TEACHING Tuesday-June 24

Here's a wonderful idea from Bibiana!!!

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I love using items that aren't specifically designed for scrapbooking to create my own embellishments. I think it adds that handmade touch to the page, and is a fun way of jazzing up a layout without needing to spend lots of money.

I have recently discovered that those round facial cotton pads can be very versatile! In the "April Flowers" layout, I used one cotton pad to stamp the sun. This cotton pad then became the "O" in my title, while the stamped image was cut out. Paper clips were bent into heart shapes and clipped onto the cut-out image for the sun's rays, and strips of paper were also added. The paper clips flowers at the bottom again had a cotton pad-stamped circle as the centre. This time, the paper clips were left straight for the flower petals. I finished off with a button in the centre. The pinwheel-style flower was created using a painted cotton pad as the centre, with cotton pads cut in half for the petals. This was all joined together with a large brad.

In the "Go Dutch" layout, the butterflies were created by cutting a cotton pad in half, then turning them around so that the round edges meet one another. They were then clipped together with a paper clip, and a ribbon was added for the antennae. Brads were used to decorate the butterfly wings. At the bottom, the ladybug was again created by painting and then cutting the cotton pad in half. The halves were slightly separated over a bit of black paper. Again, brads were used for the ladybug spots, and as I didn't have a big black brad, I used a heart shaped brad for its head.

I hope this has inspired you to look into your medicine cabinet, your pantry, ANYWHERE for cheap items that can be used to make your own embellishments. I've also dabbled in the past with cupcake papers, popsticks, satay sticks, the possibilities are endless!