Thursday, March 5, 2009

Monthly Craft Challenge: Scalloped Punch

Heidi at Blued Eyed Blessings had a brilliant idea, a monthly craft challenge. I think this is a great way to get the creative juices flowing and it's not too demanding because you have a whole month to come up with some ideas. I see she's also a former teacher turned stay at home so that must be why I think she's so fabulous! Go over and see all the great ideas, and I'd love it if you all joined in next month too!

I also liked how she chose a tool to feature this month, because they can be quite an investment and I can't wait to see more ideas on how to incorporate them into my crafts and get more bang for my buck! Although, I noticed her punch has a deeper scallop that I'm lovin' so I may have to go and get that one too!

I saw that some of her examples were very similar to things I've done like gift bag tags and decorations for little containers. So I wanted to try and add something different. These are both quick and easy. Here's a simple banner I made for my friend Margaret's step daughter's graduation party last summer. I used purchased tags, you can buy a package for pretty cheap and to me it was worth it for the time saved but you can also cut them out yourself. We'd picked out some paper all from one line so they'd all coordinate and they were double sided so we had twice the options. I used spray adhesive on the tag shapes and laid them down on the paper to attach. Then I cut them out.

I used my punch with a coordinating solid color cardstock and then used my die cut machine to cut out the alphabet out of white cardstock. Buying alphabet stickers would also work and save time. The scalloped punch really gave the banner that extra something, sorry for the grainy quality of the detail picture but I had to crop the only picture I had of it way in to show it better.
I used the red ribbon to tie each one to the brown ribbon we used as a hanger. Ideally, I think the brown hanging ribbon should be behind the tags but I am also sure no one noticed at the party. In fact, I didn't notice until I cropped the photo today!

I think a fun idea would be to make a little tag mini book out of it after the party. All you'd have to do is trace pictures onto the tag shape and adhere to the other side. You could use a post and screw from a post bound scrapbook album to hold it all together and have a fun memento of the graduation party.

The other thing I'm really lovin' that's not too original but I really like and did was make labels for all my scrapbook albums. Been planning on doing it for quite some time and they look so pretty all lined up on my shelves.

Now I don't have to pull them off and open each one until I find what I'm looking for. So simple to do, just print up titles on your word processing program. I made mine with in columns to help print more out on less paper and get them centered nicely. Punch out with scalloped punch and mount on a cardstock circle. Punch hole and add ribbon. Now I can see what's what with a glance.

16 comments:

  1. That is a cute banner. i love the scrapbook labels! I am going to have to do that to mine.

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  2. I really like that suggestion for labeling your albums. I have tried other solutions for "labeling" my books, but this idea looks cute and pretty easy to do. Thanks for the suggestion!

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  3. I love the album labels. Very creative. I will have to make some for myself!

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  4. great idea for the album labels; i was going to pay to have my albums imprinted on the sides!! you just saved me 100's of dollars!! thanks hun!

    ♥ noelle

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  5. Katie, These are some amazing ideas! The banner is adorable and very simple, but very cute. I love that! I'm also in love with the album labels. I've always thought the spines of my albums look a little boring on the shelf, so this is the perfect way to spruce it up!

    As far as the brand of my punch. It is EK Success - Paper Shapers. I happened to find it at JoAnn's around the beginning of January on a 40% off sale. Mine is 2".

    On a side note, I just wanted to say thank you for all of your comments on my blog. I am WAY BEHIND in visiting blogs because of some sickness in the household, but I hope to have a little bit of extra time soon to come on by and do some catch up. You have a very cute blog and I look forward to digging in! ;)

    Thanks again for participating!

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  6. I'm in love with the scalloped punch! I love how you added those to your albums as well. So clever!

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  7. These are great ideas, Katie. I like the banner. Looks great! Oh, the album labels are very nice. Never would have thought of that. Great idea!

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  8. I love your banner-what a easy way to decorate for a party. Wish I had more time before my son's bday party this weekend. Thanks for sharing!

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  9. love the album tags! I'm going to putthat on my to-do list

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  10. I like those little tags too. I don't have mine on display right now, as the space is a messsss. Which I have said before ha ha.

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  11. Cute banner! I am loving the labels! Great idea! :)
    Martha

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  12. That is a fantastic banner! That is also a good idea on the photo album tags. Did you ever work in a scrapping store?

    I will have to check out this monthly challenge.

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  13. Oh my! These ideas are TOO cute!!
    Glad I stopped by.
    Blessings,
    Amanda

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