Memorable Seasons--Valentine's cards and layout

So here are the projects I created with the guest design team kit from Jill at Memorable Seasons. She sent me some of the new Making Memories Love Struck line and I had so much fun using it on my these cards and a layout.

So first, let's talk about these cards. The first one is the "I Love you" card.

I used the Martha Stewart Loop edger punch to create the border from black card stock. The stickers were from Pink Paislee and these are some that Jill sent me with the kit.

To create the flower, I used a white paper flower that Jill sent with the kit and covered it with a black inkpad. Then I stamped a word stamp on top with Versamark ink and embossed that image with clear embossing powder and a heat tool. The pink felt flower came in the Love Struck mixed die cut pack.

I used a black marker to add polka dots in the centers of the pink flower print on the pattern paper. I also used another backside of a paper to create the button. It is a clear button and I used Glossy Accents glue to adhere the paper to the back, then I punched the holes and added some black embroidery thread.

 Next is the "Beautiful Things Felt with the Heart" card.

 I hand cut several of the heart shapes from one of the pattern papers, then layered them onto the card with foam dots to create some dimension. I also added some Rock Candy Distress Stickles glitter glue to the designs on the heart and I love how this looked when it dried!

The pink border was punched from the back side of another paper using the Fiskars Apron Lace border punch. I tied a wide brown ribbon from American Crafts onto the pink card stock layer, then adhered it to my card base. At the bottom of the card, I stamped a saying from a Close To My Heart stamp set in two different ink colors.

The next card is the "Happy Valentine's Day" card. 

This was a quick card to make since the main saying and the two hearts are both chipboard elements from the same coordinating mixed die cut pack. I simply used a scrap of paper from the same line and put the chipboard elements on top with foam tape. Of course, everything is better with glitter, so I added some Rock Candy Distress Stickles on the hearts and on the paper at the bottom of the card.

At the bottom of the card, I added some pattern paper and some velvet rick rack with brads on the ends. You can also see some of the clear stickles on the center of the flowers in the heart pattern.

The next card is the "Little Love Birds" card. The felt bird, the postage stamp frame, and the two pink hearts on the right were all from the mixed die cut pack. I used a solid color on the back of one of the pattern papers to punch the pink heart on the bird's tail and the pink tab that the greeting is stamped on. I also hand cut a little bird wing from the same paper. Since the papers have a white core to them, I was able to sand lightly around the edges with an emory board to give them a distressed look. The kraft colored heart on the right was punched out from a scrap I had on hand.

I tied a ribbon in a knot around the brown paper, then glued the elements down onto the bird. I used pink embroidery thread to stitch on a pink seed bead for the bird's eye and used my paper piercer to poke holes in an "x" formation to add m ore stitching details to the card.  The top border is punched with the Fiskars Apron Lace border punch and then I sanded it with the emory board. The greeting was stamped onto the punched tab.

The last card is the "Be Mine" ticket card. I had so much fun using these tickets from the same die cut pack. The pink heart is also from the same pack too!

I took the tickets and lined them up on some black card stock, then accented the empty square on the right side of each ticket with some pattern paper. Here you can see the tickets before I added the squares to them. The ticket on the left had been damaged, so I designed my card to have an accent over that area and you can't even tell when the card is finished! :)

Here's the card in progress after I added the patterned squares. I did ink around the edges of the squares with a black inkpad to help them stand out a bit.

The pink postage edge border was cut from the large 12x12 die cut paper. These papers come already die cut around all four edges and I just cut off one side of the border and then cut it into smaller strips to use on each side of the tickets. I still have the three other sides intact with the die cut border around them and plan on using this paper on another layout soon. This is just one way to get more projects out of one piece of paper.




Here is a close-up shot of the finished card. I used another one of the white paper flowers Jill sent me and added Diamond stickles glitter glue to the flower for a little pop. When it had dried, I glued the flower to the pink felt heart and added a black button on top with an embroidery thread bow.

Now on to the layout....I used another one of the pattern papers from this same Love Struck line. It is the same pattern that I used on the "I Love You" card. I cut the paper down to frame my two photos, then rounded the bottom edges with my corner chomper. For the top edge, I hand cut around the printed design to give the edge a pretty scalloped border. I really like how the border turned out and it would be fun to do this again with a different pattern to see what the edge looks like when cut and finished. 

