Scrapping by Design

Thanks to Corrinne from my Altered Book Yahoo group, I now know the name of the beautiful paper cutting craft I write about yesterday. It’s scherenschnitte. Wikipedia has a brief write up at this link:Scherenschnitte.

If anyone knows more about this craft,why not flesh out the entry at Wikipedia? You register for free and then you can add and modify information on any of the wikis. I do that from time to time myself.

Here’s another blog post with beautiful examples of scherenschnitte. Artisan Jen Miinnis actually has it carved on pumpkins.   Jen Minnis Art Blog

There are so many paper crafts to explore it takes the breath away.

I’ve just looked at a blog showing the most wonderful designs made with paper cutting. This isn’t your garden variety type of paper piercing that scrapbookers often do. This craft has a name of its own, but I don’t remember what it is. In any case, the artisan has made delicate and tiny designs that showcase her amazing talent and skill.

Take a look. This post is at Craftershock, a blog about “all things crafty.”

The post is Unbelievable Cut Paper Crafts

Incidentally, the blogger says she is always looking for craft items to showcase, so this could be your chance to show off your own great work. Craftershock showcases all kinds of crafts, so scrapbook layouts, hand made cards, stamped projects — all would be considered, from the sounds of it.

This hand made Christmas card is sooo much nicer in real life than it is in this picture. The real thing is stunning.

Excuse the lack of modesty, but I have to say, this is my all-time favorite card that I have ever made. It wasn’t easy to get it right. I made several trial runs before I decided I was happy with the end result.

The Little Drummer Boy Card makes full use of three-dimensional layering, stamping, heat embossing, precision cutting and glitter.   When you make it with richly colored card stock, then heat emboss with gold embossing power and then trim with ultra fine red glitter and green glitter, and then assemble with 3-D adhesives  — you truly have something to brag about.

It’s made with one of those amazing stamps from Holly Berry House. This is Stamp Number 1568. Holly Berry House sells it from their online store if your local stamp shop doesn’t carry it.

A few years ago, I took a class to learn how to work with Holly Berry House stamps. They’re challenging until you see how to go about it. If you’re interested, I have a video tutorial for this Drummer Boy Christmas card at this link.

This cone-shaped holiday tree makes an attractive decoration in your home or to sell at a craft fair.  It’s also easy enough to make that it’s a good Christmas craft project for kids. That depends on the age of the kids, I suppose. Wee ones would probably find it too challenging.

I made this cone tree with poster paper for the cone and scrapbook paper for the tree. It’s decorated with small rhinestones.

In the video, my bigger tree is a little lopsided. Be sure to squash the cone into place correctly before taping it together. Learn from my mistake. LOL

Penguin Poop is an easy Christmas craft project, and one that I think will appeal to kids. These bags of penguin poop are part of my inventory that I’ll be showing at a craft sale on November 23.

I got the idea from Kerry’s Paper Crafts blog. Kerry made Pumpkin Poop. I changed things a bit.

The poem, modified from Kerry’s, reads:

I caught a little penguin
With a rope tied in a loop
It must have really scared him
‘Cause he made this penguin poop.

The penguin is a stamp from Hampton Art. Its heat embossed with black pigment ink and clear embossing powder, then colored with markers.

I cut the offset circle with the Cricut Machine (It’s the O in the George cartridge) and the flower is one of the shapes in the Cricut garden cartridge.

Amazon carries the Cricut Personal Electronic Cutter with 2 Cartridges but ships only to the US. If at all possible, I recommend getting this product from a local craft shop. They are usually great about providing customer support and this machine can be challenging to set up. I bought mine at Michaels and lived to regret it.

The tags are tied to the bag with a twist tie and some fiber. They can  be used as bookmarks after.

These are easy enough to do, and obviously, they are not limited to Christmas or holiday craft projects.  I can see Bunny Poop for Easter,  Cupid Poop for Valentines Day, Pumpkin Poop for Halloween as Kerry did, etc.  Here’s another thought. If your community has a mascot or a theme, Your Mascot Poop would be fun. For example, Harrison Hot Springs, a couple of hours east of Vancouver, has a Sasquatch mascot. Apparently there are a lot of Sasquatch sitings in the area.    Sasquatch Poop would be fun!

Is it any wonder I love crafting!

Here’s how to make an Advent Calendar using a Muffin Tin. I want to acknowledge the  I’m Impressed craft store in Vancouver for the idea.

I made this calendar using a mini-muffin tin with 24 tiny cups. I had something of a challenge finding the tin, but eventually found one at a supermarket.   Amazon carries this Norpro 24-Cup Heavy Duty Tin Mini Muffin Pan but they will ship only to the US.

The second tricky part could be finding the magnetic pop dots to attach the papers to the pan. EK Success makes the ones I finally located.

Here is a video tutorial showing how to make this Advent Calendar. You could also make a Count Down Calendar for any holiday or event.

