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 ;)

Ever decreasing circles

Tracie here, with 'The tale of one woman's battle with the housework!'

I do start off with good intentions, honestly I do! But you know how it is, the scrapbooking side of your brain is far stronger than the practical side:
and so it was that despite being surrounded by mr muscle, a scourer and a mucky kitchen, my brain must have still been in 'scrapbook mode'
So when I was midway through scrubbing the washing machine door I was struck by the concave shape and suddenly everything had to be abandoned to commit the idea that was forming onto a layout (or two)

Fortunately, I have a very understanding other half who just walks in, eyes the destruction in the kitchen, takes in the bottles of  'I started but I'm not finished' next to the bleach, and with a resigned expression says 'I won't ask what you ended up doing this afternoon, but I'm betting your craftroom looks about as tidy as this kitchen!'

Still, there's always tomorrow (or until the next idea strikes!)
and until then, here's my 'washing machine' layout!

I used the new Little Yellow bicycle Just because range for this page, which fitted perfectly with the blues and reds in the photo of my lovely daughter-in-law, Kirsty and my adorable little grandson, Declan

and why stop at circles?
I used Studio calico classic calico papers for my next layout because I loved the neutral shades against the strong blue in the photo.

Here's my wonderful stepson Karl and my equally wonderful grandson, Elliott.

So that's all from me for this month, mainly because I have some housework to come to grips with!

Embellishing your Chistmas!

If you're as unorganised as me, it's that time of year when any spare cash is being plunged into (starting!!) your Christmas shopping, and the odd festive scrapbooking treat for yourself may well be pushed to the back burner. With that in mind, I decided this month to choose just a few brand new select seasonal embellishments that I could easily mix in with paper and other bits already in my stash, so as not to break my budget and to help me feel good with a bit of stash busting.

I plumped for the gorgeous Sleigh Ride vellum embellishments from Crate, a star mask and some tin badges from Studio Calico....and then, as you can see from the picture below, ever a slave to my patterned paper addiction, I crumbled when I saw the sweet "Rudolph" paper in the Crate collection!

The first page I made with my goodies records a recent "Santa Jog" my fiance and I took part in for the British Heart Foundation. I started my love-hate relationship with running earlier this year when I embarked on the C25k programme, and although I still can't profess to being able to run 5k yet, I really have developed by running ability more than I thought I ever would and it has helped me to loose 24lbs so far. My commitment to the programme does dip when I find it challenging - so my "darling" other half entered my into the Santa Jog without me knowing as a way to step up training efforts!

Click on the picture for a larger image

I began by using the rear of the Rudolph paper as my base - I loved the geometric tree pattern in pale ice blue. Wanting to get those cute deers in on the action - I popped a slice along the bottom of my page. I love that scrapping in A4 allows me to use a patterned paper as my base sheet and still have some left over - especially when they are gorgeous double sided designs like this.

I layered lots of the vellum tags on top of each other to create an area where my title would go - I loved that their translucent nature allowed the patterns to still subtly show through. The map tag was a must for my running themed page! For my title itself, I used some of the lovely letter stickers from the Echo Park Photo Freedom sticker sheet I used last month (read the blog post here). I created the date using a December sticker from the same sheet, and the one of the vellum numbers that are in the pack from Crate. 

You may notice a little silver star peeping out from behind the photo. I had a go at using the star mask and sweeping some Liquid Pearls through it. It was a little hit and miss; if you pulled the mask of too soon the pearls would pool into a blob, and if you left it on too long, the pearls would pull away with the mask and take a little of the paper with it too. But it was fun to try something a little different. I simply taped the mask into place, squeezed a little Liquid Pearls through each hole, and then swiped over it with an old store card.

 I topped each up as needed until the Liquid Pearls was flush with the top of the mask.

Underneath my picture I popped a row of punched hearts to represent the charity that organised the event. I punched them from some Kraft, but felt they needed something a little extra. So I took a scrap of card, and covered it with some washi tape. I added the strips at an angle as I wanted the striped to be reminiscent of candy canes.

After trimming the rough edge so it would fit, I popped it through the same heart punch.

This gave me a strip of candy-cane striped hearts. I cut a few free from the chain with a small scissorsand added them at random to my original strip of Kraft hearts.

 

The final touch to the page was adding some more of the badges to the corner of the page. I used some of the vellum numbers as decorative frames for them - they were the perfect size for the job!

For my second page, I managed to avoid patterned paper completely - a rare thing for me! I decided to use a piece of the delicious new dark Kraft for my base, and the star mask with some white Mister Hueys to create a background. I absolutely love filling the house with candles at this time of year, and wanted to record some of those little pockets of glowing light.

With this in mind, and looking at the "fading" pattern on the mask, where there is a heavy concentration of stars at the bottom and then fading away towards the top; I decided that I would pivot the mask around a point at the centre of the page, to create a pattern that appeared to be "glowing" right from the middle:

I wasn't too concerned about the overlapping marks you can see in the middle - I had three photos and I knew I was going to put them in a triangle formation (like a Christmas tree!) right in the middle so this would be covered. The important thing for me was to create an effect of the stars radiating towards the four corners.

