Easy Ribbon Tutorial

Hey guys! Happy Thursday! Today I wanted to share a ribbon tutorial with you. I had posted this tutorial on my own blog about a year ago, but I still get lots of questions asking how I do this. So I thought I would share it again with all of you.

For this technique, you will need:

1. Permanent Adhesive (I use the Permanent AdTech Glue Runner from Wal Mart)(Helmar adhesive would work great for this as well.)
2. Ribbon of your choice
3. Scissors
4. Staples/Sewing (optional)

First, I like to take my glue runner and lay down 2 strips of adhesive from one side of the card to the next. I do this directly on top of each other to give me a wide area of adhesive for the ribbon to adhere to:

Next, I leave the ribbon attached to the spool until I am ready to cut it off at the end, which you will see later in the tutorial. I do this because there is no exact measurement that you will need. It will all depend on the distance you are going and how much ribbon you like. I like to start on the left hand side of whatever I am working on. You will take the end of the ribbon and adhere it down about half way up the wide strip of adhesive at the very edge of your card. Press down to secure.

Now, going the other direction, lay your ribbon as show and press down to secure.

You will want to go in a back and forth motion and overlap a little each time. This overlapping will help to hide any adhesive from showing through.

I like to vary the length of mine up a bit for added interest and to make it easier on me! LOL

Once you get to the end, it will look like this...

From here, you will want to cut your ribbon from the spool leaving about 1 and 1/2"...

Fold over...

Then you will want to adhere it all the way to the far edge like you did at the beginning of the technique; keeping in mind to leave about half of the adhesive showing. Press down to adhere.

Then, I like to use my fingers to press down the middle of the ribbon to secure everything really well...

Voila'! You are done!!!

The permanent adhesive will hold this on it's own, but I have also added staples and stitching to the center for extra added interest and security.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial! I promise, this is so simple and so fun!!! Give it a try on your cards, layouts, or altered projects today! Happy Scrappin'!

handmade tags

If you're anything like me, you save everything. Especially that "free chipboard" that comes with your clothes. And the nicer brands have sturdy, heavy weight tags on their items.

To make your own HANDMADE BY... tags out of recycled clothing tags you will need:
Tags from clothes
A glue stick or tape runner
Twine or ribbon
Journal spots
Paper piercer tool
X-Acto knife
Emery board or sandpaper


Adhere the paper to both sides of the tag with your adhesive. Trim the edges with an X-Acto knife then file/sand down with the emery board or sandpaper for a smooth edge.

Pierce the paper where the original tag's hole was. Run ribbon or twine through the hole. Tie a bow or knot.


Place the journal spot and write your message, in this case, it is "HANDMADE BY...."

You can personalize it by adding more embellishments. I used ribbon, a dress form stamp from Stampin Up and some pearls from Prima.


When I saw the dress form sheet from Cosmo Cricket's Material Girl line, I knew I was going to use this paper slowly so that I could get the most out of it. I couldn't possibly have used it in smaller pieces. :)

Make some tags with the scraps you have left from the February kit before that March kit hits your doorstep! Show us what you make!! Upload your creations to the Scrapbook Circle Gallery!

Thanks for stopping by today!
-Diana F.

tip of the day.....

I wanted to talk about glitter today. I have a love/hate relationship with it. I love it because of the bling and just awesomeness of the gleam. The hate part comes in with the mess. So, I challenged myself when I made this layout to use glitter on my black letters.

1. I sanded my letters a little bit.

2. I added my wet adhesive.

3. I added my glitter, I waited for the adhesive to dry.

4. I shook off the excess glitter and added wet adhesive over the top covering the glitter.

The experiment worked! No more messy lovely glitter everywhere! **If you don't have wet adhesive you can also use spray adhesive.**

So if you are like me and have a "stash" of glitter gathering dust. Don't be afraid of it! Use it! :)

March Kit Peeks!

We are very excited to share our March kit with you! Once again, we've packed the kit with lots of brand new items we know you will love.

Here's a little look at what you have to look forward to in March.We are bringing October Afternoon Fly a Kite, Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety and My Mind's Eye Quite Contrary to you along with some great new embellishments from Jillibean Soup, Jenni Bowlin and more.

The full kit will be posted later this week!

Just one more little peek for you...our April kit is going to be filled with goodies from the new Dear Lizzy line!

Yet another money saving tip!

Hi! I was so excited about the last post about making my own glue dots (though I didn't have time to get to Hobby Lobby today -- next week), that I wanted to share another money-saving tip that has helped me.

