Loves Tea & Paper

Splat! - WeScrap sketch

I've been hanging around at the WeScrap online community a bit lately and have really been enjoying getting to know the scrapbookers there. Each Saturday, a sketch is posted. On Nov. 12th, DT member Sue Sykes posted this sketch:

I loved that it was a multi-photo yet still offered a great display of patterned paper. I trimmed some photos taken at my brother's house this summer of a family water balloon fight. The Echo Park Country Drive papers were bright and summery and so I paired them up for this sketch.

I chose the tree and bird pattern since trees show up in just about every photo and the stripe looks like it was made for Sarah's swimsuit. I turned it to be vertical, just so it would not be too much on the eye. I found some cute splatter blings and used them to convey the splash and splat that the balloons make when they burst. The popped up bird on the upper left pennant covers a ladybug that just didn't suit the rest of the layout. I machine stitched a lot on this layout, for texture and framing, and for my journalling lines. I adore my 2 threaded buttons perched right on the stitch line. They just make me happy! The finishing touch was some Crystal Effects added to the tree trunks and some of the birds.

Thanks for popping by!

Blessings,

Ann

Coming Up: My Sketch World Blog Hop

Birthday Card for Mom

I made this card for my Mom:

This is fairly thick and could probably even go in a shadow box, but I love it and so did she!

The patterned paper is BoBunny.

The wired strand of acrylic baubles caught my eye. There were 2 in the package, and one got used on the Natural Beauty layout. When I put it together with the ribbon flower, I loved how it came together. Those brads finish it nicely, don't you think? The list of words are from a card of stickers by Authentique and I like how they describe her characteristics.

Thanks for popping by!

Be blessed,

Ann

Christmas Card - Practical Scrappers

You must visit Practical Scrappers if you are looking for ideas to jumpstart your mojo before your Christmas card making session! All week long, we're featuring Christmas cards. Here is one that I shared there:

This card uses lots of stamping. I stamped with gold on gold paper to create the textured background behind the star. I also stamped with clear embossing powder that has a glitter in it with a harlequin background to create the base of the cardfront.

I trimmed off the side of the cardfront to accomodate the greeting which is stamped and embossed on the inside bottom panel of the card. To the back of the front panel of the card, I adhered to border strips for a dash of colour.

I like the glittery finish of this card - something about Christmas and glitter and bling!

Have you started making Christmas cards? How many do you usually make?

Thanks for popping by!

Be blessed,

Ann

Twine Tree Tutorial - Practical Scrappers

From now until Christmas, you can visit the Practical Scrappers blog everyday to get some great ideas for Christmas decor, pages, cards, and so much more. Talk about idea central for all things crafty this Christmas! Today I want to share a quick tutorial on making a cute little Christmas tree!

Here's what you'll need:

styrofoam cone

twine of various colours

bling or gems or other embellishments

quick drying strong adhesive such as Beacon's

needle

Working at the backseam, use strong quick dry adhesive to glue the end of the twine to the cone. I started at the top and worked my way down, wrapping the twine around the cone. After about an inch or so of wrapping, I switched the shade of green by snipping the end and adhering it to the backseam of the Styrofoam cone, and starting the new colour in the same way. This process is repeated throughout the height of the cone, just alternating green shades when it seems pleasing to do so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, to adorn the twine wrapped tree, I made an assortment of pompoms from twine. To do this, you will need a fork. Snip a piece of twine about 2” long and set aside. Now, holding on to the end, wrap the twine around the twines of the fork. The bushiness of your pompom will vary depending on how many times you wrap the fork. Mine varied – some pompoms were 20, some were 25 and some were 30. Once you are done wrapping, snip the twine.

 

 

 

 

Grasp the piece of twine you set aside and tie it around the middle of the pompom by coming up from behind in the space between the centre tines.

 

Pull very tightly and tie a knot. Then slide the pompom off the tines of the fork.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using sharp scissors, snip between the loops. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then begin to poof your pompom into shape, clipping long strands.

Then thread the needle with another colour of twine and string the pompoms on the twine (like you do popcorn at Christmas!) by inserting the needle through the knotted area. Experiment with the spacing of the pompoms, and then start to wrap your pompom garland around the tree. I started by adhering an end of the garland at the bottom of the tree, and wrapped it, again adjusting the placement of the pompoms. When I was satisfied, I used the glue to adhere the pompom to the wrapped cone.

 

 

To finish the tree, I adhered various sized gems to it.

I also dabbed some sparkly Stickles to the pompoms.

Lastly, I wrapped a star shaped chipboard punchout with twine and then used a coiled wire to put it at the treetop.

 

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial today!

 

Holly Jolly Smiles - Rolled Paper ChristmasTree Tutorial

I'm back with a Christmas layout I've just finished and I took a few extra photos while I was in the process so I could show you how to make this fabulous Christmas tree embellishment.

To make this embellishment, you will need:

a scrap of cardstock cut into a triangle

patterned paper

strong quick dry adhesive, such as Beacon's

a pencil, or bamboo skewer

rhinestones, Stickles, buttons or other embellishments for your tree

Cut the patterned paper into squares. I used 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" squares and 1 3/4" x 1 3/4" squares.

The patterned paper I am using is quite heavy and thick, so I used a pencil to slightly bend or curl 2 opposing corners.

Can you see how 2 corners remain flat while 2 corners are curled up?

Have your glue handy. Now roll the square into a cylinder and use the adhesive to glue the point down. Hold onto the cylinder until the glue holds.

