Using Your Foil Papier Tole Scraps

This card is a bit hard to see. It is all metallic, so doesn't show as well in a picture. It is an example of making good use of scraps.  The main focal is a 3-d Papier Tole heart design from Hot Off the Press.  You can see the set it comes in below:

After punching out all the elements of the 3 different designs, I took a look at the remaining scraps to see what I might be able to use.  First, I trimmed off the lacy edge of the title of this papier tole sheet. Then I trimmed off the other three edges of the sheet. You can see that I used several of these strips to form borders on the card.

Next I used all the remaining scraps to punch as many hearts as I could from the red foil.  I used the smallest Xyron sticker maker to make them into stickers.  I used these hearts to help decorate the card in addition to the extra artwork that came with the foil papier tole.

Make Your Own - Frames

Today we'll look at frames.  Often they can be made pretty simply by matting the photo - and in this case, the whole page.  Notice how the red frame is enhanced with a few peel off stickers.

Here's another simple mat-type frame.  This one is enhanced with a clip art bow that has been cut out, and some Jewel Dazzles in the upper right corner.

This frame is basically a mat with a fancy-cut edge.  It is enhanced with clip art of ribbons and bow that have been printed, cut out, and glued to the frame.  A few Jewel Dazzles finish off one corner.

Simple techniques like these can really enhance your scrapbook page, card, or other paper craft item.

Mats & Frames Part 3

I like the look I've been able to get by using "Card Creators" punches by EK Success.  They create fancy corner treatments on your basic photo mats. This first one is called "Basket Weave".  These punched mats are very easy to make.  Simply test to see how wide the border is that the punch creates.  Cut a mat for your photo with this size border on all four edges.  Then all you have to do is punch each corner.

This page uses another card creator called "Graceful Heart."  While it can be used for many photos, it is especially effective for wedding, anniversary, and Valentine's Day themed pages.

This page shows another punch called "Venetian."  The various Card Creator punches really dress up photo mats.

While this page is not my favorite, it DOES demonstrate a fun variation on this theme -- multiple Card Creator punched mats.  As you can see, this photo uses three punched mats - green, white, and black.

Thanksgiving Apples

Here's another Thanksgiving card to add to my growing stash for this November.  The focal on this one is from the Autumn Scrapbooking Dazzles set.  I like to use a paper piecing technique with outline stickers like this.  Paper piecing also allows for perfect matching of sticker with other elements.  In this example, I used the same red paper for the apples and the border on this card.  Rather than using tiny pieces of green for the leaves, I colored them with Smooch ink.

Christmas in July - Cardinal

Well, today's the last Thursday of the month, so it's time for another Christmas card.  Actually, I've shown several Christmas cards this month.  I wanted to make at least 8 Christmas cards a month so I wouldn't have a big crunch at Christmas time.  I was getting behind, so lately I've made quite a few of them.

Today's focal was stamped with white pigment ink on red glimmer paper.  I then colored it with blue chalk.  I figured it would look pretty good on a blue background and I've been wanting to use up my printed card bases, so I chose this one.  In my quest to use up stash I have on hand, I came across this ribbon - seemed to set it off just right.

Use It Up - Using Stash - Embellishments

Here's another card made with stash I've had around for awhile.  It started with a focal that I had made for a challenge some time ago - stamp with white pigment ink on dark paper and then color with chalks.  This one also has some Stickles to add some glitz. 

I was focused this time on using embellishments, so I found these pretty holly brads that I'd had for awhile, and some Christmas labels I wanted to use. 

I had cut out the red lattice with a die I have from Cheery Lynn and glued it to the white card base.  I cut the label in half, put half on either side of the focal, and added the brads.  A bit of ribbon finishes it off.

It's interesting to note what a difference a little thing like a ribbon bow can make on a card.  Compare my finished card to this one without the bow - it just somehow doesn't feel complete!

Make Your Own - Photo Corners

Photo corners are really easy to make.  You can make simple ones from a strip of paper.  Make sure the paper is the same width as the depth you want for your photo corner.  Starting at one edge, fold the top corner down to meet the bottom edge. Take the long edge and fold it down to meet the front of the first folded edge.  This creates a triangular pocket.  The two flaps are the underside of your photo corner.  If you wish, you can trim the front edge with decorative scissors to give an interesting look.

Alternatively you can buy a punch to create photo corners.  That is what I've used on these pages.  The "Gratitude" page features layered corners - gray over white - with a punched snowflake and mini Jewel Dazzle glued on top to decorate it a bit.

This page shows plain photo corners - this time on the journaling block.

