Left over Alphabet stickers

I've been wanting to try this alphabet sticker background for a while and last weekend I finally got around to playing with it.

 

Who has sheets of stickers with only a few letters left? I'm sure we all do!

 

To make my background I started off with grey Bazzill cardstock and a bottle of white Making Memories paint.  I used a credit card to apply the paint across my pages.  When it was dry I started laying down the stickers from an old sheet of white alphabets. Then I spritzed with turquoise Glimmer Mist and splattered brown ink across the page.  I have a Prima stamp that is about 2" x 3".  The image is the alphabet.  I stamped it randomly over my page. There is a closeup below.

And that was my background. 

 

 

I didn't use a whole lot of embellishments on my page as my background was quite busy enough with the paints and stickers and ink sprays.

 

Along each edge I adhered strips of patterned paper, washi tape and on the left border this woodcut branch of leaves.

 

You can see the alphabet stamp a little clearer here.  The image isn't sharp because I stamped over the stickers.  I love the messiness of it.

 

I love the 'Hello, my name is' journaling piece.  It came off an Echo Park sheet.  Leftovers from my Blueberry crop layouts. The 'Family' piece on the right page of my layout came from the same sheet.

 

I will be using these little wood cut cameras on many future layouts.  There is tonnes in a package. And they go with every layout!

 

 

I have another wood cut branch on the right page bordering my photo. The journaling is on an Echo Park journaling spot. A piece of washi tape to help hold it all down and add some interest.

 

I took a picture of the background before I built the layout on top of it, but, while it looked clear in the little viewer on my camera, when I put it on the computer it was blurry.  I will make sure I get a better photo of the next alpha background.  I'll be doing this again to use up more of my leftover alpha stickers.

Shopping at Unforgettable Memories.

I love browsing through Unforgettable Memories fondling all the fun stuff.  My kids groan when my car automatically turns into the parking lot as we drive down 100 Street. So convenient, as it's always on the way home.  I have to bribe them with Blizzards or McFlurries, to let me go in and they still complain because my "10 minutes tops" is always longer then their 10 minutes.

So last week, when I was in picking up photos ('just 5 minutes kids, promise'), I came out with a bag full of goodies.  I started playing as soon as I got home and this is the layout I ended up with.

The paper is Karen Foster from her graduation line. I scrapped on the yellow paint with a credit card. 

Seen it done, never tried it, now I have.

Will do it again.

I have my journaling on the 'favourite quote' piece from K&Co's Smash line. It pulls out with the 'ma' stuck to it. 

Some of my purchases from my shopping trip are the Studio Calico film strips.  They are called FabRips and are sticky backed fabric.  I also picked up the gorgeous matching butterflys and flowers by Prima.  Aren't they rustic looking?  Love them.  And I bought a package of the Petaloo flowers.  Love this size.  They will work on so many layouts and there are lots of them in the package.

I also bought the Prima jewels on my last shopping binge.  It was one big branch with a bird on it.  I cut the branch up and the bird I'm saving for another layout. And finally, I bought a package of the Prima white flowers.  I only used one on this layout and there are lots in a package so they'll be on future layouts.

A two page layout using Basic Grey chipboard

Using up my scraps again. I used left over scraps from 7 Gypsies (red music pp), Imaginisce (stripe from travel line) and Basic Grey (green pp)

The cutie in the photo is my niece and she's eating Grandma Lewall's famous angel food cake (though now Grandma usually buys it ready made instead of making it from scratch like she used to)

I used a Maya Road mask ~ I bought it ages ago to build a page on, but never did ~ and cappucino mist to create the background.  I also spritzed gold on a few spots where it looks  a little darker.  It has a very nice shimmer to it IRL.

The banner is one long string.  On my last layout I created the banner in two pieces.  What do you think looks better?  Different looks for different photos :)

Here are some closeups...

The Basic Grey chipboard is from a package of Christmas pieces that I used on a couple of layouts last year.  There was still lots left, to add to my banner and around my title on this layout.  I like that Basic Grey gives you plenty of unique designs in one package.  Like the pretty Christmas flower I put before my title. There were 4 sheets in the Christmas package I bought.

I added some of Bazzills big jewels and put some old Christmas rubons on green cardstock and cut them in little flag shaps.

The poinsetta's and other flowers are all Prima, of course.



Have you finished scrapbooking your Christmas photos yet?  Unforgettable Memories has a great selection of Christmas papers and embellishments.  And it's all in one place so you don't have to wander the entire store looking for Christmas themed stuff. 

Not that wandering isn't a good thing.  I always find loads of 'must have' items to add to my basket when I wander :)

Using my stash...

I started building this layout on two pieces of green Bazzill. It has little flowers embossed into it, but you can't see that in the pictures.  It looks very pretty IRL.

