Lots and lots of spray inks

This background was supposed to be for the layout I blogged in my last post.  The colours for the challenge at The Color Room were pink, red, green and white.  I decided the background, while I loved it, did not work for my photos and I ended up putting this aside.

Want to know how I did the background?

1. I started with two pieces of lime green bazzill cardstock
2. sprayed it with pink, red and green mist
3. sprayed it heavily with water to soften the colours
4. used a 12 x 12 vine mask and sprayed with white mist 
5. moved the mask randomly around the layout and misting with green
6. flipped the mask over onto the page so the ink on the mask stamped on my page
7. stamped around the edge of my page with my $3.99 Kaiser stamps and green ink
8. added some strips of washi tape along the left edge
9. rubbed green metallic ink around the edge on top of the stamping

Layer after layer after layer and I have a gorgeous background!

I used some butterly diecuts and punches as masks and swiped white paint over them.

This is what my page looked like once I pulled off the butterfly diecuts.  I also did some random stamping with a Prima stamp and my Kaiser stamps that are such a great deal at Unforgettable Memories. The circles are made with white paint on a lid.

I layered papers and punched vellum under my photos. And see the light bulb washi tape.  Such a neat design.  Wander around Unforgettable Memories and check out all the different washi tape designs.

The 'friend' sticker sheet is Flair Designs.

I used the big butterfly diecut on my layout as an embellishment.  It was originally purple, but is not thickly coated with white acrylic paint.  I punched a vellum dragonfly and glued it on top.

And look how I finished off my butterfly masks;  Prima flowers in different sizes. Love how it looks!

And here is the finished layout...

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.

Glimmer Mist background ~ spray inks

I picked up a mixed media scrapbook magazine last week and found a how-to for this gorgeous background. You will have to check it out in the store because my pictures really don't do it justice. It is very soft and pretty. Perfect for the photos I planned on putting on it.

If you want to try it yourself here's a quick tutorial on what I did.

I started off with white cardstock.  I tore some leafy pp and adhered it to the bottom of the page.

I chose 4 colours that worked with my flower pictures.  Yellow gold, pink, blue and green glimmer mists.

I misted my paper heavily with plain old water.  I used more then 2 of my mini misters full of water.  The paper needs to be good and wet for the mists to blur successfully.

When my paper was wet enough I sprayed the yellow gold all over.  Then I sprayed some blue, then pink and finally a little green. I splattered some white spray ink over top of it all. It was almost too pretty to put photos on it :) 

Here are some close-ups of the finished layout...

My title is on a Sizzix diecut I have had in my stash forever.  The alpha stickers are Prima and BoBunny.  I perched a Maya Rd felt bird on top. I punched some green leaves and cut apart a Prima bling piece to make it look like vines growing up the sign post.

A smash journal page is layered under the photo along with a Calico button and some Prima blooms.

More Prima bling and blooms...

And last, but not least the grape hyacinth I made earlier this week.  I posted a 'how-to' for them on Tuesday.  The stick pins are by Little Yellow Bicycle.

If you're coming to the crop this weekend at the Blueberry I hope you bring your inks and mists.  I'm going to.  We can make some fun backgrounds for our photos.

Handmade flowers and blingy ribbon

The background pp and title stickers are Echo Park.  The rest of the patterned papers is Harmonie.  Also the ribbon. And that pretty wood flower peaking out from behind the photo is what the ribbon came wound around.
I 'stitched' along the edges of the diecut paper with my white gel pen.

I've been seeing these little rolled flowers everywhere so I decided to give them a try.  They are very simple to make.  Just cut a circle; I used the inside of the glue dot roll for the smaller one and a pillar candle I had on my dining room table for the larger flower.  Then I cut the circle in to a spiral shape and rolled it using glue dots to hold my rolls in place. Add some bling to the center and a couple of handcut leaves from patterned paper and they're done.

I found a tutorial on this blog.

Just remember that the wider your spirals and the tighter you roll your flower the more it will stand off your page.  I flattened mine a little so they weren't so bulky.

I found another colour challenge blog.

It's called Color Combos Galore.  It is set up very similar to the Color Room I showed you last month but instead of a sketch this one has an inspiration challenge.  Here is last weeks challenge combo and inspiration.

I love pink and green together so I had to play along.  I started with a white sheet of Bazzill cardstock and used my mask letters for the title.  You could place chipboard or even paper alphas you had cut out yourself for the title.  Just lay it down and spray with Glimmer Mist.  I also used the backing from a Prima felt border  to create a border along the lower part of my page.

I planned on putting an acrylic sheet with green butterflies over my background (you can see it below) so I roughly sketched where the butterflies weren't so I had a place for my journaling.

Once I had my journaling all written out I adhered my acrylic butterfly sheet (by Hambly Screen Prints) down to my background and began building my matting and other embellishments for my layout.

And here is the finished layout. The doily was one I inherited from my Grandma.  It had a 17c price tag on it, from Woolworths.



