A Time to Raise...A Time to Spoil

Me...I'm in the raising time.  And believe me, there are days when I can't wait until the spoiling time.  My In-Laws, are thoroughly entrenched in the "time to spoil."  With 4 grandkids and 1 great grandson, they have had plenty of practice.  The Life Portrait Collection from Websters Pages fit the bill for this family layout.  The 12 piece paper collection can be found at Lil' Lambs Boutique here.

I cut out the frames from the patterned paper and sized all the grandkid photos to fit.  I enhanced the yellow frame with a tan colored pencil to give it a bit more visible dimension.  For the background, I used some masks from the Tim Holtz Idea-Ology collection and stamps from See Dee's.  The stamps I embossed with clear embossing powder.  After the stamps were embossed, the background was inked with Distress Ink (Tattered Rose, Tea Dye and Vintage Photo used here.)  You can see the embossed areas popping through as they resist the Distress Ink.

I love these chandelier stamps from Inkadinkado.  It made a perfect filler for the this space beneath the Life Portrait die cut.  You can also see a great close up of the new Martha Stewart Iron Gate border punch here.  There is a corner punch with the set too.  You can find them both here.  Notice that even though I covered the background with Distress Inks, the underlying pattern still shows through.

The sentiment is printed on transparency paper (again, once the layout is in a page protector in your album, the transparency seams disappear).  The stamp on the right is from Mirkwood Stamps.  I stamped it on cream colored paper and then used Distress Embossing Powder on the top.  Distress Powder is different from regular embossing powder in that it does not melt to a sheen.  It will leave a rough, textured surface, which makes for a nice change.  (Weathered Wood, Tea Dye and Vintage Photo used here).

After adding all the photos to my layout and inking, I thought it needed just a touch more.  Normally I would have stamped the little hour glass before I glued my photos down but I didn't realize I wanted it until after everything was adhered.  So what do you do?  You don't want to stamp over the frame because you want the illusion of it being behind.  Easy as this:

1. Get a scrap piece of transparency paper and lay it over the area where you want the stamp. 

2. Take a Sharpie or some type of permanent marker and outline the edges of the area where you do NOT want your stamp to show.  In the picture below, I outlined the edges of the two frames. 

3. Cut out the center of your transparency paper (where the stamp will go) following your guidelines.

4. Lay your transparency cut out back on your layout.  Now the transparency should be covering any part that you do not want stamped.

5. Ink your stamp and press down on top of the opening in your transparency.  You now have a stamped image that is in back of your photos.

Try something new with your background, whether it's stamping images, or doing the emboss resist technique or just inking your background with several colors. 

Finishing up with some Basic Grey

I wanted to post my other Basic Grey project before the weekend was over because next week...Websters Pages....woo hoo! I finished up working with the Origins line I got from Lil Lambs Boutique. Here I used one of their Laser Cut doilies. They are very nice and heavy weight Laser Cuts. And beautiful too.

Because I had used the similar cut paper on my last project, I opted to cut my Doily into 4 pieces. The curved edges suited my purposes for turning this into a giant flower.

I used of the leftovers of the big flower patterned paper to make my flower grouping below. I left the darker flowers on bottom and popped up the lighter ones on top.

The itty bitty flowers came in handy to use around my stem flourish.

For the center ring on the flower below, I used the checked green paper in the collection. I grabbed a journal stamp from Stampers Anonymous and used Ranger Embossing ink to stamp over the entire ring. I covered with embossing powder and finished it with my heat gun. After embossing I inked the ring with Shabby Shutters Distress ink and then Tea Dye Distress ink. See how the embossed area resisted the Distress ink and created a different pattern atop of the checked pattern. I love doing this Emboss Resist technique.

I finished up the layout with journaling my title and the stitched edges with my White Inksessentials pen.

Fast, easy and fun.

Multi-tasking is my life

Basic Grey does it again with their Origins paper line. This line is a wonderful collection of springy patterns with fall colors. Lil' Lambs Boutique is carrying the 11 piece Origins paper kit which I used below (this includes one of their laser cut doilies), or if you prefer to have design ideas created for you, they are also carrying the 4 page Origins Scrapbook kit.

The title of the layout says it all. This is my life wrapped up in 11 journaling strips. The time of day depends on which hat I'm wearing at the moment and sometimes I have 4-5 hats thrown my way at one time. I just know there is someone else out there that can relate.

To create this layout, I cut out the middle section of the background paper and backloaded it with a different pattern. I brushed up on my hand sewing skills and sewed a zig zag stitch all around to separate the patterns. To complete the layout, I added the photo, all the journaling strips and cut flowers from one of the papers.

