Quote of the Week

"Nothing makes a woman more beautiful then the belief that she is beautiful"
-Sophia Loren

Cookie Sheet Calendar Tutorial

Hi! It's Angela Fehr here and I'm excited to show you one of my favorite altered projects, my cookie sheet calendar. I designed this one to fit a 10" x 15" cookie sheet or larger, and all the months and dates are magnetic, so it can be used perpetually. What I love most is that it is totally customizable - use the paper that suits your decor and you have a calendar you can display proudly!

My calendar is made using 3 sheets of 12" x 12" double-sided patterned paper, two sheets of card stock and about five sheets of 12"x12" chipboard. You'll also need a few sheets of magnetic material, fairly strong (not the super thin stuff that goes through a printer), a glue gun and lots of embellishments.

Cut both paper and chipboard to the following sizes and quantities:

40 squares, 1.25" x 1.25" Cut a few more if you want to do some birthday or special occasion pieces.

12 strips, 1.5" x 9.5" - these are your months

1 strip, .5" x 9.5" - this is your days of the week strip

1 piece, 4.5" x 9.5" this is your header strip

You will need a piece of clear acetate or vinyl for the photo pocket. Cut to 4" x 6" and stitch to header paper on three sides, leaving top open for the photo.

Using stickers or stamps (I have a selection of alphabet stamps from Close to My Heart that I use a lot and I love that my Clip It Up Mini keeps them always near at hand), number and decorate your date pieces. You will need the numbers 1-31, plus one square that is 23/30 and one that is 24/31, plus six blank squares for any empty spaces when the calendar is arranged.

After stamping or stickering, adhere paper pieces to chipboard pieces. Embellish as desired.

Cut the magnetic material into pieces about 1" x .5". Hot glue to back of chipboard. Long strips like the header and the month strips take 2 or 3 pieces of magnet.

I painted my cookie sheet using a dark espresso matte spray paint - go ahead and paint yours to suit your style, or leave it au naturel.

Punch a hole in the top of your cookie sheet to hang it, and arrange your dates to fit the month. This makes a great gift!

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Watercolour Web Site & Blog
Scraps From My Table scrapbooking blog

"Our New Addition"

Spring brings so many new things.  For our family, Spring brought a new puppy named Scout.  He is just so adorable.  Our pets are definitely like our children, so I created this "puppy announcement" to send to the grandparents.  I included lots of details to make this card special.

1.  Scalloped scissors make paper edges interesting.  Choose a small, simple edge, such as pinking shears or small scallops to draw attention to layered papers.

2.  Use book pages with small print to separate layers of patterned paper.  The small print adds interest without competing with the colored paper.

3.  Choose patterned papers in complementary colors.  One way to achieve this is to use papers in one collection.  For this card, I used the "Bella Blue and Oscar Too" collection by Nikki Sivils.  The small prints of dog houses, collars, and bowls was just perfect for my puppy card.

4.  Use chipboard accents for dimension.  I painted this chipboard tree with green crackle paint for texture, added hand drawn stitches to the tree trunk, and used dimensional glaze on the chipboard dog.

5.  Stitch it up.  I machine stitched around several layers and the photo, but hand drawn stitches or doodling are also great for details.

6.  Ink the edges.  I'm a firm believer that everything is better with a little ink :)  I used tan ink around the edges of each layer to clearly define the papers.

7.  Bling it up.  Don't be afraid to add a little sparkle to your projects.  I used silver glitter glue to accent the patterned paper, flower diecut, and dog collar.

8.  Fussy cut it.  Take advantage of those great images on your patterned paper.  I cut the flower and dog bowl from images on the patterned paper and layered them on my photo and chipboard tree.

9.  Use those computer fonts.  I love my sticker letters, but sometimes I need a style or size that only my computer can provide.  I used my Word program to type this tiny title.

10.  Invest in good black and white pens.  They can be your best friends.  Not only are they wonderful for journaling, they are a must for doodling, hand drawn stitches, and correcting mistakes.  My favorite white pen is the Sakura Gelly Roll Medium Pen.  My favorite black pen is the Zig Dual Writer.

