Little Yellow Tote

The Reveal
Greetings to all. I wanted to branch out from my usual paper endeavors and create something scrappy in the fabric world. I had some felt and canvas scrapbooking embellishments that I never got around to using so I decide to pair that with a canvas tote and this is the result. 

Altered Canvas Tote

The Process

I found the yellow canvas tote at a thrift shop for $3.00, and it was originally from the Gap. I wanted an inexpensive base as I didn't know how the project would turn out. First I drew my design on the tote using a light green fabric pen. 

Just Pencil It In

Then I started hand stitching on the vine patterning using a needle and embroidery floss. This stage was kind of tedious, but it you pace yourself while watching TV it is manageable. 

Hand Stitching

I attached the felt flowers by placing a button in the center and stitched through the button holes. 

I used the same technique to attach the canvas birds and butterflies. I also stitched some antennas and French knots for flower buds. 

Here is a final view when flattened. 

Have fun altering plain items and using your scrap supplies in other areas. Remember tomorrow is the Paper Made Bakery blog hop and I also have 4 other reveals this week!

Thanks for stoppin' by,

Paper Made Bakery: A Love Note

The Reveal
This is my last project using PMB's April kit, A Walk on the Bright Side. I used the Lawn Fawn stamps for the front of my card, and I made a floating pop-up sentiment for the interior. To see the inspiration and the technique revealed, please hop on over to Paper Made Bakery's blog today. A tutorial is included if you want to try this at home.

Exterior View

Interior View

April's Summary of Project
I made five items this month with April's kit and I still have so many supplies leftover. Here are my projects from earlier this month. My favorite is the layout when Kevin and I went to Physics Fun Day at Knott's Berry Farm.

April's A Walk on the Bright Side Projects

The Kit
Lawn Fawn is currently out of stock of their "You've Got Mail" stamp set on their site, and PMB just has a few kits left if you want to grab one before it's gone.

April's PMB Kit

Next week, there will be a blog hop for the new May kit on May 1st, and I'll be back with my regular post on May 2nd. So stay tuned. 

Thanks so much for stoppin' by,

Star Wars Party Favor

The Inspiration
My nephew had his 5th birthday party this past weekend, and he wanted a Star Wars theme. I was in charge of making the favors, which was really fun as Stars Wars has an endless source of inspiration.

Getting ready for his party

On Pinterest I had been seeing a lot of Valentines with a child holding a lollipop using a forced perspective, like this one here, and I really liked that idea. I adapted it to fit a Star Wars theme.

The Reveal
Here are the finished favors.

Star Wars Treat Holders

I started by having my sister take a picture of my nephew in his Jedi bathrobe. Using Adobe Photoshop, I cut out the background of the living room and replaced it with a painting of a swamp in Dagobah. Then I added Yoda ears. Here are the before and after photos.

I typed the sentiment and date on the picture, using Yoda phrasing. I wanted to find a candy that mimicked the look of a light saber. Pixie Stix had the right size but the stripes were distracting, Sour Twists were too thick. I ended up finding some flavored honey sticks from the street fair which had an iridescent glow. I punched a hole on the photo and inserted the candy and taped it to the back. I glued the picture onto a pre-made treat box. 

Honey stick light saber

The Party

A highlight of the party was when my brother-in-law conducting a round of Jedi training. The kids were given light sabers made from pool noodles and duct and electrical tape. 

Jedi Training

The culmination of their training was a one on one battle against Darth Vader, as played by my hubby. 

Use the force

Use your scrappiness for good and stay away from the dark side. 

Thanks for stoppin' by,

Paper Made Bakery Reveal: All Roads Lead to You

The Reveal
It is my turn to share at Paper Made Bakery today. I can only give you a sneak peek here, please hop on over there to see the whole thing.

Sneak Peek

The Kit

I love playing with all the elements of this month's Walk on the Bright Side Kit.

My favorite aspect is the Lawn Fawn stamp set. I've been eyeing their products for months now, and am so glad I got to use their products this month. They did not disappoint! If fact, I saw some Lawn Fawn clear stamp sets when I was in Taiwan last week, and I quickly snatched them up. So you may be seeing them utilized in my future projects. 

Thanks so much for stoppin' by,

Pages from the Heart: Trio of Cards

The Reveal
The April assignment for the design team at Pages from the Heart is to make three cards with the themes of birthday, masculine and free choice. I decided to make one type of card in three different ways, to show variations on a theme, and to channel my creative energies into the design rather than the construction.

Trio of Square Cards

The Cards

I chose a square card since I find the look to be very elegant. I used one 12 x 12" cardstock as the base. I cut out 3 x 3" squares from each of the four corners and rounded the vertices that were left. 

Inside view of card

The four flaps can interlock to seal the card so it doesn't need an envelope. 

Back view of card

The basic construction is quite fast and easy, then you can just decorate the square into any design or object  of your choice. 

Supplies:

Featured Collection: Canvas Corp’s 

Green & White Collection

Cardstock: Bazzill

Patterned Papers: Canvas Corp

Stickers: S.R.M. Press

Twine: The Twinery

Ribbon: May Arts

Punches: EK Success

Other: buttons

Card 1: Shirt
Starting with the same base, I decided to transform each square into a different object. With Father's Day coming up, I thought a shirt design might be fun to give dear ol' dad. The pocket can hold a tag with a secret message, and the bow tie is 3-D. I was thinking a child could make this too for their dad. 

Card 2: Present
For my second card, I turned the square into a present with a giant 3-D bow. This would be good for any type of invitation or to go along with a birthday or wedding gift. You can modify it to any occasion that has a present involved. The bow is on a wrapper that slides off. 

