Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Kaisercraft larger mini-album


The great thing about this mini-album is that I can use this album for any travel occasion. It can be used for the beach, family reunion, or any adventure!

I have lots of this collection weaved in this album but I really want to see what develops after placing my photos in there!

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Remember


The Kaisercraft June #2 Saturday Sketch is based on Melissa Kennedy’s “Unique” layout which is STUNNING!! Talk about inspiring creativity…I couldn’t wait to delve right in and see what I could come up with using the sketch provided.


Here is my take on the sketch! I made my banner by drawing a triangle on a piece of chipboard. I cut the triangle out and then traced around it 4 times on the back of my patterned paper – i.e., the side of the paper I wanted showing on my layout was face down. I then cut out the four triangles and adhered each to a piece of chipboard. I placed the triangles on chipboard to give my banner more dimension so it stood out when affixed to the other patterned papers. I then added a trim of black pearls using my Viva pearl pen and finished my banner with two yellow tulle bows.


I also found that Kaisercraft doesn’t waste an inch of paper. Instead of placing the SKU/barcode and paper name and number on both sides of the ½” strip at the bottom of each sheet of paper, one side has a decorative trim. I utilized this trim several times on my layout. Sometimes you just need a thin strip of paper to add another layer so the decorative trim was a bonus and fun to use!!



Paper
Kaisercraft – check in

Embellishments
Kaisercraft – collectables, printed acetates & stickers
Prima – flowers
Wilton – doilies
Wyla Inc. – yellow tulle
Offray – ribbon
Sweet Petites – rhinestone trim 
Viva - pearl pen

Thanks so much for looking!
Erica

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Mammoth Mountain

Kaiser Craft did a great job the Check In line!  I found this line to be very versatile....I used it for a more patriotic page and now for a travel page.  I've had these photos of my oldest grandson, aka photographer in the making, since last August and finally found that this was the right line to document them.  One of the embellishments I really liked using was the acetates.  I found them to be a subtle way of bringing focus to various photos in my layouts.  Be sure to stop by Scrapbook-Plus and check out the Design Team projects for July!  I hope they help inspire you to create wonderful pages, cards or altered items using this fabulous collection!


Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Wednesday Make and Take

Be sure to stop by ScrapbooksPlus to see this awesome and easy layout featuring papers by My Mind's Eye (Indie). Its perfect for travel memories and what better time to get them done than now!

Stop by the store for the layout instructions, photos and free element!

The photo mats are interchangeable so dont feel hampered by the size - 4x6 and 5x7. You can use smaller photos which gives you room to scrap more photos.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Belgium


I'm often asked how I come up with my designs, where I get ideas, etc. One of the ways I'm inspired is through sketches. Every Saturday Kaisercraft provides a sketch. For the layout below I used the Kaisercraft June #1 Saturday Sketch is based on Shelly Gioffre’s “Wish You Were Here” layout. This sketch challenged me to try new techniques, as well as gave me the opportunity to use a number of different punches, embellishments and lots of Check In paper! What a fun sketch – I had a great time interpreting it in my own way.


Here is my take on the sketch! My layouts typically feature a number of layers. I learned a trick a few years ago to help conserve paper as this allows me to use multiple layers with less paper, and also if I only have one sheet of a patterned paper I like I can use it on more than one layout. From the first layout (i.e., the 12x12 background sheet) I cut a 10x10 square from the center as I had already decided to layer an 11x11 sheet on top. Instead of using the an entire 12x12 – only to layer multiple pieces of paper on top – I used only the 12x12 perimeter, saving the remaining 10x10 square for use on another layout.


I had a lot of fun adding the pearls along the bottom of my layout. I’ve seen others that include rope or ribbon and they always look awesome. This is the first time I’ve ever attempted this technique on my layout. It’s a great way to add extra detail with very little cost. I’d encourage anyone to give this a try – it’s super easy!

 
Paper
Kaisercraft – check in

Embellishments
Kaisercraft – collectables & stickers
Prima – flowers
Wilton – doilies
Offray – ribbon
Celebrate It – pearls
Tim Holtz – safety pin

Thanks for looking!
Erica

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Travel Memories
Kaisercraft’s Check in Collection paper is great for any travel; local, stateside, or international travel.  I used it to create this Travel Memories box for a friend of mine that is planning some international travel next year.   It will be perfect to hold those special mementos, napkins, receipts, etc. You can use any box you have available, cardboard or even cigar boxes.  Initially I sanded the box a little since it had a shiny finish; I wanted to make sure the paper and paint would stick.  I then painted all the edges of the box, inside, out, and the flaps.   I left some of the inside box show through under the paint, the inside of the box was black and I used a cream paint which gave it more of a distressed look.  Once the entire box was decorated, I used a little paint over the embellishments and also sanded them slightly. I cut paper to cover the inside, outside, and flaps of the box leaving about a ¼” exposed on all box edges (this is why I painted first, the paint on the edges gave the box a distress look).  I used lots of the stickers, die cuts, and tickets to decorate this box.  I especially loved using the 12x12 sheet of stickers which was packed with letters, words, tickets, and boarder strips.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Bonjour!

