Pumpkins from Scratch (hard) February 29, 2008

This is my favorite way to create pumpkins.  The first time you attempt it, you’ll most likely find it challenging. However, once  you’ve managed one the others to follow will be easier.

Step 1: Creating the peices.

Your first piece you punch out will be a circle.  Here is the most challenging part of the pumpkin.  After punching out your circle flip your punch upside down.  Reinsert the circle until it looks similar to the following photo:

and punch it out. 

To create the “sides” of the pumpkin take the piece of paper you used to punch the circle out.  Now using your circular punch, again upside down, offset the punch to the circular hole.  You’ll see it makes a shape similar to the one in the following photo.

 Depending on how big you want your pumpkin and how many you are making will depend how many of them you will need to punch out.

Step 2: Creating the Pumpkin

I reccomend using an orange piece of card stock that is darker than the one you use to punch out the pieces.  You start by adhearing the center of the pumpkin first.  Leaving a tiny space start adhearing the cresent shapes.  Make sure you leave tiny spaces between the cresents as this is how you get your shading.  As you can see in the photo. Once you have your pumpkin created cut it out.  I just used a piece of green paper to create the stems.

 Step 3: Decorating your Pumpkins

Here are some photo’s of various ways I decorated my pumpkins.  The first photo was an attempt at punching the image out of the pumpkin.  It is possible to do. but it takes a lot of muscle.  Therefor the following photo’s are of cut-outs I made and stuck onto the pumpkin.  The most complicated pumpkin is the Moon and Star.  That’s was actually created with a left over’s after punching something out.  You can create the leaves and other junk on a pumpkin by using either wire  (you can kind of make it out on the first pumpkin) or punched out curly cues (as you can see in my pumpkin patch)

Don’t feel you have to decorate them.  You can leave them blank and create a pumpkin patch, like so:

I thought I would include the pages that these were used in as well to give you some ideas.

Let me know how your pumpkin creating goes!

It’s a girl! February 28, 2008

New mom’s don’t have the time to scrapbook (or so my family and friends tell me). So I figured what better gift than an “It’s a Girl” Page.  Mom has a place to put her new pictures that will keep them safe for years!

I love this page because of the ribbon I found.  I was in a small no name store in a tiny town and I had to make use of it. To highlight the ribbon even more I used brads in the tiny holes in the ribbon. Here’s a close up of it.

Baby Girls Arrival Page February 27, 2008

I made an album for a little girl awhile ago and here is the first page in the album.  I cut all the tags out of different scraps I had running around with a plastic template I picked up for a dollar or so.  The cloth diaper hanging in the middle is also made from scrap material my mom had from a blanket she made.

Pumpkins from Scratch (Easy) February 27, 2008

Pumpkin 1-aOriginally uploaded by smurfsammy

Here is one quick method of creating a pumpkin that I’ve discovered.  It the most basic of them.

Step 1: 

Cut 3 circles from orange paper and place them side by side. 

Step 2:

Glue the third circle on top. If you want to add some texture you can use a orange pencil crayon to highlight wherever you feel appropriate.

Step 3:

Cut a small piece of green paper for the stem.

Christmas Trees from Scratch February 26, 2008

I love Christmas, and nothing makes me happier to do a x-mas page.  I find I use Christmas Tree’s an awful lot.  Buying these stickers over and over can become expensive.  So I sat down and came up with my own way of making Christmas Tree’s.  I hope you find it useful!

Step 1: Making the Tree

Punch out some green hearts (Hint: This is a great way to use up some of your smaller scraps running around). You can see in the picture that I’ve turned all the green hearts upside down, and started glueing them in row’s.  The rows get slightly smaller as you get to the top of your tree, finishing with one heart. I recommend that you glue these heart to some card stock, then cut around the final produt to create a christmas tree you can move around, until your page is set up exactly how you want it. This way tends to cut down on mistakes in the long run.  Versus getting your page set up and glueing it directly (if you make a mistake, it’s impossible to rip up and start again).  

Step 2: Decorating your Christmas Tree

There are so many different ways to decorate your X-mas tree.  Here are 2 examples I’ve done:

a) To create the garland I used glue (that dries clear) or crystal laquer then dusted it with some glitter.  (Hint: Ensure that your tree has completly dried before using glitter.  If you don’t glitter will stick all over your tree as well as where the garland sits) To create the x-mas balls on the tree I simply used a punch on different coloured paper.

 

b) On the next tree I used 3D paint to create both the garland and the balls.  I found I was able to control the paint easier than the glitter (it took me several tries and many ruined x-mas trees before I manage to have a good garland with glitter). Using the paint was also faster for the balls then punching and glueing circlar paper. (Hint: If your not concerned with ensuring everything is acid free you can pick up cheap 3D paint that is usually used on T-Shirts)

 

Here is how I used these 2 Christmas Trees in a Page:

I hope you find this useful in scrapbooking.

Scraps to Stickers February 26, 2008

When I first started out scrapbooking I had nothing, and very little money to start up.  Which we all know is the most expensive part.  I started looking for ways I could save the little money I had, and increase the amount of stickers I owned.  The most effective way I found that I could do this was by taking my old cards, be they birthday, Easter, x-mas, baby, or wedding and cutting them up to make stickers.  You would be surprised how many cards can be reused. As I receive the cards I cut them up and place them in Ziploc bag (or whatever brand you have running around).  I divide them up into categories; x-mas, birthday, Easter, baby, Halloween, frames, etc. After a few months you’ll have several bags full of possible stickers.  Don’t forget to bug family members for their old cards too.

I’ve posted a picture of some scraps I cut out of a baby card I recently received (I’m 9 months pregnant and going to a lot of showers right now).  They’re a little rough around the edges but I’ll clean them up when I get to putting them on a page.  They look quite nice so far and many people would leave them as they are.  I have a feeling I’ll end up embellishing them a little bit to make them my own.

 

Here are some ideas I’ve already been rolling around in my mind:

The baby bottle:  I recently bought from the dollar store a selection of tiny little jewels (here’s where I spend the money I do have.  Try as I might I cannot create jewels on my own). Their is a wide variety of colours in the package I picked up.  They would make a great addition to the little dots on the baby bottle.  Adding depth and texture.

The group of Balls: Adding some glitter to various sections of the balls would help make them stand out a bit more and again make it personal to you.

I find cards are a great place to look for words, and frames as well. Good luck with cutting up your cards!

The Beginning February 25, 2008

3 years ago I was an avid crossticher, knitter, quilter, painter, and any other craft you could think of.  Until one day my right arm was seriously injured at work.  Limiting me to the number of crafts I could do.  What a nightmare.  My mother in-law was just beginning to learn how to scrapbook and had begun showing me some of her finished pages.  I thought everything she’s doing is just so beautiful, but I don’t have that kind of money right now. 

However, having a history with crafts gave me a slight advantage.  I didn’t have to buy some of the stickers.  I could figure out how to make them myself.  Being thrifty also helped me discover other ways to collect craft related products. That is the point of this blogging site.  I want to help others who love to scrapbook learn how to make some of there own products at home, therefore, saving a few dollars for a product that simply can not be recreated at home.