Hello everyone, Mou Saha here. I’m a contributing writer for Creating Keepsakes magazine and one of the newest teachers at Big Picture Classes.

I love to upcycle everyday things. I take it as a creative challenge. In honor of Earth Day, 4/22/2012, here’s an upcycling tutorial.

Steps:

• I started with a button package and detached the bubble from top. Look into your stash to find a sturdy chipboard packaging that you can upcycle.

• I painted the surface with Chalk Paint. You can do the same following instructions on your paint bottle. ( If you don’t have chalk paint, you can use chalkboard cardstock to cover the surface.)

• Once the paint dried, I applied glue to the back edge of the chipboard and attached a long piece of fabric into a simple ruffle. You could use paper instead if you don’t have fabric handy.
• Then I stitched around using my sewing machine for a more finished look. If you don’t like to sew, make sure to use a very strong adhesive. 
• I added a flower and hanger from the same fabric. You could use twine or ribbon and any flower you may already have.
• Now, your mini chalkboard is ready to be hung.

If you too are a fan of upcycling make sure to check out my upcoming 4-week workshop Lift Me Up! where you’ll find four upcycled projects, from beginner to advanced that will make you want to see beauty beyond the obvious in everyday discards.

Also, don’t forget to join me for a chat during National Scrapbook Day between 6:15-6:45 in the Creative Crop Classroom where we can talk more about my upcoming workshop Lift Me Up!
Thanks and have a creative day!
 

Mother's Day here in the U.S. is coming up quick. I like to do something a little special for my mom and mother-in-law each year. As a busy, working mom myself, I don't always find the time but if I plan ahead, I know I can pull it off. I want to share with you a couple ideas that you can do at home to create a meaningful Mother's Day gift from the heart.

This first gift idea is something I started several years ago. I made the first one for my mom, for her birthday. She absolutely loved it and to be honest I don't think she's ever received a greater gift and no matter what I do now, it won't top this one. It was such a hit that I went on to make one for my dad for father's day/birthday (they often fall on the same day) and made them for my mother-in-law and father-in-law too. Each time the reaction was the same - a few tears, but happy tears, lots of hugs and laughter.

The "We Love You Because..... " Gift

The concept is so simple and the project is quick to assemble. It's easy to involve the whole family and the kiddos too. For my mom's gift I sent an email to all six of my brothers and sisters (yep, I come from a huge family of SEVEN kids!). I asked them each to fill in the blank "I love you because ________________." about our mom. I told them their responses could be deep and heartfelt, a simple one word response, silly, etc. It didn't matter. Each of us had about 7 reasons we needed to give to round out the number of cards I wanted to give her. I asked them to email me back their responses because some of us live in different states. I compiled the responses and typed them out then pasted them to little cards. The end result was awesome! There was a good mixture of fun, silly and also the heartfelt mushy stuff that we don't often say. One of the coolest things for me was reading the responses and seeing how many of us came up with the same response or something totally similar. It's like there were certain values and things my mom taught all of us that we each kept near and dear to our hearts and that was really neat to see. It happened again and again when I made this gift for my dad and then for my mother-in-law and father-in-law.

Here's a photo of the card assembly I made my dad. I cut circles out of patterned paper, then typed the responses and cut those into smaller circles. I used double sided tape to stick the response cards on the patterned paper, then punched a hole in the top, added a grommet to each card and assembled with a ball chain. It was ALOT of work and very time consuming!

The year I made this for my dad, I was pregnant. I had high hopes of creating these I Love You Because gifts for my in-laws but kept putting it off because I knew I didn't have the time to set aside needed to create them. Then it dawned on me to cut up patterned paper and just have the responses handwritten on the back. This saved a ton of time and I found the little tins fit my cards perfectly (if I rounded the corners). That was the ticket! It was so quick and easy to create the project this way and I absolutely love how these little boxes turned out.

You can find a step by step tutorial to this DIY project HERE on my blog.

