A Valentines tag tutorial with G45 Sweet Sentiments

Valentine's Day is right around the corner and that means it's time to get cards and tags made!  Graphic 45's Sweet Sentiments collection from last year is the perfect collection for making tags and cards for all your special friends.

I made this tag by layering several different papers from the collection and below is a step by step tutorial showing you how I put it together.

I use a Bow-it-All to tie my ribbons, it makes a perfect bow everytime!

You can see in this view how the layers are popped up.

To make this tag you will need:

Graphic 45 Sweet Sentiments papers:

Perfect Petals

4" white doily

Heart Song

Be My Valentine

Spring Has Sprung

Tags and Pockets

Staples Large Tag

Cream Cardstock

Embossing powder

Step 1:

Assemble these pieces:

• Trace a Staples tag onto the Perfect Petals paper and cut it out.  Instead, you could also make a tag 4" x 8.5" from cream cardstock. 
• Diecut a Sizzix frame 658948 from cream cardstock and mount the frame onto a piece of 3" x 4.25" cardstock that matches the collection.  (pictured at top right below)  If you don't have this die, you can use a 4" x 5" rectangle or some similar die.
• Diecut a Spellbinders Frame that is about 3" x 4.25" in size.  I've used Spellbinders A2 Valiant Honor frame.  Again you could use a similarly sized rectangle or other die.
• Cut a small tag from Be My Valentine paper
• Select the My Valentine Wish tag from Tags and Pockets
• Cut Be Mine Valentine strip  from Spring Has Sprung. 

Step 2:

Randomly apply embossing ink to the Sizzix frame and heat emboss.  I've used Ranger California Stucco Antiquities embossing powder.  Be sure to let some of the cream cardstock show through.

Step 3:

Glue the cut out tag to the Graphic 45 Staples tag.  You will need to punch a 1/2" hole at the top to match the G45 tag.  Cut a 4" x 6" rectangle from Perfect Petals and use a deep edge Martha Stewart punch around the page to cut the edges.  I've used Wild Flowers.

Step 4:

Glue a 4" piece of white or cream lace at the bottom of the tag.   Round the bottom corners of  the Be Mine Valentine strip and adhere over the top edge of the lace using foam tape or pop dots.

Step 5:

Adhere the border punched 4" x 6" rectangle about 1" from the bottom.

Step 6:

Glue cardboard to the back of the Sizzix and Spellbinders frame  and also to the cut apart tag,  You could also use foam tape, squares or pop dots, any material to pop up the layers.

Step 7:

Glue the Sizzix frame over top the border cut layer.

Step 8:

Glue a doily over the Sizzix frame.

Step 9:

Glue the Spellbinders frame over the doily and then add the G45 Cut apart.

Attach the My Valentine Wish tag to the right side using several layers of foam tap or popdots etc to stand up the top.

That's it, just add a bow at the top and embellish with flowers and leaves.  I also fussy cut two butterflies from Heart Song and added to the left center and right top.

Fabscraps Floral Delight, a new collection

Floral Delight is one of Fabscraps winter CHA releases and it's really pretty.  It should be available in the US soon, if not already.  Here's a link to the entire collection.  

Here's a quick and easy hostess gift that I've made using a Fabscraps wine box that's all ready to be altered.  I simple wrapped the box with paper, and added some handmade and purchased flowers and bit of lace.  Easy peasy, took me an hour to do and that's because I made flowers.  If I had used only purchased flowers, 30 minutes tops!

 

Hand made flowers flanked by Prima lace flowers.

For This Project You Will Need:

•    FabScraps C74 Floral Delight - 2 sheets of 003 Delft Flowers

•    Fabscraps C74 Floral Delight - 1 sheet of 002 Delft Blue

•    Fabscraps Wine Box EC2 04

•    Border punch

•    13" of white lace or trim

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

Instructions:

1.      The circumference of the wine box is 13" so you will need to take a full sheet of 003 Delft Flowers and add a 1.5" strip to it so that it will completely wrap around the box.

2.      Carefully untie one of the knots of the cord handle and remove the cord from the box.

3.      Mark the location of the holes on your paper and punch.  Then adhere the paper to the wine box lining up the holes.

4.      Cut a 2" strip from 003 Delft Flowers and add a 1.5" piece to the end so that if will fit completely around the box.

5.      Punch two 12" borders from 002 Delft Blue amd cut two 1.5" pieces and add to the 12" border cuts so that you have two 13.5" border strips.  Glue the two border cuts to the top and bottom of the strip cut  in step 4  .  Glue to the box so that the floral side is showing,  about 4" from the bottom.

6.      Glue a 13" piece of lace or trim to the center of the strip in step 5.

7.      Cut a 5" circle from 003 Delft Flowers and glue to the lid leaving a border all around.  Take scissors and make cuts all around the part of the circle not glued to the lid,  about every half inch, so that you can fold down the circle all around the lid. 

8.      Make a strip 1 5/8 x 13.5" from 003 Delft Flowers to glue around the edge of the lid.

9.      Carefully put the cord handle back on the box and tie a secure knot.

10.   Make flowers with the remainder of 002 Delft Blue or use purchased flowers and embellishments of your choice, and glue to the box.

