A gift box for your fur-friends with Graphic 45 Raining Cats & Dogs

This was such a fun, fun project!!!  I can hardly wait to give it one of my dog loving friends!  

This sweet little dog house was made with Graphic 45's ATC Box and the Raining Cats and Dogs collection.  I altered the box by adding a roof that I made from scrap cardboard.  The box is a perfect size to hold a little bag of doggie treats or a fun toy for a wee pup. 

I used flowers from the collection as well as  Wild Orchid Crafts flowers as their peach collections go perfectly with Raining Cats and Dogs.  Of course I had to have a poodle in front of the dog house!  That is Nika, my silver spoo.  What is a spoo you ask?  A spoo is a standard poodle in "poodle talk", LOL!  That is a Cottage Cutz poodle die and I used Ranger Antiquities embossing powder in the color  cement.  It is just the perfect product for adding texture; it sure makes a great poodle coat!

I've attached a template for making the roof that fits onto the ATC box and also written some instructions that I hope will help you assemble the roof and box.  Please let me know if you have any questions or if something in my instructions doesn't make sense!!  

Building instructions and roof template, click here.

I'd really appreciate it if you'd leave me a comment if you're going to make this as I am really interested in knowing how many of you found this useful.  AND I'd love to see what you make so please, leave me a link to your project in the comments.  If you post your project online, please link back to my blog for the template and instructions.  

Thanks so much for visiting!!  I've got a video tutorial coming up for a really cute treat jar so check back to see that.  Its really fun and easy to make.

Fabscraps Royal Baby, a new collection

Are you looking for the perfect paper to scrap a new little one in your family?  Fabscraps has the perfect collection for you, Royal Baby.  Its baby pinks and blues are just the perfect choice!

I've scrapped two of my favorite babies using this collection.  First up is my sweet Chili at 10 weeks old.  She's a baby puppy, LOL!!  She is snuggling with her bunny that she loved so much and carried with her everywhere she went until finally bunny had to "go away" when his head fell off.

The hot air balloon is a chipboard piece and there are precut papers in the Journal papers for covering the balloon.

For This Project You Will Need:

•    FabScraps Royal BabyC70 collection - 1 sheet each:  001 Baby Girl, 002 Precious Bunny, 003 Baby Books, 007 Swirl

•    DC70 018 Hot Air Balloon 1 piece

•    ST70 002 Sticker sheet

•    MC70 001A Journal Book

•    White scrap of cardstock

•    Mask and molding paste

•    Cheesecloth

•    Ink, paint

•    Flowers, leaves, embellishments, etc. of your choice

Instructions:

1.      Do some background masking on your base page, 002 Precious Bunny.  Use a foam stamp and paint to randomly stamp white and pink paint on the page.   Allow to dry.

2.      Cut an 8.5"  square from 003 Baby Books and punch around the edges.  Ink as desired.  Layer and adhere the white side to the center of your masked paper from step 1.

3.      Cut a  7.5" square from 001 Baby Girl.  Heavily distress the edges and then moisten the edges lightly so that you can crinkle and curl.  Ink as desired.  Adhere this inside the square of 003 Baby Books.

4.      Cut a strip from the pink portion of 008 Swirl 3.25 x 11.5".  Distress and ink the edges.  Use foam strips to pop this up and adhere to the center of the layout over top the layered papers in step 3.

5.      Select one of the precut hot air balloons from MC70 001A  Journal Book and glue to the DC70 018 hot air balloon chipboard piece.  Tuck this in behind the layered papers on the upper right as shown in the photo.

6.      Now you can add journaling, flowers, title etc.  Embellish as you like and its all ready for display!

Here's my other favorite baby, our grandson!  Royal Baby has so many cute chipboard pieces with it, I've tucked a train into my flowers from the collection!

The cute little onesie and the postcard below are fussy from the Journal papers.

 I love this adorable chipboard train.  I've used a sticker from the collection in the center announcing that it's a boy.

This Project You Will Need:

·        C70 Royal Baby Collection papers:  1 sheet each  of 005 Baby Boy, 006 Blue Ellie, 008 Swirl,

·        DC70 017 Train chipboard

·        ST70 002 Its a Boy sticker

·        MC70 001A Journal papers

·        Border and leaf punches

·        Paint, modeling paste and mask if desired

·        Embellishments of your choice, i.e. flowers, leaves etc.

