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Sunday, October 18, 2009

ETSY


So it has been quite a while since I have posted on this blog. I had my gallbladder out in the summer, and lost the urge to scrapbook. October is a month of birthdays for me (including my birthday) So I have started getting back into my scrapbook stash by making cards.


In my search for happy birthday stamps or tags, or anything, I ended up on Etsy. Etsy is a website to buy and sell handmade items, vintage items, or craft supplies. I have heard of this site before, but never really spent any time looking into it. It is a great resource for scrapbook, and card supplies and embellishments!
Some of my favorite shops so far:
leprintemps
paperandinkling
PaperRoute
livingroomfloor
purple mushroom

Through all of my searching, I realized that I could make a shop too. I would make thank you cards. So today I went to work at making 4 sets of thank you cards. I present to you my new etsy shop

My listings are on the right side of the screen.
After all of this card making, and working with my pretty papers again, I can't wait to get back into scrapbooking.
Further posts on that to follow...
Thanks for looking!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

More Basic Grey and LOAD Contest!

Here is my next project I made with the Urban Prairie papers that I bought:


The rest of these layouts are a few of my layouts for the June LOAD (layout a day) contest at Scrapdango. Come join us at www.scrapdango.net! I don't know how I'm going to manage next week, as I am going for surgery, but for now I am actually keeping up. Yay me!

Friday, June 5, 2009

Basic Grey Bug


I have officially caught the Basic Grey bug. Before I started scrapbooking for myself, and before I went online to look at scrapbook blogs and websites I had no idea what Basic Grey was. I have been eyeing the Urban Prairie Collection for months! There was a little bit of it left at my LSS and I used some of the line to make my sisters grad present. Last night I was at Michaels and the paper pack was on sale, so I bought it!! Yay!

When I got home, I went right to making a card with it.
I can't wait to get home to scrapbook some more

Monday, June 1, 2009

My Sisters Graduation



My sister's highschool graduation was yesterday. The grad ceremony was actually alot shorter than I expected, which was nice, because mine dragged on for so long, the principal of this school just motored through everyone's names. It was still really hot inside though!!

I made these gifts, and this card for her, a photo box and a note tin. This was my first attempt at making an altered project, and it didn't really go as planned. The first box I tried to cover, I put paper all the way over the corners and everything, so there was none of the box exposed, but then it made really ugly wrinkles and bumps in the paper where the box opened and closed, so I had to start over. The second time around, I painted the box a coordinating color, and then measured out each piece for each surface of the box, that worked much better. Then after everything was attached I put modge podge over top. The tin worked a little better, Steve spray painted it first with acrylic model paint, and then I attached that paper with super tacky double sided tape. Then sprayed it all with a sealer. TFL!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Crate Paper

I am loving Crate Paper right now. I received 3 of their collections in the mail that I ordered, about 2 weeks ago, and have since made 2 layouts, and 1 card, one out of each collection. The first layout I made was the "A Little About Me" layout I posted in my previous post, and then the second layout I was unable to post, because I was entering it into a contest. Now that the contest is over I can post it here. This one was with the MIA collection:






I had to post all of the detailed photos, because I just love how it turned out! To get the butterfly's wings to stand up like that I first folded them at the body, and then I curled each wing around a thick pen. The title was cut using my Slice (which is awesome by the way...review to come soon) I cut it in both cardstock colors, then cut in in half and lined it up. I drew the white border around it to make it more unified (it was hard to read without it). Underneath the photo is a hidden journaling tab. To do this, I cut a rectangle of cardstock, shorter than the photo, and attached a tab to it (folded over cardstock of the same color, that I cut) then I attached the photo just around the edges, and on the bottom, so that the journaling could slide right under. Because the tab on the top is folded over, it is a bit thicker than the cardstock sliding under, and so it stops nicely and lines up where it should when I put it back. Also, the shaped pattern paper, and cardstock I cut using a die cut cardstock sheet that I use as a template.

The card I made was with the Blue Hill Collection and I used sketch 81 from the Got Sketch blog.
The flower on top I cut with my Slice.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

My Favorites





I have been getting behind on posting updates, but I have still been scrapbooking. Here are some of my favorites that I have made in the past month.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Project 365


So I decided to start project 365. See the concept of it on Becky Higgins blog here. Basically you take a picture a day for 365 days, so that you can capture everyday things instead of just important events. I started taking pictures on April 19 and have been acquiring the supplies to put it together. I am still waiting for the page protectors to come in the mail. I am using a D-Ring Album by American Crafts, page protectors (6 4x6 photos per 12x12 page), and downloaded "week of" and journaling cards from Becky Higgins blog here (I just really liked the style, and didn't want to buy a bunch more stuff). Hopefully I can keep up with all the photos, and I should have a pretty interesting album by the end of it.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

...

