scrapologie

Cinderella Projects and Winners

Hi everyone - sorry I forgot to update Friday with the prize winners. It's been a busy week. DH had his birthday on Friday so we took him to the Buckeye Hall of Fame Cafe for dinner and celebrated there. Alekha enjoyed the game room afterwards and it was sweet to see dh "losing" to her at nearly everything from Air Hockey to skeeball, and so fun to hear her delighted shouts everytime she scored over Daddy! She reminds me what it's like to be four -- though she is approaching the age where she is going to have to start learning about losing as well as winning, soon!

Now onto the prizes! This is the first time I didn't use the random number generator - I literally printed and cut apart all the comments and stuck them in a box to draw from to make sure we weren't repeating any entries.

The winners of the books are:

Carrie from Seattle, Wa.

Danielle Barton (location unknown)

Vivianne (location unknown)

and the Cricut cartridge winner is:

Jen 1230 from PA.

Just for fun, I picked an extra prize winner for a book and that prize goes to:

Valerie C. from New York

Thanks to all of you for posting and please email me with your addresses so I can get these out to you. I hope all your wishes come true!

Speaking of wishes, today's project is about a fictional girl whose wish came true - Cinderella. I have been working on some projects for the Alpha Stamps guest designing stint and I couldn't wait to show you this one. It's a Cinderella Coach, created with the collage sheet titled The Ball #1 and to create it, I used a faux carveable pumpkin (the kind you get at Halloween from the craft store). Mine was a white carvable pumpkin that I painted with acrylic paint and glittered up to look like a real Cinderella Coach. If you have one leftover from halloween, you could use it (if you have an orange one -- just prime it with gesso first before painting). Project instructions are as follows:

Using a pen, trace an opening in the pumpkin (I used a template - you can trace out a paper template by hand to use so that you can use it on the back side as well to get windows of identical sizes on opposite sides of the coach). Also, this makes it easier to get the artwork inside (from the rear of the coach) and you can set a mini strand of lights inside if desired. Carve out the openings with a craft or xacto knife. The pumpkin will have a stem on top - carve it off but don't cut into the top of the pumpkin yet. Paint the pumpkin with pink acrylic paint, let it dry. Add a layer of decoupage glue and Martha Stewart clear glitter. Using a Fiskars craft drill, drill an opening in the top. The top of the pumpkin that looks like a finial - that's actually a glass cabinet knob - I picked it up from Hobby Lobby. I just inserted it through the top and screwed it in on the bottom. I mounted my pumpkin on a round cardboard base  - it was just the bottom of some roundish cardboard packaging from Target that I covered in paper and lace. You know, those little embellishment boxes full of scrappy goodies that they sell at the dollar spot? One of those. I used a screw and bolt to attach the base to the bottom of the pumpkin, again, using my fiskars drill to drill into the bottom. After that insert your collage image, cutting it to size to fit the window, hold it in place with small thumbtacks on the inside. Then have fun decorating the outside with trims and ribbons, buttons, tulle etc. For the banner, I used a K&Company La Boutique wedding metal hanging rod bar attachment and hot glued it into the top of the pumpkin, after digging into the pumpkin part way with my drill (you don't want to push the bar all the way through). I printed out the happily ever after banner on my computer and cut it into the banner shape, then glued the edge of it to the bar. The wheels were made with the lids of Maya Road tins - I goldleafed them and then added text punched in a circle shape for the wheel, held that in place with brads. Hot glued the wheels to the coach. I think that's about it. If anyone has specific questions, let me know -- but I really love how it turned out -- the Cinderella sheets are so inspiring and I just had to do something befitting of how beautiful they are!

The second project for Alpha Stamps is a Trash to Treasure project. Awhile back, Target's Dollar Spot had these little wooden boxes with sliding tops - the top was a checkerboard and it came with little pegs to use as checkers. Basically, travel sized game boxes with built in storage for the checker pegs. Anytime you see a little container like that that can be altered - it's good to pick it up -- they lend themselves well to collage sheet images because of their size. I used mine to make a "Cinderella Secret Box". The front of the box shows the scene with Cinderella's fairy godmother, and it slides open to reveal the coach leaving for the ball with fairy godmother looking on. All I did was cut and adhere patterned paper to the box, trim the collage images to fit on the front and inside, added some text and glittered up the outside edges. I used a sharpie gold pen to color the edges where you slide the top out -- I didn't want to paper those edges where it slides because that could prevent it from sliding easily. I added some eyehooks to the top for hanging, some ribbon and a beaded flower and it's a sweet little fairy tale box. I plan to do another three Cinderella themed projects shortly. Simultaneously working on the spring banner as well. You don't even want to see what my desk looks like. (!!) Enjoy your Sunday!

