Simple, Inexpensive, and Stunning!

Another super simple project. Beautiful Christmas tree decorations!

Products used: American Crafts paper (Prima flowers for the green ball- sprayed with olive, random buttons, dollar store stick pins, styro balls, tulle.

1. Take a 1" circle punch and punch out a bunch of circles
2. Take your stickpins and put them through the button and the circl and push into the styro ball. Repeat until covered. You will want to overlap slightly.
3. Then take your ribbon or Tulle and make a loop with a knot. Pin into the ball. You may want to put some glue onto the pin part before placing into the ball.

PLEASE NOTE: Now I never did find silver pins, I bought these at the dollar store, they were multi colored. What I did to color the pins was use a silver alcohol ink. I applied the ink to the ball of the pin - carefull do not squeeze it out, allow the ink to come to the tip of the bottle.

Techneek of the Week - Paper Flourish

Another uber-simple one from the brain of me...but I'm sick this week so I needed something small to ease me back into things!

But it's a good techneek none-the-less, and one that can be used in so many different ways, on so many different projects...that my kind of guy!

You will need:

Pen or pencil

Scissors

Scrap cardboard, chipboard or heavy weight cardstock

Chipboard flourish - to trace, or copy if you're not into doodling!

Some pattern paper from your stash

Step One: If you're confident enough to try your hand at doodling a swirl, go for it! Use your pencil and just go with the flow! If you don't like it, keep adjusting the lines until you have something that looks good!

It will look messy at this stage, but when you cut it out just use the best line!

Here is my hand drawn swirl after I cut it out. It's for sure not perfect, but that just adds some whimsy!


And if you're not a confident doodler, just grab some other swirl and trace it! I still have a bunch of "leftover" chipboard swirls from a big Fancy Pants pack I bought ages ago, and they work great for this technique. NOTE: If you want to just use the original swirl to trace directly onto your pattern paper, go for it. I made a template because what happens if I want to use the original chipboard...then I won't have it for a template anymore!

Just trace around the shape, and it doesn't have to be perfect!

Then cut it out, and you have a nice template to use over and over again!

Step Two: Pull together some papers from your stash, ones that you might want to use on your layout. We're not going to use all of them, but seeing them all together will give you an idea of which paper is the best to use for these.


You'll want something that has a very subtle or repeating pattern. You don't want lined paper or stripes because when you cut the curvy swirl, the lines will look weird...but hey, it's your page!!



Step Three: Take your chipboard template and lay it right side down on the wrong side of your pattern paper. This way you won't see any pencil lines!


Step Four: Now trace around the swirl shape. It doesn't matter if you use a pen or pencil if you do it on the back side of the paper.

Step Five: Cut out your shape, flip it over and there's your first swirl!!




And here is my finished layout!
It's a nice and simple layout about my son's adventure in the dusting of snow we got the other day! I just added some of the sparkly snowflakes I made a couple of Techneeks ago, some bling and a title. This just goes to show that you can use swirls on a boy layout!

I hope you enjoyed this techneek. You could also try:

• Sewing your swirls onto your page...I am so not organized enough for that!


• Outline the edges with a pen


• Sand or distress the edges


• Combine different pattern papers to create a bigger, multi-coloured swirl

______________________________________________________________
And the winner is...

Grand Prize: Electra who wrote: My favorite technique is your techneeks! ("are" your techneeks?) They never fail to delight me.Having said that, I guess my second favorite would be paint.Any kind. Any colour.

Runner-Up: Justjan who wrote: I really like the Stix2 anything with foils. Next to bling - it's the hottest thing!

Congratulations Ladies!! Please email me with your contact info so I can get your prizes out to you!! (lisakercher@gmail.com)

And thanks to all of you who played along...including some of the TM girls! Chantel says her favourite techneek is swirling alcohol ink all over a transparency and using it as a background. Check it out here on her blog.

And Lindsay's favourite techneek is the one I named after her! Check it out here for a step-by-step. Oh, and glossy accents on anything! You have to be careful when you work with her some days, because you'll put something down on the counter and before you know it, it's covered in Glossy Accents. Note to self: Black Prima flowers look totally awesome all covered in SHINY!

See you back here next Thursday!

The Countdown is on...

Only 6 more hours to post your comment to win one of the prize packs! I've decided to let you enter up until I have the techneek up...and since I haven't even started working on it, that probably won't be until after Lucas goes to bed tonight!!

So post your Comment here and you're entered to win a snazzy chipboard prize pack!

See you tonight!

Only Two More Days...

to enter the contest for the SWEET Riff Raff Designs & Maya Road chipboard prizes! Just post a comment below and you're entered to win! It's as simple as that!

Even if you don't have a Blogger account, you can post a comment. Just post as "Anonymous" and leave your name within your post.

I'll announce the winners in my Techneek Post on Thursday, so be sure to check if you're one of the lucky ones!!

Check you later...

Project of The Week - Card Holder!

Hi Everyone, below is a super simple, extremely beautiful card hold I made, and yes those are my Christmas cards I made and have already mailed :) It's the only thing that i am ahead of schedule on!

What I have done is taken some Jenni Bowlin chipboad stars, and I have glittered one using the Tim Holtz glossy accents as an adhesive, spray adhesive would also work well, and then I used the same adhesive to glue down paper on the smaller star. The glossy accents is amazing, I use it for almost everything - including gluing my shoes back together!



