My Fresh Squeezed "Squeeze-A-Palooza" card entry!

I've submitted this white-on-white-on-white card for this month's "Squeeze-A-Palooza" challenge for Fresh Squeezed Stamps.  The image is a free digital download from Fresh Squeezed.  I paper-pieced the roof of the birdhouse and sparkled up the little bird with a bit of Stickles.  Free-hanging banners on a bit of my favorite twine complete this easy card!

Here is a link to the Fresh Squeezed blog with all the details about this contest:

www.freshsqueezedstamps.blogspot.com/2012/12/squeeze-palooza-3.html?m+1

Make-and-Take this Saturday at Pages From the Heart

Stop by Pages From the Heart this Saturday December 29 between 10am and noon and make this stair-step card "Oh Happy Day" card. ($3)  I hear there might be a sale going on!

Make-and-Take at Pages From the Heart

Another "Make-and-Take" Saturday morning December 15 at Pages From the Heart with Debbie......stop by between 10am and noon to decorate this adorable clear pillow box. Pop in a gift card or cash, and you will be ready with a quick last-minute holiday gift. $3. Pages has the clear acetate pillow boxes in three sizes!

"What's Up" from Basic Grey

 

I made a card for my friend Tina and got carried away with the scraps! I made six cards and a gift bag out of four sheets of the "What's Up" collection by Basic Grey. The banners with the pennants, letters and cute little birds are easily hand-cut to become an embellishment. Or even easier, just mat and layer! "What's Up" is in stock at Pages From the Heart and several of these cards are on display.

 

 

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More Theta Gifts!

I had planned to do some work-work today but the internet connection wasn't working this morning....so I made a kite-themed frame instead.  Question:  do you like Theta items in all colors or do you prefer black/gold?

Here is an 8" square frame with multi-colored kites, twine and Theta letters.  The picture space is 4x4".  ($10)

Theta Themed Gifts!

I'm making some Kappa Alpha Theta-themed gifts with the thought of setting up an Etsy shop but want to post some pictures here first for reactions.  Comments, please!

Four tiny (2"x1 3/4") folded cards embellished with a tiny kite and bling along with four tiny envelopes in coordinating Theta colors. ($3)

Yummy chocolates wrapped in Theta colors then packaged in coordinating sleeve and cellophane with tulle ribbon and kite tag.  ($5)

Sorority Brag Boards are just giant scrapbook pages!

 I have not posted in a long time but I have been busy with paper crafts. Over the summer I helped my daughter Katie make eight "brag boards" for her sorority's annual recruitment events. After seeing these boards, who wouldn't want to be a Kappa Alpha Theta?

 

 

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Lucky Penny Birdhouse

 

The March Challenge at Pages From the Heart was to make a project with a "Lucky" theme.  Here's my entry:

When I first started thinking about the "lucky" theme, I remembered the little jingle "find a penny, pick it up and all day you'll have good luck". So pennies were already in my mind. Then I saw a floor tiled with pennies on Pinterest....and then I found my collection of unfinished birdhouses.

I painted the birdhouse white so that any imperfections in applying the paper would look intentional. I carefully practiced the folded siding on another piece of paper since I had only one sheet of "Must Have" from the BasicGrey Sweet Threads collection. The paper is scored and folded at 1/2", 3/4" and 1" intervals to create the overlapping siding effect. The bottom flat layer is "Thicket' from the new We R Memory Keepers CottonTail collection available at Pages From the Heart. A bit of my favorite brown polka-dot pleated ribbon finishes off each side.

The pennies were easier to attach than I first thought - ScrappyGlue dried quickly and invisibly. I found some old washers to frame the cutouts and painted another lucky symbol, the "7" street address (also available at Pages) in a soft green to pick up the color in the siding.

I stained some Popsicle sticks using a copper ink pad and glued them into a flower box shape then filled it with paper flowers from Michael's Dollar Bin.

 

Materials:

Thicket (We R Memory Keepers CottonTail collection)

Must Have (BasicGrey Sweet Threads collection)
Scrappy Glue (Pages From the Heart)

Cosmic Copper Brilliance pigment ink

Craft paint - white and lime sorbet
Ribbon, paper flowers and birdhouse (Michael's)

 

 

My Next Class at Pages From the Heart!

“Genuine” Card Class - Use the fabulous new Genuine collection from Authentique to make 5 all-occasion friendship cards.   Learn how to make a pleated flower and a pleated border using the technique shown recently on the Pages' blog.  Create a fun ribbon and tag embellishment using a simple safety pin as a base.  These cards can be easily personalized with the recipient's initials using the alphabet stickers included in your kit and you'll have plenty of cardstock stickers left over to make your own gift tags.

Pages From the Heart
137 East Colorado Blvd., Monrovia
626-358-5334

Cost $28.00

Thursday, March 29^th   7:00pm – 9:00pm

Genuine Friendship Plaque

 Here's my latest project for the Pages From the Heart design team.  This  assignment was to create a 3D item using handmade embellishments. 