Instructions:

1. Take 006 Blue Ellie and punch around the page.
2. Cut a 10" square from 005 Baby Boy and border cut the edges.  You can cut this with a border punch or do a decorative cut out with a cutting machine such as a Cricut or Cameo.  I used a WRMK Lucky 8 punch.
3. Cut a 6" circle from the center of 006 Blue Elie paper from step 1 and punch around the edges if desired.
4. Cut a rectangle from 008 Swirl 5.25 x 6" such that you have the floral border on the left as shown in the photo.  Border punch the right side.  Mount your photograph on this paper.
5. Ink and distress all your edges as desired.
6. Take the Its a Boy sticker from the 002 sticker sheet and stick onto white cardstock.  Then fussy cut the sticker out.
7. Paint 017 train chipboard a dark blue to match the paper and then add a 1/4" white strip cut from white cardstock  underneath the engine window.  Attach the Its A Boy sticker in the center of the train chipboard.
8. Adhere 006 Blue Ellie paper  from step 1 onto white cardstock.
9. Layer and adhere 005 Baby Boy paper  from step 3 over the Blue Ellie paper, tilting it to the right in a pleasing manner.
10. Now layer on the circle cut from 006 Blue Ellie on the left side of the page about 3" from the top and left side.
11. Add masking as desired.  I have masked some tiny hearts here and there.
12. Add your photo and matt from step 3 over top the circle.
13. Cut the Its a boy postcard and the Sweet Boy title  from the 001A Journal papers.   Distress and ink the edges as desired.  Arrange the postcard as shown in the photo curling the edges and scrunching in the middle so that a flower can slip underneath.  Place the Sweet Boy title underneath your photo using foam strips to pop it up.
14. Add embellishments, flowers, leaves, etc. of your choice along with the train chipboard embellishment.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Its time to make pinecones for your Christmas projects!

Hi everyone, Maggi here with a tute on how to make pinecones using the Tim Holtz Alterations die.

Supplies:

Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Pinecones Die
Brown cardstock
Toothpick, you can also use a quilling tool but because you want to elongate the roll, a toothpick works better.
Snowcap dabber or white paint & a paint brush

Diecut one of the spirals shapes for the pinecone.

Fold the edges of the outer petals and crease the center of each petal with your thumbnail so that it looks something like this when you are done folding and creasing.

Now take a toothpick and glue to the outermost edge of the spiral:

Roll the spiral around the toothpick, do not glue. You do not need to roll it tightly. Ok I am left handed so this probably looks bass-ackwards to you! If you are right handed you probably do it the opposite direction from me. Just be sure you start with the outer edge of the spiral.

After you have rolled the entire spiral around the toothpick, you can push it up or pull it down to get the shape you want. You can also tighten or loosen the spiral so that the petals are offset from each other. When you are satatisfied glue the last segment to the toothpick and the spiral.

Bend the petals back out and then take the snowcap dabber and touch the ends of the petals or use a paintbrush to dab a bit of white paint on the petals.

Ready to paint:

Then snip off the end of the toothpick and voila! Finished pinecones:

Don’t be discouraged if your first one doesn’t turn out well. Try again, I had to make 2 or 3 before I was satisfied with them. I also think adding the “snow” makes a world of difference in how they look.

Raining Cats and Dogs!! Another furbaby layout!

There are two things near and dear to my heart, Graphic 45 paper and my furbabies.  So imagine how over the moon excited I was when Graphic 45 came out with their Raining Cats and Dogs paper collection.  And as an extra bonus, these papers have lots of gorgeous red color in them and what is my favorite color?  Red, of course!!

I'm hosting a journaling challenge at Swirlydoos Kit Club this month.  A couple weeks ago on the forums we were discussing how we felt that some of the reasons for scrapbooking had gotten lost in the art quest side of scrapbooking.  We all thought it would be nice to get back to basics, so I created this challenge to help kick start us in that direction!  This challenge is open to anyone and you may use whatever supplies you like, so come join in the fun!!  There will be a fun RAK for two winners.

There's nothing I love more than showing off my spoos and telling their silly stories.  I have a book full of stories in my head about all my furbabies.  Over the years they have been my TV!  In the evenings, I just like to watch the dogs play rather than watch TV,  They're much more entertaining and I don't need canned laughter!

Journaling reads:

Silly Poodles!

When Tisha was a puppy, she was crated in my office whenever we were away. The rest of the time the door was open and Tisha usually would go there to take frequent naps throughout the day. Well, one day Noodle (she's really Nika but we call her Noodle cause she's all Noodley!) decided to nap in the crate. So Tisha gives the situation the eye and no problem, she just barrels into the crate and kinda pushes Noodle over a bit and curls up beside her. From that day forward, the two of them always curled up in the crate together.

I've made a couple of my flowers from Graphic 45's diecut flowers by curling the petals and layering them.  The other flowers are Wild Orchid Crafts chrysanthemums and carnations that come from their mixed peach and orange sets, they go perfectly with this paper!