Postcard from the edge

From the edge of a flurry of activity, that is. It promises to be a busy week. The postcard above is from The Mr. Postman Kit by Sande Krieger over at Two Peas. I have a meeting with a colleague on Wednesday, followed by a hair appointment, a job interview Thursday and a busy weekend planned as well. It was great seeing family and Alekha and her cousin Arjun had a terrific time - TWO visits from the Easter Bunny to boot (Grandma had her own basket to give the kids)! Hope your Easter was blissful.

Just a few things off the top of my head I wanted to tell you about:I am so excited to have been asked by Leslie Elledge at Alpha Stamps to guest design for them. She has sent me a wonderful package of collage sheets and stamps - and I hope I can create something as magical as the images on the sheets. That will be posted in the next month or so. In the meantime - if you are interested in checking out the collage sheets I will be working with - they are all Cinderella themed and you can find them here: Cinderella Collage Sheets

I've been fascinated with this book:

Vicki Archer is an Australian woman who dared to live the life of her dreams - purchasing a home and embarking on a life in France. I checked this book out from my library and have been living vicariously through her - if you love all things French - you'll love this book.

Also, I am putting the final touches on a gorgeous spring banner kit featuring papers from Sass Lass and Paislee Press - I will try to have a sneak peek of the kit for you in the next few days. Keep an eye out for that as I hope to have it up by the end of next week. The banner is a new artistic frame label chipboard book from Maya Road - it's lovely.

And - I'm still waiting on the Place Vendome Ribbon and the French Flea Market Pendants to come in - I  probably need to check on the latter. Will post when they arrive. Enjoy your Tuesday!

Happy Easter

Yesterday, I was out shopping at TJ Maxx and came across these adorable bunnies by Dee Foust for Bethany Lowe Designs. I was surprised that they were being clearanced before Easter, and I was elated - I haven't been out for that kind of fun shopping in the longest time, though it was supposed to be a trip for Alekha's easter basket goodies -- I ended up treating myself, too.  TJ's/Home Goods is always a thrill as I end up finding something or other.  I *had* to welcome this pair home. It's about all I have done in the way of easter and spring decorating!

We're headed to my mom and dad's tomorrow for Easter weekend. Thanks for all your wonderful comments and I am having so much fun reading all your wishes -- hope they all come true, every last one of them.

I'll leave you with a darling vintage postcard image you can download (click to enlarge, then right click and save to your computer). Enjoy, and a very happy easter to everyone!

Tea, Trash to Treasure & A Giveaway...

Pastries from Laduree in Paris; Photo courtesy Photobucket. Just posting some gorgeous eye candy for you - doesn't it look marvelous? The presentation is outstanding.

Rats. The sun we had a glimpse of yesterday has disappeared. With another grey day on the horizon, I am immersing myself in thoughts of things that make me happy - one of which, is tea. I love tea -- I must have a hot cup first thing in the morning. I drink an Indian brand called Taj Mahal and also another Indian brand called Red Label. I steep it with ground ginger and cardamom, and add milk and sugar. And it's soothing for my soul - especially on dark wintry days. But what I would really LOVE to do is to visit Laduree in Paris and sample their gorgeous pastries and cakes. The pastries look too good to eat, don't they?

I recently received an email newsletter from Victoria Magazine inviting me to experience the "tea of your dreams" at the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia. The registration price for the event is $499 for a stay from August 8-10 which includes events that will help you shore up your knowledge of tea and includes a tea experience in "the grandest of tearooms". It certainly sounds heavenly. April Cornell will attend, as will several other notable guests, including Paul Burrell, the private footman of Queen Elizabeth and butler to the late Diana, Princess of Wales. If it's something that interests you - the registration site is here: An Occasion For Tea and let me know if you attend -- I'll be envious!

On the creating front, another quick T2T project - I made this from an extra large cardboard ribbon spool I had --- the spool was so attractive as packaging I couldn't bear to throw it away. You can see I am longing for spring here!!