I love making hand made greeting cards. I am less enthusiastic about the ongoing challenge of finding envelopes to fit them.

Occasionally, I buy the blank cards with matching envelopes that you can get at Michaels and other craft stores. They work quite nicely, but the size is limiting. Also, they are a little on the costly side.

Usually what happens is this: I make the card first, designing it according to how I see the card in my mind. Then I struggle to find or make an envelope that fits it. Here are some of the approaches that I have utilized to get envelopes for my hand made greeting cards:

1. I make the card using scrapbook paper, vellum, old wallpaper, the back side of gift wrap paper or items such as paper placements from the local store that sells ephemera. Check this link for free envelope templates and other templates as well. You can use your photocopier or your computer to resize the templates to whatever size you want.

2. I visit the Dollar Store before and after Christmas and buy boxes of Christmas cards that come with envelopes. I use the cards for making serendipity squares or for other crafting purposes, and save the envelopes. This is truly a good trick. If you are lucky, you may get 20 envelopes for a dollar. Even if its only a dozen to a box, its still a great deal.

3. I sometimes visit stores like the Paper Zone. From time to time,they have packages of envelopes on sale. Last summer I found some beautiful vellum envelopes selling at a very reasonable price.

4 When dealing with large, bulky cards, such as Hollyberryhouse medallion cards, I wrap the card as a package, using any paper large enough. I may include a thin sheet of bubble wrap to protect the medallion during mailing.

How about it, crafters? What tips to you have for getting envelopes for your hand made greeting cards?

The Fun Times Guide to Scrapbooking and Stamping has a fascinating article called How to Use Feng Shui in your Scrapbooking.

It’s an interesting concept. I had never considered this before. I know very little about Feng Shui. It’s one of those things that I have heard  of and planned to learn more about “some day.”   According to the article, the five elements of Feng Shui are earth, water, fire, air, metal, and wood. All of them are represented by certain substances and shapes. Therefore, to Feng Shui a layout, you would incorporate colors and embellishments that reflect these elements.

I realize I am using Feng Shui as a verb  Probably this is incorrect, but it does seem to communicate the message, doesn’t it? LOL

My first thought is, “Good grief. It’s difficult enough to create a layout that works well without adding the additional challenge of a Feng Shui approach.  By the time you think about page balance, the rule of thirds, the color wheel, using odd numbers of items, etc. — then after that, you  consider what supplies you have on hand and whether you want to use what’s in your stash or make a trip to the craft store  — and after considering all that,  you then add the additional decision that everything has to be Feng Shui’d (if that’s a word)! It sounds a bit overwhelming.

However, just because it could be a challenge doesn’t mean its not a worthwhile concept. As we all know, some of the best things in life come as a result of facing a challenge.

It might be worth trying. First , I would have to learn about Feng Shui.

This book, Crafting for Good Feng Shui: 40 Projects to Bring Harmony to Your Home may be a good place to start.

How about you?  Would you, or have you, incorporated Feng Shui principles into your projects?

Christmas is coming and these stamped bookmarks are a great craft project for kids. They’re also a really great way to use up your stash of scrapbook paper and card stock.

They’re made with paper, fiber and rubber stamping. I have heat embossed the stamped image.  If you’re looking for an easy craft project for kids, you could use a simple stamped image rather than heat embossing, or you could use a sticker.

They’re also good little items to sell at a crafts fair. Because you can make them quickly and economically, you can sell them for perhaps $1.00 each. This gives the kids an affordable item they can purchase. (And attracts mom and dad to your table where they might be tempted by some of your other items. :-))

In the video tutorial below I said  the dimensions were five inches by three inches. I later decided that I liked 5 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches better.

Naturally, you do not have to use a Christmas theme. I have also made several stamped bookmarks for kids using animals and flowers. For some, I used stickers with glitter applied instead of stamping. I have also modified the same approach to creating bookmarks for adults.

This Asian themed cigar box purse is one of my efforts at altered art.

This project does not use an authentic cigar box. For that, please refer to my Sapphire Video Tutorial. It contains directions for making a heritage album out of a real cigar box.

This cigar box came from Michaels. The bamboo handle was included, which made life a lot easier for me. Attaching handles seems to be something of a challenge for me.

I decided to allow the natural wood to show, so rather than painting this box, I covered it with a clear acrylic varnish for protection and shine. I decorated the cigar box purse with Asian themed scrapbook paper and origami papers. The stamped images are done with unmounted rubber stamps purchased from Pink Cat Studio

If you have never worked with unmounted rubber stamps before, stay tuned. I plan to do a tutorial soon showing how to mount them using the EZ Mount system.

Cigar box purses are fun. You can use them to store items or display them around your home. I have even seen women carrying them as a purse, although I have never done that myself.

Tomorrow I plan on doing a post showing another cigar box purse I made from a Michaels box.

Altered art is such a cool way to allow your creativity to flourish.