Keep your supplies organized with great products from Simply Renee.  I love using my Clip It Up Jumbo Organizer to keep patterned papers, stamps, and kits within reach.  The sturdy metal ring and clips allow me to spin my organizer to see all of the products I have available.

Have a wonderful week!

Keely Yowler

Gail’s Ribbon Organizer

Hi everyone!

It’s time I shared just how I’m incorporating my 18” Ribbon Organizer into my scraproom. I’ve recently moved rooms and it’s been so much fun to reorganize my supplies so they are easily accessible and . . . let’s face it . . . pleasing to the eye also!

I knew as soon as I saw the Ribbon Organizer that I would not be using it for ribbon but something equally as yummy! Have a look as I show you how organized my FLOWERS are now!

I’ve hung my Ribbon Organizer in my new scraproom on a wall shared with an altered frame. One of the stipulations of my storage is that it’s out of reach of my curious two year old daughter and I’m happy that I could attach my organizer high up on the wall.

I store my loose flowers in plastic pouches according to colour. I’ve hung these on the clips along with some specialty flowers, still in their packaging. This system will be easy to maintain as I can incorporate any new additions to my flower collection in no time at all!

In the top ‘tray’ of the organizer I store my miniature roses. To get them to stand up, I first cut a piece of Styrofoam to lie in the tray then it’s a matter of poking them into the foam. I am really pleased with this way of storing my roses as there’s no chance of them being squished!

I hope I’ve inspired you to think outside the box with regards to your organizing! You don’t always have to use your storage as it was initially intended!

Gail Lindner

Quote of the Week

"The key to change is to let go of fear"
Rosanne Cash

Conquer the disaster called your purse

My purse is always a disaster.  I am constantly amazed at what I find and what I can’t find in it.  So I decided I had to finally sit down and conquer the mess in my purse. 

First of all I dumped out all of the contents.  Threw away all the garbage and took out everything that does not belong in my purse (I was too embarrassed to show the picture of everything that was in my purse-so you’ll just have to use your imagination).  This is what I was left with.

Then I took an idea given to us by a creative lady named Lisa Berrett and I used the Clip it Up zip bags to organize the stuff in my purse.  I put all my coupons in one bag, receipts in another and so on. 

That was great but it was a little boring so I grabbed some ribbon and Prima flowers and dressed up the zip bags. 

Perfect…now I have my purse organized and it’s cute enough to show off.

Technorati Tags: zip bags,organize purse,prima flowers

Bobbi

Simply Renee

Jewelry Organization

Ok, so I've had so many projects going on! I've been moving rooms around, including the office, and I've been in a BIG mess and I'm still in a big mess! One project has been bugging me for quite some time so I decided to take care of it this weekend!

I have quite a bit of jewelry (unlike anyone else out there that is female). I have tried several different things to organize it, but my space to display it is very limited. So here is what I came up with...it's busy, but when you have to put it all in one place you can't have it not look busy, or at least I couldn't! 



First, I had a large frame I picked up cheap and it was not being used, so I decided to put it to good use. I took some metal netting I previously bought at the hardware store (just because, I'm famous for picking up weird things at the hardware store and other places), and cut it out to match the shape of the frame.


I used my staple gun to attach the metal around the edge the frame. I then put a coat of clear silicone around the edge so there wasn't any sharp metal poking out.


I then threaded ribbon along the outer edge so it would look cute (although after adding everything to it, you can barely see the ribbon).

 I attached a hangman picture hanger (you can find at your home improvement store). These are great because they hold a lot of weight, and you can slide them back and forth once it's hung to find just the right placement!

 

Using those wonderful multi-purpose clips of mine, I starting hanging up all my necklaces. Well. they almost took up the whole space (and this is a big frame!). So I attached four Swinging Wall Arms on the side so I could put my bracelets, watches, etc. on them.

 

I added two Under the Shelf Rods at the bottom of the frame and put rings, etc. in zipped bags. I can't believe how much stuff I really had when I finally put all my jewelry in one place, and I can visually see it and find it quickly. It's easy to take off and easy to put away.


