Daddy's girl - a Father's Day layout

What?! Pink on a Father's Day layout? It wasn't planned that way, but pink kept creeping in, so why not? We'll make this page in class next week. 

 And we'll make this little thingy from scratch: 

 There is quite a few techniques in there: rosette making, rough embossing, fake feathers and a glass marble. And some more stitching with the Sew Easy tool:

If you never tried this tool, check out my Sew Easy blog post. It's a little addictive. 

Sew Easy how to's

Have you seen the Sew Easy tool? It's sew easy to use (terrible pun, sorry) and you can change designs in seconds. If you hate dragging out the sewing machine and even if you are not a enthusiastic stitcher, you will love this. It's now available at my2angels in the haberdashery section.

First, here is a layout where I used the tool and some of the new wonderful cherry blossoms.

The background is Prima Songbird Lineage (back & front) cut like this: 

and glued together with a strip of Sunrise. I used the Sew Easy tool to stitch the scallops with - you guessed it - the scallop head (more about this below) and a little bit of cotton lace.

 The new tangerine cherry blossoms, roses and rose buds match the Songbird papers perfectly. That colour is just divine.

 There is also an upside-down Charming Bouquet. 

If you don't know how easy it is to attach a rhinestone word, please have a look here for all the tricks.

But back to the Sew Easy tool!

First, you will need the tool (duh) and a squishy mat. I've been told that a mouse pad works, but I haven't tried. It's hard enough getting a go on our computer without trying to steal the mouse pad...

The tool comes with a head that makes straight lines. (I used that to make some perforated lines for the tickets on the layout above.)

That's alright, but what we really want is something cool. So get yourself another head, like this heart one. Twist the boring one off and twist the cool one on. Now get your piece of paper, pop it on the squishy mat and start rolling.

You'll need a bit of pressure and I don't think you should go through more than 2 layers of paper (try it on a scrap first!) You now have a cool design, ready to stitch.

If it hasn't punched the holes all the way through (thick paper might need this), go over it with a pokey tool.

 At the back of the handle is a little compartment for needles. I think it even comes with one, but don't take my word for it. I keep all my embroidery needles in there now.

 Use 2 or 3 strands of embroidery cotton and start stitching. I'm a bit lazy and I do a running stitch one way...

... and fill in the gaps with a running stitch on the way back. Too easy.

 So here is my completed row of hearts... 

... and I quickly made it into a card with a few leftovers, some bakers twine and a sweet little charm.

And there you have it. Give it a go, it's a great tool and you'll be stitching away in no time, with your friends thinking you've slaved for hours. Hehe.

My sweet girl

Yesterday I got a sneak preview of new Kaisercraft stuff and we'll use some of it in my class next week.

How beautiful are the birdstamps (coming to the outlet in Robina on Sept 1):

 We'll make this satin flower too:

and there is another cute bird:

Create an album with me pt9

I making a whole 10 page album with one collection and a bunch of embellishments from my2angels and I've almost made it. This is page 9:

Okay, so the photo isn't the greatest, but I didn't store the negatives right and it's my fault the colours have gone funny. Don't tell me you don't have photos like these! Nevertheless, these are my Russian friends and they deserve to be scrapped! 

I wanted to add a fair bit of journalling about our awesome party season at Christmas time, since we used to celebrate Christmas and New Year twice every year (the old Gregorian calendar was 2 weeks behind and each holiday has a "new" and an "old" date. It's really just an excuse to party on...)

To find space for all this writing I cut out 4 of the journalling cards (3x4" each) and a 8x8" photo mat:

Okay, so I changed some of them later, but you get the idea. 

An inked edge helps them stand out from the background.

Next I wanted to use some cute felt ribbon, but the colour was just a bit too pink. What to do?

Peel off the backing to expose the sticky side...

 ...and pour clear glitter over it. A bit of hairspray to help the glitter stick and done. It tones down the pink a bit and adds some sparkle (always great for party layouts). 

Now I glued that on, like this:

I punched a mat with my Martha Steward "around the edge" punch (instructions are on the leaflet that comes with the punch) and glued the mat and photo down, with a blue velvet ribbon over the edge (light blue or green can help neutralise the brown tone of discoloured photos).

The title is framed with a felt star and 2 holly charms (I painted the berries red with Shimmerz)

While puttering around and making a fine mess on my craft table, I saw the new white shabby embossing powder and I was wondering how it would look on a white paper flower. Well, it looks awesome. The embossing powder kind of sinks into the paper and leaves a gorgeous sprinkling of glitter:

I was on a roll, so I tried it on some red felt stars, this time with aged copper. The one on the left was inked with clear ink and embossed on the patterned side. The one on the right was sealed with multi medium on the smooth side first, then inked and embossed. Nice, huh? 

Both of them ended up on a different project, but I wanted to share the idea with you.

A couple of present pins complete the page.

If you have missed the other 8, here are the links:

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

part 5

part 6

part 7

part 8

Cheers, Geli

Once upon a forest

Ready for another interactive page? 

This week we went to the Ekka and Hannah bought this cool stripey hat. She looks like a cute little skunk. Or raccoon, we haven't decided yet.

I dug out a photo to show her that I had a hat just like it when I was her age and it was my favourite too:

And this morphed into a photo wheel, which we'll do in class next week, but I tweaked it a little. I don't want to give away too much, of course, but turn here...

...and change the photo. There are 4 photos on the wheel and yes, my 2 sisters and I all had matching hats! 

Like my smurf nail polish? Another one of Hannah's Ekka treasures! 
The page is based on a sketch by Julie Winks and if you feel intrigued, grab 5 photos and join me!

Create an album with me pt8

So far I've done 8 pages from the Echo Park This & That collection and there is still enough left for more. These kits are such a good deal. Everything I used can be found at my2angels, just follow the links.

We used to do a lot of children's shows and visit all the summer camps in Russia. Here we are with a little Pioneer. (My American friends, you are not the only ones with pioneers. I am talking about the Russian kids' organisation, similar to the Scouts)

The background was created with Tim Holtz distress inks:

Stamp some hearts on white cardstock with clear ink, then emboss them with clear embossing powder and then rub distress ink over it. 

 The embossed parts resist the ink and stay white. It's subtle, but adds a bit of interest to the background.

  

Cut 4 mats from patterned paper (2x8", 2x10", 2x9" and 2x8") and glue them roughly in the middle of the cardstock:

 Add a paper ring (8" diameter on the outside, 7" on the inside) and sew a zig-zag stitch in the middle:

 Now curl up the edges of the ring a bit:

 Glue down the photo and 2 journalling mats (2x3" each):

Now onto some embellishing. Cut 6 circles (1 1/4" diameter) from double-sided paper and fold 2 sides towards the middle, like this:

 Glue them on some spare paper to form a flower...

 ...and put an acrylic flower in the middle.

The little felt boy got eyes made from a rhinestone chain and a velvet ribbon scarf (that's what a pioneer wears):

 and 3 felt hearts and 2 leaf charms with a twine bow make a cute little border.

 A rhinestone title can be a bit hard to attach if you peel the whole word off, but there is an easy way: Peel off just the first letter and cut away the protective plastic from under that letter only. Now lay the whole word on the page, where you want it to go and stick down that first letter. Peel off the next letter... you get the idea. Do the same with the rest of the word, one or two letters at the time and they won't loose their shape. Easy. It does look fab, totally worth the few extra minutes.

If you have missed the other 7 pages, here are the links:

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

part 5

part 6

part 7