October 12th, 2011
Well hello there! My name is Angie Hinksman and it’s my turn to share some crafty goodness here at The Project Girl’s Blog. Thank you so much Jen for having me ! For my first post I thought I’d share with you my ideas for creating a simple way of keeping track of those discount coupons and vouchers. I’ll show you how to make a two printable Coupon Organizers.
There are two ways you can create these Coupon Organizers. If you have either photoshop or photoshop elements and are experienced with working with layered templates, I have included layered psd files that you can use to clip your digi-papers into and print out. I have also included pdf versions that you can use as templates for your traditional scrapbooking papers; either by printing them onto white card and then using as traditional templates or you can print these straight onto your scrapbooking paper. You can download these templates here.
You will need the following supplies:
- Your printed Coupon Organizer Documents, printed onto white card – The larger organizer; 1 center/main part and 2 accordion sides. For the small organizer, just one all-in-one document. I’ve used Jen’s Nostalgia 2 papers, available at Design House Digital.
- For the large Organizer, 1 piece of 12×12 inch card stock (for the dividers and lining)
- For the small organizer 1 piece of card stock (I’ve used 1 piece of A4 white cardstock)
- Glue or double sided sticky tape
- Velcro or magnetic tape (to keep your organizers closed)
- Scissors, Craft knife or rotary cutter
- Rolling pin to help your glue stick good and tight!
- Embossing tool, Ruler or Blunt butter Knife (to score folded edges)
I have set up the psd files so that you can easily ‘clip’ your digi-paper straight into the. Once you have prepared your digi prints you can just print the finished documents onto white cardstock. Alternatively you can print the pdf versions onto traditional scrapbook paper by first trimming your paper to fit a standard A4 sized page.
Now you are ready to assemble your Coupon Organizer. First, cut out all of your pieces. Using the center, patterned piece as a guide, cut out another center piece from your cardstock. This will be the lining of your organizer. Cut the remaining card stock into 3 6 x 3 ¼ inch pieces. These will be the ‘dividers’.
Next fold the ‘accordion sides’ as illustrated in the images below. I’ve included a ‘Black & White’ version to help illustrate this.
Next, glue the sides of 2 accordion pieces to the sides of the main piece as shown below. Leave this to dry and then glue the lining to the other side.
Once the whole thing is completely dry (I’d give it an hour or so), fold up your organizer as shown and add the either your Velcro or magnetic tape, as shown. Finally add your dividers. You can secure the sides with a little glue at the accordion edges if you like but it’s really not necessary!
The smaller organizer is even quicker. Simply printout the all-in-on sheet, assemble in a similar way to the large organizer (folding at the dotted lines). Cut out 3 5×2 ¾ inch rectangles from your white cardstock. No need to line this one just fold, glue, insert your dividers and your good to go!
And there you have two easy ways to keep track of those oh-so-useful vouchers and coupons!
Have a great day !
October 7th, 2011
Halloween will be here before we know it! Do you have your costume planned?
I am still deciding if I’ll be dressing up in something fun or not.
Even though I don’t have a costume yet, I now have a stylin’ treat bag!
While trolling down the Halloween aisles at various stores, I have never been a fan of the trick or treat bags/buckets/etc they have for sale.
So, I decided to decorate my own by making my own stencil.
To start, I picked up a 3-pack of canvas tote bags from Wal-mart {had I actually planned ahead, I would have used a coupon for Hobby Lobby…but that’s what you get after 9 at night}.
It took me some time to figure out if I was going to decorate both sides or just one side of the bag. In the end, I decided to decorate just one side. Then I had to decide on a design. I decided to use a word graphic from Jen’s Spooked Halloween Elements digital kit. After I decided on my design, I traced it on to freezer paper.
I choose to use freezer paper since I don’t have any sort of machine to assist with those duties. I just used a laptop, pencil, freezer paper, exacto knife, and cutting pad. When I trace the pattern, I just {lightly} trace it directly on the laptop screen. {I do this, because it’s a MacBook and has a glass-like screen.} Otherwise, I would have printed off the design and then use that to trace the pattern on to the freezer paper.
{Yes, the laptop is upside down…it’s easier to trace that way!}
To trace, be sure that the glossy side is down, and that you are tracing on the side that is paper-like.
{The glossy side needs to stay face down, as that is what is used to iron the paper to the fabric/bag.}
Once tracing is completed, cut out the parts of the design that you want to be painted. And yes, it will take some time.
Next, I ironed the ‘stencil’ on to the bag. I apologize for the brown spots on the stencil/bag. I guess that is what happens when you use your iron for crafts and never clean it. 
If you look closely, I also reinsert the ‘insides’ of some of the letters. I also labeled them, just to be sure they were placed where they were cut from.
Now it’s time to paint! Since I have a wide variety of acrylic paints, I like to use a textile medium to make my acrylic paints more fabric friendly. {Be sure to read the instructions on the bottle. I don’t know how the various brands differ for application instructions.}
I started out with black, then finished off with a mustard yellow. I decided to go with the mustard instead of orange…because of the accessories I wanted to use. Plus, it just works!
One thing to remember when painting on fabric, be sure that you do more of a ‘sponging’ technique. This means to not drag your paint brush across the freezer paper/fabric. Dab the paint brush up and down. {Had I had an actual sponge brush, this would have been easier.} If you want to give your letters/design a more rustic/worn look, you will just go a little lighter on the amount of paint you are applying.