The "Love Is" Digital Photobook Gift

This year for Mother's Day I'm creating a "Love Is" digital photobook for both my mom and mother-in-law. I'm putting a little twist on it and having my four year old daughter fill in the blanks. I'm sure the responses I get will not only be fun, but authentic too. She just had a photo shoot with the fabulous Skye Johansen so I'm really excited to use those pictures in my book. Neither my mom nor my mother-in-law have seen them yet. I sat down before working on this blog post and created all my photo pages in about twenty minutes. That's it. That's all it took. Later this week I'll talk to my daughter about Love, then add that journaling to my album and upload it to Shutterfly for printing. I'm going to print three copies because I know I'm going to want a copy too.

I created this Love Is digital quick album exclusively for my upcoming workshop at Big Picture Classes. The workshop starts March 29, 2012. You can read all about it and sign up HERE. I hope to see you in class!

Hi BPC goers! Allison Landy here. I am excited to be with you here today on the BPC blog! I’m hoping that my try this challenge to you today is both fun and helpful.

I don’t know about you, but lately I’ve been invited to lots and lots of parties...and here I thought the holiday party-going season was over! But it’s birthdays and anniversaries galore amongst my family and friends. That means I’ve been in need of a variety of cards to share with my hosts. When time is short, I always go back to basics with simple designs.

One of my favorite design principles is the idea that “angles love curves.” It’s a great adage to remember. It’s why we often round the corners of our photos and place them on a square page background. Curved lines add softness to a design, and they give the eye something different to look at. When working with cards, the principle holds just as true. Here’s a card I made recently using this principle.

Imagine if the stamped image in the center was square instead of circular. It just wouldn’t be as “interesting.”

Tonight it’s a birthday party, so I decided to whip up a quick little birthday greeting for my friend. For this card, I wanted to incorporate several different size circles into my design. I was going for an energetic, fun look. So, out came my punches and my brightly colored papers, and I went to town.

Your try this challenge today--should you choose to accept it--is to make a card with the angles love curves principle by using circles somewhere on your card. Remember to load your finished card to the Big Picture Classes sharing gallery or Facebook Album! Be sure to also pop on over to the Simple Stories blog at www.simplestories.com where we are doing a fun giveaway!

For more card making inspiration, check out Allison Landy's card class here at BPC, Cooking Up Cards.

I have a little challenge for you today that is sure to inspire AND help stretch your supplies to their full potential! Double bonus! When I get a new scrapbooking tool or artsy medium, I like to brainstorm a list of ideas for using my fun new product. I also like to keep a pack of Avery Shipping Tags on hand to give all these ideas a trial run on a smaller scale before I take them to the next level on a layout or project.

I recently acquired one of Jenni Bowlin Studio's new Grandma's Doily punches by Fiskars. Now this punch can be a little intimidating at first since it's not what we usually expect from a punch. Instead of punching OUT a diecut, it punches a design INto the background paper. Interesting. I thought about this for a while and then got busy creating. Here are the ideas I came up with; I'd love to see your ideas!


Using the negative space from punches is wildly popular in scrapbooking right now. This look will give a nice airy feeling to your work.


My first thought was to make my own stencils with the punch. For the left image I wanted to try paint. I punched a line of three doillies onto a piece of scrap cardstock for my stencil. I then lightly adhered the mask to my tag with removeable adhesive. For best results with paint and stencils use a paint dabber or a very dry paintbrush. Heavy paint use with a stencil leads to bleeding under the edges and a less crisp image.

For the right image I punched the doily six times and then misted it. Again, it is helpful to use a removable adhesive with your homemade stencil. Mist causes warping of cardstock. This warping then allows the mist to go under the design area leading to a fuzzy image. Using the removeable adhesive prevents this problem.

Never throw away your scraps without giving them a thoughtful once over! The tag on the right here was created with stencil that I used with the mist. This has another technique that I like with a negative punch. Backing them with a nice patterned paper gives a nice punch of color.

On the left you see a more traditional use of a punch. Simply punch the negative image into paper, then use a circular punch to create a medallion embellishment that you can use anywhere on your page or project.


This tag has my most complicated punch technique. I wanted to incorporate some glitter into my design which required a little layering. Glitter can also be difficult to work with, so I did a careful analysis of my process before I got started. I find that the less glitter is touched the better.

