Altered Magnetic Clipboard

1.) Altered Magnetic Clipboard

2.) I purchased a very inexpensive clipboard from our local Dollar Tree. I then painted the clipboard with Martha Stewart Magnetic Paint. I actually had to paint 6 coats in order to get the clipboard coated well enough for the magnets to hold notes well when hung on a wall. 

3.) After allowing the magnetic paint to dry for at least 24 hours, I then painted the clipboard (front and back) with Making Memories Scrapbook Colors Paint. I then let this dry 24 hours also.

4.) I chose several coordinating papers from the Sweet Girl line of Echo Park papers and used them to decorate the back, sides and bottom of the clipboard. I also used various ribbons to decorate the clip at the top of the board.

5.) To make coordinated magnets, I chose stickers from Sweet Girl by Echo Park and used them to make the magnets. I first glued a small round magnet to the back of each sticker. I then used corn starch to spread over the balance of the sticky area of the sticker to take the stickiness away. I also used the tree and house sticker to add more decorations to the clipbaord. 

6.) Here you can see my completed Magnetic Clipboard with coordinating magnets

Grandma's Quilt

Crop Chocolate DT challenge for April is Grandma’s quilt . . . when I think of Grandma’s quilt, my mind goes to small intricate designs cut from beautiful patterned material and carefully sewn together.  Always leaving one with a feeling of it being beautiful, warm and cozy.  I actually wanted to make a quilt when I was younger.  I chose the pattern, the material and cut all of the pieces out.  I even sewed about a 2’ x 2’ area of the quilt together . . . stored it away for several years, then realized it would never be complete.

Iris paper folding gives me the same feel as quilt patters, but they are much easier to complete.  I chose Pineapple Blossom pattern to make this card.   Here is how I did this.

Products used:  EP Springtime paper, Carta Bella Alphabet Junction paper, tape, miscellaneous yellow ribbon, miscellaneous Turquoise flower.

You can find many different patterns for Iris Paper Folding by simply googling it on the internet.  Once you have chose your pattern you then use a craft knife and the pattern and cut out an aperture in the colored cardstock (this is the outline of the pattern).  This will make the frame for the project.  If you want to cut a fancy border, now is the time to do that too.  ( I chose not to cut fancy borders.)

You then position the card with the aperture cutout over the pattern, face down. You will be working on the back side of the card.

Tape the card to the template using non-permanent tape (Masking tape works well for this. If the tape is too sticky, stick it to a cotton cloth first to reduce its stickiness)

Choose several different patterns of coordinated paper.  Cut in strips (your pattern will give the width of the strips).  Fold the strips in half on the long edge.

Arrange your folded strips of paper in the order that you want to apply them to the card.  (patterns are usually numbered so that you know the order to arrange the folded strips of paper.)

Start with #1 on the template:

Cut a strip of paper so that it is a little longer than the aperture opening.
Line up the folded side of the strip of paper with the inside edge of the area labeled with a "1"
Tape both ends of the strip of paper to the back of the card

Using the next color, follow the same instructions for #2. Repeat all the way around the aperture, following the numbers and working inward as you complete each round. Stop when you have the desired size for the aperture opening.

The back of the card will look quite messy as you progress, but when you flip the card over it reveals a beautiful quilt-like pattern.

To finish the center attach a piece of holographic paper (or other paper of your choice), a small picture, a decorative button, etc. You can now mount your finished work using glue or double-sided tape. 3D Foam pads works well if you used a heavier weight paper for your design and you find that it is too thick to mount directly onto the card.

Hope you enjoy this tutorial.

CARD 2

Grandma’s Quilt – repeated patterns come to mind and certain amount of home felt comfort.  For this card I used:

CC Products: Carta Bella Beautiful Moments. FP It’s the Little Things Trim.
Other Products used Spellbinders Hexagons, Cuttlebug Hexagon embossing plate

I used a plain white sheet of paper and embossed hexagons.  Then trimmed the embossed image to cover approximately 2/3rd of the front of the card.  I then trimmed the top of the white paper around the hexagon image.  I used Spellbinders dies and cut random hexagons from Beautiful Moments paper.  I adhered these randomly on the embossed hexagons.  Glue hexagon  portion to gold polka dot patterned paper (also Beautiful Moments) and then glued that to red Beautiful Moments patterned paper.  Used lace trim from It’s the Little Things to pull the card together and then stamped my birthday sentiment.  The lace with the repeating patterns feels likes Grandma’s quilt.

