Cape Cod Bookends

When Club Scrap® told me that they were going to design an entire monthly kit based on some ideas that I submitted on the forum, I was so excited.   Then to find out that it was going to be named Cape Cod,  the place where I grew up and call home, was beyond my wildest dreams.   At that time, we had just had our Bookshelves Blog Hop,  where I blogged about the set of bookends I had created.  If you missed it you can check it out HERE.    Thrilled with the fact that a Cape Cod kit was going to be released in May I was inspired to create a coastal themed set of bookends.

I created the same base, painted it white using Gesso, and then added papers from the Club Scrap Castaway Feb 2011 kit.   I used my Silhouette SD to cut out some tiny flip flops.  I hand punched matching hydrangea flowers and made them into clusters.   The starfish, a wood mount stamp also from the Castaway kit, was stamped with Club Scrap's Earth Hybrid Ink, fussy cut, edges were inked to add dimension, and texture was added using a ball stylus.  The wood fence was purchased in AC Moore in the unfinished wood department.   I removed the slats from the white coated wire and then wrapped thin gauge silver wire around the slats to give it a more rustic feel.   I also inked the edges of the fence slats with Weather Wood Distress Ink.  The beach grass is made with very thin strips of paper and then hot glued together at the base and hidden with real beach sand.    I was honored when the Sandwich Public Library asked me if I could donate them to a silent auction fundraiser for the Town of Sandwich 375th Birthday Celebration taking place in June.


I also donated a second pair of bookends to our Teacher Appreciation Week Raffle table at the Henry T. Wing Elementary School.   We added a gift card to a local bookstore and the recipient was so excited that she had won and was even more excited to find out that I had made them.

For this set I created the base, painted it with white Gesso and then covered with Club Scrap Cyprus Sept 2008 kit.  The hydrangeas were punched out of the Cyprus paper as well.  I created the fencing out of thin chipboard which I then inked with the Weathered Wood Distress Ink and tied the slats together using gray waxed linen thread.   I experimented this time with sand paper from the hardware store when creating the beach element.   I was so pleased with how it came out.

I can not wait to create more of these unique bookends.

Thanks so much for stopping by and let me know what you think.

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

Welcome to the first official Club Scrap® {inter}National Scrapbooking Day Blog Hop!

In order to participate in this Blog Hop from the beginning you might want to hop over the Club Scrap Creates Blog.   I wouldn't want you to miss out on any of the wonderful artwork that our Bloggers have created.

First off,  thanks so much for stopping by!   I am so excited to have you here.

May 1st kicked off an entire month of crafting goodness over at Club Scrap.  Be sure to check out the CALENDAR for daily updates to the challenges list!

Today's challenge is the Geometric Challenge.   We have to use unusual polygon shapes in our crafting projects.   So I created this layout celebrating my son's graduation from high school last year.
Such a proud mom and son moment!

I cut the octagons out of blue and white cardstock with my Silhouette SD.

I stamped in colors that complimented the gorgeous Club Scrap Peacock Print onto the white octagons and then inked the edges in the matching color and nested on the larger blue octagons.

I stamped the remaining white octagon with the quote from Club Scrap's Sorrento collection.

Club Scrap stamps used on the octagons:
Wildflowers script in green
Avant Garde blocks in purple
Be Wonderful swirls in yellow
Navajo diamonds in blue

Blue cardstock punched with Martha Stewart border punch above photo

*Special thanks to Stephanie who inspired this layout design.


Thanks again for coming by and enjoy the rest of the BLOG HOP!

The next Blog you will be hopping to is Terri Sproul.  

Patti Splat Card

I decided to share this fun card I created using a number of different art medium collage techniques that I have learned.

I started off with an inspiration piece.  My sources come from a wide variety of places and this one just happened to be my daughter Shannon's shirt.   I just love it!   The colors, the subject matter, the art medium possibilities are endless!   Funny how a piece of clothing can spark something in an artist.

I found the perfect stamp (Club Scrap's Great Outdoors Collection) in this beautiful Luna Moth.   It had nice open areas in it so you would be able to see the colors and collaging through it.

I began with a piece of plain white paper and began with the art medium elements first.
I randomly dropped a juicy Distress Stain bottle onto my paper creating those terrific splats!
Just love that technique.   I used Bundle Sage for this piece.    Here is a link to a video using Distress Paints featuring the Patti Splat technique.

I inked over the whole piece using Distress Ink pads in Dusty Concord, Shabby Shutters, and Shaded Lilac.

I used the same colors when I stamped the swirls stamps (Club Scrap's Be Wonderful Collection).

Next step was to add the white splotches of color.   I used a water brush and white Gesso to make a very watery mix and dropped big juicy drops of paint from about 2 feet from my work surface.  I was really pleased with the results.

The final step was to stamp over everything using the moth stamp.   I used Adirondack Black Archival Ink.    To make the moth stand out a little more on the piece, I covered it in Glossy Accents.

