Tutorial: Tea Bag Mini Album

Hello papercrafters! Here's something different I've been wanting to try...a teabag mini album. I was inspired by one I saw a few years ago in the Stampington, I believe, magazine. Anyhow it was quite simple to make: -Take 4 herbal tea bags. Make a small slit on each bag and empty the tea inside. (Leaves a nice fragrance.) Set aside for now. -Cut 8 pieces of patterned paper, 2-1/4"x 2-1/8". These will be your album pages. -Machine stitch a border on each piece of paper. -Stamp and embellish each piece of paper. -Adhere the 8 decorated pages on top of the 4 teabags (front and back, of course) using paper glue. -Sew or machine-stitch the 4 decorated tea bags together to form the album. -To form tabs, staple a piece of ribbon to the edge of each of the last 3 pages. TIP: I then embellished the ribbon tabs with the small flowers I found at the bottom of my patterned paper, you know, the "color-code" strip. Just punch them out with a 1/2" circle punch. See picture below to see what I'm referring to: TIP: to cover the staples used to adhere the ribbon tab, I just adhered a paper flower or embellishment on top of the staple. See picture below. I don't know if I like the "stapled" look yet. To complete my Tea Bag Mini Album, I will fill it up with my favorite pictures! That's all there is to it! Give it a try and link some pictures to this post. Oh yes, this tutorial is also on Inspirational Techniques and Tutorials Blogs...visit me there... Thanks for dropping by.

Tutorial: One Sheet Mini Albums

As I mentioned in a prior post....okay, I know it's been awhile because I presented these mini albums at Rita Holmes' SW Ohio Gathering. LOL! Sorry it took so long stampers. Anyhow, I would like to share the simple instructions for these quick and cute ONE SHEET mini albums. I have a SLIDE show below for you to view. Remember to pause the slide show, hold your mouse over the picture. I've listed four different size papers you could use. These are so much fun and easy and they do make great quick yet elegant-looking gifts! The papers are all The Angel company patterned papers and because they are so beautiful, there's not much embellishing to do. I like that. Using your Scor-Pal scoring tool, score as follows for each of the different size patterned papers: For 12x12 paper: Score at 3-1/2" and at 9" For 9x9 paper: Score at 2-1/2" and at 6-1/2" For 8x8 paper: Score at 2" and at 5-1/2" For 6x6 paper: Score at 1-1/2" and 4" After scoring you will fold...please use your bone folder for crisp creases. Place some red tape on the end of sheet and adhere. At this point it will look like a tube. Fold this in half using your bone folder. That's it! See Slide Samples. You basic album is complete. You can then staple the back spine, hole punch it and thread ribbon thru it. Or you can use your Zutter bind-it-all spiral wire rings. (Remember you can get your Scor-pal and Zutter Bind-it-all at half-price as part of your TAC hostess rewards..email me if have questions.) Decorate as little or as much as pleases your taste.

Your turn to share. Link up to this post so we can all see your wonderful works! Thanks again for coming over to visit me. God bless you abundantly during this holiday season!!

Tutorial: Corner Bookmarks

Last week I shared a tutorial on how we could RE-USE the inside of a #10 envelope. Today I'll share what to do with the outside of envelopes (especially during the holiday season when we get so many greeting cards!) Well, if we cut off the two bottom corners of envelopes we can make some wonderful corner bookmarks. So simple,huh? I put together some ideas for you on my SLIDE show below. Remember to place mouse over picture to "pause" the slide show. I would like to invite you to visit the Inspirational Craft Blog where you'll get blessed with all the inspiration shared by many artists and where I'm honored to have a few tutorials featured. Thanks for dropping by stampers!

Tutorial: Using #10 envelopes as decorative paper (or, "Vintage Fabric Meets the #10 Envelope")

What do these two pictures have in common...vintage fabric (that my wonderful friend Sandy gave me from her stash. Thanks so much Sandy!) and regular #10 bill envelopes? Well, believe it or not you can recycle and use the envelopes as decorative paper! What you say? Has she gone mad, using #10 envelopes as decorative paper? What is she talking about? Maybe sniffing that glue? haha! Well, let's take a look below and see what happens if you were to slice off the top of these envelopes. Here's what you would see inside...wonderful designs to use as decorative paper on your papercrafting projects!. Well at least that's how I was inspired! Here's a sample of the "Bookoo Blessings" card I designed using my recycled dp...I made a scallop circle and again at the bottom of the card I machine-stitched it as a border. I chose this envelope design because I thought it complemented the grey background design on the vintage fabric. I also used my scraps of "Genevieve" (my favorite TAC paper collection) on the left side of card:

I put together a tutorial SLIDE for you to show you the MANY things you can design OUT OF ONE ENVELOPE (and there was still paper left!). The best part is I didn't have to pay for the paper... I'm lovin' that! Hey, your turn to try it...post your results here so everyone can see. Thanks and happy everything!