Gift Pick - Day five

We hope you're enjoying our gift pick series so far and it's helping you out with a bit of gift inspiration.  

Today's pick is from Natalie who says "My friend had pinned a project to her Pinterest board using old jars for pretty storage with chalked labels - I thought these may make her project one step closer to reality, without the need for messy chalkboard paint!!"

My Mind's Eye Chalk Studio Chalk Label Stickers - £1.99

We'll be back tomorrow with another gift pick!

Buttons

At the last retreat, I assisted Ifa with her lovely class which incorporated clear buttons. Some were idly sat on my desk space, when a bit of paper shuffling resulted in one becoming stuck on a torn scrap of washi tape, which inspired me to use it to deliberately create custom patterened buttons for my pages this month.

I'll make no apologies for bringing you pages made with snowy photos that I took back in January, in April - as I'm sat here with the rain lashing at the window and the wind howling around the walls, I could easily be forgiven for thinking we were in the deep depths of Winter anyway!

My papers this month are from the Amy Tan "Yes, Please" range.

Here's my first page:

You can just see a couple of my washi-covered buttons in the bottom right hand corner.  Here's how I easily created them in moments:

1. Pop a strip of washi tape, sticky side up, on to your work area, and pop a button on top. Easy! As you can see on the right, you don't have to stick to just one design of tape on your button. Mix it up! Go wild! Dig in to that washi!

For larger buttons where your chosen tape isn't wide enough to cover it in one go, pop one small piece of tape over half of the button, then simply tear another small strip and marry up the pattern on the other half, as below (you can just see the button in the picture underneath the tape; I joined the tapes along the button holes):

2. Burnish the tape on to the button firmly with your thumb and finger, and then trim away the excess tape from around the edge. Using a pokey tool or a pin, push through the button holes and remove the tiny scraps of washi tape from inside. I preferred to push through from the back as it ensured that the rest of the tape wasn't accidentally lifted from the button in the process.

3. And ta'daaaa! You have your own custom buttons using the pretty washi tape that we all love and hoard!!

The semi-transparent nature of washi lends itself very well to the buttons and create a lovely effect when popped over layers of paper or photos as you can see a portion through the design; I popped some onto a photo here to illustrate this:

The particular tapes I have used here are the gorgeous ones from MME's My Girl, Notable and Unforgettable triple packs.

Here's a close up of them on my page:

For their mat I used a slice from the chevron arrow sheet in the Dear Lizzy die cut sheet pack, and utilised the bits I popped out else where on my page - you can see some below the title (above) and some at the top of the page:

The "Phrases" veneer from Studio Calico's Sundrifter range are lovely for adding that extra bit of detail to your pages - I love the wood-burnished look of the fonts on them and the pack contains a huge array of phrases and symbols.

Here's the second frosty page that I used my washi buttons on:

This time I used some of the Phrases veneer to make a little weather-forcast style snow symbol:

 I used some of the gorgeous little Amy Tan puffy stickers as sub-headings for my journalling and others such as the hearts, flowers and arrows to add interest around both of my pages:

I didn't opt for a title per se on this layout, but instead grouped a strip of one of the Amy Tan papers that had a definition printed across it along with some pretty die cuts from the Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm die cut pack to convey the message:

So that's me for April - I am sat with my fingers crossed that we will have defrosted and I will be able bring you some warm, sun-shine filled pages for May! .......Well, a girl can dream ;)

Bags Galore!

Hi, Vanessa here. Have you seen the new See Me Sew bag kits by My Mind's Eye? As soon as I saw Sarah's Cards stock them, I just had to make one for my blog post.

Sewing is a new passion for me (in addition to scrapbooking) but finding the time to fit it in around work, kids, the house and of course some social time, can be a bit difficult.  However, I thought these little bags were perfect to get me going and into the swing of it.  I chose the Ruffle Bag, mainly because I haven't done any ruffling!! :)  Firstly, here is the finished product :-

The bags come with one sheet of fabric, with all the pieces sectioned out ready to cut, so there is no measuring to do (phew!). All the instructions are printed out on the inside of the cardboard packaging. I'm going to go through these instructions, with photos of each step.

