Do It Yourself at The Beary Scrap

Happy Friday all! For the next weeks at The Beary Scrap we are having a Do It Yourself Embellishment challenge-- DIY is all the rage now and I always wonder, how'd they do that?!! So for the next weeks our DT will be showing you a new DIY embellie each day. wn unique embellies so keep those entries coming!

My project for this week is this little covered notebook and matching pen-- I found it for only $1.00 at my local craft store.



My main DIY embellishment is an eyelet flower-- I saw this idea recently in PaperCrafts magazine (along with a lot of other DIYs) and was dying to try it! It was super easy to make (as long as I kept my fingers out of the way of the hot glue) and I was really pleased with the end result. If you want to try your hand at this kind of flower, here are some instructions:


1. Gather your materials--
Cardstock and circle punch (I used a 1 1/4 inch circle)
15 inches of rick-rack trim (this makes a 1 1/4 inch flower, use more if you want a bigger flower)
Glue Gun


2. Begin at the outside edge of the circle and apply hot glue around the edge, then start pressing down the rick-rack onto the hot glue, twisting it slightly to make it go around the circle. (You have to kind of twist and bend it as you go, as rick-rack does not naturally curve!)

3. Continue circle inward with hot glue and then applying the rickrack, twisting and turning to make it circle. Continue all the way into the center. Mind your fingers! I used hot glue because I like how fast it is and I'm not sure anything else would have held rickrack as it doesn't turn easily. If you used a lighter weight trim or lace I think Tacky Glue would work just fine and be less dangerous for your fingers!


4. Trim off any excess rick rack in the middle and any excess cardstock from the back circle. You'll end up with something similar to this:


Then add a brad, button or whatever you can come up with to the center for the middle of the flower. I used a brad and pierced it all the way through the cardstock circle.


A couple of other little DIY things I wanted to show you-- to make a leaf for my rick-rack flower, I punched a heart from my patterened paper and then also cut the small heart from some black lace to cover it:


I wanted to add a seam binding bow so I used white seam binding and spritzed with with Glimmer Mist to match my paper. I love how easily the seam binding can be colored and how quick it dries. After I spritzed it, I scrunched it up good and then tied the bow after it was dry.

Here's another look at my final product--



We'd love it if you'd join us and create your own project with a DIY embellishment and then enter it in our challenge for a chance to win a $20 voucher to The Beary Scrap. Click here for all the details!

Blast Off!

OOOoohhhh, I am in love with the new Seam Binding in stock at The Beary Scrap. It is versatile and comes in so many great colors! I had a lot of fun adding it to our sketch this week and using it to make my card blast off!


This sketch is just as versatile as the seam binding-- last week I used it to make a two page 12 x 12 layout and then this week brought it down to size in a 6 x 6 card. That's what I love about sketches-- they just jumpstart my brain and I can go anywhere from there!

I used Bo Bunny's Blast off papers. I really like the colors of these papers-- strong, vivid colors that are perfect for boys but could also work for some cute baby or birthday projects.



Instead of trying to find embellishments to match, I just cut my own from some of the papers (the bigger rockets are from as 12 x 12 page I got locally). All this fussy cutting does take time but it's worth it in the end as the rockets and stars match so perfectly.



For my last bit of dimension, I added that great seam binding, this time in white to simulate the cloud left by a rocket blasting off.


Be sure to check out all the colors of seam binding Kimm has available and enter your own version of our sketch in the current Beary Sweet Challenge for your chance to win a $20.00 voucher to The Beary Scrap store.

How Sweet It Is. . . .

We have a sweet sketch for you this week over at The Beary Scrap Challenge Blog and I have absolutely loved seeing the gorgeous cards my fellow DTs Patricia and Debbie have made with it so far. But I have to admit, it was a challenge for me! I really wanted to make this into a two page layout as I haven't posted one for awhile and it took a bit of thinking and rearranging to adapt it to my sweet layout.


