Thank you cards #4

Oooh I love love love this new punch around the page punch! My new favorite! Too bad I don't own it! LOL... the punch belongs to the store I work at. But still, it's a lovely punch.
I love the simplicity of this card. I could make a bunch of these, happily, to send out.

Thanks for stopping by!

Thank you cards #3

This one was a little more complicated. I saw an elegant and beautiful card last year and was inspired to do something similar, but was going purely on memory!  The light green is embossed below, then I embossed another piece of the green. I swiped both pieces with versamark ink, then cut out some of the branches to layer over the bottom layer of leaves.  I pushed too hard on my "merci" stamp. Grrr.
This was a cuttlebug embossing folder by the way, and one I wished embossed deeper.

Thank you cards #2

This is a SUPER simple card. Cut the hearts on my cricut though if you have a punch of the right size, that would work too. Some string, pop dots and a stamp. All done! :)

Thank you cards #1

I know most of us are still thinking of the coming holidays, but I'm thinking of the after the holidays! All those thank yous that will need to be said. :)  So here's a first thank you card of the season. Fairly simple... the embossing is a sizzix embossing folder. I love both cuttlebug and sizzix embossing folders, but the sizzix ones emboss really deep! I love that.

Thanks for looking!

Camera strap!

Friday I took a break from scrapbooking to make this present for myself!  I never liked the strap that came with my camera. Wasn't anywhere close to long enough, nor was it comfortable.

Then I happened to see Megan's camera strap, Penny mentioned she'd seen straps for sale on etsy. I went and looked at some of those etsy straps... I just couldn't get past the idea that I could make one for myself, for considerably less!  Don't get me wrong... I'll dish out the money for handmade items, even stuff sewn by someone else in spite of the fact that I can very well sew myself... But seriously, I usually buy sewn things that I'm totally unwilling to make for myself because the item is either way too complicated or too boring for me to make for myself. :)

But a camera strap? Super fast and easy! Well, until I got down to making the part that joins with the narrow strap that I took off the original strap, the part that goes onto the camera. See, my real sewing machine needs to visit a Singer doctor. I can't sew with it. I sewed this strap with a Janome Sew Mini. Except for that leathery part that attaches to the strap that goes on the camera. I had to hand sew that with a glover's needle. I have 3 puncture wounds on my left thumb. But HEY! I have this beautiful camera strap now! It cost me $3.50. I bought the pre-quilted fabric (1/8th of a yard) and the tiny chunk of leathery stuff with coupons from JoAnns so I barely spent anything on it... not counting the blood and cuss words. ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

Parisian Anthology #5

My final project for the Scrappinista Scrapbook Club kit this month is this little tag. I actually cut the tag with my cricut but I happened to size it the same size as the Sizzix Tim Holtz tag die since that's a hot item this season and I wanted non-cricuteers to have another option.

I used scrap printed papers that were left from my other projects with this kit. However, the Flair that I got from this line came in a bubble pack that I realized I could cut up to make treat packs with. I've already eaten up the rest of the M&Ms from the bag I bought for this tag. :(

The big thing I want to say though, is what happened when I made that red poinsettia. That is made from the chip banners that were in the chip embellishment box we got with the kit. I inked them up heavily with Aged Mahogany Distress ink... they were really nice and red. I thought that I'd add some Rock Candy stickles to them for a touch of sparkle. I did that, and went away so it could dry. When I came back, it looked like this... the ink had wicked away into crevices around the rock candy. What a neat effect! I love it!

Thanks for joining me for this exploration of the Parisian Anthology line from Pink Paisley!

Parisian Anthology #4

My second to last project with my Parisian Anthology kit from Scrapaganza's Scrappinista club is a year in review mini book. The box held the chip embellishments for the Parisian Anthology line. When I surfed over to the Pink Paislee blog, I saw that one of the designers had used the box to hold a mini album, and I thought with the year coming to a close, that was a good idea to do an end of the year review in photos and journaling.

I took 6 #10 envelopes, and folded the flaps down narrower than usual, making sure that the sealed envelope would be narrow enough to fit within the box. That ended up being 3 1/2 inches wide. I sealed the envelopes with glue. Then I cut off one end to make them 7 1/4 inches long. I covered the envelopes on both sides with my left over printed papers and some cardstock. Inked them up with Distress inks in Forest Moss, Rusted Hinge and Wild Honey.  To attach the pages together, I did not want to use rings as those would be too bulky to fit in the box. Instead I took 1 1/2 inch strips of scrap cardstock and used border punches on both sides of the strips. Cut them down to 3 inches long approximately and used those as "hinges", glued on the ends of two facing pages. I also covered the outside binding with an outside hinge (cut on my cricut with Storybook) so that it would look more finished.

I printed out 33 photos that summed up our year, at wallet size. With the photos and remaining chip and artisan elements, I filled the mini album and decorated it. I wrapped the outside hinge with a thin ribbon that I could tie in some jeweled charms, and added a few extra ribbons for texture.  The little mini calendar months that mark each page are from the Tim Holtz pad of paper "Lost and Found". They were perfect for this project.

The envelope pockets hold a tag; the tags were cut on my cricut with Plantin, sized on my gypsy to be 3x7. Coordinating ribbon is stapled to the tags as pulls. The tags will have all my journaling about the year, one month per side of tag. I just haven't had time to write it all yet as I had to get this kit stuff done! LOL

This was a fun project! Not only to make it, but also going back through pictures and remembering everything. I've never done a "year in review" type project before and I think I will be adding it every year to give myself a chance to remember everything!  I highly recommend everyone doing a layout or mini book to remember your year too!

Thanks for stopping by!