Paper Weddings

When I recently got married I really wanted to incorporate paper into my wedding in a unique way. I eventually decided a handmade cake topper would be the way to go, but had troubles finding ideas beyond the traditional plastic bride and groom.

So I contacted my favorite paper blogger, Ann Martin (All Things Paper) and asked her for ideas. Ann pointed me in the direction of Concarta who made the cake topper above. They make some of the most beautiful and unique cake toppers I've ever seen. And they are made of paper! I love the ones with the doggies.

BUT, while perusing Concarta's wonderful designs in a blog post by Ann, I was inspired by a quilled hair piece that she designed for a bride pictured to the left. I knew I wanted this flower sitting on top of my cake.

I asked Ann if I could borrow her idea and she graciously pointed me toward Crimson Poppy, the maker of the beautiful flower on top of the quilled base made by Ann. If you want to see some unbelievably real looking paper flowers, you MUST spend some time perusing the Crimson Poppy catalog. Yes, that bouquet to the right is made of paper!!


I honestly wanted to ditch all of the real flowers in my wedding in favor of Crimson Poppy's beautiful bouquets. But, alas, I was short for time and instead the creative mind behind Crimson Poppy, Jenny Jafek-Jones, rushed me 3 gorgeous white flowers (pictured left) that she made especially for me to use in making my own cake topper. Thank You Jenny, you're wonderful!

My next challenge was creating the quilled base worthy enough of the beautiful flowers. I started with light blue quilling paper that matched my wedding invitations and which I later matched the cake icing to. For a refresher on how to make basic quilled shapes, refer to my older blog post which includes 2 quick videos.

For the base, I started with 5 teardrop shapes which I anchored with 5 loosely coiled circles. I then created "wings" by making loops out of 2 pieces of quilling paper glued at the base. The wings were then anchored by a cats eye shape on either side. For additional dimension and to strengthen the attachment of the wings, I added 3 tightly coiled pieces at the base of each wing. For even more dimension and width, I added 4 Curly Q's in various spots. The finishing touches were to add a cats eye shape to the center top.

Once the quilled base was done, I inserted the stem of the paper flowers which were ultimately what was inserted into the cake. My final cake top I ended up only using the 2 smaller flowers.

The end result was a cake with a quilled touch that was very dear to my heart. The cake topper was meant to lay flat on the cake but the chef couldn't bear to get icing all over the quilling!


Thank you Ann and Jenny for your part in making my cake top a fun and personal touch to the most memorable day in my life. And, yes, the cake was scrumptious! -Kim

Scrapbooking Made Easy: Hello Luscious

Hello Luscious is a sassy new collection from Basic Grey that offers 18 new double sided 12x12 papers along with coordinating embellishments. The color themes in this line can be used for both spring and summer projects. The usual coordinating items are included; brads, stickers, rub-ons, die-cuts, stamps, paper ribbon, etc. I am showcasing the paper ribbon today. This is something we often get with our scrapbooking lines, but is often overlooked. Paper ribbon is a fun and easy way to add a little something special to any project!

The supplies you need are: 6 different 12X12 scrapbooking papers (1 pattern and 5 solids), 6 photographs (I'm using pictures of my father and I from my wedding!), ATG gun and tape, a 12 inch paper cutter, scissors, and paper ribbon.

I prefer to use the soild coordinating paper with this line as oppose to regular plain cardstock. The great thing about Basic Grey's solid prints is that they have a weathered/textured look. This adds a little extra something to your page without a lot of work. First you want to crop your photos and get rid of the 'dead space' I talked about in my previous post.

Next, arrange your photos on your base papers in a way that you find appealing. I am using two groups of photos. The first are posed photos of me and my family. Since there is a lot of color in these photos, I put them on a neutral solid paper. The second group of photos are action shots of dancing. I put these on a colorful and busy patterned paper because the photos are lacking color.

Next, back your photos with solid color paper. Start by using your ATG gun to adhere your photos to your paper. In my previous post, I encouraged you to cut the paper to a certian dimension and then adhere the photo. That is an easy way to adhere photos that are 4X6. In the case below, I cropped this photo, so it was an odd size. I find it easier to border odd-sized photos by adhering them to the paper first and then cutting them out.

Next, you want to choose a photo on each page to highlight. On this page, I chose a close up shot of my father and I. A nice subtle way to highlight a photo is to back it on a different colored cardstock. This will make the photo pop and catch the onlookers eye.

After that, adhere your photos to your page using the ATG gun.

Now comes my favorite part; the comment box! Cut out a piece of light pink paper 2.5"X3.5" size. Next, adhere it to your page and write your message, description, or thoughts about the photos.

Since this comment box is a little plain, we should dress it up! Carefully using scissors, cut out a flower from the floral print paper.

Using the scissors again, carefully cut out 5 half circle shaped pieces from your green paper ribbon.

After that, adhere the pieces of paper ribbon to the back of the flower using your ATG gun. You will want to press firmly to ensure a stong hold.

