Wednesday, February 29, 2012

DIY - How to add CONFETTI to your scrapbook pages

Hello friends!

Confetti is running rampant on the crafty front, so I wanted to take a moment and share some tips/tricks and techniques for adding confetti to your scrapbook pages.  I had two projects in my gallery at Studio Calico this month using this technique:



I've experimented with confetti a bit, and found a great adhesive to use to adhere confetti, as well as some fun punches to use as well.

The cast of characters:



You need:

punches - I have two different sized hole punches here.  I also have some really great punches I found at Walmart for less than $1.  They are by Studio G (which can also be found at Michael's), and one is a circle, the other a heart punch.  They worked great on my Valentine layout above.


Other popular punchs are the Swiss Cheese punch from Fiskars but I'm also seeing some great options with the knockout punches from American Crafts, specifically the star border and this one

I like these individual punches because I can use them on small scraps of paper to get my shapes and don't have to start with a fresh 12x12.  Making confetti is a great use of scraps. 

You also need adhesive. Elmer's Craft Bond = fabulous. 

After I have punched my shapes it's time to get out that adhesive and my misting box.  It's going to get messy.



This Elmers adhesive is AWESOME.  It will soon be making it's way to a Studio Calico shop near you.  ;)

Some things to note:

This adhesive is sticky. 
It's a spray, so be in a well ventilated area. 

Cover your whole project.  Don't just spray it where you want the confetti to be.  I say this because when it dries, you will be able to tell where the adhesive was when you hold your project at an angle in the light.  It also changes the texture of your base paper just a little bit.  But this is NOT like Super Seal.  Your project will not be hard and shiny.  It's fabulous because it works and almost disappears when it dries.  It just doesn't disappear completely.

For this example I used my card.  I sprayed the entire thing with Craft Bond, and then sprinkled confetti.  After sprinkling it, I was able to rearrange things to get them where I wanted.  I'm a perfectionist that way.  It doesn't dry so fast that you can do this.  I sprayed it, added my confetti, rearranged, and then walked away from my project.  It is repositionable at first, but when it dries it's stuck.  But it takes a while so it's best to leave it alone for a few hours. 

Additional tips:

If you sprinkle a lot of confetti and the pieces layer on themselves, those top pieces wall fall off because they aren't on the card base.  Keep that in mind as you sprinkle, and reposition pieces until you are satisfied and then leave your project alone until the glue is "cured".




     



When you come back to your project later, it'll be dry and it'll be fabulous.  As I mentioned, you can somewhat feel a change in texture, and if you hold your project in the light you will be able to tell where you missed with adhesive, but just barely.  I just wanted to make sure all the perfectionists out there knew that.  :)





Here's a closeup of my Valentine layout that included heart confetti:





Just want to add a few accent pieces to your project?  I'd suggest a Martha Stewart glue pen and a pair of tweezers. 

You can also add confetti to a page protector and sew it shut, just like I did on my Note to Self layout.


When you do something like this you can add fun things like bigger punches and even fun veneer shapes like those asterisks.  This type of confetti floats around your layout which is fun. 

Let me know if you have any questions!

Davinie
 



Monday, February 27, 2012

It's Story Hour at Studio Calico

Hi friends! 

It's Reveal time at Studio Calico this month.  Time to share the crafty goodness from the Story Hour kit. 

Because everything is so new, there were a lot of products missing from my kits this month.  No Dear Lizzy stamp in the main, lots of missing Crate, etc.  (You don't need to worry though!)  That said, I actually really had fun with the kit and my projects came together really easily.  Hopefully I don't jinx myself by saying that out loud for next month!  As busy as my school schedule is, I really don't want to struggle with crafting.  I'm wondering if it's because school is stressful that the crafting worked out well.  It's a bit of a stress reliever, cutting paper into bits.  :)

First up, my main kit only project:


 


This one was inspired by a Pinterest post on our Pinterest board. 


I liked the dimensional border, the tone on tone, and the confetti, so had a lot with that one. 
I adore this next one.  That's Morgan, two days old. 



She's wearing a knit hat and booties I made for her, my first knitting adventure.  sigh...

I wanted to do something different here so I made my own flowers.  I was also inspired to do this layout from the Crate stickers in the Illustrated add-on. 





This next one is using mostly the Narrative add-on. 



I knew I wanted an outdoor layout when I saw the squirrel paperclips.  How cute are they!  I misted the background white to give some texture and then trimmed my triangles.
 

