Back to Basics

Recently many of you will be aware I been applying to join design teams.  What I feel is at times a disadvantage is how some artists are using lots and lots of purchased supplies to make their projects look fantastic, and of course they do.  I wonder how many of these people could make something really inspiring and creative with just the paper and no more than 4 embellishments?  I wonder if these design team applications are measured truly on craft skill or how bonnie projects look with all their goodies on them, because we can all do that!

Bo Bunny Mini Album and Storage Box

This is a mini album and storage box I have made this weekend using the gorgeous Bo Bunny collection Love Letters.  

The box I made in the shape of a house.  I used tyvek and hot glue to make the structure and also added some strong card hinges both inside and outside.   It's size is 7" x 11" and the mini is 6" x 6", slightly wider once the binding was added.  I used my Cinch from We R Memory Keepers and one of their binders in a gorgeous purple.  Once constructed I used Distress Stain in Tea Dye around all the edges. 

Page 1.  As the collection is Love Letters instead of the traditional shaped pages I chose to make envelopes.  All the pages open up to offer further photo mats and memory keepsake opportunities.

Page 1 & 2.   I used stickers and cut outs throughout all the pages.  On this page I added one of my stash sunflowers because they are sunny and bright. I hot glued the sunflower onto a white peg I also had in my stash. 

Page 2 & 3. On these pages I have added twine, hearts onto tiny pop dots and a small metal frame, which was raised onto sticky foam and will allow a small photo to be placed underneath. 

Page 3 & 4. I distressed a lot of the paper using my Tonic distress tool and using my heart punch I added hearts. 

Page 4 & 5. I think these pages are my favourite. I distressed and layered the paper, used stickers and cut outs, sticky foam for dimension and a decorated cream peg for embellishment. 

Page 5 & 6. These pages were great fun to complete. I used the border from the sticker and adhered it to firm card, added the middle to a page and cut around then layered them onto the border card.  On the next page I used two wood butterflies and wound twine around to secure the flap down. 

Page 6. The final page I used Smoochable paper from my 6x6 stack and a sticker, which to me was most appropriate for the final page. 

Front of house box,  I used I Am Roses and other flowers from my local craft store.  I cut out the lock and key and used sticky foam to raise them to add dimension. A peg from my stack was added for effect. 

Side view.  Its difficult to make out but many of the cut-outs on both the house and throughout the mini album have been raised on sticky foam and foam dots and squares to add dimension and depth.

Side view.  I fussy cut out part of the paper collection to the top and to make a border and made a tag to insert inside and added an eyelet and ribbon. Flowers are from my local craft store.

Back of the house.  I layered three of the bunting cut outs and added a metal butterfly, raised the sentiment onto foam and tied this gorgeous pink twine around. 

This was such a delight to make.  There are so many opportunities to place pictures within the envelopes and also on the back-side.  This collection is so much fun and truly inspirational.

I hope you have enjoyed this project.  

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend.  Take care of you.

Pauline

x

Bo Bunny Love Letters Card

Today I made this card using the gorgeous Bo Bunny paper.

I layered distress paper from Kraft and an postcard cut out from the collection.  I then made an envelope using my Martha Stewart scoring tool.  I cut a  3" square and adding the corner addition to the scoring board I scored at 1 1/2" and 1 3/4". 

Using red and white twine I wrapped this around to reflect a tied parcel and adhered the two layers onto the card.  I then raised the cut out postcard onto foam strips and adhered this also to the card.

Once I had adhered the mini envelope down I then punched out lots of hearts and raised them on mini pop dots adhering them to reflect them flying out from the envelope.

I added a fussy cut stamp raised on pop dots, stamped using a stamp from the collection adding hearts on pop dots, added a banner cut from the paper and a small xoxo sticker, also from the collection.  I used an I Am Roses flower and hand cut out two leaves, which I sorted using my leaf tool and mat from the Sizzix Susan's Garden Tool Kit.

The inside I made a larger envelope, again using my Martha Stewart tools, this time a 5 1/2" square scoring at 2 1/2 and 2 following guidelines on the tool.  I then added some more stickers from the collection and tied a coordinating ribbon around the envelope before adhering it to the card.

I purposely did not glue down the envelope as I wanted it to open up to reveal the sentiment.

This is such a cute card, which with such amazing products makes crafting not only easy but a joy.

I hope you all have a wonderful crafty weekend and lots of fun.  Take care of you.

Pauline

X

Mixed Media Shadow Box

This shadow box was a commission I recently undertook, which was a special present for absent family members and had the owner so, so happy it has now been lovingly paraded around a large part of Greece to be shown off haha.

The theme was of course Scotland.  I used a variety of ribbon, jute, organza and string and the paper is Bo Bunny Smoochable paper and a calendar page as the background.

