Scrappin' Your Stash

The excitement of CHA can be felt all over the scrappy web.  It's always so exciting to see what our favorite manufacturers have come up with to delight our scrappy senses.  I know I'm not the only one who struggles with balancing wanting more new goodness and using up the goodness we still have in our stash.  As much as we want to bring brand new scrappy goodness into our home, we have a slight sense of guilt over all the scrappy supplies we still have piled up, staring us in the face ever time we sit down to scrap.  For today's post, I thought it may be a good idea to showcase a couple of ideas to help us use up some of that stash to make room for some of the new CHA goodness we've got our eye on.  So I gathered up my Crate Paper Pretty Party Collection pack, and some other random supplies that have been gathering dust in my space and got to work.

First an altered tin.  Add a little Mod Podge, eliminate a few things here and there, and voila a cute little tin for my 10 year old girly, girl to keep her treasures in.

Next up a layout.

This design uses 10 different strips of paper.  It's not a new design by any means but efficient in helping you to make a dent in that stash of yours.  Have a look and you'll see what I mean.

To create this design I began by using a lightweight piece of cardboard I recycled from my pocket page protector packaging.

I cut the piece of cardboard to 12" x 6.75".  I then marked the center point on the cardboard and drew angular lines about every two inches all the way around.

Next I sliced the pieces apart, and numbered them so that I could replicate it easily once the pieces of patterned paper were cut out.  This will also allow you to keep, and reuse the pieces over, and over again.

Because the traced pieces are always slightly larger than the original there will be a tiny bit of overlapping at the center.  This is easily covered up once you put your layout together.  I like the look of stitching on my pages, and this is a great design for it.

Remember we're trying to use up our stash, so I've layered several die cut shapes,  and boarder stickers that came with the collection around my photos.

And here is the final product.

 
The photos are from Tuesday when two of my longest standing friends came over for the afternoon. It had been a long time since we'd all been together. Hover your mouse over the photo to read the journaling.

I hope I've been able to inspire you to dig into your stash and put some of the scrappy goodness you've been hoarding, or just haven't gotten around to using, to good use.  What kinds of empty little containers have you been saving that could benefit from a little sprucing up with pretty paper, ribbon, and embellishments?  Canning jars?  Pringle tubes?  Little vases from the Dollarstore?  I'm sure you don't have to look too hard to find something.  And what about all those layouts you've been pinning, or adding to your 'favorites' folder that use a lot of little bits of paper and tags, or die cuts, or journal spots?  Maybe it's time to lift one and make some room in your stash for the new goodness that's sure to arrive in the store witin the next month or two.  If you do decide to tackle your stash we'd sure love to come and have a peek, be sure to link us up.

Happy scrapping!

Scrappy Goodness Used:
Crate Paper Pretty Party
Maya Road Vintage Butterflies
Maya Road Pins
Maya Road ribbon
Ormolu Chevron Tag
October Afternoon Sticky Keys
American Crafts Thickers
The Twinery Twine
3D Foam Squares
Other:
Petallo flower
May Arts Jute & Tulle

Tombow Adhesive

Handmade Pinwheel

Sherri here today.  Can you believe we're in our last week of June.  My girls finally finish school on Friday, and we're all ready for the change in pace.  Sleeping in, going to the lake, and hanging out on the deck will take first priority.

For my final post of the month I have a bit of a tutorial for you. 

I love embellishments.  When you look through my albums you will notice that most of my layouts boast several coordinating bits and pieces on them.  There are some manufacturers, I enjoy working with who do not include any embellishments in their lines.  Lily Bee Design is one such manufacturer.  I adore their patterned papers, and most recently their journal cards, and 'bag of bits'.  Those are all still one dimensional peices of paper, however, and I find myself wanting to still add a little something or other to my page once I've finished.  Enter the pinwheel.  I recently discovered how to make my own, and have enjoyed adding them in place of chipboard and/or buttons on a layout.  To me, they are the perfect accent to a mostly flat page.  Here's my most recent layout using a handmade pinwheels.

Rest your mouse over the layout to read the journaling

To make your own, just follow these simple steps.  You may be surprised at how quickly these can be made.

Begin with a square, any size will do, this one is 4" x 4"
(the one on my layout above is a 2" square)

Score your square diagonally down the center from end to end.

Repeat the scoring down the other side of the square, this will help you identify the center.  Pierce a whole through the center.

