Hybrid World’s Best Mother Broach
By: Pixelista

Mother’s are the keepers of lost teeth, noodle necklaces, prom corsages and faded year books. They comfort us when we scrape our knees, have our first heart break and share their stories from days gone by.  Their embrace is enough to wash away a bad dream and to know that they will love us no matter what. They give so much, and ask for nothing in return. Show gratitude and appreciation for your mother by means of a beautiful prize ribbon style broach for her to wear on Mother’s Day.

I created my broach using Peppermint Creative’s Uniquely You Kit and matching Mother Add-on , this project turned out to be a stunning piece, truly fit for a Queen.

Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

• Printed papers from the Uniquely You kit 
• Mom Add-On for Uniquely You Kit
• Sewing machine and coordinating threads **Optional
• Hot glue gun
• Tacky Glue
• Foam adhesive squares (assorted sizes)
• Paper scorer (highly recommended time saver!)
• Decorative edge paper punch
• Miscellaneous Rhinestones, buttons etc.
• Scissors
• Silhouette Cameo (for cutting your files out)** Optional
• Broach pin
• Adhesive Rhinestones, buttons etc.
• 1 and 3 inch circle punch (for accordion flower backs)
• Double sided permanent adhesive tape (sookwang or other)

Project Assembly:

There’s no sense reinventing the wheel. Miss Mint has a fantastic tutorial on how to make the accordion style paper flowers. Follow along with her to make an assortment of 5 different sized pinwheels. The largest being for your base of the broach, with another smaller one layered on top. The final 3 (or more as you see fit) are to cluster as accents on top.

NOTE: Prior to connecting your paper strips, for pleating you will need to punch the edges if you choose to use the decorative punch for added visual interest. 

Okay, so your flowers are done and look sensational! You (if you’re anything like me) are now covered in glue! So clean your hands and let’s move on.

Make a selection of digital embellies to use on the broach (foliage, flowers, butter fly, words etc.) don’t forget to pick a bunch to be your “ribbon tails’, print and cut them out (If you have a Silhouette Machine…USE IT!!! IT will be your best friend!) I had to cut out my pieces individually with scissors.

Take your assorted strips to be used as tails and snip the ends in varying ways, layer them to get an idea as to how you’d like them to look when they are all stuck together.  

Stitch randomly around the edges with the coordinated thread you picked out.

Using your double sided tape, start layering your ribbon tails to create the ribbon cluster for the bottom of the broach.

 Attach the finished ribbon cluster to the BACK of the base pinwheel flower using tacky glue.  Apply the glue to the RIGHT side of the cluster  

Then flip it over and centre as needed, press and hold to get adhesion. Let this dry briefly so it won’t shift. 

Now, you can start the layering of your other pinwheels and elements to build the face of the broach. Using foam adhesive squares and tacky glue attach the top pinwheel to the largest pinwheel base. Again, hold firmly to get adhesion.

Play around with your other elements to determine how they will be positioned prior to being permanently tacked in place.

Layer and attach your remaining embellishments, die cut flowers, butterflies (don’t forget to bend it’s wings so it looks like it’s ready to take flight) with tacky glue and adhesive squares as needed.

Position your “Mother” die cut and attach with glue or foam squares and bling it out with a little rhinestone and button action. 

 Let it dry completely! 

A good couple of hours at least, before flipping it over to attach the broach closure pin on the back side.  Add some hot glue in the appropriate spot, and then push in the pin so that the glue comes up through the holes in the closure.

All done, now go give your beautiful hand crafted ribbon to Mom and get her to wear it proudly (like she wouldn’t!) on Mother’s Day! 

Happy Crafting!
Pixelista 

Supremely talented Mint Chick Mary Jo Johnston crafted up the world’s most adorable cards featuring owls dressed for all occasions. I was SO excited to post these delightful designs on the blog for you to see but not surprisingly CARDS MAGAZINE beat me to it and picked up this project to feature in one of their issues before I had the chance! So I had to hold off posting…until now.

