December Daily - A peek inside

Hello! Are you feeling this I-like-Christmas-but-why-does-it-have-to-be-this-busy-need-to-bake-more-cookies-need-to-get-the-presents-need-more-time-for-snuggling-and-reading-with-my-girl-oh-no-not-a-cold-oh-no-enjoy-this-time-of-the-year kind of feeling already? Ha, I do. But I am in great christmas mood this year. And I love every second of watching my girl enjoying this special time. 
But to the peek! Today there is a post about ideas for December Daily Albums on the Echo Park blog and a page of my album is up. This is an inside peek of my album, showing day 12 and 13:

Because my album is made from paper bags, every page has several pockets for photo mats, journaling etc. On this page, I created a little pocket for a tag, a pocket for journaling and photos in the middle and the pocket for larger photos between this and the next page.

I wanted to keep everything quite simple and not too busy, because with photos and journaling it will be busy enough. And when I think that it needs to be embellished more, I can add matching elements when adding the photos.

So, this was one page. I will start showing the other ones when December begins. Can't wait!


Have a beautiful day and thanks for visiting!


Hugs and Love,
Vanessa

Echo Park Fresh Face Designer - Post # 4

Hello! So, today was my last post for Echo Park as their Guest Designer. It has been such a pleasure! For my last post I created these projects:

First is a fun home décor. A few weeks ago, I went to my parents with my little girl and we brought a mustache on a stick. We giggled all the time during this silly photo session :). For this printer's tray, I used the beautiful collection "Times & Seasons". Oh, how I love it! Here are some closer looks:

And then I made this card:

That's it. I hope you liked my projects!


Thanks for visiting and have a beautiful day!


Hugs and Love,
Vanessa

December Daily Sneak

Hello! This year, I have decided to make my very first December Daily Album. I have to admit that when I first read about a December Daily, I didn't get the idea. But this year I am very excited about it! I am not sure if there is a special way how to make it, I didn't read any of Ali Edward's tips. I just prepared what I thought I would like. It's a paper bag album that I made from plain kraft paper bags. All the paper is Echo Park (I can't believe how much I was able to create with ONE Season's Greetings Collection kit!). 
The cover:

The spine:

And a look at the book from above:

I will share photos of the inside soon. It is so much fun making this, I have been enjoying every minute! Can't wait to add photos and journaling! Mmh, looks like the double chocolate brownies are ready - I wish you could smell them! Off to check!


Have a beautiful day and thanks for visiting!


Hugs and Love,
Vanessa

Peace

Hello! I am back with another layout I created with Vinnie's new Collection A Fuchsia Christmas. This time I didn't use any of the bright pink:

Last year we had a lot of snow already. Nothing yet this year...


Have a beautiful day and thanks for visiting!


Hugs and Love,
Vanessa

Trim The Tree - More Vinnie!

Good Morning! I have some more new Vinnie eyecandy for you! Her new release is called A Fuchsia Christmas Collection - and I love it, again! I had difficulties finding a good photo of my little girl that fits the christmas theme, but I finally found one. Here is a layout:

I love the colors of this collection! Hopefully my printer will be ready this weekend and I will be able to share some hybrid projects. The elements in this collection are fab! Get yours here! 


Hope to be back soon! Thanks for visiting and have a great day!


Hugs and Love,
Vanessa

Winner of the 365 Cards Blog Hop!

Hello! Without further ado, here is the lucky winner of the 365 Cards issue:

Congratulations, Karen!!! Please contact me for your address. You will find my email address above!


Happy Wednesday!


Hugs and Love,
Vanessa

Echo Park Fresh Face Designer - Post # 3

Hello! Here come the projects I made for my third post as Echo Park's Fresh Face Designer for November. This is all about little girls. First, a home décor item that is useful for a scrapbooker:

This altered clipboard was made to display a photo that can be easily replaced and to hold more photos, journaling, memorabilia etc. on its backside to scrapbook the photos later:

All the papers and the stickers I used are from the Happy Days Collection. And this collection is so fun! Here I made a girly card using it:

Now to two more projects, this time using the Season's Greetings collection again. Echo Park offers great digital die-cut shapes via iDIECUT.com. I used the snowflake shapes from the before-mentioned collection to make a pretty shirt for my girl and to create a shaped card. Here is my sweet little model with the results:

Haha, she had some fun showing her new shirt:

Here you can see the card a bit better:

Creating shaped cards is very easy. Here is how I did it:

 Here are the shapes that I die-cut from cardstock and patterned paper

 I inked the edges of the patterned paper snowflake and adhered it to one of the cardstock pieces. This will be the front of the card. Then I scored the shape for the back of the card at one peak and assembled the two pieces, putting the adhesive only to the small, scored part.

