Happy Easter from Gini

It's Saturday, so that means it is time for me to wrap up this week's theme from The Beary Scrap - Easter Inspirations. As usual, the Beary Scrappy Gals have provided such delightful projects all week long!
I know most people use very "springy" colors for their Easter creations, but I wanted to do something a little different. I have always been inspired by Sacred Russian art, and wanted to do a card based on those influences. I fell in love with this limited edition set of Crosses by Spellbinders, and knew they would be perfect.
I cut the layers of my cross out of red (Brick) Bazzill cardstock, that I covered in composition gold leaf, before cutting/embossing. (If you look at Russian Icons, there is often a red paint that shows through some of the gold. ) I then sanded some of the areas of the cross with a sanding block to expose some of the red underneath. I used dimensionals to build up my layers and glued red Swarovski crystals as an embellishment.
I placed the cross on a layer of SEI velvet paper, that I had embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. I added another piece of the velvet paper, that had been punched using the Treading Water punch. I stitched my layers with gold thread to add to the opulence.

The sentiment was printed from my computer onto Bazzill cardstock, and cut out with the Fancy Labels from Spellbinders. I wanted to have an "antiqued glitz" to this as well, so I rubbed Distress Stickles in Frayed Burlap and Antique Linen over the top. If you haven't tried the Distress Stickles, they look completely different from normal Stickles. They really do give a nice worn look that I love. Finally, I added the pearls at the bottom.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter and gets to spend time with those you love! Be sure to come and visit us next week for more fun!

A Beautiful Bunny for Your Egg Hunt

Here comes Peter Cottontail, hoppin' down the bunny trail-- well, at least here comes Bella Bunny and she is adorable. I also used one of The Beary Scrap's newest acrylic patterns and made my own Tear Bear critter to adorn my Easter layout.

I started this project by making my little Bunny-- Kimm's patterns and instructions are absolutely wonderful! They make perfect sense and after reading them I thought, "Yeah, I can do this." It was really easy and fun. I am excited to try another Tear Bear Critter soon and look for Kimm's brand new pattern, Emma Elephant, coming soon! After piecing and fluffing my bunny using her Tear Bear Fluffing set and guide, I was ready to work on my layout.

The background of my layout is a simple cream cardstock and then I used Basic Grey's Nook & Pantry collection. These papers may have names that make you hungry like Cornbread, Fruit Salad and Lemon Meringue pie but definitely think outside of the kitchen when deciding what to do with these oh-so-pretty papers. The colors are just awesome spring colors, they were perfect for Easter. Some of the patterns I used are Tea Cakes, Beaters, Dishes and Cookbook.

I added some cream lace, rick rack and also machine stitched on the edges for some added detail. I used the Nook & Pantry element stickers ,added a few pearls to accent the stickers and then layered them with some beautiful Prima flowers .

The final step, of course, was to place my Bella Bunny on the layout. I used Alene's Super Tacky Quick Dry Glue to attach it to my layout (the same stuff I used to glue her together) and then trimmed down a couple flowers from the Nook & Pantry stickers topped with some more pearls to place on top of the bunny. Cute, cute!

Well, now that I have finished scrapbooking last year's Easter egg hunt, I have about 3 days to plan this years! I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend and enjoy some quality time with your loved ones. Be sure to check back later this week for more great Easter ideas from our Beary Scrappy Gals!

Happy Easter.

It's Easter Week here at The Beary Scrap Design Team Blog and I used one of Kimm's new Acrylic Patterns "Bella Bunny" she is just the cutest little bunny. Doesn't she just look so cute with her little Easter Bonnet on by Jolees.

My Card Recipe:

Acrylic Pattern: Bella Bunny

Mulberry Paper: White (The new Extra Thick Mulberry Paper)

Papers from: Best Creation and BoBunny

Stickers: Jolees

Ink: ColorBox

Flowers: Prima

Pearls, Ribbon, Spellblinders, Martha Stewart Punch.

Here is a closer look at Bella. Holding her Easter egg and basket.

Be sure to check out Kimms Tear Bear Blog for all kinds of tips on making these cute little tear animals.

Inside of the card.

The Happy Easter was computer printed and punched out with an egg shaped punch. Spellbinder used was Labels Thirteen.

Happy Easter

~Patricia~

Easter Greetings

Hello! Hello! I hope you had a wonderful Spring weekend. I spent mine at Grandma's, where the crocus and daffodils are blooming and brightening the otherwise dreary landscape. It was a cold weekend here in Maryland, but the sun shined bright . :) 

Can you believe it's already Easter?! Here in our Beary Scrappy neighborhood the eggs are hidden and the kids are ready to hunt! Here's Sweet Tilda, patiently waiting for the OK. She doesn't have far to look, does she?