Other products used:
Club Scrap Destinations Blue Panel
Club Scrap Cruisin' Black Card Base
Club Scrap Raku sentiment stamp
Club Scrap Be Aware stitch stamp

Spring Chorus Blog Hop - For the Birds!

Welcome Spring Chorus Blog Hoppers!!

So happy you stopped by.   This month the amazing Spring Chorus monthly kit from Club Scrap inspired me to create a birdhouse project that holds a mini album.   Also inspiring me was Earth Day (April 22nd) and wanted to recycle/reuse my Pizza Box that my kit comes in.

So without further ado,  here is my completed project!

I began by measuring and cutting my Pizza Box into pieces for my birdhouse and mini album covers and spine.

Cut the pieces using my Logan Matte Cutter.

Laid out the pieces and began attaching them together using Club Scrap's Book Binding Glue.

The door to the birdhouse opens and closes on a hinge that I attached using brads.









When I cut the box apart to make pieces for the house I made sure I saved the little stamped Chickadee image from the box lid for the front cover of my mini album.   Instead of covering the covers and spine with cardstock I decided to create a decorative hinge system using Memoirs Green cardstock with a punched edge.   I used up every bit of ribbon, die cut flowers, stickers and brads from the embellishment pack to create all my accents.   The fern piece was fussy cut from white cardstock after I printed images from the idea recipe cards from the collection.   I colored them with Peeled Paint Distress Stain.

I only had a small amount of cardstock left after creating my scrapbook pages from the Spring Chorus kit.  Usually I can save a few bits and pieces by creatively cutting the paper,  but this time I wasn't so lucky.   I managed to save a few larger pieces of dark blue and those I punched and cut into photo mattes for the inside pages of my mini album.   To cover the outside of my birdhouse in faux wainscoting, I needed to use more of the Memoirs green cardstock from my stash.  

I was inspired to give this scoring technique a try from watching this Gina K. Designs Video.   I accented the score lines using Peeled Paint Distress Ink.  I then attached the pieces to the outside walls of the house using ATG tape.












To create the roof I chose to purchase the digital kit so that I would have access to the wonderful imagery from the Spring Chorus kit.   I created a collage of the sheet music image and printed it out on 8.5 x 11 paper.   I backed it with more of the Memoirs green cardstock to give it some added strength and cut long strips out using my decorative "clouds" scissors.   I inked the edges using Sapphire Club Scrap hybrid ink and attached using Book Binding Glue.

Then came the fun part of embellishing the house using all of the bits and pieces from the kit I had left over.   I love making paper flower clusters and enjoyed playing with all of my punches to create them for the house.   I also added some of the wood picket fence from my stash that I had purchase at AC Moore many years ago.

This is the back of the house.  Fussy cut the Chickadee image and used some of the flower embellishments on the roof that came with the Spring Chorus kit.










Another fun idea I had was to make a bird's nest out of the the cool burlap ribbon from the kit.
I cut it into small squares and then glued it together in alternating directions with hot glue.

Then, inspired by this Pinterest technique,  I created the cute little eggs.








The mini album is assembled using a technique I learned on Laura Denison's Following the Paper Trail blog.  You can find a fun video tutorial for her unique book binding technique called Stack the Deck.

I used the Spring Chorus Fern Mask to create photo mattes for some of the inside pages.   I spritzed the mask with Sapphire Glimmer Mist and with homemade Gelatos metallic blue mist.
Then laid the misted mask down on plain white cardstock.











Next up was finding a lot of great bird photos from over the years to show off inside this fun little album.

Here a just a few of the pages.   I love how the "Stack the Deck" album design allows for so many photos to be hidden inside the pocket pages.  I created the tags using plain white cardstock and punched a border using a Martha Stewart punch out of the Memoirs green cardstock and glueing them to the edge of the tag.

Here is how the mini album fits inside the birdhouse.

















I hope you enjoyed this project as much as I enjoyed making it!

It is now time to HOP over to my good friend RON PERRY'S Blog called Random Doorways!

If you get lost along the way you can begin the Hop again at the Club Scrap Creates Blog.

BLOG HOP SPOILER!!

Hi everyone,

I am so excited to share a sneak peak of my project I will be sharing tomorrow on the Spring Chorus Blog Hop!

Start the hop over at the Club Scrap Creates Blog and enjoy all of the wonderful artwork along the way!

Oh Scrap!

I created a post 2 days ago,  if you missed it click HERE, about my Sketch Challenge cards and I created some ALCM instructions to go along with them.  
Sometimes when you create a set like this you have a nice little collection of scraps left.

Here is the nice little pile.

I couldn't just let this nice little pile go into the recycling bin,  so I made 2 cards with them.

I used a dark blue plain 8.5 x 11 sheet from the Club Scrap Serenity collection.  Cut the sheet in half horizontally at 5.5,  which yields 2 - 4.25 x 5.5 card bases (A2 size).

For the card on the left I used the strips and on the right I used the rectangle pieces.

