Stampin' Up! Sale-a-Bration ends February 28 - don't miss out!

 

Stampin' Up is having their Sale-a-Bration (ends this Friday the 28th - check the end of this post for more information).  They have lots of freebies available to choose from when you make a $60 purchase. One of those freebies was this wonderful set of Trusty Tools Dies (regular price is $37 - what a deal!), and today I've used it to make up a bunch of focal/embellishments to have ready for card making or scrapbooking.  

 

Pegboard:

I started out easy with some pieces that only required one color of card stock and no gluing!  I LOVE this pegboard!  And, I'm SO grateful that they created it without cut edges so that if I wish, I can make it bigger simply by running it through the die cut machine, then taking the die and lining it up beside my first die cut.  When I have the size I want, it's easy to cut around it with my trimmer.  When I actually use these, I might use ink to shade them a bit, but I don't think they really don't need it.

 

Wrenches, screws, washers, and nuts!

Next I tried some that were mostly one color - but the adjustable wrench has a second die to create a different look if you cut from two different colors (here I used a metallic silver with a sliver glimmer paper.  I LOVE having these little screws!!!

 

Tape Measures:

For these I used 3 different colors - silver metallic, silver glimmer, and white (for the tape itself).  It's a little difficult to tell the difference in the photo, but in real life the tape is clearly a different color from the rest and looks really good.

Ball Peen Hammers:

This time I chose to use silver metallic with some primary colored card stocks.  It doesn't show up as well as I'd like in the picture, but I used inks and a foam applicator to shade the handles a bit before gluing the silver hammer heads in place.  It really adds a nice touch.

Tool Box:

Again I used silver metallic and primary colored card stocks.  Again I shaded the primary colored card stocks.  I decided I wanted the look of silver rivets, so backed the holes on either side with strips of the silver metallic before gluing the handle in place.

Pliers:

This time I used silver glimmer paper for the pliers nose & colored card stock for the handles.  After I shaded the card stock with ink as before, I started gluing the pieces together.  First the two nose pieces were glued together (notice, you can choose how open or closed you want to make them based on the angle at which you glue these together.  Then, it's easy to glue the card stock handles in place.  I also decided I wanted to add silver metallic rivets where the nose pieces "join", so used the pieces that were scrap from the centers of the nuts (see screws & nuts above)

Paint Brushes:

The paint brush is only two pieces, so I cut the main one out of silver glimmer paper and the bristles out of a tan.  After inking the bristles pieces, and gluing them in place, I took some Sharpie markers to finish these.  I used silver in horizontal stripes to form the metallic part of the brush, then took a colored Sharpie for the handles.

Pencils:

Once again, there are only two dies to create these pencils.  I cut the main one out of a light tan, and the 2nd one out of other colors.  Again, I shaded those before gluing them in place.  Then, I took a black Sharpie and colored in the point to look like lead.  Then I used a silver Sharpie to color horizontal lines just above the colored card stock to create the look of the metal holder for the eraser.  I was quite happy with the way these turned out.

Drills:

I LOVE these drills!  It's something my DH uses a lot, so having this will help make some great cards for him.  This is also a two-piece cutting die - the drill bit mechanism and the rest of it.  I cut the drill bits out of silver glimmer paper and the other out of colored card stock.  THEN, I cut a couple extra of this second die out of silver metallic card stock.  I shaded the colored card stock as normal & glued the bit mechanism in place.  Then, I took the silver metallic die cuts and cut them apart to glue some of those pieces as you can see above.

These are going to look great on my cards and scrapbook pages!!! 

Stampin' Up! has a Sale-a-Bration brochure that lists many of the possible freebies you can receive if you spend $60, but if you go to their website, there are even more!  I recently became an independent Stampin' Up! demonstrator and would greatly appreciate your support of choosing me as your demonstrator if you make a purchase.  It's easy to take advantage of this opportunity.  Just sign into https://www.stampinup.com/ and choose me as a demonstrator (on the Computer: just click "Find a Demonstrator near the top left of the page and search for Cheryl Manley in the little pop-up window.  Click the radio button by my name and you're set to order.  On your cell phone or tablet: it's a little different, but not hard - just tap the triple line in the upper left corner to get the menu.  At the top of the menu is "Find a Demonstrator".  Once again, just search for Cheryl Manley, click the radio button, and you're good to go.  I'd love to see you enjoy these materials as much as I do!)  To see what freebies are available with your purchase during this special event, go to the menu and click Specials - then Sale-a-Bration.  Best wishes for some fun new "toys" to play with!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thailand Pages 36 & 37 (gate fold)

YAY!!!  Because I did a few pages out of order, this is the last set of pages for my Thailand scrapbook.  It takes SO long to make scrapbook pages compared to greeting cards!  I'm grateful to have this keepsake completed.