For the envelope, I glued some random hexagons to the envelope.

CARD 3

Again with the repeating patterns.  I had to really think hard about how to incorporate washi tape into Grandma’s Quilt.  After some research I found washi tape used on die cuts.   I am just so excited about using washi tape.  I love it on everything.

CC Products used: EP A Boy’s life paper,  EP All About A Boy washi tape.
Non CC Products Spellbinders Hexagons, SU Not Quite Navy Stamp Pad.

To begin this card cut your card front and then apply Washi tape across the front of the card.

Then cut out your Hexagon Die cuts,  Place the die cuts on the cards as you want them to placed later on and apply your washi tape so that it lines up with the washi tape on the card.  Then trim excess washi tape from hexagons
.

After trimming the excess washi tape, use stamp pad and ink edges of hexagons so they will pop on the card.  Use Pop Dots to adhere Hexagons.  Stamp sentiment.

Hope you enjoyed this.

Nature Inspired - View Master Wheel

Our Crop Chocolate DT Project this month was "Nature Inspired".  There are so many places to go with this theme and originally, I was trying really hard to tie the theme in with Easter, which should have been easy enough, but what I really wanted to do was scrapbook this picture of my youngest son.  This ties in two types of nature, the natural background of weathered wood, flowers, etc and the nature of a parent . . . to always feel that their children are a true blessing, which I do.  With that said, I will begin to explain how this layout was created.

CC Supplies:  All paper used was Fancy Pants Country Boutique, with the exception of the white cardstock used for the view master.   I also used, Lifestyle Circle dies and Country Boutique Embellishments.

Non CC Supplies, Misc. brad and Kaiser Rhinestones, Fiskars hole punch.  Stampin Up Punch.

I began by cutting out two identical circles, one out of white card stock and one out of copy paper.  The circle I cut was   3" and this will become the View Master wheel.  Set aside the card stock circle, using the copy paper circle fold in half and then in half again.  Mark the folds with a straight edge to find the center of your circle.  Fold the the diagonals to create to create 1/8 pieces (like 8 slices of pizza).  Place the two circles together, copy paper on top.  Use a piece of re-positional tape to hold the bottom circle in place if needed.  The copy circle acts as a guide as you punch notches around the circle.  Using a 1/8" handheld punch, punch notches around the circle on each of the eight crease lines on the outside edge of the circle and one in the center for the brad. Discard copy paper circle.  On the card stock circle you can stamp images or words.  One image in each of the 4 quadrants so that when the view master reel is turned it will reveal only one image at a time.

I then cut a strip of wood print card stock 3-1/2" wide and 12 inches long, I centered a 1-1/4" punched hole in the 3-1/2" wide strip (this is my view master window). I then attached my 3" inch circle with a brad to the back of this strip so that when turned each word (or image) would show through the window.  To the right of the 3-1/2" strip, I then carfully punched a partial hole (i also punched an identical hole in the 12 x 12 background paper) to allow the wheel to turn.

This completes the view master portion.  I then attached this strip to the right side of my layout.    I then cut out a black circle to frame the hole of the view master to bring attention to it.  I adhered my picture to the layout.

I wanted to use the pre-cut embellishments that came with this kit.  So I decided what I wanted printed on each embellishment i.e. "Tyler . . . some people call you . . .",  "I call you"  and "A Blessing".  I put this in a word document the way that I wanted it to appear on the embellishment and printed on copy paper to check placement.  When I got everything placed the way I wanted, I took repositional tape and taped the embellishment over the printed copy and put this back through my printer so that it would print on the embellishment.  I then adhered all embellishments to the layout.

Hope you enjoy this as much as I have.
Thanks for taking a look.

