Cool ribbon storage

I was visiting Donna Downey’s blog and check out this way cool wire mannequin she is using to store her ribbon…I love it! You can check out more pics of her work area here.

I found a similar {maybe the same} wire mannequin for sale on Amazon…spendy, but cool!

Show & Tell - happy album

I’ve been wanting to make one of these word albums for a while. I recently joined a scrap club and this was the project for March. I love how the album came out. I made this for Nika’s 1st birthday that is coming up soon. This was fun to make and a lot easier than I thought it would be. Papers are SEI and ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon.

Friday Freebie - kits & quick pages

Happy Friday my crafty friends! Here’s some fabulous kits & quick pages for you to play with from Ellie Lash Designs.

Download the {Sweet enough} mini kit, great colors and I love the butterfly and flower embellishments!

Here’s a cute quick page, I’m loving lady bugs right now.

If you still have some Valentines layouts to do, be sure to get the {Love Actually} kit. Yummy browns and pinks…lots of fabulous papers.

Grab this quick page, so pretty and perfect for spring!

For more Ellie Lash Designs, stop by her online store. There’s a really beautiful new kit called {Luke} that has wonderful spring colors. I love the flourishes and goodies in this kit. Perfect for Spring, Easter, or even baby pages.

Have a wonderful weekend! XOOXO

Martha’s Easter workshop

Easter is just around the corner {March 23rd}. Martha Stewart Living is hosting an Easter workshop this month. Each week they feature a category with lots of great projects and tutorials.

• Week 1 - decorating & invitations
• Week 2 - eggs & baskets
• Week 3 - spring displays
• Week 4 - menus & tables

Here’s a sampling of the paper crafting projects featured so far.

• Egg themed stationary - I love this one! Use your scrap ribbon, fabric and paper to make adorable cards.
• Bunny garland - Add letters to the bunnies to spell out Easter. Download this rabbit template {2 bunnies to choose from} and use for scrapbook layouts and cards too.
• Basket fill - We all have the scraps to do this and look how pretty it is! Recycled wrapping paper is perfect for this. Hmm…I’m sure there is also a clever way to use strips like this on a layout or card too. Quilling maybe??

Be sure to check MarthaStewart.com next week to see the rest of the Easter Workshop projects.

Show & Tell - paper bag albums

I posted these paper bag album photos in the Fisk-A-Teers gallery today and there was a lot of inquiries. Here’s some more pictures and details on how to make these fun albums.

For these albums I used 3 lunch sack paper bags, purchased from the grocery store. I lined up the bags so 2 of the bags had the open end out {giving me 3 pockets once the album is folded}. Next I picked out my papers and measured the paper to be the same size as the paper bag length-wise. The paper was adhered with a tape runner. Once all the bags had paper I folded them in half and scored to make the album. Next I used a heavy duty hole punch to make the holes in all the bags. Ribbon was used to tie them together. For the pockets, I used a punch to create tabs. Those were adhered with a stapler, eyelets or glue. Tucked inside the pockets is a cardstock tag. To finish off the album I used a corner rounder on the edges. This is an easy project, great for beginners. This was the very first project I attempted when I began paper crafting. There a several great online tutorials on how to create these albums. Check out this one from the Scrapbook-Crazy site.

Products used

• Paper {My Minds Eye}
• Cardstock for tabs and tags {DCWV}
• Ribbon {Really Reasonable Ribbon}
• Tab Punch {McGill}
• Lunch sack paper bags {purchased from the grocery store}
• Adhesive {Scrapbook Adhesives}

Show & Tell - mini {bloom} cards

I have lots of scraps left from making my {blinging spring bloom card} and wanted to make a mini version. These cards took a lot less time to make and came out pretty cute.

To start I trimmed down an 8×8 piece of cardstock to make the 3×3 cards, scored and then folded in half. I went through my leftover stamped images from the {blinging spring bloom card} and picked out what I wanted to use. I used pens to color in the images and also pencils in a few places. I added gemstones using a wet glue and some self adhesive stickers for the bling. Next I started the layering process. I put down the mesh which is self adhesive, and then the base layer image which was adhered with a tape runner. For layers 2 and 3 I used foam squares to pop them up. There are a total of 3 stamped image layers to this card. The key to making these is just having the same image stamped multiple times that way you can cut out different portions to line-up and raise with foam. Check out this tutorial by Tim Holtz from his 12 tags of Christmas projects. Scroll half way down the tutorial and you will see he gives a step by step look at lining up and layering stamped images. Inside the card is the flower image, there are stickles on the flower pedals.

Products used

• Cardstock for card {DCWV}
• Mesh {FibaTape}
• Stickers {Stampendous}
• Gemstones {The Paper Studio}
• Pens {Le Plume}
• Pencils {Art Skills}
• Foam Squares {Scotch}
• Adhesive {Scrapbook Adhesives, Ultimate glue & Xyron 150}

Scrappy kits

I made a couple of fun purchases recently. I ordered this adorable {Message in a Matryoshka} mini album kit from Tia Bennett. I can’t wait to get it, it’s so cute! She has a limited number of these available so if you are interested hurry over to her Etsy shop and get one.