I love the acrylic overlays.  Unforgettable Memories has a variety of designs.  Make sure you ask about them the next time you're in the store.

The pretty flower spray is by Prima.  There are few colours in the store.  This pink spray was packaged with a purple spray.  I can't wait to use it on a layout.  They are so sweet.

The buttons are Jenni Bowlin.  There must be half a dozen colours in the store.  I've used the green ones on a few layouts recently.

I used 3 different border punches on my papers.  I think the border punches are the best value for the money when it comes to scrapbooking tools.  I use mine over and over. I never get tired of them.

Time capsule ornaments

This was a great project to do with the kids over the Christmas holidays.


Ingredients:
Clear Christmas balls (I bought glass ones at Unforgettable Memories)
Photos of your lil' darlings
1/2" strips of Christmas patterned paper
Rub-on numbers
Ribbon for hanging ornament

Remove the top of the ornament.

Use your circle cutter to cut your childs face out of the photo. Roll it up tight enough to slip in the top of the ornament. I had to roll mine up quite tight and it didn't want to unroll so I used two shish kebob sticks to manuever it open again. Tricky.

Write your time capsule notes on the back side of the patterned paper strips. I wrote things like what the kids did over spring break, during summer holidays... What their favourite Xbox game/tv show/computer program is... What their favourite Christmas present of 2009 was.
If you have any suggestions for good time capsule topics please let me know.

Roll up your strips of paper and insert into the top of the ornament. Use your shish kebob sticks to open them up a bit, and to make sure the photo is mostly in front of the patterned paper. You'll be a pro at eating with chopsticks if you can get this to work.

Rub-on the year to the outside of the glass ball. I also added some SEI Christmas rub-on sayings to the back side of the time capsule ornament.

Slip the top back on the ornament and thread a ribbon hanger through the wire loop. Find the perfect branch on the Christmas tree to hang it from.

Still busy making ornaments

I found this idea on the Photojojo website and thought they'd be fun for Breanna and I to try.
Once I started looking I found it hard to decide on a photos to use. I didn't think peoples faces would look too good cut in strips. Here's a photo of a Toucan I took in Costa Rica.
Maybe bright, colourful photos of the garden in summer would look amazing.

I decided to try a few with various papers in my stash. This next one was made with some leftover Cosmo Cricket. I held it together with Bobunny brads that matched the paper and glued on some little blue Prima flowers.
I like that the paper is double sided so the inside isn't glaring white.

The last one I made was really hard to get a good picture of, but is so pretty on the tree. I used the Prima flocked paper that looks like lace. It's held together with decorative antiqued brads and I used the white 'liquid applique'that puffs up when heated around the top to look like snow. I added some prima pearls and I pulled apart an old Christmas arrangement for the red berries and leaves I glued on top.

Something New

I have a solution for when you have a sticker embellishment where the color just doesn't go but the shape is right.

I love the shape of these Snowflake stickers from Basic Grey's Eskimo Kisses line. The pattern was just too busy.

So I flipped the sticker sticky side up.

Sprinkled some embossing powder.

Shake off the excess.

Heat with a heat gun. And there you go. I snowflake all glitterey and white fit for any snowy day page!

Creative Christmas Chaos

So while making my December Daily journal inspired by Ali Edwards http://aliedwards.typepad.com/ I made quite the mess . My table was completely covered in Christmas craft supplies. After I finished my project and have another waiting I decided to take this time to organize. I put each individual company into a zip lock baggy.

Then complied it all together into a larger ziplock bag. So now I can set it aside and work on my next project or have it handy for when I feel like making a Christmas card or two! Plus my scrapbook table is clean and everything is all organized. Feels good after a week and a half over Creative Christmas Chaos!



Nice, clean, organized and user friendly!

Adding text to your photos.

Adding journaling or a title right on your photo is easy to do. I added my journaling to this photo of Tikanii before I had it developed. I chose a fun font and made it white so it would stand out against the darker rocks.

You don't need a fancy program to do this. You can do it online for free at Picnik. It is so easy. And fun! I'll walk you through adding a caption to a photo.
Click here
Hit the 'Get Started' button and create your free account.
Once you've created an account, which takes all of a minute, you will be directed to your 'home'. Click on the Upload Photo button on the left side of the page and choose a photo from your computer.
Once your photo is uploaded click on the 'Create' tab. This is where you'll find all the special effects as well as the text tool.

Select the text you want by clicking on it. (it will highlight green)
Above the list of fonts is a window that says 'type here and click ADD to place text'. Type in your title or journaling here.

Hit the ADD button and the text will appear on your photo with a box around it. To the right of your photo the text editing options pop up.
You can now move your text to where you want it. You can change the colour and/or size of your font, as well as play with other options available.

