New Years Eve Candy Wrappers by Christine

Are you looking for a last minute favor to add to your party tomorrow night?  How about some of Samantha's paper candy wrappers?  Today I am going to share with you the ones I created:

I used the Candy Box (#50803) and some gold cardstock to create these.  

The gold paper I had was 8 1/2 X 11" so I sized my box down to fit in that.  Otherwise you can make your candy boxes even bigger!

You can find Samantha's full tutorial for putting these together here.  Samantha used patterned paper on hers.  Since I used solid cardstock I added some 2015 stickers to mine!  I also filled mine up with 15 Hershey kisses - perfect to ring in 2015 with!  

Thanks for joining us today and Happy New Year!

Using ALL the parts of your cuts with Christine

Hi Samantha Walker fans! Christine joining you today to share a little card tutorial. As I was cutting out Samantha's swirly leaf card (#14029) I was pulling out the little pieces and realized they are gorgeous too!  Today I am going to show you how I incorporated those into a card too! Instead of using the whole card, I just used the overlay.

After cutting the overlay in a couple different colors I made use of the leaf for one element on my card. I then used the negative space swirls for embellishing the card.

You can peel out each and every piece of negative space from these leaves and put them together to make pretty flourish clusters or wheat clusters or simply use them individually to decorate. I bet they would be just stunning in vellum!  

Hope you are enjoying a beautiful fall day where you are and have lots to be thankful for this month!

Happy Halloween Layout with Christine

Hi Samantha Walker Fans!  Christine joining you today to share a tip on using the negative space on some of Samantha's more detailed cuts. 

For this layout I used Samantha's new Halloween 3 Ways (#67410) cut file but instead of using the title cut out I used the negative space of it and used various colors behind it.  With the spider webs this could quickly get complicated - but today I am going to show you how I did it without any fancy tapes or tools!

1. In this first picture you can see that I have a couple letters still to fill in.  

2.  I took my title that I had cut out and used it as a "stencil" as to where to put my negative web pieces.

3. It easily fits right back on and you can see the first "e" already filled in.

4.  Use a glue pen and your stencil as a guide - after adding glue just stick your pieces in and there you have it!

Isn't that fun? An easy way to add back in the detail to negative space without having to worry about lining everything up right!

Hope you are having a fun weekend and find some time to get some fall crafting in too!

Lemonade Stand Layout with Christine!

Hi Samantha Walker fans!  Christine joining you for a fun weekend post!  One of my favorite things about the Summer Lovin' line from Samantha and Carta Bella is that it included some moments that get left out of a lot of summer lines, but lots of us experience.  I knew I wanted to make use of the lemonade stand stuff to document my kiddos and their stands from the last two years!  I figure now that summer is wrapping up I better get some of these memories committed to layouts!

I went for an 8 1/2 X 11 base this time and layered papers onto a green cardstock background.  I left a  little of that to peek out underneath the colorful vertical stripes. I lined up my pictures (one from each year) vertically on some more green cardstock.

I fussy cut out a giant chevron from patterned paper and added that as a focal point in the base.  I really like how it plays off of the colorful vertical stripes!  

Coordinating stickers and wood pieces make up a few clusters around the layout but otherwise I kept it clean and simple.  I can't believe these summer days are already wrapped up and we're on to the next season of Back to School and Fall!

Thanks for joining us today and have a great weekend!

Vinyl Cross by Christine

Hi Samantha Walker fans, Christine hosting the blog today! I love using vinyl to decorate my home and change things up regularly.  It's not expensive and so I don't feel guilty changing it out here and there.  Today I decided to use one of Samantha's new crosses to create a new vinyl piece in my living room!

I picked up a wood frame that I thought would coordinate nicely and then spray painted that black.  I cut the cross (#63275) out in a black vinyl and centered it on the wall inside of the frame. It cut perfectly on the first time too - love how nicely the Silhouette Cameo cuts vinyl!

I then added some rhinestones to various points to give it a little extra dimension and pop!

It goes perfectly with all my black picture frames and adds a nice, new fresh touch to the room!  

