Handmade Flowers From Net & Paper Hearts!

I have been experimenting with net fabric lately. It is a versatile resource and can be used to make flowers, ruffles and more on your layouts. In addition, it comes in many colors, is very inexpensive, it is available at lots of craft stores and relatively easy to work with. Today I have a simple flower to share with you that can be made almost any size you wish because it is merely paper hearts and circles of net fabric. Here is my layout, Inner Beauty, with some of these easy flowers .



The picture here is of my niece. She recently visited me and we had a great time catching up. I don't get to see her often because we live so far apart, so I took lots of pictures to remember our time together.

The flowers on my layout are composed of two circles cut of two different colors of net. One circle is 2 and one half inches in diameter and cut from rose color net. The second circle is 2 inches in diameter and cut from a shimmery burgundy net. The two circles are slightly different in size so that the layers of my net petals are uneven in the finished flower. With this flower you don't have to be so precise when cutting out your circles. We are going to bunch the net together, so if your circle is not exactly round it is not going to be noticeable.

Place your larger circle on top of the smaller circle and then fold your edges up while holding onto the center. We want to make a little bunch of petals. The larger circle was placed on top and it should become the center of your bunched flower. The petals should stick up a little farther than the smaller circle. Here is a picture of my bunched petals.



When you have a pleasing bunched shape hold the petals in one hand and put a few stitches with a needle and thread to hold your petals together. I did 3 or 4 stitches on each flower. Here is what my petals look like after the stitching.



The base of the flower is just a paper heart. You can use a heart shaped punch or cut out hearts with a digital craft cutter such as a Cricut or Silhouette. I happen to have a Silhouette. With my flowers I distressed the edges of the heart a bit before I attached my petals. When my distress ink was dry, I turned over my heart and used a 3/8 inch glue dot to attach my net petals to the heart.



Now you get to stop and evaluate if you want to make any adjustments. I held my flower up and looked for any net that was sticking out too far or lopsided. I then trimmed away little pieces of net to improve the shape.



I drew some stems and leaves by hand on my green paper. Then cut these out and glued them to my layout. I attached the flowers to the layout with more glue dots. I put a glue dot on the point of each heart and on the sides as well. The paper heart is going to flex a little and take on a rounded look when you attach the flower to the layout. I added some green Stickles to my flower to give them a little more interest and shine. Hope your enjoy these.

Create Your Own Rolled Paper Frame

Here is a quick demo on how to create a double rolled paper frame.

Select your paper. You will need at least 2 sheets and they must be double sided. You will also need a cutting mat and craft knife.

Take your photo and trace it on one sheet of double sided paper.

Next use your ruler and knife to cut along the traced lines. You also need to make a small cut in each corner so the paper does not rip when you begin to roll it.

Use a paper wipe or a damp cloth to soften the edges of your paper so they are easier to roll. DO NOT soak them. Simply roll the paper back until you are happy with how it looks.

Now trace your photo again on a second piece of double sided paper and this time when you cut it cut about 1/4 inch INSIDE the traced line. This will make this frame smaller and will fit inside the first one you cut.

You will need to then mat your photo and you will have 2 rolled frames.

Place the larger frame on top of the smaller one and then you can play with the rolling until edges meet up and you are happy with the look.

The last thing I did was roll in the edge of the outside frame to give it a finshed look.

Here is another example. I hope you enjoyed the demo and will give it a try!

Happy Scrappin!

New Postage Stamp Template!

I was so excited to work with new GCD Studios Joyful Peace and Anna Griffin Calisto Christmas .. I adore both collections sooo much!! I decided to create a page using both products. I used the Joyful Peace papers and the Calisto Christmas embellishments to create my page, "Joy." I decided to go with a postage stamp background and I wanted to create my own design to use. I figured why not turn it into a template and share it on here! First I am sharing the page I made with it!