The paper ribbon is conveniently self adhseive. Pull off the backing to the ribbon and place the finished flower in the bottom right corner of your comment box.

Next, measure a 12 inch strip of the green paper ribbon and another 12 inch strip of the yellow paper ribbon. Pull off the backing and place vertically just in from the left side of the page. Place the yellow strip on top of the green strip and press firmly to ensure a strong hold.

Your left page is now done!

Use another sheet of the floral print as the base for the right page. Since it's a busy pattern we won't need to embellish it much. Start out by backing your photos with solid colors. I used the same light pink from the previous page for two photos. I used a darker pink for the highlighted photo. Next, make another comment box. This time, use the same green paper as before and cut to the same size of 2.5"X3.5".

Next, cut a 2.5" strip of the yellow paper ribbon and adhere it vertically to the left side of your comment box. Then, write your comment.

I backed this comment box with same dark pink paper. Adhere the finished piece to your page. Now your right page is done!

Happy Crafting!

-Malyse

A Bushel of Cute

Our stores have been so inspired by the adorable Peter Rabbit party supplies that they've sprouted their own homemade veggies! Our Beaverton store created this fun bushel of veggies that we all loved, so we got the instructions from them to share with all of you!

For this project, you will need:

-ATG Gun and Tape
-Scissors
-Newsprint (a non-patterned tissue can be substituted)

-Rubber bands

-Poptones Text in “Sour Apple”
-Tissue in “Celery” and “Tangerine”

To Make the Carrot: Crumple the newsprint into a carrot-like form, using the rubber bands to help hold shape. Cut a rectangular piece of the Tangerine tissue. To waste the least amount of tissue, size your rectangle to a few inches longer than the carrot when the carrot is placed on the rectangle along the diagonal. Wrap the tissue around the carrot and use the ATG tape to anchor down any gaping tissue.

To make the carrot greens, cut out the desired shape from the Sour Apple paper. For more realism, fringe the greens and then lightly rumple the edging with your fingers. Finally, use the ATG tape to attach the greens to the carrot.

To Make the Head of Cabbage: Make a ball with a flat base (so it can rest on a flat surface) with newsprint and a few rubber bands to keep it in shape. To cover the cabbage you will need to cut out the leaves from the Celery-colored tissue. It doesn’t really matter what the base of the leaf looks like (since it will be covered by the subsequent leaves), but the top of the leaf should be arched. Start covering the cabbage at the top. The leaves at the top should be smaller than the leaves at the bottom so it is helpful to cut out each leaf when you are ready to use it, rather than pre-cutting all the leaves.

To adhere the leaves to the head, run the ATG tape along the bottom perimeter of each leaf. When you get to the base of the cabbage (what would be the stem) it will be difficult to gather and add the larger leaves, but since this part will be hidden once the cabbage is displayed, you don’t have to worry too much about what the very bottom will look like.

Get creative with this, we have tons of veggie-colored papers that you can use to create tomatoes, eggplant, onions and more using this same technique. Hopefully this has inspired you to create your own bushel of veggies and host a Spring Peter Rabbit Party. It's a great theme for a baby shower or Easter get-together. Thanks to the Beaverton PZ for the idea, we love it!

Rosette Card

Hi Everyone

A few weeks ago, one of our blogs was about creating rosettes, and while visiting our Shoreline store, I saw a sample that Sara, the Assistant Manager, created using the rosette. It was so cute, I just had to re-create it and share it with you.

Ingredients for this card:

Patterned 12x12

Adhesive
Button
5.5x8.5 piece of cardstock, scored down the center, for your card base.
Scoring Tool
Paper Cutter
Embellishments

Step 1
Cut 4 pieces of out of the 12x12 measuring 2x3.

Step 2

Score down the middle of each piece at the 1 inch mark.

Score at 1/2 intervals down the width of the pieces

Step 3

Accordion fold the pieces and then fold down the center.

Step 4

Using adhesive on the inside of each folded piece, secure the sides. Using adhesive on the outer sides of each piece, secure the pieces together.

Step 6
Using adhesive secure a button in the middle of the rosette.

Step 7

Secure this mini rosette to your card and embellish as desired.

Thank you, Sara, for this great idea.

Happy Crafting, Sandra

Spring Mini Book

Hi Everyone! I wanted to share with you a cute little mini book I made a few weeks ago in a class that I took at our Seattle Paper Zone. The class was taught by Christina Clouse, you can learn more about her on her blog here. Christina was a wonderful teacher, the first part of the class was all about techniques; we learned about punches, spray inks, creating unique embellishments, embossing chipboard and so much more. The rest of the class was devoted to creating the mini book. If you would like to make one you are in luck! Christina has scheduled an encore class on April 10, you can learn all about it at our website here.

This book really was a delight to make and now share!

Happy Crafting!
Christina

Family photos were taken by Sonja Hunt