The three hearts in the center of the photo mat are acetate die cuts from the coordinating pack. I layered the center heart onto some green card stock to introduce the green color for my layout. The hearts are attached to the layout with the brads so the adhesive doesn't show through the clear design. I did add some Rock Candy stickles glitter glue to the three hearts to accent each pattern printed on them. 

On the dark brown background of the layout, I used my favorite Autumn Leaves clear flourish stamps and stamped them on the black with Color Box Chalk Ink in Alabaster white and Clear Versamark ink (to give some of them a tone-on-tone watermark look). It is a subtle, but elegant way to ground the title for my layout, my journaling, and the accents around the title. The journaling block, the pink flower and the ticket are all from the same die cut pack. I couldn't believe how many different shapes and elements were included in the single pack. And the best part was that it was a mix of mediums...chipboard, paper, acetate and felt. So much fun to use!! I layered the journaling block on another scrap of the green cardstock and I also tied in the green color by coloring the border of the ticket green with a marker.

The title was created with some American Crafts Thickers (chipboard glitter ones) and I also used the same Pink Paislee stickers that came with the kit to tie in the pink accents. The flower in the center is a combination of layers--the white paper on the bottom, pink felt one in the middle, then a green Autumn Leaves button on top with some brown embroidery thread tied in a bow.  I also added the Rock Candy Stickles glue to the pink letters and to the pattern on the journaling block.

Frugal Friday Tip: Using Memorabilia on your layouts

It's Friday again and I submitted another Frugal Friday tip for the Scrap Our Stash challenge blog. I'd love to see how you've incorporated these tips into your layouts and projects! Be sure to share them with us over on the challenge blog (email them to Kathy directly--her email is Scrappinpsycho@live.com) and your layouts might also be featured on the blog! :)

My tip today is to use your memorabilia or everyday scraps on your pages. They can be used as design elements or as accents. The memorabilia adds so much more character to the layout and helps to completely tell your story. If you are worried about your pages being acid-free, then be sure to spray your memorabilia with acid neutralizing spray.  Other fun memorabilia types to use on your layouts could include plane tickets, emails, movie stubs, menus, drawings, programs, maps, receipts, clothing tags, shopping lists, stickers/labels etc. Use your imagination and see what you can find around you that helps complete the story you are telling with your pictures. The best part is that these items are usually free and have the appropriate logos or names already on them.

For my "Neuhaus" layout, I punched the circles from a box that the chocolates came in and added them to my layout as accents. The pamphlets that came with the chocolates showed what types of chocolates were included in the box, so I glued the pamphlet directly to the top of the layout, then popped the punched circles up with foam squares so the pamphlet would easily tuck behind the circles and stay closed in my page protector. 

Here is the pamphlet at the top opened up fully... 

The smaller squares under the photos were actual tags that were wrapped around some other chocolates we purchased from the same shop, and the green ribbon with the name “Neuhaus” on it was the ribbon that was wrapped around the box to keep it closed.

Here is another layout that will go next to this Neuhaus layout in my travel album. It is a 6x12 page size and was perfect for holding the last few pictures and memorabilia I had saved from another brand of Belgium chocolates--Leonides.  The brown ribbon running down the length of the layout was the one wrapped around the box and the gold foil sticker that I mounted on cardstock and attached to the layout with foam squares is the actual label that is pictured on the box that keep the box sealed closed.

The brown damask paper from this layout and from the 12 x 12 Neuhaus layout above are both left over from the Joseph's Coat technique I featured earlier on my blog in this post with directions. Be sure to click that link if you would like to know how to create this type of paper.

On my "Kinder Eggs" layout, I used the foil wrapper from the actual chocolate egg, and also the folded paper that showed the variety of toy car colors that were included inside the egg's plastic center. My egg held the yellow smart car.

I wrapped the foil around a piece of scrap card stock, then cut it down to size to fit onto my layout. I only glued the foil along the edges. Once it was folded around the card stock, the card stock gave the foil some strength so I was able to smooth it out and the the words were easy to read.

