If you are like me, you love to buy pretty papers, but after a while it gets a little boring to just use them to make cards and scrapbook pages. These new products are from Sierra Pacific and are selling at Ben Franklin Crafts. The plain notebooks, writing pads, pens, etc. are perfect for decorating, made from recycled material, and best of all most of them sell for $1.00! (The pen is only 49 cents!) I think decorated these items would make great party favors or craft fair hot sellers. You could probably use them as party make-it-take-it favors and that would save you lots of work. Tomorrow I plan to work on decorating a few of the items and I'll post pictures
of any that I finish.
Although I didn't particularly like how this project turned out (the patterns are a bit too busy so the embellishments don't show well), but I thought that you might like to see how easily the Sierra Pacific items can be decorated. I used K.and Co. paper (Carolyn Gavin 8.5x8.5 double sided paper pack). Only two sheets were needed for both the note paper box and pen. I basically fit the paper to the box by tracing and testing. By leaving the brown cardboard showing along the edges there was no need to struggle to wrap the paper around the edges. I used Merikan double sided tape to stick the paper down. The embellishments were from K. and Co. too (the 284 piece package of die cut cardstock). If you can't find the pack of die cuts you can easily cut out and glitter some of the designs from the 8.5x8.5 cardstock. I think next time I try to attach a pen I might use thin ribbon because the embroidery floss doesn't look quite right. The button that holds up the easel is from the new Blumenthal buttons sold at Ben Franklin Crafts. The reason I made an easel format is so that reminder notes can be paper clipped to it and yet the easel can be folded down for gift giving. I didn't fill in the bubble yet because I haven't decided what sentiment or whose name to put on it. Anyway, this is just a sample and I'm sure you can come up with some better way to decorate these low-cost craft items.
I discovered these G Studio stamps at Ben Franklin. I thought that they were perfect for decorating summer and travel scrapbook pages. They would probably work well with Tim Holtz products too because some of them have a distressed look. Best of all, the stamps were only $1.25 each....gotta love that! When I have the time, I'll design something using these attractive wood handled stamps. Sorry, this is a short post ...busy, busy, busy!
I did an easel card for a girl this time. She is a sweetie....cute and fashionably sassy. I thought that this TGF (The Greeting Farm) image called 'Cheeky Rockabilly' suited her perfectly. I found just the right printed paper from the DCWV It's All About Girls paper stack pack. The scalloped glittered oval was punched (Marvy) from DCWV glitter cardstock. I used the Spellbinders 'Circles' embossing plate to make the design on the light pink paper. Although it's hard to see the embossed 'Happy Birthday' cartouche-like label (holding the easel up), it has a retro feel because it was made using a Sizzix imrpession folder on a blue white core cardstock and then sanded to reveal the white. I think it matches well with the paper and the overall look of the card. Slowly, I am learning that one of the important aspects of card designing is picking the right papers and finding embellishments that match in both color and style. If you continue to observe other paper artist's work on their blogs or in magazines, you will constantly learn not only what is trendy but the little tricks which will make your work stand out. Keep learning every day!
If you are like me, you love to buy pretty papers, but after a while it gets a little boring to just use them to make cards and scrapbook pages. These new products are from Sierra Pacific and are selling at Ben Franklin Crafts. The plain notebooks, writing pads, pens, etc. are perfect for decorating, made from recycled material, and best of all most of them sell for $1.00! (The pen is only 49 cents!) I think decorated these items would make great party favors or craft fair hot sellers. You could probably use them as party make-it-take-it favors and that would save you lots of work. Tomorrow I plan to work on decorating a few of the items and I'll post pictures
I've always admired easel cards that I've seen on other blogs and in magazines, but I've never tried one before. It's really easy to make. You start with an upright card blank with the fold on top. Then score and fold half way down the front. Cut another piece of cardstock the same size as the card front and attach it to the folded down front flap (the lower half). Use pop dots to attach a piece as a brace to hold the front of the card upright.
Many of you seem to be interested in what goes into my shopping basket and why. As you can see I buy a lot of rubber stamps. I am especially fond of the clear stamps because they store flat using a minimum of craftroom space. Also the clear stamps allow me to position the image exactly where I desire because they attached and re-attached to clear acrylic blocks. You only need a few acrylic blocks of assorted sizes to use with all your clear stamps. The cling stamps are good too because they are also space savers and can be attached to the acrylic blocks but the cost is lower. In this photo is a new pack of DCWV called, 'It's All About Girls'. The paper pack has lots of pretty girly girl sheets (some with glitter). This paper pack size is just right for card makers because although the 12x12 sheets are more economical per square inch, it takes a while to cut down the sheets to card size and there seems to be more waste. I think that it may come in larger sizes but I only found this one pack. I do know that there were also 'It's All About Boys' paper packs because I bought one awhile ago (so this girl version may not be 'new' except to me). The butterfly stickers are the ones I talked about in my last post and flowers I bought because they are pink and have dots so I know they will match many of my projects. Well, that was all I put in my shopping basket today but I did just go to Ben Franklin Crafts the day before. LOL!