Next I looped a ribbon for the 'hangger' part of the card holder, and cut a long strip for the bottom to clip the cards on. Thats it! Cute eh?






As for my cards: joy stamp is a font from October Afternoon, snowflake is Maya road, bling is doodlebug, tuelle is Bazzill, papers are both KI.


Cheers, have a great week!

Techneek of the Week - Build A Page

This week I'm showcasing, from start to finish, a simple way to complete a layout using a "divide and conquer" approach!

Sometimes even I get stuck when I start a layout. And this is a super easy way to kickstart your creativitiy even when you're not feeling it! All you have to do is visually divide your layout into smaller sections making a little grid on your page. Then add your basic elements, like your photos and pattern paper, and lastly you go in with your embellishments and title to finish the page! This method can be used over and over again, and no one will ever notice! And you can embellish as much or as little as you like, so it suits every type of scrapbooker!

You will need:

Solid and pattern paper to suit your photos - grab lots and we'll whittle it down to the ones that fit and match best.

A pencil and eraser - to mark where your papers and photos will end up

Embellishments and sticker letters - or whatever you want to use to embellish your finished layout

If you're really finicky about measuring and whatnot, grab a nice ruler and your trimmer. I do everything by sight, and cut with my aweseome big orange Fiskars scissors.

Repositionable adhesive

Step One:

Pick your background paper. I'm doing a 9x9 layout, so I cut down a 12x12 sheet of new Autumn Leaves paper. You can do this technique on a rectangle as well, so those 8.5 x 11 scrappers out there!

Next, decide where your photos are going to go. This will help determine the rest of your grid's shape and size. I'm using two 4x6 photos, but I layered the horizontal picture over top of the vertical one. If you decide you need to crop your photos, don't do it yet!! Wait until you decide the final position of all your elements before you start cutting anything!!

Use your pencil to mark the background paper where the edges of your photos will sit. If you're really worried about things moving around while your trying to work, use repositionable adhesive to stick things down before you have to really stick them down!!

(Sorry about the crooked photos...Blogger!!!)


Step Two: I pulled together all the potential pattern papers from my stash that I might want to use. This is also a great technique to help use up your scraps! We're not going to use all of these patterns (I'm not that crazy!!), but it helps to keep your options open.

Step Three: Try picking a couple of patterns from your giant stack and cutting them down to fit in the grid pattern. I grabbed a little scrap of October Afternoon lined paper, and turquoise flocked Doodlebug and cut them into smaller strips to fill the space beside the horizontal photo. A DreamStreet journaling tag fills the larger space and will work great when I get around to putting journaling on the page.

If the first couple of papers don't work for you, try some others. If you're doing a larger layout, you might need bigger scraps than I used. Or you can use more. Once you have them in a position that you like, mark their edges onto the background paper (or stick them down with temporary adhesive)

Step Three: To make your grid look less like a grid, add some scallops or swirls to break up the harsh lines of the grid. The lined paper I used accentuates the linear aspeact of the layout, so I really needed to add some "rounder" elements, for lack of a better word!!

I grabbed some more paper out of my stash that was already scalloped for me. The new Sassafraslass papers come with a super neat-o patterned border.

Techneek Within a Techneek!!!

So I thought I would share a mini-techneek in here with you! Here's a how-to on creating your very own scallop-edged border.

Grab your favourite corner rounder punch, doesn't matter what size (I'm using medium) and pull the guard off. That's the extra green plastic piece that sits around the edge anbd guides your paper in. Don't worry...you'll be able to put it back on again!!

Starting at the left end of your paper, line the bottom edge of the paper up with the flat edge in your punch. Now punch the paper. Then move the punch to the right so the very tip of the curved part of the punch is even with the last scallop you punched. Then punch again.

Keep doing this all down your paper to get a nice scalloped edge.I didn't end up using this little scalloped piece in my finished layout, but it's still a good technique to know!!

Continued...Once you have the basic pattern paper and photos in place to complete your grid, glue them down for good! Remember that you have marks on your background paper to line everything up again.

And now you can embellish the layout. I used a curved banner right in the middle of the layout, right in the middle of the grid, to add some dimension and break up the harsh lines of the paper. The Prima flowers and paper heart add more curvy lines and act as focal points that guide your eye around the layout. I added my title to the outside of the grid so I could still use the lined paper for my journaling.




There aren't a lot of embellishments on the layout, but the ones that are there add both to the theme of the photos, and add some depth and texture to the grid.

____________________________________________

Now how about that contest...

I've got some sweet Riff Raff Designs chipboard from the October release, as well as the big swirl, some fab fall American Crafts ribbon, Prima fall leaves, and lots of buttons!

There's also a little "runners up" prize, because we here at TM like to spread the love!!

I'll announce the winners next Thursday. All you need to do to win is leave a comment below with your favourite product/technique and you have a chance to get your hands on these sweet prizes!!

And check back because I'm going to feature some of the other TM girl's artwork and their "signature moves" i.e. the techneeks and products they love!

Project of The Week!

I apologize for the delay, I was a little wrapped up in my homework and completely forgot and am not nearly as smart as Lisa to pre-do my posts. So here we go...

Below are some basic white candles and i have taken some of my favorite scrapbooking supplies and turned them into elegant centerpieces. For each candle I cut two strips of paper and centered one in the other and then decorated.



.

Snowflakes are Heidi Swapp, paper is SEI and GCD studios, Bling is doodlebug, chipboard is Maya Road, Joy bling is Me and My Big Ideas.

Cheers.