Green Crafting - K & Company remake paper pads review

The newest paper line by K & Company is called "Remake" and just... Wow! A must have for card makers and rubber stampers!

I was really thrilled when I spotted this new product by browsing the
K & Company website for patterned scrapbooking paper last week. I immediately went to my local craft stores thinking maybe they'd have it/were planning to carry it, but no such luck. It's early (summer 08' release) so there's always hope that somewhere like Michaels or JoAnn will eventually stock it. For now, I found a couple craft stores online through google, but ended up getting it on ebay by searching "remake pad" cost me about $4.50 per pad. (I bought 5 pads, and including combined shipping it worked out to be just under $6 per pad.) If JoAnn or Michaels ends up stocking it you'll likely get it for $3.99.




There are 24 sheets in each pad measuring 4" x 6" with four sheets of each pattern. The really nice thing about this pad is that it's double sided - pattern on one side with a coordinated color solid on the other. I always have the biggest problem when I find a beautiful patterned paper to use in a card, but I can't find a single solid color to match it right. With these pads you don't need to worry about stocking up on those variety color cardstock packs, you've got all the matching solids right here! The thickness and quality is well above average and the color selection is fantastic. The nice wallpaper type repeat patterns add beauty, but aren't so BUSY that they dominate your eyes compared to your stamped image. I'm really glad such a big company is making this quality product, I hope it will reach a lot of green-minded crafters.

As a rule I try to limit my waste, recycle as much as possible and avoid things that are toxic in my crafting. Even if you're not really into the whole recycling scene, by purchasing products like this and/or non-toxic supplies, you're helping to save your health! (From excess air pollution from both manufacturing and tree loss, landfill waste and avoiding that pesky label on supplies mentioning "x chemical is known to cause cancer"/contact or inhalation poisoning etc.) With art supplies I'm always careful!



This paper pad was really well thought out. The inside of the front AND back covers are printed with shapes you can cut out and include in your projects! Plus, have you ever seen something with a 100% post-consumer waste percentage?! (On average I've seen more products with 30 - 70%) Even the ink is made from soy! Now I'd prefer to be able to buy this in a local craft store, so I will be mentioning it to anyone I can talk to that is in charge of ordering at my local stores. Maybe you will too?

<3
Kimberly

ps. I am not affiliated with K & Company in any way, but I'm very enthusiastic about earth conscious crafting. Feel free to repost these images/text or link here if you'd like to spread the news to other paper crafters ;)

Making a Tissue Paper Flower Bouquet with Scallop Circle Nestabilities

I've been really interested in paper flower making this summer. I want to make sure I keep my indoors looking vibrant throughout the year, I always get a little sad when the flowers are gone come fall. At first I started out with the plentiful tutorials for accordian folding tissue paper flowers online. Then I found some great crepe paper kits by Martha Stewart at my local Michaels craft store... but I quickly realized I'm too lazy for cutting out so many pieces of individual flower petals... and the floral tape... uck what a sticky nightmare.

Then I stumbled onto the great paper flower tutorials at
Folding Trees They were using tissue paper cut into circles for their flowers. I wasn't quite happy with the way mine were coming out and felt they needed a more realistic scalloped edge. As some of you already know, I recently bought a die-cutting machine and the nestabilities dies. (I made a little tutorial on using nestabilities with rubber stamping, so you can find out more about those here:
Nestabilities Tutorial ) The classic scallop circles dies provided the perfect solution for the look I wanted! I haven't tried the petite scallop sizes yet, but those may even look better if you want more bumps around the edges. You can use any of the sizes around 2.75" to 3.25" wide for a realistic sized flower.

Here's how I went about making them:
1 - First take a full sheet of tissue paper and either fold it, or cut out 3.5" square pieces, to make a stack large enough to cut out the circular shapes. Each flower requires about twelve pieces of 3"ish tissue paper. I made a stack of twenty-four sheets of tissue and ran it through my CuttleBug with the nestabilities die. (Twenty-four sheets may sound like a lot, but it is tissue and the stack is not really thicker than felt or chipboard, so that worked fine. If this feels like too much for your machine, you could do twelve sheets at a time for making one flower instead of two.)

2 -Due to the embossing edge of the nestabilities die, the sheets were pressed just enough to hold them together while I colored the edges with markers. I used a rose colored Marvy LePlume, these are nice markers since the ink is very wet and seeps in from the edges the longer you color in a spot.

If you do not have a die cutter, you could make a similar stack of tissue paper circles by cutting with decorative scissors. In that case, you may need to paper clip the edges together to hold the sheets in place while coloring.