Mats & Frames Part 2

Today we continue our look at mats and frames with a look at photo corners.  The Walter Harris page above makes use of both mats and photo corners.  These mats are a bit more elaborate than the plain rectangles demonstrated last week.  Not only were they cut with a fancy edge paper cutter, they also have pen work close to all edges which helps them stand out. This is also done on the hand-made photo corners. Note that photo corners aren't just for photos - here they were used on the photo frame, rather than the photo itself. 

Not all photo treatments are actual corner pockets.  In this case, the corners are simple shapes that are glued on top of the photo's corners.  If you don't wish to put adhesive on the photos, you can glue the corner shapes to purchased clear photo corners that actually hold the photos. Note that you can also decorate the plain corners with embellishments - like flowers.

This page has another set of hand-made photo corners.  Making your own allows for coordination like you see here where the title, border, and corners are all from the same paper.

This last example shows a variety of techniques.  The first picture is matted with a wide mat.  The next has hand-made photo corners, while the last two are mounted with clear photo corners.  Note that the title of the page is placed on the wide photo mat. 

PW June Sketch Challenge

Today's card was created from the sketch for the June sketch challenge on the Paper Wishes message board.  In addition to following the sketch, I also wanted to use up stash, so most elements of this card - included the printed card base - are things I've had in my stash for awhile.

For those of you interested in a peak inside my artistic process, I decided to show you the first couple of tries at this card before I got what I liked. The first attempt looked like this:

This version felt a bit top heavy.  I had 3 flowers (following the rule of 3's) but they didn't flow well.  The bottom one seemed too small and the top too were too close together for the size they were.  I thought maybe I could swap a couple of them to get a better look:

In some ways this looked better, but the small flower still seemed a bit small and I missed the pink the others had.  Then I decided to add a couple of ribbons and ended up with my final version at the top of this post.

Stenciled Focal

Today's card starts with a stenciled focal and dimensional paint.  I wanted a lavender dimensional paint, but didn't have that color.  I did, however, have light blue paint, red paint, and white paint.  Combining them all gave me the lavender paint I needed for this card.  After it dried I cut around it and then matted it on a piece of white glimmer paper that was cut with a Spellbinders die.

The border was a scrap of paper from Hot Off the Press that was matted on another piece of white glimmer paper that was punched on both edges with Martha Stewart's Doily punch.  Stamping the word "Cherish" multiple times finished the border.

Fun with Sheep

This page illustrates several techniques for making embellishments fit the theme - in this case the theme is a "Spellbound" tour that wound through fields of sheep. 

The purchased background paper was a good start for displaying the strip of photos on the right.  A couple of additions were important in supporting the theme, however.  First, I cut out a picture of the tour's van and placed it on the paper as though it were driving along the road.  Next, I printed a bunch of clip art sheep, some of them were flipped left to right to add variety. Then they were all cut out and glued on the background page.

Designables - Cutting and Embossing Folders

I LOVE these cutting and embossing folders from Marianne Design - so nice to be able to do it in ONE step! If you've been watching, you've seen several cards made with this particular folder.  Once I got it, I just HAD to play with it! 

The cut and embossed design is backed by a red piece of paper that was cut with my Celtic Knots Reflection Die from Cheery Lynn, creating that lovely red and white border (since this is adhered to a white card base).  The red heart is cut with a Nestability die from Spellbinders, as is the white one.  Liquid Pearls adorn the edges of the red heart and the stamping is personalized with a couple of stamps I made with my stampmaker.

The inside is quite simple.  As you can see, a bit of the border is carried into the inside.  The stamp is from a Fiskar's set.

Use It Up - Using Stash - Papers

This scrapbook page was inspired by both the Paper Wishes Father's Day challenge, and the unofficial "Use it Up" challenge. Since it was a Paper Wishes, challenge, most of the supplies were from Paper Wishes. The background page is an older blocked leaf design.  It was trimmed from 12 x 12 to 8 x 8 size, and then the journaling was printed directly onto it.  The red tag was a leftover from the Little Prints and Patterns paper set.  The tags below each picture are printed from the 5400 Tags CD - love being able to print my own tags - the only way to get white printing without doing it by hand. The black border across the top is from Lacy Frames Scrapbooking Dazzles and "Memory" is from the Vintage Treasures Scrapbooking Dazzles. The title was printed with my computer, cut out, and matted on another piece of the leaf paper, which was inked around the edges before being adhered to the page.

Awhile back Becca, one of my blog followers, commented that she appreciated seeing the process I went through in creating my projects.  Since I happened to have some interim photos of this page, I decided to share a bit of that.  I already had quite a bit of my page done by the time I took the first picture.  This is what it looked like then:

It's not bad at all, but I realized I hadn't included the word "Dad" or father etc. as required for the challenge.  So, I looked for a way to add it. I decided to use the little red tag I had in my stash.  I liked that it had a little heart on it.

