G45 Precious Memories Shadow Box

I really enjoy how this project came out. I think it is very pretty, fanciful and fun, just like a project about these silly sweet and beautiful kiddos should be. (It started out a wee bit different. read about that here.) I wanted to make a wall or window hanging decor piece that could hang in almost any room.
 

I began with the cream, four windowed Graphic 45 shadow box. And to decorate I used G45 Precious Memories papers and some Prima embellishments. First, i lined two of the inner windows with the Sugar & Spice and Puppy Dog Tails papers. I love these little paper doll baby outfits. How darned cute.

In fact, I liked how these papers looked so much that I added it around the out side edge too.

I then used the pink and blue floral paterns from the Cherish and Patty cake designs to line the last two inside boxes. On the front, I used the plain pattern from Cuddle time. I then cut 1/2 inch strips of the hearts from Cutie pie and centered them in the frame. I added small chip board pieces to the corners.

On the top and bottom of the frame I added the phrases from Puppy Dog Tails (Snips and snails....) and Sugar & Spice (Sugar and spice....) I really like how these finish off the front of the shadow box.

I added some ribbon to the sides for hanging the shadowbox. I chose a pink and white stripe and layered a blue check over it.

I then began to work with the flowers. To start, I punched hydrangea blossoms using the Martha Stewart punch. I really just used the selvage from the paper I used to cover the frame. I bent/rounded the petals after punching.

I started in the corners by the ribbon and added bigger flowers from Prima's Butterfly and Watercolor collections. Then I began surrounding the lager flowers with the ones I punched and a few smaller Prima flowers.
 

I added flowers around all four outside corners. Since the piece will be hanging, I didn't have to worry about the bottom being flat. In the top corners, where the bigger flowers are, I added two of the vellum butterflies by Prima. These look so weirdly real that they seem like they could move.

After finishing the decoration on the outside, it was time to work on the focal points on the inside. I chose some pictures of the two amazing kids. (Photos were taken by xxx for a friend.) And printed and fussy cut out the figures. I played around with which boxes to place them in, then glued the photos directly to the back acrylic piece.
 

CHA 2015 Wrap Up Part Two: Papers & Stamps

Now that I have shown you my favorite tools from CHA 2015, lets move on to some musings about papers.

Graphic 45
If you know me you know I adore Graphic 45's style and generally love their papers, staples and all other products. So I won't spend too much time gushing about their new products and will try to stick to my three favorite new items. (But definitely go to their website and check out everything!) Of the three new paper lines (Artisan Style, Treasured Memories & Home Sweet Home) and two reprints (Once Upon a Springtime & ABC Primer), I am most looking forward to Artisan, I love the Art Nouveau look that incorporates architecture,  peacocks and text. And the colors are amazing. Stand by for seeing a few products in this line on the blog!  And the stamps are to die for. Check out the gold embossing on the new black tags!

And speaking of that another of the new announcements I am really excited about is that many of the staples are now coming out in black. From all sizes of the tags to the new multimedia albums and shadow boxes. And I am going to have to go with the shadow boxes and my third choice for best new items from G45 this year.

 They are so cool and come in two styles: a row of three boxes and a square of 4 boxes. I saw some amazing samples made with the shadow boxes.Check out the Vegetable stand Laura Denison made with a shadow box and the Home Sweet Home paper! OMG I want it ALL!!

The Year to Wander
There seem to be multiple lines called Wanderlust this year.

The first one I saw was by Heidi Swapp, It is a very pretty floral paper and I quite like it. But I don't really get a travel theme from it which is what I imagine a line name wanderlust to be.  But I do have to sat the big cabbage roses are gorgeous and could totally go shabby chic.

The second Wanderlust line I saw is by Kaisercraft. It is muchmore the travel line the name conjures up. But less of the flower and pretty I expect with Kaisercraft and more neutral or even masculine. 

The third Wanderlust line is more of a rumor I heard that one of Teresa Collins' new lines would have that moniker, but alas I did not see it.

UPDATE: Teresa Collins did post about her Wanderlust line on Instagram after CHA.

Teresa Collins
Speaking of Teresa Collins, she had a very nice booth that showed off a lot of her new products. She had customizable stamps, cell phone cases, new dies and embossing folders, even totes, But her paper lines were nowhere to be seen.

As she explains in her blog, somebody took all her samples. She also shared a photo of the galleys (?) of her three new collections: Glam Factor, Collector's Edition and Project Pink.  I am looking forward to seeing her new lines in person, her stuff is always great!

