Rat Pack Themed Layout

I love it when I can design layouts the reflect the essence of my pictures.  Although it wasn't mmediately obvious when I saw the Basic Grey Clippings line, upon review I discovered that the grey herringbone and red houndstooth paper worked well to create a perfect layout for pictures from a Rat Pack-themed party at a famous nightclub in San Fran.

Here’s how to make this page.  Start with a background of Novella.  Add a 5” x 12” piece of Handmade Quilt on the top.  Affix a strip of shiny black ribbon (available at ScrapbooksPlus) where the papers meet.

Cut 6 ¼ ” X 10 ¼ ” piece of white cardstock; print or write message in right bottom corner.  Add two  4” x 6” pictures (one horizontal and one vertical).

To make the sign and the flourish, you use one of my favorite techniques.  Using the Tim Holtz Sizzix Hanging Sign Die cut sign hangar from chipboard.  Cover hangar with VersaMark by pressing into VersaMark pad, emboss with Zing black embossing powder.  The texture created is wonderful.  Put eyelets in holes.  The flourish was cut with the Tim Holtz Mover & Shapers Mini Flourish die.  To make the sign, glue a 5” x 3” piece of Novella to a piece of chipboard. (For this purpose I use a glue stick and even out with brayer.  Because of how you are cutting you need every bit of the paper glued to the chipboard and this is a great way to do it.)  Cut out sign using same die as you used for hangar. Put eyelets in holes.  Affix sign to hangar using Tim Holtz Jump Rings or Clasp Clips.

Put title on sign using alphabet from Printed Chipboard & Alpha Set.  I love this set of alpha for several reasons.  A couple are that they give you lots of letters and even have a apostrophe’s. 

In bottom right and left corners, embellish with  Clippings Brads and Wooden Buttons.  I put Memory Thread in the holes of the buttons.   This set of brads gives you lots of options and the buttons are really fun.

Buttons, Brads & Rhinestones Make a Great Page

As a scrapper who loves buttons and brads, the Follow Your Heart line is absolutely amazing.  The button and brad sets have a wide variety and they are so fun to use to make your page interesting.  You might think I got a little carried away as I used 11 buttons, 2 rhinestones and a brad and yet I don’t think they look overdone.     To round out the page I used some of the chipboard shapes – a hexagon strip and kites.

I started with backgrounds that had Wander on top and Be Adored on bottom.  (I cut these carefully so the designs were where I wanted them.)

A piece of the Unique paper forms a photo mat.  This allowed me to write headings to go with some pictures directly on the paper. 

In the upper corner of the left background, I copied the design on the paper.  After applying little strips of a variety of the paper, I made a chain of buttons, rhinestones and a brad.  I tied a knot of twine from the Follow Your Heart Line in the buttons.  I tore the saying about “wandering” from another piece of Wander paper and affixed it with pop dots to make the saying more prominent.  I added some buttons in other locations – I even bought an extra set so that I could have three butterflies.  I also made a butterfly using Tim Holtz Sizzix Easter Elements die.  Before cutting out the chipbard, I affixed the gold hexagon side of Be Your Best paper  from the  6”  x 6” Designer Paper Pad.   (By the way, I  have not bought these before, but they are fabulous.  You get papers that have the same design as 12” x 12”, but the designs are much smaller and oh so cute.)  To enhance the butterfly, I cut a body out of three hexagons from the same chipboard.  I added twine to the its antennas.

I couldn’t resist using another Tim Holtz Sizzix Styled Label to make a place for my title.  I used Unique paper (making sure I got part of the design on the side).  I stamped it with a variety of Tim Holtz stamps.   For my title, I  used a Scrabble alphabet stamp set and Black Soot Distress Ink. 

It is so easy to make pages with lots of elements when you have this line of paper and accents.  

Glittery Easter Card

I’ve been wanting to play with the new microfine glitter and an Easter card gave me the chance. 

Glue piece of white velvet paper to chipboard.  Cut bunny out using Sizxiz Tim Holtz Easter Elements Dies cut.