Thanks for joining us today!

Creating a Chalkboard Home Decor Piece

Hi Samantha Walker fans!  Christine joining you today with a simple weekend project to try!  The chalkboard trend is still going strong and today I thought I'd share with you how I created a chalkboard home decor piece using Samantha's files!  To do this you will need one piece of black cardstock - even a faded or uneven tone will work here!  You will also need a Silhouette Sketch Pen in white.

To begin you will want to use the 12 X 12 Doily Set Large Open Scallop Edge #60394 set and eliminate all but one of them on your screen

Then add the sentiment (Home is' 43898) to the middle stretching it to a size that you are happy with!

Insert your white sketch pen and let it do it's work on the design.  Once it is done remove the sketch pen and the now sort of chalkboard looking piece.  Use your white sketch pen to add some chalky-ness to the design!

I filled in spots throughout the letters and swirls.  I also just kind of scribbled to create a smudged look in several places.  That's the cool thing about chalk - it has a messy-ness to it that makes it unique!  I then attached the whole thing to a square canvas so I can hang it up on my wall.  

Best of all you don't actually have to deal with chalk!  You get the effect without the real mess!

Thanks for joining us today and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

I (Heart) Summer Card by Christine

Hi Samantha Walker Fans! Christine joining you today to share one of Samantha's newest gate fold cards! Since summer is kicking off I thought it would be the perfect time to do the A2 sun gate fold card.

Using pieces from both Summer Lovin' and Cool Summer, I pieced this card together and created a bright and cheery summer piece!

First I cut the card in a bright yellow cardstock.  I then added some adhesive to the main base of the card.

I added some striped paper from Summer Lovin' to jazz up the background!

I then did some faux stitching along the edges of the sun and added some pearls.  I backed the I love Summer sticker with cardstock and cut it out.  I then added it to the center over where the card fastens.  I fussy cut a few clouds and added those to both sides as well as a palm tree sticker.  Twine and a clothespin were my final touches.  Because it is an intricate cut - you can just add a few personal touches to make it really shine!  

Thanks for joining us today!

          

Creating your own Frozen Party Decor by Christine Meyer

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!  Christine joining you today with a crrrrrazy suggestion! Let's go back to winter for a little bit today!  I hear the collective sighs....but if you have a child in love with the movie "Frozen" you are probably still seeing winter type things around right???  My sweet daughter wanted a "Frozen" birthday party last month.  Newsflash...there is not "Frozen" party decor to be had yet.  If it exists, I could not find it.  So I had to get creative.  And in came Samantha Walker with her gorgeous winter files to the rescue.

Now, we're talking about a 7 year old here.  So I wasn't going to go overboard with decorations.  But I definitely wanted a banner and snowflakes.  I got my Silhouette cranking and cut full size snowflakes on 12 X 12 cardstock and then also some reduced size ones.  

I like to create a backdrop for her parties that we can take pretty pictures up against.  I started with an aqua blue colored fabric (could be a cheap tablecloth too - I just happened to have some shimmery material on hand.  I draped twinkle lights behind it.  I then taped the snowflakes at varying lengths to the the ceiling making use of some bakers twine. 

 Next came the banner.  I used Samantha's Par-tay Thyme Font to cut out her name.  The L in Lucy just has to be in a script font right!?!  

I simply attached those to some metallic cardstock (yay for shimmer) and punched a cute border along the bottom. A hole punched in each top corner allowed me to string it up and space it out easily.

This all took me about an hour and the personal touch I was looking for.  Beyond creating those special decorations I added some of my Christmas winter decor in coordinating colors and of course Olaf!  Finding him was a pleasant surprise and a perfect decoration addition since I had little else.  I was really pleased with how it came together and satisfied that I was able to make it work for her even without a party store's help!

Doesn't it look just beautiful!?!  I should mention that I created a couple of tissue paper pom poms (you can see them in the upper corners) those were also very easy - think back to your elementary art class days and making flowers!

I came up with games to go along with several of the songs and the girls loved it!  

