Today my 2nd project for Fiskars UK went live on the Fiskarettes Blog HERE I uploaded a few bits today - including these two.. Cupcake toppers (For your own Mad Hatter tea-parties... I am SOO tempted to throw a mad hatters spring tea party for my friends!) If I do, these toppers will feature on about a million mini cupcakes! These cupcakes were mini carrot cakes with a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg. Yummo! I made the topper using a spiral flower and some oversized leaves for that added theatrical effect. Can you imagine them made from edible sugar paper?
And next is a range of mini clutter buckets. The smallest is only 3" tall!!
There is lots of Easter inspiration going on at the Fiskars blog - pop by and take a look! xxx
Today Claire (aka BETTY) Emailed me and sent me these tags that she has made using Jewell.
They are for Hybrid projects (or digi) And are utterly cool!
I was really pleased to see them, and so touched that she asked my permission for the image that how could I say no?
So.. if you like these tags that Betty has made - then click HERE where she has set up a download link for you forfree
:-)
Awww what a nice way to brighten up this Tuesday for you!
Imagine how cute they would look as gift tags for the emo teen!
Or... printed out on sticker paper for the front of school books & Folders etc..
OR.. hang on... they are so cute that the list is endless... If you love them, don't forget to leave Betty some love! I might ask Betty to make some more tags up with some freebies, a mixed pack or something - what do you think?
Now, I love my blossoms as much as anyone... they went out of fashion for trendy scrappers, and I like alot of people went right off them... butterflies came in.... and then the new generation of flowers came on the scene, arty flowers. My favourite ones are these primas...
I love them - BUT I don't love the £4 price ticket that adorns each packet that I coo over.. So.. I decided I needed to make an alternative! I pulled one apart (carefully) to try and work out how etc that they had come to life in the prima workshop, each layer of the pretty prima ones is starch moulded into a prima press before layering,... URGH I thought - that's irritating.. seeing as I don't have a prima flower press... But they I realised that, I can still have a go right? So.. here is my makeshift tutorial for the prima blossoms that make us all go "oooooooo" here is one of mine... I have learned one thing whilst making these - and that is that white organza is very bright and un-natural looking... next time I am opting for cream or palest pink.
Cut approx 7 ever decreasing circles out of the organza or poly material.
have a selection of "middle" bits to hand to play around with when you need them...
Now - here is the important bit: We will be literally playing with fire here.. so, PLEASE do this in a draft free room, away from young hands or fur and somewhere heat resistant, eg: Not on the carpet or your aunts best hat. I used my kitchen work top. Yes it's blue - and yes, that is gross.
Take your largest circle toward the flame.. you won't actually need to touch the flame with the fabric - it will start to wilt as soon as it gets near, I found that you need to hold it vertically towards the flame - as when you do this, the fabric burns in the same direction all round causing the fabric circles to "cup" (See below)
repeat this for all your circles. Till you have a pretty pile like this:
Then stack them - and sew them together with white cotton, or whatever colour matches your fabric choice...
For my middle - I glue dotted the flower stamen centres in, and then cut the shank of this button before attaching it to the glue dotted centre.
I think its cute! Its not perfect - but then, if you actually look at the prima ones, the edges are all burned... at least mine aren't *lol* And... half a metre of this fabric cost me £2.50... which means I could get approx 20 flowers for that..... much better value than £4 for two! (You also can't beat that certain sense of achievement that comes from making one)
If you have a go, please come and tell me, I would LOVE to see what fabric you choose etc!!
So.. it will be two years in July that we got hitched....
I don't think an average of 1 page every six months for our album is bad do you?
*laugh*
Ok... it's awful!
Ben - if you are reading this (and I know you are) It is not a reflection of the love I have for you! If anything, how can I scrap and make the pages signify our love with justice? (ok... I will stop creeping now!)
But the challenge over at Indigo Mill piqued my interest in creating the 4th page.
I am sooo lame with wedding photos that I actually had to get this one out a frame!!
*red faced*
Still - I loved making it - I took a little extra time on this one than usual.
I think, having the colour scheme red black and white (and kraft) does me good.. I love the bold colour theme and it helps to limit the colours to four, as I will know straight away what embellishments will match etc.
The challenge was to scrap about your name.
I chose to srcap about the taking on of Ben's surname.
The journalling reads:
"Amore is taking your name, marrying you was so much more important to me than celebrating my undying love for you, it meant I could finally have the same surname as you and my baby, what a precious gift"
I got to use one of my vintage buttons too.... which I save for best. I love using things that are saved for Best!