Easter is spelled with letters adorned with microfine glitter in Ocean Spray, Yellow and Pink. To make letters, fasten double-stick tape (available at ScrapbooksPlus) to a piece of white cardstock.  Cut letters needed to spell  “easter.”  I used Sizzix dies but any cutting system will work.  Remove the protective covering from the letter and sprinkle with glitter.  Use finger to burnish (press firmly) the glitter firmly into the tape. With a strong brush, brush away excess glitter.  Doing one color at a time assures that your letters don’t end up with bits of other colors on them.  Make bunny’s bow in the same way.

To make the card, I cut a 6 ¼” x 9”  strip of Societe paper.  (Remember to check before cutting as the design is one-way on the side that will be the inside of the card.)  Score and fold to create a 6 ¼” x 4 ½” card. 

I used two Bazzill Half the Edges in white to frame the bunny and the word.  Using these for borders and trims really speeds up your project.  Be sure and check out available colors.  You get 20 per package.    ScrapbooksPlus also has the full size ones.

Wrap Follow Your Heart twine around the card several times and tie small bow.

Stamp inside with appropriate Easter message or hand write a message.

Follow Your Heart: Be Amazing & Be Happy

If you love embellishments, like I do,  then My Mind’s Eye is the perfect scrapbooking line for you.  Using one of their newest lines – Follow Your Heart: Be Amazing, the Design Team has created some fabulous pages, cards and  altered items.  With 12 different double-sided papers in blues, browns, whites and golds and prints including strips, checks and my favorite -- hexagons, there’s sure to be something that appeals to you.    Several of the pages have cute designs and inspiring messages like a bicycle that says “Be the Best You Can Be,”  music with “Listen to Your Soul “ and kites with “You Fly, You Soar.”

And if the beautiful papers are not inspiring enough, there’s chipboard, brads, buttons, twine and rhinestones in matching colors.    I used pages from the matching 6” x 6” paper pad in two of my creations.  The paper is the exact same as the regular paper, except everything is half as big.

With these coordinating papers and embellishments, creating a stunning page is cinch.   Get inspiration from the Design Team projects to make your unique pages or just scraplift one of ours.   All are available at the store with the supplies you’ll need. It’s easy to create great cards and pages so don’t delay, get started today.

Scrapbooks-Plus also carries the Be Happy line of Follow Your Heart, which features pinks, peaches, and greys.  The Be Happy line includes the same wonderful embellishments.  Check these out while you’re at the store.

A Few of My Favorite Things

Using the great new line from My Mind’s Eye, this week’s Make & Take provides you a way to tell about “A Few of Your Favorite” things with pictures.  In fact, the layout has space for 8  pictures, one  large and 7 smaller ones.  Each of the 7 smaller spaces could either be pictures or journaling.  In either case, this page fits with the current scrapbooking trend of showing what our life is like, rather than just scrapping special events.  Because it is your favorite things, you can use pictures from a variety of time frames.  For example, if you love baseball (and I do) you can use an old picture (in my case one from the 70s) while using a picture of your granddaughter from today.  Whether you are telling about your favorite things through pictures, writing or both, you’ll want to get to Scrapbooks Plus and make this two-page layout using the charming new line from My Mind’s Eye called “Follow Your Heart – Be Happy.”  As always with My Mind’s Eye the line has fabulous buttons, brads, and chipboards!  If you like more bling, ScrapbooksPlus also has rhinestones from this line.  

A Snowy Day

With all the pine trees in Heidelberg, the Winter Woods (front side) paper made the perfect background.  An inner background of Snowy Window added the snow theme.  I made large photo mat the goes across both pages out of Winter Blue (back).  The left side is 7 ¾” x 9 1/8”  & and the right is  7 ¾” x 10 5/8.

 I picked out a variety of pictures that demonstrated the major activities/attractions.  I used  four  3 ½ x 5 (one vertical and the others horizontal), a  3 ½” square and a 2 x 3 ½” and arranged them in a grid on the photo mat..  I filled the space in between the pictures with pieces of Winter Woods paper.  

Since the paper had pieces of lace printed in a variety of places, I affixed lace on top of them to add dimension.  I added one long strip of turquoise ribbon near the bottom of the page from the right edge.  (The Winter Woods paper had lace here so I started here and went across the paper.)  Then I added lace on top of the ribbon.

