In A Funk?

Do you ever get in a scrappy/crafty funk? A place where you just don't feel like you'll ever pick up a piece of paper again? That place where you know those pictures and supplies are haunting you, calling your name in the middle of the night? Yeah, I've been there. For two long, lonely months, I was there.

I tried a lot of different things to get out of it. I hung out at Scraphappy, I cruised all the usual spots on the internet, blogs, etsy, supply stores. I looked at sketches and layouts, cards and altered stuff. I even BOUGHT more supplies from Christy, thinking something, anything would pull me out of it. I just wasn't feeling inspired.

I even had projects planned, things I KNEW I WANTED TO CREATE. I just couldn't make myself do them. I didn't WANT to go in the art room. I didn't even want to look in there. At one point I just closed the door and didn't even think about it.

My friends were worried. They tried intervention. They invited me to crops. They took classes with me. I was just going through the motions. One friend even suggested maybe I was depressed. But I didn't feel that bad. The rest of my life was pretty good, I just couldn't create.

Then one day I was cruising my usual four or five blogs that I read EVERYDAY and I came across this in Tammy Tutterow's blog. "WOW!" I remember thinking, that is really cool! I LOVE THAT TECHNIQUE!!! I think I can do that!!!! So it stayed in the back of my mind for a few days. I knew I had most of the supplies, I knew I would probably have time to do it during Thanksgiving weekend. So after I put off and put off, I knew IT WAS TIME!

I started off by finishing some cards I'd started in Nikki's Christmas Card class. Which, btw, if you haven't taken one of her classes at Scraphappy, you NEED to. So in between cooking chicken dumplin's and cuddling with my granddaughter, I finished those cards!!! BIG SIGH of relief! Because trust me, those babies were the elephant in my craft room.
After Miss Amalia went home and we had supper, I put on my Brave Girl boots and trudged in to the art room. I WAS GOING TO DO THIS!!! I debossed, I inked, I dried, I slathered Rock Candy Crackle paint til I was covered with it. AND I CREATED!!!! IT FELT GOOD!!! OH WHAT FUN!!!
In the process, I discovered a new technique with lots of possibilities. I found a new product I love, love, love! Perfect Pearls Biscotti Mist! If you don't have it, go to Scraphappy and get some! Oh what shimmer!!!
The pictures do not do this technique justice. Check out Tammy's Blog and give it a try!!! You'll be glad you did!
Here's my first tag.

And my second. In both I used supplies from Scraphappy, Tags, Tim Holtz Distress Stains in Faded Jeans and Picket Fence, Distress Inkpads Evergreen Bough and Chipped Sapphire, Perfect Pearls Biscotti Mist, Poinsettia Flowers and some leaves, buttons and gems I had. I also flipped the tag over and inked the "embossed" side, to give it a two sided effect. Think of the debossing possibilites and get out of a FUNK!

EZMount!!

Are you running out of space and looking to convert some old woodblock stamps into easy-to-store cling stamps? Or do you have some unmounted rubber stamps you're looking to use?
We highly recommend EZMount Static Cling Mounting Cushion! It is SOO EZ!!!!

Don't believe me? Check it out in the video below! :)

We sell EZMount here at Scraphappy.. only $4.50/sheet!

p.s.

EZMount sticks wonderfully to acrylic for easy storage!

Stop by Scraphappy to pick up your EZMount & let us bind an acrylic book together for you!

Happy Stamping!

Paper Place Setting!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I can't believe it's already here. I can't seem to get in the Christmas spirit until I've had my fried turkey and sweet potato casserole for Turkey Day! As promised, I am going to show you pictures of the paper place setting I made for the Thanksgiving table at Scraphappy. We really had some great settings; everyone had a different idea and it's really fun to see what everyone creates. For mine, I used the My Mind's Eye papers called Lost and Found 2. I love that paper with all the glittery accents on it. Even though it's not traditional Thanksgiving or Christmas colors, I think it really lends itself to a holiday feel. I started my place setting by making a placemat. I used 2 pieces of paper and just cut and glued them together when I felt I had the right size. Underneath the flower and ribbon, I used a couple of the leftover strips to accent. Then I put the ribbon over the strips of paper. I used two different sizes of ribbon in burgundy and gold. I also punched the edge of the sides with punch. You could use any edge punch for decoration. Here's the placemat put together.

In my last post, I showed you how to make the flowers I used on the placemat. I also used my Tim Holtz distress inks to ink the edges of the flower and the placemat. I cut the leaves by hand and crimped them. Leaves and flowers are a great way to use your scraps! Here's a closeup of the flower.

For the remaining part of my place setting, I made a multi-purpose silver caddy and place card. I started with a empty vegetable can that I cleaned and dried. I covered the outside of the can with paper and cut a circle out of coordinating paper for the bottom. I glued the circle to the bottom of the can and crimped it with my hands to bend it around the edge. The top edge of the can is finished with a ribbon.

