Art Girlz Scrapbook Nook

Cosmo Cricket LACING CARD Mini Book

My DD and I spent a nice long weekend at her college orientation. At night, I had a dorm room all to myself, and I took this opportunity to work on a mini book / home decor project.

Using a set of Cosmo Cricket Lacing Cards, I first covered the front & backs of all the 5x7 size chipboard pieces with the printed paper. I chose a background paper with swirls (Holiday Scroll Red paper), no need to worry -- there is no upside down, no sideways -- you can change your mind about the layout! Love these papers in the CHRISTMAS Collection from Flair Design.

QUICK TIP:

Do you want to make covering the chipboard quicker and easier?

* Cut the papers slightly LARGER than the chipboard base.

* Use glue stick or liquid white glue -- these types of adhesives give you some time to move the paper around to ensure no bubbles or wrinkles.

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Lacing cards have holes down both sides -- to bind the cards together. Punch holes as you cover each side. For example, if you cover both sides BEFORE punching holes on one side, you won't be able to find the holes easily.

The next step would be to use ink or paints to cover the "naked" chipboard edges. Other possibilities include using embossing ink and embossing powder along all the edges!

The chipboard cards are sturdy enough to use the holes without reinforcements. But, eyelets add a more finished look, are inexpensive and quick.

A Crop-A-Dile makes setting the eyelets unbelievably quick and quiet. We LOVE our CAD!

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After the PREPARATION of the lacing card base, the fun and really creative part begins.

Choose theme, photos, embellishments, inks, stamps & more.

QUICK TIP:

The background paper used here doesn't scream "Christmas" holiday. What to do if you've adhered the background paper and want to change your project plans? You CAN change your mind! When choosing background papers think of using more generic & overall prints! Many types of photos would look good on this background paper.

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THE COMPLETED PROJECT -- four decorated pages in one night!

Some might refer to this as a "mini-book", it is being used as a home decor accent. More than just a frame with a photo, this mini-book project sparks conversation!

Due to the small size of each page (5x7), this project takes a small amount of paper & embellishments. You can use scraps (we did!). And more importantly, it can be completed in an evening -- and is portable!

The photos are cut down to approximately 3' x 5". Before adhering the photo to the chipboard card, we added some scraps of coordinating papers. On top of the papers, some gold magic mesh, and THEN the photo. Cut some self-adhesive felt fusion into small pieces, add brads to the center of some flowers, ribbons, buttons and a journaling card -- and it's on to the next page.

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Keeping embellishments similar on each page gives a sense of "flow" when you open the set of lacing cards.

The cards are laced together with a hemp twine that is colored red. You can either buy it red, OR dye your own with some inks. If the book will be filled with a lot of 3-D embellishments, lace the pages together loosely.

Are there rules to follow? Balance? Rule of thirds? On scrapbook pages, we pay more attention to "design" elements like those -- but it was just having fun adding embellishments on each page!

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JUST HAVE FUN -- No Rules!

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This particular set of photos captured my DD opening her one "big" gift this year. Something she really wanted, but didn't ask for because she thought it was way too expensive. It was truly a surprise!

Hugging a UPS Express box? What kind of present is that? She had peeked into the box, and knew what was inside, but the gift was so tightly packed she couldn't get it out easily. Then she started laughing. Everyone was laughing ...

Again there are scraps of Flair "Christmas" collection papers, magic mesh, flowers, ribbons, buttons & more small pieces of Queen & Company's FELT FUSION.

Cutting the felt into small pieces maximizes your embellishments.

The flower on the bottom right nestles on top of a piece of green ribbon. A small 3 inch scrap of ribbon -- perhaps destined for the trash can!

Small scraps of ribbon are kept in a jar for just this kind of project. Do you cut pieces of ribbon off a roll so that you can bring to a crop? Don't worry about wasting the ribbons ... just stash the scraps and use for another project.

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The fourth page of this mini-book. Notice the eyelets on the right side of this page? Run some ribbon or wire, add beads & more. So many possibilities!

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The "cover" page for this is just a quick and simple layout. We ALMOST forgot to add some BLING to this project. That can't happen, so some Me & My Big Ideas "Holly" RHINESTONES are added to top & bottom corners.

