Bless This Nest: Echo Park Paper

My parents moved into a new house last year and I made this simple frame for their bookshelf.  The sentiment says: Bless This Nest. 

I used a small frame from a department store that was double matted. I removed the thick mats to give me room under the glass to create a scene. 

After removing the mats, I made a base of cardstock covered in burlap, stitching the two together.   

I used stickers to decorate the frame from Echo Park Paper. The wood veneers are Studio Calico and the alphas are Webster's Pages. Twine is from The Twinery. 

This project was published earlier this Spring in a special issue of Paper Crafts Magazine. 

Fun With Puns: Just Chicken In

Spring has me in a happy, silly mood and this card reflects that. 

The sentiment reads: Just Chicken In.  The patterned paper and alphas are Jillibean Soup. I love the Bite Size Bits that are part of each collection. They're perfect for cards and this cute chicken spoke to me.  I added a bit of muslin behind the image for a country feel.  The ribbon is May Arts and the twine is Trendy Twine. 

This was published in the February 2013 issue of CARDS magazine. 

Thanks to everyone who commented on my owl canvas.  The winner of the Little Yellow Bicycle prize package, chosen by random draw, is #17. 

The lucky one is Cindy deRosier.

Cindy, let me know where to send your goodies!  Have a great week, everyone.  

Lollipop Tent Tutorial: Classroom Treats

For the Valentine's Day party at my son's preschool, I made lollipop tents for his classmates and an owl treat bag for his teacher. 

I used Echo Park's Love Story collection and Trendy Twine for these treats.  They were really easy and fun to do. I didn't use any die cut machines to make these treats. Just a paper trimmer, a score blade and a hole punch. 

To make the lollipop tents, I cut strips of patterned paper 2 inches wide by 8 inches long. I scored them at 2.5 and 4.5 inches to make the base and at 7.5 inches to make the closure flap.  Then I used a hole punch to notch a place for the lollipop stick.

These are the tents with the lollipops added. 

To decorate them, I added a sentiment pennant, a twine bow and heart. 

Another view of the lollipop treats: 

A closer look at an individual lollipop tent: 

Here's one of the owl.  I added a cellophane bag filled with M&Ms in his tummy. Yummy!

I have a tutorial on how to make the owl on this post.  The sentiment above says:  Owl Be Your Valentine. 

Linking this to Tip Me Tuesday.  Thanks for stopping by!

A Quilted Card: Simple Stories

Are you a scrap saver?  Generally I am not, but I tend to hang on to the bits and pieces from my 6 x 6 paper pads, especially if the sheet is still attached.

I was flipping through what was left of my Simple Stories Sn@p 6 x 6 pad the other day and thought it was a shame to let the little pieces go to waste. The paper is so fun and cheery.  

To make the quilt, I punched 16 squares, laid them in a grid on a piece of cardstock, then stitched them down, quilt style. I added a piece of coordinating ribbon from May Arts and a bit of twine from The Twinery. 

I punched a tag from grid paper and ran it through my printer to add the sentiment:  When life gives you scraps, make a quilt.  I left some space to add three small quilt blocks. 

I uploaded this card to Two Peas in a Bucket Sunday night and was surprised to pop over to the site on Monday and see that it was the featured project of the day. 

Linking this quilted card to Tip Me Tuesday.

Brrr Winter: January Sketch Challenge

Every time I use a sketch, I think: why aren't I using more sketches?  It's really wonderful to have a jumping off point for my design, even if the sketch is more of an inspiration than a direct map for my layout. 

I used the January sketch from My Creative Sketches for this winter page:

I love Winterings, this pretty, new line from Little Yellow Bicycle. It has such a soft color palette that's easy to use. It was perfect for my photo. 

This snowman cluster at the bottom was fun to make.  I pop-dotted the snowman sticker and added a twine scarf around his neck. 

Here's a closeup of the title area. 

This is the new sketch by My Creative Sketches. You can see the influence of the original sketch on my layout, but I did take a few artistic liberties. 

We'd love to have you join us for the new sketch challenge. As always, there's a wonderful prize up for grabs (see photo below).  You can find all the details on the My Creative Sketches blog. 

You're At The Top Of My List

Merry Christmas, everyone.  You, my friends and blog readers, are definitely at the top of my list.  My best wishes to you and yours this holiday season.

Supplies:
Stickers/Chipboard: Echo Park
Wood veneer: Studio Calico
Brad: Echo Park
Ribbon: May Arts
Twine: Trendy Twine
Burlap: Canvas Corp
Sewing Machine: Bernina

Teacher Gifts: Owl Treat Bags

These little owl treat bags are one of my favorite things to make. They're easy, don’t require fancy tools and are always a hit with recipients.  The sentiment can be changed to fit the occasion. I used these as holiday gifts for teachers and staff.

To make each owl, I cut a 3 inch by 12 inch strip of patterned paper. I used the Once Upon A Christmas collection from Little Yellow Bicycle and scored the paper strips at 4.5 inches from either end. The score marks gave the owls a 3-inch base, perfect for flat-bottomed treat sacks from Martha Stewart. After scoring, I folded the paper into a tent shape.

To make the owl's eyes, I punched two large circles from cardstock, covered them with adhesive, then added twine and googly eyes.  I used Trendy Twine in Holly (green) and Holly Berry (green/red mix). I have a tutorial for making twine circles on this post.

