American Crafts | Altered Clipboard Tutorial

This week on the American Crafts blog is all about Mom's.  I have a tutorial that went up yesterday that would be the perfect to celebrate Mom.

An altered clipboard picture frame makes a great gift for Mother's day.  

All you need is supplies on hand from the Serendipity collection to

create this one of a kind gift.

1. To make this Clipboard Picture Frame,  place a Dear Lizzy Serendipity plastic stencil over the clipboard and spray it with a white coat of spray mist.  

2. Print a small photo and mat it with a piece of pattern paper from the 6x6 Paper pad.  Embellish with Accents & Phrases Gold Foil Stickers and Thickers. 

3. Use the metal dies to cut flowers from various papers from the 6x6 Paper Pad.  Roll the pieces up and secure with adhesive to finish the flowers.

4. Finish clipboard by adding an addition flower sticker, and rolled flowers.  Create a bow out of ribbon and adhere to top of clipboard.  

 Your clipboard is finished and ready to gift to that special someone on Mother's Day!

Supplies: Dear Lizzy Serendipity (369228) - Stencil, Dear Lizzy Serendipity (369206) - 6x6 Paper Pad, Dear Lizzy Serendipity (369209) - Royal/Foil Thickers, Dear Lizzy Serendipity (369211) - Accents & Phrases W/ Gold Foil, Dear Lizzy Serendipity (369224) - Dies, Studio Calico Mister Huey's (SC1-001) - Opaque White Misting Spray

Thanks for stopping by today!

Shimelle Canvas Tutorial

Hi Everyone,

I hope that you are having a great week so far!  I had a tutorial up on the American Crafts Blog yesterday using the new Shimelle collection.

I created this fun canvas to liven up my scrap room.  The colors and patterns in the Shimelle collection gave it such a bright and cheery look!

Supplies: Cardstock (71420 - Glitter Mustard, Cardstock (71274) - 8.5x11 Black, Shimelle (368151) - Baxter Paper, Shimelle (368137) - Crane Paper, Shimelle (368149) - Curie Paper, Shimelle (368158) - Dowdy Paper, Shimelle (368143) - Earhart Paper, Shimelle (368136) - Goodall Paper, Shimelle (368150) - Goodfield Paper, Shimelle (368138) - Grady Paper, Shimele (368157) - Granville Paper, Shimelle (368142) - Hall Paper, Shimelle (368147) - Harding Paper, Shimelle (368152) - Haynes Paper,   Shimelle (368145) - Herschel Paper, Shimelle (68141) - Hopper Paper, Shimelle (368139) - Hurley Paper, Shimelle (368148) - Jemison Paper, Shimelle (368140) - Keller Paper, Shimelle (36815) - Leavitt Paper, Shimelle (368146) - Resnick Paper, Shimelle (368155) - Swanson Paper, Shimelle (368159) - Winlock Paper, Shimelle (63210) - Silhouette Cut File - Word Banner, Cut Up (64200) - Craft Scissors 5" Blade

1.  Apply gesso generously to the front of a 12x12 canvas.

2.  Once the gesso s dry, apply watercolor paints to canvas and set aside to dry.

3. Using a punch or die cut machine cut out enough hearts to cover the front of your canvas.  I cut out roughly 4 medium shape hearts for this.

4. Line up hearts on canvas and adhere down using liquid or permanent adhesive.

5.  Use a die cut machine or template to trace a large heart onto glitter cardstock and cut out.  Adhere to front of canvas.

6.  In Silhouette Studio open up the Shimelle word banner cut file (made by American Crafts), resize to your liking and cut onto black cardstock.  Adhere to canvas.

All finished and ready to display!

Easy, cute, and a perfect addition to any room's decor!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Incorporating ombre into your projects with the paper bakery

Hi , good morning!
I have a post up on the Paper Bakery Blog today and I would  like to share with you how I incorporate the ombre trend into my projects.  The ombre trend is very popular right now in both the fashion and scrapbooking industry.  Using their March Daylight Savings Scrapbook Kit I am going to show you two ideas to get you started.

To create an ombre effect with embroidery, start by choosing 3 or more gradual colors.  For my project I chose to work with white, gray and black.

I used a stencil to poke the holes for my project.  Then, I started threading them in order using the white thread first, and then the gray, and then the black.

Here is a look at the stitching and full layout:

Happy 2gether layout

I also added some simple stitching to my title.  Because I wanted the stitching to really stand out I kept the rest of my design modest.

I also created a card using the same ombre technique.

Smile card

Because of the large title I decided to keep the card simple and just added two borders and machine stitching.

Thanks for stopping by today!

American Crafts Banner Tutorial

Hi everyone!  Happy Wednesday!

I had a tutorial up on the blog yesterday that I would like to share with you.

I love using the Knock Outs punches on my projects.  They are very easy to use,

and small and portable enough to take with me to crops.

1. Cover pieces of smooth cardstock with DIY shop washi tape.  

Using Knock Outs punches, punch out several shapes.

