Pretty as a picture- day one

As this week is a bank holiday and for some half term i thought i would make this week a bit different on the blog...
I am going to be your host for the week this week...i have several different projects to show you...so pop back every day to see whats happening.

One of the things that i love the most in this hobby is finding something normal and turing it into something pretty...

I found this picture frame at Sainsburies for £5...so cheap so i decided to buy it and alter it...here is how i did that...
I took it apart so i could just work with the inside cardboard frame...
I then cut out a rectangle to adhere to the back so you can see it though the middle of the frame. The size i cut out was 16cm by 28cm.

I inked the edges of the inside of the frame before adhereing the pattern paper...the paper i used for this was the Basic Grey Basics called Docket.

First off the butterfly...

I used the butterfly from the embellishment pack from Jenni Bowlin... ( i have to apologise for the quality of the photos..i didnt realise they where bad until i had actually put the frame together!!! Iused this as a template...


I cut out the butterfly from the pattern paper called Cabbage Rose from the Girls Paperie line.


I then cut out the edges of the wings from the pattern paper called Vintage Patch work and adhered them to the edges of the butterfly.

i then added some faux stitching with a white pen to the edge.

Before adhereing the butterfly to the frame i placed a doily down...

I then went on to do the centre of the butterfly...i cut out some script paper ( i use a hard back book that i bought from a charity shop for my text paper) using these cuttlebug die.
I put the big flower down first on top of the butterfly...


I then cut out a smaller butterfly from Transparency and ran it though the cuttlebug embossing folder called swiss dots...
I then added the other two on top of the butterfly...before adhereing them down i used a Basic Grey brad to keep them together.

I used some small gems in a pattern on the edge of the butterfly...
And i added a small pin with some beads on...


Now onto the top butterfly...The basics of this are the same as before...

I used the pattern paper calledgreen brocade and paisley from the girls paperie line.

And again i cut out the newspaper flowers...

I made the middle section of the butterfly but rolling up a triangle... and then layered them onto the butterfly like below...

I then added another pin...
and some gems...

and then the bottom butterfly...
this one is made out of the pattern paper called cabbage road and an OCtober afternoon paper called Picnic Table...and repeated the same steps as the previous butterfly...



the little words that i have put across the butterflies are from Making Memories..find them here.

And then the whole thing put together...


Supplies used:
Girls Paperie Pattern paper
Big Gems
little gems
pins
vintage findings shredded words
Brad
Cuttlebug flower dies
Come back 2m for another project!!!!

saturday sketches - no 5

Morning... and welcome to saturday sketch number 5.

Here is this weekends sketch...today is a card sketch...

And here is my take on it...


Now onto the colour challenge winner... i couldnt pick just one so i picked two!!!

This one was sent in by Shone





this was sent in by Laura.

Thanks for playing and send me your address to wendy@bbbweb.com.


Also i am doing a special week next week..titled ...Pretty as a picture...so check back everyday for a different 'pretty' project...
Have a fab weekend.

Altered Photo Frame

I want to share this photo frame with you that I made yesterday. Totally unplanned.
I received a fab Papermaze package yesterday. I was so excited whilst opening it, even though I only placed the order a couple of days ago and knew what was coming.
Vanessa kindly added a few DT bits, within minutes of opening, an old wooden photo frame had been grabbed off a shelf and was being transformed into this.



Here's how to get this look:

I cut 4 strips of paper and stuck down with normal pva glue down the sides.(I used papers from the new Basic Grey - Basics range).
Don't panic about getting the exact size cut. I'm by no means a perfectionist when I scrap. Once it's stuck down, I trim the edges if needed and then sand down the edges on the inside of the frame (where the wood meets the glass) and the out side too. This gives a great rustic look, the paper sands down white and blends into the frame looking like it's always been there.

I've added a couple of strips of double sided sticky tape along the bottom, stuck on the dark brown lace and trimmed off at the ends and then repeated this with the cream piece of lace.



Then the butterflies.
These are plain chipboard.I've then roughly painted over using a white paint dabber and inked the edges once dry.

To add the pins, turn the butterfly onto the wrong side. I find that a pva glue isn't strong enough to hold the pins in place, so I've used glossy accents and hold in place for a bit. I then add a little more and hold in place on the frame.



