March Special Materials Swap

Today I have the March Materials Swaps.  This time, the requirement was that a "special" paper or card stock be included in the set of materials that were sent.  Here's a picture of the materials I sent my swap partner:

They include: card base, gold poster board, white hand-made fiber paper with gold stars and dashes, ColorMe topper and embellishments, die cut greeting, gold braid, flower sequins.  The ColorMe was from HOTP, the rest was just in my stash.

The card I made is shown at the top, but I'm posting again here as I talk about what I did:

I started by fussy cutting the ColorMe, then layering that on the handmade paper as you can see in the picture.  I added a gold frame with part of the ColorMe overlapping it, added the gold braid at the top where it is just peeking out from under the frame, added the embellishments, sequins, and die cut greeting (Moonstone Minis-Happy Anniversary), and called it done.

Materials From My Partner:

She sent white, tan, and red card stock, green mirri board that has a bit of a distressed look to it, some elements from a Hunkydory set (Pop A Topper - Gentleman's Pick), some tan buttons, and some metallic cords - lots of pretty things to play with.  Here's the card I made from her materials:

The green mirri was matted on tan, but before doing that, I separated the cords & used 2 gold & 1 red piece to form a bit of a border that wrapped around to the back.  I added the frame with foam tape, then centered the focal flush within that.  The "Happy Birthday" is flush and sticks under the frame.  The "Just for You" is also on foam tape, resting on the frame.

Inside:

Inside I used scraps of the mirri & tan card stock - along with the cords - to create a backdrop border with two more die cut pictures.  A die cut greeting near the top completed the inside.

Printing Photos for Scrapbooking

Today I have a hint about how to ensure you print your photos the size you're going to need when you make a scrapbook.   I use Microsoft Word for printing my photos, and that program makes it easy to crop photos and size them as I want.  But what size DO I want?  I hate printing a photo, only to find it's too big or too small for how I want to use it on the scrapbook page.  Such a waste of ink and photo paper!  If you can find a scrapbook sketch you like that has photo sizes on it, you're set pretty well, but too often I can't - or frankly don't even want to take the time to look.  This is what I've found works pretty well for me:

I found that a small pad of paper I got in bulk - Office Depot brand - was PERFECT for sketching out layouts!  It's 1/4" ruled and I used 1/4" to represent 1".  That made it really easy to draw my sketches to scale so I knew what size I needed.  I found on this small sheet of lined paper (approx 5" x 7") I could draw two single pages or one double page layout.  Here are a couple of examples:

Example One:

And here's a picture of the dual page spread I made (already posted in a different post but put here so you can see the comparison) from this sketch:

Example Two:   

This time I sketched two single pages.  And here are the results:

You can see I ended up modifying this a bit when making it - put the pictures closer together and made the bottom border of pictures so it didn't stretch all the way across the page, but the sizes I got from the sketch still worked well for printing the pictures, journaling block, and title.

And here's how the 2nd turned out:

Again, I modified it a bit from the original sketch.  This time I found tickets I wanted to include, so moved the picture that I had planned to have in their spot, to the bottom row - just put them all closer together.  I also decided to print a small closeup of a swan that was on the canal to use as an embellishment. (since it wasn't on the original sketch & I didn't know what size I wanted, I printed this in several sizes, knowing that I would use the rest on cards or something.)

Leaving Belgium

Today I tried something different - creating a grid of photos.  Here are those pages - and more.  

Above you see a dual page spread.  Below are closeups of each of those pages.

Page #1:

I'll admit that these pages didn't turn out quite as well as they did in my head before making them!  I wish I had matted the green with white before putting it in place.  That might have helped.  Anyway, as you can see, I added a large piece of green patterned card stock with a rounded edge on one side to serve as a backdrop for my focal photo and my photo grids (on this page and the next one).  As usual, I printed my photos & journaling using Microsoft Word, and arranged the smaller photos along the lower edge.  The title was made from alphabet die cuts from my stash - layered a bit as you can see.  The subtitle was stickers from my stash put on a white photo paper scrap - with edges rounded a bit like the green mat piece.

Page #2:

The second page is similar - the challenging part was the slit & pocket at the top of the page that allow the brochure to slide in and out.  It really wasn't that hard to make.  I've gotten to the place where I make most of my hidden pockets this way - simply cut a slit, cut an envelope to the right size and glue it in place behind the page and lined up with the slit.  Often, like I did here, I'll use a circle punch to create a half-circle pull area.  Because the brochure was pink and didn't really blend in with the page well, I chose to glue some of the green card stock to the top of it.  After cutting to fit, I added a full circle of the green to help ensure that even in the punched out place the pink wasn't seen.

