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 ;)

Mini Pics!

Since converting to scrapping in A4, I am totally loving the freedom this gives me to easily store my pages and the impact that a smaller size has had on my productivity. One thing I often hear people say about feeling unsure about switching to the small size though is the difficulty of fitting photos into small pages, particularly where multiple photos are to be used.

Lots of printing companies offer lots of size solutions for your photos,  Laura has blogged about how she creates collages in Picassa here before sending them to Photobox to be printed, however I prefer to print my photos myself at home. This means I can print what I want, when I want - and avoids the scrapping guilt I'd otherwise get related to growing piles of un-scrapped prints that I'd shelled out for! So today I'm going to show you how I print my photos in a more manageable size for A4 scrapping, simply using the standard printing programme that comes with Windows operating systems....you can follow this technique on any PC running Windows, no matter what printer you have and with no need for fancy photo editing software. Whoop to that!

For my first page this month, I had three pictures that I wanted to document on one page. There was no way a I'd be able to fit three standard 6x4 prints, plus the whole host of patterned papers and embellies I always like to include, on one A4 page. So here are the quick steps I take to resize and print my snaps in Windows:

1. Right click the chosen photo, and select "print". This will open the following window. Click  "options"  in the bottom right corner:

2.The following menu pop-up will appear. Click on "printer properties":

3. This will open a new box, where you need to click into the Effects tab. In here you will see a slider bar enabling you to resize your photos. For one shot, I usually like to set this at around 80-90%. For multiple pics, I usually select somewhere between 75-85%. This is down to personal preference and exactly how small you want your pictures - as you use this more often you will get an instinctive feel for where to set the slider according to the size/effect you want, however - see the little picture box (within the large white space) on the right side? As you move the slider back and forth the image in the little box grows and shrinks - giving you a visual comparison for your print size on a piece of 6x4 paper.

4. When you are happy, press ok. This will take you to the original pop up box, where you can now press print. Et voila!

Here's my completed page, using the gorgeous new What's Up papers from Basic Grey. As soon as I saw them I knew they'd be perfect for scrapping pictures of a recent spot of kite-flying on a grey and windy afternoon!

As always, click on any picture for a closer look!

Let's Go Fly A Kite

At the centre of the page are two misted cardstock tags held together by gorgeous wooden buttons from the BG Konnichiwa range. To create the "Kite" lettering I cut away the bold letter shapes with a craft knife, and laid a piece of Cloud-printed overlay from Hambly and the pink reverse of the Constellation paper behind it.

More of the overlay was used to back a What's Up tin pin, and was hand-cut to add interest behind the photo at the bottom of the page:

Decorative tapes created a visual divide for my page and acted as an anchor for part of my title:

Another addiction of mine which goes hand in hand with A4 scrapping is Instagram.

If you're not already a fan, it's a free mobile-phone app which not only acts as a live photostream/sharing platform (think Facebook, but photos only), but has lots of pretty built-in filters to add vintage effects and frames to your pictures with just a click. My mobile phone is often my go-to device for capturing those spontaneous photo opportunities as my clunky DSLR is not always to hand, and let's face it - it's more often than not those otherwise fleeting moments that we all love to scrapbook most!

So Instagram pics are quickly becoming the centre of my pages for three reasons:

1. Capturing spontaneous photo-ops

2. One click photo-effects and editing

3. Their quirky, retro square shape is perfect for my compact A4 pages.

Here are the steps I take for printing Instagram pics at home:

1. Upload my pics to my computer (check your phones manual for how to do this!)

2. Right click on my chosen photo, and click print.

3. In the pop-up box that appears, check that your desired paper size is selected, i.e. 6x4:

4. You'll notice that the top and bottom of your square print appear to be chopped off in the preview at the centre of the screen. To solve this, uncheck the box that says "fit picture to frame":

5. You should see that your shot is now fully visible and fits neatly inside the image box on the screen:

5. And print! Your printed images should appear nicely centred and perfectly sized on your 6x4 photo paper; just trim the excess away and they are ready for scrapping!:

Here are a couple of pages utilising my Instagram home-prints, and more of the BG What's Up paper:

Shooting Hoops

I cut lots of circles from the patterned papers for this page and combined them with the round tin pin and wooden buttons to emphasise the hoops/basketball theme.

