Winners!! & Facebook Giveaway! :)

Rosettes and other types of fan fold projects filled up our Linkz.. how fun it was to see so much creativity!!

Today we have 2 winners to announce! Woot!! :)

A few weeks ago, I asked you all to let us know how you like the new Paper Variety blog and scheduling format. We received many many positive comments and we thank you! We're so glad that you're all having a great time here at TPV! One lucky commenter was chosen and she is...

Congrats Michelle!! Please email us with your home address and I'll be sending you a lil scrappy gift very soon :)

Our next order of business is 

our challenge winner! :)

This lucky gal will be receiving this gorgeous Enchanted collection donated to TPV by our wonderful sponsor, Bo Bunny!! :)

Random.org has chosen...

..this beautiful card by Nicole!

Congrats Nicole!!

Please email us with your address and I'll get that prize sent out to you very soon :)

Here is a winner badge for your blog :)

Also, we'd like to once again thank Kim Martin for being our guest designer!!
Thanks Kim!! 
It was great to have you join us at TPV! :)

We'll return on Feb 1st with a new great challenge, awesome sponsored prize, talented guest designer, and daily inspiration & tutorials! Hope you all will join us!

But for now...
Head on over to our Facebook page! We have a winterful giveaway goin on right now! All you have to do to win is "like" TPV and comment! :) Winner will be announced here on the TPV blog on the 1st! Good luck!!! :)

Top 5!!

TGIF!! :)

Wow, January FLEW by didn't it!!? I was lucky to have some extra time this month, recuperating from the holidays and even being snowed in at home a few days :) Looks like some of you had some time to be creative, this month too - LOTS of fabulous entries in our challenge:

Here's our TOP 5!!

GiGi

Bente

Amy

Patti

and Sue!

Congratulations, ladies!! Thanks for participating in the challenge and sharing your creativity at The Paper Variety :) Here's a TOP 5 badge for your blogs!!

There's still a few hours left to enter our rosettes challenge! One random winner will win Bo Bunny's "Enchanted" collection :)

Click HERE to link up :)

See you tomorrow for our winner!

And don't forget to LIKE us on Facebook.

Giveaway at the end of every month !! :)

Tutorial: Scissor Distressing by Jenifer!

Scissor Distressing

Hi everyone, Jenifer here today, I have a quick and easy lil technique to share with you all today!
So grab a cup of coffee, sit back and enjoy!

I adore grungy distressed paper crafting projects, the more distressed the better!

Theres a few tools right now on the market to help you achieve this look, but I get it for

just .74 cents. Below is a cheap, easy and quick way to give you the same look the

distress tools give without the expense.

Supplies

Whatever paper crafting project you are working on (card stock or heavy weight paper works best for this technique) I like to use a cheap pair of school scissors.

(I DO NOT use my cutterbees or anything very sharp, you can easily cut your fingers)

You may want to have some acid free tape handy just in case.

If your going to use a rounded corner punch or any ink distressing on your projects edges, you will need to do these first. Once you've done this you can get started!

It's really simple, but you must be very careful, as you can easily cut yourself, and you wouldn't want to do that. You also might want to practice this technique a few times on a scrap paper until you get a feel for how pressure to use and what angle to place your scissors.

I'm going to demonstrate today on a scrap piece of paper, but you can use this technique on any size of paper!

Open your scissors completely and place your paper project in the center of one side of your scissors blade. Angle the scissors slightly and make striking upwards motions on your paper. Work in small sections at a time to avoid riping and tearing your project. You may need to go over one area several times until you achieve the desired amount of distressing your looking for.

Don't panic if you get a rip just align your paper the best you can and apply some tape to the back side, you'll want to make sure the tape is acid free and meant for scrapbooking. You may need to manipulate your paper a bit by slight moving it upward or pushing it inward a bit to hide the tear.
OOPS

ALL BETTER NOW

Once you've practiced this a bit and have a feel for it, you can even try it on lightweight paper. It works but it doesn't distress as much and it rips and tears VERY EASY. You will have to be super careful.

ALL DONE

I want to thank my daughter for helping with all the photos!

Challenge Inspiration: Jenifer & Abby!

 

For my DIVA DECOR I used BO BUNNY'S Enchanted collection. I knew exactly what I wanted to do when I first saw this collection, which is a must have for your stash if you have not purchased it already! It has even more detail and glitter in real life, beautiful, beautiful stuff! Anyway I purchased this cardboard frame meant for altering a few weeks back at my LSS, but hated the small photo opening so I covered the entire thing, stole my mirror from my train case, after some fussy cutting, punching, layering and adhereing this is what I came up with! It's a decoartive diva mirror (if you look above the project you can see that I also added ome ribbon to hang the project). For the fan folding challenge, I decided to create a simple fan as I thought it fit in with the theme and worked perfectly in my flower cluster!

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I created this card for my son for Valentine's Day :) I tried something different.. instead of having my rosette on top of my card, I created a framed window and tucked it behind :) There is A LOT of dimension on this card so it can house the rosette inside.. so it's great that I'll be adding it in a gift bag rather than mailing it :) I used the Bo Bunny Crazy Love 6x6 pad and chipboard pieces. I think it turned out really cute.. hope my son thinks so too :)

Tutorial: Fan fold flowers by Sandi!

