June - A Year in Time

Living on acreage we have a number of animals which we all dearly love so imagine my surprise one chilly June morning when I went outside to see to the dogs and found this tiny little fur ball curled up with my son's pup. She is the most adorable little kitten, grey in colour and so soft and fluffy with loads of character. She had a collar on and apart from looking cold, hungry and a few fleas she was in good health. Thinking she must belong to someone, how could anyone dump a helpless little kitten so the kids did the door knock around the neighbourhood and although everyone said she was cute and would take her no one actually owned her. We put up notices, took her to the vet to check for microchipping and placed a photo on 'Lost and Found - Pets of Perth' Facebook page still nothing so the kids jokingly tell me she has adopted us!! and she has lol she has settled in so well, playing with (almost terrorising!) the other animals who quite happily like to sleep and laze about! Don't know that they are too happy having such an energetic ball of fluff around but she is here to stay :) So our fur family has grown by one and the kids named her Shadow :)

Step 1:
Take G45 Foundation June Page and rough, buff, scrape, sand and distress as little or as much as you want! Not just the edges, try lightly sanding all over. Love this part of being creative :)

Step 2:
Scrap, brush, splash and splatter contrasting paint all over, remembering there are no mistakes! It all adds texture and character to your work! I used White & Salmon Dabber from Adirondak and Ranger No #15 Weather Vane.

Step 3:
Using MS Punch Gothic Arches punch a strip of Grey Bazill and layer under the distress edges so just a small amount shows through.

Step 4:
Lay two doilies and overlap with Postcard, small picture embellishment and tag cut from the June cut-aparts once edges are inked, some hessian, gauze and a little piece tulle before laying a 5x3 photo on top.

Step 5:
Finish off with a small cluster of flowers on lower right corner. I made the paper rose using TH die cut from an old book pages, the little buds were made from punch art vinca's, all flowers were inked with TH dried Marigold distress ink and ligthly spritzing with TA Chalkboard glimmermist Apricot Nectar. Place some Prima Swirls, then add some twine shaped into a circle to bring out the focal point of the photo.

Step 6:
lastly I added a pennant banner which has been machine stitched and held together with bakers twine. In the top left I placed a Vintage Chipboard button and used waxyflax which has been curled.

Thank you so much for dropping by!

Please go visit Wild About Scrap store and check out the great new design and all the wonderful products waiting for you :)

Sue
xx

Christmas, Christmas and more Christmas

Ho, Ho, Ho, It's nearly time for Christmas - you still have enough time to Create Christmas Happiness with your Cards, tags, albums etc etc!

Hello wonderful Christmas crafty creators,

I just wanted to show you a small snippet of some of the ranges of fantastic Christmas Products we have available in the Store at the moment ...                                         

We have chipboard shapes....

                                                                                                        

 Many Dies....

 

Large and small, natural and coloured,  Woodland trees for your advent calendars or Christmas Scenes ...

 

Flowers, Brads, DieCuts, Ribbons in lots of fabulous Christmas Colours...

 



 

This is only an example of the wide range of papers pads we have in store, we also have many brands of Christmas papers sold singularly ...

 

We also have Advent Calendars and inserts, many ink colours, paints and sprays/mists, paper mache stars, angels, zutter products to create your own mini albums and the list goes on...

 

Hope to see you in the Store soon

Shell

xox

A Year In Time - June

 

In June 2012 we adopted Lucy and she is a real honey of a cat.  So naturally I chose her cute photo to be the centre piece for my June page!

 

Products Used From the Wild About Scrap store

 

• Graphic 45  Place In Time 8x8 pad -June foundation page, Postcard and floral pp from June Cut a part page 
• Graphic Place In Time Alphabet Stickers sheet- letters for word 'new'
• Graphic Place In Time Stickers sheet - Place in Time tab
• Core'dinations 6x6 paper pad Vintage- punched  ribbon slots at the top and a border at the bottom of card

 

Other Stash items used

• cream and gold ribbon
• ribbon slot punch
• border punch
• flowers
• gold trinket
• black letters
• black pearls

 

Hard to believe we are more than half way through the year and half way through our A Year In time album .... 6 pages to go .. having such fun !!!

 

Sharon xx

 

 

 

Paper Mache - Star Ornaments

I've been busy the last  few days making these cute little star ornaments from Darice.  They're something that I put aside from last Christmas to make this year.  I seriously thought these would be extremely fiddly and difficult to decorate, but they couldn't be easier!  You can make them as simply or elaborately as you like and they will still look great on the tree.... :) 

I made mine in 4 different styles, but using the same paper collection.  I did this as I was keen to try out different techniques.  However for a consistent look for your tree you'd be best to select a "look"  that you want and stick with it.  However I love all of mine!
 

