Vintage Jewellery Gift Idea and a Challenge

Welcome to The Cherry On Top.

We're throwing it back this Thursday with an older digital scrapbooking kit from Feli.  We're also looking at some vintage jewellery as a gift idea for the coming holidays and we want to challenge you as well.

Take a peep at some layout love and get inspired.  Think critically about what kind of special gifts you'd like to give out this year.  Has vintage jewellery ever crossed your mind?  Perhaps you have a special piece at home you'd like to pass on or maybe you'd like to see what's available.

The above layout displays my grandma's ring she left for me.  It's actually my birthstone, too.  I remember this ring taking up most of her finger.  Hehehe...She was tall, but skinny and this ring could always be seen and I don't ever remember her not wearing it.  Although, she really did love her accessories.   

I have to admit, wearing jewellery with a story is so much more special.

The mind can wonder about who wore this piece?  Did they love it with all of their heart and soul?  Did someone special give it to them?  I often thought these musing when I'd wear vintage hats that I used to collect.

Vintage jewellery is a really great idea for a gift when the recipient appreciates, unique well crafted pieces.  If the jewellery has stood the test of time, you're sure to get even more wear out of it for years to come.

These are two pieces from my mother.  I absolutely love this owl necklace with the rhinestone eyes.  It sparkles magnificently against a darker coloured top or dress and it's fun pairing up modern clothes with antique jewellery, too.  A classic hand bag would make a full, authentic look.

I thought you could get a better idea of how special gift giving with vintage jewellery could be by showing off some pieces that you can find in an on line gallery like Invaluable, the world's premier auction and galleries.

I chose from an awesome array of beautiful pieces.

Necklaces, bracelets, pendants, watches, rings...there are so many choices.  Consider all of your options.  I loved these music inspired earrings.  What a wonderful gift to receive for someone who loves music.

Don't forget the man in your life.  Perhaps some gorgeous cuff links or other accessory would be something different than the normal gifts men receive.  How many socks and ties can I guy have?  Hehehe...

The watches totally caught my eye.  The older crafted pieces are absolutely exquisite and once again, unique from what's out there today.

We would love to see you scrap up your vintage pieces or if you don't have any, scrap your favourite jewellery wether old or new, cheap or expensive.  Just as long as it is precious to you.

Here is one more layout showing off my favourite golden hoops from my Grandma.  I'm not sure how old they are, but they are of excellent quality and I wear them all of the time.

Staying on the topic of gifts, here is a free cluster frame for you.  I used lovely Commercial Use goodies from ADB Designs.  Click on the image for the download.

Thanks so much for stopping by The Cherry.

Happy scrapping and gift giving!

Valentine's Mini Made In Minutes and it's Free

 Welcome to The Cherry On Top.

Saturday is our day to feature hybrids and today, we've got a great one.  One of my biggest issues as a digital scrapper is getting my designs from the screen, into my hands.  I'm finding it a bit unfulfilling keeping everything on the screen.  We've got a great solution for that.  It's free, fast and really easy.  What more could you ask for?

So keep reading to find out how you can use February's Cute Cards to create a mini album for your Valentine, for you or someone special.  If you are wanting the png version of these cards, click here.

You could use them digitally, like we did here on this digital layout.

We're even providing you with the free quick page.  All you have to do is plug in your photos.

You could just print this out in a 4x4, 6x6 or 8x8 format.

Or you could make a mini.  See how we made two different minis with the Cute Cards.

First, download the Cute Cards and print them out. Make sure they are the size you want.  Print out the pictures you would like to use for on the back of the pages/cards and adhere them to the opposite side of the Cute Cards.  You could use some scrap papers and layer them up if you choose.

An option is to punch holes in one of the top corners or the centre, then simply place a coordinating brad through all of the pages and that's it! Keep the brad just a bit loose so the pages are easy to move.  You could use ribbon, string, a metal ring...

For my frist mini, for JJ, my youngest, I kept his book very simple.  I used a heavier weight paper for the Cute Cards to make it more rigid, cut out the photos, through the years, that I thought he'd like the best, rounded the corners of the pictures and applied the photos to the back of my Cute Cards.

