Hello Spring

Scrapbook Layout  - Hello Spring-

The top corner of  the layout.

Hello!

I loved most of the challenges from ScrapbookNerd's online crop, that i tried my hand at most of them.   This project was about creating a layout about spring.  

Lately, I have been working with a lot of Pink Fresh Studio's Felicity collection, since the collection is so springy, I used it to create this layout.

the large title of the layout

I started by using Scrapbook and Cards' "Hello Spring", to create a title; i backed each piece using different papers from Pink Fresh Studio's Felicity collection.  For the background, I used shimmer watercolors to create a  soft palette where the title and picture will show.  I used two pictures for this layout, and i located them as if they were inside a pocket in the title.  

Pictures of my baby and the flowering tree he stops by every day on his walk.

The background mat was cut to fit  12x10 in, and two large strips of one of the papers of the collection was sewn in to fit into a 12x12 layout.  I added a small cluster at the top left corner of the layout and my journal lines below the title.

Here is the final layout:

the completed layout.

I hope you check out the challenges at Scrapbooknerd.com forum or their facebook Friends and family page.

See you soon!

Materials Used:

cut file - title-  Hello Spring,  Scrapbook and Cards Today

White cardstock, American crafts

Patterned paper,  Felicity collection, Pink Fresh Studio

Chipboard stickers,  Soft Spoken collection, MAMBI

Ephemera and cut outs-  Felicity Collection, Pink Fresh Studio

watercolor,  Artist loft, Michael's

Best Friends

Scrapbook Tutorial for Scrapbook Nerd  - Best Friends -

This layout plays the idea of a storybook within the page.

Hello everyone!

I am excited to share the process of how i constructed this layout.  The inspiration came from  one of the classes I took at Big Picture Classes on interactive scrapbooking.  Here is how I created my version.

For this layout, you will need at least 4-5 different patterned papers,  2 sheets of cardstock, a large piece of twine/ribbon/yarn, embelishments, a hot glue gun, and two or  more pictures - one has to be matted into a 4x6 in cardstock, the other pictures can be any size as with a height of less than 4 inches.

1.  Trim your cardstock to a square of 11x11 in.  Using the hot glue, attach the page to a 12x12 in patterned paper, making sure that the cardststock is well attached to the backing page.

I used a lot of glue in the center of the page where most
of the weight will be placed.

2.  Cut a large strip of cardstock of 12x4 in.  Mark the center of the strip (at 6in), and proceed to fold it using a bone folder.

The strip of paper after folding.

3.  Cut a piece of patterned paper or color cardstock to measure 4x6 in.  You can use paper that works with the smaller picture you will be using.

I have trimmed a 6x6in sheet to 4x6 in.

4.  Glue the 4x6 in patterned paper to one of the sides of the inside of the folded strip.  It is better if you place the paper on what will be the right side of the open strip.

A closer look of the folded cardstock strip after the paper has been glued in.

5.  Go ahead and place the smaller picture on the patterned paper side of the strip.  You can add any stickers, cut outs. etc to this picture as long as it does not add too much height and dimension to the page.

I have added a heart tag to the left side of the picture with a chipboard sticker.
For some added interest i added word sticker phrases to the picture.

6.  The opposite side of the strip (adjacent to the picture) is where your lines of journal will be placed.  I have chosen to write mine directly to the cardstock, but a large Project Life card can also be used, if you chose to do so.

This is a great way to hide journal lines, or to add extra details on the pictures.

7.   Attach the twine to the outside of the folded strip.  Use washi tape to make sure that the string/ twine/ rope/yarn does stay in place.

I have chosen to use suede ribbon as my attaching twine.

8.  Now, attach the large picture to the front of the folded strip.  Do use hot glue, as you want to make sure it does not move, and as a way to secure the string.   The picture should sit flush on the folded flap, so that you can hide the edges of the folded strip.

The picture covers the folded strip and string.

9.   Use different papers to create layers for the little storybook.  I always attach my layers with staples,  i find they lend dimension to the piece.

I attached the storybook using hot glue to ensure that it won't move from the layers.

10.  I wanted to add just a few points of interest to the layout - I wanted to keep the storybook as the center of attention of the page-;  i used a heart cutout to trace  a few on the cardstock of the layout.  I punctured holes  along the edge of the traced heart, so I can use them as a guide for my handstitching.

I chose to place the hearts on the edges of the title words.