I matted the folded toy paper that came inside the egg with orange pattern paper and mounted it to the bottom of my layout. Then I was able to add my photos around those elements. You can also see that I outlined the photos and the edge of the die cut pattern paper background to give more of a finished look to the layout. This die cut pattern paper already had the blue print on the inside and the green postage stamp border around all four edges, so it was a perfect way to quickly frame my layout. The added orange colors help to keep focus on my photos and memorabilia.

I added my title with American Crafts Thickers (black felt) slightly overlapping the photo to tie everything together. I love the texture these stickers give to my layouts!

My journaling areas were added with stamped images from Purple Onion Designs (rectangular ledgers stamped in black ink onto white card stock scraps). I cut one of them apart at the top to create a smaller area for my date and added some black ribbon tied in a knot to finish it off.

In my next layout, "Our Flight", I used our plane boarding tickets for memorabilia along with some photos I took of our flight home from the plane window. I didn't worry about the tickets not being acid-free, but I did keep the tickets from touching my photos on the layout, and I created a pocket for the menus that I saved from the meals we were served while on the plane.

I used a Martha Stewart border punch (3 Dot edger) to create a border to be used on my layout. This helped to soften the lines of my layout and pull everything together with a lighter color.

I added a printed fabric sticker along the top of the layout near my title. This sticker was from the Making Memories Passport collection. My title was created with American Crafts Thickers (blue vinyl) and Making Memories glitter stickers (silver) and I staggered the letters for interest and to fill the space I had open along the top corner of the layout.

Hopefully, this gives you a better idea of some other fun ways to use memorabilia on your layouts.

Guest Design Team--Memorable Seasons

I'm very excited to have been asked to be a guest designer this month for Memorable Seasons, an online scrapbook store. Jill sent me a fun Valentine's kit to work with that features the Making Memories Love Struck line. I have really enjoyed working with these beautiful papers and have a whole stack of cards and a layout to share over on their message boards this week.

One of the things I needed to do as a guest designer was to issue a scrapbook challenge, and my challenge is this: use a pattern paper and hand cut a border design and add a heart to your project. I'd love to have you join me over at Memorable Seasons for my challenge! Pictures of my projects to come soon!

Memorable Seasons is also having an online crop this weekend (Friday Jan 22-Saturday Jan 23)...these online crops are always so much fun and the best part is that there is no packing up supplies and you can scrapbook in your jammies! :)

Merry & Bright

Over at Scrap Our Stash, the January challenge is to scrap something you got for Christmas or to use some of your scrappy goodies you received for Christmas. I didn't receive any scrappy goodies this year, so I just used my Cricut that I got for Christmas last year and made a layout about a special gift I was given this year from my husband.

I used my SCAL (Sure Cuts A Lot) software with the Cricut Expression to create the title from a font I had on my computer. I welded the letters together and cut them from red cardstock, then glittered the letters with stickles glue. When that dried, I traced the title with a white gel pen (Ranger Inkssentials) to make it pop up off the brown paper.

 

I wanted to use some non-Christmas papers for this layout, and I used three papers from Die Cuts with a View (Eco Stack). The red frame paper with a cream center had a bunch of brown flowers on the left side which didn't work for my Christmas theme, so I cut the left side of the frame off, then cut out the red border with an exacto knife. I traced the cut out shape onto the brown paper, cut it out and placed it next to the cream pattern, then glued the red border back on top, making sure to match up the edges. You can see some of that detail here in the picture below. Once the frame was pieced back together, I placed it back onto a busier pattern paper. I did cut out a square in the middle of this background pattern so I wouldn't be wasting the paper, then glued the frame on top.

The pictures are matted onto a metallic gold paper, then the main photo is raised up with foam squares.  I stamped some labels in ColorBox brown pigment ink, then hand cut them and used them in various places on my layout. The larger lined label is where I wrote my journaling. The label stamps were all from Green Grass Stamps. On top of the labels, I added some Making Memories holly and berry buttons, then I glued some clear jewels from The Paper Studio on top of the red buttons and around the leaves. The labels are attached with brown Heidi Swapp brads and I added some Diamond Stickles glitter glue to the label edge. I was able to use some older Making Memories definition stickers from my stash and I placed these on the top label and underneath my collage of photos.