One of my wedding album quirks (for want of a better word) is that each layout will have a number 3 on the page. My wedding day was only 50% about the wedding, it was also 50% about Finlay's naming day... so I think it is important to include that in the pages where I can, in a sutble way, so that baby number 2 won't feel left out! (no mum.. I am not pregnant - phew!)
Time for another Freebie Friday. This week meet Jewell.
Jewell has two personalities,.. or so it seems.. she is 13 years old..
it seems like just last week she loved all that was girlie, flowers, and hugs and spending time watching disney movies with her mum on the sofa.. but recently she has taken to hiding in her room, writing in a diary and wearing dark clothes... She is still a loveable girlie, but sometimes a little moody... :-)
This week Caroline has made this pretty card - I love seeing the Musings come to life when other people colour them... She so suits dark hair.. so pretty. Caroline's sentiment stamps always make me smile! I adore that twist of netting at the side - gorgeous colour combo as always!
leann has made this awesome book mark - such a cool idea.. the polkadot heart and tights? GENIUS.
It freaks me out how good the CT are... every time I am like "wow.. you girls rock"
I knocked up a quick digi card with Jewell's emo character (Which by the way... was added to the freebie this morning at 6am when I was yawning and up to early!)
If you like it - click on it, and when it opens in a sepearte page, right click and save - then print off when you need a quick card for a teenager! (I left a space for you to stamp a sentiment - I am thinking "Cheer up" lol)
I scrapped! I haven't paper scrapped for TEN days.
Which... is a long time in scrapbooker years.
I used some new Hambly that Sarahs Cardsnow stock!!!!
I loved the mini circles, and the big circles are equally fab.
I had a bit of a stock up on Hambly, so expect to see more of it soon..
before you say it - I know its not one of my better LO's... but I am going through a weird scrapping phase, reverting a little to my old style I feel... I don't know... urk.
Anyway - I initially laid this on grey cardstock.. but I changed it to coral this morning as it was too dark...
I'm still not sure about it... I like the clustering (as usual) But there is something not quite right...
Oh and then there is this.
Ok.. so.... thinking about it, crafting whilst ill might not be the best idea...
meet "Fail" the owl. It will be a doorstep, I have left the bottom open so I can stuff in a whole unopened packet of rice so weigh it down... It looked SOOO much better in my mind...
lol..
Working free hand sans pattern didn't work for me today..
If you have found your way here from Karen's blog - "Hello!" However, if you have found your way here and are now like "O mai...what's going on???" This is my post for Shimelle's Blog Hop day! (Today... obviously) Where you can hop from one inspirational place to another.
Shim has released two new kits this week, a luscious paper kit and a cute set of negative strips that match perfectly. I love them.... In fact...I think it is my favourite ShimelleDigi product yet, and that's saying something, as they are all way cute and usable! (For both digi scrappers and those who hybrid!)
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I designed two pages with this kit - the first is below...I simply love seeing our first veg crop starting to grow.. it makes me happy to see Ben happy, outside in his welly boots - digging away with Finlay wandering around catching worms and snails and various other mini beasties. The great sense of achievement it is giving Ben is tremendous, and something that is doing him the world of good. I am working on plans for a mini book dedicated to the garden and Ben ... I aim to do it all digital, and when I am finished, get a photo book printed with all the pages in. This one is going in for sure.
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Before I show you the second page, I would like to tell you that if you are participating in the blog hop - your next stop is over atRani's Blog Here
where you will see her cool page and also get the next hoppin' details!
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The reason I am telling you that before I post my 2nd page - is that Shim asked me to do a mini tutorial about how I digi scrapped my next page.... and I have a feeling I might loose some of you before the end of the post... as my ''mini'' tutorial turned out no so mini...
I have a confession.. I don't use photoshop! I would LOVE to be able to use it, and will learn one day I swear- but I have never learned.. and when I do open it up, my eyes start swimming! So.. Instead I thought I would show you how to digi scrap in a freebie program that came with my OLD pc years and YEARS ago called "Microsoft Picture it 2001"
(Some of you may have this on your pc... in which case whooop - go buy Shim's kit and join in!)
Here is my page:
So.. at this point I would like to walk you through the screen shots of how I made the layout.
I will post some basic instructions along the way. please click on the pictures if you want to view it larger, as blogger has limitations that I can't expand!
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1: Open Microsoft Picture It (I am really retro, I have the 2001 version and still LOVE it!!)
