Hi everyone! I just wanted to pop in today and show a little sneak peek of one of the class projects from our Cautionary Tale class we held this weekend using the September specialty kit. There is still time to join us and create four fun vintage inspired halloween projects by purchasing a class pass that is available through the kenner road etsy shop {here} for only $12.

happy monday!
xo

i love paper & how versatile it is.

you can fold it, tear it, scrunch it, mold it, cut it into shapes; the possibilities are endless!

today i’m going to show you just a few fun, easy techniques:

we’re going to make some cute “scrunchy” flowers, and i’ll also show you some examples of bows, a mini bunting banner, and a “spinner”.

let’s start with the flowers:

all you need is a piece of paper cut or torn into about a 1 1/2 strip.

length depends on how big you want your finished flower.

(my longest strip is about 12 in. long)

now, here’s the trick:

take your strip of paper & quickly run it through some water. you want it thoroughly soaked, but not falling apart.

next, scrunch it into a sort of “snake shape” & start spiraling it until it forms a circle.

as you scrunch it together, kind of flatten & shape until it looks the way you want.

the wetness of the paper will make it kind of stick to eachother.

your blob of paper will be somewhat fragile so you can leave it where it is & let it dry naturally,

or you can be impatient like me & use your blow dryer to speed things up. i think holding it in your hand while it dries helps it to stick together:

after it dried, i used watered down glue to coat the top & then sprinkled glitter on top:

after it dried, i added a cute center ;)

voila!

i loved the “water scrunching” technique so much that i made a cute little bow.

i cut a small, rectangular piece of paper with scallop-edged scissors.

(this piece is about 2×3 in. long)

just moisten your piece of paper, lay down flat on your work surface, & cinch in the middle.

tie with a piece of string to secure.

when the paper is moistened, it makes it so much easier to mold it into the shape you want.

how cute would a page be with cute little tiny bows allover?

here are a few more (dry…lol) shapes & ideas for you to try…

a tiny pendant banner strung onto ric-rac:

and a game piece style”spinner”:

this one is about 3 in. in diameter, but you can make them as tiny as your fingers & scissors allow!

for the center, i used one of the tiny jenni bowlin bingo cards that came in a past months embellishment kit.

the “month circles” are rub-ons from last month’s kit ;)

all held together by a simple brad.

i can’t wait to see the creative ideas you all come up with

don’t forget to show us & upload all your inspiring pics into our flickr photo pool.

have a wonderfully weekend & be sure to tune into our gallery reveal on mon, sept 14th!

I wanted to share a really quick and easy idea for dressing up glass candle holders. Sonoma County has a few really good latin markets that sell these inexpensive candle holders, i purchased mine blank for about $1 each. Most times you see them with an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe or another Saint printed on them, but our local market also has them in plain colors without any markings too. ;)

I always love getting a large assortment of these for outdoor parties as the candles burn forever and the long tapered glass enclosure helps to keep the candles from blowing out. Once I get them home I always dress them up in some fashion with little bits I have left over from kits, so I thought I’d show you two versions using bits and pieces from the Kenner Road July kits.

To create the Birch Beer candle I cut a 3″ x 7″ piece {i measured my candle circumference so I had an exact measurement for this} of JBS pattern paper {Scarborough Faire kit} and stitched along all four edges about 1/8″ in to create a border. Then I hand-cut the Birch Beer label {Blue Ribbon Kit} and layered it over a piece of cream cardstock. I cut the cardstock about 1/8″ larger than the label so there would be definition between the two pieces of patterned paper.

I then adhered the cream cardstock piece to the pattern paper. Then i adhered an embroidered ribbon {Sweetwater embellishment kit} to the cardstock and applied the Birch Beer label over the ribbon. Next, I punched holes in the corners of the Birch Beer label {there are four little circles in each corner which i punched right through} and then slipped the Tim Holtz brads and one metal leaf {Blue ribbon kit} for some visual interest.

After getting the label completely ready i adhered it to the candle with some heavy duty tacky tape making sure to center on the candle holder and match up the back seams.

Next I tied the ribbon up and trimmed the ends so they were a bit shorter than the candle and wouldn’t touch the surface it was sitting on. You of course could leave them long or tie a big beautiful bow.

Here you can see how the layers work and the metal foliage pieces really accent the label.

