Making the most of every scrap: Quick Kids Cards and my first shaker card:-)

Boy, it's been a while since I did some proper crafting but today was the day and it felt great! I've been meaning to have a go at two things for a while:

1. Using my son's foam letters to make kids birthday cards and
2. Making some sort of shaker card.

And today was the day:-)

I really like making cards for kids but I approach them a little different than I would a card for an adult. I try to keep them simple, fun and attractive. And if at all possible made of basic inexpensive materials that could possibly inspire them to make something similar themselves and wouldn't make their parents feel too guilty about tossing them either;-)

The cards you can see above fit al those criteria really well. They're birthday cards for three girls aged between 4 and 6, the age in which, in The Netherlands, reading, writing and learning your ABC's is a big part of your life so hence the use of these glittery letters. These came from a big jar of glittery letters I bought for my son but he is never interested in them so they now finally have a good use:-) The squares were all punched out of scrap card- and scrapbooking paper and I used a stamp for the sentiment*. I made these three cards in about an hour and a half (including punching out about 40 or so squares to be used on future projects).

I then still needed a card for a 2 yo boy and I really wanted to make something that would be appealing to him. Now boys really like touching and trying things not just look at something 'pretty' LOL so I had a go at making a shaker card. It was my first ever and I am quite pleased with how it turned out:

The background is made of paper scraps again and I really LOVE it. I used an old overhead projector sheet (same as I used for my Silhouette Stencils) as the window and glued it to the paper frame with superglue just to make sure it couldn't come undone and all the contents spilling out. I filled up the space in between with assorted sequins, the turtle and octopus are glued to the background. I then used double sided tape to attach top and bottom. I only had really thin tape which means there is not a lot of space between window and background so it doesn't shakes very vigorously but it is still interesting for little curious boy I'd think. But I am really going to look for some thicker double sided tape to  create a bit more air. But all in all I am very happy with my first attempt.

* Fijne Verjaardag = Happy Birthday 

Ik vind je Lief = I think your sweet 

Stencil cutting on my Silhouette

A few weeks ago I watched Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's free online stencil class and got really inspired to do some Art Journalling with stencils. But stencils are not so easy to come by in The Netherlands and even if you can get them they are pretty pricey. So I wondered if I could make my own. I had seen Lain Ehmann of Layoutaday.com use left over paper die cuts from her Silhouette for stencilling and that gave me the idea to try making some stencils myself using my Silhouette. I wanted them to be a bit longer lasting than paper though so I used some old OHP (Overhead Projector, remember those?) sheets I had lying around. And it worked a treat! 

When I posted these on Facebook Lain asked if I would write up a tutorial to put on her blog to which I gladly obliged and here it is:

http://www.layoutaday.com/making-stencils-on-your-silhouette/

A card I made using my number and music notes stencil. I love using the Tim Holtz Distress inks with the stencils to get that lovely graded effect that really matches the tone-on-tone of the 20 euro note I worked into my brother's birthday card.

LOAD Day 24: Have a nice day!

Today we were in another room on the Clue Board: The Hall. I went with a picture of the inside of our hallway door. When we moved in back in 2008 this was written onto the door and although we originally had plans to remove it or paint over it...it is still there in 2013!

I have embellished with some handmade rosettes I made today. My husband gave me a scoring board (plus idea book) for my birthday this week and I couldn't wait to use it. But I thought there wouldn't be enough time to play around and do a layout....unless I made them for my layout! 

Really love how they turned out. Thanks to the book Score, Fold and Create! and a great tip from Tool School, a 3-part online workshop on how to get more out of your tools, I was able to make these quickly and they are really sturdy! After sticking the ends together use a big dollop of hot glue to push the rosettes into and they will keep their shape perfectly.

LOAD Day 15: Strutting my stuff: oh yes, that is all gold that glitters!

I am happy, oh so happy! I love this layout for so many reasons: the pictures of my crazy new trousers and gold glittery booties: the black and white journalling card, the glittery title and the glittery embellishments. But most of all I love the background that I made myself with a honeycomb stencil and different colours of distress ink. It matches the pixel shapes on my trousers.

This story is kind of a follow up of my first layout this year about wanting to get my Mojo back. Cool, happy coloured clothing and being crafty and creative are two of the ways I am working on this and it is really working!

LOAD is such an inspirational challenge. I am seeing so many beautiful and original layouts it's difficult not to be affected. One of my favourites is http://www.peonyandparakeet.com/blog/ by Päivi Eerola, she makes the most amazing background papers herself. Expect to see a bit of her in some of my future layouts:-)

LOAD Day 2: Taking a stab at something new

Thursday on LOAD 513 are about weapons and today's clue is 'Taking a stab at it'. You could literally run a knife over your layout or pierce some holes. I took the more symbolic meaning of trying something new and scrapped some pictures of a vintage layout workshop I did at Essies in Almere:

For this layout I kept it a bit more toned down than the one I did in the workshop: tearing, distressing and inking the edges with Walnut stain. The font is Calligraph421 BT, I really like it. And I already know I will use it again in the future because there is a Pirate layout waiting to be made:-)

So, what new thing would you still like to 'take a stab' at? Still on the do-I-dare list is sewing on the page. I really dread my machine playing up and it all becoming one big tangled up mess. But I already know I will do it, I can try anything!