11.  I used hot glue to attach the layered story book to the layout.  I picked some large word foam stickers to form the title. and added a few pieces of ephemera around the page.

The final layout.

Here is a look at the layout with the open storybook

A look of the layout with the open storybook

I hope you enjoy this tutorial, and try this for some of your pictures.

See you soon!!

Materials Used:

Patterned paper,  Felicity Collection, Pink Fresh Studio

White cardstock, American Crafts

Foam Word Stickers,  Felicity Collection, Pink Fresh Studio

Suede String,  Recollection. Michael's

Chipboard sticker, Friend Favorite Collection,  MAMBI

Wood Veneer, Felicity Collection, Pink Fresh Studio

Word phrase stickers,  Felicity Collection, Pink Fresh Studio

Head In The Clouds

Scrapbook Layout for NSD 2016 (@scrapbooknerd.com)  - Head in the Clouds -

It is all about the fringe!!

Hello everyone!,

It has been a busy way prepping for this weekend's celebrations:  Mother's Day and National Scrapbooking Day 2016...    I found an outlet to my creativity when I started scrapbooking, so now I prepare to celebrate a whole day filled with inspiration.

This is the second layout, i have created for a challenge at Scrapbook Nerd.  Since, the challenge is all about the fringe!.  I wanted to create something  fun to evoke a child-like feeling in the layout.   I knew the picture I was scrapbooking was that of my nephew looking up at the sky while being in his photo session -trust me we tried to have him look at the camera and smile-...

For this I used the Happy clouds cut file from the Cut Shoppe...  I went ahead and blew up one of the clouds, so that it will fill most of my page;  a few extra clouds were also cut from the same cut file.  

 

I used a smaller cloud to add my title on it.

Using all Pink Fresh Studio's Felicity collection, I cut a few strips of different papers from the collection to about 2.5 in x12 in, and used my Cameo to make the cuts to all the strips at once  (I used technology for this layout).   Once I had the strips; i stitched them with the sewing machine to the large cloud cut-out.  I trimmed the edges, and glued the cloud on the paper.  I popped the outline cut-out on small glue dots), and attached the outline around the fringed cloud.

A close-up of the picture that inspire this page.

I matted the picture on white cardstock, and added just a few pieces of ephemera.   It was enough to highlight both the picture and the background.  I added the extra clouds and my journal lines inside the top cloud outline,     I love the results...

The Completed layout.

You can head over to ScrapbookNerd.com  for more lots of fun!!

See you soon!

Materials used:

Cut File - Happy Clouds  - The Cut Shoppe

Patterned papers - fringe - Felicity collection - Pink Fresh Studio

Patterned paper - mat - Attwell collection - Fancy Pants Design

Ephemera and Chipboard stickers - Mambi collections

Word puffy sticker - Heidi Swapp collection

Wood pieces and puffy glitter stickers - Felicity Collection - Pink Fresh Studio

Title - Silver letters - Recollections - Michaels

Title - black letters - Mambi collections

Project LIfe week 13

PL layout week #13

The first page of this week's layout  (and part of last week's on the left hand side)

Hello everyone,

As i am writing this, i just realized that i mislabeled this week's layout.  We are on week 1, which means this page should read " WEEK 13" on the top right card... It will be changed after this (oops!)

Well, i am still keeping up with a weekly PL layout.  For this week, I chose to continue with the sunny floral paper and the yellow scheme.  This beautiful paper for My Mind's Eye was cut to fit into each of the pockets, and then replaced with the PL cards.

 The color scheme worked perfectly with all the pictures of this page.

Since I had a large number of pictures, I had to use a second sheet for this week's layout.   Since it sits by itself, i was able to chose a different color scheme.  All the cards come from different collections created for Project Life ( I have a large stash of pocket cards).  I wanted to bring in some black, as I ways to tie in next week's layout.  I have to make a note to myself to print pictures in black and white.

The second spread of this week's\entry

I hope you are also, documenting your everyday.

See you soon...

Project Life Week # 12

PL Week 12

hello everyone,

We have just celebrated Easter, and spring is rapidly coming.  Fortunately, I keep on documenting along with the season changes and holidays.  Here is my Project Life layout for this past week.

This small page protector works perfectly
to add pictures to a weekly layout

As always, when the holidays roll around, family always comes together and memories are created.  I had so many pictures to chose from this week, so i printed them in black and white so that I could use a pastel palette for all the cards used.

