the mambi blog

Thanksgiving Tree

Hi everyone! Hannah here for a Thanksgiving project for you and your family.  If you're like our family we like to go around the dinner table an share something we are thankful for during Thanksgiving.  Why not put those thoughts to paper and create a beautiful memory for the family?  We've put a golden tree frame that is normally used to hang decorative Christmas ornaments to double duty and used it to hang our thankful reflections for Thanksgiving. 

Materials:
Copper Willow Specialty Paper Pad with Coordinating Cardstock
Copper Willow Clear Stamps
Copper Willow Leaf Embellishments
Fall colored rhinestone singles
Ornament Tree or fallen tree branch
Hole punch and twine

 

Instructions:

1.  Use our Copper Willow clear stamps on Copper Willow Specialty Paper Pad cardstock and cut around to create a place to write what you're thankful for. Punch a hole at the top to hang.

2.  Punch a hole in our Copper Willow Leaf Embellishments and couple with your thankful note and string with twine.  Embellish with rhinestones.  Hang on an ornament tree.  Hang additional leaf embellishments on your tree to make it look full.

No-Carve Pumpkins

Hannah here for a no-fuss, no-carve pumpkin extravaganza!  A big shout out to Rachel and her roommate for inspriation for these projects.  If haven't got the time to carve your own pumpkins this year don't worry we've got you covered.   Stop by your local market and grab some pumpkins and let us do the rest.  If you can find white pumpkins grab a whole cartful because they're so pretty and fun to work with.  Here are some no-carve pumpkin ideas for Halloween and Thanksgiving.

(Left to Right) [1] White pumpkin decorated with Leaf Embellishements.  Gather leaves in small groups and afix to pumpkin using a straight pin.  [2] Striped orange pumpkin.  Measure and cut Paper Tape to desired length.  Remove backing and adhere to pumpkin.  [3] Thanksgiving bling pumpkin.  Adhere soft spoken™ to pumpkin.  Use a colored highligher to draw flourish and adhere Clear Rhinestones Singles along line.  Further embellish with Holiday Ornament Rhinestones

(Left to Right) [1] Eeeek! pumpkin.  Brush pumpkin with black acrylic paint.  Use a damp paper towel to wipe off excess.  Adhere Eeeek! Rhinestone with Two Spider & Web Rhinestones.  [2] Spooky orange pumpkin.  Brush pumpkin with black acrylic paint.  Be sure to paint in the crevasses and wipe off excess.  Adhere orange Rhinestone Singles in a row down every other section.  [3] Spooky white pumpkin.  Follow [2] direction but use red Rhinestone Singles. 

 

Gift Card Book

Product used for this project: Copper Willow Specialty Paper Pad with Coordinating Cardstock, Holiday Clear Stamp Kit, Copper Willow Leaf Embellishments

Happy Friday!  Hannah here for a project for you.  Recently my friend Albert had a birthday and our group of friends wanted to get him some gift cards.  Some may think that gift cards are impersonal but I don't think so.  There's no reason why it doesn't have to feel personal and from the heart if it's delivered thoughtfully.  I made a gift card book for all of us to include the gift card or our choosing and a handwritten message from each giver.  When I got to the point of actually making the book I ran into a familiar problem...how can I make it look masculine?  Have you run into this issue?  Here's how I addressed the problem.

First, I chose colors that were either boyish or gender neutral and created the book.  For the cover I added some light distressing to the letters using ink and a paintbrush.  Behind the letters I crumpled a dark grey banner to make it look less feminine and it also added texture behind the letters. 

Next, for the inside I used an envelope diecut to create envelopes to hold the different gift cards on each page.  The paper I used for the envelopes were the coordinating cardstock found in the back of the Copper Willow specialty pad.  If you don't have an envelope diecut you could always substitute with the envelope that most gift cards already come with.  I cut down more coordinating cardstock to a 4"x4" square for space for a personal message from each giver.  The squares were stamped on the edge to bring some detail to the page.  Lastly, I embellished using our Copper Willow leaf embellishments that come in felt, glitter, and patterned chipboard leaves. 

Fall Birthday Cards

The weather is changing and the air is getting cooler...it's fall!  Hannah here for a project and I love fall; it's one of my favorite seasons.  I'm so envious of anyone who gets to see the leaves change to beautiful warm colors.  Here in Southern California we don't get much of a fall BUT I will be traveling to Chicago to see my wonderful boyfriend next weekend so I hope to see some early fall colors there.  I HOPE!  Our Copper Willow collection in Jo-Ann stores definitely puts me in the mood for fall and I'd like to share some birthday cards I made using some products from this collection. 

Check out our Specialty Paper Pad with Coordinating Cardstock and our Leaf Embellishments. 

Flowers & French Fries for Labor Day!

 
 

Happy Friday everyone!  Hannah here for a project and holy cow it's gonna be a long weekend and I think we all deserve it!  For many of us it's the last fling before the kids hit the books in full gear and it's a good-bye to summer.  If you're staying local it means hosting a picnic or attending a friend's picnic.  Whether you're the host or the attendee we have a project for you!  All the papers in this post are from our Animal Kingdom Specialty Paper Pad.  You can find this pad at Jo-Ann stores!  Happy Labor Day everyone!

For the attendee:
Bring your host a lovely bouquet of flowers to say thanks.  If you leave the plastic packaging around the bouquet it screams BOUGHT AT THE GROCERY STORE!  [1] Lose the plastic packaging but keep second plastic bag provided by the market to protect the stem ends. [2] Place a damp paper towel in the protective bag and rubber band it closed at the top. This will protect your paper and keep your flowers fresh. [3] Wrap your bouquet with a sheet of 12"x12" specialty paper, tie with a ribbon. [4] Viola!