Think this project is complete? There are four MORE pages on the reverse side!

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Don't forget : Four more pages for lots more fun & creativity on the back!

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The "title" or cover page. Designed so a photo could later be placed on top of the "Noel - Happy Holidays" piece.

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There is also a square button with a printed design. Just where did we find that?

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Check tomorrow's post and find out -- you can make your own!

 

Beaded & Stamped Bracelet

I've wanted to share this bracelet with you for a long time, but everytime I'm wearing it, the camera is somewhere else!

This bracelet is hand made with a variety of glass beads. There are two flat squares that would normally have a photo, but my secret sister stamped a flower and covered it with acrylic medium.

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Beaded necklaces, bracelets, earrings ... I love them all. Give me unusual beads, different shapes & colors! It's so bohemian and in a sense so very unlike me!

I can't remember that wonderful secret sister who made this bracelet for me, but if you are out there ... just wanted you to know I love it and wear it often.

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Many people comment on the bracelet when they get up close I show them that the flowers were stamped and colored in. It's fun & funky. And truly unique!

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Stamps ... they aren't just for cards anymore!

What is Secret Sisters? It's a group of stampers or scrappers who are given a name of their "little sister" (like Secret Santa). Someone will receive your name and you will be their "little sister". You make & send them cards and gifts for a certain period of time. Could be one month, or 6 months!

If you have never tried this, see if you can start a Secret Sisters group with some of your stamping or scrapbooking friends locally.

It's kind of like RAK (Random Act of Kindness) except you give and you receive.

Make Your Own: Ribbon Storage

I have seen many different types of ribbon storage, and we've tried quite a number of them, including: keeping ribbon on rolls (takes up way too much room), wrapping ribbon on cardstock and then file in a drawer, and there's also the "NO ORGANIZATION at all" method!

I like the look of the ribbons on the rolls. It's neat and you can see what you have, but it also takes up too much room for me. I like many different types of ribbons and the rolls can get to be too much, especially if there is only a little left on the roll.

I even tried keeping them wrapped on cardstock (like DMC floss-type holders), the ribbons can be filed according to type or color. However, I started getting lazy OR perhaps I was buying too much ribbon to keep filed like that and I ended up with no system of organization at all -- AGAIN!

So I went back to my trusty PEANUT BUTTER jars! We use these plastic jars for all sorts of food storage. Because they are plastic, we don't worry that they will fall & break, and they are clear so you can see what is inside. With 4 kids, we consume a LOT of peanut butter!!

Here is our clean and very plain peanut butter jar. The lids from glass canning jars (Ball jars) fit on this plastic jar if you don't want to use the plastic lid. But we're trying to reduce, reuse and recycle. This is one way of recycling the packaging. One (maybe) helpful tip: if you plan to wash these plastic jars & lids in the dishwasher, use the top rack. We have also lowered the temperature of our hot water heater, and we've still had some melting (usually in the bottom where the jar is extruded from the machines).

I'm preparing this jar to be used as a gift, but in my studio, the ribbon jars are sorted by color. If it's red ribbon of any type: organdy, satin, rick-rack, grosgrain and more ... it goes into one jar. I've also been keeping coordinating colored buttons in the jars too! I put them in a small (2x3") zipper bag to keep them handy, and just stash them down the side of the jar so I can take a quick look at the buttons.

To start my altering my peanut butter jar, I cut a strip of designer paper about 2" wide. Then I cut another strip about 2 1/2 wide. These two pieces will be layered and cover the area where glue kept the original label on the jar. I've tried getting this glue off. Run them through the dishwasher and everything, but I have ended up scratching the jar more than getting the glue residue off. It's easier to just cover it!

The papers I used were 12" long. Instead of cutting to exact jar size, I just wrapped the full lenth of paper. If you want to save some of this paper or use it on other projects, you can cut it. But the jar is big enough to take up most of the 12" length.

To cover the lid, we chose a thinner paper that was NOT cardstock weight. Laying a square piece over the top of the lid, we used the end of our bone folder to make crease marks where the lid was indented in the top. Cut around this mark and you have a perfect paper piece to go on the top!

