Halloween: Spiders, Ravens & Costumes

Using the Chillingsworth Manor line, a piece of Authentique Spooked and some black cardstock,  I created a fun one-page layout to include a fun picture Hall`oween picture with one pregnant women and two pretenders.  For the background, I put an 11” square piece of Chillingsworth Manor Spider Web Polka Dots on a piece of Authentique spooked. 

I framed my main photo in a circle of black cardstock and a slightly larger circle of Orange Floral Damask.  I made a photo frame from black cardstock, but cutting a circle out of the center, rounding the corners and adding a little scallop strip on the top.  I added a Orange Floral Damask circle between the photo frame and the bottom strip.

A strip of black cardstock is added on the bottom.  A 3 ½” x 11” strip of Damask Stripe affixing just on three sides with WonderTape to form a pocket for a journaling tag.

For the two spiders on paper, I traced over the legs on the paper with an embossing pen.  I then embossed them with Zing Black Embossing Powder.  After the legs cooled, I made the spiders body with two rhinestone-type embellishments of two different sizes.  I made a 3^rd on a scallop circle except I drew the legs rather than tracing and I glued a piece of black memory thread before affixing the body.  After gluing the circle I attached the other end of the memory thread to the top of the photo mat.  I added a “Best Costume” sticker and a little ribbon over the top. 

For the journaling tag and the decorative label, I cut out labels from the Apothecary label section and added ribbon.   

I added a  few little strips of different paper and varying sizes on the side.

The year was added on a little lable cut with a Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers Styled Label die cut and accented with stickers from the Alpha Stickers sheet.  The stickers on here are great and you can use them for a variety of projects.

The title was made with Tim Holtz Alpha Parts Newsprint letters.

I hope this gives you some ideas of the wonderful things you can do with these great papers!

Halloween Layout with Lots of Pictures

If you’re at all like me, when the kids are dressed up you take a bunch of pictures, but then what do you do with all the pictures?  As I was trying to select two to three pictures for a layout from the dozens of pictures of my nephew dressed up as a gangster, I enjoyed the pictures which showed him “acting the part.”  It occurred to me that it would be fun to do a timeline.  So I picked out the one that I thought showed him and his costume the best and printed a 6” x 4.”  Then I printed a series of small ones (2 ½” x 2”) that seemed to tell a story.

To add even more focus on the large picture, I framed it with the Chillingsworth Orange/Tan paper and then black cardstock.  Keeping with the gangster theme, I framed the small pictures, which I had printed with a white border, with the black cardstock.  Using the Chillingsworth Paper Pumpkin for the background, I added a strip ompletely across both pages for  the small photos with a piece of  Chillingsworth Dictionary paper  that was the same height as the pictures.   (I inked this and other paper with Black Soot Distress Ink.)   Although, I was mostly sticking with the black and white theme, I added a little color by cutting out the tags from Apothecary Labels paper  After placing them across the bottom of the strip, I added small strip from the Green/Grey paper across the bottom and the grey strip from the Apothecary Paper with a spooky message across top.  I used a loopy black ribbon from ScrapbooksPlus across the green strip that addes some texture and downplayed the green.   I added the large picture and the one small one that looked  like a mug shot.  The final touch was adding the title.  I used Tim Holtz Idea-ology Alpha Parts Newsprints letters and I just put them across the top of the pictures, going up and down as the pictures did.

I was really happy with the results.  It would work great with any of those pictures where you have a lot of pictures that are similar – i.e. all horizontal or vertical, same subject, approximately same size image. Then you just adjust the background and colors you’re use to fit the theme or colors of your pictures.  If you have more than one child, you could do a  page for each, making them the same but using different colors.  If you have a girl dressed in frilly things, you might want to add some glitter, rhinestones or other glam.

Here’s an idea!  I bet you know what your child/grandchild is being for Halloween this year already so head over to Scrapbooks Plus and get the supplies you’ll need.  You can make the page and the day after Halloween you can have the pictures scrapped! 

Creepy Potions!

I had a great time with the Echo Park Chillingsworth Manor papers and embellishments!  I am not a Halloween person by nature.  But these little jar stickers really appealed to me!  I thought they made a super quick and easy embellishment for my kids Halloween photos from last year.  What do you think?

Hurry in to Scrapbooks-Plus today to pick up your own dose of Chillingsworth Manor today!

