Friends With Flair ~ A New Generation of Stampers!

I had the best time this past week!!! Lots of rambling and pictures ahead!

I was invited to lead an activity for the youth group at a daycamp that was held for girls age 8 through 11. I got to choose the activity within the theme, "Past, Present, Future". I chose to have the girls make a collage cover for a journal, for them to record their wishes, dreams and plans in.

I bought a composition book for each girl, and brought along a huge stack of scrapbook paper, every black stamp pad that I had...and my big box of Unity Itty Bitty stamps! I keep all my SOTW and the other Itty Bitties that I have in one box...and I figured that it would be easier for the girls to sort through and choose than flipping through binders (and that it would be far more likely that my stamps would be semi-organized when they were done!

I had the girls cover the front and back of the composition books with torn bits of paper, then they could glue on their name that I cut with my Silhouette. After that, they were allowed to move to the 'stamp' table to choose stamps and apply the designs to the book. To finish up, if they wanted to glue some ribbon on the edge they could.

They had so much fun!!! I had so much fun watching them plan and decide then jump in to create! I love that they all look unique. Some of the girls covered every bit they could, some were more particular about what they put on...and all of the girls were so accepting of the creative process! None of them fussed about things not being 'perfect'. It was wonderful!

This was the sample I made to show them how it could look.

The girls were in awe of the selection of stamps...they thought I was joking when I told them that the box was not even a quarter of the stamps that I own...please tell me that some of you can relate???? I was grateful that the selection of stamps was so varied in style and theme...pretty much anything the girls asked for, they could find in the box. Big flower? Check! Owls and penguins? Check! Bicycle? Check! Heart? Double Check! Young girl? Check! Puppy? Hmm...looks like that one should go on the request list for the SOTW! Who wants a puppy SOTW by Phyllis Harris??? Ooh yeah!!!

I'm hoping that the leaders decide to make this an annual event! I know that the projects will change, but I'm sure that I can share my love of paper and stamping with the next generation again!

All in all, a great start to my week...and now I get to finish off my week with the linky party on the Unity Blog ~ Friends with Flair!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Meredith

Silhouette Challenge ~ 3D Shadow Box

A few months ago I saw a beautiful link that led me to the super talented Marji Roy at Ashbee Designs. I emailed her about the design she had created and cut with her Silhouette, to see if they were available for purchase. At that time, they were not, but not too long after, she started posting her designs for sale in the Silhouette store!

If you have not seen them yet, go take a look now! They are fabulous! I want to cut the birch files for my office, and will get there...but decided to start with a single shadow box to get the feel for the way they are put together. 

I cut the fern shadow box, and have it in my craft room right now...I love the way it looks! So sophisticated and understated at the same time! I decided to use three shades of tan that have greenish tones to them...and placed the colors the opposite of the way they are in the designer's example...I layered the colors from lightest to darkest.

Mrs. Roy has excellent instructions for her designs posted on her blog here, (oh, how I wish that more of Silhouette's designers did this!) but I learned a few things that I will apply the next time I put together one of the shadowboxes. As far as sizing goes...draw a separate box in a new color the size that you want the finished shadowbox to be...then pull the front layer until the scored fold lines match it, as long as the whole layer still fits on your cutting mat, you are good to go! 

When removing the design from your cutting mat...have a scraper handy and go slowly...you don't want to stress the connecting lines and have them tear on you. (Ahem...)

I also learned that you don't need as much room between the layers as you think you do...I ended up finagling the layers together because I left too much room between them...just follow the instructions, and put the layers just barely sized down from each other.  

One thing that I will likely do differently, the next one I make, will be to cut the design layer a second time, out of the same cardstock and adhere it behind the 'box' layer, to add some stability to the 'picture' layer...I find that the ferns are a bit floppy...this is of course because of the cardstock I chose to use...if you use a sturdier cardstock, there will be no need to do this.

All in all, I'm incredibly pleased with the design...and will happily admit to purchasing each of the shadowbox designs as soon as I saw them in the store! 

Supplies:

• cardstock: American Crafts 65#
• cut file: Marji Roy for Silhouette America

I'm linking this post up over at the weekly Silhouette challenge ~ 3-D projects.

Thanks for stopping by!

Meredith