Stash Busting Tip

Hello!  It's Laura back with you today and oh my goodness what a month this is, so many lasts!  Today I am sharing my last tutorial for ScrapMuch?, can you believe that I have shared over 280 tutorials on a weekly basis here on my blog! Wow, my family was right I do have a lot to say! Ha!

Boy did I struggle bringing you a final tutorial, I thought it should be something so amazing, something to WOW to heck out of you! It took me weeks to come up with something and in the end once I took the pressure off of myself and decided that I really wanted to create a layout, and that I wanted to colour coordinate papers and embellishments, the idea for my tutorial just came to me.

I bet you are just like me with tons of left over little bits and bobs from past purchases.  I bet you would like a fun way to use some of them up.  I bet you might want to buy more goodies, guilt free! LOL.  Let me show you how I busted my stash (At least a little bit!).

Little circles of yumminess!

I had some scraps of this collection by Crate Paper that I also wanted to use up.  I also had this wedding photo printed up and the pastels in this collection were just perfect for this pic. Pastels were big in the 80's, does Miami Vice ring a bell??

I didn't have a full sheet of paper from this collection but I found this one by Amy Tangerine in a light grey that worked well with the other papers, and since I have no other papers from this Amy Tangerine line I was nice to use it up as well!

I cut circles out of a white piece of cardstock with my Silhouette, but you could easily recreate this look without a Silhouette by using a variety of sized punched circles, so don't let the lack of a Silhouette scare you off.

I adhered the cardstock and patterned background together by lining up one of the bottom corners, just to change things up a bit as I do the "framed" look often.

Then I started adhering my scraps of patterned paper between the background layers.

This process is super quick, but you get a lot of impact for your few minutes and scrap papers!

I duplicated each colour so that my layout wouldn't be too busy.

I also tucked in a couple of strips of a striped pattered paper that helps to tie all my colours together.

Then the fun and stash busting part!  I pulled out lots of flowers (which I hardly use so it was nice to do so), stickers (I have a large pile of stickers sheets with just a few on each), buttons (do have a million too), brads (wow something else I don't use often but still have a ton of), and left over chipboard bits.

I layered these elements in and around each circle sticking to the same colour but using a variety of tones of the colour, so my layout wouldn't look so flat.

I must say the peach was the hardest for me as I did not have much, but since our first apartment was decorated in peach and grey I felt nostalgic about using it! Luckily I found a few elements that worked.

Yellow is my happy colour, can you believe we just celebrated our 29th! I can't say it feels like yesterday but it sure as heck doesn't feel like 29 years! Where does the time go.

Oh mint green I am loving you all over again, in fact I was working on adding this colour as an accent to my craft room - but now I am giving up having a dedicated space so the mint is going, too.

I have said this before, but as a mom of all boys, I am all too happy to play with pink whenever it works!

This title was a left over piece that seemed just perfect for my page, too!

I also went in and added some grey elements to tie in my background paper a little more, bust some more stash and because I could! heehee!

As a last step I stitched around my page with a dark grey thread, it just needed a bit of something you know what I mean?

This tutorial may not be earth shattering, but I really had fun with it and I think you will too!  And I love that I have a page that is a little different for me, but also a page that I love!

I also wanted to say, please do not think I am leaving the crafting world and forget to come visit me over at my blog, in the future.  I will still be creating and sharing - just maybe a little differently.

So glad you visited today!

Stained Glass Card | Tutorial | Free Cut File

Hello!  Laura here with a fun technique to share with you today! How about we create this fun stained glass card! Of course you could use this technique on layouts, as well!

So let's gather your supplies, you will need: a card base, vellum, 4 colours of Copic or other alcohol based markers, scissors, adhesive, embellishments for your finished project and a die cut of some sort.  You can grab the heart die cut that I created for this card below, if you like.

First, you will need to trim a piece of vellum to the size of your die cut.

Now flip the die cut upside down and layer the vellum over that.

Go ahead and start colouring on the vellum to fill in all of the areas where there are hearts.

Fill in all of the hearts.

Mix up the colours as desired.

Now trim the vellum so that it sits inside of the outer edges of the die cut. And then adhere it to the back of the die cut.

Now adhere both pieces to your card base.

Embellish your card as desired.

I kept my card pretty simple so that my stained glass would be the focal point. Just some ribbon and a simple tag.; created with a circle punch and a hole punch.

I just love the way it turned out, I can see me making these often with different designs. Think Christmas!

As I mentioned earlier, here is the die cut that I created for my card.  Click on the image to grab it in Silhouette, PNG, SVG and PDF versions.

Supply list: American Crafts and Recollections cardstock; American Crafts vellum; Hemptique twine; Pebbles rubon; misc. button and ribbon; Copic markers (BG13, B04, R43, BV04).