 
Materials used:

• Darice Paper Mache Star Ornaments - 2x2" and 2x3" (total of 4 Stars)
• Fancy Pants - Home For Christmas 6"x6" Paper Pad
• Craft Glue - general purpose craft glue
• Tim Holtz idea-Ology - Paper String
• Glimmer Mist - Pearl
• Glimmer Glam - Tinsel Town
• Clearsnap - Fairy Dusty - Pralines & Cream
• Tsukineko Glue Pad
• Clearsnap Top Boss Embossing Powder -  Verdigris
• Ranger Embossing Pad
• Want 2 Scrap - Rhinestones Clear
• Ribbon strips
• Bells
• Ranger Adirondack Paint Dabbers - Lettuce & Espresso (optional)

Step 1 (optional) - I painted the stars - front and back - with Adirondack Paint Dabbers - I wasn't sure when I began whether I was going to cover the entire ornament with paper or if maybe some parts would still be visible.  They did look good painted so could be left that way.

Step 2 - cover with pattern paper.  This was done one side of the star at a time, leaving time for the glue to dry between sides.  First paint the star with a general purpose craft glue....I have used a bit too much in the picture below. :) 

Place the star on the paper so that the point  in the centre is the only part touching the paper.  Keep star balanced with one hand and with the other, gently, but firmly, smooth the paper onto the star.  Starting from centre point and moving to the outside edges, run your finger along the ridge and in the groves smoothing the paper and any wrinkles.  You will need to hold the star and keep smoothing until it adheres to the ornament.

To help keep the shape while the glue dries and help stop the paper from lifting off, squeeze the corners of the each of the points making creases - you can see the creases running through the paper in the photo above.

Once dried completely, trim as close as possible to the ornament and repeat for the other side.  Sanding of the edges may also be necessary.

Step 3 - Before gluing the second side of paper, I also added loops of ribbon in place of the gold string which I personally don't like the look of.  I made the loops much longer than the originals as I find the strings are never long enough when attaching to the tree!

Step 4 - I  wasn't happy with the naked look of the edges.  To fix this I used paper string glued to the edges.  Other ideas could be Washi Tape run around the edges or narrow ribbon. 

  
The paper string was surprisingly easy to adhere.  I first painted the edges of the Star with craft glue and then starting at the midpoint of the bottom of the star, I ran the paper string along the edge, pressing firmly into place as I went. 

Step 5 - Now comes the fun part of decorating the star!  Seriously though, the stars are now ready to hang and you could leave them as is....but if you want to have some fun keep reading...

 

Star 1 - sprayed with Glimmer Mist Pearl and decorated with clear rhinestones.  Two bells were tied together paper string and glued to the centre as a finishing touch.

 

Star 2 - Using the Tsukineko  Glue Pad Refill I let the glue run down from centre of the star and ridges and then sprinkled Fairy Dusty over the top....be a bit careful as Fairy Dust is very fine glitter and gets everywhere including your eyes.  To finish off a piece of paper string was tied diagonally across and a bell attached.  The ends of the paper string were curled around the end of a paintbrush to give the curls.



Star 3 - I ran the embossing pad along the ridges of the star pressing lightly.  Then sprinkled with the Verdigris embossing powder and set with my heat gun.  Another strip of paper string, ends curled, and a bell finish this star.

Star 4 - was painted  with Glimmer Glam Tinsel Town.  I tried for a roughly painted look, but the Glimmer Glam ran down the star too well and I ended up with fairly even coverage.  I really liked the look of this star without ornament so only added a simple bell to the hanger.

The back sides of all the stars were painted with Glimmer Mist Pearl to give a nice sheen!

I hope I've given you some inspiration for making your own ornaments.  These really couldn't have been easier to make and so much nicer than buying from the store!  Wouldn't it be nice to make one for every member of your family?  Maybe add the initial of their name or a small photo????




Happy creating everyone!
Veronica
xx

Dusty Attic - Advent Calendar

Wow, what an amazing product to work with!!  I have used Dusty Attic's Chipboards before but had never used any of their other products such as the Advent Calendar.  Everything slotted perfectly into place which made gluing it together so easy - loved it!

