Scrapbook & Cards Today Blog

Pinterest Project with Kelly Goree!

It’s Kelly Goree with you again today to talk just a little more “Pinterest.” When I was here Monday, I professed my love for the site and all it’s amazing eye candy. Yet I also confessed how I struggle to make those great ideas and amazing things I see a reality in my own home. So I decided to change that just a little. I challenged myself – and YOU – to hop off Pinterest for just a bit and create one of those projects you’ve seen on there that you’ve always been meaning to do.

After searching in my  “one day when I have time” pin folder I came across these gorgeous stretched burlap letters.  I had hoped that it would be a tutorial, but when I checked further, it turns out that those lovely letters are by a talented Etsy seller by the name of The Virginia House. So I did a little research on her blog and found out a bit of info to help me make some of my own.

Here is what I needed: 

Burlap (I went to our local feed store and bought an actual burlap bag for 1.99. I think I’m going back to buy more to turn into pillows using the cool print you can find on them!)
Wooden frames
Scissors
Reynolds Freezer paper (WHY hadn’t I known about this stuff before?)
Black paint
Sponge brush
Pencil
Staple gun
Craft knife
Iron

Before I get going any further, I just have to talk about this freezer paper. I had NO idea it existed but check it out – right on the packaging it mentions its specific uses in the crafty area! How cool right? It’s basically got a paper coating on one side and a waxy coating on the other. It makes perfect stenciling templates as I’m about to show you!

First, I printed the monogram I wanted onto a sheet of paper. I checked the size to make sure that’s what I wanted, then I laid the freezer paper over it (paper side up) and traced it.

After tracing, I carefully cut out the letter using a craft knife.

After the monogram is cut out, lay the freezer paper (paper side up) onto the burlap cut large enough to wrap around the wooden frame (Trust me, this is important as with my first attempt I cut a piece way too small!) then iron it on. Do not use steam and make sure to really hit the areas that have the fine cuts so that they are extra secure.

Using a sponge brush, paint the letter with paint color of choice. I think a thicker paint would work better so that it doesn’t get the chance to run. However once I did that, I came back with a slightly thinner coat to really make sure the letter was covered. Take caution at the finer areas so that they don’t get over-saturated. Let dry completely. I used a hairdryer to help speed this up a bit as I’m not very patient!

Remove freezer paper template once the paint is completely dry then stretch the burlap onto the wooden frame and secure with the staple gun.

Then display your piece of artwork with pride! (This is a shelf in my scrap room, of course!)

What I learned in the process:
1. Most of this went beautifully, but I didn’t cut the canvas large enough the first time and therefore it was extremely hard to stretch. Give yourself plenty of working space.
2. It can be a little tricky to center your monogram onto your frame once it’s been painted. I haven’t tried it yet, but I might consider stretching your burlap first, then painting the monogram.
3. Gallery wrap the burlap at the sides of the canvas rather than at the top and bottom so that if you want it to sit on a shelf, it sits a little flatter.
4. MAKING CRAFTS IS FUN!

I hope this inspired you to get your creative mojo going and I can’t wait to see what you’ve created! 

~ Kelly

Angel Wings Home Décor Piece by Becky Fleck!

Good morning, SCT fans! We’ve already had two snows here in Montana, which makes me excited for the holiday season. Although Thanksgiving is upon us here in the United States, I’ve already begun working on many holiday projects, and I have one that I would like to share with you today.

I used the new Royal Christmas collection from Webster’s Pages for this piece. The traditional patterns and colours are simply stunning and the palette allowed me to graduate the colours across the wings. The wings can be made large to hang on a wall, or reduced in size to create an ornament. I made mine large (approximately 11” wide) to hang from a mirror in my dining room.

To make one of your own, start by downloading the pdf template pieces HERE. You’ll need patterned paper, chipboard, wet adhesive, foam adhesive, ink (optional), sewing thread and needle, a paper piercer, a banner die or a paper punch die, sheet adhesive, glitter, pearl gem, white pen, ribbon, a button and twine.

To get started, cover two 12”x12” sheets of chipboard with a neutral patterned paper or cardstock. For my example, I used a light ivory pattern. Trace the main wing pattern onto one 12”x12”piece and cut out. Trace the three single wings once, then flip them over and trace them again. Cut them out. Punch through all of the marked holes with a Crop-A-Dile or heavy-duty punch. Cover a scrap of chipboard with red patterned paper. Trace the large heart and cut it out. Ink all the edges, if desired. Trim out the small heart from the template and set it aside.

download template HERE

download template HERE

Determine the patterned papers you want to use to cover each set of wings. In my example, I started with browns and ivories on the main (bottom) layer, followed by greens, reds and golds. Die cut, paper punch or hand-cut a bunch of banners from your patterned papers. You’ll need approximately 15-18 for each wing (per side). Ink all of the edges of the banners, if desired.