I also wanted to share a few goodies, (I''ll be giving away some of this!) The books were a prize from a CHA drawing from Tweety Jill Publications -- I'd like to give away three of the books, along with a Cricut Daisy Chain Cartridge. The Cricut cartridge was a limited CHA only release and was being given away there by the company that makes Cricuts. I have seen people selling them on ebay at $50 or so but I don't want to do that -- it was given to me for free and I don't want to profit from that. I can't use it myself since I don't have a cricut -- so if you can use it or know someone who can -- then please enter the drawing. All you need to do is post to this blog entry - tell me where you are from, and just for fun, tell me a wish -- and by wishing it out loud -- may it fly off into the universe with wings that will return to you with your heart's desire! I'll select the winners randomly NEXT Friday. ETA: Just to clarify - there will be four winners, three winners for the three books being given away (each winner will receive one book), and one for the cricut cartridge.

Here are the photos of the Tweety Jill books (I'll be selecting three of these at random for the prize, along with the cricut cartridge):

Cupcakes, Foofala and French Inspired Ribbons

Wow. Today is the first day of spring, and also the first day of sunshine we've had in I can't remember how many days. The sun feels like a balm to my winter weary soul. Around this time of year, I start examining why I live in Ohio and begin to long for the gorgeous climates you girls in SoCal have. And I fantasize about moving to somewhere where the sun shines all the time!

Okay, back to reality -- the topic for the day is paper favorites, and I have two projects to share. Have you ever had a paper company or a particular line of paper that you love so much, it becomes a classic with you? I've always felt that way about Foofala and particularly, the Savannah Collection from Foofala. I know it's old and last season -- but by now you know that I am a lover of things old as well as new...

I found a generous pack of the Savannah papers on clearance at Target - I think they were $4.18 or something like that. And I had to scoop it up. I think I was especially giddy to have it knowing that there was no new Foofala release at CHA-W.

The first project is a sweet cupcake box - the lid comes off and you can hide a treasure inside. The cupcake box was a shopping find at Tuesday Morning - it's a discount store here in Ohio. The boxes are made by Lang - note the darling candle and scalloped candle holder -- the bottom is magnetic and attaches easily to the top. The box is pretty enough on its own but I wanted to alter it as soon as I saw it. And I love how it turned out; mine will be used to contain a small bridal shower gift for a friend. I also used glittery white paper on the top of the box and I happened to my great delight, to find the sweet little pink pressed glass cake stand at the same time I found the paperboard cupcake. Here is the before pic of the cupcake box:

The second project with my beloved Foof is this Puttin' on the Ritz Shadowbox. The image I used in this shadowbox project is from a circa 1920-30s vintage French postcard -- I love that the woman is wearing a top hat - it reminded me of the Irving Berlin song, Puttin' on the Ritz. I love reading about the Roaring Twenties. This photo says so much to me -- the fact that the woman chose masculine dress - yet remains totally feminine -- it says something about her confidence and determination in an age where women were breaking out of the restrictive Victorian molds and daring to define themselves in ways they'd never done before. I wanted a feminine color palette to offset the masculine pose and dress to convey that women can have it all - they can be powerful and affluent, wealthy and worldly, and yet retain their femininity too. I used a Hobby Lobby shadow box for this project - just a plain wood box that I painted, then papered. The legs of the piece are old wooden spools covered in paper. I used a Seven Gypsies crystal knob on top. But my favorite part of this piece are the wooden number discs at the top. The wooden discs were actually a BEADING find at Joann's - just plain, thick wooden discs strung on bead wire. I brought them home and applied Seven Gypsies numeral rub-ons to each bead. That was fun to do and a great way to create your own custom looking wooden beads. You can apply any rubon though you may want to seal it with a clear coat of matte varnish to protect the rubon from wearing off if the piece will be exposed to a lot of wear and tear. The fabric label is a vintage dress label and the rhinestone piece is vintage jewelry as well.

Finally, some lovely French inspired goodies are trickling in - I have yet to put these in the shop -- but I fell in love with them on sight; the second photo shows the Place Vendome ribbon that isn't here yet -- but will be here by next week. The ribbon will be sold by the yard in the scrapologie store - yummers! The pink and black fleur de lys (on the bottom) is feminine and pretty but the lemon and black is my favorite. The one on the top is a lovely coppery peachy iridescent color. Very French. Off to lunch now -- have a great Thursday.