Card 3: Mortar Board
For my third card, I changed the square into a mortar board as graduation season is almost upon us. I made a tassel from twine, plus a diploma from a scrap piece of paper. I also made an envelope from a piece of 12 x 12" cardstock to match the card in case you want it to look more formal when presenting it to the graduate. 

I made one in black to make it more realistic and presented it to my friend for her daughter's graduation, and both really liked it. The metal Congrats was a keychain I wrapped around the button. The tassel was made from fringe trim from the fabric section. 

The cards turned out very differently even though the started out with the same square base. Just have fun and experiment with your own creations. 

Thanks for stoppin' by,

Paper Made Bakery: Windy Card

The Reveal
It is my Wednesday reveal for Paper Made Bakery. I loved playing with my Lawn Fawn's "You've Got Mail" stamp set which in my opinion is the star of April's "Walk on the Bright Side" Kit.

Lawn Fawn Set

Here is the sneak peek of my card. 

Sneak Peek

Please visit Paper Made Bakery to see the whole card and daily creations from all the other DT members. 

PMB

Thanks for stoppin' by,

A Musical Card

I hope you enjoyed Paper Made Bakery's blog hop this week. The winners will be announced later today on their blog, so be sure to check if you've won.

The Stamps
I had a lot of fun working with the mail themed stamps from Lawn Fawn this month.

Lawn Fawn Stamps

The  Reveal

I wanted to challenge myself to create something outside of the theme, and this is what I came up with. 

PMB Sneak Peek

The Kit

Sorry I can only give you a small glimpse. To see the whole card and a longer description, please visit today's post at PMB. If you are loving the kit like I am, you can pick up one here. 

Thanks so much for stoppin' by,

Paper Made Bakery: April Kit Reveal + Blog Hop + Giveaways!

The Hop:

Welcome to Paper Made Bakery's April release blog hop! If you've just arrived from Ryann's site, then you came to the right place. If you would like to start from the beginning, please hop on over to Paper Made Bakery's blog. If you are lost, this the blog hop order:

Paper Made Bakery

Stephanie

Savannah

Ryann

Michelle (←you are here)

Lisa

Ashley

The Reveal:

I've always wanted to make a layout using a Paper Made Bakery Kit. Even though this kit is designed to make 10+ cards, I thought it would be easy to utilize it for a layout, and it was. The only thing I added besides the usual ink pads for stamping was a piece of 12 x 12" cardstock for my base and my photos. The 6 x 6" Lawn Fawn Petite Paper Pad was perfect. There are 36 sheets of 12 different patterns in one pad so I had a lot of fun colors and patterns to choose from. If I was shopping à la carte, I'd never buy the entire collection nor have 12 different designs to use for a single paged layout. I ended up really liking the use of a petite paper pad for a layout. 

Layout from April's Fresh Baked Kit

The Kit:

April's Fresh Baked Kit is entitled, "A Walk on the Bright Side" and contains many fun elements from Lawn Fawn including their "you've got mail" stamp set, bright side paper pad and natural hemp cord. I've always thought Lawn Fawn stamps were especially cute and I am so excited to work with their products this month. The embellishment pack that is included in the kit has been upgraded and contains more pieces than in past kits. I made 4 projects already and I still have a large pile of embellishments left.

April's Fresh Baked Kit

The Details:

I actually received my kit and my Silhouette Cameo at my hotel in San Diego, where I made my 4 projects, otherwise I couldn't have finished in time for this hop. Thanks Shannon. While in SD, I had the best sushi ever at Sushi on the Rock in La Jolla Village. The head chef, Robert Cassidy, was one of my husband's original volleyball players from 1995, and he created custom dishes just for us like the one pictured below. 

Sushi on the Rock

During dinner I kept looking at the design of the sushi bar in front of me. There were thin slices of bamboo embedded in resin and I thought that would make a really cool background for a layout.

Silhouette Pieces

Back at the hotel, I cut some concentric circles to make the rings. It hardly used any paper as you can see above. I also cut the title twice, once in my main color and another time slightly larger and welded together in white as an outline. This was the first time I used a Silhouette and it was really easy. I just drew circles in the program and used my existing font, so I didn't even buy any elements from the store. 

Title and Background Circles

I really liked cutting out my title and gluing the letters on a background piece. I could move whole words around until I had a placement I liked. I normally use sticker letters, and just hope that I calculated correctly and that the letters fit in the space I allotted. If not, I have to carefull peel up each letter.

The Journaling

I finished things up by using the stamp set. I stamped a post card with the matching details for my journaling. I stamped some circular cancelation stamps and interspersed those within my background circles. I tried some new things with this layout and really liked how it turned out. I've never used a 6 x 6" pad for a 12 x 12" layout before, nor the Silhouette and I associate stamps with cards instead of layouts. I encourage you to try new things too, you just might surprise yourself. If you are interested in purchasing a Silhouette, just email Shannon from PMB at papermadebakery@gmail.com. 

The Giveaway:

As a way to say thanks for participating in today's blog hop, Paper Made Bakery is giving two prizes to two lucky participants. Here are the different ways you can win:

1. Comment on each blog, the more you comment, the better chance of winning!  

2. Share this hop on Facebook, Twitter, your blog, or in an email.  

3. Comment on PMB's Facebook wall. 

A winner will be announced on PMB's blog on April 4, 2012.

Good luck to all! Your next stop is Lisa's blog. Remember there are daily inspiration projects and tutorials on the PMB's blog all month long. 

Thanks for hoppin' by,