Lantern and Mini - Graphic 45 December Challenge: 12 Days of Christmas

I decided that I wanted to participate in December's challenge over at Graphic 45. We are to use the 12 Days of Christmas collection for the project of our choice. I have plenty of left over scraps from projects and classes, but what to make? It was Dana (my daughter) that gave me the inspiration when we were discussing papercrafting. Want to know what it is?

Here is a slide show of all the photos taken around the lantern.

Constructed from 9 pieces of 12 x 12 black chipboard and standing 20" tall with the base at 6 x 6 and the widest top measurement at nearly 10", this Christmas home decor piece has a surprise inside.

Before I go on I want to mention that inside was to have been one of those battery operated candles (or tea light) but try and get one after Christmas!

I have several photos, 28 to be exact, but I'll just show a few, and leave the rest to the walk-through video.

The top of the lantern acts as a lid, so that you can turn on your battery candle or tea light, or maybe add other things inside.I think I should have added some embellishment at the top of the lantern. Dana agrees with me. So I'll probably do that now that I've taken all these photos and created the video! Maybe I should have put some clear panels in the lid/roof too!

Most of the mini will be shown to you in the video later.

I'll spare you 20 more photos. But here's a collage of the mini-album photos.

Let's have a look at the video. That's an easier way to see everything.

Thank you so much for joining me and having a look at my Graphic 45 December 2013 Challenge project.

For those of you interested, as I mentioned in the video, I will have instructions for this project some time with in the next three months at my other blog (Paper Architecture with Sabrina).

Happy New Year!

Exciting News & Sweet Sentiments Teaser

Hello everyone!

I have some exciting news to share with you today! A couple of months ago I was asked to be a Guest Instructor for Scrap Addicts in Edmonton, Alberta for an event they are having in February! It's on my birthday too, so that will be a fun thing to be doing on that day. I was asked to work with Graphic 45's newest collections, Couture and Sweet Sentiments. Apparently they are Graphic 45 fans just as much as I am! If you'd like to check out Scrap Addicts in Edmonton's blog, click here. (The event has not been mentioned yet, but they did post my Couture Birthday Card in a Box!

Since the announcement hasn't officially been made, I will only be showing you some teaser photos. I'll post the actual project soon though, so watch for it.

Well that's it for now. Shouldn't be too much longer and you can see the whole thing, and another big project I'm working on, too! Hope you liked the little peek?

Happy papercrafting! And, Happy New Year !

The Last Christmas Card

This is probably the last Christmas card that this blog will see for awhile. A friend of mine is particular about receiving handmade cards. ;)

 I used a dark, shimmery card base and linen vellum snow drifts as the back drop for this cute little Lawn Fawn snowman. Some Copic coloring and white heat embossing and voila! A satisfied friend. :)

{Supplies--all Papertrey Ink unless noted}

• Cardstock: Night Sky shimmer, Stamper's Select White, Pure Poppy, Linen Vellum
• Stamps: Making Frosty Friends (Lawn Fawn), heart - A Little Birdie Told Me (Lawn Fawn)
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black and Versamark (Tsukineko)
• Dies: In The Meadow, heart - A Little Birdie Told Me (Lawn Fawn)
• Other Tools: Glossy Accents and Black Enamel Accents (Ranger), assorted Copics, white embossing powder (Filigree)

My Christmas Gift to Mom - Multi-Purpose Tray Organizer

Merry Christmas, Mom!

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I grew up having our Christmas on Christmas Eve, so that means my Mom now has her gift, and I can post it...actually I scheduled it.

My Mom is writing her life story along with a little family history. I look forward to reading it even though I have heard some of these stories throughout my life. I wanted to make her something for Christmas that might help her with this project. I don't know how many chapters she will end up with, but this would be a start. I came up with a tray-organizer, and using the beautiful spring papers of Graphic 45's Sweet Sentiments, this is the result.

I used all but five sheets from the 12 x 12 paper pad, with some scraps enough to make a few cards as well. The project measures 12 3/8" w x 5 3/4" d x 9 1/4" h.

It starts with a chipboard base tray, and all of the parts that go into it are individual pieces that you can configure it in different ways. Here is the tray alone.

Here are all the parts!

You see 15 mini-magazine-like holders, a pen & pencil holder, and a compartment to hold notebooks and more. Here's a shot with the notebook.

Here is an individual little mini-magazine-like holder.

So when all the parts are assembled in the tray in the configuration you like, you have a useful organizational tool. In the YouTube video, I demonstrate some different uses for this project. But, first let's look at the loaded tray from all angles.

So that's it for the photos, but you can view a walk through video where I also share a few multi-purpose uses for this project.

What other functions for this project can you come up with?

Thank you for stopping by to share in my gift to my Mom. (Added late Christmas Eve: My Mom loved it!)

My Christmas Gift to Dad - Desk Set

Merry Christmas Dad!

I grew up having Christmas on Christmas Eve, and since we will be busy on the 24th, I'm scheduling this for that day... my Dad won't see it before Christmas Eve.

A person always wants to make something as a gift for a loved one that will be something they will like and use. My Dad likes to read and make notes using a lot of stickies or post-it notes. I came up with something I could make him and went through my stash of dollar store repurposing/project stuff. I found a frame, and a box that would work beautifully for what I had in mind. But, what paper could I use? What paper could I use for a man? I decided to check out the many scraps I have from all those classes I've taught. Guess what I found? A bin full of Graphic 45's Bird Song scraps! I love those papers.