Here's what we did:

Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?: For this I gave them toothpicks, big marshmallows and little marshmallows and told them to build snowmen while the song was playing.

Fixer Upper: They used toilet paper rolls and fixed up one of their friends as a lovely snowman.

Let it Go: This one was the most fun...I gave them big marshmallows and they had to stand behind a line and throw them at my hubby's head trying to knock a cup of it (yes he's that good of a sport).

In Summer: We did the traditional "hot potato" game but used a chunk of ice instead of passing something else.

Now of course I had to document the party and share that with you today also!  It is National Scrapbooking Day after all! 

I used Samantha's Par-tay Thyme Font for my title but other than that I stuck to using her Keepin' Cozy line from Echo Park.  The colors in it just worked perfectly!  I did lots of fussy cutting and then topped it off with stickers!  

Now, let's get back to spring!

Samantha Walker Supplies Used:

Par-tay Thyme Font (57535)

Snowflake (38926)

Snowflake (38924)

Snowflake (38922)

Snowflake (38919)

Snowflake (38921)

Easter Card Tutorial by Christine

Happy April Fool's Day!  Christine joining you today with a 
post full of tips and ideas and that is no joke! 

From the first time I saw Samantha's Bubbles of Love Valentine Card #54121, I loved it. One of my favorite things about these cuts is that often times you can modify them to make them work for other seasons. Today I am going to show you how I modified it slightly to turn it into an Easter card!

The original card has circles but I thought those circles could easily be stretched to look like Easter eggs!  So I did just that!

I have some tall 8 inch envelopes so I stretched mine to be really tall.  It would work just as well shorter!

After cutting I used pieces from the Cool Summer line from Carta Bella to back certain eggs.  I used mostly solid or monochromatic patterns to do the eggs and then cut apart pieces from the chevorn patterned paper to decorate the big eggs.

I filled in most of the rest of eggs with glitter.  This helped me to remember why I don't love glitter ;).

I decided to cover up the heart and put my title in that spot.  Initially I cut my title just in yellow using Samantha's "Happy Easter Phrase Title" #39476.  But with just the yellow it didn't stand out enough.  So I decided to create a shadow to use on it.

To do that I clicked on the title and then clicked on the Offset button.  I then chose "offset" and lowered the offset button to a distance I was happy with.  

I then ungrouped them and cut the shadow in white.  Once I glued those together I popped the title up with foam adhesive and it was perfect!

Hope you have a great day and don't get fooled by too many people!

Flower Pen Tutorial by Christine

Hi Samantha Walker Fans!  Christine joining you today to share a flower project! I had so much fun playing with Samantha's new flowers this week and found a fun way to incorporate them into a project.  Today I am going to show you how I turned these flowers into pens.  I have them displayed here in a flower pot.

Your first step is to cut out the flowers that you want to use.  I used two shades of each colors to add a little contrast.  I set them up on my screen like this and then used 6" X 12" papers on my cutting mat.  I used the following flowers:

#55487

#55845

#55842

#55840

#55830

You will then want to fold and bend your flowers to your taste....I just use my fingers for this but a pencil would work great too.  I also embellished mine with some gemstones.

I then created my "stem" by using a six inch square.  First off, I have to give credit to the team coordinator, Jamie, here because she helped me figure out how to do this step.  I set it like a diamond on my grid and trimmed off one end so that it lined up with where I wanted the paper to end on my pen (a grid mat was super helpful with this).  

I used strong craft glue that dries fast and rolled up the pen, securing it with a clothespin while I worked on the others.

I then wrapped it with washi tape because I thought that would help it hold up better and looked pretty!

I cut slits in the end of it so that it folds down in thirds, making it easy to attach to the flower.

Once again using my strong craft glue I attached it to the flower

And then you are done..you've got a lovely little pen to display.

Our school secretary is an awesome friend and because I always talk her head off about paper crafting (which she doesn't do any of), I decided to make this into a gift for her.  I used a small flower pot and added some beans.

I then added the whole variety of them!  I hope this will give her a little bit of spring joy for the week!

Have a great week crafters!