RARE Banner - Helmar Creative Team

Rare Disease Day is very special to my family, every year I share social media posts however this year I decided to host a Face Painting Afternoon Tea so we could get together with other local families and paint our faces in the Rare Disease Day logo colours and take a group selfie to share on social media for the #showyourrare campaign.  I thought a little decorating might be fun at the event so I decided to make a banner in addition to using tablecloths in the colours of the logo (I made some awesome op-shop finds for the 3 tablecloths).

You will need
Banner pieces, I just got this pack from Officeworks
Large die cut letters or wooden letters
Helmar Acid Free Glue
Helmar 450 Quick Dry
Papers and embellishments in the logo colours.  I used -
Pink Paislee Summer Lights 6x6 paper pad
Dear Lizzie Happy Place 6x6 paper pad
I decided to pull in some zebra items since the zebra is the mascot for Rare Disease/Rare Diagnosis from the 2018 fundraising kit from Scrapping Fun Kits and also used the butterflies from the cut apart and the awareness ribbon charm from this kit.
Paper doilies and tassle from a very old (I think it was 2016)  Kitaholic Kits embellishment kit
Blue and Pink hearts from Charms Creations
Pink, Blue, Purple and Green Twine.

I started by creating paper clusters by tearing my papers, adding in a paper doily or scrap of tissue paper and gluing them on to on each banner with Helmar Acid Free Glue.

For each piece once I had my paper layers down I added my letter, but first I cut the part off the top that was there for hanging the letter.  I then added embellishments to each banner piece with Helmar 450 Quick Dry.















Once my Banner pieces were done I joined them together with a piece of green twine, tying a know on one corner of each piece to avoid movement and then added twine in the other colours to each flag so as to hid the knot. 
I will hang the banner by adding more Green twine at each end on the day.
I really love how my banner turned out.  Photos of my decorations on the day and our face painted selfie will be up on my social media on the 28th of February so for now here is a pic of the banner on my table so you can see how cute it is.

A great thing about this banner is because I used Helmar and my Scrapbooking supplies it could go in my album with photos from the day as a double page spread or a fold out spread of some sort.  Now to decide if I want to keep it for next year or scrap it.
Do you love making Banners?  If so do you make some that are a little outside of the box in theme like this one is?

Lunar New Year Fine Motor Skill Decorations - Helmar Creative Team

As a family we like to explore various cultural, awareness and themed days.  One of the things I love about doing this is making decorations with my boys, it is a fun way to bring in some fine motor skill activities and sensory activities to our week.
In February one of the days we like to explore is Lunar New Year, unfortunately there is no Lunar New Year activities where we live so we usually decorate in a small way, learn about the Lunar Calendar and we have dinner either at our local Chinese restaurant or we get take away from them. 
This year we decided to make a tissue paper Cherry Blossom Tree.
You will need
Branch/es that suit the look you want.
Pink tissue paper or serviettes Helmar Super-Tac Glue Helmar Premium Craft Glue
If gluing 2 branches together like I did some scrap cardboard to reinforce the joint.

Start by preparing your tree, if you need to glue 2 branches together do so now.  I used HelmarPremium Craft Glue as it is what I had on hand but I think Helmar Super Strenght PVA WoodGlue would be better.  I used scraps of cardboard to reinforce the join, it blends in fine and you can only tell if you look up close.   I found a V in the big branch to sort of jam the other branch in and glued it there and then glued my reinforcement pieces over it.

As I was using some pink serviettes left over from E’s Fortnite party we were able to cut 4 circles at a time by leaving the serviette folded in quarter.  Using a small bowel and marker I traced a circle on each serviette, then E set about cutting them out, giving his fingers some exercise 😉

 

Initially we were careful with our scrunching and shaping, starting by scrunching each layer and then unravelling, then layers a couple of layers together, pinching in the middled and scrunching into a flower shape. 
You could just scrunch up the flowers into a ball but I thought this might give E better fine motor exercises.

When gluing the flowers to the branches I put the glue sort of inside the flower and then sort of found a nob on the branch to put the flower over getting a good hold.  Others I just glued straight on.  As you glue the flowers sort of use the glue to get the scrunches to hold together.

For smaller flowers use scraps of your serviette and just scrunch them up into a ball and glue on.

Next we made our paper lanterns.
You will need 

A4 red paper
Helmar Craft and Hobby PVA

Very simple.  We just cut some A4 red paper in half, the boys cut slits in  all the pieces and then glued them together with Helmar Craft and Hobby PVA, adding a handle with paper scraps.  Once dry we simply threaded them onto our Christmas lights and hung them on the window where our tree is living.