Step 1

The first step is simply, opening out your fabric piece, setting the instructions to one side.  Then, iron on the reverse side (just so you don't get any marks on - or you could iron on the right side, but put a piece of thin scrap fabric over the top).  Then, cut out all your pieces.  Each piece is given a label, which for ease, you can pin to each piece so you don't forget which is which.

Step 2

The first pieces of the bag to put together are the handles.  Fold them in half (lengthways), so the right sides are facing together on the inside.  You don't have to iron, but I prefer to.  Then, Stitch along each long side of the handles and turn the right side round.  Iron them again so they are flat.  Finally, topstitch along both long sides of each handle and put them to one side.

Step 3

For step 3, you sew the front and back panels together, but only down one side.  Place one panel on top of eachother, the right sides facing and sew down one side.  Backstitch at each end to secure the stitching.  Then open out and iron the seam open.  Take the 3 ruffle pieces and fold each of them in half lengthwise (wrong sides facing together), iron flat and hand stitch a running stitch along the top raw edge of each one, very loosely.  Pull the threads at each end to ruffle the fabric.  Evenly space the ruffles as much as you can and pin in place from one side of fabric to the other (across the width of the bag).

Stitch the ruffles in place overlapping eachother.  The bottom ruffle should be approximately 5 inches (12.5 cms)  from the bottom of the fabric and the top ruffle should be lined up exactly with the top edge of the bag panel.  Stitch in place and then pull out the thread used to make the ruffle.

 Step 4

Fold the bag panels back over, right sides facing and stitch along the bottom edge and the other side - leaving the top of the bag unstitched.

To create the boxed bottom of the bag, keeping it turned inside out (this is the most tricky part of the bag) for each bottom corner, line the side seam up with the bottom seam, creating a point as per the photo above, measure 1.5 inches (3.7 cms) and mark a line.  Stitch along this line (backstitiching at each end to secure) and then trim, leaving 1/4 inch allowance (1/2 cm). 

Step 5

Nearly there, I love this part, you can really see it coming together.  Turn the bag right side out and pin the handles to each side, front and back.  lining up the raw edges of the bag with the raw edges of the handles.  They should be placed about 1.5 inches (3.7 cms) from each side of the bag.  Pin in place.  Turn the bag inside out again.

Sew the lining pieces together in the same way as the main bag, but without the ruffles, i.e. down each side of the panels (right sides together) and along the bottom.  However, leave a 3 inch (7.5 cms) gap on one of the sides - back stitch at each end to secure.

Create the boxed bottom in exactly the same way as the main bag.  Turn the lining piece right side out.  Then, place the lining piece inside the main bag, as above so the right sides of each part are facing eachother.

Step 6

The last step is to stitch all the way round the top of the bag.  Then, from the gap in the lining pull the whole bag through and using a slip stitch (which I need a lot more practice doing!!) close the gap in the lining.  Push the lining inside the bag and give it an iron.  Finally, top stitch all round the top of the bag, approximately 1/4 inch (1/2 cm) from the top of the bag.

The last bit is to simply layer the pieces of the flower on top of eachother and sew into place.  Pin it on your bag and you are now FINISHED.

Now you have your gorgeous little tote bag.  Enjoy and thanks for looking :)

Vanessa xx

Playing with masks!

This month I have been playing with some of the fabulous masks now available in the shop! I have to admit that I can't get enough of masks - they are now a staple part of my scrapbooking regime.

For my first layout I used  inks applied with a sponge through the creative workshop splats mask. I then cut small squares from the gorgeous MME meadow papers and stitched a frame around each of them to offset the photos of my son.

The second of my layouts is one of my granddaughters. This time I used markers with the mask by simply laying the mask down and scribbling over it with the different colours.
On the photo she was leaning against a climbing frame so I continued this to make a frame for the photo

and finally I used yet another mask (told you I was hooked!!) with Mr Hueys colour mists. When this was dry I stitched along the lines to echo the roof in the photo.
 I was hoping that by creating this layout my other half would finally take the hint and buy me this car for Christmas (I'm ever the optimist!)

Why not have a look at the great selection of masks now available and have a play yourself ?- they really are so versatile that you'll find yourself using them again and again - but creating different looks just by using different mediums with them. Be warned though, they should come with a 'highly addictive' sticker!

