Monday 30 March 2015

Recycled Notebooks made from Cereal Boxes etc...

Hello,

I have been recycling again... cereal boxes, packaging paper, leftover schoolbook papers, old paint....



I was inspired by the bottles of paint that I have had in my supplies for many years, (I am talking 20+ years... shhh..) don't worry I have used it all up now hehe!

I started with the packaging paper, folded in half, then unfolded, randomly squeezed paint over it, then refolded the paper and spread/smoothed out the paint.  This is what I ended up with....



Did you spot my helper in the above photo? She did not mind at all that I had spread the papers all over her to take the photo!

Next I cut and scored cereal boxes, muesli bar boxes, popcorn boxes, soap boxes, panadol boxes etc etc to make book covers...


Applied the papers, cut to size, to fit the covers.  I used mod podge to adhere the papers to the cardboard...


After allowing these to dry, I made to measure leftover papers from my children's school books, bound these with different coloured wools and twines (as you can see I mostly used black).  I added as many signatures (this is what each 'section' of papers is called) as required by the thickness of the covers.

I originally saw this recycling idea on a blog created by http://jennibelliestudio.blogspot.com.au/  (she is an amazing and oh so inspiring crafter!! Have a look at her blog if you haven't ever visited there before)

Hopefully I have inspired you to create something useful using up some of those recyclable products in your home!

See you soon,
Shell
xox

Saturday 28 March 2015

Bright Card in a box...

Hello,

I was asked by a friend to create something bright and beautiful ...  Do you think I achieved this???


I used a 'bunch' (hehe!) of purchased flowers, die cut leaves, a punched butterfly, die cut grass, brads and rhinestones to create this card-in-a-box.




A couple of close-ups of the back and the front. 



The great thing is - you don't need to water this 'bunch' ever!!

Have a bright and beautiful day!
Shell
xox





Sunday 22 March 2015

Kaszazz-Enjoy Music

Hello

I have another card to share today. This card has also been created from Kaszazz Early Years papers, as was the baby card in a previous post.


The card base is white, layered with green card, then music paper from the Australian collection.
Music Collage has been stamped and white embossed on vellum. Enjoy (from Enjoy the little things stamp) is also stamped and white embossed. The vellum is then torn to roughly fit the card front and coloured on the back with alcohol marker to give an aged look. The bunny band is layered on Early years paper, then green card and the vellum panel, a star clip added, and then taped to the card front. Music collage has been stamped on to ivory card, the fiddle fussy cut, shaded with alcohol marker and mounted to the card.




The insert is stamped with music collage and a sentiment from Mini messages- Happy.







To finish the card design, the fiddle was coated with glossy accents.
Till next time
Be Happy- enjoy the music
BaRb


Saturday 21 March 2015

Canvas Handmade Swap...

Hello,

I am not sure if I have let you know - I am part of a Handmade Swap Group? Here are some photos of my last creation for the Group...

                         

I created this 30x30 canvas using many dies - Cheery Lynn, Impression Obsession, Tim Holtz Alteration Dies, Spellbinder, Prickley Pear and also assorted punches...

                              


My swap Partner's favourite colours are purple and green, so going with these colours, I started with choosing my paper first and then went from there - choosing dies I felt like playing with and ended up creating this beautiful canvas garden.



Rhinestones, brads, glossy accents, perfect pearls spritz...



A couple of close ups showing the detail...


Needless to say, my swap Partner loved her canvas!

What do you think of my purple and green garden?
Shell
xox

Friday 20 March 2015

Kaszazz - Vintage Baby card

Hi there





This card has been created using the vintage baby images and papers from Kaszazz Early Years collection.

The card base is white and is matted with pink card and papers.

White and blue lace are added, a stamped and punched(Stampin'up modern label punch) sentiment  and some rhinestones are all that is needed to complete.









The insert has been stamped with Vintage Teddies and a sentiment from Kaszazz mini messages- Congratulations.





See you again soon.
BaRb

Wednesday 18 March 2015

Stampin'up Easter Card

Hello

Today's card is another card for Easter









For this card I have again used the every egg wheel. I enlarged the image several times then coloured with watercolour pencils and a waterbrush and fussy cut. The Happy Easter sentiment is from Crazy about you set, stamped directly on the moonlight paper in blackberry ink and clear embossed. The card base is white, layered with blackberry bliss card, then the paper from the moonlight pack. I have added a small paper doily, cut in two and blackberry and honey ribbons. The image is mounted with dimensionals, and coated in crystal effects. A few yellow pearls finish the design.
Enjoy
Till next time
BaRb

Monday 16 March 2015

Sympathy Cards

Hello

I know we don't like to think about it, but we all need these sometime. Here are a few ideas for those sympathy cards.











These first two cards are basically white and are created using sentiments and images from JustRite papercrafts. They both have an embossed white background panel. The top card is stamped in navy.