Starting on the left side of the wing base, begin layering a row of banners loosely onto the bottom edge of the base wing. When you are happy with their position, lightly glue the banner pieces together and hand or machine sew a straight stitch across the top of the row. Glue it onto the base wing with foam adhesive. Repeat this process on each side until you’ve created three rows of banners. Repeat these steps on the right side.

Continue the same process on each wing piece. Since the wings will be overlapping one another, you only need to cover the bottom portion of each piece. When you reach the top wing layer, you’ll want to cover the entire wing.

Layer all but the very top wing pieces onto the wing base using foam adhesive, aligning the punched holes. Thread a length of ribbon through each hole and tie it off on the back. Adhere the final wing pieces with foam adhesive.

Machine or hand stitch around the perimeter of the heart. Trace the small heart onto a piece of sheet adhesive. Peel back one side of the release paper and adhere it to the center of the large heart. Peel back the remaining release paper and sprinkle glitter over it, pressing firmly. Shake off the excess glitter. With a white pen, hand draw faux stitches around the glitter edge.

Trim two lengths of ivory twine. Using an overhand knot, thread each piece into the button holes as shown. Glue the button to the center of the heart and tape off the ends of the twine onto the back. Add a pearl gem to the center of the button. Glue the heart to the center of the assembled wings with wet adhesive.

That’s it! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and are ready to make angel wings of your own. Something I thought of after I assembled the project is to add a bit of glitter to the tip of each banner. Wouldn’t that look pretty?

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here in the US and have a great week, everyone!

~ Becky Fleck

 

Pinterest Inspiration with Kelly Goree!

Hello, everyone! It’s Kelly Goree and I am here to share with you yet another (no sighs, please!) of my “True Confessions.”  Are you ready for it? (Brace yourself.)

I am a Pinterest addict.

Yes, it’s true. I can lose hours at a time browsing that site full of amazing eye candy with the best of them. And what’s more? I’m PROUD of it!

But here’s the thing. I have found myself spending more time Pinning than actually doing or using some of the amazing things I’ve seen. I’ve tried to be good about it. Really. (Don’t judge!) I’ve managed to do a few things and had some pretty great success, but I want to do more.  Because here’s the thing – I LOVE doing crafty things! I want to get off the computer and start creating.

So to that end, let me share just a few projects I’ve found on Pinterest that I’ve managed to complete along with the pin they came from.

The first project I ever did was this pair of Monster Jeans. I ADORE the creative way it fixed the hole in the knee of Carson’s jeans. And truth be told, I could have done this with 5 more pair! I wish I had known about this when my oldest was small. It would have saved me tremendously!

And then there was this pin. What kid wouldn’t enjoy waking up on their birthday with balloons all around?! Okay, so it wasn’t super crafty, I know, but it sure made my boy happy!

 

 
Or how about this pin teaching how to fold origami leaves? I loved it so much that I used the tutorial to create leaves of my own for last fall’s SCT cover!

 
I love this yarn covered number. It was probably one of the trickier pins I ever attempted but it has a place of honor in my scrapbook room now that it’s done!

But I have to say, no pins I have ever done have competed with these two….Harry Potter is HUGE in our house (with three boys how could it not be?) and what kid wouldn’t want their own wand and scarf!? I even went so far as to do the entire party but that’s a post for another day!

 

And now I’m doing to link you to my “one day when I have time” pin folder.  Yep. I’m putting it out there. It’s full of fun things that I’ve been saying I’ll do “one day”. Well TODAY is the day! I challenge myself to do one of these fun items in this folder this week! And I’ll be back to share it with you as well as how I did it on Wednesday! So my challenge to you is to do the same! Break out your Pinterest folders and create something you’ve always wanted to do!  Are you with me?!

See you Wednesday & Happy Creating,

~ Kelly

 

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Meet the Man behind We R Memory Keepers (and a giveaway)!

We recently had the pleasure of interviewing Andrew Hiller, the President of We R Memory Keepers!  Be sure to read all the way to the end to find out about his love of Twilight and today's giveaway!

WeR Memory Keepers turned 90 this year.  Can you share some of WeR’s history?

