Hi! My name is Allie from Well Trained Paper and I am visiting you from the Twin Cities in Minnesota, home of the Mall of America, and Archiver's Annual ScrapFest where I spent some time recently with Cheryl Mezzetti - I helped out in her class, you know - offering assistance, answering questions, giving pointers, and translating those classic Cherylisms only Bostonians can deciper ("paypuh" is paper, "scawlups" is scallops - you get the idea), and the best part - passing out the prizes. Cheryl is a fabulous teacher, and a lot of fun as a shopping pal, and the Mall of America is a great place if you love shopping! Anyway, Cheryl was kind enough to have some goodies sent to me from Creative Imaginations, and invite me to share a project with you, so I am here to share a gift idea. Gift giving certainly doesn't stop after Christmas, so I thought I would share a birthday project.
If you are crafty, you probably know someone who is not. I have friends, family and neighbors who love my crafts, but let's just say they don't enjoy the process the way I do. They do however, love it when I make things for them that they can give, or share.
I moved to a condominium last year, and it was quite the change of pace. Here, we all chip in and do some of the jobs that our wonderful caretaker does not include in his list of to-do's like decorating, arranging parties, and essentially ... prettifying the place.
One of my neighbors volunteered to be in charge of birthdays - making sure they are announced, coordinating quarterly parties - who brings what, when they'll take place, decorating the birthday boy or girl's door, and keeping an updated list of who's having a birthday in our community mail room. She came to me for help with the list in our mail room. "Allie" she says, innocently, "You're the creative one, right?"
To make a long story short, I took on the project of making the birthday list in our community mail room a little more creative, and I gave myself an added to do list of including a fun magnet to put on the birthday boys and girls' mailboxes, and a decorative treat to add to the balloons that decorate their doors. I chose the wonderful Art Warehouse Happy Days Collection. I had the new 6x6 paper pad, which was perfect, with its bright, festive color scheme, and fun designs. There's a sweet swirl and a fun, woven design - a little like a herringbone pattern.
I took a shadow box frame I purchased at a thrift shop, and set out to decorate it. I also created a rosette magnet, and a sour cream container. The sour cream container is easy to create. I filled it with sugar free candies! Start with 5 1/2 x 6" sheet of paper - save the tops for those little rolls in the frame. I place Glue along the 5 1/2" inch edge and then simply roll it into a tube. I then used Beacon's 3-in-1 glue to seal the bottom, pinched it till it was dry, then filled it and repeated with the other side, making sure to pinch in the opposite direction - so that the treat container is sort of triangle shaped. I then added a handmade cupcake accent and a sentiment with a brad.
I once had severe rosette-a-phobia. I did not enjoy making them. I finally forced myself to practice and hone my technique, and now they come pretty easily to me. I cut two strips that are 1 1/2" wide and score at every 1/4 inch. I fold them back and forth and attach them together - creating a piece that looks like a cross between a cupcake wrapper and a lamp shade. I like to glue mine down to die cut buttons. The reason I do this is so that looking down when I am gluing - I can see the center and not glue them to the table! I also find that when going from lampshade to rosette, that if you just try turning in one quarter of this piece, instead of trying to flatten the whole thing, that the rosette comes together much easier. I hope these little tips help you! I glue with Beacon's 3-in-1 glue. I hold the rosette down until I can take my hands up and there's no spring action ... about 15 - 30 seconds. I then place the rosette under a paper pad while I work on the top - just to avoid any latent spring action! On the rosette featured, I have a die cut and embossed scalloped circle that I stenciled - that is, I left the die in place and sponged on some ink. To that I adhered the cupcakes shown (there are more details in the "stuff I used" at the end of the post).
For the frame, I used the tops of the papers I cut for the sour cream containers. I made lots of these little rolls thinking it was a candle like border. Because it's a shadow box, I had plenty of room and I thought it added a nice dimension. I placed a strip of Glue about an inch in and rolled the paper around a paint brush and cut. I repeated - you can get four out of one strip - avoiding the hole. Waste not - want not - I love to use the entire paper pad. I created the cupcakes and rosettes and sour cream containers in all the colors and just mixed and matched. You have three sheets of six different colors in two patterns each - for you math lovers, there's no need to count - that's 36 sheets! Lots to work with. I made these candle like rolls and attached them all to piece of cardstock that was premeasured to fit. This made adding the rolls to the finished background piece easier -and I was able to leave a slot for the journaling cards to be changed out. For the journaling card - I stenciled a butterfly on to some white cardstock using one of Creative Imagination's Existencils. I really love the versatility of these stencils - sponge, stipple, spray, etc.! I then stamped the journaling card and cut it out by hand. Not shown - there are actually 12 of these, and my neighbor is filling in the birthdays and will change them out monthly. The scalloped circle with cupcake are actually on the outside of the frame, along with a die cut sentiment from the Art Warehouse Happy Days collection. These die cuts are really nice because they are double sided - I could have used the blank side and stamped or hand written, but "Someone special is having a birthday" was perfect.
All in all, the project did not take long. I spent a few hours cropping (shopping, and eating, and laughing) with friends and got everything done. Not shown are 60 sour cream containers with an assortment of colors both container and cupcake - because boys don't need pink cupcakes, of course. There are also additional rosettes, also available in boy colors - and in case there are multiple birthdays on one day. With a good plan, you can really get alot out of a single pad of paper! Cost for this project, not including adhesive, buttons or brads (because I know you have oodles of those) was under ten dollars! Just think, you could do this in any theme for a classroom, a Sunday School teacher, the office, etc. Your non-crafty friends, neighbors and family will be very impressed, and super happy with your efforts.
I hope you enjoyed this project. I'm so thrilled that I was invited to join you all. If you have any questions, you are welcome to contact me via my blog - Well Trained Paper.
Stuff I used:
- Art Warehouse Happy Days Collection
- Existencils Butterfly image
- Bazzill White Cardstock
- Baker's Twine
- Basic Grey magnets
- Unity stamps
- Rusty hinge distress ink
- Watermelon Adirondack Ink
- Cupcakes cut from Close to my heart cricut
- Scallop circles ~ Spellbinders
