Cards

After I was finished with up cycling the Red Vine container I decided to create some cards. When I create cards I usually use one sheet of 12x12 paper, which equals 6 cards, but today i had also some scraps left that I wanted to use up right away, so here we go:

First card: Very simple, paper scrap, flower, brad and the 'thank you' rub-on

Second card: I used 4 scraps of paper, 3 larger size ones and the one thin one; it's hard to see, but the thin one is just a row of circles. Added some brads and the rub-on greeting.

Third card: I had a large strip of paper left. The first card I just added a ribbon to the side and glued some see through tiles and a button on top. Added the greeting rub-on and a little rose brad.

Fourth card: For this one I chose a velvet rickrack ribbon that I had left over, a flower with a large brad, the 'thank you' rub-on and a couple of those see through tiles.

Fifth card: For this one I actually cut a 12x12 sheet of paper into 6 sections, each one being 4x5.25". Again very simple, just a ribbon, 2 flowers layered on top of each other, held together to the paper with a brad and the rub-on greeting.

Sixth card: This card is cut from the same paper as card # 5. Since I wanted the 'thank you' to show up, I just added it closer to the flower.

Hope you enjoy my cards. They have been really easy to make and look much better than my camera can capture.

Up Cycling a Red Vines Plastic Container

Some of you may wonder what up cycling is, well it took me some time to figure that one out LOL It is when you recycle something that you would normally throw away and than decorate it to make it pretty! 

So today I up cycled a Red vine plastic container. It's nice and large and I need something large to store all my flowers in. I am so tired of looking through all the little packages one by one until I find the flower I like to use, sooooo ... I decided to create a large flower dump container LOL and here is how I did it:

This is the red vine container that I am going to decorate

I tried to remove the red vine paper from the bucket, but that would have been a tedious task, so I opted for leaving it as it is. I measured the width I needed to cover all of the red vine paper and 2 pieces of paper of the same design. I wanted it to much some what on the seams, since 1 paper wouldn't go around the whole container.

To adhere the paper I decided to use Mod Podge, because it is a strong adhesive that will adhere the paper I am using nicely and dry fast, so I don't have to wait all day to continue decorating 

The container is not going straight down, sadly the circumference is smaller on the bottom than on the top. I decided to match the seam on one side almost perfect, while the other side is a little off. I don't care about things like that, because once decorated nobody will even notice.

I found this left over rickrack that matches the paper perfectly. Decided to add it above the paper and to the bottom of the paper. Adhered it with ZipDry, because that glue dries really fast. Love it!

Since the container is smaller on the bottom than the top, the paper I adhered to the container looked a little off, so I decided to cut 2 thin strips and added them to the top of the paper. Problem is solved, nobody will even notice that it was added on separately.

The next step is punching out enough flowers to cover the paper all around. I love doodling, so naturally I decided to doodle around the outer edges of the flower. To show you how easy doodling is, I decided to add this little step for you to see. 

After I went around the outer edges ones, I did the same again and again. 3 times, because for me it just looks better. You can do it how ever often you like, until it looks best for you.

By the way, I am in love with Sharpies, thought I share with you :)

As you can see now, I am working the flower I punches out to make it appear more 3-dimensional. I soft folded all 5 petals, just enough so they would stand up a little.

Now I pinched each pedal to add additional interest.

Here you can see how the flower looks after it has been worked.

With a paper piercer I eyeballed the center and poked a hole, so the brad that I am going to add (and the small flower) would go through safely (don't want to rip the paper LOL).

Backside of my paper flower. I am showing you the image of the adhesive I used to adhere the flower to the container. I prefer this adhesive, because it is really sticky and not as expensive as glue dots.

And voila! You can see here the finished project. I really like how it turned out. Thinking we need to eat some more of those red vines, because I now want to make at least one more identical container LOL Isn't it pretty? It took me only one hour and a half. Love fast crafts.

I added one of my paper flowers to the lid, but adhered it to the inside, because the lid will be handled a lot. This way the flower will stay in place forever :)

Added all the flowers I could find (I am sure I have some more laying around somewhere LOL). Pretty neat to have everything in one place now and best of all the flowers have enough room without being squished.

Perfect!

Mini Album

Browsing through my photos I found scans of a mini album I made way back.

To create this album I used card board, cut it in a rectangle and than cut of two corners. Used the first page as template to cut all the other pages and all the papers I planned to use. Adhered the papers and than

painted all the outer edges with Tempera paint (used Tempera Paint, because that's what I had handy).

Album cover

To create the front cover I accordion folded a strip of paper and glued it on top of a flower, to make it really 3-D. Added a rub-on saying, brads, mini flowers , tags and paper clips.

Pages 1 and 2

Now keep in mind that all the inner pages are designs to add photos and maybe a bit of journaling, so on each page I left enough open space.

Very simple design here. Just cut a strip of paper, made some uneven accordion folds and glued it to the top of one side and the bottom to the other side, added some buttons and paper clips and done :)

 Pages 3 and 4

These are very simple pages. Just added a rub-on saying and some flowers to one side, and buttons on the other side. 

Pages 5 and 6

Again used some rub-on sayings to create some interest I cut a piece of card stock and added a couple of flowers with a flower gem on top. I also added some glitter to the petals of the flowers. Used a simple chain to connect the tag to the page and than glued the tag to the page, so it wouldn't just hang out. To the bottom of both pages I just twisted the ribbon around, adhered it to the pages and added some buttons.

insert between pages 5 and 6

To add some fun I added a clear tag in between the pages and treated this tag by adhering a 2-sided paper and than painted some Tempera paint to the outer edges. One side I left blank and the other side I decorated with a rub-on saying, flowers and a brad and added some glitter.

Pages 7 and 8

When I cut this paper, I made sure that I cut it so that the sayings would fill one page, just for fun :) The only thing I did here is add a rub-on saying to the left page and some flower gems. 

 insert between pages 7 and 8

This time I treated the insert by painting on one side. Since it is a clear tag, I didn't had to paint both tides. Again decorated only one side with rub-on sayings and decided to not add additional 3-D stuff, just to leave it flat.

 Pages 9 and 10

Very simple pages. added some brads to the flowers and adhered them to the paper with glue dots (I rarely poke my large brads through papers, I just use glue dots to fasten them). The words I got from a piece of paper, decorated them with glitter and added them with foam stickers to have them pop up a little.

Pages 11 and 12

Used stickers this time, some buttons, flower gems and rickrack.

Pages 13 and 14

Adhered to the outer edges some stickers with sayings, cut out some words from a piece of paper, decorated them with glitter and adhered them on top of flowers this time.

Back Cover

On the back cover I went a bit crazy with flowers, gems, stickers and a tag.

Mini albums are a great way to use up some of your left over stuff, while at the same time, they make a great gift!

Messenger Bag

My daughter wanted a messenger bag already for a while, but didn't wanted to spend all her money for it, besides none were her style or taste. When I found this tutorial for a messenger bag Messenger Bag Tutorial, I knew I wanted to make one, with my 'special' addition of adding some more pockets to the outside of the inside pocket.

And here is what we ended up with

Here you can see the little pocket I added to the outside of the zipped pocket



As you can see the zipper pocket is nice and large and keeps personal stuff from flying all over

Here is my daughter showing of her bag. It is perfect and she has gotten some real use out of it and a lot of admiration from her friends, too. As closures I used magnets and decorated them from the outside with brads used for scrapbooking. That way the magnets are really easy to find.

And here is a view of the bag when in use.