Design Team Work - November - Project

My Shadow Box!  I am so geeked about how it turned out.  I hope you enjoy it just as much.

The box is an 8x8 shadowbox purchased from Michael's hobby store.  All the products used in this project are from BoBunny's Blitzen line except for the Tim Holtz' Distress Stains - Snow Cap, Aged Mahogany, and Weathered Wood, Ranger Stickles - Christmas red, Flowersoft - Polar White, Ivory, Grey, and Blue, and Martha Stewart snow flake craft punches - arctic snowflake, alpine snowflake, glacial snowflake, nordic snowflake, and icelandic snowflake (large).  The ribbon is dyed white raffia.

Punch as many flakes as you like from various pieces of cardstock or vellum to match the BoBunny 'Blitzen Dot' sheet.

I stuck some glue dots together and dyed the edges using the Weathered Wood Distress Stain from Tim Holtz.  I went around the dot column quite a few times to achieve the desired dye level.  I did this for all the dots - behind the deer and lamp post.  Behind the globe did not need dying as they cannot be seen as easily.

As you can see the 'ribbon' started out as white raffia.  Why buy colored raffia when you can by white and dye it whatever color you want?  I cut a small section of the white raffia and dyed it with the Aged Mahogany Distress Stain from Tim Holtz.  I dried it with a heat tool.  Once it is completely dry I sort of unwrapped the raffia so it appeared more puffy.  if you do this when the raffia is still damp it may tear.

I added my dot columns where I wanted them - after taking the sticky back protective covering off the chipboard lamp and deer.  After the glue dot columns were added I took blue embossing powder and stuck it to the back of the chipboard.  I didn't bother heating it at all.  No embossing in was needed since the backs were already sticky.  You may have to mash it down to the back to ensure it all sticks sufficiently.

Above is a photo of the chipboard 'snow-globe'.  I added Christmas red stickles to the lamp and Snow Cap Distress Stain to the bottom of the snow-globe to reflect snow.  There are also other diamond and icicle stickles throughout the snow globe as well.  I also added Christmas red stickles to the lamp post chip board piece.  The reindeer chipboard piece has snow cap distress stain on it as well.

This is what the back of the shadow box looked like before it was put in the box.  If you use the 8x8 box from Michael's you will have to 'shave' a bit off the lamp because of the extra borders that come factory installed with the shadow box.

This picture is my best attempt at showing you how I did the 'hanging' flakes.  At your local discount store or sporting goods store find the smallest pound test of fish line you can find.  I believe this is 4# but I have since found a 2# which would be more perfect.  After putting on my adhesive (here you see photo squares I was trying to get rid of) I cut a small slit and slide the fish line that I had tied to the flakes into the flakes and stuck it down to the adhesive.

You should stop by The Scrapbooking Studio in Bloomington IL in the Schnucks / Barnes and Noble plaza and see it in person as well as the other November projects my fellow design teammates have done.  They are amazing - cards, trees, mini tags, albums, wall hangings, layouts, etc!  We have a very talented and creative team of designers.

Design Team Work - November - Layout

I was given Basic Grey's Hopscotch line to work with as part of my November Design Team assignment for The Scrapbooking Studio in Bloomington IL.  Initially I was a bit overwhelmed with how I was going to use this paper, normally I would pick a line with more earthy tones and I tend to avoid flowers.  But once I started working with this paper I could not believe how well each sheet worked with the other.  It was absolutely amazing.  Before I knew it I had used ALL the paper I was given!  I knew there was a reason I love Basic Grey.  The lessons learned here were I need to jump outside my comfort zone and never be afraid to go vivid as they help 'pop' your page and are very quick and easy to use.  

The 12x12 background I used was a pink cardstock I obtained as a freebie for attending CHA in St. Louis years ago.  I believe it is by Wassau but could be wrong.  The Basic Grey background I used is the back side of the 'Penny Candy' sheet.  My loving husband was kind enough to allow me to use one of his 'funny face' pictures on this layout.  To set it off I used the back side of the 'Kissing Tag' sheet.  I believe the picture was cut to 4x4 and most mats I tend to keep to an eighth inch larger.  I fussy cut love you and ador u out of the 'Four Square' sheet.  The hearts and flowers by those words are stickers from the Hopscotch collection.  The butterfly, the butterfly swirl, the you and me banner under the photo, the pink swirls at the bottom, and the three word tags: you & me, in my heart, forever are all chipboard accents from the Hopscotch collection.  The three word tags are 'popped'.  The butterfly banner in the not-so-center is a sticker border from the Hopscotch collection. 