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't posted in a while, I have been sick, and this has been the last thing on my list of things to do. Hopefully I will be feeling better soon and back to blogging. Thanks for checking in!

Friday, March 27, 2009

Creating Your Own Rub-Ons

If you look up "making your own rub-ons" on google, you will get many answers. You can buy special paper, special glue, special transparencies etc. I haven't tried any of these, because I don't want to put the money into something that might not work. So, I chose the cheapest way I could find. Printing on a page protector and rubbing it onto my page. A few months ago I tried this on my cousins baby book, with pretty bad results. It printed out all globby, it smeared everywhere, and it just looked really bad. With the past layout I was working on, I decided to give it another try. I didn't have any letter stickers or chipboard to match my layout, and didn't want to write my title on. Here are the steps of what I did:

  1. Get an overhead transparency (or the cheaper way) a page protector.
  2. Cut the page protector down to size (ie cut the holes off so it is 8 1/2 x 11)
  3. Create your design on the computer
  4. The image will be inverted once you put it on your page, so remember to flip your design especially if it is words (you can use any paint program to flip your image, I used photo shop and selected "flip horizontally" after I was done. You can also use Microsoft word for your words, just make sure to use the "Word Art" option, as you can't flip regular text.)
  5. Set up your printer. This is the one I had to play around with for a while, as I said, my first attempts came out globby. Using photoshop worked out the best, because it had better printing options. I chose the setting for high quality photo, and glossy photo paper. This way enough ink is deposited onto the transparency.
  6. Print your design onto the transparency.
  7. This is the important step (the one I neglected when I tried the first time) LET IT DRY. I was thinking if I let it dry fully that it wouldn't come off onto my paper, so I put it on my paper early, and it smudged everywhere. Let it dry for at least 10 minutes. I know...it's hard for us impatient people.
  8. Put the transparency ink side down onto your paper. Make sure it is exactly where you want it before you touch the paper, because some ink will be deposited right away.
  9. Hold it down firmly, and use a popsicle stick to rub it onto the page (just like a regular rub-on) you will see the ink darken in places where it has transfered to the page. When it all looks like this, remove the transparency..you are done :)
It doesn't look exactly the same as a store bought rub-on, but it works in a pinch. I would reccommend trying it on a scrap piece of paper first before putting it onto your layout. For me it took a few tries to get it right. Play around with the printer settings and designs, see if you like it.
Here's my layout that I used this technique on. The title "A Walk in the SNOW" is the rub-on I created. Let me know what you think :)



Update: This only works on an inkjet printer. Also, if you choose to buy transparencies to do this, don't get the ones for inkjet printers (the whole point of those is for the ink to stay on the transparency, therefore it won't transfer)

Monday, March 23, 2009

Another Kitty Cat


Another layout of a cat that isn't mine..hah. T.C. (which stands for tailless cat) is quite an old cat, but she still has great personality. Everyone calls her "puppy kitty" because she follows you around like a puppy, and when you call her she will come. Around the layout I wrote the many other nicknames of T.C. For the doodles around the corner I used Making Memories doodles rub-ons. I love using rub-ons because they can go over many different layers. Just make sure you rub really hard, and that they are stuck down to your page before you pull off the plastic, if not they could rip. Let me know what you think :)

Friday, March 13, 2009

Lego Layout


Here is another page from my Disney Scrapbook. I am having a really fun time going through all of my pictures and remembering my trip, but a really hard time deciding what to do with them. Last night I finally put some pictures to paper and made a layout. It's at the Lego store in Downtown Disney. The giraffe in the picture was more than twice my size! Let me know what you think.

Sketches

I have been looking through the sketches on the link that I posted, and so far my favorite site on there is Pencil Lines. It is a sketch challenge blog, so basically they upload a new sketch every week and see what people can come up with. Right now I'm not really looking for a challenge, I am looking for guidance and some inspiration, so I didn't use the current challenge sketch, I browse through the previous sketches to see what I could use. For my Pirates of the Caribbean Page a few posts below I used Sketch 113 . Sometimes it is hard to see what you can come up with with just a sketch, thats why I like that they post some layouts done with the sketch to give you a better idea.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Blog Giveaway

Check out the Created by Courtney blog for a chance to win a $50 Sweet 'n Sassy stamp gift certificate.

Blog Carnival

My blog was featured on the Make It From Scratch blog carnival. Check out their blog at http://gottalittlespacetofill.blogspot.com/

...it was also featured on http://cerebralbarbedwire.blogspot.com/2009/03/cerebral-barbedwire-blog-carnival-

My First 12 x 12 Page


Here's the first 12 x 12 scrapbook page I have ever made. I made it last night. The picture is from the pirates of the caribbean ride at disneyland. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I printed the map on vellum and then got my boyfriend to burn the edges.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Even More Kitty Cat......and a Dog


As you may be able to tell by now, I like animals. These animals aren't mine, they are my boyfriends parents, but they are the only pets I have to scrapbook. We are over at my boyfriends parents often so I see them lots. There are 2 dogs, and 3 cats. So you will be seeing alot more animal pages in the near future. Hope you like.



