Tag: handmade

card classes, card ideas, card making, card making idea, card techniques, cards, christmas cards, retro images, vintage cards

Have Yourself a Retro Little Christmas + FREE PRINTABLES!

Genevieve Speegle

I love retro images. Like LOVE, LOVE retro images. They make my heart smile and I feel all warm and cozy just looking at these darling illustrations. It’s no wonder, than, that they are the centerpiece for so many of my card creations!

Here are six cards I made recently. I thought you might enjoy these darling greetings.

This “Little Boy’s First Christmas” is one of my favorites. I love the color combo and the flower cluster so much!

Adding various sizes in your flower collage makes it look full and interesting – so, change it up! Add a variety!
Found this pine bundle in the floral section at Michaels and just took apart branches so that I could put them where I wanted them.

I was so happy when this sweet pink baby’s first Christmas card found a good home – I love the intricate lace, pearls, flowers, and seam binding!

Beautiful cards don’t have to be super fancy either. This one is simple, but just so happy and sweet!

Feeling inspired? Here are copies of the vintage images I used so that you can print and play with them too!

A few “must haves” when working with printables:

  • a great printer! I use HP OfficeJet Pro 6978 and it’s amazing (I use it a TON every single day for my business)
  • quality cardstock. Try Neenah Premium Cardstock for fabulous images
  • Stickles glitter – you won’t believe how it changes the entire quality of your card. For real

If you just want to get your hands on finished cards, be sure to check out my eBay and Etsy shop for lots of handmade goodies!

Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for all things crafty! Please stay in touch and share your finished projects with me!

Thanks so much for crafting with me today, and happy holidays!

xoxo

Genevieve

Bella Stitchery

card classes, card ideas, card making, card techniques, cards, christmas cards, Christmas ideas, christmas layouts, fussy cutting, gen's scrapbook kitchen, handmade scrapbook, holiday scrapbook pages, scrapbook, scrapbook ideas, scrapbook layouts, scrapbook page, scrapbook pages

Pastel Christmas!

Genevieve Speegle

There’s something so precious about a pastel Christmas! I love the sweet pinks and yummy teals – they always make me smile!

This month’s Handmade Club Kit is all about shabby chic Santa, elves, holly berries, and cookies. I had a wonderful time cutting out all these darling embellishments and playing with them in different collage settings.

Crystal Stickles is the perfect accent to all these delicious images. I added them to the roses, the elves’ costumes, and the cookie frosting.

I already have several Christmas cards ready in my eBay and Etsy shop too (yes, I know it’s October, but I couldn’t help myself!) 🙂

Don’t they just make you smile? Have you tried fussy cutting? What do you think about the process? It seems like people either love or hate it. I think the biggest tool for your cutting success is super small, precise scissors. It really makes all the difference.

https://amzn.to/30WRNFU

If you’d like some tips on better fussy cutting, I have a YouTube tutorial all about it too:

Well, hope you’ve enjoyed this peek into my October Santa’s workshop today! Keep in touch and happy crafting!

xoxo

Genevieve

Bella Stitchery

card ideas, card making, cards, halloween cards, handmade cards, scrapbook sales, scrapbook sketches, scrapbooking, scrapbooking ideas

Trick-or-Treat

Genevieve Speegle

This is one of my favorite times of year, for sure! I love the colors of fall and spookiness of October. Welcome to my happy place!

I’ve been busy in my new home of South Dakota – trying to find my rhythm here and the best place and time to create. It’s not without it’s challenges, however, it’s sometimes nice to have a fresh start too.

Here are some of the layouts I’ve made this month…

(all these handmade goodies can be found in my eBay shop and my NEW Etsy shop!)

Of course, I’ve had to make some darling greeting cards too – they just make my heart so happy!

What have YOU been up to this month, my crafty friends? And where do you like to craft? What is your favorite space and time of day. I think I’m *just* starting to hit my stride, and it’s so nice to get back to making pretty things after the summer’s move.

Thanks so much for hanging out with me today – keep in touch!

xoxo

Genevieve

Bella Stitchery

handmade scrapbook, scrapbook, scrapbook blogs, scrapbook ideas, scrapbook layouts, scrapbook page, scrapbook pages, scrapbook sales, scrapbooking, scrapbooking ideas

Music, Dance, Art

Genevieve Speegle

There’s nothing quite as inspiring as getting your hands on a new paper collection. I love the excitement of flipping through the new paper pad and being delighted at each new turn of the page.

