Sewing Themed Card

Since my sister is a seamstress, I tend to buy scrapbooking supplies that have a sewing theme but then don't use them.  The Handmade Quilt paper of the Clippings Line seemed the perfect paper to make use of these.   I combined the paper and its matching buttons, which look like spools, with some stamps I had and presto a sewing themed card. 

 

I used some white cardstock for the card.  For accents, I used Handmade Quilt and Cotton Dress papers.  I cut a message box using a Tim Holtz  Sizzix Mover & Shaper Styled Label die.   Inside I used Technique Tuesday border stamps to add buttons and stitches to border the message.   The message and border were stamped with Black Stazon ink and the some of the pieces were inked with Forest Moss Distress ink. 

French Desserts

Scrapping the pictures from a French cooking class in my French apartment was lots of fun.  And the Basic Grey Clippings line has such variety that this picture doesn't look anything like the other items I made.  This is an easy layout that you could use for a wide variety of pictures.  The flowers of Cotton Dress and the orange dots of Flannel Suit reminded me of a French country kitchen, but they also reminded me of my grandmothers or a little girl.  Moreover, you could simply use four different pieces of paper and have an entire different look.

The background is Trench Coat and the photo mat is from Cotton Dress.   On the right side it is  7 ½” x 11 and on the left 7 ½” x 5 ½”.  I added a strip of Flannel Suit on the bottom and top of the photo mat, indenting it about 1” from each side.  (Prior to applying I inked it with Mango Mai Tai Powder Puff Ink.)  I scalloped a 2” x 12” of Cotton Dress and glued the bottom to a Bazzill White Perfectly Pleated Strip.  I glued this on top of the Flannel Suit Strip.   You can either cut for right and left before you glue down or afterwards.  Then figure out what pictures fit in the space that you had.  As you can see I cut some of them to new sizes.  I had one to fit inside the Chipboard frame that came in the Printed Chipboard and Alpha set.   I used the unique Clippings Sticker Titles shaped like tags and tied with white/tan twine to fill in some of the space between my pictures.

For title, I used letters cut with the Tim Holtz alpha set.  I stamped them with a stamp of tiny French words and the Mai Tai ink.  For my journaling, I used a piece of Typewriter and brown ink.  Since we made, four desserts, I used this as an opportunity to use numbers made the same as the title.  I framed the journaling piece with Cotton Dress.  I added strips of Cotton Dress and Flannel Suit on the left side.  (They look angled but I used straight strips and glued at an angle.)  I added a brad from the Mixed Brad set and a sticker from the Sticker Title set for emphasis.

Fast, Mini Album

Page of Mini-Album: Note "Family" Tag on Side

On the 12^th, I blogged about the ScrapFile I made for the family reunion and promised to write about how to make the little mini-photo album I included on the inside. 

 To make this album, you need only one piece of Chronicle paper.  (Do not cut label trim off.)   Cut the  Chronicle paper in half vertically.  (So you have two pieces 6” x 12” plus about ½” of trim.)  Put the trim at the bottom and score 4” from the top.  (Choose which side you want to be the cover of your album before you score and score accordingly.)  Score the opposite direction 4” further.  (You should now have a three-part accordion with the label at the bottom.) Score the opposite direction where the label joins the paper.  With the 2^nd page, put the label at the top, and affix to 1^st piece of paper so that the decorated portion of each label shows at the bottom or top of one page.    (This sounds complicated, but when you do it you’ll see it is quite easy.)  Then continue scoring and folding every 4.”



Cover of Mini-Album



When you finish, you will have 12 surfaces to decorate, including front and back.  Since I wanted something that went with my folder layout , I stamped the “cover” with the Tim Holtz “Generations” stamp using Fired Brick Distress Ink. 

Page of Mini-Album: Decorated with Stickers & Garland

I added a picture on the bottom of the cover and at least one on each of the remaining 11 pages.  I expressed appropriate sentiments with stamped messages.  I decorated the pages with tabs, labels  and spools from the Elements Sticker set and a bit of Garland that I had left over. 

That’s all there is to it.  I put the photo album in the pocket of the ScrapFile.  These would also be great to do as a little photo album to share some photos and say thank you.  And they are a great way to use left over embellishments. 

