Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Peachy Salmon Inspiration

I was so inspired by the colours in my Little Hands, Little Feet layout, I thought I'd use up the scraps on a card.

Sometimes I find it difficult to switch between scrapbooking and stamping. I will do one for awhile and then another, but I find it hard to do them intermixed if that makes sense. I know that they use a lot of the same product and tools, but somehow I still see them as so different. I'm not sure if I can explain it. I get going with layouts and can throw pictures together, but then I go to make a card and don't know what technique to use or how to put it together. I recently ordered a bunch of the Annie's Attic books and so far I am very impressed. I ordered one of the Sketch ones (there are several different ones) and so I grabbed it and just flipped it open to a page and decided I'd use that sketch.


And yes, I know, there are tons of free sites on the Internet where I can look at Sketches, why would I buy a book? Well, because I like to touch and feel things and I want to be able to flip the book open and just make what is there. And my computer is not in my craft room and when I'm not feeling creative, if I get on my computer, I'll end up just playing online instead of crafting. So, I bought the book.

I struggled a bit, but overall, I really like how the card turned out. The Eiffel Tower is cut out using the Cricut (Wall Decor cartridge) and the word image is a Tim Holtz stamp. I used the Distress It All (it seems to be my Go To tool lately) and Paris is just from a cheap alphabet set I got at Michaels.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Tiny Hands, Tiny Feet

The other day, I sat down to scrapbook and wanted a quick page. I grabbed some tan cardstock and went in search of paper which would go with it. I ended up with this peachy pink dotted paper which was so outside my normal zone. I thought I'd go with it and see where it led. I get tired of always using the same colours. From the dotted paper, I managed to find two colours of cardstock which would match, which was rather impressive since they are not colours I would normally buy. But it was meant to be.

What resulted was a layout I really like. It's simple, but I still like how it turned out. And I even like the peachy salmon colours.


Monday, February 21, 2011

Tim Holtz Book

For the PMS (Pretty Mean Stampers) Social, we were supposed to wrap up our gift in some form of appropriate manner. So, if you bought your person a coffee gift card, you could wrap it up in a coffee mug. There were some fantastic ideas as the women in this group are incredibly talented. I bought my person a gift certificate to an awesome local scrapbook store (Scrapbook, Memories & More). I was at a loss as to how to wrap it up when I decided to just make a mini book. I decided to see if I could make one using only the Tim Holtz stamps I own. It was a bit of a challenge, but a lot of fun too!

I started by cutting thin chipboard into 4x4" squares. Then I cut up a bunch of old Scrapperdashery double sided papers that I love into 4x4" squares. I stamped out each page and adhered them to the chipboard. I rounded the corners using my Round It All and distressed the edges using my Distress it All. Then I bound it using my Bind it All. Typing all that out made me giggle as I feel like a Zutter commercial. Oh well; I do love their products. It's funny because I almost didn't buy a Distress It All because I had the little hand tool and that worked, so why would I buy the DIA? Well, after using it, I will never go back to the little tool. I can get a way better result with my DIA and it doesn't take as long. I can distress the edges so much that they gain thickness which is very cool.

Here is the cover of the book.


First pages.


Second Pages:

Third Pages. I used the little paperclips to attach the gift certificate. That way when she took it out, the page still looked nice.


Third pages with the gift certificate attached.


Back of the book:


The book came together fairly quickly. I only used two inks: Chalk Ink (Dark Brown) and Versafine (Onyx Black), so there wasn't a lot of decision making involved. Just grab some stamps and stamp them. And that's what stamping should be sometimes. I think at times, we overanalyze everything; is this the best paper? Is it perfectly centered? Should I use this ink or that one? Sometimes it's just fun to go for it without thinking. I think most times we will be pleased with the results.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Published

I received a copy of the latest "Stampers Sampler" magazine last week. It's always exciting to get one of those in the mail since I don't subscribe because it means I have a card published.

I actually had two of them published along with some friends from my local stamp club: PMS (Pretty Mean Stampers). Each year, we do a challenge. We choose one stamp and create a bunch of cards using that one stamp and then I send them into "Stampers Sampler" for their Different Point of View Challenge. We've done this for the past several years and as a club, we've been published twice. We've also had several member's cards published too.

I had included 5 of my cards and when I went back to see which ones I had sent, I shook my head as they published the uglier cards of the ones I submitted. It always seems to be that way. They never publish the card I love; it's always the one I don't like. I used to only send in cards that I loved, but now I send anything in because I never know what they will like. I encourage anyone to submit; the free magazine is definitely worth it.

