Tutorial: How to Make a Garland

Garlands and Banners are two of the hottest altered arts projects in the scrappin' world right now, and they make beautiful home decor! I am going to walk you through how to make a fantastic garland. You can make it as simple or complicated as YOU want, and of course if you are short on time- pick a short word or whatever word goes with the theme you are making! Today I am going to show you how I made my Halloween garland...




Supplies
at least 2-3 pieces of patterned paper (more depending on how long your garland will be)
at least 2-3 pieces of coordinating cardstock (could be all the same color or different ones)
cardboard (I usually use USPS boxes)
various ribbons/hemp/yarn/wire of your choice (read through the instructions if you are not sure what you want to use)
digital die cut machine OR printed template (or make your garland pieces square shaped)
crop-o-dile or hole punch
scissors
various embellishments and letters

Instructions

First you will need to decide on what shape your pieces on your garland will be- pendants, circles, squares, rectangles, etc. Either use a pattern or your digital die cutting machine. Cut your shapes from your pattern paper and then cut a shadowing shape with cardstock.

Next, you will need to trace the shape of your pattern paper pieces onto your cardboard- one for each garland piece.



Adhere the pattern paper to the cardboard pieces and then adhere them to the cardstock pieces. Now you are ready to decorate!



While you are decorating, keep in mind that you will be punching holes in the top two corners of each piece so they can be strung into a garland.



Add die cut letters, chipboard letters, or thickers to create a word on your garland- or simply decorate it, the possibilities are endless!




Using your crop-o-dile or hold punch make a hole in the top two corners of each garland piece.



You can string your garland pieces together with almost any type of ribbon, string, hemp, wire, or yarn, so choose whichever you like best and begin to string your garland together. Bring the string through the front of each piece and then up through the other side, leave some space in between each piece so they will hang nicely. When you have all your pieces on the string tie a loop at each end for easy hanging.









If you'd like, add ribbon in between each piece on your garland for an extra fancy touch!

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I'm awake and I'm alive

On Oct. 15th I got to go to the best. concert. ever. It was sooooo awesome! I have been a skillet fan for several years and have every CD from them, and I remember seeing them in concert years ago- before they were as popular as they are now! When I buy a Skillet CD I always know that there will not be a song on it that I have to "skip" because I don't like it, I like every song on every CD. They were amazing in concert- fire effects and all. It was also amazing to me that they had a celloist and a violinist on stage with them- head banging right along with everyone else! It was so cool to see them playing orchestra type instruments with a rock band- and of course the sound is incredible too!

So anyways... when I got home and was looking through my photos I KNEW I had to break out my Prima Rebellious paper! I mean I HAD to! I'm a mom and a scrapbooker and I act way too mature for my age, but I can still go and rock out at a concert and to me that is as "rebellious" as I get LOL!

Awake is the name of Skillet's newest CD, and in the song they sing "I'm awake and I'm alive, now I know what I believe in inside" and the song is all about living your life and being who you are, not following the crowd. The title also reminds me of how I felt when I got up to work in the morning after being up til 1am at the concert LOL!

And in other news... Today the Nov/Dec issue of Scrap N Art magazine debuted! For less than $1.75 an issue it is a great value and a great place to find inspiration, not to mention the GIVEAWAYS in every issue!

{Feel} Fall

Do you ever just go outside and take a moment to really FEEL fall? I do, and I lOVE fall and the way it feels. This picture reminds me of how the cool air, wet ground, and crunchy leaves feel, plus it has the cutest baby in the world (or at least MY world!) in it! I used the October Backporch Memories Medley kit to make this layout- and of course the warm and colorful Bo Bunny Delilah collection!

I also wanted to take a moment and invite all of you to join me at the Life Preserver's Club DARE to Be Inspired crop! It starts tomorrow, I hope you'll be there for all of our fun challenges, make n takes, and games!

Kitchen Spice is Very Nice!

From the day that I learned that my October Life Preserver's Kit was going to have the new Bo Bunny Kitchen Spice collection in it- I have been dreaming of what I wanted to make with it!!! The fall colors combined with the pinks and blues really appeal to me. I have even thought to myself "I need to take more fall photos so I can make some more layouts with this kit!"

For this page I did what I like to call "fussy cutting"- taking a piece of patterned paper and cutting out some of the elements from it to use on my layout. For every paper line there is usually one piece of paper that I always find myself wishing I had more of simply because I would like to have one for cutting out and one for using whole! Visit the Life Preserver's Club gallery to see more of the design team's creations using this very nice kit :)

And... While I am talking about LPS ( I do that a lot huh?) I would just like to say that I am soooo happy I have been chosen to join the design team! I have always loved the LPS kit club and I am proud to be designing with their kits! I hope you will join us for our next crop "Dare to be Inspired" on Oct. 23rd!

My Super Stud Lucas

My designer challenge posted over at the Bella Blvd. blog today: journaling with stickers. Lucas is such a little stud, and he is super funny, super cute, and super crazy sometimes! I really loved working with this paper! When I looked at the paper for the first time I knew that it just "fit" him! Lucas loves to make people laugh and his preschool teacher has even told me she expects to see him winning an Emmy someday for best comedian.

Journaling with stickers can take many routes, and the Super Stud stickers provide a lot of really cute sayings. I decided to combine the sayings along with my own handwriting on the journaling stickers, and honestly I normally do not journal on stickers, so this was something different for me. I really like how my journaling was able to flow easily thanks to the sticker prompts.

If you haven't already- head on over to Bella Blvd. and leave some love on their blog! Check back later this week to get a peek at my Plastino layout and a tour of my scrap room!

Oh and by the way....

I am so honored to be a Bella Artista this week over at the Bella Blvd Blog! I have created three projects for them and today my summer banner is being featured, it uses the new and fabulous Plastino line from Bella, which just screams SUMMER!! Go check it out....