I made a title using the Little Yellow Bicycle Chipboard Alphas.  I found them to be a little too bright for my layout so I randomly rubbed some claudine helumuth blank canvas acrylic paint across them.  After this dried, I painted them with Chandalier Glimmer Glam.  (If you don’t have this, you really should get it.  It is perfect for adding a little shimmer to anything.)  I used the “Magic” and “Winter Memories” from the Chipboard Words.  I used the same technique as on the title on these words.  I used two Cardstock Stickers to add sayings to pages. I painted these with the Chandalier Glimmer Glam as well.

Because I had so much I wanted to say, I decided to print my journaling on the Little Yellow Bicycling Journaling Cards.  To do this, using Microsoft Word, I created a text box that was the size of the journaling card with a line around the outside of the text box.  I typed my journaling and printed it on regular typing  paper.  I checked out how it fit on journaling card.  When it didn’t line up exactly as I wanted, I simply adjusted the printing.  Once I had the journaling exactly right, I affixed the journaling card to the typing paper using permanent adhesive lining it up with the lines around the text box.  On the computer, I removed the text box lines, but left everything else exactly the same and printed.  It printed exactly where the journaling card was.  It sounds complicated but really just takes a little playing with the printing to get it right.  I didn’t mess up a single journaling card!

The final embellishments were three of the Snowflake Button Dots.

Dreaming of a White Christmas

Okay, I admit that the child in the picture is too little to be dreaming of a white Christmas, but the colors were perfect for this picture.  With a few simple techniques this picture shimmers like Christmas. 

I started with the Silver Valley paper for background and for the main decorations for the pictures.

I triple matted the 5” x 7” picture using two Snowed In and one Silver Valley (plaid side).  I rounded the corners of all three mats.

Using the technique we all learned in kindergarten, I cut out all  the snowflakes & the small tree from another piece of  Silver Valley. After decorating the tree, I affixed the snowflakes and the tree to the background with pop dots so they standout. 

I make a scallop tag out of white chipboard.  I put the name and year on the tag with silver ink and then used a narrower blue pen to reflect the blues and greys in the paper.  It still looked a little plain, so  I decided to add a little glimmer so  I tried a new technique.  I “inked” the edges of the tag with VersaMark and then embossed it using Zing Silver.  It gave it a little silver without overdoing it.  I affixed it to the page with a snowflake brad.

In addition to the embellishments created from the Silver Valley paper, I used two chipboard snowflakes.  I painted them with white paint and then added a coat of Chandelier Glimmer Glam to make them shimmer.  Another snowflake brad and two stickers saying Winter Wonderland” and “Dreaming of a White Christmas” completed the page. 

Thanksgiving Place Cards

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to use some scrapbooking techniques to decorate your table.  Using paper and corrugated chipboard shapes from the Little Yellow Bicycle Hello Fall line,  I made Thanksgiving place cards.  I made a set of four using different approaches so you could see different options.   You can easily make these to match your style your color scheme.  Make a matching set or make coordinated ones. 

You need two tags of the same size from brown Bazzill paper for each place card.  I used the large tag on the Sizzix Tag, Traditional die.  Score a line across one of the tags so that the place card will stand up.

The fun part is decorating the place card.  You use one of the corrugated chipboard shapes.  Eighteen different shapes come in the set.  I used two flowers, a bird and a squirrel.   I used a nail file to scrape off a little of the brown finish and then inked with some distress ink. I used colors to coordinate with the embellishments I would be using.  I  then sprayed the shape with Marmalade Glimmer Mist. 

I embellished the place card with paper, a few leaves from Prima’s Splendor Fall Mix and jewels from Little Yellow Bicycle Hello Fall Jewel stickers.  

To put the place card together, glue the top of the back to the top of the front.  I then affixed a metal eyelet to hold in place.

I added a Tim Holtz Memo Pen to hold the name tag in place.  I cut the name tags From cream Bazzill paper using the Cricut Celebrations die.   I inked then  with Spiced Marmelade Distress Ink. 

Write the name on it and you are all set.

Stars of My Life

This month’s page map gives you lots of options for how to make it your own.    You have 9 squares in the center.  It is up to you whether you use them all for pictures, all for decorations or a combination of pictures and decorations.  My squares included some with pictures, some with embellishments and some words.   My page includes a picture of me with each of my aunts and uncles when I was young.  Since I have only four, that left me five squares to use as accents.   

