Mini Gumball Machines

Someone asked me once where I get my ideas for OTP's from. The truth is - I really don't know - they just seem to leap out at me when I am looking at things. Out of the blue - at the weirdest  moments and looking at the most mundane things - ideas just come to me. ;)

So - I have these cute little gumball machines (thanks Alison Bevis for spotting them for me on one of your little shopping trips) - and then I got an idea ...

Whilst I love to make OTP's, I also try to make them functionally useful if possible and as Mazz Cairns would say, not "dust collectors" so I decided to make a pink one first (and a little shabby in style) so I could store my fuschia rhinestone dots.

I started by covering it with Gesso, then while it was still wet, I scrunched up some muslin all over it. Then I sprayed it with some watered-down pink paint..

I taped down some of our pink organza scalloped edged ribbon, bent one of our pins from the "Perfectly Pink" Flutterbies collection and added a pink butterfly (which had a pearl centered flower on it) to the top of the gumball machine.  

Then it was time to tie a bow with the ribbon and cover it with clustered flowers (also from the "Perfectly Pink" Flutterbies collection), some 1cm light pink roses, 1cm dark pink roses, pink sweetheart blossoms, large pink & white leaves, silver leaf charm and our pink pearl garland. 

Then I added a single flower from our White Felt Ribbon, which I centered with one of our roses.

More butterflies from our "Perfectly Pink" Flutterbies collection,

pink pearl garland, lots more roses and our pink sweetheart blooms.

 The bottom edging was made with some scrap lace and more of our 1cm light pink roses.

Now to work on my blue gumball machine ... I am thinking maybe a nautical theme, with some of our blue scroll felt ribbon ... so stay tuned.

Happy Birthday Tags

For your next special occasion - why not give a tag instead of a card?

 

Tag 1

Start by smearing silver paint all over a piece of black cardstock. Add a 'trellis' die cut bit of patterned paper, muslin and some cut up pieces of our Black Butterflies & Flowers felt ribbon.

Pop on a butterfly from our Sweet Purity "Wings and Things" collection, plus a 1cm white roses ...

 

 and tuck in one of our Happy Birthday Charms, centering it with a piece of felt and a couple of 1cm white roses.

(Happy Birthday Charms are 5 in a packet for $1.60 available here)

Use some heat embossing (with some black glitter embossing powder and my favourite Kaisercraft script stamp) to add more background texture.

Our black gardenia (with the stamens cut out and liquid-glued Licorice Twist Sugar Beads added to the center) makes a lovely focal point.  Tucked in below the gardenia is our Silver Birdhouse Charm and I've added in a bit of stamped script to the open space at the bottom of the tag.

 

Tag 2

Start by cutting out a tag using some black cardstock.  Rip a strip of patterned paper for one side of tag and add some cut-up pieces of our Black Butterflies & Flowers felt ribbon for the other side.  

Now use some watered-down Kaisercraft Gold Paint (it must be metallic to show up on the black cardstock and we have the paint available here) to spray over your tag.  It gives it all a gorgeous glimmer!

Pop on our brown stemmed flowers, and some "word" stickers and a Brown Laughter Charming word to complete the greeting.

Finish off with a Bronze Bird on a swing Charm, some of our brown ric rac, brown organza ribbon and tea stained muslin - and ta dahhhh!!! You are finished. How easy can it get?

If you had fun making this card or like the technique - consider using the same gold spraying/Black Butterflies & Flowers felt ribbon technique again with our double page layout (that I taught recently) - available as a kit in the my2angels kit section here.

How to scrap those pesky un-matching photos!

You might know the problem: You have just a few photos from the one event, but they don't really match and are hard to scrap together. Here is how I solved such a problem. 

Inspired by pocket pages, I cut my 3 photos and 3 papers to 3x4 inches and matted each one on a 3.5 x 4.5 inch mat. By separating each photo on the layout it wasn't so obvious that they didn't really match. 

Now look for one element all your photos have in common. I realised that one thing all 3 photos had in common was that they all had black backgrounds (they are all night photos)! Some black felt ribbon was the obvious choice of embellishment to link the photos together. And not only is it self-adhesive and perfect to cut into smaller bits, it is also on sale for half price! You can find it in lots of colours and designs here.

From the Totally Turquoise Flutterbies Collection I used the cute  butterflies, which match beautifully with the teal and aqua papers. And here is also a vintage heart pull to go with the look:

At this point I felt I was looking at an overload of black and teal, so I decided I needed some light pink details to soften it. The pink of course is also in one of the photos - so this provides another way to link them together. I'm a big star of these scroll felt stars, they always look great. 

Find them in other colours and also in heart shape here. You can use one side for a filigree look (see black star) or flip it over for a chunky look (see pink star). 