The finished card looks like this




















I hope you enjoyed today's projects! If you have any questions, please write me an email. You will find the address on top of my blog. 


Thank you for visiting and have a beautiful day!


Hugs and Love,
Vanessa


Supplies:
Patterned Paper, Stickers, Digi Die-cuts: Echo Park (Happy Days, Season's Greetings)
Cardstock, Stamps, Buttons, Star Tag: PTI
Ink: Ranger Industries, Tsukineko
Other: twine, clipboard, fabric, gemstone

Turned down projects - sorry for the ramblings

Hello! Today I thought I'd share two projects that I had submitted to the Paper Crafts May/June call. I have to admit that I was really disappointed that none of my projects was accepted. I knew one day this would happen and I've been trying to not take an acceptance email for granted. I didn't want to be arrogant, but I was really being spoilt. So I was very sad when I saw the message on facebook that all the emails had been sent out. From now on, I will try to be modest. I don't want anybody to think that I am conceited. It is just the one thing that I love and seem to be able to do pretty well. Creating things from paper. It's my passion. And it made me ambitious. And although I am working hard on my projects, I haven't lost the fun in creating. It is my therapy and the first thing I want to do when I am not able to spend time with my daughter. Because she certainly is the most important thing. That is the reason why I am not leaving many comments on blogs. I would love to be able to give back all the love I receive from my sweet blogworld friends. Because their support means so much to me. But I never want to neglect my child. She is real life after all. Oh my, I guess I am chatty today :) Sorry for my ramblings!


Here are two of the projects that I made for the "quotes for teachers and grads" feature:

Have you seen today's new release post over at PTI? Haha, I thought my idea was so clever :) . I made my door with paper hinches. These new dies will make this much easier.


The inside of the door:

And the second project, a fun giftcard holder/photo holder:

I used a mix of Simple Stories papers + stickers and Basic Grey paper here. Love this huge clothespin. 


Ok, that's it for today. Sorry for all the blah again!


Don't forget to leave a comment on my blog hop post by midnight today for the chance to win a copy of the 365 Cards magazine!


Thanks for stopping by and have a beautiful day!


Hugs and Love,
Vanessa

Paper Crafts Magazine Presents: 365 Cards Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to the 365 Cards Blog Hop! I am glad you are stopping by! Today's blog hop is all about this:

Another amazing, must-have special issue from Paper Crafts! You can get the magazine here. I am lucky enough to have it already and I love it! Working on projects for this issue was a lot of fun, because I did some research on interesting Holidays and what I found there was, well, really interesting :) I like food holidays best. But we'll come to that later. First some more information. Listen well, this is the best part! You are able to win a copy of this fabulous issue just by leaving a comment on this post before midnight on Sunday, November 13th. And that's not all. Leave a comment on the Paper Crafts Connection blog for your chance to win an incredible-wonderful-Vanessa-would-love-to-win-it-too prize!!! Ha. Go and look yourself! But first leave a comment here. And maybe look at the card that I made for you today. Right, the card. Every designer participating in this blog hop made a special card for you. Every designer made a card suitable for a different month. My month is July. Oh, how I love July! Usually it is warm and sunny, we get strawberries everywhere and eat lots of ice cream. See, back to the food holidays. 

I scream - you scream - we all scream for ice cream! 

July is National Ice Cream Month. The 7th is National Strawberry Sundae Day. The 15th is National Ice Cream Day. The 17th Peach Ice Cream Day. The 23rd is Vanilla Ice Cream Day (as if I'd need an excuse to eat ice cream). Guess what my card is about:

I wanted my card to look like a vintage ice cream parlor. The paper and that sticker from Echo Park just worked perfectly for this purpose. That sun blind looks bulky, but I adhered a paper hinge and it slides into an envelope easily and opens again when the card is taken out. Here is a closer look at the details:

I wanted the sentiment to look like a chalkboard sign in front of the shoppe, so I painted some cardstock with chalkboard paint and die-cut the label from it. To simulate a chalk writing, I used white acrylic paint to stamp the sentiment. And the ice cream sticker needed some more yumminess, so I added pink stickles to the cream. 