I've used Easter paper from Best Creation, and boy was it a treat! It's a nice weight and has just the right balance of "glittery shiny" and flat. I didn't feel the need to add a single drop of anything shiny to the paper...  now *that's* a time saver! I distressed the small blue layer with scissors, and lightly inked edges of all the Best Creation papers with chalk ink.

I really like Colorbox chalk inks because of their layering capabilities. Once a layer is dried, another layer can be added on top - much like coloring with Copics or Pencils. The layers blend together well and dry to a soft, matte finish. The Cat's Eye stamp pad is perfectly sized to dab quickly around the edges.

Tilda is colored with pencils and her skirt is double layered with a touch of lace. Her trim is touched with Stickles, and she's raised up on Glue Dots for added dimension.

I cut out small glittered eggs from the "Easter Words" card stock, chalk inked the edges and tucked them into the grass on Glue Dots. I used my trusty sewing machine to finish the edges!

Card Recipe 

Stamp: Magnolia's Sweet Tilda

Paper: Bazzill Guacamole and an unknown brilliant blue; Best Creation "Easter Words" and "Playful Easter"

Medium: Prismacolor Pencils and OMS; Stickles "Star Dust"; Glimmer Mist Pearl; Colorbox Cat's Eye Fluid Chalk Ink "Creamy Brown"

Embellishments: Kaisercraft Pearls in Snow; Prima flowers; miscellaneous from stash

Thanks for stopping in this week - tomorrow you can see Patricia's delightful project!

Cheers,

Susan

Happy Birthday from Gini!

I'm wrapping up another week with The Beary Scrap design team. Haven't the other Beary Scrappy Gals done a fantastic job of inspiring you this week, with their Birthday Creations? The next birthday my family will be celebrating is for my nephew Will. He will be 9 years old in April, and is such a blessing to us all!

Most joy fold cards are rectangular, and if you look at my blog often, you can tell that I am partial to 6 x 6 cards. So, I will share the dimensions that I used to make my card. I used Bazzill cardstock for the base of my card. Cut a 6" x 8.5" base and score at 2.5". Cut another piece of cardstock 4" x 8", and score at 4". I always use my ScorPal while making cards. This is one of those investments, that at the time I thought, "do I really need this?" and now I couldn't live without it! If you make any cards, then you really need this piece of equipment!

Now, back to the card - LOL! You have your two base cards, and you can now "dress" them however you would like. Basically, you end up with two cards -a large card that is 6" on the bottom with a 2.5" flap with the fold on the left and a little 4" x 4" card with the fold on the right. You will glue the small card to the center of the big card. (Hopefully, when you look at my pictures, this will make sense!) Any time I am gluing down lots of layers, that I really need to stick, I use Scor-tape. This stuff will hold anything! It's great for adding ribbon and other embellishments.

I personally like a lot of layers to my cards - so I cut a layer of "glow" yellow Bazzill for framing all of my designer paper. I then used the Basic Grey Sugar Rush 6" paper pad for all of my designer papers. Something that I didn't realize for a long time is that the 6" paper pads are made specifically for card makers - the patterns are the same as the 12 x 12 sheets, but they are scaled down, making them perfect for cardmaking. They are always such an economical way to go, too. After I glued my paper, I headed to the sewing machine and added stitching on all of the layers. I added a border that I punched using the Martha Stewart Garden Trellis punch, to my front flap. This is a great border to run ribbon through. It would be lovely on a scrapbook page as well!

I then distressed the edges of the glow cardstock, and added my digi image - Herbert the Turtle Birthday Set, from Karen's Doodles. I colored him with Copics and added Flower Soft - Spring for my icing. This color looks perfect with the Sugar Rush line. I printed the little round birthday sentiment from Louby Lou's, sprayed it with Tiger Lilly Glimmer Mist and added dimensionals underneath it, to tuck my turtle image behind.

I hope you enjoyed our birthday celebrations this week. Monday will start a new theme for the Beary Scrappy Gals, so be sure to come back and see what we are cooking up!

A Bag, a Tag and a Card

Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birthday -- oh no! I don't have anything to wrap your present in. . . .

Don't you hate it when you are in a hurry to get to some birthday event and you rush to your supply of gift bags and wrap to find that you only have a bag for a New Baby or a purple bag when you are headed to celebrate a birthday for a boy?

I don't know about you, but this happens to me quite often. Lately I have taken to just stocking up on plain colored bags and then making a card specifically for that person that matches the bag-- I am a little OCD about things matching! But take the time to whip up a couple of these sets of matching tags, bags and cards and you will be set for anyone's birthday-- male, female, child or adult.

My project this week is a matching bag, tag and card made using Bazzill In Stich'z Surprise Party stitching templates (which are on sale!) and floss. I have never really handstitched much, either on cloth or paper, so this was a totally new experience for me. It was so fun!