I have bent the wings in slightly to give an inflight look.

I did also paint the sides of the frame in white and cut my photo down slightly and stuck onto a corrugated piece of card from a box. I then painted a white border around the photo so it blended in well with the frame.

Product highlights

There are so many things that come into the shop...once a week i try and highlight some of the new products...but today i am going to highlight some from Tim Holtz.

First up tools...

I am a huge Tim Holtz's tool fan...they tend to last longer than the normal ones i buy...2 that i love are...Retractable Craft Knife

and his non stick scissors
Both of which are gorgeous!!! if you want to check them out further please check out this post from Jennifer McGuire for more details

We also sell the edge distresser... craft sheets...ink blending tool...alteration dies...she also does very gorgeous cards for Hero Arts...do any of you use these products or use the Hero Arts stamps...if so let me know what you think of them and send me any cards or projects you may have used so we can feature them on the blog.

Also i am looking for some sketches for our saturday sketches blog...if you find a good one or you do them yourself email me on wendy@bbbweb.com.

Being clear

The idea of making an album with acrylic pages really appealed. The photos peeking through hint at what's to be revealed on the next page and invite browsing. The Bo Bunny Clearly Mixed Up flourish clear album has four pages which are all different, three rings and six clear acrylic shapes to use as embellishments.

And what papers to use? I find myself drawn to brighter papers at the moment and so I settled on Penny Lane Feeling Groovy" from My Minds Eye. Perfect for a set of photos which includes lots of brightly coloured plastic toys!



For the cover, I first laid a mask (mine was the Heidi Swap butterfly mask) onto a sheet of card and lightly sprayed with Glimmer Mist. Punched or hand cut shapes could be used in place of a mask. I then used the acrylic cover as a template to cut the card to match. The Doodlebug letter stickers have been adhered directly to the front of the acrylic cover creating a kind of floating appearance in front of the butterflies.

The album comes with four acrylic pages and I've cut additional pages from sheets of transparency. I used my Cricut to cut these pages but they could also be created by tracing around any of the acrylic pages. I also used my Cricut to cut pages from the patterned paper. In order to make these pages a little more substantial, I've adhered two paper pages back to back.


The journalling blocks were created on the computer. Once printed, I cut around the shape and then rounded the corners.


The centre of the flower is a Bazzill brad. I used a Zig glue pen to make random dots and then pressed the brad into a little tray of flock.




The Pressed Petals chipboard heart was lightly sprayed with glimmer mist and the label holder has been heat embossed.


The group of flowers is cut from Queen & Co mini felt fusion. There are Martha Stewart butterflies sprinkled liberally throughout the album.


When I created this page, I was left with a sheet of KI Memories lace cardstock which had been glimmered. I adhered it to the acrylic page and cut around the edges.




When I stamped these paint circles onto the acrylic page, I left one which I then filled with a circle created from KaiserCraft rhinestones. I finished the page with some KI Memories acrylic embellishments which have been in my stash for years and some more Martha Stewart butterflies.



In addition to the pages cut from clear transparency, I cut some pages from pre-printed transparency sheets (mine were from Hambly).


The clocks are stamped onto a sheet of clear transparency using Dew Drop Brilliance pearlescent ink. After allowing plenty of time for the images to dry (about 24 hours), I cut out the clocks and arranged them under the journalling block.




I finished the album by embellishing the back cover with a stamped butterfly, rub-on flourishes and prima flowers with rhinestone centres.

Kioshi

Although I'm normally drawn to bright colours, I love the more muted pastelly shades in the Kioshi range from BasicGrey, and they complemented perfectly this photo from 2007.

I find I'm using circles a lot in my scrapping at the moment, as well as paint, so combined the two here - the circle was roughly painted with a light green, then a thinner line added in a darker shade, and kioshi brads positioned on top. My Little Shoebox mini alphabet stickers are just fabulous as they come in so many different colours - I've used the chocolate cake ones - and the thickers are bliss. Butterflies are very popular at the moment - this is the Martha Stewart monarch punch, with a careful pen line drawn round all the edges to make it stand out. The flower branch was made with twine, punched leaves which were folded to give some dimension, and prima flowers that were inked and had a gem placed in the centre!

And because I like to use up my leftovers from a scrapbook page, I made a birthday card along the same theme...

Vanessa x