Bottom Right clockwise:

Wooden cotton reel wrapped with jute.  Handmade bead thistles with tartan ribbon

Small jar with sand from Carnoustie beach

Tim Holtz pins with special date

A tag using tartan ribbon with sentiment

Map of Scotland with heart around Carnoustie 

Dundee jute with Gaelic saying - love, loyalty, friendship

Kilt pin with lyrics from Auld Lang Syne wrapped around

Bunting - Lang May Yer Lum Reek - long may your chimney smoke, which is a prosperity good luck saying, if you had money then you had coal

Bottle cap from Irn Bru with clock

Paper flowers and buttons

Lace trim

Jewellery wire house

Authentic tartan runs down middle.

  

Sorry for flash glare.  

Bottom left: now added personal messages and wishes, which were kept secret held together with twine and a pencil inside.  Washi tape was used around the inside frame.

Hope you enjoyed this, it was a wonderful project to create and an honour for a special little lady.

Pauline

X

My 2nd Ever 12 x 12 Scrapbook Experience.

I have used Bo Bunny Love Letters 12 x 12 paper in this project.

So here is my second attempt to conquer the craft of scrapbooking.  I have found not having my Eclips machine has meant I couldn't add all the shapes and borders I would have liked to add, but I tried my best and am happy with how it has turned out.  Well I think I have learned more and able to build upon my skills and teeny bit of experience, however I will let you be the judge of that.

My daughter hates this picture but I love it as she is really happy, even her eyes are smiling.

On this page I used wooden letters from my local craft store, wooden flourish, an antique lace doily and some paper roses.  I also cut out some glitter accents from the Mariposa stack by DCWV.  All the butterflies are from Graphic 45 Old Curiosity Shoppe.  

I inked the paper flowers with Adirondack alcohol ink in Cranberry and Clover and added pink and cream beads from my stash.

The leaves I cut from Bazzil paper.  I recently purchased Susan's Garden Tool Kit from Sizzix and this was the 1st time I have used it, am happy with how they turned out, what do you think?

I finished off the page with some of the stickers from the collection and sprayed with Ranger's Perfect Pearls to add glimmer and sparkle to my gorgeous wee girl.  The stamp you see here is from Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous collection Ultimate Grunge.

Thanks for stopping by.  Take care of you.

Pauline

X

My 1st Ever 12x12 Scrapbook Layout.

In this project I have used Bo Bunny Love Letters 12x12 paper.

As you can tell from my previous blogs my favourite craft is to make photo albums but I have seen so many truly beautiful scrapbook layout I decided to give it a go, I mean how hard could it be?   Haha much harder than it looks.  I usually try to add cut outs using my Sizzix Eclips but its currently not working so I have felt I had to compromise on some of the designs I would have liked to have put in but hey ho I am still happy with what I have managed to achieve using just my craft knife.

So here is my very first page.

I used a variety of techniques: stamping, fussy cutting, layering, ripping and distressing.  Many of the embellishments are raised on pop dots, which doesn't show well on this photo.  All the small hearts on the stamps and page are on pop dots.  I used some antique lace, paper doilies, gingham ribbon and some organza throughout.  The flowers are by IAmRoses.

The entire page was sprayed with Perfect Pearls from Ranger, the roses and fussy cut flowers were all  highlighted with blue Perfect Pearls to add depth and dimension.

Here you can see I went around with a white gel pen.  I used the gel pen to draw tiny hearts around the page also.

This page must have taken me about 5 hours.  I have a new respect for all the amazingly talented crafters as clearly they make it look easy, and being out of my comfort zone I certainly was.  However, I am inspired to get better and if not continue to have lots of fun, as primarily that is what it's all about.

Pauline

X

Love Letters

Bo Bunny make wonderful, bright and inspiring collections used around the world and love by crafters all over.  

I have used Bo Bunny many times and today I would like I share a card I have made using the Love Letters collection.

As many of you will know I love to fussy cut and have a page of flowers is simply heaven to me.  Using a 6x6 blank card from my stash I began but cutting out one of the cut aparts then fussy cut around to create the border.  I then fussy cut out the flowers and leaves, some of the stamps, love heart, the tag and the black heart with the small heart trail.

I used sticky glue to adhere the cut out onto the card but any form of adhesive is perfect.

I like to lay all my cut outs onto the page before I adhere it to create the layers and dimension and when I feel I have the layout as I like only then will I start to adhere them down.  

I adhered the tag directly onto the page first then using pop dots I arranged the cut out flowers around this and then again using pop dots the heart with the sentiment and the black heart and trail.  I then used a small heart punch, mine is one I purchased from my local craft store, and punched out more heart to use to layer on top of the embellishments.  

Using a sharp craft knife a made an incision and slid in two of the cut out stamps in the corner using a pop dot behind the pink stamp to lift it off the page to creat dimension.m the tell stamp was adhered with a tiny spot of glue.

On the inside I used one of the cut outs and layered some of the paper below using a  banner style.  I raised the teal banner onto pop dots and adhered one of the stamps.  I also cut around some of the rosette type buttons and layered these also around the banner.  

I then used the stamp from the collection, stamping in black Archival ink and layered some more stamps and a love heart leaving space to personalise and write a small sentiment.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Have a fantastic weekend.

Take care of you.

Pauline

X

Amazing Bo Bunny layouts

These are truly beautiful. Details of how to see tutorials on how to complete these visit the Bo Bunny blog link on the side of my page.