Layout Share: Stamping techniques and creating larger flowers

Here's one of the last pages I created with this month's DT kit from Memorable Seasons.

This layout is titled "Still the One".

 

Here's a few detail photos...

I created a border with two other pattern papers. The yellow paper was adhered to the layout as is, and the other paper was punched with a scallop border and then inked with a sponge and blue inkpad.

To create a custom colored border to the title frame, I used a dark red ink pad and a waterbrush. I smeared the ink pad directly onto the craft mat, then picked up the color with my waterbrush and painted it onto the frame.

  When you are picking up the color from your craft mat, the more water you squeeze from the brush, the lighter the color will turn out. You can always add more layers of ink onto the paper once it's dry if you want your color a bit darker on your project. I love how this technique gives a soft water colored look.

Here's what it looked like when I finished. On the right hand side, you can see some tags sticking out. When I adhered the title block to the layout, I didn't put any adhesive on that side so it would create a pocket for my journaling. My title words were created with the monogram stickers outlined with a black pen and the mini alphabet stickers.

I also added some of the same pattern paper strips and some of the cream pearls to the pre-printed lace detail on the bottom of the rectangle.

Here's a photo of the journal tags I created. These began as plain cream tags and I wanted to age them a bit, so I rubbed the ink pad directly onto the tag. When they were dried, I wrote my journaling on them with a black pen.

These are some pictures of how I alter my stamps to fit my needs. Cutting a stamp does NOT ruin it...you can still use it as it was originally intended, or you can add versatility to that image by cutting it to be able to stamp it in various ways or to omit part of your stamp image.

Another tip with using your stamps is to place them flat side up onto your project and then pick them up with your clear block. This allows for exact placement and you can even pick up different sections of the stamps to use with different colors of ink.

 Here you can see how I stamped the different words in two different colors of ink. This gives your project a truly custom look!

One other tip I used on this layout that I wanted to share was how to create a larger flower from a smaller one. I only had two of the large red flowers and wanted all of the flowers on my layout to have the same look, so I took two smaller ones and tore off the individual petals, then tucked them underneath the top layers of the flower that I had already attached to my layout with a brad. I just used liquid glue to hold each of the petals in place. The bottom two pictures in this set show the new larger flower on the left and the original flower I wanted to match on the right.

Supplies Used:
*My Minds Eye Andrea Victoria: Golden Damask
*My Minds Eye: Dad Diamond/Lime
*Melissa Frances: Sheri
*Donna Salazar Artistic Papers: Attic Journal Cards
*My Little Shoebox Mini Alphabet Stickers (cream)
*KaiserCraft Pearls (Chino--cream)
*Basic Grey Mini Monogram Alpha Stickers: Sugared
KaiserCraft White Flowers (colored yellow with inkpad)
Prima Flowers: Red and Blue
Making Memories Antique Copper Brads
Ranger Distress Inkpads: Scattered Straw, Aged Mahogany, Antique Linen, Chipped Sapphire
Technique Tuesday stamps: Ali Edwards ("this is why I love you")
Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment Border Punch
Cream Tags-unknown
Black Pen

* These products were from the Memorable Seasons DT kit.

All other products were from my personal stash.

Owl card and layout

Here are a few more projects I created with the design team supplies from Memorable Seasons.

I guess you can say I was on an "owl" kick the other night... :) Let's start with the layout...

And I have to begin with this cute owl! I wanted to do a paper pieced accent and was sketching out some more realistic patterns myself, but wasn't crazy about them, so I searched online and found this fabric owl here. So I drew my own pattern based off her design and cut the pieces out of various papers. I did add some detail to this little owl by stamping the blue "scratches" on the brown owl body with a Tim Holtz stamp. The edges of all the pieces were sponged with ink and then I layered them together and added googly eyes. The finished owl is attached to the layout with foam squares.

Instead of spelling out the word "owl" for my title, I let my paper owl do the talking and just added the black chipboard alphabet to spell out the word "pellets". My journaling was handwritten on white card stock that I cut into strips and placed above the title.

The main part of the layout includes several sections from my son's worksheet that he brought home from school along with his baggie filled with the owl pellet contents. I wasn't sure if I wanted to use some of the information from the front or back of the worksheet, so I photocopied both sides onto white card stock and cut out the sections I wanted to use. I loved how he had handwritten in some of the answers to the questions, so that part was a must. When I store this layout in my album, I will include the actual worksheet tucked behind the layout in the page protector since it included more info that wouldn't fit on this layout.