I also recently signed-up for ClubSEI’s mini scrap club. I like this club as it comes every other month, got a free gift for signing up, and you get 10% off SEI product purchases. Good benefits and lots of cute kits. Shown in the photo is the March mini kit. SEI has a great referral program too, if you sign up be sure to put in the comments referred by member#1108871 that’s my referral number.

Update {3/15/08} - check my post here to see my creation from the March kit.

I’d love to hear about any clubs you like or belong to. Happy Monday!

SheetLoad of Cards…and RAKs!

Looking for some good RAKs?? The SheetLoad of Cards eZine is having a March celebration for reaching 15,000 hits on their blog. They are giving away tons of great prizes all month! Check out the current giveaway from Paper Crafters {Anonymous}.

You can also download the March issue of SheetLoad here.

Friday Freebie - 41 free handwriting fonts

Today’s find is a good one. A whole slew of free handwriting fonts for you to download from Allie Hoopes. I counted a total of 41 free fonts in this download, WOW! These downloads are good for personal and commercial use too!

And if you want your own handwriting turned into a font, she does that too all for a mere $5! How cool is that? Here’s a link to get your own font created.

Get the Friday Freebie

Have a fabulous weekend ~ XOOXO

Show & Tell - 12×12 {chase your dreams} page

Here’s my creation for the monthly scrap club I belong to. I’m happy with how this came out. This was an easy layout as the background paper is so pretty and elaborate that most of the work was already done. Here’s the kit that I used to create this page along with some of my own stash too.

Products used

• Patterned paper {SEI, Jolie Chocolat}
• Cardstock {DCWV}
• Stickers {K & Company K-ology}
• Title {Making Memories, Clear Creations Scrolls}
• Buttons {my own stash collected from Nika’s baby clothes}
• Butterflies {Fiskars pop-up punch, mini butterfly & Creative Imaginations paper}
• Chipboard flowers {Basic Grey}
• Flowers {Sizzix originals die, flower layers #3}
• Flower centers {Gin-X}
• Adhesive {Scrapbook Adhesives, Glue Dots, Scotch Foam Squares}

Happy Birthday cake album

Today is Nika’s 11 month birthday…happy birthday my sweet girl! While catching up on my blog reading I came across the cutest, most unique birthday album. It’s made by one of my all-time favorite paper crafting designers, Linda Albrecht. Take a look at these pics from her blog.

Isn’t this the coolest birthday album?!! I want to make one of these for Nika’s 1st birthday. I’m excited to read on her blog this is going to be offered as a downloadable class at Heart in Hand in a couple weeks. I tried Heart in Hand’s free downloadable mini clipboard class. The instructions are easy-to-follow with nice large color pictures. Shown in the picture to the right is the mini clipboard created by Gloria Stengel for Heart in Hand.

Do-si-do

It’s that time of year again…Girl Scout cookie season! You know spring is just around the corner when you start seeing Girl Scout cookies for sale. Gotta love those Girl Scouts and their cookies.

Go here and type in your zip code to find where you can get the oh so yummy cookies. For the Western Washington area cookies are being sold weekdays after school and on weekends from February 29 to March 16th.

Random Girl Scout cookie fact–Most popular cookies

1. Thin Mints
2. Samoas{R}/Caramel deLites{TM}
3. Peanut Butter Patties{R}/Tagalongs{R}
4. Peanut Butter Sandwich/Do-si-dos{TM}
5. Shortbread/Trefoils

Celebrate national crafting month

Did you know March is National Crafting Month? At the Fiskars site they are posting a new project everyday to celebrate. These are great ideas and easy to follow tutorials. Check out these cute projects.

Shown in the photo is the mailbox from day #2 submitted by lead Fisk-A-Teer May Flaum.

My moo cards are here!

How cute are these? I got my moo cards today and love them!

The cardstock is a nice heavy weight with a matte laminate finish. Ordering was easy and I was also able to choose where I wanted my designs cropped. These are made in the UK and shipping was surprisingly fast. I also got a free sticker book with my order and the stickers are super cute.

Moo cards have a large following, check out this article about a guy who is using his cards as a found art project. There is even a Flickr category just for moo cards. There are lots of crafty ways to use them too, check out these cute ideas. For you scrappers here’s a layout created by RellyAB that used moo cards. Look at this beautiful calendar by jbloomphotos that incorporated the cards too.

Over at the SplatGirl Creates website there is a tutorial on how to make a really cool moo card holder.

Any moo card collectors out there that want to trade? Send me an email. XOOXO

Secret scrappy sale

shhh…it’s supposed to be a secret. Who doesn’t love a good deal? Especially when it’s a great deal and not everyone knows about it! Fiskars is having a BIG online warehouse sale and clearing out old and extra inventory.

In honor of National Crafting Month, each day in March they will put a different discount special online. These deals are only being offered for 24 hours each. The daily special is only available until midnight or until it sells out—whichever comes first. You’ll need to check every day.

Here’s a peek at the 1st deal they will be offering…it’s a 1,157 piece Heidi Grace scrapbook kit for the small price of $8.43!