Thursday, August 7, 2008

The Finale!

The final day of our "something old, something new" theme and it's a crafter's potpourri! We have a gorgeous card that will have you reaching for those eyelets again, an heirloom beaded bracelet and a tutorial that will make you all want to break out that 9 inch, old stack of outdated and discontinued scrapbook paper!

This is a bracelet that I made for the challenge. When we decided on that we would have this theme, I immediately thought of the old watch I had of my grandmother's. I have had it in my drawer since she passed away almost 2 years ago. I also found an inspiration piece in a magazine for Diabetes awareness that made me want to start doing beaded jewelry. The combo of all these things was a serendipity of sorts.


Beaded bracelet
Designer: Stacey Stamitoles

Old: My Grandmother's watch (some beads, too)
New: some of the beads
Borrowed: The inspiration came from the magazine ad (pictured left)
Blue: Glass beads

Linda created this card after deciding that one "old" item she had a LOT of was eyelets! She challenged herself to create something using more than just a few of them. So she created the little flowers with eyelets and handcut the tree and added several other eyelets.

Create Dreams eyelet card
Designer: Linda Beeson

Materials: Solid Cardstock, Patterned papers - KI Memories, Eyelets - Making Memories, Pen - Sakura, Sticker words - Sticko

Make your own envelopes
Tutorial by Miki Benedict
"I tend to hoard paper…no matter how old it is! So I pulled out some older papers and made envelopes with them. It wasn’t very hard and once I got the first one done, the rest were quick & easy. Now I have some fun envelopes to send off my handmade cards in. Plus it feels good to use up some of those older papers I’ve been hoarding! "



To make an envelope for a standard A2 or 4.25” x 5.5” card, you need paper that is cut to 6.75” x 10.75”. Score along the sides about 1/2 “ and then approximately 3” from each end. I used my ScorPal for this part, but you could use a ruler & scoring tool also. Then just trim off the edges along the top and bottom, following your score line.


To give your card a more professional look, use a corner rounder on the edges. Then I used my tape runner up the two sides and adhered.

Here are a few tips for making your own envelopes:
1. Need a different size? Carefully take apart an old envelope and trace on the backside of your paper.
2. You can also Google “free envelope template” (there are tons of them out there) and then print the template on the backside of your pattern paper. Or you can simply trace it on the backside and cut it out, saving the template for next time.
3. If your pattern paper isn’t double sided or has writing on the back, just add a piece of the pattern paper as an envelope liner to cover it. I found this easier to do before I adhered the sides. Just make sure you score through both pieces for a crisp top fold.
4. If you have a busy pattern, then print out your address on a label so it can be seen easily.

I hope you enjoyed the theme and maybe even challenged yourself to grab some old supplies, mix them with new and see what can result! Have a great weekend!

3 comments:

Melanie said...

That bracelet is awesome! The eyelet card is beautiful - what a great idea! And those envelopes! what a great idea to make beautiful envelopes with all our "old" yet beautiful paper.

Sherry Wright said...

Love all these projects, but Stacey that braclet is priceless!!

DeeDee said...

WOW, that is a very neat idea....I love your pp envelopes....I'm gonna try it...I have tons of older paper that I save for what reason I'm not sure!!! The tree card with the eyelets is so adorable and FUN too. OMG, that bracelet is so very lovely and knowing that your grandmother's watch is dangling off of it is all the more special. TFS!!!