I own a Silhouette (die-cutting machine). I know many of you have Cricuts, Wishblades, and other such things. One thing I hate is spending money on more and more cutting mats! After a few months (or weeks depending on my cutting rate), the mats are no longer sticky and the paper slides all over. But, they can be so expensive. So, I did some research and some experimenting. This is what I came up with and ... so far so good.

I got some Krylon Easy Tack RE-POSITIONABLE adhesive spray. It has to be that, and not the permanent adhesive. Then, I take an old mat that no longer has any stick left on it. I do this outside (fumes). I give it a generous coat and let it dry for an hour or so. Then, it is a sticky (or stickier) as the day I bought it! And, I'm sure I will have DOZENS of applications out of each can. (Use a coupon and it is about $4.). After that I cover it with wax paper (unless I have my original cover still, which I loose frequently).

After trial and error, I found that two generous coats was a little much, but one small coat was not enough. So, depending on how sticky you like your mats, take that into consideration!

Enjoy and happy cutting!

Jennie

Money Saving Tip

Hey guys! Happy Thursday! Today I have a great money saving tip, that I discovered a few years ago, that I would like to share with you. I know for many of us money is tight these days and if there is any way to save money, we need to do so. This is a great way to help save some pennies when it comes to your scrappy purchases!!!

Do you ever get tired of purchasing those expensive glue dots? Well, no longer my friends! You can make your own a whole lot cheaper!!!

You will need:
1 bottle of Aleene's Tack It Over & Over Glue
leftover roll from glue dots package or wax paper

You can purchase this glue at any arts and crafts store for around $5. I purchased mine at Michael's. I have found that I can make anywhere from 7-10 sets of over 200 dots from one bottle of glue! That's A LOT of glue dots for a small price!

Now, you will want to place the glue onto wax paper or leftover packaging from a roll of glue dots. I chose to save some of the packaging from a previous roll of glue dots that I had purchased so that I could roll up my homemade glue dots when dried and store. You can use wax paper, but I find the leftover packaging works a tad better. Squeeze a small amount of glue onto the paper. You will want to squeeze out a little bit bigger of a dot than you want your finished product to be because the glue will shrink just a tad during the drying process. The glue comes out of the bottle white, but the dots will turn clear as they dry. Let this sit overnight and voila'....affordable glue dots! They work great too!

I hope you will find this to be as helpful and cost effective as I have!!! Have a wonderful day!

journaling spots in the spotlight

Some of you may have seen this page already on my blog or on the Scrapbook Circle community gallery page. I got a little crazy layering up all of the very spring-like pages in the February kit.

I wanted to focus on the journal spots for today. I know sometimes we have a lot more to say than the small journal spot will allow us room for. I went ahead and clumped them all together and made my bullet points on each one.


Sometimes (and this is a tough one for me) it is OK to be messy with your journaling. I'm the one who will rip a page up and start over if at the very end I mess up the handwriting.

But on this page, it was OK. I was purposely misspelling words and showing how imperfect I can be, so the messiness went with the topic.

So let's see those journal spots!

tip of the day.....

I wanted to share a video I made this morning making yet another EASY altered flower. Enjoy!

Altered flower from D. Waite on Vimeo.

Making Butterflies

My new found hobby has to do with my Silhouette cutting machine! I found a great butterfly shape and decided to make my own 3-d Butterfly shapes. It is SO easy.

Here is a picture of the finished product:1) Cut out the shape. I did this with my Silhouette about three different sizes. I'm sure there are plenty of butterfly shapes for the Cricut, and also punches if you want, or free-hand it!

2) Following the advice I got first hand from Donna Downey at CHA, I then spritzed the butterfly and got it damp.

3) I folded the butterfly wings up on each side, leaving a flat area (the body) for the bling.

4) Then, I used my hair dryer on hot and blew the shape dry with the wings folded up. Donna said that if you wet the paper and then make it into the shape you want and then use a heat gun (which I don't have) to dry it, that it will stay in that position!

5) After it was all dry, I added a pop-dot underneath and some little bling on the butterfly body! And, I was DONE!
Here's the whole layout, with all three butterflies. (Can you see all three?)

Have fun!!!!

Happy Friday!

How is everyone? Getting ready for a fun weekend? I know that I am! :) I've been playing with the Scrapbook Circle February kit all day and soon I'll be going to bed to rest up for a busy busy weekend with my family and friends!