I repeated the flowers I used on the placemat and placed one at the top and three around the bottom edge of the can. I also cut very small strips of paper and curled them around a pencil for the paper curls around the flower. Once again, I cut and crimped some leaves by hand. Don't forget to ink all of this with your Tim Holtz distress inks. Can I tell you how much I love those inks???

Next I cut initials out for the place card. I used a Cricut cartridge from Scraphappy for the font. Just to give it a little more interest, I used dimensionals under the initials to make them stand out. Here is the finished product!

You can cover anything with paper and make it look special. The silver caddy could be a pencil holder for your desk or a marker holder for your child's art table. I think this place setting could also be for anytime you want to have a special table for your guests. Have fun making it your own!

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and remember all the special things in your life. Enjoy your turkey and visit your favorite store (Scraphappy!) after you're finished eating and need to walk off the calories!

Vicky

Thanksgiving Scribble Scrabble Placemat

Ok. So I told you guys that I would post my placemat once I had it done, and now here it is! It's actually already in the shop on the Thanksgiving table with all the other fun, beautiful table settings from the other Design Team members - so if you want to go see it in real life, then you know where to find it :)

And now, on to our project of the day - our Thanksgiving placemat (which can also double as the foundation of a scrapbook page - which is my ultimate plan)... First, gather your supplies. For this placemat, you'll need a sheet of cardstock, as well as multiple coordinating strips of patterned paper. Scraps work especially well for this. And my favorite part - those strips of paper on the bottom of your patterned paper that have the paper title, company, and SKU numbers? Many companies are now making one side of that strip usable, and lucky for us, the Scribble Scrabble line is one of those papers with a usable strip!

Take your spiffy Tim Holtz ruler with all the holes in it (If you don't already have one, you NEED this ruler. It makes measuring equal spaces for brads so very easy. Let Christy know if you want one! They're wonderful!!!)...Anyhow, where was I? Oh yeah, mark some dots on your base paper at equal distances. I marked mine about every inch across the entire width of the paper.

Now take your trimmer and cut lines across the base paper, starting at each dot that you've marked. Make sure you leave about an inch on both ends so that you have a good support for your weaving.

Next, cut several strips from your other patterned papers. Depending on the look you want, you can either cut them the same width, or vary the widths. It's all up to you.

And now it's Back to School Time. Remember Weaving 101 in elementary school? We're going to have a refresher course. Weave one strip at a time through your base paper. Over. Under. Over. Under. Over. Under.

As you finish weaving a strip, smoosh it to the edge next to the previous strip. The closer you smoosh a strip to its neighbor, the tighter your weave will be. If you want a loose weave, just don't smoosh the strips too tightly.

 And here's the backside. See the SKU and company codes on the strips? Love when I get to use every inch of my patterned papers.

After you finish weaving all your strips and smooshing them together, use some adhesive to tack the loose ends down. Next, trim off about 1/4 inch from each side and mount on your cardstock.

And here's the full place setting! Blessings can. Name card. Napkin ring. And placemat. Remember that you can find the whole collection, as well as the gorgeous patterned papers and stickers, in the store.

Happy Crafting!

- Cori

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Can you believe that Christmas is a little over a month away??  Are you ready??  If you're like me, probably not!!  :)  I always have grand dreams of all of the crafty goodness I am going to get done during the Christmas season and usually if I make it through my Christmas cards, I am happy.  Well, this year I decided to get a head start on Christmas and get my December Daily album ready for all of the great pictures I'm planning to take!  What's a December Daily you ask?  Basically, it's a pre-made album for each day in December (mine only goes up to December 25, but you can do the whole month if you want to) and you can take a photo or photos each day and add them to your album.  It's a really fun idea that was originally started by Ali Edwards and once you are done, you have a great little mini to document all of the fun Christmas festivities!

I was able to create this album with 99% of supplies from ScrapHappy.  I decided to go a little different route with this one and mix papers from the Simple Stories 25 Days of Christmas line and Jillibean Soup's Christmas Eve Chowder line.  I thought it would be fun to mix in a little bit of the traditional Christmas look, with a little of the more contemporary and I love the way it turned out!  For the front and back covers of my album, I got some of the 8x6 acrylic sheets from the store.  These are great to decorate, and help protect the pages in your album.  The binder rings are also available in the store and I just used my Crop-a-Dile to punch through the acrylic and add the rings.  To create the base for my pages, I took some old cardstock and cut it to 8x6 pages and then cut and added my patterned paper to the front and back.  Once I had the bases, I added the numbers for each day and then started decorating.  Here is my finished product:

I hope you enjoyed seeing how I used some of the great products from the store!  Stop by and pick up some of your favorites and go ahead and knock out that December Daily!  There is no formula or directions, just have fun and start creating!!