Scrap Folders for Special Events

Not enough time to scrapbook all the pictures you want.  Scrap Folders may be jsut what you need.  I was excited to try this  new technique that I'd been reading about.  They are a lot like Scrapbooks except instead of many pages for a single event, you make a folder per event and include lots of places to store extra pictures and memorabilia.  I chose to make my first attempt with the Basic Grey Clippings line and pictures from last year’s family reunion.  I think it turned out pretty well.  And in addition, to what you see in the pictures, I have a photo album in a pocket, two files for extra stuff and a CD with all the pictures in a pocket. 

You start with a basic file folder -- like the ones you use for normal filing.  You can use one and decorate both sides.  I used two to make it a little sturdier and to allow me to use brads. (Although I didn’t end up using any.) When you use two, you make one the inside and one the outside and then glue together. 

I figured out how I wanted the inside of the folder to look and that I wanted two pockets – one for a photo CD and one to hold a small photo album and extra memorabilia.  When I had this figured out, I cut out the pieces of paper to fit the folders.  It is not necessary to do this exactly as you can trim afer gluing down.   On the bottom left side, I used two pieces of Novella, so that the pocket totally blends into the page.  For the right pocket (for a photo CD)  I cut out a design out of the Flannel Suit paper and turned it upside down. I stitched the two pockets to the paper..  (If you’re not into sewing, it would work just as well to attach the paper forming the pocket with RedScor Tape or other strong tape.)  Before covering the sides, I put a strip down the center with crease where needed for folder to fold.  Then I put the paper (with pockets on each side) and affixed a strip along the right edge.  I affixed all of these with a glue stick and a brayer.   I needed to trim some of the edges a little.  Also, I inked various pieces and edges of file folders with Fired Brick, Vintage Photo and Peeled Paint Distress Ink.

The  “Generations” you see in the photo is a small hoto album.  (I’ll blog on how to make it on the 14^th.)  I used a large letter “K” to represent the family name.   I love these letters and you  get them in a few different colors at ScrapbooksPlus.  They add a lot and are very inexpensive.    

I used a variety of Clippings items to decorate the inside, the outside and the photo album, including Sticker Titles, Stickers Elements, Printed Chipboard and Alphas, and Garland.  Just get a pack of each and you’ll have plenty of embellishments for a few files.  (I cut the “2011” from the Typewriter paper with a small circle punch.)  I added a picture and mat to the plain black box on the CD pocket and using those great Clippings Alpha letters I added title.  The banner at the top is held on with Tim Holtz Muse Tokens.  

Then I covered the outside of the other folder using Gazette and Typewriter.   I knew from the beginning that I wanted to spell something with the letters from the 5^th Avenue paper.  So I spelled “Family.” To make the letters a little more interesting.  After distressing the edges of each letter, I embossed the edges with Stampendous Aged Taupe Embossing Powder.   I “inked” the edges with VersaMark.  Like with inking I didn’t make it even, I simply rubbed the edges with the VersaMarc so it is thicker in some places than others.  I then sprinkled the edges with the embossing powder and heat embossed.  This embossing powder includes a variety of granules so it can create interesting textures.   (I just learned that with this embossing powder it is better if you heat from the bottom.   I just heated from the top as usual.  Try it both ways and see which you like best. ) I also used it to emboss the word “Photographs” on the cover.  I added a picture and some strips along the bottom.  To make it sturdier, I covered the outside with a couple of coats of Modge Podge. Then I added two large Tim Holtz Word Keys.  (Note: Because of the shape of folders, I used you see a good portion of the inside right across the top of the top when closed.)   

Once the outside and inside were done,  I fastened the two folders together along the outer edges.  As a result I have two large areas to store memorabilia, etc. I made two smaller file folders made from Drafting Table paper and the tabs from the Tim Holtz Sizzix On the Edge Folders to keep some additional photos or memorabilia.  You can see tabs in the photo. 

This is one of the most fun projects, I’ve done in a while.  I encourage you to try to make a Scrap Folder for some of your precious memories. 