Congratulations Mary Jo for the AMAZING publication feature and kudos for coming up with such an adorable project featuring PILES of Peppermint Creative papers! Check out all 12 cards below with suggestions for making your own. 

A Year of Cards  
As Seen in CRICUT Magazine: Cards Issue
By: Mary Jo Johnston

One of my scrapping goals this year is to make more cards.  Let me clarify that =) I make A LOT of cards!  But – they’re sometimes dedicated to assignments, projects or they’re from my random creativity and the 15 minutes I had to sit in my scraproom.

This year, I want to be prepared. Prepared for holidays, birthdays and occasions as they arise.

You can too!  And you can be as creative or as simple as you’d like. When you’re finished, you’ll have at least 12 cards just waiting to be mailed and ready to make someone’s day.

I chose an owl theme for my card set and used the Hoot n Holler cartridge with my Cricut for the owl shapes. If you have a Silhouette you can use Peppermint Creative’s Hooty Owls or Hoot Nursery Owls or any of these. 

I loved the idea of each owl dressed up for the holiday or season, but you could take a slightly more simple approach and create your cards with just sentiments – or go wild and make them as intricate as you like.

Let’s start with January and a little snowflake covered owl.

January Themes: Snowflakes, Welcome Winter!, Brrrr! Baby, It’s Cold Outside!, Monochromatic Shades of Blue, January Birthdays, New Year’s Day, National Soup Month

Suggested Papers/Kits for January:

• Christmas Past Kit (snowflakes) used above
• Classic Wedding Papers (grey polka dots) used above
• Chill Factor Papers
• Frosted Fun Papers

February’s definitely an easy one!  Break out those Valentine papers and spread the love.

February Themes: Valentine’s Day, Love, Thank You Cards, National Children’s Dental Health Month, Groundhog Day

Suggested Papers/Kits for February: 

• Lovebird Papers (heart paper) used above
• Candy Kisses Papers
• He Loves Kit
• Sweet Cheeks Papers 

March is a month with the fun, colorful holiday – St. Patrick’s Day, and one of my favorites.

March Themes: St. Patrick’s Day, Poetry Month, National Craft Month, Johnny Appleseed Day

Suggested Papers/Kits for March: 

• Lucky Me Kit (discontinued) used above
• Miso Lucky Kit
• Artsy Fartsy Kit

 April, Happy Easter!

April Themes: Easter, April Fool’s Day, No Housework Day, National Jelly Bean Day

Suggested Papers/Kits for April:

• iRock Kit (purple swirls) used above
• Hoppy Easter Papers used above
• Speckled Egg Lights Kit
• Speckled Egg Brights Kit

May is the perfect month to incorporate all of your pastel papers, beautiful flowers and Mother’s Day sentiments.

May Themes: Graduation, Mother’s Day, Spring, Flowers, Play, May Birthday’s, National Photograph Day, Cinco de Mayo

Suggested Papers/Kits for May:

• Funktography Kit (striped paper) used above
• Hot Mama Papers used above
• Uniquely You Kit 

June is good time to incorporate all of your masculine and dark colored papers.

June Themes: Father’s Day, Graduation Parties, Summer, June Birthday’s, Cookout, Background BBQ, Best Friends Day, Flag Day

Suggested Papers/Kits for June:

• Lovebird Papers (blue paper) used above
• Hey Dude Papers
• Mr. Fix It Papers 
• My Guy Kit

July is the month of stars and stripes.  Happy 4^th of July!

July Themes: Fourth of July, Summer, Swimming, Weddings, National Joke Day, July Birthday’s (mine!) =)

Suggested Papers/Kits for July:

• Stars & Stripes Papers (stars) used above
• Mr. Postman Papers (polka dots) used above  

August is back to school time and my favorite owl card!  Isn’t he adorable?