The card on the right, I stamped a sentiment into the white plain rectangle and used a matching stamp from the CS® Wildflowers stamps to add a little something in the white space.
I corner rounded the outside corners of all the rectangles as well.

Other products used
CS® Bookshelves pearl strips
CS® Gimme a Ring happy birthday stamp
CS® Serenity sentiment stamp

Thanks again for coming by!

How about another Freebie!

So my friend Jen asked me to write her up some instructions for another of her sketch challenges.
Of course,  I couldn't say no,  and quite frankly,  I love doing this!

So since I did it for Jen,  I decided I would share it with all of you too!

Enjoy :)

Here is a close up of the cards.

Products used for these cards.
Flower punch - Fiskars
Papers - Dk Purple Print Club Scrap Milestones, Peach Solid Club Scrap Poetic, Shimmer mint green Solid Club Scrap Asian Artisan
Flower print paper on white card stock, Club Scrap flower stamp from Avant Garde embossed and inked with Distress Inks- Dusty Concord, Ripe Persimmon, and Mowed Lawn  
Over stamped with Avant Garde square noise stamp in Dusty Concord
Tiny pearls embellishments from Club Scrap Bookshelves kit.
Large Pearl center of flower from stash

Thanks for stopping by!

New ALCM formula to share!!

The Pro Scrapper's League over at Club Scrap has come to an end and I am still in a crafty mood.

My good friend Jennifer hosts a Card Sketch Challenge every month and I decided to jump in and create a set of cutting instructions for it.

Here is the sketch Jennifer chose.

Using the sketch as a guide I set out to create the instructions.

Here they are!    Click on the image and you can download a copy for yourself!

Here are the cards that I created using the sketch.   I also created an 8.5 x 11 print using my Club Scrap Wildflowers stamps, embossing powder and Distress inks.  The colors I used were Mowed Lawn, Squeezed Lemonade and Shaded Lilac.
I also picked out a green embossed paper from the Club Scrap Surf's Up kit.   I used the Mowed Lawn Distress ink direct to paper to bring out the deep embossing of the paper.
The sentiment is from Club Scrap Sorrento stamp set.

Thanks for coming by,  and please let me know how you like my instructions.
I hope they have been useful.

Howdy Hoppers!!

No not the Easter Bunny kind of hoppers,  but the Club Scrap Bookshelves Blog Hoppers!!

So happy you have decided to hop along to view all of the wonderful artwork created along the way!

I decided early in the month on what my project for the hop was going to be.   Inspired by the kit,  I decided on bookends.   I immediately began a google search for images of paper craft bookends.   I knew that it wasn't going to be an easy thing to find, because bookends are usually very heavy solid objects.   Well low and behold on the Elmer's Glue website I found a cute little set of bookends designed to be easy enough for kiddos to make!

Terrific,  I can work with this and the design,  BRILLIANT!   Loved everything about it.

Here is what I came up with using my project making skills I learned from Club Scrap!

To begin,  I cut 2 sets of book board.  Book board is a thicker, sturdier chipboard (1/8 inch thick)  great for making home decor projects like this one.   Each set consisted of 2 rectangles and a triangle.

I attached them using my CS Book Binding Glue and then once assembled,  painted with the Raw Umber paint we received in the Holiday WOW 2010 Luminary project.   One coat worked nicely, giving it a stained wood appearance.

Next up,  I used 2 triangles of the Bookshelves Eggshell print attaching them with bookbinding glue to the front of my bookends.   I left an 1/8 inch reveal around all of the sides and inked the edges of the paper.

Club Scrap had sold a grab bag of embellishments during one of their sales and in it was a set of gold corners.   I planned on using bronze colored embellies,  so I sanded them down and below the gold color was a bronze hued metal.   I rubbed black matte acrylic paint on the corners to give them the antiqued finish and attached them with Tim Holtz brads.  

I downloaded the idea recipe cards from the Bookshelves kit (you have to be a member to have access to these) and used my inks, Distress markers, embossing ink & powder along with my Bookshelves stencil to create the detailed coloring on the old map and globe images.   The Bookshelves Scrap Rap describes the techniques perfectly,  and you can check it out on page 8.
I also cut the book and quote out of these same image sheets.

Of course,  all of these images are available in GHM as Unmounted Rubber stamps as well.

I die cut some of the Bookshelves papers using the Tim Holtz Sizzix Tattered Florals die and a small sun punch for the centers along with a Mini Pearl from the strips we also got in this kit.   The leaves are cut from the light green plain cardstock from this collection.

The bronze embellishments are Tim Holtz's Idea ology collection.
The old key was from my stash.
The ribbons are from the CS Bookshelves Embellishment pack.

I am so happy you stopped by and visited my blog!  
Join us next month for more inspiration!

The next stop on this hop is Ron Perry's Blog.   

*And if you get lost along the way,  just start over at Club Scrap Creates Blog! 

Club Scrap Bookshelves Blog Hop Tomorrow!

and a little sneak peak!

Any guesses as to what it might be?!

Hope you will join us!