This card has slate embossed stamping and is matted on to slate card, then on to a white base







This card has a white stamped and partly embossed panel, matted to sky card then on to white.
Both these cards use images from Kaszazz











The above two cards use images by Stampin'up. The top card is embossed in slate, matted on to embossed slate card then on to a white base. The second card has a shaded embossed background and a stamped image, layered on to paper. The sentiment has been embossed.
I have used pearls to finish the designs.
I hope you do not need a sympathy card any time soon
Till next time
BaRb

Wednesday 11 March 2015

Simple Stories Albums... "Take a Hike", "Harvest Lane" and "Awesome" ...

Hello,

Raining here again in Sunny Queensland!    Today I have some Simple Stories Albums to share with you.  I purchased the 6x6 Paper Pads and the 6x8 Sn@p! Pages / this and that Journal/Scrapbook pages in the "Take a Hike", "Harvest Lane" and "Awesome" Collections.  Using these I have created three Journal / Scrapbook Albums...
                                      

I created the covers using thick chipboard, covered with paper and then embellished using cut-outs (and other embellishments eg leaves, twine, rhinestones etc) from the three collections.


 Harvest Lane...


Take a Hike...


Awesome...


I have bound all three albums using my Crop-o-dile, rivets and three rings, tied with co-ordinating ribbons.

Inside the albums, I have included the pages from the 6x8 collections to which photos / journalling etc may be added.

Hope you are enjoying the weather wherever you are... we have a cyclone hanging around out there!

See you soon
Shell
xox

Monday 9 March 2015

Stampin' Up Festival of Trees Note Card Folder...


Hi,

Oops, a leftover Christmas project I realise I have not shared with you...

The design on the front of these little cards (and on the folder which holds them) was inspired from this very creative Stampin Up Demonstrator: http://brandyscards.com/. In the youtube video I watched Brandy was creating 10 cards in 20 minutes, I have based my card layout very similar to hers... Thanks Brandy. 



I then created a matching folder to hold the five gift cards.



The gorgeous little green embossed tree is of course from Stampin' Up's Festival of Trees set.


Washi Tape is a quick and easy way to embellish and decorate... how many rolls have you collected so far?!?

Shell
xox

Sunday 8 March 2015

Mini Albums... Love ...

Hello,

How are you? I hope you are enjoying plenty of crafting time!  Today I have three mini albums to show you.  In my stash I had an older Stampin' Up Pack of Pockets and Pieces Office Accents which inspired me to create these Minis...

                                    

The album on the left in the above photo "always" features images from a Stampin Up set - Affection Collection on the front and back covers, embossed in white.  




The red album, features a Tim Holtz Ticket, scalloped hearts die-cuts using Mpress dies and embossed wording from a Stampin' Up Wheel, and the back stamp is from Stampin' Up's You are Loved Set.



Lastly, the black Mini, simply called "Love" is embellished with black embossed hearts from Stampin' Up's set I heart hearts.

Inside all three albums, I have used the Pockets and Pieces Accents from Stampin' Up - there are many little flaps, pockets, places to add photos and journalling.

 Thanks for visiting,
Shell
xox




Tuesday 3 March 2015

Stampin'up Every Egg wheel - Easter cards

Good morning

Today we have some Easter cards for you. These cards have been made using Stampin'up Every egg wheel (retired)

 









I first rolled out the wheel then increased the sizes in the copier and printed on to smooth watercolour paper. The images are coloured with watercolour pencils and an aquabrush. They are then layered up on to the cards in various sizes, with spare images fussy cut and layered above the stamped images. Highlights are added with stardust pens, brads and rhinestones. Some areas have been coated with crystal effects.
The bunnies on the first card have been die cut using Memorybox Spring bunnies dies.
I hope  these cards give you some inspiration on different ways to use your products.
Till next time - happy crafting
BaRb


Sunday 1 March 2015

Hallmark Boxed Card Packs - Recycled into Mini Albums...


Hi,

I was sorting through my card boxes the other day - looking for inspiration... and I came across some partly used Hallmark card packs which have been in my stash for many years. As I make all of my own cards now, I thought it was unlikely that I would use the rest of these packs, so I decided to convert them into something useful... re-cycle, up-cycle... I have created mini albums with them, even using the box....



The first step I took was to pull the boxes apart (to use as covers for the albums), as you can see I had three packs, which I have turned into 5 mini albums.  The top three albums pictured above are the albums with the covers, and the bottom two have card fronts as their covers.







The next step I took was to cut the cards in half and arrange them in order.  The envelopes that were included with the packs have also made extra pages for the albums - great pocket pages... 

Inside each of the cards, I stamped some co-ordinating images eg flowers in the flower album, stars in the star album etc.

Before I bound my albums, I used the pocket section of the box to create a pocket inside the back cover of the album - this part was originally deep enough to hold ten cards and their envelopes, I made a smaller concertina on the edges and attached these with a heavier double sided tape.


I then bound the albums with my zutter, attached some ribbons and how striking do they look!!



I know for sure these card packs albums are more likely to be used in this form than how they were as cards!

Look through your stash to see if there is anything you could convert into something more useful!

Have a fantastic day!
Shell
xox