Gnome Sweet Gnome - a project for my papa

Hi Everyone!

I said I was going to be crafty today and I'm proud of myself for not breaking that "promise". I decided to make something for my dad that I've been putting off for a while. He loves gnomes and I bought a stamp set (over a year ago) that has a gnome; some flowers and other garden-y things; and the statement, "Gnome Sweet Gnome"; but I have yet to use it for anything. I also have a paper pad that is earthy/woodsy that I bought to use with my Create A Critter Cricut cartridge, but, surprise, have yet to use that for anything either. I decided when we moved to our new house (in December) that I wanted to make him something to put in a frame that uses the stamps and paper, since they were just hanging out in my craft room collecting dust. I used the paper to inspire me and I planned out what I wanted to do, but have yet to execute it - until today, that is! I finally decided to get the ball rolling and make this piece for my dad. So here's what I made and a step-by-step tutorial on how to make it. As always, you can customize this project to fit your needs. Maybe use the Create a Critter cart to make a cute scene or use a patterned paper with solid letters to spell out someone's name... The choice is yours. As always be creative and don't let what I did limit you - your imagination is the limit!!!

Supplies needed for my version of the project:

paper - two patterned ones, a white scrap, some kraft, and a coordinating piece (yellow in my case)
scissors
glue
stamps, ink and sponge
Tim Holtz Fence die for Big Shot
Big Shot
colored pencils
frame to put finished piece in - I used a clear one that has a magnet on the back, but you could use a regular one either with or without the glass - I recently did a project at my SU! demo's house that used a frame with no glass that had butterflies and flowers. It was a really cute project! I will upload a picture on Friday... I have the picture on my phone and it's not cooperating :(

All the supplies, minus the BigShot

The first thing I did was stamp Mr. Gnome on the white cardstock with brown ink. Stamping on the white will allow me to color the image in with the colored pencils.

Mr. Gnome, stamped on white with brown ink

Mr. Gnome, all colored in with the colored pencils

I then cut the image out with scissors.

Mr. Gnome, all cut out

After Mr. Gnome, I worked on the sentiment. I stamped Gnome Sweet Gnome on the yellow cardstock and cut it out.

Stamped on yellow cardstock with brown ink

Then I cut out a mat for the sentiment from the patterned paper.

Patterned paper mat

Then all that's left for this element is to glue the two together.

My next step was to cut out the fence. I originally used white, but I didn't like the way it looked when I put it on the paper, so I went with kraft instead. I used my Tim Holtz die and my BigShot to cut it out. [Side note - My BigShot is my new favorite tool! It has sooo many uses and it was totally worth the purchase.]

Paper and die "sandwich" going into the machine...

...and a paper fence came out of the machine.

After cutting it out, I put it on the paper, but didn't like how it looked. It just looked too plain, so I inked it with a sponge and the brown ink. The inked edges just make it "pop" off the page.

Inking the fence with brown ink and a sponge on some scrap paper

Now came the tricky part - cutting the base for all of my elements. It was tricky because I wanted to use two parts of the paper - the top with the clouds / birdy and the bottom with the grass. The frame is 4x6, but the paper is 12x12, so that doesn't really fit... I needed a plan! I decided to use the insert from the frame as a guide to cut the paper. I temporarily attached the frame insert to the paper where I wanted to cut from the bottom. After that was cut out, I cut a section of the top out that included the birds and clouds. The paper I went with has a subtle background pattern, and after I tried to just throw the two pieces together, I realized that I would need to line up the pattern, otherwise it would look extremely weird.

The frame with insert

The two pieces after I lined up the background - note the overhang on the left - that is where the top piece meets the bottom piece. See how well it's lined up so you can't see where the two meet on the main section?

The whole page I used - you can see where I cut out the two pieces and how I eliminated the middle section

And then, all that's left is the assembly. I added the elements one at a time, using the tacky glue to attach. First the fence, then the sentiment, and, finally, Mr. Gnome.