Page 36:

I had this paper in my stash (I think it's from HOTP?) and thought it was perfect for these pages.  As you can see, I made sort of a mosaic with my pictures and text, matting the whole on a piece of black card stock.

Page 37 - Gate fold Closed:

Here I had to split the page because it is a gate fold.  This is what it looks like when the gate fold is closed.  As you can see, I mostly covered up the elephants on the paper on the second half since it really wasn't about elephants.

Page 37 Gate fold Opened:

This is what you see when the gate fold is opened.  The paper was in my stash - not sure where it came from. 

Page 37 Outer Flaps of Open Gate fold:

As you can see, I matted some of the text on pictures and matted the rest on a darker green.

Center Page when Gate fold is open:

Again I matted the title and journaling on a dark green.  As you can see, I put all of the elements on this page at a bit of an angle.

Thailand Pages 32 & 33 (gate fold)

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel as I close in on the last pages of this scrapbook!  Just one more gate-fold after the ones shown in this post.  

 

Page 32: The page at the top of this post is page 32.  It was a bit of a challenge because I took a full framed 12 x 12 paper and cut it down to create the 10 x 10 (or so) page that held my pictures on the main background for this page.  I used some of the cut off part of the frame to mat the journaling, added the title, and this page was complete.

 

Page 33 AB

 

These pages (gate fold) were again "doctored".  I liked the water for the background, but what you see is actually from two pages - each of which I removed the top part that included beach ball & such that didn't make sense for my pictures.  To get the waves going the right way, I had to tape the two pieces together horizontally before slicing it vertically for these pages.  I found a coordinating striped pattern - from a totally different company - that I used for matting.

 

Page 33 CDE

 

When the gate fold is opened, this is what you see.  I used three different papers here - one split in half for the background paper for the flaps, one was cut to 4 inches and glued to the top of the 3rd page (to cover up scenery that was not appropriate to the theme of the page).  Below are close ups of these pages.

 

Page 33 CE

Here you have a closer look at the two flaps.  

Page 33 D

And here's a closer look at the main inside page.  What a fun time we had!

Thailand Pages 30 & 31

Here are another couple of quick pages - made with simple papers and a bit of card stock for matting.

Page 30:

 Page 31:

Since I have already made the tiger pages (last entries in this post) and the last page (last entry in this post), I just have two more gate fold spreads to complete this scrapbook.  YAY!

Thailand Pages 28 & 29 (gatefold)

I'm getting closer to completing this scrapbook!  I love the paper I used for this layout.  I don't remember who made it, but it is embossed and really pretty.  The right page is actually two pages - a gate-fold that opens up to see this:

These pages used two different patterned papers - from the same set as those above.  Below is a closer look at each page.

Page 28:

As mentioned before - this is great paper.  It was hard to cover part of it up, but of course, adding pictures is the POINT.  :)  

Page 29 AB:

 Here, I split the page in half to fit into the gate-fold page protectors.  As you can see, I fussy cut around the flower in the bottom right corner (using a craft knife) to slip the picture in behind it.

Page 29 CE:

These are the outer flaps.  After cutting strips of the tan patterned paper to go on the blue one - and then cutting in half to fit the gate-fold flaps - I used brown washi tape to border them.  Unfortunately, I ran out of washi tape part way through.  Fortunately, I was able to find card stock in my stash that was essentially the same color.  This allowed me to both finish the borders AND mat some of the elements.

Page 29 D: 

This is the main inner page - created basically the same way as the flaps.

