October monthly ideas and prompts

by Nathalie

Hello TTT fans! Have you seen the beautiful October kits!?! Are you already planning what you'll do with yours? I am!

I am also a "collector" of prompts and ideas and I thought I would share some of my favorites for October and the Fall with you:

•  Jill Marie Paulson offers monthly prompts and ideas on her blog A Matter of Memories. You can download the one for October right HERE. It includes 5, yes, five pages loaded with journaling prompts, photo prompts and title ideas, but also sketches, ad inspiration, color combinations and more!!! She rocks!

•  another one that I really like is the monthly Photo idea list from Katrina Kennedy of Capture your 365. You can save and/or print the one for October HERE. 

• The super talented Rebecca Cooper also offers some great photo/page ideas for Fall on her blog. You can download them HERE.

• And for even more photo opportunities (which we all know = pages later), here is a list of 50 fun Fall activities. Just remember to bring the camera! :)

I hope to have given you some good sources of inspiration! I would love to hear what you do with them!

October kit contest: Make a card from your kit scraps!

by Nathalie

If you are a regular here, you know from my recent blog posts that I love to use kit scraps, so this month, I thought I would challenge you to use your kit scraps to....
create a card. Halloween, birthday, Christmas... any card counts as long as it is newly created for this challenge and made with a TTT kit!

Here is my example created with scraps from the fabulous March kit #2 (still available here!):

Details:
You need to use a current or past kit from Transparent Touches, and when you share your project with us, please specify which kit(s) you have used.

Due date for this contest is midnight PST October 31st! Winner will be determined by random drawing.

Each card counts as one entry with a maximum of three entries per person.

You can share your card(s) two ways: link us to it in the comments section of this post or share it with us in this post on the forum.

I look forward to seeing what you create!

And remember that you can still enter the Back 2 School kit contest until October 31st as well!

TTT October 2011 Kits!!!

TTT October kits are up!

(You do not have to be a TTT kit member to purchase kits and sale items as long as I have enough kits left over after my kit customers have made their kit selection)

Today is reveal day at TTT! There are 2 great kits offered for the month of October...plus some great collection kits available!



I wanted to remind you that TTT offers 3 and 6 months kit subscriptions! If you sign up for a subscription this month you can start with a September kit, or you can start with one of the previous monthly kits that's still available. Just send me an email after you sign up letting me know which kit you'd like to start your subscription with. (info@transparenttouches.com)

REFER A FRIEND TO TTT! If you refer a friend to TTT and they sign up for 6 months, you will BOTH get a goodie bag with your kit! Once you refer a total of 3 friends to TTT and they all signed up for 6 months, you will receive a FREE KIT!

CLICK HERE for more information about TTT kit subscriptions.

CLICK HERE to read the FAQ's about TTT's kits.

To see full list of each kit description, CLICK HERE

OCTOBER KIT #1-- Jillibean Soup: Homemade

OCTOBER KIT #1-- My LYB: Hello Fall

PICTURED BELOW ARE SOME ADDITIONAL ITEMS FOR SALE.

You don't have to be a kit member to purchase these items. You can send me an email letting me know what you'd like to order. Thanks!

Sketch Fun!

It is no secret that I love sketches! I made this one just for you to use this weekend or whenever you get that next chance to sit down and scrap. I added some pennants to it since they are all the rave right now! I hope you share your creations with us here, in the gallery or on our facebook page!

The sketch:

Flower Power: Rosettes

Making Different types of Rosettes

Rosettes are everywhere in the scrapbook industry right now. You can use them on all sorts of projects and make all different sizes, colors and types. I will start with a basic rosette and then show you how to add ribbons and use punches to create different edges for your flowers.

Instructions:

1. Cut a strip of paper 12" long. The wider the strip the bigger your flower will be.
2. Score your strip every 1/4 of an inch (you can change this up to make different size rosettes but this is what I would consider the standard size.)
3. Accordion fold your strip of paper like so.
4. On one end put alot of really sticky adhesive.
5. Stick this end to the other end to form a cylinder. Sometimes you may have to cut off one little fold of paper to get it to line up properly.
6. Punch different size circles or scallop circles for the front and back of your rosette.
7. Position a large glue dot in the middle of one of the circles.
8. Adhere this piece to the back by squishing down your flower, pushing it together and lining the glue dot up with the middle.
9. Place another large glue dot on the middle of the top of the rosette.
10. Adhere another punched circle over top of that or a combination of circles.
11. Tie floss through a button and adhere on top. You can also use bling, epoxy stickers, brads, whatever you like!

To add a ribbon:

1. Cut 2 strips of paper approximately 3.5" long by about an 1.5" width. Feel free to change this up based on the size of your rosette.
2. Cut the bottom of each strip at a diagonal.
3. Cut two pieces of ribbon about 3.25" in length.
   
4. Adhere the paper strips and ribbons in a "V" with a small staple.
5. Attach your rosette on top with a glue dot or two.

Making a Pointed Rosette:

1. Follow the above steps score every 3/8 of an inch.
2. Turn your strip the opposite way on the score board and make a light score all the way down about 1/4" in on one side.
3. Line up your cut marks with this score. Cutting V's into your strip by lining up each cut with each score.
4. Push down and adhere to a punched circle
5. Glimmer mist and embellish as desired.

Making a punched edge Rosette:

1. Follow above steps but punch one edge of your strip with a decorative edge.
2. If using a scallop edge line up your scores in between each scallop. If it is just a decorative edge just score every 1/4" as before.
3. Push down and embellish as desired.

Flower Power: Fabric Flowers

For Pages or as Hair Bows

Right now fabric flowers are all the rave. There is all sorts of uses for them from scrapbook pages, altered art to hair bows for your little cutie. I am going to demonstrate how make them using scraps of fabric and felt and an a clip. Feel free to alter it as you need to use up the scraps you have or for different uses.

Supplies:

• hot glue gun
• hair clip (if making a hair bow)
• needle and embroidery floss
• button
• felt scraps
• about a 12 inch by 3-4 inch scrap of fabric

Instructions:

1. Start with folding your strip of fabric in half
2. Then sew with large stitches across the bottom folded edge (if you like frayed edges you can reverse this.) Make sure you not the end before starting so you can pull it tight.
3. Once you get all the way across the bottom of the strip pull it tight and it will curl up into a semi circle shape.
4. Put the two raw edges together and stitch together wrapping the stitches around the edges so it won't fray. Once done tie off and you will have a circle.
5. Then trace circles onto your felt. I used 2 different sizes of thread rolls.
6. Cut them out and glue one onto the back side of your flower. This holds it all together and helps keep the shape of the flower nicely. If you are making a hair bow this also makes a nice pad to put your clip on. Use a big clump of hot glue and glue the circle onto your flower.
7. Cut out some more circles in a contrasting color if you like. You can also cut little notches in them for fun.
8. Glue one of these onto the front of your flower.
9. Glue the other smaller circle onto the top of that.
10. Thread a button with some floss and tie.
11. Glue that onto your flower. Make sure not to use too much in this step or the glue will come through the button holes.
12. Next you will want to wrap your clip to make it stick in your cutie's hair better. Do this with a scrap of fabric and wrap it around the top portion of the clip. I usually wrap it around 3 times. Once the glue is dry cut off the excess.
13. Glue this onto your flower (fabric side of clip onto the circle pad in the back.)
14. Walla now your little cutie is even cuter. OR decorate scrapbook pages, mini albums, cards, home decor items, bags or gifts with these. The wider the scrap of fabric the bigger the bow will be.