As I'm not allowed to post the cards, I will just post an old card that I really like. I made it for a class I taught a couple of years ago. The background was a simple resist technique and then I just used Distress Inks overtop. I stamped the pear in Chalk Ink and was surprised to find that the Versamark resisted the Chalk Ink too! (Background & Pears by A Stamp in the Hand; Words by Amuse).

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Orange? Seriously?

Anyone know knows me, knows that I have my go to colours. And orange is not one of them. At all.

That said, I specifically ordered this Basic Grey paper package because it contained colours that were so outside my box. And I felt creative today, so I grabbed it. I flipped through the paper and this striped paper caught my eye. I put it on orange paper because I didn't think I could go crazy with colour. Baby steps, right?? I kind of liked it. I pulled a darker purple from it to mat the photos so they didn't get lost in the psychedelic paper and I really liked how it looked, so I did lettering in the same colour (I cut the title from chipboard and then from the purple and just glued the purple onto the chipboard so I could have custom coloured raised letters).

The package comes with embellishment stickers, so I just added one. This particular package has stickers that I can't see myself using (some owls and orange trees and such), but that's OK. I love that everything goes together. I added another purple accent piece under the sticker.

I love the look when people write and doodle on their pages. Unfortunately, I hate my writing and I can't doodle to save my life. It's really bad. I do keep reading how important it is to write on at least some of your layouts and so I try. I wrote a little bit along the top of the paper and then just added dots around the striped paper. It turned out adequate and even looks good from far enough away. I used my Copic Multiliners which I love. It's a set of 7 black pens ranging from micro to thick. And they're black. Really black, which I love. I brought them in last fall and have sold quite a few sets (they're $22).

I don't know that I'll be filling my album with a bunch of orange and lime green layouts, but who knows what will happen when I sit down to scrapbook again. Overall, I really like the layout even though it is so outside my box. It's fun to push the limits.


Friday, February 18, 2011

Gift Cards

Tonight is my local stamp club Christmas Social. We always have it in January, but circumstances required moving it to February. It's all good.

This year, we are doing a gift card exchange. We each filled in a sheet about what stores we liked and then our names were cut off and our sheets exchanged. It's kind of exciting. Anyway, one of my friends asked me to bring a gift card to my store for her to give to her person. I had some old ugly printed ones, but I wanted to play a bit and see if I could make something better. And I did.

I started out with scrap paper and thin chipboard. I cut two pieces of paper and one piece of chipboard to 2.5x3.5" (ATC size). I stamped Kayric (the name of my store) and the amount ($25) on the front and then I stamped the Tim Holtz bird and a Tim saying on the back and stuck them altogether. I rounded the corners with my Round It All (I love that tool; it will cut through chipboard) and I distressed the edges with my Distress It All (I also love that tool). Then I just inked the edges with Chalk Ink. I loved how it turned out, so I made two more generic ones with a blank dollar amount that I can just fill in with whatever. I don't get a ton of requests for gift certificates, but I do get enough that it's worthwhile to have one or two on hand.

I am still so excited about how these turned out!


Thursday, February 17, 2011

Flourished Hearts

I have all these photos of Nathalie and thought I would just put a bunch of the really early ones together on a layout. I figured I didn't need a lot of journaling (and I had just finished her birth page and wrote enough on that to get me out of journaling for a few pages). I was originally going to copy this one layout in a book, but in the end, it didn't turn out anything like that layout which was fun. Sometimes, I just need to look at something and then I can turn it into something totally different. It doesn't need to look like a picture.

I had a friend years ago who knew a group of guys who lived together. They used to cook for each other and the only rule was that if you made something from a package, you needed to make it look exactly like the picture on the package. I know a lot of people who try to do the same thing with stamping and scrapbooking; they see a picture but don't know where to start because they don't have the same paper or embellishments. I try explaining that it really is just a guideline. Get some inspiration from it and then make it into whatever you want.

I got the pictures arranged and needed to figure out what I wanted to fill in the empty spots. I often find that the hardest part. I get sick of the same embellishments and so I get stuck. This time, I cut some hearts out of chipboard (I love my Cricut; I can cut whatever embellishments I want and I can make them any size I want). I inked them with Victorian Velvet Distress Ink using my Ink Blending Tool and then stamped my favorite flourish (Magenta) in black. I loved them and they looked great on my pages. But there was still empty spots and I was going to cut out a bunch of flourishes, but instead, I just stamped them in the empty spots and I loved it. It's so simple, which I love.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

I'm on a roll

I've been scrapooking more and more and the creativity is starting to come back. I had my friend Lea over yesterday and I finished 2 layouts. I'm done most of the beginning ones for Nathalie's album, so now I feel a bit more free. I don't know if I can explain it, but I also don't know if it matters. I'm just feel like I'm getting there.