Hi everyone....Sandi here from Slightly Off Center with a tutorial on fan fold flowers (also called rosettes).  You will need a scoring board (this is not absolutely necessary but sure makes it easier), strips of pattern paper, a good strong glue (I like Tombow's Mono adhesive), a scrap of paper (I am using about a 3/4" circle here) and whatever embellishment you want to top your fan fold flower with.

I started with a one inch wide by 8.5 inches long strip of paper and I scored it every 1/4". You can also use a 12" long strip of paper but you would want to score it every 1/2".

Then I accordian folded it.  If you do not have a scoring board you can just fold it yourself...just try to keep the folded sections a uniform width.

Then I glue the ends together with my Tombow Mono adhesive and let it sit for a couple of minutes.

After the ends are fully adhered to each other you push the circle down until it is laying flat. I glue a scrap of paper (in this case a circle I cut from scrap) on the back side.  This helps hold the flower in shape and also helps provide a good surface when you will glue your fan fold to your project.

Then I flip it over and embellish it.

The beauty of fan folds is that they can be embellished any way and with most anything you want.  Here are some fan folds I did for current TPV challenge--I used chipboard elements from the Bella Blvd  Christmas Wishes collection:

On this flower I used my Fiskars Threading Water border punch on my strip of paper before scoring it:

I hope I have challenged you to try to experiment and make your own fan fold flowers .....what kind of variations will you come up with?

Challenge Inspiration: Sandi & Caroli!

Fan foldes flowers or rosettes are one of my favorite embellishment, I use them on almost everything so I really enjoyed this challenge. 

The pictures are from the celebration of our Independence Day that my little girl had at her Kindergarten last September 18th. That day all the children wore our typical dresses, danced our national dance called "Cueca" and ate some traditional food. All the parents were invited to wacht and participate in the celebration, it was such a lovely day :)

For this layout I used the beautiful collection Fresh Goods from Pebbles. I cut some rosettes using a cutting file and SCAL in my Cricut, and for the others I used the traditional method of scoring and folding. I embellised the rosettes with rhinestones, buttons, chipboard shapes and brads. I also added 2 toothpick flags and a little banner that says "Jardin Pasito a Paso", which is the name of the kindergarten of my little girl. The letters and numbers in blue are stickers from the same Fresh Goods, and I cut the foam number 18 was using my BigShot.

You can see more closeups of this layout in my blog, hopefully it will be a good inspiration for you to play along wit us in this challenge. Thank you for visiting us!

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I think that fanfold flowers are so versatile....especially for boys pages (which I do alot!!) Depending on what you "top" them with, they can be frilly and feminine or cute or funky.  Here they work perfectly on this page with my son Adam and his boys, my grandsons Jacob and Cole decorating their tree last month.  My favorite picture is Cole placing the star on top of the tree.

Tutorial: Multi-fold cards by Holly!

Hello!  It's Holly from Ribbon's and Glue sharing a tutorial's today on how to make two different Multi-Fold Cards.   These cards are small and simple to make.  What I like about them most though is that you can use your scraps to decorate them.

Whenever I make multi-fold cards I'm always repeating to myself "Measure Twice, Score Once".  I still make errors though,  I guess this is why I end up with many scraps of paper to use on them.

How to make a Triangular Tri-Fold Card

Supplies needed:
Scoring Board
1 piece of  3 1/2" x 10 1/2" cardstock
 Patterned paper
Ribbon
Image to fit on front of card, approx 3"-4"

Take your 3 1/2" x 10 1/2"  strip of cardstock and score at 3 1/2" and 7".

 Rotate paper and score diagonally on the end square corner to corner. Make sure both ends are going in the same diagonal.

Fold left side into the middle then fold triangle flap up. Do the same fold on the other side except fold the triangle down. 

 There you go, a simple little triangle tri-fold card that can be decorated in a million ways

Wrap a ribbon around your card and tie it with a bow to keep it closed. When adding your image to the front of the card remember to only adhere it to one side of the triangle flap. Otherwise, you won't be able to open the card. 

How to make Accordion Fold Card

Supplies needed:
Scoring Board
1 piece of  4 1/2 " x 11" cardstock
Patterned paper
Various embellishments

 Score your 4 1/2" x 11" inch paper at 1 1/2", 3", 5 1/2" and 8".

Starting on left side, mountain and valley fold on the score lines

How cute are these Valentines stamps?   They're from the new "It's Valentines" sentiments at K. Andrew Designs. Check out all of Kristal's stamps including her new Valentines sets- HERE

Happy Card Making!

Challenge Inspiration: Holly & Sara!

I was so excited when I saw this challenge. I just love to make rosettes, especially rosette wreaths! I gave this rosette picture frame-wreath to my parents for Christmas. I used the Hoot-n-Holler Lite cartridge for my owl and sentiment cuts.

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This challenge gave me a reason to put my new die to use! I used the Tim Holtz Rosette Die for the Sizzix machine.  This die give you 2 different size rosettes in just one cut as well as the circles for the center of your flower.  I just love how easy it is to make fan fold flowers with the die.