Making Memories

Jill Schwartz: Celebrations

Jill has shared with us a peak into her world when it comes to celebrations.  Her parents started a fun tradition that she has carried on.  Keep reading to find out more fun ideas she has done to celebrate the loved ones in her life.  Thanks Jill!

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With it being Mother's Day this past week.....and my birthday, the idea of celebrations have been on my mind.

I delight to think of the way in which my parents celebrated my birthday.  It was always treated as though it was a huge event and has influenced the way I like to celebrate for other people. When I was a child on the eve of my birthday my parents would sneak in to my room (after I fell asleep, so they thought) .....and there they would create an extravagant Art Celebration piece, so when I opened my eyes on my Birthday there would be no doubt that it was a special day.  This art piece took the form of many things over the years: a long streamer of designed paper containing messages and artwork that started at my bed and spread all over the house, out of my room, down the stairs, through the kitchen into the den up the other stairs back to me.  Another time I awoke and the door to my room was completely covered with a collage of me.  My parents cut out a little trap door that allowed me to crawl thru and exit my bedroom.  I used to lie there in bed, squeezing my eyes closed and not wanting to see what was in store for me till the sun came up. I was soooo excited.

It is no surprise that I carried on this tradition in my own family. Celebrating is really a joyful time and creating a backdrop or a place to jump off from makes it even more delightful. Some of my celebrations included:

For my dad's 70 birthday I made everyone hats with old photos of my dad in different phases of his life. And yes, I made everyone wear them so that when we yelled Surprise my dad's life would flash before his eyes.

On Wyatt's 9th birthday we gave him a surprise puppy and had to drive 1 hour to go fetch her. I decided to make the ride an especially exciting one. Wyatt was given a decorated envelope every 5 minutes with an artful clue that gave tips about his present.

Here are a few more pictures of a few birthday projects that I have created.

Creating a celebration is a great thing to do for someone . It makes you think about them and who they are, and what they are about!! It's an awesome way to honor them.

Create a Simple Card with the Slice

Here is a quick idea for creating a card with the Slice by Laura Vegas.

I want to share a simple card that I created yesterday, using my slice from Making Memories. one card that I don't have a lot of in my stash, is get well cards. I loved the font and look of the "cheer up" sentiment. It sort of feels like a more casual take on the standard "get well" card to me.

 

For this card, I used my slice, the Dilly Dally Design Card, and the Greetings Design Card. The pattern papers are from the Great Escape collection.

 

I started by slicing my sentiment, using the new Greetings Design Card. My cards are standard size, at 4.25" x 5.5". so I went with a 2.5" sentiment.

 

Then I switched over to the Dilly Dally Design Card, to slice my flower. This design card has the new layering option. This breaks down each design into several different pieces and cuts. this allows you to cut the different parts of each shape seperately, from different papers, so that you can then piece them back together. This flower I choose has two layers. this is the first one, which I sliced at the 4 inch size.

 

If you push on the double arrow buttons at the bottom, this takes you from the normal cut, to the shadow option, then to the mirror option, and then to the layer option. Once you get to the layer, this is where you'll find the next set of cuts for this flower. The circle piece goes over the actual flower, and the small piece is for the leaf.

I sliced the base piece of the flower from green pattern paper. since I was slicing the layered pieces from two different papers, I decided to go ahead and make two cards. I just swapped out the pieces. So one card will have the pink flower and leaf, with an aqua flower center and one card will have the aqua flower and leaf, with a pink flower center.

 

To add a little texture to the layered pieces, I ran them thru my cuttlebug, using my swiss dot embossing folder.

I then inked the edges with a brown ink pad, and also rubbed it over the embossed areas of each piece. I added mini pop dots to the back, to give some extra dimension to the cards.

 

For the actual card base, I started with white textured cardstock. I decided to take out this background grid stamp from hero arts. I stamped it to the card front, using some peach parfait ink from stampin up.

 

The new Greetings Design Card has some cute little borders to choose from.  These are perfect for card making. I choose the 4 inch size at first, knowing my card was 4.25" wide. but it was a little too long. I think it ended up cutting a 4.5" border. Most slice shapes only cut to 4 inches, so this is kind of nice to have a larger cut on this. I decided to use the 3.5" size, which was perfect for my cards.

 

I adhered my sentiment in the upper right corner of the card. Then I adhered my border strip directly across the bottom of the card. I adhered my flower base, tucking it behind the border strip.

 

Then I adhered my pop dotted, layered pieces, on top of the green flower base. I added the circle outer flower piece first, and then added the flower center right in the middle. A few rhinestones and some staples finished off the card.

 

In less than thirty minutes, I had two super simple, but cute cards to add to my card stash.

Making Memories Guest Designer Samantha Sibbett

This adorable spring banner was created by Making Memories' guest designer Samantha Sibbett. This is a perfect project for spring as the weather starts to warm (or at least we can cross our fingers that it warms up).

Nothing says Spring is HERE like a big happy banner to hang in your garden!  My girls and I love making easy seasonal banners.  With the help of my Slice, making this banner was a "spring breeze".  After we cut out a few dozen floral shapes, I layered them and attached a brad.  I let my girls glue them to the bunnies' necks.  We punched holes and strung them on with a beautiful ribbon.  I also used the Slice to cut out the alphas, love that machine!  

We can't decide if we like it better on our garden patio or inside on the across the kitchen window.  

A big thank you to Making Memories for inviting me here today!  

Samantha Sibbet

Project Supplies:

Je t'Adore Paper

Slice

Slice Basic Shapes and Spring

Bunny shapes from craft store

Ribbon

Brads

 

 

 

 

An Awe-Inspiring Project by Wilna

Today I have a little tutorial on how to create layers using your Making Memories Slice and in particular the Bravissimo Design card. I used a Bravissimo Rosette and added a center that I used my slice to cut. I love my hot glue gun and used it to adhere all the pieces and create a layered and dimensional effect. Here are some pictures and the sizes of the pieces as I cut them. Let me just say that the new slice Elite is... amazing. : )

Check out Wilna's blog for more inspiring projects.