Altered suitcase

I am on Unique Laser Designs blog today, sharing how I made this cute altered suitcase.

I picked up a small cardboard suitcase from Target (hello, clearance!) and decorated it with Unique Laser Designs rose wreath, butterfly and a load of rain dots from my stash. I may or may not had to go back to the art store to ask how to use spray paint....

 

Check all the details on the Unique Laser Designs blog right here.

Scrap It Girl April Challenge and Passover decorations

Today is April 1st and that means that one quarter of 2014 is already behind us and finally it looks like spring. It also means that Passover is only 2 weeks away! I decided to use Scrap It Girl April challenge as an excuse to make Passover table centerpieces. This month's theme is tags and bags.

I made two tags that I tied on simple metal watering cans filled with daffodils. Nothing says spring to me better than daffodils. Passover is also called holiday of spring so it all felt very appropriate.

 I cut the tags and the daffodils with Silhouette Cameo.

 One in English and one in Hebrew.

We will be traveling the weekend before Passover Eve so it feels good to know that at least I will have pretty centerpieces for the holiday table. Hmmm, not really... maybe I should get started on my matzo balls ;-)

Check what other DT members did for this challenge and don't forget to share your take.

Got wood?

Hello my dear blog readers! I have a short post today with one announcement and one pretty card.

I am happy to announce that I am joining the brand new Design Team at Unique Laser Designs - new company based in California that specializes in laser-cut craft items, made from paper and card stock, wood thins and MDF. I had a chance to use their products in the past few weeks and I am afraid I developed a new addition to wood embellishments. Check them out!

And here is my last project using Unique Laser Designs. I covered the big butterfly with a thin layer of gesso, misted with glacier Glimmer Mist, added polka dots using pencil eraser as a stamp and finished with applying colored modeling paste with stencil.

The background paper is embossed cardstock colored with Faber-Castell gelatos.

I also colored white sentiment stickers with gelatos and added more mist to the kraft cardstock.

I already have few other projects in progress. The wood shapes are really fun to work with and they also smell great! :)

What ice cream??

I love this picture of my sassy 2 years old. Her gorgeous honey colored curls, chubby sweet cheeks, ice cream mustache and the look. Oh, that look!

Supplies: patterned paper (Heidi Swapp), stickers (American Crafts, Sassafras), faux eylets (Jo-Ann), shipping tag

I made this layout for Scrappy Hands speech bubble challenge. I used Heidi Swapp papers, oversized shipping tag, American Crafts journaling stickers and few old Sassafras stickers.

Now this sweet little girls is almost 13. I have admit that she looks less adorable but still sassy. And the curls are gone :(

Lucky stars

Another project using Unique Laser Designs wood shapes. This time just the stars.
 

Supplies: patterned paper (American Crafts), wood stars (Unique Laser Designs), star punches (Fiskars), cardstock (unknown), mist (Heidi Swapp), Silhouette Cameo, staples (Making Memories)

I started by masking white cardstock with several sizes of stars and spraying it with Heidi Swapp gold color shine. The cute jars are cut out from Dear Lizzy Neapolitan patterned paper. The title is cut with Silhouette.

I misted the wood stars with gold color shine. Love how they took the mist! The results are really pretty.

I punched few more stars from white cardstock, misted them and stapled them to the layout.

Cheesy, but I like it! :-)

Scrapbooking organization: paper scraps

As I promised in my Scraproom Tour post I will go into details how I organize specific supplies. Today I am sharing how I store my cardstock and paper scraps.

I use two sets of Sterilite drawers. I store most of my patterned paper scraps with the rest of the collections the belong to, so the drawers contain mainly cardstock scraps and patterned papers from old paper lines.

I have four color drawers: White/Cream/Grey/Black, Pink/Red/Purple, Yellow/Orange/Brown, Green/Blue. Another drawer contains multicolor paper scraps and chipboard, vellum and other miscellaneous scraps that don't belong anywhere else. I also have a drawer where I keep regular scrap paper, usually notices from school that have one blank side.

 Here is a peek inside my multicolor drawer.

 

Pink/Red/Purple drawer.

I use this system for several years now and it works great for me. It is easy to pull out the drawer and flip through the scraps finding that perfect shade of pink. One thing I learned using this system that is essential in keeping it functional - don't keep scraps that are too small. I know, it hurts to throw them away, but it is impossible to use every tiny scrap you may have. 

