Project 12

Is anyone doing Project 12 this year??

I am!  2 years ago I tried Project 365 and it became too much, and last year I printed calendar pages, and wrote notes and stuck pictures on it for each month. This year I am going to attempt to do a whole year of this, with a 2 page layout every month.

What is Project 12?  Check out the explanation here and here
The sketches by Becky Higgins are awesome and easy to follow, I think I will be able to do this :)


Here is my first layout...for January of course!

Next order of business - make myself a new blog header, the one right now is kind of a place holder.

TFL!

A Layout

I haven't posted since my design team work at Scrapdango.  It has been pretty hot here, and so scrapbooking has gone out the window.  But last night I managed to get a page done.
It is for a challenge at BackPorchMemories as well as Page Maps. 

The picture is of Steve and me, from when I was in the hospital for the 2nd time, after getting my gallbladder out.  It is a little blurry, but for me it totally works, because thats how I felt....blurry from all the morphine and demerol.  And when I look at that picture it makes me happy, because it reminds me that when he wasn't sleeping or working, he was there by my side.

Scrapdango Kit Reveal, and LOAD

I have been having so much fun over at Scrapdango, being the GDT for this month.  Everyday the DT has been posting new inspiration for the LOAD contest.  My week just finished, so go check out my inspiration, and of course what the other ladies in the DT have posted.

It was also the reveal for the June Kits today.  The kit I worked with was the Sugar kit, with papers from Lily Bee.  Such awesome papers!!

Here are the layouts and cards I came up with for the kit:

What I've been up to

My scrapbooking was put on hold for a couple months during my move. Now that I have settled in, and have everything organized, I am back to scrapbooking, in full force!

Here's what I have been creating.


Yes...I am scrapbooking Christmas in May
This one is a scraplift of a layout by Elizabeth Kartchner. Her layout was featured in CK July 2009.


These next 4 are for the GDT challenge over at Scrapdango

Mother's Day Cards
And a card for the NSD crop over at Scrapdango





Can you tell I like kraft cardstock right now!

Week 3 & 4... crowned

While I was a little dissapointed that I didn't win anything in the Crowned contest over at Scrapdango, I still got 2 more pages done. And in all fairness I was up against some amazing talent over there.
Even though it is over I would still like to share my week 3 and 4 layouts.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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 :)

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.

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.

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.

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 .