This is a side view of the treat bags. To make the sentiments, I ran bits of scrap patterned paper through my printer. One owl says:  Whooooo's a great teacher?  You are!  The other owl says: Merry Christmas, Y'owl.

We'd love to have you play along in the Trendy Twine monthly challenge. You have until December 31 to enter. There's a great prize up for grabs. You can find out all the details here on the Trendy Twine blog.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cookie Cutter Ornaments: My Creative Scrapbook

I love homemade ornmaments on a tree.  Today, I have some easy ones to make using cookie cutters. 

I used metal painted cookie cutters from Wilton as my base but any type will work.

Start by tracing the cookie cutter on patterned paper. I used Bo Bunny's Mistletoe collection, which was included in the December kit at My Creative Scrapbook.

I dut out the shape then used a glue medium to attach it to the back of the ornament.  I'm partial to Claudine Hellmuth's multi-medium matte.

Decorate as desired. This cookie cutter was meant to be a candy cane, but I liked it better as a stocking.  Artistic license and all that!

Before you start decorating the cookie cutter, think about how you want to attach a hanger.  If you have a strong hole puncher like a Cropadile, you can punch a hole in the top, then thread in twine for a hanger.  Otherwise, you can just tie twine around the top of the ornament. Either way works well.

On this ornament, I punched a hole at both the top and bottom of the ornament and ran twine through both holes with a jingle bell anchoring the bottom. I used baker's twine from Trendy Twine.

On this ornament, I traced the house shape, then pop-dotted the windows and doors. It's important to add dimensional elements prior to putting the paper on the back of the cookie cutter. Once the paper is glued on, it is really tight to work inside the ornament.  

To finish this ornament, I added a roof line, chimney, scallop trim and a tree. Decorating both inside and outside the cookie cutter gives a nice dimension.

I hung these outside to show them in natural light.

And they look so pretty on the tree.

The design team at My Creative Scrapbook has tips and tutorials for the holidays every day this month on the MCS blog. Thanks for stopping by!

Handmade Holiday Packaging: Wine Bags & Tubes

I love all gifts (well, most gifts!) but I especially love a nice presentation.  A pretty package makes me smile before I even open the gift.  I confess that I don't always spend the time or the effort to doll up the packaging, but I always feel better about the gift-giving when I do. 

A gift of wine or a favorite spirit is always a popular gift. Personally, I like to give Amarula, a cream liqueur from South Africa. I discovered it while a Peace Corps volunteer and it is all kinds of yummy.

Today, I have two ways to package wine or spirits using bags or tubes.

To make the wine bag, I started with a pre-made burlap bag that I got on clearance at Michael's Craft Store and took out the side seams.  I used a small square punch to make 12 squares from patterned paper. I used Bo Bunny's Mistletoe collection, which was included in the December kit at My Creative Scrapbook.  Once I had my squares, I laid them in a pattern on the table to decide how I liked them. Then I stitched the squares onto the burlap bag and re-stitched the side seams.

To give the bag a little extra flair, I added some chipboard to the squares.

Then made a hanging tag and tied the bag with ribbon. 

To make the wine tube, I started with an Autumn cardboard tube from a craft store.  I knew it would be easy to recover with scrapbook paper as the decorative part (without the lid) measured exactly 12 inches tall and was 12 inches around.

To use the wine tube for the holidays, I wrapped a piece of Bo Bunny's Mistletoe paper around the tube using modge podge. I wrapped the lid with a coordinating paper.

Like the burlap bag, I added chipboard and ribbon to the tube to decorate it.

There you have it. Wine, only better!

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Bookmarks: Twine Tassels

Note: My December Daily is at the bottom of this post.

We're big book lovers in my family and it's always handy to have a cute bookmark. No dog-eared pages, please! For Christmas this year, we are doing a holiday countdown with children's books.  We have 24 wrapped books under the tree and each night in December my little one picks a package, opens it, and we read the book inside. 

I thought it would be fun to add a cute holiday bookmark to one of the packages. This is what I made:

Bookmarks are quick and easy to make and are a great use for scrap paper.  The base of my bookmark is about 1.5 inches wide by 6 inches tall and is made from two coordinating papers from Echo Park collections. The diagonal stripe is from EP's So Happy Together and the polka dot is from Hello Summer. Though neither is a Christmas line, they work well here with the colorful snowman sticker from the Holly Jolly collection.

The twine is Trendy Twine and I made the tassel using Holly Berry, a fun mix of red and green.

Trendy Twine is sponsoring a snowman-theme challenge this month. Come play along! There's a great prize up for grabs. Just link your twine project by Dec. 31. You'll find all the details to the challenge here.  You can find other projects from the design team on the Trendy Twine blog.

And continuing with my December Daily. This is Day 2:

For this day, I documented our Lego City Advent Calendar.  This sounded like a great idea, but it was a bust for us because our son was too young. We will pack this away to use when he is a little older. 

Day 3:

For Day 3, I had a church program from a Christmas luncheon I attended that was just about the same size as my foundation pages, 6x8.  I added a small strip of green patterned paper to the right side of the program and it fit perfectly in my album. Yay!  No need to make a foundation page for this day. On the right is a photo from the luncheon and one of Cory on a swing outside the church.