Happy Halloween!

Loving this halloween paper! My two favorite scary children were hoping to look really scary. Not sure if it worked.

If you look closely, there is a small rickety house in the corner that comes from Tim Holtz' collection of die cuts.

The diecut is frosted at the bottom and on the chimney pipe with gold embossing powder. The embossing powders make a great accent for many projects. Be sure to pick up some of the great selection from Scrapbooks Plus!

Quick & Easy Mini Book

Want to put together a minibook but not sure how to begin? Here's a real quick and easy mini. It only takes a handful of paper, a bone folder, adhesive and your imagination.

Start by picking out your paper. I used four sheets from this month's Fancy Pants kit and a piece from Tim Holtz's Halloween kraft pack.  Cut them all to the same size - but double the size you want your finished book. I chose to cut all mine 8.5 x 11 inches. 

Then, score all of your paper down the middle and fold. The side of the paper that you want to show should be on the inside of the fold (except for the cover). All the pages will be glued back-to-back.


Here's the first page of my book. You can see it's made up of one sheet of patterned paper.

To assemble the book you'll be gluing each sheet to another. Start with the sheet you'd like for your cover and put each folded page inside the cover, one right next to each other. When you're happy with the order, place the cover open on your workspace with the inside facing up. Take the left side of the first page and glue it to the left side of the cover.  Glue to the right side of the first page to the left side of the second page ... and so on until all the pages are glued back-to-back.

Here's the rest of the pages. They have minimal embellishment and no photos ... until Halloween is done.

Large sized pictures

This layout is really a quick and easy one.  I love using large sized photos in my layouts!  This large sized photo is of my kids candy that they got from trick or treating. I cut the photo down the center and used it to bookend my photos of the boys in their Halloween costumes.  I really like the way it came out (plus it went together really quickly~gotta love layouts like that!)

Enjoy!
Lisa

2012 DT Try outs

Hi everyone!  Just a quick update on the 2012 Dt tryouts.  The kits will hopefully be available by next Friday- Nov 4th with a turn in date of Nov 19th.  I apologize for the delay but the paper we ordered hasn't come in yet.  I will post on the day the kits are available.  Can't wait to see your submissions!

Lisa

Halloween Tag

It's about that time again - Halloween night! And I've got a great tag for you, combining some of the fun accents from My Mind's Eye and Bo Bunny with a bit of Tim Holtz.

To make the background of the tag, I ran a tag through my Vagabond with a Tim Holtz texture fade - one of his fun Halloween ones. I then inked the tag with several of his new fall seasonal inks, seedless preserves and ripe persimmon, along with a bit of wild honey and black soot.

Next, I cut a piece of grungepaper with his rickety house die then coated it with black distress crackle paint. After the paint dried, I attached it to the tag with foam dots and added my accents.

Halloween Mask

For my project this month I found this cool blank skull mask-perfect for Halloween. I started by randomly tearing the beautiful Fancy Pants paper into smallish strips. I crumpled each one making it easier to attach to the surface. Deco Arts Decoupage glue-my favorite art journal/paper wet glue, you can buy it at ScrapbooksPlus is used for layering the paper down. When gluing the paper to the mask you just have to move the paper around as you layer it, this glue is perfect for this technique. Set that aside to dry.

Shrinky Dinks are a great way to add inexpensive charms to your project. You will want to use a fairly large stamp to get good results as they shrink to 20-50% the original size. We now carry Ranger Inksentials shrink material at the store! You can heat these with your heat gun or do them in the oven. Stamp with an achival ink before shrinking, you can color the opposite side with chalk, marker or alcohol ink. Cut them out-punch a hole with your crop-a-dile & heat. I used copic marker on the witches hat after shrinking for a less vibrant color. I attached my shrink art & some baubles..on a chain then using my crop-a-dile punched a hole in the side of the mask attaching my chain with a brad.
Next I ran metal foil through my vagabond with embossing folders. Than inked it up with alcohol ink. I love adding this to projects to give them that cool metal look but it is super fast & easy. My skull friend is a bit hip so he needed a nose brad. Add some rub-ons from the Oct.31 collection to add more interest. The Fancy Pants rub-ons go on really well, I like to decoupage glue over my rub-ons to help them stay when being handled. I added my creepy spider using glossy accents-my go to glue for metal. Finally my skull needed a spooky raven to hang out with, just bought him at a craft store & clipped him on. Now I have a cool hand made Halloween decoration. Happy spooking!!!!