So here is the end result.

I've included a frame so that my Dad (& Mom) can place in it a more current photo of me. I' happy that I had all these strips to work with! Let's look at the frame first, shall we.

You can see that I added some red on the side edges of the frame.

In this photo you can see the little knob that I added to the top of the frame, hanging a tassel I made with a wooden bead. I also created a charm using black chipboard and a couple of the stamps I had left from an 8 x 8 pad.

Looking at the box you can see a Kaisercraft Metal Label Pull for a place to hold and open the box with.

Here is the box open.

On the lid you can see that I repeated the image inside using the smaller version from the 8 x 8 pad, while the outside has the same image from the 12 x 12 cropped   bit at the top and bottom. this way I was able to hide the adhesive for both image panels while creating red side borders for the one on the inside!

You will also note that I line the box bottom with cork! I created divers with black chipboard and glued them into the box. I added an entire package of mechanical pencils from the dollar store, for my Dad. He's always needing a pencil sharpener, so I hope this helps him. Then I have, also from the dollar store, a variety of post-it note sizes and colours for his reading notes, and more. I created a little section to act as a mini bulletin board where he can post notes to himself or reminders, and the note can be seen even when the box is closed. With that little mini-bulletin section I then had include some tacks too.

I hope that my Dad will like this set. So back to both the frame and box together again.

So that's it for my Dad's Christmas gift. I found that I have enough Bird Song scraps to make a few more things. I wonder when I can get to that?

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas! A wonderful time of the year!

Gift Card Holders You Can Hang in Your Tree!

I had a few packages of Graphic 45 cardstock banners, pockets & tags, and chipboard die cuts left from Graphic 45's 12 Days of Christmas collection and wanted to use them up. Plus, I wanted to avoid any fussy cutting what so ever on this project not only so I could use up all this stuff, but I wanted to keep it simple and fairly quick. And then, I came across the talented Arlene Cuevas beautiful gift card project posted both on the Graphic 45 blog and Arlene's blog, and I knew that I could use up all these pieces using Arlene's idea. Thank you Arlene! I also happened to have a package of Large Tag Album tags to use on this project!

So here they are!

Some of the things that I did differently from Arlene are, 1) no fussy cutting as I mentioned earlier, 2) I used as many of the embellishments from the banners, chipboard, and pocket & tags as I could, 3) I didn't keep to one theme for each holder - I mixed them all up, and 4) I also added a ribbon that would make it possible to hang the gift cards in their little packages on the tree as part of the tree decorations.

Even though the colors of these little holders are not the colors I have for my tree, I wanted to show you what they look like on the tree. The flash refused to go off when taking these photos so they aren't the best.

Now, I'll show you each gift card holder and what it looks like inside.

Well, I certainly will have fun making others like these for other occasions throught the year!

Thank you for checking in today to have a look. If you're wondering about that big project I mentioned a few posts ago, I'm still working on it. I just had to quickly get the last three projects & posts done before I could continue on with it. I'm looking forward to showing it to you. hee hee...

Happy papercrafting!

Couture Birthday! - Tri-Fold Card in a Box

It even has a Gift Card pocket!

Wanting to go a little out of the box (pun intended) with this card, I decided to create a Tri-Fold Accordion Card and include a hidden Gift Card pocket. I wanted it all packaged up in a pretty card box since it's too thick to go into an envelope. And, of course, I just had to use more of the Graphic 45 Couture collection. So here you see the card and it's companion box.

Now let's have a look at just the box.

...taking the lid off of the box...

...were you can see the card. When you take the card out of the box...

...every page of the card has a birthday greeting so that it can be seen from several angles (or could be for a set of triplets, hee - hee).

So, let's have a closer look at each panel...

Now we'll look at the back two panels, one of which has the pocket for a nice gift card.

So that's it for this set. Thank you for stopping by to have a peek and leaving your comment.

And, of course, Happy Papercrafting!

Added Dec 17, 2013: This card was featured this morning on the Graphic 45 Ning Feature page!  http://graphic45.ning.com/photo/photo/listFeatured?xg_source=msg_feat_photo  This will be my 5th feature over the last two years! Make my days, lol.

Added Dec 27, 2013: Can't believe it! Graphic 45 feature this card again on their blog today!  http://g45papers.typepad.com/graphic45/2013/12/graphic-45-ning-gallery-highlights-.html
 Talk about excitment! TY Graphic 45!

• Cardstock:  Bazzill Cardshoppe Licorice Twist 12 x 12
• Patterned Paper: Graphic 45 Couture 8 x 8 & 6 x 6
• Accessories: Graphic 45 Cardstock Flowers, Graphic 45 Cardstock Banners, Bisque Liquid Pearls, Creative Charms Vintage Brads - Blue
• Other Tools: Scissors, Bone folder, Scotch Quick Dry glue, ScorTape, Martha Stewart Butterfly Punches, Martha Stewart Score Board, Fiskars SureCut Deluxe Paper Trimmer, Memento Black Tuxedo ink pad, black marker, Tim Holtz Pumice Stone Ink pad & Rangers Ink Blending tool