My craft table was overflowing with the new Passion collection by Stamperia last week. It’s all about dance, music, and art. The colors are fabulous and the illustrations just melted my heart.

It was so easy to make gorgeous premade scrapbook pages and I felt like I just burned through the entire pack before I knew it.

Cellos and ballerinas – what could be more lovely?! I did a lot of fussy cutting on these layouts too, so pop up elements on the page and tuck photo mats underneath.

I also used LOTS of beautiful Prima Marketing flowers, such as the Sugar Cookie flowers below to coordinate with the colors in the collection.

You can find all my handmade scrapbook pages in my eBay shop this week. Each one is made with love and ready for your favorite artistic photos!

Thanks so much for hanging out with me today! Hope you were inspired! Please follow Bella Stitchery on social media and stay in touch. Happy crafting, my friend!

card ideas, card making, card making idea, free printables

Easter Cards: 3 Sketches 6 Ways + FREE Printables!

Genevieve Speegle

It’s springtime once again! It’s a season of sunshine, happy rain, and beauty. Some of my favorite printable images are those of Vintage Easter illustrations.

I have a brand new YouTube tutorial today in which I’ll show you three super easy card sketch ideas, with an alternate version of each one.

Here is a copy of the printables I used. Feel free to save and print:

Adding some Stickles to my images really brought them to life and made them pop!

You can also find the products used in these links:

Be sure to stop by my eBay shop too, for lots of handmade cards and premade scrapbook pages! Thanks so much for crafting with me today, and keep in touch! xoxo

digital, digital collages, Digital Scrapbook Layouts, easy scrapbook pages, family scrapbook layout, gen's scrapbook kitchen, handmade scrapbook, scrapbook, scrapbook blogs, scrapbook ideas, scrapbook layouts, scrapbook page, scrapbook pages, scrapbook sketches, scrapbooking, scrapbooking ideas

Digital Scrapbooking

Genevieve Speegle

I’m so excited to introduce DIGITAL LAYOUTS in my eBay shop!

Bella Stitchery | eBay Stores
These are converted files from some of my favorite handmade scrapbook pages.

You’ll receive the hi-res image after checkout and simply overlay your own favorite photo!

You can use software such as Cut Paste Photos Pro (that’s what I used to insert the photos seen here), Photoshop, or any photo software you like.

I have 37 available right now in my eBay shop, and more to come soon!

You can still find all my original handmade scrapbook pages in my shop too here:

Bella Stitchery | eBay Stores

Happy crafting! xoxo

Genevieve

Bella Stitchery

crafting, crafts, cross stitch patterns, cross stitching, embroidery, hand embroidery, handmade crafts, needlecrafts, Uncategorized

Biggest Cross Stitch Ever

Genevieve Speegle

rsz_alice_in_wonderland_silhouette

When life gives you time, make giant tapestries! We’ve been home now for a few months due to COVID social distancing, so I figured it was a great time to start a cross stitch project the size of a 12-year-old.  🙂

I made this amazing Alice in Wonderland silhouette cross stitch pattern the other day and I wanted it BIG. It’s 32×45.29 inches, on a 14 count fabric! It only uses one color though, so it shouldn’t be too bad, right? …….. Right? I’m going to use 3 strands of black DMC 310 throughout so it’s a thicker weave.

Here’s a video I made of me putting the 36 page chart together:

 

Here’s a picture of my 3-year-old next to the pieced together pattern. It’s 100% bananas.

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It all begins with one stitch:

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Here’s a picture of me stitching on a 59 inch Aida cloth. It definitely takes a little bit to get used to:

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Week one done, and feeling good:

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I’m excited about the process and I hope you’ll join me on my journey! Be sure to follow me on Instagram and Facebookfor weekly photo updates, and let me know what you think of this project! Here’s a link to the chart, if you’d like to stitch it along with me, too!

Thanks so much for crafting with me, and happy stitching! xoxo

 

gen's scrapbook kitchen, handmade scrapbook, paper, paper crafting, paper crafting ideas, paper crafts, scrapbook, scrapbook blogs, scrapbook layouts, scrapbook page, scrapbook pages, scrapbooking, scrapbooking ideas, Uncategorized

Kickin’ It Old School

Genevieve Speegle

blue books

This week was all about the 49 and Market Old School Collection. I mean ALL ABOUT IT.

I used the entire collection in the past couple days, and it made me so happy in my heart.

