Learn to make my flowers!

I'm so happy to report that I'll be teaching for one of the Scrapbooker's Paradise stores (North location) in Calgary, Alberta starting this Fall. This was a great opportunity that I fell into and I'm excited to be teaching again. The focus of my classes will be handmade flowers on various projects (layouts, altered items and out of the box items). Scrapbooker's Paradise locations in Alberta are owned by one one of the largest Canadian wholesale distributors (Scrapbook Eh!) and often have amazing guest instructors like Ingvild Bolme (who taught at the South location this summer)... so it was really a true honour to be invited to teach! Click here for all details:

http://www.scrapbookersparadise.com/stores.htm

Saturday is our Fall Frolic Event! Get 15% off* your total purchase (20% off* for Scrapbook Club members) this Saturday, August 27th!

Here are the projects I will be teaching:

Wild Spirit Layout
In this layout class, you'll apply some tips and techniques such as making handmade flowers, fussy cutting, layering, distressing, inking, use of lace, adding pearls and bling, flower clustering, etc. Whether your style is classic, vintage, or even punk, you'll learn how to add dimension and depth to your layouts. Best of all, you’ll get to “play” with spectacular products, have lots of fun and go home with a gorgeous heritage style layout! At the end of the class, you’ll have gained skills and inspiration to create future advanced projects on your own. Not everyone has the artistic ability to draw or paint but with a little paper and creativity ANYONE can paper-craft. Get ready to unleash your creativity!
Level: Beginner - Intermediate
Date: Saturday September 17 @ 1:00pm
Cost: Members $20.00 + $10.00 material fee
Non-members $40.00 + $10.00 material fee

Shabby Chic Frame

In this altered frame class, you'll apply some tips and techniques such as making handmade flowers, fussy cutting, layering, sanding, inking, use of lace, flower clustering, glitter use, etc. Whether your style is classic, vintage, or even punk, you'll learn how to add dimension and depth to your projects. Best of all, you’ll get to “play” with spectacular products, have lots of fun and go home with a gorgeous shabby chic style frame! At the end of the class, you’ll have gained skills and inspiration to create future advanced projects on your own. Not everyone has the artistic ability to draw or paint but with a little paper and creativity ANYONE can paper-craft. Get ready to unleash your creativity!
Level: Beginner - Intermediate
Date: Saturday October 15 @ 1:00 pm
Cost: Members: $20.00 + $ 10.00 material fee
Non members: $40.00 + $10.00 material fee

To sign up please visit or call the store at
45 Crowfoot Terrace, NW
or contact: (403) 547-8522

Don’t miss out on the great advantages of being a Scrapbook Club Member!

Benefits:

5% discount off ALL items* EVERYDAY including sale items

50% off classes and crops**

Member Mondays – Members receive 10% all day on all purchases

FREE use of our workshop area

FREE use of our Cricut machines, Slice machine and more (simply supply your own mat and blades)

Unlimited Use of our Computers including Cricut Design Studio

Scan for only .15 per scan using our shoebox scanner which scans up to 30 photos per minute!

Special Members Only Coupons

Yearly Members Only Night

20% Discount on your birthday

Special renewal price of $35 PLUS save 30% off your purchase the day you renew
* Excludes personal cutting systems, Copic marker sets and accessories, computer hardware or software and Heritage Makers
**Special Guest Workshops excluded

Scrap That! Sneak and News

Here is a sneak peek at our upcoming kit reveal and blog hop starting this Friday, August 26t at 10 am MST. This kit is a HUGE deal, we have some AMAZING guest designers and SEVERAL incredible prizes up for grabs. Don't miss it!

FYI - I've been a little MIA lately due to a family hoiday, kit DT work and getting projects ready for a major manufacturer guest spot next week and creating designs for upcoming Fall classes I am teaching at the North Store Scrapbooker's Paradise in Calgary, Alberta. My classes are focusing on handmade flowers incorporated in layouts, altered items and off the page projects. I have a total of 11 projects to reveal and a HUGE promotion/contest/giveaway to announce over the next week or so.