I used the Oxford Frat House paper for the background.  To bring the focus to the center where the pictures are, I made a large photo mat (10” x 10”) to hold all the pictures and other décor. I printed 3” x 3” pictures and placed them equally on the grid.  I cut 3” x 3” squares from coordinating paper.  In the center square, I placed a subtitle made from letters cut from Oxford Fencing paper. Instead of a square in the upper left, I used a journaling block from Life Documented Flash Cards.  I inked it with Peeled Paint Distress Ink.  All squares were inked with Peeled Paint Distress Ink.  

 I inked ribbon (available atScrapbooksPlus) and Tim Holtz idea-ology trimming lavish flower ribbon with Peeled Paint Distress Stain and used the ribbon to decorate the squares.  If you haven’t tried Distress Stain, you really should.  It is so easy to make items the color you want .  I added a heart stamp and some flowers cut with Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers Sizzix die. 

Since I had some chipboard stars, I titled this page “Stars of My Life.”  (I apologize that the picture makes it difficult to read the title. ) Although it goes with the embellishments, it is also true – my aunts and uncles played a significant role in my life.  They continue to today.) I used  a large chipboard star for the title.  I covered it with Versamark and embossed it with Peeled Paint Distress Powder.  The remainder of the title was made with Pink Paislee Daily Junque wood alphabet.  

This month’s page map is one that  is easy to adjust to the pictures that you want to scrap.  Simply gather the 3” x 3” pictures.  Once you have these selected and placed, pick paper and embellishments for the other squares that reflect the theme.  You can make them frilly and pink for a girly girl, bold and modern for a hip look, fill with sports symbols for the big game, or since it is September you could use a school theme with a back to school picture of each of your kids.   

Measuring Your Progress

When a visitor commented on a picture of James and I saying “neither of you look anything like this,” I immediately thought of scrapbooking the pictures to show our weight loss. The Teresa Collins Notations Ruler came to mind as the proper background and the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Ruler Ribbon as a good accent. This brought to mind the title – Measuring Our Progress.

I cut letters for this title with my Cricut from the For the Record Red/Cream paper. I cut shadows from the red side and the letters from the cream side. To make the letters more interesting, I stamped them with the Ruler stamp from the Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection Curiosities set . Mostly I used Black Soot Distress Ink, but I did a few stamps with Fired Brick. Some were stamped with lots of ink but I used each stamp two or three times without re-inking so the print is of differing depths.

I used tags to create a platform for the picture labels. I cut them from the same paper as the letters using the large tag from the Sizzix Traditional Combo Tag die. I stamped each tag with a variety of stamps from the Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection -- Creative Textures & Curiosities with a variety of Distress Inks (Black Soot, Scattered Straw, Frayed Burlap, & Vintage Photo). I put metal eyelets in the tag holes and put ribbon through the eyelet. I used jump rings to attach Tim Holtz Idea-ology philosophy tags with the words “Cherish” and “Altered.”

For the giant ampersand, I began with a plain chipboard ampersand. I glued Notations Journal paper on it and cut to the right shape. I inked it with Black Soot Distress Ink and glued a small piece of ribbon near the bottom.

The top photo is on a photo mat cut from the Red/Cream paper (cream side) inked with Black Soot Distress Ink. The bottom photo has three photo mats – two made from the Red/Cream (red side) and one from the Notations Journal paper. All were inked with Black Soot Distress Ink.

Don’t forget to scrap your achievements. The Notations Ruler paper and the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Ruler Ribbon are great visual tools to use to show progress.

What I Love About You Make & Take

When I first saw these papers, I knew I wanted to make something with them. The bright colors appealed to me.

This Make & Take provides a special page to highlight someone you love. The colors work whether that person is male or female, young or old. I used the title “Key Memories of You” and accented the page with a chipboard lock and key, which you are provided as your free element. Using the alpha stickers you can adjust the title to fit your pictures. There are lots of letters so you can also use them to label your pictures. The journaling card provides space to list what you love about the person.

