Crafty Project: Dry Erase Board

Hi!

Celeste is a lovely lady I know at the Sweet Shoppe.  She is full of amazing ideas & inspirational sources that she readily shares.  Recently she showed off an idea for a DIY dry-erase board - the type you write on with a special pen then rub off when you're done with the message, again & again.  Very environmentally friendly :)

... and I can honestly say I don't think I've tried a simpler, cheaper or easy to personalise project!  Here's what I did:

I went all digi for my first attempt: a small memo board for Alex to use.
First I bought a very, very cheap clip photoframe - seriously it cost me less than £1 from ASDA.  Next I created a file in Photoshop the same size as the frame aperture, then the best bit: I had fun with the papers, banners & elephants from Alphabet Soup for Boys & School Days, both by Zoe Pearn.

After printing, I put the finished page into my frame, and let Alex loose with a dry-erase pen.  This is a perfect way to encourage him to keep track of all the things he has to do or take to school! ...and when he gets fed-up with this image I can simply create a new one from my ever-growing digi-stash!

Loving Alex's board, I had to make one for myself to pop next to my craft space, using a slightly more expensive frame - this one cost just shy of £3!  Again, I started by opening a file in Photoshop sized to match the frame's aperture, but this time I wanted a more grown up look, and chose to play with the gorgeous Everyday Moments from Lauren Grier & Jenn Barrette.

After printing, I added a little ribbon, glitter glue, a Doodlebug Designs flower plus button - and then popped it into my ever-so-expensive frame, & ta-da!

Andrea, of The Ribbon Girl on-line store, and HybridBabe extraordinaire, has just added this article to her blog, showing you how to make the most gorgeous dry-erase board I've seen. Her blog is always worth a peek for card inspiration, but this post is a definite must-see!

A cute zebra and a bucket

Hi! How were your Summer Holidays? Mine were not exactly relaxing, but I have to say its nice to get back into the old school routine again.

Incidentally, I'm hoping that my Mum will brave the internet and start popping by to read this blog (Hi Mum!!!) - firstly 'cos its good practice on browsing the internet (!), and secondly I'm hoping that knowing she will be looking, I will start posting regularly! Honestly, who wants to be told off by their Mum?

She's just beginning to get the hang of using a mouse, and needs ideas of things to go and look at - after all, it is rather a large digital world - so I may start posting interesting things to peek at, like that lovely esty shop I previously found.

I hope you like the first card above - I couldn't resist treating myself to a kit or two from Kasia Designs, who's just relocated her store. Her style was always clean and uncluttered, but she's refined her work even more and I just love it. I used The Bucket List to make my card.

Isn't this little chap a cutie? I've just added this card to my galleries - so its nice to show it off here too! The original digital image is what is referred to as a digital stamp. It started out as a black outline in SuzyQ's signature oopsie doodle style, to which I added colour by layering digital papers and cutting them to size with Photoshop. I like doing this - its time consuming, but oddly very satisfying!

I have had a really wonderful response to these babygrows which I decorated using Ju Kneipp's I {heart} Animals kit - the photo is even going to be featured in the Hybrid Standouts feature in Digishop Talk's October magazine. How wonderful is that!?!?!

In case you were wondering: the crocodile is (naturally) saying snap, snap, snap, whilst the fish is blowing love heart-shaped bubbles - so I added 'love bubbles' below, Finally the monkey is singing 'oh oobie doo' from the song from the Jungle Book movie.

I made them by using iron-on transfer paper from my local supermarket. Its a really special way to personalise clothes for children, or even a tote bag for yourself....:

This was made for the Digiscrap Addicts magazine in July, using a really beautiful kit by Veronica Spriggs.

I have literally just finished photographing this last card, which I made especially for the husband of a friend, who (you've guessed it!) is turning 40 today and is apparently not too happy about it.... although he is enjoying the opportunity to indulge in a bit of a mid-life crisis ;)

It's made using Over the Edge by Lauren Grier & Eva Kipler, and completed by layering the funny little doodle man and a funereal black ribbon! The font is called A Truer Blue , another freely available one from the very generous Kevin&Amanda.com - and is just perfect for this card.