If you are not a Swirlydoos Kit Club subscriber, please consider it so that you never miss any of our beautifully coordinated kits. Please visit Swirlydoos Kit Club and click on Join Our Club on the left side bar. Be sure to mention my name, Maggi, when you subscribe because you will receive a 10% discount on your first kit AND a coupon for 30% off an entire purchase in the Swirlydoos store. Your Swirlydoos store purchases are always shipped free when shipped along with your monthly kit.  Swirlydoos also maintains a Forum where everyone can share their work, tell stories and have a ton of fun!  We have monthly challenges too so please come and join us!

New from Fabscraps - Royal Baby, and a tutorial!

Fabscraps has a great new collection out, Royal Baby, and it features those lovely baby pinks and blues!  There are lots of great chipboard pieces to accompany the collection too and I've showcased some of them on this project.

This is a large chipboard Teddy Bear that covered with papers from Royal Baby.  I made the plaque at the bottom reversible so that it is boy on one side and girl on the other.

 A Tiny Bundle chipboard painted for a boy baby.

Little One chipboard for a little girl.

For this project you will need Fabscraps:

C70 Royal Baby Collection papers:  1 sheet each of 001 Baby Girl, 003 Baby Books, 005 Baby Boy

DC70 001 Teddy Bear Plaque chipboard

DC70 004 Tiny Bundle chipboard

DC70 007 Little One chipboard

Cutting mat and craft knife

Paint and/or embossing enamel

Embellishments of your choice, i.e. flowers, leaves etc.

Instructions:

1. Take DC70 001 Teddy Bear Plaque and photocopy so that you have a pattern to work with.  Be sure you copy the side that has the lines etched in; this is the face of the chipboard.
2. Place Teddy face down on the back of 003 Baby Books, trace around it, and cut it out.  Ink the edges as desired.
3. Now take your pattern from step 1 and using a craft knife, cut slits in the pattern along the etched lines marking his feet, ears, body etc.  (Note I did not cut the lines for the bow tie as we are going to cut out a bow tie.)  Cut out the nose and eyes so that you can mark the placement on the body.
4. Place the pattern on the cut out Teddy body and carefully put a sharp pencil through the cut slit lines and sketch lightly onto Teddy's body.   Now you have markings on the body so that you can properly place his facial features and give the body dimension.  Use a marker or paint to go over the lines.
5. Adhere the paper body to the 001 Teddy Bear body. 
6. Now take your pattern and cut out the bow tie.  Place the cut out bow tie face down onto  005 Baby Boy, trace and then clip out the bow tie.   Ink as desired and then adhere to  your Teddy.
7. Use embossing  enamel or paint to cover the chipboard bow tie and then adhere over the bow tie from step 6.  Be sure to add the separate chipboard bow tie center piece.  I covered that with 005 Baby Boy so that it matched the paper underneath the chipboard bow tie.
8. Paint or emboss, as you wish, the other chipboard pieces for his eyes, nose, and foot bottoms.  Glue the eyes, nose, and foot bottoms onto Teddy where you made markings in step 3.
9. Teddy's all finished so its time to make the hanging plaque!  I decided to make my plaque two sided; one side for a girl and the other side for a boy.
10. Trace  and cutout the hanging plaque from 001 Baby Girl and 005 Baby Boy.  Do not punch out the holes on the paper. Glue Baby Girl to one side and Baby Boy to the other.
11. Take the heart that the bow tie, eyes, etc were attached too and either paint or heat emboss with embossing enamel. 
12. Take DC70 004 Tiny Bundle chipboard and DC70 007 Little One chipboard and treat as you wish.  I heat embossed DC70 007 Little One with Stampendous shabby white embossing enamel.  Take the heart from step 11 and glue to the 001 Baby Girl side.  Glue it straight up as the heart is going to hang from the Teddy.  Then glue the chipboard words Little One inside the heart.
13. For DC70 004 Little Bundle, I painted the sweet little baby with a blue blow and then painted the words with white paint and then added some glue and sprinkled on diamond dust to give it some sparkle.     Glue to the 005 Baby Boy side of the plaque so that it looks pleasing. 
14. Embellish the plaque and Teddy as you wish with flowers etc. 
15. Use the rings to attach the plaque to the bottom of teddy threading through the top of the heart as shown. 

An Eerie Tale pumpkin layout and quick tutorial!

I had so many plans for some great Halloween projects...but sometimes life gets in the way and there has been no time!  But on the bright side of things, we did get in a  great two trip to the mountains.  We enjoyed the fall color so much, the Blue Ridge Parkway is such a great drive in the fall!  We also bought 4 bushels of apples and you know what that means?  Yep, 3 very busy days in the kitchen canning applesauce and sliced apples!

Finally yesterday I got to use some of Graphic 45's An Eerie Tale for this layout. Aside from being great Halloween papers, they are perfect for fall layouts too!