Products Used:

Papers:  Simple Stories, Jillibean Soup, Tim Holtz, Teresa Collins
Clips:  Basic Grey
Stick Pins: Little Yellow Bicycle
Buttons:  My Mind's Eye
Chipboard Buttons:  Jenni Bowlin
Pearl Accents:  KaiserCraft
Letter Stickers:  My Little Shoebox & Doodlebug Design Inc.
Other:  Ribbon & Poinsettia Flowers 

Need some gorgeous "Favor Boxes"? Of course you do!

As our calendars fill with Thanksgiving dinner invites and then right on into Christmas party invitations be prepared with the perfect Hostess gifts....and you know me now....it's all about the packaging!

I took some simple box patterns and turned them into WOW gift containers just by using the "Lost & Found" papers from My Minds Eye. Bet you didn't think that paper could be used for Christmas. Well, look again. The gorgeous green glittery swirls with the brick colored roses and brown accents.....LOVE IT! They came out so pretty your hostess won't even care what's inside, but add some little tubes of hand lotion, chocolates or what ever you think she will like. When the party's over and she sits back to rest she will have a little special goody just from you to make her feel special!

This box was made with a sheet of paper 8 1/2 x 11 inches. Score short side at 2 1/2 and 6 inches. Turn and score long side at 4 1/2 and 6 1/2 inches. Fold on all score lines both ways to break down paper at folds really good. Ok, this next part sounds tricky, but don't over think it! Bring the horizontal fold to meet the vertical fold to create a diagonal crease. Use a bone folder to really press this crease good. Do this to the rest of the 3 corners. (sample will be in store if you need to see how this is done :) ) To create your box, fold the diagonal folds in toward the center and pinch the top closed. May have to push in a little on the sides. Use your crop a dile to punch holes for ribbon at top. You can embellish as much or as little as you like!

This box above is also super easy to whip up. Using a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 inches paper or cardstock, score long way at 2", 5", 7" and 10". Turn paper so short end is at top now and score at 2" and 7". Snip along the bottom at each crease up to score line to create flaps for bottom of box. You can cut each flap at an angle to remove some of the bulk. At the top where it is 2" (as you hold paper horizontally) cut away all but the last two 2" sections. One of those sections left is the narrow strip which will be folded and adhered in to create box. The wider piece is the flap that will fold over and close box. Adhere the narrow strip on side to form box and then adhere bottom flaps to close box bottom. Pinch in sides, fold over top flap to close and punch holes for ribbon. That's it!
So instead of going right to the Christmas paper tables at Scraphappy, look around....there's alot of paper that is gorgeous for Christmas!
Now go Bless Someone's Life With Your Creativity!
Nikki

How about some more...... FLOWERS ?  You can never get enough... right!

These flowers are quick and easy and can be made any size. These pictured are 3 1/2, 3 and 2 inches in diameter. Start by loosely (and I mean loosely, they don't have to be perfect) tearing three circles, small medium and large from paper or card stock.

Then tear the largest and the medium circle into a five petal shape flowers as pictured below.  This too, does not have to be prefect.

  Use distress ink on both the back and the front of each one.

    Take the largest and the medium flower shape a gently roll each petal around a pencil to shape the petals, shown in the picture below. Add a brad or embellishment to the center of the smallest circle

Just play with the petals pushing them up and rolling on a pencil ever more if need be. I freehand cut some leaves or you could just use the Cricut.

I like to mount them on foam square and add the to a scrapbook page or for even more fun......

Come in the store and see what the design team has done with flowers for our Thanksgiving table settings.

Happy crafting, Linda

It's a baby layout! Everyone likes babies

Are you a fan of simple and easy?  Do you have some baby pictures that really need to be scrapped but you don't know what to do with them?   I have the perfect collection for you!  The Simple Stories - Baby Steps collection.

When I first got this paper I contemplated what I wanted to do with it, chose a few different pictures...mostly newborn pictures of one of my little girls.  Then I saw this really cute picture in my stack that would go perfect.

The papers can go with either boy or girl very easily as you can see in this peek at the collection.


So I found my picture to use now I just needed to come up with a layout.  I use lots of sketches and take inspiration from layouts I see on other blogs or websites.  I finally narrowed down which papers and embellishments to use and I started this great process of creating a masterpiece! LOL not really...because with the Simple Stories, everything matches so all you really have to do is put together a layout or card with minimal effort...
Soooo here's my layout I did. 

What do you think????

The hardest part on the layout was cutting out the banner that runs along the top.  Everything is straight from the line, except for the twine and I did a little shading on the banner and around the edge of the main paper with one of my Tim Holtz distress ink pads.

I have a couple more ideas for my leftover paper and embellishments.  I want to make a couple of baby cards.  When I get them done, I will put up another blog...so keep a look out for the cards.  In the meantime, head on over to Scraphappy and pick up some of the Simple Stories lines.  There are some other really cute lines, Fall and I think I saw the Christmas line in the store the other day.  Come back and show us what you have done.