Some of the cards come from cut-apart patterned papers from different collections

Whenever I purchase a new paper collection, I try to get a double sheet of the cut-apart page, this way I can always use them in my PL layouts.   All the pastel cards come from different collections:  Dear Lizzy's Serendipity collection, Amy Tangerine's Stitched collection, Kaiser Craft's Blackberry collection, and Dear Lizzy's Neapolitan Project Life collection.

Here is the first two pages of the past week..

This week, I used a third page to document our Easter Sunday.  For this layout, I used an old patterned paper for My Mind's Eye from my stash, and cut it into the 3x4 card size.  I enlarged one of my favorite pictures of the day, and used it as the center image for the page....  I love the results, and might start to use this format for at least one of the monthly layouts...

I love the color  of the paper, and some simple embelishment were enough to complete the page...

I hope you are also documenting your life... See you soon...

Choose Joy

Scrapbook layout  - Choose Joy -

Hello everyone,

It has been a while since i have posted one of my current layouts on my blog.  It is not that i have not been scrapbooking, but I am designing for Scrapbook Nerd and Quirky Bits-N-Pieces for reminder of the year, so I have been busy creating projects for them... Soon I will be posting them...

As always i have a folder full of pictures to scrapbook,  this one is a favorite.  As always my daughter and niece posing for the camera, but in this one they recruited my sister, too.  Since I wanted to keep it girly and fun,  I chose pastel colors and this beautiful cut file from Studio Calico (Camelot XO).

Only some of the cuts are folded and glued to the mat.
The shadow that the cut produces adds dimension to the layout.

I chose this beautiful purple Marble paper from Mambi's Love collection to create the cut-out, and backed all the cuts with MME papers from older collections.  I like printing my pictures in black and white, as it helps with the colors and it brings them out  on layouts.  

The title came from an old chipboard sticker page.
Since the background is rather busy, I chose to add my journal inside of the cutout pieces

Since I have a rather busy background, i chose just a large cluster of embelishments for the picture.  I tried to combine the different pieces with the colors of the layout.  So I picked from different sticker collections.

I love to keep cards, little envelopes, etc.; the purple tag is one of this year's
Valentine's Day cards from Starbucks...   Let's just say I am a good customer...

Finally i just added a few chipboard stickers around the cut-outs and a few drops of purple smooch spritz...  I love the colors, the cut file and the picture; together they make the perfect combo... I hope you like it too..

See you soon..

The finished layout...

Materials Used:

Cut file,  Camelot XO, Studio Calico

Pattern paper -main cut-out- , Love collection, MAMBI

Pattern paper -cut-out backing-, My Mind's Eye

Title - chipoard sticker -,  Recollections, Michaels

Hear Tag - Valentine's Day Gift Card - Starbucks

Ephemera -Circle "Hi"-,  MInc collection, Heidi Swapp

Chipboard Stickers, Mambi collections

Chipboard sticker -arrow- ,  Wonder collection, Crate Paper

Label,  Maggie Holmes collection, Crate Paper

Ink splatters - Frosted Grape, Smooch Spritz.

Project Life Week 11

PL  Week # 11

Hello everyone, i am so glad March Break is over here in Canada.  Our week was not a good one by far -it went from a kid and a dog in bed for days to having my main bathroom remodeled-.  Through it all I managed to photograph my everyday, even when our plans were dropped...  Here  is my album entry for the the week

My two page spread...

I discovered this smaller pages at my local craft store this week, and they work beautifully for weeks with a few pictures...  I used a variety of cards from different kits and puffy stickers to give my pictures some dimension...

A  close up of the puffy stickers.

I hope you are also documenting your life.... See you soon...

Hello Me

Scrapbook Layout  - Hello Me -

This weekend I took part in the Scrapbook Nerd's Online Crop.  Since the weekends are pretty busy with soccer and catching up in housework, and so on, i only had time to finish one of the challenges... 

This challenge called for a personal self-describing layout, so I gave it a try, and loved it at the end.   I hadn't used my profile picture for any layout, so I wanted to build the layout upon the picture and an inventive way to tell my story.

The cut file was perfect to add phrases in..

I started with "Let's Chat" cut file from the Cut Shoppe ( I love Ashley Hortons' Designs).  Once I had the cut out,  I made sure to clear all the  phrase bubbles, and just leave the edge of the shape.  Using the Dear Lizzy's Daydreamer collection (one of my favorites ever), all the cut was matted.

