Christmas Cookie Cutter Ornaments

Wouldn't this set of Jenni Bowlin paper lined cookie cutters make a cute gift? I've shown them here in a shirt box lined with red tissue paper. You could give the entire set or break them up or tie them onto a package. One of these would really dress up a plain gift sack for a special touch. You could also use a special photo inside one coupled with a patterned paper cutter as a gift. I'd like to make a few more with black and white pictures of the kids to give to their grandparents.

Jenni's small scale Christmas papers are perfect for this project like the mini red ornaments paper, the small scale green chevron paper, and the mini bingo pieces paper.

I found this tub of cookie cutters at Hobby Lobby which is regularly priced at $8.99 for 25 cutters but I got it at half price - $4.49 for 25 cookie cutters is a pretty sweet deal.

Trace the cookie cutters onto your paper with a pencil, cut them out, then erase the pencil lines. Using a thick, clear glue such as Aleene's Platinum Bond 7800, gently apply it to the back of the cutter. Use a scratch piece of paper to dab the cookie cutter to get off any excess glue then put it on top of the cut out shaped paper. Aleene's 7800 is perfect for this project because it's thick enough to stay on the cookie cutter without running, it's clear, and it's a touch flexible and easy to wipe off the edges of the cutters (before totally dry).

After the paper lined cutters are totally dry, thread a large needle with bakers twine and make the hangers. Insert the needle at the top back of the cutter through the paper, as close as you can get to the metal, ideally at the seam through the clear flexible glue. Tie a knot on the top of the cutter (so it will hang straight and not to the side), leave a about a 2" loop, and tie another knot. I used this awesome chunky bakers's twine from Sundance.

They look so pretty on this old tin top. This made me think these might make cute magnets too.

And of course, here they are on a mini Christmas tree. This would be so cute on my kitchen island!

Supplies:

Christmas 2012 Paper - 6

Christmas 2012 Accessory Sheet

Christmas 2011 Accessory Sheet

Wren Wheatgrass Paper

Wren Accessory Sheet (I used the dots paper from the Magpie Accessory sheet but the Wren Accessory Sheet is similar)

JBS Mercantile November Antiquarian Kit (sold out)

Scrap Vintage : Mixing old & new

 

I joke with friends on instagram that #isaveoldthings. I can't go to a thrift or garage sale without picking up a few things that others might think are worthless. I have piles of things in the studio that i store in bins & boxes.  Interesting old wooden tools with painted handles. Broken vintage jewelry, especially if it has some bling. Interesting pieces of chippy wood from an old workshop. Christmas reflectors, mercury glass beads and old red dennison labels. Vintage metal sewing machine bobbins and wooden industrial thread spools. Bottles full of anagram letters and wooden bingo numbers. I can't help it.

It's one of the reasons why I adore the JBS line and the kits so much, especially the Antiquarian. There are always gorgeous vintage bits & pieces to use, From paper ephemera to cool buttons and beads, Jenni finds the most amazing things (just wait til you see November's, it's my fav yet!).

I love how incorporating these items into a piece, mixed with newer JBS designs, works so well. Adding a little metal, glitter and bling can add so much texture to something you're making. The vignette I made above uses a vintage album page from a past antiquarian kit (there's some similar ones in the shop) as the base as well as mix of vintage & new pieces from JBS that I had stored in a vintage cake tin on my studio table. 

I hope to see all of you incorporating a little more vintage into your work.

Happy Friday!

journal what's inspiring you

Like everyone, I'm constantly in search of what inspires me to continue to to strive to be a better person, a better wife and mom, and maybe a better "artist"... My husband and I took the time to watch the film Gandhi this past weekend, and just like we had heard - it's a life changer. You can't see that, really take it in, and not be changed. I now have two books about the man and his teachings in my queue for reading.

For my layout, I loved layering a bunch of the media {all of jenni's yummy paints and inks} together to create the background for my title - then using the stencil paper to add texture medium for the main bit of it.

I also highlighted the texture in the butterflies by brushing over it with the speckled eggs ink pad.

Here's a list of supplies if you're interested in creating something similar!

Magpie Grid paper, Stencil guide paper, coordinations butterfly paper, chipboard tabs and buttons, quilted stickers identify, printed tags - vintage, keep read write stickers, row houses border punch, ink pads - speckled eggs and weather vane, paints - chicken feed, speckled eggs, malted milk.

