Project Grad Recovery

Graduation was last Sunday. I always get more emotional with other peoples' kids than I did with my own. I guess because I know I will still see mine, but after they graduate, I probably won't see these other kids that I've grown so close to. For example, Kara, in the above photo, was my preschool student fifteen years ago, then ten years later tried out for Color Guard. She and Nikki marched with the guard for five years (even as eighth graders!) Kara asked me to make her graduation announcements, and now she and Nikki are leaving me!

At least I got to spend some time with several of the girls at Project Graduation. Each year for the past five years I've put together six inch mini albums and kits with paper and embellishments for anyone who wanted to make one. Project Grad pays for the supplies and my gas to get to the event (it's about 45 minutes away).  

Our school mascot is a Houn Dawg, and there are no scrapbooking papers or embellishments in existence with a dog that looks like ours or that uses the "correct" spelling. So I make them myself. I use my Silhouette to make a diecut of the school logo. Here it is cut from black paper, adhered to white on the back of Michael's book from last year:

I make "Sr 2012" and "Prom" diecuts and let the girls punch their own stars, swirls, and paw prints.

There's also a paper that says Houn Dawg all over it and each class gets a paper with every graduate's name listed. 

The thing they seem to love the most is the doodle page. I change it up a little every year, so each class gets a unique page, but I don't have to start from scratch. Instead of using the same lightweight white cardstock that I use for the names and the Houn Dawg paper,  I use lined notebook paper for the doodle page. That makes it look like each sheet is drawn by hand. 

Several girls from Color Guard were signed up to make an album, so I added the words to the school song around the edge for them. (I insist they learn the words so they can sing along while the band plays the school song and the National Anthem.)

Twenty young ladies signed up, and I think we had fourteen at the tables. Two of the others (Nikki and Calli) came to my house to make theirs so they could try to play poker, and Calli made an extra to give to her friend who didn't get signed up. We even had some boys sign up. Ok--I just put their names on the list so their mothers could have kits. They helped me keep up with the girls and took their kits to finish at home. 

I think all the girls had a good time even though they were exhaused. They look pretty happy in the pictures: 

So.... That's what Project Grad looks like to me. I think I've finally caught up from staying up all night! I hope they ask me back next year! 

That's it for now. I won't be able to post next week, but I'll come up with a new calendar and some new ideas and be ready to go in June!

Thanks for stopping by! See you next month!

Three Cards in One!

I hope you know someone who is about to graduate. If not you can always adapt this card to another occasion. Either way, I want everyone to make one! I wasn't sure where I was going when I started (Am I ever?!), but I'm really pleased with where I ended up! 

It was inspired by several different cards, all projects from the stamp club I go to once a month. A handful of us have been participating for several years and have become good friends with each other and with Sherry, the SU demonstrator who lets us invade her home one Friday night each month. Last week one of the girls asked if I'd come up with a neat graduation card yet. (She's the one who got me started with the airplane images a couple of weeks ago.) We talked about some of the cards we have made that have special cuts or moving parts, and I "free associationed" to this! (I can take free association a lo-o-o-o-ong way! Who says being on the verge of ADD is a bad thing?!)

The folds and cuts make a step card, but usually there's an image stamped or adhered to the front layer. I decided to use the negative space behind the front layer. It's hard to tell in a photo, but when the card is standing, there is about a half inch of space between the black paper that is the front of the card and the silver paper behind it. Kind of like a diorama. 

You'll need a piece of sturdy cardstock, 4 1/4 x 11. Just cut your 8 1/2 x 11 in half lengthwise instead of across like you normally would for a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 card. You also need a different color for the background, 4 1/8 x 4 3/8. I used two different sizes of star punches, a congratulations stamp with VersaMark and silver embossing powder, my Embossing Buddy to keep the powder from sticking where I didn't want it, a bone folder or something you can make a really good crease with, a stardust Gelly Roll pen, and some silvery Smooch Spritz.

Place the long edge of your paper at the 1/2 inch mark. Start your cut at 1 inch and stop at 6 1/2.  Make the same cut on the other long edge so you have a long slit running down each side of your paper. 

