Coordinates Collections: Sarah's PCC and a Flower Tutorial

First, I get to announce that Amybug is the winner of last week's Monday Challenge (posting tutorials). Congrats, Amybug! Be sure to email jamie@coordinatescollections.com by March 7 to claim your prize.

Alright, on to month 1 of PCC. My original plan was to do one 8x8 spread each month, but when I started pulling pictures for January, I just couldn't limit myself. I decided I wanted to capture lots of random images from the month and still be able to get some embellishments in, so I ended up with two 8x8 spreads, and that's my plan going forward.

I decided I wanted to use the 4x6 titles for each month, and my opening page is going to feature one big picture. This one's a 4x6 photo. I ended up using mostly the Echo Park Life Is Good line for January, because the background on that first page reminded me of snow flakes.

So, as promised, below are my collage measurements. Note that my photos are a tiny bit smaller, since I have white borders around them. Also, if you start scaling stuff in photoshop, the borders between the photos are actually not all the same. You know, if things like that bother you. :)

I intentionally left "open" areas for journaling and embellishment.

Just so you don't think I'm crazy, for page 4 (below), there's a half inch strip running down the right side of the page. But when they printed it at Costco, they actually printed it at 8.5 inches wide, so I had half inch strips on both the left and right, and then I decided I liked it better on the left.

And now, a quick and easy flower tutorial. This is based on one I made at CHA at the Maya Road booth.

First, I punched a circle out of black (because it matched my background) cardstock, and covered it with adhesive.

I used one strip of the pleated ribbon - I think it was 16-18" long, and snip every pleat to just short of the thread holding it together...

Don't forget to do the "bottom" pleats, too.

Next, wrap it around itself. When we did this at Maya Road, we used a silkier ribbon and wrapped it really tight ... not around anything. For this one, I was planning to put a brad or something in the center, so I wanted it a little looser in the center, so I wrapped it around this pen.

Then, carefully transfer the bundle to the cardstock, and press it down.

Mash it around and stick it down. You can see for this one, I was planning to have a gap in the center, but when I started mashing it around, the center filled in nicely. I did eventually end up putting a brad in the center, but you could go either way.