Belgium and stuff

I can't believe how long it has been since I posted something on my blog! The end of May and first two weeks of June had me tearing my hair out trying to keep up with all the end-of-the-school-year hoopla and fighting to keep my sanity. I managed to survive all of that just to have a fresh bout of busy-ness ensue and now I'm brain-dead, trying to remember everything I've done in the past few weeks. Oy! I'll start with what's freshest in my mind, which is our five day trip to Belgium last week. Woot, woot! We had a wonderful time getting away from it all and exploring the sights, sounds and yummy tastes of Belgium. I'm not big on Belgian pralines as the filling usually contains ground hazelnuts but the sampling I had of Belgian chocolates during our stay made me glad I don't live there since I'd be 500 pounds. My favorite was a milk chocolate truffle filled with fleur-de-sel creme caramel. I definitely did the happy dance after eating this delightful morsel! Anyhoo, I'm not quite ready to post the bajillion photos I took on our trip so I thought I'd put a teaser out there for my crafting crowd and show off the goodies I picked up at a flea market outside of St. Jakob's Kerk in Ghent. Buttons, cotton cording, and fabric tags were fun to pick up at a stand selling notions but my favorite vendor had nothing but vintage brochures, books, paper, letters, and postcards. I'm always delighted to scrounge through paper! The postcards I purchased are perfect for some of the scrapbook layouts I'm planning for previous trips to Rome, Paris, and now Belgium. Alright, I'm getting long-winded about the craft supplies so I'll end here but keep a lookout for more pics of our trip in the coming week.

Circle Scissors, Paper Pleating, and Ribbon Flowers, Oh My!

Here's the latest in club projects featuring two new techniques and a new crafting tool! While both of these projects are a bit more labor intensive, I think they're well worth the extra time. I designed these for Mother's Day but you could easily adapt them for other occasions.

The Mother's Day Window Bag, adapted from a bag demo'd by StampinUp!'s Shannon West, utilizes the new Circle Scissors Plus. The Circle Scissors Plus is a circular cutter which can cut varying sizes of circles, up to 16". This is actually version two of the original bag I designed as I gave away my original to one of my customers who couldn't stay to complete the bag. Before teaching yesterday, I had already been playing around with the Circle Scissors so I could demo the tool with confidence. Every sample I made while trying it out was effortless but when I went to demo it for my Sunday stamp club, disaster struck! It was hilarious: everything I cut was either crooked or didn't cut all the way through, and I ended up screwing up SIX craft bags before I got it right. At one point I grabbed up all the bags, tossed them on the floor in a fit of dramatic pique and said, "That's it! I quit!" Everyone cracked up and I finally was able to demo the project. When Shannon West features the tool on the video for SU!, she says, "Just turn it like you're stirring a pot of soup." Well, my soup was defective! If you'd like to see a video tutorial on the Circle Scissors Plus, visit Angie Juda's Stamping Academy.


This card features two new techniques: paper pleating and creating a ribbon flower. The paper pleating is super easy and creates a lovely effect. Simply score a strip of cardstock or designer paper at 1" and 1/2" intervals (1, 1 1/2, 2 1/2, 3, 4, 4 1/2", and so on), then fold the paper in pleats. Once the pleats are folded, go back and smooth the pleats with a bone folder or Scor-Tool so they will lay properly. Back the pleat with a strip of Scor-Tape or Sticky Strip as you'll need something stronger than Snail adhesive to keep the pleated strip on your project. If you pleat a 12 inch long strip, it creates a 4 1/2" pleated strip which is perfect for trimming down for a standard A2 card.
The ribbon flower was created with a 10" strip of wide grosgrain ribbon (the wider the width of ribbon, the larger your flower). Beginning at one end, run a loose stitch or gathering stitch all the way up one side of the ribbon, pulling the thread tight at intervals. I used DMC floss rather than thread for its strength factor as it is less likely to break each time you pull the ribbon for gathering. Once the end is pulled tight, place a small knot at the end to help keep the gathers in place, then stitch the two ends of ribbon together to form a circle. Stitch a button over the top and you've got yourself a lovely ribbon flower perfect for a card or scrapbook page. Who knew that my mom's lessons on sewing would actually come in handy! Here's a link to a ribbon tutorial on Peacoats and Party Hats for those visual learners. I'm sorry the pictures aren't the greatest...I was trying to get some nice outdoor photos and they weren't as clear as I thought they'd be. Still working on the photography :) Happy crafting!

Supplies: (Bag) SU! Close To Cocoa and Baja Breeze Classic Ink, SU! Parisian Breeze Designer Series Paper, SU! Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, and Baja Breeze cardstock, SU! Great Friend stamp set (2009 Mini Occasions catalog), Circle Scissors Plus, paper piercer, Buttons Galore assorted white buttons, natural twine (Listmann's), Marvy Uchida Giga Tag punch, SU! 1 3/4" circle punch, SU! ribbon originals, dimensionals, window sheets, Cricut, SU! Crystal Effects, SU! Dazzling Diamonds glitter (on butterfly)
(card) Supplies almost identical to list above. White grosgrain ribbon (Dollar Tree), SU! Baja Breeze flower button from Button Bouquet set, SU! eyelet lace punch