Supplies;
Fancy Pants-paper & rub-ons.
THoltz idea-ology-spider, baubles & swivel clasps.
My Minds Eye-brads.
Stamps-Inkadinkado,

Wed make and take

This week's Wednesday Make and Take is done using papers from Authentique's Glowing collection.  It is a great layout for your Halloween pictures.  Stop by Scrapbooks Plus and pick up your papers today!

Mother's 337 by Esther

The 337 is an aqua Singer sewing machine. It makes a few stitches more than straight and zigzag. The one pictured is what my mother-in-law used for darning and stitching. I got carried away with color when the threads were so colorful. The base is "Jack-O-Lantern" by Fancy Pants. I used the aqua side of "Witching Hour" for the shape behind the larger picture. A fabric flower, clear swirls and buttons were given color with alcohol inks. The letters were given colors to show the colorful threads using Stickles. It made a busier page than I normally do. This recorded memory of a keepsake was my page map offering.

Always

I’ve seen a number of layouts recently with this corset detail, so I decided I’d give it a try. I’m super happy with the way this turned out and it was actually a very simple way to embellish my layout. I lined up my paper and then with a pencil I drew five evenly spaced circles. Using my cropodile I punched holes and added grommets. Tying a bow at the top, I worked my way down, threading lace through each grommet. Once finished, I taped each end of the lace to the back of the page to ensure it held. I adhered my paper to the page and finished decorating my layout. I added a few Teresa Collins, Karen Foster, Thickers, KaiserCraft and Prima embellishments to complete my wedding layout.

Thanks for looking,
Erica

Page map

I really liked Karen's page map this month.  As soon as I saw it I knew exactly what I was going to do~ love when that happens!  For this layout I really distressed the background paper with ink and dropped some ink splotches on it.  The flourish I used a large flourish stamp from my stash.  I used Versamark Ink and then dusted dome Perfect Pearls over it.  Gave me exactly the feel I was looking for. 

Enjoy!
Lisa

Fall Door Hanger by Esther

The base for this door hanger was the patterned side of "Stripes" cut about 4" x 9 & a quarter" with a circle punched at the top. I reinforced the back for sturdiness. A shape was mounted on the front on aqua base with green American Crafts brads. The sentiment was rubber stamped with Staz On on [plastic rectangle.

The orange fabric pumpkins were sewn from circles. Yoyos were sewn and shaped to have a brown rick rack stem and green felt leaves. They were adhered to a brown die cut leaf. Celebration jewels added the bling touch. A strip of the brown rick rack calls attention to the stripes of the shape. Cardstock was pleated and added to the bottom. This is a fun way to decorate for fall and add color to entrances. Everyone has at least door knobs that look blank.

Tag, You're It!!!

Here are 2 spooky fun tags! The first is done using distress stains & glimmer mist. I used the circlish stencil with distress ink so it would be bold. The barb wire & bats are stamped in archival ink & the trees in distress ink. I stamped the girl on white card stock & painted her using glimmer mist so she is nice & shimmery. The skull is stamped on paper from the fun Fancy Pants paper that we used this month. The cat & hat are rub-ons from the same line.

Supplies:
Rub-ons- Fancy Pants
Distress stain-fired brick & wild honey.
Glimmer Mist-red velvet.
Distress Ink-seedless preserves & walnut stain.
Archival ink in jet black.
Stamps - THoltz & Dylusions by Stampers Anon
-stampotique

Tag 2: Using one of the new Ranger black tags I embossed with a THoltz fade. Next I hit the high points of the embossing using Inca Gold-this thick acrylic paste is great for this technique. Simply use the black side of cut-in-dry foam to swipe across the top. I added a brad/circle & stamped more of the paper with this great skull stamp. Makes for a spookalishous tag!

Supplies:
Tag-Ranger
Paper-Fancy Pants
Brad/circle- My Minds Eye
Texture Fade-THoltz for Sizzix
Stamp-Inkadinkadoo
Viva Gold Paint-silver

Fall Goodness

Who doesnt love a visit to the pumpkin patch? We have to have a yearly visit to the patch if for no other reason than to give me the opportunity to scrapbook them.

This layout is super easy especially when you have a diecut sheet on in your collection. I highly recommend adding those to your collection when you are shopping!

I also popdot a pumpkin that I cut using the accu-cut from Scrapbooks Plus. Stop by there on your next visit and have a look at the wide assortment of diecuts!

Family Time

This Wednesday layout is all about family time!

