Remember - One Word Titles

Inspiration can strike at any time.  When I saw this lone piece of Prima patterned paper on a shelf in a scrapbook store, I knew right away it was destined for this photo of my daughter and her friend.




Supplies: Patterned Paper, Doilies, Flowers, Leaves, Rub-Ons: Prima; Felt Flowers: Dollarama; Paint-a-Shade Paint and Marker: Close To My Heart; Pen: Sharpie
Appeared in the June 2012 edition of SNR Mag's One Word Title article.

The colours would compliment the photo and the one word title was a perfect fit to document their special summer sister relationship.

I used some rub-ons from my stash to create a matte and journaling area. Instead of using rub-ons, you could achieve the same effect with stamping instead.

Then I added in cluster mixes of Prima fabric, paper and crochetted flowers, doilies, and leaves. I recoloured the leaves to a shade more suited to the title and background lines using a marker and damp paper towel. I also used the CTMH Create-A-Shade Pearlized paint to paint over the crystal jewel in the felt flowers to coordinate with the centres of the Prima flowers.

I fussy cut around the beginning of the title in order to tuck in a cluster to complete the visual triangle.

It started as only one piece of patterned paper. It goes to show that you do not need multiple pieces of patterned paper or cardstock to create a memorable layout.

 TTFN,

1/2 Way There...

Wow! We are already more than half way through 2012. I hadn't even thought of it until My Mind's Eye July Challenge.  While I didn't get to play along with the challenge, I liked the idea of the challenge and was inspired to create this card.

Supplies: patterned papers, die cuts, stickers, chipboard, twine (MME), stamp and ink (CTMH)

For this one, I raided my stash and used Good Day Sunshine Girl patterned papers and die cuts and a chipboard piece from Abbey Road's Round and Round Beep Beep Collection. Throw in some stamping, inking and twine.. and there you have it!

This would make a great card for a project milestone or academic adventure.  Remember the value is not in the destination, it is what we learn on the way there. Enjoy the journey!

TTFN,

Upcyling cards

Upcycling :verb [with object]

• reuse (discarded objects or material) in such a way as to create a product of higher quality or value than the original

We all have cards that will simply be put into the recycle bin and head for what is termed the down cycle where they are broken up and made into another product. Before you toss that card it into the bin, take a second look at it and see if there is something that you might be able to upcycle.

Supplies: Patterned Papers: Bella Blvd; Cardstock: Bazzill; Cardstock Pooh Bear and Happy sentiment: Hallmark Cards; Cardstock Letter Stickers: Lily Bee Designs
Appeared in SNR Magazine's May 2012 edition article - Inspired By Disney

Here I used an adorable Pooh Bear card and upcycled the image and some of the wording by creating a new card, using some cute Bella Blvd's Sunny Happy Skies patterned papers that coordinated well with the primary colours of the lovable little fellow.

I mean seriously, who can't use a little Pooh Bear to bring a smile to your face and brighten your day.  Truth be told I am a huge Pooh Bear fan.  Even my blog sign off... a tiggerism (tata for now)... stems from my love of all things Pooh related.

TTFN,

Hugs and Kisses with BasicGrey

We are so fortunate to have a strong relationship with my mother-in-law.  My daughter gets to spend time regularly with her grandma and they have a special loving bond. What better collection to reflect warm loving goodness than BasicGrey's Kissing Booth?  Here I created a layout for SNR's May 2012 Change It Up sketch article capturing the feel of the photos using the papers from this line a a combination of punched and fussy cut hearts.  If you can believe it, there are actually 10 different patterned papers used in the making of this one.

Supplies: Cardstock: Bazzill; Patterned Papers and Cardstock Sticker: BasicGrey; Fabric and Chipboard Letters: American Crafts; Punches: Marvy Uchida, Recollections and Fiskars; Ink: Close To My Heart; Pen: Steadtler, Sketch: Emma Stafrace

My assignment was to change the 12x12 sketch into an 8.5" x 11" version.  Here is the original rendering:

 As you can see, circles became a bevy of hearts raining love and happiness.

TTFN,

Change it up with Watermelon Gazpacho

Today I am sharing a layout that I made for SNR's May 2012 edition Sketch - Change the Orientation article.  I love the vibrant colours of Jillibean Soup's lines.  For this one I used papers from the Watermelon Gazpacho collection and their red corrugated letters. The striped paper worked well with the colours in the photos lending a cohesive look to the page. The orange makes the photos pop especially with the white sanded the edges of the photos and the green title strip.  I matted the stripe stripes with white cardstock.

Supplies: Patterned Papers and Corrugated Letters: Jillibean Soup; Cardstock: Close To My Heart; Chipboard Letters: American Crafts; Pen: Creative Memories; Sketch: Lucy Chesna

The layout features my daughter and her great uncle building or rather engineering a sandcastle.  I used the engineering term in the journaling because he really is an engineer (note the pinkie ring).  It also truly captures and evokes the moment because they really did have some serious but fun discussion in regards to engineering principles for both the design and construction.

Here was Lucy's original sketch:

I rotated the sketch 90 degrees and altered one rectangle area to accommodate my title and journaling.

