Tammy Tutterow

BasicGrey CHA-W 2009 Lime Rickey

Ugh, I had a huge post typed up about this project and my server crashed and I lost it.  I hate when that happens! I love me some Lime Rickey! Seriously. It is so different from the colors and patterns that I normally pick up. It is so vibrant and colorful, and just plain FUN! I knew right away when I got it that it needed to be on a big 12x12 frame with this photo of my girls who were dressed in their silly boots for an outing to the mall. They were silly, fun, and colorful that day, just like this collection. For the frame, I used Lime Rickey patterned papers, printed chipboard elements, and epoxy brads and tons of adhesive foam squares, glitter, and rhinestones.

BasicGrey CHA-W 2009 Bittersweet

I absolutely love and adore the Bittersweet line.  Love it.  I am all about hearts and this collection is packed full of them and soft, distressed colors.  I was so glad to get my hands on this line and wanted to use every bit of it in my project.  In the end, I created something pretty simple, making a decor item with just a sheet of paper, a sheet of cardstock stickers, some scrap chipboard, and some adhesive foam dots. The shadow box frames were beat to heck when I bought them (yup, on the clearance aisle at Hobby Lobby) but at only a dollar a piece, I couldn't pass them up.  I actually really love the worn character of them.

BasicGrey Porcelain CHA-W 2009

Next up in the line up of creations I made for BasicGrey for CHA is Porcelain. For this collection I altered a windowed box I found on the clearance aisle at Micheals.  It originally had hooks inside to hang keys on and assorted resin pieces glued to it in a nautical theme.  I covered it inside and out and added a photo matted onto chipboard to add some depth. I used patterned papers and chipboard elements from the Porcelain collection along with chipboard chocolate chip letters. I know, I know, the word "Dream" is so overused in the scrapbook world, but honnestly, there just wasn't another word that captured that moment better. Once again, this amazing photo (which completely melts my heart) was captured by Holly McCaig, who seems to be the official photographer of the Tutterow family.

BasicGrey Marrakech for CHA-W 2009

Once again I have been very honored to be asked to do some altered home decor pieces for the BasicGrey booth for CHA-W 2009.  Over the next few days I will be sharing the pieces I created. First up, a wooden hinged trinket box rescued from the clearance aisle at Michaels.  The box features patterned paper, stamps, chipboard accents, rub-ons, and epoxy brads from the new Marrakech collection by BasicGrey which was debuted at CHA this week.

Papercrafts March/April 2009

What, two posts in a day?  From me, the girl who seems to forget that she has a blog?  Amazing! This past summer, I was approached at CHA by the editors of PaperCrafts to use a piece I had created for the Pink Paislee booth.  The project was already spoken for on another project so I offered to make something else for them along the same lines.  I have never been one to get much pub love from magazines and had tried for PaperCrafts so many times so to be invited by them to create something by request was a real thrill! It seems like so long ago that I almost kind of forgot about it.  This past week when I got a box from them it was such a wonderful surprise to find my project along with some issues of the magazine.  It almost felt like Christmas! And um, check out who is on the page next to me.. . Jenni Bowlin.  Um, I LOVE her.  Her lines are some of my absolute favorites.  Seriously! So I thought I would share a few photos of the actual project now that it is officially in print and out there.  I have kept it a secret for so long, I am glad to finally get to post it. All of the papers used here are Vintage Moon by Pink Paislee. PS- The vintage sheet music used here is a free downloadable from my site Fairy Davis Paper Goods.  If you love vintage goods in your crafting I think you will love Fairy Davis.  There are tons of great images there to choose from and everything, yes EVERYTHING is free.

Fiskars Crafts Guest Spot-

I am so far behind on so many things!  It seems like forever since I have had any scrappy things I could share. . .  and now I have more than I have time to post! First up, I was asked recently if I would do a guest project for the Fiskars Crafts website.  I was thrilled to say yes because I got to not only play with some Heidi Grace paper I had been crushing on, but I also got to use some of my very favorite tools from Fiskars.  Thank you so much to my friends at Fiskars for inviting me to play. If you would like instructions to my project, you can find them on the Fiskars Crafts site project Calendar for January 26th. PS.  These fabulous photos of my sweet wee one Emma are by my fabulously amazing photographer friend Holly McCaig.  If you are near St. Louis, you really should check her out!