These are the steps I followed to get this nicely glittered layered medallion:

1. Punch Grandma's Doily into patterned paper and then punch it out with a circle punch.
2. Punch a slightly larger circle from a piece of scrap cardstock.
3. Adhere the cardstock circle to the tag.
4. Lay the Doily over the circle and pencil mark the center.
5. Remove the doily and place a glue dot topped with a punched paper dot scrap over your pencil mark.
6. Paint glue onto the chipboard circle with a paintbrush, avoiding the gluedot center.
7. Apply glitter and shake off excess.
8. Layer on the doily, add another glue dot to the center and finish with a pearl or rhinestone.

Now what will you do with all your pretty tags? These would make great Valentine's. They could also be added to layouts, packages, or cards. I've decided to use mine for Coke tags. Believe me, teachers will LOVE this gift!


See more  Doris Sander's  work on her blog and at Jenni Bowlin Studio.

Greetings on this wonderful Wednesday! I’m Monika Wright and today I’m going to share some low-cost {okay, and maybe a little goofy} projects using scrapbooking and crafting supplies that you probably already have on hand. "What for?" you might ask, well Valentine's Day, of course...it's less than a month away.

First up in my roundup of little bits of goofiness is this message I hid in my husband’s sock drawer one year. You see, he had to be away on a business trip for the few days surrounding Valentine’s Day and this is what greeted him on the day he left. Using a random chipboard journaling spot and my small letter stamps, I was able to quickly create this message and then tied it with a bright ribbon to a pair of his socks.

I have a small collection of old keys. But, if you don't, I happened to see a set of brass skeleton keys at Home Depot the other day in the key-making section...worth checking it out if you'd like to recreate either of these altered projects made, again, using common scrapbooking supplies. The white matte was no longer in use and the mini canvas was one of those "I'll have a need for this one of these days" purchases that were both put to good {re}use.

And now for some inexpensive home decor!

Here's a little tutorial in words:

• trim your felt pieces to your desired size
• decide if you want to join both pieces of felt together now as you outline the "B" and sew the word "mine" or if you want to sew just the top piece and then adhere them together afterward - the beauty of adhering them after the embroidery is that the back of your wall hanging will be nice and neat
• trace a chipboard letter onto your felt and then freehand the word "mine" - if you don't have chipboard letters in the size you want, use your word processing program and enlarge a letter in the size you wish, print it and trim it to size before using it to trace onto your felt
• using your chipboard stash or your heart punches, trace a heart onto a piece of felt and trim out
• commence your needlework - no worries, it doesn't have to be perfect, as you can see on my sample - and yes, that is a heart for the dot above the "i" in "mine"
• using your Crop-o-Dile, attach two grommets
• cut your ribbon to length and feed through the grommets, knotting to keep it in place
• hang proudly, or hide until it's time to gift it to your sweetie!

I am not a master needleworker, so you should have no problems with this project, either.

Hope you had fun today peeking into my arsenal of silly things that make me smile! I share projects, tutorials and downloads on my blog as well as art prints, mini books and cool crafting supplies in my Etsy shop where the coupon code BIGPICTURE2012 will earn you a 20% discount through January 21, 2012.

Did you know all you need to make a beautiful handmade flower accent perfect for cards, scrapbook pages, or other projects is a corner rounder? Check out the flower on the card I made below.

Here’s how to make this easy handmade flower:

• Punch or cut three or four different size circles.
• Fold one of your circles in half, and trim the two corners with a corner rounder (you can use scissors if you don’t have a corner rounder).
• Unfold the circle, rotate it ¼ turn, fold it in half, and again trim the two corners with a corner rounder.
• Repeat this four times for each circle.
• Layer the circles using adhesive foam, and add a brad, button, or epoxy for the flower center.

Play around with the corner rounder for different looks. The more you trim on each corner, the more oval-shaped your flower petals will be. The less you trim, the more square-shaped they’ll be. Give this easy flower a try on your next project!

If you’d like to learn more easy and fun techniques for cards like this one, register now for my newest workshop, 28 Cards in 4 Weeks. You can also find more tutorials and project ideas on my blog, It Happened Like This.

Here’s a fun way to sauce up plain old buttons: Turn them into shabby little buttons.

They are fun, cute and “oh so” easy.

(full images below)

All you need is a couple scraps of fabric, glue, buttons, scissors, floss and scissors. A nail file is helpful, too, but not necessary.

Start by coating one side of a button with glue.

Press the button into a piece of fabric. Let the glue dry.

