Design Team: Little Yellow Bicycle's Vintage Summer Collection

Ahhh, sweet summertime!  I love these days of summer and at a recent trip to Scrapdoodles, I was able to pick several pieces from the Little Yellow Bicycle "Vintage Summer" collection.  The colors are perfect for your patriotic pages as well as general summertime gatherings and events.  I picked up several sheets of paper, the Paper Crafting Kit, Stick Pins, and Fabric Favorites from the collection.  You can see the whole thing HERE or stop by Scrapdoodles to see it in person and pick out your own treats.  I brought home my goodies and created a project and 2 layouts to share with you from this line.
For my project, I started with a plain chalkboard frame that I painted with another quick coat of black  chalkboard paint.  Then I layered several elements from LYB's fabric embellishments collection (the banner is one) and several flowers from their Paper Crafting Kit.  I love how the paper crafting kit elements were "pre-cut" but still offered lots of options in assembly and use.  The stick pins offer a fun touch to this project.  Two eyelets screwed into the top of the frame and a string allow it to be hung on a door or anywhere you need a little pick me up.  See it in person at Scrapdoodles!

My first layout starts with a dark blue cardstock base.  I cut apart some of the Patchwork Quilt paper to create my own background for this layout.  The banner is made from circles folded in half (from the Papercrafting Kit).  I layered some more elements from the collection next to the photo.  The title is chipboard letters from my stash.  Underneath it, I pleated a small strip of paper and added a brad.

My second layout uses one of the fun full sheets from the collection.  It's called "Blue Skies."

I cut off the tiniest bit of paper from the left edge and adhered a red scalloped border to the back, so just a peek of the border sticks out.  This strip was actually one of the precut/scored elements in the papercrafting pack, but I thought it would be a cute border.  I haphazardly added a few more tiny print squares from the Patchwork Quilt sheet and added a few more embellishments on top, included the cherries (cut from my die cut machine), a layered flower and one more of the fabric favorites.

This was such a fun collection to play with.  The embellishment kits will provide you with lots of coordinating materials for your projects and layouts.

Happy Crafting! ~Karen

More Christmas Projects: Layout, Magnet Clothespins, and Ornaments

Here are a few more Holiday projects for inspiration. 

I used the super-adorable papers from Echo Park's Holly Jolly Christmas line on all these projects.  Mixed in are some chipboard shapes from Little Yellow Bicycle and trims from My Mind's Eye.  I picked up all these products at Scrapdoodles in Fredericksburg.  They are so awesome there!

First, I LOVE this chevron paper!!!!  I cut it at 11 inches square, rounded the corners, and layered it on brown then white for my background.  The tree came from Designer's Calendar and my cricut.  The "wishes" title was cut using the Winter Woodland cartridge.  Then I just added layers of patterned paper and chipboard.  I couldn't resist cutting off a little pompom and tying it onto the chipboard frame with a bit of twine.  

Next, I've seen a lot of painted or covered clothespins around the blogs and on Pinterest and thought a set of them would be a cute little gift.  I made mine magnets and thought the recipient could use them to hang their holiday greetings or lists up on the fridge.  The EP die cut sheet had some perfectly sized little label/title cuts.  The labels were a bit shorter than the clothespin, so I just covered the tip of each clothespin with red glitter.  They sort of remind me of reindeer noses.  I attached self-adhesive magnet to the back of each clothespin and made a little card to keep them all together.

I couldn't stop using up all the paper, so I decided to make some ornaments, too.  I found a nice scalloped edge on the Elegant Edges Cricut cartridge and used my Gypsy to weld 2 together, along with a rectangle to make it wider.  Then I simply accordion folded it and glued it all together with the help of my hot glue gun and a small circle piece on the back for added stability.  The little pompom was then attached and some more twine so it's ready to hang on the tree, or wherever you need a splash of fun color.

Christmas Project - Paper Ornaments and Garland

I had lots of fun sitting down with some products from Scrapdoodles this past week.  I picked up a few sheets from the Twig line from Little Yellow Bicycle.  I really loved the white and brown with the bright blues.  I decided to make a garland from the 3 sheets I picked up and the little pack of mini pompoms.  I simply cut some scalloped circles out with my Cricut and then strung them together with the little pompoms using fishing line and a needle.   I tied the ends to a small piece of blue pipe cleaner that I bent and secured into a circle.  That way nothing slid off and the loops on each end make the garland easy to hang.  I did add some glitter glue across each of the circles as an after thought.  The fishing line was a bit slippery and the glitter glue I spread on the circles helped secure the line in place.  I think it will look great on a little mini Christmas tree with some blue or white lights.

I also made this awesome ornament (or tree topper) from some of the papers.  I cut several strips and stapled them together in the middle.  I then secured each flap down as I looped the ends toward the center.  I cut a snowflake with the Cricut and also made a simple mini accordion circle to stack in the middle.  I topped it off with another little pompom.  Hope you're having fun with paper this season!

Little Yellow Bicycle's "Happy Fall" Projects

I was lucky enough to pick up some of the new Little Yellow Bicycle fall line, "Hello Fall!" at my LSS, Scrapdoodles, and I "fell" in love.  I love these papers - the colors are rich and vibrant and the details are so wonderful.  Then I looked at the embellishments all hanging happily together, and "Wow!"  I wanted everything!  The best part is that I could see using the embellishments beyond my scrapbook page and onto some fun accessories and home decor.  I first started with my scrapbook page, combining a few of the double sided papers and a strip from the border sheet.  I mimicked that "happy Fall" cluster again in the upper left for my title.  I added some punched circles and some of the fabric and chipboard embellishments.  It came together quickly (so nice when the paper itself inspires the layout design!) and is perfect for any type of fall photos, like these of Miss H. playing in the leaves last year.

 At left are the items I started with - 5 sheets of double sided papers and 3 embellishement packs - fabric, chipboard, and felt flowers.  I knew I wanted to use the felt flowers for hair barrettes and they worked out perfectly.  I also used the 2 fabric buttons on barrettes - too cute!  After I made the barrettes, I decided to make a little hanger for them out of ribbon and a chipboard tree.  I love it and haven't decided if I will keep it or give it as a gift to some sweet little girl :)

 Next on my list of projects with this cute stuff was a little banner for my door.  I dug out 4 pieces of Maya Road chipboard I had and covered them with paper and embellishments.  It was so easy and I love how it turned out!  I did sand the edges of most of the pieces to help them stand out against each other, but other than that, I didn't alter much of anything.  I punched holes using my Crop-a-dile and used medium width ribbon and then a piece of twine to string it together.

If you want to see these projects in person and add some of this line to your stash, I recommend you hurry out to Scrapdoodles (if you're local to Fredericksburg) and pick it up.  I think I may have to get some more, too, before it's gone.