So head to Scrapbooks Plus tomorrow and make this 2-page layout. Don’t forget your 40% off coupon.

Decorating A Plastic Box for your Copics

A plain plastic box is a boring place to keep your Copic pens. For this month’s project, I decided to take care of that and decorated my basic Copic box. I used vintage papers and Tim Holtz embellishments and stamps. It was so much fun to make and took only about an hour to complete. It looks great on my shelf. Another great part of this project I used a lot of leftover items. I’ll tell you what I did and you can use this as a starting point for decorating your own plastic box.

I started with paper from the Off the Records line by Echo Park. In some cases, I wrapped strips all around the box; in others I just pasted left over strips to cover spaces. (Since the box is not a perfect rectangle strips don’t go around squarely.) I used some items from the Off the Records border page. I really loved the border the one that provided space for a list. I just kept pasting

scraps on until whole box was covered. On top, I used boxes from the Off the Record
Journaling set. Some of the scraps had edges cut using Tim Holtz Sizzix Brackets Die and some were inked with Distress Inks before gluing to box. You really can use whatever scraps you have.


I added stickers from the Off the Record Sticker Set. This allowed me to use some of the stickers that I really liked that didn’t fit on my pages. Next I pulled out a stack of stamps and stamped wherever I pleased with a variety of stamps using Black Soot and Fired Brick ink. Lots of Tim Holtz stamps seemed perfect since so many deal with art or creativity. I then glued on at least one of every Tim Holtz embellishment I could find (gears, snaps, washers, paperclips). Okay, I did not use hangars, which I adore, or the film strip ribbon. (If found this after I was done or definitely would have added this. I also added a piece of chipboard that I had embossed with Peeled Paint embossing powder.

Once it looked the way, I wanted. I covered it with Modge Podge so that it would last a little better.

For the final look, I glued ribbon around the lip of the bottom section. (Make sure it is dry before you put the lid back on.) I tied a Tim Holtz Muse (coin shaped item with a word on it) to the ribbon and glued it to the top of the box so it hangs over the side to finish the look. I used the “Unique” muse as I think the box is unique.

I really encourage you to decorate a box you have. You’ll have so much fun. If you don’t have a plastic box for your Copics, they are available at Scrapbooks Plus. If you haven’t yet dived into Copics, sign up for a class at Scrapbooks Plus. You’ll learn to use this great new tool. Next class is August 17th. Call (703) 263-9503 to sign up.

4th of July Barbeque Page with Recipes

My 2-page layout this month gave me the opportunity to preserve our traditional 4th of July barbeque. I used pictures from two different years and included the recipe for the barbequed ribs that are the featured item every year. Most of the paper was from My Mind’s Eye American Made line.

To make this page, I started with Petticoat Plaid Red Polka Dot paper for the background. I added a 2 ½” strip of My Mind’s Eye Celebration Banner across the top. To make it a little more interesting, I cut the bottom of the strip in large scallops rather than a straight line. I added a 3” strip of Pieced Pinwheels across both pages.

I used two techniques to make the rather boring title (4th of July Barbeque) more fun – a banner & a chipboard star frame. I painted a chipboard star frame white. After inking it with Weathered Wood Distress Ink, I added some solid blue cardstock to fill in the inner star. For the banner, I cut individual flags using the Celebration Cricut cartridge. After string these on Lime Twist Fly a Kite “ Soar” Twine, I tied a small bow on each end and affixed with Glossy Accents. The “4th of July” was cut from the Petticoat Plaid Red Polka Dot paper using the Cricut. The “4” was made much larger. The “Barbeque” part of the title was cut from solid blue cardstock using the From My Kitchen Cartridge. The smaller “Barbeque” and “Chef” and the background ovals for each were also cut using this cartridge.

I printed my journaling on The Day We Celebrate paper so that I could create a box that overlaps the two pages and would use the papers border on three sides. In addition to journaling this box serves as a photo mat for two pictures. I also inked this. After printing the two recipes on The Day We Celebrate paper, I hand cut the recipes into the shape of recipe cards. To draw more attention to the recipes, I cut an outline for each recipe from polka dot paper (one red and one blue). The remaining photo mats were cut from Pieced Pinwheels paper.

