Throwback Thursday: Play Ball!

Here’s a project I originally published in 2010. It still hangs on my wall today!

I have always been a Detroit Tigers fan. My aunt started it, but many in my family are huge fans.

My father-in-law, knowing what a big fan I was, purchased a pin from 1984, when the Tigers won the World Series, for me last year. I loved it, of course, but I wasn’t sure how to display it, so I kept it safely tucked away.

Then, 7 Gypsies came out with these adorable letter tray shadowboxes and I knew I had found a perfect way to showcase the pin.

I used photos I had taken during various games at Comerica Park, along with a few of our ticket stubs to finish off the tray. Here is how I made it:

Supplies:

Craft Glue Dots®

Pop Up Glue Dots®

7 Gypsies Printers Tray

Papers by Karen Foster and Scrappin Sports

Metal charm embellishments by Karen Foster

Sticker by Karen Foster

Jersey by EK Success

Ribbon, buttons, photos, tickets and memorabilia

Directions:

1. Measure and cut photos, tickets and papers to fit in the tray.
2. Adhere with Craft Glue Dots®. You can use any type, but the Dot N’ Go are the easiest to use.
3. Adhere buttons and metal embellishments with either the Craft Glue Dots® or Pop Up Glue Dots® to add dimension.
4. For the 1984 button pin, I stacked Pop Up Glue Dots® on top of each other until they were high enough to attach the button portion of the pin without the pin getting in the way.
5. Tie the baseball charm to ribbon and attach to handle.

I wrote this blog post while participating in the Glue Dots Design Team.

Fun with Stencils

Welcome to a new month and a new challenge with Scrap It Girl … Stencils and Masks. I love stencils and I wanted to try them with a variety of mediums, including paint, paste and ink.

I started by coloring a piece of white cardstock in a variety of Distress Ink colors.

Then I used a stencil from The Crafter’s Workshop and Distress Paint to add a bit of chicken wire.

(the blue came off of the stencil. I thought it was just stained, but it came off. I left it there as a little character.)

Next, I used another Crafter’s Workshop Stencil, along with Dreamweaver’s Glossy Black Embossing Paste to add a few weeds.

Then, I punched out a circle and used Distress Ink and a Wendy Vecchi stencil to add the word “Happy”.

I covered chipboard letters with Distress Paint. I used Removable Glue Dots to keep the letters in place while I painted.

Then I adhered the front to a card base, put on the letters and added a few bees from Little B.

It’s bold and it is very different from my usual creations. I am still not sure if I like it or not … what do you think?

Now it’s your turn … create a project with masks or stencils and post it to Scrap It Girl. You could win an amazing collection of prizes! Good luck!

 

All About Adhesives

When it comes to making something stick, there are thousands of options — literally.

It is imperative that the right adhesive is chosen for the right use. There is nothing worse than a project falling apart after a week, month or year.

Adhesive is not a product to skimp on, either. I know it can be expensive and is not nearly as fun as buying cute paper or pretty ribbon, but it really is vital that you spend the money to get a quality product. After all, what good is it to spend $10 on products for a page only to have them fall apart because you didn’t want to spend an extra quarter on the adhesive?

I put together a list of some of the adhesives you need to have on hand and what types of materials to use each one on in the latest issue of Michigan Scrapbooker Magazine. 

DISCLAIMER: This list is not complete … there are many more quality adhesives available that will work in place of the ones I mentioned. In fact, I have a handful on my desk right now to try and evaluate for a future blog post.

But this list will get you started and will teach you the right type of adhesives for the right project.

Click the link, here, and turn to page 8 … happy gluing!

Happy Halloween

I hate Halloween.

I don’t like spiders or vampires or things that go bump in the night and I find the whole holiday rather creepy. I know, it is supposed to be that way, but frankly there is nothing about being scared that appeals to me. So I avoid all things related to Halloween — normally.

But then new paper started arriving at Capture A Memory and I fell in love. So, when I was asked to make some samples for the store, I agreed and came up with these from the new line Hallowe’en by Reminisce.

 

This piece of Halloween art is made with a picture frame made for a 4×6 photo. The center is a giant sticker from Reminisce — yes, a 4×6 sticker! How perfect is that. I then used a bit of Art Glitter Designer Dries Clear Adhesive to glue a bit of baker’s twine around the edge of the frame.

Then I added some orange buttons I found in my stash. I attached them with Glue Dots Pop Up because the thick adhesive allows them to attach firmly to the uneven levels on the frame.

Finally, I grabbed in old bottle cap from my stash, flattened it with a mallet and used a 1″ punch to cut a picture out of another sheet of Reminisce paper and then glued it to the frame.

Super simple, super easy and super cute!

Next, I turned my attention to a little altered book. I started with a mini composition book … Staples usually has these in stock this time of year for about .50 each. They are 3 1/4″ x 4 1/2″ — the perfect size for a pad to fit in the purse or for a little gift to someone special.