'til next time....

Sara

x

PS Full details for my cards etc can be found by clicking the links below:

Bucket Full of Love

One of a Kind

I {heart} Animals babygrows

Butterfly tote bag

Just a suggestion...and a card

I mentioned in my last post, that I have just started working for the very talented Ju Kneipp. She lives in Brazil, and is a designer at Cat Scrap and DigiScrapper Brazil.

Every Wednesday is Dollar Day at DigiScrapper Brazil - and I have to say WOW at the number of fab kits they regularly include. If you want to sample Ju (or any of the other designers!) work, this is the perfect day to snag a bargain. Today, for example she's got 4 kits up for $1 (which is under 80p!!), including one of my faves:
...seriously, who can resist these cute frogs? Needless to say, I've been spending.... :) I would have a couple of cards made with her designs to show you today too, but my DH has put our camera somewhere 'safe'. Humph.

Its the school half-term holidays over here in the UK, and I've just had a lovely day with Alex: going to the cinema to see Tooth Fairy, and then for noodles afterwards. He's growing so fast, that its lovely to have him all to myself. I doubt I'll be so sentimental towards the end of the Summer holidays (!), but half-term holidays are just wonderful. It does mean alot less crafting time, but I do have one card to share today that fortunately I had already photographed!:

Its a digital card, which I made using Eva Kipler's Barefoot in the Park, carefully merged with a sweet digital stamp from the Pure Innocence range by Heather Ellis. I used a paper from the kit to 'make' the little girls dress, and then added additional colour to her and the butterfly with just a light dust of chalks. The photo above is linked for more details should you want them :)

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Sx

It's alive!

...well, I am anyway :)

Its been sooooo long since I last posted here, but I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things - especially as I have lots of things to show off and news to share.

Firstly, about the mini album above. It originally started life as this:

I have to say I'm quite proud of the transformation, especially as its the first time I've ever tackled anything like this! Take a peek at a couple of the inside pages:

I made it in response to a Sweet Shoppe challenge to use recycled items to make something new - and having recently become addicted to skinny vanilla lattes from guess where, I had no problem sourcing the basics for this album.

Here's a quick-ish 'how-I-made-that' guide:

To begin, I cut the card sleeve in two, then I measured and then prepared my colour cards in Photoshop, sizing them to fit. The colour cards were sooo simple to do as I cheated and used Heather Roselli's new Spectrum Flash Cards (with a little digi modification to fit as shown). I mounted each flash card onto coordinating sugar-coated cardstock from Doodlebug Designs (love this stuff!), and then stuck this onto a Starbucks album page using double sided tape.

Once all the pages were ready, I punched a hole through the corner using my Big Bite, and then added a key ring (from Woodware) to hold everything together.

Finally I added stapled a colour coordinating ribbon loop (from Poppicrafts) to each album page, plus a button or similar for extra fun embellishment, and ta-da!

This project was totally inspired by this post by Fiskars - thank you!

Since my last post I promise I really have been busy cutting, sticking and folding.... Just to prove it (!), here are a just a couple more pictures of recent projects:

Easter Egg card

4 'Sweet' Shoppes

Baby Block Gift Boxes

I'll be back with more card ideas to show you soon!

So, I mentioned I had some news to share. I am sorry to say that I have decided to step down from the Poppicrafts creative team, for no other reason that the shop has changed its stock direction quite dramatically (and I'm delighted to say successfully!!), and I don't feel that I am the right person for the job any more. I hated telling Michelle this, but it was the honest thing to do. Michelle's was the first team I was ever invited to join, and I can never thank her enough for the confidence boost she gave me. Poppicrafts will always remain my main source for ribbons though - promise :)

Oh, I do need a pick-me-up after typing that, so here's a final big splash of colour courtesy of the designs of Heather Roselli:

Rainbow cards

Bye for now!

Sx