Hot Chocolate Winter Wreath

Decided to make a wreath using scrapbook paper. Instead of making it specific to Christmas, I opted for Winter (that way I can leave it up longer).
What you will need:

• large cardboard circle
• several triangles (mine are roughly 3 x 4 square cut diagonally in half): I used Hot Chocolate by Fancy Pants Designs
• adhesive
• stapler
• ink

I cut a whole bunch of triangles using double sided cardstock. I really had no idea how many I would need.

Then I stapled (so as not to waste all my adhesive...plus it was super quick this way) them to look like the picture below. Before stapling, I did ink the edges. That is optional. I have a thing about inking or distressing edges. I then crinkled them for dimension.

Once I finished with one pattern, I placed them out on the cardboard circle to see how I wanted them.


I found it easiest to place on at the top, one at the bottom and one on each side (at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock). Then I filled in the spaces between with more.


Basically from this point on you just rinse and repeat.

Third row (was looking a little iffy at this stage and I found that maybe using a double sided cardstock with a solid whitish side was not the best).

By the fourth row I was running out of room, so there are smaller triangles used so that I could fit two in between the larger ones.

For the center I cut out the snowman from one of the papers. I wanted to bling him up a little. The hat was covered with textured ribbon. The body was covered with glitter glaze. I used some black bling for the "coal" eyes. The mouth is dotted with Diamond Glaze. The nose is a piece of ric rac. It ended up looking very carrotish! I can't believe I didn't have any ribbon to use for the scarf...but nothing in my stash matched right. So...I used some of the stickers that came with the collection.


For the middle I used a larger circle that I crimped all around the edges. The next circle I stitched. After placing the snowman in the middle, I used more of the glitter glaze to make "snowflakes".

Then all that it need were some arms. Thanks to my messy backyard...I had plenty of little twigs for that.



Very happy with the finished product. I am looking forward to making another one and tweaking the process a bit.

Built Boy Tough Mini

I just love this collection of papers by Bo Bunny Press. It is called U Bug Me....so appropriate for an album to put pics of my boys in...ha ha.
I used an acrylic album and added some inserts for journaling and extra photos. Can't wait to use this one. I cut out as much as I could from the patterned papers to use as embellishments. It ended up being a really thrifty album to make.

From Built Boy Tough Album

From Built Boy Tough Album

From Built Boy Tough Album

From Built Boy Tough Album

From Built Boy Tough Album

From Built Boy Tough Album

From Built Boy Tough Album

From Built Boy Tough Album

From Built Boy Tough Album

From Built Boy Tough Album

Project Ingredients:
6 x 6 acrylic album
Bo Bunny U Bug Me Collection
Prism Cardstock
Brown Ink

My First Paper Bag Album

Made my first ever paper bag album. It was fun. This version is a waterfall album.
How I made it:
You need two paper bags. The ones I used were about 10.5 inches tall and 5.25 wide (closed). To save myself from math that would be too complicated I trimmed it to 10 inches.
Take the first bag and fold it so just the bottom of the bag is on top. This creates the front of the album (the part of mine that has the B and the car)and the back of the album (the part of mine that has the S). The front should measure about 3.5 inches.
The second bag gets folded so that the bottom of the bag stops an inch from the top of the bag (these are the pages that have the O and the Y on them). When you bind these together you should end up with each page after the cover being an inch longer than the one before it.
The last two pages (one is the back cover also) are the part of the bag that opens. I inserted additional pull out pages here (a total of four).
This was a really simply album to make and a lot of fun.

From Boys Paper Bag Album

From Boys Paper Bag Album

From Boys Paper Bag Album

From Boys Paper Bag Album

From Boys Paper Bag Album

Project Ingredients:
two paper bags
Crate Paper Zoom Collection (papers and rub ons)
brown ink
sewing machine (my little Janome Craft one did just fine)
K&Co chipboard letters

and the winner is...

Thanks to everyone that played! The winner is..............

nikkibrewer24!!!

Congratulations Nikki...please send your address to scrap-ements@hotmail.com so I can get this mailed out to you.

THANKS!!

Blog Candy Time!!!

It is BLOG CANDY TIME!!
The Candy:
Somewhere in Time Kit
3 12x12 double sided cardstocks
- fancy stripes/whisper dots
- whimsy floral/ basic baroque
- sweet licorice/ parsley sprigs
1 12 x 12 black cardstock
1 salt & pepper shapes die cut (textured)
1 sweet flourish rub-on sheet
1 salt & pepper ribbon pack (3 ribbons, one yard of each)



back view of cardstock



How to Win:
Everyone can earn THREE chances to win this CANDY.
1. post about this candy on your blog (make sure to leave me a link to your blog)
2. become a follower of my blog (you will get an automatic entry if you are already a follower)
3. leave a comment about what you would scrap using this kit (this one is mandatory...!)
(additional entry if someone leaves in their comment that you told them about this candy and they become a follower also!!!)

*****Please leave a separate comment per entry.*****

Deadline to Enter:
I will be randomly picking a winner on April 26th. Winner will be posted that day...be sure to leave me a way of contacting you!

Good Luck!!!

Prima Wall Art and MemoryWorks Express Kit

Got my April MemoryWorks Express Kit a few days a go. OHHHH....Prima Marketing paper from the Strawberry Kisses Collection. So pretty! I was having the hardest time figuring out how I would use it. I suppose I could have come up with a way to boy it up a bit...But I decided to make some wall art instead (our finally painted walls are screaming to be used).