Another thing I love about this system - my kids know how to use it and even my 5 years old know where to go when his muse strikes.

Feel free to ask me questions and stay tuned for more organization posts.

Having fin with Unique Laser Designs

Lately I had an opportunity to work with laser-cut wood products by a new company called Unique Laser Designs. Here is my first layout using the Friends title, the ladybugs and the hearts.

 Supplies: patterned paper (American Crafts), wood embellishments (Unique Laser Designs), markers (Faber-Castell), stickles (Ranger Ink), Silhouette Cameo

I used paper from Dear Lizzy Neapolitan collection. The big sunflowers are cut with Silhouette Cameo. All wood shapes are painted with Faber-Castell Big Brush markers. The shapes are very easy to paint and two layers give a nice solid coverage.

 I added black diamond stickles to the ladybugs heads.

More crystal stickles to add some sparkle to the hearts.

Shilo, the owner of the Unique Laser Designs, constantly adds new designs to the store. My personal wishlist includes the ballerinas, the bicycles and the feathers. Check them out! The quality is outstanding and the prices are very reasonable. I will be back soon with more projects to share.

Christmas card layout

A quick post today to share a layout I did last week.

I don't get a lot of Christmas cards but I like to keep the ones that I do, especially if they are photo cards. Usually I add them to my scrapbooks. Here is one I did with Christmas photo card from an old friend.

Supplies: patterned paper (American Crafts), ribbon, buttons (Making Memories), liquid pearls (Ranger Ink), clear circles (Martha Stewart), vellum (unknown), paper clips (unknown)

The layout is based on the sketch from the Scrapbook Express blog.

There is another picture on the back of the card, so the card is not adhered to the layout but rather attached with two paper clips to the vellum photo mat.

I cut out the poinsettias from the patterned paper and added liquid pearls to the centers. Love this sketch!

Favorite Things Friday - Adhesive

Another Favortie Things Friday at Scrap It Girl. Today we all share our favorite adhesive. Here are my favorites:

I have my ATG 700 for years, long before they started to make it in pink and sell to scrapbookers ;-) I use it for everything. If I need to adhere tiny or very thin pieces, like titles cut with Silhouette, I will use the glue pen. My current one is by Martha Stewart.

I love adding dimension to my layout and I was always a big fan of pop-dots. In the last year or so I switched to foam mounting tape. I like that it is a little thinner than pop-dots and that I cut it how I want.

Check what other designers are using and share your favorite adhesive here. Any glue stick gals out there? :)

Three cards

Three new cards to share. All of them are made from the paper scraps and random embellishments from my stash. 

Supplies: pattern paper (Scenic Route), flowers (Making Memories), clothes pin (Pebbles), shipping tag, twine, lace

I also decorated the inside of the card. The brown patterned paper on the inside is the back side of the green patterned paper on the front.

I made the next card for the die cuts challenge on Scrapbook Express blog. They changed the format of their challenges and each week you can win $10 gift certificate to the store and all projects are entered in the monthly drawing of $25 gift certificate. Check them out! For some reason they don't get much participants so your chances to win are really good :)

Supplies: 4x6 card, chipboard flag (American Crafts), chipboard frame (unknown), distress paint (Tim Holtz), glitter glaze (Lil' Davis), flowers (CM), jewels (Bo Bunny), letter stickers (Authentique)

I painted the chipboard frame with pink distress paint and after that covered it with a thin layer of glitter glaze. The flowers are pre-made die cuts by Creative Memories.

The next card was prompted by the origami challenge at Scrappy Hands. I decided to make a butterfly and after of two hours of searching for origami butterfly tutorial and trying half dozen different designs I found the perfect one. I like that it is almost flat but still looks like a butterfly and it is super easy. Here it is: Origami Butterfly Tutorial by Julia

I used blue origami paper for my butterfly and mounted it on a simple white tag with a stamped sentiment.

 Supplies: patterned paper (Studio Calico), tag (unknown), stamp (JustRite), glitter (Silhouette), origami paper

 

I added few touches of glitter to the stamped sentiment. Now excuse me, I need to make more origami butterflies. It is kind of addicting....