Layouts

If you are having trouble sketching your own layouts, or are stuck on coming up with new ideas, here is a link to a list of many great layout sketch sites

SketchLover

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Embossing Powder....not just for stamps

Over a year ago, a friend of mine gave me a stamp and some silver embossing powder. She had used it for her wedding invitations, and didn't need it anymore. I used the stamp once for a Valentines day card, but then after that I couldn't think of a way to reuse it, but I liked the effect that the embossing powder gave to it. I didn't want to buy more stamps, because I didn't know if I would get into it, so I bought an embossing pen. It's called "ZIG Emboss Writer". Basically its just a felt pen, with two different ends (one with fine point, and one thats a bit thicker) and it has almost invisible ink that takes a while to dry. With this you can emboss whatever design you can draw or write. Something fun that I tried was to make one of my papers more exciting with embossing glitter, here is a sample of what I did:


I basically just outlined the pattern on the paper with the thicker tip of the embossing, then sprinkled "Stardust" transparent embossing powder on it, shook the excess of, and then used the heat tool to set/raise the embossing powder. You can't tell on here very well, but it made the paper sparkle very much. Another thing you can do with the embossing pen is use it to emboss your writing. I used it, with silver embossing powder, here as a title for one of the pages in the baby book:


If you are just starting scrapbooking, it is a little expensive to buy the heat tool. I have tried hair dryers and car lighters, but the results are very inconsistent. I would recommend waiting for a 40% off Michaels coupon, and buying the heat tool then. If you already stamp, this would be a cheap thing to try, if you haven't already.

The products I used:

Marvy Embossing Heat Tool
ZIG Emboss Writer (with 0.5mm and 1.2mm felt tips)
Stampendous - Stampi-N Stuff Embossing Powder in "Detail Silver Opaque and Stardust Transparent"

All of these items were purchased at Michaels
Here is a link for the current 40% off Coupon : http://vancouver.flyerland.ca/view_coupon.php?coupon_id=1315#
If you are looking for coupons in your own area, just go to the flyerland website , type in your city and go from there.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

More Kitty Cat.....and a little on layouts

I enjoyed making that first page so much that I decided to make another one.


I find that the best scrapbook pages come from the simplest layouts. If you are unsure of where to start on a scrapbook page, start by drawing a rough sketch. It may take a few tries to get a sketch that you like, but its better that than putting it all together and not liking it. Here is the sketch that I started with for this scrapbook page:


Another tip I have for creating a layout that you like, is to not stick all of the elements down until you are happy with what you have. I put all of the photos and patterned paper onto black cardstock first, trimmed it, and then moved around the photos and patterned background a few times before sticking it down. I ended up going with my original idea, but its still a good idea to play around with it.

Kitty Cat

I am not feeling well today, and because of that I am a bit down. So what better way to cheer myself up than making a scrapbook page of my favorite kitty .

Monday, March 2, 2009

So You Want to Start Scrapbooking?

The Basics For Beginners

For some people, including me, going into a scrapbooking store is overwhelming when you first start. There are so many different tools, stickers, papers etc. What do you start with?
I would recommend not starting in a scrapbooking store. Superstore, Zellers, and Walmart all have sections for scrapbooking. Sure their selection isn't as great, but they are often cheaper and will carry the basics that you will need to get started.

This is what you will need:
  • Photos
  • Album
  • Paper
  • Cutter
  • Adhesives
  • Pen
Albums come in different sizes and formats. My first and only scrapbook so far was 8 1/2" x 11", and I will probably never make one that size again. Most papers and kits come in 12" x 12", so I would recommend getting an album that size. It is also a good idea to get a post bound album, they have top loading page protectors, and are expandable, so you can add pages as you need to.

Paper is the base of all scrapbook layouts. For just starting out some 12" x 12" Cardstock in solid colors will do just fine. You can get packages that have a variety of colors.

Scissors and an X-acto Knife will be your best cutting tools to begin with. To cut straight lines I use a metal ruler and a cutting mat. Just line the ruler up on the paper where you want to cut, and then drag the X-acto knife along the edge of the ruler. Don't do this without something to cut on, or you will end up with nasty cuts on your desk or table top. To cut other shapes use scissors.

Adhesives put it all together. There are many different choices, its just a matter of personal preference. You can use, glue sticks, glue runner, or my personal favorite adhesive squares. Just make sure the adhesive you choose is acid free, so you don't ruin your photos.

A Pen is used to add journaling. Write what the picture is, what was going on when the picture was taken, or how you felt when it was taken.

With these items you can make basic layouts. Use your creativity and see what you come up with. The fancy tools, stickers, and papers come later. Have fun with it.