I’ve never seen a paper collection with ephemera and die-cuts like these – books, pen and ink, and 3D notebook die-cuts!

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blue on blue

first day of school 1

I made lots of collage-style pages using the die-cuts in the collection, along with the Cobalt and Sky Wildflowers.

books

Fun, right?! For the layout above, I cut around the boarder of one page and popped it up with cardboard to create a kind of shadowbox effect. The paper underneath is from Tim Holtz.

What do you think? Which page is your favorite? I sell all my premade pages in my Etsy and eBay shops too, if you’d like to add any of these layouts to your own album or shadowbox.

Thanks for taking this tour with me today! Keep in touch, and happy crafting! xoxo

handmade scrapbook, scrapbook, scrapbook blogs, scrapbook ideas, scrapbook layouts, scrapbook page, scrapbook pages, scrapbooking, scrapbooking ideas, summer scrapbook pages

BEE-autiful New Layouts

Genevieve Speegle

Bee and flowers

The only thing more fun than making bee-themed scrapbook pages, is being able to use about a billion bee puns. You’ve been warned.

I was buzzin’ this week, making cards and layouts using these adorable printables I purchased from Dots Inspiration Shop on Etsy.

I couldn’t BEE-lieve how adorable they were when I printed everything out (seriously, you should have seen my craft table. It was like a field of honeybees in the first warm day of summer, far as the eye could see).

Bee collage

I paired most of the layouts with the Memoranda paper pad by Tim Holtz so that I could get 12×12 coverage.

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I love the grungy look to the paper and honey, it just worked perfectly.  🙂

Good morning

I really couldn’t BEE any happier with the way they all turned out.

With a little hand-dyed ribbon and flowers, these pages are happy as springtime bees in a field of dandelions.

Yellow flowers

I have a tutorial all about how to make these flowers and seam binding here:

You can find the paint and ink spray used on Amazon in the links below:

ink

paint

Sunflowers

I love this color combo so much too! I can’t BEE-lieve how well it translated from spring to fall with just a change of flowers and background paper.

Moments

This last one is probably one of my favorites. I feel like I say that a lot, but honestly I just love working with paper and flowers so much!

I list all my newest scrapbook layouts and greeting cards on eBay and Etsy each Sunday too, so please stop by my shop and check out what’s available. I’m always so happy to give my creations a good home.  🙂

Hope you’ve enjoyed this quick look at my week in paper. Thanks for buzzin’ over. I’m going to flutter back to work on some new goodies for next week!

Please keep in touch – I’d love to know what you think about these pages.

Follow me on YouTube, FB and Instagram too! I’d love to BEE friends! xoxo

 

 

P.S. My blog uses affiliate links. These commissions are at no cost to you. Thanks so much for using links!

 

 

 

cards, graphic 45, graphic 45 cards, graphic 45 layouts, scrapbook, scrapbook blogs, scrapbook layouts, scrapbook page, scrapbook pages

Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante

Genevieve Speegle

steampunk debutante

Ok. You ever have that paper collection that you are so excited to buy, but then are terrified to use it? It’s just so beautiful and perfect, you fear “messing it up” by actually crafting with the paper you purchased it for? Yeah. The Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante collection was one of those for me.

This paper pad is YEARS old and has been gracefully sitting in my paper closet looking pretty. Every once in awhile I would thumb through it (careful not to bend or crease even the cover) and then sigh happily and put it away again.

This week was the time. I just couldn’t hold back any more. But I promised myself that I would use as much as humanly possible, so I wouldn’t feel like any single page or tag was left behind. I think I did pretty well. I ended up using the collection to make 10 scrapbook layouts and 5 fancy cards.

I love them all so very much, and hope you enjoy these papery treasures too.

You can still find this discontinued collection on places like Amazon, but be warned – it has a hefty price tag. If you’ve got the coin though, trust me when I say, you won’t regret it. This paper collection truly is gorgeous. Link for the paper pad.

I also sell these finished 12×12 pages and greeting cards in my eBay shop, so feel free to check those out as well. They are all looking for a good home and ready to ship!

windmill man

Which paper collection did you hang on to for (maybe) too long? Did you ever use it, or do you just glance longingly at it every once in awhile as you craft with other paper pads?

I’d love to share in your paper romance too, so please keep in touch and drop me a comment.

Happy crafting! xoxo

steampunk easel card

steampunk easel card 4