Precocious Paper Fall Flower Tree Tutorial

Yea!  Finally!!!  The Precocious Paper Fall Flower Tree tutorial!!!

This is a tutorial that was originally included in the Scrapbook News and Review Magazine Halloween newsletters a few weeks back.  Be sure to sign up to receive the SNR newsletters...they're chock full of tips, eye candy, and sometimes tutorials!

Supplies Flowers: Precocious Paper; Paint: Plaid; Styrofoam: FloralCraft; Other: pins, ribbon

This is a fun, easy and versatile idea for a holiday decoration. I say versatile because you can switch out the flower colors and patterns by season if you only temporarily attach the flowers.

Begin by gathering a few supplies:

• Styrofoam cone (9” shown)
• A variety of fabric flowers in various sizes (18 used, from 1” – 3”)
• Paint in a complementary color
• Ribbon in a complementary color/pattern
• Pins

Paint your cone with a color complementary to your flowers. I do this so that if any of the cone ends up showing through after the flowers and ribbon are attached it won’t be so noticeable.

Starting at the bottom of the cone, attach the largest flowers with pins to create the first row, lining up the petals with the bottom of the cone. Overlap the flowers slightly. So that the pins won’t be visible, hide them by inserting into folds of fabric or by lifting topmost petals and inserting through lower petals. For this particular 9” cone, I used five 3” flowers for the bottom row.

 After the bottom row of flowers is attached, wrap coordinating ribbon around the bottom, underneath the flowers, to hide any large gaps. Attach the ribbon with pins also, hiding the pins underneath the flower petals. Repeat by wrapping ribbon just above the flower row, tucking it under the petals and securing with pins.

 Continue alternating rows of flowers and ribbon from the bottom up, overlapping flowers slightly. To finish the tree, attach a small flower to the very top and sprinkle additional smaller flowers throughout, covering up any large gaps.

 I like to use pins to attach the flowers because I can easily readjust the flowers as I go along. And, after the holiday decorations are taken down, I can easily remove the flowers and reuse them on layouts commemorating that holiday. Plus the cone is now ready to be decorated with the next holiday’s flowers.

 If you would rather make a more permanent decoration, simply attach the flowers with glue using a hot glue gun.

 This is such a simple and quick holiday project that it’s a cinch to make several at a time. You can easily create an attractive display with trees of different sizes, colors and patterns.

I am so grateful I get to share what I love doing with all you awesome people out there in bloggy land!!!  Thank you so much for stopping by!!

Sheesh! Just Do It!

It's time for our next Pink Ninjas prompt.  This one is brought to you by our Ninja Star Christina.  If you missed it, click here to learn a little more about her.  She is so much fun!!!!!!

Prompt:  Personal Motto
Technique:  Stamping
Pink Twist:  Transparencies

I admit I was a bit stumped on this one at first.  I just couldn't think of anything new to do with a transparency.  And then the mojo gods smiled on me and brought me inspiration in the form of THIS awesome layout by Mme. Leah L'Orange herself!!  Transparency + gesso = happiness. 

So, I went to town on an old Creative Imaginations transparency I'd been hanging onto forever because I've been unsure how to put it all together.  Let me tell you, I will now be scouring my stash for all transparencies contained within (and there are a "few") because they're all getting painted and stamped and generally "piled upon"!!! Woohoo!!!

~back detail~
I began by masking taping down my picture and then just slathering on the gesso with a bit of pink, black, and yellow paint dribbled in.  Then I smooshed in some floss, dictionary scraps, and flowers.  I'm showing you the back of the transparency so you can see these added goodies as they only very subtly peek through on the front. 

I realized when I went to photograph this layout that it would be hard to visually demonstrate on the screen that the entire layout is on a transparency.  There are many areas where either the gesso is thin or not covering at all and I wanted to show that.  So I photographed the layout with two different cardstock backgrounds.  Above is with a black background, which I think looks best.  Below is with a hot pink background.  I think it makes the layout look too cloying and some of the pink paint gets lost on this background.  But I was torn which is actually the best.  Which do you think?

