How-To Tuesday: Make a TP Roll Mini Album

Happy How-To Tuesday!  Well as I explained yesterday, I am getting just a wee-bit tired of greeting cards lately.  I love making mini albums (here's an envelope album I made a while ago) and I even have a lot of CD case albums up in my etsy shop.  I have always wanted to make a toilet paper roll album, but could never quite get the picture in my mind of how to put it together.

A couple weeks ago, the lovely Emily from Create Serendipity posted the BEST tutorial on how to make these tp roll albums.  I'm not even going to try to take pictures and put my own how-to together, because I think Emily pretty much mastered this one! She inspired me to finally save up those rolls and make my own!

Basic Steps (for pictures and details please go to Emily's post!)

1 - Save your TP rolls (4 or more) and push them down to flatten, so you have a rectangle instead of a roll
2 - Paint them any color your heart desires and let dry. Once mine were completely dry I also smashed them under a huge neurobiology text book (thanks hubs) over night to keep them flat.
3 - Measure your rolls (mine were about 4" x 2.5") and cut your mat papers accordingly to size. I glued my mats on with classic glue sticks and double sided tape.
4 - Mark where you want your binder rings to be, and punch holes for them. I just used a regular hole puncher, and a lot of arm strength (I don't own any fancy binder system, boo)
5 - Cut journal tags for the inside of your tubes if you'd like, and I added a little pull ribbon to each end with a staple
6 - If you want to add more embellishments, knock your heart out! I like to keep mine pretty modern and simple looking, so I kept extras to a minimum.

And here's what my finished product looked like! I was in love with it before I was even half finished with it, this was so much fun to create!

I can't say it enough, thank you Emily for the inspiration!

What do you think? Have you gotten inspired to save up those TP rolls? I think this is also the perfect size for brag books or anything you want to throw in your purse and take with you.

I ended up posting this one in my Etsy shop so I can make another one for myself :)

<3 RWK

My First Side Step Cards

I have a confession to make.....

I've gotten a little (a lot?) bored of making cards lately. I'm losing my inspiration and just not as into it as I was months ago. I'm probably going to stop making them for no reason, but enthusiastically make them for birthdays, holidays, custom orders, etc...

So when I see a card that's different, that's a little more challenging, that involves a lot of steps and layers... I get really really excited! And this weekend, thanks to a blog hop that was going on, I found Alyssa's blog at My Thoughts Exactly and I knew I had to make a step card immediately! Thank you so much for some much needed inspiration!

And here's what happened....

Hello from Maine Side Step Card

Greetings From Maine card #1

Greetings From Maine card #1

Greetings From Maine card #1

So this above is my first ever side step card. I had so much fun with this, I loved loved loved it. My husband's and my recent trip to the coast of Maine really got this theme running (click here for vaycay photos!) I had to have a lobster (duh) and needed a lighthouse... two of my favorite things (I don't eat lobster, just think they're cute). Oh ya, and now you can see my handwriting hasn't changed since the 5th grade, no lie.

Materials used in Greetings from Maine card #1:
All digital SVG files cut with my Silhouette SD and Making the Cut software
Lighthouse - SVG file I found for free off lovely wikipedia

Lobster - Something Fishy SVG set from Lettering Delights

Waves and Sun - Soakin up the Sun SVG set from Lettering Delights

Stamp - TPC Studios
random button, papers, foam adhesive, googly eyes, and Stickles

Greetings from Vacationland card #2

Greetings from Vacationland card #2

Greetings from Vacationland card #2

Greetings from Vacationland card #2

And above is my Side Step Card #2! Greetings from Vacationland, which is Maine's state motto (cute, no?). I learned quickly from my mistakes in card #1 and I am so in love with this card. My husband doesn't want me to send it away, but that's what cards are for! I added a beach umbrella in the back, lobster in the middle, and a big MAINE up front. I think this is a pretty cool card, definitely a favorite for the time being!

