Sunday, July 10, 2011

July Guest Design Team Member for Berry71Bleu

Hello Everyone...

I know you are probably wondering, where in the heck did she disappear to? I know it's been awhile since I posted something. It's been quite hectic in my household and work this past month so I am sorry that I hadn't checked in with anything. Well, in any event, I hope you are all enjoying the summer so far. It's been so rainy and icky here that we are just now experiencing the hot muggy summer weather so the family has been trying to enjoy the outdoors! I haven't been part of a design team in awhile (since 2009) so I haven't been really motivated to post much - only when I've created a gift set for those special people in my life. But that changed when...


I was asked by Marivic, owner of Berry71Bleu, to be one of her July guest design team members. It was such a privilege to work with her beautiful vintage tags! Click on the link to visit and become a member of Berry71Bleu. It is a fairly new site, but you lots of great companionship as well as lots of inspiration from the DT as well as board members. After you are done browsing, you can check out Marivic's other links below. She also sells her tags and premade pages on etsy. Both her pages and tags are so intricate and beautiful. I can just sit there and drool over the layouts she's made.


 To show how versatile Marivic's tags are, I've created these projects...

#1: Oh La La Vintage Tag

 From tag to...

 this. 
I created a notepad holder and matching card. 
 
Doesn't this tag just fit in well with the size of the notepad holder? Here is the recipe on how to make the notepad:

1) Measure the height and width of notepad. I bought some colored notepad sets from Walmart awhile back. Mine measure 4x6.

2) I used Kraft cardstock as my base. Cut down to 9.5 x 9. The extra cardstock will be your flaps you can use to slip the back of the cardstock instead of permanently adhering it on the backside - this will be easier to replace the notepad when it is done.

3) Starting from 9.5 inch side, score cardstock at 4.5 inches and then again at 5 inches. This will give you ample room for your notepad to sit in its holder.

4) Rotate cardstock to the 9 inch side...now you are ready to create the flaps. Score at 2.75 inches on both sides.

Now you are ready to decorate...here is how I decorated mine:


INSIDE OF NOTEPAD:


5) Measure each side and adhere patterned paper.

6) Before adhering flaps, you have the option to use a corner rounder on the flaps as you see in the pic I attached. Instead of using red line tape to adhere the flaps permanently, I used my sewing machine to close up the sides of each flap. The sewing is at least 1/8 inches away from edge. I was cutting it really close with my sewing! LOL

OUTSIDE OF NOTEPAD:


7) Open up the notepad and trace onto patterned paper. Adhere patterned paper on front side using your favorite adhesive making sure the edges are well adhered to the cardstock. I prefer to use double stick tape, but you can also use red line tape if you wish at this point.

8) Once the patterned paper is adhered to the entire front side, you have the option to use the corner rounder on the top edges. If you decide to sew your flaps, the patterned paper on the front easily hides the sewing. Use sanding block to shave off extra paper from the edges.

Now you are ready to embellish the front with whatever you wish. As you can see, I used one of the tags on there and I think it goes very nicely with the patterned paper and ribbon I picked. For a truly vintage touch, I added a tab on the side that says "Notes" with my dymo label maker - do you remember those from the good ol' days?

The last thing I did was create a matching beaded pen. These are really fun to make...if you haven't tried to, go to this tutorial on SCS that explains it all: Beaded Pen Tutorial.

Let's move on to the card...I was so excited that I bought this Quickutz sewing/dress form die from a pea-member awhile back. So I created a matching card and tried to mimic the dress form image on the tag as much as I could. I wanted to make this a little more simple. While I did not have  postcard sentiment stamp, I was able to use my clear postmarks stamp set by Stampology. The sentiment at the bottom of the card is from Stampin' Up's Haute Couture stamp set. It was simply perfect for the card. I also topped off the dress form with a little hot pink felt flower from Maya Road and some bling bling.



#2: Patisserie Tag - "Sweet" Name Plaque

From tag to...

this.
I created a name frame using an embroidery hoop.

Now, I usually don't make too many things for myself, but I have been itching to make something for my cubicle at work. The company I work for doesn't supply professionally made name plates so when the opportunity arose, I created one for myself to hang on the outside of my cube. Now I have something pretty to look forward to when I get to work! 

Instead of using a typical picture frame, I used an embroidery hoop. I get a lot of inspiration when I browse the web for ideas and my inspiration came from Etsy this time. I used a brown textured fabric scrap (almost looks like burlap), crochet embellishment that I bought from a garage sale, kraft cardstock, vintage music sheet, a felt birdie embellie from American Crafts, flocked green sticker from Anna Griffin (I added the "sweet" sentiment on there so because there were so many sweet delicacies on the tag), vintage buttons from Making Memories and used twine. My name was spelled out using yellow glittered thickers - can you believe that this is the first time I am using thickers??? There you have it - a simple personalized name plaque. I scored on a bunch of embroidery hoops at a garage sale 2 years ago and I will for sure will be making more home or office decor with these doodads. 

