Art Girlz Scrapbook Nook

Make your own CUSTOM RIBBONS

OMG! I was reading through Michele Wooderson's blog (Mish Mash) and looked at some posts from July, and found this totally GREAT TIP!

Okay, I'm a ribbon fanatic. Love it. I guess it goes back to when I was sewing alot and managing a fabric & craft store. ANYWAY, I've got SO many ribbons, so many types, colors, blends: grosgrain, organdy, printed, satin, twill and more.

What do you do when you would like to add a ribbon you don't have? I'd probably run to the store and see if I can find something that matches (look through my extensive stash first). What would you do if you still had something in mind and couldn't find any ribbon that matched what you were dreaming of?

Do what Michele did! She made her own custom ribbon. To make her "custom" ribbon, whe used markers to color her ribbon. In her example, she's added stripes to the ribbon, but I could see polka dots, stripes, wavy lines (kinda like rick rack), and more. Each ribbon would absorb markers differently, but here are some guidelines I'd recommend:

* use permanent markers if you are putting in a scrapbook. any other kind are okay for cards.

* test different types of markers, different tip sizes, etc.

* heat set the marker (use a hot, dry iron).

Check out Michele's very cute card and her instructions for making her own unique ribbon to match her card!

HALLOWEEN mini-pail Project from Prima

Just opened up my mail and reading through it all. Find a message from Prima Marketing, you know the makers of all those great paper & silk flowers? And they come in such cool packages, from glass bottles to clear "paint cans".

This project uses the clear "paint can" that the flowers came in. You alter it to make an adorable HALLOWEEN candy jar. How great is that. I'm thinking if you are careful on how you attach stuff, you could change out the label and stuff for different seasons/holidays? But if you're like me, you just LOVE Prima's flowers and have a number of these cute clear plastic paint cans.

Check out Prima Marketing's quick PowerPoint Presentation for this project: Download Halloween.pps .

Don't have any of these cute clear paint cans? How about checking out something in your cupboard? I save plastic peanut butter jars. We have 4 kids, they go through ALOT of peanut butter. Clean the jar in the dishwasher and they come in quite handy with their twist-on lids.

Scrapbook Pages -- Piece by Piece

I recently joined a swap where we had to make "pieces" that someone could use for a 12x12 scrapbook page. By pieces, I mean that we did not take a 12x12 piece of paper and attach the title, embellishments, etc. -- it's like a scrapbook page ready to complete.

I had fun doing this project. We've seen some of these done before, but had never actually tried them ourselves. The concept is quite simple and gives you alot of freedom to create stamped items for theme pages and then later put it all together.

The PIECES:

* two "title" pieces -- size was specified to be at least 11 1/2" wide and at least 3" wide. You could make these strips horizontal or vertical.

* two "embellishment" pieces -- these would be pieces (not necessarily paper) that can be added to the page for ornamentation (embellishment), if it's theme pages, these can be really fun.

* one "journal" piece -- a piece that someone could hand journal or add journaling on vellum or acetate and put over the journal block.

With size of the parts determined, it makes it easy to add to a page when you find just the right pictures. Ours featured rubber stamping, but you could use printed papers, rub-ons, flowers and other items to embellish these "PIECES".

The pieces here are from our HALLOWEEN theme PIECE kit. Notice the two "titles"? If you leave the actual words off, you can use this for many different pages: halloween birthday party, halloween party, pumpkin patch, etc.

The smaller pieces (embellishments) add a little more of the theme, including continuing with the same colors and ribbons, etc.

The last piece (middle vertical white piece) is the journal block. You can stamp lines on this and hand journal, or leave blank. You might just want to put the date and have your journaling done in a different way.

When you are stumped for finding the right sketch / layout for your scrapbook pages ... try one of these Scrapbook Pages by PIECES and see if you have more freedom when it comes to actually putting your scrapbook page together.

Finished page COULD look like this (just one example, there are so many configurations!!):

The white pieces are where pictures could be added, the ones on this 2-page spread are 4x6 size.

It's a fun technique that might just get you inspired if you have that scrapbooking creativity block!

ORGANIZING Children's Artwork

I don't scrapbook in any particular order or time. If I take pictures today and they appeal to me (and I see papers that I love), I'll make some scrapbook pages, a mini chipboard book or other project.

I have TONS (almost 20 years) worth of my daughters' artwork. Some I've been thinking about putting into a scrapbook, others I've been thinking about making color copies, photographing, etc.

For those of you who've been reading my blog for a while now, you probably see that I'm not into really fussy or elaborate projects. There are some pages where I'll take 2 hours to finish. But that clearly is not going to get me caught up on all the years of memories I've not put into scrapbooks.

While reading one of my favorite blogs (Queen Kat Designs), I saw a link that interested me. I came across a wonderful site. Not really scrapbooking related, but it's more about ORGANIZING and once organized you can have more time for the fun stuff!

I just loved the post about the Children's Artwork -- Artwork, artwork everywhere!. She had a quick and easy idea, and a collage project that would be perfect for a younger child's room. And I'm saving the post for her recipe for Chicken Pot Pie (and crock pot goodies).

The blog is by Aby Garvey (about Aby). Check out the "Simply 101 newsletter" and the rest of her blog. I'm thinking you'll enjoy it! Might give you ideas to ORGANIZE AND SIMPLIFY so you have more time for scrapbooking, stamping and having fun with your family.

Basic Grey's new paper line: "MELLOW"

Went to a Creating Keepsake convention a few weeks ago. Had a GREAT time. If you ever get the chance to go, it's well worth it. They have the vendor area, and also some great classes. Saw that they had the Basic Grey new paper lines and took a class.