Creating More Journaling Space

Sometimes things fall into place when you just go with the flow.  I was struggling with the school theme of this month’s papers.  I really liked the papers but I didn’t have any school pictures to scrapbook.  After much thought, I decided that I would use the paper with books and just use a title about learning, such as “Learning Outside the Classroom” and started to work on a page with pictures from a August trip to Springfield, Illinois.  As I was working on the page it dawned on me that the paper fit perfectly – our favorite place was the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.  No need for special title.  Simply the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. 

For the most part the two-page layout is fairly straight-forward so I’ll just highlight a few things. I used the Life Documented Flash Cards for journaling.  One titled “Life Documented” for the place, city  and date.   I used Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type for the actual words.  I love using these as they are small enough they don’t take up too much space and I don’t have to worry about handwriting.  To list the things we saw in Springfield, I used a flash card with numbers.  These Life Documented Flash Cards have many uses.  I urge you to get a page or two before they are gone.

However, I still did not have enough space to tell the story of the day and display all the pictures that I wanted so I created a journaling flap. To make the flap, I used a plain piece of cardstock for the page base.  On the right side, I affixed strips of Study Hall & Letterman’s Jacket.  I then attached a 12” x 9 3/4” piece of the Fencing paper on the left side of the cardstock, affixing the top, bottom and left edge.  On the right edge, I affixed the piece of the Fencing paper only 2” from top and bottom, thus creating a flap in which to insert the journaling.  

For the journaling, I typed it on a piece of Oxford Dean’s List.  I folded it in half so it would be a little more durable and trimmed to size needed.  You could of course add more pictures on this.  I made two tabs for the journaling page using two pieces of ribbon (also folded in half).  I affixed these with Tim Holtz snaps.  You might prefer to use your stapler as the stamps are a little thick when inside the flap.  The ribbon shows when the flaps inserted.  This ribbon came from ScrapbooksPlus and is so elegant.  With other papers, twine would work well also.  That’s how simple it is to make extra space for that precious journaling of special moments.

I embellished the page with pencil stickers and Tim Holtz Idea-ology philosophy tags.   I used ones to express meaning.  I threaded a double string of brown floss through holes and tied.  (I used threaded needle to get the thread in the holes.) I affixed with Glossy Accents.  As usual,  I inked things liberally.  For this page, I used Black Soot Distress Ink.

Basic Grey Papers & Flowers for Special Memory

I had a special picture of my cousins from our annual family reunion.  As with all pictures with a lot of people, it is hard to know what to do with them.  I know from trying to sort out old pictures of my Mom’s that it is important to name the people because even though today we may be able to identify them all, 50 years from now people will say who is that?

Rather than simply putting boring labels at the bottom, I decided to put each person’s name on a flower stem. (The stems were cut from Oxford Deans List. The person’s name was written on it with a pen.)  I then used flowers (made in a variety of ways) to identify to which family each person belonged and where in the picture they are.  Let me explain.

My sister and I are flowers made from Tim Holtz Sizzix Tattered Flower die cut from Basic Grey paper.   (Both flowers are the same; the die contains four flowers.)  My Uncle Dick’s kids are also represented by flowers made using the Tim Holtz Sizzix Tattered Flower die, but I used a different paper and flower.   All my Aunt Joann’s kids are all Bazzill Paper Flowers 1.5 Primula French Vanilla.  (These flowers are great and ScrapbooksPlus has them in  lots of fun colors and different sizes.) My Aunt Marilyn’s kids are all blue BoBunny buttons and Uncle Tom’s are tan BoBunny Buttons.   (Smaller buttons the centers of  the flowers.)  I tied a knot in each of the buttons with blue sewing floss.  The flowers are placed vertically and horizontally to correspond to where the person is in the picture.  For example, my cousin Tommy is in the back row and the furthest to the left so his flower is one of the tallest and on the left side of the page.

I also used symbolism to enhance the meaning of the page.   For example, the #19 represents the total number of cousins.  It is from the Pink Paislee Daily Junque Mini Note & Label set, which contains 43 embellishments.  l  also used two cards from this set on the right side to provide balance.  In the upper right, I used a Kaisercraft Wood Flourishes leave to  provide two leaves to represent the two cousins who are no longer with us.  