Then punched the holes in the top left corner and added the coordinating, blue brad.  His favourite colour.  This mini was seriously whipped up in 17 minutes from start to finish.  You could also laminate your pages if you choose.

For my oldest's I wanted to try my ribbon method that I considered in our custom planner.  It looks so pretty when you use a wider ribbon.  You can check that out, here.

Here's how I did Liam's album.  I punched two holes, evenly separated on each Cute Card.  I got the first one how I wanted it and then used it as a template for the next and so forth.  I recommend not using the same one over and over again or the holes will be a bit wider then the rest of the other pages.

You can see how I layered up my papers on these cards for Liam's album.

Find some coordinating string, cord or ribbon for your binding.  I chose this lovely bright red string that wasn't too wide.  My holes are pretty small.  Thread through your holes on each page.

 So you end up like pictured, below.

 The next step is bring the ribbon, string or whatever you are using through the next set of holes.  Look at our illustration.  You can choose to have the tying of the bow on the front or the back of your mini.  I went for the front and just tied these ends into nice bow.  You could embellish further is you like. 


Keep the string just a bit loose and the pages will turn easily.  See!  I used pics from when they were really small, a bit bigger, bigger and then most recent.  I had Liam choose the photos he liked best from a pool of choices.

Voila!  Two mini's made very easily and with the stash you have, saving you money.

I don't know if you saw a tutorial on how you use aluminium foil to sharpen your punches?  I tried it and it did not work at all.  I was very relentless and kept trying and trying, but the corners still came out like...

This. 

Doesn't cut at all.  Not even on better paper.

If you've got a better solution besides buying a new punch, let's hear it.

If you're digging the colours of our free February goodies, you may be interested in this mini we are offering on our Facebook Page.  Make a comment on the right status and we'll send you the link.  Sorry, you missed out on this one!  Sign up for the newsletter so you don't miss the awesome free stuff.

This is our most recent freebie.  It's a free, cluster frame template.  Click on the image to get it.

That's our hybrid for you, today.  

Love hybrids?  Check out our two before this or look at our Pinterest board, The Cherry On Top's Freebies and find them all in one convenient place.  We do have a search option, to the top right of the blog is you like.

These lovely free printable tea envelopes.

Coffee cup tags and card with gift card pocket.

Enjoy our Personal Use ONLY freebies.

Happy scrapping and thanks for hanging with The Cherry!

Day 8 of Freebies and an Awesome Up Cycled, Nifty Gifty Idea

Welcome to The Cherry On Top.

We've got a fantastic recycled gift project idea for you with a super handy tutorial that you could use for a variety of projects.  We love our flexible projects.  Scroll through the images to see our up cycled greeting card box, gift idea and get your daily freebie from our Sleigh Bells Ring kit.

Here's a look at the finished project.  I used all things that I already had around the house with the exception of what's in the box.  Keep reading to find out more.

This project may seem kind of time consuming, but it went together very quickly.  Read how we kept this project to just over an hour for BOTH boxes, from start to finish.

I gathered the boys together to do their class room Christmas cards.  Some of them were contained in a cubed, clear, plastic box that was very rigid.  The wheels were immediately turning.  I just had a feeling that this box could be something special.

Each square of the box measured just over 4 inches.  At first I thought I'd scrap up the recipient in a different layout for each box.  After a bit more consideration, I thought it would be very time consuming.  That was 6 squares per box and I needed 2.

Then, "BING!" It hit me.  I'll use already existing layouts that I have and just swap out the photos.  Thank goodness I save my layouts as a tif, in layers so this was even possible.  Keeping the layers or at the very least, layering your photo spot might not be a bad idea for future usage.

Here is an image of one of my Christmasy layouts with my boys.  You can see the layers to the right.  I've high lighted the photo.  Look down at my photo gallery on the bottom.  The last image on the right, is my template.  Create a new file, use the custom setting and type in exactly the measurements you need.  I used 10,4 cm x 10,4 cm.  I used this same template over an over again rather than make a new document each time.

