More Frugal Finds!!

Over at Practical Scrappers, we have our monthly feature of our frugal finds edition going on!  This is my favorite feature!!!  Something about repurposing regular old everyday items brings out the best in my creativity.  Even though it was my choice for the item this month, I decided to let the team decide between the two so I did a poll.  After a very close race, jar lids won out.

Here are my two projects I came up with.  This first one is my new all time favorite layout.  It's not too often that I create one of me and the DH together (usually the kiddos get all the glory).  Saturday will be our 11th wedding anniversary and I made this as a gift for him.  I actually altered up a white wood shadow box that I did some dry brushing of red acrylic paint and sanded down with some light-weight sandpaper.

This is just the layout...I got a little crazy with using things I haven't touched in a long time like the sewing machine (probably a year since I sewed on a layout), stickles, mists, gesso, and even pulled out the white journaling pen!  I used my "mostest", "favoritest" ( yes, I know they aren't real words) paper manufacturer, Crate Paper.  All pattern papers in the layout are from the Peppermint Collection as well as the buttons, trims, and other embellishments.  I used American Crafts (Marquise) Thicker letters on for the title.  Mist is from Tattered Angels (Santa Baby Glimmer Mist). 

 

 close up of the jar lids

 

 the dimension shot:  I cut slits in the canning jart lid so it would slide down over top of the pickle jar lid.

 

This is not the greatest photo, but the best I can do late at night...sorry you get the shadow cast on the top. Here, you can see the frame I doctored up a bit.  I dry brushed some red acrylic paint on the edges of a white wood shadow box.  Took an old rag then quickly wiped it off.  Followed that up with some sanding with light-weight sandpaper.

 

 

The second project, I decided why not just use the entire jar!  I saw these similar item online when I was searching for items to make for craft fairs.  

 

What you will need:

1 can of Krylon Frosted Glass Spray (can but anywhere they sell spray paint or craft stores)

1 glass jar

1 LED battery operated tea light

wire

scraps of fleece/felt (hat)

ribbon

bell

snowman face parts (I cut on my Cricut)

hot glue gun

Glossy Accents

Crackle Accents

 

You can seen that this is a very simple projects and takes no time at all to put together.  It took my cricut longer to cut out all the faces than it did for me to put a dozen of these together.  First spray your jars.  The frosted glass only takes about 10 minutes to dry to touch. After that was dry I cut my wire and to rim of the jar to create the handle. I used Glossy Accents to adhere the face to the jar itself then also went over the eyes and mouth with the Glossy Accents.  For the nose, I also attached with Glossy Accents, but this time went over top of my diecut with the Crackle Accents to create those lines in the carrot nose ( you can see a close up of this below).  For the hat, I cut a 6 1/2" circle of fleece and hot glued to the lid.  I tied off the hat with some red ribbon. Added a little ribbon, twine, and bell to the handle then popped in a battery LED tea light ( making it safe to keep the hat on and use indoor and outdoor).

 

Here he is lit up

 

Close up of the Crackle nose which I just LOVE!!

 

Thanks for stopping in today and hope you enjoyed my projects!

 

 

 

Be(SILVER)ware!!

I am CRAZY in love with our Frugal Finds Feature over at Practical Scrappers.  How Christine, Erin, and I continue to out-do ourselves and inspire the ladies to create with things you would never think possible for scrapbooking and cardmaking blows me away.  The best part is, I don't know where I come up with my own ideas-- you never know where your crafting is going to take you. 

I have two projects to share.  This was the first one I created. I was inspired for this creation when, after Christine announced what her choice was.  Now I'll admit, I was not happy with her when she told us her choice -- even promised severe payback with my choice for next month (bwaa ha ha *note* my evil laugh). I found my groove and "dug right it".

Supplies:

Broken ends of plastic spoons (flower petals)

Cardstock: The Paper Company (kraft)

Pattern Paper: Crate Paper (Emma's Shoppe, Random, Seasons, & Peppermint Collections)

Tools: Cuttlebug

Dies: Provo Craft (maple leaf cut and emboss combo), Die-namics: rolled mum die,

Spellbinders: Lacey Squares

Stamps: Studio g (thanks so much)

Ink: Tsukineko VersaMagic Chalk Ink (red magic and hint of pesto),

 Copic Markers (Y06, Y08, Y17)

Bling: pearl from a random string of pearls

Hot Glue Gun

I cut off the ends of my spoons, colored with my copics to highlight the center of the flower, then hot glued them together to form a flower.  I placed the rolled mum in the center to hide the broken bases and topped that off with a little pearl.  For my leaves, I used the maple leaf cut and emboss combo die but I cut it up to only use one of the three points.

