Twila's Coaster Set

The holiday season is coming soon and we've got a great gift idea for you. Twila created this beautiful set of coasters using Kaisercraft's Beyond the Page collection mdf coaster set. She painted the coasters & holder red and covered them with papers from Graphic 45's Domestic Goddess collection. Give this coaster set a try, if you're looking for a fun, easy gift to make for family & friends this year. They would look great covered with photos, paper or a combination of both. Be sure to cover them with a water resistant coating, such as Mod Podge.

Graphic 45 @ CHA

I know this has been a long time coming! Sorry it's taken so long! This is the first group of almost 200 photos Twila took at CHA last month. I'm going to post them in groups so it will be easier for you to locate the manufacturers you're looking for.

I think you'll love all the creative ways the Graphic 45 designers have used their papers. I'm planning to use them to cover my grandma's train case. After I looked at all these photos, it seems like the perfect surface for a few of these retro Graphic 45 patterns.

Enjoy!



If you have any problems viewing the slideshow, please click on this link to view it on photoshop.com.

Julie's Acrylic Album Class #2

After deciding to make an acrylic album, my first step was to choose the size, I choose 6”x6”. The album I chose came with 3 silver hinged rings and is packaged in a shimmery gold bag, perfect for gift giving. We have some great new acrylic albums in the store from Clear Scraps & Bo Bunny.

My next step was to head for the Western & Farm section in the store. I was looking for a selection of papers that would include red, blue and some neutrals. A red bandana pattern by Creative Imaginations, was the first to catch my eye. Next, I found a blue bandana pattern with horses in its pattern by Karen Foster. Then, I remembered a floral on a red background that reminded me of calico, it’s a fun paper named Organic Poppy by Bo Bunny. It isn’t Western but I thought I could work it in with my theme. I headed back to the Western section and found a paper with a pile of rope on it named Lasso by Karen Foster. I added a brown & white lined “notebook” paper by Creative Café. Next, I came a cross a denim print, Blue Jean by Paper Adventures. My other choices came out of our clearance bins. We had a couple papers with white washed or distressed wood on them and one covered with old yardsticks. I thought the yardsticks (Folded Wood Tape Measures by K & Company) would be a fun addition. I wanted use the 40’s on the rulers somewhere in my album and the color & textures of the rulers fit in with a Western theme.

Once I had a good selection of paper, I started thinking about embellishments. I looked through my Grungeboard alphabet and took out the sheet of “T”s. I was sad that my set didn’t include numbers. I decided that I would cut a big 40 for the front cover on the Cricut diecut machine. As I was looking all through the store, I came across a large set of letters and numbers in a cupboard that Twila had used for one of her projects. I was excited to find a large 4 & 0 in a font that fit nicely with my theme. But if you can’t find something appropriate for your cover, do consider cutting your letters or numbers on the Cricut. In the store, we have the large Cricut that cuts shapes up to 12” . I chose some rubons with birthday, celebration and friend themes by KaiserCraft and Creative Café. For the back page, both inside and outside, I picked two square frames by Wild Asparagus.

To add a special flair to my album, I chose a transparency by Artistic Expressions called Celebrate. My last addition to my collection was paint. I wanted to use brown paint for the edges of some of my papers and as a background on my inside pages. As usual, I couldn’t find the exact color I wanted, so I chose a brown that was the closest I could find. Then I grabbed a black, a red and a metallic gold. I find that mixing metallic colors with any of my paints gives them an extra depth. You don’t need much, in fact, my gold paint was almost empty, I had to use a toothpick to reach in & get enough out for mixing.

I grabbed some last minute embellishments that I thought fit into my theme, unsure exactly where I would use them: Creative Café’s red felt pocket with a scalloped edge, Creative Café buttons in light blue, red & brown, thin twine in red, blue and ivory, Creative Café brown felt flower trim, 3 bronze hinged rings and a few pieces of coordinating ribbon.

For my adhesives, I chose hermafix squares, spray adhesive and Diamond Glaze. I wasn’t sure at first which adhesive to use, so I wanted to have a choice once I got started on my project.

When I got home, I laid out all my supplies on my table. I wanted to look at everything together and see if anything stuck out too much. I like to see everything together, so I can tell if it combines together in a cohesive way with my theme. I was happy with everything, but I did wonder if the Creative Café rubons would match my color scheme & theme. In the end, I only ended up using one from that set.

I had an idea in my head of how I wanted the inside pages to look, so I got to work.

Julie's 10 Minute Mini Album Class #4

For a few final touches, use some embellishments from your stash at home. Or find some in the bulk embellishment section at our store. I used a little orange chipboard flower from the Creative Cafe collection, and put a copper brad through the hole. I adhered this to my page with glue dots. And finally for a special touch on the inside pages, I picked some paper maple leaves from my collection and used a glue dot to add one to the corner of each page.

My album was finished in 10 minutes, I couldn't believe it! Such a cute gift in so little time for so little money! Adding these last embellishments did take me an extra 5 minutes after I got home from cropping at the store, but I think they're totally worth it!

I encourage everyone to give this project a try! It's so nice to have that great feeling of accomplishment in such a short time! So many projects in scrapbooking take so long to complete, that it's nice to have a little ego boost to inspire your creativity! And my mom really loved her own album of her Little Pumpkins!

Julie's 10 Minute Mini Album Class #3

Next, use your scissors to cut the ribbon into 12 4" lengths. Take each piece of ribbon and tie it around the hinged ring. There is no particular order for tying the ribbon, but I like to mix my textures and prints so that each ribbon is next to one totally different from itself.