Prima/Frank Garcia

After the success of last year's Cartographer, Frank Garcia has designed a new paper line for Prima called Archivist.  It has a beautiful neutral palette with a vintage flair. I think this is the type of line that can stand on its own or be mixed in with another line. This line will come in multiple sizes from 12x12 to ATC sized cards and has some lovely matching embellishments.  Frank is also releasing a line of embellishments designed specifically for mini albums and a set of three different mini album blanks called Memory Hardware. This may be my go to paper for masculine projects this year.
 

Chickaniddy
The thing that impressed me the most about the Chickaniddy paper is the weight. It is one of the thickest weight papers out there. It could easily make a card with out any base. And whoa the way it would work in a mini would be amazing. This sweet and colorful paper will help make quick cards and projects without a cardstock base.

Bo Bunny
 Bo Bunny has added alot of cool new item this year. But lets start with one of their new paper lines, Carnival. I love circus and carnival themed paper and this one is awesome. With an old school side show font and muted primary colors thjere is just enough color to make it fun and vintage to make it work for kids and adults alike. It comes in 12x12 and 6x6 with many different embellishments.

Bo Bunny has also added more multimedia items including pearl pens, glitter paste, stencils, foil rub ons and laser cut chipboard. I was lucky enough to get in an open spot for their make and take which featured many of the new products.


So lets talk stamps!

DoCrafts/Gorjuss 
I adore the Gorjuss stamps. They are uber cute and feel kind of modern and vintage at the same time. They are made by a British company and distributed in the US by Do Crafts. I spied six new Gorjuss girls in the Do Crafts booth. And they are adorable, romantic and whimsical. All six come in sets with matching frames or accessories.  I always gotta have my Gorjuss girls!

Indigo Blu
Another British company, Indigo Blu makes some fabulous stamps with tons of details. This year I was stunned by their stamps of women's heads.

 

And how they used them with multimedia techniques. In fact they make some really cool papers and mixed media elements like their flakes.

LaLa Land Crafts

As usual LaLa Land Crafts had some super adorable stamps.  I was lucky enough to get to try many of the stamps and dies in their make and takes.  I really love the baby and flamenco collections Irina designed this year.

But my two mush have faves are I love you Marci and the square headz models. OMG so cute. Really want to decorate a Square Head!

So that is My report on (some) of what I saw at CHA, honestly there is a tone more I could write about, but we would all be here until April if I did.  I hope some of this information was helpful! Keep on crafting! <3 L

CHA 2015 Wrap Up Part One: Tools

For the third year I was lucky enough to attend CHA. This year I went with Custom Impressions, my home store and the location I teach at. (We are doing the G45 Celebrations layout classes there soon!!) I thought I would share some of what I saw and did at this year's CHA. So in no particular order here are the products and techniques I found intriguing, exciting and beautiful.

So, let's start with some cool tools:

Sizzix Inksheets
These really cool sheets that allow you to use your dies and embossing folders as stamps are pretty awesome. The come in black, white, gold and silver. I got to play with them in a  card class with Stephanie Bernard and on the show floor. They even won an award for being the hottest product this year! I have a feeling we will see many cool uses for these ink transfer sheets! (To use them with your wafer thin dies you will also need a transfer platform for your machine.) Gotta get my hands on these.

 

Sizzix Precision Plate
I have known about the advantages of using a metal shim with detailed dies for a while. In fact I bought one with my eBosser. But this platform for the Big Shot is the right thickness to replace one of your regular cutting plate and seems way more durable than others I have seen. Watch a video with Tim Holtz using the Precision plate here. If you use thin dies like i do this seems like a no brainer to buy.

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Remnant Rub Tool
This is a jeyal tool with a stylus on one end and a round angled chiseled end on the other. It is amazing for tranfwring rub ons (which were super popular this year.) And i have a feeling a metal stylus will have more than one use. Should be a good addition to my basic tool box.

Tim Holtz Shadowpress Station

This is a cool little gadget to help you in the shadow deboss folders that Tim started releasing last year. The folders are of different words spelled out in the shadows of the letters, and would look very cool in cards, layouts or multimedia projects. Requires a brayer. I am very curious to play with this tool.

Chameleon Markers

 These are alcohol markers that have a blending solution end that you use to dilute/lighten the color so you get a gradient when you color.  This allows you to get more out of less markers. I was really fortunate to try these out at the Some Odd Girl booth on the Gwen cat lady stamp. I really liked the way the blacks look.

 They worked really well, once I got my mind around coloring from light to dark. (I tend to go from dark to light with Copics.) They will work alongside Copics or any other alcohol based marker. I am dying to get alone with these makers!