Here is our original sketch, done by the fabulous Kimm:




Here you can see most elements of the original sketch in my layout-- I just love the triangles, big and small, across each side:



Notice how instead of centering it on one page, I stretched the sketch across my two 12 x 12 pages and then here you can see how I expanded it a little further to include more photos:




I used the Alphabet Soup Paper Girls line and the colors were perfect for my pictures! The oranges and pinks precisely matched this fun little restaurant we went to in Las Vegas where everything is bright orange and hot pink, and the ice cream sundaes cost $15 but are huge and worth every penny!


Whether your take is a card or a layout, we can't wait to see what you dream up with this sketch! Make sure to enter it in our current challenge for your chance to win a Beary Scrap store voucher.

Nature Inspiration from The Beary Scrap

Happy Friday everyone! This is my second project for our Nature themed challenge at The Beary Scrap. The challenge is open until May 31st, 11:59 EST so be sure to enter for your chance to win a $20 voucher to The Beary Scrap!

My card is based on this great sketch from Card Patterns:


Here's a couple close-ups of the embellies:




Here's a peek at the inside, which I left fairly simply so there is plenty of room to write.

Supplies used:

Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden papers
Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden charms
Bazzill Swiss Dot Cardstock
KaiserCraft Pearls, Latte
Tim Holtz Distress Ink, Walnut Stain
Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, Sweet Clover
Seam Binding, Cocoa
Paper doilies (a package from the dollar store-- I love bargains!)
Glue Dots
Foam Squares

Thanks for looking! :):):)

Little Ballerinas

It's that time of year-- dance recitals! Here is my little redhead ballerina and her cousin after their program last weekend. Aren't they cute?




She wanted to make a Tear Bear ballerina for her teacher and so she helped trace the bear parts, tear them out and glue together. Then we dressed the bear and mounted it onto this simple card that she wrote in and took to her teacher along with a bag of treats.

A side view-- here you can see the dimension of the tulle dress and mulberry flowers:


This was so fun to make, especially with my little cutie helping. I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Pile it On-- Boys and Girls come out to Play
Southern Girls Challenge-- Let's Hear it for the Girls
Creative Card Crew-- Cute and Girly

Thanks for Looking!

I need some Sunshine. . . .

. . . it's been WAY too long of a winter here in Idaho! So when we FINALLY had a couple beautiful days last weekend (beautiful = temperatures above 70 degrees and NO wind!) we definitely took advantage of it and hit the park! These pictures of my 4 year old playing outside in the lovely sunshine on the monkey bars were the basis for my Nature themed layout this week at The Beary Scrap.




I used this sketch from Sketchy Thursdays for my layout:



I can't wait to see your Nature layouts so be sure to enter them in our current Beary Sweet Challenge and have a fabulous May weekend!

Makin' a Splash with a Sketch!

Here is the sketch we are using for our current challenge at The Beary Scrap:



This was a really fun sketch to work with -- great for cards and simple to convert into a 12 x 12 layout. I just used the top layer of rectangles for matting my pictures and was able to fit six wallet size pictures of my daughter and nieces having a great time swimming during our Spring Break in Las Vegas.



I used the new Echo Park Playground collection-- its bright colors are perfect for fun summer pictures. Okay, it's not quite summer yet, though we are finally having spring here! But those days are coming so stock up on that fun paper now and you'll be ready to record all your summer memories. I edged the pages of all my papers with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Broken China. I also stitched around the page and switched up my stitch occasionally to give it a different look.

I used the great letter stickers that came with the Playground collection but added different colors of Stickles to each letter for some sparkle. This was my first chance to use my brand new color-- Midnight Blue (on the dark blue S) and I love it! There are so many colors of Stickles to choose from!

I also used some of the element stickers from the same collection-- the banner across the top, words and sun and cloud stickers. Some I stitched around, some added Stickles and other popped up with foam squares for dimensions. It's awesome how many things you can do with just one paper collection!



I've enjoyed seeing all of your lovely creations based on this sketch, thanks for joining in our Beary Sweet Challenge. Good luck and hope some wonderful sunny weather is finding you!