 

The second card I have up here I got a little crazy--no surprise there!  This one might be considered dangerous because even though it's plastic, but the fun I had creating this card is PRICELESS!! So much fun, that it is my new favorite all time project EVER, and I doubt I will surpass this (though I will try).  On this one, I used some clear pastic knives--take a look:



Supplies:

Cardstock: The Paper Company (kraft and white)

Pattern Paper: Little Yellow Bicycle "Hello Fall"

Ink: Studio g (light blue chalking ink),

Copic Markers (R35, YR04, Y17, G05, B29,V09)

Dies: Spellbinders (Lacey Circles)

Punches: EK Sucess- Cupcake punch (clouds)

Cuttlebug (D'vine Swirls Embossing Folder)

Brown Letter Stickers (unknown from a swap)

Clear Plastic Knives

Wire Cutters (cut off plastic knives)

Metal File (file sharp points of knives down)

Hot Glue Gun

I stared and stared at a box of clear plastic knives for at least two hours.  I even joked with the ladies on the design team (while chatting on facebook) that the only thing I could think to do with them was throw them across my office at the sytrofoam wreaths hanging from my office doorknob.  And no joke, I did take a few stabs at that due to mental block.  But the more and more I stared at them I saw the arch shape and thought of a rainbow. 

Coloring the spoons with my Copics worked so well with the spoons, I decided to give it another go with the clear plastic to get more of a stained glass/transparent look.  I colored each one of the serated ends first on the front side. Now, here's the trick!  When coloring on plastic, you have to be careful not to do too many layers.  It becomes streaky (you can kind of see it on the green), but it did trigger me to go back and color the other side to enhance the color (doing both front and back) which worked great for the blue and violet leaving no streaks at all!  Finally, I hot glued them down to my card and staggered the embossed clouds inbetween to get that 3-D effect.

Hope you enjoyed my silverware inspiration today!  You can head over to Practical Scrappers to see the rest of the gals' inspiration!

Family Flip Flop Mini Album

Today over at Practical Scrappers, we are doing our "10 thing to do with a..." feature.  This week's choice...the dreaded scoring board.  Most of you probably have one of these lying around espically if you are a card maker or a fan of the making boxes.  My project today is a mini album, a flip-flop mini to be exact.  You can find the instructions for this over at the Scor-Pal website.  This was one of the first projects outside of a scraopbook page, I ever learn how to create back in 2007.  I decided it was time to revisit the past and redo what was done then.  Now I did changed mine up a bit.  Instead of making the larger tags giving you only a front and back, I made it a pull out tag giving you double the place for pictures and journaling (two out outside, and a two on the pull out tag).

album cover

album open

one of the pull-out tag sections...these areas will fit a 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" photo

Supplies:

2 pieces of Chipboard 6 1/4"x 6 1/4" (light weight--I used recycled cereal boxes)

Cardstock: The Paper Company (kraft)

Pattern Paper: Crate Paper (Restoration Collection)

Embellishments: Crate Paper Chipboard and Cardstock (Restoration Collection)

Ribbon: Crate Paper (Static Collection) 

Ink: Versa Mark ( Jumbo Java Chalking Ink), Staz-on Timber Brown

Punches: Martha Stewart

Bling: Studio 18

Stamps: Autumn Leaves (journaling lines)

 

Thanks for stopping in today.  Make sure you head over to Practical Scrappers to see what the rest of the ladies came up with for using their scoring board.  Also, if you scroll down to the post below, you will find my second project that I made some envelopes using my scoring board. 

Happy Scrapping!!

Too Early For Christmas?

Not in my book is it too early for Christmas!  With the school quickly approaching which means back to work for me, crafting time will be very limited!  I'm getting a jump start on my holiday craft fair projects this year--no waiting til the last minute this year.  Here are two of the five wreaths I've made over the weekend.  I really enjoy making them and they don't take a lot of time at all.  I've got it down to 52 minutes start to finish.

*pattern paper and chipboard embellishments used here are from Crate Paper-

"Snow Day Collection"

You'll see a lot of different methods out there to make these curled paper wreaths.  They all work, this was just my preference.