Plain

White Border

Greater Angle

Just Right

As you can see from this progression, I can get pretty picky about what I do.  I first put just the tag and decided I wanted a white mat.  I then didn't like the angle and changed it around until I liked it.  Note the way the red tag interacts with the red shirt in the two pictures, giving 3 points of red, leading your eye around the page. 

Next I decided I wanted something in the space above the title.  This is what I tried first,

but I didn't like it AT ALL!  I thought to myself, what I'd really like is a black border across the top.  Then I remembered my black Dazzles scrapbooking stickers, and created what you see at the top of this blog post.

Make Your Own - Borders

Today we'll look at various border-making techniques.  On these first couple of pages, the borders were made by printing clip art and cutting it out.  With clip art and a decent photo program, you can easily re-size your clip art and even change its color to suit your needs.  The bows are actually also clip art - to help keep the bulk down - with Jewel Dazzles to add a bit of sparkle where the knot would be.

Another technique I like for making borders is to create faux ribbon with a photo program.  In this case, I started with a black rectangle, put a smaller red one on top of it, then added words that enhanced the theme of my page.  When it's a rectangle like this, it's fast and easy to cut it with a paper cutter.

 This wavy border was cut with a paper cutter with a fancy-edged tool.  I added Jewel Dazzles at the top and bottom of each "wave" to bling it up a bit.  A small ribbon bow adds the finishing touch.

Of course, you can just use ribbon to create a border.  This ribbon with the looped edge is particularly effective for borders.  I use my ATG to put glue on the back of the ribbon for quick and easy adhesive.

This final example is a little hard to see.  If you look closely you can see a lacy white border at the top and bototm of the page.  This was created with a border punch.  There are a wide variety of border punches, so you can easily find one that gives you the look you want.

Mats & Frames Part 1

Our first look at Mats and Frames is pretty simple.  A narrow mat around a photo or other element can really make a difference in the look of a card or scrapbook page.

You can see this technique on the page below - narrow white mats on photos, narrow gray mats on journaling block and title.

This next page has a wider mat for the photo with narrow black borders. This particular one came that way, but you could create the same effect by inking the edges or adding a second, slightly wider mat.

Mats don't have to be simple rectangles.  This picture has multiple mats - two of which were edged with a Martha Stewart "punch around the page" punch. This gives the lovely, lacy shell-type border.

The first page (above) - the koala page - also has multiple mats.  The title has a double mat - a white one, then a larger blue one.  The photo has three mats - all the same color all the same size.  A slight angle for some of them gives an interesting effect.

Next week we'll take a look at photo corners.

Grid Challenge

Today's cards were inspired by another challenge on the PW message board - the use of "grids" in the layout.  I've also been working on using up my stash, so these cards use older printed card bases and shaped brads - both from Hot Off the Press.

I find my tastes have changed and some of these card bases seem a bit too busy.  Toning them down with plain colors helps a great deal.  The greetings on both cards are stickers.  The one I used on the second card was originally silver, but I wanted gold since the brads were edged in gold.  My gold alcohol ink mixative worked great to change the color.

Meow Are You?

Today's card is another "using up stash" card - making use of an older Hot Off the Press printed card as the base.

The focal is a brad buddy from Hot Off the Press - but it's a brad buddy with a difference.  The cat was originally sort of an orange color -- which obviously wouldn't have looked good here!  I painted it cream and added pink for the mouth using enamel paints.  Then I took a fine-point permanent marker and colored the whiskers.  The eyes and nose are brads and I think they were already that color (I might have painted the nose, can't remember for sure).  The "Meow" is also a brad buddy, but it came that color so I didn't do anything extra to it.

The cat is matted onto a piece of pink vellum, then white, then black.  The white and pink were cut with a die from the Nellies Flower Multi Frame die set.  The "Are You?" is printed on a die cut from Spellbinders Fancy Tags set.  The embossed background is done with a Sizzix embossing folder.

Thinking of You - Turquoise & Fusia

As any of my regular blog readers know, one of my most used card themes is "Thinking of You."  These cards can be used for a wide variety of occasions, and are always handy to have on hand. 

This card was really quick and easy to make, though it looks pretty elaborate.  The mat was cut with a Spellbinder's die from a lovely embossed paper.  The focal flowers and little butterfly are 3-d stickers from the dollar store.  The sentiment was cut on my Silhouette out of adhesive-backed cardstock.  The card is completed with a 1/4" ribbon near the bottom of the card.