SRM IS COMING TO OUR STORE!!!

A very special event is about to take place this Friday,July 29th! BE ONE OF THE FIRST 50 CUSTOMERS to stop by from 7pm to 9pm and receive the opportunity to make a special project provided by SRM Press for absolutely FREE! (hint: you may be making a totally "tubular goodie" or just having a "WAND-erful" time). Don't miss this kick-off to Shop Hop 2011. Bring your friends( just for grown-ups this time).

THIS EVENT IS OPEN TO ALL CUSTOMERS!

Tutorial Tuesday

Hello!

Well, we're back today with the baker's twine God's Eye tutorial!  You don't need a whole lot, just a piece of cardstock, a scallop circle punch, tape or glue and bakers twine!  That's it!

I use a 2 inch, scallop circle punch from Fiskars.  You can use a scallop (Flower) die as well.

Punch out 1 scallop circle from your cardstock.

Ink the edges and cut about 2 yards of bakers twine for a 2 inch circle.  You'll need more or less bakers twine depending on the size of your circle.

Tape 1 end of your baker's twine to the backside of your circle.  I use Scotch Tape.

Start wrapping your twine in the "valleys" of each scallop.  I typically skip 3-4 valleys before I wrap the twine into the next valley.

You'll continue this process, going from 1 valley to the next. 

Make sure not to skip any, otherwise you'll get to the end and have to go back.

Do this on the whole circle.  You'll know you're done when you start to overlap previous valleys.

Here it is!  Simple simple!  You can add a smaller circle of patterned paper in the center or a button...

You can add some dimension by popping it up too.

See how easy this was?  And you can do all different sizes - as long as you have a scalloped circle or scalloped square, you can get totally wrapped up in this project!

Hope you have fun giving this fun technique a try! 

Well, that's it for our Design Team projects!  A big thank you for all of our DT members!

Remember to check back in later this week for the the next Page's Peeps Challenge!
Andi

I "baked" this tree up!

Well, the tree isn't really baked up but I sure used my fair share of bakers twine to decorate the tree!  If you remember the table banner that I created, then you'll probably remember all of the baker's twine/God's Eye's that I used!  Well, I took the same idea/theme and made a little party centerpiece from a tree that I found in a $1 bin!  Here's the end result!

There are 8 "God's Eyes" total on the tree.  I also rolled flowers from the same paper and glued those to the branches as well. 

The pot that holds the tree was a boring green so I cut strips of paper from WeR's Fiesta line and covered it, strip.by.strip.  That was a little tedious but I love the way it looks.  I also took an "Ole" sticker from WeR's sticker sheet, backed it in cream and popped it up on the side of the pot.  A little bit of bakers twine finished it off!

Here's a few more close-ups

I punched the scallop circle punch from cream solid then wrapped the bakers twine around it using the "valleys".  I then punched a smaller circle from different Fiesta paper and popped it up in the center.  Each one of these are double sided, so I made two of the baker's twine God's eyes and then used pop-up take to adhere them together, back-to-back, and used a little piece of baker's twine to add a hanger to these could hang from the tree.

And that's that!  I'll be back tomorrow with a tutorial on exactly how to make the baker's twine God's eyes!  They're so simple, you'll be running out to Page's to buy 50 yards of twine in every color (and they have some seriously fun colors!).

I hope that you all had a great weekend!
Andi

MORE CLASSES

As promised, here are 3 more great classes coming up at Pages!

A Slice of Summer - Summer has finally arrived! Here at Pages, I took our blog challenge handed out by our Design Team Leader, Andi, and put together a little class featuring a "grid". This two-page layout features plenty of space for those "hot" pictures and room to show off some summer time fun.
This is a morning AND evening class! (Limited to 12 people)

Teacher – MaryJo Cost $22.00
Thursday, July 28th 10:30am – 12:30am & 7:00pm – 9:00pm
                                          

Iris Folding Cards - Iris Folding is a Dutch Art layering colored folded paper strips by number onto a spiral pattern to create a design. The finished result resembles the iris of an eye or an old style camera. When you have completed the 4 cards, i.e. a commercial kite, custom ice cream, custom cupcake, and commercial pinwheel, you will definitely have the WOW factor at what you created.
Teacher – Bessie Cost $25.00
Sunday, July 31st 12:30pm – 3:30pm

All That Glitters 7 – Ming is back with more glittery goodness tonight. I’m sure there will be new techniques and new product to share. Her classes are extremely popular so don’t miss out!!
Teacher – Ming Cost $38.00
Tuesday, August 2nd 6:30pm – 9:30pm

Upcoming Classes

We have some really terrific classes coming up in August!  Here are just a few!!