Once you have a number of cylinders made in both sizes, you can begin to adhere them to your triangle base. I used the large cylinders for the bottom row and then layered on 2 more rows using the smaller cylinders. Once the glue is dry, you can embellish the tree as desired.

I made a star from tinsel ribbon by snipping 3 small pieces and crisscrossing them. I held them with a brad, bending the brad prongs around the centres of the tinsel. A foam adhesive square pops the tinsel star up. I added rhinestone gems and silver Stickles to the tree.

Here is the completed layout with the rolled paper Christmas tree. This is the new Teresa Collins Christmas Home line and I really love it!

The background paper is stitched in black. The subtitle is created with October Afternoon letters and the word "sparkle" comes from a whole page of words. I snipped this one out, rounded the corners on one end, and added silver Stickles to make it sparkle.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and if you try this technique, please leave me a comment with your blog, so I can see it!

Thanks so much for popping by!

Be blessed,

Ann

CMT - Use up Christmas stash

I think this is the last Challenge Me Tuesday at Practical Scrappers until after Christmas. The challenge this week was to dig into the old Christmas stash to create something.

I used some watercolour paints to splatter on the white base and then I layered on some old Kaisercraft patterned papers, an old acrylic snowflake from Imaginisce, a very old stamped snowflake image and an even older wire embellishment. I used it to create this wintery layout.

You can see that ancient wire art embellishment that I used for my title, along with the spattered paint background. I added a gem to the snowflake centre, and misted the white paper with Diamonds Tattered Angels mist for a nice gleam.

Even though the stamped image is raised on foam adhesive, I still tucked it under the photo. The image was originally on a cardfront that I received in a card swap back in my Stampin' Up! days - good recycling, eh? I just knew that pink snowflake would come in handy eventually! 

How about you? Are you sitting on old Christmas stash? How about using some up - then you won't feel guilty when you buy some of the beautiful new stuff that is out this year! LOL!

Thanks for coming by! Be blessed, Ann

CS Sketchy Challenge

This is the sketch for the November Sketchy Challenge at Canadian Scrapbooker magazine, created by Jill Sarginson.

I tracked down some more Harmonie paper. I love the bright yellow and green and that worked well with the shirts the girls are wearing. Because the patterns are bold and large, I needed to add one more layer, the green dot to ground it a bit. Then I used smaller pieces of the raccoon/crow pattern and the stripe to show off the fun patterns in this line.

The title is a mashup of several alphabets from AC Thickers, Cosmo Cricket, Authentique and October Afternoon. For the word 'style' I wanted a fun and funky font, so this one is ideal, but it was white. I used watercolour paints to change the colour and then coated them with Crystal Effects to add a shiny glaze that seals them.

I love that oversized rickrack , don't you? It came out of my bff's stash (the joys of cropping with a friend!) Those cute felt flowers are also Harmonie. Lots of zigzag stitching finishes the layout.

Thanks for dropping by - I hope you are inspired to play with the sketch, or maybe something about my layout inspires you - perhaps you'll alter your letters next time you scrap, or dive into a palette of bright colours! I'd love to see what you create!

Be blessed, Ann

 

Fabulous Friday Finds

It was my turn this week to post the Fabulous Friday Finds at Practical Scrappers. This is a list of some fun and interesting things out in the scrappy blogosphere that you might find inspiring. Ideas central. Please let me know if any of these inspire you - I'd love to see what you do with these ideas! Since I shared there, I thought I'd share here too:

1. I’ve seen altered clipboards before, but these are wonderful. She disguises the clip beautifully. http://birdnutsmixedmedia.blogspot.com/2011/11/fabulous-new-gift-certificate-giveaway.html
2. I know Halloween is long past but I had to share this. Could you make something like this for Christmas? Say, a gingerbread house? http://www.melissasamuels.net/store/index.php?route=common/blog
3. I love that when this scrapbooker looked at this sketch, she saw a different way to convey the circles, from doodles or stitching. http://craft-thing.blogspot.com/2011/10/caddy-love.html
4. My friend Nicole had this fabulous project spotted by Jillibean, but in case you haven’t seen it yet, check out her sweet tin that she altered into a sewing kit http://fourwiseguys.blogspot.com/2011/10/its-just-sew-easy.html
5. The Faberge-style hand crafted egg was done up for Halloween, but can’t you picture it for Christmas – might even make a lovely tree ornament. http://chatteringrobins.blogspot.com/2011/10/harvesthalloween-blog-candy-blog-hop.html
6. My friend Vicki is fabulously talented and can take inspiration from all kinds of sources, including a tape dispenser. http://validationofvicki.blogspot.com/2011/10/unique-fold-challenge.html
7. If you have a die cutting machine, this cute paper crafted Christmas tree should be simple to make. http://lifestylecrafts.com/blog/nestingscallopstree/
8. There’s something a little sassy I like about this Christmas card, and some terrific paper piecing, too. http://pennyblackinc.wordpress.com/2011/10/23/papercraft-inspirations-christmas-party-blog-hop/
9. Easy and elegant Christmas ornament idea – she used digi images, but there’s lots of great papers out this year that would make this an easy project: http://opulentcottage.typepad.com/opulentcottage/2010/12/more-vintage-sheet-music-ornaments.html

Studio Calico Giveaway at PS!

Practical Scrappers is featuring the Studio Calico kits today. Have you seen these? Such fun stuff! I have a few Studio Calico papers and embellishments and hope to use them on a layout this weekend.

 I love their embellishments and have already broken into a package of wooden butterflies! And you have a chance to win a beautiful Studio Calico kit and play too! Just click over to the Practical Scrappers blog today (by November 15th, but why wait?) to leave a comment and win!