{I loved using Louise's splatter technique from this post for the paints!}

Have you journaled what's inspiring you? ~ Leah

Learning from Dina Wakley

Earlier this week fellow JBS designer Dina Wakley and I were guests on a new episode of the Paperclipping Roundtable, a scrapbooking podcast.  You can just click below to listen to us discuss our process for creating a single layout from start to finish, and find this episode here on the Paperclipping website if you want to join in the comments.



Listening to Dina talk about her process made me immediately want to give some of her creative steps a try - and I wanted to try a page that mixed Dina's free-flow, artsy style with my own look, so things like stacked papers, butterflies and letter stickers.  I started with the die-cut letter stencil, after I had used it to paint letters onto a few other sheets of cardstock, so it was already soaked in pink and purple ink.  I layered that and the music print from Haven on the large dot embossed cardstock in Jenni's collection for Co'ordinations, and I was off to a start of embracing my messier side!

To try a few other things I might not do, I grabbed my favourite JBS stamp (the butterfly, of course!) and 'inked' it with a colour wash spray instead of an ink pad, and stamped it on one of the mini-pattern blocks from Red/Black Extension IV.  I love how it stamped clear enough that you can see the butterfly design, but fluid enough that it looks more like paint than a stamp.  Then I cleaned and reinked the stamp with Jenni's lavender ink pad and stamped just offset from the first design... then soaked the whole block with pearl glimmer mist for good measure!  I love the mix of shades and the shine.

This photo itself deserves a little explanation, I suppose.  It turns out I was a scrapbooker long before I knew the word scrapbooking existed.  Growing up, I was a 4-H Member (4-H! For Youth! For America! 4-H! ...I know some of you were singing that already.) and we had to keep an official 4-H record book that we turned in for assessment every year.  In it, we had to record - in our own words - what we did on any number of special projects we had highlighted as our interests.  My family have been helping me search for some childhood photos and came up with this book that includes page after page of things I wrote growing up about all my hobbies and interests, and the writing is just as funny as the pictures.  I was so overly serious as a child!  Plus although my vocabulary has matured a bit over the years, there are sentence structures I used as a tiny girl that I still use now... clearly I am a creature of habit!  So I decided to include the whole page and printed the scanned image as a 4x6 picture, which is clear enough to read easily in my album.

Behind the photo, I layered scraps of JBS papers new and old (and one extra scrap from some other project left-overs since it was a good match to the purple) and tucked in a label from the Magpie accessory sheet and some hodge podge stickers (love them!) and sprayed some pale pink mist over that whole stack of things to make it coordinate better with the alpha stencil.

To finish things, I embossed the JBS chipboard hearts with a metallic pink embossing powder - it looks either pink or purple, depending on how you look at it, so that pulled the pink and purple colours together even more.  I wanted a bit of contrast behind the hearts so added a few scraps of pink washi tape, then spelled out my title with JBS letters new and old - the tiny letters are from the bottom of the hodge podge sticker sheet!

Dina... I hope you approve of my style mash-up!

By the way, all this weekend I'm hosting an online crop on my blog - and there you can see what happened to the other piece of paper from that alphabet stencil, amongst plenty of other things! And win prizes, including JBS goodies!  I'd love for you to stop by for some scrapping fun.

Have a brilliantly crafty weekend!

Love and glitter,
Shimelle

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by Doris Sander

Today we have a sweet little shadowbox from Doris Sander.  It's housed in one of the new the Mini Cigar Boxes which are currently on sale as part of the March Mini-album Kit. There are just so many fun possibilities with them!

Here you can see the new Kraft Pockets, White Printed Tags, Hodgepodge Stickers, and Chipboard Buttons.  Jenni's salways designs such inspiring basics that inspire creativity. 

The process:

1. pierce two "buttonholes" in each star.

2. line the inside of the box with patterned paper and attach the photo.

3. pierce holes in the cigar box where you want the stars to be suspended.

4. run the fishing twine through the holes, stringing the cotton ball clouds and stars as you go.

5. tightly tie off the fishing twine.

6. paint the back of each star with glue and then sprinkle with glitter and let dry.

7. carefully paint the front of each star with glue and then sprinkle with glitter and let dry.

I Love Little Photo Displays ...

so when I received the Chalkboard Easel from Jenni Bowlin Studio, I went right to work!  This piece can be altered and used for any type of project, but I ran with the chalkboard / school theme since I have a new graduate in the house!