Magic of Oz Mini-Album - Click your heels and head on over to Page's to create a fun mini-album using Graphic45's latest line - "The Magic of Oz". We'll transport you to the Emerald City where you'll meet your favorite characters, the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow... and we can't forget Dorothy! We'll be using punches, stickles, the Bind-it-All, stamps and it will all be sandwiched in a REAL book!

Teacher – Andi   Cost $35.00
Sunday, August 7th   1:00pm – 3:30pmish

Bask in the Sun - Cruising in the Bahamas, basking in the sun on white sand beaches by turquoise water, enjoying traveling during the warm summer months..that's what this 6x12 mini book featuring “Authentique” papers is all about! This mini is filled with all kinds of details -- you'll receive two die cut cardstock sheets from “Authentique” PLUS a full word sticker sheet to create custom journaling in the book. Plus all the buttons, trims, and inks Jennifer Priest is known to include in her classes. We'll also create a custom gate fold style binding using the Bind It All machine in class--start with a pile of chipboard, tags, file folders, and paper and leave with a completed book.

Teacher – Jennifer Priest   Cost $38
Saturday, August 20th   2:00pm – 5:00pm

Random Creative - Time to PREPARE FOR A BIG creative wonderful mess with Stephanie Ackerman
Class description - Join me in a my RANDOM CREATIVE: Tags & Stamps workshop where we will make a big creative mess by taking a little time to create “Affirmation & Inspiration” large 4” x 8” manila tags. Be ready to get your fingers messy with paint & Mod Podge then create little paper masterpieces with canvas, felt, paper and stamps. We will finish them off by adding our favorite quotes and affirmations..oh, and…learn a little doodling at the same time! p.s…did I mention Chocolate Chip Cookies?? I look forward to seeing you soon!

Teacher – Stephanie Ackerman   Cost $38.00
Sunday, August 21st   10:30am – 1:00pm

August is jam-packed with awesome classes.  Stop back tomorrow and I'll show you a few more!!

1st Place for Michelle!

Hello!

Happy Friday, everyone!  I hope that everyone has loads of papercrafts on their "To-Do" list this weekend!  I know I do, Sunday I'm hoping to get my workspace super organized so that I CAN create!  If you're in need of new paper for your papercrafts, Page's has Authentique - the newest, hottest paper line that you cannot find anywhere else! - so go on into the store and see how much you love it! 

Okay, so let's finish off this week with a great banner that will be sure to put you in 1st place with whomever you make it for!  Take a look!

•Blue Ribbon Birthday Banner - I’ve seen a lot of triangular pendant banners of late and wanted to try a banner in a different shape.

I saw a blue ribbon project on Crate Paper’s blog, which I’ve listed under Websites.  I decided to use that shape as the individual flags. Instead of spelling out Happy Birthday or the child’s name, I put a picture of each year of the child’s life so it documented their growth.

 This has a layer of folded strips which is the bow, an accordion rosette, a top layer of photos and embellishment and a bottom layer of ribbons.

Thanks, Michelle!  This is such a great and creative way to use paper and create a completely original banner that is special to the person that you're celebrating!  This would be great in a sports or activities theme too! 

That's it for us this week, check back next week, it's my last project that I'm sharing and a tutorial to boot!  Then, next weekend we'll be announcing the next Page's Blog Challenge - we hope that you'll share your work with us and possibly be a winner of a great goodie bag from Page's! 

Hope your weekend is fantastic!
Andi

Tutorial Thursday!

The weekends getting close... I think you'll want to read Christina's tutorial on making "Spinners" so that you can create tons of projects with them!  They're really cool and once you start thinking about it, I'm sure you'll come up with a ton of projects to use them with!

Here's the spinner again.

And here's Christina!

You can't have your guests go home empty handed, so I created a party favor that is a small box of jelly bellies! The box was simple - it was a Sizzix Bigz die called "Box, Shaker" that is one piece already scored for you. The only thing you need is to adhere a small piece of acetate to the opening so whatever you decide to fill it with doesn't fall out. Decorate as you like, just don't forget to fill the box before you completely put it together!