Page #3:

For this page I made another photo grid - this time of saxophones!  I could have used something better for the title, but I was tired & found these die cuts in my stash and decided to go with them.  I liked the blue patterned paper behind the saxophones, but it had a border at the top that I didn't like - so I covered it with tan patterned paper from my stash - and added a narrow black border of card stock between them.

Page #4:

No grid of photos here.  I chose to bring in a bright aqua print mat to focus attention on the birds - my favorite part of that experience.  The background for the journaling is darker than I would prefer, but it's still readable.  As you can probably tell, I used the same set of die cut letters to get my title - this time pulling some of the letters that had aqua in them.  The other thing I should probably note is the shield/sign with the birds - that was a photo of a sign there at the falconry, and I just fussy cut around the sign as a great embellishment for this layout.

Bruges - Belfort, Fry Museum, Chocolate Museum

The pages in this post are more from Bruges, Belgium.  

Page #1 (above):  While I don't often use sketches as I prefer the pictures to mostly do the work, I found myself struggling with how to place the 7 pictures on this page and not just repeat what I'd been doing.  So, I went looking for a layout.  I found it at Sketch Savvy.  I was so grateful to find it.  Here's a picture of the sketch: 

I printed the photos the sizes they said, but found I had to let go of a photo and rearrange a bit to find room for my journaling.  I also printed the letters for the title.  It was too long to finish the ends of it's mat with the tails I like so much on the original sketch.  Also, I found the multi-colored polka dot pattern wasn't showing up well, so I inked the edges of the circle & matted the piece behind the title, putting it up on foam tape.  The most unusual part of this layout is at the top.  I had a ticket from the belfort that I wanted to save with this page, but I didn't want it cluttering up the page.  So, I wrapped the ticket in a leftover piece of cut-up sheet protector, and added the teal tab.  I affixed a cut envelope to the back of the page for the ticket to sit in.  Then I cut away part of the page so you can see part of the ticket.

Page #2:

This page is really in two pieces - both 6 inches wide.  This is because it is in a gate fold sheet protector.  This is what it looks like with the flaps closed.   I did something on this page that I "never" do.  I used the back of the inside pages to form the base for these pages.  The back was a different color, which I felt faded into the background well so the pictures could shine.  While I could have found another sheet of the stuff in my stash, I just decided to use the backs - made things less tight in the gate fold flaps, too.  Other than adding the pictures & journaling that I printed (note I used a part of a picture to create a title), I just made a border on either side of the photos.

INSIDE THE GATE FOLD:

When you open the gate fold, this is what you see.  It's all about the chocolate factory called ChocoStory.  The 6" wide page on the left shows the outside of the building, the center shows some of their shaped chocolate, and the 6" page on the right shows the downstairs.

Page 3?:

Here you can see a close up of the 6" pages.  As you can see, I added strips of the patterned paper used for the center page to form borders top and bottom of these pages.  I once again tried to use a sign as title, but not sure how effective it was.  I may go back and add a title with alphabet letters.

Page 4:

This page is the center one of the layout and is where the most fun photos are - all the sculptured chocolate!  As you can see, I liked the patterned paper for the background, but it was pretty busy.  So, I added brown mats to the photos - one large mat for the 6 photos at the bottom.

HD Floral Favorites - Oh So Sweet

Today I have five cards made from the Hunkydory kit called Floral Favourites, from the Oh So Sweet set.  Here's a look at the set itself:

As you can see, it consists of one and a half sheet of die cuts, and one sheet of Adoreable Scoreable (AS) printed cardstock.  Here's a look at all five cards I made using elements from this set:

Now for a closer look at each one.

Card #1: 

I started with the sheet of AS.  Since I like my slimlines to be 9 x 4 (so they fit in a business size 10 envelope), and I usually like a thin border edge showing, I like my front panels to be 3 3/4" x 8 3/4".  Since Hunkydory products are from the UK, they use A2 sheets rather than letter size, so are only 8 1/4" wide.  So, I need to add something to make them 8 3/4" when I make a slimline card.  Here you can see that I cut an extra piece of border to go on the bottom - and then trimmed both down a bit so the whole was 8 3/4" tall.  Then I simply added the die cut greeting from the set, and some thin line Dazzles to form the "hanger" for it.

