Altered Item Archives - Page 2 of 12

Ready to share your adventures with Along the Way??

Sep

We hope you don’t mind this short commercial break in your day. There are so many important things to remember (especially today!)…and we’ve got a new collection to help you get the job done in a beautiful way. To be honest, we’ve been chomping at the bit to share this with you…and the time has finally come! Presenting Along the Way from Jen Hadfield and Pebbles!

Want to know more about it? Along the Way was inspired by special, everyday experiences. This line features soft colors in comforting pastel hues. Pops of bright yellow and red bring out our inner child while creamy pinks and teals bring a more mature feel. Meaningful quotes are surrounded by foliage and flowers that motivate us to enjoy shared experiences together. Let’s look at just what we mean:

The Along The Way Collection from Jen Hadfield is here! Hope you are ready to craft nonstop!

Paper prints

Word stickers

Letter Thickers

Layered Stickers

Ephemera

Word Thickers

Icon sticker sheet

Tag Stack

Which part is your favorite so far? Tell us on our Facebook or Instagram channels!

Just so you know, the bulk of these products should be ready for purchase by the end of the month. The rest will ship out from our warehouse on or around October 10th. We can’t wait to hear what you think!

Goals and Dreams Bullet Journal

Aug

Leave a Comment

Hi everyone, Heather Leopard is here and I’m sharing a goals and dreams bullet journal I created for my daughter who begins her first day of high school Monday. My idea for this was to create a way for her to document ideas about what she hopes her future holds. I may even add a few of my own thoughts for her future. I think it would be fun to include this in a time capsule with other things from her childhood.

I thought the llama paper was not only fun but I often say, “save the drama for your llama” and we all know high school can be full of drama. Perhaps this will turn into a way for her to journal that right out of her system. Ha!

So the first thing I did was cover a Traveler’s Notebook with the adorable little llamas from the My Bright Life collection. I think they’re so adorable striking their poses with the flowers in their hair. Soo cute. To cover this, I applied Sticky Thumb tape runner to the cover of the notebook and then laid it down on the back of the paper. Then I applied adhesive to the spine and the back cover and folded the paper over leaving paper hanging slightly over on the front and a bit more on the back. Same for the top and bottom. I did this because if you trim the paper to what you think the measurements are for the notebook, odds are you’ll be just a bit off. It’s much easier to do it this way and then trim around the edges with scissors. Trust me on that one.

I knew what I wanted for the main theme of the journal to be but we’ll get to that in a moment. I also wanted to add some inspiring words and the 2″ x 3″ cut apart cards in the 6″ x 6″ paper pad had exactly what I wanted. I just needed to choose which one I loved the most.

“You Can Totally Do This” was it so I cut that one out and adhered it with some foam adhesive over a dark contrasting patterned paper. I used the same colors and flowers as the llama and her pretty little flowers.

Now it’s time to go back to my main theme, “MAKE IT HAPPEN”. I love that you are in charge of your destiny and it’s all up to you to make it happen. I used gold foam Thickers and placed them over the flowers. Then I decided we needed more gold so I added a layer of gold plaid patterned paper.

It’s time to put it all together. I used tape runner adhesive again and left enough room on the edges to hang over just slightly and then just trimmed it up with scissors again.

So there you have it. I also sprinkled additional 2″ x 2″ and 2″ x 3″ notecards, die cuts and small puffy stickers to some of the inside pages. I’ll make sure to include more embellishments and papers in the package when I give this goals and dreams bullet journal to her so she can decorate the inside pages.

xoxo, Heather
YouTube | Blog | Instagram | Pinterest

Supplies:

My Bright Life Lovely Llamas Patterned Paper 733874
My Bright Life Flower Pop Patterned Paper 733868
My Bright Life 6×6 Paper Pad 733892
My Bright Life Ephemera Die-cuts with Gold Foil 733884
My Bright Life Puffy Stickers Icons 733886
American Crafts Thickers with Gold Foil- Bryn 733888
Sticky Thumb Marathon Runner and Refill 342038

Hawaiian Luau Party Decor

Jul

Leave a Comment

Aloha everyone, Heather Leopard is here and with summer fully upon us here in the States, I’ve been daydreaming about Hawaii. I figured why not throw a little Hawaiian party on a random Friday?!?!