This layout features the Generations collection by Simple Stories.

The free element is the little red house.

Here are the instructions:

Materials:

1 sheet of each:

Live, Laugh, Love- cut into two 12x6 pieces

Together- cut into two 10 ½ x6 pieces

Always and Forever- cut out 4 doily shapes

Home Sweet Home-cut two pieces 3 ½ x 10 ½

Ledger-cut into two 12x6 pieces

Quote and photo mat elements- cut apart

Metal Charm

Background: build on plain cardstock. From left to right: Ledger, LiveLL, LiveLL, Ledger. Second layer: adhere one piece of Together 1 ¼” from the top & 1 ½ “ from the outside edge on each side of the layout. Then add one piece of Home Sweet Home just below Together on each side.

To make the polka dot picture frame cut the center out of the red polka dot mat using a craft knife and mat. Then use foam dots to pop that piece off of the background paper(any scrap paper cut to 6x8.)

Add the rest of the elements to the layout as seen in the photo. The “House” piece and the “Clock” piece are popped off the page with foam dots.

Use a glue dot to attach the metal charm. Journaling can be done in the middle on the left side of the right page. Peel the backing off of the free element and adhere it right to the layout.

There is one correction: the little house is not sticky backed. Just use a strong adhesive to add it to your layout.

Pagemap

This month's pagemap gave me a nice starting point for some older Halloween photos of my daughter. She "helped" me hand out candy that year -- mainly by pulling M&Ms from the bowl!

I used several tags to make a cluster at the bottom of the layout, trimming and cutting to fit the space. I added a fabric flower, using Tim Holtz distress ink to change the color to match my layout.

Pumpkin Carving

My Scrapbooks Plus Design Team two page layout this month is above.  The Oct. 31 paper was perfect for my pumpkin carving photos!
This page was fun to create because all of the photos are square!  I used my scoring board to create the lines around some of my square and rectangle cardstock elements.  Then I sanded the debossed lines (bumps up, not down into the paper like embossed) to reveal the white paper core.  I wanted the white look but you could also ink the score lines to give added definition. Here's a close up of my title block using the Oct. 31 letter stickers (which are so cool!) and the border I created.

I also used a chipboard spooky cat and spritzed him with an ink spray in black.  It is hard to tell in the photo but he's almost irridescent.  Very spooky in black!!

Hope you have an awesome Halloween and get some great photos to scrap!

Pumpkin Head

Last year when we were carving pumpkins my son started to make faces to show me what he wanted his Jack o Lantern to look like. I thought it was so cute I knew I had to scrap it.


When I first saw the Jack o Lantern paper from Fancy Pants in the design team kit I knew I had found the perfect paper for these photos.

I used the page map for this kit as my inspiration for the layout.



For the title I used a tag. I inked the edges and sprayed a bit of glimmer mist then used an old sheet of Basic Grey alpha stickers for my lettering. The alpha stickers weren't quite the right color so I inked them a bit by sticking them to my craft mat and applying the ink with the Inkssentials Blending Tool. Then after I let them dry a bit I pealed the letters right off of the craft sheet. They were ready to use.




The journaling is MY FAVORITE part of this layout. I had my son write the journaling himself and I love how it turned out.

Cherish

Really, you used the Oct 31st collection and made a wedding layout? YES!! As I mentioned in an earlier post (October 8th), Halloween is not my thing but I LOVE these papers so I made them work for me. Aren’t these colors gorgeous? I think so! The blacks, grays, blues, and purples are perfect for this wedding picture. I added a few wedding embellishments by Teresa Collins; I also used embellishments by Tim Holtz, Karen Foster, Prima and Thickers. Additionally, to highlight my title a bit more, I added a few pearls to the letters to better distinguish it from the paper.

Thanks for looking,
Erica

Halloween Card

Cardmaking is easy with all the fun patterns in this month's Fancy Pants collection! I like these hand-drawn looking pumpkins.

I paired them with a piece of Core-dinations cardstock. When you sand the cardstock, the color on the back side of the paper shows through. I decided to run a piece of the cardstock through my Vagabond using a Cuttlebug embossing folder that was just dots. Once it was embossed I took my Tim Holtz sanding block and lightly rubbed over the embossed area.

But you don't need to emboss the cardstock - you can sand a bit of the edges and surface for a distressed look. Give it a try!

Yard Sale and so much more!!

Good Friday morning to everyone!  I have to say there are SOOO many exciting happenings going on at Scrapbooks Plus through the end of the year you wouldn't believe it!