Make a pencil mark on each scored line, about 1/3 of the way from the center hole.

Your square should now look like this:

Cut along each scored section right up to the pencil mark.

Your square should now look like this:

Using your paper piercer

pierce a tiny whole to the top right of each cut

Using a brad begin gathering the points to the center

of the pinwheel by poking the brad through each hole.

Once the brad is through every other point your pinwheel 

should look like this. 

Now push the brad through the center of the pinwheel, 

and split the back to hold it in place

Et voila one super cute pinwheel.

The first time I made these I couldn't stop and ended up making myself a little bouquet of them to keep in my scrap space.

I hope you feel inspired to create. If you end up giving these a shot, be sure to link us up so we can come and see.

Crate Paper Storyteller Altered Frame

Hi everyone! It's Kate here today. I would like to share with you an altered frame that I created with the Crate Paper Storyteller line. I love, love, love this line, and anything else from Crate Paper really. I got this frame from The Dollar Store. It is made of metal and you can change out the pictures by placing them on the frame with magnets. I liked the idea, I just found that the frame was a tad on the ugly side. Here's a before shot.

First, I covered the whole thing in three different patterned papers. To get the outline, I traced the frame onto the paper and then cut it out. Here's a tip about tracing items, to get as close to the shape of the item as possible, use a mechanical pencil. You can get a much tighter outline with one of these than you can with a regular pencil or a pen.

 

I added the buttons and burlap twine to the right side of the frame by stringing the twine through one button, gluing it down with a glue gun and then stringing the other button through the far side of the twine and gluing that down with the glue gun. See the photos for a visual.

Please pardon my very yucky looking glue gun!

Almost there...

Here is a close up of the twine and button treatment. This treatment would also look great with a little Maraschino Baker's Twine from The Twinery.

And, here is the final project.

The left side of the frame. Note the Tim Holtz bottle, it's filled with beach sand stolen from St. Martin!

Here is the centre of the frame.

And, finally the far right hand side.

Supplies

Crate Paper Clothespins 
Crate Paper Collection Pack
Elle's Studio Handmade Layers
Crate Paper Buttons
Crate Paper Standouts
Tim Holtz Ideology glass bottle
Dollar Store Frame
May Arts ribbon and twine
Studio Calico wood veneer camera

Thanks for looking!

Treasure Card: A How To

I had the pleasure of crafting with the American Crafts Campy Trails collection!

Here is a quick "how to" on my treasure card...

For card base trim pattern paper to measure 4 X 5 1/2. Cut out three circles.

Cut a piece of pattern paper to measure 4 X 2.  Sand edges (the paper I used was embossed).  The sanding tool I used is made by We R Memory Keepers and it is fabulous!  One of the best things is the little handle to hold onto :)

Now this is my favorite part of the sander...this little edge distresser...it's two tools in one and plus it is pink :)

Distress the edges of circles and add to the front of card with foam squares.

Using American Craft Thickers (Campy Trails Vanilla) add sentiment to front of distresed 2 x 4 pattern paper. Add this to the front of card.


To complete my card I added a little banner border from the Campy Trails collection.

Have a great day!

Covered NotePad Featuring American Crafts Campy Trails

 These covered notepads make a perfect little gift!  They are very quick and fun to make :)

The Supplies:
notepad (mine is 3 7/8 X 6)
pattern paper
embellishments
paper trimmer
adhesive

The Instructions:

1.  Trim pattern paper to measure 6 X 8 1/4.

2.  Score at 4 and 4 1/4.

3.  Attach notebook on the right hand side of pattern paper.

Embellish as desired!

The American Crafts Campy Trails paper is a perfect line!  It has a beautiful outdoorsy feel that is so perfect for your masculine projects...yet it is versitile to use on a wide range of projects!  Make sure you check out the Campy Trails products at the LCOM store...you will not be disapointed in this line :)

Melissa's Holiday Banner Tutorial.

Check out this gorgeous holiday banner created by DT member Melissa. She has kindly provided a step-by-step tutorial so that you might create one of these beauties for yourself. Just stop by the LCOM forum for all the details on making this banner and so much more! LCOM has tons of gorgeous holiday paper in store by manufacturers such as Basic Grey, Pink Paislee, Little Yellow Bicycle and Bella Blvd. Go ahead...deck your halls!