Gingerbread Birdhouse

Cindy here!  Every year, I basically stop scrapbooking around Thanksgiving and don't start up again until after the New Year.  Holiday crafts and baking take place of the scrapbooking I'd normally be doing.  But just because I'm not putting photos on a page doesn't mean I'm not using my scrapbook supplies.

I recently decorated a plain wooden birdhouse using my scrapbook supplies.  Recognize any tools or products I used?

 

If you guessed paint, border punches, a paper trimmer, Glossy Accents, and Mod Podge... you're right!

I started by painting the birdhouse with a base coat of brown paint.  When that was dry, I carefully painted white everywhere the icing would be on a real gingerbread house.  I made the candy cane perch by wrapping a sliver of red paper around the white post, then carefully gluing the ends in place.  The shingles were made with Fiskars' Scalloped Sentiment border punch.  The small and large circles were from Fiskars' Bubbles border punch.

 

I added Glossy Accents over all the circles to make them shine like candies would.  Finally, I covered the whole thing with several coats of Mod Podge.  I love how it turned out!

Designer Showcase: 30 Minutes or Less

Welcome to another Wednesday!  All of us at Ideas For Scrapbookers would like to start off by wishing those of you celebrating a very Happy Hanukkah!!

This time of year is so busy, isn't it?  There are so many things going on.  We've got school events, work gatherings, parties to attend, shopping to do, holidays to prepare for and participate in....  Sometimes it's hard to find time to do it all!  But we don't want to see your scrapping and crafting suffer.  So this week our theme is "30 minutes or less".  We've got some great pages and projects to share that can be done in less than 30 minutes!!

Cindy has 2 pages to share with us this week.  This first one is just so cute!  The construction of this page is simple and quick, but the impact is lasting!!  Cindy used photos of her son and his grandmother at different times, but in the same basic pose and props.  She cropped them to the same size and aligned them on the designer paper.  She placed a heart (in a color that coordinates with her son's outfit) as an accent. Then added a title and journaling.  Fantastic memories recorded in no time!

This second page by Cindy is colorful and a great use of scraps of your favorite designer papers.  Cindy used the strips of paper to create a mat that really brings your attention to the photo.  She add a bit of journaling on a piece of paper, added a few elements for detail (apple and tags) and used the teachers name as the title.  Another special moment in life recorded!

Pam shares this beautiful, bright page with us.  She cropped each of the bird photos the same size and kept with a blocked design to help speed up the process.  Using paper strips as accents and a few die cut elements adds some shape and interest to the page.  Pam added some stitching around the edges for a little texture.

Anupama created this quick page. She used a great combination of designer papers to give her page a feel of traveling, vacation and leisure.  She tore the travel icon paper and layered it over some striped paper.  She added a touch of cardboard below her photo. Using small letter stickers, Anupama was able to quickly add her page title. A sweet wreath made from twine adds dimension to her page.

 This is a digital page that I made in a jiffy.  I used some plain paper in the background. I added some digital stamps on top to make it look like a designer/patterned paper.  The double frame was an element in the kit. I duplicated it to create a row of four. The word art made a great title and journaling all in one.

This is a quick Christmas card that I created. It's made from plain red, white and green card stock. I cut the white to look like a door and layered it.  I added an inked wreath and bow. A black brad made a perfect door knob.  A quickly made card with lots of holiday spirit.

We hope these samples give you some inspiration to create pages when you are short on time!

A New Zig Zag Template!

Hi!  Dolores here today to share a new template.  This one I put together with some big zig zag shapes that create an interesting background for your layout.  My sketch today features a single photo and I choose a wintry scene since we just had a snow storm come through my area.  Here is my sketch.

 

Below is my layout I created using the template.  I used a beautiful kit called "Once upon a Christmas:Caroling" by Kristin Cronin-Barrow and I love the frosty look it gave my page.

 

 

You can download the Photoshop template at the file sharing site below.  Hope you enjoy it!

 

MediaFire:  ds-zig zag template.psd

 

 

 

 

 

 

Free Holiday Printables!

Hey all, I was sent this and I thought I would pass it along! You can download free holiday (including Christmas printables at this site). Here is the link.
Here is a "print screen" preview image of the Christmas one which is really cute.

Have a great weekened!!

-Pam

Christmas Hats

Hi, it’s Gael here today and I thought I’d share with you a fun tutorial I found on Pinterest.  I’m afraid I’m  addicted to Pinterest, there are so many great ideas for not only scrapbooking but any interests you may have.  The ideas you can find are amazing, if only I had enough time to try them all. 

This tutorial caught my eye as something different for a Christmas decoration.  I also loved the idea that it is made from old cereal boxes or similar.  You can use scraps of scrapping papers and decorate using colours that will match your theme for Christmas.

They are so much fun to make and really easy too!!

These are the hats I made –

 Here is a link to the tutorial which includes the pattern pieces, it’s called “The Mad Hatter meets Christmas” http://lifeartcollide.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/the-mad-hatter-meets-christmas.html

As a bonus the tutorial also includes a great way to make beaded pins. 

Thanks so much to Marilyn for such a wonderful tutorial.  It inspired me to make these cute hats and I would love to see how other people decorate them.

Trash to Treasure

Cindy here!  I've mentioned before that I am a huge fan of trash-to-treasure projects.  I hate throwing anything away if it can be used for another purpose.

One of the many hats I wear is "Flamingo Four" coordinator for Flamingo Scraps. Each month, three other members of the Design Team and I each design with the same four products.  This month, we received Glimmer Mist, some wood veneers, some lacy trim and something that might be ordinarily considered trash - an empty Maya Road tin.

 

This is exactly the kind of challenge I love!  I thought about what I could store in the tin and let my design go from there. My son Trevor needed a place to store the flattened pennies that he's recently started collecting; the tin was just the right size.

The first step was figuring out how to cover up the brand name and slogan on the tin.  What would stick to the metal of the tin AND cover up the words without interfering with the closure of the tin?  Washi tape!  I layered torn bits of washi tape and it worked beautifully. 

 

Because Trevor's pennies are from our travels, I decided to back the opening with a map.  I found a 10-year old map of the western US that I haven't used in years.  I cut out the section of California where we live and attached it to the opening.  I misted the heart veneer, then I cut apart the trim and misted that.

When the mist was dry, I attached the trim and then added the heart.  

The tip of the heart points to where we live. 

 

Trash to treasure!  Have you ever made anything from an empty Maya Road tin or other manufacturer's packaging?  I'd love to see it!

3 ways to work with Designer Vellum

Hello, this is Anupama Choudary. I love Websters Pages! Who doesn't? Their Designer Vellum is something to die for and I am constantly looking for new ways to use the sheets. 

I wanted to use the Ladies & Gents vellum with negative space in the page above. So I fussy-cut the floral portions using a craft knife.

Then I laid the extreme ends back to back in the centre of the page before layering and embellishing.

In the second layout, I simply glued the 12x12 vellum sheet from Lullaby Lane collection to white cardstock before adding other elements.

In my last page, I randomly tore the Life's Portrait vellum into small pieces and modge-podged them to cardstock. Then I used texture paint with a mask and stamps to build the page.

Hope you find your own ways to explore the versatility of  Designer Vellum. 

Happy Scrapping!