Other Crafts - Travel Keepsakes

Prior to an upcoming trip with my entire family, I decided that I wanted to make something for the kids.  Thanks to some fantastic friends I have been able to collect several Starbucks Frappuccino Glass Bottles. (I have more projects in mind for these bottles, but this is the first.)

Each kid coming on the trip, and my parents, will receive one of these Keepsake Bottles for them to collect shells, sand and, well, whatever they want to fit in the bottle.  

After using Goof Off to remove all the adhesive from the Starbucks labels, I made a label with our trip location and date.  I tried to use Armour Etch and etch this information in, however my stencil did not work.  I do intend to use Armour Etch on a future project with these, so I will keep playing with that medium.  

I then painted the lids black and added some twine using hot glue.  The charms are from eBay and I used some additional twine to attach them.  The various charms include shells, turtles, pirates, mermaids and fish.

Sewing - Custom Laptop Case

When I was in the US in August I found some amazing Disney Villains material at Joann's Fabrics.  I had to have it, but I had no idea what I was going to do with it.  I recently purchased a small convertible laptop to take to crops with me and it needed a case.  I decided to make myself a case from the wonderful fabric.

Unfortunately since I was not following a pattern and I was winging it as I went, I did not think to take photos.  I hope the sketches below are enough information.  There really is no pattern since you will want to fit your laptop and every one is slightly different.

To start, I measure the laptop and cut two pieces of cardboard the size of the top and the bottom of the closed laptop.  This will give it some stability (but also makes it not washable, I am trying to come up with something different). 

I then laid the cardboard out on my material to gauge the size rectangle I wanted to cut. I left a 1 inch allowance on either side and the bottom and a little extra on the top to be safe.  I also left an inch in the middle between the two pieces of cardboard as that is the width of my closed laptop. 

I ended up cutting two pieces of this large rectangle (front and back):

I also cut one piece that was 9 inches by 2 3/4 inches (approx) to use as a closure. 

I added fusible fleece to all pieces again for some stability and padding. 

I sewed the closure piece first by sewing three sides and turning right side out and ironing flat and sewing the final opening.  I added velcro to one end that will close on the laptop case. 

I estimated where I wanted this piece to go and sewed it in place.  It was the center of the bottom of the bottom piece of fabric. 

This is the part that I found trickiest.  I needed to add elastic to the top piece, the piece that would be against my laptop.  The elastic is used to hold the laptop in place.  I place one elastic just below the keyboard and above the mouse pad, the second is above the keyboard, and the third is below the camera above the screen. I pinned the elastics in place on the wrong side of the fabric before sewing.

I sewed my two larger rectangles wrong sides together on the sides and the bottom allowing for 1/4 inch seam allowance. I was careful not to catch the closure I had sewn on in the previous step.  I turned them right side out and ironed them.  I put one piece of cardboard in and sewed a seam as close to the cardboard as I could.  I left an inch (the width of my closed laptop and sewed another seam as close to the cardboard as I could. (See the blue lines in the below diagram for reference). 

Before sewing the top closed, I added the velcro to the top for the closure. 

Open:

Closed:

I then carefully sewed the top closed by folding the raw edges inside and sewing on the outer edge.

Here is the finished project.  I love this fabric so much, I do have some left over and cannot decide that to make with it!

Blog Hop - Julie Nutting Doll Stamps

This is my very first blog hop which was organized by Scrapbook Cafe Online.  The task - to use any of the Julie Nutting Doll Stamps.  I love these stamps and have several of them.  For this task I chose the Chiara.

Since I love scrapping for my Disney trips I chose to make an embellishment for a future Disney page.  I selected to use several patterned papers from the Simple Stories Say Cheese 6 x 6 paper pad to accessorize my stamp.

Other tools I used included my Stampin' Up Basic Black ink, and My Close to My Heart Basic Colors Watercolor Pencils and Blender Pen.

I started by stamping the image on a plain white cardstock from my stash. 

After stamping the image I colored the doll skin with the CTMH Sorbet pencil and the hair with the CTMH Sunflower pencil.  I used the blender pen to soften the coloring.

I then stamped the dress portion of the stamp on the red dot paper and the sash portion on to the the black striped paper (both papers from the Say Cheese paper pad).

A lot of fussy cutting followed as I cut around all of the small scallops of all the stamped images. 

When the cutting was done, it was time to glue everything together.  I used a Co-ordinations brown card stock as the base and selected a "Magic" sheet as the background to my image. 

The final touches were using Christmas Red Stickles on the head band and Silver Stickles to highlight the dots on "Magic".

The final product:

I encourage you to visit the other stops on the Blog Hop!

Stop 1 -  Scrapbook Cafe Online

Stop 2 - A Pirates Life Crafts (that's me)

Stop 3 - Laura's Creative World

Stop 4 - Papierkowo

Stop 5 - Sheila's Crafty Corner

Thanks for checking out my very first blog hop!  I hope to do it again soon!

*Credit to Cayla Gaudet for a recent Make-n-take that showed the stamping on multiple pages and fussy cutting an outfit technique with the Julie Nutting Doll Stamps. 

Keepsakes in the Scrapbook - Using Disney Photopass Photo Folders

I keep EVERYTHING when we travel - room keys, brochures, certain wrapping and packaging, and much more with the plan that I will use it, right?  Sometimes I do and sometimes I end up with a box of "stuff" when the scrapbook is done.