I used the new Genuine collection by Authentique for this month’s Embellishment project. I found a slate plaque at Michael’s and used it as the base for a Friendship wall hanging featuring my daughter Katie and her college roommate Mina.

To form a base for the embellishments, I wrapped a 2” wide piece of white grosgrain ribbon across the bottom of the slate and mounted a 1” wide piece of yellow Bazzill cardstock and then layered the matted photo, flowers and a few leaves on top.

The “Tried and True” banner and other items are from the “Details” 12x12 sheet of cardstock stickers, borders, alphabet and other embellishments which coordinates with all the paper in the Genuine collection. This is an easy way to get everything you’ll need to make cards, pages and projects in a single sheet – and it’s a great value!

 

Pages From the Heart February Challenge

The Challenge for this month is to create ANYTHING, as long as it uses color misters!   The type, color, technique is up to you!  The prize is a goody bag full of product from Pages.  To participate, email a picture of your project to ayokleyjessup@gmail.com and in the subject line put "February Challenge". The deadline for this challenge is February 29th!  

Here's what I did for my misting project...

 

 

 

 

I sanded and then painted a $1 frame from Michaels with white paint. I placed four large stickers in the bottom right corner and then misted the entire frame with Sprinklers mist in the color Miss Mary Mack from the October Afternoon Sidewalk collection, available at Pages From the Heart.  When the mist dried, I removed the stickers to reveal XOXO in the white base color. I placed diamond bling around the heart picture opening and made three flowers by cutting, folding and gluing 1" hearts and 1/2" circles onto circle bases to form a flower shape. I used a small scrap of Silent Night I had hoarded from the Figgy Pudding collection by Basic Grey for the flowers but the mist could have been used to change any patterned paper into a complementary accent. A sheer white ribbon was woven through the flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

Valentine's Day Banner

Here's my February project for the Pages From the Heart Design Team:

Materials Used:

WE R Memory Keepers "Love Struck" collection
Bazzill red, blue and green cardstock
pink/white twine
pink/white/fushia tulle
pink satin and green plaid ribbon
large daisy eyelets
12" heart hanger

The "My Valentine" sheet of We R Memory Keeper's new Valentine collection was the inspiration for my banner. I wanted to use the wrought iron heart hanger I had found online and the multiple borders on this single sheet of patterned paper provided enough designs for almost all the vertical hanging flags and embellishments.

I framed each panel with a scalloped border or a mat - or both. I hand-cut the banner and tag elements from the "My Valentine" sheet and popped them up with pop-dots. Origami hearts, fan-folded bejeweled circles, hand-cut love birds and a coordinating tag hang on twine from each flag. A bit of tulle tied with a ribbon and a hanging tag finish off the Valentine hanger

Katie, Nick and Lucy the dog

I don't have too many photo opportunities any more since I am not following Katie and Nick around with my camera.....

New Collections from Authentique!

Two new collections from Authentique have arrived at Pages From the Heart, Monrovia.  I cannot wait to play with them.

January Design Team Card

Authentique Birthday CardPaperline: Authentique "Gathering" Collection

The base of this card is triple mounted in the brown/blue side of "Reminisce", solid blue, and the orange/blue side of "Grow". A fourth piece of the "Grow" ruler is the top layer and was cut smaller to allow room for the brown pleated ribbon at the bottom of the card. I folded a second piece of the ribbon and secured it with a small brad to form the bow. I covered the brad with a pearl.

The calendar was stamped in brown ink on cream cardstock and double-matted. I used one of the scalloped pieces from the Excerpts punch-outs to frame the upper corner of the calendar and pearl flourishes and folded paper petals to embellish the front of the card.

I used two tiny pearls to highlight the month and date of the recipient's birthday. This would be a great card to make in advance - just personalize the date before sending.

January Design Team Project

Here's a recent post that appeared on Pages From the Heart's blog this week.

It feaatured a layout I created of pictures that were take of my daughter on a recent trip to the Arboretum using poses from one of my favorite reality shows "Toddlers and Tiaras".  Take a look!

Paper Collection:
Authentique "Gathering" collection.

The base is the blue side of the Foundations bi-fold solid paper. I used the solid brown side for matting the picture and the layering at the bottom of the page.

I cut a 4"x12" piece of the "Grow" paper and mounted it with brown cardstock leaving an extra bit of border at the bottom - enough to frame a border of individual words from the "Diction" sheet. There are over 200 words on a single sheet of this product! I also added a scalloped border from the orange/blue side of the "Grow" paper and tied a piece of blue/white ribbon in an off-center bow.

The larger picture is triple-mounted in cream, orange/blue, and brown cardstock and then framed with 5 3/4" and 6" circles cut from the brown/blue and orange/blue patterned paper. A scalloped punchout from the Excerpts sheet and some folded paper petals accent the top of the circle. The petals are made by punching out a 3/4" circle, making an overlapping small fold and then working the edges into a cupped petal shape with your fingers.

The three smaller pictures were printed with larger white borders and cropped down to 3 1/2" squares. Another calendar, framed with the negative from the punchout sheet, has the date of the event highlighted with pearls.