For the other candle holder I used the big gorgeous Basic Grey flower rub on in the june bug olio pack {Blue Ribbon kit}. This was a bit tricky as the glass was super smooth and the rubons didn’t want to release. My trick was to hold the rubon in the glass with my hand covering it so it heated up the rubon. then i began rubbing on one end and once it began to release i slowly started helping it by pulling up on the rubon film {the piece the rubon is adhered too}. Be slow and steady when doing this so you don’t break your rubon.

Once I had the rubon applied, I glued on some flower accents {Animal Crackers kit} and some more foliage metal pieces {Blue Ribbon kit}.

To finish off the candles i threaded the wicks with some buttons and a few mini metal flowers, just like all of those expensive candles you see in boutiques.

Now I have a few candles waiting for our next party or even as a hostess gift when we go to a friends house.

Also, we wanted to announce the winner of our July Blog Challenge “stamps”, Didee. I adore her cuddles in the garden layout and the stamped tag she used! Congratulations Diana you win a Blue Ribbon add-on kit!! Send me an email info [at] kenner road [dot] com and we’ll get it out to you asap.

Stay tuned for some sneaks and more as we get ready for our August reveal on Friday at 9pm pacific!

xoxo

hey there!

this month’s theme of summer reminded me that i have a few summer getaways coming up and every year i try to remember to either make or buy a little notebook to keep with me when i travel. next week we are heading to a wedding in florida, after i’ll be heading to cha, and then later in the summer is our annual trip to cape cod. i use little notebooks to keep track of everything from items i saw that i liked, grocery lists, books i want to read, phone numbers/emails of friends i met, to memory joggers for journaling on my pages later.

this year I decided to make a little vacation jotter using the july kit.

you’ll need:

• your july kit and add-ons
• chipboard (you can use cereal boxes for this)
• 3×5 index cards – you can purchase these blank and lined in either direction
• larger index cards to cut if you plan on making the bingo cover
• a cropodile or standard hole punch
• binder rings (you can get these at an office supply store)
• large eyelets
• gel medium (or other adhesive such as mod podge)
• the corner chomper or a standard corner rounder
• brayer or bone folder

Directions

1. using your cutter or scissors cut two 3×5 inch chipboard pieces.
2. cut a piece of patterned paper to 3×5 inches. apply gel medium to the chipboard and adhere the paper. use a clean brayer or a bone folder to get rid of any wrinkles. do the same to the other piece of chipboard. let dry then cover the back sides of the chipboard as well. let dry overnight.
3. round all four corners of 30 index cards. i used my we r memory keepers corner chomper which allowed me to do a lot at once. you can use a standard corner rounder it will just take a little longer.
4. round all four corners of the two pieces of chipboard. if your standard corner rounder won’t cut through, trace the corners using one of your index cards as a template and use a craft knife or scissors to round the corner.
5. decide which piece of the covered chipboard will be the front and which side will face the back.
6. using your cropadile, punch one or two holes in the top edge of the chipboard pieces. the location of the holes will be determined by the lines on your index cards. (for one hole I’d punch the top left.) be sure to line up the holes on both pieces. i added large eyelets to mine so the ring would slide through easily.
7. using the cover as a template mark a small stack of index cards and punch through using the cropadile – continue until all of the index cards are punched.
8. add rings through the punched holes and add embellishments to the front cover as desired.

you can vary the size of these jotters, use fabric to cover them, use graph paper or other paper for the sheets, and really make them your own. if you make one of these, be sure to link me up!  have fun!

***ETA:  if you have any questions, please post them in the comment section & i’ll try to answer as best i can.   I will post my answers in the comment section too so that we can keep sharing ideas & tips & tricks.  And also if you have any hints or tricks of what worked for you while you were creating this album, please share!!!***

ya ready???

This project was SO fun for me and I really hope you enjoy it too.

A few things first:

*  All products used (other than standard “stash” & tools) are part of the May Main kit & the Mister Mister Add on, with the exception of the following:    some butcher’s twine from Martha Stewart Crafts, the October Afternoon label stickers that were part of the All in a Row add on, & a #9 that was part of a previous kit (because i used the 9 plate on another layout…lol…you’ll be able to use your 9 :)

* In this post I am going to go through each page & give instructions & hints on how to assemble the album.  Refer to yesterday’s post for the specific instructions on how to create the handmade flowers used throughout the book.

* I used a heart punch for this project that I purchased from Stampin’ Up.  Feel free to use whatever punch you have at your disposal…maybe you’ve got a different heart, or a star, or a butterfly, or you can always use the trusty circle.  OR you could hand cut some hearts in different shapes & sizes.  C’mon, you remember how to cut little hearts!  I’m sure you made them in first grade for valentine’s day :)

* I used my sewing machine to stitch around the perimeter of each page of my book.  If you have a machine & want to do it, wonderful!  And remember these pages are pretty thick, so go slow with your machine and you may wish to use a denim needle.  If you don’t have a machine, no worries :)  You can still handstich around the felt page with embroidery thread & it will look great!

