Happy Birthday - Party!

This birthday card started with a Sizzix embossing template.  The embossed packages support the theme well. The "candles" was from a Hot Off the Press purchased pack.  The party hat was a die cut. The larger words were cut with my Silhouette.  While it's pretty simple, all of the elements certainly support the theme.

Using Vellum in Cardmaking

Today's card started with a scrap of paper I wanted to use up.  It is what you see here as the background paper and set the colors for this card.  I needed some thank you cards, so decided to stamp that type of sentiment. 

Looking through my stash, I was having a hard time finding a plain pink that would blend nicely with the background - until I thought to look at my vellum.  It was perfect!  I stamped my sentiment, then cut and embossed the vellum with a Spellbinders die in my Big Shot.  It turned out great.  I'll have to use vellum more often!

A larger white mat using a similar die helped the sentiment stand out.  A small ribbon bow finished off the focal nicely.  A strip of aqua glitter ribbon adds a nice sparkly border, but I decided to tone it down a bit and pull everything together better by adding a narrow white ribbon down the center of the wider aqua one.

Mosaic Bits

On Tuesdays we often look at using up scraps.  Today's card uses some pretty small ones!  Everything except the card base and greeting was made from scraps.  The white and blue background paper was a scrap, and the corner treatments were punched from scraps.  The butterfly makes use of really small scraps.

The butterfly is made using small bits of adhesive-backed cardstock in a mosaic-type pattern.  I liked using bits that already had adhesive on them - made the project go much faster.  Cutting the bits with fancy-edged scissors also added an interesting touch.  Next time I might ink the edges of the wings, or mat them with a thin dark blue edge to help the butterfly stand out from the background a little better.

Make Your Own - Embellishments

I like to have my embellishments fit the theme of my scrapbook page or card, so often that means making my own.  It's usually pretty easy to find clip art that works for this.  One of my favorite places to look for coordinating clip art is a website called "Scrapbook Flair".  They have lots of scrapbook sets - paper and embellishments - in a wide variety of themes, and that is where I got several of the elements on this page - the music border, the notes, the skates.

I used a couple of tricks on this page, rather than just printing and cutting out the clip art that I found: 

• For the music notes, I used "Jewel Dazzles" from Hot Off the Press to spice them up.  
• My biggest challenge came with the skates. The subject of the page called for roller skates, but all I could find were ice skates.  So, I cut off the blade, and added more of the Jewel Dazzles to serve as rollers for the skates!

Scrapbooking by the Numbers - 2

One of the biggest challenges for a layout with two photos is to create a clear focal - and the easiest way to make that work, is to have one large photo and one smaller one.  Here are several examples. Note the use of multiple fonts on this next page:

Sometimes the smaller photo overlaps the larger one

Here's another one with an overlapping photo.

 Sometimes, putting one picture at a bit of an angle adds interest.

Scrapbooking By the Numbers - 1

For the next several Sundays, we'll be looking at "Scrapbooking by the Numbers" - layouts based on the number of photos being used.  Today, we'll look at layouts with one photo.  This first example is of my grandparents at their SEVENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY party!  It is an example of one of the most common layouts - a main photo centered on the page - at least in one direction.  Here's another one:

This page shows a large photo with the journling and title overlapping it.  Notice the multiple mats for each element that ties the whole page together.

Now let's look at another common layout - a two-column look with photo in one column and journaling in the other.  Here are a couple of pages showing this type of layout:

 

These last two pages are from a memory book made for a retiring dance teacher.

Stamping Scrapbook Embellishments

Here are a couple more scrapbook pages from a heritage album. These scrapbook pages were decorated with stamping.  I don't know why so much of the time I just use stamping on cards.  I LOVED the decorative elements I could add this way.

Journaling Tips 10 - Little Booklets

In addition to the visible journaling block, this page also has hidden journaling.  The three pictures at the bottom of the page are actually the front covers of three little booklets that have journaling in them. 