Inspire Banner Tutorial

2. Gather punched pieces and DIY shop banner and pennant pieces.

3. Using a sewing machine stitch the punched pieces onto the DIY shop

     banner and pennant pieces.

4. Using Knock Outs 1.5" and 2" circle punches, punch out several pieces

from DIY shop paper.  Layer pieces together, adhere and then use scissors 

to fray the edges to create paper flowers.

5. Adhere glitter tape across the top of the pennant and banner pieces.

Embellish by adding paper flowers, fabric flowers and thickers.

Inspire Banner

supplies: Knock Outs Punch 2" Circle (KOP63112) - Punches, Knock Outs Punch 1.5" Circle (KOP63100) - Punches, Knock Outs

Triangle Banner Dear Lizzy Punch 2" (KOP63123) - Punches, Knock Outs Punch 2" Banner (KOP63117) - Punches, Knock Outs

Punch 1.5" Star (KOP63102) - Punches, Glitter Paper Tape Gold (AC-GT-96039) - Ribbon, DIY Black & White Washi Tape (DIYWT-66615) -

Washi Tape, DIY Gold & Silver Washi Tape (DIYWT-66613) - Washi Tape, DIY SHOP Kraft Notch Banner (DIY-BAN-66649) - DIY Shop, 

DIY SHOP Chalkboard Pennant Banner (DIY-BAN-66651) - DIY Shop, Maggie Holmes Glitter Foam Letter Stickers Daiquiri Gold

(MH-TH-81354) - Thickers, On Trend Fabric Flowers Pom Poms (683062) - Embellishments, DIY Shop Paper Pad 6X6 (366983) -

Paper Pads,  Smooth Cardstock White (AM71-793) - Cardstock, This To That (AM617-13) - Adhesive, 

Make sure to check out the American Crafts store to see their wide selection of punches.  I started with just a few and now I have a large collection of them.  I love their cute little shapes and ease of use.  Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you enjoyed my tutorial!

This place makes me so happy...

Hi there!  I have a fun paper straw tutorial up on the Bella Blvd. blog today, and I would like to share it with you.


This Place Makes Me So Happy

I have been in love with all of the colorful paper straws that I have been finding in stores
lately for summer, and even more in love with the new trend of using them on layouts! 
I purchased some plain white paper straws online and decided that it would be fun to
make my own pattern paper straws using Bella's papers and washi tapes.  I love the look!

Step 1:  To create my own custom straws first I gathered up an assortment of pattern
papers and designer tapes.

Step 2: I used a paper trimmer to trim thin strips of pattern papers and designer tapes
(measuring about 1/4 of an inch x 12).
tip: I found that when trimming strips of designer tape it is easier to adhere it to a strip of
cardstock or paper scrap first before trimming it with a trimmer.

Here is what the strips look like after they have been cut. 

Step 3: Apply adhesive to the backside of the paper strip.

 
Step 4: Working at the top of a paper straw start wrapping the paper strip around in a
diagonal twirled fashion. 

 Step 5: When you get to the end of the paper straw cut off the excess paper and glue the
ends down.  I found that a strong liquid glue works well for this.

Here is a shot of all the paper straws after I wrapped them all.

 
Step 6: Last, I arranged them on my layout and glued them down using a strong liquid glue.
After they dried, I cut off the excess pieces, and added my photo and embellishments.

 
This was super fun and so easy to do!  Hope you enjoy!


Bella Blvd. supplies: 
Sand and Surf: Paradise, Surf's Up, Flying High, Beach Balls, Borders, Cute Cuts
Cardstock Stickers: Alpha + Bits, Just Write Journaling Stickers
Chipboard: Sand & Surf Chipboard Icons 
Designer Tapes: Pony Stripe, 12 mm Combo, Polka Dot Combo, Ice Stripe, Pickle Juice
Chevron, Hot Pink Dot, Punch Chevron

So Many of my smiles begin with you

Hi Everyone, 

Good morning, I have a fun tutorial showcased on the Bella Blvd. blog today and I would like to share it with you.  

So Many of My Smiles

 

I had these bright cheerful photos that I took of my daughter at a park several years ago and I wanted to create a
colorful background to match.  I love Bella's new designer tapes, the palette is so happy & bright and looks great paired with
the new feathers.

Step 1:  To create the clouds for this page I first trimmed several pieces of white cardstock just a little
bit larger than the punch that I intended on using.

Step 2: I layered strips of Bella Blvd designer tapes on my cut pieces.

Step 3: Then I punched out the clouds and layered them on my page.  I even save one of the cloud negatives and adhered
it to my page. These make such cute embellishments.

 

I also created a fun colorful title out of designer tapes by first - cutting my title using my Silhouette
Cameo, and then layering strips of designer tapes on strips of paper and adhering behind the title.

supplies:
Sophisticates: Freestyle Banana
Designer Tapes: Polka Dot Combo, Chevron Combo, Gray Dot, Hot Pink Dot, Yellow Chevron
Feathers: Gulf, Ice
Button Market: Stars, Orange Stars, Masculine Mix