Gift bag tutorial

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and survived Black Friday. Today is Cyber Monday which I so much prefer.

As we all know-it's the season of giving so I thought a tutorial for a gift bag would be handy.

Start with clicking this picture and then right click, to print it out (on cardstock preferable)

Since everything is so "christmassy" these days, I wanted to be different and make a birthday bag. People do have birthdays in December too;)

When you have your template ready, trace it to paper of your choice and cut it out. You can use cardstock or heavier patterned paper- double sided or not.

Tips- draw the lines where you're gonna make the folds too.

All lines folds outward except from the red lines (if you can see them on the template) They fold the other way. Be sure to use your bone folder if you have one.

Don't forget to fold the top of the bag down as shown in the picture.

Put glue according to the template and fold your bag together.

Punch two holes on each side and string a ribbon through. You will need about 1 yard of ribbon.

When you're done you can cut out a rectangle of matching paper to place in the bottom of the bag.

Decorate and prettify your bag as much or as little as you want to.Think:

• stickles
• flowers
• inking and distressing
• hanging tags
• photo on the front of the bag

Be creative!


As always I wanted to get done fast and made mine very simple:

Good luck with those bags!


Those of you that follow the challenges over at AAM, know that a new one starts in a few days. Here's a peek of my layout for the next All About Me challenge:

My Design Team call is closed and now I just have to sit down and make my choices. Not an easy task.

The Design Team will be revealed on December 13.



OH, and I made a new sketch over at www.scrap-a-little-sketches.com.

See ya real soon!

Give (away) Thanks!

I thought I should try to squeeze in a post before I start in the kitchen with all the cooking and baking.
I'm gonna cook some for the single Marines (that are far away from their mommy's home cooked Thanksgiving meal) I'm also cooking for Conrad's class, for Elsa's Brownie troop and for our own get-together on Thursday. Yep, it will be fun! I love to cook and bake. If I wasn't so busy, I would totally start a food blog and share my favorite recipes...

But for now I keep myself busy with this blog.
I have actually thought about starting a Ning.site for the simple reason that then you could all upload your layouts there, based on my sketches. But it will probably take a few weeks before I figure all that out.
I will still keep this blog though. The Ning.site would just be for my sketches.

I made two new ones based on some old layouts. The layouts are not spectacular in any way, but I like the clean design.

And now to a new giveaway to show my appreciation to all my blog readers.

You can win 21 gorgeous fall papers from Me and My Big Ideas

All you have to do to be in the drawing is to leave a comment to this post.

And I want it to be a totally random comment.

You know how kids have a tendency to blurt out random and weird comments all the time. My son is an expert at that. He can wake up and yell: -Happy cheese day, mom! :)

Think like a kid and leave your comment. The one that makes my laugh the most will get the prize!

I'm working on a few great tutorials. Another flower and gift bag how-to is coming soon.

FYI:I've been asked to Guest Blog for Scrapbook News and Review
I didn't think much of it until I saw some other guest bloggers there ...like Kelly Goree and Teresa Collins. Wow! I feel just a little bit intimidated now. Why on earth they asked me ( and how did they find me) I don't know? I just know I have to save a p-r-e-t-t-y good tutorial for them.

Time to go. Before I head into the kitchen I'm gonna go and work out with Oprah Winfrey's trainer!! Sorry, but I just like saying that so much. Yes, so it's front of the TV and yes, it's on the Wii, hey..but still;)

Have a great Thanksgiving ya'll and don't forget now to leave that random comment .

Two weeks has passed

and now it's time for another All About Me challenge. This time the topic is:
"What this mark says about me"

"We all have a mark. We all leave a mark. And these marks say something about us all. Do you have a scar or tattoo or birthmark? Is it in a fun place? Does it make you happy or does it bring up sad memories? Have you left your mark on someone else? Someplace else? Well, we want to hear all about it. The good. The bad. The happy. The sad. Tell us about your mark and what it says about you!"

My mark would be my butterfly tattoo and it means absolutely nothing to me. I got it in 1991 and it was my brothers idea. Stupid idea really. I'm glad it's in a spot where I don't see it. And how totally lame to get a butterfly. I'm not even crazy about butterflies.

If I had another tattoo- which I wouldn't- I would pick something more fun...like a blue Smurf.

Anyways... here's my layout for the challenge.



Hope to see you over at AAM !


Regarding my Design Team call; I have gotten 5 applications so far and that's all I need.They are all very good, so I could have my team already. But if you wanna give these ladies some competition click here to see what you have to do.

I have updated the rules and you can pick any two sketches from www.scrap-a-little-sketches.com for the call.

Hope to see many more applications.

and a few more sketches

sorry for bombarding you with more sketches again...but I'm just having so much fun making them and I think I got addicted...

I'm not sure I will continue to post all the sketches here...I might just give you heads up when there's something new at www.scrap-a-little-sketches.com.



This is a old one..one of those I made with sharpie pens..I just upgraded it.




and I based it on this layout;

I don't think you have seen this one

but I know I have showed you this layout before

It's Monday here and the kids are back to school after 5 days off. Maybe now I will actually get something done.Who knows...

Blog hop winner and new blog

So finally I found the time to go to Random.org and get a winner for the blog hop. And the winner is:

KellyG

Congrats to Kelly!!
I have a feeling that she has won something here before, but if that's the case; good for her! That's just how randomness works:)

(Kelly, please email me your address and I will send this off to you)

I started a new blog...kind of...it's called

www.scrap-a-little-sketches.com

That's where I will have all my sketches. If you follow my blog here, there's no reason to go there, except it's handy dandy to have all the sketches in one spot.

I just made two new ones:

That's it for now and don't forget my design team call. I want many more applications:)

A new kind of rose ( tutorial)

I came across a new kind of rose at Creating Keepsakes blog. They remind me of these ones I made with ribbons.

(Click here to see that tutorial)

You will need cardstock or double sided patterned paper. Don't use the flimsy kind. You want it to be a bit sturdy.

Cut a strip 12" x 1/2" and "scrunch" it up as much as you can. Do this over and over. You can't overdo it. I even took a spray bottle and slightly sprayed some water on to the paper. This will make the paper more manageable.



Cut out a circle about 1 1/2" from cardstock and add fast drying glue .

Start in the center and work your way outward. Twist the strip as you go, making sure that both sides of the paper shows (if that's what you want). If you want a bigger flower then add another strip after the first one is glued down.

Once you are done, cut off the excess cardstock. Add glimmer mist to your rose.

Click here to see how to make your own glimmer mist.

You can also add a flower center. I prefer it without since I think that makes it look more like a rose.

I actually think that these roses are my favorite at the moment. And I have even used them.

Here on a layout with Cosmo Cricket paper:

based on my sketch # 7

And here I made a joy fold card with Graphic 45 papers.

By the way...I have not forgotten to draw a winner for the blog hop candy. I'm just running a bit behind - what else is new? I have not even sent off the prizes for the Basic Grey challenge..ooops! The kids have this week off from school, so that's my excuse this time.

I will be on top of this very soon...until then...

Latest news (DT call)

If you are keeping track, the second blog hop for this week should be posted here by now...

Remember last week, how excited I was when I got accepted for http://www.letscapturethesesketches.blogspot.com/ and their design team.
Well...the news is- I turned down the offer!

I simply don't have time for the requirements that they had:(

I'm gonna keep applying for different design teams, but I'm gonna make sure I can commit to their terms before I apply:)

That's that about that!


Here's some new sketches I made.Enjoy!

And now to some exciting news for YOU guys!!!

Scrap A Little is looking for it's very own DESIGN TEAM!! YAY!

I'm not gonna start an online store or a Kit Club. Neither is this blog gonna turn into a pure challenge blog. I will still focus on tips and tutorials.

But I decided to make the challenges monthly and thought I would be cool to have a DT to inspire you. So here's the deal:

I'm looking for 5 members to my DT.

What I need from you:

• two brand new layouts using any of my sketches above or these ones.
• your contact information
• link to your online gallery and blog if you have any
• short paragraph why you wanna be on this DT and what you think you can contribute

This DT will be creating one layout (or card) per month for my challenges.

The challenges will vary..it can be anything from using certain colors, papers, techniques or whatever idea pops up in my head.

As of now..I'm not planning to send out monthly material for you to work with. That being said..I might start looking for sponsors or I just might feel generous and send you something.

But typically, you will work with your own stuff.

I will not announce this call anywhere else but here.

This design team call are exclusively for my blog followers.

So if I'm lucky I will get 227 emails;)

If this sound interesting send me an email @ scrapalittle@gmail.com with attached copies of your two layouts before Sunday November 29. I will announce the design team on December 13.

Good luck sister, friends and all the rest of my followers.

UPDATE! this call is open to all my followers- no matter where on the globe you are!

All About Me Blog Hop

Welcome to the very first design team Blog Hop for All About Me! If you have been to all the other blogs, you have done it right! My blog is the last one in the hop.

If you landed here first for some reason, you better go to the start. Click here to begin the hop. You don't wanna miss anything. There will be plenty of chances to win prizes along the hop.


Let's start with the new challenge for AAM. We all had to do a layout on the subject: "I can't live without"

There's quite a few things I can't live without...like...internet, tea, hot baths,eyelash curler and so on. But for my layout I chose this:


Our two awesome kids that I can't live without. They truly are my everything!! I miss them when they are in school and I miss them when they sleep ( is that weird?)

I used some bling on my layout which I'm usually allergic to.



The letters are painted black and then I added liquid glass. Looks kinda cool I think.



Now we are moving on to the theme for this Blog Hop; "Free To Be Me"
I like that. "Be yourself. Everybody else is already taken"

Here's some questions...or rather answers... so you can get to know me a bit better;



1. My childhood ambition: to have a garden

2. My retreat: my scrap room

3. The perfect day: PJ day with my family with some time for scrapping

4. My first job was: nurse assistant

5. My wildest dream: to get a face lift

6. If my life was a musical it would be called: "Shout it out!" (I'm referring to the loads of laundry I do every day)

7. My proudest moment: getting a CA drivers licence at age 41

8. My favorite item of clothing: my gray sweat pants

9. I feel ready for the day when I: take a long shower and a have a cup of tea

10. I COULD live without: TV


You guys must be a bit tired now after all this hopping and reading all the blogs. You deserve a prize for making it here to the end.

One lucky winner will receive The Sonoma Collection from Scenic Route. It includes

12 double sided paper
3 sheets of printed kraft cardstock
2 embellishment cardstock sticker sheet
1 label cardstock sticker sheet



All you have to do, to be in the random drawing is:
1. make sure you follow my blog
2. leave a comment on this post and let me know that you follow my blog

I will draw a winner when the hop is over.


Wow! Wasn't this a lot of fun? Now you can take a computer break, hang out here on my blog for a while and check out my tutorials or you can go back to where you started and do it all over again:)

Take care and see you around soon!

The weekend is over...

and so is my Basic Grey challenge.
As always I went to www.random.org to get the winners. This time I needed three different numbers.

First winner is Andrea Slee who will win two favor packs from BG:

Second winner is Jennifer who will receive a Pheobe collection pack;

And third and last winner turned out to be be Liz Chidester who will get this in the mail:

Congrats to all you ladies!!! Email your addresses to scrapalittle@gmail.com so I can get this out asap.

Thanks to all of you who participated in the challenge. I ended up having 18 awesome entries.

As promised I will show pics from Friday. My hair actually turned out real pretty and the hairdresser did an amazing job with my short hair.

And here we are at the ball- me and my prince;

I'll be back shortly for updates on blog happenings this week!