Friday, September 14, 2012

Layout Revisited

We thought it would be nice to revisit some of our more popular sketches from the blog. This is from December, 2010 by Debbie Gaydos. It was done with a Christmas layout in mind. Yeah, I know. Do we really want to think about Christmas now?  I'm going to use this sketch for an autumn page. How about you?
Thanks for stopping by. Linda and Cathy

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Halloween Tags




We love Halloween. Love the crisp air, the colors of nature, and all of the decorations. These are some tags I did with vintage images, cardstock, and a little Distress Walnut ink. The tags are available in our Etsy shop. Have a wonderful day, and thanks for stopping by. Linda and Cathy

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Christmas Village

We get so many emails about this project that appeared in December 2010, so I thought now would be a great time to re-post it. This beautiful village was created for Ally Scraps by the very talented Linda Albrecht! Remember this was originally posted in 2010, so you may have to use papers that are available today. October Afternoon Holiday Style would be a great choice! I checked the link provided for the houses and could not find them, but if you google putz houses you will find many places that have the templates.



Linda says, "These little vintage style houses are great on top of a box to use for holiday décor and gift giving. They are also a fun size to use for an ornament for your tree. The house patterns can be downloaded at the Victoria Magazine website. They take some time and a little patience, but are worth it in the end. You could also buy pre-made paper mache houses at a craft store."




Instructions:
1. Cut the house pieces from chipboard and patterned papers as desired.
2. Trace and cut out the square window shape onto the chipboard then cut out with an exacto knife.
3. Trace the shape of the window onto the matching patterned paper pieces that will be used for each house.
4. Cut the individual window panes from the patterned paper then adhere the house pieces together with hot glue.
5. Adhere the papers to the house, leaving the roof for the next step.
6. Adhere papers to the roof pieces then place the roofs onto the houses.
7. Fill in any cracks where the roofs and house meet with extra glue and sprinkle on clear glitter to hide any imperfections.
8. The house template pattern does not call for this, but I cut a piece of cardstock and patterned paper as a base for each house to sit on. Adhere the base to the house.
9. Adhere papers to boxes then adhere the houses to the top of the boxes.
10. Apply adhesive to the houses and boxes then sprinkle with clear glitter.
11. Apply additional adhesive to select areas to add Mica Flakes for a snow effect.
12. Add decorative pins or silver beads to the house peaks.
13. Apply white paint to the chipboard snowflakes, punch holes to add to snowflake effect then adhere Mica Flakes and rhinestones to them as desired.
14. Adhere the snowflakes to the back side of the houses and add any additional embellishments to the box tops as desired.
15. Adhere Sticker Shapes as shown. I pressed the sticky backside of the stickers into clear glitter first, then glued them to the house backs and large chipboard snowflakes.
16. Apply additional glitter and rhinestones to the sticker fronts as desired.
17. Poke a slit in the door to add a mini brad for the door handle.
18. Use hot glue to adhere silver pipe cleaners to the edge of the boxes.




Supplies:
Echo Park Life is Good, The Neighborhood
October Afternoon Very Merry, Fill the Stockings
October Afternoon Very Merry, Trim the Tree
Cosmo Cricket Jolly By Golly, Merry Berry
Webster’s Pages Waiting For Santa, Wrapping Paper
We R Memory Keepers Merry January, Flake
We R Memory Keepers Merry January, Slush
We R Memory Keepers Merry January, Twig
October Afternoon Very Merry Shape Stickers
Maya Road Chipboard Snowflake Coaster
Maya Road Trinket Pins, Crystals
Maya Road Vintage Crochet Trim- Baby Pom Pom
We R Memory Keepers Merry January Collection, Flocked Lace
Craft Supplies:
House templates downloaded from: http://magazine-directory.com/Victoria.htm
glitter, Mica Flakes, bottle brush trees, rhinestones, jingle bells, silver pipe cleaners, mini brads, plain chipboard



Thanks so much Linda, for your gorgeous work, and your detailed instructions

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Have you seen the new Peaceful line from Authentic? It is absolutely stunning, I can't wait to play with it


 

Friday, July 27, 2012

We're Back!

