Fabric Flower Necklace

Last Sunday I gave you a sneak peek at a project I was working on and the disasterous state of my craft desk. This week I'm happy to report that the project is complete, but my desk is still a huge mess!

So let's recap. Here's a the pic of my desk last week:


And here is all that mess in finished form:

I made this necklace to wear to DH's work holiday party next weekend. It has a Kentucky Derby theme so I'm going to make myself a derby hat and decided to make some jewelry to go with it!

Want to see the KY derby hat? Stayed tuned next Sunday!
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Some updates of things to come...

1) Don't forget about our huge CYBER MONDAY sale tomorrow! Its our biggest sale of the year!


2) Starting December 1st we'll be featuring Christmas-themed scrapbook apparel every T-Shirt Tuesday until Christmas. We won't be able to showcase all of the shirts, so be sure and stop by the store to see them all!


I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend with friends and family!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

T-Shirt Tuesday - featuring MM Custom Creations

I know I've mentioned The Scrap Shoppe's sister store on more than one occasion, mostly from talking about Twilight t-shirts. But I want to bring MM Custom Creations up again to show off some of the great t-shirt designs we have that would be great gift ideas for your friends and family this holiday season. I'm also showing off our porcelain Christmas ornaments which make lovely gifts.

We have over 20 nurse designs available! From nurses with attitudes to sweet nurses, you'll find something that fits the personality of your nursing friends.

We also have a wide selection of physical therapist and physical therapist assistant apparel.

Know a pharmacist? How about a pharmacy technician? We've got their Christmas present covered with these pharmacy designs!

We also have a selection of Green-Themed apparel (available on organic apparel no less!), designs for the motorcycle enthusiast in your life, "junkie" apparel, and a line of pink flamingo tees.

Not shown, we also have a wide selection of Miscellaneous designs that we just can't fit anywhere else in our shop, and, of course, our Pop Culture designs.

If you can't find something you like or want to tweak one of our existing designs, we are happy to customize for you! We customize at no additional cost and typically have your design ready with 24 hours. Visit our Custom Designs section of our store for more information and to see what we've created for other customers.

Sunday Already??

Okay, somebody needs to tell me just where this Sunday has gone, because I would swear it should not be 10 pm already! I've spent much of the day sitting around my craft desk working on my next big project. Let's just say it involves the KY derby and some homemade crafts. Here's a quick snapshot of the mess that is currently my desk...


I'll give more details next week about all this. I need to wait until there is more to share!


Let me leave you with a photo I took yesterday of my fantastic roses. That's right, gorgeous roses in late November! They are just loving the weather right now. :)

Greeting Cards by She's Batty Designs

When it comes to greeting cards you want something unique. Something that is going to be memorable to the person you send it to. That's where She's Batty Designs comes in! Jamie, the owner of She's Batty Designs, is an amazing paper crafter, often creating 3-dimensional art out of her greeting cards. You can easily tell she puts a lot of thought and hard work into each of her creations.

Care to see a few?

These mini cards really caught my eye. Wouldn't they be great place card holders on your Thanksgiving table?

These Halloween cards are what originally caught my attention in Jamie's Etsy store. Want to know something fun about the ghost card on the 2nd row? The large ghost on the card pops out only after you open the spooky door he is hiding behind! Notice anything else about that card? The steps on the card are also 3-dimensional - springing open after opening the card.

Jamie's red Christmas holidays pop up card was recently featured on Etsy's blog, the Storque! And her holiday snowman cards have been featured on several other blogs. I think the little holiday cutout cards/ornaments (genius!) are adorable and remind me of iced Christmas cookies. Don't you just want to take a bite out of them?

I adore baby cards. They can't help but be extra precious because, really, think about who they are intended for! The baby cards from She's Batty Designs are no exception. Not to mention the fact that I'm slightly partial to giraffes and elephants...

And, of course, She's Batty also offers everyday greeting cards. These are just a few of the ones offered in her Etsy shop.

Be sure and stop by She's Batty Designs and pick up your handcrafted greeting cards today!

T-Shirt Tuesday - Thanksgiving Dinner

This is our last T-Shirt Tuesday featuring Thanksgiving shirts with a scrapbooking theme! Its not too late to pick one up before the holiday arrives.


Last week we featured a design that stated "Even scrapbookers take a break for Thanksgiving."

This week we're doing a 180!

Today's design states "You mean I spent all day working on Thanksgiving dinner, and I could have been scrapbooking?" Included in the design is Norman Rockwell's "Freedom From Want" painting from 1943, with one teeny tiny addition... Can you see it?

The apron on the woman serving the turkey says "I love scrapbooking." :)

Paper Flowers

Last Thursday I shared several paper flower tutorials I found around the web. I tried out a few of them this weekend. I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out!

Are you ready to see them?

The flower tutorials that intrigued me the most were
4. Crumpled Roses by Nicole Aspinall
9. Paper Rose by Suzanne Woolcott
13. Wet Cardstock Flower from Mel Stampz
15. Round Distressed Flower from Jen at Sugared Songbird


So let's talk about how they turned out and level of difficulty starting clockwise from the top left.

4. Crumpled Roses by Nicole Aspinall
I tried these with paper as well as silk flowers and, I have to say, I really like how they all turned out! I don't think these would be great for scrapbook layouts because they are just too bulky, but they would be great on other craft projects. The paper flowers could definitely be made to look a little more realistic with some distress ink. They were very simple to make, and contrary to the instructions in the tutorial, I didn't snip the bases off of the flowers (see step 4). I used anywhere from 3-5 flowers for each 3-D flower.