 Strips of various decorative tapes and word stickers also added interest:

I splattered my plain chipboard Thickers with lots of different mists before adding them to my page:

Chewie The Beardie
We've got a new addition to the family - much to my mixed surprise and dismay one night when I got home! "Chewie" and I are learning to live harmoniously together - I even bathed him (when this shot was taken!) - however I maintain that "Eddie Lizard" would have been a much better name!

I made use of lots of my My Minds Eye stamps to embellish the page; the black ink complimenting the black frame of the Instagram print.

Keen to add elements that drew out the pretty orangey colourings that Chewie has around his eyes and under his throat, I created some tags embellishments form the pink side of the Constellation paper, and used some pink Studio Calico alpha stickers for my title:

If you are keen to try small photos on a smaller layout and are looking for more home-printing options, you may also be interested in having a look at Helen's post about creating photostrips in Picassa here.

Thanks as always for popping over. We'd love to see your A4 pages or use of Instagram pics - feel free to share your links in the comments section or at our page on Facebook :)

My supplies included:

InLinkz.com

Let sleeping dogs lie...

Don't you just hate thinking of blog post titles?!?!? I know this one might sound a bit strange, but when you look at my LO I have to share, you'll see where I'm coming from!

So a whole month has zipped by and here we are on the 1st of a brand new month. July is the BESTEST month, and the BESTEST people are born in July ;-)

So, did you enjoy all that June on the Sarah's Cards blog brought to you? We're loving the new system, and we hope you are too. July will be chock-a-block full of beautifulness too, so make sure you come back each day... or at least every few days to see what's ocurrin!

I just loved this photo of my dog taking an afternoon nap on my new jammy dodger cushion (that's what the kids call it). I decided to create a circular LO, and used pink to match the cushion, white dotted Swiss, and a Hambly overlay cut to shape. I picked out a range of patterned papers that matched the turquoise colours of my other cushions. After punching some circles and cutting an oval, I stuck the shapes under the overlay, using the printed design as a guide. Once the photo was stuck in place, I added a couple of border punched strips below, and hand cut some of the lovely peacock feathers from this paper. I decided to delve into my stash from ye olde days of card making!!! I'm sure I'm not the only person who used to be a card maker, and who bought everything they could lay their little hands on, tried everything, often only once, and as a result has a stash of unused supplies!!! Well, I found a quilling tool, and a heap of quilling papers, and thought why not! I kept it really simple and added a few strips of paper stuck on their edges, and a some tightly coiled circles as flowers. Simple but effective, and cute to boot!

Keeping the floral theme going... hey, I have boys... if I get the chance to use flowers in abundance on a LO I take it and run with it! I saw these cute fabric flowers on Pinterest ages ago, and when I saw this fabric swatch book, I just knew I had to have a go at them. And because I'm kind, I took a few step by step photos, so you too can have a go.

Use a template to draw 5 circles on your fabric. I used a 1.5 inch circle for my flowers.

 Cut the circles out. Fold each one in half, and then into quarters.

 With a long length of good quality thread, stitch along the curved edge of each folded circle.

 Once all 5 circles are stitched, pull the two ends of the thread and tie securely. This is why you need good quality thread... I used cheapo stuff the first time and it just snaps at this stage, which is hugely annoying!

 I added buttons to the centres of my flowers, but a smaller circle of contrasting fabric, or a Prima flower centre would work too.

Ta Da!!!! How easy is that?

I can see fabric flowers appearing on LOs throughout galleries and blogs very soon.... and we'd love to see how you use them. Leave us a link to your work in the comments box so we can pop by and have a looksie.

I'll be back tomorrow with another couple of LOs to share.

Bye for now

xxx