11.   Now you have a pretty gift box to hold a nice bottle of wine for as a hostess gift!

Thanks for stopping by.

A vintage LO with Graphic 45 Communique

I was digging around one day looking for something new to scrap and remembered that my sister -in-law had given my husband a disc with some photos scanned onto it.  Although, we've had this disc for several years, we'd never looked at it.  Oh my goodness, I found some real treasures on that disc!

This photo was the one that excited me the most.  It is my husband's grandfather, a doughboy, as the WW I soldiers were often called.  He was preparing to go to France.  The acompanying post card was one that he sent to his future bride.  It is very telling of the times in that the address is simply her name and the town she lived in.  The post card is dated July 29, 1919 so he must have sent it after he returned home from France.  I made a journal pocket behind the photo and tucked in a copy of a newspaper article that tells of his Company A preparing to go to Camp Cody and then on to France.

I've used Graphic 45's Communique collection for this.  It is an older collection, but one that I really love.  It works well for more masculine layouts and I love the black, ivory and red of these papers.

The two corner pieces are Creative Embellishments chipboard and are covered with Stampendous aged gold embossing enamel.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting!  I appreciate it so much!

Dressed in Couture - Graphic 45

One of my favorite things to alter is a dressform.   This one came from Hobby Lobby and I used Graphic 45's Couture collection to fashion this dress.  The dress has a drop waist and a slightly gathered skirt with a short tulle and a floral bloomers  train.  Prima Winthrop flowers in turquoise accent the waist and shoulderm along with draped beads complete this Couture look.

This is the first dimensional dressform that I've worked with and it is easier to work with than a flat dressform.

I am sorry that I didn't take a photo of the dressform before I altered it, but it looked very much like this one except that the skirt was floor length and had hooks on it to hang necklaces.  My husband cut those off for me.

To make the skirt I put a machine gathering stitch along the top of the paper for the skirt.  Then I damped the paper and carefully gathered it.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.  I appreciate it so much!!

More projects with Swirlydoos January KOM and Creative Embellishments January challenge

The Swirlydoos Kit Club January Embellishment kit includes a Graphic 45 Staples tag album and you know how much I love tags!  Of course, I had to make a tag album with the fabulous Blue Fern Sanctuary papers featured in the kit.  I used the cut apart Calling Cards paper as the theme for my tag album and chose some sentiments from the Heidi Swapp Word Jumbles stickers, also in the Embellishment kit.

Here is the cover that I embellished with flowers from the Flower Kit as well as some roses from my stash.

I took the album apart to photograph the rest of hte pages so that you could see all the details.  The main kit includes a set of Bo Bunny stamps and I used one of those stamps to stamp  the bird cage and fussy cut it.



Flowers and lace from my stash.

I cut a Spellbinders frame and embossed it with Stampendous aged gold embossing enamel and layered behind the calling card.  The flowers are from the

Flower Kit.

The lace flower is from the Flower kit.  It was white but I misted it to change the color.  

The bird on the branch is a Prima wood icon, from an earlier kit, roses and doily from my stash, the lace flower and dangles are from the main and flower kits.

I embossed a Sizzix frame with aged gold embossing powder.

The doors are included in the Embellishment kit and the flowers are from the main kit.

The roses are from my stash and the butterfly is from an earlier kit.

Here's a layout I did where I extended the photo onto the background with gesso and Silks paint.  I tip my hat to Solange Marques who does this technique so incredibly well!

I first  spread a layer of heavy gesso from the edge of the photo feathering it out on the paper.  Then I used acrylic paints to entend the colors of the forest.  Perhaps a different color background paper would have worked better.    I do like to try all kinds of things and this was fun, I will try it again.

  

The papers I have used are Blue Fern Studios Sanctuary collection and are from the January Swirlydoos Kit.  The embellishments are from my stash.

I also did this layout for the monthly challenge at Creative Embellishments.  The challenge was to use this image as inspiration and use mixed media on your layout.

I was inspired by the beauty of the landscape and so I chose a fall landscape for my layout.  I used 13 Arts Ayeeda paste  and Silks acrylic paint to create my forest behind the photo.  I also stenciled the title with Studio 490 gold embossing paste.  I've used Flourish 10 on the right side of my layout and colored it gold with Stazon gold ink.

Creative Embellishments Flourish 10 is a great flourish to use with your flowers!

I loved these mixed textured blooms from Petaloo!

Thanks for stopping by!

A simple card with Fabscraps and a Julie Nutting stamp!

Yeah, I'm a crazy old poodle lady and my husband is currently building a 1948 Ford convertible street rod.  So I tease him and ask him to paint it pearl pink and put poodle graphics on the side for me.  Then I will dye my hair blue and ride around with the spoos in the back seat with a big hat on my head trailing ribbons as I go down the road.  LOL, can you just picture it?  Ha ha ha.