Water Based Markers

 The manufacturers/importers of the most popular alcohol markers (Copics and Spectrum Noir) are broadening their horizons with new lines of water based markers. These will be joining the water based markers already on the market which range from Timmy's Distress markers to Crayola Markers.  The markers from the Imagine Int'l booth are named Kirarina. They have 2 shades of the same color in the same pen, a darker fine point and a lighter wide point. They are also apparently scented.

The markers from Crafter's Companion are called Spectrum Aqua. They have a Japanese style brush at one side and a very fine point at the other. When I was at the booth, they explained that the pigment is blended with the water previous to being poured into the marker barrel as opposed to being blended as it is added to the barrel. This is supposed to avoid the color separating. As much as I love my Copics I am leaning toward the Spectrum Aquas.

Prima/Julie Nutting Watercolor Pencils

Along with her 2015 stamps (OMG love the decades ones!) Julie Nutting is introducing her own line of watercolor pencils through the Prima brand. I was lucky enough to get a chance to play with them at a make and take station and they are quite nice to work with. They go on very smoothly and you have alot of control over how light or dark your marks go on. And when water is added (with Prima's new water brush if you like.) the penicil takes on a lovely painterly quality as you can see in my sample.  I was able to create dark to light gradients easily.

 This was most noticeable on my Friend Julie's Doll when she used just the black pencil and it looked just like satin. (I really wish I had a picture.) The pencils will be sold in sets of 12 sorted by themes like flesh tones or neutrals. I don't currently have a set of watercolor pencils, but am pretty sure I will soon.

Crop Cutterpillar

The Cutterpillar is a trimmer that you either love or hate. I love mine and want to drag it with me to crops and friends homes etc.  The Crop version is built to be light and portable, but it still has features like the light source at the cutting edge and self sharpening blade. I get pretty good accuracy from this trimmer, but again you should try out trimmers and find the one that matches your needs. The Crop was also partially funded by Kickstarter, so this popular trimmer is manufactured by a smaller company and will be harder to get your hands on right away, I think they have started pre orders on their web site.  I really want one, but think I need to wait to have some extra pin money first.

WRMK
We R Memory Keepers are like the king of tools. So I can't make a post about the newest CHA tools without mentioning them.  This year they added a banner maker and a 3 in 1 (envelopes boxes and bows) to their punch board collection. And they expanded the punch board idea with the Template Studio. This allows ypou to make gigatic envelopes, bags, flowers etc. How freaking cool is that? I want to make the envelope boxes for gifting 12x12 paper. Although it does look like it needs some surface space to use. And lastly, one of the items i saw I  loved were the new style of rolling bags with cabana stripes. Wish my current roller bag wasnt in such good shape lol.  I better figure out a way to get my desk cleared off to use the Template Studio cos that may be coming home with me..

 My Next Post will cover Papers and Stamps from CHA 2015, including Graphic 45 and Prima!!

The Paper Phenomenon Files (Part 1) OR How I Learned to Embrace My Inner PITA and Became a Kathy Orta Fan.

A bunch of my friends were doing it but I wasn't sure it was for me. But the projects I saw were really cool and I I liked them . So eventually I decided I would try it too. And now I just can't stop. What am I talking about I'm talking about doing the Kathy Orta tutorials from paperphenomenon.com.

It started innocently enough. I decided to buy three tutorials on her website. The three I chose were the file m for memories, the vintage camera and the vintage typewriter. Now clearly I didn't choose the easy tutorials. I chose projects that were things that I wouldn't normally make. I wanted these to be projects where I learned something new. So I chose projects that were heavy on the construction which I hadn't done often.

 

First up with a vintage typewriter. The first step was to make sure I had all the materials and supplies I needed. After that I cut down all my chip board according to the instructions in Kathy's tutorial. And although there are a few moments where I struggled in the construction it wasn't very hard to follow the directions and put the typewriter together.

  

I did do one thing differently from the tutorial and added a small mini album to the inside of the typewriter instead of the calendar cards that were in the original tutorial. I used the Prima / Marion Smith Romance Novel paper for the mini album. It was based on a mini album in Kathy's Interactive Mini-Albums book. (I bought a digital copy from annies.com. It is aldo available signed on paperphenomenon.com)

 

I was really pretty thrilled with the end result. And was proud to give the typewriter and album to a friend of mine (who is a romance/ya writer) as a birthday gift. I also made another Vintage Typewriter for a friend as a graduation gift. (I used Graphic 45's  Bohemian Bazaar for the mini album.) I also put black painted grunge board over the "roller" of the typewriter on the second version, this gave it a very realistic look.

 

To make your own Vintage Typerwriter, you can buy the tutorial here at Kathy Orta's blog, paperphenomenon.com. And some of the hardware can also be purchased here at the blog shop. Many of the items are Tim Holtz items and can be purchased at craft stores. But getting them from Kathy can save time and having to buy extras. For the typewriter's keys, I bought laser cuts from PorkchopShow's Etsy store. (The black ones seem to fit better than the silver.)