I wanted the word "hello" from the cut file to be part of my title, so I had to make sure to highlight it.  So a little bit of stitching was enough to create interest and dimension to the cutout.

I used embroidery thread similar in color to the thickers used in the title.

I matted the picture with papers from the same collection, and added just a few pieces of ephemera, sticker labels and tags.  I wanted the attention to be on the phrases, so i kept it simple on the picture.

All the ephemera and stickers are leftovers from other projects.

Finally, I wanted to add a bit of distress to the piece, so I used textured paste and a stencil to add a light chevron pattern to the top and bottom edge of the piece.  After just a few seconds, I scrapped the paste out, so that just a thin layer was left behind.  I also added smears of the paste to the back of the  cutout.  

A few splatters of black and mint color shine completed the piece.

Once in a while, it is good to do an introspective layout.  I call it Chicken Soup for the Soul.  I hope you like it as much as I do.

The completed layout

Materials Used:

Cut file - Let's Chat, The Cut Shoppe

White cardstock, American Crafts

Patterned papers, Daydreamer collection, Dear Lizzy

Layout -mat-,  Watercolor collection, Craft Smith, Michaels

Stickers -on picture -,  Soft Spoken collection, Me And My Big Ideas

Number stickers -on phrases-,  Snap collection, Simple Stories

Chipboard stickers,  Heidi Swapp collection

Thickers

White Texture Paste, Heidi Swapp collection

Color shine, mint and black, Heidi Swapp Collection

#ScreenCrushing

Scrapbook Layout - #ScreenCrushing -

The layout was created for the upcoming Scrapbook Nerd on-line crop

Hello everyone,

I have been asked to lend a hand in an on-line crop for Scrapbook Nerd.  The theme is Back to Basics, so I decided to use leading lines as my subject for my layout and challenge.  

First i picked three pictures of my teen son "taking care" of his cousin, these are a few of a series i took of them and it depicts how my son went from iPad surfing to watching the Minions movie within minutes, hence the title #Screen crushing.

The papers used come from Dear Lizzy's Serendipity collection.  Since i wanted to use leading lines to highlight the pictures, i went ahead and cut around one of the papers that had this intersecting lines.   I placed them  pointing towards the center of the page, and attached them on the layout paper using some back hand-stitching.

I tried to use matching embroidery floss to attach the chevron/arrow pieces to the layout

Next I matted and layer the pictures using papers from the same collection, and in the same color combination of the leading lines.    Before gluing down the pictures, I went ahead and added rub-on stickers (Heidi Swapp collection)  between the two vertices of the chevron lines.

I tried to keep all the colors within a determined palette.

Since i did not want to take away from the leading lines and the pictures, a small cluster of ephemera was added to the last picture.

I used the stitched hearts to continue with the stitched look of the leading lines.

The title was formed using Heidi Swapp thickers and a large phrase sticker from one of her collections.  In order to balance the piece i added the title on the opposite side of the ephemera cluster.

By splitting the title into two words I can balance the layout.

Finally i added the journal lines between the space created by the chevron lines.

I hope you are inspired to use leading lines in your next project.

See you soon.

The completed layout

Materials Used:

• Patterned papers,   Serendipity collection, Dear Lizzy
• Title,  Heidi Swapp thickers, and phrase stickers in gold
• Rub-on stickers, Heidi Swapp collection
• Stickers and chipboard stickers,  Soft Spoken Collection, Me and My Big Ideas
• stitche heart cutout,  Recollections, Michaels

Project Life Layout Week #8

PL  Week 8

Sunday nights are Project Life night in my house.  I like to go through all the week worth of pictures, and chose the most relevant to our family and our little piece of the world.   I am still new to Project Life, but i enjoy having a way to document our every day.  The layouts are not as nice as my scrapbook ones, but i love the fact that i can have all the pictures displayed in one album with the story of why, who, where and when next to it.

Firsr page of this week's spread.

Still trying to continue with the red accents in all the  February pages,   but since this week there is a lot of my nephew's birthday party snapshots i also used a colorful spread... Here is the first page,  I am using Amy Tangerine's Finders Keepers collection for some of the small cars, while the larger 4x4 cards come from American Crafts, Simple Stories and Heidi Swapp collections.