All I had to do was plop in my lovely niece.  The tree and Santa elements covered up my precious pooch, so I clicked on both of those items and made them smaller.  You can see them high lighted on my layers menu.  Then just "save as" and name each slide something different.  I then deleted the layout and reused the template.

Again,  I got rid of my original photo and put the recipient of this nifty gifty in the photo spot.   Then took out the photo in the other photo spot and put in a seasonal greeting. I also had to shrink the cluster slightly.  The year I didn't have to change because it was the same. Yay!  "Save As" a jpg, again and delete the image from your template and start on your next one.

If you are an avid Cherry fan, than you've seen or even downloaded our Christmas poster using our free kit, Sleigh Bells Ring.  I took that and put it on my 4x4 template, shrank it, then backed it up with a couple of our papers.  TIP: If you want, you could put in this black outline around your template.  To do that, copy your background, shrink it just slightly, then use the outline function.  I have it high lighted in this image.  I thought it would make it easier for cutting and it really helped.

Here is another of our freebies.  This is our greeting card, cropped, fitted and again, layered up on one of our papers from the Sleigh Bells Ring kit.

I gave each recipient a different image for each square, but you could always repeat some to save time.  

In this image you can see my layer for the outline and how I saved the image for printing.

Something you should absolutely NOT forget, is how you save your original tif, psd or original, layered layout.  When it asks you if you want to save it, you choose, "Don't Save".  This way you have your original layout still in tact and your new one should be saved under something completely different and in jpeg format.  This will save space on your drive.

  
Now, we are finished with the digital portion of our project.  Let's get our fingers dirty!

Here is the box that I used with an original inhabitant.  Hehehe...  Peel off any stickers and clean the box.

Print out all of your squares to cover the ones you want covered.  I didn't bother covering the bottom.

This is what I put in one of the boxes.  My niece is 12.  Some lotion, shower gel, a very inexpensive yet trendy bracelet, Mentos and 10 Euros.  I took the lotion and gel out of the box it came in and retied the bow to the gel.

The only printed square I glued was the one for on top.  I glued it to the inside and it came out perfect.  No sign of glue whatsoever.

I simply slid in each mini layout.  Once the goodies are in your box, they hold your mini's in place.  You could always use tissue paper to fill your box if there is too much space and your layouts move around.  You could also glue them like we did for the lid.

Take a peek.  Pretty cool, eh?

These were the supplies I used:

clear box
glue stick
scissors
ribbon
your mini layouts
gifts/money/gift certificate  (rolled or folded)

See, just slide your image right in place.  I used standard printing paper, but of course, you could use a heavier weight.

Almost finished.

As you can see, the tops is bowing a bit because the shower gel is slightly too large for the box, but don't worry!

Once you add your bow/ribbon it's fine.

There are a couple of different ways to finish your ribbon's ends.  Cut straight across with a very sharp scissors so you don't have fraying, at an angle or with points, as shown here.

Make an inexpensive gift totally awesome by adding personal touches, with your photos and by adding some spectacular ribbon or bows.  I picked up these at the Aldi in a pack of 4 for 2,99 Euros a couple of days ago.

The one with the stars is a standard bow with cut in points at the tip.  The other is a standard bow, then another bow tied to the top of that.  Like when you have shoe laces that are too long.  You just make another bow.  The light weight wire in the ribbon allows you to move and manipulate to get the perfect shape.  I use this kind of ribbon a lot more than the kind without.

It's still missing something, don't you think?  Hmmm...

How about some tags?!  I used Paty Greif's brand spanking new kit Twinkling Golden Night and The Cherry's very own free, tag templates that you can get here.

Paty already has some lovely tags ready for you, if you want to save more time.

Here's a glimpse of her entire collection.  Choose any of the two images to get to her shop.

This freebie is no longer available.  Stay tuned for more great free stuff.

We've got so much free stuff on our blog.  Take a look to the right and see some of the latest topics or just scroll through them all to see what you've missed.

Thank you so much for making The Cherry a part of your day.

Holiday holidays!