Have a great day and thanks for visiting!
Laura
xo

Creating a Custom Offset in Silhouette Studio | Video Tutorial with Laura

Hey friends!

Laura with you today, sharing a video tutorial to show you how to create custom offset panels in Silhouette Studio, like the one I created for this shamrock windowed gable box.

Please watch here on my You-tube channel. If you like what you see please be sure to give me a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel.  I am hoping to do some more video sharing in the near future.

I hope you enjoyed this and maybe learned something!

Thanks for visiting today!

6 x 6 Paper Pad Storage | Tips and Techniques

Hi there!

Laura here today sharing a storage tip for 6 x 6 paper pads.

I have always sort of kept them in this basket, purchased from Ikea many years ago for napkins.  It is the perfect size.

But things got a little unruly when I was trying to corral scraps along with the paper pads.

So I picked up some of these medium sized Ziploc freezer bags, they are the perfect size too~

The pads fit nicely into the bags, with covers intact, so I can easily see which pads I have at a glance.

All the small scraps that I like to keep stuck nicely inside as stay with the original pad, I love that - no mess!

I can even tuck coordinating embellishments inside the front of the bag, too!

I just love when my storage is tidy, it makes my space feel a lot less chaotic.

I thought I would share a bonus tip, too.  I love these Pebbles rubons for my cards, especially when I am creating in a rush and do not really have time to stamp. I keep my stash all together on a small jump ring.

And then tuck it into the side of my 6x6 paper pad basket.  That way all my card making stuff is together when I need it!

Thanks for visiting today!

Ribbon Storage | Tutorial

Hi there, Laura here today with  a bit more of a tip than a tutorial to share today.  I am revamping my craft room - very, very slowly. And so, I spent a bit of time reorganizing my ribbons.  I am switching back to a storage method I have used in past and then couldn't use it when I switched rooms.  I am now able to go back to this method and am excited about it.  It is so much better than all my ribbons being thrown into a large bin which is what I have been doing for the last year or so. I will spare you a photo of the tangle mess it was in.

I was reminded of this storage method when I recently re-found this pant hanger in my house.

It actually looked like this when I purchased it, years ago (but still available).  I removed the foam grips so that the ribbon spools would fit onto the bars.

I tidied up each spool (most were almost all the way unwound - I am hanging my head in shame - and knotted with other ribbons) and stuck a straight pin into them to keep them tidy and from unwinding on the hanger.

I quickly filled up most of the hanger.

Loose ribbon that was more than a couple of feet long, was wrapped around the bottom (stationary) bar of the hanger.  It worked out perfectly.

Anything shorter than a couple of feet long was put into this basket for quick access.  I am hoping to remember to check here first, when I need ribbon, to use up my scraps.

Now I just need to clean out the closet in my scraproom to make space for this! :)

Have a great day!

Z Fold Card | Tutorial

Laura here with a new tutorial to share today.  I thought I should start using up some paper scraps and random leftover embellishments - card making seemed liked a great way to do this.  But of course, we want to keep things fun and interesting so I decided to create a different style of card than I usually do.

Begin with creating your card base, I am using kraft paper and making mine "tent style" as I prefer the way they stand.  So I am starting with a 4 1/4 x 11 piece of card stock and scoring it at 5.5".

To make the Z part of the card, you will need another piece of cardstock that measures 4 x 10 1/4.  I am using white but of course you can use whatever suits you.  Score this at 2 1/2 and 5 as shown above.

Fold along the score lines to achieve the look in the above image.

Now adhere this to the face of your card.

Now it is time for patterned paper, your first piece should measure 3 1/4 x 5, go ahead and adhere this to the front of your card, as well.

Cut a coordinating pattern to 2 1/4 x 3 3/4 and adhere it to the front of the Z.

Next cut a piece of cardstock, the same colour as your main card base, to 2 1/2 x 3 1/2, then cut another coordinating pattern to 2 1/4 to 3 1/4.  Do not adhere these two pieces together yet. I say this because you may want to use staples or brads on your embellished area and you can hide the backs if you hold off adhering these two layers together.

Embellish the front of the patterned paper, I am using leftover chipboard and some enamel dots, as well as a rub on sentiment.  However, this is the part that anything goes.  If you like to make paper flowers, add a cluster of them instead, maybe a stamped or die cut butterfly, or do you colour?  How about a coloured image - the sky is the limit!

Once you have finished embellishing, adhere these two layers together, mine is pretty heavy so I opted for a liquid adhesive at this point.

Now go ahead and adhere your embellished layers to the front of the card, be mindful to not put adhesive above where the decorative panel adjoins to the front of the Z.  Again I opted for liquid adhesive here.

Now your card is all ready for giving!

Supply List:  Recollections and Staples cardstock; Crate Paper patterned paper and chipboard; Simple Stories enamel dots; Pebbles rub on.

Tanks so much for visiting!
Laura