Archives for January 2015

Cards with Inspirational Quotes

Jan

Hey there, it’s Becki, here to share with you a set of cards I created using inspirational quotes as the sentiments. With each new year comes resolutions, organization, and new beginnings. As January wears on the newness and excitement of the year begins to wear off and I think everyone could use a little encouragement.

On each of these cards I did a little machine stitching. I thought you might like to see how I finish the inside of my cards so they have a bit more of a finished look instead of looking at the underside of the stitching.

Here’s what my card looked like, on the inside, after I finished stitching:It’s not very pretty. Don’t worry, we’re going to fix that. The next thing I did was add some adhesive (not liquid) on the inside of the card on top of the stitching:

It’s kind of hard to see in the photo but make sure you add adhesive right over top of the loose threads. Then I cut a piece of coordinating patterned paper about a 1/4 of an inch smaller than the inside of a card. (For an A7 card you’ll want to cut it 5 1/4″ x 4″.)

Then, I just put the patterned paper right over top of the stitching.

Here is the set of cards I created with inspirational quotes:

I used the same technique to cover all the stitching on the inside of the cards:

Good luck with your New Year’s Resolutions! Thanks for visiting the Pebbles blog today! I hope you’ve been inspired to create a few cards with inspirational quotes as sentiments.

Supplies:
Happy Day 6×6 Paper Pad 732717
Happy Day Tag Frames 732715
Happy Day Paper Ribbon 732708
Happy Day Epoxy Stickers 732707
Happy Day Woodland Thickers 732704
Happy Day Phrases & Label Stickers 732703
Happy Day Icons & Phrase Stickers 732702

Flower Cork Boards

Jan

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Amanda here today with a fun and functional piece of organizational home décor. Like many others, one of my goals for the New Year is to become more organized. I have a large, boring, rectangular cork board in my kitchen that holds a hodge-podge of bills, receipts, Boy Scout patches, and outdated calendars. Sound familiar? I hope that by creating several smaller cork boards, that each type of item can have its own place in the kitchen.

Easily customizable, these flower cork boards would look lovely in a kitchen, office, or child’s bedroom. My 8 year-old daughter has already been eyeing these. Secure them to the wall with removable adhesive or attach a ribbon to hang them.

Use thick, round, cork trivets to make these cork boards, or use cork cut into different shapes. Add different paper borders and accents to suit your décor. Organize shopping lists, to-do lists, or shopping receipts. These cork boards would also make a fun display for your favorite pictures.

This fun journaling card from the Happy Day collection speaks to my heart. I would love an entire notepad titled “things not to do this weekend”.

All of the thumbtacks on these flower cork boards are custom colored using Zing! embossing powder. Hop on over to my blog for a tutorial on how to make custom colored thumbtacks using crafting supplies you already have on hand.

Create the flower petals by using a circle punch. Since half of the circle will be glued behind the cork, it is okay to punch through the tear strip edge. I used a 3″ circle punch to make these petals, but you could easily make the petals larger or smaller.

Get a feel for how many petals you will need by cutting a piece of scrap paper the same size as your cork board. Slip the paper petals underneath the large circle until you are happy with the arrangement of petals. This will help make sure your petals are perfect before you glue them onto the cork.

Use the grid on your cutting mat to line up the flower petals with the cork board. Adhere the petals to the cork by adding tacky liquid glue to the petal and then placing the cork on the petal. Start by gluing the petals on at the 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock positions.

Happy New Year!
Amanda

Supplies:
HAPPY DAY DOUBLE-SIDED CARDSTOCK 12″X12″ LET’S CHAT
HAPPY DAY DOUBLE-SIDED CARDSTOCK 12″X12″ GAME NIGHT
PEBBLES PAPER PAD 12″X12″ 48/PKG BIRTHDAY WISHES
HAPPY DAY DOUBLE-SIDED CARDSTOCK 12″X12″ WEEKEND
ZING! OPAQUE EMBOSSING POWDER 1OZ

2015 Birthday Card Organizer

Jan

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Hi Pebbles Friends! It’s Wendy Sue here today, sharing a fun (and super easy) idea for organizing birthday cards for the coming year. I guess I’m still a little caught up in the whole “fresh start,” “clean,” and “organize everything” bug that seems to come around every year about this time. 😉 Seriously though, I’m really excited about this little project – it’s going to help me plan ahead and organize birthday cards for the entire year ahead!

It’s always more fun to work on organization projects with a friend, so today, we’re going to make one of these fun projects together! Run and grab your Silhouette and purchase this cut file (here) – it’s called “a2 vertical card & envelope organizer”. I cut mine out of kraft cardstock. I cut the other pieces to cover the box from one of my favorite papers in the “Home+Made” collection.

After you’ve cut your pieces, fold along the scored lines. Use a strong adhesive to build the box!

See how easy that was?!? Now that the box is assembled, let’s make the monthly dividers. I started by cutting the circles from kraft cardstock (the circles are part of the cut file).

And then I cut 12 of the divider pages. There are three different tab top styles in the cut file – I cut four of each since I needed 12. I used some of the papers from the “Home+Made” 6×6 pad, and a few of them I cut from the full-size papers in the same collection.

Next, we need to choose thickers to add the letters for each of the months. I opted for these pretty gold ones:

Now simply glue the circles onto the tabs of the dividers:

This is coming together quickly, isn’t it? Now we need a way to add a list of birthdays to the front of each divider. At first I was just going to print out a list and glue it to the front…but then I decided that I just had to use these sweet pocket tags!