To finish the page, I embellished with flowers, buttons and stars. All buttons were tied with twine. The buttons and the stars came from the BoBunny Liberty Button set. To make the flowers, I stamped plain white flowers with Weathered Wood Distress Ink very lightly. I tied twine in the center of buttons for the center.

I love this page and even more love that our 4th of July barbeques will not be forgotten.

A Vintage Patriotic Look

This month’s papers initiated a patriotic feeling so I decided to do my one-page layout using photos from the memorials on the National mall. With the vintage look of the Moxie American Made Hometown Celebration Star Spangled paper as a background, I made a collage of the photos. The only challenge was making the photos fit in the space available. I drew the collage’s intended shape on a plain piece of 12” x 12” cardstock (you can use an old piece you no longer have use for as none of it will show) positioning it on the page as I wanted it on my final page. I cut out the collage shape. I picked the photos I wanted to use and printed most of them wallet size. I did one 3 x 5. I then simply played with the photos and how I wanted to arrange them on the collage. Because I had cut the pattern out of 12 x 12 paper, I could lay the photos down and then put the remainder of the paper (top and bottom) in place and see what part of the pictures would show and what wouldn’t when I cut them to the size of the collage. Once I had an arrangement I liked, I glued the photos down and cut the collage to the shape of the pattern. I glued this to proper place on the background paper.

To set off the collage, I used one of my favorites -- Idea-Ology Film Strip Ribbon. I used paper from Echo Park’s For the Record line behind the ribbon.
I inked the cream side of the Red/Cream paper with Fired Brick Distress Ink a bit to give it more dimension and color. I cut a piece of the film strip a little longer than I would need for top of the collage. I glued this film strip to the cream side of the Red/Cream paper using Glossy Accents. Once dry, I trimmed the paper to the exact edge of the film strip on each side and affixed it to the top edge of the collage using Glossy Accents. (Where I wanted to add a picture above, I only applied Glossy Accents to bottom of film strip.) I repeated this for the bottom of the collage. Once glued in placed I trimmed the excess from both sides of the paper.


To create the stars and flag, I began with chipboard stars. I inked each one with Faded Jeans Distress Ink by placing directly on ink pad and pressing hard. Each was then embossed them with Fired Brick Distress Embossing Powder. I wiped off some of the embossing powder to give the stars a vintage look. I filled the center of the large star with Red/Cream Echo Park paper (after inking it slightly with Fired Brick Distress Ink.) Using a blue pen, I followed the inside of the star to create two stars made with dashed lines.

I created a journaling box out of Echo Park Red/Cream paper and made a designed edge with the Tim Holtz Sizzix Brackets die. I also cut a small star out of Echo Park Red/Cream paper. Both were inked with Fired Brick Distress ink. A blue pen was used for journaling.

Using Big Letters – Beautiful Bermuda

The extra large chipboard letters at Scrapbooks Plus attracted my interest every time I went in the store. (They are available in cream, burgundy and black for only 69 cents.) So as Designer of the Month, I included a letter in the kit to see some ways to use the letters.

I originally planned to use my “B” for a family page but as I worked on my projects a new idea arose. The pink side of the Perky paper reminded me of the pink Bermuda sand and the pictures I had not scrapped from a trip to Bermuda. As I looked at my pictures, “Beautiful Bermuda” popped into my head and I had a title and a use for my “B.” To go with the theme and the colors of the page, I sprayed the “B” with Cadillac Pink Glimmer Mist making it a solid, shinny pink. To make it more interesting, I used the green vines from the Vicki B. rubon set to add accents. This also brings together the pink with the green background. The “Beautiful” above the “B” and “Bermuda” below came from the Vicki B. Sticker set.

I placed the pictures in a grid on a photomat made from Perky paper (pink side) and added a frame from Bazzillion paper (brown side). Some pictures are on each side of the 2-page layout. This didn’t provide enough attention to the pictures so I added a corner accent in each corner created from the rubon set. The flowers in the center are also from the Vicki B. rubon set. They are placed so that each is partially on both pages and draw your eye to the center of the picture display. Tape the pages together on reverse side with painter’s tape to assure that they don’t move while you work and apply the rubons as usual. Once affixed you can simply pull the pages apart and the rubons separate with the design fitting together perfectly when you place the pages together. I love this trick!