The second page of this week's PL layout.

A few weeks a lot I came across this American Crafts Birthday collection, and added it to my stash.  It worked perfectly to showcase my nephew's 3rd birthday celebration.  The  added decoration, comes from different collections.  The top sticker on my nephew's picture comes from Freckled Fawn, while the large love sticker comes from Echo Park's Our Family collection... The phrase stickers come from Teresa Collins' Our Daily stories collection, and My Mind's Eye marketplace collections.

The third page of this week's layout

Since there was a lot of pictures taken at my nephew's party.  I used a third page to add them to our album.  I chose to print the pictures in 2x2, 2x3  cells so that i could collage them into the Birthday collection cards. Though this page is picture heavy, I enjoy seeing all the happy faces of the celebration.

I hope this gives you a little inspiration on how to document and display your pictures.

See you next week!

Love Love Love Us

Scrapbook Layout  - Love Love Love Us -

The beauty of a long weekend is that there is extra time in the day to craft, in my case to scrapboook.  I chose this picture of my husband and I for the layout. Since it is all about us on Valentine's Day, I continued using Crate Paper's Hello Love collection for inspiration on colors to use.

To build the heart, i used the Half Heart Cutfile from The Cut Shoppe.  I manipulated the file so that only had one big heart to deal with.  Once I blew it up to fit into a 11x11 inch margin, i chose to cut just one side of the heart and perforate the other half  of it.  At the same time, i cut the words LOVE.. using another The Cut Shoppe cut file called Love Struck.  I made sure that the word fit within the heart's half.

The cut file has three words stacked.  In order to fit them into the
heart, i had to use the left over cut out piece to pick the angles for the cut.

The perforations in the heart make it easy to hand stitch the perimeter.  I used white embroidery thread to create mark the margin of the file.  Also, I added a thin  layer of gesso to the word cut out -since in my original plan they were going to be color with gouache-

A close up of the stitching and word cut out.

I wanted to keep my focus on the large heart,  so i used a bit of gold shimmer paste on the top and bottom border of the layout.  I simply used a palette knife to drag the paste in an inward motion from the edge.  Though it is not visible through the pictures, it adds a sheen to the layout in person.

I only used the paste in small amounts and dragged the knife with some
pressure to stretch the paste along the edge.

To create the other side of the heart, i used the geometric patterned paper from the same paper collection.  I cut around the triangles, and used an ink dabber to mark the edges of each triangle.  Using  a pencil, and the cut-out, the perimeter of the cut half heart was drawn onto a simple piece of 12x12 white paper.  The triangles were then glued within a half inch outside of the marked perimeter.  The cut out was  then attached using foam dots, so that there was a contrast in height in the layout.

I use all foam letters (from my local dollar store) when attaching
larger pieces of paper.  

The picture chosen was printed in sepia tone, since the background layout was busy, all it needed was to be matted on white card stock.  I wanted to pop the picture, so i placed it at the bottom of the cut half of the heart, making sure the width span between the stitched half and the cut edge.  A few pieces of ephemera were enough to complete the piece.  The word cut-out was part of the title, the other part was the word US.  I used large chipboard letters (from my dollar store) for this.  First I gesso them, after i added a layer of gold gelatos, and finally added pink glitter -to match the colors of  the triangles-.

A few tags and ephemera was enough to highlight the picture.

To add a bit of balance to the cut part of the heart,  a few cut outs and ephemera was added using foam dots.  This adds dimension to the piece, and balances the cut-out half of the page.

I fuzzy cut some of the collection's paper to create the decoration for the layout.

Once it was all attached, I debated over adding the journal lines to the page.  A white heart was added to the bottom left corner along with a cut-out heart and a few gel dots.  

I love this layout because of the different layers and dimension on the page, but mostly for the picture of my husband and I.  I hope you like it... See you soon..

The completed layout

Materials Used:

• Patterned papers, Hello Love Collection, Crate Paper
• Cut File -heart-, Half Heart, The Cut Shoppe
• Cut File -words-, Love Struck, The Cut Shoppe
• Ephemera -banner, button-,  Heidi Swapp MInc collection
• Ephemera -tags-, Hello Love, Crate Paper
• Stickers - arrow-, Soft Spoken collection, Me And My Big Ideas
• Chipboard sticker -heart-,  Family Stories,  Simple Stories
• Gold Shimmer Paste, Heidi Swapp collection