Laura Petruso

Halloween Card

Since most people email these days, people really love it when they get something in the mail.  And it is even better when it is a handmade card!  Once I have the idea, making a card is a snap.   So use this one or take a look at the Design Team Wall for lots of other ideas.  The instructions to make this card follow.

Cut a 9“x 6 ¼” piece of Authentique Glowing paper and score it to make a 4 ½” x 6 ¼” card. 

Stamp three images on Chillingsworth Orange/Tan  paper with Stazon black ink.  I used  Stampers Anonymous Tm Holtz Stamps Mini Blueprints CMS 136.  This is a great set that has four images for each Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Cut out the stamped images and ink edges with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink. Affix these to black cardstock that is just slightly larger than the piece with stamped image.  Affix two of the images to the outside of the  card with pop dots and one to the inside top (not with pop dots).

Add  a 1 5/8” x 6 ¼” strip of Authentique Glowing paper (Herringbone side) on bottom of card.  Stamp message on a strip of Orange/Tan paper with VersaMark and  emboss message with Zing Black Embossing Powder. Affix to top of  Herringbone strip.  Affix ribbon to the top edge of strip.

On the inside, add a rectangle of Orange/Tan piece, inked with Spiced Marmalade & Black Soot Distress Ink so  you have a place to write a message.

Affix ribbon across inside along fold line and on outside.   Tie bow on left side

Spiders- Eek! and Trick or Treat!!

This month's DT kit features Echo Park's Chillingsworth Manor collection.  The kit has great papers and some really fun letter and word stickers and a full page of tags.  I took advantage of the stickers and tags, utilizing both in this one page layout.

I also used my Cricut Artiste cartridge to cut out a spider shape.  I used my Black 100 Copic marker to color twine to suspend my spider from the web printed on the paper to overlap my photo.  It is amazing how Copic markers can change the look of so many embellishments from twine and ribbon to clear sparkles and even metal or wood.  If you haven't tried Copic markers we'd love to have you join us at our next class on Sunday, Oct. 21st at 1pm.  Just call the store to register!

Laura Petruso

Mini Coffin Boxes (for Candy, Gift Cards or Other Small Items

Last blog, I described how I made a coffin candy dish.  I was so enthused that  also made a set of mini coffin gift boxes.  I started with a cute set of paper mache coffins.  Although my goal was to cover them with paper, I found you couldn’t close them once you did, so I covered all of the coffins except the part of the lid that goes over the edge of the bottom and the part of the bottom that is covered by the lid.  I painted the inside edges of the lid and the outside edges of the bottom.  It is good to paint the edge of the lip on both so if your paper doesn’t quite make it to the edge then it looks great.  Then you simply cover the remaining surfaces.  I affixed the paper with Ranger’s new Glue n’seal.  (If you need tips on this see blog from 10/7.)  The 6” x 6” pad of paper works great on these small coffins as the designs are smaller.  

Each of my coffins is made with different papers and I used a few of my favorite techniques to add a little extra.  Here’s a few of the extras, I used.

 

• I added a stripe of black glitter all around the outside of a coffin decorated with black and white paper.  This is really easy.  Put a 1/8” strip of InkEssentials Wondertape around the outside of the box.  Remove the tape on the other side and roll the coffin in Stickles Black Diamond Dry Fine Glitter.  Even if you don’t like using glitter with glue, try this technique.  You get perfectly straight lines.  And to make it even better if you don’t like getting glitter on things, ScapbooksPlus has a cloth that picks up all the pieces of this glitter.

• On a coffin lid that was covered with  the small version of reverse side of Grey Damask paper (from the 6 x 6 pad), I put little dots in each diamond with Orange Peel Stickles on the top and along the lip of the lid.I glued a strip of small ribbon  around the lip of the lid on one. 

• I stamped a skull using Stampers Anonymous Tm Holtz Stamps Mini Blueprints CMS 136 inside the lid of one.  (Check out this stamp set.  It include four stamps for each Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

• I stamped the spider web from the Mini Blueprints on a piece of solid paper.  I tore the edges, glue it to another piece of paper, tore the edges and glued to the top of a coffin. 

• One that I thought turned out well, I distressed the lid.  After painting it black, I sanded it and inked it with Forest Moss Distress ink, which made it look old. (The top of the lid and inside bottom were covered with paper, so it was just the edge of the lid that was distressed.  On the bottom of this coffin, I used stickers from the Alpha Sticker sheets.  (This sticker sheet is fabulous – it has all kinds of things, letters, words, and insects.)

