Category Archives: inspiration

Inspired by Crafty Friends

Inspired by Crafty Friends

I have met some pretty wonderful people through scrapbooking. They are fun, interesting, and downright inspiring.

Take my friend Jen from Caffeinated Papercuts. She’s a riot at crops, full of energy and good humor. She’s also the owner of an adorable etsy shop filled with cute and useful handmade items, from things like gift tags and decorated coasters to wedding invitations.

Anyway, she taught her very first class at the last crop I went to, and she did an awesome job demonstrating a lot of Tim Holtz inspired techniques. ( I posted the page I made in her class here, and you all loved it!)

So, today’s card is based on that class.

Tim Holtz inspired Dragonlfy

 

Rather than the red, orange, and brown for the fall leaves pages, this uses pink and blues and green. Plus, once I got done, I realized it needed shine (after all it is a dragonfly!) so put a thin coat of water color iridescent medium over the top to give it some sparkle.

The most useful thing I got from Jen’s class? A reminder to layer images. Adding foam dots to a fussy cut image, adding some cute patterned paper? Those are things Jen would do. I know HOW to do it, it’s just I don’t always put things together that way. When I do, I LOVE how they turn out. Thanks for the inspiration Jen!

Welcome to November!

Welcome to November!

It’s November, and this year, that means cards. Lots and lots of cards!

Why cards? This is after all a SCRAPBOOKING site.

Well, there are lots of reasons. Mostly its because cards are a great way to practice new techniques and design principles in small, easily digested doses. Design principles that work for cards, also work for scrapbook pages, they just don’t feel as overwhelming with the smaller size. Techniques that you can practice and star on a card make excellent embellishments and backgrounds for scrapbook pages.

Make sense? Shall we get started then?

Today’s card (and the next two days as well) is based on a sketch from Page Maps 2. (affiliate link)

Wait, is that glitter on there? It really does get everywhere.

Wait, is that glitter on there? It really does get everywhere.

As you can see it is a very close interpretation of the sketch. But if you look closely at the sketch and break down its components, you’ll see there are many different ways you can use this to inspire a card, or even a page.

You can interpret the bottom half as strips of scrap patterned paper, washi tape (as I did here), or even as one big piece of patterned paper. The border can be anything from a piece of ribbon, to enamel dots to nonexistent. The sentiment can be words, or a focal image, with all sorts of embellishment options.

Today’s tip: You can make a typical sized card by cutting any piece of 8.5 x 11 paper in half, and then folding it. You can make a card front to adhere to your card base by cutting a piece of cardstock to 4 x 5.25. (You can get four of them from an 8.5×11 piece of paper, and six from a 12×12.) Having a card front means you can experiment with techniques without ruining a base, and you can hide things like the ends of ribbons or brad legs. No awkward ends or sticking out hardware makes for a more finished and professional looking card.

Don’t forget! If you want to get a card from me in the mail, make sure you’re on my e-mail list. Sign up here!

 

 

A Quick Aside

A Quick Aside

For those who don’t know, or haven’t heard yet, I just recently started selling jewelry from Origami Owl. origami owl samples

I LOVE the way you can tell stories with the all the different charms and tags and dangles.

simon's origami owl sample

My son loves how tiny the charms are, and all the options for putting together a locket that is specifically about him and his interests. Just so you know, he loves, soccer, his dog, ice cream, collectible card games, magic, and rocks and minerals. Things that are sparkly are a bonus in his world.

chocolate origami owl sample

It is so much fun to switch and change out the charms and chains to suit my mood or interests for the day.

origami owl tag sample

The tags and dangles and charms can also work as mini gratitude reminders. Don’t you find there are some days you want or need to remind yourself how lucky you are? Maybe that’s only me.

Interested in finding out more about Origami Owl? Check out my store website. If you want to talk about it more, drop a comment here, or check out my Facebook page for Origami Owl.

Thanks for letting me shift gears a bit on you. I know this isn’t scrapbooking exactly, but it’s still telling your story, only with jewelry instead of words. Isn’t that a GREAT idea?!

LOAD-ivated!

LOAD-ivated!

Chugging along with the first full week of LOAD. I love dedicating myself to creating every day, regardless of how busy the day is, or how much energy I have. This past week has been one of those weeks that started out busy and just got more hectic as the week went on. But there’s always time to squeeze in a  little creative play.

