A Touch of Scrap

I have honestly been busy trying to get some crucial things finished for gifts that have absolutely NOTHING to do with scrapbooking!

I finished a pair of socks I started three years ago…my bad.

The socks came from a wonderful pattern, but when I finished the first one, it didn’t fit, so I let it sit for the next few years.

When a friend of mine came over (yet again, another who doesn’t read my blog) about a month ago, she tried it on, and it fit as if it were made for her. Since her birthday is the 23rd of this month, that was incentive enough for me to finish the second sock.

And there it is…completed after so long.

That’s not the only thing I’ve been doing, but it’s all I can show right now. You’ll understand why after the 21st of this month.

Due to the fact that I would have to pack everything away for however many weeks, and I really don’t want to do so, we’ve put on hold re-doing the floors in my craft room. Thank goodness!

Probably because of the “threat” of not being able to scrap, I’ve been scrapping like crazy lately. A friend showed me a gift another scrapper made for her for Christmas. I fell in love with it - and found the tutorial for it on the internet:

Stationary Box

There is also a video tutorial, though I’ve not checked it out:

Stationary Box Video Tutorial

It is an awesome project, and I have thoroughly enjoyed making it - and plan on making several more for gifts.

One that I finished is for my mother (who also never reads my blog - lol), so I don’t mind posting pictures:

It is a bit time-consuming (takes me about a day and a half to put one together with time off for sleeping and eating, of course), but it is such a fun gift to make.

I did take a few liberties while making this. One change I made is where the “gift” cards are supposed to go, I made return address labels instead. On another set I made, I changed the “gift” cards to a To-Do list booklet pocket instead.

(The flowers are my version of the retro flower punch. I designed them on Inkscape and cut them out on Sure Cuts A Lot.)

You can alternate it anyway you want.

Another thing I did was before Christmas, and it’s a Christmas card I made for Scrubby. The pattern came from Fun With Photos Memories & More I mentioned in a previous post. A picture of the front of the card is below:

The hearts open up to reveal the sentiment inside. I used a Fiskars texture plate (snowflakes) for the silver back, and cuttlebugged the hearts themselves.

Holly, my scrapping teacher friend, cleaned out her craft room while incorporating a new filing system. She gave me quite a few goodies, which is where the stickers on the front of the cards for my mother came from. They were perfect, so I need to thank Holly yet again for making my day!

So 2009 is getting off to a good start, and I’m looking forward to doing a lot more!

Another Recipe Book

This is another recipe book I made for someone learning how to cook.

The kit was purchased from Oriental Trading Company. This is a project I did months ago - in fact, it was shortly after I began scrapping.

I enjoyed making the book because it gave me an opportunity to try out just about everything I had learned at that point.

The tabs that were supposed to be placed for dividing the different types of recipes were used for another purpose. I made pockets on the back of each recipe card and created inserts to describe the recipes. (Like I said, this was made for someone who is only now learning how to cook.)

It was a lot of fun to do, and I love the colors that were used. (If you remember, I made another one with bright oranges, greens and blues for our daughter’s birthday.)

My dad doesn’t read my blog. That’s a good thing right now. Here is the card I made yesterday for his birthday coming up on the 18th.

This is off the top of my head, folks, and I know it’s simple, but my dad is a simplistic type person and would not like a bunch of froufrou.

Anyway, I got to try out a few of my new goodies! The “u” is from the Big Letter Stamps, the flower is a double punch out from the Stacking Daisy punch, the heart design on the left is Cuttlebug Heart Blocks A2 Embossing folder.

The ornamental flourish was stamped using Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress Ink.

I added some gold glitter glue to the topmost flower petals and placed a purple rhinestone in the center.

The background “u” was stamped using Tim Holtz Walnut Stain Distress Ink and the front “u” was stamped and heat embossed with gold embossing powder.

I didn’t take a picture of the inside of the card because it’s sentimental mush meant for my dad only, but I did print the sentiment on vellum and edged the vellum with the Fiskars Border Punch-Treading Water, finishing it off with another flourish in the lower left corner.

All in all, it’s probably just right for my dad. Let’s hope so…it’s going out in the mail this weekend.

On a side note (and on the side bar), I’ve got a link to an adorable camel named Kamila. You must, and I do mean must, take a look!

It’s been a long while since I’ve posted anything. Sorry about that! What with the election and constantly being on the go, I’ve not taken the time.

The 1-2-3D Paper Crafting System is not a necessity in scrapping, but it sure is fun! The first picture is a round box I made. The mat is 12 x 12, which should give you an idea of the size of the box. The height of the box is approximately 7 inches.

The second picture is a book to be filled in by the recipient - A Book About Me, in other words. Both were given as gifts, which I can only hope are appreciated because I think it’s important for everyone to leave their stories behind for future generations.

So hopefully they will stuff the box with mementos (a lock of baby’s hair, ticket stubs from a special occasion, etc.) and fill the book with everything future generations will want to know.

As promised, here are pictures of the book I made for Mel. I ended up having to alter it a bit after these pictures were taken.

The book itself came from Oriental Trading. I used Colorbok Punch-out Pack Bright for the most part. The ribbons, of course, were from other sources.

One of the alterations I had to make was the rings that came with the book. They weren’t big enough, which you can tell by the picture. We bought much bigger rings, and the doggone thing still wouldn’t adjust right (plus the pages would not flip over without a struggle!). Thanks to Dorothy, we figured out we needed to remove the two outer rings in order to make it work.

Happy Birthday, sweetie!!!

This project was too much fun! I’ve been hanging a bit since finishing it, but I do need to start on the next birthday present, which falls on the 23rd of this month.

I’ve been working on several things at once the last few days. Hubby spent a guys weekend in Key West, so I had all the time in the world to scrap - and scrap I did!

The above took awhile. I started it a couple of weeks ago and wanted it to be “just so” without knowing what “just so” was. The backing paper is brown with a stone embossing done with Fiskars texture plate. I aged the opening somewhat with chalk.

The second layer had a section torn out, and I curled the edges, making them look scorched with distressing ink. The leaves were designed in Inkscape and imported into Sure Cuts A Lot and were cut out on the Cricut. I then crushed each one, opened them back up and distressed them with ink as well. I used the 3D squares to mount each one.

The journal was done on vellum, aged with ink, and I only sewed the outside edge of it onto the backing. The small picture insert was mounted under the second layer and exposed, the edges of the hole also aged.

I used clear journal stamps for the background under the “M” and “S”, the letters themselves are die cuts. The rest of the lettering was printed on vellum. I used thin copper wire to wrap the “M” and dangle a heart charm. (Whenever I leave messages for my kids, I always sign “Mom” followed by a heart, so it seemed only appropriate to do the same here.)

A few more touches - flower and ribbon embellishments - finished it off.

This is my oldest son, and he really doesn’t want his picture on the net, but he has to deal with it ’cause I’m proud of the time and effort I put into this page just to show how much he means to me!

Here’s my little fella along with the page I said I was going to build next, which I did. Everything on it is so improvised - especially the pots and spoons, which were cut out freehand. I think it turned out okay, though. It’s definitely different from anything else I’ve done before. The background screams, but had ya’ll been there when he was banging on those pots, believe me, it fits. Now I just have to decide what I’m going to do next. Sometimes they practically do themselves; other times, it’s a struggle. This one did itself…along with a glass of white zinfandel.<smile>