I enlisted the help of my nieces and nephews and had them write their names under their birthday month – including the day. Sure, I could have done this myself, but it just happened that we were getting together for a family party and I thought it would be fun to have them include their handwriting in my little project. A few of them got extra helpful and filled out more than their own…but that’s okay! 😉

These little lists tuck right into the pockets. They will also be easy to update in the future:

The last step is to attach the tags to the dividers – super easy!!

At this point, I thought I was finished, but then I noticed this cute “happy birthday” tag on one of the patterned papers in the “happy day” collection, and I just HAD to add it to the front of the box!

And that’s it! Thanks for creating along with me! Now when I feel like sitting down to make a card, I will know exactly which birthday is coming up and who needs a card! Of course, you could add other yearly events, like anniversaries, to your list. And I think I might add an extra tab at the back to store “thank you” cards and all-occasion cards as well. I love having this one little part of my life all organized for the year and I hope you do too!

Supplies:
Home+Made 6×6 Paper Pad
Home+Made Gold Thickers
Home+Made Mini Kraft Pocket Tags
Home+Made Pine Patterned Paper
Home+Made 12×12 Paper Pad
Happy Day Thinking of You Patterned Paper

Getting Organized with Photo Collage Tutorial

Jan

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Hello there! It’s Mendi here today with a layout sharing my love for organization using Pebbles new Happy Day collection! As I state in my journaling, I adore organizing my stash almost as much as I love being creative with it! I thought it would be fun to create a layout documenting some of my favorite ways I do this.

To give my page a splash of color and a fun element, I added a border of pennants below my mat using all the awesome tone-on-tone prints from the collection. For my title I die-cut the word “dream” using navy vinyl on my Silhouette using THIS cutting file. I love the way it looks when paired with the wood grain Thickers from the collection!

One of the questions I get asked the most is how I print multiple small photos on one 4×6 print. While I own software where I can perform this task, I was searching for a free solution for those who can’t afford this option. I was ecstatic to discover Picasa offers a free and easy download that does it beautifully (available for download HERE).

After downloading and installing Picasa on your computer, select the photos you want to use in your collage by holding down the “CTRL” key and clicking on each image. While they are still selected, go to the “Create” tab at the top and select the “Picture Collage” option in the pull down menu.

You will now arrive at this screen (I have zoomed to the top, left-hand corner to make it easier to see). This is where you are able to select the type of collage you want. I chose a simple grid option.

Next you are able to chose your spacing on a sliding scale. This can help shrink your photos if you are wanting them smaller or give a nice white border between them if you want to frame your photos.

Next you can chose your page format depending on whether you want them to fit on a 4×6, 5×7 or 8×10 print. I forgot to include an arrow, but depending on the orientation of your photos, directly below this drop down menu you can also select between the portrait or landscape option.

At this point you can move the photos around within your collage to the right by dragging and dropping them. When you are satisfied with the arrangement, click the “Create Collage” button to the left.

This will take you to a new window where you can save it to your computer. I chose my own location to make finding it easier later by clicking on the “browse” button. I wanted my image to be really good quality, but I found using the original size was way too huge, so I changed it to 3000 pixels with maximum quality. This may be a larger file that you need for a 5×7 sized portrait, but it worked for me. Your last step is to hit the “export” button. I was able to find the image in the spot where I saved it and upload it to Costco for my printing. It was super easy and I love that it was free! 🙂

Here’s a shot of what my finished 5×7 collage looked like. At this point I still wasn’t quite sure how I was going to use these little shots, but I knew if I was going to fit all these pictures on my one-page layout, they would have to be small. In the end I decided to crop them without their borders and add them to long 12-inch white cardstock strips, but I think this collage was still a really nice, quick way to achieve this.

This is a great trick for saving money on printing and fitting more on a page. I use it all the time to add two to four images to one 4×6 photo.

And a quick view again of my final layout…

I hope I’ve inspired you to give photo collages a try. There are several more cool functions you can do with the Picasa software including photo editing so make sure to check it out. 🙂

Altered Notebook

Jan

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Hello Pebbles Fans, Holly here from Ribbons & Glue. The New Year brings a need for organization. My craft table is full of scratch paper, post it notes and and ugly spiral notebooks. This year, I decided to finally get that paper clutter under control and more start being more organized by creating an Altered Notebook using the Pebbles Inc. Home + Made collection.

Most often the things I make are for other people. This notebook would make a great gift for a friend, but not this time. This notebook is for me and only me to keep my blog notes {top secret ideas} and inspiration.

To make this altered notebook, I covered a composition book with burlap paper found in the Home + Made collection.

And I used a We R Memory Keepers corner chomper punch to round the corners for a perfect fit.

To cover up the edges of the burlap paper, I adhered white ribbon and Home + Made decorative tape along the notebook sides.

The inside of the notebook is also covered with patterned paper and embellished with a kraft bag, accent stickers, gold decorative tape and a journaling card found in the 6×6 paper pack.

I embellished the cover of the notebook with twine, gold Thickers, Home + Made Stickers and label sticker. This altered notebook was so easy to make using Pebbles Inc. Home + Made collection and I’m looking forward to filling it up with notes and creative ideas.

Supplies:
Home + Made Burlap Paper with White Dot 732607
Home + Made Planters Paper
Home+Made Alpha Thickers – 73261
Home+Made Decorative Tape – 732626
Home+Made Gold Glitter Stickers – 732621
Home + Made Phrase and Accent Stickers 732611
Home + Made Label Stickers 732612
Home + Made Kraft Bags 732635
Home + Made 6×6 Paper Pack 73264
American Crafts Twine
American Crafts Ribbon
Paper Dolies