I used a paper piercer and the template to punch holes in my Bazzill cardstock-- I used a light brown and was really pleased with the results, it matched my Kraft colored bag nicely (remember how I like that matching stuff!). Then I sat and stitched while watching Dancing with the Stars on Monday night (one of my favs-- who do you think is going to win Season 10? I don't know quite who I am rooting for yet!) and just had a great time. It was so easy!

Pretty soon, I was mixing the designs together (i.e. the balloons are empty in the middle on the template, but I added some more squiggles over the top) and even free-stitched a little of my own such as the stripes on the candle. The next day even my kids were like "Wow, Mom, you did that?" Pretty impressive, I know. :) These templates are great-- I have already got my eye on the 8x8 flower template I want to get next!

Then I just mounted my stitched accents by machine stitching them to some Bo Bunny Popsicle papers, (Banana Split, Fruit Punch and Juicy Orange) then onto white which is distressed with Tim Holtz Broken China ink. The orange patterned paper on the bag was punched with a border punch and I used random ribbons from my stash for the handle of the bag. I used the Popsicle Combo Cardstock stickers to add "Birthday" to my stitching to give it some variety and then some Bo Bunny Buttons & Bling Popsicle buttons to finish it off.

I really love these Bo Bunny Popsicle papers-- the colors are so bright and fun they could be used for a great variety of projects-- birthday, sports, boys or girls, family gatherings, summer days, parties, carnivals, etc. To see a Summer layout I made earlier with some of these cute papers, visit my blog. And be sure to check back here tomorrow, at The Beary Scrap Design Team, for some more birthday inspiration!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday

Who wouldn't love to get a Birthday card with this cute little Tear Bear on it?

She is ready to help you celebrate your big day with her cupcake and balloons!

When I saw this paper by Best Creations it said fun all over it. I punched out the balloons and colored them with Color Box Ink. All the shapes on the card were made using using different Spellbinders.

The Beary Scrap has so many different colors of Mulberry Paper and Kimm has just received another shipment so the shelves are filled. You can make so many different colors of bears. The Beary Scrap also has Acrylic Template Patterns to make all kinds of torn critters.  New to the store is Bella the Bunny and Charlie the Chick. 

If you've never tried a tear bear, check out the Tear Bear Tutorial blog for loads of how-to information!

Here is a look at the inside of the card. This is the reverse side of the paper from Best Creation. I added some more fun balloons and added some pretty bows to them. I also added a cute cupcake button to the card.

Make sure you come back all week to see what else we have for you!

~Patricia~

It's Birthday Week!

Hello dear friends! It's Susan, here, and we thank you so much for stopping in to visit. We're all very excited at the new arrivals this week at The Beary Scrap! Right now you can pre-order the delicious Basic Gray Kioshi, Magnolia's Hoppy Easter and new Kraftin' Kimmies Moonlight Whispers. I'm over the moon at KK's Angry Ballerina stamp!

Here on the design team blog, the Beary Scrappy Girls are celebrating

birthdays. Whoo hoo! Happy birthday to everyone celebrating this week!  Although my big day isn't until May, Magnolia's Honey Tilda is here to celebrate with me today.

Tilda is colored with Prismacolor Pencils and blended with OMS (odorless mineral spirits). Her wings sparkle with Stickles and her antennae are made from black wires. After coloring her honey jar I covered it with Glossy Accents for a faux glass effect.

My Card Recipe

Stamps: Magnolia Honey Tilda and Honey Jar

Paper: Bazzill Truffle; Basic Gray Sugar Rush

Medium: Prismacolor Pencils; Glossy Accents, Glimmer Mist Pearl; Stickles Star Dust; Color Box Chalk Ink

Embellishments: Kaisercraft Pearls; Prima flowers; venise lace and some pearl bits from stash

I hope you've enjoyed your visit, and be sure to come back tomorrow for Patricia's birthday treat!

Cheers,

Susan

It's the First Day of Spring!!!!

How lucky am I? My "Spring" post for the Beary Scrap actually falls on the first day of spring! I have to tell you, yesterday, it really felt like spring - the sun was shining and it was 67 degrees - just perfect. I actually took my copics outside on my porch and colored this. It was just wonderful!

Well onto the card! I am so excited that the Beary Scrap is carrying Magnolia stamps and this one is just so cute! I almost always use Bazzill for my base card, because there is such a great range of colors and textures. For my patterned paper I used Basic Grey's Nook and Pantry. I think this is one of my all time favorite collections. I love anything retro and kitschy - and this fits the bill. I added texture to my card by using the Swiss Dots embossing folder from Cuttlebug, and sewed some antique lace around to frame sweet little Tilda. Finally to finish it off, I added some pearls.

I hope you have enjoyed our Spring inspiration for you? What are you going to make to celebrate spring? Be sure to come back on Monday to the Beary Scrap DT Blog - we will have another fun week of ideas to inspire you.