Once you finish painting, let it dry completely. After the paint has dried, carefully pull the freezer paper off. It seems that any time I do this, I do need to use my exacto knife to help get some small pieces off.
Now have fun with accessorizing the bag any way you see fit! I added a couple of buttons, one on each side of ‘OR’. Then I added some trim from the Stella Rose Hattie “Boy” Trim collection. {As I’m sitting here now, I am wondering how I can also add the velvet light blue trim to this bag. I might be adding it later!} To attach the buttons and trim, I just used my trusty glue gun.
And here is my final product! I love it! Now, I just need to find a reason to use it. Maybe I can use it for handing out candy to any trick or treaters that stop by.
If you have kids and if they are old enough, have them help you! Let their little creative minds help with designing a bag they would be proud to use this Halloween, as well as Halloweens to come. {Just be sure that an adult is the one doing any cutting with an exacto knife or any gluing with the hot glue gun.}
Have a fantastic weekend!
October 1st, 2011
How many parts will there be? That I am not sure yet! But I do know that I’ve been having so much fun decorating!
TA DA! My fireplace is almost done being decorated. I stayed up way too late last night getting my eclectic halloween banner finished. I do have a few things still left to do – the chalkboard will have a creepy recipe or saying on it, and the burlap frame will have some sort of art pined to it, but really it’s ALMOST done, and it looks fantastic. I am so happy with how it’s turned out.
If you would like a detailed step-by-step tutorial on the banner, visit my halloween banner tutorial blog post at Design House Digital. I didn’t want it to get too wordy over there so I saved a few things for my blog. First thing was that I used burlap ribbon for the base-layer. I took this bolt of ribbon that I had (bought it clearance from Ballard designs last year for like $6), and basically hand pleated and fed it through my machine in a very sloppy manner. I wanted the whole thing to look spooky and unkempt.
Once I had a bunch of it pleated, I hung it on my mantle to make sure it was a good length.
Once I was happy with the length and draping, I cut it to size and then started building my flags.
You can read a bit more about that process on the Design House Digital blog. But basically I used my new Vintage Findings Halloween digital papers, printed them out and made some super cute flags using the printed out papers, plus some doilies, ribbons, and My Mind’s Eye brads. I did take some pictures about the process of staining the doilies, but I’ll post about that later next week.
What I wanted to share with all my readers is an awesome free download of the .SVG files (cutting files for digital cutters) for the banner shapes and the letters for this project (If you don’t have a cutter that will cut SVG files, I’ve also included a template that you can print out and use to cut your shapes by hand).
Click image below to being downloading zip file.
Click on the image above to download a PDF and SVG version of my printable banner project . The downloadable files in this article (and across my entire site) are free for personal use only. If you would like to blog about this free download, please accompany and images from my site with a credit and link back to this article. As a courtesy please do not link directly to a downloadable file but rather to this page.
September 29th, 2011
I came across a great blog a few weeks ago titled A Thousand Words and there were some really adorable projects including this awesome tutorial on creating royal icing shapes for cupcakes:
I cannot wait to try this out! Not that I need to be making cupcakes anytime soon. But check out the link for step-by-step instructions.
And then there is the super awesome Birthday Hamper that she made “on the cheap” for a good friend’s birthday gift. It turned out to be the cutest home-made gift ever known to man:
Anyway if you have some blog browsing time, I highly suggest A Thousand Words for a good read and some great inspiration!
August 25th, 2011
So I finally got a hold of all my new My Mind’s Eye releases. I actually laid everything out and took a bunch of photos, but that’s a whole other post! Just looking and touching it made me really really want to play with it. So I rearranged some stuff and made some time to just get my hands dirty. First I had to unpack all my craft supplies. As I was doing that I found these three 5×6 pieces of foam core board and it got me thinking of what I could do with them.
I knew I wanted to play with all my pink goodies… if you could see how gorgeous they are, you would want to play with them too!
To make my Home Sweet Home wall hanging, I used pretty much all of the Lost & Found 2 Blush set not including the titles, and definitely including the 6×6 paper pack. I did cut some of the 6×6 papers on my cricut. For the Home Sweet Home lettering I used the Freak Show font (with SCAL) to cut it on my cricut. For the Bracket shape, I made a quick .SVG File that you can download for free.
The first thing I did was cut and mount this glittered dance paper on my foam core:
Then I used this Creamy Brown chalk ink to make the edges look a little edged.
So then I just played around with all the supplies and made these cute rectangles:
To get the striped ribbon to have those pleats, I just cut a strip of card stock a little more narrow than the ribbon, and ran the glue runner over it. Then I adhered the ribbon, and toward the end, I just made 3 loops. Then I ran the whole thing through my sewing machine – looped side first with a contrasting ribbon.
Then to put the brad on, I just took my crop-a-dile and punched a hole through the whole thing and dropped in the brad.
The other fun thing I did with this rectangle was use the coordinating stamps to stamp that cute but still subtle banner.
With this crocheted ribbon, I gathered it with my sewing machine with my very technical method of shoving it through the sewing machine quicker than it can feed itself.
One of the fun things I did with this rectangle was take the pearl swirls and cut them up to fit the bottom of the rectangle instead of using them as a full set. It worked so well and was a super easy way of customizing the pearls.
When all that was done, I glued the rectangles to a wide ribbon and looped it at the top, and hung it in my guest room (which so does not look like a guest room at all!). Yay for baby steps to decorate the house.