I used the following products:
Mr Hueys mask
Tile texture template
Splats template
echo park everday eclectic

Scrapping without Patterned Paper...

Who doesn't love patterned paper?  It's one of the things that drew me to scrapbooking: all of those pretty patterns!  When I was at university, one of my housemates was obsessed with wrapping paper and had a collection of her favourite designs and patterns.  At the time I never thought that I would have a house full of sheets of pretty paper!  As much as I love patterned paper though, I find that I don't use an awful lot of it.  I may use a sheet as a background or cut strips and bits from it to add to my page.  So, after seeing all of the stickers, die cuts and tape in the new releases from My Mind's Eye, I challenged myself to create a set of layouts without using any patterned papers, relying on other embellishments and coming up with some techniques to add colour to my pages.  Each page was made on a neutral card background; either white, kraft or my new favourite staple, dark kraft.

Layout 1: Fun in the Sun.

We recently spent a week camping in South Wales and I wanted to record my favourite day of the holiday which was spent at Rhossili Bay.  I used strips of washi tape to create borders on my page, drawing the eye towards the photo in the middle.  I trimmed down one of the card die-cuts before adding a strip of the yellow tape to form a base for the title.  The title was made using some of the tiny word stickers which are an absolute bargain for the amount of words that you get on a sheet for only 89p. 

To add some more interest to the bottom border strip, I used my small heart punch to make three holes through the it.  I then took another strip of the pink tape, stuck it to a piece of white card and attached it behind the background sheet so that the hearts became pink through the holes.  Not one for waste, I added the extra white hearts around the page.

More colour was added to the page through the stitched sunburst design.  I pierced holes 0.5cm apart marking out along a ruler and chose some coordinating threads to sew with.

Layout 2:Sun, sea and sand.

The design for this page began with me placing the photo collage onto the page and playing around with the 'happy' banner-shaped journaling card.  Once, I was happy with it laying underneath the photo, I added the yellow aticker and made a couple of washi tape banners to balance the strip.  If you fold the tape back on itself it makes a really flexible and non sticky material to work with which I then cut the banner shape from before stapling to the page.

I went back to using tape as a page border but decided to add the yellow tape around the whole page.  To make a neat join at the corners, I stuck the two strip on top of each before peeling back from the cardstock and cutting a mitred corner diagonally from the outside tip to the inside join.  As the tape is so easy to use and peel off, I could take away the excess tape to leave a neat join which I smoothed back down to the page.

My typed journaling strips were glued on top of this area, going all around the edge of the page.

Another way that I used the tapes was again to fold it back on itself.  I realised that by doing so I could then easily punch out shapes from it.  The little tape hearts that I made were added to the page as embellishments.

Layout 3: The best of Friends

My daughter has a very special relationship with our friends' son.  They hadn't seen each other for two years until we went away with them on holiday during August but it was as though they had never been apart.  

I again used the white lace tape as a page border but, after realising that the pattern isn't particularly clear when placed on a kraft background, I stuck it to some white card first: this really shows off the pretty pattern on the tape.

After playing with the punched washi tape hearts on the previous layout, I decided to create an area on this page that would be filled with these shapes.  I firstly stuck down a chipboard heart with some temporary adhesive and then pierced holes all around the edge which left me with an outline ready to sew around.

To fill the shape, I covered the area in mod podge and scattered some of the hearts on.  I then added some more glue to ares where there were gaps and laid more of the shapes on, thinking about where different colours were needed as well to make it look even.

Another embellishment that I made was this little tag.  Toby wrote Evie a little love note which I wanted to record but it was too big to actually fit onto the page.  So instead, I scanned it, resized and printed it onto some kraft card which I then cut into a tag shape.  The effect is quite subtle on the kraft card.

The title quote, which I found on Pinterest, reads: True friendship is not being inseparable, it's being separated and nothing changes.  I typed and printed this onto some white card which I then trimmed down to size and used a border punch to edge it which had a similar lacy pattern to the white washi tape.