I covered the book cover with paper from the Reminisce line and sanded the edges so they matched the shape of the book. Then I cut out the little girl greeting from another sheet and attached it. I wrapped twine around a few times and added a little charm from My Mind’s Eye.

Another super easy, super cute project!

Finally, I used some of the papers to make a layout for the store. I cut the little pumpkin guys out and used dimensional foam to adhere them.

My dislike of Halloween is so great, I don’t have any photos to use, so it is going to the store without the picture!

Stop by Capture-A-Memory to see all of these projects in person, or click on the photos for a better view.

 

The Dorky Bird

Normally I would be posting about Technique Thursday, today. But, since everyone is so busy with getting their kids ready to head back to school, putting up produce for the winter and taking those last few vacations, we decided to hold off on Technique Thursday until September. That way, you won’t miss anything. And, I would hate for anyone to miss a week, because I have some great ideas planned …

So, for now, I wanted to share a card I made with Stamps by Judith stamps that we just got into Capture-A-Memory.

I’m not sure why I am in a holiday mood, but here’s Dorky Bird all dressed up for winter:

I stamped him on X-Press It Blending Card and colored him in with Copic markers.

Next, I cut out the hat and boots and used Glue Dots Pop Up to adhere them.

Then, I used Art Glitter Designer Dries Clear Adhesive to add a bit of Flower Soft’s Flock to the hat.

Finally, I matted him and attached it to a card front made with some holiday paper.

Isn’t he cute?!

 

Simply Stickers

When I was a child, I had a sticker collection. I kept them in one of those spiral-bound, magnetic photo albums and loved the opportunity to trade and add to my collection. It was all the rage in the early 80s and even though times changed and I outgrew my collection, I never seemed to outgrow stickers. In fact, they were one of the things that drew me to scrapbooking in the first place.

These days, my friends rarely use stickers in their scrapbooks. They prefer die cuts or flowers or buttons or just about anything except stickers. I understand where they are coming from. In the early 90s we all sprinkled our pages with tiny Mrs. Grossman’s stickers — a look one of my friends refers to as a sticker sneeze. Like a sneeze where tiny droplets go everywhere, we covered our pages with tiny cartoon butterflies in colors nature never intended. It’s a look that is not only out of style, but never had any basis in art whatsoever. There was no place to rest your eye; no focal point; no triangle — just an odd mix of photos and tiny stickers.

So, I understand why many of my friends cringe at the word sticker.

But, given the right style, the right attention and the right design, stickers can still participate in amazing scrapbook pages.

 

On this page, I used stickers for the title, as a journaling block, and as accents. They, along with the plaid and denim papers, are all made by Simple Stories and are part of their Summer Fresh line. I love this line and have used it on many projects and pages so far. It reminds me of days gone by when life was slower and simpler. And I love the color palate — yellow, red, denim, blue and green.

 

Here, I used a sticker border on the edge of the denim paper for a unique look. I love that they match perfectly — something not all companies can achieve. I also added a few word stickers to fill in a blank space.

Here’s another look at the border … the scallop is the sticker, the plain denim is paper. Simple Stories includes several fonts on their letter sticker sheet. I used two of them for the title.

The flowers and jars are also stickers.

 

And, since I like to alter everything, I used my Cricut to create labels for the jars after my husband made the pickles. Here’s a better photo:

 

I used the Preserves cartridge to make the labels both for the lids and the jars. The word pickles uses the Opposite Attracts font and I used my Gypsy to weld the letters together into a word. I used my Xyron to turn the words into stickers and adhered them to the labels.

Finding an adhesive that would stick to the jars was challenging, since they are not smooth. However, Glue Lines by Glue Dots seemed to do the job just fine.

 

Where in the World Are We?

When I moved over the border (from one county to another) I noticed more than a little change.

For one thing, it is closer for me to go to a different metropolitan area than to backtrack to where I used to live.

But the people here also refer to things differently.

When I asked where something was in Livingston County, the first response was the city or township and then the name of the road. But here in Genesee County, people give you the nearest major intersection.  I am learning to say that I live at Seymour and Silver Lake. If I forget and refer to my home as Argentine Township, the person I am speaking to gets that cloudy look in their eyes and then asks me where the heck that is.

My main problem is that I often have that cloudy look in my eyes since when I ask where something is and get an answer, it makes absolutely no sense to me. I know that if I spend some time studying a map, I will quickly learn where the roads go and where the intersections are and will lose some of that cloudiness.

My father-in-law found me a map, but it was too big to hang behind any door and the only wall in my house with enough space is in my living room and I really didn’t want a map hanging there. Needless to say, the map has been shelved for several months.

Then, I had a brilliant idea. I remembered that I had a package of Poster Glue Dots and I figured if I cut the map into pieces, I could hang it on the closet door, and … tada:

I hung it in my husband’s office … out of the way, but easily accessible.

I cut the map at the folds in the closet door so it will open just fine. And, I took off the handle and then reattached it after I mounted the map.