I'm a procrastinator at heart.  (Just ask any of my Design Team Coordinators!  I'm that DT member slipping in her layout 2 minutes before the deadline even though I've had the prompt for a month.  ~shake head~)

As my stamping says, I ponder, I ruminate, I list, I plan, I collect, I prepare...I just don't get anything done!!  I'm spending too much time preparing for Pete's sake!

~heart detail~


So I'm adopting a new personal motto:  Just Do It. 

~title detail~


This area that is covered with flowers actually said "LOVE" on the transparency.  See??!!  Another alterable discovery for my arsenal.  Woohoo!!! 

Head on over to the Pink Ninjas blog to check out what the rest of the Design Team made for your inspiration.  And let me tell you, you will most definitely be inspired by this batch.  There is nothing but incredible talent on this DT.  I am not worthy!!  But I sure am enjoying the ride!

Play along with us!  You don't want to anger any Ninjas do you??  ;oD

Have a great Wednesday!

Heidi

Details - Creative Imaginations transparency & bling; Making Memories paint; StazOn ink; EK Success & Tim Holtz stamps; Prima flowers & pearl bling; Heidi Swapp & Rhonna Farrer chipboard; DMC floss; unknown metal and brad alphas; gesso; vintage dictionary page.

My Guilty Pleasure

You know I love a challenge...and even better is the challenge to combine multiple challenges!!

June 2011 issue

This little baby is inspired by this week's prompt over on The Pink Ninjas (what's your guilty pleasure?)...contains a fan fold flower from a tutorial over on Candy Shoppe Designs...AND is based on this week's Sketchy Thursday sketch created by my oh-so-talented friend Diana over on Design by Diana:




Whew!

They all blended together really well, though, don't you think?
And, how serendipitous! I just discovered this week's Vintage Plum Weekly Contest is "What's Cooking?" to create a LO using food or cooking as your subject!

After making the layout I realized that my favorite guilty pleasure also comes packaged in my favorite color combo!! (Coincidence or destiny?? LOL!)

I love the way my still life picture came out. Of course, I HAD to take a big bite out of one of the cupcakes in the pursuit of art. I gave the picture a color boost with a Maggie Holmes Photoshop Color Action (Extreme Color).

I made my sweet fan fold flower out of a strip of the actual Hostess CupCakes box! Let me tell you I think I've found a new favorite embellishment. I'm sure you'll be seeing a few more of these puppies in days to come. I am definitely going to be cutting up more of this box since the colors are so gorgeous! Like the little flower center? It's a robot brad...not that robots exactly go with this layout per se but he goes with the flip side of the Sassafras Lass paper. That works, right?



That adorable red circles trim was part of the prize pack I received from my Sketchy Thursday win a couple weeks ago. Cute, huh?

The text block is a Quickutz Silhouette die cut. It's cool but quite tedious getting the darn thing off the cutting mat and poking out all the negative pieces. (Whine, whine, whine.)

Here's a little tip for adhering transparencies like the "exhibit" one I have over one of the cupcakes: If you want it to appear to be just laid over, without adhering it with obvious staples or brads or what have you, find a solid image to adhere a glue dot behind. In this case, I applied a rather substantial "1" rub on.



Man, I got so hungry making the layout I took a bite out of the page! Ha ha. I'm so funny.


There's still time to get in on all these challenges I covered here:

Sketchy Thursday on Design by Diana (I'm tellin' ya...you HAVE to go check this out!! The sketches are amazing and so approachable.) (Current sketch due Wednesday 7/8. New sketches every Thursday.)

What's Your Guilty Pleasure prompt over on The Pink Ninjas. (New prompts every Wednesday.)

Vintage Plum Weekly Layout Challenge "What's Cooking". (Due Sunday, 7/12. New challenges up each Monday.)
Fan fold flowers a la Candy Shoppe Designs. (Due Wednesday 7/8.) (Which, incidentally, is holding a Design Team call currently. They're going to be called the Lollipop Girls. Who wouldn't want to be a "Lollipop Girl"??!!) (Be sure to let them know you found their site through my blog!)