October is just brimming with great classes and events.  This Saturday is the Fall for Bucks Yard Sale.  Stop by between 10-5 and check out the great deals! Jenn Star is guest teaching 2 classes on October 25th.  Deborah has a great Halloween tag class that is full of technique.  We also have a great Halloween class for the younger crowd taught by Sue B.

November and December are just full of all sorts of great classes.  the calendar is packed~ from Sue B's Best Wishes Christmas album to Susie's awesome Christmas card class.  Karen B's Art Journal club has been a huge hit- only a few spots left and I'm working on a Christmas Advent calendar. Check out the entire class listings on Scrapbooks Plus.  We have such wonderful and talented teachers.

Have a great weekend and see you at the Yard Sale!

Lisa

Let your paper do the talking!

Let your paper do the talking for you!  That's what I did with this fabulous paper from Fancy Pants... appropriately named, October 31st!  All of the Design Team paper kits have been so fun to work with and this kit is no exception! 

I usually start my layouts with relatively plain paper and then build from there.  In this case, the frame on the bottom right corner with the Oct. 31 date is part of the paper and saved me a lot of 'building'.  I let the paper do the talking for me.  I only needed to enhance the paper base with my photos and a few embellishments.  This layout came together super quickly!  I used black paint to darken my corners opposite the paper design, added a few strips of striped paper, ribbon and a few embellishments to go with my photos.

Super fast, fun and so rewarding when the paper lays it all out for you!!

Wednesday Layout

This week's Wednesday layout features Basic Grey's Oxford Collection.


These rich papers are paired with Tim Holtz Sprocket Gears, My Mind's Eye Lost&Found Brads and a length of May Arts Faux Linen ribbon.

The free element is this die cut from Tim Holtz On The Edge Steampunk Die. I inked it with Distress Ink and then used Glimmer Glaze on top.




This neutral layout can be used for many different themes. I think I might use mine for Father's Day... or maybe a Family Time page... or those old photos of my grandfather... or back to school. Well, you get the point. Happy scrapping!

This is one of my favorites layouts I've done in a while! For years I have kept a small journal that has the funny, silly, thoughtful things my kids say. I am not always good at putting their quotes in it but every once in awhile I write something down, so I have quite the collection. I finally managed to scrap one of these pages. I found this great photo of Trinny that perfectly matches the goofy things she says. The wonderful thing about this months Fancy Pants line is you can do non Halloween pages with this beautiful turquoise blue paper. It has script writing on it which was perfect for the theme! I used a stencil at the top & distress inked it to add the tree & the birds. Next I stamped some images on the background paper to make my air balloon more noticeable. The air balloon was stamped & heat embossed, than cut out. I distressed it and adhered with pop dots. I took a strip of the black paper & heat embossed with glitter emboss powder & a script stamp.

I matted my photo & glued it down. Again the perfect pearls mist (PPM) were the answer! Using a black flower and spritzing it with PPM-turned this flower into a shimmery stunning embellishment, with just enough color. PPM really shine on black! Tucking a feather & adding some bling gave me a cluster with the magic #3 embellishments. I typed the quotes in different fonts with my computer, cut them out and distressed them to help them blend into the layout. Finally I added my title using the Fancy Pants letters & some rub-ons from my stash. Love it!

Supplies:
Paper & Title Letters-Fancy Pants
Stamps-Oxford Impressions
Emboss powder- Stampendous
Perfect Pearls Mist- Turquoise
Stencil -Crafters Workshop
Bling- Prima
Flower- Recollections
Distress Ink- Black Soot by Ranger
other letters- Creative Imaginations

Going Batty!

This layout was so fun and easy to make!

First I used the jack-o-lantern paper from Fancy Pants ~ Oct 31st line as my background. I cut it down for my 8x8 layout.

I found this circle bat pattern on my Silhouette digital cutting tool. I sized the image for my layout and then cut it out of Core'dinations color core cardstock.


If you have never tried Core'dinations you are really missing out. The core of the cardstock is a different color the the outside so when you sand it, tear it or emboss it you get a really neat effect.


One thing I love doing with it is cutting strips to fit in my old Dymo label maker (3/8") and then using the label maker to spell out whatever word I need and then sanding the top off to reveal the word in the core color.


On this layout I simply sanded down the silhouette Bat die cut. I loved the distress effect on these bats. I used a little Zip Dry adhesive to adhere the die cit to the layout with the photos. Last I added a title using the Witching Hour paper and the Oct 31st Alpha Sickers. I used pop dots to add the title to the page.