* For this project I used all the pages included in the Fancy Pants Mixed Media Bracket Book, except the second black felt page.  You can save that & use it on another creation :)

*  If you have any questions at all or need clarification or help, please feel free to e-mail me at gigikennedy@yahoo.com.  We’ll work together to get your book completed & gorgeous :)

O.K….LET’S GO!!!!

For the Chipboard pages of your book:

* Take the 3 chipboard pieces from your Fancy Pants Mixed Media Bracket Book.  Paint ONE side of 2 of the chipboard pages a cream color (I used Folk Art Acrylic Paint in Buttermilk).  Paint BOTH sides of the 3rd page red (I used Making Memories Red Wagon Acrylic Paint).  For my book, I painted 3 coats of paint on each side.

* Cover the other side of the cream painted chipboard pages with patterned paper.  I chose to use Crate Paper Maze & October Afternoon Peek-a-boo (both are in the May Main kit)

* If desired, machine stitch around perimeter of your chipboard pages with black thread.  HINT:  GO SLOW when sewing with your machine and you may wish to use a denim needle to make sewing a bit easier.  These chipboard pages are pretty thick.

* For the red painted page (this will be PAGES SEVEN and EIGHT):  Take your “Happy List” discussed at the end of yesterday’s post & handwrite (yes…i said HANDWRITE!!) it on the page using a white pen (I used a Uniball Signo White pen).  Fill both sides of your red painted page with everything you can think of that makes you smile, makes you happy…just take pen to painted page & write.  If you are concerned with keeping everything thing straight so your writing doesn’t go floating away on you, try this little trick.  Cut a bit of scrap paper @ 1/2″ x 12″.  Then, pull up alongside your red painted page, a pad of lined paper.  Line up your scrap piece of paper so that it spans the width of your painted page & lines up nice & straight with your lined paper.  Then write away above your scrap piece of paper.  Keep moving your scrap piece down your painted page as you write to keep everything straight :)

* Embellish your “Happy List” pages with “Lollipop” and “Scallop” flowers as shown below:

* For the front cover of your book:  Create 3 “strip-y” flowers and the tag (see yesterday’s post for these instructions) and arrange & adhere to cover (I used Foam Tape to adhere the flowers & Tombow Multi Adhesive to adhere tag) as shown below:

* For the inside Front Cover:  Using the Pink Paislee Enchated Letter Stickers, adhere journaling (“Go ahead soak it all up”).  To give some emphasis to your letters, outline each letter sticker with a fine tipped journaling pen.  Underneath, arrange a combination of handmade flowers & leaves as shown. For the flowers I used both sides of the Sassafrass Lass Full Bloom patterned paper.

* For the inside of Back Cover:  Take a shipping tag & ink it (I used Ranger’s Distress Ink in Antique Linen) & stitch around perimeter using the zig zag stitch.  Tie on Cosmo Cricket stripe ribbon at top and adhere scallop blue velvet ribbon to bottom of tag.  Journal with black pen.  Punch hearts (or hand cut…remember it is JUST a heart! :) out of the vintage sheet music and October Afternoon lullaby patterned paper (they both are in your main kit).  Take a black market & run around edge of your little hearts to make them pop off your page.  Arrange hearts & tag on your back cover.

* For the Back Cover:  Cut a strip of your sheet music using pinking shears 5 1/2″ long.  Cut a strip of Cosmo Cricket Micheveous Max patterned papaer 3/4″ x 5 1/2″, distress & ink edges.  Adhere to cover as shown below.  Above your paper strips, attach your 09 7Gypsies numbers (I used foam tape…& you’ll notice, I had to use a different 9 b/c I had used it on another layout :).  Journal a bit using a Black pen (I used an American Crafts Slick Writer)

PAGE ONE:

* Take the Bingo card & stitch zig zag around the perimeter.  Add 2×3 photo of yourself.  Embellish page as shown with “Enjoy” (make sure to outline the letter stickers to give them some definition) & with scallop (using Sass Lass full bloom) and lollipop (using Jenni Bowlin Chipboard button & Cosmo Cricket chipboard adhesive button) handmade flowers.  Finish off by stapling a length of the Cosmo Cricket Striped Ribbon to the top.