My first time seeing the new paper lines: MELLOW, PERIPHERY and a few others (shh! it's a secret ... ).

I think the MELLOW line is my favorite. I love autumn (fall season). I think it's my favorite season. I love the colors, the smell in the air and the coming cool weather.

Hope you enjoy MELLOW as much as we did when we first saw it. Here's our scrapbook page using MELLOW. It's loosely based on the one from the class. Oh, and we LOVE the BasicGrey chipboard. Has self-adhesive backing. How great is that?

A 12x12 page that has room for 2 pictures that are 4x6 in size, don't even have to cut them down or crop if you don't want to.

We made the sunflower embellishment in the top right corner, a great technique that we were introduced to from one of the vendors.

Chipboard is covered with paper and then distressed with BasicGrey's file set. It's such fun to distress with these METAL files.

Oh, Basic Grey ... we just love your new MELLOW collection.

Stamping on Sequin Flowers

A few weeks ago, we posted a little tip about stamping images on your paper & silk flowers. It's fun and can change the look of your flowers quickly. If you only have one color of flower, if you stamp images or add colored edges with inks, you instantly have a number of different flowers!

We had a friend add a comment about sequin flowers. These are great sequin-type flowers by Queen & Company .  These might have been a "sleeper" product, but with Kim's cute suggestion, we see so many possibilities.

Her suggestion:

* Staz-on ink
* rubber stamp image (small designs, words, text, dots, etc.)
* Sequin flowers  (there are many color themes available at AGSA).

You need to use staz-on type of inks because the sequins are made of a smooth (and shiny) plastic material. It is rather reminiscent of stamping on shrink plastic, although we're not shrinking these.

Now, like the paper & silk flowers, you have many more possibilities for patterns & textures.

We're going to have to try using a heat tool on the sequins (ever so lightly) and see if we can curl (distress) the sequin flowers (like you can do with organdy ribbons!).

NEW -- our Photo Album for Cards

We love scrapbooking, I mean we really LOVE scrapbooking. But all three of us Art-Girlz started out making cards and rubber stamping.

We recently had a card-making challenge on Art Girlz Paper Crafting Community forum. Vicki, from Queen Kat Design provided us with some card sketches and we asked for some cards. Bookmark our community because we're having another challenge in September -- and giving prizes!

See the cards in our new Cards Photo Album. And we'll be posting more cards as we go through the BOXES and BOXES of cards to choose the best ones to share with you.

Around the World in 31 Days -- QKD Card-Making CONTEST

You just HAVE to check out Queen Kat Designs really awesome celebration -- "Around the World in 31 Days". They are celebrating their 2nd Anniversary -- YEAH!

The wonderful team at QKD has designed some wonderful challenges each week through the month of August (and it's half-way over!). Card making is NOT boring here. One of this week's challenges is to make a card with special folds, and / or develop a template for your card. No ordinary cards.

I'm going to be attending a 3-day retreat in the woods this week ... no TV or phone in the room. After the daily meetings, I'm going to be working on some cards and scrapbook pages. I can stay up as late as I want because I have the room to myself.

I've already got my bag packed for this week's QKD challenge, I just need to think about clothes now.

Check out the challenge, or at least see what the other players have posted so far.

There is the Asian Color Symbolism Challenge ,Oriental Shape Express Challenge , and Shogun Challenge.  Your photo uploads are due this Saturday, August 18th!

Did I mention there are PRIZES?

Make your own Ribbon Flowers!

I LOVE ribbon.

I LOVE ribbon.

I LOVE ribbon.

I used to sew alot and actually worked as an assistant manager in a fabric & craft store while I was in college. I don't think I actually brought home much money because I spent alot of it there. I actually sewed most of my own clothes while in college, including curtains, pillow cases and other home decor. I did make some money sewing bride's maid dresses and a few wedding gowns. I don't sew anymore, but my passion for ribbons has not changed.

I am always waiting for an excuse to use it. Browsing some favorite web sites, I stumbled upon Candice Carpenter's blog. I checked it out and found a short but simple tutorial she has for making your own ribbon flowers. So totally cute!

You could use these in scrapbooks, but I could see these on wooden picture frames that you painted and attached these ribbon flowers with some cute rhinestone or jewel centers. They'd probably look adorable sewn on a little girl's sweater (if you use washable ribbons!). OMG! Totally cute.

You can do so much with ribbons. Ribbons are rather inexpensive, and come in a variety of widths, prints, solids, satin, grosgrain & more. Oh, I can't wait to try some ribbon flowers. I'll probably try some wide, but soft ribbon (like organdy) for my scrapbooks. Don't forget how cute one would look on the front of a card!

Check out Candice Carpenter's "It's a Lifestyle" blog to see this ribbon flower tutorial and more.

Chipboard Coaster "MOM" wall hanging

Looking at some blogs from friends at Splitcoast Stampers, I found this very cute project that Vicki Parson has posted on her blog.

She used chipboard coasters, letters and printed papers to make a cute wall hanging. You could spell kids names, "BATH" or any word you'd like, or put a combination of pictures and letters.

Check out Vicki's "MOM wall hanging" and her blog. She's also got some really great cards showcased on her site. Some very talented card makers!

I also nominated Vicki for the "Rockin' Girl Bloggers", and after reading her blog, found out that someone else has nominated her too! It's a blog worth checking out. Vicki is a Stampin'Up! demonstrator and has alot of Stampin'Up! stamps & products shown, but you can use any brand products.

She also shares cards & projects that she's received from other stampers. This shows a nice variety of styles.