keep on learning....

Starting this blog has been fun... I love scrapbooking and teaching others. Scrapbooking is a hobby that continues to come out with new things and new techniques to learn. Everything is a building block to take, alter, and make your own. I have recently started reading blogs for inspiration and ideas and to learn. Tim Holtz's blog is great. Lots of ideas and inspiration. He will be starting Dec. 1, 2009 - "12 Tags of Christmas" . I encourage you to take a look. Not only will you learn new techniques and tools but he will be giving away prizes! You will find it at www.timholtz.typepad.com. Enjoy!

Another great place to look is your favorite company's website or blog. Bo Bunny has projects on their blog. There are also a lot of groups on Facebook too. Explore. Learn. Create.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Flowers & Stamped Vellum

This is a layout I did last week. I was so pleased with how it turned out. I had a lot of fun inking and distressing my flowers. Below I will go into further detail. One of my favorite accents on this layout is my title. I originally put my letters on a shimmer vellum. But it looked so plain. It needed a little more.... So, I stamped! on the back of the vellum so I could have a pattern without overwhelming my layout or title. I LOVED how it turned out. The glitter "vines" you see were cut out from a double sided "sheet of sticky".. the corner was a design I cut out from my Silhouette, and the top was a die I used with my Revolution. I didn't want to use the same swirlys on my page so I mixed them up, but used the same color glitter to tie them together.

The flowers you see here are a combination of paper, chipboard, and acrylic. I used ink to create them and then used Distress Stickles on the chipboard flower. The acrylic flower I used Staz On ink to define the edges. The middle of the flowers consist of brads, bling, and A FLOCKED GLUE DOT! *

*I really like the look of flocking, but have had some not so great turn outs with it... but at CKC I went to in September I took a class and learned some tricks with it. The pink flower middle is a glue dot that I put flocking on. The key is in the adhesive and pushing the flock down, shaking off excess, and then flocking again. I am still learning, BUT, that is half the fun.

These flowers were also inked as well... with Stickles added too. The white and pink flower is actually a white paper flower with a epoxy flower sticker over it. The centers include more bling and brads.. and a button. The yellow/green flower I used different inks on... (Using more than one ink is a great technique... but make sure you always start with the lightest color and work to the darkest. This protects your ink pads)

The inspiration from this page came from Tim Holtz blog on November 9. www.timholtz.typepad.com.

Here is my latest page... the black strips you see are really acetate. You will be able to see that better in the picture below. I altered my flowers... I started with a white flower. Stamped on it with black Staz On ink. Then I painted Distress Stickles on the flower and sprayed with Glimmer Mist. I then finished with a BIG black brad in the center. My journaling is actually behind the acetate, which adds some dimension to my page. Each tab next to the photos tell who the gift was from.

Altering Flowers....

Flowers are the most fun to alter... Stamping. embossing, stenciling, glimmer mist, painting, stickles, glitter, smooch ink, watercolors.... there is so much to do! The SKY IS THE LIMIT!

I encourage you to think outside of the box. What can you do with a flower, a brad, a button? How can you change it to better fit your layout?

more altering....

The letters on this layout were just white glitter chipboard letters. I stamped on them with versamark and then sprinkled red glitter embossing powder and embossed. Also shown, on the right page of the layout I have a hidden element on my page. When you move the fasteners the page opens revealing journaling and another picture.

Here is the hidden part....

I had a lot of fun with this layout... I used a circle template to mark and punch my holes and then put brads going all the way around. The brads you see were just silver brads and I used Staz On ink and colored them pink and black to match my layout...

Altering Embellishments

There are so many different types of embellishments on the market and they come in about every color and size you can imagine! But, it can get costly if you go to the store and buy every color flower they have or to get brads to match all your upcoming projects... I have started altering my embellishments to fit my needs for whatever I may be working on... I now can get away with buying a pack of white flowers, a bag of clear buttons, or just plain silver brads... but when I am finished with them...wha-la! Following are several different methods to alter embellishments... Enjoy!

Here are a bunch of buttons that I "played" with... most started with just a plain clear button...

The same with the above brads... most were just silver brads... I love the way that embossing looks on both the buttons and the brads. (Just make sure when embossing brads you have something to hold the brad with, and wait til it cools to touch it... they get hot!!!)

So Many Ideas!

So it has been quite a while since I have posted anything, but my mine has been in over drive with a ton ideas. I recently had surgery so will be home for quite a while, which will give me time to play! I am working on a too cute turkey book and have several ideas for layouts using acetate. Also to come, some glossy accent cards and much more. So, check back and hopefully you will be inspired!
Happy Creating!

Dry Embossing and so much more....

This is my latest page...

I just finished it tonight. I started working on it Saturday! Between work and everything it has taken a while. The biggest obstacle has been a "scrapper's block"! I came up with the snow globe idea first and loved it. But trying to get everything else has taken some thought, but I prevailed!There is so much that I would like to share about this page... I will start with the snow globe first.

SNOW GLOBE: My page is actually mounted on a 12 x 12 piece of chipboard. I adhered my picture to the back and then a piece of acetate to the front. I put a "layer" of snow inside the globe using flock and then I then covered the chipboard with my paper. Because of the snow falling in the picture, it looks as though someone as shook up the snow globe.

FLOCKING: Flocking is a lot like glitter in how it is applied and used, but it gives you the look of velvet and is fuzzy. *TIP* When you pour your flocking onto your adhesive push it down with your finger before shaking off the excess.

The snowflake here is a clear epoxy sticker. I did not want to use it as a sticker, but as a charm. So I stuck it onto acetate and then cut it out. It is hanging from a string of glass seed beads.

This is a close up of my title. I cut the title using my Silhouette and then ran the letters through my Texture Boutique creating the raised dots that you see. I then just ran and ink pad over the raised paper to give it a little color. I used three blue ink pads... the lightest at the top and the proceeded to the darkest at the bottom. There are a lot of ways to accent/distress dry embossing. My favorites are inking (shown above) or using a sanding block to distress the raised portions. What are some of your favorite ways to use dry embossing?

LAST, but not least... Before adhering my blue strip of paper to the layout, I cut a slit in the middle of it... and then only put my adhesive on the edges of the paper. This created a little pocket to slide my tag in with my journaling.

Using Stamp Images to Trace

The wonderful world of stamping has come such a long way... There are so many ways to use stamps besides just stamping or embossing. Here is one way I enjoy using stamps to add that little extra touch to a layout....


One: I stamped my frame around my picture and then went over it with stickles. I love the effect and it makes it look like I free hand all the swirls!



Two: Another technique is to stamp your image and us it as a pattern to sew. Here I sewed glass seed beads on to my heart embellsihment for my layout....

Embossing with More than One Color and then some...

I really liked this idea when I first saw it done, so I decided to try it. I stamped my letters onto my paper, (I used acetate), using Versamark. Using my embossing powders... I sprinkled dark blue on first, then my light blue, and then on top I used a holographic clear embossing powder. IMPORTANT: Between each color I tapped off the excess powder and put it back into the jar before starting the next color. The results....

On this page there is also another technique that I absolutely love! GLIMMER MIST! My background paper was white when I started. I stamped my flourishes in the corners with white Staz On Opaque ink. (yes, white on white!) I then took my Glimmer Mist and sprayed my paper... The darker color in the corners and the lighter in middle and then using the brayer I blended the colors together.... As you can see, the stamped image is still visible because the Staz On resisted the Glimmer Mist.

The Beginning

This is the beginning...

I have been thinking of starting a scrapbooking techniques blog for a while. So here goes! Hope you enjoy and learn new techniques to build upon...

Christine