13. Wet Cardstock Flower from Mel Stampz
I was really anxious to try these because they looked so realistic on Melz blog. Wetting the paper and cutting the petals was simple. The more petals I cut the faster I got. I let the paper finish drying while I made some of the other flowers. I wasn't completely impressed with the way the paper looked after it dried, but inking the petals and adding some glitter to the center of the smaller petals started to make the flower much more realistic. I'm very happy with how they turned out and think they will be great on any scrapbook layout or other project.

15. Round Distressed Flower from Jen at Sugared Songbird
These were a cinch to make. I used my circle cutter to make 3 different-sized circles, pinched up the edges, and added some beads to the center. This flower only took a few minutes to make.

9. Paper Rose by Suzanne Woolcott
I think these little roses are a dream! Absolutely gorgeous, if I do say so myself! I have to admit they took a lot of time to make, but I think they were worth the time in the long run. I varied from the tutorial slightly by inking the flowers (step 4) before cutting them (step 3) and by leaving off the center, smallest petal (step 10). I inked all of the flowers lightly a second time after piecing them together. Again, these flowers may not be great for many scrapbook layouts because of their dimension, but they would look great on any other craft project.

New Moon T-Shirts!

The countdown is on!

New Moon premiers on November 20!

Don't be caught at the movie theater without the appropriate New Moon apparel!

We can help! We have several Twilight/New Moon t-shirts to choose from in our sister store, MM Custom Creations. Here are a few of our faves!

Twilight Junkie

Twerd: Twilight Nerd

Edward Luvs Me

La Push Cliff Diving

Vampires - That's How I Roll

Jacob: Because Real Men Don't Sparkle

It all began with Twilight

For more designs please visit MM Custom Creations.

Paper Flowers & Tutorials

I'm blogging about paper flowers today because I came across these stunning flowers shown on the wreath above by Bo Bunny design team member Tonya Dirk. Aren't they gorgeous?? She hasn't posted the wreath on her blog as of yet, but you can find it on the Bo Bunny blog.

I asked Bo Bunny if Tonya might have a tutorial for making these flowers and was directed to Juliana Michaels' (also a Bo Bunny design team member) blog where she made similar flowers in a smaller size. Juliana, in turn, refers to yet another blog with a tutorial (its number 9 below).

So that got me scouring the web for other paper flowers. You'll see that I found quite a few!

All of the flowers shown below are made out of paper and come with tutorials on how to make them. So guess what I'm doing this weekend?? I'll give a few of these a try and report back on Sunday's blog post and give you a review!

Now on to the flowers!


1. Spiral Flower from Dozi Design
2. Newspaper Flowers from Balzer Designs
3. Paper Peonies by Lisa Yuen with detailed instructions on the Mel Stampz blog
4. Crumpled Roses by Nicole Aspinall


5. Paper Flower Bouquet from the Etsy Texas Crafter Team
6. Scalloped Stamped Flowers from Amy Solovay
7. Catalog Flowers from gettothe.com
8. Loop Flowers found at ACherryOnTop.com
9. Paper Rose by Suzanne Woolcott


10. Flowers from Scraps by Gabriela Delworth
11. Paper Flowers on Stampin' Up demonstator Valerie Schreyer's blog


12. Stamped Flowers from Beth at Sunflowers and Dragonflies
13. Wet Cardstock Flower from Mel Stampz
14. Rose Video from aNeMoNe Paper Flowers
15. Round Distressed Flower from Jen at Sugared Songbird
16. Coffee Filter Roses on Calamity Kim's blog adapted from MommyMakesRoses.com


And of course I found this fantastic list of (73 and counting) Hot Crafty Flowers tutorials from Mel Stampz towards the end of my searching. The list looks promising so I'll have to find some time later to go over it!

See you on Sunday with paper flowers!

T-Shirt Tuesday - Take a Break

As promised, we have more Thanksgiving tees available at The Scrap Shoppe! Today's T-Shirt Tuesday features a design for busy scrapbookers who want to let people know that, yes, scrapbookers are capable of taking a break from scrapbooking on Thanksgiving. At least for a few hours anyway!


Did you know we carry women's plus size tees in our store? They are available in two styles: scoop neck and v-neck, both of which are available in black or white.

Bling Pumpkins

Looking to add a little bling to your fall decorations? Have a go at making one of these bling pumpkins! They are super easy and look great on your mantle.

Items needed:
Faux pumpkin
Sharpie
Drill with half inch bit
Bling
Stickles
Faux stem and leaves
Battery operated tea light


Take your faux pumpkin and mark where you want to drill your holes using a Sharpie. Don't forget to mark a large hole on the bottom of the pumpkin so you can put a tea light inside when you're finished. Drill the holes and be sure to wipe away all the dust.


Start addeding your bling! I used a few of the large Prima blings over a few of my holes to make the light coming out from the tea light more interesting. I also used black, orange, purple, and green adhesive-backed pieces of bling and scattered them around the pumpkin. I then used coordinating Stickles around each piece of bling.


I took an old stem with flower leaves on it and trimmed it so it would fit into the top of the pumpkin (I just stuck it in the foam, no glue or anything). I took the leftover stem and wound it around a rub on tool to make a tendril for the pumpkin. I attached it in the same way as the stem - just stuck it into the foam.



I also added some stickles to the stem of the pumpkin, leaves, and tendril.


I think the pumpkin is a great addition to my mantle!

I'm also trying out my new logo on my images. Its simple and easily identifiable. I'm really liking it! You'll also notice in my banner at the top of the blog and just about everywhere else I'm advertising The Scrap Shoppe.