I thought I would create my own embellishment to add to the box top with a few fun phrases. I'm not sure of the actual term for it, but I call it a spinner window LOL! I created it in a very basic manner as described here:


I happened to have a 2 3/4 inch circle punch which fit the box top perfectly. (Of course you can use any size circle you want.) You need to cut out 2 circles for the embellishment. One circle will be the "top" one with the window and the other will be the backing with the things that will show through the window.

I cut out a 3rd circle and labeled it "template". For my embellishment, I wanted it to show 4 different phrases so I folded the template into fourths, like pie slices (you can do as many as you want, but they must be equal size). Then I roughly drew the window just a little smaller than one of the pie-shaped quadrants. DO NOT CUT ALL THE WAY TO THE CENTER because it will not stay together!

I cut out that window from my template and used that to cut out the window from the brown circle that I wanted for my spinner. You also need to punch a small hole right in the center of your window and your backing piece.

On my backing piece, I lightly marked where it would be divided in fourths. (Thought it is not shown here, I used my folded template for this.) Then I laid my window piece on top of it and wrote my phrases in. Since it was a party favor, I wrote "Great seeing you", "Thanks for coming", "Hope you had fun", and "Let's do it again"

Lastly, put a brad or even an eyelet through the center and you're done. Decorate as you like. Adhere it to a party favor, a card, or a gift and take it for a spin! You can even use it to show several pictures or details to a party (i.e. What, When, Where, RSVP).

Thanks, Christina for this fun and great idea! 

We'll see everyone back here tomorrow for one of Michelle's projects!!!
Andi

First Things First!

We've covered a lot of banners and centerpieces... but you can't have a party without people!  And you need a way to tell them when, where and what time to be there so we need an invitation!  And that's where Christina comes in!  So, let's take a look at an invitation that Christina created for her projects this month!

Christina had Little Yellow Bicycle's kitchen/food line.  To see her first post about her projects, click here.  Let's hear what she had to say about her project!

First of all, you have to have an invitation!  Set the mood and theme right from the beginning with an invitation to match your decor!  I love how all the cooking terms add so much character so I knew I needed that as my background!  I used a Sizzix Bigz die called "Card, Ornate #2" to get this particular shape, but anything will do.  The orange paper is appropriately called "Whisk Briskly".  I used dies to cut out the letters BBQ in brown Bazzill cardstock.  Inside, I thought I'd add an extra layer for the details by doing a sort of card within a card.  I stamped the word celebrate and used a Fiskars border punch to get the scallop.  The party details are inside of that!

And now, let's finish off the party with a fun little party favor!

You can't have your guests go home empty handed, so I created a party favor that is a small box of jelly bellies!  The box was simple - it was a Sizzix Bigz die called "Box, Shaker" that is one piece already scored for you.  The only thing you need is to adhere a small piece of acetate to the opening so whatever you decide to fill it with doesn't fall out.  Decorate as you like, just don't forget to fill the box before you completely put it together!

Tomorrow Christina's going to share a spin-top tutorial so that you can make one of these fun favors yourself!  You could even use the same idea on a card, like Michelle did here.

We'll see you all here tomorrow!  Thanks Christina, for your great projects! 

Andi

Utensil Fun!

Okay, so we're half way through our Party projects and we've shared a lot of banners and centerpieces, but let's share a project that is super practical but adds a lot of pop to any table scape (my sister laughed at me when I used that word yesterday!).  So, let's take a look at Becky's project!

Isn't this utensil caddy great??  Becky covered the utensil caddy with the MyMindsEye American Made paper, a ton of embellishments and a great yo-yo!

Isn't this great?!  I just love this, so much fun and you could easily change the theme of the paper!

Thanks, Becky, for this awesome project!

We'll be back tomorrow with more projects to share!
Andi

3-2-1 Blast Off!

Hello, Everyone!

I hope that you all had a creative weekend!  Thanks for joining us for another week of inspiring Design Team projects, and you will not be disappointed!  We're starting off this week with a real "lift off" from Michelle, so let's get ready for a great trip!

This is the Robot themed boy collection from Best Creation, which is paired with the Ballerina Princess themed girl collection.  Best Creation is proud of their glittery papers in which the glitter will not rub off and make a mess.