The photos I added were printed on just two 4x6 photos. I combined my photos with a free software called PhotoSheet made by Phototility. I dowloaded the software and it is so easy to combine multiple photo files into one single jpg. There are various sizes that you can print, but I usually use it just to print out wallets quickly. I punched the squares out from several of the wallet sized photos (I used the template that created 4 wallets on one 4x6 sheet). To fill in the space around the photos, I just cut papers to fit and added some punched borders and glazed brads. This was a really quick layout and I love how it highlights one of my son's favorite activities from his science class this past school year.

Supplies Used:
*My Minds Eye Andrea Victoria: Golden Damask
*My Minds Eye Sisters “Spirit” Woven Together/Girly Green
*My Minds Eye: Dad Diamond/Lime
*Basic Grey Capella glazed brads
Heidi Swapp: Black chipboard alphabet
Blue Cardstock, White Cardstock
Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment Border Punch
Ranger Distress Inkpads: Walnut Stain, Chipped Sapphire, Wild Honey
Tim Holtz (Stampers Anonymous) Bitty Grunge Stamp set--Blue "scratch" marks stamped on owl
Googly Eyes, Foam Squares
Owl Pattern: hand drawn, but based off fabric owl by Elizabeth Kartchner

  *Products I received with my DT kit. All other supplies from personal stash.

Now for the card...

I had so much fun making the first owl that I had to make another...

I used a leftover piece of artistic paper for the stamped portion of the card saying. I also combined several stamps and ink pad colors to create a custom look. The word "owl" was added with chipboard letters and the section that this word is glued on was stamped with the rectangle scallop and then cut out from the tan paper.

Supplies Used:
*My Minds Eye Andrea Victoria: Golden Damask
*My Minds Eye Sisters “Spirit” Woven Together/Girly Green
*Donna Salazar Artistic Papers: Attic Journal Cards
*Basic Grey Sugared: Precious
*Unity Stamp: Scalloped Details & Dates
Autumn Leaves stamp: "always"
Technique Tuesday stamp: Ali Edwards "love you"
Ranger Distress Inkpads: Walnut Stain, Wild Honey, Bundled Sage
AC Thickers: Yellow Platform chipboard alphabet
Brown Cardstock
Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment Border Punch
Googly Eyes, Foam Squares
Owl Pattern: hand drawn, but based off fabric owl by Elizabeth Kartchner

  *Products I received with my DT kit. All other supplies from personal stash.

Layout Share: We are Family

This is another layout created with the supplies I received for the Memorable Seasons DT.

For my title, I used the mini alphabets and placed them onto small rectangles that I distressed with my fingernail and inked to add depth. I also applied some glossy accents to the letter stickers to help them stand out a bit more.  The word "family" was created with the monogram stickers that I outlined with a black pen. The colors on these monogram stickers were a bit flat, so I used similarly colored ink pads to add some dimension to the edges with a sponge.

I hand cut the green and red border pattern from one of the pattern papers. This added some pop of color without being too overwhelming and I really loved the texture the pattern added to my page.

For my journaling section, I stamped the scallop rectangle image onto the same pattern paper I used for my mini alphabet letters in my title. I cut around the stamped image and inked the edges then glued it to my page.

This was one of my favorite parts to create on the whole layout! I wanted to mimic the same swirled and floral pattern that was on the red background paper, so I stamped some swirl images with clear ink onto the kraft card stock. Then I hand cut one of the butterflies from a scrap of the red paper, and added some glossy accents to the butterfly body which was then mounted with foam squares. 

For the flowers, the red color matched perfectly, but the pink flowers were actually white ones that I colored with a pink ink pad. All of the layers for these flowers were sprayed with Glimmer Mist. To create the flowers, I used 4-5 of the mini Prima flowers. Each layer of flower has liquid glue in the center, and you just scrunch up the flower starting with the center and adding the layers as you go. This is a great way to use up all those little tiny flowers that were sold in jars by the hundreds! :)

This technique originally came from this link and she has great detail photos of the entire process too!

For the leaves, I used a flower punch and punched one flower from the green card stock, then cut it into thirds with two petals still connected on each section. This gave me three sets of leaves. Quick and easy!

 On the red pattern paper, I wanted to accent the butterflies and the printed roses, so I added some glossy accents to the butterfly bodies and used a paintbrush to add some glimmer mist to the printed flowers. Very subtle but I love these details!

