My Fall Journal by Esther

When you have scraps left from creating pages, try making a journal. I used a 6”x11” piece of chipboard for the back. It was covered with the patterns from the Jillibean Soup Staples Collection in the DT October kit. The corners of the back piece were shaped with the Chomper after the glue dried. Each of the other cardstock pages was cut 6” in width with the patterns staggered in length. The green plaid pattern was 9”; orange plaid was about 7”; and the others shorter.


The cover is a transparent sheet that was rubber stamped with Stazon in leaf designs. Leaf shapes were punched and glued to the layers. Two holes (made with the Crop-a-dile) in the top are used to thread a 12” length of ribbon to hold the journal together. This gave me the chance to use the memo sheets to record my memories about reading books and sharing with family and friends. The “Autumn Memories” is a Karen Foster sticker. Now, if I can only find the time to journal the season’s activities, I will have a keepsake. This could be an idea for a journal for each season, too.

I could not get the photos into this blog; please view the Scrapbooks Plus Design Team Wall on the website for the pictures of the journal. WWW.Scrapbooks-plus.com

Page Map Challenge

This month the DT Customer Challenge has a little twist. In addition to using the same papers we used in creating our projects for The Wall this month, we are asking you to use this page map: Now we would not ask you to do something we did not do ourselves, so here is my layout:

You can see that I turned the layout 90 degrees clockwise, but other than that, I was very faithful to the original sketch.

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I am not generally a very fast scrapper, but this page went together very quickly. The little trees were fussy cut from the Cream of Mushroom paper from Jillibean Soup and make the perfect accent pieces. The corrugated alpha (which I raved over in a previous post) has 2 different treatments: inked then heat embossed and acrylic paint.

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You can check out the display featuring all the DT page map layouts in the crop room. We came up with a wide variety of ideas using the same page map and the same selection of papers - you will even find an example showing how to turn it into a 2 page layout! We hope you decide to enter this month's challenge, because we would love to see what you create - and you might just win a Gift Certificate to Scrapbooks Plus!

1 Cute Chick

Start with some Cream of Mushroom, add equal parts Ground Corriander, a dash of Orange Sugar, and a pinch of Chopped Parsley and what do you get? A layout using papers from Jillibean Soup! I really am in love with this stuff! The little birdies on the Cream of Mushroom paper were actually the inspiration for this layout because they led me to the title, which led me to this picture of my daughter from this summer!

To emphasize the "chick" theme, I looked around Scrapbooks Plus and found those cute chicken stickers from Mrs. Grossman's. I could not believe how absolutely perfectly the colors worked! Then I pulled out my Modge Podge and decopauged this little wooden birdie element with a brown on brown patterned paper from Anna Griffin.(By the way - the orange grid paper in the background is the flip side of the Orange Sugar polka dot I used in the layout - sweet!) I gave this guy some fancy tail feathers with a wide, striped ribbon and added a small black button for an eye.

Back to the Cream of Mushroom paper - I pulled the dark brown color from the trees and used it to mat the photo and the different layers of paper. It's a color blocking trick I use when I am working with papers with strong graphic design.

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I think every layout needs journaling, but I often hide that journaling. Do you see a pull ribbon just to the right of my daughter's smiling face? It is attached to a "Journaling Sprout" from Jillibean Soup. They come in die cut packs of 24 in a variety of sizes and designs.

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For the title - One of my favorite products from Jillibean Soup is the corrugated alphabet!! You will see in my other layouts this month that I played around with some different techniques on this embellishment. For this particular layout, I just swiped the letters with an orange ink pad and sat back and enjoyed the results! I like mixing up different fonts and textures, so I added vinyl thickers from American Crafts for "chick". I used my Base Camp Cricut cartridge to cut the rather large numeral "1" from coordinating blue cardstock and ran it through a paper crimper to match the corrugated alpha. Voila!

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"So where is that "pinch" of Chopped Parsley?" I hear you wondering. Good question! You have to look carefully. At the top of the layout on the Cream of Mushroom paper there was a red swirly tree that really didn't work with the other colors in the rest of the layout. No worries - I just pulled out a circular punch and cut a new tree!

Yesterday I promised you a picture of the "free with purchase" bonus. Take a good look at the wooden birdie element from the layout, because that is the freebie! Yep! If you buy any (3) items from the Design Team kit this month, you can pick up one of those cuties at the register - but only one per customer because we like to spread the love!

Soup's On!

The Design Team has been busy this month with Chopped Parsley, Roasted Pumpkin and Minestrone. No, we have not moved our creative pursuits into the kitchen! These are the names of a few of the "ingredients" in this month's kit: The manufacturer is Jillibean Soup, a company featuring designs on kraft paper as well as brightly colored prints, some of which are double-sided (like the Olive Sugar). There are also a bunch of coordinating elements available with this line - ribbons, felt flowers, and *yummy* journaling spots. Just wait until you see the corrugated kraft paper alphabet!

I also "mixed in" some papers from Anna Griffin and the "Boo To You" line from My Mind's Eye, because how can you scrap for October and not include Halloween?

We are really looking forward to seeing what your pages look like! For the DT Challenge this month we are providing you with a page map to use for your layout. We are also offering another incentive - a "free with purchase" bonus! I will post a picture of it tomorrow, so make sure you check back. Once you see how the DT used it on their projects you will definitely be inspired.

.So come on into the store, check out The Wall, choose your papers, pick up a page map and get "cooking" - there is another Gift Certificate up for grabs!!!
(and yes, I will probably continue to "pepper" my blogs for the rest of the month with references to cooking - oops! I did it again!)