I wanted to show that you do not have to use a birthday line for birthday projects. I made a cute rocket with the Robot paper for a child’s birthday party.  This was just filling a small water bottle with candy and then decorating the bottle.

The nose cone can be taken off to look like a mini party hat, or placed back on to look like a rocket.

I added three fins to the body of the rocket. Then I added a decorative strip around the middle and popped up with foam dots the sentiment and decorations.

The embellishments were images cut from the patterned papers.

Isn't this a fabulous project?  And I love anything and everything that you have the supplies for (a water bottle) right in your home!  Thank you so much, Michelle, for your out of this world project! 

See you back tomorrow for another fun Design Team Reveal!
Andi

I don't party, I Fiesta!

Okay, so it's the same thing... unless you have WeR's Fiesta paper line in your design team kit.  Now, I'm not going to lie, I was a little intimidated when I got my kit because I thought it would be hard to figure out something to make with the line, but once I saw all the vibrant colors, the traditional Mexican images... well, it was suddenly super easy to imagine the projects that I'd make!  So, let me start off sharing my banner.

To create my table banner, I decided to go with an accordion book format, but instead of making a book, I made a self-standing banner.  Each one of the banner pieces is a different size, they range from 3"x6" to 6"x6" or 4"x8"... anyways, I knew that I wanted to use different sizes to keep the eye moving and to create more interest. 

The colors of the papers are so bright and vibrant, it was a little challenging to figure out the embellishments because I didn't want to overdo the design.  I immediately thought of "God's Eye's", which are a traditional Hispanic decoration, but I morphed mine to fit my scalloped circles that I have on each of the rectangles except for the "L".  I love how simple they are and how much they add!  I remember making tons of these when I was a little girl.

The "L" was a little harder, I used a Fiskar's scallop border punch on the edges of a rectangle, then I took my bakers twine and created a similar design to the one I created with the scallop circles.  It took a while, but I love the effect.

I added different element stickers to each of the letters, just to add some "wow".  Almost every layer on each of the rectangles is popped up - I also distressed all of my paper with Ranger's Burlap Distress Ink.  The letters are cut from my Silhouette in Mischievous. 

Well, that's it for me today!  If you want to see more of my work, please check out my blog!

And we all need to shout a big "Hooray!" for Michelle - one of her layouts that she created for the DT is being published!  Yay, Michelle!  It's from the last release, using Lime Twist... it was a single page, beach inspired layout.  It's been removed from our blog UNTIL after it's been published, but please head on over to Michelle's blog to congratulate her!

I hope that you have a great weekend, and check back in with us next week for more projects and tutorials!

Andi



Christina's been hanging around this summer...

Well, maybe Christina hasn't had much time to hang around, but you'll definitely want her fun and cute table banner hanging out at your next summer party!  Let's take a look and hear from Christina!

What is more popular than a BBQ this time of year?  I created my own party supplies using the Savor line from Little Yellow Bicycle.  Great bright colors with a cooking theme that is just perfect for all your summer get-togethers!!

When your guests arrive, let them see the theme continue with the decorations!  I created a centerpiece with the word Barbecue spelled out in tags, banner-style.  What I used for the base was simply one of those over-the-sink shelves, but with longer dowels (special thanks to my fabulous hubby for doing this part for me!). 

I put pinwheels at the top of each dowel, which was a diecut put together with a brad.  I created each hanging blue cardstock tag the same way... the "Whisk Briskly" whisks, green borders, brown letters.  I took a regular single hole punch to punch out cherries from the "Savory Stripe" paper from the same line, to add just a little something extra on either side of the letters.  Then added various matching ribbons through each tag and tied them to each other and onto the dowels. 

Oh - and the cook - I couldn't help but add this since I had it... It comes from Quickutz/Lifestyle crafts. It is the "Paper Doll" and "Chef Costumes", and the grill came from the Enjoy Gift Set...all cut out with the same papers.

Isn't this banner/centerpiece super cute?  I just love it and it's something that you can probably make from items you have around your house!  This banner/centerpiece would be ideal for any occasion, a birthday party, shower, holiday... if you have a word you'd like to highlight, this is a great way to do so!

Thanks so much for sharing, Christina!  I'm sure that everyone will be using this centerpiece as a great excuse to host a BBQ this weekend!

Check back in tomorrow for a look at one of Michelle's projects!

See you all soon!
Andi