I used a big doily as a mask and sprayed Mr Huey's white mist over it.  That gave me a pretty background to work on.

I picked through my scrap stash to find some papers I liked with my photos.  I found some pretty Doodlebug snowflake paper, BoBunny valentines papers and the black is Creative Imaginations. The blue is some dotty Bazzill.  This is what my page looked like before I added the title and some embellishments. 

Did you notice the pink strip at the bottem?  After taking the photo I decided I wanted more green so I pulled out the pink and cut some green Quick Quotes pp for that spot.

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I stamped the words to "You're a mean on Mr Grinch" down the side of my page. I used a mini alpha stamp set. These stamps are so great for long titles and/or journaling and they are so cheap.  Unforgettable Memories has a few fonts and they're under $3.00 each.  Wow! That is a really good deal for something you can use over and over again.

I used some Jenni Bowlin buttons on my page.  Those are BoBunny brads that I stuck through the button holes. I punched some big snowflakes out of Little Yellow Bicycle Valentine paper.  The pink has a pretty shimmer to it. 

I don't think I've made a layout, without using the bakers twine, recently.

Keep on track with your resolution!

A month of 2012 is already gone. Have you started to slack off on your new year's resolution? Join me on Saturday, February 11 at 1:00 pm to complete this resolutions class. For $25, (or$20 for members) you can rejuvenate that goal and do a page about you! My goal has to do with health and going to the gym, but you can choose anything you want. The title is cut with Quickutz and you can personalize it with the letter stickers below.

I love these letter stickers from October Afternoon! They are inexpensive and they give you so many letters! I've used my set on a few layouts and I still have e's left! I can't stand it when those run out; the pack is basically wrecked at that point for me.

Call the store at 350-785-2711 to sign up now. See you there!

with Grandma...

When I was in Unforgettable Memories this past week I picked up a couple of bottles of white spray ink.
Mr Huey's and Tattered Angels white Chalkboard ink. I wanted to see how they compared.
I used one of the Harmonie chipboard scallop circles as a mask and sprayed on kraft cardstock.
The Mr Huey's definitely gave more coverage.  The Chalkboard ink I found was much lighter.

I also used the Chalkboard 'hot chocolate' to spray the 'abc', from my Thickers chipboard sheet, around the edges.  You can see in the top left corner it is not very dark.  Chalkboard is better on white or very light coloured papers, I think.

The last time I used my Thickers sheet as a mask I had used 'soot' spray ink.  Wetting the 'soot' with the brown spray ink revived it so when I plopped the Thickers sheet face down I got the darker design in the lower right corner.  Like it!

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Two of the papers on this layout are packaging material.  The green dotted paper is from the Imaginisce stickers package and the script, I'm sure you will recognize, comes from a package of Prima flowers.

Once I had my basic layout design, I surrounded my page with all the embellishments I 'might' use and started trying things. 

This is what I ended up with...

The vellum is over the photo because Daniel is wearing the ugliest shorts I have ever seen.  How he managed to pack them for his trip to Grandma and Grandads, without me spotting and pulling them, I will never know. 

Some close-ups...

The birdcage is one of Prima's velvety rubons.  The enamel flower is Websters.  I love the twine.  There were 3 colours on the card I bought ~ yellow, as seen here, red and blue.  I can see myself using this stuff lots.

Isn't the little owl cute?  He's from a sheet of owl stickers, all different, all just as cute. 

The clip is Basic Grey (from the pet line).

I used another of Websters enamel flowers here.

It's my day off and I'm hoping to get a couple layouts started. 

Enjoy a creative, scrappy weekend.

The finished layout

Here's the finished layout on the background I created last week.

If you remember, the last picture in last weeks post showed my photos on several layers of patterned paper. I had to take a bunch of it off because I couldn't bear to cover up all my spraying and inking. I used a few bits and pieces of patterned paper to matte my photos, some cheesecloth for texture and, of course, some Prima flowers.

Other products I used were:
BoBunny stickers and alpha, SEI alpha stickers, MLYB chipboard buddies(aren't they adorble?), Kaiser plane brad. I think thats all.

Here are some closeups...

Mists, paints and inks...

I have a day off so I've taken over the dining room table and I'm making a mess.  I have out my sprays, and my ink pads and my Making Memories paints. I picked out a couple of masks from my box and quite a few stamps.  Now to decide if I use them all or just a few of them.

I'm using some great textured kraft coloured Bazzill as my base...

• First I used my vine mask with applejack Mister Huey's color mists, then with walnut ink I had mixed up myself. I moved the vine mask around my page as I misted.
• Second I unscrewed the sprayer from the walnut mist bottle and shook it over my page splattering spots of ink.
• Third I painted meadow Making Memories paint around the edges of my page.  I did a thick layer so it would still show after step number 4
• Fourth I rubbed a turquoise ink pad around the edges. 
• Fifth I selected a set of long thin stamps and with my black Brilliance ink I created a border around the edges of my page.
  