We started out as a premier bookbinding and preservation resources in the United States. A few years later, we began manufacturing one of the first albums intended for keeping memories stored safely and securely. You can see how easily that business turned into the emergence of scrapbooking and paper crafting products, which is where we are at today. Our entire business, for 90 years, has focused on preserving memories, and let me tell you, we’ve had a lot of fun ones over the years. Here are a few of my personal favorites.

When I was 12 I began working in the bookbinding business for my dad. I worked in a line putting books in boxes and hauling those 40 pound boxes of books here and there. My upper body can thank me for that. Unfortunately, to this day, my back is not so grateful.

I hate to admit this, but I was kind of a sassy kid (when I say kind of I mean really sassy). One day the assembly department became fed up with me. So they took me and stretch wrapped me to a pallet. Then, they used the forklift to put me up on the highest rack in the warehouse. They thought it was hilarious. My grandmother – who later found me – didn’t think it was that funny. Looking back, maybe I deserved it.

Where do you see WeR in 10 years?

That’s a great question. I see We R Memory Keepers continuing to grow and adapt to a changing market. For the past 90 years we’ve formulated our business around the idea that only thing you can count on is change. I don’t know what specific products we will have in the future, but I do know that as we continue to adapt, we will make the highest quality products (whatever they may be) because that’s what we do. And on a side note, we want to be the very best at that.

What has been the most popular product for We R?  Why do you think that is?

Our most popular product has been the Crop-A-Dile. Before the Crop-A-Dile was introduced, We R was only creating albums and paper. I remember going to a scrapbooking crop one night. I was absolutely floored at how noisy it was. All I could hear was hammering and pounding. It didn’t take me long to realize that there had to be a better solution. We combined the expertise that we already had with creating albums and setting eyelets in those albums and engineered a quieter solution. At that point we became problem solvers and that’s the part I most like about what I do.

WeR Memory Keepers is a true innovator of tools.  Was this always the vision of the company?

No. We just recognized the “problems” that scrapbookers were having and we decided to create a solution. In essence, we decided to make it easier for scrapbookers to build projects and we made the tools to make it easier for them to do so.

What does a day in the WeR office look like?

The best way to describe a typical day is organized chaos. Most of the day is spent in my office tied to my computer (well maybe not completely tied to my computer). As a company, we spend a lot of time in meetings as we plan and execute on those plans. We have a lot of dreams and visions that we are trying to fulfill. However, as a company we try hard to eat lunch together every day. Because we spend most of the day together, it’s important to me that we relate on a personal level also.

What were your dreams of future when you were a kid?

That’s a funny question. When I was a kid, I was convinced that I would be a super awesome movie star in an action movie. My mom, though supportive, helped me realize that maybe I needed to hit the books instead, so I did and ended up in finance. My dream then changed. I wanted to work on Wall Street and be a number cruncher, but that wasn’t in my plans either. I wish I could say that I had always dreamed of being part of my family’s business since I was a child, but it wasn’t until I had graduated from college and was working that my parents came to me and asked me to help run the business. My mom wrote me and told me that she needed help and the rest is history.

What do you do in your free time?

(Insert laugh). What’s free time? The hard part about owning a business is that you are on-call 24/7 so it is really hard to have “free” time. I’m a pretty casual guy so what I enjoy best is hanging out with my wife and kids. Sounds boring hu? But honestly, it’s what I love to do.  I can make a killer root beer float, I’m getting pretty good at duck-duck-goose (I can almost win), and I can sing (word for word) more Disney cartoon songs than most. When it’s just me and my wife, we love to find cool new restaurants to try. I guess you can call me a little bit of a foodie. We love hanging out with our friends and enjoying good food and good company. Oh and my all-time favorite food – chocolate cake made by my wife. It is to die for.

Rumour has it you are a bit of a Twilight fan?  Do tell!

Oh man! Here is the story. I’m a huge fan of making my wife happy and sometimes that involves Twilight movies. When the movies come out we rent a theater and invite all of our friends to join in the fun. We have prizes and food and it’s an awesome time. Do I like the movie? Maybe.

Fast five:

Burger or steak?

This should be such an easy question for me to answer and yet it’s not. The answer is yes. I LOVE both.

Car or truck?

A car. And if the sky is the limit An Aston Martin would be the exact one because who wouldn’t want to be James Bond?

Beach or Disneyland?

I love both. Every time I am near Disneyland, I make it a point to hang out on the beach. They are both so close so I love to experience them both.

Theatre or TV?

I am a movie guy so you will almost always find me in a theater or watching movies instead of watching TV.