Once your text and photo is as you want it, it's time to save it back to your memory stick or computer. Click on the 'Save & Share' tab. Make sure the 'save to computer' tab is selected (it's the default so you shouldn't need to change anything). Type in your file name in the box at the top. Then hit the green 'Save' button. Browse to the folder (or drive if you are saving it back to your memory stick), and hit save again.


So there you have it. Easy peasy.

Just remember; before you get your photo developed at the store tell Lynette that you've played with it digitally.

Retreat Paper Bag Instructions

Had a blast at Retreat again this year. Ladies you were a fabulous group and we had some good laughs, great food and fantastic scrapbooking!

Here are those instructions for the paper bag project on Friday night. For your base cut a piece of cardstock 4 3/4x 4 3/4. Score 1" from each edge and on an angle for the corners. Fold and glue the sides up. Trim a piece of patterened paper 7 1/2" x 12" ( this is for the jar size we used in class, this can easily be adjusted for different sized objects. Adhere the patterened paper to the base. Trim a piece of cardstock 1" tall and punch with a border punch to attach around the bottom. Cut a couple of tags for each tab you could also use a circle punch. and Voila a treat bag.

These would be great for halloween, teahers, house warmings..... lots of potential.

Again thanks for attending the Fall Retreat 2009 and we look forward to seeing you again soon!

Lynette

PS I'll post a few more pics here later in the week from Retreat!

How to resize your photos

Most digital cameras take photos at a different aspect ratio than the standard photo sizes printed at the camera store. That means that when you have your photos developed the developer (computer or person) will decide which part of the photo to lop off to make your picture a 4x6 or 5x7 or other standard size. I like to crop my photos before having them developed so I get to choose which part of my photo gets chopped.
I'm using Microsoft Office Picture Manager for this quick tutorial. Most PCs come with Microsoft Office Picture Manager already installed to view your photos. But if you are using other software, just look for the same commands. They will be there somewhere as this is very basic editing.

First open up your photo. Click on 'Picture' in the toolbar and select 'Crop'.


The crop menu will appear on the right hand side of your screen. Click the arrow beside 'Aspect Ratio' and select your desired print size. I usually pick the standard 4x6. Make sure the landscape radio button is clicked (or portrait if you are editing a portrait picture).


A see-thru box will appear around the part of your photo that will form a 4x6 aspect ratio. You can see that all the width on my landscape photo is inside the box, but there is a little above and below the box that will be chopped off if I hit the 'OK' button.
I can move my mouse over the photo till it changes to a 4 pointed arrow then holding down my left mouse button I can move the clear area up or down depending on which part of the photo I want to chop off. So I can take a little off the bottom and top as in the default, or I can chop it all off the bottom, or all off the top. I have choices.


Another neat trick I can do is crop parts of my photo out that I don't want. Like stray body parts. LOL. If I grab a corner (the mouse pointer will change from the 4 pointed arrow to a right angle on the corner), hold down my left mouse button, and drag the corner inwards, I can get rid of parts of my photo that I don't want.
As long as my Aspect Ratio is still 4x6 (in the crop menu on the right hand side) the proportions of my photo will stay at the standard size as I shrink my photo down.


When you're happy with your cropped photo showing in the clear box, click on 'OK'.

And don't forget to save!

Now when you take your camera chip in to Unforgettable Memories to have your photos developed you can slide that chip in and order all the prints you want knowing that you're not going to loose an important part of your photo in the process.

Mini Misters

What a great idea! You all know how much I love playing with Glimmer Mist and the Maya Rds mists. Now I can make my own in any colour I want. And it's so easy.

All you need is a mini mister container(Unforgettable Memories sells them in packages of 3), a bottle of reinker in your choice of colour and tap water. If you want to add some shine to mimic the look of Glimmer Mist you will also need a little Perfect Pearls.

Put a few drops of the reinker into the mini mister. The more ink you put in the darker your 'mist' will be. Fill up the mini mister with water. If you're going to add some Perfect Pearls for glimmer fill to about 1/2" from the top so you have room to shake and mix the powder with the liquid.

Just 1/4 teaspoon of the Perfect Pearls will give your mist a nice glimmer to it.
Yep. That's my potatoe peeler that I used to dump the Perfect Pearls in to my mini mister. It has the perfect shaped end for scooping and dumping. :)

And here's my first project with my home made glimmer mist. The reinker I used was a 'Distress' Ink so it's a more muted, weathered colour than other inks. It looks wonderful on the white cardstock, especially with the glimmer that, unfortunately, doesn't show up in the scan.
I used a piece of lasercut cardstock (the one with baby words on it) as a mask. Once the ink was dry (just a couple of minutes) I traced around the one word 'adorable' with a black pen and then glued little black hearts into the center of the letters.

The heart shaped jewels don't sit well on lumpy backgrounds so instead of peeling it from it's backing to place it on my flowers I left it on the clear acrylic sheet it came packaged on. I trimmed around the hearts with my scissors and then used glue dots under the larger jewels to hold it down.