Details: Paper - Sassafras Lass, The Paper Co.; Stamps - Autumn Leaves (barcode), Scrappy Cat (alpha), Heidi Swapp (crown), Stampin' Up!(Ephemera = background "noise" on naughty tag); Ink - StazOn, VersaMark, Stampin' Up!; Die Cuts - Quickutz Silhouette, Cricut (tag); Embossing Powder - Stampendous, Tsukineko, Creative Beginnings; Pens - Zig Millenium, American Craft; 7 Gypsies transparency; Lil' Davis rub on; Stampin' Up! scalloped punch; Making Memories trim; Diamond Glaze; Around the Block brad; Fancy Pants chipboard (parentheses); Hostess CupCakes box; Photoshop Elements; Maggie Holmes Photoshop Color Action; unknown trim (black and white) and chipboard asterisk.

Hope you have a great Tuesday!! Thank you so much for stopping by!!

Heidi

Design by Diana Sketchy Thursday layout

When I saw this week's Sketchy Thursday layout over on Design by Diana I knew I would have to try it. It's so pretty:

At first I thought I'd try either a circle of flowers or a stitched circle, but then I thought of doilies, which got me to thinking about heritage pictures, of which I have not begun to scrap and SHOULD! (OK, so you're coming along on my stream of consciousness journey...) And then I thought of my Grandma of whose favorite color was purple. Which got me to thinking about this week's color challenge over on the Scrapmaster's Paradise Color Challenge blog:

How fun is that when it all just seems to come together? :o)

So anyway, here's my layout, a tribute to my Grandma Madeleine. I've had a box full of pictures for years but hadn't gone through them. I was amazed at how young and beautiful my Grandma was. (And how much they apparently traveled, but that's fodder for another layout/post.)

Since I am without a working scanner, I took photos of my favorite pictures. I left them in the album, still in their photo corners. I love how the gold corners came out in the photo (those are actually in the picture, I didn't add gold corners). And it looks so pretty with the color scheme since, of course, purple and yellow are complementary colors.

I have to admit I was skeptical at first of this color scheme. I thought it wasn't my style. But the way the garden green centers just make the lilac flowers pop is genius! I made the flowers the same way I did the on the Kewpie Happy Birthday card HERE. And I didn't want to use a whole piece of chocolate chip 12 x 12 paper for the little bit of border peeking around so I used my chocolate chip ink pad to rub the edges of a white piece. I love the way it's all mottled - it seems to blend so much more with the soft look of the page.

I got a little handsy with the Ranger Crackle Medium again - it's on the flowers and the title. I guess you could say it's my embellishment du jour. LOL.

Details: Paper - Stampin' Up!, The Paper Company; Ink - SU!, Marvy Uchida, Ribbon - Offray, DCWV; Cricut diecuts (flowers & letters); Ranger Crackle Medium; Wilton doily; Zig Milennium pen; unknown ric rac.

TFL!!

Heidi

One more birthday card...

One more birthday card for the Paper Crafts Connection 2009 Gallery Idol challenge and the Bitten By the Bug challenge:

The cute little retro flower is from the Cricut Accent Essentials cartridge. The checkerboard background is another Silhouette diecut that I cut in white and colored with markers. Can you see that the flower and the yellow-green squares are shiney with Crystal Effects?

I got the idea for this retro-like card from the signage at a local frozen yogurt shop this weekend. No, this is not the same colors but it's the same "feel". And, I can't wait to make something else with these colors:

Details: Paper - Basic Grey, Stampin' Up!, The Paper Co.; Ink - SU!, Marvy Uchida; Diecuts - Cricut, Silhouette; My Sentiments Exactly! stamp; SU! Crystal Effects; Michaels ribbon.

TFL!!

Heidi

Happy Birthday cards

Paper Crafts Connection is hosting a Gallery Idol 2009 challenge. The first task is birthday cards.

This first card has a vintage-y, romantic feel. I love the Kewpie images of the Clear Arts Stamps stamps.

The flowers are from the Cricut Walk In My Garden cartridge. I colored them with a bit of ink and some of them are touched with a little Stickles. They're all distressed with my fingernail and bent up a bit and then covered with Crackle Medium. The photo corners are also covered with Crackle Medium.

The card is based on a sketch on Bitten By the Bug:

This next card is a little more modern and graphic.

The cherries are a Unity Stamp Co. stamp, colored with ink and hit with some Stickles. The little tag is a Quikutz Squeeze diecut.

The cool checkerboard background is a Silhouette diecut. Have I mentioned how much I love the Silhouette images - when my cutting mats are cooperating?

