A Holiday Thank You Card with Photo for Grandma!

Although this card could be varied to meet many needs, it was designed to be a thank you note for a child’s Christmas gift.  With space for a picture, it can act as a photo frame on a table.  It is made with StargazingC, Caroling and Tomato Velvet paper.  Buttons and twine make attractive closures for the card.    Detailed instructions for making the card follow.

1.     Cut a 6”x 12” strip from Stargazing.  Score vertically at 3” and 9” to form flaps that meet in the middle when folded. 

2.     Decorate the inside first as once you do the outside the surface will not be flat and it will be hard for things to stick.

a.     Center -- Cut a piece of Tomato velvet paper  just slightly larger than your picture as a photo mat.  Mine is 4” x  5 ½.”  I cut little slashes in each corner  to stick the edges of the picture in so it will remain in the card during transit, but remove easily if the recipient wants to put in a frame. Affix  photo mat to the card. Cut 3 stockings (front & back)  out of Tomato velvet paper.  Make three stockings from Tomato Velvet. I used a Cuttlebug die but any stocking will work.  I cut three and then cut three reversed and used two for each stocking so that both sides would be the same.  I cut a top for each stocking out of white paper and applied white flocking powder.   Run twine through a red heart button from Bo Bunny’s Father  Christmas Buttons from the back to the front & then back to the back.  Affix near top left of center piece of card with Glossy Accents.  Hang stockings. (I put knots in between to keep stockings from ending up all on one end.)  Put twine through the other button in the same way.  Affix to card on right side of center piece and trim remaining twine as desired. 

b.     Right Inside Flap – I used an ornament  (3”) cut from Silver Valley with Joys of the Season Cricut Cartridge. Using Detail White embossing powder, emboss the word “Thanks” on top of the ornament.  Tie a strand of red/white twine through hole in ornament.

c.      Left Inside Flap -- Cut a 6 x 3 ¼” piece of tomato velvet .  Fasten it to the left inside starting at the fold line.  It will hang over the edge approximately ¼”.   On the inside left apply  a 2 ¾” x 5 ¾” piece of Caroling.  Add  a gift (2 ½”) cut from Silver Valley with the Cricut Joys of the Season Cartridge.  Cut the ribbon from Tomato velvet.

3.     Left Outside -- Fold in the extra tomato from the inside and fasten firmly.  Add a  2 ¾”  x 2 ½” piece of Tomato velvet  on  the top left.  Add  a just slightly smaller  piece of Caroling. 

4.     Right Outside -- On the right bottom add a 3 ½”  x 2 7/8”  piece of tomato and a slightly smaller piece of Caroling.

5.     Closures -- Use green star buttons from the Bo Bunny’s Father  Christmas Buttons set and red & white twine to close; affix to two flat buttons with glossy accents.  (1^st run thread for bows through.  After dries tie bow & trim.  Affix twine to one of the underneath buttons with glossy accents; affix buttons to card with glossy accents; wrap twine to close. 

Altered frame bland to wow!

Isn't it amazing how easy it is to use scrapbook paper to transform plain objects and make them extra special?  I found this frame at Target on the clearance rack.  A nice frame, but definitely won't win any
design contests and isn't 'giftable' as is. 

I measured the 4 sides and cut my scrapbook paper with my paper trimmer.  I cut angles on the corners to miter my corners but you could easily keep the edges straight.  Then I added a plaque I cut on my Cricut and used my Oct. 31 letter stickers to spell out 'Family'. 

I had some ivory colored rose ribbon on hand and used a spray ink to color my flowers.  After some drying time, I adhered them and some matching tulle to my frame. Above is the before and after-- I love the fact that I can easily change colors on ribbon to match my project!

I wanted to make my frame extra special as a gift but once I finished it, I decided that it was perfect for the photo of our family at Mickey's Halloween Party in Disney World last year.  I guess I'll be headed back to Target to see if they have any frames left to make another for my gift!!

Bueller, Bueller...

I was inspired to frame and embellish this quote from the Basic Grey Oxford collection because it is so true and because it is from one of my favorite movies growing up, Ferris Bueller's Day Off!  

"Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop to look around once in a while you could miss it."

I used fringe brown ribbon, pleated green satin ribbon, pink pom pom trim and Prima flower ribbon to embellish with the Live Laugh Love quote.

I just love it when I see something in my scrapbooking supplies that inspires me to create artwork for my home.  I have the perfect place picked out and ready for this!

What I Love About You Make & Take

When I first saw these papers, I knew I wanted to make something with them. The bright colors appealed to me.

This Make & Take provides a special page to highlight someone you love. The colors work whether that person is male or female, young or old. I used the title “Key Memories of You” and accented the page with a chipboard lock and key, which you are provided as your free element. Using the alpha stickers you can adjust the title to fit your pictures. There are lots of letters so you can also use them to label your pictures. The journaling card provides space to list what you love about the person.

So head to Scrapbooks Plus tomorrow and make this 2-page layout. Don’t forget your 40% off coupon.

Glimmer Mist & Etched Glass Add Variety to Your Page

This page used lots of fun scrapbooking techniques and displays 6 pictures of the City Botanical Garden in Brisbane, Australia. The pictures include green, pink and orange, so the Vicki B papers were perfect.