I had a leftover piece of wood from a previous project. And luckily it was a square. So I sanded down the rough edges...trying to round off the corners a bit. Then I painted it with some brown paint. I only did the edges since the middle would be covered with paper.

Next I took this spongey block of sand paper and distressed it a bit.

I cut out 12 squares of paper from the Strawberry Kisses Collection and inked the edges. In the center I planned to put a bigger square and something (had not quite decided what yet) in the center of that.

Using Mod Podge I adhered the squares so the edges touched.

After adding one more square in the center, I coated the entire surface (only the paper part) with Mod Podge.

Once it was dry I used that spongey sanding block again to smooth it out and give it a bit of a distressed look.

Here is the finished project. I found this family quote which I printed out on solid cream cardstock (covered it with Mod Podge too). All I had to do was add a hook on the back. Viola! Wall Art for well under $10 dollars!!


Project Ingredients:

square piece of wood

sandpaper

brown paint

Mod Podge

Strawberry Kisses Collection papers - Prima Marketing

solid cardstock

brown ink

contest winner!

this is my first time blogging from my phone. i am down with pneumonia. for some reason any attempt at capitalizing takes me to the address bar...so you will have to forgive the bad grammar. anywho...i wanted to congratulate sharon on winning the 31 days of march contest. she was the only one to complete all of the challenges. guess she wanted that mini attacher bad. thanks to everyone that attempted to play. i have a fun contest coming up in a few weeks so look for that. congrats again to sharon...

CropChocolate Chocolatier Kit {Mini Album and Altered Tin}

I was lucky enough to be chosen to receive **free** Chocolatier product from CropChocolate.com. This is what I received: Making Memories Embellishment Paper: Whimsy; Making Memories Flower Shop Tin Collection: Funky; Making Memories Brad Value Pack: Whimsy and Fancy Pants Designs Ribbon: Celebrate. All they ask is that you create something using the items they sent you and then send them pictures of the finished product as well as a few in progress photos. The challenge for me was to come up with something I could make using this mostly girlie stuff. I had recently made a First Year book for my son Josh (still need to get that posted), so I decided to make one for a friend that is having a little girl...her third girl. So even if she finds that her scrap time lessens at least she can have something at the end of the year.

I took a Little Yellow Bicycle Mini Album that I had and cut it up. Took off the spiral rings and then cut off those holes. I then punched new holes with my Cropodile. To make sure that the paper I wanted to use would adhere to the covers of the album, I sanded them slightly.

I usually use Mod Podge to adhere papers to the mini albums I make...but in this case I was a afraid the paper was too thin. So I used a big fat Zig 2 way Glue Pen.

There are two sheets of die cuts included with the paper pack. One sheet of letters and one sheet of tags and such. The letters are also pretty thin so I stuck them to some Prism cardstock. I then stitched around the letters keeping with the whole Whimsy feel of the album (that and I really can't sew that well!!)

Some of the letters are on pop dots to give some dimension. The book plate at the top I left blank so Alison could fill in her daughter's name.

I decided not add ribbon to the binder clips like I usually do because I found it was interfering to much with turning the pages.

Each page is for one month of the baby's first year. The very first page is for a photo of the baby on the day she is born. The photo mats hide tags that have been stamped with 7gypsies 97% CompleteClear Stamp: Baby. There is one for the baby's birth information and the rest are monthly updates.

Months 2 and 3

Months 4 and 5

Months 6 and 7

Months 8 and 9

Months 10 and 11

Month 12 (two page spread)

Here is a picture of all the tags. I covered them in the same paper as the page they are on so they would not take away from the photo...or make the page to busy (pattern-wise).

Birth Tag

One of the Monthly Tags

Project Ingredients:

MM Embellishment Paper: Whimsy

MM Flower Shop Tin Collection: Funky

MM Brad Value Pack: Whimsy

Fancy Pants Designs Ribbon: Celebrate

Prism Solid Cardstock

MM Magnetic Stamps: Rummage

Creative Imaginations Binder Rings: Brown

Zig 2Way Glue, GLue Dots and Pop Dots

StazOn Ink: Timber Brown

Clorobox Fluid Chalk: Chestnut Roan

I really like how this album turned out. I hope that Alison will too. It was really fun to make.

I still had a whole bunch of stuff leftover after making the mini album...so I tried to come up with something I could make for myself. This green paper was the least girl like to me. And it is actually my favorite pattern of the bunch. I have tons of storage (thanks to the MM Embellishment Box)...so I didn't need to make a tin to hold anything. Instead I used it as a frame.

Cutting the paper for the interior of the tin was a little tricky and involved some trimming.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Josh. He has a little bit on tongue sticking out. I printed it out in black and white (his outfit would have clashed with the paper). The photo was matted on patterned, then solid and then patterned again. The solid was sanded with a distressing file as was the photo edges.

I then covered the outside with two strips of paper..trying to get the seams to end up in a corner.

The lid was covered with the same patterned paper and I stamped Joshua Zachary on the solid (used the file on these pieces too).

Here it is closed. You can't push it closed all the way or the paper on the sides would tear.

Here it is in display mode.

Close up of the interior...and that little tongue!!

Project Ingredients:

MM Flower Shop Tin Collection..THE TIN itself

Basic Grey Ribbon

MM Whimsy Paper

DCWV Cardstock

Basic Grey Distressing File

Pop Dots

Zig 2Way Glue

Tombow Mono Metal Liquid Glue

MM Magnetic Stamps: Rummage

Believe it or not I still have some untouched ribbon and paper! What to make next.....hmmm....