After covering the top and the side of the jar, we used some large flowers, ribbons and a button to finish off the jar.

You could put whatever you wanted in this jar. Use different papers and fill with candy kisses! Make altered jars to give as gifts filled with all sorts of items. You could even give them as teacher gifts at the BEGINNING of the year filled with small items like chalk, erasers, pens -- items the teacher would use on their desk.

If you're a stamper, a gift of some small stamps and stamp pad would fit nicely and could be presented as a gift and storage all-in-one! Or fill with some small bath items like scented soaps to make a cute gift also. Here's the finished jar with a tag to let you know what waits inside! A quick and inexpensive gift! OR keep for yourself to add a little something extra to your crafting space or other area of your home.

Adorable "Coaster Album" -- Quick Gift idea!!

We normally scrap 12x12 pages, but lately we've found great joy in making smaller books. They go together much quicker, are less expensive to make, and can be given as gifts that the recipient can display on a shelf. 12x12 pages just don't lend themselves to sitting out on a shelf!

I was checking out SLIDE shows and came upon this SLIDE show for a mini chipboard book. It's a great book. Looks like it could make a great holiday gift. You could easily make several of these for grandparents. We also like how they have one picture on the right hand side, and the left side of the page is left for writing, embellishments, etc. They did a great job on this book!

Check it out!

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Decorated - Altered Lunchpail Tin

I've had one of these Lunchpail tins (mine is from BasicGrey) and I keep looking at it and wondering what I'm going to do with it. There are so many possibilities. I have so much paper and other embellishments, the sky is the limit.

But looking through some of the blogs I love to read on a regular basis, I found a REALLY beautiful altered Lunchpail tin. It's romantic, shabby chic. Sure to be really treasured by the recipient.

Check out Wild Rose Stamper's Blog for this great Altered Lunchpail Tin. I think this has given me some inspiration AND some motivation to do something with that grey tin (ugly now!).

Think about the other tins you have around the house. Do you have any items that came in a tin? We eat a Irish Oatmeal that comes in a round tin. It sort of looks like the "paint can" style tin. I've finally got one that's empty and I'm going to alter that tin. Maybe send it to my secret sister.

Have any ideas on altering tins? Have you made anything you think is really special? Please comment and let us know. Send us links. Share!

Altered CLIPBOARDS

I bet we all have some clipboards lying around the house ... they are great for having a hard surface to write on while holding papers at the same time.

Going through a box of stuff out in the garage, we found some of the smaller clipboards (approximately 6x9) that are brown pressed board (or something like that).

These clipboards were a little beat up: names, dates, phone numbers and scribbling covered the front & back of them. Before tossing them, I decided we'd try ALTERED CLIPBOARDS.

OMG! These are so fun! They are addicting.

DIRECTIONS:

1) clean surface and paint with acrylic paint (as desired);

2) using Perfect Paper Adhesive or Mod Podge, cover areas with printed or solid papers, stamped images, etc.

3) add ribbons and any other embellishments you'd like and you're done!

Very quick & easy, we stamped the coffee beans using pigment ink and then embossed them for a raised effect.

Who doesn't love ribbon? We added a number of ribbons from our stash to the top of the clip.

More information about altered clipboards, scrapbooking and paper crafts:

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Web www.artgirlzscrappinattic.typepad.com

This clipboard was made for a good friend of mine ... she's definitely making history! Her favorite color is pink, so we went with that theme. Using printed papers, stamped images, magic mesh & ribbons -- the lowly clipboard was transformed into a fun accessory!

This clipboard was sort of an "accident", but you never say accident when you are crafting ... it's an opportunity!

What started out as antiquing ended up removing the paint from the front of the clipboard! So we used a gold metallic pigment ink around the edges, embossed with clear EP and then added some other colors for antique-look.

This was given to another friend and she totally loves it, and doesn't know why I said I made a mistake ... and probably can't duplicate the look ever again.

These small clipboards fit the Jr. Legal pads and are a nice size to fit into a large bag (purse). You can pick up these brown chipboard clipboards brand new for about $1.

Have some fun painting and altering a clipboard!

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.

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.

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.