I forgot to mention the only place I have to hang this up is behind the door leading into the bathroom, right next to the closet. What I like about this place is: for one thing it is big enough to accommodate the frame, second, it doesn't take up much needed bathroom wall space, third, it kinda hides all that jewelry from my husband so he doesn't see everything I've collected over the years (although he is very much aware of all I collect - and loves me anyway!).


You can open up the Swinging Wall Arms to remove your necklaces, so here is a picture with them open. Not the best pics, but I had to be careful not to let you see my messy closet...just another weekend project waiting to happen.


How do you solve your organization problems? Everyone has different needs and areas to solve, but it is helpful to see what others are doing to solve their problems and spark some ideas!

Renee

Fabric Flowers

Fabric flowers are all the rage these days, but man are they ever spendy!

So I thought I would try my hand at making some.

I went to JoAnn's and picked up a bunch of fabric.

I got 1/4 yard each of 7 different kinds.

I wanted to try muslin first because it's such a rich, versatile fabric and I see it used in lots of different ways - not just flowers.

This pink tulle with sparkles was the best value - it was only 90-cents for my 1/4 yard. It's a little messy because the sparklies end up here and there, but it sure is pretty!

I'm not an expert on fabric but this is some sort of sheer something er other with teeny rhinestones on it. I actually picked this one up in several colors.

I cut a strip of each and the way I figured this is that my most expensive fabric was $2.50 for the 1/4 yard - and that was a regular price, not a sale price so it certainly is good to watch for sales and use coupons especially at JoAnn's. And I could get 14 strips out of each. So even if each 1/4 yard only makes 14 flowers, that's still only 18-cents per flower and compared to things you see at the stores and even on ETSY, making these yourself is definitely the cheapest way to go. Not the easiest - LOL - but definitely the cheapest.

I used my circle Nesties to cut circles out of the muslin.

My plan was to fold it in to 3 squares and run through the Big Shot. It was not easy. Took about 6 cranks to get ONE. So I popped that one out and it was much easier to do the 2 than the 3.

Fun little muslin circles.

And since we're making flowers, gotta use the flower Nesties!

Because this fabric is so thin, this one ran through and made 3 like a breeze.

However, my thinner fabrics stuck together so instead of 3 flowers, I got one, dark heavier one which was fine. The colors are so light that putting them together in to one whole flower probably is best.

Now it's time to get a card made with my new pretties.

I'm using many different ribbons and trims these days. Buying a lot from Practicing Creativity Designs, ThisGoodDay and MemrieMare. Having my Clip it Up! ribbon organizer to house my spools in the well across the top and hang other pretty stuff that I want to make sure gets used definitely gives me more options when I am making a card. Out-of-sight out-of-mind is no longer an issue.

Here's my creative little mess making one of my cards with my newly made muslin flowers. I think next time I'll use the smaller Nestie - this one had a lot of open space on it so I punched a paper circle and then topped that with buttons.

And here are my finished products. Pretty simple cards for me - I think after making the flowers and going right in to making a card, I was a little low on the mojo. So I think what I'll do next is make some flowers and put them in my stash for next time and then have them to reach for when I need 'em.

Thanks for stopping by the Simply Renee blog today.

More me can be found on my blog.

TTFN!

~ Michelle

Quote of the Week

"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems." - John W. Gardner

Hello All.... and H E L L O summer!!!

Nicole here again, back with my altered clip it up.  If I do say so myself, it is c u t e !

When I was taking art in college we were always taught to think of all the senses when we design.

This altered clip it up has scent, sound, and visual...

Scent? Where you ask.... any guesses?

The rose on the top is really bath bubbles that were hardy enough to last on my clip it up... and add a rosey scent.

Sound... You probably all see the wind chimes! And when you move the wheel around it does chime!

The visual was inspired by summer and what I found in a dollar bin at Michaels. :) Gotta love those bins!

I hope this inspires you to alter your very own Clip it Up and if you have any questions... don't be nervous to ask!

Until Next Time... Happy Altering!

Nicole