TTFN,

Another Magenta Two Takes

For this two takes, I used the same card design concept but varied the card colours and stamping techniques.  One card being multicoloured (using the Magenta logo colours from one of the 20th Anniversary challenges) and the other monochromatic.

Supplies: patterned paper, stamp and chipboard letters (Magenta), cardstock (Bazzill), ink and stickles (Ranger), markers (CTMH), pen (Creative Memories)

For the multicoloured card, I coloured in both the base stamped butterflies and the fussy cut ones with waterbased markers to match the logo colours. I chose to faux stitch in black to coordinate with the inked pieces. Lastly, I used black Stickles on the body and antenni.

Supplies: patterned papers, and stamp (Magenta), ink (Ranger and CTMH), sentiment stamp (Dollarama), VersaMark (Tsukineko), emboss powder (Inkadinkado), glitter (Doodlebug Designs), Embroidery floss (Loops and Threads)

For the monochromatic yellow version, I stamped with a different lighter shade of black ink pad and the butterflies were heat embossed using white embossing powder before being fussy cut. I sewed with white embroidery floss to frame the torn paper stamped image and to coordinate with the white butterflies. I finished off the butterflies with glue and yellow glitter.

I really like how using one design, one stamp and different techniques and colours can create such a variety of looks. Another way to get more out of a stamp and design idea.
TTFN,

Believe - the Magic of Make Believe

As children grow they often leave behind the fun of make believe play as it is not a cool thing in the tween or teen years.  So when my daughter and nieces decided to play fairies and took their make believe play into the backyard, I quickly grabbed my camera thinking this might be one of my last opportunities to capture such fun joyful memories.

More often than not, I find that I take oodles of photos in the hopes of getting a few great shots out of the batch. Then I tend to scrap a few of the best or those that tell a certain story but many are left behind to go in the general photo box.  As I scrap non-chronologically, I use photos from different years as they work with certain ideas, inspirations or products. Such was the case from this summer's day photo session from a couple of summers ago. 

About a week ago, I pulled out the photos of this day and par usual, I looked them over and pulled out a bunch of the best ones.  I scrapped some fun ones of my niece in a layout entitled Fairy Fun. Then, I designated four others for two more layout ideas and the remainders were then relegated to the photo box.

A few days later, I was trying to come up with an idea for the Magenta 20th anniversary acrostic challenge, when this photo came to mind.  While it is not a particularly great photo from a photography stand point, it was perfect for telling the story and preserving the memory of a childhood make believe play moment.  Thus out it came from the photo box and a layout idea was born.

Supplies: patterned papers, stamp and letter stickers (Magenta), VersaMark ink (Tsukineko), emboss powder (Sugar Loaf Products), acrylic letters (Heidi Swapp), flowers (Making Memories), butterfly punch (Martha Stewart), thread, staples, and bitty jewels (Dollarama)

Here is a closer look at some of the details and the journaling.

Journaling reads: The fun & joy of make believe.  The ability to get lost in another realm where everything is possible.  Your imagination knows no bounds.  To be free to be a fairy fluttering with others in a world all your own.

As the layout came together, I even created a tutorial to go along with it highlighting an alternative way to get more out of a stamp image. It can be found on the Magenta blog here.

TTFN,

Hello Friends

Today I am sharing another fine feathered friend but this time from BasicGrey.  Love heading back into my stash, sparked by a sketch and coming up with a fun creation.   This card was based on a Lucy Chesna card sketch for SNR's April edition. 

Cardstock: Bazzill; Cardstock Stickers: BasicGrey; Letter Stamps: Clear Dollar Stamps; Ink: Rangers; Twine: Jillibean Soup; Sketch: Lucy Chesna

I used a variety of cardstock stickers from the Offbeat Elements sticker sheet and stamped the "hello" letters on each tag to form the sentiment banner.
TTFN,

Fairy Fun with MME

The My Mind's Eye July blog sketch, designed by Keri Babbitt, was full of fun layers and elements.  I went with some fun photos of my niece posing while playing faires with her sister and my daughter.  The other two girls had decided to run about the neighbourhood.  Emma decided to stay in the comfort of the backyard with me,  I was able to capture these adorable photos of her playing it up for the camera which is sooo like her. LOL!

 

Supplies: patterned papers, decorative buttons, garland, Baker's Twine, and chipboard letters (MME), glitter foam letters (American Crafts), buttterfly punch (EK Success), border punch (Stampin' Up), ink and pen (CTMH), cardstock number stickers (Jillibean Soup), doilie (Today's Kitchen), metal filigree and jewels (Dollarama), marker (Sharpie)

For my take, I rotated the design by 90 degrees to the right and elected to only border one side.  I used items from the Indie Chic Ginger collection which were featured in the Nook's July kit.

Lots of fussy cutting, following the patterned paper designs, made for interesting lines.  I recoloured a white paper doilie using an ink pad and water which worked perfectly to coordinate with the patterned paper.  (I will have to do a tutorial on this and share it at another time as it worked really well and was very easy to do.)  The butterflies are super thin and airy in real life as they too were punched from doilie paper. A whole lot of inking going on to add some depth and pop and I also recoloured the metal filigree frame with a black Sharpie.

If you are wondering what the original sketch looked like, here it is:

 

Be sure to check out Keri's and others' takes on the MME blog here.

TTFN,