Printing on muslin-

I posted this on the blog at Fairy Davis but thought I would share it too. I have been toying with the idea of printing vintage images on fabric for a while.  I spotted some packages of pre-cut printable fabric at my local fabric store and really wanted to try it, but the price was very steep.  I was hesitant to pick it up to expiriment with.  I knew from a friend's attempts at printing images on shrink film that there are can be a lot of test runs to get the colors adjusted just right.  At something like $12 for a package of 4 sheets of fabric, I wasn't too gung ho to drop a chunk of change for what could be a bunch of trial and error. I knew for what I wanted to use the printed items on, non-washable craft items, that I didn't need fabric sheets that were pretreated to withstand washing.  What I really needed was a way to make a piece of fabric stiff enough to go through the printer.  The answer was actually sitting in my ebroidery supplies, Sulky Sticky Tear-Away Stabilizer. I cut a piece of white muslin and a piece of Sulky to 8.5x11 and adhered them together.  In my photo editing program (Photo Shop Elements 6) I created a collage of images (all from Fairy Davis) and simply printed it on the stiffened fabric.  So easy!  I didn't even tinker with color or contrast, I simply printed.  You can see the results above, which I think is pretty darn cool!  There are so many possibilities of what you could use these for.  Keep in mind, I didn't wash these so I can't attest to the ink permancey for wearables. I used a couple of the images on the needlecase tags on a couple of pincusions I created for friends. For Amy: And for Holly:

As seen on tv . . . ME!

Or rather some of my scrappy creations! I was at work tonight, uh or rather this morning and happened to look up at the tv just in time to see one of my creations on it! The infomercial for the Cricut was on and I finally got to see it. I was so stinking excited! I stood there with my phone waitng for glimpses of my other pieces trying to get pictures of them on tv. Kind of goobery, huh? If I can figure out how to do it, I will attach one here. (Did I mention I was posting from my iPhone? How cool is that?!)

St. Louis friends- great photography special. . .

My favorite photog in the whole world borrowed my favorite wee girl for a fun quick photo session today.  I am thinking Em may have a future in modeling because she started breaking out moves and poses that rivaled those of top models.  We don't have a clue where she got them since we don't watch any of those modeling shows.  I wish we had brought a video camera with us to capture some of it.  I think I cried a little from laughing so hard! One of the results is the above shot that Holly is featuring in the ad for her Valentines special.  If you are in the St. Louis area and are interested in some great, fun, and easy photos of your kids, of yourself, or maybe of you and your sweetie, you need to grab a spot in this special event! You can get the full details on Holly's site: Holly McCaig Art & Design.

Long time no blog. . .

I am fairly certain that I am the worst blogger on the face of the earth. . . As we start out 2009, I guess it is appropriate to vow to do better.  I really want to be more consistant, I really am going to try, really.  I am just the worst about putting too many irons in the fire and letting some things slide.  So for those of you who are interested in me and what I am up to and who keep checking the old pitiful, sorry, way neglected blog for updates, here is a brief re-cap. . . Yes, I do still play with paper.  I have gotten emails asking.  Yes, I know I haven't posted any paper creations in a long time.  Some of that is that I have done some things that I can't share and some of that is because I decided to take a little break.  In the last few months I started realizing that all of my free time was being devoted to paper.  I have so many other crafts and creative outlets, not to mention a wonderful husband and three beautiful children, as well as a need (not a passion) to eat better and exercise more.  I found that I was devoting every moment away from my full time job to working with paper for other's.  I wasn't making anything for me for the sheer joy of creating.  So I decided to step back a bit and take a break from paper and enjoy a few of the other things in life that I have been wanting to do but didn't seem to have the time for.  I have reaquainted myself with a few other crafts that I love and spent more time taking care of myself, my family, and just living in the moment on my terms and not someone else's deadline. Does that mean I don't play with paper any more?  No, I am still doing freelance work, just a little less of it.  I still do work for BasicGrey and I am still slated to release a class with Big Picture.  I have some guest spots coming up with manufacturers and have some things coming out in mags.  I still love paper, I just love other things also so I am trying to embrace a whole creative life and indulge in creating in many mediums, not just paper. I do still love vintage images and am still offering my collection at www.fairydavis.com.  I recently switched that shop over to a 100% FREE download shop.  If you love vintage images, you will want to check it out.  There is no catch, it is all free, download anything and everything that inspires you to create. I also have been spending a great deal of time on my site www.stlhandmade.com.  I started it a few months ago to spotlight the amazing creative people living in the St. Louis area.  It has really taken off and has been growing like crazy.  It has been such a rewarding and amazing adventure.  I have been so inspired by the amazing artists I have met through it.  Even if you don't live in St. Louis, I hope you will visit the site and take a moment to meet and be inspired by the artisans featured there. Looking forward in to the new year, I have decided to adopt a word of the year.  I have been inspired to do this for a while by my sweet friend Stephenie Hamen.  I have decided that "change" will be my word.  I not only need some changes, but I need to learn to make change.  I need to stop saying what I want and being wishful that it would happen.  Instead I need to get out there, chase it down, and make it happen.  I need to make and embrace change.  I need to take the negative and change it to the positive.   Deep thoughts huh? Ok, so enough rambling.  I sincerely hope and wish for you to have a joyous New Year and that every change that it brings to you will be positive and rewarding.  I sincerely appreciate each person that comes here to read a little about me and to see what I am up to.  much love- t