The 12x12 background I used was a pink cardstock I obtained as a freebie for attending CHA in St. Louis years ago.  I believe it is by Wassau but could be wrong.  The Basic Grey backgrounds I used were part of the 'Four Square' sheet for the top and 'Kissing Tag' on the bottom.  The pink connected circle border in the middle is from the Hopscotch sticker sheet.  I added a journal section to the top from the Hopscotch sticker page.  To set it off I added additional flower stickers and chipboard pieces.  To the right of the top, I added the 'I think you're amazing' chipboard piece with an added flower bit.  On the bottom I have a picture from the night I became engaged matted on the back of Basic Grey's 'Kissing Tag' sheet.  I added lots of flower stickers and chipboard accents, some stacked, to the photo.  There are heart stickers and chipboard pieces on the background paper to the right of the photo as well.

Slainte!

Disturbing things you find...

So, spiders don't bother me since, by technicality, we are 'on the same side' with the fact that they eat the bugs that normally give me the heebies.  This one decided to make itself the 'gate keeper' to our house.  IT WAS RIGHT NEXT TO THE DOOR KNOB!  Needless to say our visitors don't share my same sentiment in spiders so we had to evict her to another spot. It is a marbled orb spider and it does appear that big in person.  Normally they are a dull brown color and create these massive webs which if you can get to stick to black card stock make awesome backgrounds. 

This next 'thing' I found VERY disturbing - "Where is that darn 'gate keeper'?"  This thing was beyond huge.  It appears to have wings which makes it even worse.  Let me tell you that I am no longer a big fan of 'yard-ening'.  I would have passed out cold had this thing landed on me.  I am not really sure what it is but I hope it is a singleton. 

Believe it or not I greatly enjoy camping and hiking and such but draw the line at bugs.  Especially when they appear to be created by Frankenstein himself. 

For those of you that do not like spiders, the gatekeeper succumbed to the season.  As far as the bug monster, I have no idea what happened to it; I am hoping it met with the same fate as the spider. 

Design Team work - November - Card

This card was made using BoBunny's Blitzen collection paper and chipboard accoutrements.  It is your standard 4.25 (8.5) x 5.5 card. 

The front (red paper) background was made using the backside of the 'Blitzen' paper.  The quad (darker word) segments were made using the 'Blitzen Sentiment' paper.  The (green) highlights you see behind the quads are from the backside of the 'Blitzen Sentiment' paper.  The ornaments are from the chipboard extras in the Blitzen collection secured with a red glittered brad I found in my brad stash. 

The inside of the card is using snowflake chipboard pieces from the Blitzen collection along with a felt 'Joy' I found in a miscellaneous jar at my local scrapbooking store. 

Slainte!

Card for a friend

A coworker's son made it to the collegiate level playoffs with his soccer team.  In honor of the occasion, she asked if I could make him an inspirational card.  So here it is...

The front of the card was a harlequin background stamped with embossing ink and clear embossing powder.   Various diamonds were hand cut with a scalpel.

 The top half of the inside consists of a handmade banner using Tim Holtz' glassine paper.  I used a distress ink on them to darken the original color of the glassine paper.  I also stamped the individual letters on each pennant and used distress embossing powder as a finish.  I felt it made the pennant appear very vintage.  You can see a close-up in the next picture. 

The bottom half of the inside consists of some stamped messages (main message constructed from alphabet stamps, message at bottom is from a set via The Greeting Farm).  I incorporated his number using a 'bingo chip' I found at my local scrap booking store - The Scrapbooking Studio.  I did add a bit of color to the inside so the blonde wood didn't stand out as much.  You can see a close-up in the last picture. 

 

In case you are curious they were bumped in the first round of the playoffs.  It was a tough loss for the team as they had played very hard all year.  If you view the loss by the humility you gain you realize you came out the winner in the long run!  

Slainte!