Here is how I made them:

• Cut sheets 3.5" x 7" and folded in half to form 3.5" x 3.5" pages for the little books - as many pages as I wanted. In this case, I only needed one sheet for each, and I printed the pages before cutting them.  
• I glued the 3.5" x 3.5" pictures to the front (white titles were printed as part of the pictures).
• I laminated them (to protect them from handling) and then re-folded them, creasing them well.
• I took dots of self-adhesive velcro and used them to attach the booklets in place. 
• I slid the page into the page protector and marked along the right-hand edge of each booklet where I would need to cut slits.
• I removed the page and slipped a cutting mat inside before cutting the slits with a craft knife.
• I carefully removed the booklets from the page, leaving one side of the velcro dots in place, and slipped the page back inside the page protector.
• I slipped the booklets in through the slots and re-attached them via the velcro dots.

My Grandma Died Today

I made this scrapbook page about my grandmother a couple of years ago as a part of a scrapbook swap where we were to scrapbook about an important person in our lives. 

Today I got the word that she has died.  She was sent home with hospice last July with multiple myeloma.  I'm glad I was able to spend some time with her, helping out and visiting - 3 weeks in July and 4 weeks recently, but it's been hard to watch her decline.  While I am glad she is no longer dealing with such a devastating disease, I still mourn her passing.  She was a second mother to me much of my life while my parents jobs took them overseas and as this tribute page says, she has been a very important person in my life. 

I haven't had time to get on top of my blog posts again after coming back from my latest visit, and right now I just don't feel like posting much. I'm sure if I miss a few posts now and then over the course of the next few weeks, you'll all understand.  And thank you for that.

Ebony Color Me Toppers!

Hot Off the Press is coming out with some brand new Color Me Card Toppers.  I got a bit of a sneak peak, and they are so much fun!  They have the look of a black embossed design and the black resists ink, so you can color the design in a variety of ways.  It is wonderful to have something like this on hand when you need to make a nice card at the last minute.  I was so glad I got these when I did as there were two occasions I needed quick cards for recently.

This first one was created for a friend who was no longer going to be cuing our Friday night dances.  I colored the pattern in with Smooch inks. The purple matched my background paper so well!  I stamped the word "Remember. . . ", trimmed the bottom of the front of the card to mimic the edge of the card topper, and it was good to go.

 This next card was created for a friend who had been ill.  Once again, I colored it with smooch inks that matched my background paper (red this time). These are so pretty that you can use them without any color, or color them as much or as little as you want.  I started out just coloring the scalloped border, but decided to add a bit more color as you see in this next picture.

The greeting was cut out of black sticky-back vinyl using my Silhouette and a pattern I created.  I liked using the little heart in place of an "o" and decided to highlight that use by coloring it in.

Tiny Tidbits

Today I'll show a few gift enclosure mini-cards I've made with scraps.  I hate throwing stuff away that might be useful, but I don't want a bunch of junk sitting around either.  I want to USE it.  Scraps of cardstock make great bases for mini-cards. Scraps of colorful paper make great additions. In the past, I've talked about using your scraps with your die cuts & Big Shot machine (or similar) to create ready to use embellishments. These cards make use of some of those, as well as "innies" scraps from some of the more complicated dies. Today I'll show 9 examples of little cards I've made with leftovers - starting with the 5 shown above and shown in greater detail below (approx 2" x 3 1/4"):

Scraps from Die Cuts

Mini Heart Die Cut Scraps

Layered Die Cut Scraps

Small Die Cut Heart

Layered Die Cut Rectangles

I have some small stamps from Hot Off the Press ("Tiny Words & Images" and "Matching Borders & Focals") that work great for mini cards like these.  All the cards I'm showing today were created to go in a card box set I created for a raffle for an organization I support. Here are a few more examples - these ones are a bit larger (2 5/8" x 4 3/4"):

Lots of Layers

3-d sticker & ribbon with die cut

Here's one with a star window

Another one with a star window

 I like having a bunch of these little cards available.  You never know when you want a quick mini-card to go with a gift, or just to give someone as a "pick me up". And they're a great way to use up scraps.