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:
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
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.
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.
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...
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!