Here is just a little close-up of the name frame...

The name plaque above also qualifies for the July challenge going on over at Berry71Bleu Tags, Pages and More website. Check it out as there are already many forum members and lots of inspiration to look through as well as tutorials.

I know this was a rather long post, but I hope you enjoyed reading through all of the details. 

Thank you again to Marivic for thinking of me and asking me to be part of the Berry71Bleu guest design team. She is having another design team call and you can find more deets here. Good luck to all who apply! Just a quick peek at the kit that Marivic sent me as a thank you - lots of goodies to play with!
 Maraming Maraming Salamat kay Marivic!
ETA: If you are wondering what this means, I was just saying a BIG thank you to Marivic in my native language, Tagalog.

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

"No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks"

"No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks" - remember that childhood rhyme? My kids were so ready for summer vacation 2 months ago! HaHaHa

Of course, end of the year meant I needed to make thank you gifts for the teachers.Both teachers worked so hard all year and I know they were probably ready for summer vacation two weeks after school started - LOL!

So for both of the teachers, I created a gift set that consisted of: the following items: altered full-size clipboard, matching altered half notebook with pen, a bouquet of flowers, and can't forget for a little R&R...body wash that comes with a body sponge which was bought at the Dollar Store too. If you have been following my blog or have seen my gallery, you will notice that I love altering clipboards and composition notebooks. They are always a great "go to" gift.

Gift Set #1 went to my daughter's kindergarten teacher...My daughter's kindergarten teacher always admired anything crafty simply because she is a scrapbooker herself. So this was my chance to make something special for her. She had been teaching for many years and my daughter loved being in her class. She had several misfits in her class, including my daughter, but she kept chugging.


Instead of putting everything in a decorative paper bag, I bought these cute plastic containers at the Dollar Store to put all of the gifts into. It costs the same as a paper bag but I wanted to find a more practical container so that the teachers could re-purpose it for something else.

One of Jen del Muro's blog posts had given me a great idea to make these beautiful bouquet of flowers made out of tissue paper with tulle in the middle. She found this idea on Pinterest - a new website every crafter is raving about. I know I need to jump on the bandwagon already. Here is the tutorial I used for the flowers: Bouquet of Flowers


I started to make all of these flowers with different color combos. Here is a sampling of what the flowers look like...

It depends on the size rectangle you use so after testing the size on one, I created a much smaller version so it would fit better in the vase. In the pic below, you can see my first one made with yellow and white tissue paper and then my revised much smaller version on the left.

Here is the bouquet all completed. I used a glue gun and BBQ sticks to hold the flowers in place. I cut the sticks to the appropriate size. then placed them in the vase.

Here is a close-up of the flowers. I added a package of unsharpened pencils in the middle of the flowers to liven it up a bit. Plus teachers always need pencils in their classrooms.

I converted these ceramic containers to use as a vase. It used to contain dry mustard. I scored big during a community wide garage sale and bought 2 boxes of these babies. Hubby wasn't very pleased when he saw the boxes in the trunk - oooppppsss!!! I finally found the nerve to use the rub-ons I had been hoarding from SU that I bought a long time ago. Rub-ons can be temperamental. You have to make sure you rub hard and take off the wax paper it was originally stuck very slowly or you completely mess up the rub-on (ask me how I know that *sigh*). You live and learn, right?

Here are the rest of the pieces of the gift set. The first one is the clipboard and notebook gift set.


It is hard to tell, but I added Maya Road alpha rub-ons on the bottom part of the clipboard. I had this one already made from Christmas - it just needed some finishing touches.


For the notebook, I decided to leave it as is so that I wasn't distracting from the design on the paper. I created a matching pen for it too. When I gave the gift to my daughter's teacher, she said this was her favorite kind of pen. So score on that one too! I wish I would've had time to make a beaded pen instead.


This is just a picture of the body wash and body sponge I added to the gift set. I bought the body wash, body sponge from the Dollar store as well.

Gift set #2 went to my son's 1st grade teacher...She is fairly new teacher - this is her 4th year teaching. She is one of the most awesome teachers I have ever met. She is so energetic, enthusiastic, and so genuine with the kids. My son loved being in her class. My husband and I love the fact that she was so great at communication. I wish I had a teacher like her when I was younger.





I created a slightly different color combo for this bouquet to match the rub-on I put on the vase.

When I started altering clipboards, I used to tie different colored ribbons by the metal clamp, but browsing through the SCS gallery had inspired me to experiment with different kinds of medium. For this one I used one of my flower dies, red felt and a red button. For a more 3D effect, I cut out 2 each of 3 size flowers. To put the flower together, I gathered all of the pieces the way I wanted it to look, then stitched a red button with matching thread. Then to make more stable, I cut a square piece of cardstock and glued it to the back of the flower. Then I cut a few pieces of 3 dimensional double stick tape to the back so that it is not completely flat on the metal clamp. I think it turned out so cute! Don'tcha think???
 