Supplies Used:
*Basic Grey Sugared Mini Monogram Alphabet Stickers
*My Minds Eye Dad Diamond/Lime
*Prima Romantica: Rendezvous
*Prima Pastiche: Dreamy Wings

*My Minds Eye Andrea Victoria: Golden Damask (lined side)
*Unity Stamp: Scalloped Details & Dates
*My Little Shoebox Mini Alphabet Stickers (cream)
*Bazzill Dotted Swiss Multipack (Dark Green)
Autumn Leaves Flourish stamps
Versamark Inkpad
Ranger Distress Inkpads: Brushed Corduroy, Walnut Stain, Worn Lipstick, 

Fired Brick, Peeled Paint, Wild Honey
Prima mini flowers (red and white--inked to create pink)
EK Success Flower Punch (cut green cardstock, then trimmed to create leaves)
Kraft Cardstock
Ranger Glossy Accents
Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist (Pearl)
Black Pen

* Product I received with the Memorable Seasons DT kit.

All other products were from my personal stash.

Layout Share and sketch: Bluebonnets

This was the July Sketch designed for Memorable Seasons by Cheri O'Neill (Let's Scrap).

And here's what I did with the sketch:

For my title, I used the mini monogram stickers and placed them on my layout, then outlined them with a black pen for emphasis.

I used a large scallop border punch and inked the edges of the scallops to mimic the zig zag pattern from the sketch.

Instead of using a star accent, I added a bow on top of the pom pom ribbon. I also layered some of the paper doilies underneath to tie it all together.

My journaling is written on the artistic paper and I love that the bottom edge was already pre-printed. I just inked the edges of the rectangle and added my words. The half-circle on the left of the journaling matches the scallop border on the top of the layout and adds some blue color to my page.

Supplies Used:
*My Minds Eye Sisters “Spirit” Woven Together/Girly Green
*My Minds Eye Andrea Victoria: Golden Damask
*My Minds Eye Ool La La For Him; Playful
*BG Sugared Collection: Precious
*Basic Grey Sugared: Mini Monogram Stickers
*Donna Salazar Artistic Papers: Attic Journal Cards
*Basic Grey Oliver: Ribbon Doilies
*May Arts White Pom Pom Ribbon (similar to this one by Fancy Pants)
Fancy Pants Mini Label Stickers: Naked Color
Martha Stewart Silk Ribbon (red)
EK Success Border Punch: Double Embossed Dotted Lace
EK Success Curvy Cutters
Ranger Distress Inkpads: Walnut Stain, Rusty Hinge
Black Pen

*Products I received with the Design Team kit from Memorable Seasons.

All other products used were from my personal stash.

Like a kid in a candy store...

I was SO excited when Jill let us pick our own papers for this month's Design Team kit for Memorable Seasons. I used to teach scrapbook classes and my FAVORITE part was walking around the store mixing and matching different papers, patterns and textures. These papers really fit my personality and have a vintage feel to them. Even better is that most of my papers were on sale!

I can't do anything by the "rules" so I challenged myself to just pick out patterns that I loved no matter who the manufacturer was or what collection it came from and to mix them in an eclectic way. I LOVE how these papers turned out together in person...you never know sometimes, right?

 These were the papers I picked out:
My Mind's Eye Dad Diamond/Lime
Basic Grey Tally
Basic Grey Sugared Collection: Precious
Melissa Frances: Sheri
Prima Romantica: Rendezvous
Prima Pastiche: Dreamy Wings
My Mind's Eye Andrea Victoria: Golden Damask
My Mind's Eye Sisters “Spirit” Woven Together/Girly Green
My Mind's Eye Ool La La For Him; Playful
Donna Salazar Artistic Papers: Attic Journal Cards

Jill paired my papers with some awesome monogram stickers, Bazzill dotted swiss card stock, some pom pom ribbon, buttons, pearls, an awesome Unity stamp, some brads, mini alphabet stickers, and a roll of ribbon doilies.

Here's a list of the extras Jill included in my kit:
Unity Stamp: Scalloped Details & Dates
KaiserCraft Pearls ( Cream)
Basic Grey Oliver: Ribbon Doilies
May Arts White Pom Pom Ribbon (similar to this Fancy Pants Ribbon)
Bazzill Dotted Swiss Multipack (Dark Green and Red sheets)
Basic Grey Sugared: Mini Monogram Stickers
Basic Grey Capella glazed brads
My Little Shoebox Mini Alphabet Stickers (cream)
Basic Grey Oliver Buttons

Here's everything together...let's just say I felt like a kid at Christmas when my box arrived! 

I will be posting the layouts and cards I've created with this kit over the next several posts.

Final week's challenge: Last Scrapper Standing

This is the final week of the Last Scrapper Standing challenge over at Memorable Seasons. It's my turn to host the challenge and I wanted to open it up to anyone interested...Jill will be giving away a gift certificate to her online store (Memorable Seasons) to one participant this week!