Handmade Vintage Styled Jewelry (trash to treasure project)

I love the look of vintage jewelry, and used to be able to buy it affordably at a local antique mall, which, to my disappointment, recently closed. In the past year or so, I also discovered the work of vintage styled jewelry artist John Wind, of Maximal Art and fell in love immediately with his gorgeous and pricey pieces. I wanted to try my hand at making something similar, but on a shoestring budget. While walking the aisles at Wal Mart and also at Joann's the other day, I happened upon some clearanced rhinestone belt buckles. I picked them up and using my wire cutters, I clipped out the metal bar and tongue in the center of each buckle (they came out quite easily. That left me with a jeweled frame without a back.

For the square frame, I was able to go to Lowe's and have a glazier cut me a small piece of glass to set into the back of the buckle. I glued the glass into the frame using Glass Tac and allowing it to dry overnight. Then I cut artwork to fit into the frame and used Martha Stewart Decoupage Glue and Sealer to glue the art to the glass. Allowing this next layer to dry, I cut a piece of fabric and glued that over the back of the piece. I then attached ribbon at the top with a glue gun, although if you have a soldering iron you can solder on a jewelry bail or small jump ring to the top to tie the ribbon through. Otherwise, you can hot glue or sew a pinback to the back of the buckle and you have a gorgeous brooch. This one is my fave - I love the French Blue color - wouldn't it be a great little gift to give a bride for that "something blue"?

On the oval pieces, the glazier could not cut oval pieces of glass for me, so I cut a piece of clear transparency and glued that in, instead. On the two oval pieces, I also cut a piece of chipboard and glued that in behind the artwork, after first covering the chipboard with patterned paper to finish the back. I forgot to take pics of the backs of these projects so will update this entry with those tomorrow. But otherwise -- it's pretty much the same process. I also didn't use the Martha Stewart decoupage glue on the oval pins - though you could, since it dries clear. I simply glued all three layers, the transparency, the artwork annd the chipboard, to the back of the frame with the Glass Tac glue on the edges only. It's not vintage quality, admittedly - but it still makes a lovely embellishment and you can use it to dress up a layout, mini book or other special project, or you can make up a bunch of these and set them on a small plate - they're just so pretty!

This is what the oval buckle looked like before (it's a Prym Dritz product available at Hobby Lobby and probably at other sewing and notions stores;

and regrettably I don't have a before pic of the square buckle -- but I found it at Walmart in the Crafts section for $3.00 on clearance. If you make one of these, I'd love to see how it turns out!

Also - for those of you who are new to my blog, thanks for reading and stopping by - and commenting too. I welcome you, and am gratified to have this small readership! Lisa had asked about where I got the vintage images for the easter basket project (I will be removing that project from the website soon - so if you need pics then you might want to right click and save them to your computer) - that project has been accepted for publication so I will be taking it off my blog in the next day or so. Anyway - if anyone needs the images - please drop me an email and I will send them to you. Happy St. Patty's Day!   

Tagged

I've been tagged by the sweet and talented Alisa, so here goes! Five random weird things about me:

1) Sorry, Alisa - I had to copy this from you -- because it's true for me too! I have to be the one to load the dishwasher in my house. It bugs me if all the dishes get crammed in there and overloaded or improperly/not uniformly placed.

2) I can't fold clothes from the dryer if they are not warm. They have to be warm for me to fold them. If I've forgotten about a load and find it's cold -- I will reset the dryer for another five minutes so I can fold them warm.

3) I am nearly always COLD -- really bad in the winter -- so I wear two pairs of socks all the time.

4) I can't get into the car if someone else is driving, if there is music on. The music has to be turned off until I get in and "adjust" - though I will permit the music to be turned on later, after I've adjusted.

5) I am a picky eater -- guess that goes along with being vegetarian!

Boy - it's fun to read this and realize how many idiosyncracies I have -- I've never really thought about them!

I tag....

1) Rita

2) Sara

3) Candice

4) Hope

5) Karla

Something else I wanted to share with you today. My sister sent me this link of Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a brilliant neuroanatomist and brain researcher. She experienced a stroke and subsequently recovered from it -- the experience was lifechanging for her. I quote from TED on why you should listen to her:

One morning, a blood vessel in Jill Bolte Taylor's brain exploded. As a brain scientist, she realized she had a ringside seat to her own stroke. She watched as her brain functions shut down one by one: motion, speech, memory, self-awareness ...