Inside:

Here I used more of the AS to form border strips - accenting them with a happy birthday border from the set.  Then I stamped a message using a stamp from Crafter's Companion Compendium (CCC) stamp set - sheet called Birthday-Female.

Card #2:

I did a similar thing with this card.  Background was cut from AS, with an extra bit of the table added below (border from the set hides it).  I added one of the die cuts - with some extra die cut flowers to make the bouquet bigger.  I cut the small bow left over from the border & used it to appear to "pin" the greeting in place.

Inside:

Once again, I used more of the AS to form inside borders - adding some gold tag board and maroon card stock from my stash.  The small sentiment on the border is also from the set.  The stamped greeting.   The stamped message is again from CCC - this time the page called Thinking of You.

Card #3:

This card seems a little plain from the outside, but it's an easel card, and when set for display, it's very pretty:

The patterned paper is some digital paper I have that I printed up - not sure what company it was from. The sentiments are both from the set - the inside one is on foam tape to hold the folded front in position when displayed.

Card #4:

This one again uses the digi paper I printed.  I added a doily (backed with white paper because it was more translucent than I wanted).  The rest are die cuts from the set.  The bouquet was rather small, so I once again used their extra flowers to make it more full.

Inside:

Inside is simple - borders from the leftover printed digi paper, and a stamped message (one of my mom's stamps - not sure what company made it).

Card #5:

This one uses a piece of purple card stock from my stash - embossed with a Darice 5 x 7 embossing folder called Damask.  The doily was one that had a piece cut out of it, but you can't tell.  The border piece is made from scraps from the die cut sheet & scraps of gold from my stash.  The sentiment is from the set.

Inside:

The border was again made with scraps - decorated with a die cut from the set.  The stamped message is another CCC stamp - this time from the Thank You sheet.

Lace Museum & More Bruges

Today I've got a couple of more pages from Bruges.  

Page #1 (above):  This first one is pretty straight forward.  I took my cues from the bright yellow walls in the focal photo.  I used yellow patterned paper background (old HOTP), and printed pictures, journaling & title (using Microsoft Word).  The unique thing on this page is the small lace motif on the blue background.  I didn't want to put glue on the lace, figuring that over time it would discolor the lace.  SO, I took a piece of blue card stock, matted on white to look like the others.  I set the lace piece on that and slid the whole into a small ziplock plastic bag.  Then I folded the top of the bag to the back and glued the bag in place.  Now, if I want to get to the lace, I might destroy the bag, but the lace should be safe (hopefully the bag is acid free!)

Page #2:

For this page, I had a few miscellaneous pictures that I wanted to include in my album, but didn't want to devote an entire page to each - I'll already have 88 pages when I'm done - that's PLENTY!  So, I started looking at the photos and realized they fell into 4 different themes.  That inspired me to divide the page into 4 sections - one for each.  I used red ribbon to divide the page - and made a circular title piece that sits on top of where they cross.  I printed the pictures & journaling, but all the little titles were die cut with some of my alphabet dies.  What a chore!  Anyway, I like the way the page turned out.  Since the page sits beside the first one in this post, I decided to start with a similar background paper - in blue this time.

Bruges Canal Tour

Here I had a couple of tickets to add to the page.  I put them in an envelope I made out of vellum, because I knew they would stand up to handling - the paper is too flimsy.  Once again, I sketched a layout so I knew what sizes to print the pictures, title, and journaling.  

For the title and journaling block, I took a part of the focal picture -  zoomed in, and just used some of the leaves - to create the background.  

I hadn't been happy with any pictures with swans as one of the regular pictures, but decided to zoom in on a swan in a part of one picture and use it as a sort of embellishment for an otherwise rather plain page. 

Bruges Church of Our Lady

This is a very straight-forward layout.  I sketched out a layout to accommodate the pictures, title, and journaling, then printed those pieces up accordingly.  As you can see, I decided to round the corners of the photos. I discovered this is quite easy to do in Microsoft Word - using the Crop feature - choosing "Crop to Shape" and then picking the rectangle with rounded corners.  You apparently can't change the radius of the rounded corner, but it was nice to be able to do it at least.  And even better, my blue corner rounder punch worked great for these corners - except for the largest photos!

As you can see, I used a special hand-made paper for the background - one I got many years ago from Costco.  I also used a piece of cardstock (with corners rounded) to form a mat for the small photos & journaling.  I used some gold border stickers to form a border around the mat.