I also added a couple of cards to my gallery this month:





More on that confetti in another post.  ;)

I hope you had a great day!  Davinie 

Friday, February 24, 2012

Studio Calico - Story Hour SNEAKS

Here I am!  Here I am!  I'm coming to you live from between the textbooks to share some delicious Story Hour sneaks from Studio Calico!

Isn't it crazy?  I'm up to my neck in learning theory, but if I have to cut out sleep I will because I HAVE to craft.  It's my stress release, it saves my sanity, it's my religion.  It feels me up, just with the process.  I'm so glad I found scrapbooking in my life as a way to express myself, stare at photos of my family, and provide inspiration for myself and others.  I'm so lucky.

Here's a snippet of what I've been up to:

Sneaks:


You can see a snippet of my baby girl in this one.  Oh how I miss her.
This next one is my main kit only project:



This one was also inspired by Pinterest.


You've seen this next sneak, but I wanted to have them all in one place so here it is again:



That third sneak was made predominantly with add-on 4, Narrative


There's a lot of fun stuff in this kit so I hope you'll check it out when it comes up for sale!  I've really enjoyed the process this month.  I made one of my layouts while watching Survivor with my hubby, and I'm NEVER able to watch one of my favorite shows, WITH my hubby in the room, AND create something I adore so that should tell you how easy this kit works together.


Davinie

Sidenote:

Scrapbook and Cards Today is almost at 10,000 fans on Facebook.  Help them get to this magical number and be on the lookout for fun giveaways!  Click HERE and like their Facebook page.  You won't regret it!  SCT is a wonderful publication to work for and is always filled with fun inspiration. 

What else is new?  SCT has it's own YouTube channel.  Check it out for another source of inspiration for your crafting projects.  Do that HERE.   

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Happy Birthday Kimber McGray!

What a great way to celebrate a birthday!  Happy Birthday Kimber!In honor of your special day and the mastermind behind the surprise, I dug out some "vintage" Jillibean Soup and other goodies for a little birthday card today:



You'll always be @29!!  :)  The "@" was cut with my Cameo.  



(cough.  Sneak peak of the Narrative stamp set.  cough.  Perfect for cardmaking.  cough cough)


Did you get here from Christine's blog?  Want more card inspiration?  Join the card train and head to the next blog stop:  Becky Fleck.  You can also head back to the beginning at the Jillibean Soup blog to celebrate Kimber's birthday.

Have a great Saturday!  Davinie

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Project 12 February

Hello friends!  How was Valentine's Day?  I have a bit of a glitter glue hangover, but we had a great day in the Fiero household.  Morgan couldn't even sleep the night before, she was so excited, which put some added stress on me thinking I'd need to do something fabulous, lol.  So at 11pm Monday night, I was up making felt heart headbands for my girls to wear to school, which they both loved.  I also cut Morgan's sandwich in the shape of a heart for her lunch, and when I picked up Payton from Kindergarten and later Morgan from the bus stop, I handed them each one of those balloons on a stick you can get from the Dollar Tree.

Bam.  Valentine success.  :)  But now the youngest is home with the flu, lol.  Life goes on.

Because it's the 15th it's now the new date for sharing my latest Project 12 layout.  I'm working on February happenings, so looked through Becky's sketches from the SCT site to see which would work best, and thought October 2010 was a great starting point.  In the end I thought the big circle in the sketch could be a great big heart, but instead went with some doilies I had in my stash.

The sketch:




My layout:





Can you see the inspiration from the sketch?  This layout was also inspired by the February Colour Suite ( or color suite, in the US, lol).  You can check that out here.  There's a monthly challenge associated with the Colour Suite so check that out if you are interested.

Closeups:







The badge and journaling spot is from Marcy Penner's shop.  She made these badges and different journaling cards just for me and this challenge.  I love the large journaling spot, and you can also cut it in half and use it for Project Life.  Perfect!

Do you like the stamp set I used on Payton's Valentine?  It's from the Stepping Stone add-on that's out of stock at Studio Calico.  Due to overwhelming demand, however, that stamp set will be available one last time TODAY at 12 CST (I do believ that's 10am PST).  So if you are interested, jet over there fast! 

Stepping Stone alphas



Also restocked at Noon CST (10 AM PST) is the Awesome stamp set (but don't worry.  If these sell out they will be resotcked):



And while I'm in the sharing mood, if you are interested in the Happy :Little Moments class kit, word is that it's selling quickly.  With class starting March 1, if you want to get the kit, you might want to get on that too:



And that's it!  Have a great Wednesday!  Davinie

Working on: