Year in Review Layout – Mary Jo

Hi Everyone,

Only a few days to go and it is a whole New Year again!! This is the time when you can look back and think about all the great things that happened during the year.

Mary Jo is going to show us a tutorial on Year in Review layout.

Mary Jo says:

I wanted to make a title page in my 2011 Family album. So I decided to make a “year in review” layout to recap some of the highlights from our year. My layout uses a grid design and repetitive theme for each month to keep things simple!

What You Will Need

• Cardstock
• Letter Stickers (large and small)
• Embellishments
• Die Cut Journal Cards

 

I started out with a sheet of kraft cardstock as my base, and a series of die cut journal cards by October Afternoon.

Once I decided on which cards I wanted for each month, I adhered them to my cardstock.

October Afternoon also has a great series of tiny alphabet stickers that I used to label each month.

Next comes some simple title work using a border sticker, alphabet letters and two flower stickers.

 

I used some free on-line photo software called Picasa to print up smaller sized pictures on white cardstock. I just created a file with the photos I wanted to use and then hit the print option. It then allowed me to shrink the photos down when hit “shrink to fit” and the border option.

 

On my completed layout you will see that I labeled each photo with some tiny alphabet stickers by Pink Paislee.

So now I have a fun layout to place at the front of my 2011 album that gives viewers an idea of what they will find inside!

Don’t you just love the grid composition that Mary Jo used. It is a great idea for every year. We hope you liked it too.

This is our last blog post for the year 2012, we hope that you found great inspiration here through the year.

Our next Issue is out on the 1st January 2013.

Crafting Ireland Team is wishing you a very Happy New Year that is filled with crafty goodness!!

Crafting Ireland Team

 

Altered Christmas Decoration – Aideen Fallon

Hi Everyone,

Today Aideen is going to show us a little technique on altering a birdhouse.

Here is what Aideen says:

“Have you heard of people altering items and wondered what it was all about? Or have you seen altered projects and thought I would love to try that but you weren’t sure where to start?

Well here is a quick altered decoration and altering guide.

All the items used are things you would have in your stash anyways and it’s nice to try something new.”

What you will need:

• Something to alter (start with something small and quick like this birdhouse decoration)
•  Patterned paper
•  Ruler
•  Wet glue & paint brush
•  Paint/ ink/ glitter glues/ liquid appliqué …..whatever you have really.
•  Embellishments
•  Hot glue/ glossy accents

Step 1

Ok, so step one for me always is to pick out the papers I want to use, I will then paper the areas I want to cover. So, go in with your ruler and measure the areas you are covering. It’s very simple with something small like this decoration.

Cut out your patterned paper to fit the area and glue them on using your favourite wet glue. Today I used Claudine Hellmuth’s matte multi medium.

Use a paint brush to spread the glue and stick on your papers.

I also added a thin layer of glue over the papers to seal them.

This is what my decoration looks like now with the papered areas.

I decide to use blue Christmassy papers so I next went in with my matching blue paint and painted the remaining areas and also the edges of the whole piece.

Now I had a root throught my embellishments for something small to add to the front and found this little wreath topper.

The colours weren’t exactly what I wanted but no worries anything can be altered so let’s alter the little wreath-I took off the gold beads and added some silver and blue bling stars! Already looking better….

I felt it was still a bit green so I went in with some ‘Waterfall’ stickles over the green areas.

While rooting throught my supplies for the Stickles, I found my liquid appliqué. So I added this around the roof. You leave this to dry overnight and then go over it with your heat gun and……

TAA-DAA snow!!!!

Because this is a little birdie house-it needs a little birdie-back for a stash root and I found this little Prima resin birdie, shall we alter him?

Ok then… go in with your ink pad. Here I used a blue Prima chalk pad and just lightly swiped it over the little birdie.

Now just attach your wreath using a heat gun and your birdie using some glossy accents and there you have it a little altered project.

Once you start altering you won’t want to stop, its so much fun. I hope you enjoyed this project.

Why not try a little altered project and share with us on the Crafting Ireland Facebook page…  Just go for it!!!

Happy Crafting,

Crafting Ireland Team

Design Team Call

Did you see we are having a Design Team Call? All our details are below….

We look forward to seeing all your fabulous entries!

Swap Partners!

The swap partners are up and listed here and also below:

GERALDINE – DEIRDRE
NICOLE – EVONNE
ELAINE- VAL
FRANCES – NICOLA
KRISTINE – ANN
ORLA – SARAH
AIDEEN- JENNY

You should all have received an email from Felicia giving you your swap partner name and email address so that you can get in touch and start getting crafty!

Don’t forget to send on pictures of your completed project to Felicia so that we can feature your work!

 

Great Big Craft Extravaganza!!

As you probably all know by now the Great Big Craft Extravaganza is taking place on the 30th September – 2nd October.

We are going to have a stand at the show on the Saturday and Sunday, and we would love for you to stop by and say hi. It would be great to put faces to names of all our readers 🙂

We will have a giveaway running on both days for some Crafting Ireland goodies…..

Plus we are running some challenges over the weekend.

The first of the challenges we will be running is the SKETCH CHALLENGE!! We have a sketch below and we want you to create a project using it. You can email us in a photo of your entry before the show (craftingireland@gmail.com) or else bring your entry along on the GBCE weekend for us to photograph for the prize draw. There will be great goodies up for grabs for the winners 🙂

You can rotate the sketch and change it from a rectangle to square etc – once we can still see the sketch in your project!

Here are a few samples made with the sketch to give you some inspiration….

We look forward to seeing your entries and meeting you at the show!!

Photo inspiration….

Challenge THEME—Photo Inspiration!!

Our challenge for you this issue to create a project that is inspired by the photo below. You can let the colours, textures or composition and shapes of the picture inspire your work. Just let us know what inspired you and how you reflected it in your work!

Challenge Prize!!

We will be picking two winners from all the entries to win the prize donated by The Crafty Alley, two sets of fabulous papers—one set of 7 Gyspies Conservatory and one set of My Minds Eye Lost and found!!

To submit your entries please email a photo of it to craftingireland@gmail.com by the 12th September.

Please use Issue 3 Challenge submission in the subject line. Make sure to include your name, project and blog address  in your email to us.