Materials used for Card #2:

All digital SVG files cut with my Silhouette SD and Making the Cut software

Lobster - Something Fishy SVG file set from Lettering Delights

Sun and Umbrella - Soakin up the Sun SVG set from Lettering Delights

'MAINE' - cut font, 'AR Christy' and shadowed

Random ribbon, foam adhesives, DCWV papers, googly eyes, Stickles

Umbrella and lobster embossed using cuttlebug folders in my Sizzix Texture Boutique

Side Step Cards of Maine

What do you think of the side step cards? Do you have the sudden urge to rush off and craft one? And you'll probably be seeing some more scrapbook layouts in the future... I have a lot to catch up on :)
Remember to take a peek at some of our Maine vacation photos!

<3 RWK

Robots, Owls, and Peaches Oh My!

It is just a few hours to the end of the week and start of the weekend! I have decided that tonight I'll make my Matty a happy hour brunch when he gets home from work - pancakes, bacon, baked/broiled eggs and toast, oh and of course I bought fancy orange juice and bubbly to have Mimosas :) What's a happy hour without a good drink?!

Yesterday I went on a card making spree and figured I'd fit them into some challenges so here goes!...

Matt's Father's Day card

First I wanted to share my hubby's Father's Day card that our puppy and guinea pig made for him :) They used the easy graphic-to-svg converter that I outlined here.  The bigger robot is Meeko and the smaller one is Peanut, and they used Lettering Delights funky robot graphics. They drew in the black wind marks and some stars. The inside reads "You are out of the world!" How talented are they?!

Now I have 3 cards I made for some challenges over at 365 Cards...

365 cards simple paper piece card

I made a tri-fold card for this challenge at 365 Cards, which was to keep things very simple and only include one some stamp or paper pieced cut.  This owl I stamped 3 times and cut and layered. The owl, the branch, and the leaves are each stamped and glued separately.  The inside fold has a simple stamped little owl. Stamps are from TPC Studios and corner punches are Sea Pearls from Fiskars. Inside reads "Hi There"

For 365 Cards Just Peachy challenge

This card was made for the Just Peachy challenge at 365 Cards. You had to keep the card summer-y and use mainly peach colors. Did you know, out of 23 paper stacks, I do not own a single peach paper?!? Even the neutral color stack had no peach! So I found a light orange and distressed it with pink ink to make it more peachy. I embossed the front with a folder from provocraft, added some birdie ribbon from the dollar section, and tied on some fun summer buttons! The inside is stamped with a Hero Arts stamp "Sending You Happy Everything!"

For 365 Card Sketch Challenge

The inspiration sketch

I know I know - why the hell did I make a card that looks like it belongs in November, when it's the beginning of summer! I was really drawn to these browns and golds and I just had to use them! The cut flower is left over from when I went on a crazy hand-cutting spree but it fit perfectly for the 365 Cards sketch challenge. 

card made for the sketch challenge at CardPatterns

Lastly I made this card for sketch 120 over at CardPatterns.  I mostly just reeeeally wanted to use some of the paper from my Hippie Chic DCWV paper stack, and this is was fun to make. The flower border is a plain white border die cut that I distress inked with brown and pink.

Have a wonderful weekend! What are your weekend plans? Is this your first real weekend off for summer? Woohoo!


<3 RWK

Card Challenges to Share

Happy Friday, I'm watching the most amazing French Open semi-finals right now, if you're not into tennis now is the time to start!

I have been lacking inspiration for card making, so I searched for a lot of challenge blogs that appealed to me, here's what I made...

Challenge from 365 Cards

The pink and brown scallop card I created for the 'Favorite Things' challenge over at http://365cards.blogspot.com/ You had to make a card inspired by your favorite ice cream flavor, and mine is strawberry and I always add mini chocolate chips! Yum. I know it's a little literal with the strawberry in the middle, but I thought it was too cute to leave out. The inside reads "How Sweet of You!"

This challenge is from http://mojomonday.blogspot.com/ with unusual shaped cards. If you notice, I was inspired by the scallop sketch to make the ice cream card, but I wanted to make another one...

Made for challenge at Mojo Monday

The next one is a sketch challenge from CardPatterns http://cardpatterns.blogspot.com/2011/05/sketch-117.html I had a lot of fun making this one, and look for it again on the next How-To Tuesday!

Made for CardPatterns challenge

Lastly is a card for Hero Arts June challenge, this was my first time (since I was about 7) using water colors, I like how fun and happy it turned out!

Thanks for browsing, have a great weekend!

<3 RWK