I have decided to do my current scrapbook using pocket scrapbook pages so when it came time to scrapbook our Princess Dinner at Akershus Royal Dining Hall I wanted to use the Photo Folder that the Photo Keepsake came in as part of the page.  I decided to cut it into 6 x 6 and 4 x 6 cards to slip into the pockets. I am very pleased with the result.

For example purposes I have photos of this year's Akershus Photo Keepsake Photo Folder.  It is not the same as the one I used, but I did not think to take photos of the 2010 version before cutting it. 

Here is the pocket scrapbook two page spread I did using the 2010 Photo Keepsake Folder:

The top left 6 x 6 pocket is cut from the cover of the folder:

The princess charms are actually a keychain I purchased off of eBay.  The Princess velum is from my stash, not sure where I got it from, and it is backed by navy cardstock. 

The lower half of the left side has the remainder of the eBay keychain - the princess charms were dangling from this crown.  The Akershus journal card was a printable from Pixie Sprite's Photobucket.  She has a ton of fantastic printable Disney Pocket Cards.

The bottom right 4 x 6 pocket has the back of the 2010 Photo Keepsake Folder.  

For the second page I used the inside cover of the 2010 Keepsake Folder.  I cold not cut it smaller than 6 x 8 without losing some of the art. I decided to use it to fill two 4 x 6 pockets. 

Another eBay purchase is the castle charm I used on the photo of DD dancing. 

Finally, the bottom of the back cover was used for the last pocket of the page. 

 ~Happy Crafting~

Challenge Time with Prairie Paper Haven - Using the "I Heart Fall" Collection

Jodie from Prairie Paper Haven sent me a package of wonderful treats to do a project with. The goodies included the Echo Park 12 x 12 Collection Kit "I Heart Fall" and some wonderful coordinating cardstock from the BoBunny Double Dot collection of textured cardstock.

The challenge was a tough one as I really do not scrapbook with the colors and since most of my projects are vacation oriented, fall is not a season I tend to scrapbook either.  But, challenge accepted as I attempted two projects from these items.

I was inspired by a recent Facebook post I saw by my friend Carlye to create one of the very cool Tri-Fold cards that are so popular right now.  Then at an event on Saturday, my wonderful friend Kerry brought the instructions and got my butt in gear to try one myself.  Thank you Kerry!!!

I decided to make my parents a Thanksgiving Thank You Card.

Kerry got the instructions from the procrastistamper blog. 

The premise is simple the only thing we struggled with was ensuring our scored lines were in the right places and then ensuring we had folded them in the correct manner. 

I used the Bo Bunny Double Dot Brown cardstock as my base.  The dots and apple papers were in the Echo Park "I heart Fall" collection. 

I inked the edges of the dot paper with my Close to My Heart Chocolate Distressing ink.  I love distressing inks as they always seem to make things "pop" a little more. 

The Cream DarJeeling Teastained Dahlia Flowers and Reversible Black and Orange Satin Ribbon were also provided in Jodie's box of goodies and are available at Prairie Paper Haven. 

"Happy Thanksgiving", the Apple Crate and Leaves were cardstock stickers that were included in the Echo Park "I Heart Fall" Collection. To add some depth, I used the 3D Foam Squares on the Apple Crate. 

The "Thank You" was stamped on cream cardstock from my stash (OK it was from Kerry's stash) using the Stampin' Up Four You Clear Stamp Set.  

I am thrilled with how the card turned out and cannot wait to deliver it to my parents. 

I wanted to challenge myself to use the products in my everyday scrapbooking as well. Like I said earlier this was hard since I tend to scrapbook travel and not fall or thanksgiving.  I am currently working on a Disney Cruise/Disney World Vacation Scrapbook.  I am doing it using Pocket Scrapbook Pages (which is another challenge, but so far it has been fun). 

So I stared at this paper wondering "How am I going to use it?"  Then it hit me.... Apples = Snow White!!  And I had the perfect event for the page. 

While we were on our first cruise DD was selected to assist Snow White and Dopey on stage.  (You see only Snow White and Dopey made it through customs, the other dwarfs had some problems.)

The top right 4 x 6 pockets use the tree background from the "I Heart Fall" collection.  I then cut a strip of the apple paper ("I heart Fall") and used some red Stickles on the solid apples for some bling.  Dopey is a 3D Sticker from EK Success and the dots paper behind him is also from the "I Heart Fall" collection. I am not sure where I got the "Theater" Marquis Sticker, but I had saved it for this page and it worked perfectly. The photo is matted in red cardstock from my stash. 

The apple at the bottom of the page was the "Apple Cider" piece from the "I heart Fall" collection, however the 3 x 4 piece was portrait oriented instead of landscape which is what I needed for my pocket. 

I cut the bottom off of the apple and then mounted it to a 3 x 4 landscape dot piece. I chose to use some Stickles on the leaves on the apple again to add some bling.  I used some cream cardstock from my journaling. 

To finish the page I used some pocket cards from the Me and My Big Ideas Glitter and Foil Specialty Cards "Happiness Is This" Collection.  Both the red foil 4 x 6 and the red glitter 3 x 4 complimented the page perfectly. 

~Happy Crafting~