Next you will make six small scores and one long score. Score at 1 inch from the slit to the edge of the paper on each side. Then again at the 2 inch mark and the 6 1/2 inch mark. Now find the 5 1/2 inch mark and score from slit to slit, across the middle.

This shows the slits cut at the 1/2 inch lines (marked in green) and all the score lines marked in pink.

When everything is cut and scored, your card will fold like this. Use your bone folder or something similar to  go over the edges very well. If you don't have good creases the card will do the splits and end up flat!

The base of you card is finished! You could stop now and decorate the front the way it is, but if you want to have that diorama effect, grab some punches or dies!

Just punch a few shapes from the middle section of the card front. Put your punch in through the slit to reach further in toward the center of your paper. 

Don't punch any shapes from the top inch. The backing won't reach that high.

Run adhesive down the 4 3/8 inch edges of your background paper, staying very close to the edge. Position the background paper so the adhesive sticks to the 1/2 inch strips between the 2 inch score lines and the 6 1/2 inch score lines

Now when you pick up your card, the background paper will show through the punched shapes. I punched some stars from the same silver cardstock I used for the background and placed them around the front. Then I embossed "Congratulations" in silver on a one inch strip of black cardstock and backed it with another piece of silver cardstock. It was still just kind of blah so I gave it a little pop by tracing around the star shaped holes with a stardust Gelly Roll pen and shooting the entire front with some Smooch Spritz. (FYI--sometimes cursing does help. My Smooch stopped spritzing after just a few squirts, so I hurled a couple colorful phrases at it and, low and behold! It worked again without my having to take it apart and clean all the pieces parts!)  It's amazing how just that little bit of sparkle made such a dramatic difference!

Here it is again. I hope you got through my instructions without consuming a bottle of Excedrin! I found the tutorial for the basic folds of a step card at Splitcoast Stampers.  This link will take  you to the tutorial, although you might have to be a registered member to access it. She uses a bigger piece of paper so her measurements are just a little different. I wanted this to fit in a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 envelope so I tweaked her instructions a bit. If you aren't a member of SCS, you really should register. It's a great place to go for help and to get ideas!

Thanks for the inspiration Val and Sherry! I could see this done with all kinds of punches--especially hearts or flowers. I could even see squares punched in a grid with images showing behind them. Or a single large shape--maybe from a die--with an image on the background paper. I might make one with "Sr 2012" cut out of the front. Go experiment and see what you come up with! Please let me know if I need to clarify anything.

Thanks for stopping by! See you Friday! (Probably!)

More Weddings

I know. I didn't show up Friday. I ran around Springfield with my husband all day. He bribed me with food! What can I say?

In one of my first blog posts, I put up pictures of some of the wedding invitations I've made. This is how the most recent order turned out. The bride-to-be found some invitations she liked, but they were quite pricey (I do mean QUITE!) and it just wasn't practical. She sent me a picture of what she found and I managed to design this for about one-sixth the price! The only similarity between this and the inspiration piece is the kraft paper, but it still has the same feel. The wedding is in an old cotton mill near Dallas, so the muslin seemed appropriate. It wraps around the invitation and the RSVP and ties closed with twine. It took a good little while to make 220 of those little muslin flowers, and I had strings all over from tearing the fabric, but I think it was worth it! I made half of the note cards with "Thank You" and half with a "C" for the couple's last name so they can use them as blank note cards if they have any left after all the thank you notes are written.

Now I'm ready to start throwing ideas at my cousin's fiancee to see what we can come up with for their wedding. But that's in the fall of 2013, so I'm not in a huge rush!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week and I'll see you Friday (probably)!

Happy May Day! (and a Free Calendar!)