To create my page, I actually printed out the JPEG image (SEE LAST PARAGRAPH TO LEARN HOW I PRINTED IT) of the postcard background and layered it on top of the GCD paper. I used my 3/4" circle punch and punched out all of the negative space. Using a template insured I got it just perfect! I created the template to work with a 3/4" circle (or you cut out the space with scissors) ... but you can print out the template larger or smaller to get the match the punch you might have. Here is a photo of what I did.



Now onto the template! First I am sharing the digital layered template for digital scrapbookers! Feel free to create a non-Christmas layout by deleting the Christmas holly from the page!

http://www.4shared.com/photo/p6VmhkrC/pc_postage_stamp_christmas.html


Here is the template in JPEG form that can be used a sketch!


And last but not least, if you just want to use the background, simply print this template out. The easiest way to get the size you want is to first save the file and open in programs such as Photoshop Elements or The Print Shop. For ways to print out the size you want in the two programs I just mentioned click here and here.


I hope you can create some postage stamp layouts with my templates :)

Fun, Creative Gifts by Monika W.!

Today, I'm going to share with you a DIY tutorial that will show you cleverly inexpensive ways to use your paper and cardboard/chipboard scraps.

I used the Sweet Blooms line from Colorbok for this gift set.

My second-grader has a male teacher this year and she is thrilled to be in his class...he likes science and so does she. Yeah, makes teacher gifts a little more challenging for me. And, no, that flowered gift set isn't for him, it's for the female teaching assistant!

I began by finding some sturdy cardboard to use for the notepad cover. I then cut it to size, slathered it in glue and burnished the paper to the cardboard.

I find it easier to burnish a larger piece of patterned paper or cardstock to the cardboard/chipboard and then trimming the paper to fit the cardboard. There's no worrying about lining up edges. I tried it both ways on this project and it worked best for me to trim the patterned paper to fit the cardboard after I glued and burnished.

I used my 1/16" hole punch on this chipboard letter and threaded through a small wire from a key tag. I began tying the knot, added the wire and then completed the knot. The Fiskars threading water border punch is a favorite of mine, I use it quite a lot.

And here's a peek at the inside {I blurred the name on the notepad for privacy}. I chose to wrap the ribbon around the outside of the paper. Another option would be to wrap the ribbon before adhering the patterned paper to the back of your cardboard cover. If you are choosing this option, I would definitely use a heavyweight cardstock and not a patterned paper.

Just a note: I found the notepads for these projects at Vista Print. They often have offers of free product, to include notepads, magnets, sticky notes, pens, hat, mouse pads...you get the idea! All you pay is the shipping and taxes. If you combine several free offers, the shipping is not too terrible. BTW-I'm not getting paid for saying this.

Here I used paper from Scrap Within Reach, which I won on the blog ISLY for this project.

For the teacher, he gets the same gift, except in more manly tones. I reversed the positioning of the border punched paper strip and used a different monogram, but it's just as nice. The notecard was made from scraps. After adhering the patterned paper to the front of the card, I punched two holes to thread my paper "ribbon" through and then added a punched circle with a pop dot.

Can you see that somewhat rough spot at the edge of the P, where there might have been a leg to make it an R? I cut off the leg that made this P an R and {ta da} I have the letter I needed! Never underestimate the power of a crafty mama!

And now for the bonus portion of our show...hand sanitizer! What teacher these days makes it through the day without spritzing this a million times? Just cut your patterned paper to cover the advertising, adhere in the back and wrap either baker's twine or ribbon around the bottle and you now have a matching gift set.

These ideas are not new, we all know, but I wanted to share with you what a little creative packaging can do for a free notepad and some hand sanitizer.

I'd love to see what you've made for teacher's gifts this year, I'm always on the prowl for new ideas. Leave me a link in the comments so that I can stop by and take a look at what's been keeping you busy.

(CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT MONIKA)

Introducing Our Featured Artist for August 27!

Hello again!! I so excited to share our featured artist today .. as I am every Friday! She creates amazing projects and has such an eye for design! I browsed her blog and found so many neat projects to try (scrapbooking and other crafts!). Check out her blog here to see what I mean! I love how colorful and fun all of her projects are.. I know her post today will spark your creativity! It's time to get to know our featured artist!!