Here are two more layouts that I have completed with the February kit. As you can see, I used a ton of product on these layouts and I still have lots left over!



I have been waiting in suspense to see what everyone creates with their own February kits. Make sure to upload all of your projects into the Scrapbook Circle gallery so we can all admire your work!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! :)

Let's 'TIE' one on!!!

Hey guys! Happy Thursday! Today I thought I would talk about another one of my favorite techniques: 'lacing up' your layouts and/or cards. This is such a fun and easy technique! There are so many ways to do this such as through the use of eyelets or by punching holes with a hole punch. But I have discovered a new and much simpler way to accomplish this look too...through the use of border punches. There are so many border punches out there that would work for this. I chose to use the Fiskars Threading Water border punch for my lacing on this layout, which was created with the fabulous SBC February kit...

'Grand'ma

All you need to do is punch both sides of your paper and thread twine, lace, ribbon, etc. through the holes like you would lacing up your shoes. You can tie it off with a bow or a knot. So simple!

I hope you will give this technique a try. Be sure to post your creations in the gallery here at SBC so we can see!!!

Have a fabulous day! Happy Scrappin'!

bending the rules

Sometimes you need to bend the rules. Well, the RULERS, that is!! I just can't seem to keep these amazing ruler strips from the Cosmo Cricket Material Girl line straight. Just can't do it!


Once you get a hold of these hot little strips of paper, fight the urge to let the whole strip be seem. Crinkle it up, fold it, make it messy! It's pretty easy to do, and if you have a tape runner, it is even easier.


Go ahead and fold the piece accordion style over and over until you have gone the length of the strip. Flip it over, run the tape runner along the whole piece, including some places gluing the overlaps together to keep it extra secure. Flip back over and place on the page.

Vióla!! An extra cool 3-D dimension without much fuss that will add depth and motion to any page.

Thanks for stopping by!! Don't forget to upload your February kit creations to the Gallery so we can see what you've been working on!

—Diana F.

tip of the day.....

banners are HOT right now, you see them on layouts, cards, they seem to be everywhere! While at CHA I noticed in the American Crafts booth where the dear Lizzy line was being displayed some WONDERFUL simple banners. I thought it would be fun to do for Valentine's day, I used part of the January & February kit, some scraps, a few buttons, and my cricut. Here is what I came up with:

I believe the whole thing took about 45 minutes to an hour to make. (I broke it up in two sessions. Before and after church....)

1. First I cut my shapes. The larger hearts were cut at 3" (for the backing) and 2"(for the inner part).

2. I then cut my circles, some are cut at 1 1 /2" & some are at 1 1/4".

3. I ran my Kraft colored circles through my crimper.

4. I set up the order in which I wanted my pattern to go.

5. I set my sewing machine to a straight stitch and began to sew. **to make sure there wasn't any bunching I pulled the end straight. ** Also in between each shape I let the needle go up and down 4 times--to give some space.

6. After I had everything together I glued on my buttons and letters.

Easy, peasy!

Now if you don't have a cricut or slice, or other die cutting machine you can easily do this with your punches or even hand cut your shapes. One more thing I wasn't very technical with how many pieces I cut. I just went with the flow and it turned out. I do have a few pieces left over that I will be using for gift tags and other projects.

Thanks for stopping by!

We Have a Winner!

Thanks to everyone who played along with out kit giveaway this month.

With the help of random.org, we now have a February kit winner!
Comment number 103 was...
Julie! Congrats. Send me an email with your addy and I'll get your kit right out to you.

We do have two February kits left, so you still have a chance to get one for yourself.

extra distressing

Hi!

In this layout from the February kit, I tried my hand at extra distressing. I like to distress the edges of my paper sometimes. I run along it with my fingernails for an easy -- no tools -- distress look. For this one, however, I went the extra m

ile. I tore out

chunks from the paper every so often -- just randomly. Here you can see it up close.

It just adds a little bit extra to the distress look. Then, I backed the whole sheet in a matching brown paper to bring out all the torn/distressed look. Hope you enjoy!

Material Girl: Not Just for Girls

Even though many of the product in our February Kit are from the fabulous Cosmo Cricket Material Girl line, that does not mean that this is only a girly kit. All of the paper is double sided, so you really have a lot of design options.