Similarly, I wasn't worried about the untidy misting at edges where the mask hadn't covered (or the punched "nibble" out of the top left corner!), I always have a border to my pages and knew I could cover this up with that. However, this time, rather than mounting my page onto a sheet of card stock for this, I decided to make a border with some lovely wide washi tape. I created neat mitred edges by folding back the tape as you can see in the picture below, making a firm crease as a cutting guide, and then trimming the excess away with a scissors.

With my base completed, I was ready to start on the pretty bits! Here's my finished page:

 For my title, I altered the "Let it Snow"vellum tag to "Glow" using some of the stickers on the second Echo Park Photo Freedom stickers sheet I used in November. I kept the embellishment simple, allowing the photos and the misted background to be the focal point.

A few dotted pearls and wooden stars added a small, festive finishing touch.

Finally, for a very quick make, I whipped up a tag for a special friend:

I misted a scrap of kraft card using the star mask. The concentrated band of colour at the bottom of the tag was card below the edge of the mask that wasn't covered - I loved the contrast between the block of colour and the star pattern so decided to include it when I cut my tag shape, rather than trim it away. A quick strip of washi tape, a tin badge and wooden stars, and hey presto - a hand made tag in minutes.

 

As mentioned by Jen in her post, we can't at present share direct product links with you like we usually do due to the exciting happenings over at the shop! If you haven't already checked out the brand new and totally revamped website at its temporary address - go now!!!

That just leaves me to wish you a very merry Christmas from me, and a happy New Year!

See you in January 2013 xxx

2012 - A year in review...

Since I started Scrapbooking, I've attempted a few ongoing projects.  A few years ago, I started a December Daily album and only managed to make a bound book with no photos or information in it.  At the beginning of this year I embarked on a Project Life album and got as far as February before I decided that I just couldn't keep it up.  What I've realised from both of these projects is that whilst I love the idea of documenting our daily life, I find it difficult to actually keep up the recording on a regular basis. 

Last year, I realised that the best way for me to record big events is just to sit down and create something once it's happened, when I can print all the pictures at once and then concentrate on making all of the pages together.  My January 2012 post on the blog explained how I put together an album all about our 2011 Christmas using a repeated layout idea.

Inspired by this sheet of stickers in the shop, I decided to again use this method to make a review page for each month of 2012 to fill my unfinished Project Life album.

Putting it all together

Each page was created on a base of either white or kraft cardstock, alternating through the months.

Step 1

A mix of 6x6 papers and/or the month cards cut from the Simple Stories 12x12 sheets were attached to the edge of the base.  When creating the adjoining page, I made a mirror image and lined the two pages up next to each other in order to place the papers down in exactly the same level on the page.

Step 2

Next, add a coordinating strip of washi tape across the bottom of the page, about a cm from the edge. 

Step 3

Stick one of the Elle's Studio month tags to the opposite top corner of the page to where the papers are.

Step 4

Using an Amy Tangerine roller date stamp, I added the start and end dates for each month to the other top corner of the page, just above the papers.

Step 5

The appropriate month sticker from the Simple Stories sheet was then stuck on top of the washi strip.

Step 6

I filled in the dates for each month onto a calendar card from a pack by Fancy Pants and attached to the space next to the papers.

 

Step 7

In one of the packs of Simple Stories stickers are some washi strips which I used to embellish the top corner of the papers.

 

Step 8

Where it fit best, I added a Studio Calico polaroid die cut to each page.  Further small embellishements such as stickers, wood veneer shapes and tages were also added to some of the pages.

 

Step 9

Using Picasa, I created a photo collage of pictures from each month.  To keep it uniform, each photo had a portrait orientation and to ensure that I didn't need to worry about clashing colours, I changed the colours to black and white and then added a 'warmify' effect, both within the Picasa software. I also gave each photo sheet a black border.  More information about creating a photo collage can be found here.  The 6x4 photo was then stuck onto the base where I felt it looked best. 

Step 10

I typed my journaling in word using a typewriter font.  This was printed and cut down to fit before sticking to the page.

Step11

As mentioned previously, I created the pages to work in pairs next to each other in my album.  Therefore, to make the next page, I placed them next to each other and made a mirror image using a different coloured cardstock base.

 

The finished pages

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

and December (all ready to add a photo and journaling to at the end of this month)

All of this was put together pretty quickly.  The structured approach made it all fall into place easily.  During our recent DT weekend away, I managed to finish 10 of the pages (in between celebrating an important birthday!).   It certainly left me with a great sense of achievement, knowing that I've managed to record our family highlights from this year in a quick and efficient way.  I'm planning to document Christmas 2012 in a similar way again, once the festivites are out of the way, which will most likely be my blog post in January 2013.  See you in the new year!

My supplies: