Easy punchy flowers to make!

Today I have a handmade flower to share. It's so easy, this one is fool proof. I ran across a video by Dawn Griffith, a Stampin Up demonstrator so this idea is a slight variation of her paper flowers. If you'd like to watch Dawn's original video please click here. This is a close up of the finished flower on a layout.

To make this flower I used a scalloped punch 1.75 inches in diameter. My punch is a Stampin Up punch which I just love because it's so versatile.

To get started punch 8 scalloped shapes out of white cardstock. I inked the edges of my punched shapes to give my flower it's purple color.

Next take a spray bottle, fill it with clear water and lightly spray the punched shapes. Since cardstock is rather heavy paper the light misting of water makes the paper easier to manipulate, however, don't overdue this step or your flowers will tear. Once all the petals are damp pick each one up and crumple it into a small ball.

Now carefully unfold each petal and lay them flat. Your petals can still be damp.

Now stack all 8 shapes on top of one another and cut or pierce the center.

Once you have cut through all 8 petals, place a small brad in the center to hold the stacked petals together.

Now comes the fun part! Take your top petal and crunch it altogether in the center of the flower. If your petal is still slightly damp this will be real easy.

Now continue with each subsequent layer, crunching the petals as close as you can to the center of the flower.

When you get to the very last layer your flower should look something like this.

Now all you have to do is carefully pull away from the center the layers until you have a flower that is full with lots of wavy edges. Leave your flower center crunched up some so that the brad in the center doesn't show. I made two flowers using this method for a layout. Here are my finished flowers.

And here is the layout titled "Best Friend" that I placed them on.

The fun part about this flower is that you can create one of these without even using a paper punch. I drew 8 circles on white coffee filters, then cut out my circles using a decorative scissor with a interesting edge. Then I followed the steps here and got a beautiful flower, so don't pass this one up if you don't happen to own a scalloped punch. Here is my coffee filter flower, this one looks more like a carnation because my decorative scissor had more of a spiked edge. It also has a different look to the petals because coffee filters are not smooth like cardstock. Go easy on the misting with coffee filters because they absorb water very easy.

Think outside of the box with this technique. By cutting your flower petals out of paper with scissors you also have control over the flower size, so go smaller or bigger to get a variety of blooms.

Autumn Memories Template/Sketch

Good morning ladies! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am back to share another sketch/template with you. I created this one with the leaves from the Scraptastic Club kit I used in mind. I wanted to find a way to highlight the big beautiful leaves. I think it worked! Here is the sketch. If you just want the sketch, feel free to right click on the image and click on "save as".

This is the paper layout I created! I really love how I was able to capture how different Fall is here in Louisiana. When some of my friends are fighting with icy roads and snow, we're still visiting the beach!

 I also did a digital layout with this template as part of my creative team work at JessicaSprague.com! I figured if I had the template that I made for everyone here that I might as well make good use of it! I love this Cosmo Cricket "The Boyfriend" line. I'm dating myself a bit by admitting here that I still HAVE cassette tapes so the retro embellishments totally made me smile.

If you want the layered digital template that I created in Photoshop, you can find your download link here.

http://www.4shared.com/file/0icfTLdv/HL_NovTemp2.html

Designer Showcase: Autumn Colored Projects!

Before I post examples of autumn colored projects, I wanted to wish everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving from Ideas for Scrapbookers! I hope you have a great holiday and for those who don't live in the US, have a safe and happy weekend!! Ideas for Scrapbookers will be off for a few days to spend time with family and friends!  We will back with new fabulous posts on Monday, so make sure you check back ;) ;)

Now on to autumn colored projects! As you may or may not know, autumn is my favorite season! I love the color changes, temperature changes, and falling leaves. Here are some projects to inspire you by the contributors with autumn colors! Remember you don't have to do a "fall" themed page, you can just use the colors of fall: oranges, bright reds, yellows, golds, browns, and greens.  Get ready for some great inspiration!

Sara is up first! She created these two amazing pages with lots of FUN autumn colors! I love the use of so much orange here. Check these out! :)

Cathy also created two fabulous autumn colored pages to share with us! Check out how fun and festive her first page is (plus the details she put on this) and on her second page she just used a bit of the brown tones from autumn!

Nancy created this absolutely adorable page about pumpkins! I am loving the fun detail below the photo block and the red title!

Lisa created this gorgeous fall page. Check out the cool detailing work she put into this page (I love the curved text)! It really puts me in the fall mood!

Lastly, we have neat autumn page by Heather! Check out that super fun apple and the apple paper, I just love this!

Have you enjoyed this layouts? I sure have!! Hope you have a great weekend!!

Coloring Seam Binding

As you may know, I love using ribbons and trims on my scrapbook projects.  Sometimes tho, it is hard to find the perfect color.  And all the ribbons and trims take up room and start to get expensive.   Recently I found the perfect solution, well, at least some of my needs.