Graphic 45 - Gift Tag

Being invited friends to the 12th birthday celebrations of their daughter, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to show the Italians what papercrafting is all about....or at least a part of what it's about.  So, I whipped up this tag...quite literally it took me about 30 minutes, but the ballerina was a leftover from a previous project so that saved me a little time.

 

 

Materials used:
 

• Graphic 45 - French Country - Tags & Pockets;
• Graphic 45 - French Country - Banners:
• Graphic 45 - French Country - Flowers;
• Graphic 45 - Nutcracker Sweet - Ballerina cut from the Snowflake Waltz paper;
• Graphic 45 - A Place in  Time - Alpha Stickers - "Happy Birthday"  sticker;
• Want 2 Scrap - Silver Rhinestones;
• Tim Holtz - idea-Ology - Paper String;
• Tim Holtz - idea-Ology - Label Letters;
• Glossy Accents;
• Glimmer Mist - Silver Sugar

 

Steps by Step:

1. I selected which tag I wanted to use as my base from Graphic 45 French Country Tags & Pockets;
2. Ballerina - maybe out of place, maybe not - Safè does ballet so I wanted to add ballet to the theme.  The Ballerina was cut from the sheet of cardstock and to give a nice 3D finished it was coated with Glossy Accents;
3. The flower custer was made by first selecting 3 different sized, but colour co-ordinated flowers from the Graphic 45 French Country die-cut Flowers. I scrunched each of the flowers as tightly as possible to give more dimension and a bit of a grungy look.  I used double-sided tape to stick together and then sprayed with Glimmer Mist Silver Sugar to give a bit of sparkle. 
4. The flowers were then layered along with the Banner and Sunflower. Rhinestones made the perfect centre for my flowers adding a bit of glammer and bling to the tag.
5. To finish the bottom section, the Happy Birthday sticker was added.  Note that the sticker hangs over the edge and of course is still sticky on the exposed sections.  I cut out small pieces of matching scrap cardstock and stuck these to the back of the overhanging pieces.
6. The Banner across the top was made by selecting 3 of the smaller banners from the Graphic 45 die-cut Banners. To assemble with the Paper String couldn't be simpler...I wanted some dimension so used American Craft This To That Foam Dots to raise the banners, but first laid the Paper String across the tag as I wanted it and adhered each Banner over the top of the String - killing 2 birds with one stone....or rather, adhering 2 items with one foam dot! :)
7. The ballerina was also adhered using the Foam Dots to give some more dimension.
8. The final touch was to add our names and a piece of ribbon to tie to the parcel.  Our names were made from the Tim Holtz Label Letters....I will admit that adding "Veronica" after everything else was stuck down was a bit of a challenge and I made a mistake not doing it first.  I ended up doing it twice as it was awkward trying to line up the letters only to find  after the first time it was really wonky!  But that's what makes scrapping so great...for every error you find a new technique or a unique piece of art... :)

 

Really this couldn't have been easier to make and I'm definitely going to be making more in the future.  To add a nice hand-made tag to the present was nicer for me to give than the gift itself.

As a review - I was amazed out how easy to use and how nice the finished look was using these Graphic 45 Die-Cut shapes!  Being perfectly matched colour-wise was a big advantage of course.  I've never been a big fan of using die-cut shapes.  Often I find they're not the same quality cardstock as papers or too glossy and so I have usually given them a miss...however with the Graphic 45 range this was not an issue and I will definitely be adding them to my "must have" list for all future orders. :)

I hope I've given you some inspiration...maybe use the same ideas for quick to whip up Christmas Tags?

Until next time!
Veronica

Dream

Today I want to share a quick card, simple design but elegant. It's always nice to receive a special handmade card, just makes the occasion that little bit more special! So if the thought of creating a handmade greeting card becomes a little daunting try using a basic card layout design, lots available. It really isn't as difficult as it might seem. Using different patterned paper or embossing folders and changing the embellishments can change the focus of a card allowing you to use the same simple sketch design over and over :)

• First step is to cut cardstock to the size you want. Mine is cut to 6x4 1/2 (folded)
• Then I cut a piece of coredinations pastel a little smaller and ran it through my bigshot to emboss. 
• Using my tool I lightly rubbed and sanded to help enhance the ebossing design. Lightly swiping with ink or chalk can also help 'pop' the embossing design.
• I then took some ribbon from my stash and adhered it across the bottom
• Then I placed a smaller blossom in the right hand corner and used a rubon on word. Voila!

Maybe this has inspired you to get a jump start on your Christmas card list :)

Have a great day, I am off to enjoy some of this lovely sunshine while it lasts!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sue xx