  

• I decided I needed some more colour on my page so I grabbed a lemon metallic Maya Mist (it's more orange then yellow) and a red Maya Mist.  I used one of my large scroll masks and sprayed some more.

I really like how this is looking...

I have placed my photos, but nothing is glued down aand I'm thinking I want a stronger colour in there.  Maybe some red paint splashed along the bottom of the photo matte in the middle of the page? I will have to play with it.

I will show you the finished layout tomorrow.

a quick layout

Happy New Year to all the scrapbookers out there.  I expect you all enjoyed yourselves and have lots of photos to prove it.

I put together a quick layout yesterday and took photos as I scrapped.

I started off with a white sheet of Bazzill cardstock.  I punched 3 stars out of scrap paper and used them as masks with my Espresso and Gold mists for an easy peasy background.

One of the most time consuming things for me is deciding what papers go with my photos and also coordinate together so starting with white cardstock is a real timesaver.

I decided my matting should be a piece of shite mulberry paper.  I love the texture! I chose a couple of fairly neutral patterned papers to use as accents.  One torn strip went along the top of my page.

I used a stamp that simulates a stitched line (much quicker than pulling out the sewing machine and trying to figure out how to thread it) and black archival ink to `sew` my strip of pp to the top of my page.

I cut up some magic mesh into strips and stuck it down along the edge of my matte.  More texture!

You can see the mulberry paper is a little opaque so the ink mist shows through just a little.

Then I put my photos down...

...a couple strips of patterned paper ground them nicely.

I always like to use flowers on my layouts; even boy ones.

Prima has some less `pretty`colours for more masculine pages. The leaves are Kaiser woodcuts. The stickers I have added on are from a Bo Bunny sheet.

Now I just need a title...

...and it`s done.

How`s that for quick and easy?

Cosmo Cricket 'Salt Air'

Have you seen Cosmos Cricket's 'Salt Air' line in the store.  What a fun line to use for summer water pictures; at the beach, on holidays, or in the tub. 

I picked up 4 patterned papers; 2 Deckchairs for my background and 1 Fish tales for matting and extras and 1 Border piece.

I love that they're all double sided.  To get my stripy border I cut a 3" strip from my background, flipped it over and attached it back on using a strip from the Border sheet to hide the join. 

The border strips are perfect for making rosette flowers.  I see rosettes everwhere so I decided to give them a go.  I used a 6" length the width of whichever border strip I chose and folded them back and forth in about 1/4" increments. So easy! I punched little circles and distressed them for the centers and added a Kaiser jewel. 

I used another of the Border strips for my journaling bits. I just tore each piece out and stacked them on top of each other before writing out my story.




I like to tuck tags behind my photos as an embellishment. These ones are outlined in black ink and then I scattered a few buttons.
 
 
 
 
 

I think my favourite rosette is the bright coloured stripy one.
 
 
I tucked a couple of Prima's pink hydrangeas below the rosettes and title sticker (Jolees) and scattered some Kaiser jewels around it all. I even put a few on my photos.
 
 
 
 
 
And here's the finished layout.  I used more of the Border strips to ground my photos.  The alphabet letters are from another Cosmo Cricket line I had in my stash.

Don't you love the pink flip flops?  Those are Jolee's stickers.

Happy New Year

I hope everyone is recovering nicely from the festivities.  It was lovely to get 4 days off in a row. 

Do you have a list of scrapbooking blogs you like to check out?  I have a couple dozen saved in my 'Feeds'.  One of them is Britt from Norway.  I love seeing what she's created each week.  She cuts her kids out of many of her photos; she says to get rid of the clutter in the background.  And then she builds fantasy worlds around her kids. They are wonderful.   She says she finds a lot of her images on the internet.
You really should check her out. 

I've never attempted a layout using her style until this past weekend.  I had some photos of Breanna goofing around on some concrete structures left over from the world war, at McCauley Point Dog Park in Victoria. The backgrounds in the photos weren't that interesting so I cut her out and made a fantasy land for her to play in.

I started off making the background with blue Glimmer Mist, green Shimmer Mist and a yellow Mist I mixed up myself with a reinker.  The trees are Glimmer Screens (the same ones I've used on my last half dozen layouts).  The clouds are handcut.  Around the splotch of yellow Mist I glued down some Mulberry paper to create suns rays.

I had fun building the swing out of a piece of corrugated cardstock and some twine, and then hung it from one of my popped up clouds.  Sassy Frassy Lassy was printed on a clear page and cut out.  'Uniquely You' is by Fancy Pants.  The butterflys and flowers are punched out of a scrap of Cosmo Cricket.

I felt like I was back in Grade School Art class with no rules except to have fun.

What scrapbooking blogs do you like to check out?