See you back here on Friday!

NEW Dusty Attic Chipboard Arrived!

I have just loaded some of the new July releases of Dusty Attic chipboard in my Etsy shop (http://www.etsy.com/shop/vickyalberto) as well as re-stocked the popular items you've been asking for. I now have OVER 100 chipboard styles to choose from (as of tonight)... quantities are limited so hurry before they're gone! I have a limited stock of some of the new larger frames too (not listed in my shop due to oversized parcel shipping - just convo me). I will also be placing another order in September to ensure we all have glorious chipboard for the most wonderful time of the year - late FALL - when we're all scrapping our hearts out before Christmas! If you have a custom order request (over 15 items) for the scrappy season, e-mail me at vickya@shaw.ca by September 15th.

Lastly, I'm gonna tease you with letting you know that in a few weeks you will have 2 chances to WIN a few of these newly released goodies too! Keep checking back here for details :)

Scrap That! Blog Candy

Doesn't this look awesome?...

Lori at Scrap That! is giving away this gorgeous CUSTOM vintage kit as blog candy... head over to http://scrapthatchat.blogspot.com/2011/08/scrap-that-blog-giveaway.html before Aug 19th to enter to WIN it!

Scrap That! August Challenge

I am hosting the monthly Scrap That! challenge for August and my challenge to you is to create any type of project using only one 12x12 sheet of patterned paper or plain cardstock. You can use whatever embellies you wish but the core of the project (layout, card, altered item etc.) must only be made with ONE piece of paper. This challenge is open to ANYONE! You do not need to be a Scrap That! kit subscriber to join our community/forum and participate in our monthly challenges. Please visit us at http://scrapthat.ning.com - we love to make new scrappy friends! You will find this challenge under the Challenges from the DT section with a few simple rules and posting information. This challenge runs from August 3rd to August 17th. I will then randomly draw a winner for a fabulous embellishment prize from Scrap That!

Today I am sharing a new Pion Design project made with one single sheet of paper from the "fairytale of spring" collection, including the handmade flower. This cute little cupcake treat box was created using a template from:
http://www.thedigichick.com/shop/Kelleigh-Ratzlaff. I just love this template!

Here you see the components before I put them all together. The handmade flower is a modified elegant ruffle flower from my flower tutorials. Instead of a rose center, I just kept adding smaller ruffled layers in the middle.

Here are more examples of other items that I have recently made with one single sheet of paper and some with handmade flowers:

A kirigami box:

An altered wood frame:

 A purse card with gift card holder inside:

I sure hope you play along with the challenge this month! Remember, this challenge runs from August 3rd to August 17th. I will then randomly draw a winner for a fabulous embellishment prize from Scrap That!

Scrap That! Reveal and Blog Hop

Welcome to the August Scrap That!

"Somewhere in Time" kit reveal and blog hop!

This kit is packed with heritage style goodies. It features the IOD Wild Spirit and Bo Bunny Timepiece collections, gorgeous Petaloo flowers and awesome trim, buttons and more! We have 10 blogs for you to visit this month and your final stop is the Bo Bunny blog. If you have just arrived here from Tina’s blog you are in the correct place!  If not, head back to the Scrap That! blog and join us (prize and qualification information at the end of this post).

For my first layout "vintage soul" I kept this one very simple. Every time I tried to add more it just looked wrong. This is my son at 5 years old. I just love the black and cream contrast with this sepia picture. The only thing I added from my Etsy Shop is Dusty Attic chipboard, the rest is all in the kit. (BTW - I will have new chipboard stock in a few weeks).

Design tip: Lightly stain chipboard by pressing Tim Holtz Distress ink pad right on the bare chipboard and unevenly coat for a weathered look.

For my second layout "remember", this is the last picture taken of my grandparents together before my Grandma got sick and passed away. I just love how the IOD and Bo Bunny papers work so well together. The corner DA pieces are in this kit too! I added a doily from my stash but the rest is all in the main kit. To make the scallop background, I used a Creative Memories template. I still love their cutting templates (and my stockpile of punches, LOL) and have not switched to a die-cutting machine  - yet!