A big floral wood button combines the teal and pink nicely. Find lots of nice buttons here:

Look, a cute tiny star charm:

... and a pretty pin and a stacked presents charm (because it was Christmas Eve).

So, next time you struggle to scrap some mis-matching photos, find a common colour, grab some felt ribbon and embellishments and go to town! If you want to see another way I used the lovely felt ribbon, click here.

  and here:

Mother's Day cards

It's that time of the year again ladies. Coming up soon to a house near you is the annual "fuzzy slippers, box of choccies, bunch of flowers and tea and toast crumbs in bed" Day for Mothers.

So to help you get ready, we have ... a lovely card for Mum on FSBCBFTTCIB Day (also known in other households as Mothers Day).

Working with our white butterfly and flowers felt ribbon , this time we are making 2 Mother's Day cards - as requested by a customer (don't worry I won't mention your last name Liz) - which are similar in style to the ones I demonstrated at the last Workshop Wonders (as organised by my good friend Alison Bevis).

  

Start off with a card and die cut (thanks Shelley for letting me AGAIN borrow one of your many dies) a hole in the front cover. Then die cut a piece of patterned paper, using a die one size up from the one on the card.

After inking the edges, attach the patterned paper to the front of the card (you can ink the edges of the card too).

Glue a few pieces of white butterfly and flowers felt ribbon (I know looks odd at this stage but just wait ...) to the inside of the card.

Now add a bouquet of flowers wrapped in muslin (the 3 flowers are from our Perfectly Pink Flutterbies collection) to the middle of the felt pieces - hiding all the gaps.

  

Add a 1cm white rose and mum charm - (available in packs of 5 for $1.60) to decorate your floral bouquet.

(see below picture for how I attach my charms to flowers)

 

And here is the final product!  

See how the felt ribbon behind the floral bouquet provides additional flourishes and depth to the arrangement.

 

Now all you need to do is pop it into the fuzzy slipper box next to the choccies and bring in to Mum with the coffee and toast. (If you were really pressed for getting the present ready, you could add one or two  silver slipper charms, a teapot pin and a silver cup charm - all from my2angels of course - and then all you need to buy is the box of choccies.)  ;)

Techniques with felt

Hi Susan here.  My friend Jet (Jeanette) and I had fun playing with different felt products.

You thought vinegar had many uses, see what Jet and I came up with for different ways to use felt.  OK I admit not as many as vinegar but much more fun. 

Technique 1 – Felt as is 

Love you to the Moon and Back - Designed by Jet

  

My girlfriend loves pink and is having a hard time, so it was easy to make this card for her.

Cut dark pink cardstock 15 x 30cm and fold to make card base. Matt with white cardstock at 14.5 x 14.5cm.

Next cut pale pink cardstock to 14 x 14cm, stick Pink Stars and Scrolls Felt Ribbon down the left and side of card and then matt to card base.

Using Spellbinders Nestabilities Stars I cut two stars using the dark and light pink, adhere to card.

Adhere Love You To The Moon And Back Silver Key to the stars.

Adhere Metal Textured Stars Dark Pink to some of the Pink Stars and Scrolls Felt Ribbon to highlight the stars and tie in the Love You To The Moon And Back Silver Key. Finally add a single Metal Textured Stars Dark Pink in the bottom right hand corner to balance the card.

Technique 2 – Felt in a Strip 

Butterfly Birthday Card - Designed by Susan

Do you have some felt but does not match what you are making?  Simple just cut out the parts that you want to use.  For example this Black Christmas Tree & Scroll Felt Ribbon while great at Christmas; I needed something for a birthday card.  Actually all I needed was the scroll:



I cut out the scroll part of the felt. Don’t worry about the Christmas tree; I will cover that with a flower.

Stamp a butterfly onto a white circle and stamp another and cut out to add dimension to the first butterfly.

  

Mount black and white card onto a white base.

Die cut out some circles in black and white and mount the stamped butterfly.

Adhere the black felt strip down the side of the card.  Cut off excess felt.

  

Adhere the flower and other butterflies and stamp "happy birthday".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts for You Tag - Designed by Jet

Wanting to use a little more of Pink Stars and Scrolls Felt Ribbon but in a different way, I decided to whip up a quick and easy tag.

Firstly I die cut a tag out of dark pink cardstock using Sizzix, Tim Holtz Alterations, Tag and Bookplates die. Then cut another tag from white cardstock and trim down on the edges and distress.

Then die cut two shapes from Spellbinders, Nestabilities, Scalloped Circles, using the dark pink and white cardstock again.  I glued some Tim Holtz Distress Glitter, Clear Rock Candy over most of the circle, to form a base for later.

 Using four x 15cm lengths of Girlfriends Ribbon I used some double sided tape and made simple loops.  Then I taped them together to form a flower. 

 

Cut a piece of the Pink Stars and Scrolls Felt Ribbon to get a scroll pattern.

