National Scrapbook Day

How will you be celebrating National Scrapbook Day next Saturday (May 7)?  Come join us at The Little Blue House for our Craft Masters Mini Workshops!  There will be four workshops, each 1 1/2 hours long, with a hall-hour break between. You can sign up for one, two or make it a day and do all four!  Tracy, Elaine and I will be your instructors for these fun, technique-oriented classes.

The first workshop from 9:30 am to 11:00 am will be "DIY (Distress-It-Yourself) Blossoms."  I designed this cute project encased in an embroidery hoop.  You will learn lots of distressing techniques using many different products.

Next up from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm is Tracy's "Texture Time" workshop.  You will learn to jazz up your layouts with these adorable textured titles using some expected and unexpected products.

"Build a Border" will be from 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm.  You will learn many border-building techniques to spice up your projects.

Last, but not least, will be Elaine's "Glitterocity" workshop from 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm.  You will create this darling "Inspire" banner while learning many glitter techniques.

Check out more information on our store blog here and sign up before all the seats are taken.  We hope you will join us for a fun-filled day to celebrate scrapbooking and all paper arts!

Another New Class

 I think everyone is more than ready for springtime - I know I am! I made these cute pillows for our latest class release.  Students will receive the pre-made (by yours truly) canvas pillow case and then create the design with paint, stamps, mists, fabric and buttons.  There is no sewing involved except a tiny bit of hand- stitching and there is a "brights" choice as well as the "neutrals."  These were so fun to create!  For you local gals, there are still openings in the classes so contact The Little Blue House to sign up.

Gothic Arch Swap

 I recently participated in a "Gothic Arch" swap with an online group. The project had to be floral-themed and be in any arch shape.  I chose this rounded arch and used a collage image framed with a heavy coppery paper.  The butterfly is stamped on vellum and cut out with rhinestones added.  The quote is stamped as well. I added the outline in gold Krylon pen, a Maya Road suede flower and some lace.

Candy sent me this clever "arch." She made it from an old tie!  This is the front on which she added flowers, a paper image and a clay, embossed Eiffel Tower. 

Here is a shot of the back side which was a pocket.  She filled it with lots of floral ephemera and another Eiffel Tower.  So creative.

I love swaps - it's so much fun to see the many creative interpretations of the same theme.

New Classes

at The Little Blue House! Check out the website here for all the class listings, photos, full details and registration.

This is one of my projects - a keepsake box for Mom, grad or any special event.  I used some of the new lovely papers from Pink Paislee. The class includes techniques for using art metal, Kraft glassine, vellum, acetate and tissue tape.  It is fully lined with fabric.

Closeup:

Happy Easter

free image from Vintage Workshop

Happy Easter everyone! I hope your day is filled with special moments and special people!

Create and Bloom

at The Little Blue House.  That's the name of the canvas I created as part of my design team commitment for the Front Porch Kits this month. (You can visit the website at www.frontporchkits.com to see
 all the design team projects in the gallery and there are still a few kits left if you wish to purchase one.)

I had so much fun making this canvas. It's 12"x12" and everything I used (except paint, rubons, molding paste and doodle pen) was in the kit.  The background was started by glueing down a 9x11 piece of Webster's Pages "Your Life. Beautiful" paper and then painting over it.  (I used an old credit card to paint with so the coverage isn't complete and some of the paper shows through - though it doesn't show up in this photo.) Most of the flowers, sun, tree, butterflies and windows were made with papers from the kit.  Bella Blvd. alpha stickers spell "create." I used fabric from the kit for the house and made the roof from chicken wire laid into wet molding paste.  The door is a tag that was attached to the tin pocket in the kit. I did lots of doodling too!

In the closeup above you can see a few of the flowers which are buttons. All the buttons in the kit were brown wooden ones so I used alcohol inks and Copic markers to color them.

I named this "Create and Bloom at the Little Blue House" because it's a little blue house and that's exactly what we do there!

"Fresh from the Garden" Cards

Here are a few more projects I made with this month's Front Porch Kit.  Though much of the focus of the kit was on the garden theme, I wanted to design some projects to show totally different themes.  These cards could be for get well, encouragement, birthday, congratulations or thinking of you.

The "rainy day" card below uses cardstock from the kit which I cuttlebugged with the Swiss Dot folder. I sewed the die-cut scallop border along with a thin polka dot strip directly to the card base.  The scalloped circle was die cut from one of the journaling cards and stamped with one of my favorite get well phrases.  I cut two strips from the red patterned paper and hand pleated it, adhering it to the back of the circle.  The little rainboots are Maya Road chipboard which I painted red, added polka dots with white Enamel Accents and then coated with Glossy Accents. Aren't they cute? 

Rainy Day Card

The next card has a yellow floral-patterned paper layered over the olive green cardstock.  The focal design is one corner of the Webster's Pages Market Menu paper cut out. It originally said "today's special" but I added Bella Blvd alpha stickers to alter the phrase. Perfect for a birthday or congrats card. The green vine is a portion of the special Front Porch Cutz diecut included in the kit. I misted it with Maya Road Iridescent Pearl Mist to give it some sparkle.  I added black glaze pen to the wrought iron flourish and a bit of blue Distress Ink to color the bird. The little orange flower was made by gathering a bit of orange gingham ribbon into a circle and adding a wooden button tied with twine. The paper rose was also lightly misted with the pearl mist for shimmer.  The bow was tied from the gorgeous leaf trim in the kit and the butterfly pick added to finish it off.

Your Special Day Card

Everything used on the cards was included in the kit except for the "lotions and potions." And I still have tons of products remaining!