This page was a lot of fun to make and will provide special memoires for years to come.

Making Holiday Tags with Oxford Paper

I know it is only September but if we are going to hand make things for the holidays now is the time to do it so we have time to enjoy the holidays.   I liked the Oxford paper, but didn’t have any  school related pictures to scrap.  The burgundy and green colors made me think of Christmas so I made extra large tags.  These could be used in several ways --  for those really big boxes that a small tag just doesn’t do the trick, on cards or as decorations.  Another thing I love about making your own tags is that you can mix and match what you have and they all coordinate.

Reindeer

I cut the tag and a cooridinating shadow tag with the Cricut using Oxford paper.   Christmas needs a little shine in my view so I spritzed both the tag and shadow tag with Sun Sisters Glimmer Mist.  I cut a tree and painted it with Dirty Martini Glimmer Glam.   Using plain cardstock I cut out a reindeer and a star for the top of the tree..  I embossed it three times with gold embossing powder.  I added BoBunny Zoology Jewels for eye and collar.  You could also use jewels or buttons to decorate the tree. Tie with a ribbon and you are done.  You could make several of these in no time at all.

Snowman

The approach was similar to the reindeer tag except I used Silver Glimmer Mist on the tag, shadow and the snowman.  I  left the tree plain.  I embossed the snowman’s hat.  The eyes and buttons same from the Bo Bunny Jewel set.  The Bo Bunny Father Christmas buttons would also be great.  There are hearts in the set that would be adorable on a snowman.  Again, add a ribbon and you are done.  Scrapbooks Plus has a great supply of ribbon. 

Since I’m in France now, I may decide to carry the French theme all the way to Christmas and make some holiday tags with the Eiffel Tower!  Another idea is to add a picture of that special person.  That’s the advantage of making your own tags – they can be uniquely yours.

Elephant Walk

I knew I wanted to scrap these pics of my son & his cousin as soon as I saw the Basic Grey papers this month. Even the exotic names were inspirational: African Nectar, Orchid Oolong, & Madagascar Mint! It just made me think of these pictures from a visit to the zoo years ago.I am afraid I got carried away decorating the elephant, but the die-cut stickers from the Marrakech line made it really easy. The peacock was such a fabulous element to add to the LO - and since it was a sticker I didn't have to do any fussy cutting!
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I must say that I love having all the resources at Scrapbooks Plus at my fingertips when I scrap. The ferns on the bottom right are from an Accu-cut die in the classroom. I decided to add a little dimension by cutting them from chipboard, which is always available at the front counter. I used the Cricut Expression to super-size the elephant and I cut the palm trees using the store's Stretch Your Imagination cartridge. It was beyond easy to find the right shades of cardstock since I was right there, and running a tab on my supplies as I worked meant it was quick, too. It goes without saying that there were all kinds of creative and friendly people around when I needed input. It was just fun!

The fancy-shmancy picture frame on the 2nd page was actually from the die-cut sticker sheet. It started out life as a journaling block. I cut out the center with an exacto knife, added some bling, mounted it on the Palace Blue paper, and popped it up over a matte of African Nectar - I just love saying the name of that paper! I do plan to add journaling when I get the LO home. It will go above and below the small picture on the far right...maybe handwritten with some metallic gold ink, which I think will really "pop" off of the Green Tea paper - the shading on this stuff is awesome!

Here's a bit of trivia - you can tell what country an elephant originated from by looking at his ears. The ears on an African elephant are shaped like the continent of Africa. The ears on an Indian elephant are smaller and similar in shape to India. Interesting...

Spice Up Your Layouts!

Cardamom is the "secret" ingredient in my favorite homemade Christmas cookies. I picked up the tip from a friend's mother who has travelled the world. According to Wikipedia, cardamom has a "strong, unique taste, with an intensely aromatic fragrance". Used in a very small amount, it just changes everything.

Cardamom is also the fabulous stripe found in the Marrakech line of Basic Grey papers, and it is also strong, unique and intense! Just adding a small strip down the left side of this page changed the whole feel of the layout.

