Unstampabelles Challenge: Recycling

October 1st is a busy day here at Paper Pie!   We've had lots of project in the que so I'm excited to be sharing them today.

The ladies at the Unstampabelles Challenge are thinking Green and showing us paper crafted items featuring recycling!  I love to repurpose (partly because I'm a cheap-o) and it's fun to think of ways to bring new life to old items.

For my card, I repurposed the lace I found at a thrift store, the bird (which is from the packaging on some gift wrap), the background is a from a card-gone-wrong and has been living in my stash for months and the sentiment is cut out from the cover of an old notebook.

Please swing by the Unstampabelles Challenge and show us how you used recycling in your project!

Practical Scrappers: Transforming Black and White Photos with Chalk

Hello Practical Scrappers! Sarah here and today I'm going to demonstrate a cool vintage-looking technique for modifying photos.

On the wall at my grandmother's house hang large photos of her children taken in the 1960s.  The technique at the time had the photographer take the pictures in black and white and then, after development, color them with watercolors.  I loved the affect and have found a similar (much easier) way to duplicate it with chalk.

First, change your color photo to black and white and print to cardstock.  I used Picasa, because it's easy to operate and it's free!  Also, break out your colored chalk set.  I've had it in my stash for ages and was originally from Michaels.

Next, begin by shading in the skin tones.  For this photo of my mom and me, I started with light beige for the first layer.

Next, I layered on a light pink over all the skin tones.  It gives the skin a bit of a glow and tones down the yellows in the beige.

Now, add in the other highlights on your photo.  You can enhance hair color, eye color, lip color, cheek color....really anything. Don't be afraid to experiment with your palette!  I even added darker pink to the collarbones for a bit of depth.

Your final step is to give the edges of your picture a once-around with the sharp edge of an eraser to give you a clean line and catch any stray bits of color.

And you're done!  A customized, vintage photo transformation is as easy as that.  This technique works great with photos of babies and kids too.  Moms always love a custom card or scrapbook page with this soft finish.  

Finished Photo

Moving Schmooving...

So, I've been a bit MIA lately on the blog front.  I feel terrible that I've been missing out on everyone's fabulous creations!!  Hubby and I are in the middle of a move across the country and are still in the packing up stages here in Las Vegas.  It's always a challenge with the military since things are pretty short notice and you need clearance from everyone under the sun to drive away!

All of my beloved craft supplies will be packed up on Wednesday and I'm not sure when they'll be arriving in  North Carolina.  They tell me Oct. 5th, but I'm not holding my breath :-)  So, I have my DT posts linked up until around Oct. 15th in the hopes that my goodies will be safely in their new bonus room in NC.  Fingers crossed.

Wish us luck!  I feel like this move is slightly easier since we're only moving to another State and not another Country like last time....we shall see :-)

Happy Fall everyone and I hope to squeeze in some blog time in the next few weeks to see what everyone is creating!!!

Practical Scrappers: Babies

If you're like me, it seems there's a  new baby shower every weekend!  I've been sending out baby cards faster than I can make them it seems some weeks :-)  Luckily, they are one of my favorite cards to create.  I'm especially interested in using non-traditional color schemes.

Today over at Practical Scrappers the ladies are showing us cards and layouts all about the little ones :-)  Here's my take on a non-traditional baby card and please swing on by Practical Scrappers and check out what the design team has created!

Go Fish Challenge: 1st Anniversary!

It's a very exciting celebration over at the Go Fish Challenge!  We are celebrating our first anniversary!  Yippee!!!

To help celebrate, we'll be asking you crafty folks for a clean and simple 1st anniversary card.  It's a fun challenge for anyone who's a CAS junkie (like myself).   So, please join us and hop on over to Go Fish for some inspiration from the design team :-)

Practical Scrappers: Hexagons

Today at Practical Scrappers the ladies are showing us some fun ways to use hexagons in your projects.  The shape is VERY trendy right now, and I love the interesting shapes they create when joined together.

For my card, I've used paper from Follow Your Heart by My Mind's Eye.  By cutting out the hexagons, rearranging them and then elevating a few random spots with doubled-up foam tape I was able to get dimension and visual interest with only a few easy steps!

Swing on by the Practical Scrappers website and see what other creative ways the designers are using Hexagons!

Unstampabelles Challenge: Embossing

It's time again for another challenge with the Unstampabelles! As always, I love to see what the ladies create...without the use of stamps :-)  It's a great challenge to stretch the old noggin and dig deep into the craft stash.

This challenge features embossing, so hop on over to see what the talented design team has to inspire you and join in on the fun!

Unstampabelles Embossing Challenge

Go Fish Challenge - Back to School Sketch

Today over that the Go Fish Challenge we have another super fun project for you!  We've provided the sketch and would love to see your interpretation of it :-)  Here's mine:

I love the quote and think it's a great reminder for anyone headed back to school.  Go after what you love and the rest will follow - the greatest advice I received when I was in school :-)

So, please head on over to the Go Fish Challenge to check out the other great creations from the design team and to show us yours as well!!  Happy sketching!