Splitcoaststampers.com - the world's #1 papercrafting community
You're currently viewing Splitcoaststampers as a GUEST. We pride ourselves on being great hosts, but guests have limited access to some of our incredible artwork, our lively forums and other super cool features of the site! You can join our incredible papercrafting community at NO COST. So what are you waiting for?
***edited July 2017: as Photobucket no longer support third party hosting, I have added the photo tutorial both as an image in the write-up and as an attachment. If you open the attachment in a new tab, you should be able to enlarge it to a good size.
Serendipity ~ the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. The word was coined by Horace Walpole in 1754. In a letter he wrote to a friend Walpole explained an unexpected discovery he had made by reference to a Persian fairy tale, The Three Princes of Serendip. The princes, he told his correspondent, were �always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of�.
This week I have a fun challenge for you - it's a little bit time-consuming but needs no special supplies, and is a wonderful rewarding way of using up all those scraps of paper we accumulate!! It's an old scrapbooking technique called Serendipity Squares, which I first came across even before I signed up here on SCS, so some of my creations aren't even in my gallery here.
1: Choose some heavy paper/light card for your base. It won�t really show, so the colour doesn�t matter too much.
For the photo tutorial, I used a half sheet of kraft. I wouldn't recommend using less than a quarter sheet, and normally I take the time to do a whole sheet.
Also pick out some scraps of patterned paper � they should coordinate with each other for the best end result.
2: Tear them into small pieces. My base piece, for this, was half a sheet of kraft, and my torn pieces are about the size of the top joint of a finger.
3: This is the slow part � stick them all onto your base layer, overlapping them. A glue stick works well � if you have a large Xyron you could use that.
It looks like a total mess � don�t worry!!
4: Start stamping and embossing randomly on it. I used a text stamp, a leaf stamp embossed with gold EP, a flourish stamp embossed with blue, and I stencilled some chickenwire in orange. If you emboss, make sure the ink on regular stamped parts is dry before you add the EP ;-). Even with using a heat gun, I still ended up with a bit of EP where I didn�t want it, but for this project that's no big deal, it's all part of the serendipity! Let your imagination run free here � you�re not limited to stamping or stencilling. You can see on the attached photo of a (very old) album cover that I made that I added some punched shapes - leaves on the autumn square, a butterfly on the summer one.
It still looks a total mess � still don�t worry!!
5: Now � cut it into small pieces and all of a sudden your mess doesn�t look like a mess any more, each little piece is a work of art.
Obviously they don�t have to be square � I cut squares, some rectangles, ric-rac and a leaf from mine.
Here is a montage showing photos of each step. (If you click on it, it will take you to Photobucket (no need to log in or sign up), where you will be able to see it in full glorious technicolor by clicking on the little Zoom icon under the bottom right corner of the image, and then clicking on it once more on the image that opens up).
Below I've attached a photo of part of the cover of a Four Seasons album I made my sister 8 years ago.
Have fun creating - then use some of your Serendipity shapes - square or otherwise.
When you've created your card, upload it to the gallery and then come back and link it here so we can all see it! You get more views and comments if you link on the thread .
If you're not sure how to link a card to this thread, here's how:
1. Open 2 windows or tabs: one window for your card and one for this thread.
2. In this thread, click on reply and type anything you want to show before the link.
3. Go to your card window. Highlight the address for your card. (It says www. splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showphoto..... and so on)
4. Click EDIT. Click COPY
5. Go back to this thread. Click PASTE.
I'm at work this morning, but I'm subscribed to the thread so if anyone has any questions, please just post and I'll try to respond! I get home about 9 am EST anyway, so it's still early in the day over in the States ;).
I hope you'll have fun with this, even if the pasting does take a little time!
I loved this one, and hope to play again when I have more time to fuss over those snippets of paper! Until then a happy serendipity with the Magenta tulip!
__________________ Susan~~~One4Joydaily I'm a FAN CLUB member, U? MY GALLERYof visual Delights MY BLOG
Fun memory: years ago, when I was still teaching, a colleague and I conspired to anonymously RAK other staff members, signing each gift as Sarah N. Dippity. It took the others months to figure out who, and it was good sneaky fun for Peggy and me.
__________________ Have fun! with Love, Brenda
Fan Club member
Oh, that is so cool! It will probably take me a week to get one done, though, LOL!
__________________ JodyLynn - "Love me - love my cats!" DTGD12, DTGD14, HYCCT12, HYCCT13, HYCCT14, HYCCT15, Love Fest 2013, Love Fest 2014 CAS and CC guest designer QFTD 258
Thanks for the reminder. This really is a fun and worthwhile technique. After first learning this technique, I started a drawer to store the 'scraps' for use in serendipity. I've got this! LOL
Thanks for the reminder. This really is a fun and worthwhile technique. After first learning this technique, I started a drawer to store the 'scraps' for use in serendipity. I've got this! LOL
Use 'em or lose 'em. I look forward to seeing what you come up with!
Wow Sabrina, this was worth all the work. Thanks for teaching me another new technique. I'm glad I made a half sheet of this so I can make a few more cards. Here's my card .
__________________ My Blog- Trusting in the Lord for Everything Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight. My Stampin' Up WebsiteMy Gallery, BRAK New Member Mentor. New Grandmother to Mia Lou. 1st Grandchild.
Really FABULOUS and FUN technique, Sabrina! You are most creative. Due to you, your technique and your heritage, I started my cards for St. Patrick's Day. : ) (Love Ireland.....a beautiful place)
I didn't do the first step with paper pieces, but brayered on some acrylic paint as my first layer. I hope to have time to go back and do a full on use of the technique but I'm sharing what I had time for in the meanwhile! Rejoice Always
Sabrina, this one was a fun one, but it took me all day to get it done. I posted several cards because I was determined to not leave any scraps on the table. I think this one is my favorite.
I said, " I got this!" then it took me forever to put this card together. It wasn't difficult, I just struggled with the design for some reason. It really is fun! Thanks for the challenge!
I've done this before and really need to do it again. As you can see each sheet becomes a work of art. When we did it in a class, we used sticker paper which worked great; we also had some gold leaf which added some bling to our creations. This inspires me to take the time to do this once again since I loved seeing everyones' creations.
This was such a fun technique to do. I thought I'd done it wrong after I was done stamping and embossing - it really was gaudy, but magically when I cut it up it became beautiful! Thank you for sharing this technique. I posted my card in my gallery - lindapekrul, but the forum isn't allowing me to post the link because I'm a new poster here and haven't made three posts yet.
TLC470 Serendipity (Squares) {02/24/14}