OK, so these aren't the most flattering pictures, but I don't even mind. I had just had a baby and I recognize that I wasn't looking my best, but it's really more about the adorable baby, isn't it?

Awhile ago, my friend Jackie Smith (see her blog here) convinced me that I needed the Paper Lace Cricut Cartridge, so I naturally said, OK. I hadn't used it until now, but I think it's one of my new favorite cartridges. There are lots of intricate patterns, but also some cool borders and other items. It seems to be my Go To cartridge. I used it to create the border and shadow on the first page and the flowers.

The patterned paper I used on the second page has some yellow on it and the pink and yellow looked so pretty, so I tried to add yellow onto the layout. I did some flowers and the shadow in yellow, but I couldn't do it. It just didn't look good. I know I get caught up in monochromatic and I've had my sister tell me to just add some colour, but I still fall back into what I feel comfortable. And that's OK. Sometimes, it's fun to experiment (I did that today - holy colour Batman; watch for that post in a day or two - you'll know it when you see it), but there is nothing wrong with doing what we do well. So, try new things, but don't feel bad if it doesn't work. We won't like everything we make. And that's fine. Once in awhile, though, it will work and we'll be left smiling.


Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day

I've been on a roll lately and feeling creative. I had an idea for a card and thought I'd just go for it.

I have a Cricut which I quite like and use for scrapbooking all the time, but I don't think to use it when I make a card, but I thought I'd give it a try. I cut a heart out of Core'dinations paper and then embossed it with the Seeing Spots Cuttlebug Folder. I quite like that folder! Then I sanded the embossed areas and some of the edges to give it that cool distressed look that is so easy with the Core'dinations paper. I stamped a background image. It's from the "I See Paris" set by Tim Holtz (that is one of my favorite sets). Originally, I kind of wanted a background over the whole card, but it wasn't big enough, so I just did it on an angle so it wouldn't look awkward and I think it worked well. Then I tied a little ribbon on the heart and layered it all on the card. I stamped "Je t'aime" (Heidi Swapp) with black ink and called it a day. Then I made two more so I could give them to the kids.

I really love it when a plan comes together!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Sweet Pea

I love this little stamp by Amuse; it's a little baby pea and there is a coordinating word stamp which says "Sweet Pea." I used these on my birth announcements for Nathalie and thought they were so cute. I decided my next layout would be the one with her birth announcement. I had an 8x10" photo which I wanted to use since it was the one we sent out in her birth announcements.

So, the first page was done. Wow. That was easy. I had a cool vellum overlay and I just put a picture of her on that and it looked pretty good. On the other side, I had the birth announcement, but that was it. I looked back at Eric & Kayla's albums, but the pages I had with their birth announcements didn't really work for this one, so I was on my own.

I didn't know what else to put on the second page other than the announcement. There wasn't a whole lot else to say, and I kept staring at the mostly blank page when I had an idea. I figured, I'd just print a graphic on it like the sweet pea on the announcement, so I searched for images. Unfortunately, most of the hits were of actual sweet pea flowers, but there was this one image of a sweet pea made from paper which I thought was so cute, so I decided to just make my own and I was quite excited at how it turned out. I used an oval for the pod (although I trimmed it a bit to make it more oval; I wanted a more pointed end, but I'm useless with scissors, so I just left it alone and figured it was good enough). Then I cut the little head from the DoodleCharm Cricut cartridge and cut green shadows. I inked the edges and put it altogether and was quite pleased with the result. I cut the words Sweet Pea and added them to the first page.


Saturday, February 12, 2011

Nathalie Flowers

I sat down and scrapbooked yesterday. I was on a roll and got a few pages done. And I liked them. All is good in the world. The stars and the moon are aligned and the pages are starting to come!

I have barely started Nathalie's album and I've been somewhat stuck. I never know how to start the kids albums. There is so much going on when they are first born and what order to I put it. There are a thousand possibilities and it overwhelms me. Yesterday, I just pulled out Eric & Kayla's first albums and flipped through the first layouts and started re-creating them for Nathalie. I had bought a family tree sheet and wrote the names on that. Check, that was done. Then I needed something to go beside it, so I thought I'd do her name page.

I'm all into quick scrapbooking, but it's fun to play once in awhile and do something more detailed. I was all about playing yesterday! I started just ripping paper and placing it and making it work. Originally, I wanted the page to be brown and green to match the family tree page, but Nathalie was wearing a pink outfit in the photo, so it morphed into pink and brown. And it worked out. I quite like those colours together and frankly, after doing so many layouts in Eric's album, I was sick of those colours. I'm excited to do pinks and purples again.