OK so what kind of cards does a crazy poodle lady send?  Poodle cards of course!  Fabscraps has a new collection call Love 2 Travel and one of the papers is called Paris and of course features graphics of the Eiffel Tower.  I thought that was the perfect paper for this card with Julie Nutting's Halie doll and her poodle. Now there really is no such thing as a French poodle, they are simply poodles, toy, minature, or standard, but still many people think French poodle so I thought this would make a cute card!  It's a quick simple card and I've listed the supplies and instructions below.    You could alter the design to use any kind of fussy cut image you have if you don't have any Julie Nutting stamps.

For This Project You Will Need:

•    FabScraps C73 Love 2 Travel 001 Paris - 1 sheet

•    FabScraps C73 Love 2 Travel 002 Map - 1 sheet

•    FabScraps C73 Love 2 Travel 003 Australia - 1 sheet

•    Pink cardstock

•    Cream cardstock

•    lace

•    Sentiment

•    Flowers and leaves

Instructions:

1. Cut a 5" x 8.5" rectangle from  001 Paris.  Ink and distress the edges as desired.
2. Cut a 5.25"x 8.75" rectangle from pink cardstock and adhere the Paris rectangle to it from step 1.
3. Cut a 10.75" x 9" rectangle from cream cardstock and fold in half to form the card. 
4. Chose your sentiment and cut a rectangle to mount in on such as "Happy Birthday" in my photo.
5. Cut a green oval, about 3.5" x 5",  from C73 003 Australia.  Use foam or cardboard to pop up the oval and adhere to the upper left of the the layers from step 2.
6. Stamp a pleasing image(s) that will go with your card onto 002 Map and fussy cut.  I have used Julie Nutting stamps for the girl and the poodle.
7. Use foam tape and pop up the stamped image and adhere over the oval on the left side of the card as shown.
8. Embellish with your sentiment, flowers, lace, and leaves and you are done!

New Fabscraps Love 2 Travel collection

I have to say that this layout almost got the best of me as it just didn't want to fit the vision in my head.  The red cardstock started out as the base but as you can see, it ended up being my 3rd layer.  I had masked on some circles, added some pops of blue, red, and gold  and generally made a big mess, LOL.  I was not happy with it so I gave it a spray of fixative so that when I painted over it all with white gesso the colors would not bleed through.  Then I flicked some red paint over the entire page and I am satisfied with this reslut.

I dabbed silver paint and then added some random silver embossing powder on several chippies to use under my floral clusters.  Petaloo Botanica flowers, some leaves and a few berries finished up my look.

Eagle, Alaska is a small town in Alaska on the Yukon river.  You can only drive there in the summer as the roads are impassable in the winter.  We were there for their July 4th celebration and it was a pure slice of Americana!

Journaling:
Eagle, AK is a sleepy little town that seems to exist in another time, when life was a bit simpler. There’s a well in the center of town where many people draw their daily water as most homes do not have running water. The streets are dirt and the structures are wooden and old.

Their 4th of July parade was the perfect little town parade. The kids rode their bicycles and had cards on their bicycle spokes so that they would make noise. There were little flags and crepe paper streamers. Some people decorated their four wheelers and drove those in the parade. The Model T in these pictures has been in the same family ever since it was brand new. It was trailered to Eagle from Fairbanks. That old truck spit and sputtered and didn’t go many yards before the driver had to get out and put water in it. And, of course, there was a fire truck and an ambulance in the parade.

For This Project You Will Need:
• FabScraps C73 Love 2 Travel 1 sheet of 007 and 1 sheet of 008
• Red cardstock
• MC73 001A Journal Book Viewing Disk
• Stencil and modeling paste
• White gesso
• Embellishments of your choice, i.e. flowers, vines, leaves, etc.

Instructions:
1. Use white masking paste and stencil a pattern on the red cardstock. After that dries, paint over the entire sheet with white gesso. After it dries, tear about a 1/4" - 1/2" strip all along the outer edges being sure that when you tear you expose some of the red paper.
2. Cut an 8 1/2" circle from the center of Stars and Stripes 008. Then cut an 8" circle out of the 8 1/2" circle leaving you with a narrow circle border. The remaining paper will be the base layer of your layout. Use the inner circle as mats in step 5.
3. Cut a 9" circle from the center of America 007. Glue the narrow circle strip (dark blue side) from step 2 onto this circle (flag side) centering so that it makes a border all around. Ink and distress if desired. The remaining paper will be the 2nd layer.
4. Take the leftover paper 007 from step 3 and heavily distress the edges, ink, and then glue on top of the base layer 008 (dark blue side). Then glue the masked red cardstock from step 1 onto 008.
5. Mat photos with the dark blue side of 008. Cut small rectangles from 008 (stripes side) and mount the titles. Ink as desired. If using journaling print on white paper and mount on the dark blue side of 008.
6. Fussy cut one of the Viewing Disks from MC73 001A Journal Book, ink and distress as desired.
7. Center the layered circles from step 3 on to the layers in step 4.
8. Take a little red paint and water it down a bit and then dip a paint brush in it and flick red paint specks over the layout.
9. Pop up the photos and title(s) with cardboard or foam tape and add to your layout as shown.
10. Embellish to your liking with flowers, leaves, vines, etc.