Oh My! It's already May! Wow! The good thing for me is I don't have to think about what to make for today's post. teehee. Last month I said I might make a no-frills calendar that you can download if you want to decorate your own. I made one in landscape form, one in portrait, and one with a different font. So the choice is yours. And if you aren't ready to decorate your own, you can always download the one above. It's nowhere near what I pictured. I made a page for a scrapbook calendar a few years ago that was cream and black with a page of handwriting for the background, butterflies for embellishments, and shimmery black cardstock mats for the photos. For some reason that just felt like May to me. I guess the butterflies, the vintage feel of the colors, and the handwriting seemed to go with Mother's Day. That's where I was headed when I opened the Coolibah app on my iPad, but I sure didn't get there! This one still manages to feel like May. I have flowers and ribbons for May Baskets (does anyone else remember delivering May Baskets?) and some of the flowers are even crocheted, tying into Mother's Day. Don't all mothers and grandmothers crochet?

Coolibah has the Pristina font, so I made a couple with that....

If you use one of these you wll be able to type "May" in the app using the same font.

Since I was going for the antique-ish look, I also made one using a font called Porcelain. Coolibah doesn't have that font, so I made a big label with "May 2012." The 2012 was too much on mine, so I cropped it out. 

For a quick lesson on using Coolibah to create your own calendar page with one of these blank calendars, click here. You won't have to Google "free printable May 2012 calendar" because you already know where this one is. You will, however, save it the same way and everything else will work the same.

If you're not comfortable with that yet, you can learn how to save my calendar to your iWhatever by clicking here. iWhatever. Good one, right?!

If you have any problems, leave a comment and I'll see if I can clarify. I'm always afraid that my instructions are terribly confusing, but I think as long as I'm able to type them and edit as I go I do OK. It's just when I try to speak that my brain jumps ahead and  I'm the one that ends up confused!

Thanks for stopping by! See you Friday!

I Can't Come up with a Clever Title, so Let's Just Call it Digital Images

A friend asked recently if I have any stamps of biplanes. I do not, but when I Googled "free digital biplane images," several pictures came up that looked like stamped images. So I decided to show you how you can print an image from the internet and use it just like you would use a stamp. You won't believe how easy it is!

I always include the word free in these searches because I don't want to inadvertently use something that's copyrighted and have the papercrafter police come after me. 

When you search for images, they will load on your computer screen and all you have to do to save one is right click on it then click "Save Picture As..." Your computer will ask you where you want to save it. I have a folder on my desktop called "Odds n Ends" that I use when I'm just messing around. It works kind of like the junk drawer by the back door--if I don't know where to put something, I drop it in there. But I have to keep it cleaned out or I have no idea what's in it!  

This is the image I saved to my computer. I printed it on white cardstock, trimmed it to the size I wanted, and inked the edges. If your image doesn't print clearly, just try another. There are millions of them out there! 

I don't normally use so much ink on the edges, but do you see how in the first image (the one from my computer) the white background ends right in front of the propeller? That made a faint shadow when I printed it so I used extra ink to camouflage it. 

I chose a paper that looked like weathered wood for the mat and added another mat of black cardstock under it. The sentiment sits on a piece of black grossgrain ribbon that runs across the bottom.

The sentiment stamp had more words that didn't suit my purpose, so I cut them away. I'll still be able to line up the pieces on the block if I want to use the whole thing later. I typed "soar" on my computer in a similar font, printed it on white cardstock, trimmed it to size, and inked the edges before adhering it to the inside. 

 I wanted a masculine card that would work for graduation. So...does it? 

I liked this image, too. I thought maybe I'd use it as a background and have the phrase "Plan to Succeed" somewhere on it. Is that too corny? 

I have a request for a graduation card with moving parts, so I tried putting a spinning propeller on a different image, but that definitely crossed the corny line. Guess I'll keep working on that one!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend and I'll see you next week!

Charms on the Cheap

Every year when I put the kits together for the Project Grad mini album I try to change something up without totally overhauling the whole design. This year we're doing away with the ribbons tied along the binding. (I never put those on Michael's anyway) In place of the ribbons I thought we'd attach a chain of charms. Very trendy, right? I'm not usually a trend-follower, but these are eighteen year old girls we're talking about.... 