Amazed to find herself alive, Taylor spent eight years recovering her ability to think, walk and talk. She has become a spokesperson for stroke recovery and for the possibility of coming back from brain injury stronger than before. In her case, although the stroke damaged the left side of her brain, her recovery unleashed a torrent of creative energy from her right. From her home base in Indiana, she now travels the country on behalf of the Harvard Brain Bank as the "Singin' Scientist."

Here is the link to the video -- it's a bit long, 18.5 minutes or so -- but IMO, worth watching. Incredible.

My Stroke of Insight

Handmade Easter Baskets (trash to treasure project)

ETA: Sorry - I have to remove this project for publication - I will re-upload these photos once the project is published.

Do these felt baskets look vaguely familiar to you? If you live anywhere near a Target, you probably saw them at the Target Dollar Spot, looking a lot more like this before their makeovers:

They came with assorted felt embellishments which I decided to remove and pretty them up a bit. Armed with a craft knife to scrape away stubborn glue and residue, and a bit of elbow grease, I removed the attachments on the front of the baskets. It's okay if they leave a mark of some kind as you can cover that up with the greeting card images. Now, the fun part. I printed out vintage greetings in colors coordinating with the baskets, on Office Max's Premium Coated Canvas Paper for inkjet printers (this is real artist's canvas paper - sold in 8.5" x 11" sheets at OMax. It's a bit tricky printing -- you may have to stand by your printer and make sure it catches - manually feed it in versus letting it sit in the autofeed tray. I set my printer to the heavy matte paper setting and I also saturated the images a bit as the canvas absorbed more of the color than I wanted it to on the first pass. Also, try to use images that have lighter backgrounds. Dark backgrounds muddy up the look. I printed 4" x 6" images and then trimmed them down a bit to fit on the front of the baskets. I backstitched them with a tough, durable white cord/thread to the front of the basket as regular cotton thread won't do for the canvas. Then I applied glue and clear Martha glitter to the fronts of the greetings to make them appear glittered up (mine is very subtle and not really evident from the photos - but very pretty IRL).  Then you can hot glue trim around the bottom, add a bit of ribbon, and at $1 per basket you're done! I loved the scalloped handle on the blue one - the other one, I stitched shell buttons to the handle. You can now pretty them up even further with all sorts of Easter goodies and they end up transformed from ducklings into swans, plus they make gorgeous easter baskets for gifting or as a centerpiece. I love the sweet paper doll I found online, which you can download for free here: Paper Doll Review . I printed out two of them and flipped her image horizontally for the second basket.

Waiting for spring. *sigh*

So we got hit with the mother of all snowstorms, a level 3 emergency snowstorm, near blizzard conditions -- meaning we have some serious cabin fever, and 12 inches of snow outside. It's been snowing all day and just stopped --- I'll have to get a pic of it tomorrow - but it's piled pretty high up making it tough to even get out the front door. So we're stuck inside and just waiting for any sign of spring, sigh!

I've been keeping myself busy however, and I had a bunch of these cards lying around - some packaging from Making Memories Noteworthy brads that I held onto because the packaging was so pretty - label shaped.I know, I am a serious packrat. I ended up making a few cards though, and very pleased with the end results. I loved being able to use left over scraps of paper for this - it's a great way to use up leftover bits and pieces. A few notes:

On the third card (the cupcakey one) I used a medallion punch from Spirelli. I found these at CHA and loved them. Especially after having the teeny one from Martha Stewart, I wanted them in all sizes. You can get the Spirelli punch (I bought the medium sized one) here: Classic Spirelli Punches

The flip side of that card that has a cupcake stamp and pennant on it was bought last year - it's the Birthday Set from Savvy Stamps - I think I bought it at Impress Rubber Stamps online -- but it's no longer there when I check. If I find it I'll post an update here. Off to get some dinner... stay warm!

Project Instructions for St. Patty's Day Kits

We've shipped nearly all the St. Patty's Day Kits and I imagine some should land before the weekends starts - so I wanted to post instructions in case you are going to be snowbound like we will be (major winter storm headed our way) and have nothing to do but create... so here are the project instructions:

Lucky Favor Cone:

For the Lucky Favor Cone, remove your Creative Imaginations white flat unassembled paper cone from the kit.