Details (Kewpie): Paper - Crafty Secrets, The Paper Co.; Clear Arts Stamps stamps; Ink - StazOn, Stampin' Up!; Cricut & Quickutz Squeeze diecuts; Fiskars border stamp; Stickles; Ranger Crackle Medium; SU! ribbon; pin, beads.

Details (Cherry): The Paper Co. paper; Unity Stamp Co. stamp; Quickutz Silhouette and Squeeze diecuts; Ink - StazOn, SU!; Zig Millenium pen; ribbon, floss.

TFL!!

Heidi

Unity Hip Hop Hangover

Happy Friday everyone!

I feel like I got a bit of my creative mojo back today. After this post it's back to my craft room to work on my Vintage Plum Star Search week #3 challenge - "All That Glitters". I gotta tell you, I've been feeling stumped about this one. It's so easy to go overboard. I'm hoping my great creative flow with the following two cards carries over! Check back Saturday for the post of my "bling" creation - see how it turned out.

Both of these cards sport images from Unity Stamp Co.'s May Kit of the Month. It's just so darn cute!!

"ENJOY YOUR DAY"

Both images were embossed and then colored with Stampin' Up! ink and a blender pen. Then I cut each image out. The patterned paper is Basic Grey's Urban Prairie.

The layout of the card is inspired by the Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge sketch #69:

"HAPPY"

This image is also colored with SU! ink & a blender pen. The edges are sponged on. The herringbone (sp?) background is Cuttlebug. The base paper is Certainly Celery and then I sponged Wild Wasabi over it. The I Cuttlebugged it and sanded the embossed areas to reveal the Certainly Celery color underneath.

The color combination for this card is inspired by Moxie Fab World's citrus color challenge this week.

Detail (Enjoy your day): Paper - Basic Grey, The Paper Company; Ink - SU!, StazOn; Unity Stamp Co. stamps; Stampendous embossing powder; SU! Blender Pen; foam squares.

Detail (Hello): Paper - SU!, The Paper Company; Ink - SU!, StazOn; Unity Stamp Co. stamps; Cuttlebug; SU! blender pen; make up wedge; Offray ribbon.

TFL!

Heidi

Moxie Fab World Wood You Challenge - one more card

OK, seriously, this is my last offering for the Moxie Fab World Wood You Challenge to use wood grain on a paper craft (http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2009/04/wood-you-challenge.html). I just really like wood grain as a design element!

March 2011 issue

The hibiscus flower is colored like wood grain using the Gina K Stamp TV method as noted in the previous post. The flower itself is a Cricut Storybook die cut. I didn't realize it until I was finished with the card but the light colored paper on the right side of the card has a wood grain background. Guess I was just in the wood grain frame of mind.

Details : Paper - DCWV Summer Stack, SU!; Ink - VersaMagic, SU!; Cricut, Fiskars border punch, foam squares.

I'm off to bed now. I had wanted to make another wood grain offering of a school house but that'll just have to wait for another day. I'm addicted to challenges!!

TFL!

Heidi

Hero Arts mayflowers challenge

Here's my contribution to the Hero Arts mayflowers challenge (http://heroarts.com/blogs/club/2009/04/27/motivating-you-with-spring-flowers/).

I created the flower, leaves, and butterflies using heart stamps. You can see in the pic below the stamps next to the card. The flower center and the butterfly bodies are covered with beads.

Details: Stamps - Hero Arts LL187, SU! Stem Sayings; Paper - DCWV spring stack, The Paper Company; Ink - SU!, Staz-On; Fiskars border punch; SU! Pop Up Glue Dots; foam squares; beads; brads

TFL!

Heidi

Happy National Scrapbook Day! - Cuttlebug Challenges - Jennifer McGuire sanding technique

Happy NSD!

Over on the Cuttlebug Challenges blog (http://www.cuttlebugchallenge.blogspot.com/) today they have a challenge to go along with a great tutorial posted by Jennifer McGuire about sanding Cuttlebug embossed images (http://cuttlebugchallenge.blogspot.com/2009/05/inspiration-from-jennifer-mcguire.html). Here is my offering:

I didn't have any white core cardstock so I began by brayering ink on a piece of white c/s. Then I embossed it with the Cuttlebug. Finally, I sanded the raised areas to lift away some of the color to let the white paper show through. I finished the card off by stamping the bird image on white c/s using Ranger Distress Ink, cut it out, popped it up with foam, added some ribbon and a bit of Liquid Pearls in some of the flower centers.