2: Like I do with paper scrapping, when creating a digi LO, I like to open all the paper files that I like the look of, and decide as I go along which one I will work with. In fact, I scrap digitally exactly the same as I do when I scrap with paper, gather the elements before starting, and half way through have a good rummage around my embellishment files for ideas!
Picture 2 shows you the open paper files at the bottom of the screen.
For this page I chose the cream ledger paper from Shimelle’s new kit at 2peas.
3: To create the banner of colour at the right of my LO, I opened the green paper, clicked “Cut-outs & Pictures” and then chose “Cookie cutter” and used a square shape to select the area I wanted to cut out
4: You use the small green ball shapes at each corner to resize and reshape your cut out area. I started with a square, and resized it to a rectangle.
5: Then RIGHT CLICK and chose the CUT option.
6: Now you will need to go back to your chosen background (Cream ledger paper) then RIGHT CLICK again, only this time choose the option PASTE.
Your green cut out rectangle will be pasted to your page, ready for you to move to where you want it to sit.
7: You can click on the small green balls at the edge of your cut out to resize it if you wish. To move the green rectangle, Click on it with the mouse and hold down the left hand button. Now move the mouse, and your rectangle shape will move where you want it too.
8: Now its time to open some elements – I opened a scallop border, and cut and pasted it to my page to work on. It was far too large, so I RIGHT CLICKED and chose the ROTATE option, here you can choose which direction you want it rotated etc.
9: Adding shadows to digital layouts is not essential – but it does help “pop” the elements and separate them. Too add shadow in Picture Itfirst make sure you have selected the element you want to add shadow too (Eg: the scallop border)– click on the shadow option in the left hand tool bar
10: Click SOFT shadow – (or which ever you prefer)
11: I then opened Shimelle’s new negative strips – and selected the cut out tool, to the area I wished to cut out (the blue strip)
12: Then after it had been cut, I copied and pasted it to the page I was working on (the cream ledger paper)
13: I opened a flower embellishment – but it wasn’t quite the right colour tone for my page – so I used the CHANGE COLOUR option under “PAINT COLOUR AND EFFECTS
14: Using the little ball on the colour wheel, I dragged it round to a slightly pinker tone and saved
15: Then I opened the leaves – placed them where I wanted them.. but they were on the top of the flower… so, to re-do the order of the elements quickly – you will see on the right of the screen are all the open elements on the page – you simply click on the one you want moved, and drag it (either up or down –in this case it was down)
I dragged both leaves down past the flower, and this re-orders them on the page.
16: The leaves are now behind the flower. At this point – I wanted to group the leaves and the flower to make it easier when moving. To do this – drag your mouse over the elements – and select the little puzzle symbol that comes up. You should now have a grouped element – (this is not essential to the making of the page – but I like it when things are easier!)
17: Now – find the photo you want to add – I chose one of my son on Mothers day with my flowers…. It was too big as a whole photo, so using the cut out tool again, I selected the area I wanted, then pasted it onto my page.
18: Following the same method as before – I resized the photo – and then followed the same technique in stage 15 to drag it behind the blue negative strip.
19: I wanted a close up of the flowers – so I went back to the open photo, and did a new cut out area, this time, a close up on a couple of flowers. I copied and pasted it to the digital page – resized it as before, and again dragged it behind the blue negative strip.
20: The flower close up now sits neatly in the negative strip.
21: Now – I wanted to add lots of Shimelle’s awesome digi papers – so selected the same cut and paste method as we used in the photo – to create mini papers to include in the negative strip.
22: When I had pasted them onto the digital page – I resized and dragged behind the strip.
23: Now, I opened my digital alphabet of choice – choosing the letters I needed and opening them all so they were there ready.
24: Copy each letter as you need it – paste it to your digi page – and resize and move to where you need them. When you select the elements you want to move – you can rotate them using the tool I have highlighted. It is the rotate tool.
25: I wanted to put a green heart in the top pink paper in the negative strip – so, I selected the cut out tool – but instead of using the square, I used the heart shape and then moved it up to the pink paper.
26: To finish up – I wanted to add some journaling – so I clicked ADD SOMETHING – and then chose “TEXT” where you are taken to the text tool.
27: Write your text in the text box on the left of the screen, and then you can change colours and fonts etc there, before clicking done. Now you can drag it to where you want it - and hey presto! Your finished page!
Thank you to those of you who have stuck around for this tutorial! I hope you are not asleep!
Don't forget to hop on over to Rani's blog for the next installment of the blog hop!!
And next is a range of mini clutter buckets.
There is lots of Easter inspiration going on at the Fiskars blog - pop by and take a look!