Layout 4: One Year in Year One

Somehow, Evie has managed to complete another year at school: where does the time go?!  My starting point for this page was knowing that I wanted to cut out the title using my Craft Robo and create a filled effect by backing the negative space with washi tape strips.  I chose yellow, grey and blue accents for this layout to match her school uniform colours.  To the white background I added some splats of black mist/ink to tie in with the school theme and then I began to build the page.

Evie added her own jounaling which details who her teacher was, her friend's names and her favourite part of Year One.  Using Nat's recent blog post idea, I dressed a little girl wood veneer shape using tape, again in her school uniform colours.

I picked out some of the MME word stickers to place along the bottom of the photograph using words which describe her attitude and feelings towards learning and school.

If you look closely at the bottom left of the page you will see that I used a date stamp to add the beginning and end of the school year.  However, after happily checking and setting the dates and stamping onto the background, I realised that I'd put Septemeber 2012 instead of 2011.  One of the tiny tab stickers was the perfect size to cover up this mistake and the surface even took the distress ink without smudging.

Layout 5: Playtime

This page was put together very quickly using mainly the stickers from the larger MME sheets and some bits of tape and a Studio Calico die cut of children playing with a ball.  The small photo was placed behind a polaroid-shaped sticker from one of the sheets which also contains a selection of phrases written along the bottom of it.  I doodled a border around the page and kept it journaling-free as the phrases on the stickers pretty much sum up my thoughts about this photgraph of my 3 children playing out together.

(Edited to add this final layout which I'd forgotten that I'd done!)

6. All About Me

I wanted to focus of this layout to again be the photo.   So after placing the picture on the card with the 'all about me' die cut next to it, I played around with building a grid using stickers and tape.  Because of the amount of white space left on the page, I machine stitched around the edge to create a frame. 

As it was the summer holidays, I had plenty of scrapping time and got a little carried away with making pages for this post but I what I hope to have shown you is just how versatile tape and stickers can be and given you some ideas for making layouts without using any patterned paper at all for those occasions when you can't find the right papers or for when you just fancy doing something different.

  

My supplies:

Back to basics

Recently a friend asked if she could look through my scrapbooks, as she doesn't scrap I was thrilled that she was interested and she became quite engrossed. Several cups of coffee later and she'd worked her way through over ten years worth!

Was I expecting some acknowledgement that my style had developed over the years? A little gushing over the way I'd painstakingly spent an afternoon cutting something out, sewing or making something? If I did I was going to be disappointed! Even a 'ah those are nice' would have been gratefully received! What I wasn't expecting was - 'those are better' as she pointed to my earliest (and in my mind, plain, flat and boring) early efforts, I resisted the urge to hit her over the head with my cropadile and instead simply asked why she thought so.


Her answer was 'They told a story'. In that moment I realised that a non-scrapper barely even notices all the little fripperies that make a layout or scrapbook aesthetically pleasing. I suppose it's like looking through a magazine, we expect the pages to be glossy, well photographed and laid out, but what we want is to be entertained. Now many of you will probably have worked this out years ago, but I've never been the quickest to catch on! I felt I had learned as much in one afternoon with a non-scrapping friend as I have in the years of sharing my passion with like-minded people.

I realised that I had lost sight of what made me start scrapping in the first place, and that was to tell a story, mine and my family's story.
When I first started there were so few scrapbooking supplies available that I worried far less about embellishments and spent my time 'telling the tale'. Years later and slowly being buried amongst a rapidly expanding pile of tantalising goodies I'd stopped telling a story and started focusing instead on the design.

So, am I going to stop buying all those lush little embellishments that I haven't been able to resist in the past? Of course not!! But I am going to try very hard in future to make sure that while the layouts I create are (hopefully) pleasing to the eye, I am not going to get lazy again when it comes to the journalling and telling our story!

and with that in mind and making full use of the aptly named 'simple stories' range, my first layout is about my amazing, beautiful, fabulous daughter, Sian.

and for my second layout I wanted to acknowledge my granddaughters acheivements when she recently took part in the 'Race for Life'

We all have a story to tell, and scrapbooking is such a wonderful way to tell it!

I used the following supplies:
Simple stories fabulous
Crate paper, Pretty party
MME meadow
MME Brad pack