Getting The Most From Your Supplies

Hello Paper Crafters! Nicole here with a Thanksgiving themed layout and a few thoughts on shopping for products. Let me start by saying I love all things paper. That means I make cards, traditional scrapbook layouts, and Project Life spreads. That also means I buy lots and lots and lots. The layout I'm sharing today uses products that could easily be used in all three categories of paper crafting, keeping my budget manageable. 

The Harvest Collection by We R Memory Keepers has quickly become one of my favorites and was used for today's layout. I picked up the Albums Made Easy kit, a 6x6 paper pad, alpha letters, and embossed stickers. As earlier stated, these items are multipurpose. The journaling cards in the Album Made Easy kit can be used in my Project Life page protectors, as well as a title embellishment on this layout! The 6x6 paper pad is perfect for card making. The smaller designs are easier seen on a card front, but why not try it on a full 12x12 spread too?! I didn't even need to cut anything. Two pieces were added as layers behind my photos. 

Additionally, I cut a few strips from the paper pad to embellish the top and bottom of the layout. This technique, along with a triangle in the corner of the page, has been popping up everywhere! The alphas and stickers could be used in all three of my categories as well. Using stickers on a card is a quick and easy way to create without the hassle of stamping and coloring!

Lastly, I love digging through my stamp collections to see how I can bring new life to them. For this particular layout, I used my Project Life weekly number stamps from Studio Calico to highlight the year of the event.

Now it's your turn. Dig through your stash as I challenge you to look differently at products meant for a specific craft. Are there journaling cards, stamps, or other items that you can use in a new, fun way? I sure hope so! Have fun and mix it up!

Thanksgiving platter turned wall decor

I'm seriously loving fall in the midwest this year! My oldest is almost five and is asking questions about leaves changing colors, the cooler weather, etc. as only a child can which has lead to some simple seasonal discussions. It also inspired my project for today.

I wanted something that could be interchanged based on our seasonal discussions, and maybe even saved for future use. There's twine threaded through the platter's handles and then a piece of corrugated cardstock is glued onto them. I'm planning to just trim off the twine and save the centerpiece and pinecones for next year. New twine (or maybe some shimmery yarn?) and this piece is almost ready for winter. 

Decorating the platter was easy enough once the twine and cardstock were in place. A little inking on some chipboard letters and floral department leaves and I was almost done! My favorite part of the entire project is the 3D pinecones. I'd cut them using my Silhouette Cameo for a since discarded project, but they worked perfectly as embellishments on this little home decor piece. How cute are they?! I am so glad that I saved them. They were fairly easy to assemble too, once I found this tutorial on the Silhouette Blog. 

Thanks for stopping by, Jessica

Fussy Cutting To Add Detail

Hi everyone! Practical Scrapper Alison here with a fun way to add detail to your layouts without having to buy fancy (and expensive) stickers!
I love the look you can get from those multi-dimensional stickers many of the manufacturers offer but I'm a bit too cheap sometimes to shell out for a pack of 5 or 6 when I know I will only use one, maybe two of them. Can anyone else relate to that? I don't know how many partially used packets I have cluttering my craft space!!

Anyway, my friends over at S.W.A.T had a challenge recently to create a project using fussy cutting. (That's when you cut around an image in your paper to add it as an embellishment.) so I decided to create my own dimensional additions! I'd been playing with some Bella Blvd papers and they are great at providing whole 12x12 sheets of images for you to fussy cut. After cutting out a couple trees, LOTS of leaves, some clouds and a couple other images, I created this ...

That's my eldest daughter 5 years ago! When she looked at it she thought it was my youngest! LOL! I guess the sisterly resemblance is strong with my girls. Anyway, it took some time to cut each leaf and ink them all but the effect is SO worth it! I usually add a fair bit more to my layouts but this technique, when allowed to shine, is all you need sometimes.

Here are some close up shots of those fussy cut pieces. 

In my stash I also found these flair like stickers. The sun had words in it that I didn't want so they were perfectly covered by this leaf sticker.

This pumpkin came with a separate little leaf. While the pumpkin is popped up with dimensional adhesive, the leaf is just adhered flat to the page. That way it is more interesting to look at. 

The 'Pumpkin Patch' image was a free one from my friend Ashley Horton. Go HERE to grab your own. 

And last but not least, the tree. The one in the background is adhered flat to the page and then I popped the second one up with dimensional adhesive. Another of those flair stickers at the bottom completes this cluster.

Well, there you have it. I hope you try this on your next project. It's a great way to stretch your supplies and have more fun with your layouts. Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Get Ready For Some Football!

Hey there! Practical Scrapper Lisa here to bring you today's post.Fall feels like many things to people... crisp air, changing leaves, pumpkin spice lattes. One of the things I look forward to in the fall is football. Yes, I am a true football mom. I blame it on my oldest who has lived, breathed and eaten football since before he could hold one in his hands. From early on has talked our ears off recalling every play from every game he watched, memorizing and quoting stats that I wasn't even sure they kept and waiting for the day he could be on the field playing the game he loved for himself.  You can imagine I have tons of pictures of him playing on all of his different teams from flag football to the JV high school team he is currently on. I love sitting and scrapping those photos because being on the field is one of the places he is at his happiest.