Julie's 10 Minute Mini Album Class #2

After punching each page, use your corner rounder
to round the corners on each page.

Open your hinged ring and place each page onto the ring, with the cover on top.

Julie's 10 Minute Mini Album Class #1

(Please do not copy our photos or text and paste into another site or print them out. Instead, please pass on a link to our site to anyone who may find this online class useful. Thank you!)

This mini-album is a great gift idea and only took me 10 minutes to complete...after I chose my papers and photos. I used 8 wallet size photos for this project. I choose wallets as the size for my photos when I ordered them from the Costco Photo Center. Costco's wallets come 4 to a sheet and are 39 cents per sheet. So each photo is about 10 cents each and for the total cost of $3.12 (8 sheets of 4 photos each), you could make 4 of these mini albums to use for gifts. Next, I chose my papers. I looked at my photos for and thought about the theme I was trying to create and the common colors in each photo. Since these were all pumpkin patch photos, I looked for papers with a Fall theme. I chose double sided patterned papers, so that I could have a little more variety in my patterns and so that the back of each page would look as nice as the front. Another plus about double sided papers for this project, is that they are thicker than most one sided papers. My Fancy Pants papers were 89 cents each, and I chose 3 papers for a total of $2.67. You could choose just one paper for the whole album if you like and then the cost would be less. With my 3 sheets of paper, I would be able to make 3 more albums, using my extra photos. Next I chose a hinged ring to match my papers and hold the album together (75 cents). After completing the project, I did end up adding a few embellishments from my collection for a little extra flair. Feel free to add as many embellishments as you like to your album. To save money, look through your stash at home first and see if you have anything that might match your theme and then bring them to the store when you're ready to choose your papers. You might have everything you need or just need to add a few things from the bulk embellishments section. I also chose to add ribbon to the ring on my finished project. The ribbons I chose averaged about $1.00 per yard and for one album, I needed about 4 feet of ribbon, so the cost was approximately $1.33 per album. As far as adhesives, anything you use to adhere your photos in your albums will work fine on this project. I used a brown Zig marker to write my title on the cover and glue dots to adhere my embellishments. As far as tools, I used my scissors to trim my photos and my large Fiskars trimmer to cut the paper. I used a regular sized hole punch for the holes and a corner rounder to round each page.

My total for 4 mini albums to use as gifts is $14.11 for supplies (not including extra embellishments & adhesives). So the cost for each mini album works out to be about $3.53. I think these are wonderful gifts for moms, dads, grandmas & grandpas, aunt & uncles. Use this mini album format to showcase your kids, their hobbies, your pets, your travels and so many more wonderful events!

Let's get started!

First use your scissors to trim your 8 wallet size photos (2 1/2" x 3 1/2"). You can either trim them with a white border or trim off all the white. Next take your double sided patterned paper and cut 9 4" x 3" rectangles. The extra piece will be your album cover.

Experiment a little with your photos and each paper, lay each photo on the front & back of each paper, checking to see which mix you like. I laid mine all out on the table to see which order I wanted both the photos and the patterns to be in. But don't worry too much about this part! When you choose the papers to coordinate with your photos, you took care of the hard part! What takes the most time in scrapbooking is deciding what to do. So if you're looking for a quick project, try to not spend so much time worrying and spend more time getting the project done! You'll love it in the end and it will look great!

Use your choice of adhesive and mount the photos on the papers. Think of a cute title for your album and use a marker to write it on the cover. Next, take each rectangle and punch a hole in the corner. I punched one of the photo pages first and then held each of the next papers behind it, one at a time, using the first hole as my guide, to be sure my holes were all in the same place.

10 Minute Mini Album Class

This project was a last-minute idea of mine when I was working the crop last Friday night. I was making a pumpkin patch page with the kids' pictures. Since I was using wallet size photos printed from Costco, I had 3 extra of each picture. I was wondering what to do with the extras while I made my layout and an idea came to me. I could make a mini album for my mom that she could carry in her purse and share pictures of her grandkids with friends. I cut each wallet size photo with a white border and measured them. They were 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches and I had 8 of them. I looked around the store and found 3 sheets of double-sided, printed paper from Fancy Pants True Papers collection. I grabbed one copper hinged ring and a hole punch.

I'll finish the rest of this project post soon! :) -Julie

Make your own Explosion Box

I mentioned the explosion box in the latest Whimzee's Newsletter. The box would be an awesome gift for someone special. It does take a significant amount of time to complete. If you're interested in a birthday box, we have a few kits from Bo Bunny in the store. I made a sample last Winter. If you'd like to take a look, it's on the counter in the store. We were thinking of doing a class, but since it took longer than 2 hours, we decided against the class. The birthday box would be a lot of fun for a 30th, 40th or 50th party...or a Sweet 16.

This explosion box is so cute and made from the 3 Bugs in a Rug Summer collection. It looks like the designer used only one of the three layers mentioned in most explosion box instructions. I love this idea, as it cuts out a ton of time from the process and still results in a totally fun gift idea. You could make one of these for Grandma for her birthday or Christmas. Or you could make one as a hostess Thank You, for that friend who loaned you her beach house for weekend this summer. You pick! :)

Here's a link to a blog with step-by-step photos and detailed instructions.

http://glitteradventure.blogspot.com/2006/11/exploding-box-class.html

As always, we'd love to see photos of your latest creations! And we welcome comments & suggestions about the store, the newsletter or the blog!