Supplies:

1 - 10" styrofoam wreath ( has to be the hard smooth foam, not the kind the sheds when you touch it)

6 -12" x 12" sheets of pattern paper (doesn't have to be double sided)

1 -box of dress/straight pins (the ones with the flat metal head that look like a nail)

paper trimmer

 bone folder

tulle/ribbon

I started by cutting my paper to 1/2" strips (getting 24 strips per sheet of pattern paper).  Once all were cut I used my bone folder and curled my paper just as you would with scissor with curling ribbon.  Start in the center of  1/2" x 12" strip and curl to one end, then do the other. It will look like two loops meeting each other at the center.  After they are all curled you can design as you like, you can see in my first one I used 6 different pattern papers and kept each pattern together.  One the second one I used three different pattern papers (2 of each sheet) and scattered them throughout. One thing to note:  double sided papers are a little harder to curl (depending on the brand/manufacturer) and you may have to curl each strip twice.  However, they make wreaths that are much fuller while the single sided papers make a tighter curled wreath.  You can see how the top wreath I made using my favorite manufacturer (Crate Paper--Snow Day Collection) is more full and the empty space in the center of wreath is smaller than the second wreath.  Both look great, and I actually like the white on the back of single sided paper showing in spots because it breaks up the patterns in spaces.

Thanks for stopping in!

~Kerri

Frugal Finds: Bobby Pins

Hi All!  Very busy weekend here and just getting around to posting these projects that went up earlier today on Practical Scrappers.   We brought back our monthly feature this week of frugal finds and I challenged the ladies to create a project using bobby pins.  I was inspired back in the end of February when my Delaney went to a Fancy Nancy theme birthday party and I was pinning her hair up and thought, " how can I use these in my crafting?"  It was a lot of fun and I still have a few other ideas I will be trying, but here are the two projects I came up with for today's post!

On this layout I  painted my bobby pins white with white acrylic paint then used them to create the journaling lines in the bottom right hand corner of  the layout.  Now I have to say that I am quite proud of the hand stitching I did around the page on photo on this layout.  I used the holes from MS border punch as my guide ans stitching around it with the embroidery floss which took me 53 minutes to do.

Product List:

Pattern Paper:  Crate Paper- Peppermint Collection

Cardstock: Core'dinations (smooth red)

Embellishments & Buttons: Crate Paper - Pepperiment Collection

Alphas: Studio g

Punches: Martha Stewart Framed Dots combo set

Tools: Creative Memories Circle Cutter

Twine:  Martha Stewart Bakers Twine

Red Embroidery floss

Bobby pins

White Acrylic paint

Black journaling pen

How about a little R&R here--Restoration & Random that is from my favorite manufacturer, Crate Paper. Here, I was inspired by the layout of this card from my online SAS sister,  Cassie D'Ambrosio. Cass is fabulous person of inspiration for me.  I love her clean and simple style and always look forward to seeing what she shares with us in our SAS gallery.   From Cass's design on her one of her cards she shared with us, I decided to add my own twist by adding some more painted bobby pins and then embellishing them with some dew drops from one of our past sponsors The Robin's Nest. 

Product List

Pattern Paper: Crate Paper Restoration & Random Collections

Chipboard Embellishment: Crate Paper Restoration Collection

Punches: Stampin' Up Ornament Punch

Tools: Creative Memories Circle Cutter

Stamp: Studio g

Ink: Tsukineko- Jumbo Java Chalk Ink

Dew Drops:  The Robin's Nest

Bobby Pins

White Acrylic Paint

Twine

Thanks for stopping in!  Hope you enjoyed my bobby pin inspiration!

 

Thinking Of Some More Spring!!

Last night I finished up a card I was working on for three days now. I am finally satisfied with the end result and, I got a few others too out of it that are OK and can live with. This card is for this month's Crate Color Challenge at the Crate Paper blog that I decided to play along with because the colors really intrigued me. Not something I would normally do, and way out of my comfort zone. I was yearning for a good challenge and this is what I came up with.

Here is a look at the color palette I went with-- champagne peach, emerald green, and charchol grey.

and a look at the inspiration wire they always share...

Here are some up close pictures of some of  my card...

This was my butterfly.  I cut two butterflies from ( one from green and other from pink pp).  Used my 5/16" circle punch on the green and layered the green on top of the pink.  Embossed them together (embedded embosssing technique) and covered with Glossy Accents. Finished it off with some faux pearls.

Here's a close-up of my altered corsage pins (which has become my new trademark-- you can find my tutorial in this post).  I used my My Favorite Things, rolled rose Die-namics die.

And here's just a little close up of my bow.