Now, I am sure you want to see what the other designers created for today! Here is the list:

• Chan Vuong (January)
• Kalyn Kepner (February)
• Carly Robertson (March)
• Cristina Kowalczyk (April)
• Kelley Eubanks (May)
• Amber Daigre (June)
• Vanessa Menhorn (July)
• Windy Robinson (August)
• Laura Williams (September)
• Betsy Veldman (October)
• Teri Anderson (November)
• Julia Stainton (December)

Happy hopping, good luck for the prizes and thanks for visiting! 
(note: please come back on Wednesday, November 16th to find out if you won!!!)


Hugs and Love,
Vanessa


Supplies:
Cardstock: PTI
Patterned Paper, Sticker: Echo Park Paper (Happy Days Collection)
Stamp: Hero Arts
Button: October Afternoon
Dies: Spellbinders
Glitter Glue: Ranger Industries
Other: Acrylic Paint, Chalkboard Paint, Baker's Twine

365 Cards

Wow, that are a lot of cards! Today I'd like to share one of the cards that are published in the new Paper Crafts Special issue 365 Cards. A card a day - that means a lot of inspiration. I already got my copy and this is one amazing issue again. Here comes one of my cards:

One of my very favorite stamps ever. The hydrangea from Hero Arts. Although I've seen hundreds of projects using this stamp, I can't get enough of it. The paper is My Mind's Eye. I used glimmer mist to make everything more interesting:

Ok, I decided to share two more cards today. These are cards that I had made for the call, but didn't get picked. No wonder - looking at the better versions I found in the magazine! So fun to see minds thinking alike :) Meet card number 1:

Now, turn to page 63 to admire Julie Campbell's much better take on this. And another one:

And to see Katie Gehring's cute card that reminded me of this one, turn to page 79. 


Oh, and if you do not own a copy yet, come back tomorrow for your chance to win one!


Thanks for visiting and have a beautiful day!


Hugs and Love, 
Vanessa

Rosette Tutorial

Hello! I am back with the promised tutorial for the rosette. These are quite trendy right now and can be used on so many projects, because they make great embellishments. The way I make them is nothing I have invented - I saw how to make them somewhere, although I can't remember where or when I saw this for the first time. I prefer this way to make rosettes, because I don't need a long strip of paper, but can use smaller papers, too. Here is the tutorial (you can always click onto the photos to enlarge):

 Die-cut two scalloped circles from paper. 

 Score every circle as shown.

 Cut at one score to the middle of your circle.

 Accordeon-fold both circles.

 Assemble both parts on both sides.

 Looking closely at this photo, you can see how I assembled them.

 Then you have this rosette.

Now punch or die-cut two circles to adhere to the front and the back of your rosette and embellish it as desired.


Easy, isn't it?

Here is the finished rosette on the bag again:

I hope your day is great! Thanks for visiting!


Hugs and Love,
Vanessa

Echo Park Fresh Face Designer - Post # 2

Hello! It's time for my second post as Fresh Face Designer for Echo Park Paper! More ideas for christmas and more tutorials for you. The first project for today is a home décor item. Cute Mr. Frosty from the Season's Greetings sticker sheet needed a nice home. Here is what I made for him:

He is just the cutest little snowman! 

I filled the shadowbox with glittery mica snowflakes to make him feel at home. Would you like to see how I made this sticker stand in the box? Here comes a little tutorial:

 First, use some kind of powder to remove the stickiness from the back of the stickers. I like to use this small anti-static bag that prepares surfaces for heat embossing. But you can use baby powder as well. 

 Then I adhered the trees to my background. The green one is adhered with foam squares for more dimension.

Next, I created a small triangle from a strip of cardstock. (I added the black one for you to better see it) 

And then I adhered the triangle to the back of Mr. Frosty. Easy, isn't it?






















Here is a closer look at the bow on top of the shadowbox:

My second project is a giftbag that I made quickly using my scoreboard. Here it is:

This is something I like to do a lot. Some pretty paper, some scores, some cuts and a thoughtful gift packaging is done. 

Here is how I made the giftbag:

Trim a sheet of patterned paper to 9,5 '' x 12 '' 

From the 12'' side, score at 2,75'' - 5,5'' - 8,25'' - 11'', turn and score at 2,75'' from the 9,5'' side

 Cut at the bottom scores to the 2,75'' score

Adhere a strip of patterned paper to the top 

Fold and assemble your bag






















Tomorrow I will share how I made this rosette. It is not made from a strip of patterned paper and can be made from smaller sized papers, too. 


Thank you for visiting and have a beautiful day!


Hugs and Love,
Vanessa