While I was at it I added a state map to the back of the door …

(I used tape for that one since I ran out of Poster Glue Dots).

Now I shall always know where I am!

The Cat Who …

I recently discovered The Cat Who series of murder-mystery novels.

The books, written by Lilian Jackson Braun, tell of the adventures of a semi-retired journalist, Qwill, and his smart Siamese cat, Koko. They take place in Moose County, a rural region 400 miles north of everywhere, in Michigan.

While I enjoy the basic mystery portions of the novels, I also like to read about the slow-paced small-town life, the quirks of Koko and other small tidbits in the stories. I am particularly intrigued with the creative license Braun uses in her fictional county. It appears she has taken the best of Michigan and combined it into one location. So taken by trying to figure out where Moose County is, I decided create a scrapbook page about the clues in the book.

As always, click on the photo for a larger view …

The paper and flower stickers are from Cloud 9 Design. The state die cut was a gift from my sister. I printed the journaling on vellum and the clues on cardstock. The cat is a digital stamp by Doodle Pantry, printed on X-Press It Blending Card and colored with Copic Sketch markers.

As a side note … Copic will not react with laser or toner from a copy machine. They may react with ink jet printers. I have an HP and it works fine. I haven’t tried it with my Epson photo printer yet. So, always check your printer before coloring. Trust me, you will not like it when the black bleeds into your images and you could damage your nibs.

Back to the layout … the large letters and question mark are Grunge Board from Ideaology. The question mark is painted with Adirondack Paint Dabber and then covered with Diamond Glaze. The small letters are chipboard from Maya Road. They are colored with Rusty Hinge Distress Ink … a lot of ink for a solid color, less ink for the spotty ones … and then covered in Diamond Glaze. The black is painted on, then glued to the top of the squares and then the entire image is covered in Diamond Glaze. I love the finished look … especially the way the Diamond Glaze puddles where the letters meet the blocks. Once dry, I used Black Soot Distress Ink to ink the edges and then adhered it to my page. My favorite adhesive for these is Art Glitter Designer Dries Clear. I used Removable Glue Dots to hold the letters to my Nonstick Craft Sheet while painting. Trust me. You will want to do this!!

An apple for teacher

Rather than give a real apple to the teacher on the first day of school, give her something she can enjoy all year — and many years to come with this adorable hanging apple decoration.

I created this back-to-school idea for Glue Dots — and it is much easier than it looks.

To start, I cut out eight apples with my Cricut in red and three additional apples in green.

Next, score each of the red apples down the center, like this …

If you wish to apply Distress Ink or anything else to the apples, this is the time to do it.

You can also cut off the stem and leaf at the top of each apple.

Then, using Craft Glue Dots, attach one side of each apple to another until you almost make a circle — leaving the final two apple sides unattached.

Use the green apples to create a leaf and stem (I used Black Soot Distress Ink to color the stem) and attach it to the center with another Glue Dot.

Then, apply Glue Lines to the center of the apple and add a string or wire (I used We R Memory Keepers twine). Leave enough for the top to make a loop and enough on the bottom to hang charms. Keep in mind that you can always trim it if it is too long, but you can’t add to it if it is too short.

Once those are adhered, add additional Craft Glue Dots and seal up the apple.

Next, add a star. I used two corrugated stars from Close To My Heart, colored them with Fired Brick Distress Ink and then applied a few Craft Glue Dots to the center of one, attached the twine, and then covered it with the second one.

Finally, I tied on a Maya Road clear charm to the bottom and it is ready to give to teacher!

For a friend …

The new CMC Copic Challenge is to create a card showcasing friendship, using Copic to color the embellishments.

As someone relatively new to Copic, I found this challenge to be quite a bit of fun. You should have seen me attempting to color nearly everything that came along. Fortunately my cats stayed out of site, so I still don’t know if it is possible to color a cat with a Copic, but I do know you can color this cat …

This stamp is from Penny Black. I stamped it on Cryogen paper, that I had cut out with a die from Dies Direct. After coloring the image, I added Stickles to the insides of the flowers and the kitty’s nose for a bit of sparkle. Then, I added Distress Ink around the edges to soften the white color.

I layered some papers (from Bo Bunny and Basic Grey) that I had edged in Distress Ink and then the REAL fun began …

I started with a plain white ribbon, which I knew would take the color well, and colored it gray.

Then, I tried Tissue Tape from Tim Holtz. I was thrilled with how well it took the color. (I put a strip on a piece of scrap paper and colored it in long, even strokes. When dry, I gently pulled it up and attached it to the card.)

Finally, I pulled out some white flower-shaped buttons from Pebbles. I colored them in yellow, then edged them in orange. While they colored OK, the color seemed to come off as I worked with them, so I actually colored them again once they were attached to the card. I’ll have to look for some sort of sealer to see if that works …

Anyhow, with the addition of a saying from Northwoods, the Tiny Attachers, floss from We R Memory Keepers and a few Glue Dots, I came up with this …

Check out the other amazing samples from this challenge, here.