Product List:

Cardstock: Kraft (The Paper Company)

Pattern Paper:

White PP ( Crate Paper- Peppermint Collection)

Green PP (Crate Paper - Peppermint Collection)

Peach/Pink PP (Crate Paper- Peppermint Collection)

Grey PP (Crate Paper- North Pole Collection)

Peach Trim- (Crate Paper- Blue Hill Collection trims)

Corner Chipboard Embellishments ( Crate Paper- Restoration Collection) 

White Ribbon-  Sheer Celebrations , distributed by Michaels

Fiskars- Apron Lace border punch

EK Success- 5/16" circle punch

Nestalilities- Spellbinders- Lacey Circles dies

Cuttlebug- Provo Craft- Butterfly combo die/embossing folder set

My Favorite Things - Die-namics Rolled Rose Die

Faux Pearls- Recollections

Ranger- Glossy Accents

Ink: Studio g- green pigment ink

Stamp: Studio g- "think spring"

Floral corsage pins

Outta This World!

There's one thing I have to explain first before I post this layout...there is NO explaining my Jaedon.  He is the craziest little man in my world (that tells you a lot since both myself and my husband work in mental health), but I LOVE this guy to pieces.  My mother keeps trying to get me to video him and post him on You Tube and see how many hits he gets, but I am resisting.  I am totally convinced that someday in his life he will end up on a stage...stealing the show right out from under the rest.  These were some random pics I took with my cell phone and did a little editing plus turned them B&W as he was posing for me as he fixed his hair after getting his bath...LOL!!

The layout was created for the purpose of our Challenge Me Tuesday this week at Practical Scrappers of using shapes with 5 or more sides!  I think this just became my new favorite layout without any intention of doing so.

Product List:

Paper:  Crate Paper Orbit Collection

Embellishments: Crate Paper Orbit Collection

Alphas: Crate Paper Orbit Collection

Cuttlebug and Spots and Dots Embossing folder

Creative Memories Complete Cutting System-hexagon shape and circle

Buttons

Fiskars Border Punch

Think Spring!

Well, I'm at it again creating another card. This card is for the Cuttlebug Spot Challenge to do a Spring theme card. I love spring and the first thing I think of when it is on it's way is birds. As soon as you hear those birds chirping again in the morning you know it won't be long before the warmer weather arrives. Here's my card...

Product List:

Cardstock:  The Paper Company

Pattern Paper: Crate Paper- Blue Hill and Lillian Collections

Embellishments: Crate Paper Lillian Collection

Ribbon: Crate Paper Blue Hill Collection

twine: U/K

Ink: Studio g - blue/green chalks pigment ink

Momento -Rich Cocoa

Stamp: Studio g- think spring

Tools:

            Cuttlebug

                                                   Birds and Swirls embossing folder

                                                        Fiskars Large Scalloped Circle punch
                                            Nesties- small scalloped circle

Floral Corsage pins

NOTE:  I used my little pin embellishment tutorial again that you can find down below!

What Can You Do with Candy Wrappers??

Today at Practical Scappers we are doing our monthly frugal finds feature. With Valentine's Day in the past and all that candy that your kids have brought home from school from the parties, we have some fabulous ideas on how to recycle those wrappers and create some fun and interesting projects. Here are two of my projects that I had a blast making!

 This idea was inspired by an article in the Disney Family Fun Magazine to create your own Valentine's that look like your kids are holding giant lollipops.  You can check out the link here.   I just went with the giant lollipop theme and got rid of the real lollipops (no problem with three kiddos in my house) and created fake ones.  I wadded up a tissue and covered it with the wrapper then tied it off with some Martha Stewart baker's twine.  Also, I used the dum dums wrappers to create the accordion flowers on the ends of her banners.

If you are one of the scrappers who has a hidden stash of chocolate bars in you office then this project is for you!  On this card,  I  used some mini Hershey bar wrappers to embellish her card.  I altered some brads, used the wrapper as a layer of paper in her banner, and created an accordion flower out of them.  What a perfect way to get rid of the evidence-- no one will ever know ;)

Flower Projects at Practical Scrappers

I've got two new projects for you (it sure has been awhile, huh?). Today at Practical Scrappers we are featuring projects using flowers on them. Now right before Christmas, I bought myself an early Christmas present from My Favorite Things Stamps. I fell in love with their Die-namics dies, which wasn't hard to do considering my love for my Cuttlebug. No matter where my scscrapping takes me, I know my Cuttlebug is here to stay!

Here's a look at my two projects....