 This month I made a "Bonjour" card.  There are so many French and Paris sentiments in the Kaiser Craft "Check In" collection that I couldn't help myself!  I just love the embellishments in this line!!!  This card came together super easy using the 6 x 6 paper pad.  To customize it I cut of the existing sentiment and used the letter stickers to title the card "Bonjour".  Other than some ribbon, chalk, glue and foam tape, this was entirely made with the Check-In collection.  For those of you that are card-makers, the possibilities with the line are endless!!!

Friday, July 20, 2012

Kaisercraft 2-page layout

This collection really makes it easy to put together a two page layout. You really cant go wrong with this collection and there's little effort in coordinating the patterns and papers.

This two page layout makes very good use of multiple photos and Im sure I could have done more if I had just used smaller photos.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Make your own Embellishments!

I bought this tool from Epiphany Crafts at the Great American Scrapbook Convention last year.  It is a really awesome tool but I haven't had occasion to use it yet.  I've been doing more layering and mixed media on my projects lately and pulled out this tool.  It is really a very cool thing to be able to make your own epoxy embellishments.  It is so simple to use. 

Simply line up what you want to make into an epoxy shape in the tool.  Pop on the epoxy button and the cover tool that comes with the punch and press the entire thing straight down.  (I could even do this sitting so not much pressure was needed!)  And voila!  A very cool epoxy shape!  The tool now comes in several sizes and shapes and there's even a button shape too with 2 holes in the middle. 



Here's another one I used with the smaller circle tool that was used on my card from my post from July 5th.


Lucky for you, Scrapbooks Plus is now selling these great tools so head on in and pick yours up today!!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Scrapping of Old Travel Photos

When I saw the travel theme,  I decided it was time to start scrapping the old travel photos.  We so often scrap our recent photos but to preserve our family history it is important to get those historical photos (and the stories) on paper.   I pulled out photos from a trip my sister and I took to Hong Kong in 1987.  With old photos, you don’t have all the options of digitally modifying, which makes it more challenging.  My photos also weren’t that good.  I had lots of photos of Hong Kong, but I remembered only what a few of them were and most of them didn’t have people. 

But I did remember lots of things about this trip that I wanted to tell so I designed almost half a page for journaling.  For this, I used a piece of the Tour that was decorated on one edge and light on the other.  I used a handwriting font that is included in Microsoft Office and Publisher to space it exactly as I wanted.  The paper is fabulous and really needs little added to make your page great. One thing I loved about this paper is that on the reverse of the paper label is a unique strip.  I cut these out and used several on the page.  I used a little Black Soot and Fired Brick Distress Ink to cover edges I cut.  To accent the pictures I used the Martha Stewart photo corner punch.  (I borrowed a friend’s when I saw her using it.   I loved it and so it is at the top of my wish list.)

This set has lots of little tags, ephemera (suitcases, cameras, planes, passports, globes, etc.) and stickers.  Once I had the basic layout, I added a few more decorations.  A lot of the tags have space for journaling.   These are generic enough that they can work for any place, but there are also some that may be specific to your layout.  There are a lot of sayings.  The background paper had a stamp from Hong Kong 2007, so I just crossed out 2007 and made it 1987.

I loved working with this line.  It has everything you need to make great travel pages no matter where or when you visited.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Time just flies when you are having fun!


Does time seem to just fly by for you like it does for me?  In looking back at the photos of this layout I see I have made a serious error in my record keeping!  Our visit was not in 2006 but 1996!!  I hope I'm not the only one who has a hard time keeping track of older photos that were taken pre-digital cameras!!  I love that my computer software keeps track of photo dates automatically for me!

I love this travel themed paper but I have young children so we don't do much traveling.  However when my husband and I were first married we did some traveling and I pulled out these photos of our trip to California where one of the places we visited was Universal Studios.  I have the negatives for these and 4x6 photos but I was able to pull out a few and crop them down into a fun snapshot layout.  I added some coordinating letter stickers and embellishments from Kaisercraft and accented with some bakers twine.

I love being able to get these older photos out of the envelope with their negatives and onto a page even if I can't quite remember the decade!!!

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Bon Voyabe Card

The travel theme of this line make it perfect for a Bon Voyage card. 

I stared with a card base from Luggage (blue herringbone).  I used the Carte Postale and Traveler card from Voyage to decorate the front and inside of the card. (I chose the Traveler for the inside as it provided space for writing.  I affixed a border from  Check In Boarder Sticker sheet along the bottom and used letters to spell “Bon Voyage.” 

I cut out three tags from 6” x 6” paper pad.  (I love these smaller versions of the designs from the 12” paper and this one is extra special.  In addition to the smaller designed paper, you get some extra boarders and tags.  It is definitely worth the investment.  These tags are a perfect example.)  I added a white eyelet to each tag.  You could just leave it like this or you could handwrite in some pertinent information for the trip people are going on that you are giving the card to.  I decide I wanted to jazz it up a bit so I stamped a small travel design on each  tag with VersaMark and embossed with Zing Black Embossing powder.   A little light blue and white twine through the eyelets was the final touch.  Add stripe of red & white cut from stripe at bottom of sheet of paper on the bottom of inside.


Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Girlie Girl!

For this week’s Make & Take, I used the Indie  Chi-Saffron Girl. This line is wonderful; you can mix the many different papers, buttons, trim, stickers, brads, etc. and come up with a beautiful similar or completely different color layout.  My design provides space for two pictures; additionally, there is a frame which can accommodate a smaller picture or you can journal within the frame. I provided everyone with a pink piece of ribbon for threading buttons and a white doilie to add to the girlie theme.   Sorry boys, this is a total girl theme; however, Indie Chic has several other papers that you can use that are a little less girlie and can be created with the same layout.  Happy Crafting. J



Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Destinations

How could you not love this collection from Kaisercraft?

The collection is perfect for any and all travel photos. There's very little need for embellishments but if you add them, they all complement the collection very well.

I had little to add to this layout and it feels complete!

I added the large photo mat with a 5x7 photo, some of the journaling prompts and joila! A quick layout done in no time!

Sunday, July 8, 2012

My Journey to NYC

The Kaiser Craft "Check In" collection is AWESOME!  I had such a great time working with it and found that it really helped boost my creativity!  I found that this line was perfect for documenting my daughter's family trip to New York City last Fall.  A travel line of papers and the Red, White, and Blue color tones lends itself well for the overall theme!  The selection of available embellishments in the Check In line really helped add character to my layout.  Debbie also has a great selection of ribbons that work well with this line at Scrapbooks-Plus!  Stop by the store and get your Kaiser Craft papers and embellishments to document your most recent trip or even your Fourth of July pages!

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Road Trip

This KaiserCraft line has great paper and ephemera for either national or international trips.  My Dad always wanted to go somewhere.  He’d drive 4 hours each way for a day trip.  This seemed the perfect opportunity to make a record of his love of road trips and those that we shared with him (even though we didn’t always like them). 

The Roam paper (red side) was used as the background.

After punching  the right side of an 11 ¼” x 8” Delayed (map side)  with an EK punch that gives you a finish like a notebook it was affixed to the bottom of the page ½” from the right edge). I affixed a boder on the left from the Check In Borders Sticker Sheet. The black bottom border also came from the Borders sticker sheet. 

I created an 8” x  5 ¾”  from Delayed (black side) and an inside mat 7 ½” x 5 1/4” from (tan side of Passport) for two horizontal  3 ½” x 4 7/8” photos.

I cut a square with message from the Tour paper. (This is the one I chose but there are other options.)   I inked it with Fired Brick Distress Ink.   

I cut the cut road trip icon from Tour paper; inked  it with Fired Brick Distress Ink and applied stickers for the city and “journey.”    Finally, I added a compass sticker. 

If you wanted to, you could add a small box above the message box with your journaling or you could use one of the boxes from the Tour, Voyager or Destination pages for journaling instead of the box with pre-printed message. 

This paper and related items offers so many possibilities.  Check it out!

Friday, July 6, 2012

Heat Winner

 At first glance the Kaiser Craft Check In collection is all about travel.  While they did a great job of making a travel collection this paper line is really very versatile.  With swim taking up 6 out of 7 days a week for us right now travel just wasn't at the front of my mind and I had a hard time designing pages about travel.  



Here is a lay out I designed for my daughter.  She won her first heat ribbon a few weeks ago and the pictures went beautifully with the black and red papers in this collection.  I added some Basic Grey papers to the mix and came up with this lay out.To embellish the lay out I cut the different patterned papers into flag and placed them down the left side of the lay out.


 I also made these little red "bubbles" or circles using a Tim Holtz stamp and heat embossed them with walnut stain Distress embossing powder.  I cut the circles apart and placed them around the layout using pop dots.  They add both dimension and texture to the layout.  They took up dead space in some of the images and worked to cover distracting elements of other images.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Explosion Card

I hope you had a great 4th of July!  While there are no fireworks today, there is an 'explosion' with my card.  I purchased a premade "Explosion card" and covered it with the fun papers from Kaiser Craft that we used this month for the Scrapbooks Plus Design team.  I used lots of layers and foam tape on the front.  I inked most of the edges to give it a vintage feel and threw in a few tamped words from a few old stamp sets I had.  The Eiffel Tower and Compass images are precut and come in a package with many other coordinating elements for this paper line.  This made it quick and easy to build my layers!  The Admit one ticket, quote on the left side of the opened card (below) and the stamp on the the right side of the opened card are from Tim Holtz and are available in the store.  I'm working on a template to modify this card so it fits on a 12 x 12 piece of paper.  This one measures 14" when fully opened.


Tuesday, July 3, 2012

July Kit

This month's kit is Kaisercraft's Check In collection - great for all your vacation memories.  Double-sided paper, stickers, acetate embellishments, die cuts, tickets and more! The accent papers have a mix of 2x3, 4x6, and more designs to help your crafting. Mini books and Project Life participants will love this collection. Take a break from the heat and stop by the store! Deborah

Sunday, July 1, 2012

We're Open!

Our phones are out, but our air conditioning is working! Bring your supplies and work at the store.