The new My Bright Life collection has the perfect mix of colors to pull this Hawaiian Luau Party off. The decor I created includes garland I cut and strung, cupcake holders and toppers to resemble a pineapple and a few goody bags. Let’s take a look at how it came together

Lei inspired garland

The backdrop features a lei inspired garland. To get this look, I cut plumeria flowers out of two different patterned papers as well as palm leaves in two different sizes and then large yellow circles. I created 7 garland strips each containing 10 pieces (a mix of flowers, leaves and circles). Once I had 10 pieces for each strand, I ran them through my sewing machine with a straight stitched until I got to the end. I repeated that process 6 more times.

Pineapple cupcakes

So I cheated with store bought cupcakes and they’re a mix of chocolate and vanilla – not pineapple but I dressed them up as pineapples. Using a cut file I purchased, I simply cut cupcake wrappers and pineapple toppers using my electronic die cut machine.

The wrappers have little cuts in them and when you bend them back slightly, it resembles a pineapple.

The pineapple toppers can be inserted right into the icing. So easy and oh so cute!

Goody Bags

Since Hawaii is known as the rainbow state and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World” by Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwo`ole is one of my all time favorite songs, I made Rainbow tags for the goody bags.

They are cut into squares and feature a scallop circle and “Mahalo”, the Hawaiian word for Thank You. I decided to add some palm leaves and a flowers as well.

I hope this mini Hawaiian Luau party I am hosting for my girls this weekend has you daydreaming of Hawaii as well.

Mahalo,

Heather

Supplies:
My Bright Life Stitched Flowers Patterned Paper(733859)
My Bright Life Field of Flowers Patterned Paper (733879)
My Bright Life Bright Stripes Patterned Paper (733869)
My Bright Life Flower Rows Patterned Paper (733862)
My Bright Life Fresh Picked Patterned Paper (733875)
My Bright Life 12×12 Paper Pad

Patriotic Home Decor

May

Leave a Comment

Hello everyone, Heather Leopard is here on the blog today kicking off Patriotic colors week. In honor of the upcoming Memorial holiday in the States where we honor the fallen from our armed forces, I created a patriotic home decor piece. This can be used for anything Patriotic themed of course, but we are displaying it this coming weekend in memory of those who aren’t coming home.

America…land of the free, because of the brave!

So I found this awesome wooden cut out in the shape of the United States at my favorite dollar spot last year. While I’ve used it in the past as part of the decor, kind of kept plain and in the background, it was time for this baby to take center stage! All it needed was a little imagination and creativity.

I will have a process video for this coming within a few days but until then, I’ll walk you through my process…

I started out with the idea to add a statement or phrase to the board but it’s a little bit on the small to medium size and more on the small size so I trimmed it down to one word. I considered “home”, “U.S.A.” and a few others but ultimately decided to state the obvious and go with “America”. I wrote out the word in my die cut machine software and sized it to 2″ h x 8″ w and cut it out of patterned paper. I knew I wanted to re-use the board, so I adhered it with a temporary tape runner adhesive.

Next, I cut a selection of 3D flowers. Some are layers upon each other like the red one assembled above and the red and blue trio of petals above that are patiently waiting to be assembled. The others are quilled paper flowers in various sizes.

These fun super dimensional flowers start off looking like a spiral. I used a quilling tool to easily roll them up. You could also use a pencil or pen to roll your flowers. You simply insert the “tail” of the spiral into the slit in the metal part of the tool or wrap it around and pencil and start rolling it up.

I wrap mine tight for the most part and then pull the tool or pencil out and release the flow, letting it unravel a bit. I used liquid adhesive but to speed up the drying process, you may want to use a glue gun. The glue gun also helps ensure the flower stays in place better than the liquid adhesive. Knowing I wanted to re-use the board, I applied a small amount of glue dots behind each flower to adhere them to the board. Did you notice that I used one of the small ones as the dot for the “i”?

I wanted to add additional elements to it, similar to how I would a scrapbooking layout so I went into my stash and pulled out some stars I had leftover from another project and tucked them into the flowers. I had to lift a few and re-stick them here and there but I was able to use the same glue dots so it was easy peasy. I also added some puffy dots around the board.

