Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Spying on the New Neighbors - Digital Scrapbook Page

This weekend my son and I spent a lot of time doing spring cleaning. My allergies are crazy from all the dust. But we didn't spend all of our time using the new vacuum and swiffering the house. We took an hour or so spying on the new neighbors, taking their picture as they fed their young.

I wanted to scrapbook those pictures but didn't want to get out paper, adhesive, and embellishments. I also didn't want to wait for the photos to be printed either. I also wanted to share the pictures with you all as soon as possible. I will eventually print a 12x12 photo at Costco and slide it into a scrapbook.


The template was designed by Paisley Press. I deleted the text lines so I could add more photos. I also added colors from images. When I looked through my images and text art I came across Ali Edwards Love in Action set that was released last year after the Japanese tsunami and tornado in Joplin, MO. 

"Love in Action" seems appropriate for feeding children. Whether robins feel those emotions really doesn't matter to me. I feed people because I love them. "Neighbors" is incredibly appropriate as the nest is just outside my bedroom. The tree is so close that I had to prune it last year because one of the branches kept hitting my window and waking me up.

The text on the page reads:
We have new neighbors. A family of robins has moved into the pear tree in front of our house. There are four hungry children and two diligent parents. There is no way to know which is momma and which is poppa. We set up the camera on a tripod and spent some time just watching the birdies, much more interesting than the housework we were supposed to be doing.
5-19-2012
Lots of projects and tutorials in the planning phase. Hope to have something useful for you soon.
The particulars—
Template: Paisley Press, Conversation Piece No. 1. Titles: Ali Edwards, DesignerDigitals.com, Love in Action

Happy Crafting,

Friday, May 18, 2012

Seed Packet Party Favor Tutorial or How to Make a Potted Elephant

Preface: Apologies for the blurry photos. My camera died and I am not the best iPhone photographer yet. 
In March I was asked to make party favors for a baby shower. I didn't know the mother to be so I took a look at her registry for color clues, searched the internet for inspiration and talked to the requester for guidance. What I came up with celebrated the mother's love of animals (invitations featured a giraffe), the St. Patrick's Day shower date, and the sweet pea soon to be born.

Seed Packet Party Favor Tutorial


Consumables:
  • 2 sided 12"x12" Cardstock (paper may work but card stock is sturdier and will work better)
  • 6" Wooden Craft Stick
  • Crafty Power Tape (or Sticky Strip or good glue)
  • Packet of Sweet Pea Seeds
  • 4" Terracotta Pot
  • Ribbon
  • Stamps or stickers for decoration
  • Gold wrapped candies

Tools:
  • Paper Cutter
  • Martha Stewart scoring board (nice but not necessary) 
  • Metal straight-edge and X-acto  (or paper snips)
  • Circle punch (1" to 1.25" works best)
  • Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Tiny Attacher
     (if you don't have this handy tool you can use hot glue. I have not tested hot glue but it should work fine.) 


 
 
Step 1: Trim 12x12 paper to 11.25" x 5.5" 

Step 2:  Place the paper with the pattern you want showing on the outside of your project DOWN. Score with a heavy hand at 3 5/8", 7 1/4" and 10 3/4". Lightly score or draw a light line at 5 3/8" I chose to score so I could see the line from both sides of the paper. This is important in the next step. 


Score one more line 1/2" from the bottom.

Click on the template caption below to download the pdf.  Note: the template was created to actual size, if printing on 8.5" x 11" paper you will need to follow the measurements, not the lines.


Click here to download.



Step 3: Cut and Punch
Cut along the bottom score line until you get to the third panel. Cut from the bottom of the third panel up to the score line. Cutting at an angle makes the final product look nicer. Remove the section below the score line on the small fourth panel as well, again cutting at an angle improves the look of your final project. Also remove the top of the small fourth panel by cutting at an angle.


Fold the at the 7 1/4" score line so the second and third panels are together.


With the second and third panels folded together, line up the center of your circle punch with the lightly scored line in the middle of the second panel. Punch through both sheets of paper at the same time.


Step 4: Stick it
Open the folded pieces and place the 6" wooden craft stick on the lightly scored line and staple with your Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher, making sure the pointed edge of the staples are facing IN.
 

I put the Tiny Attacher in the notch I had just make and went as far down as I could and stapled, then I stapled again at the bottom. Those little staples go through your craft stick and the cardstock surprisingly well.  If they prongs of the staple are sticking up at all pound them down with a craft hammer.

If you are going the hot glue route put the glue on so the stick is only on about 2/3 of the paper. You want a few inches of the stick to come off the bottom of the cardstock.


 
Step 5: Adhere
Turn your cardstock over so the stick is facing down. Fold up the bottom flap and the fourth panel or right flap. Put your Crafty Power Tape (or Sticky Strip or good glue) on the these two pieces. Fold the third panel over and adhere to the second panel. 

The third panel is narrower than the second so there will be a small bit on the left. This helps when you fold the first panel over the seed packet.

Step 6: Decorate
The next step is decorating the card. I used the Silhouette to print and cut an embellishment that said "Thanks for joining us" for the cover. The ribbon was added next. I used the Crafty Power Tape to adhere the ribbon to the back. Then I added the little elephant, which is an image from Hot Off the Press. I cut the shape out with the Silhouette using the technique described in the Lazy Snipper tutorial I wrote last January. I colored him using Copics in colors that matched colors in the baby registry.


I printed out the sentiment "Please plant these seeds and watch them bloom. Just like the baby that will be here soon!" for the center. I'm not sure which website I found this on but I made sure I bought sweet pea seeds because they seemed most appropriate for a baby.

Put your seed packet in the pocket. Tie up your ribbon and place them in the the pot. Fill your pot with candies which will help your packet stand up.

Happy Crafting,

Monday, May 14, 2012

Sign of the Times Scrapbook page


Have you ever forgotten to take photographs of a particular event of period in your life? I do it all the time. Too busy living to photograph the living. Perhaps it's the single mom thing. Perhaps is a certain photographic laziness. Call it what you will, it happens.

My son learned sign language when he was about 3. I never took any pictures of him using this language when he was 3. But I did get a few shots when we were goofing off with the camera one morning when he was five. And those are the images I put on this page.

I found the ASL alphabet at HowStuffWorks.com and the large hand that is signing "I love you" was from the $1 bin at Micheals. You got 10 cardboard hands, with full fingers, for a buck. I signed "I love you" and laid my hand over the cardboard and then traced around the fingers that were bent. The hands were originally white and I did a direct to paper with SU night of navy ink to match the color of the ASL hands.

The letters were cut out with the Silhouette. I did the entire layout in InDesign, following Cathy Zielske's example, and then printed out just the text from the page - with crop marks created in the program.

The text reads:
When you’re a toddler, and don’t have many language skills, non-verbal communication is incredibly important. Crying, pointing and occasional grunting is really all you have unless you know sign language. Evan was 3 years old and talking in full sentences when he first learned to sign.

We would go to the library every Saturday and he would play with the train set for a hour or more. We would then go get a stack of books for bedtime reading and a video or three of Signing Time. He liked the kids, Alex and Leah, and would sing along to the songs.

He was so excited about signing that he would go to CCLC and show the teachers the new words he had learned. They were so impressed with his enthusiasm that they had all the kids in the 2005 summer program learn sign language. I remember the teachers watching videos to learn some signs so they could teach it to the kids.

These photos were taken on a goof off with the camera day when he was 5 and he still remembered how to sign the alphabet. A lot of the other words are distant menories but he still remembers his ABCs.

Happy Crafting,