The second project I chose to make was the File M for Memories album. One of the reasons I really like this album is that it is full of pockets.  I think that this makes the File M album a great gift for my non scrapbooking friends because they can use ot like a journal or diary. Notes, poems, drawings or just about anything can be tucked into the pockets with out having to add glues.

This level of complexity to the pages did make it a bit harder at first. In fact, I found this album harder to make than the typewriter. The trick for me was that I needed to see a page completed and understand how it worked. However, once I understood how the flaps and the pockets come together it was much easier to visualize and itn"clicked" for me. And then the process of construction for the rest of tne album went pretty fast. I was very lucky and met one of the women I crop with had made the album before and help me put together my first page.

 

I matted the album mainly with Kaisercraft's Telegraph Road but I also used some of their other lines like Kaleidoscope, BeYOUtiful and Storyteller because this album is pretty large and takes a lot of paper to decorate. I also used some of the Kaisercraft Captured Moments cards. (These are like Project Life or journaling cards.)  I think all the papers matched very nicely. I think sometimes when you use a group of papers all from the same company the colors and the themes can work well together. This project was also I gift, this time for a friend of mine who recently moved to China.

  

Some tips for making the album: Choose a file folder that has a nice large tab on it. I think this is a nice look for the album. (I decided not to use the printable templates in the tutorial.) Definitely make a template for matting the tabs (it should be slightly, 1/8 inch, smaller than the tab base.) That way it will look consistent, I did not do this and regretted it.

 

Another tip I learned that really helped was that adding a. thin layer of glue stick over the scor tape (or other double sided adhesive), gives an extra few seconds where you can move the item before it's fixed permanently.  This helped me a lot. I sometimes need a second chance, so this avoided alot of boo boos. In the tutorial Kathy used  Scotch wet glue to attach the pattern paper(snd it looked fab). I tried, but it didn't work as well for me(maybe I used too much adhesive). I then tried using a glue pen (Martha Stewart), but it seemed to stay a little too tacky even after it dried. I now use Scor Tape with the glue stick trick and it has been pretty successful.

 

To get the tutorial for the File M album at paperphenomenon.com go here. The main supplies you will need a chipboard cardstock and pattern paper. And since this is a nice big album you can use that whole line of pattern paper you have tucked away for just the right project.

The final project in my triptych of Kathy Orta projects is the Vintage Camera. This is the tutorial I was most intimidated by. Both because of the difficulty and the fact it was going to be a gift for my Dad and Stepmom. But this also made it the tutorial I looked forward to the most. And in the end had the biggest "pay off" for me.

I have to admit I did stray from the tutorial. The biggest change was using Kraft Tex instead of regular cardstock for the bellows.  For those of you who haven't used it, Kraft Tex is a paper/fabric hybrid. It is made from paper fiber, but has the strength, texture and durability of fabric. Heck you can even throw this stuff in your washer! So basically i followed the cutting, scoring and folding directions the same as Kathy gave for paper. The difference was that I had to score a little harder and use a strong wet adhesive. I used the brown Kraft Tex and painted it black with Tim Holtz' Distress Paint. I then distressed, sanded, repainted and distressed again until it had an antiqued leather look. It was a bit of work to get it just right, but it was SO worth it.

 

The second place I was forced to make changes was in the hardware. While most of the hardware is pretty easy to find, the Graphic 45 Staples Metal Tags are not. I was lucky and had a pack with all but one of the six tags. So i only had to replace one. (The "P" medallion at the front of camera base, under lens.) The metal piece that curves around the lens is sldo different. Instead of the clip for binding documents (which I could only find in a box of 100), I used a Tim Holtz metal word band and curved it gently with pliers.

 

I highly recommend that you have a really good trimmer that cuts medium to heavy weight chipboard before tackling this project. Some of the pieces are cut quite small and can be difficult without one.

Inside the camera is a really cute album. Since this was an anniversary gift, I used Teresa Collins' Save the Date (with a little You Are My Happy and Something Wonderful.) The angled pocket construction of the album is very striking and would look good as a stand alone piece.

 

I think the camera ended up being my favorite piece. I plan to make a couple more, including one for myself. The tutorial can be found here. It includes video for the bellows portion, so be prepared to play you tube on this one.

I hope you enjoyed this first foray into the Paper Phenomemon files of Kathy Orta. I really enjoy making these tutorials and plan on trying more. Let me know what you think. Have you done any of Kathy's projects? What are your favorites? Or is there a different paper craft
er's tutorials that you love?