Blinged out skull rings

So Halloween is a bit of an obsession for me. I love the holiday and for anyone who lives in Arizona it signals the end of the oppressive heat. I bought a bag of those plastic rings that come in spider, bat and skull shapes and I was instantly inspired. The spiders and bats creeped their way onto a spooky Halloween banner for a class that I'm teaching at "A Scrap 'n Time", and the skulls got a little sparkle. I used Swarovski crystal rhinestones to add some Halloween glitz and a jaunty little black bow. I love them and will probably be dropping them off at a couple of the stores that carry my jewelry. If you love them or want some for yourself I can sell them direct, just post to my blog or email me. Happy Halloween!

Baby book

I made this as a baby shower gift for one of my friends. Simply take brown lunch bags (3) folded in half and alternate the open ends and closed ends. I then stitched a chenille cover to the outside bag and then stitched down the middle of all three bags to bind the album. If you use a lot of embellishments on your inside pages you might want to reinforce this with ribbon or eyelets whatever you prefer. Then add cute scrapbook paper and anything else your heart desires to your inside "pages". The lunch bags also give spots to tuck in other items that the new mom might want to save such as cards, hospital bracelets, etc.

Tag Book

Camping is not my favorite thing, but I do it out of love for my husband. Our first family camp out is captured in this little tag book. Made with mailing tags and wooden tag shaped covers it brings a smile to my face every time I look at it. These are fun and easy to put together and make great gifts.

Decorative Canvas

This is an example of a fun way to incorporate photos and scrapbooking into your decor. I took a 12x12 inch canvas, painted the edges with acrylic paint and gave it a crackle effect. Then I added scrapbook paper that worked with my theme and decor and added photos and embellishments. This is a great way to fill up your wall space and display those precious photos.

Fun tags!

I have found a fun new resource on the web for craft ideas, tutorials, and patterns. It is: www.craftzine.com If you register you get their daily craftzine. The variety of craft mediums they cover is great and it's trendy! They recently were running a submission request for tags, I managed to whip up a couple. Quick tip: you can create your own ephemera! I have some vintage aprons patterns and I just love the artwork because it is so nostalgic. I took the pattern envelopes and some cardstock to my local copy store and made color copies. I used vanilla colored cardstock to go with the vintage, antique look. They turned out great and I cut out one of illustrations to use on one of my tags. These would be cute when making a heritage type album. In fact I have some great photos of my grandma from the 50's and it would be really cute to incorporate these charming pieces of the past into a mini album. Perhaps you will see it in a future post...

First Design Team Project

Project: Circle of Love
This is the first project that I have completed for the Mystic Paper Design team. This project features 7 Gypsies paper, and a Petaloo round scrapbook box with 5 inch accordion album. I love the paper and was inspired to do something with my wedding photos for this project. Here are some photos, but better yet check out the real thing at the Mystic Paper Store in Mesa.

Design Team

Attention paper crafters! If you need any of the latest and greatest supplies for your projects whether it's scrapbook or altered art check out Mystic Paper in Mesa down on Main St. I was fortunate enough to be selected along with some other incredibly talented gals to be a part of their first Design Team. Check out the store's website at www.mysticpaper.com for information on new products, classes and design team blogs. Each month the store will be stocked with wonderful projects that we hope will spark your creativity.