Christmas 2011 album

Today I have a 2011 Christmas album using Wendy Vecchi's Studio 490 Art Parts. You can also make this using really thick chipboard and a Zutter Kutter if you have it; a corner chomper should still cut the corners so they will be on a curve (1/4"). If you don't have a Zutter Kutter I can order one for you (free shipping!). However, I highly recommend the Art Parts; the chipboard is super thick; too thick to cut with your Cricuts.

Anyway, the paper used is Echo Park's Merry Christmas from last year.

Also, I used my Tim Holtz die Reindeer Flight and idea-ology Numerals; the embossing folder (December), Distress Stain, ringer binder (large), and font die strip. The poinsettias, uh, well, the Spellbinder's die (new) I wanted to use hasn't arrived yet so I ended up creating something similar with my MTC and used my Cricut to cut. I am one of those scrappers who refuses to update the software and/or my E so I can still cut on my E using MTC. Since I did not have the die I had to score the petals and leaves myself.

Not sure yet how I'm going to decorate on the inside. I'll be sure to share that when I have it figured out :-)

   

 

 

This photo is showing the Candi I love so much (last minute addition to my project)! They've been at the last 3 CHA show's I've been to and they are available in the United States (FINALLY). Candi is brads without the legs. You can see more examples of this wonderful product on their website.

I am not affiliated with any of the companies mentioned above; just love their products :-).

Distress Stains v. Distress Ink

I have been working on a project and during the process made a slight discovery I want to share with the rest of you. First of all, I want to make it clear I have no relationship with Ranger, Tim Holtz or any other product I promote on my blog. With that out of the way...

The above photo is of using the distress inks the traditional way: smear it on the craft mat, spritz with water until the ink had beaded, and let the paper soak up the pink. Dry with a heat tool, and soak up again.

Above is an example of using the Distress Stains on cardstock. Dried with a heat tool. In some areas I coated a second time or dotted. I spritzed with water while the ink was still wet, but it produced very little water marks. HOWEVER, I let it drip onto my craft mat below:

So I tried again, spritzed while wet, let some of it pour onto the craft mat, dried the cardstock using a heat tool, soak up some of the ink that was on the mat, dry with heat tool. As you can see below, I got some awesome watermarks.

 Below was my final attempts. I rolled some of the Distress Stain on my mat and soaked up with cardstock.

It didn't work out how I wanted, kind of ugly and spotty, lol.  I think I'll stick to either the traditional method, or distress stain/spritz/drip/soak method.

Freda

Diana's advent calendar Project #3

Project #2 for Black Friday project class

Here it is! It's a 25 Drawer Treasure Chest. Kaiser Crafts (not affiliated with them) makes the drawers. The crafter decorates. The paper used was Echo Park's Holly Jolly Christmas 6x6 pads. For the purpose of the class, however, the paper crafts on the top of the Treasure Chest are not included; I only wanted to show you a way to decorate. Perhaps you have some miniature Christmas village pieces or something.

The Cricut Cartridge (not affiliated with Prove Craft) I used for this project (my version) was Winter Woodlands. I did not realize my snowman would come out so big. Likewise, I did not realize my house would come out so small. I could have gone an inch shorter on the snowman and an inch taller on the #D house. I am going to explore my carts and see what else I can cut out to decorate my 3D house :-)

The banner, numbers, and letters are 3 different Tim Holtz Alterations die strips (not affiliated with Tim or Sizzix). The "snow" is cotton. Michael's pissed me off extra special today so I didn't feel like giving them any more of my money that I didn't have to give by purchasing one of those Christmas snow blankets. Cotton is cheaper even if I had to spend time pulling it apart and gluing together. Also, the only reason I cut out my own numbers is because I lost the cardstock pieces that came with the Treasure Chest.

Diana and I are still talking about pricing for the Black Friday workshop class but I promise it will be soon. I will post pics of her projects as well soon. She is doing an advent calendar and tags:

A great way to store and identify your Distress Stains

I don't know if anyone already thought of this. Sorry if they did. I was working with my Distress Stains this weekend (project viewing coming soon) and realized that I did not like pulling all of my stains out of the drawer to look at the front of the bottle for the color name. BOOOOOO! So...I dabbed a circle of each color on a piece of paper, carefully lining up the bottles so I wouldn't get them mixed up and confused, punched a circle (3/4" punch), ran the circles through my Xyron in an orderly fashion (again, so I wouldn't get them mixed up and confused), stuck the circles on the caps of the bottle, and voila!

Yes, those are my Smooches behind the stains in my drawer.

:-)

 

Freda

Blogger update

Hi everyone! Apparently my bright idea to have my comment permissions set to only those who follow this blog backfired. Soooooo, I've adjusted those settings. My thinking was to make life easier for me for the next time I have blog candy to share and wanted to be a little bit more efficient so I didn't have to verify if those who replied were indeed blog followers. However, and this is how it backfired, when I post my projects, unfortunately people couldn't just comment and give me some blog love. Therefore, I've lifted that restriction and in the future I will go back to verifying blog followers the old fashioned way the next time I have blog candy up for grabs :-)

Have a great weekend all! I will have another cool project to share with ya'll soon.

Freda

Christmas Shape book

 Hello all! It's been VERY busy around my home lately but I'm trying to find time to work on projects and show you some really cool stuff. Now, what I'm about to share with you is not really an original Scrap-a-rama design; I must give credit where credit is due. It's originally from Bug Junkie and I purchased the file from her. No, I am not going to share the file; if you want the file you will need to go over to her blog and purchase it (or take my Black Friday Project Class to get all the pieces to put together). But I did "tweak" it a little bit and added a Tim Holtz inspired tag to the front.

The paper used in this books is Echo Parks Holly Jolly Christmas

I am not affiliated with Bug Junkie in any way. Just thought she had a really cool shape book which I learned about from one of the yahoo groups I frequent :-).