Title: "Depression"

Pattern Paper: Authentique Glowing Collection (Solid Black)

Cardstock: The Paper Company (Black and White)

Paint: Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint (Picket Fence) 

Dymo Label Maker

My Favorite Things Stamps - Die-namics (Rolled Roses 3 sizes)

Letter Stickers: Unknown

White Lace Trim

Bling: Recollections (distributed by Michaels)

Pen: Marvy White gel pen

Note: this is NOT my photograph. HERE is the link to it... this page was for my own personal all about me album and this photograph summed it all up for me the feeling I had.  This layout is not being used for any submission to publications.

Title: Friends

Pattern Paper:  Crate Paper Blue Hill Collection

Cardstock: white card base from The Paper Company

Spellbinders Nestabilities Lacey Circles

My Favorite Things Stamps- Die-namics Rolled Roses (smallest die)

Glossy Accents by Inkssentials

Fiskars Lace Border punch

All other flowers, cardstock embellishments, and rub-on: Crate Paper Blue Hill Collections

Thanks for stopping in!

Snowman Soup

  Today is my day to share a holiday project idea at Practical Scrappers, and here's what I came up with-- my altered to go insulated coffee cups. I found these to go cups at my local Joann's in their bargain bins for $2.50 each ( and I used my coupon to over the holiday to get another 20% off ). These cups I made for my kids' teachers to go with the other little gift I made for them. 

These were super easy to make! When I got the cups they had another piece of paper in them. I traced them on my favorite paper (Crate Paper -Snow Day Collection) and embellished with the matching chipboard, cardstock cut outs, and cardstock borders.

Here's a look at just one of the cups up close. Next, I filled each cup with a package of hot chocolate mix, a bag of mini marshmallows, and added a Wilton peppermint swirl candy cane which you can see down below.

Finally, I made my little "snowman soup" tag. Now, there are a couple of different poems out there for "snowman soup", but I picked the one I liked best and printed it out. Here's an up close picture of the tag which reads:

Was told you've been real good this year

Always glad to hear it!

With freezing weather drawing near,

You'll need to warm the spirit!

So here's a little Snowman Soup

complete with stirring stick.

Add hot water, sip it slow,

It's sure to do the trick!

Again, these are super quick and easy gifts that are great for teachers, secret Santa exchanges, friends, or just anyone that you want warm their spirit this holiday season. Thanks for stopping in and don't forget, only 14 more shopping days left!

Make it PINK!!

October marks the beginning of Breast Cancer Awareness and the importance of it is very dear to me (having a scare myself). It struck even closer though this past year to my husband and I when I co-worker of his was diagnosed at 33 years old. Just goes to show you age doesn't matter. Today also kicks off our first ever card contest at Practical Scrappers. It's been a huge turn out and I'm so excited to see how our contenders do with our challenges over the next six weeks. But this first round the theme is PINK and the perfect color for a breast cancer awareness card...

Materials used:

cardstock: The Paper Company
Pattern Paper:  Crate Paper, Blue Hill Collection
Embellishments: Crate Paper Blue Hill Collection chipboard buttons & shapes, and cut-outs
Bling: Basic Grey, opaline designer half pearls
Ink: Martha Stewart, Geranium chalking ink

Tulle
Electronic Cutter: Cricut Expressions, Provocraft
Software: SCAL 2.0
Cuttlebug, Provocraft 
D'Vine Swirls Embossing Folder, Provocraft

**NEW** Mini Album

Today at Practical Scrappers we are featuring one of my most things to create--mini albums.  Most of the time I usually create mini word albums, but this time I tried out something I've never done before and that is use paper bags as my album pages.  This was a lot of fun and very easy to assemble- probably the quickest I've ever put a mini together.  Here's a look at the it...

front cover

For the cover, I used cardboard that I covered.  Other paper bag mini's I've seen have a 1 inch binding.  Well, if you are like me then go at least 2 inches.  I ended up cutting my original binding (it was all the pink pattern paper) and having to create a new one with some thin chipboard I then covered. The blank tag is for the year--haven't decided if I am keeping, selling, or giving this as a gift yet so it's all blank!

all the pages

 some of the inside pages ( I only shared my favorites, but this is most of them)

You can see one of the insert I made in the first picture.  I varied it up with, pull-outs for pics, journaling, tags, but there are 15 of them total.   

Now this was something fun I wanted to share....this is an up-close picture of the back of an adhesive back chipboard embellishment that I cover with flocking.  It was a great way to give it a finished look while keeping it from sticking to the other page when the album is closed.  I also used glitter to do some of the other chipboard pieces I had "hanging over the edge".

Hope you enjoyed!