I've been playing more with my Cricut lately and so I just putzed around and started making flowers which I added. I tried various combinations, but in the end, stayed with the dark brown and pink. And when I finished, I really liked how it turned out.

Friday, February 11, 2011

New Paper makes me so Happy

People look at my craft room and always tell me I have so much stuff.

They are totally right, although I always say that compared to many of my friends, I don't have much at all. But I like to keep it all somewhat neatly contained in my room, so I'm running out of space. Which just means I need to buy more organizing things, right?

I had an hour to kill the other day and needed to pick up my scrapbook scans from my favorite scrapbook store, Scrapbook, Memories & More and so I thought I'd shop. I had just put up my Christmas portraits (yes, I've had them for 2 months and hadn't put them up yet) and the school pictures for the kids. That meant that I needed to scrapbook the photos I took out. I keep a separate album (which is actually caught up!) for all the "professional" portraits that I have of the kids. I started this just over a year ago and it's very nice to have all of those in one spot. I have 4 photos for each Christmas session now, though, so I figured I'd just buy new paper so that I could have stuff that coordinated and I didn't have to dig through my paper and try to find 4 sheets of the same paper.

I found some pretty brown and cream striped paper and some coordinating brown cardstock. Then I hit the motherload and found some red glitter paper which I figured would match the red dresses Kayla & Nathalie wore. I was even more excited when the awesome lady at the store told me that I could cut it with my Cricut. I was sold! I bought a bunch of other paper with specific layouts in mind which was fun and I was excited and motivated to get going again.

So, that night, I sat down and whipped off the 4 pages pretty quickly. They are very plain, but I still like them. I basically just matted the photo and cut out the name from the glitter paper and stuck it all down. It's very simple, but I still really like them. And the best part: I did all 4 pages in less than an hour (really quite a bit less I'd say).





I'm always so amazed at how getting new paper, or a new tool or something can make me so excited and get me back into it. Of course, it doesn't always work, but it's worth a try!

I have more posts coming (I know I've been absent). I have been back in the groove and have more to show (yeah!!). I'm going to try to get a couple posts ahead so that if I don't get here every day, I can still keep up with what I've been making.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Asian Shimmer

I really struggled with this card and while I don't love it, I like it well enough, so I thought I'd share. I created the background with Gold Lumiere and Fired Brick Distress Ink using the technique I described in my last post. You can really see the gold which I love. It had a very Asian look to me, so I stamped the bamboo on the background. Then I stopped because nothing I did after that looked good. Nothing. So, I walked away for a couple of days and came back to it. I then had the thought to use my Cricut (Pagoda cartridge) and just cut out an Asian symbol and mount that instead of trying to find a stamp that I could make work. I added a bit of embroidery floss and called it a day.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

A Shimmer Flower

I had a fantastic demo night and we got to play with a new technique. As I mentioned the other day, the technique is from The Technique Junkies. If you do not subscribe to this newsletter, I highly recommend it; it's fantastic!

It was really my intention to post a new sample each day leading up to Thursday, but I didn't get the time to make that many samples until I forced myself to on Thursday afternoon. I had started working on one card the day I did my first sample, but I couldn't do anything to finish it so I liked it. So, I walked away and came back to it. Then I had a bunch of ideas and it worked out. But that card will be later (it's the Asian one if you're looking for it to come).

I did make this sample which was my favorite. It's quite simple, but that's what I end up liking the best.


I created the shimmer background along the bottom of the card with Lumiere Paint and Distress Reinkers. I love the Distress Inks because you can do so much with them. They are meant to be used with water and not break down which is so cool. As well, I love that I can do so many things with the reinkers other than just reinking my pads. Anyway, you just need regular (read cheap) white cardstock, Lumiere Paint, Distress reinkers (1 or 2 coordinating colours), a water spritzer, non stick craft sheet and a cheap sponge (I cut them up, use a small chunk and then throw it out - I don't clean).

Pour a small line of Lumiere Paint on your non stick craft sheet (I actually use a popsicle stick to do this). Put 2-3 drops of one colour of Distress ink along one side of the line and the same of the second colour (if desired) along the other side of the line. Spritz with water and then sponge onto your cardstock. It dries fairly quickly since everything is water based. And you have a custom shimmer background. And because you've used Distress reinkers, it's easy to coordinate your stamping.

For this card, I cut out flowers using Tim Holtz' Tattered Florals Die. I did one in white cardstock and one in acetate. I did the shimmer technique on both and overstamped them with Chalk Ink (on the acetate since I needed a permanent ink) and Distress on the cardstock (easy to coordinate that way).