So there you have it, a fun and easy piece of home decor that I plan to use this week and next to commemorate Memorial Day and celebrate the 4th of July.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

xoxo, Heather
YouTube | Blog | Instagram | Pinterest

Supplies:
Land That I Love Land That I Love Patterned Paper
Land That I Love Boom Sparkle Pop Patterned Paper
Land That I Love America Patterned Paper
Land That I Love Oh! The Place We Go! Patterned Paper
Land That I Love Fireworks Patterned Paper
Land That I Love United We Stand Patterned Paper
Land That I Love Patriotic Blooms Patterned Paper
Land That I Love Red, White, and Blue Dots Puffy Stickers

Patio Party and Planner Inspiration!

Apr

Leave a Comment

Hi Pebbles Friends!

Amanda here, and for planning theme week I wanted to share a makeover of my less glamorous, everyday planner! Not the over sized, over decorated planner that sits on my desk for flat lay photo shoots – but the honest, everyday, no frills, pocket size one that I carry around in my purse! My ‘real life mom’ planner! You know the one, it has scribblings of new phone numbers, a reminder to pick up the dry cleaning, a few coupons and a list of bills to pay!

Yes… the boring, unexciting planner. BUT, that’s all about to change with a quick planner make over!

I am using the gorgeous, bright & happy Patio Party collection for this cute planner inspiration today…

This line is so pretty, and the colors in Patio Party will brighten any dull organizer! And while I want to create a much happier, prettier planner I also want to keep it practical and easy to use –

Here’s how….

My planner make over starts with creating my own custom dividers.

To make these ‘fit’ perfectly, use the original dividers that your organizer came with as a template. Trace the template onto your favourite Patio Party pattern paper and cut out. I also trace the holes so I know exactly where to hole punch my new dividers. As the first divider is the one I’ll always see when I open my planner, I use the striking gold foil specialty paper from the 6 x 6 Paper Pad.

*Note: The 6 x 6 papers are single sided, so you’ll need to repeat this process – reverse side up for the template, and adhere both sides together to create the one divider*

The striped, shiny gold pattern is just gorgeous but as this is the front cover divider, it still needs more….

I embellish with a few stickers from the 6 x 12 Accent Stickers sheet. Cute! That sentiment sticker has just the right amount of inspiration too! Now that I’m happy with my first divider, I proceed to make one for every tabbed section in my organizer. This time, I use the double sided 12″ x 12″ pattern papers so I only need to trace each template once. Here’s a look at them all, right side up…..

Aren’t they the sweetest?! I’m already feeling uplifted! Here’s the reverse side….

Pretty florals, and oh my heart, flamingos!!! What a difference a set of dividers can make to your organizer!

And when it comes to being organized, having a bookmark to instantly locate your fave section of your planner is essential!

How sweet is this book mark?! Like the dividers, I use the original as a template to trace around, cut out and hole punch. So simple, and yet such a practical and pretty adornment to your organizer.

Speaking of practical, how about something cute ‘n’ fun to store all those ugly coupons in?

Oh hello flamingos & hello happy! This planner pocket makes me smile!

There are a number of ways to create pockets, but the simplest one is to trace your divider template, but double the width. In my example my planner is 3 1/2″ x 5″, so I cut out a 3 1/2 ” x 10″ piece of paper. Score down the center, fold and tape the base and sides together. Be sure to leave the top unsealed so you can insert your bits ‘n’ pieces into the pocket. Looking for something more sturdy? Instead of tape, machine stitch the sides and base.

The next step in ‘dressing up’ my everyday planner was to convert the plain plastic pocket inserts into something a bit more special….

Eeep! Sequin shaker pockets are my favourite!!! So cool! This pocket now doubles as a super pretty divider!

To create this fun (& practical) pocket, you’ll need to insert a piece of pattern paper into the pocket. It needs to be a snug fit to help hold the sequins in place. Add sequins, and then fuse or glue the top of the pocket to the pattern paper. Embellish with another of those gorgeous 6 x 12 Accessory Stickers. You’ll see in the image below that the back of the pocket still opens, and remains suitable for storing small items, receipts, tickets etc. …