Finally we made some paper firecrackers.
You will need 

A4 red paper
3mm red ribbon
Gold tape
Helmar Premium Craft Glue
Helmar Craft and Hobby PVA

We cut the red A4 paper into 2.5 x 3 inch pieces, then cut 3 inch pieces of gold washi (2 per firecracker), then cut 7inch long pieces of red ribbon (1 per each pair of firecrackers) and 1 10inch piece of red ribbon.








 









The washi wasn’t sticking well as it was old so we glued it on with HelmarCraft and Hobby PVA.
Then E rolled each piece around something round to get it to curve.

Time for assembly.
Using Helmar Premium Craft Glue adhere 1 end of the ribbon inside the red paper, then add some glue to one side of the roll and glue the ends together to form a roll.
Glue the other end of the ribbon to the inside of another piece and form the roll.  
 
Once all your pairs are done you can start tying them together.
I started by tying a knot in the ribbon of my first pair, then I snipped one side of the ribbon near the know.  I tied this end around the ribbon of the next pair.  I repeated this until the end.


All done, now to hand it near my tree and lantern

Galentine's Day Card

The year has just gone so fast, I really wanted to organise something for Galentine's Day this year but before I knew it it was a couple of days away and I hadn't planned anything, so I made a quick Galentine's card with my left overs from the Valentine's card I made for hubby and a few other bits from my stash and I wanted to share it with you but first I think I should give a brief explanation of Galentine's Day for those who are unaware of this fun excuse to eat waffles and hang out with friends.

Galentine's Day is something that the character Leslie Nope created in the TV show Parks and Recreation, if you haven't watched that show yet go check it out, it is a fun show to watch. 
Anyway Galentine's Day is about spending time with your Gal Pals and celebrating each other.  It occurs on February 13th.  Waffles are the must food for the event, cute gifts, cheezy quotes and just celebrating the women in your life.  And a lot of women started having Galentine's Day celebrations after seeing the episode as well why not and every year since I saw the episode I think to myself I should organise something and then every year just runs away from me with recovery from Christmas, the chaos of the start of the school year, 2 Birthdays in the first 2 weeks of the school year, etc.  So I am promising myself next year I will invite my local Gal Pals to have some waffles and celebrate our friendship, fingers crossed I remember early in the year.

To make my card I used
Simple Stories Kissing Booth 12x12 sticker sheet
Poppy Crafts A2 cards
Doodlebug Petite Prints 6x6 paper pad
Lillybee Designs alphas
Scrap from Willow Lane 6x8 paper pad that I used for my Happy Days Diner layouts
Red doily from my Scrapping Fun Kits January Gaming themed kit
Pink spot paper from Dear Lizzy Happy Place 6x6 paper pad
Helmar Acid Free Glue

I cut a piece of bright pink paper from the Doodlebug paper pad to fit my card front.
Then because my scrap from Willow Lane was torn I tore a piece of pink spot paper from Dear Lizzy Happy Place to form a layer between the 2 papers.
I cut my paper doily in half and layered it between the Willow Lane paper and pink spot paper. 
I glued all my papers and paper doily down with Helmar Acid Free Glue.
Next I added the garland sticker from the Simple Stories Kissing Booth sticker sheet and 2 of the envelope stickers.

To create my sentiment I cut the Val from the Valentine's Day word sticker from the Kissing Booth sticker sheet and stuck the remaining word sticker down, then I added Gal where Val was with my Lillybee Designs alpha stickers.  And once this was down I cut the word happy from the happy together word sticker on the Kissing Booth sticker sheet to create Happy Galentine's Day.






And my card is done, I love how it turned out.

After making my card I decided to Google free printables for Galentine's Day and found so many great printables out there but here are a few I found.
Over on Amy Poehler's Smart Girls website you will find this article with links to various artists Galentine's Day works, not all are free but they are soooo cute.
If you don't want to make a card Bravelets has a printable with 4 cute cards to print fold and write a message in and the blog has a great explanation of Galentine's Day.
Flourish and Hope have some cute printable cards and invitations.
Live Laugh Rowe has some cute tags.
And there is so much more out there.

Are you doing anything with your Gal Pals for Galentine's Day this year?

Quick Valentine's Card - CraftOnline Creative Team

I wanted to create a quick and simple Valentine's card for my hubby that was flat so  I could easily slip it into his diary before work on Thursday  so he won't notice it until he opens his diary when he gets to work.  Hopefully he doesn't see my posts or video before then ;)

The 12x12 sticker sheet from Simple Stories Kissing Booth range seemed like the perfect way to be able to create a card that suited my needs in combination with the gorgeous Ornate Heart die from Poppy crafts and paper from Doodlebug Designs Petite Prints 6x6 paper pad.
Other items used in this project include.
Uniball Black Pen 
Poppy Crafts Textured Paper Pad
Poppy Crafts A2 Cards 50 pack Helmar Acid Free Glue 




Here is my video, make sure you check it out to see how I played with my supplies to create this card.