I placed a banner across the top so this little display would scream "happy happy happy!"  I mixed up the banner a bit using the Red & Black Extension IV paper and the new Jenni Bowlin/Fiskars Banner Punch.

Twists and turns of twine and stickers from Jenni's new release add a lot of fun to the banner. 

I can think of a *bazillion* uses for this Chalkboard Easel, so I think I'm going to need a lot more of these!

To Do Lists from Stephanie Howell

Today's projects are brought to you by Stephanie Howell who writes, "When I saw the new chalkboard easels I fell in love right away. When I had the opportunity to play with one...my initial suspicions were confirmed. They are AWESOME."

"I used my easel as a "to do" list and inspiration board. Color swatches, flowers, things i need to do, a pocket for receipts...all in one handy little place. Love love this new item."

"I also was excited to work with the printed pockets. I guess you could say I went a bit overboard...covering an entire page with them. HA!"

"Jenni really knocked it out of the park with the new release. I am in love with EVERYTHING she designed!"

Tart Tins & Number Cards Garland

**Please watch for this project in Northridge Publishing's Create: For The Home Idea Book, August 2012**

Today I'd like to share this tart tin and number card garland I made. It's strung on 22 gauge metal wire, which is thin and easy to work with. I've strung it between two silver candlesticks and tied gray grosgrain ribbon on the ends to finish it off.

I also added in vintage metal marquee letters. I found mine on Ebay. You can also find them at Lowe's and places like that although you may want to rough them up with sandpaper to give them more of a vintage feel. And printing your own is definitely an option. From this photo you can't tell if they're metal or paper so I think printing them would be just as cute. The size of the letters are 2" wide by 3 1/4" high. I used an initial from each of our family members and the number 4 representing the number in our family (and because I didn't have a metal J for Johnson, ha). You could also do your complete last name if it's a shorter name or maybe a special word for you like your One Little Word for 2012.

I layered Jenni's chipboard buttons, regular buttons, doily flowers, brads, and beads inside each of my tart tins. I stamped the seal stamp in several happy colors to put behind each tart tin. I cut each of the number cards into banner shapes. I placed the old time girl photo chipboard on top of a button on the office chipboard piece so it would really stand out. It's fun to experiment with different "levels" or depths of your embellishments inside the tins.

This is my favorite one. I layered Jenni's white beads, her old time photo chipboard, and a vintage milk cap. The Old Time Photo chipboard has foam squares under it.

So here's how I did it:

You'll need a hammer, an awl (mine is a paper awl, a regular woodworking awl would be fine too), 22 gauge wire (something you can bend but will hold it's shape for the garland), pliers are helpful for pulling the wire through the tart tin hole, and a self healing mat or a piece of scrap wood to protect your surface.

Hold the awl as shown and give it a few taps with your hammer on the inside bottom of the rim. The tart tins are sturdy but piercing the hole with an awl is very easy. Place a hole on each side of the tart tin. Do the same thing for the metal letters.

Stamp the seals and cut them out. I used JBS Chili Powder, Weather Vane, and Stick Candy ink. I also used yellow ink from my stash for two of the seals. I used extra large glue dots to stick my tart tins to the seals. I used an extra seal on each end of the garland.

It's easiest to string the garland on one long piece of wire instead of connecting each piece with a small wire. This is why it's important to punch the holes on the tart tins near the very bottom of the tin. Cut about a 4 foot long piece of wire (that is if you're doing the same amount of letters and banners as I did) and begin stringing you elements. That will give you enough to have extra wire on each end to tie onto things and it's much easier to cut off extra than have to go back and re-string the pieces.

In order to get your chipboard pieces and milk caps to lie flat in the tin on top of the wire, you'll need to stack a few adhesive foam squares or circles on either side of the wire.

Then start embellishing and layering your circular pieces and that's it!

Supplies:
Tart Tins
Vintage Number Card Set
Chipboard Buttons - Office & Old Time Photos
Doily Flowers Cream
Decorative Brads - Delicate
Pearl & Rhinestone Charms  - Cream & Black
Vintage Sew On Buttons - Orange, White, & Cream
Clear 3 x 3 Seal Stamp
Ranger JBS Dye Stamp Pads - Chili Powder, Stick Candy, & Weather Vane