Hi, I’m Monika Wright. Although I have always dabbled in crafting handmade cards and gifts, I’ve only been scrapbooking for about 3 years. I have 7 albums full of layouts for my children, ages 18, 7 and 4, and have completed almost 25 mini-albums as gifts for my husband and kids, friends and family. Have I told you that I really love mini-albums? Well, I do. I share my love for crafting on my very new blog, i love it all. Having only 2 1/2 months of blogging under my belt, I already have 75 posts and several free downloads! Yeah, you’re right, I’m having way too much fun with this blogging thing.

In addition to my blog, I also have an Etsy shop, i love it all where I have art prints, mini-album kits and other fun things! I’m also a Design Team member at write.click.scrapbook where I recently hosted a week-long Christmas in July extravaganza that included 5 free holiday-themed downloads and projects using those downloads as inspiration. That’s the link for the first day’s post to get you started.

I appreciate the opportunity to share with you my love of handmade and I hope that you’ll visit with me soon.


Don't forget to check out her amazing blog here: http://iloveitallwithmonikawright.blogspot.com/
and her etsy shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/iloveitall


Check back in a few minutes for a great idea by Monika!!

Sew Easy Fabric Flowers

My mom is a quilter and sometimes gives me scraps of the fabrics that she is working with. Recently I was in a flower swap with some crafting friends and decided to use the fabrics to make some flowers. Heather (one of the other Contributing Artists here) encouraged me to share how I made these.


The supplies that you'll need for this are fabric, thread, scissors and a button or other decoration for the center of your flower.


Cut a 4" diameter circle from your fabric. I've included a template that you can download at the end of the post. You can use all the same color or use different colored fabrics. You'll get 4 petals from each circle of fabric. You'll use between 6-16 petals per flower depending on whether you want a double layer or single layer.

Once you've cut your circle, fold the circle in half and cut it. Then fold each of the halves in half again and cut them to create the 4 quarters as pictured above.





Now take each of these triangular pieces and fold them in half, right side of the fabric on the inside and run a stitch about 1/4" from the edge. Turn them right side out. If you'd like to have a decorative stitch on the flower petals, you can use a contrasting thread color to run a stitch along the top (keep the seam in the back of the petals).


If you're not top stitching the petals, you'll have these cute little cone shaped pieces of fabric.




Use a needle and thread to make a running stitch along the open end of the petals. Continue to do this adding each petal until you've added all the petals for that layer of the flower.

Pull tightly on the thread to form it into a flower. Secure it with a couple of back stitches. Leave a length of thread (about 6-8"). You'll use that to secure the top and bottom layers of the flower together.

If you are making a double layer flower, repeat the above steps to make the second layer. Again leave a length of thread. This will be used to attach the button. I used 10 petals for the bottom layer and 6 petals for the top layer. Stitch the top layer to the bottom layer.

Using the length of thread from the top layer, sew on a button. You could use another type of decoration for the center of your flower. Perhaps some gems or beads. Be certain to secure all your threads at the back of your flower out of view. Now you've got a beautiful fabric flower!



You could use these flowers on scrap pages and craft projects. You could also attach them to barrettes, hair scrunchies, hand bags, aprons, or maybe make a brooch out of them. Use your imagination! If you use this tutorial to make flowers, email me at scrappycath@gmail.com. We always love to see what you've created.

You can download the circle pattern HERE

Designer Showcase: Back to School Pages!

Have your kids gone back to school yet? My son started on Monday. Today I am sharing the contributor's back to school pages! I hope these inspire you to scrap those school pics!


Cathy created this cute digital page about her kids going back to school! I love the notebook paper and use of circles!


Sara created two adorable back to school pages! I am totally loving the bright color used and the special touches like die cut paper and cute embellishments!




Heather also created two back to school pages! I love how Heather uses white space on her pages! I really inspires me to want to try that! Check out how she outlined the area with pen in the second page!




Here a page by me that I did last year comparing year to year!


I hope you have a great day :)