Details: Paper - The Paper Company; Ink - SU!, Ranger Industries Distress Ink; Other - Hampton Arts stamp, SU! ribbon, Liquid Pearls, Cuttlebug.

TFL!

Heidi

Studio Calico NSD Challenge offering - Wish

I am really proud of this layout. I've submitted this for the Studio Calico (http://www.studiocalico.com/) National Scrapbook Day Challenge for hand-stitching on a layout (see Davinie's blog here http://davinie.blogspot.com/2009/04/in-honor-of-nsd-may-2-challenge.html) and to use 3 different patterned papers on a layout (this one has N-I-N-E on it!!) (see Nicole Samuels' blog for that challenge http://nicolesamuels.wordpress.com/2009/04/25/calling-all-scrappers-who-love-sc-kits/#comment-1954). My Studio Calico gallery can be found here (http://www.studiocalico.com/forums/galleries/show/9815). Be sure to take a look at all the offerings in the Member and Designer Galleries. There are some really talented people out there!!

The story behind my layout is that I've never really been a girly-girl and never had a really close relationship with a mother-figure, so my hope is that my relationship with Kins is how I think a mother-daughter relationship should be. (Basically, the ideal is my friend Kim's relationship with her daughter Jennifer.) So I hope that Kins always thinks of me as a friend but that she'll always be proud to call me Mama.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get a really good shot of the awesomeness that is the patterned paper that I used for this layout. It's all from Prima Marketing Inc's The First Blush Collection. It's glossy and lightly glittery. The colors are amazing IRL. So, I've included a couple different angle pics to try to pick up on this quality of the paper but have included a flatter, "matte" version to show the overall layout. I do have to say that the two pics below best show the true colors of the layout (it's a bit more orange-y than IRL on the pic above) but I felt in the pic below I couldn't get a good overall shot of the paper, picture, and embellishments. Oh, well.

I'm really proud of my handmade flowers. They're both a series of nesting circles, clipped, and then hand-sewn together. Then I roughed and inked them up to give them dimension and character.

You know me by now...gotta have me some fussy cutting, too. I've brought forward some of the flower designs that would've disappeared behind the picture. (And, by the way, don't you just love the pic. I know I'm biased but would you look at those lips?! This girl is gonna turn some heads! Daddy better get the shotgun ready! Ha ha!)

Details: Paper: Prima Marketing Inc. The First Blush collection, VersaMark ink, Barbara Trombley's Art Glitter, Stampendous embossing powder, Cricut Storybook font, SU! circle punches, Creative Memories circle cutter, Diamond Glaze, Autumn Leaves stamp, SU! ink, and I think the chipboard corner MAY be Fancy Pants, but I can't be sure (it's been in a jar for a couple years). I'm also not sure who the ribbon belongs to...I bought it like 3 years ago.

Thanks for looking.

Heidi

Redeco of Kins's room - The Lamp

Another bit of redeco I did in Kins's room was to "big-girl up" her little lamp. The first pic shows the before - a John Lennon Real Love lamp. The second pic shows the after. The rest are detail shots. Whadaya think?

Details:

Lampshade: I traced the lampshade onto a big piece of paper and then used the template to cut some fabric I got from Joann's last year. The fabric is stuck on with Sticky Strip tape from SU! The flowers are a felt "ribbon" from the Michael's $1 bin. The rhinestones are Jewelry Essentials jewels. Both ribbon and rhinestones are stuck on with Glue Dots. I think there are 90+ rhinestones!

Base:

Die cuts: Flower "lace", bird, and mushroom - Silhouette; Butterfly - Cricut Tink cart.

Paper: SU! cardstock; DCWV Spring Stack.

Embellishments: Rhinestones - Jewelry Essentials, K&Co Brenda Walton; Flower foam sticker (bird's eye) - Adornit; Stickles; SU! Crystal Effects.

Misc: cereal or other misc. chipboard boxes (to give diecuts strength)