So I was browsing through Michael's and Hobby Lobby the other day looking for ideas, beads, etc., and I was overcome with a craving for an Auntie Annie's pretzel. It must have been my subconscious at work, because as soon as I walked through the doors of the mall, I was pulled by a mysterious and unexplained force into Charming Charlie's. If you have never been in one of these stores and you like things that sparkle (Who doesn't?!), you need to find one. Charming Charlie's is an entire store filled with very reasonably priced jewelry and accessories. "Very reasonably priced" is a nice way of saying cheap, right? Everything is displayed in color families to make it easy to find exactly what you're looking for. Kind of like a well-organized scrap room!

I found these necklaces and bought two of the big chunky ones at the top left, three of the red feather necklaces, and one of each of the others.

When I took everything apart, I had enough crystals, beads, feathers, chains, and jump rings to make 32 charms like the one at the top of the page. The best part is that these pieces were all marked down to half price, PLUS they were on a buy-one-get-one-free rack so I only paid twenty five dollars for everything! That means each chain of charms costs just 78 cents! All I have to do is put the pieces together with jump rings. Perfect for television viewing (so I don't fall asleep!) 

I did decide that the chain needed to be black instead of gold, since everything on the cover is black or silver. Guess what you can use to color metal chain.... Alcohol ink. I'm kind of on an alcohol ink kick right now, aren't I? I used the bottom of a Diet Coke with Lime can as a little well. 

I added a few drops of black ink to a drop of blending solution and swirled the chain around a few times. Easy Peasy! I was able to do  five or six pieces of chain at a time so the whole process only took about five minutes. The ink dries really fast if you put a heat gun on it for a few seconds.

This is how it looks on the book. I was afraid it was a little...thin, but with the tassel and the numbers, it's just right. I thought the girls would like the feather since everyone is wearing feathers in their hair or as earrings. And I know they'll like the sparkly stuff! What does it take to get you to cave in to a trend?

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend and I'll see you next week! 

Chipboard Earrings. Really!

I skipped out on you again Friday. My apologies. Andy and I drove across the state to visit some friends we hadn't seen in about a year and a half. Ok--Andy drove and I read. I think it's the first time I've stayed awake for the entire drive there and back! We had a wonderful time. (We always do with Don & Janie!) The guys got to go to the driving range and Janie and I went to flea markets and garage sales and made cards and secret envelope boxes. What can I say--we're a wild and crazy bunch! 

A couple weeks ago I noticed a pair of earrings that Kathie Lee was wearing on the Today show. They were asymmetrical in shape--sort of an amoeba with no center--silver, and really big. I decided that I could probably make something similar with chipboard, aluminum foil tape, and some dies. This is what I came up with....

I made the big hearts first, because the Sizzix Tipsy Hearts die was my best candidate for chipboard. I wrapped some aluminum foil tape around chipboard, then ran it through the Cuttlebug to cut the middle sized heart. I had to use two strips of tape, but once it's embossed the seam barely shows. And the edges are compressed enough that you can't tell there is a layer of chipboard in the middle. After cutting the hearts, I embossed them with SU! Elegant Lines folder.  

The hearts turned out great, but I'm really not much of a heart jewelry person, so I decided I'd try some Nesties. Ugh. If you want to keep it simple, use a thick die or maybe try Nesties with heavy cardstock instead of chipboard. The Nesties wouldn't cut through the chipboard plus front and back layers of tape, so I cut the chipboard first, then wrapped the tape around, lined up the Nesties and ran it through again to cut the tape. Even then, I had to trim some where the tape didn't cut through. 

After embossing, all that's left is to add hooks. I tried to get creative with the scallop ovals, but I honestly like the look of the punch-hole-insert-jump-ring-add-hook method better! The smaller hearts at the bottom of the photo would already have hooks if I hadn't run out. 

Would you like a necklace to go with your new earrings? Just make one more piece and add a chain instead of a hook. I cut a small heart from the middle of a big heart to make this floating pendant. They could be colored with alcohol inks, but I don't think the tape would hold up to the sanding like the aluminum cans.

Hmmmm.... You know what I have to try now, don't you? Geez! I'm going to have to do a whole post of follow-up's for the ideas that come to me while I'm writing these! 

I hope some of my ideas are inspiring for you. Or at least that they encourage you to just get out some things and PLAY! See what you come up with. Then please leave a comment to inspire someone else!  

Thanks for stopping by! See you Friday!