I used my Fiskars Apron Lace border punch and some more of the brown pattern paper to create a border between my photos and my journaling. Making Memories glitter number stickers were also used under the stamped journaling label to add the year to my layout.

We'd love to have you join us in our January Challenge over at Scrap Our Stash!!

Christmas Wreath Tutorial

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! :) We sure did and I enjoyed being able to spend so much time together as a family. One of the many projects I had wanted to complete this year was a Christmas ball wreath and I LOVE how it turned out!! I took lots of photos while I was creating the wreath and wanted to put together a photo tutorial so I could share it here on my blog.

To start off, you need to purchase a metal wreath frame (mine was $2.47 from the local craft store--remember the bigger it is, the more ornaments it will use) and you will need more ornaments than you think you will...trust me on this one!  I ended up using 2 boxes of ornaments in each color (4 boxes of 24 total, but I did have leftovers of all colors) and that was mainly because I was doing a pattern with the large and small ornaments in each color. If your ornaments were all the same size, you could use some that had glitter to add an extra accent. I will say to make sure you use the SHATTERPROOF ornaments if you are hanging this wreath on your front door! If it will only be hung inside on a wall for an accent, it probably doesn't matter. I fell in love with some glass ornaments and have had to replace a few because that's what I used for my wreath...lesson learned. I also went back after Christmas and purchased some shatterproof ornaments on clearance so I could make another one for next year in some different colors.  You will also need LOTS of glue sticks and a hot glue gun, some jingle bells, 26 gauge wire and ribbon of your choice.  The jingle bells and ribbon I was able to purchase before Christmas on sale 50% off so I was thrilled!

  Start by laying your first row of ornaments onto the wreath base and hot glue them down. I turned all my ornaments so that the metal hanging tops were face down.

Here is a picture of the underside of the wreath at this point.

Then to add a little stability to this base layer, I used the wire to anchor the hanging tops of each ornament to the wire base. I just basically cut a short piece of wire (3 inches or so) and threaded it through the hanging loop and around the wire base, then twisted it like a bread tie. I did add a little dot of hot glue to the twisted wire to keep it in place.

Once you have finished that step, you are ready to start adding your second layer of ornaments. I started on the outside and created a pattern with my colors, using smaller sized ornaments. Here you can see as I started creating my pattern. All these ornaments were attached with hot glue only.

The next step was to work on the inside edge of the wreath and add your layers there. I created a pattern to follow on the inside using the smaller ornaments as well and glued them all down until I had the basic wreath size I was wanting.

The next step is to fill in the gaps on the top side of the ornaments. Right now, your wreath will be very flat looking with the three rows of ornaments (base, inside and outside rows) and there is still large spaces between the small ornaments. This next set of ornaments will give it more of a full look and create a top layer that will be perfect for the extra embellishments. Here's what it will look like when you are finished with that step.

 Now it's time to add your extra "embellishments". I used silver jingle bells and some loops I created with green wired ribbon.  To make the loops, I cut 4 inches of wired ribbon, then put hot glue on the bottom edge, and folded the ribbon over to create a loop. When that dried, I added glue to half of the bottom edge and folded the ribbon over in half  to make a pleated loop. When this dried, I opened up the loops with my fingers and fluffed them before I glued them into spaces in my wreath. I love the pop of the green color and the jingle bells were added last, filling in any other spaces I had open. This sounds so festive when your door opens and I love the extra sparkle that the bells bring to the wreath.

By the time you get done with all this hot gluing, you will have glue strings coming out from every direction. The easy way to clean most of it up is to pick off the biggest thickest pieces with your hands once it's all dried, then use your heat tool to melt the smallest strings of glue. Be careful to not use your heat gun too long over the surfaces (especially your ribbons), but keep the heat tool moving.

The last step is to use a longer piece of wire to create a hanging loop. I don't have a picture of this step, but I pretty much used a long piece that I doubled back on itself to create a stronger loop, then I twisted it around two points on the metal wreath base to create a loop. I used a wreath hanger to hang it from my door and I'm thrilled with the results! The glass balls really do catch the light all day long and seem to glow...so pretty!

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!!