scrapologie

Design Challenge with Heidi Swapp, Canvas Corp, Tattered Angels and 7 Gypsies

Hi friends! I'm so excited to share my work for the Heidi Swapp/Canvas Corp Design Challenge, featuring a lovely mix of product from Heidi Swapp, Tattered Angels, Canvas Corp and 7 Gypsies! I was asked to represent the 7 Gypsies Brand so my project may remind you of work I've done in the past for the Gypsies!

I was thrilled to be asked to create a project for the Designer Challenge - and it was with great anticipation that I opened my box to see what Heidi had selected. I have to say, the mix of products and brands for this challenge was perfect, and so inspiring!  I can't wait to see what the other designers have created!

My inspiration for this project was drawn from the colors and products themselves that Heidi chose. I keep a file of tear sheets and often, when I pull a project together, I look at either my magazine tear sheets or my pinterest board to draw inspiration from a color scheme, etc.

Since Heidi had already put together some amazing products and colors for me to work with, I was immediately able to identify with the richness of the colors, the old world feel of the products and immediately was drawn to these two ads from Italian luxury goods house Bottega Veneta. I wanted to recreate the rich, old world color scheme shown in these ads. (photos attached) Also, since the colors reminded me of autumn, I felt they would go perfect with photos of my daughter taken last fall at a local park.

To create the Memory File, I misted the front and rear cover with Tattered Angels Woven Burlap. I created the inside by trimming the edges from another folder that had the same shape as the striped folder, misting them with Myrtle, and adhering them as a footer and header on the inside. I then used Heidi's Color Magic Paper (with the matching striped pattern) and misted it with my own stash of Tattered Angels Pearl and Gold. I adhered the paper to the inside. Then I layered the 7 Gypsies Postale index and tag envelopes and inserts and decorated them with photos and autumnal quotes. I love that the envelopes give you a space to hide journaling or additional photos.

To finish the cover and trim, I added Heidi's Information Trimmings on the tab of the folder and misted a Color Magic banner with gold/pearl for the front. I then misted the gorgeous canvas flower with the gold and added some ribbon trim, a metal finding for the center with a punched circle of vintage french text. Two gilt leaves finished off the cover, and I love the old world look and feel of this project.

To see my next project for the Design Challenge, please click here to visit Heidi's Blog. Here's a little sneak peek - I'll be giving this one away - so if you're interested, leave a comment and I'll draw a winner on Sunday!

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today, and don't forget to visit Maggie's blog tomorrow and Holly's blog if you haven't already seen her gorgeous project, for more inspiration!

 

Supply List:

• Heidi Swapp Products (Color Magic Memory Files, Color Magic 12x12 paper, Color Magic Banner Delights, No Limits Destination Pennants, Trimmings - Information)
• Canvas Corp Products: Canvas Flower, Canvas Envelope, Canvas Postcard
• Tattered Angels Products: Glimmer Mists in: Tokyo, Myrtle (Chalkboard), Woven Burlap, Gold, Pearl
• 7 Gypsies Products: Postale Collection Index Envelopes and Index Inserts, Tag Envelopes and Tag Inserts, Paper Tape (Postale)

 

• Miscellaneous Supplies:
• Gilt Leaves - from Papier Valise
• Pink Acrylic Paint - Folk Art/Spring Rose (Plaid)
• Chocolate Seam Binding
• Metal finding and vintage french text (my stash)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a gypsy christmas

Today I'm sharing a little gift wrapping project I did for the 7 Gypsies Blog  with kraft and red papered jewelry boxes that I picked up at my local craft store. I used supplies from 7 Gypsies to embellish and wrap these packages. Each one took literally minutes and I guarantee they'll take the recipient's breath away! You can read more about the supplies used on the 7 Gypsies Blog, where they are featuring holiday crafting and decor ideas all month long!

 This last one is my favorite. I used 7 Gypsies elastics to fasten the bottles to the front of the package after securing them with a glue dot first, and then punching holes with an awl in the box lid to thread the elastic through.

I'll be sharing more soon; in the meantime, I've got to hop to it and get my christmas decor up at home. We have a naked prelit tree sitting in the living room since Saturday - I haven't had time to get the ornaments out and get it decorated but it'll be up by the end of the week hopefully!