The final  step was sealing the surfaces by painting the entire coffin inside and out with Glue n’seal. 

I really had fun with these and didn’t want to stop making them.  Everyone I know may be getting a coffin for Halloween.  Your options are almost endless.  You could make all your coffins with the same paper, but add different accents.  You can make them with different papers, but the same colors.  Or you could make them all with the same accents.  One option I didn’t use was adding rhinestones or buttons.  I encourage you to  make some coffins! Now that’s something I never expected to say.

Spooky & Scary: A Halloween Page

The All Hallow’s Eve line is perfect for Halloween pictures, especially if you’re not a fan of bright orange.  This line uses fall colors and Halloween themes to create lovely papers that allow your pictures to shine.  I chose this line for my Designer’s Choice paper and teamed it up with some other fun things to make a page for two horizontal pictures that would be perfect for some adult halloween pictures. 

Corrugated ATC cards are embossed with Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Texture Trades Spooky Things and then inked.  By affixing these to the page on only three sides, I made them a pocket for little journaling tags.  I used a Gluber and two types of ribbon to make a large flower and added some little words cut from the paper, some with Tim Holtz Idea-ology Memo Pins. 

The title is made with Tim Tim Holtz Idea-ology Alpha Parts News Print Letters.  If you haven’t tried, these you’ll want to.  There are lots of letters so you can spell the words you want.  Numbers are also included.  They are so great once, I started using I haven’t stopped.  All my most recent pages, have these letters on them. 

The complete instructions for how to make this page and the items you need are available at ScrapbooksPlus.  You can get a head start on this Halloween or do what I am doing and pull some of old photos out of box and put them on the page. 

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!

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!!

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!!

Spooky!

How fun is this? While surfing through Teresa Collins’ website I came across this wonderful design. It was simple, yet elegant. I put a scary twist on the design by adding lots of fun embellishments and a “spooky” title.

The bat lamp post is a die cut I created using my Silhouette. The Silhouette design store had so many great Halloween themed designs that it was hard to choose. I wanted to put something fun against the more serious damask design of the paper.

I love using green as an accent color. It worked perfectly with my black and orange theme. The letters from Pink Paislee are beautifully glittered and come in great colors. My leaves are stamped using a leaf stamp from Heartfelt Creations and I used Memento Ink – Rich Cocoa to stamp the leaves.

Supplies
Paper and “Happy Haunting” embellishment – The Girls’ Paperie and Prima
Ribbon – May Arts
Ink – Memento – Rich Cocoa
Flowers – Prima
Bat Lamp Post Die Cut – Silhouette
Stamp – Heartfelt Creations Swirly Leaf Stamp
Alphabet and small green flowers – Pink Paislee

Thanks for joining me today.

Robin

Two Pages of Fun!

This was one fun project to create. I do not have too many Halloween photos of my daughter, but the few I found were a perfect match for the Toil and Trouble collection. The Girls’ Paperie really did a nice job with their Halloween line. The designs are fresh and clean with a hint of elegance.

I put my Silhouette to work to create the bat, spiders and webbing. I painted each die cut with black stickles to create a beautiful shine. I then mounted each spider and the bat using foam squares.

The tags and scalloped circles were created using Spellbinder dies. I used a 2” circle punch for the smaller photos. The lettering is from Pink Paislee. They have the most wonderful glittered alphabet!

Supplies
Patterned Paper - The Girls’ Paperie, Bo Bunny
Spiders, Web and Bat Die Cut – Silhouette
Tag Die Cut - Spellbinders
Stamp – American Crafts
Alphabet – Pink Paislee
Punches – Martha Stewart Crafts
Crystals - Prima
Ink – Memento Tuxedo Black; Distress Ink – Black Soot
Stickles

Thanks for joining me today.

Robin

A Place for Everything - Scrap Oranization by Loretta Cooper

One of my grandmother's (many) cliches... "A place for everything, and everything in it's place". This is the first essential rule of organization. And it was an absolute necessity for my grandmother, as she never threw out anything.

In this, she unwittingly taught me the second essential rule of organization: Be willing to part with anything you 1.) don't use 2.) don't like 3.) can't remember why you bought it in the first place.