I love how my card turned out.

Beautiful Australia YouTube Hop - Dolphin Feeding at Tin Can Bay

Welcome to the first of our YouTube Hops for 2019.  I am really excited about this hop and the other 5 we have planned for this year.

We have a few new members to our Hop this year which means we have 10 projects for you in this hop.  How awesome is that.

Our theme for this hop is Beautiful Australia.  What do you think of when you hear the words Beautiful Australia?

Here is the YouTube Hop order.
Amanda
Amira 
Amy Lane
Farrel
Kristina
Niamh
Morgyn 
Raelene
Silvia  
Wendy

Here is the Playlist I created for the hop.Note if a link isn't working please check back later.

For my project I worked on scrapbooking a memory about visiting Tin Can Bay in 2009 to feed the wild dolphins.

 
Have you joined out Facebook Group for our Hop Fans yet?  We would love to have you join.  And if you are inspired by our hop to create something and are happy to share your project please add it to the photo album for the hop.

I hope you enjoy this Hop there are some wonderful projects from these talented ladies, so much crafty inspiration.  
We really appreciate knowing you enjoy our videos and the best way to do that is to leave a thumbs up and comment.  And if any of the projects inspire you to create something please let us know.

Thank you for supporting our Hops.
 
 

We're All Mad Here - Scrapping Fun Kits DT

I am fortunate that I can use kits in advance so I used my Alice kit for my entry into Scrap the Girls November 2017 Challenge as it was the perfect prompt to combine with this kit and my photos from cosplaying the Cheshire Cat at last year's FraserPop Festival.  So today I wanted to share with you the details of how this layout came together.

I decided to use the chipboard from the kit and paint it with my Vicki Boutin pink paint and Dina Wakley eggplant paint, I decided to give it a think coat and they use it like a stamp on my background.  I created the background with the left over paint by doing the packaging technique with it and then stamping my still wet chipboard onto the cardstock.  I love the effect this gave my background and how it affected the finished paint on the chipboard.

I decided to layer my chipboard onto the blue satin flower but that meant the top would be higher than the bottom so I used Helmar Scrap Dots along the bottom to lift it up to the same height as the top.  They were the perfect way to get the perfect height.

As the top of my chipboard was sitting on the flower the bottom needed to be raised, I used Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots to do this.  They are perfect for something like this as you can adjust the height they are giving you  quiet easily.

I then added the mini cards and the bottle charm to create a whimsical cluster.  

I then added some washi to the top left and bottom right corners and wrote my titles on the washi but sort of going off it a bit.

I added a piece into my main cluster/photo area to pull it all together.

Once everything was dry I realised I forgot to use the tail and my plan all along had been to make that a feature of this layout, oh well I will save it for the next layout.

I love how this layout turned out, it is perfect for recording the fun I had.

If you would love one of these Alice Kits head to the Subscription Tab over at the Scrapping Fun Kits blog and fill in the form.

Level Up - Scrapping Fun Kits DT

Hi Scrapping Fun Kits fans today I wanted to share the layout I created with the Gaming kit.
I just played with my supplies and photos, so I don't have photos of how things came together as this scrap session was just about playing but I wanted to share with you what I did and how it turned out.

I used Katie's tip for the stickers but I didn't leave the white border.

You can just see some of the paper that is behind the photo on the right.  I loved that paper so much that I wanted a big piece  showing but once everything was down it felt like it was just floating so instead it became a background piece and I do love it.






I decided to go around the level up with a black pen to see how that effect would look.  I like it.

The cherry resin peice was the perfect addition to my title.

I placed some strips of 2 of the papers in the top left and bottom right corners of the layout and finished the layout off with a doodly border.

I started by matting my big photo with the Tetric styled paper, I cut the middle out so I could use the remainder on other projects.

I then built layers with the star paper, mario type paper and the red doily (I cut the doily in half so it could go in 2 places).

Once everything was stuck down I added some journaling about the memories these photos show.

This layout was quick to come together as the kit works so well together.  I hope this post has inspired you to create, if you wish to share what you create please head to the Scrapping Fun Inspiration Group and add it to the Gaming Kit ablum.

If you would love one of our Gaming Kits and haven't bought one yet there are still a couple left so just head to the Subscription Tab and fill in the form.  Enter the word Gaming into the promo box so I know that is the kit you would like.