3- Using twelve sheets, poke two small holes through the center of the flower and tie chenille or wire through those holes. Be sure to twist the end tight to form a sturdy stem.

4 - Starting with the top sheet, lift and gently fold holding the bottom near the stem center. My first two flowers didn't look so great, but you'll soon be able to see which types of folds look more realistic. You want to pinch the centers tight, but try to avoid adding creases to the outer edges.

5 - As you get to the bottom layer you may have pulled the flower too much towards the top. Gently fluff the layers out, creating more of a sphere shape.

6 - Try out other colors of tissue and create your bouquet! I put about 12 flowers in my vase and used 6 sheets of tissue paper total for this project.



If you're interested in paper flower making, I also want to recommend a fantastic book I picked up the other day called "Fanciful Paper Flowers" by
Sandra Evertson It has a great deal of beautiful full color pictures, templates and inspiration for using common supplies.

Have fun!

<3
Kimberly

Bee Fairy Handmade Bookmark

It's been so hot and sunny here in the Portland area OR the past couple months. Two days this week it was 100 degrees out :( Happily, last night a thunderstorm rolled in and made things a lot nicer. This is the first good rain we've had since the end of May. I felt like getting crafty today in the nice cooled-off weather, so here's a bookmark!

Bee fairy rubber stamped bookmark ingredients: The Enchanted Gallery rubber stamp sheet #Fant-118, ColorBox inks, color pencil, stickles glitter, yarn and long rectangle nestabilities cardstock shapes.

Classic and Scallop Heart Shape Nestabilities Card + New Stamps!

The heart nestabilities die cutting shapes I ordered from Overstock.com last week came in the mail! I've been looking forward to testing out these shapes with my rubber stamps for card making. Here's my first card I made using them, plus a preview of my newest rubber stamp sheet (#Roma-119.) The rubber is being pressed now and will be available for purchase through my website within the next couple weeks.

(Card Ingredient List: The Enchanted Gallery rubber stamps, Spellbinder's Nestabilities Heart Dies, Colorbox pigment ink pads, Scrapbook paper from K&Company, Stickles glitter glue, 1" marvy circle paper punch and scissors for cutting out the word "Love" and retro flower punches from EK Success.)

Spellbinder's Nestabilities Storage Solution + Positioning Rubber Stamps in your Cuttlebug Die Cutter

I browse a lot of craft blogs checking out the cool new cards and stamping projects everyone's making. I kept seeing two foreign words
pop up, one "Cuttlebug" and two "Nestabilities". For years I've been collecting Marvy and Carla Craft paper punches, but this gets
expensive and takes up SO much space in my craft drawers. I had never thought about getting a die cutting machine as an alternative
to paper punches, but now there is an affordable one that does it all!

After you get the machine you'll need to buy dies. A die is a thin metal piece in a certain shape (like paper punch shapes, scallops,
leaves, flowers, tags etc.) Depending on the brand these are really thin or have a big chunk of foam and plastic base on them. No
matter what it's like you can usually use it in the Cuttlebug. I've successfully tried out Sizzix (both the sizzlits and big dies,) Cuttlebug,
Spellbinder's Nestabilities and Bosskut brand dies in my Cuttlebug machine. They are all great, but if you're a serious paper crafter you
just have to check out all the Nestabilities (shapes that fit over each other in about 1/4" to 1/2" increments - nesting dies.) It will bring
your card making, rubber stamping and scrapbook layouts to a whole new professional looking level!
No more careful measuring and cutting out frames or mat layers. Just roll your cardstock through the cuttlebug with your die ;)

I have created a step by step tutorial for positioning your rubber stamped images with the Nestability dies in a Cuttlebug Die cutting machine. You can see that along with more info at:
www.theenchantedgallery.com/nestabilities.html

I only purchased a few styles so far, and instead of waiting for my scallops to come I made a quick project using the petite ovals alone. I'll be adding more, and better, example art as soon as I get the rest of the Nestabilities collection. I just had to help spread the word since I think these will help a lot of rubber stampers spruce up their cards.

I also came up with a really easy and TINY way to store these dies. I took a few 4"x6" sheets of thin chipboard (you could also use the thick sheets from the back of scrapbook paper or note pads, cereal boxes etc.) I then took my cropadile (or hole punch) and made 3 holes close to the edges and put keyring hoops in to make a mini binder. Attach two magnet strips to each page to hold your metal dies in place. The dies are so thin the book is easy to flip pages and isn't bulky or akward at all! I look at this and think... Wow, imagine how much space all of these designs in big ol paper punches would take up!

Have fun ;)