A bracket template with a cut our heart!

I have noticed a number of cutout shapes used in templates lately and really like them.   They add just a little more interest and depth to a layout.   The template I made here has a curvy bracket that points to the title and a small cut out heart to emphasize the message.   I surrounded my title with brackets to repeat the bracket shape.  Here is the layout I have to share using the template. 

This is a picture of my mother-in-law and father-in-law that I have always liked.  They loved the outdoors and passed that appreciation of nature on to their kids.  I credit my husbands love of nature to all the trips his parents took him on with his brothers and sister.  Here is the sketch for our paper scrapbookers. 

For our digital scrapbookers I have a template I have created using Photoshop Elements.  You can download the file by clicking the file name below.

Bracket with heart cut out template.psd

Hope you enjoy the template.  Thanks for stopping by!

Rafia Flowers

I just love Prima flowers and once again this is a flower tutorial inspired by the new Dew Raffia Collection by Prima. They are new releases in April and some are out of stock already! Mine are not as elegant, but they are very economical and super fast to make. In addition, you can make them any size and color you desire!

First you need the supplies: 
3 quilling strips or 1/8 strips cut from cardstock
¾ inch darker paper from strips
Scissors 
Glue
Rhinestone
Pearl stickles in White
Ruler

 

First cut your strips every 2 inches…which should be a total of 18 pieces.

 

Second, using a dab of glue, layer the strips on top of each other in a criss cross pattern.

Once you have layered all the pieces, flip it over to use the bottom….Its ok if you see left over glue in the center. It will be covered with the darker circle. ☺

Lastly, glue down ¾ inch circle, rhinestone and add stickles in a circle around the rhinestone. 

 

Here is the finished flower…takes about 10 minutes to make!  

Enjoy! 

Designer Showcase: Gifts Wrapped Up by Jennifer

It's Pam again with today's fabulous featured artist, Jennifer D.! She has been a featured artist once before so make sure you get to know from her original post and introduction here. She originally shared a totally neat tutorial on creating acetate flowers. I remember visiting her blog before and finding lots of great page ideas. Her blog called "The Scrap Drawer" features lots of layouts with techniques and two page layouts! And she also makes other scrapbook items as well! What a cool name for a blog :) Here is Jennifer's cool post, I am excited to share this with you!

Gifts All Wrapped Up

We all have them: birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, babies, etc that we have to buy gifts for. As paper crafters, another thing we always have a lot of is left over pieces of scrapbook supplies. So why don’t we combine the two? I like to use these left overs to decorate gifts for my loved ones. I find doing so gift my gifts a little bit of personality and shows the receiver how much I care. Below I will show you how I took some ordinary gifts and amped them up a bit.

First up is a gift bag. We’ve all used them or received them at some time. Sure they look pretty with the tissue paper sticking out the top but I wanted to personalize mine more.

I had some border strips I bought from K & Company awhile back and had used all the ones I loved on layouts but I was still left with several mismatched ones. Lucky for me they were the perfect width for the front of my bag. I took some tulle and pleat folded it onto the bag using adhesive runner. Then with my glue gun I attached the border to the tulle. I spelled my friends name on a piece of scrap paper and then slid it into a book plate which I attached to the bag. I then added some flowers and I was done. It took only ten minutes and I was done but she will absolutely love it. I also made sure that the name was removable so that she can reuse the bag … it’s all about being crafty and green!

Next is a little kraft box that I purchased at my local scrapbook store that I decorated for an anniversary gift.

Using scraps from Basic Grey’s Kioshi Collection, I decorated each side of the box making sure the patterns were alternated so that it each side was unique. I then added some remnant chipboard pieces I had to the sides to give the box some flair. You could really use anything you like: buttons, flowers, stickers … I think you get the point.

And finally, is a cute little Chinese food box that I bought at Michael’s to house a little birthday gift. I tied some pretty gift wrap ribbons to the top of the box and then cut out the cupcake using … you guessed it … scraps from Echo Park’s Life is Good Collection. The cupcake was inspired by a sketch I saw on Allison Davis’ blog and to add some dimension to it I used my i-Top brad maker to create a couple of the circles.

And there you have it. These are just a couple ideas for adding for adding some personality to your gifts. Once you get started, it’s hard to stop! Plus you will get to use up that ever mounting pile of scraps! I hope you enjoyed this post and have a great weekend!

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Thanks Jennifer for sharing this great post with all of us :) :)

Flower Pot Card Tutorial

Hi this is Sara, I am back today with a tutorial for you! Its finally May and that means flowers so lets brighten someones day with a Flower Pot Card.