This first page started with 1920s design, which led me to fiesta ware, which led me to concentric circles, which led me here:

Fashion Queen

Since my niece is into fluffy, fuzzy and soft, the various ribbons seemed like the perfect addition to the page.

The next prompt was all about the lean years in the 1930s, which made me think of my father who was born during the 30s, and then to my grandfather, who I never met because he died when my father was 16. The amount of info I have about him is very lean, so that led to this page:

Mysterious chap

Love that I used the tear strip (including the name of the line!) on the page!

Another day, another prompt, this one about innovation. (Zippers people! Only since the 1930s. Can you imagine?)

The idea of innovation led me to how cities are finding ways to add beauty and interest and history to their streets, and the huge silly and fun clogs my local city recently commissioned.

You know you're in Albany when

The design is really simple on this, so the clogs take center stage.

Mend, Stitch and Patch was the next prompt. That was an easy story to come up with, since last fall we were inundated with repair projects.

when it rains it pours

The journaling is on the  tag in the bag. The clouds are rub-ons, and the raindrops are stickles.

I went off prompt the next day, because, while looking for photos, this one jumped out at me.  This is how messy my craft room is on a regular basis. Thought you might like to see it in use. 😉

working

The color schemes of the 1940s was the following day’s prompt. The teal and pink on the list just screamed my niece’s name, and I had the circles left over from making the fiesta ware inspired page, so created this:

daddy's little angel

You don’t need to journal a lot on every page, and in this case, the title is the journaling.

I read the last day of the week’s prompt super early in the day, and then went down a rabbit hole trying to find a favorite song of my father’s. When I discovered that it was actually from the 60s, I had to stop and go spend hours doing other errands, and by the time I was able to sit down to scrap I couldn’t remember what the prompt was, and I was so tired, I just scrapped the first story that appealed to me.

using an overlay

Once again I made use of the name strip to add some coordinating pattern. The acetate chevron is supposed to mimic the up and down of falling while learning, as well as the energy and motion of skating. Think it worked?

This week was super busy, filled with an overnight trip to Boston, a birthday party, birthday shopping for two of the most important people in my life (including finding 70 things to wrap for my mother’s 70th birthday!), yard work, hospital visit for tests, and a very painful dentist’s visit, proving it is possible to scrapbook, if it’s something you want to do.

Go make something. You won’t regret taking the time to feel and be creative.

 

Try It, You’ll Like It!

Try It, You’ll Like It!

One of the most fun events on the whole internet is happening this Friday and Saturday. Hyperbole? Probably. Unless you’re a scrapbooker.

What is it?

True Scrap 5. Haven’t heard of it? Where have you been hiding? All my scrappy internet friends love this event.

True Scrap is a live, web based scrapbooking event. Each day, you log into a single webspace where multiple classes are presented. There’s a live chat feed, where you can interact with fellow attendees, as well as the instructors for each class.  There’s also a question and answer session after each class where you can go into further detail about the class topic with the instructor.

It’s hosted by Lain Ehmann, one of my favorite scrapbookers out there, and she’s brought together 15 (yes 15!) instructors to bring you the latest ideas and techniques in the industry.

TrueScrap5

These are fun and fabulous events, with tons of ideas and inspiration. I’ll be using ideas from some previous classes when putting together the daily cards for November. (Must come up with a catchy name for that. Any suggestions?)

There are classes on mixed media and distressing techniques and spray ink. There’s design and embellishments and stamping. That’s just some of the classes from ONE event! These events are so FULL of inspiration, and camaraderie that springs up between the attendees in the classroom! So much fun and silliness as the conversation winds from class topic to superheroes to nail polish, and back again.

If you’re not sure, try one of the classes from previous True Scrap events that are available for sale at individual rates. They are inexpensive, and worth every penny. If you have questions about any particular class, let me know. I’ve attended ALL the True Scrap events, and they’ve been well worth the time and money.

These were my favorites from each event:

Nic Howard: True Scrap (1)

Jennifer McGuire: True Scrap 2

Shimelle Laine: True Scrap 3

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer: True Scrap 4

Bev Grey: True Stamp

If you’re still unsure about joining True Scrap 5, Lain Ehmann is presenting a Spreecast this evening, where she’ll answer questions about True Scrap, and talk about her impressions on the state of scrapbooking, based on what she’s seen while prepping for Friday and Saturday’s event.

You can check out the Spreecast broadcast tonight: Is Scrapbooking Dead? 

Don’t miss True Scrap 5 this week. It’s going to be FUN!

ts5adattendee