Everyone has a story to tell, here's mine sprinkled with some creative projects along the way.
Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back again.



Friday, March 28, 2014

Thanks a million card *Inspired By Stamping*

What are some of the ways you say thank you to someone? Well for me, I usually say it through a handmade card. 

Thanks a Million card
I created this card with some Inspired By Stamping products.
I started off with a dark cardstock for a background so that the beautiful images on the Vintage Floral paper pad would stand out more.

I have this scalloped circle already made from a previous project and I stamped the inside of it with the diamond background and then handcut the inside where I placed a yellow paper behind it and then stamped my sentiment. I found that by doing so, I was able to make the sentiment stand out better.

I also stamped some leaves from this stamp set, hand cut them and then adhered just the bottoms of them to the card. I love the effect of the leaves slightly flying off of the card base.

So there you have it. I hope that this card inspired you to make something crafty today.

till next time,
Grace

Supplies Used:
Vintage Floral paper pad, Inspired By Stamping
Fancy Circles, Inspired By Stamping
Little Flowers, Inspired By Stamping
Trendy Circle sentiments, Inspired By Stamping
Others: Cardstock, Flower, Button, Twine, Ink pads, Scallop circle die cut, Adhesives

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Dressed up Canvas tote *Ribbons Unlimited Inc*

Hi Crafty friends. Today I would like to share with you how I added some beautiful Ombre ribbon from Ribbons Unlimited Inc. and a couple of few other things to dress up a plain canvas tote.

I got this tote at my local craft store. They came in a three pack which is great to make one for you and two more for friends or family.

The one thing I learned (the hard way) in creating this project is that you'll need A LOT of ribbon. I had about 4 feet of the Ombre ribbon but after ruffling them, I was only able to make two lines of ruffled accents instead of the three that I had initially planned for this tote.

Are you ready to learn how to recreate this bag? Read on for the instructions and supplies...

Instructions:

1. Sew a straight stitch on one long edge of the ribbon. Do not close the stitches on the beginning nor the end of the ribbon.

2. Pull the thread away from the ribbon gently to create the ruffles. Do this until you've ruffled the entire length of your ribbon.

3. Place the ruffled ribbon over the bag to see where to cut the trims. Fold the ends and sew the ruffled trim on the bag. This time, make sure you close the stitches on both ends. Repeat the process with as many ruffles you'd like your bag to have.

4. For additional accents, add premade flowers on the left side of the bag.

5. Cut a title (or name) from a vinyl sheet using a die cut machine. Peel the negative part of the cut and adhere to the bag.

6. Mix a little bit of textile medium to your acrylic paint of choice. By adding the medium and following the procedure to treat the paint, your paint shouldn't fade if you wash the tote. Add paint over the space inside the negative space of the template. Make sure you don't go over the spaces. Set aside to dry.
Once completely dried, carefully peel the vinyl sheet to reveal the painted word.

Supplies Used:
Ombre ribbon- Morning; 1 1/2" wide wired ribbon, Ribbons Unlimited Inc.
Canvas bag- Hobby Lobby
Fabric Flowers- Jolee's Boutique, EK Success
Vinyl sheet- Glue Arts
Paint and textile medium- Plaid Enterprises
Die cut machine- Cameo, Silhouette
Thread and Sewing Machine

Till next time,
Grace

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Selfies layout *Ribbons Unlimited Inc.*

Hello friends. Today I’m going to share with you some ways I sprinkle some ribbon goodness into my scrapbook pages. "Selfies" are all the rage now and I decided to print some of mine up for this “on-trend” scrapbook layout. 

Two of my favorite go-to techniques to add ribbon to a scrapbook page are to stamp with it and to create a handmade accent with the trims. In this page, I stamped some sentiment words on the satin ribbon using Stazon. This allowed me to personalize my accents to match my theme.

The second one was creating this beautiful yellow flower with ribbon. I was inspired to create it to match the rose necklace I was wearing on two of the photos. Matching it with something in my photo creates cohesiveness in the project.

Instructions:
 1. Gather your supplies.

 2. Cut a circle big enough to fill the inside space of the doily from pattern paper. Repeat the process one more time and adhere the circle shapes to two doilies.

 3. Adhere the decorated doilies on two opposite ends of the cardstock base.

 4. Cut out 11 ¾” strips from Yellow grosgrain ribbon, add adhesive on the back and adhere to the cardstock creating a frame around the doilies.
Add the photos on the center of the layout, overlapping some of them over parts of the doilies.

 5. Stamp sentiments on the Pastel green satin ribbon. Use an ink like Stazon to make sure your stamped design transfers perfectly on the smooth surface of the ribbon. Cut the ends into notches. Adhere to the bottom part of the photos.
Add stars in between the sentiment phrases using adhesive dots.

 6. Punch out a small circle (about 1 ¼”) from pattern paper. Adhere a large glue dot over it. Cut out 3” strips from Yellow grosgrain ribbon, fold in half and adhere to the circle (with adhesive). Fill the circle with folded ribbon pieces until it resembles a flower. Add a button (threaded with twine) on the center for a finished look. Adhere to the layout.

7. Add the title with stickers and cut out the printed journaling into strips and adhere to the layout.

Thank you for joining me today and I can’t wait to see how you use these techniques on your next project. Happy Creating!