Lets get started!

http://www.4shared.com/document/xwG6US2c/sara_flower_pot.html

Here is a PDF of the template. You will need to click on link, download image, and print PDF. Next, trace the image onto your cardstock and cut it out. The dotted lines are for folds.

NOTE: You will need to choose a double sided piece of paper for your pot as part of it will fold down and be seen.

I have traced the pot template and cut it out. (The yellow is the inside of my pot)

Score across where the dotted lines appear in the template for an easier fold.

Using a boarder punch of your choice and punch the longer end.

Then fold the bottom of the pot up (the brown side is the outside of my pot)

Then fold the punched end down.

Use a piece of coordinating ribbon and tie it around the top of the card to hold it together (no adhesive needed!)

Next cut the card piece from the template and make 3 flowers of your choice. Be creative here, mix and match some different punches and add layers to your flowers with pot dots!

To get the right placing for your flowers, put the card inside your flower pot and put pop-dots along the top part of the card that is sticking out. This will allow you to arrange your flowers so that they look like they are hanging over the pot.

Done! Its that easy! Have fun creating!

Designer Showcase: Vintage Themed Projects

Hey it's Pam with another Designer Showcase.  I remember when I started to scrapbook and the closest thing to vintage scrapbook supplies was shabby chic.  Now there is a whole line of vintage-styled scrapbook lines out there, which is so cool! The contributors are sharing today some of their vintage themed projects with you to give that extra bit of inspiration to create you own! Check out how pretty these are:

Sara created this adorable layout along with a vintage styled card. I love the vintage brights used here! It really gives each project character. The vintage girl riding the bike really sets the tone for Sara's layout! Take a peek at these!

Vicky created these three gorgeous vintage styled pages!  On her first page she used creams and light blues for that perfect "baby blue" page! On her second page she chose distressed pinks and lace to complete this pretty look. Vicky's last page shares a whole different look to vintage with rich corals, blacks, and dark cream! Loving these pages!

Lastly, we have a totally sweet page by Heather! She is sharing a page where she distressed the papers to give it even more an aged look. I love the embellishments scattered around the page and distress lines in the paper! Take a look at her page ;)

Get out your distress tool and vintage supplies and create you own project today!!

Make Some Lily Flowers

A new flower tutorial! I am in love with the new Prima Corine flowers... but of course they are hard to find here in Canada and I just needed to see if I could make my own version (for a fraction of the price and with adding an extra petal layer :)

Here is what you will need:

- 3 flower shapes with 3 pointed petals. I just used my Marvy punch and hand-cut the petal corners off. I must say this is my favorite flower punch because of the versatility and embossed feature. You can cut out a similar shape and trace it.

- Water to mist

- Scrapbook chalk or chalk ink (I prefer scrapbook chalk for this and actually found some at my dollar store!)

- White paint or snow writer, puff paint or glitter - whatever best suits your project style

- A decorative brad or a few pearls or stamens for the center

- A rounded object (like a Sharpie pen or painbrush end)

- A foam mat (like a computer mouse pad)

- Glue of choice

Step 1: Make your template.

Step 2: Cut your 3 flower layers.

Step 3: Water mist the layers and pinch the towards the middle of each petal to create a crease.

Step 4: While still damp press the center into the foam mat to raise the petals. Let dry completely before the next step.

Step 5: Add some chalk or ink to the center and over the crease for definition.

Step 6: Glue your layers and press all together into the mat to form a little space for the centre pearls to fit into.

Step 7: Paint or...

glitter your tips

Step 8: Glue your decorative center and you are ready to add to your project!

Layouts with BIG Letters/Numbers + Template

Good morning, it is Pam here today! Today I am going to share one of my favorite things to put on layouts ... big letters and numbers! I love when you can look at a page and know right then what the theme is, especially on a birthday or anniversary page. What better way to do that then having large numbers! Here are few examples of this plus a template!

My first example is of my son's birthday and photos of him with his cake! I went with this large nine to emphasize his big 9th birthday! I also created a template/sketch for you all to use!

Here is the digital layered template with a preview sketch first (feel free to just use the sketch as inspiraiton). First review how to use clipping masks here if you need to when using template.

Link to template:
http://www.4shared.com/photo/S_n4AB4T/pc_nineshapedtemplate.html



Here are few more example of large number layouts! The last layout has a six in there, but it sort of hidden. Can you see it?

Here are some examples of large letter layouts! See how neat starting with large letter can be?

Now it is your turn! I would love to see your large letter and large number pages! You can send them to me at scrappingpam73@yahoo.com and I will feature them if you like :)