Technique Tuesday with Marie

I was inspired by a sweet braided headband I seen on Violet bellas blog. I wanted to make my own with the sweet bits that were in the AMM kit. I love how it turned out and it was super easy. Here is what I did.

1. Gather your fabric. I like to use vintage fabrics that I find at thrift stores, etsy, or flea markets. I also used tulle I got from the dollar tree.




2. You will need 3 stripes. I tore my strips of fabric. They can be as chunky or as thin as you like. (this would also look fab with yarn)




3. Put the 3 strips together and tie a knot.




4. All you need to do is start braiding. Just like you do to your childs hair or your best friend in high school. (I held the knot in my mouth...You can have your kids help you with this part if you like.)




5. Now add your little embellishments. I loved the butterflies and the felt flowers in the kit. I wanted to add them to the headband. All I did was remove the sticky from the back of the felt flower. Hot glue the butterfly to the flower then hot glue the flower to the headband.


6. I added feathers because I love feathers but you can add whatever you like. Hot glue away! You can wear it on the top of your head.






7. You can also wear it around the forehead. I love it both ways. To fasten it just tie in the back. I have seen it super long and weaved in and out of a bun or braid. Very lovely! Enjoy!

AMM Vintage Trims

Ever wondered what to do with those fabulous vintage trims that come in the A Million Memories kits and are sold in the AMM store? Well take a look at a few ideas from some of our designers both past and present.


Place trim behind several embellishments to add depth or combine with stickers to create an interesting boarder.



Wrap trim around an embellie and add an antique clip and tag.



Accent a larger page element such as this pattern paper circle.



Use several trims on one LO to add interest and texture to your photos. The colors also help draw the eye down the page.



Layer a few small pieces of trim and place over an embellishment for added interest.



Use a simple piece of trim to accent a photo by placing a piece just under your photo.



Layer several pieces of trim to create a visually appealing frame to accent your photos and embellies.



Use trim to mat a photo.



Paint your white or cream trims with watered down acrylic paint to add color and then layer with embellies.



Use your trim in place of paper strips to add more texture.



Use your trim to mat chipboard embellishments to add more depth.

Little Something Sunday with Jennifer Longenecker

Today I'm going to show you how to make a quick little tag using some un-scrappy items.

1. Gather your supplies:
tag
pattern paper
rub-on
trim
bird
stick
adhesive
scissors
edge distresser
pencil
hot glue gun
hot glue
ribbon

2. Determine the location for your rub-on and rub it on your tag.


3. Trace the tag onto the backside of your pattern paper and cut out.



4. Distress the edges of the pattern paper tag. You can use scissors or an edge distresser for this technique.


5. Lay the pattern paper tag over the original tag to determine where you need to create a window for the rub-on to show through. Once you've determined the location you can use your distresser to make a small tear in the pattern paper tag. Once torn you can roll the edges back and continue to tear the tag until you've got a window large enough for your rub-on to show through.


6. Turn the pp tag over and adhere some trim to the back making sure that at least half of it shows through when turned over.



7. Adhere pp tag to the original tag.


8. In the center of the tear add the bird and stick using hot glue.


9. Punch a hole through the pp tag and add ribbon.


That's all there is to it. I hoped you enjoyed this quick little tutorial.

January Guest Designer Reveal

Please welcome this months guest designer Suzy Plantamura.



Hi, my name is Suzy Plantamura and I am a scrapbook and photography addict. I love taking pictures of my kids, my dog, and sunsets and designing scrapbook pages with my favorite photos makes me very happy! I would describe my scrapbook style as whimsical, colorful, fun and happy. I design for MAMBI and American Crafts. I won the Memory Makers Masters contest many years ago and CK’s HOF contest in 2008. I have been on the Creating Keepsakes Dream Team for the past three years. I love guest designing for my favorite kit club, amillionmemories as often as they ask!


Check out some of these lovely LO's she has done.

January Design Team Challenge Update

It's time to check in on our January Design Team Challenge. This months sketch was provided by Zoe Nemburt and the Challenge was provided by Jennifer Longenecker. Let's take a quick look at the sketch and challenge again.

Here's Zoe's sketch...


...and my challenge was to create a LO using the following color scheme.


Here's our first submission...


Remember that you have until the 21st of January to post a link to your LO in the comments section of this post to be eligible to win a $10 gift certificate to the A Million Memories store. It's so easy so get to it.

Technique Tuesday with Staci Taylor

Today's Technique Tuesday is The Anatomy of Card Making. I am not a card making
expert by any means, so I thought it would be helpful for other newbies for me
to show you the steps I took to make this thank you card.




Since this is a shaped card, I first selected my shaped pattern paper, folded it
in half and cut off one of the ends.




I like using papers that have interesting images that can be cut out or layered upon, so I cut this frame out to use as a "window".




Next, I covered the inside of the card with a matching paper so that it would show through the window.




Since I had my "window" frame, I cut out another frame from matching paper to
add to the side since that side was a little too empty for my taste.




Next, I added my sentiment on the inside of the card so it would show
through the window.




My very final step involved embellishing the card. I handcut some small flowers from a sheet of matching paper and added them to a stemmed flower embellishment (using pop dots for added dimension).




There you have it - a few simple steps to make a handmade card for someone :-)

A Peek into Marie's "Girl Cave"