Here's the challenge:

Each participant must use at least 3 different stamps in 3 different ways on your layout. Any number of alphabet stamps used as your title all count together as a single stamp and a single use. If you stamp your title (no matter how long it is), you will have to come up with two other ways to use two different stamps on your layout. Choice of stamps and layout subject is up to participants. You can add any number of pattern papers or card stock to your layouts along with using more than 3 stamps, but must have at least 3 different stamps used in 3 different ways.

For my sample, I used stamps in these 3 ways:
1. Border--Circle stamps (stamped in a row as a brown border onto pattern paper) along with smaller dotted circle stamped in blue inside some of the brown circles; blue and yellow borders (stamped onto ledger paper as border accents)

2. Title --used 2 different alphabets to create my title (word "butterscotch" was stamped on pattern paper and cut out, the words "ice cream" were stamped directly onto the pattern paper) but both sets only count as one use.

3. Embellishment--100% Circle (stamped this circle image onto cream paper, then cut out with circle cutter and matted with pattern paper)

So I used at least 3 different stamps (actually used more--7 different stamps in all) in 3 different ways .

The Design Team will be voting again this week and we will be crowning one member with the title of Last Scrapper Standing and that person will also win the grand prize. We will announce the winner as soon as our votes are all tallied, so be sure to check back often. A random winner will also be chosen from among all the other entries (those playing along for fun).

I can't wait to see what everyone does with this last challenge!

Supplies Used:

*My Minds Eye Andrea Victoria: Golden Damask

*My Minds Eye Dad Diamond/Lime

*My Minds Eye Sisters “Spirit” Woven Together/Girly Green

*My Little Shoebox Mini Alphabet Stickers (cream)

*KaiserCraft Pearls (Chino--cream)

Tim Holtz (Stampers Anonymous) Psychedelic Grunge stamps

*Basic Grey Oliver Buttons

The Paper Studio--Vintage Ledger Pattern Paper

Dark Brown Cardstock (Archivers)

Making Memories Pewter Brads

Wendi Speciale Designs (100% stamp)

Technique Tuesday alphabet (Big Timber)

Making Memories alphabet (Classic Mixed)

Fancy Pants (blue and yellow stamped border accents)

Martha Stewart (Dotted Circle-stamped in blue ink on circle border)

Colorbox Chestnut Roan Fluid Chalk Inkpad

Ranger Distress Inkpad: Wild Honey, Chipped Sapphire

Creative Memories Circle Cutter System

Tan crochet thread

*These supplies came from the Memorable Seasons DT Kit for July. 

All other supplies used were from my personal stash.

Family Time Together...layout share

For June, Jill sent the Memorable Seasons Design Team the Fancy Pants "Like Father Like Son" Collection. I absolutely LOVE the patterns and colors on these papers. Here is the first layout I completed:

I used the background paper "as-is" and added some personality to it. :)

 The patterns printed on the paper were perfect for nesting several photos in a column. I ended up stamping some clocks and coloring them with markers to further fit my page theme of Family Time Together. I cut the clocks out and mounted them to the center of the three largest circles, covering up the large stars. I also stamped a tan scroll image in the center of each clock.

For the title, I used the kraft colored tickets and colored them with markers to match.The smaller ticket already had the word "together" printed on it, so I just used my stamps and added the words "Family time" to the larger ticket. These are also mounted to the layout with foam tape. You can also see part of the blue scalloped sticker border I cut into two pieces to nest on each side of the photo column.

Here is the other side of the scallop border. I added some hand-stitching to various parts of the layout to give those premade embellishments some character. The small label stickers were stamped with small sayings and black StazOn ink.

This picture shows some more of the hand-stitching I did around the three clocks. Each clock is bordered in a different way. I used tan embroidery thread and a large needle to add this detail.

Supplies Used:

*Fancy Pants Like Father Like Son Collection:
*-MVP
*-Elements Stickers
*Maya Road Kraft Mini Tickets
*7 Gypsies Mini Label Stickers-Naked Color
The Girl's Paperie: Paper Girl Stamp set (clock and flourish stamps)
Technique Tuesday stamps: "family"word on ticket and sayings on labels
Art Warehouse: "time"word stamp on ticket
Date stamp
Tsukineko StazOn Black inkpad
Ranger Distress Inkpad: Antique Linen
CTMH inkpads and markers: Outdoor Denim, Autumn Terracotta, Garden Green
Staedtler Marker: Delft Blue
White cardstock, Tan embroidery floss, Foam Squares

* These products were received as part of the Memorable Seasons Design Team Kit.

All the other products listed were from my personal stash.