Till next time,
Grace


Supplies Used:
#995Grosgrain stripes, Yellow, 3/8”, Ribbons Unlimited Inc.
Cardstock- Worldwin Papers
Pattern paper- Crate Paper
Doily and Letter stickers- Doodlebug Design Inc.
Stars- Studio Calico
Button- American Crafts
Bling- Bazzill
Sentiment stamps- Inspired By Stamping
Circle cutter- Creative Memories
Journaling font- Century Gothic, MS Word
Twine- Source Unknown


Monday, March 24, 2014

Being a Mom layout *Inspired By Stamping*

 Hello friends. Today I'd like to share a layout I created with two of the latest stamp releases from Inspired by Stamping. I'm always inspired by IBS stamps and my favorite part of the new release are the word/sentiment stamps. Joanna designs stamps that  makes it easy for me to say the right words in my projects.  :)

EverydayGreetings

Being  a Mom layout
DSC_6084

Since the sets were geared towards the Mother's day theme, I decided to create a page about being a mother. One of the things I am consciously trying to do is turn the camera towards me or hand it to my husband so I can be in the photos. I know that someday, my children will appreciate these photos of me in it. I compiled four of them in this layout. All of these pictures were taken last year. I used the lovely papers from the Vintage Rose paper pack as my background. To give it some interest, I placed them at an angle and in strips. This allowed me to put more of them in my page without taking away too much from my photos. I also used neutral toned cardstocks to make them pop out better.

DSC_6087
I stamped this beautiful floral design on white cardstock, cut the shape out and then adhered it to my page with foam adhesive. To give it more dimension, I added some rhinestones in the center of the flowers.

DSC_6090
My favorite part of this page are the sentiments. I stamped a few of them that I thought matched my page theme very well on yellow paper, trimmed them with a notch on the right side and then stapled the sides to add some more interest and texture.

DSC_6091
I used the "always remember" part of a sentiment to create a visual triangle in the page.
Thank you so much for stopping by today and I can't wait to see how you turn my layout as an inspiration for your next crafty project.

Till next time,
Grace 
 
Inspired-by-Stamping.png
Vintage Floral Paper pad- Inspired By Stamping
Everyday Greetings stamp set- Inspired By Stamping
Mother's day Bouquet stamp set- Inspired By Stamping
Cardstock- DCWV
Rhinestones- Kaiser Craft
Pen- Millenium, Zig
Vellum- WorldWin Papers
Letter stickers- (brown) Creative Memories; (chipboard) GCD Studios
Others- Ink pads, Staple and Stapler, Corner rounder

Thursday, March 20, 2014

With Warmest Birthday Wishes card *Inspired By Stamping*

Hello and happy Thursday. 

Today I'm sharing a card I created with some of my favorite stamp sets from Inspired By Stamping

With Warmest Birthday Wishes card
I love creating birthday cards. I mean, you can never get enough of them. This time, I used a couple of papers from the Vintage Floral paper pad as my backdrop, handcutting the rose to add to the bottom edge of the card, and then using the Summer postcard stamp set to add whimsy and more design to this project.

I also used the "a lovely birthday" set to make my sentiment.

I made the front panel of my card stand out better by adhering it to the background with foam adhesive.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you have a creative-filled day.

till next time,
Grace

Supplies Used:
A lovely birthday stamp set, Inspired By Stamping
Summer Post card stamp set, Inspired By Stamping
Vintage floral paper pad, Inspired by Stamping
Others- Cardstock, brown pattern paper, ink pads, adhesive.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Altered Flower Belt *Epiphany Crafts*

Hello  friends, Grace here to share with you my take on the “scallop” theme that Epiphany Crafts had over at their blog. One of my favorite things about EC products is how versatile it is. One day I can use them to add embellishment to my cards or scrapbook pages and sometimes I venture out of my papercraft supplies and use them for other crafty endeavors such as this altered flower belt. It was so easy to turn a simple Goodwill belt find from drab to fab by adding some homemade fabric flowers and finishing them off with metal and vintage charms from Epiphany Crafts.

DSC_5968

DSC_5970

DSC_5972
Look at my beautiful model. Doesn’t the flower belt just add that special something to her outfit?

DSC_5974

Supplies Used: Epiphany Crafts Shape Studio Tool Round 14 SST-02 Epiphany Crafts Shape Studio Accessories Bubble Caps Round 14 SSA-08 Epiphany Crafts Vintage Settings Epiphany Crafts Shape Studio Tool Oval 25 SST-37 Epiphany Crafts Shape Studio Accessories Bubble Caps Oval 25 SSA-39 Epiphany Crafts Metal Charms Oval 2537-53 Belt- Thrift Store Assorted Fabric scraps- Sources Unknown Fabric scissors Glue Gun Pen/Marker Glue gun and glue stick

Instructions:
DSC_4616
1. Use a thicker fabric like canvas to use as a base for your fabric flowers. Use a 2” circle as a marker and trace the shape on the canvas fabric. Cut out using pinking shears or fabric scissors.

DSC_4618
2. Cut out 4 2 ½” circles from a fabric. Fold in quarters and cut out the top of the triangles into a heart shape. This will create the scallop edge of the flowers. Repeat this step using a 1 ¾” circle.

DSC_4620
3. Repeat step 2 for as many flowers as you would like your belt to have. Adhere all the pieces together, layering the smaller scallop circles over the larger ones and set aside to dry.

DSC_4623
4. Pick some pattern papers that would coordinate with your fabric flowers. Punch three out using the oval tool and bubble caps and two from the round 14 tool.

DSC_4625
5. Adhere the bubble stickers on the centers of the vintage and metal charms. Adhere them to the center of the flowers using the glue gun. Adhere the finished flowers on the belt, centering them on the back of the buckle if desired.

 Thank you for stopping by and have a crafty day.

Till next time,
Grace