Here's a layout I put together with the February kit. I love the bright colors and I would say that this is not at all girly.While I was designing this layout, I decided that I wanted to use the October Afternoon label stickers and the bottom of the page, but I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to arrange them. I cut around the stickers so that they still had the backing on them so that I could move them around on the page. After doing this, I decided that I didn't like the blue label at the bottom. Since I hadn't stuck it to the page, I wasn't committed to it.
All of the February kits that have been ordered have shipped. We only have 3 kits left, so get one while you can.

Let's Start Cutting!

Hi All! Jill here. I wanted to stop by and share my first layout that I made with the fabulous and bright February kit so far.


As you can see, I went a little crazy with the cutting! I couldn't resist cutting out a bunch of the flowers and vines from the Cosmo Cricket "Material Girl" paper! This kit is chock full of papers with a ton of fun designs to cut out. The possibilities are practically endless! I know lots of the other girls on the DT had the same cutting idea that I did this month. You can check out the Idea Gallery to see their creative ideas. :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! I'll be back soon with more kit layouts and projects to share soon!

A Few Sneaky Peeks for You

We have so many exciting products planned for kits over the next 6 months. I can barely contain myself. Seriously, this stuff is good. I thought that some of you might be interested in some of the lines we will be featuring in upcoming kits. That way you know what you have to look forward to.

These are in no particular order, but you will be seeing all of this goodness over the next few months in our kits.

Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety
October Afternoon Fly A KiteWe will also be featuring October Afternoon The Thrift Shop!

Of course, we had to pick up some of the new Dear, Lizzy line. Love it!Here's list of other lines you have to look forward to...

My Mind's Eye Quite Contrary
Crate Paper Brook
Glitz Kismet
Pink Paislee 365
The Girls' Paperie Holiday

We have a few other surprises, but we can't reveal everything!

All of these lines have been ordered and we can't wait to share them with you.

Happy weekend everyone.

Up For A Challenge?

Hey guys! Happy Thursday to ya! Are you feeling scrappy today and not sure what to do? Then, why not join in on this challenge I posted yesterday on the Scrapbook Circle forum? It's easy and a great way to get some work done!

http://scrapbookcircle.ning.com/forum/topics/how-about-a-little-challenge

I decided to give my own challenge a go in order to get a card finished. My card stash is running low and I need to build it back up. So, I spent a little time researching the archives here on the blog and found a tip of the day from May 2009 posted by Diana. She created this adorable card and I wanted to give it a try too.

I don't know if my card can do hers justice, but here is my take on it. I had so much fun curling the paper! I used some leftover scraps that I had from the Feb. kit.

Love the dimension the paper curling gives...

I hope this post will inspire you to join in on the challenge! We'd love to see what you can create!!!

Have a fabulous day and Happy Scrappin'!!!

Kit Giveaway! 7 Ways to Win!

We are so excited to share our February Kit with you and want to give one away to a lucky winner!

We are going to try something different for this giveaway and give you 7 (yes, SEVEN!) ways to enter.

1. Post a comment here letting us know your favorite product in the February kit.
2. Add our blog to your blog reader. If you already have our blog in your reader, just let us know!
3. Join our community.
4. Become of fan of Scrapbook Circle on Facebook.
5. Follow us on Twitter.
6. Blog, tweet and/or Facebook about this giveaway.
If you tweet about this giveaway, you can just cut and paste the following:
Scrapbook Circle's February Kit Giveaway. 7 Ways to win! @scrapbookcircle http://bit.ly/aeO3zr
7. Tell us one product you'd love to see in an upcoming kit by commenting here.

Each time you do something on the list, just leave a comment here. Each comment is one entry for winning the kit.

***Updated: Leave 1 comment for each item you do. If you do all 7, then you will leave 7 comments. Each comment is an entry to win!***

If you are already doing something that is listed here (your are in the community, on Facebook, Twitter, etc.), just let us know in the comments and it will count as an entry.

***If you win and you are already a subscriber, you can substitute the prize and get the March kit for free!***

Hope you have fun with this!

Last day to post for the giveaway is this Sunday, February 7. Winner will be announced on Monday, the 8th.

find your girly side

The February kit from Scrapbook Circle is delicious! And if you are a girly girl like I am, you will find plenty to work with in this kit.

I am really happy fussy cutting a great patterned paper. With the Material Girl line from Cosmo Cricket in the February kit, it does not disappoint the fussy cutter!

I cut out the scissors, thread and needles images from the paper. For added dimension, I wrapped some baker's twine around the pieces. Makes it look all the more life-like, don't ya think?!


I hope you get over to Scrapbook Circle's order page in time... I'm sure these February kits are going to sell like hot cakes!