Thailand Pages 24 - 27

Today I have 4 more pages of my Thailand scrapbook.  Above you see pages 24 and 25.  To coordinate with the river photos, I pulled a couple of water photo papers and added a dark blue card stock for matting.  Below are closeups of each page:

Page 24:

 Page 25:

 Page 26 & 27:

I LOVE the way this double page layout turned out.  It looks SO good in real life, with the water and tile of the background papers reflecting the beautiful pools at the resort.  Again, closeups of each page are shown below.

Page 26:

Page 27:

Thailand Pages 22 & 23 Gate-fold

Here's another gate-fold spread.  This time, I chose DCWV papers from a mat stack called Once Upon a Time.  

Page 22:

As you can see, I chose to add a lot of photos to this layout.  I love the color match between photos and paper - and the glitter speaks to how beautiful these buildings would have been in their heyday.

Page 23 A&B (outside of gate-fold):

A matching paper was cut in half to create the gate fold pages.  

Page 23 CDE (inside of gate-fold):

Here is what you see when the gate-fold is opened.

Page 23 C & E:

Here I split another page from that DCWV set to create the side flaps that you see when opening the gate-fold.

Page 23 D:

This is the main center page that you see when opening the gate-fold.  I created the background page by combining the cut-out border from a couple of other pages and gluing them in place top and bottom of a third page.  I then used some paper from a Sarapapers set (old booklet of papers from HOTP) to mat the focal photo and the journaling and title.

Thailand Pages 20 & 21 (gatefold)

Today I have another set of scrapbook pages with gate fold. The picture above shows the main page on the left and gate fold pages on the right. And below we have close-ups of these.

Page 20:

I made a pocket from green vellum to hold the visitor's guide.  I added the sub-title and a couple of pictures on top of this.  For the background, I took two papers and cut the top four inches off of both.  Then I scotch-taped a 4" piece of blue to the 8" piece of green.  Then I cut 1/2" strips of a third patterned paper and added them - one at the bottom and one covering the join.  Then I added the text blocks and pictures as you see them in the picture.

Page 21 A&B:

For the two gate-fold pieces, I cut the 8" in half, taping them together with the green piece in the center and the blue pieces above and below.  Again I took two 1/2" strips and glued them over the joins. Finally, I cut it in half to create two pieces that were 6" wide to fit the gate-fold page protectors before adding the journaling and pictures.

Page 21 Inside the Gatefold:

Above you see what you see when you open the gate-fold.  The two flaps on either side and the main page in the center.

Page 21 C & E:

Here you see a picture of the two outer flaps that you see when you open the gate-fold. I used some green patterned paper to mat the titles, journaling, and some of the pictures.

Page 21 D:

The main inside page was created using two different papers and some gold washi tape before I added the pictures.

HD 2016 Snowy Season - Festive Harbour

Today I have several cards made from a Hunkydory set called Festive Harbour - from a 2016 kit called Snowy Season.  This is what the kit looked like before I started:

It contained a sheet of die cuts and two sheets of Adorable Scoreable (AS) printed card stock. To this, I added a few things from my stash - some papers & additional printed card stock, some ribbon, some stickers.  I made six cards from this set - even though I saved some of the beautiful generic sheet for other uses.  Here's a picture of the six A2-sized cards that I made:

Below is a quick look at each individual card. 

Card #1:

The first four cards make use of pieces of one of the AS sheets that I cut into fourths.  After cutting it to fit with a narrow red mat, I added a piece of red ribbon border to the AS before gluing both mat and AS to the card front.  A die cut sentiment and a red ribbon bow completed the card.

Card #2:

Here I matted the AS on dark blue, adding a ribbon border.  I added two matted die cut pieces - one for the focal and one for the sentiment.

Card #3:

I inked the edges of this AS piece to create the background, added a die cut sentiment, and added sticker corners on either side of the sentiment.

Card #4:

This card was made pretty much the same way as the previous one - with the addition of a sticker border along the bottom. 

Card #5:

This time I used one of the die cut pieces to cover the entire card front.  I added a silver sticker strip for a border and added the die-cut sentiment.

Card #6:

This final card used a piece of the other AS (it was so beautiful, I chose to save the rest for other projects.  I cut the border strip in half to go top and bottom as you see.  I added the last die cut to create a joint focal and sentiment for this final card.