 

 

7 Gypsies Holiday Projects - Comfort and Joy

Today I want to share a couple of projects being featured over at the 7 Gypsies Blog. I decided to use the mini librarie drawer to create a few hostess gift kits for the holidays. I always love the idea of the container being a gift in itself, and the mini librarie drawer is certainly a wonderful gift and a lovely vintage style container that will be cherished by the recipient.

The first drawer brings out the warmth of the wood and has the more traditional holiday tones of red and green. I filled it with gifts for a mini Christmas tea: two small teacups, shortbread cookies and tea bags packaged in wax paper and tied with baker's twine, silver teaspoons tied together with baker's twine threaded through a button, a mercury glass votive, gourmet lollipops from Hammonds and a luxury soap (which I added for the color). You could include hot chocolate packets as well with miniature marshmallows. A miniature dollar store nutcracker and holiday picks add festive color and warmth.

 

The second drawer has a different color scheme - more of the silvers, whites and pale wintry blues associated with winter. I altered the front of this drawer with flocked Carolina paper and adhered the faceted button with hot glue to the knob. I then filled the compartments with orgnaic black cherry tea, a handtowel tied with 7 Gypsies ribbon and embellished with a tag made from Savannah paper and a 7 Gypsies sapphire dangle, plus a button embellished with paper tape. I also added a bar of luxury honey almond soap and lotion and a holiday pick in wintry white. The recipient can remove the gifts and then set the drawer on a vanity table to hold vintage glasses filled with beauty items such as cotton balls/cotton swabs, lipsticks, makeup/compacts, mini spritzers or perfume bottles for an attractive and functional vintage display.

Keep these ready to go with you to those holiday parties, for a hostess gift that is sure to delight and please! The mini drawer and other 7 Gypsies products can be found at http://www.sevengypsies.com

 

 

Coming off the sugar rush...

***UPDATE*** Sorry, just realized I am not supposed to post my librarie drawer for awhile yet, to allow the magazine to remain fresh. But you can get a glimpse of it here: Scrapbook Trends

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Be sure to check out the new kits at JBS Mercantile at midnight tonight. This month's kit contains Jenni's annual addition to her Red and Black Extension and it's oh SO lovely! And you won't want to miss the gorgeous holiday themed project kit either - I'll be sharing my creations soon.

I am not much of a published paper artist. I don't submit to magazines as I simply don't have the time and I confess I am in a place where I just enjoy creating for its own sake. Nonetheless, I do understand the thrill of being published, and it was indeed a thrill when Scrapbook Trends Magazine emailed me asking to use this project that I created a while back for 7 Gypsies, featuring the Mini Librarie Drawer. Pleasant suprise turned to all-out excitement when they advised they were going to feature it on the cover! I had to email the Gypsies who still had the project. They informed me that a few of the elements on the front of the drawer had gone missing during their use of it. Fortunately, awesome Janelle Smith was able to work some Gypsy magic on it and re-created the missing parts and shipped it off to the publication in time to meet the deadline. I was gobsmacked when I walked into Hobby Lobby and saw it on the magazine rack, staring back at me. I hope you don't mind my sharing it with you - it so rarely happens that my work turns up in print, so when it did, and on the cover to boot, I just couldn't resist sharing it here! The first two photos show my original project. You can see the minute differences on the magazine cover. Thanks for letting me bask! ;)

And thank goodness we're coming down off the sugar rush! I think it's been Halloween for over a month in this house, and I am glad to see it go... we have enough candy to last us until next year, probably (if we still have all our teeth left)! Hope you had a wonderful Halloween with the kiddos! Enjoy your week.

 

 

Vintage Card Set - 7 Gypsies Summer 2011

I have always loved 7 Gypsies products and I am really blessed to have been designing for them for a few years now. They really stay true to their aesthetic and they are a wonderful company with good people and great products. If you've ever been to a CHA tradeshow and experienced their tradeshow booth, it's a feast for the eyes. They are masters of display, and they are the Anthropologie of the papercrafts industry, with such cool, quirky and original displays. Janelle, Debbie and Paula are the minds behind the magic. While 7 Gypsies wasn't at CHA this past July, I recall from prior tradeshows how amazing their booths always were. You may be able to find photos on the internet and on You Tube by searching 7 Gypsies. Here's a great video that shows the thought that goes into setting up the booth behind the scenes.