One of the things I've observed about scrappers as a group is that we are all collectors. It's part of the hobby. It's a little impulsive and and little obsessive... and frankly, that's why we love it. But it's also very easy to get overwhelmed or frustrated if you can't put your hands on "the stuff" you need when you finally carve out those few moments to play.


For this blog, I'd like to invite you into my scrapping space-- a small extra bedroom upstairs -- and show you some of my organizing tips. As you can see, I use every inch of space. I added the little daybed because somebody is always coming in to chat. ( It's the perfect resting place. Stiff as a board so nobody stays too long! )


My workspace is a standing workdesk I found at Ikea eons ago. I am certain they have much nicer things now, but I'm afraid to look.

Underneath and to both sides storage of the things I use the most... cutters, inks, distressing tools.

Good lighting is important too! This room has two huge windows. But I scrap a lot at night-- and I am really particular about color, so I have three lights in this room -- the two you see here and another on the opposite side of the space.



Above the work space I have a magnetic bulletin board also covered in tools and a few published projects that inspired me.

Again, I try to keep the tools and materials I use most within arms reach. If I have to take even a few steps away, I get distracted...

Storing supplies get's complicated.
I used to keep all my paper, sorted by color in paper racks. I've pretty much abandoned that. It got too complicated trying to figure out where all those multi-colored prints should go.




Now my card stock stays sorted in racks and most of my paper is is sorted by manufacturer in these very cool paper bins.

I have discovered I really like this system. Even though I can't see it all, it's fun to flip through the files and discover all those wonderful prints.


I have several of these bins. One with only holiday or special event papers (Christmas, Halloween, Summer, Fall) Another holds project categories (Sports, Travel, Family, etc.)

In the second closet I keep all the other goodies separated into drawers.
Brads, snaps, flowers, chipboard ... Basically anything that can be used to embellish a page lives in here. This is also where punches and circle cutters live.

And finally, there's the computer center. I've only recently moved my old laptop up here.

I use my computer a lot (unloading and retouching photos- printing out journaling -- you know.) Running up and down the stairs to the desktop was really cutting into all that good "scrapping karma" I had going. I also moved my good Cannon Printer and my wide body scanner up here too.

And in case you're wondering ... that big thing full of stickers is called a scraprack. It's a new addition to my organizational system. The jury is still out on it's usefulness for me. Let's say I like it a lot "in theory".

I'd love to hear (and see) how other scrappers are organizing their loot! A well organized stash means there is that much more room for more!

Happy Scrapping!
Loretta

Hello Jack - Time for your Lobotomy!

When those words popped out of my son's mouth as he started to carve his Halloween pumpkin, I cracked up. When he explained it came from a Calvin & Hobbes cartoon, I knew I had a layout in my future. Lucky for me that Lisa picked such great papers from the Creative Imaginations Trickery Line and My Mind's Eye for the Design Team kit this month!

This layout is a little different from my normal style. I was going for a collage effect. It allowed me to include lots of different elements - stamps, chipboard, ribbon, dimensional stickers, machine stitching, a charm, more stamps, more stickers - and a comic strip of course!

The comic strip was actually my starting point. I pulled out my I-kan-dee Chalks by Pebbles, Inc and used some orange to accent just the pumpkins. I also added a little ink around the edges to soften the stark white of the paper.

Next up was the chipboard pumpkin, which I colored with Stazon ink and then heat embossed with Holographic Embossing powder. I enjoyed that so much, I decided to stamp and emboss some leaves to use as a sparkly accent.

Lisa included Tim Holtz Fragments in the kit this month - something I had never played with before. I had 3 very small pieces to work with but they were the perfect match for the Creative Imaginations jack-o-lantern paper, which is covered with little Halloween themed icons. I snipped out a few, inked the edges with a touch of orange, and used Memory Mount to glue them to the fragments. What a cool and easy way to add dimension!

The die-cut mini page from Teresa Collins and the journaling block from Creative Imaginations added another eclectic touch to the collage. Bright green thread for the stitching pulled out the bits of green in the pictures and added a subtle punch of color.

I used several stamps as accents around the page...words, pumpkins, spiders...as well as the dimensional stickers from the kit.

The last item I added was the circular sticker of the trick-or-treaters. Believe it or not, it came inside a big bag of Doritos! It was a perfect find - the striped background echoed the striped paper, and the image illustrated the word stickers just above it. Serendipity!

Like I said, this was a different kind of layout for me, but it was a lot of fun and a little bit of a challenge. I think I will step outside my comfort zone more often!