Isn't that such a cute owl? It's hard to see, but it says "hoot" underneath the owl.

Before ya'll go, stay tuned for a couple of announcements in July!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, May 13, 2011

Pour une mère merveilleuse...

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend! I spent a relaxing day with the family and finally got my hubby to grill me a big ole honkin' steak that I have been craving. I was having trouble with the computer so I am just getting around to posting this gift set. This is the mother's day gift set I made for my Mother-in-law (I made the same card for my Mom too). I went with a French theme this year mainly because my in-laws are planning a trip to France in two weeks. I recently just bought an Eiffel Tower stamp from someone on twopeas that has been on my wishlist for a long time now. So, to get them prepared for their trip, I thought I would ink up my new stamp and go all French.

The sentiment "Pour une mère merveilleuse" was hand-written with a SU marker and translates to " To A Wonderful Mother". I added a little texture to the stamped image (stamped with Tim Holtz Distress Ink Walnut Stain directly on the patterned paper) with 3D puffy paint in pearl white which reminded me of a pearl beaded necklace. To make the card more feminine, I added a pink satin ribbon with a vintage button and prima attached to it. I sponged Tim Holtz Distress Ink Antique Linen around the patterned paper.

This is what the inside of the card looks like...


I also created a matching album that translates to" Do you speak French?". I love buying those $1 photo albums from Wal-mart that has open sleeves for the front and back cover so you can re-decorate it to your heart's content. I also put together a gift bag for her that included chocolates with French phrases on it, jelly made in France, and some other sweet French goodies. I was so late in sending the package that I did not get a chance to take a picture of the whole gift set.








Stamps: Stampers Anonymous Eiffel Tower
Paper: K&Co Classic Papers
Inks: Tim Holtz Distress Inks (Walnut Stain, Antique Linen)
Accessories: Sewing Machine, Buttons, 3D Puffy Paint Pearl White, Prima Flowers, Twine, Pink Satin Ribbon

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Featuring Thomas Kinkade...

HIS NEXT JOURNEY...

It's always so difficult to make sympathy cards and creating this was no different. One of our old neighbors called me several weeks ago that two of our neighbors who had practically been pioneers on that street had gotten into a horrific car accident. Bob was the passenger and did not make it. Gerry, his best friend was the driver. He suffered internal injuries, but is now in physical therapy to get himself back into shape - scroll down to see his card. These two were inseparable and one of the best neighbors you could have.



I created a rather simple card. I did not want to distract from the image too much so I used the Cracked Glass technique on the image. This is the first time I am using a Thomas Kinkade stamp. I've always admired them, but felt too intimidated. This stamp has such a serene scene that it was perfect for the card. I printed out a poem I found on SCS on the backside of the front card. This is my "go to" poem when I have to make a sympathy card.

Bob will be sorely missed! I will always remember his smiling face!

SOMEONE CARES...
This is the card I created for Gerry. Again, I kept the front rather simple so as not take away from the image.

Please excuse my coloring...I felt pretty intimidated coloring even this smaller image after seeing all of the fabulous cards I had seen on SCS.

 

The sentiment is stamped on the back side of the front of the card using PTI Everyday Blessings. My husband even said that this was his most favorite card yet!

 

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Love Overflows...Thank You

Better late than never...I am now just uploading a thank you card I made for my in-laws for Christmas. I thought I  had forgotten to take a picture of it. They have always been so generous to us. This is not your typical thank you card, but I thought since my in-laws love to host parties and such, I found this to be the perfect sentiment and image.I found this vintage lace at our local Ben Franklin store and it complimented the papers so well along with the buttons at the bottom.


Lately, I have been finishing the inside of the cards to match the front. I usually don't like to clutter the inside part so that I can write my novel to the person I am giving the card to - LOL! So this is the only time you will see lots of white space.


I've got more to post after I feed the kids so stand by!





Stamps: PTI Boards and Beams
Paper: K& Co Classic Papers
Inks: Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Prisma Colored Pencils blended in baby oil
Accesssories: EK Success Fleur de lis Punch, Sewing Machine, Spellbinders Nestabilities, Vintage Buttons, Thread, Vintage Lace

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Happy Mother's Day!

I just wanted to post a quick Happy Mother's Day to all of my crafting friends! Enjoy your day...every woman regardless if you are a mom or not, should be celebrated! I have some cards I need to post, but I am having trouble with the software I usually format them in so stay tuned! I'll leave you with this sweet poem I found online...


M-O-T-H-E-R

"M" is for the million things she gave me,
"O" means only that she's growing old,
"T" is for the tears she shed to save me,
"H" is for her heart of purest gold;
"E" is for her eyes, with love-light shining,
"R" means right, and right she'll always be,
Put them all together, they spell "MOTHER,"
A word that means the world to me.
--Howard Johnson (c. 1915)