Cats or dogs?

Dogs for sure. That’s an easy one for me.

 

Thank you Andrew for taking the time to share a bit of yourself and We R Memory Keepers with us. 

Are you ready for a giveaway SCT fans?

Here is your chance to win a classic tool from We R Memory Keepers – the Crop-A-Dile – along with the brand new Mini 8 Punch! Stop by We R’s FB page and become a fan. For your chance to win these amazing tools, leave a comment below, before Nov. 22 at 10PM EST, telling us which We R tool you love best.

Good luck and have a fabulous weekend!

Colour Suite challenge for November with Summer Fullerton!

Welcome to the November Colour Suite!  This is the fourth installment of our journey through colour theory. This month we are looking at tetradic or rectangular colours. A tetradic colour grouping consists of 4 colours made up by 2 complementary pairs. These colours visually form a rectangle on the colour wheel hence the rectangular reference. This colour palette works best when the colours are evenly balanced out by warm and cool tones. The warm hues I chose for us to work with this month are yellow and red while the cool hues are purple and green. As a whole the colours I chose this month are not extremes in either direction therefore making them easy to work with. I rounded out this months challenge with a base neutral of white.

Supplies Used: Patterned Paper from Simple Stories/Studio Calico/Pink Paislee/My Minds Eye/Pebbles/American Crafts/Lily Bee/Bo Bunny/Jillibean Soup, Washi Tape Bella Blvd, Crate Paper Buttons, My Minds Decorative Brad, Tab Punch We R Memory Keepers, Wood Embellishment Studio Calico, Misc Velum, Tiny Attacher Tim Holtz, Silhouette Cutting System, White Floss, Black Pen, and fonts Bohemian Typewriter/journaling and OldSansBlack/Title
 
When I start putting together my colours I often study my colour wheel and then pull patterned papers until the right look is achieved. After I selected this month’s colours I thought they were really bright and almost not really appropriate for a November challenge. I almost changed the entire suite but I was intrigued by the idea of working with a nontraditional seasonal colour grouping. While this palette initially feels really summer like simply by focusing more on the white, purple and green my layout feels like it could fit any part of the year. This is the nature of colour it can be manipulated and pushed in any direction.

Thank you for joining me this month and happy crafting!

~ Summer

Two exciting things today...and one is a very special giveaway!!!

Hi, everyone! It’s Sheri Reguly back today to share a few holiday greeting cards with you. If you’ll recall, I used this fun and colorful paper by Echo Park to create the layout that I shared with you the other day.
 

 
After using the border strips and a few additional pieces to create my design, I was left with several remaining journaling blocks. By combining the journaling blocks with cardstock scraps and miscellaneous odds and ends that I happened to have on hand, I was able to create an additional series of 3 coordinating cards, as well as a festive gift tag.
 


 

(additional miscellaneous supplies: kraft snowflake and stick pin: Maya Road, die cuts: Martha Stewarts Crafts, “love you” tag: Bella Blvd., misc. stickers: Echo Park, gems and pearls: Queen & Co.)
 
One layout, 3 cards, and a keepsake tag (that can double as a tree ornament,) all from a single sheet of patterned paper. That’s definitely stretching your scrapbooking dollar! I even have a few little pieces remaining to use on future projects.
 
Thanks for joining me, and as always, happy scrapping! ~ Sheri Reguly

You know when you see something that just makes you giddy inside?  That feeling of "oh my goodness I MUST HAVE THIS?"   Well, I have that feeling today and just had to share.  Are you ready?  Echo Park Paper is releasing their brand new Photo Freedom collections today and we have not one, not two, but THREE collections to give away to three amazing SCT readers!   Photo Freedom is the "keep it easy" approach to scrapbooking designed by Stacy Julian to capture your everyday memories quickly.  Stacy and Echo Park Paper have teamed up and created some fabulous new collections using the Photo Freedom Philosophy <swoon>!   Here are the first three collections:

To learn more about this AMAZING system, check out their blog and video here and while your at it, download the brand new FREE idea book!!!  You can also learn more by visiting the Echo Park Paper website here.  We are going to giveaway two collections on our blog by leaving a comment below (by Thursday, November 22nd) AND you have the opportunity to win a third collection by sharing today's Facebook post here!  Of course we are thrilled Echo Park Paper chose us to help celebrate this launch so if you could visit their facebook page here and send them a warm "SCT THANK YOU!", I know they would love that.

Have a wonderful day SCT friends!   xoxoxoxo

~  Catherine