Scrapping by Design

For the past year, I have been posting about the monthly pennant swap at Art for the Creative Mind.

Every month, we swapped a pennant. The pennants were all vintage white in color, and were decorated according to a monthly theme.

When the last pennant arrived in December, I assembled my pennants into this banner.

These pennants are the ones I received, and each one is made by a different artist.

I actually have 13 rather than 12 because I swapped twice one month.

I used twill tape glued on the back to hold the pennants together.

I used needle and thread to attach small rhinestone beads in between each pennant.

I also made a second banner which was a gift for my friend for Christmas.

I will show a picture of it soon, and also a video that I made showing the two banners up close and personal.

This is another pennant made for the holiday banner project that I wrote about earlier. My swap group, Art for the Creative Mind, has been making and swapping holiday-themed pennants all year long.

This is the one I made for the month of December. The theme was Glitter. All pennants are expected to be winter white or vintage white in color.

I used lace and two colors of micro glitter to make this lacy effect.

I hung a Christmas star as shown. The star is attached with gold thread and a small safety pin.

It has been sent away to the swap partner who will receive it.

Every month, my swap group makes a holiday pennant. By December, we will have 12 made and ready to sew together to make a holiday banner.

I made this one in the month of June. They are all supposed to be vintage white, and the theme for June was Jingle Bells.

The pennants are all made with cotton fabric backed with iron-on interfacing.

For this one, I first used a Jingle Bells rubber stamp that I inked with red and green markers. I stamped it more or less all over the pennant.

I then did a gel medium image transfer. The vintage picture shows some people in a one-horse open sleigh. The horse has jingle bells on it.

I decorated with two types of white lace, plus a red button and a gold colored safety pin threaded with red and blue fiber.

I had some Christmas jingle bells and considered using them. I decided against this when I considered the extra postage costs that I would incur by adding that much bulk.

Yesterday, I posted about the January Pennant for our Banner Swap at AFTCM.

This is the February pennant.  The pennant itself is made from cotton fabric with iron-on interfacing for stiffening.

As before, I used an image of a vintage girl and did an inkjet image transfer using gel medium.

I decorated with old fashioned tartan ribbon, which I love so much.

I added a little gold mesh to the bottom of the pennant, and I added a little glittery gold thread underneath the fabric flower The pearl button is actually a clip-on earring. I used wire cutters to remove the clip.

Since the optional theme for February was glitter, I added some dabs of clear glitter glue to represent snowflakes.  Also, I think the gold thread and the gold mesh at the bottom sort of represent glitter.

I know its not easy to think of making winter or holiday or Christmas banners, just now, but nevertheless, that is what I am doing. It will get even weirder in July!

At Art for the Creative Mind, we have commenced a year long swap project, in which we swap hand made pennants each month. At year end, we should have 12 spectacular pennants which we can attach together and make a pennant.

The pennants are to be done in winter white or vintage white. Each month has an optional theme. The optional theme for January was Vintage Winter.

I made all of my pennants from fabric and I applied iron-on interfacing to the back. I will decorate them month by month.

This is January’s. I did two similar ones because I had two partners. I used an inkjet image transfer with glossy gel medium at the transfer agent.  As you can see, the little girl is vintage, and is wearing winter white clothing. There is a sense of a holiday tree in the back ground.

I glued the image in place and trimmed with various laces, ribbons, heart-shaped buttons and pink rhinestones.  For the second, I made a flower using the same fabric as the pennant, and cut it using Tim Holtz Alterations Floral die.

I am making a second set of pennants for myself, so all in all, I plan on completing at least 24 of these this year.

This Black Perceptions ATC is made for a swap at Art Ventures Swap Group. We were told to design an ATC that reflected the way black made us feel.  I chose “elegance“.

The ATC itself is black card stock. Over top of that, I placed a layer of clear acetate paper that had a black floral pattern in it. The pattern stands out clearly against the black background.

At the bottom, I placed a layer of double sided sticky tape and covered that with Tarnished Mica Chips. The chips appear black when placed over black card stock.

Lastly, I adhered a wide strip of doubled sided sticky tape to a scrap of black card stock, and then used a die to cut a bird shape. I covered the top of the bird with black glitter, and then glued the bird in place so as it appeared to be sitting on the strip of mica flakes.

This does not show up well in the photograph, but in real life, it is quite elegant.

I have always struggled with tying bows. My bows tend to be lopsided and crooked. I found these great video tutorials on YouTube that demonstrate how to make foolproof bows using a fork as a tool.

And here are a few more fork-bow videos that are useful:

How to Tie a Small Bow with a Fork

Tiny Bow on a Fork

This makes my life so much easier.

This is the second tag I made with the theme “reindeer and holly.”

As in the first one I made, we were asked to use reinkers and spritzed water for the background.  I used Distress Ink — I think it may have been Old Paper — and spritzed water generously. It gave a nice, subtle tag colour that I like quite a bit.

I cut scallops around the edges using a set of Martha Stewart corner and edging punches.

The reindeer is a die cut from velvet paper, using a Memories die.

The holly is a rubber stamp using green ink. I added red glitter glue for the holly.

I gave the reindeer a red rhinestone collar. It is not Rudolph, by the way. I am honouring one of the lesser known reindeer — possibly Donder LOL

I finished by tying some fibre at the top, for hanging.

I made these ornaments to decorate my small, potted rosemary tree.

The ornaments are made by stamping the cat and the tree shape (both from Outlines) onto double card stock or light card board. I stamped with Versmark Ink, then heat embossed the tree with green embossing powder and the cat with gold embossing powder.

I cut out the stamped images and used a few Sworovski crystals and assorted beads. I used Dimensional Magic (or similar dimensional glaze) to put them in place.

In the bottom picture, you see my tiny tree ready for Christmas.

If desired, you could turn the ornaments into a brooch by adding a brooch pin at the back.

These three Thanksgiving cards are made using the tri-fold shutter technique, as explained at splitcoaststampers.com.

For all, I used colored card stock and trimmed with scrapbook papers.

The waxed embellishment is made using melted beeswax or candle wax and napkins or serviettes over glossy card stock or playing cards. I will explain how to do this in my next post.

Apparently the true beeswax is the best choice because it is harder and lasts longer. For items such as cards (which will probably be tossed out after the holiday is over), I find that melting candles is just as good. Candles are easy to find, more economical and can add variety of colour if you want to go that route.

The key is to use an iron that does not have holes for steam. I have an old travel iron that works well for this purpose, or you could use a craft iron such as this one: Darice 1204-59 Mini Crafting Iron Assorted Colors