1) Trace the cone onto the back side of the desired piece of patterned paper (I used the striped paper from Reminisce). Cut out the pattern you trace and adhere it with Perfect Paper Matte Adhesive  (my favorite glue) or any other adhesive to the cone. If you want the flaps to be an alternate, coordinating pattern, fold up the flaps when you are tracing so that you are NOT tracing around the flaps. Then after glueing the body down, trace the flaps alone onto a separate piece of paper and cut them out and adhere.

2) Use a strong double sided redliner tape, such as Provo Craft's Terrifically Tacky Tape (I use this on EVERY project -- usually use the 1/4" size), to adhere the ends of the cone shut. (All you do is fold each scored line on the cone and adhere the ends shut, so that the skinny piece of scored cardstock is on the INSIDE of the cone.

3) If you wish, you can run a piece of the gold ribbon from the kit through a xyron machine and apply it around the upper half of the cone (It doesn't fit cleanly and neatly around so I actually cut and applied mine in pieces, covering the seams with the scalloped medallions cut with a scalloped punch from the Reminisce Lucky paper, where required. On the reverse side of the cone, I cut a scallop from a coordinating yellow pattern in my stash and set my punched gift tag from the kit in the middle of the scallop.

4) Cut a slit into the glitter pom pom carefully and apply glue, slide it onto the end of the cone.

5) Now the tricky part: be VERY CAREFUL not to cut yourself doing this, but using an xacto or craft knife, carefully cut two small slits in the back of the leprechaun glittery hat. Some of the glitter will come off - don't worry about that as we can glue that back in place easily. The slit should be big enough for the seam binding to fit into. Now fold down two opposing flaps and punch holes that are directly opposite each other, keeping the front facing flaps and the rear-facing flaps UNpunched. (Hope that makes sense)!

6) Starting on the inside of the cone, knot the gold seam binding on one end, and pull it through the hole in the flap on the underside. Do this for each side. Bring the gold seam binding up and  thread it on either side, through the slits you've cut in the hat. Bring the seam binding around to the front and tie a bow so that the cone hangs properly with the leprechaun hat directly at the top of the bow. Glue back in place any glitter that came off the hat when pulling the ribbon through. Fill with goodies, and hang, and voila, you're done!

I'll do two separate posts with instructions for the other two projects (basically I will update to this post) -- just because I am paranoid that I will lose the post before I save it, lol!

Project Instructions for Maya Road Tin with Glittered Postcard:

1) Remove your empty Maya Road tin from the kit. (Oh - and do this project last so you can use the scraps from the matboard piece in your kit after you've completed the Lucky Girl Project). Using the scrap from the matboard, cut a piece of matboard that will fit neatly inside the lower part of the tin (I used the bottom of the tin, not the lid). Use a corner rounder to  get the corners well rounded and neatly fitting inside the tin.

2) Using the Provocraft Terrifically Tacky or similar tape, tape on all four sides around the tin, then cutting around the curved edges so that the tape conforms to the matboard. Now we will glitter! Set the matboard onto a larger piece of clean paper that will catch your excess glitter - you'll want to save and reuse it - glass glitter is expensive and beautiful -- but fortunately, a little goes a long way! Now you need to look at your postcard and decide which glitter will work better for your background -- if the postcard is predominantly green - I'd use the GOLD glitter, but if it's got a cream background -- you may want to try the green. Peel off the redliner tape and glitter up the edges of the matboard. And you need to be glittering atleast 1/4" of edge on the matboard so that the postcard covers the unglittered area.

3) Now trim the edges of your postcard with the corner rounder. Adhere the postcard with pop dots for raised dimension, on top of the glitter edged matboard. I also added a scalloped circle which I used to anchor my shamrock stamping. I actually turned my stamping green with Tim Holtz Distress Inks - I think I used Meadow and Gold mixed together, but you can skip this part if desired.

4) Using a cropodile, punch holes in the metal tin at the top - determine where the top of the tin will be, depending on if your postcard sits horizontally or vertically. Then punch the holes. Thread seambinding through the holes - I used antique gold and brown together but you could use green too if your postcard calls for it. If you wish - you can add beads at the top where the bow is tied by using clear thread and tying it or sewing it onto the seam binding.

5) Now adhere the postcard and mat into the tin and you're done - it's ready for hanging or gift giving!