Adhere the white tag to the pink tag, adhere the pink circle. Adhere the ribbon loop flower towards the top of the tag.

Adhere a layer of seed beads to the scalloped circle. Once dry, adhere another layer in the centre of the beads, to make a raised centre. Knot some Bakers Twine Blossom Light Pink And White to a Dragonfly Silver Charms and adhere to dry bead centre. Once dry, adhere to centre of the flower.

Adhere a single seed bead to Friends Charms and let dry. Stamp the sentiment of “thoughts for you”.  Stick down the scroll from Pink Stars and Scrolls Felt Ribbon. Knot some Bakers Twine Blossom Light Pink And White to Friends Charms and adhere in the corner.

Finally, loop through some Girlfriends Ribbon to finish of your tag.

Enjoy!

Technique 3 – Felt as a Stencil

Mother’s Treasure Canvas - Designed by Susan

 

 

 

Another way to use the Felt Ribbon is to use it as a stencil.  With this canvas I cut three (3) strips of the White Stars and Scrolls Felt Ribbon and placed on top of the canvas.  Do not adhere to canvas as you need to remove it.

I then sprayed Glimmer Mist onto the canvas, using the felt ribbon as a stencil. 

  

 

Remove the felt ribbon and you are left the stencilled pattern background.  Put aside to dry or if you are impatient like me you, can use a heat gun to dry.

Next I matted the canvas with several layers of black, pink and white card. Note:  I micro-matted the black card (bottom layer of the matting).  I also micro matted the photo to black card.  Micro matting is making a very thin border.

Once the matting and photo are place, adhere the pink pearl garland to the canvas. 

Adhere the pink rose buds in place. 

I adhered the Antique Silver Leaf Charms in place with silicon glue
(eg Scrap Dots).  Using a big glob of silicon glue, I adhered the pink roses/flowers and white roses in place.  

As the glimmer mist has a shimmer finish, I also added some glimmer mist to the paper flowers to bring in the "shimmer" elsewhere.

Lastly I adhered the Cap It "Pink" - Mother's Treasure to the canvas.



All finished ......

But don't forget to use the coloured felt ribbon on another project or use a stencil again and again.

 

 

Technique 4 - Felt Shapes 

Jet ventured into the world of Felt Shapes and other wonderful pieces from my2angels to create this stunning layout.

Mother’s Love Scrapbooking Page - Designed by Jet

With Mother’s Day coming up, I wanted to celebrate the love I have for my sons, so, obviously I wanted to scrapbook as soon as I saw
Filigree Wishes “I Believe” pink.  

I wanted to use the pink as it’s my favourite colour and I didn’t want a little detail like I only had boys get in the way, lol.

Firstly I grabbed some KaiserCraft paper, trimmed it to 30 x 30cm to mount onto a piece of black cardstock.  I printed my photos in black and white to be able to go with my chosen paper and the design I had in my head.

Next I die cut a Sizzix, Tim Holtz Alterations, Styled Labels to mount my Filigree Wishes “I Believe” pink to.

The photos are matted on pale blue, white, kraft and black cardstock, not your usual combination for babies, but I was celebrating my love for the boys and was after a bit of a “pop”.

 

I cut a Rosette from Sizzix, Tim Holtz Alterations, Paper Rosette in the pale blue cardstock.

 A great, quick way to assemble the rosette is the fold it up, glue it into it’s circle, put down some hot glue on your non-stick craft mat, place the rosette over, pulling it into shape and pop the centre piece on top. All done! 

Taking a butterfly from 18 Mulberry Paper Butterflies and Flower White Mix, I brushed some Tim Holtz Distress Ink, Broken China over the outside edge of the wings and then misted with Perfect Pearls Mist to blend and soften the ink as well as tying it in to my “shiny” pale blue cardstock.

 

 
Sizzix, Tim Holtz Alterations, Vintage Market was the die I used for my title of “My Boys”, which also nicely tied into the font of “Post Card” on my paper.  I added some flowers to my label at the top to help anchor it to the page.

I then added flowers (some pink to tie in my Filigree Wishes “I Believe” pink), my rosette, a White Scroll Felt Hearts,  18 Mulberry Paper Butterflies and Flower White Mix, White Pearl Garland made into loops and straight “stems”.

To continue tying in the fact my pale blue cardstock was shiny I used an Iridescent Medium to dry brush over the edges of my flowers.

I added a strip of stickles to my butterfly’s body.

Finally, I stamped my boys names at the bottom and how could I finish my page without adding a charm??? I used Made With Love Envelopes tucked into the bottom of my arrangement.

 

 

 

 

 

  Hope these have given you a few ideas of using my2angels felt ribbons and shapes ... dont' forget they are all half price at the moment 

PLUS every $10.00 you spend before the 10th May puts you in the draw to win a Cuttlebug