doodlebug guest designer

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Good morning, scrappy peeps!

Today I'm excited to be the guest designer over at Doodlebug Designs! I was thrilled when they contacted me and asked me if I wanted to work up some projects with their new Hello Spring! collection. I came up with three layouts (I used molding paste for the first time on one of them!!) and a Project Life spread for them, and had a lot of fun in the process!

Here are just a few peeks of my pages- be sure to check them all out over at the Doodlebug blog, where you can also enter to win a sweet prize package featuring some of their new goodies!

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See you there!

pink paislee | mason jar gift card holder

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

It's not often that I make a papercrafting project that isn't a scrapbook page or the occasional card, but when I was asked to design a gift wrap project for the Pink Paislee blog this week, something clicked in my brain and I came up with this...

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A gift card holder inside a spring-scene mason jar!

I don't know if it was the pretty snowglobe-style mason jars at Anthropologie before Christmas or Rhonna Farrer's fantastic snow scene mason jars that first inspired me to try a project like this, but as soon as I started to dream up my gift wrap project, I immediately knew that I would be making one and swapping out the Christmas elements for bits and pieces of Pink Paislee's Spring Jubilee collection.

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You've probably already seen the photos of the finished project on the Pink Paislee blog, but I shot lots of in-process pictures, as well, so I could write up a tutorial to share with you!

I started the project with a Mason jar, of course (I think this one actually once held pasta sauce- Bertolli or Classico, maybe?), and spray-painted the lid in a color that coordinated with Spring Jubilee.

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You'll need a fairly wide-mouthed jar for this- remember, a gift card has to fit inside it!

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I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut a decorative pocket for the gift card. The file is from the Silhouette shape store (I've linked it up in the supply list), but I had to size it down quite a bit to get it to fit inside the jar. I cut it several times on scrap paper until I had the right balance of size that would both fit inside the jar and still hold the gift card.

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With the main element cut and ready, it was time to start building the "scene." I've found that for applications like this, a hot glue gun is indispensable. I even managed to not burn myself this time, which is something I can't say about the last time I tried to make an altered project.


Can you believe that I didn't have a hot glue gun until a couple of years ago? My Mom finally bought one for me when we were shopping at Michaels one day and I happened to mention that one would come in really handy when making cupcake toppers...now I can't imagine crafty projects like this without one!

The gift card holder is sized to fit through the mouth of the jar at its widest point, so I knew I needed to pretty much dead-center it in the middle of the scene. I started by adhering a pretty paper straw (Amazon carries these now!) right in the middle of the jar's lid with a massive glob (that's a technical term) of hot glue.

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After cutting the straw off to the proper height, I used another glob of glue to adhere it to the back of the gift card hold.

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And since globs of hot glue aren't very pretty, I stuck a chipboard sticker from the Spring Jubilee line right over it, sandwiching the straw between it and the gift card holder.

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The next element in the scene is this pretty flower spray that I rubbed off of the Spring Jubilee press-on sheet onto a scrap of white cardstock before cutting it all out. This piece is mounted on a much shorter section of paper straw, and I didn't worry about the back of it since it'll later be hidden in fake grass. More on that in a minute...

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And from there I continued to build the scene, first by adding a chipboard butterfly to the front of the gift card holder...

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...and then by suspending chipboard butterflies from the top of the mason jar itself.

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And if you're wondering how I stuck those in there, I started with a Glue Dot...and then stuck my entire hand in the jar to adhere the Glue Dot inside the top. Yes, my hand did come out of the jar, and yes, I did pray the entire time I was doing it that Darren would not walk into my craft room and give me the look that says I've possibly sprouted a third head.

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And now it's time for the fake grass. All the Christmas snowglobe scenes I linked to use some type of fake snow, like this package of mica flakes that I picked up on clearance (I'm talking 75% off clearance) at Anthropologie a couple of years ago. I bought it just because I like the vintage-y box, but I've actually used it in a couple of craft projects now (including making ornaments at Christmas), so apparently it was a really good buy.

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But I needed fake grass and not fake snow, so after a quick text message to crafty diva extraordinaire (and recent Ranger U graduate) May Flaum for a little advice, I was off to Michaels for some green alcohol ink. I also picked up some blending solution to help lighten up the color.

I squirted a bit of ink and a lot of blending solution out onto my kraft mat (seriously, how did I ever do inky, mist-y stuff without this thing?), then mixed the concoction into a pile of the mica flakes. At first I used a plastic fork, but eventually I gave that up and used my hands instead. And, yes, I did have some funky green Hulk hands going on for a while!

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At this point it was time to put everything together. I turned the jar mouth-side up again and poured the mica flakes inside (so the dangling butterflies are actually buried somewhere under them at this point). You can also see that I added a small spray of leaves cut on the Silhouette to the spring scene- I thought it needed a little something on that side to balance things out.

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For the final assembly, I put the lid on the jar and screwed it closed...

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...then flipped the whole thing over and shook the mica flakes into place.

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And the project was finished!

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I don't usually do off-the page projects, and I really don't mess with inks that often (except for mist splatters), so this project was really outside my comfort zone. I'm totally tickled with the way it turned out!


Supplies (click on images for product links):



bella blvd layout | my favorite time of the year

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

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Oh, I so hope that you're not tired of seeing my cherry blossom photos yet, because I have a layout just filled with them to share with you today!

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This two-page layout was up on the Bella Blvd. blog last week as part of a product feature for their new crochet flower embellishments.

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I used my Silhouette on the right-hand page and cut a dotted background that I then layered over the new Punch shade from the Sophisticates line. I like how it lets some of the color pop through without being just an entire field of solid pink.

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I sprinkled some of the crochet flowers around the page, nestling them inside a few of the dots, and I also added a few of the wooden buttons from Bella's Button Market line. And doilies. Can't forget the doilies, after all!

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I didn't originally intend for this to be a two-page layout, but after I finished with the right-hand page I felt that the photos, while not totally overwhelmed, didn't really have a chance to shine as much as I might have liked for them to. I decided the solution was to include more large photos of the same subject in a second page, so I pulled out a divided page protector with slots for 4x6 photos and loaded it up with more cherry blossom shots!

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There's no rule that says you can't decorate the outside of a divided page protector, so I stuck another wooden button and crochet flower right on top of the plastic (Glue Dots are perfect for this application) to tie the two pages together. I decided to leave the embellishment on this side simple so the photos would really stand out.

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I'm thinking that I need to find another flower obsession for the summer now that cherry blossom season has been over for more than a month. The hydrangea bushes in my front yard are looking like great candidates!


Supplies (click on images for product links):




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