PAGE TWO:  On the back of your bingo card, add a favorite photo.  Embellish with punched (or hand cut hearts) and some letter stickers.  I popped up some of my hearts with foam tape.  Add a bit of journaling with a black pen.

PAGE THREE:  For this page use one of the Black Felt pages & as you can see we are going to make a “holder” for some of our most important little bits of treasure from our favorite people.  Start by cutting a piece of the Sassafrass Lass bungle dots patterned paper 2″x6″.  Add the Cosmo Cricket blue velvet scallop ribbon to the top edge, distress & ink the bottom & side edges.  Stitch to your felt page using embroidery thread.  The trick here is to make sure your needle doesn’t go ALL the way through the felt.  Just pop your needle through the patterned paper & the top layer of the felt (this is thick felt, you’ll get the hang of how far to push your needle).  I did kind of a ladder “x” stitch, to be honest I just kind of made it up as I went along & it turned out (surprisingly…lol).  After your great little “holder” is all stitched on…add some letter stickers (I used the October Afternoon ones that came in the main kit) & a Cosmo Cricket chipboard star.

PAGE FOUR:  Take 2 of your favorite 2×3 photos & adhere to felt page (I used my Koyoko Roller & it worked fab.)  Do a bit of embroidery satin stitching on a couple of corners & then add  a lollipop flower & a scallop flower as shown.  Dig into your stash & grab a label for a little bit of journaling.

PAGES FIVE & SIX:  For these pages I adhered a 4×6 photo smack in the center of the transparency page.  I stitched around it, but I’ll tell you it was a bit tough because of the thickness of the photos & transparency combined.  Now for each of these pages I added a strip of the Cosmo Cricket Michevious Max patterned paper, cut to 1″x6 1/2″ (I then used my scallop scissors on the edge).  Where the patterned paper & the photo met, I added a 6 3/4″ length of the Cosmo Cricket airplane ribbon.  Pink Paislee Enchanted letter stickers were added to each photo.  As you can see, on page 5 I added a scallop flower & a chipboard button and on page 6 I added a lable sticker & a Cosmo Cricket star.

PAGES NINE & TEN:  These pages are created just like pages 5 & 6, except instead of the patterned paper on the bottom of the photo, I added some of the Cosmo Cricket blue velvet scallop ribbon (a 6 1/2″ length)

PAGES ELEVEN, TWELVE, THIRTEEN & FOURTEEN:  These pages are created by just adhering two 4×6 photos, back to back & zig zag stitching around the perimeter.  Letter stickers & punched hearts are added right on the photo.  I really like how these “pages” turned out & I especially like that I  can continue to add my favorite 4×6 into the book :)

Guess what?  Your pages are all done!!!  Now all we have to do is punch holes to bind it all up with ribbon & we are done!!!  But I’m going to give you some advice, gooooooo slooooooow here.  We are almost done, & I know you are getting excited to see it all put together.  But the last thing you want to do is punch a hole in the wrong place now, or chip the paint, or not cut enough ribbon & then run out & get all frustrated just when you are so close to the finish line (O.K….can you tell this is what happened to me???  lol!!)  So…now….grab your hole punch & punch three holes in your cover.  I punched mine @ 1 1/2″ inches apart in the center of the book.  I did this so that my 4×6 pages will each be able to have 2 holes in them to keep them from flinging all around falling out of the binding.  And take care when punching the holes in your 4×6 pages, take a look at the finished product down below & you’ll see I stagerred them so that each can kind of peek out when the book is opened to that spot.

Now take about 9″ of the Cosmo Cricket ribbon & run it through all of your pages & tie a double knot at the binding.  When you tie your knot, be sure to provide a little give in your ribbon tie so that you can turn your pages easily.  Now cut @ a 3 1/2 length of the Cosmo Cricket Ball ribbon & tie it on top of the other knot to give a little bit of pizazz (truth be told, I finished the project & noticed i didn’t use any of that adorable ribbon & just had to add it in somewhere :)  Snip off the extra edges and…..WE ARE DONE!!!!!!

Here’s a look at the finished product :)

so…what do you think?  PLEASE link me up if you make it!  I’d LOVE to see all of your wonderful albums :)

& just to see if anyone is paying attention…this is how ryan watched Star Wars this afternoon while I was posting all of these photos (yes…the dog chewed a hole in my blanket…but you know what?  it is still just as snuggly :)…guess he was a bit chilly???

Hope you enjoyed this class!!!

xoxo

gi