Here is the latest layout I have finished of my boy. This was last season, his first in high school. I was able to use some of my massive stash for this layout which made me happy. I did get to use a little bit of new though. See those cool hashtags? Perfect for a high school boy, right? I'm sharing a little more on my blog about where those came from. I think I've discovered a new fave.

I would be remiss if I didn't share a little flashback of some of the early days of tackle football. These are some oldies but goodies that I dug up.

Goodness, he looks so little in that last layout. That was his first year of tackle back when he was only 10. He has grown so much in that time and yet I still have to admit that I cringe when he takes a big hit until he stands up and runs back towards the huddle. I sat watching him yesterday, snapping pictures of him and his team and even though it was cold outside, perfect football weather, I was warm inside seeing him happy on the field. I think I'll print some of this years photos this week and dig in.

Happy Fall!

Lisa

It's a Hoot!

Good morning!

This is Practical Scrapper Becci here to share with you this sweet owl themed baby shower banner to share with you this morning. I knew that I wanted to go with fall colors - also very "boy" like orange, and blue. I added a primary color of grey, knowing that the nursery will be grey and blue and owl themed.

When I create a custom banner, I think about the theme of the party or room, the colors that might go with it - usually my own choice of what I feel for the person. I round up the papers and think of the general idea then I set to work. I treat each banner panel as though it is it's own creation. For each of the letters of the baby's name, I cut them out of cream card stock and watercolored each one.

For this banner panel I sewed the punched circles (from the next banner panel over) together into a string and attached them - I love a little banner within a banner.

Here I stamped and embossed a little owl in two of the circles, peeking out.

Here I wove strips of the patterned paper together for the background, and also added dots and star sequins.

Here I used a star stamp (from my 6 year old daughter's craft bin), and I embossed it with white Zing powder.

For this last panel, I wanted to use the EXACT owl as the stamp. So I drew it in Illustrator, imported each part of the owl (eyes, belly, nose) into Silhouette and cut each piece. He's so cute.

And as a bonus, I also made an owl taggie blanket to go with this gift:

For this little guy, I made my own patter for him. the face details are all hand sewn.

Thanks for coming over today to check out my owl-licious creations, it was a hoot!

Happy Fall, Y'all!

Hi! I'm Practical Scrapper Wendy Coffman from Stamping Rules!, here with a fun Fall project for y'all.  When I found this chevron print burlap canvas I knew it would be perfect for a pretty scrappy door "wreath", which is ready to start hanging around on my front door now that Fall is really here. I had originally planned to make it more Halloween themed, but then I saw the Tuesday Trigger over at Moxie Fab World and I was immediately inspired to change my whole game plan. We still have a lot of green around in fall up here in the PacNW...plus if you've seen my work before, you know I don't need much encouragement to add glitter and flowers to any project! 

So I hit my stash pretty hard for this project, using up bits and bobs of all kinds of materials to build my flowers. I've got a bit of chocolate felt border that I rolled up into a sweet rose. Layers of garden green and cream cardstock that I cut on my Cricut to layer into the biggest flowers, topped off with bling. I also cut the beige linen patterned paper and yellow cardstock for the 3-D rolled flowers on my Cricut. The leaves and vines are felt. I filled the rolled flowers with glitter and rhinestones, and tucked a little felt acorn in amongst the flowers and bling. I backed the wreath with a few layers of black tulle. 

I cut my sentiment on the Cricut as well, using a deep brown glitter paper. The upper letters are layered onto a cork diecut frame.  Most of the materials to build my wreath came from Close To My Heart. I found the burlap canvas at Joann's.  The sequins are from American Crafts. I attached everything using my hot glue gun so it'll be good and sturdy hanging on my sheltered front door. 

Now it's time to head off for another week of apple picking, sweater wearing, pumpkin spice everything fun. Happy Fall, Y'all!

Happy Fall!

Happy Fall Everyone!! Saturday kicked off the first day a fall, and I find it completely amazing that mother nature knows exactly when this time arrives(after waking up to a frigid 37 degrees this morning in Western PA). The leaves are turning, the air is cool, and that wonderful smell of autumn is in the air. Here's some fall inspiration to get you going (especially if you are as cold as I am)...

  

Practical Scrapper Christa

Practical Scrapper Kerri

Practical Scrapper Cathy

Practical Scrapper Patty

Practical Scrapper Kenya

Practical Scrapper Mary Pat Siehl

 

 

Practical Scrapper Lanette

 

**Designer projects are not always linked in our posts, but you can always find their blogs in our sidebar or in the staff tab**

More fall inspiration

As promised we've got more fall inspiration for you!  Today we've got a whole bunch of layouts and cards - enjoy!

Practical Scrapper Julie

Irit Shalom