I've put together a quick build-a-page for you.  Enjoy!

1.  Begin by cutting an 8" circle from Fanciful Fable and a 7" circle from Enchantment.  Punch around the circles with a Martha Stewart corner punch if desired and adhere the smaller floral circle centered over the larger. ( I used laurel leaf on the floral paper and 3 dot on the owl print paper.)

2.  Fussy cut the pumpkin and florals from the An Eerie Tale paper.  Then cut the Magical card from the cut aparts on the Fanciful Fables paper.  Use a craft knife to cut along the florals and pumpkins to create a pocket that your photo will slip into.  In the photo below I have inserted a blank piece of cardstock to show you where I cut.

3. Well, as so often happens, at the last minute I made a design change so you will have to imagine that the black print paper has been border punched already.  At this point you should use a wide edge Martha Stewart punches and punch around the page.  Adhere this to a piece of orange cardstock.  The layout also looks good without the punching so you can choose which way you want to go.  (I used the double arches wide edge punches on my layout)

Cut two rectangles 3 x 5.25" from orange dotted paper, Wicked Whimsy.  Glue both rectangles to the background paper as shown, about 3/4" from the sides and 3 5/8"  from the top.

4.  Now glue the circles an inch from the right side and 2.5" from the top of the paper.  Add your title on the left as shown.  My titles are Prima Wood Embellishments that I've inked with Black Soot Distress Ink.

5.  Mount your photo on cardstock and then insert into the slit that we cut into the cut apart in step 2.  Attach to your layout lining up the left side of the card with your title on the left.

6.  I have added a Creative Embellishments Ivy Wreath over the photo that I painted with Silks Emperor's Gold and Art Anthology Sorbet Leaf. You can use any kind of round chipboard, frame or omit completely.  

Now adhere the fussy cut floral pumpkin piece using foam tape to pop it up.  Add a Journaling Chipboard on the right, cover the hole with bling and that's it!  

 

Note how the fussy cut piece is popped up.

 Detail look at the painted chipboard.

Supplies:

Graphic 45 An Eerie Tale collection:

Base - Unsolved Mystery 4500934

Fussy cut pumpkin/floral piece - An Eerie Tale 4500930

Floral circle - Enchantment 4500931

Light owl print circle - Fanciful Fable 4500932

Orange rectangles - Wicked Whimsy 4500941

Cut apart card - Fanciful Fable 4500932

Journaling Chipboard - 4500949

Silks Emperor's Gold

Art Anthology Sorbet Leaf

Creative Embellishments Ivy Wreath chipboard

Prima Wood Embellishments

Kaisercraft Sparklet coral

Orange cardstock

Swirlydoos Kit Club Treasured Yesterdays Creations

I was so happy to get home from vacation and play more  with the Swirlydoos Kit Club October kit!  I was only able to do 3 layouts before we left so I have lots more design team projects to share with you today!

I think I have finally conquered my fear of cards!!!  LOL, you know cards have been the monkey on my back for years.  This is a step birthday card made with Blue Fern Studios Montage papers.  Blue Fern papers are so heavy weight, they are great for card making. I used a sheet of "Now & Then" for making the card and side trimmings from "Fairyland" for the bottom and side panels.   I completed the card with Prima flowers and a stick pin from the add on kits.

The Prima Epiphany collection is showcased in our October kit and I used Epiphany papers for this layout.  Everything except the mask and modeling paste are from the main kit and flower and embellishment addons.  I cut the swirls with a new die I got from the Swirlydoos store; it's a Kaisercraft large flourish wafer thin die.  I love it!!

For this layout of my parents and the great grandchildren,  I used Blue Fern Studios Montage papers and added some masking.  I especially love the Blue Fern mini flourishes that came in the main kit! I've used flowers from the flower addon and embellies from the embellishment addon.

And finally a tag that I made from my leftover kit scraps.  The tag itself is Blue Fern Montage "Wisdom, and the circles are Epiphany paper scraps that I inked and added a bird rubon from my stash.  The white lace and stick pin are from the main kit, the other ribbons and flowers are from my stash and are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

 If you are not a Swirlydoos Kit Club subscriber, please consider it so that you never miss any of our beautifully coordinated kits. Please visit Swirlydoos Kit Club and click on Join Our Club on the left side bar. Be sure to mention my name, Maggi, when you subscribe because you will receive a 10% discount on your first kit AND a coupon for 30% off an entire purchase in the Swirlydoos store. Your Swirlydoos store purchases are always shipped free when shipped along with your monthly kit.  Swirlydoos also maintains a Forum where everyone can share their work, tell stories and have a ton of fun!  We have monthly challenges too so please come and join us!