I created these vintage style cards for 7 Gypsies' 2011 Summer Release last month. The first, second and fourth cards all feature new rub-ons from 7 Gypsies. The first card features the new Apothecary Rubbings, which I used to create this valentine/love card. The little apothecary dome is also from the new 7 Gypsies release.

The second card features the stunning Butterflies Rubbings and yes, the color is every bit as vivid as you see in the photo. The rubbings were so lovely I had to use them en masse on one card for maximum effect.

The third card gives you a peek at some of the new patterned paper from 7 Gypsies. I don't see it on the website yet but there are a series of map themed papers which are lovely!

The last card features the Mini Ephemera Rubbings. I used my Banner Builder Die Collection and Double Ended Banner Die from Papertrey Ink to create the little vintage banner.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Seven Gypsies - CHA Winter 2011 - Sneak Peek

 

Introducing... Lille from 7 Gypsies. This is one of the new (and my favorite!) collection from 7 Gypsies being released at CHA. I love this beautiful collection and am so excited to see it being released. Seven Gypsies product has a way of inspiring wanderlust in even the most staid homebody. Every collection draws inspiration from the destinations traveled by the gypsies. It's enough to make you want to pack your bags and set out to travel the world. I had a chance to work with these products and they are just beyond gorgeous. If you're going to CHA - be sure to check them out. The design team did an amazing job with this collection. You can see more at the Gypsy Blog.  
Here are closeups of the individual papers:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 
Some coordinating products:

 

 
 

 

 

Here are some more detail shots of the project I did with the new librarie drawer and the 6x6 Lille papers. My computer crashed in early November, right in the middle of this project, so I ended up not being able to use the pics I wanted to use. Fortunately, I had some older photos printed out and in a big bin - just extras from previous projects, and was able to use those to finish the project. I'm happy to say my computer is repaired now but that was a LONG computerless month!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

You know I hate to post without leaving you a vintage image, so I hope this one will suffice for today. And thank you, so much, for all your kind words and encouragement about Bob's job loss. I am beginning to see it's not the end of the world and I so appreciate all of your thoughts and wishes. It's especially comforting to know you have been through tough times as well, and persevered. Thank you so much. Wishing you all a blissful weekend. Keep safe and warm!

 

 

Gypsy Sample Board

Here is another project I created for CHA Summer for the Gypsies. I keep this in my art studio and love the autumnal colors. I used a Photo Tray from Seven Gypsies to create a mini bulletin board/inspiration board. To create this, I used foam core which I cut to fit into the individual compartments within the tray. I then selected fabrics from my stash, applied fusible web and ironed them onto the foam core (though hot glue or regular glue would probably work as well). Then I hot glued the fabric rectangles into the compartments in the photo tray. Then came the fun part! I used stick pins from Jenni Bowlin and various ephemera from my stash to create a gypsy inspiration board. It was totally simple to do and you could change out photos and create all sorts of displays or inspiration boards.

 

 

 
 
 Enjoy the vintage image and have a great evening!

 

7 Gypsies Projects

Here are a few projects I completed for 7 Gypsies for CHA Summer this past July. I forgot to share them and thought you might like to see them. Have you seen 7 Gypsies' gorgeous Conservatory Collection? It reminds me a lot of the art of John Derian and Anna Corba. And reminds me too of the Nature Notebook project I created for scrapologie awhile back - I will have to share those old projects here, just to get them all in one place. Here is the layout I did for the Gypsies for CHA:

 

 

If you are a fan of John Derian, I am sure you've been loving his new collection for Target. I had to pick up these coasters:

 
They're so very spooky and halloweenish.

Here are a few vintage images for you, inspired by 7 Gypsies' Conservatory Collection. And I just realized I only shared one of the projects I did -- I'll sneak the other one in tomorrow.