For the host:
Here's a cute and easy way to dress up your buffet table by displaying finger food fare such as french fries or chips served with your picnic in a colorful way.  These handy cones will be fun and easy for the kids and adults to walk around and chat while still holding on to a treat.  [1] Cut your specialty paper to 6"x6" squares.  Of course you could do a bigger square as well.  To protect the paper from grease or moisture line the cone with wax paper, cut to same 6"x6" size.  [2] Stack the specialty paper and wax paper.  Wrap edges to create a cone.  Tape secure.  [3] Fill your cones with fries, candy, popcorn, chips, veggies, anything!  [4] Viola!

Fall Headwear

Hi everyone!  Hannah here for a fall project for you.  Pretty headbands seem to be all over the place and why not make your own?  It's super easy and it would make a really lovely gift too.  Anyone getting married in the fall?  How cute would this be for the flower girl at a fall wedding?  I've use our Copper Willow collection which is at Jo-Ann stores for a limited time.

Materials:
Copper Willow Specialty Paper Pad with Coordinating Cardstock
Copper Willow Leaf Embellishments
MAMBI clear and fall colored rhinestones
plain brown headband, double-sided tape, pop dots

Instructions:

1. Choose your papers and cardstock.  Use a diecut or freehand cut out 3 different size flower shapes.  Ink or glitter the edges of the flowers if you'd like.  Distress by crumpling up the flowers in your hands and then unfolding them. 

2. Layer your shapes and leaves together.  Try combining different textures of felt, glittered chipboard, and patterned chipboard leaves with your flower shapes.  Remember to use your pop dots for a dimensional look.  Embellish with rhinestones.

3. Adhere your arrangement on your headband using double-sided tape or hot glue.  Place it slightly to the side of the headband for a chic look.  If you use double-sided tape you could easily remove your arrangement for a different one while keeping the headband in tact.  

Would You Like to Take a Survey?

  

Hi everyone! It's Hannah here for a Thanksgiving inspired project.  If you have been around kids at all you know how fast they grow up.  This is why we need to capture special moments like Thanksgiving with our kids while we can.  Here's a Thanksgiving memory book idea that is in the form of a survey.  Ask your family members questions like:

• What is your favorite food during Thanksgiving?
• What does 'helping in the kitchen' mean to you?
• What is a fun Thanksgiving memory?
• What is your favorite family tradition?
• What do you do when your feel so full?

Your kids will probably say the most hilarious answers to these questions and this will make your memory book even more enjoyable to look back on in the future.  I used our new Copper Willow Collection found at Jo-Ann stores for only a limited time. 

Materials:
Copper Willow 5"x7" Mat Pad
Copper Willow Specialty Paper Pad w/ Coordinating Textured Cardstock
Copper Willow Sticker Value Pack
Copper Willow soft spoken™ Value Pack
Copper Willow - Family Traditions soft spoken™
Copper Willow Leaves Embellishments

Instructions:
1. Select your 5"x7" papers and adhere them back to back to create pages.

2. Cut windows using the textured cardstock from the specialty pad.  These papers will coordinate perfectly with the rest of the collection. 

3. Write your questions and your family's answers. I incorporated stickers from the soft spoken™ value pack with the questions.  Embellish pages using the rest of the Copper Willow products. 

4. Use embroidery thread to blanket stitch the edge of your book.  Here's a look inside!

here are some close ups:

 

A Quick Tip : Stamped Book Covers

Happy Friday!  Hannah here for a quick tip: >>Stamp your School Book Covers<<  July is almost done and before you know it it will be time for back-to-school.  Lots of stores have already stocked up on back-to-school items.  Unbelievable!  Here's a quick idea to spruce up the old-fashioned way of doing book covers: brown paper bags.  It's an oldie but a goodie!  And let's face it, it'll be Mom who will end up covering the books and not the kids! ;D

I've used our stamp kits from our NEW Copper Willow & Holiday Collections  and some black ink to make a brown paper cover look chic and awesome.  Check out the 2 complete Collections at JoAnn Stores!  Here's a closer look at the stamp Kits:

Even though the theme of the stamp kits are themed for fall and the holiday season there are a lot of cool stamps that can be used for any occasion.  Of course you could use color ink but the designs are so cool that even if you only have black stamp ink at home you can achieve a really cool book cover without a lot of effort.

1. Start with your brown paper book covers.

2. Stamp away leaving ample time to dry.  Check out how cool the border stamps came out!

3. Don't forget to stamp the spine for easy book recognition! (Writing done with a silver metallic pen)

Copper Willow

Hi everyone!

I am one of the new additions to the MAMBI blog. This is one of my first projects and I used the "Copper Willow" line.

When I was thinking of what I was going to do for this project I kept thinking of how grateful I am for my family and how much I appreciate them. So since this is a fall line and Thanksgiving is in November I thought I would do a page on my family.

The Sticker Value Pack and the Soft Spoken were perfect for expressing the simple ideas. I used the paper Tape Roll, which was very easy to use, to accent the simple paper I used for the background. I also used the 5 x 7 mat pad, which could be a creative way to do a journal entry.

What I used:

Copper Willow

-12 x 12 Specialty Paper Pad

- 5 x 7 Mat Pad

- Fall Soft Spoken

- Sticker Value Pack

- Memories Small Talk Embellishment

- Paper Tape Rolls

Kayla

A Quick Tip : Mat Pad

Happy Friday!  Hannah here for a quick tip.  When you're in a pinch for a quick card or gift tag, think <<Mat Pad>>.  This is our Journey 5"x7" mat pad and it's a gem!  I always feel bad when a card is so huge that it makes any length message look puny but folding the mat pages in half creates a quick and easy go-to card and it leaves the perfect amount of room for a quick message.

Check out these really quick cards that were made from this mat pad.