August Themes: Back to School, Thank You Teacher, Summer, National Picnic Month, Just Because, Friendship

Suggested Papers/Kits for August:

• School Zone Papers (stripes) used above
• Whiz Kid Kit (chalkboard) used above
• Bingo Cards – School similar to above 

I chose September as my dedicated birthday month.  I love to make birthday cards and September is one of those months without a really obvious holiday, so birthday it is ;) 

September Themes: Birthday, Grandparent’s Day, Labor Day, End of Summer, Elephant Appreciation Day (no joke!), Baseball, Hispanic Heritage Month

Suggested Papers/Kits for September:

• Party Polka Dot Papers (polka dots) used above
• Birthday Boogie Papers

Happy Halloween!  My absolute favorite holiday of the year.  I love the colors, the costumes and the candy!  Speaking of costumes, doesn’t this little guy look like he’s wearing a mask?  =)

October Themes: Halloween, Oktoberfest, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Bosses Day, Sweetest Day

Suggested Papers/Kits for October:

• Fright Night Kit (zig zag stripes) used above
• Green Cauldron Papers
• Haunted Halloween Mini Kit

As we’re winding down to the end of the year, we can’t forget Turkey Day!  And, who doesn’t love an owl dressed as a turkey?

November Themes: Thanksgiving, Thankful, Fall, World Kindness Day, Veteran’s Day, Hello, Simple Sentiments

Suggested Papers/Kits for November:

• Plumberry Harvest Papers (green and striped papers) used above
• Fright Night Kit (orange polka dots) used above
• Thankful Fall Kit
• Seasons Change Kit

Ho Ho Ho!  Merry Christmas!  We’re wrapping up the year with a Santa Owl and his white beard.  You have an entire year to get your Christmas cards ready, let’s get started!

December Themes: Holiday, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, National Letter Writing Day, Hanukkah

Suggested Papers/Kits for December:

• Jingle Bell Rock Papers (green polka dots) used above
• Candy Cane Christmas Papers (red polka dots) used above
• Christmas Past Kit
• Cozy Christmas Papers

Thank you so much for dropping by Miss Mint’s Blog!

I hope you enjoyed the Year of Cards and you’re inspired to create your own set.

Happy Crafting,
Mary Jo 

Keep Calm and Drink Coffee
By: Candace Zentner 

I am in love with the new Life In Pictures releases!! I am not a big LIP-er, but I love that the new Keep Calm Cards & Templates are versatile enough for anyone to use! The ‘Keep Calm and Drink Coffee’ sparked inspiration for a great gift idea! Who doesn’t LOVE a Starbucks gift card??

What I used to create my card:

• Peppermint Creative Keep Calm Title Cards & Templates
• Coffee Cup SVG from Silhouette Store
• White cardstock
• Twine
• Embossing Folder
• Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink
• White Gelly Roll Pen
• Scissors
• Hole punch

How I put it all together: 

Step 1: Use SVG file from Silhouette Store to cut out pieces for card (card base, lid, cup sleeve) in Silhouette Studio Software. 

Step 2: Print out Keep Calm Title Card on white cardstock then cut it out. 
NOTE: The color of the cards can easily be changed in a photo editing software such as Photoshop

Step 3: Ink around edges of Keep Calm Card with ink to give it a little dimension (and to cover white edges, if you’re picky like me! J) I also inked around the lid of the cup

Step 4: Add some detail to cup sleeve by drawing on some faux stitching using a white gelly roll pen and emboss the sleeve by using a Cuttlebug and embossing folder

Step 5: Turn the Keep Calm Card into a tag by using a hole punch to make a hole in the corner. Use twine to tie card onto cup sleeve (I used Trendy Twine!)

Step 6: Assemble card using adhesive and add a gift card inside

Love this idea but don’t have a Silhouette machine? Use it as a gift tag on a nicely wrapped mug filled with treats.

Let’s see how all the creative ways you use the Keep Calm Cards!
Make sure to add your pictures to the Peppermint Creative Gallery so we can be inspired!

Candace.