When I opened this month's kit and found the Masala Bella paper, I fell in love with the rich colors and bold, exotic floral pattern. This (adorable) picture of my daughter had such a rich blue in the background, I knew it was a perfect match. When I laid it down, though, I had a problem. Even with such a large scale picture, I felt like the paper was taking center stage. So I decided to add a little Cardamom! This paper echoes all the beautiful colors in the floral pattern, but it also adds bold stripes of brown and a nice soft gray. The pattern and the colors have a "muting" effect on the layout. From the stripes, I picked up the color brown and added the scalloped cardstock to create a frame for the picture. (I did a little fancy cutting on the inside to scallop the inner edge.)

When I picked up my kit at the store, I also selected some coordinating Bazzil and I used that to back the page, letting it peek through in between all the elements...kind of a color blocking technique. I left a tiny strip of blue on each side of the ribbon and around the page edges.

For the title I chose the "Daddy's Little Girl" stamp, which was in my stash. I used Stazon pumpkin ink and clear embossing powder and centered it on the flower and topped it with a button - I just love adding dimension! When Deborah Mahnken came back from CHA she brought a product from ScraPerfect and she shared it with me...the Perfect Printing Pouch. I used it on the petals of the flower and then stamped some descriptive words using a soft orange ink...and the ink didn't bleed! It was perfect!

Since I was in the stamping mode, I decided to add some butterflies from a really cute set I bought at Scrapbooks Plus (Making Memories/Flower Patch - on the *NEW* wall in the front of the store - if there are any left!). Using Stazon, I stamped onto some of the distressed "solids" from Marrakech - Palace Blue and Mandarin Slice - and used clear embossing powder again. They are little jewels of color sprinkled around the frame.

The glittered swirls were cut using the Accu-Cut die in the classroom at Scrapbooks Plus. I glittered directly onto the chipboard - no painting a base color - with Ladybug Glitter/Doodlebug Design. I actually had made these for one of my January pages, but they just didn't work. I am very glad I saved them because I think they really are the perfect touch!

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Sooo - I used a handful of easy techniques to create this layout - color blocking, fancy cutting, mixing papers, stamping, embossing, glittering - but what really makes it work is the amazing Marrakech papers from Basic Grey! Spice up your layouts with some Cardamom!

Easter Surprise!

I literally could not wait to get home and start working on my altered project this month...which is really unusual for me. I always do my layouts first. I was soooo excited when I saw the Vanilla Chai paper in the Basic Grey Marrakech line because I knew exactly what my project would be for this month - an exploding box! Now if you know anything about me, you know exploding boxes are my favorite thing to make, so no big deal, right? Well, the reason I was so excited this time is that the Vanilla Chai paper has the perfect symmetrical pattern for creating a box with the same pattern on each and every side! And the paper is so gorgeous!
First I cut the paper to a 9" x 9" square. Then I scored it 3" in from each side, creating a 3x3 grid pattern. (Have I mentioned lately how much I love my Scor-Pal?)

Then I scored the (4) corner squares with diagonal lines going from the center out to each corner. I folded the box along the score lines so that the sides folded up and the corners folded in.
The inside of the box was decorated with the scraps from the Vanilla Chai and also from another coordinating paper in the Marrakech line, Mandarin Slice. (It looks as good as it sounds!)

At this point I decided that this particular exploding box was actually going to become a 3-D Easter card so I grabbed some really cute Mrs. Grossman's baby duck stickers from the sticker wall at Scrapbooks Plus, pulled out my collection of Easter themed clear acrylic stamps and had fun decorating the panels inside the box.
I have been itching to try my Martha Stewart Picket Fence Edge Punch and I realized it would make a really cute 3-D accent for the center of my box. The baby duck in the center is from a Sizzix die in my stash.

The box top is created from white card stock cut to 5"x5". It is scored 1" in from each edge, and the corners are scored and folded on the diagonal. I used a coordinating Basic Grey flower stamp and some embossing powder to create a 3D element which I placed on pop dots on the box top, then I finished it off with some American Crafts Ribbon - it is one of the mini rolls on the ribbon rack in the front of Scrapbooks Plus.

I really love how this turned out! I hope you will give it a try!