, squish the petals together and pinch the bottom - this will be your center.

Step 4: Assemble your flower by off setting the petals as you glue. NOTE: you can omit the the pinched center and add a brad or gem instead if desired.

Step 5: Once it is glued, squish the entire flower towards the center to give the crinkle effect and then glue on the "leaves" if you wish.

That's it! Here is a side by side comparison beside my larger layered ruffle flowers.

NOTE: you can also use this type of flower center in my ruffled flowers as pictured below in the larger white one. Experiment and have fun! Add chalk ink, Glimmer mist, Stickles etc. for more sheen and dimension too! All I ask is that you please give credit where due (to ANY artist) because tutorials take a lot of time to produce. Thanks!
NOTE: the smaller white one pictured above is the result if you don't do step 5 and squish the flower towards the center once glued. It looks more like a Prima Camelot flower that way.

Well, although I have a lot more flower tutorials up my sleeve... I need to take a break because my August SCRAP THAT! DT kit just arrived (it's gorgeous!). I have lots of work to do before the project reveals on July 26th.

Elegant ruffled flower tutorial

OK, so I have been researching techniques to manipulate paper to create ruffled flowers for a while now. I actually combined three paper techniques that I found on You Tube and came up with my own ruffled flowers. These take a bit of patience but turn out wonderfully.

I am going to show you how I did the lilac one using heavy cardstock because heavier two-sided cardstock is the easiest to manipulate. The other two I used lightweight cardstock - I like them better but the paper tears easily when dampened. My flowers are 3 inches in diameter but you can make them any size!

Step 1: You need to gather 3 large punched/cut flowers, 1 medium and 5 small. It really doesn't matter what punch or die cut you use as long as there is a bit of separation between the petals. You also need a pen or pencil, tweezers, plain water mister and I forgot to put adhesive in the image - but that's a given right?

Step 2: VERY lightly mist the large and medium flowers, then using your tweezers gently twist and push the petals towards the center. Be careful not to overly wet them or they will rip. Right before you take the tweezers out give it a gently pinch to keep in place.

Step 3: Set aside to dry.

Step 4: Lightly mist the 5 small flowers. Then using your pen end, cup them around and roll then against the pen to get a good cup shape formed. On one of them pinch it to create your flower center.

Step 5: Glue the 4 flower cups into each other and press with pen end. Remember to off-set your petals. Then glue your center in. Set aside to dry. NOTE: This makes a pretty little rose on its own... just add leaves or a green star-like punched flower underneath to simulate a baby Prima rose.

Step 6: Lightly unravel your 3 large and the medium flower and glue them into each other, the medium one on top. Remember to off-set the petals again.

Step 7: Lightly push back the petals of the mini rose and glue it into the middle of the larger flowers. You can add leaves, or attach to a paper vine/flourish. You can also create "leaves" by putting a green pointed petal flower underneath. I just inked white cardstock.

Then you're done! I love the elegance of these flowers. You can also Glimmer Mist, add Stickles or simply ink the edges as I have done. I over inked the centre to show you the definition but I like them better more lightly inked in the center to look more natural.

I really enjoyed creating these. NOTE: I actually used the pointed flower base to create the pink one below. Like I said use whatever punch or die cut you have because once twisted they all look nice. Have fun and don't forget to show me your results! All I ask is that when possible you please give credit where due (to ANY artist) because tutorials do take a lot of effort to produce. Thank you.

No sew lace flower

I love lace, I love scrapbook flowers and I hate sewing. So here is a no sew lace flower tutorial. I can't take full credit because I did see something similar on a blog long ago (can't remember where) but I made mine a little fuller than hers.

You'll need a cardstock circle (rough cut mine about 2 inches), 18 inches or so of THIN lace (or sheer ribbon) or more if your circle is bigger... and a strong fast drying glue that dries clear. This will not work with thick/dense material. Also, the cheaper and rough (not soft and flat) thin lace works better (YEAH!).

STEP 1: Put glue on outer edge of circle. UPDATE: Or use a Cosmo Cricket Gluber (so much easier)

STEP 2: Pleat and fan (like a deck of cards) the first two folds and be sure to turn the starting edge under for a nice finish. Continue pleating and fanning around the circle and add a dab of glue in every pleat.

STEP 4: Put a big glob of glue in the middle and work your fold towards the center.

Step 5: Turn edge under and decorate middle with pearls, beads, a brad etc.

SPEP 6: Once dry, fluff lace.

That's it!

July Scrap That! Reveal

It's the 26th so REVEAL DAY. This month's Scrap That! kit was sooooo elegant that I had a hard time with the thought of chopping up the beautiful Creative Imaginations IOD papers - so I decided not to. I created 4 layouts this month and I've gotta tell you how much value there is in these kits because I still have enough product left over to do another layout.

My first page "big date" is of my parents when they just started dating. The picture was taken in a nightclub with the old fashioned flash Polariod so the picture now is quite faded and damaged - I decided to work with that rugged look and heavily ink and distress this page. I used walnut ink (left over from the May kit) and gold glimmer mist on the originally teal butterflies. And there was even a Making Memories distressing tool in the kit this month too!

Design tip: Distress a damaged photo to make it look like it was supposed to be like that.

For my second layout "moments", I used the beautiful die-cut paper, left over burlap from June's kit and the brown Stickles that were included this month. I just love this picture of my hubby and daughter. There were great chunky brown letter in this kit too!

Design tip: Use online flower tutorials to make your own blooms. Check-out the Scrap That! blog for this tutorial: http://scrapthatchat.blogspot.com/2010/05/hi-everyone-this-is-darien-i-have.html. I just modified it by using different punches.

For my third layout "the sort of love", this is me on my wedding day. I wanted to keep this one simple and elegant. I used my title stamp to create the soft script pattern on the hand cut die-cut shape (was a chipboard frame in the kit). The grey paper and bling were from my stash on this one.

Design tip: Use a crochet doily as a photo mat to add texture to your layout.

And for my final layout this month "angel", I decided to step outside my comfort zone and try something new... water distressing. This picture of my daughter was priceless but was taken at a weird angle in the tub so... I decided to reveal the good parts and do a lot of stamping on this one. The funny thing is I'm not much of a stamper (yet!)... I only own two stamp sets but one of them went perfectly with the papers. The flowers were left over from my June kit.

Design tip: Roll back and ink paper edges to create a custom shape frame around your picture.

Well I hope you enjoyed the layouts and techniques this month. Be sure to check out the other design team member projects too (see right side bar of this blog for the list). Oh and I'm working on that lace flower tutorial I promised... I hope to post it early next week!