Trim away the excess fabric.

Use your fingers or a nail file to distress the edges of the fabric.

Use a needle to thread some floss through the button. Be sure to knot it in the back.

When you are ready to use the buttons on a card, just use Glue Dots to adhere them to your project.
These buttons are the perfect accent for saucing up cards and scrapbook pages. Check out how I used a few of them. Cute, huh?
Have a good day!

Teri is one of the teachers who created the fantastic Cooking Up Cards class. Read about it here and to see more of Teri's projects visit her blog.

For more about parties and fun check out the One Charming Party website, show on My Craft Channel, or Facebook page, not get busy!

and for more gift wrap ideas see our posts from last week linked below

Upcycled boxes

Dress up a white box

Toppers from trim

Just add photos

I'm always looking for creative ways to rescue my photos from the black hole that is my computer's hard drive. Wrapping Christmas presents provides the perfect opportunity to do just that! With a roll of brown paper and a few miscellaneous supplies you probably already have on hand (or can find easily) you can customize presents with your own photos, which is sure to delight your gift recipient. You'll notice that none of these ideas are particularly complicated—I don't know about you, but at this time of the year, complicated is the thing that is sure to push me over edge! 

Photo Tags 

I customized my niece's first Christmas gift with little photo tags of everyone in my family meeting her for the first time! Since she's only five months old, she probably doesn't care whether or not we include photos or a gift tag with handwriting on it, but the photos (punched and reinforced with eyelets in the corners) can be strung on a piece of ribbon and tucked inside a Christmas ornament box for her to enjoy in future years. There won't be any question from her almost four year old big sister as to whose gift this is, either!

Photo Ornament

Scan the ornament aisles at Target or other stores and you'll be sure to find a few photo holder ornaments... grab them (and grab some more after Christmas when they're on clearance!) because they make terrific, easy gift decorations. The gift inside is from my daughters for their Nana—and Nana will be able to move the ornament directly from package to tree on Christmas morning!

Photo Ribbon

I'm always trying to think of clever ways to utilize my Instagram photos—it occurred to me that they would make perfect ribbon when reduced in size! Even if you don't use Instagram, you could easily resize photos to a square and create the same effect. To save time, I made photo mosaics at Big Huge Labs (instead of creating a square or rectangle mosaic, I simply chose to create a one column mosaic) and then copied the strips to my design program and printed them all on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper at home. I adhered my strips with double-sided tape, then added the perfect finish: a picture of a bow! I can't wait to give this gift to my youngest sister, who loves Instagram just as much as I do. 

Which one are you going to try? do you have a favorite?

Download bow photos, like the ones shown above, on Inside Access by logging in your account.

Don't have an account? Create a free one here.

Hope you are enjoying the gift wrap shares so far. Todays easy project shows you how to use trim to make simple gift toppers.

First up is yarn.

(full images below)

Supplies:

• yarn
• cardboard with width measuring 1 1/2" (or whatever size you desire)
• scissors

Steps:

• Start by wrapping your yarn around the cardboard piece, wrapping it 40-50 times around
• Pull the wrapped yarn carefully off your cardboard

• Place a larger piece of yarn under the cluster of wrapped yarn

• Tie it around the cluster in a knot, pulling tightly

• Snip the cluster on both sides of the knot

• Fluff it out

• Now time to give your pom pom a haircut, shape and trim until you are satisfied

Tie on a gift for the perfect handmade touch, done!!

Second kind of trim is fabric scraps, which I have a surprising amount of even though I do not own a sewing machine.

 (full images below)

Supplies:

• three strips of fabric measuring approximately 24"
• 18" long wire (optional)
• scrap of felt
• hot glue
•  

Steps:

• combine all three strips of fabric tie one end in a knot

• slip wire under the knot (optional)

• braid

• coil the braid around itself, creating a circle, until you get to the end of the braid
• wrap the end pieces with the wire to keep it secure
• trim the excess fabric strips from the knotted end

• thread a piece of black felt on the wire
• using hot glue adhere the felt to the back of the braid, tucking in loose ends as you go
• insert braided circle around your present, secure with wire

All done!!

***and the gift tags shown on the presents are available for download. Login to your account and you will see an image with the link to the free tag downloads.

Happy wrapping!