Bruges

Today I have a dual page layout.  As you can see, I started with dark brown card stock for the pages - with a dotted print cut for a lower border for both pages.  I added decorative washi tape along that border - and also used it to frame a couple of the photos.  Journaling and pictures were printed from my computer as usual - but this time, I had drawn a sketch so I could calculate the sizes I wanted to use to print the photos & journaling.  Titles were die cut using Momenta Thin 1 1/2" Alphabet Dies.  (I wish I had some a bit smaller to use for the 2nd page, but I didn't.)  I completed the pages with a few pieces from a scrapbooking dazzles set (HOTP).  Below are closeups of the individual pages.

First Page:

Second Page:

Playing with Mom's Materials!

Today I went over to my Mom's house and played with some of her stuff - made 3 cards.  It started with a bunch of panels cut from some of her paper pads.  She had 3 copies of most and gave me one of each.  I used some of those in making all three of these cards.  She also gave me some greetings she had stamped and die cut.  I used some of those too, for the first couple of cards - twice on this first one!

Card #1 (above):  In addition to using her cut panels, I used a template she had recently gotten to create this special card.  It doesn't look all that special from the outside.  The magic is on the inside.  At any rate, because of the template, the size of this card is only 4" x 5".  So, I cut down the panel to fit, and used the back side of a leftover strip and some white card stock to form a border across the top.  The greeting is one of those that she stamped and die cut for me.

Inside:

Inside is basically a step card - with a large step holding a cut down piece from a second panel, and two smaller steps in front.  The back side of the panels are the blueish-greenish-gray that you see here.  To that I added white and the front side of another scrap.  I finished the inside with another stamped and die cut message (that Mom had created for me.  I'll admit that though the card turned out all right in the end, I had all sorts of trouble with it as I was making it - from putting the inside step stuff on the wrong side, to having pieces tear.  I found ways to fix it, but by the time I was done with it I was REALLY done!  So, I made quick and easy cards for the next two cards!

Card #2:

This was a really quick & easy slimline card.  I cut a slice off the side of one of the slimline panels Mom had prepared and given me, inked the edges, and glued in place.  I found a scrap and, using the back side of it, created a border with it and some white card stock.  I added another of Mom's sentiment pieces (on foam tape) and finished it with a little bow from her stash.

Inside:

Inside was even easier.  I inked the edges of the scrap I cut off the front panel and added it for a border on the inside - then stamped a greeting using a stamp from Crafter's Companion Compendium Thank You page.

Card #3:

The last of today's cards was a 5 x 7.  As you can see, I double-matted the panel, using white and a blueish turquoise.  Using the same colors, I created a border strip & die cut a greeting with mat (one of Mom's cutting die sets - not sure who made it.)

Inside:

Once again I used stamps from the compendium - this time from the With Sympathy page.

Ghent

Today I have 3 dual-page layouts about our time in Ghent.  You can see the first double page spread above.

Page #1:

These pages use 3 different papers from my stash - the dark color, the yellow, and the patterned one.  Again I printed the pictures, the title & subtitles, and the journaling block.  I added some narrow blue border stickers.  I finish the pattern by using a circle punch to cut out pieces of the patterned card stock and scattering them around.

Page #2:

The 2nd page is a loose mirror image of the 1st.

Next Dual Page:

Page #3:

The background page is from a DCWV Stack called Once Upon a Time.  I liked the colors and style for the castle background, but there were a couple problems with it.  First, across the top of the page are the words "They Lived Happily Ever After" - which doesn't go with the subject matter of the page.  Secondly, the tans go well, but I need to tie the grays in a bit better.  So, I pulled a strip of striped paper and a border piece from my stash to form a border.  I also added washi tape to the border on the left (to match what I needed to do on the accompanying page).  Again I printed the pictures & title.  I die cut a gold frame for the focal photo - and decorated it with washi tape (which again helps tie tan & gray together).

Page #4:

This background page was identical to the previous one - which was a bit of a problem because I wanted the border on the left, but don't want all the crowns upside down!  So, I cut it off & taped it to the other side - using washi tape to hide the join.  The border was made the way it was on the accompanying page.

Third Dual Page:

The background papers were water prints from my stash - to which I added some red card stock.

Page #5:

As you can see, I cut a mat and border from the red card stock.  The pictures & title were printed from Microsoft Word.  I finished the page with a couple of stickers.

Page #6:

This accompanying page was made similarly to the previous one.