 

 

 

Venetian Dream - 7 Gypsies Stacked Accordion Project

I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs; A palace and a prison on each hand; I saw from out the wave of her structure's rise As from the stroke of the enchanter's wand: A thousand years their cloudy wings expand Around me, and a dying Glory smiles O'er the far times, when many a subject land Look'd to the winged Lion's marble pines, Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles. Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron)

The sylphs and ondines And the sea-kings and queens Long ago, long ago, on the waves built a city, As lovely as seems To some bard in his dreams, The soul of his latest love-ditty.  (Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton) ("Owen Meredith")

 

White swan of cities, slumbering in thy nest So wonderfully built among the reeds Of the lagoon, that fences thee and feeds, As sayeth thy old historian and thy guest!
Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

 

 
Venice has to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world, from what I have read of it. It seems so  ethereal, dreamy, romantic. I love that Seven Gypsies interpreted this beautiful city in their Venice Collection, which I used with the photos of Alekha taken at Epcot, below. Though it's not Venice, the photos complement the paper collection and certainly seem to evoke Venice.  I created this book from Seven Gypsies' stacked accordion for the monthly project on the Gypsy Journal Blog.

The stacked accordion journal was perfect for the photos I have been saving of Alekha and our trip to the Italy Pavilion at Epcot. The colors and surroundings were beautiful and evocative of Venice, and the Venice papers fit perfectly for these photos. I wanted to make a book out of my stacked accordion journal, and wanted to give it an aged appearance, so I used Tim Holtz' grungeboard to fashion bindings for the book that imitated leather. It was easy - all I did was ink up the grungeboard layering ink colors, and then I applied clear embossing powder and heat set them. I then fastened them with brads that had the look of hammered metal. The cover was stamped with the Molto Bello stamp from the Venice Stamp set, and also heat set with clear embossing powder. I added the lovely aqua colored leaf from Prima and applied some gilt to it with Rub n Buff, a wax metallic finish product in Grecian Gold.

I completed the inside of the journal using Venice papers, Venice stamps, 97% Complete Stickers, Gaffer Tape, Paper Tape, and a few other stamps from my stash. I inked several of the pages and heat embossed all the stamped images.

 

Here's a quick tip: I have always loved the appearance of text in old books, and wish that I had a stack of blank aged book paper (I know they're probably not acid free, but if it's a concern you can always treat the pages with a deacidifying spray). I tear the blank pages from old books and run them through my printer to add my own customized journaling and fonts - without having to "age" the paper with inks, etc.

 

Paris Book (7 Gypsies CHA)

Thanks for your kind comments! I wanted to share a few pages from the rest of the Paris Book. I have been to Paris but it's been a long time (over 20 years ago!) and I am dying to go again. Because I wasn't much into photography at that time, I have few photos of that maiden voyage. So when I saw these new book board covers from 7 Gypsies, I knew I wanted to create a minibook about the Paris I remembered, so I turned to Flickr to supply the photos. The book utilizes paper, gaffer tape and paper tape from the new Venice Collection. The book board and brass plaque are new items being introduced at CHA. There are many Gypsy tags utilized in the book as well, along with a naked index pocket, and all of these lovelies are products from 7 Gypsies. What I do is I do an advanced search on Flickr under everyone's uploads, and check the following boxes:

Only Search Within Creative Commons Licensed Content

Find Content to Use Commercially

Find Content to Modify, Adapt or Build Upon

That will bring you a range of photos that you can utilize for your own projects, in most cases the artists do want you to credit them with the original photos (as you should do, anyway!).

So here is a peek inside the Paris Minibook that was created for 7 Gypsies for CHA Winter 2010, followed by attribution to the photographers:

There's a few more pages -- but you get the picture....

And without further ado, here are the photography credits, many thanks to these fabulous photographers for sharing their work so freely!

  1) Blue Cafe - by david.nikonvscanon
  2) Eiffel Tower - by schillergarcia
  3) Green Door - by alq666 

  4) Les Deux Magots - by Serge Melki

  5) Le Metro - by Pedro Simoes7

  6) Macarons - by uggboy

  7) Accordionist - by torcellotrio

  8) Paris Flea Market - by extranoise

  9) Laduree - by Sam Felder

 10) Artist in Montmartre - by ingirogiro

 11) Fromage (cheese) - by Jean-Louis Zimmermann

And here's a vintage image to share; makes me want to set to work on handmade valentines for sending, right away!