HI! We are still here, the store is open in Plainfield, and Cathy and I are lining up all new classes. This mini album is just in time for the start of the new school year. Can you believe the kids are going back already? This is an 8 page album made with My Yellow Bicycle card stock, and 3 lunch bags. The date of this class and price will be announced soon, but why not stop in the store and say hi? Our hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 11am to 5pm. Hope to see you soon. Exciting news to come! (here's a hint: we've been very busy) Cathy, Linda, and Ally

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

New Card Class

Good Morning! Today we have 3 new cards that I created for the next card class at Allyscraps. The class will be on Sunday, March 18th, at 1pm at the store. Cost is $11, and you will receive everything to make these 3 cards. We will be using die cuts, ink, and stamps. All classes must be prepaid, but the great part is the discount. Every class participant receives a 20% discount on paper/ribbon/embellishment/stamp purchases the day of class. Why not sign up today? Have a great day. Linda

Monday, February 6, 2012

Crate Paper Layouts

Good Morning! Today we have two new layouts by Cathy, using the Crate Paper line. They have the cutest embellishments. Makes it soooo easy to create a page to suit photographs of your kids. I would like to remind everyone that we do have classes at the store. This coming Sunday, February 12th, is the birthday bag class with Kathy. You will receive the template to make future bags with the class. On Sunday, February 19th is the class for the recipe box. The cost has been adjusted to $18.00. We are working on a Graphic 45 class with the larger box that has two window openings on the front. Lots of embellishments/bling on that project. I will be posting photographs soon. Coming soon! An announcement of Girl's Night Out in April. This will be a crop and shopping experience. Lots of fun! Have a great day. Linda

Monday, January 30, 2012

Die Cuts with a View

Good Morning! We have another layout from Cathy. This time it is with Die Cuts With a View products, using some of the winter theme papers and embellishments. As always, everything is available in the store and online for sale. Thanks for stopping by. Linda

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Delicate Layout

Today we have another layout from Cathy. This is Kaiser Craft paper and paper flowers. The canvas dress form (so cute!) is from Prima. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure what all else is on this. Cathy worked on this particular page for oh, about 6 weeks. Sometimes it's hard to finish a page when there are too many choices! Have a great day. Linda

Friday, January 27, 2012

Recipe Box Class

Good Morning. We have a new class available at Allyscraps. This is a paper mache recipe box, very sturdy in construction. I used Melissa Frances paper, along with Kaiser Craft paper and embellishments. This would make a great bridal shower gift, with some of your family recipes tucked inside. This class will be on Sunday, February 19th, at 1pm. You will receive everything you need to make this box. Please bring a basic tool kit, including a 12 inch trimmer, and ink or chalk for the edges. You will also need adhesive, and I recommend glue dots for the wooden embellishments. All classes must be prepaid. There are 5 spots available, and those 5 people will receive a 20% discount on any paper craft products they purchase the day of the class. Cost of this class is $20.00. Thanks for shopping with Allyscraps! Linda

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Look what you're missing!

Welcome to the store! We are inviting you to visit our Plainfield, IN. location and see all of the wonderful goodies. That is, all of the gift and home decor items besides the marvelous inventory of paper crafting products. Cathy and I have been very busy. If you are in the area, please stop in to say hello. Have a great day. Linda

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Kaiser Craft Layouts

Hi. We're back with some beautiful layouts by Cathy. She was inspired by a designer layout in a Kaiser Craft publication. This is one of the newer lines from Kaiser Craft in the store, along with those wonderful "wood" embellishments, and plenty of the paper flowers. Have you tried these yet? The colors are perfect. Each flower comes with a wire stem, so they can be used in so many different ways. I hope these will help kick start your creative juices today. Have fun, and thanks for stopping by. Linda

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Kaiser Craft Mini Album

We (as in Cathy and I) at Allyscraps love Kaiser Craft products. The papers are gorgeous, the embellishments inspiring, and the hard board die cuts they sell are very easy to work with. This is a tag album. It comes with the tags attached to one another. You simply snap the pieces apart, and sand off the little "nubbies" of extra hard board. I did a base coat of white craft paint, then adhered the papers and embellishments with regular glue runner. This is a girlfriend album, kind of tongue in cheek. I used some stamps from my own personal stash, but the papers are from Kaiser Craft. Thanks for stopping by. Linda

Monday, January 16, 2012

Thinking outside the box

Hi. We're back. It's been awhile, and I do apologize. Is this the time of year you get creative? When the snow is blowing and it's just too cold outside to do anything, do you take out the supplies and play? We've been in high gear, making cards, layouts, and some altered art. Today I want to share a Graphic 45 decoration. One of the reasons I love their papers and embellishments is there is so much you can do with it. I found a small, wooden box at a discount store that I immediately saw as a frame. The box was painted black with Folk Art, but you could use any good quality craft paint. That happened to be what I had on hand. I let the paint dry overnight. The Oz papers are just so easy to work with, that this arrangement just fell into place. Very simple. Flowers and the saying, "There is no place like home" are from the chipboard embellishments. I used the 8x8 inch paper pad. Thanks for stopping by, and I'll be back later this week with some amazing layouts from Cathy. She has outdone herself! Linda