A quick Google search and I was able to find 100 yds of this wonderful trim for less than $10 plus shipping. What is this wonderful product...... 

seam binding.  And mixed with some mists.  You can create just about any color you like.

Cut your seam binding to the desired length and place into a plastic bag.  You can use a ziploc type or even an old embellishment bag.  Just something that will hold the mist and binding.

Then, go ahead and just spray into the bag.  You can layer the colors, mix the colors, just have fun.

Scrunch the binding around to make sure it is thoroughly coated in the mist.

From here, you can let dry over night.  You can also use a heat gun, but do so carefully, seam binding is made of rayon and can melt.

From there, you can add it to your favorite projects.  Like this desk set I made for a friend.

You can see how I layered a few colors to get the desired effect.

Faux “Dusty Attic” Clock

I don’t own of these gorgeous “dusty attic” chipboard pieces. Plan on getting some at the next convention! Meanwhile, I just love the delicate, intricate artwork, which is my inspiration to make my own. Here is how to make the “dusty attic” clock out of paper!
It looks much harder than it is…however, the pieces are small and delicate so be careful not to tear it while gluing the pieces together. Once it is dried, much easier to handle….

Here is the real “dusty attic” chipboard clock…my inspiration…

Here is the the faux chipboard clock....out of paper…

First you need these products: kraft cardstock, quilling paper, quilling tool, glue, cricut (storybook cartridge) black ink, brad, and a clock stamp.

If you don’t have quilling paper make very this strips with cardstock, I think its 1/8 of an inch. If you don’t have a cricut you can use small punches and if you don’t own any clock stamps there are plenty of clocks on clipart that you can print up on your cardstock.

Second, make swirls with your quilled paper (cut the quilled paper in 2 pieces) in any design you like to surround the circle clock and glue together. Make some in the same direction and others in the opposite direction.
Then using a 2inch circle in kraft paper stamp a clock on it.
Next using quilling paper wrap it around the clock so that it will attach easier to the rest of the quilled paper. Place two pop dots behind the clock to give it more of a 3D look and add a brad in the center.

Third, using storybook cricut or punches, make 2 leaves and 4 scrolls ¾ inch big. Place on top of quilled paper and glue down.
That’s it! Now you have your own faux “dusty attic” clocks!

Hope you enjoy!

My Flower Girl Sketch

Good morning ladies! I'm dropping by again with another sketch to share. This time I worked backwards to create the sketch. I took my completed layout and opened it in Photoshop, then I drew the shapes on top of it to create the sketch. I had never done it that way before so I had a blast trying it. I think I'll stick to my more traditional designing the sketch first and THEN scrapping, but it's always fun to try new things right? Here is the layout that I used for the inspiration for my sketch...

I also took a detail photo of a the flower that I made because it was cloudy and the overall photo of the layout wasn't that clear. Sorry about that! The weather here has been miserable lately!

 This is the sketch. If you'd like to save the sketch just right click on the image, and then click "Save As".

Special thanks to Suzanne and Susan from Flamingo Scraps for sending me the paper I used in this post. (I did a guest blog post for them earlier this week!)

Special Guest Post By Libeeti!

Happppy Saturday! Today I am sharing a special post by Libeeti. She sent it to me a couple of weeks ago and I loved the ideas so much, I wanted to post them as soon as I could! She is going to show you ideas on how to hide undesired things on a photo! A lot of the time I have things in photos I wish weren't there, so this is great for me  ;) Please don't forget to visit Libeeti on blog here: http://creationswithlove-li-bee-ti.blogspot.com/

Here is her great post:


When I looked at some of the layouts I made lately, I noticed that there's something in common for all of them - I used different techniques to hide undesired parts of the photos.I wanted to share with you those techniques.
The first one - tearing. This is the original photo: 

I didn't like all the dark area on the left upper portion of the photo, so I just tore it... And this is how it looks on the lo:

Naturally, tearing works great with vintage/shabby look, like on this lo.
The second one - scrub & paint
This is the original photo:

You see the completely strangers on both sides of the photo? I didn't want them to be part of my intimate family lo, so I just scrubbed them and then painted with white acrylic paint over them. Then I put flowers on one side and stamped journaling blocks on the other side.
Here are those parts on the lo:

And this is how the finished lo looks:

The third one - attach an image/embellishment  or another photo. For this one I want to show you two examples:This is the original photo:

I didn't want the bunch of people on the background and the black bag on the front - to show on my lo, so on the undesired bunch I put another small photo, and on the bag - a journaling spot (a chipboard). This is the relevant part:

And this is the finished lo:

See how those undesired parts just disappeared?
and the second example-
here is the original photo:

Eventhough I cropped the photo to my desired size, I still had a lot of 'white space', which I didn't like, so I attached the mushroom image, paper pieced, to fill in that 'white space'.
This is the relevant part of the lo:

And this is the finished lo:

I hope you find my post useful for you, and if so - please leave me a comment on this post, with a link to your blog. I'd love to see your interpretation and way to hide those undesired parts of your photos.
Thanks for stopping by!