Washi Tape Flowers

Hello friends.  Our challenge this week on Crop Chocolate was to make our own flower on a project.  I wanted something unique.  Washi tape is my new love, so I knew I had to make a washi tape flower.  I had white polka with red washi tape, so i knew immediately what picture I had to use.  A picture of my daughter when she was a little girl.  I am finding it so much fun to go back and scrapbook some of the old photos of my now grown children.  It just brings a flood of fond memories back to me.    The flower in lower left corner is a handmade flower using washi tape.  Other materials used are: CC Products:  All paper (except misc. green) was from the Your Truly collection by EP.  MM Paper Reverie Sienne Gems  Non CC Products:  Green Paper, Misc. Pearl Brad, Cosmo Cricket Blackboard Vintage Mix and Misc. Washi Tape  (the dimensional rose is made with washi tape).

Hope you enjoy this.

Fur Baby Love.

The Crop Chocolate February DT Project was Fur Baby Love and the above is my entry.  Hope you enjoy this project and that it may give you some inspiration.

We have two fur babies living in our house and deciding which one to use for this submission was a little difficult.  But I really wanted to use my Paris Girl paper so . . . the toy poodle seemed to be the obvious choice.  Our poodle's name is Teddy and he has been with us for 10 years now.  This is a picture of him and my daughter, when he was about 1 year old.  He has always been her dog and "Puppy Love" is certainly a term that describes their relationship.  The two are still inseparable and their love for each other is so obvious.    I had a wonderful time creating this layout, but I really love all European style papers and crafts, so that made it so easy.  With the exception of one sheet of black paper, all of the paper I used was Paris Girl by Carta Bella and was purchased from Crop Chocolate.  Other items used in this layout was:  naked chipboard letter, white spray paint, Nestabling heart, Teresa Collins Spring Fling Bling, SU En Francais stamp, Paris Girl stickers, misc. pink ribbon TH Black Soot Distress Ink,  MS Black pen, and an Eiffel Tower and Heart charm.  

I wanted white letters with french script on them.  I began with naked chipboard letters and used white spray paint to paint them.  I set them aside to dry.  

I took my black and white picture and double matted it with an inner matte of patterned Paris Girl Paper and a small outer matte of black paper.  The black mat really makes the picture pop on the page.   

By the time I had the picture matted, my letters had dried.  I then took TH Black Soot Distress Ink and stamped the En Francais script onto the letters.  Again, I wanted to make the letters pop, but a mat would not really work for this.  So I took a MS Black pen and edged the outer edge of the letter in black.  When the letters were  placed on the lighter background this really made the letters pop on the page.  

I used Teresa Collins Spring Fling bling on the letter P to give it some accent.  I used a Nestabling Heart on the the letter O  and on the Letter L, I used Pink ribbon to tie a heart and Eiffel Tower Charm to the letter.  I glued these letters and the photo on the background paper with glue dots.  I then used the Eiffel Tower, two poodles and a ticket stub from the Paris Girl stickers to finish embellishing my page.  All finished and I am very happy with this page.  I  am so pleased with how the chipboard letters turned out.

Valentines

Hey - I want to share with you my entry into Crop Chocolate weekly challenge.  This week was "anything goes", so I took advantage to get some of my Valentines crafts out of the way.  I decorated three (left over) Christmas boxes, with a beautiful line of paper from Echo Park called "Be Mine".  These boxes will be filled with Kisses and other delectable treats.  I am very happy with the way they turned out.  I decorated the insides as well as the outsides, in hopes they will be recycled again for another purpose.  There are some other great projects out there this week, come and visit at www.cropchocolate.com.

Crop Chocolate Challenge

Our challenge for this week was use blue, green and white in your project.  This is a simple card using CC Products  Playground Grass Stain paper, TH Tumbled Glass Distress Ink, TH Shabby Shutters Distress Ink, Non CC  Stamp, white cardstock and bling.  I stamped my flowers and heat embossed in white.  I then used TH tumbled glass and shabby shutters and inked over the white embossing.  Added some bling and it was just that simple.