Design tip: Add a crisp white doily on a light paper to add soft texture to your layout and to make the picture (your focal point) stand out more.

In each Scrap That! kit, you receive 3 pieces of coordinating plain cardstock.  I just love the Bo Bunny double dot in this kit and decided to do a few box projects with it. Here is a cupcake gift box (template from http://www.thedigichick.com/shop). I have a feeling I will be making many of these cute little things. These will make great teacher gifts. BTW - I just love the trim in this kit too!

Here is a picture of the box elements before I put them all together.

 The flower was handmade using my new wild roses tutorial and adding a button from the add-on kit.

Here is a kirigami box I made (tutorial in previous post). I prefer kirigami boxes rather than origami because they have a more polished look without fold lines on the top and bottom surfaces. The lace is from my stash. I really love black and tan together, don't you?

I misted this flower from the main kit to give it darker color and some shine.

This is another kirigami box, this time using black and white.

I handmade the flower using the water distressed technique from my new sugarplum flower tutorial. I just used a larger punch that didn't require clipping the ends off because of the "heart shaped" ends already on them. The centre is another fabulous button from the add-on kit.

Lastly, I wanted to show you how you can really have fun with these little boxes. Wouldn't this be great for a little girl? I made a really fluffy flower with 8 punched layers in all different sizes and shapes from my "collection" of punches and added some punched butterflies to each side too.

 Here is a peek at the main kit:

Here is the embellishment add-on:

As you can see , two layouts and four boxes later... I still have so much product left from this kit. I am working on another layout to be revealed soon with some exciting news... so stay tuned!


OK now for the hop details:

In order to qualify for the Grand Prize of a Fully Loaded Scrap That! Paper Crafting Kit you must:

1) VISIT ALL TEN BLOGS ON THE HOP, LEAVE A COMMENT AND BECOME A FOLLOWER OF EACH - Take your time and have a look around, our designers have beautiful blogs :)  Be sure and leave a comment on each blog you visit.  There will be a randomly drawn comment winner from each blog, and one of those lucky ladies will be selected to win a fabulous Dusty Attic prize pack! When you visit each blog be sure you leave a comment and become a follower so we know you have joined in.

2) GO TO SCRAP THAT! FACEBOOK PAGE, LIKE US AND BECOME A FRIEND

3) GO TO THE SCRAP THAT! SOCIAL COMMUNITY AND BECOME A MEMBER

We hope you all had good fun hopping with us today. Thank you so much for playing along!  Watch for the Scrap That! newsletter posted on our NING community on August 22nd to see if you are one of the  lucky winners!

and... BO BUNNY has generously offered a prize as well!  So that’s not one, not two, but THREE chances to win!!  If you upload our Blinkie to your blog and our blog patrollers see it, you will increase your chances of winning!

Now head over to your FINAL stop, the Bo Bunny blog! The hop ends at midnight on Sunday, July 31st MST.

Blog Hop Rotation (in case you got lost along the way):
Scrap That! Blog - http://scrapthatchat.blogspot.com
Ivana - http://papergirlcrafts.blogspot.com
Karen - http://agirlsscrapobsession.blogspot.com
LG - http://scrappinworld.blogspot.com
Lisa - http://kaye2222.blogspot.com
Robin - http://robinshakoor.blogspot.com
Shona - http://suchawonderfulmess.blogspot.com
Tina - http://tina-mypaperpantry.blogspot.com
Vicky - you are HERE!
Bo Bunny - http://www.bobunny.blogspot.com

Kirigami box tutorial

I just love making kirigami boxes. This ancient art makes for beautiful and sturdy paper craft boxes with no visible fold seams. Here I am using the Pion Design "Studio of Memories" collection.

You will need 2 square papers one for the top and one for the bottom of the box, scissors, adhesive and anything you wish to decorate the box with. 12x12 papers will make a 4-inch square box and a 6x6 papers will make a 2-inch box.