I picked my 6 best pictures from a day at the City Botanical Garden in Brisbane, Australia and printed small ones (2 ½” x 3 1/4”) pictures. This was really easy in Windows Photo Gallery. I just selected the pictures I wanted to print from the more than 100 I took and chose wallet size pictures. I printed on 8 ½” x 11” photo paper. (Up to 9 wallet sized pictures can be printed on same page.)

I matted the pictures on a piece of Loverly (tan side) leaving a ¼” margin on 3 sides and a ¾” margin on the right side. To make the paper a little more interesting and to complement the pictures and other papers better, I spritzed it with Peach Delight Glimmer Mist. I added a slightly larger (9 ½” x 8 7/8”) mat of Florilicious. This was also Glimmer Misted with the Peach Delight. A border from the sticker set was added to the right side of the mat after spraying. I added a third mat of Bazzillion (brown side) 10” x 9 3/8”.

The flowers on the Florilicious paper are gorgeous so I cut some of them out to use as embellishments. After cutting out the flowers, I sprayed them lightly with Peach Delight Glimmer Mist. I affixed them to the page and then cut along the edge of the paper so that only part of each flower is used.

On the left side of the paper, I added a strip of Bazzillion (brown side) to provide a base for some more decorations.

To go with my garden theme, I embossed the glass squares with butterflies. This technique is easy and fun. Simply stamp your image with VersaMark or Perfect Medium on the frosted side of the glass square. Emboss with clear Embossing powder as usual and you have the appearance of etched glass. To provide a frame, I covered each piece of glass with a piece of Florilicious with a window cut out. (I used Sizzix Frame, Slide Mounts & Coin Holder Die, but you could just as easily just cut out a square the size of the glass and then punch out a square or circle.) These were also glimmer misted so that they match the flowers on the page. I placed one at the top and one at the bottom of the brown strip. Flora Doodles Earthtone butterflies in between the glass squares complete the border.

A box from the Vicki B. Cut Outs provides the space for the page title. The title is created using letters from the sticker set. The Stop and Smell the Flowers message from the Vicki B. Cut outs reminded me of the lovely afternoon that I simply walked around Brisbane’s City Botanical Gardens.

Designing A Page to Tell Your Story

My two-page layout this month is a good example of what I like to do when scrapbooking -- tell the story of a family event. To begin, I think about the event and consider how I can use the pictures to tell the story. Once I have an idea of this, I design a page around the pictures and the story.

This page was to tell the story of a trip my niece and I took to San Francisco. What I recalled was that we did all the typical touristy things. I decided that pictures would be better to convey this activity than journaling, but I was challenged by how to fit so many pictures in two pages. Also, since this was before the days of digital pictures, I was stuck with 3” x 5” pictures. By cropping some pictures, I managed to include pictures depicting the skyline, the Golden Gate Bridge, our hotel, the sea lions at Fisherman’s Wharf, Hard Rock Café, Buena Vista Café, Candlestick Park, Ghirardelli square, a total of 12 pictures.

To avoid a cluttered appearance with so many pictures, there had to be an order. I achieved this by dividing the two pages into three horizontal sections that went across both pages, using thin strips of the “Joy” Woodgrain paper to divide the sections. The top section contains only the title. The middle section consists of a row of pictures between the two strips of woodgrain paper that divide the middle section from the top and bottom. These strips also create a frame for these pictures. Some of the pictures are cropped so that six pictures can fit in the 3” x 24” space. The center picture on each side was put in a fun polka dot frame (cut with a Sizzix die). I used the bottom and largest section to have larger pictures and in most cases those with people, which of course are more important.

I used small tags cut with Sizzix dies to label the pictures and the beautiful Stella & Rose brads to hold them to the page. Because there was so much in these two pages, I printed the jounaling directly on the background cardstock and did not in any way frame it. Even with journaling you can’t fit everything. One thing I remembered about the trip was every time we went by a sign directing you to San Jose, I would start singing “do you know the way to San Jose?” and since I can’t sing I would be asked to stop. To scrap this little memory with hardly any space, I just cut the San Jose sign out of picture. I wrote on the tag near it “Do you know the way . . .” and drew some musical notes. The pages were decorated with selectively placed Mabel “Joy” labeled Stickers, Mabel “Love” Decorative Brads and a Mabel “Play” button. I love the way you can mix and match this stuff to create the look that you like.

Bath Time

I *love* the paper from Lily Bee!
Most of my projects were vintage this month (check back on the 9th to see a layout) but I had a lot of fun incorporating the foam letters from Heidi Swapp on this picture frame: The contrast of the colors just makes it POP! I let the letters peek over the top of the frame because I like the dimensional effect. The foam letters have adhesive on the back, so I was careful to only remove the backing from the portion of the letters that would be attached to the frame. I did this by carefully scoring the backing material with my craft knife before peeling off the bottom half. I added the rubber duckies and soap bubbles for even more dimension. I actually think I have the perfect picture for this frame...but it is in Virginia and I am in Florida...so it will have to wait until I get back!

I loved working with the Lily Bee papers and I am excited to see what you guys come up with. Be sure to stop by the display in the crop room and get started on your entry for this month's challenge - a gift certificate to Scrapbooks Plus awaits the winner!