October Pagemap

I LOVE FALL!!! This layout is getting me ready for all things fall! I cant wait to start pumpkin carving and celebrating the season.

The paper collection from Fancy Pants is a great one for documenting your Halloween pictures! I love the orange, greens and purples in this collection.

Karen did a great job with this selection!

Violets by Esther

The fun of it all was to take the Oct 31 designs by Fancy Pants offered in the DT kit and make them work for my own photos and projects. Since I do not celebrate the holiday at the end of October, I used the kit very differently from most DT members.

I collect violets. The lavender cardstock, "Bewitched" was perfect as a background for photos of purple African Violet flowers. Strips of "Eerie" were adhered near the bottom for texture. The diamond pattern of "Magic" was used to mountphotos. Purple ribbon and braid were added to left side vertically.

Tags and rubber stamped accents are behind and beside the photos. Corner flourishes were cut from the alcohol ink purple dyed paint it cardstock. A letter "V" was cut to start the title. Gold chipboard sticker letters are Thickers. Jewels were added.

Explore

You will notice my pages this month, while utilizing the Oct 31st collection are not reflective of Halloween. I’m not a big Halloween person and therefore don’t have any cute trick-or-treat or costume pictures to use on my pages. So, I decided I would make this paper work for the pictures I do have. I think this travel layout turned out wonderfully! The blacks, grays, blues and purples are perfect for this picture. I used a bit of lace, some rhinestones and ribbon to soften the color palette. I also added a few travel embellishments to finish the page. I’d encourage you to stop in at Scrapbooks Plus and pick up this collection! Regardless of whether or not you’re into Halloween these colors are still perfect for a number of other pictures. Check out my blog posts on October 16th and 25th for additional ideas on how to use Halloween paper for non-Halloween pictures!

Thanks for looking,
Erica

Best, Cutest and Scariest Costumes

Aren’t these super cute? And, let me tell you they are VERY easy – easy as 1, 2, 3! Using the Oct 31st collection I cut three identical tags and circles (2 circles for each tag of varying sizes). I distressed the two ghosts and raven with Black Soot distress ink by Tim Holtz. Using my cropodile I made a hole at the top of the tag and added a grommet. I then cut the ‘Oct 31st’ from the label on the paper and sized it accordingly. Using a label maker I created the best, cutest and scariest costume labels. I finished with ribbon and added candy corn. This is a cute, easy and cost effective prize for your children, a school contest or a Halloween party.

Ps. I purchased the plastic containers at Target for $1/container (brand: Glad).

Thanks for looking,
Erica

Copic Club - Join us!!

We'd love to have you join us to learn more about how Copic Markers can enhance your art!  The class is hands on and all about FALL COLORS!! We are building a reference journal and two of the pages we are adding to our book are above.  If you don't have a book, we'll make one in class!

If you've taken the Copic Basic class, have a few markers and want to learn more techniques or have only heard of Copics and want to know more, please call the store today to sign up for our class on Wednesday, October 12 from 6:30-8:30. 

October Boy/Girl Layout

Check out the Boy/Girl layout this month. The layout features some very fun papers from My Mind's Eye~ the Mischievous collection. The autumnal colors and fun embellishments make this a perfect layout for pumpkin patch photos, trick or treating pics and many other fun Fall events. To get your kit stop by the store and ask for the Boy/ Girl layout. Everything you need to create the layout is in the kit including a color photo of the layout and instructions. (Adhesive not included)

Altered frame bland to wow!

Isn't it amazing how easy it is to use scrapbook paper to transform plain objects and make them extra special?  I found this frame at Target on the clearance rack.  A nice frame, but definitely won't win any
design contests and isn't 'giftable' as is. 

I measured the 4 sides and cut my scrapbook paper with my paper trimmer.  I cut angles on the corners to miter my corners but you could easily keep the edges straight.  Then I added a plaque I cut on my Cricut and used my Oct. 31 letter stickers to spell out 'Family'. 

I had some ivory colored rose ribbon on hand and used a spray ink to color my flowers.  After some drying time, I adhered them and some matching tulle to my frame. Above is the before and after-- I love the fact that I can easily change colors on ribbon to match my project!

I wanted to make my frame extra special as a gift but once I finished it, I decided that it was perfect for the photo of our family at Mickey's Halloween Party in Disney World last year.  I guess I'll be headed back to Target to see if they have any frames left to make another for my gift!!