STEP 1: Cut one of the papers just slightly smaller (1/4 inch or so) - that will be your bottom piece of the box. Now, find the centre of both your papers by aligning a ruler to the corners and marking in the middle of the side of the paper that will be on the inside of the box.

 STEP 2: Fold in corners to the middle.

STEP 3: Open up 2 opposite corner and then fold in the remaining 2 sides over again to the middle.

STEP 4: Open it all up and repeat on the other 2 sides. You will then get a square creased (top of the box) in the middle of the paper and a smaller square pattern on the rest of the paper.

STEP 5: On two opposing sides, cut up to the middle box shape (along the crease).

STEP 6: Fold in the uncut sides down like this:

STEP 7: Fold up on the crease to make the side of your box and fold in the cut flaps to look like below. You can use a piece of tape to keep the flaps together.

STEP 8: Fold the remaining pieces over the taped together flaps.

STEP 9: Secure with adhesive.

STEP 10: Repeat the entire process with the other sheet of paper.

STEP 11: Decorate and assemble the two parts (smaller piece of paper is the bottom portion of the box). I made a water distressed flower with my sugarplum flower tutorial technique, using 8 layers of different shape and size flower punches.

I hope you give this folded box a try. This is a great, quick little project that took me under half an hour to complete with the decorating!

Scrap That! sneak and new DT Members

Our next exciting reveal and blog hop for the August Scrap That! kit starts this Friday, July 29th at 10am MST! Look at what our outstanding DT has been working on...

As most of you know, I have been the DT and Kit Coordinator since the start of Scrap That! kits. The position has grown to the point that it requires two people to effectively manage all the responsibilities. I will continue in the research and product selection role as well as be an active design team member. I now pass the DT Coordinator "torch" to our new team member Shona Keehn and am confident she will be an amazing leader. I am also thrilled to announce that recent guest designers Tina Rutledge and Robin Shakoor have also been added to the full-time DT.

Stay tuned for some more exciting news for Scrap That! and for me personally too... wow what a great scrappy summer so far. See you Friday!

Always Layout - Pion Design

I've been eager to use this sheet of paper from Pion's "Studio of Memories" collection but I wanted to wait until I had the right photo in mind. Then, after looking though my wedding album for another layout (and with a little help from my Dusty Attic stash - see my Etsy shop for more available pieces of chipboard)... I finally had the right concept for this layout. The flowers are Prima and the bling is one ZVA flourish that I split into 3 (thanks to my Calgarian friend Bonnie for the bling!). I simply used white and light gray chalk inks on the DA frame.

Design Tip: Using gesso and a soft paintbrush, lightly "stipple" the edge of you picture for soft dreamy effect and to give the sanded chipboard edge a nice finish.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Sugarplum Flowers

Here is my version of Prima's sweet little sugarplum flowers. I just can't justify the $5.00 price tag for 9 of these when I can so easily make them in just a few minutes, in any color I want, and at a tenth of the price! Here I used some of my Pion Design scraps from the "fairytale of spring" collection.

Materials: Three small (one-inch) punched/die cut flowers and three mini (half-inch) flowers, water to mist, glue, deco scissors, a stylus (or end of a thin paintbrush) and a foam mat (like a mouse pad). I used my EK Success retro punches but any five petal flower will do. 

Step 1: Trim the very tips of the 3 larger flowers with your deco scissors.

Step 2: Very lightly water mist all 6 flowers and crumple. Do not over wet them or they will rip.

 Step 3: Open them up while still damp.

Step 4: Glue the 3 larger flowers (off-set the petals) together and press into the foam mat to lift the petals.

Step 4: Glue 2 of the mini flowers (off-set the petals) in the middle and press again into the mat. It should look like this:

Step 5: Pinch together the last mini flower and glue into the middle.

Step 6: Slightly smash the center and let completely dry.

That's it! Super easy flowers and so cute on shabby layouts.

Here was my Prima inspiration, pretty close to the real thing don't you think? Mine are just a tiny bit smaller than theirs since I clipped off the ends of the petals.

Thanks for stopping by... let me know you were here :)