i’ve been noticing lots of ruffles lately…

these images are from one of my favorite retailers, j.crew

what i’m loving about the new influx of ruffles is that they have such a modern feel to them…sporting rich colors and clean lines…not just the romantic lace & flowery ruffles of the past…the current crop of ruffles are packing a real design punch.

& i’m completely smitten with them and have been enjoying incorporating ruffles into my paper crafting :)

check out some ruffles dina added to her layouts using the vintage seam binding included willowside & bramble…so gorgeous!

these sort of easy techniques are great to have in your crafting arsenal…& one of the best things about ruffling is that it is so adaptable! you can use it with a bold or a simple patterned paper or solid cardstock, ribbon or fabric, sheer or opaque, little ruffles or big, bold ruffles….there are a million ways to incorporate ruffles into your next project.

and now with the holidays around the corner, i can just see a ruffle roof on one of those little maya road chipboard houses all decked out with glitter…ruffles of felt & fabric on tags & cards…bold red & white stripe ribbon ruffles on the edges of chipboard albums & journals….

yes…there will be lots of ruffling around the kennedy house….

give it a try! i’m sure you’ll have fun & love the results :)

& we’d love if you’d link us up to your creations here if you ruffled away, so we can be inspired too!

xoxo

gi

…ok, so maybe it’s not THAT season, but it IS quite a season!  :)  Our house is starting to show signs of not only of Fall but also of Halloween.  The kids have been doing lots of crafts at home and school with leaves, pinecones, spider webs and monsters.  I attempted to use some of DD’s artwork, finally, in a layout for her to enjoy.  This layout uses goodies from mostly Willowside kit but also a few things from the Sept. kit (owl, caption bubble are Sassafras Lass) as well as a potato sack, bobble beads and Dymo Caption Maker tags.  Also did a little hybrid action – just a tiny in adding a touch of journaling on the caption bubble (see the detail picture to see it without…).

I challenge you to figure out a fun way to showcase some kids’ artwork in your work!  Makes for some more happy little faces, especially in this fun season.

Happy day!

-Amy

i spent yesterday packing kits and creating this wall hanging project with the grateful harvest kit. it was what i envisioned when i put together all of the supplies, but you can certainly take the pieces and create something entirely different, especially with all of the paper that comes on the piano player roll, i still have tons left and already started a second project which i’ll share later this week.

supplies needed : grateful harvest project kit. scissors. dry adhesive. wet adhesive. 2″ and 7/8″ circle punch es {optional}.

step 1 : remove about half of the piano player paper by unrolling and cutting off. set extra paper aside for future use. pull an additional 48″ from the roll and fold back on itself so cut edge rests near the rolled pieces and adhere the two layers with adhesive, this will leave you with 24″ long sheet. fold the 24″ sheet on itself again and adhere, leaving an approximately 12″ sheet. this will be your base and the layers will offer some stability on which to layer all of the other elements.

step 2 : hand cut the cherry blossom {crate paper} paper. you can also use an exacto knife.

step 3 : adhere the handcut cherry blossom paper to the top of the player piano sheets and tuck top edge underneath the roll. add adhesive right where the roll meets the folded paper to hold it closed. cut off a 3″ strip from one side of the brown sugar die-cut {crate paper} and adhere to back at bottom edge so about 1.5″ sticks out along bottom, cut 18″ of pink seam binding and adhere along bottom where piano player paper and die-cut intersect to hide the edge.

step 4 : use extra scrap pieces of paper and a large journaling ticket to create a patchwork on the house chipboard. remove center star and set aside for future use. handcut and sand edges. adhere to banner base.

step 5 : creating the large paper flower.

step a : cut at least 24″ from the extra roll of player piano paper and fold lengthwise upon itself 2 times so you end up with a piece of paper that is approximately 24″ x 6″.

step b : cut mini strips along the open edge {the other edge will have two overlapping fold seams}.

step c : slowly pleat and staple the paper into a large circle. i find that if i staple as i go it’s easier.

step d : scrunch up those edges until your flower is nice and big.

step 6 : adhere paper flower to front bottom. punch or handcut two circles from the extra journaling tickets to create the center. you can distress them as i did by using ink along the edges and hand stitching a border around the smaller circle. stack and adhere to center of paper flower.

step 7 : tie the ribbon to one side of the player piano roll and then tie a knot every few inches to create a little bit of depth in the ribbon.

step 8 : create an additional focal point by glittering the small white paper flower and star cutout. i also handcut a few more pieces from the journaling tickets and adhered them to the centers. the trick for making sure these pieces are straight on the roll when hanging is to apply them after you hang the banner on the wall, you can see piece more clearly and know how it will hang. add the suede leaves and key by tying to the extra lengths of ribbon.

have fun creating!

xo-kl

willowside : october main kit

crate paper . basic grey . scenic route . hambly . american crafts . jenni bowlin . tim holtz . pink paislee and piles & piles of vintage embellishments.

bramble : october add-on kit : $27.

crate paper . basic grey . scenic route . jenni bowlin . tim holtz . autumn leaves . the most adorable vintage books ever & more vintage embellishments.

grateful harvest : october project kit : $21.

crate paper . pink paislee . tim holtz . jenni bowlin . vintage embellishments & an entire player piano roll

plus all new coordinating vintage provisions, another mini vintage kit and more. all available at midnight tonight, plus our amazing guest designer & creative teams galleries. hope to see you then!

xo – kl

I’ve been having a blast playing with kl’s fabulous October kits…ooh la la, you will love them! The project kit came with a great vintage book. I decided that I wanted to use the cover to create a book with new pages…here’s what I did.

1. I took a sharp exacto knife and I cut out the pages from the book. You just need to make two cuts…one in the inside of the front cover, and one in the inside of the back cover. In the picture below, I had just separated the pages from the front cover.

2. Once the pages are removed, you have a sweet book cover to use for a project!

3. Next I needed to put my own pages into the cover.  I cut down some paper to the correct size and made two signatures. A signature is a group of folded pages–each signature I used had 6 pages. I used my sewing machine to sew the signatures into the spine (quick & easy!). You could poke holes with a stylus and hand sew the pages, too.

5. Once I was done sewing, I had a book with fresh new pages, all ready to alter! I used the kit supplies to cover the book…I’m not going to show it to you now. You’ll have to wait until the kit reveal!

I hope you try this fun technique for putting your own pages into a vintage book cover. Be sure to keep the vintage pages you take out of the book–I used them on many of my layouts this month.