To add a little more design, I covered a chipboard flourish with Bazzillion paper (brown side) and also cut two smaller flourishes ones from the same paper. (The dies for these are available in the crop room.) To add interest, I sprayed the flourishes with Decadence Chalkboard. The effect of this is hard to see in the picture but when you look at the page directly it adds a benefit.

Without the “B” this page would not be nearly as attractive. Check out the letters. You can use all kinds of scrapbooking techniques on them to make them fit your page. How else can you add this kind of focus on a page for only 69 cents?

A Set of Cards

I made this set of coordinated cards using the Vicki B. paper. Each card is similar in terms of basic design and theme but different papers, stamps and a variety of ribbons colors are used to make each unique. In my May 7th blog, I shared how to make the coordinating box for storing the cards.

For each card, you’ll need:
•A 8 ½” x 6” base (Any cardstock will work as the entire front of the card is covered. I used Bazzill white as it is easy to write on and provides a strong base for all the added items.)
•A 4 ¼” square from Perky
•A 4 ¼” x 6” rectangle from a coordinating pattern. (For my three cards, I used Stripes, Perky (floral side) and Vicki B. paper.)
Fold the base in half so that you have a 4 ½” x 6” card.

Affix 4 ¼” x 6” piece to the front of the base.

On the pink side of the Perky square, stamp a design with VersaMark or Perfect Medium. On each card, I used some variety of a stamps so that each card would be unique but still coordinate with the others and my box, which has a large butterfly design and a Flora Doodle butterfly. Since my butterflies were small I used several stamps on each card. Emboss the design with white embossing powder. Ink edges with Spun Sugar Distress Ink. Affix a ribbon horizontally across the square near the top. For my cards, I used a variety of colors – pink, green and orange. Affix rick rack down each side of the square.

Tie small bow with same ribbon as used on the square. Emboss a chipboard key with white embossing powder on both sides. Put two Tim Holtz Idea-ology jump rings together. Put one end of the jump ring chain through the top holes in the chipboard key and put the other end through a back loop of the bow. Affix bow to the card.

Select messages from Vicki B. Sticker sheet and attach. Alternatively, you could simply stamp messages on the card.

By using matching colors and papers, you can create a set of coordinated cards. Put them in a coordinated box and they make a great gift. (The instructions for the box were provided in my May 7, 2011 blog.) Using a variety of papers, stamps and embellishments you could make a unique set of cards specially designed for the recipient.For example, you could use the KaiserCraft buggy to decorate the box and decorate each card with the KaiserCraft diaper pins to make thank you cards for baby gifts or cards to enclose pictures to send to Grandma.

Pineapple Mini-book by Esther

Aloha!

When I think of Hawaii, I think pineapples. While vacationing there, we visited the Helemano Pineapple Plantation. My desire to use those photos led to the design of the pineapple book. The Oh LaLa papers were great for the subject. I started with a shape cut from chipboard using the trial & error method. Half of the 12' square looked like a good start in order to accomodate the 4"x6" photos & journaling with embellishments. The shapes were traced on the back side of the Bazzil gold cardstock. Next, I painstakingly cut each of the shapes (so they lined up) & inked the edges of the chipboard with a green marker. I glued the cardstock shapes to the chipboard and punched holes for the rings.

After the pages were ready for photos, I concentrated on decorating the cover. The cross-hatched diagonal lines were sketched with a brown marker on gold paper.

They were shaded with brown stamping ink. Orange Staz-on ink was used to give contrast.

The leaves were cut of green paper & shaded with markers & ink pads.

Overlapping them in layers gave a more realistic effect.

Of course, I had to add bling to the intersections of the pineapple diamonds. The rhinestones already had glue on back.

Because I put inks on the cardstock cover, some stones had to be glued on a second time. An attempt was made to color the silver rings using alcohol inks. The color is faint though.

The photos, embellishments & were added. Hand formed letters were used with markers & a calligraphy marker in green. Ribbons added that festive touch to the rings (see them on the display board).

This was a fun project that kept the creative juices flowing for a couple of weeks. Try shaping a book from the chipboard pieces you can get at Scrapbooks Plus.

Aloha!