Basic Grey always offers papers in their collections that are perfect for die cuts. I grabbed the big floral patterned paper and cut many of the flowers out to put around the edge of the photo. Remember to pop a few of the flowers up on top of others to give your layout some dimension.

I inked around the edges of the journaling strips with Distress Ink from Ranger (Shabby Shutters and Tea Dye used here). The blend of these goes very well with the flower colors in the papers, no? Strip journaling is one of my favorite ways to journal. I'm not a big journaler to begin with, so bullet points seem to work very well for my style.

Don't forget to do a page about you every once in a while. Your kids and grandkids will appreciate a peek into your own self-reflection.

Ready to get crafty?

Our blizzard has now stopped and the thing called "Sun" seems to be rising in the sky this morning. Makes for a good day for some tutorials. How about it? Are you up for it? Both tutorials are from the layout below.

First up, is the "Quilted Background" technique. I created my Quilted Heart directly onto my die cut page. You can do this with any shape.

1. Create a mask for your quilted shape. If you are making an oversize mask, this a good time to get some of that old, old paper that you know you will never use. Draw your shape onto your paper and carefully cut it out. Keep the negative image.

2. Tape your mask over your paper where the image is to appear. Taping prevents the mask from moving and gives a clean end result.

3. Next, ink completely over your mask area. I used Distress Ink (Worn Lipstick) and inked with a makeup sponge in a circular motion. I like using the Distress Inks because they give a nice mottled effect using just the one color. Continue to ink over the mask until the background color is just as you like it.

4. To create the quilted effect, you need to prep your back ground with guidelines. I used General's Chalk pencils to do this. Create a very light criss cross pattern over your masked area. It's a good idea to leave the mask outline in place so you can draw over the edge without messing up your final product. Since we want the end result to look dimensional, you should slighty curve your lines as if the material is going around behind your shape.

5. After your guidelines are on your masked area, create little buttons, with the chalk pencil, in all the "crossed" areas.

6. Now draw darker stitching lines over your guide lines. Trust me, the guide lines virtually disappear, as long as you draw them lightly to begin with.

7. To create the indented effect for the buttons, I did the following: First I took a darker chalk pencil (charcoal black) and lightly outlined each button. For the crease lines, I used the same chalk pencil that I used to draw the buttons and drew one slightly taller curved line and one shorter curved line on the four sides of the button. Finally, I took a very light colored pencil (Cream or white) and added little highlights on the top parts of the buttons and the top of the button curve lines. This last step is optional.

8. Finally, lift off the outer mask and there is your quilted image right on your background paper. I added the ruffled paper edges which I described in my earlier post, here.

Next up: "Faux Pearl Swirls" For this technique you need transparency paper, Liquid Pearls or some type of dimensional paint like Puffy Paint (I prefer Liquid Pearls because of the fine tip to create small dots), and a swirl/flourish pattern.

I used my Prima flourishes to replicate. Small tip: Scan your flourishes onto paper and then you can use them over and over again. You can stamp a flourish onto paper and use it or find flourishes in some fonts that specialize in flourishes. Google "free fonts" and there are many websites that offer free fonts for download to your computer.

1. Place transparency over your flourish/swirl and tape one edge down so it will not move.

2. The Prima flourish example above is a great one to use two colors on. Start with the bigger pearls first and your darker color creating small dots following the pattern beneath (Ruby Red used here). Notice I only used part of the flourish/swirl here. You can follow as much or as little of the pattern as you like.

3. Take your second, light color (Petal Pink used) and follow the tiny pearl pattern.

4. Let dry thoroughly.

5. Cut transparency close to your new pearl pattern.

6. Adhere to your layout with adhesive. I used Vellum adhesive which shows clear behind the transparencies. Note: When photographing, you can see some of the edges of the transparencies, however once they are behind your page protector in your albums, they disappear.

I hope you try one or both of these techniques on your next project. Happy Scrapping!!

Snow, Super Bowl and a whole lotta love.

I really did not fall off the face of the earth...but I am about 26" under it. Yes, we just received another blizzard and all the shoveling fun that comes with it. I actually saw some Penguins waddling into the area yesterday morning. So, because the last thing I want to see is another snow storm, I decided to get some summer pics out and scrap them.

As you all know, Valentine's is fast approaching and I now have all the goodies and cards completed for my dear husband and darling daughters. I even had some kit product leftover for a layout. All of these items below were made using the Bo Bunny Love Bandit Deluxe kit from Lil' Lambs Boutique.

I decided to make the die cut sheet my whole layout this time instead of backing it with 12x12 cardstock...oooo dare to be different I am. I also did two new techniques for me that I have seen around the scrapping world. I'll be putting up pictorial technique explanations in the next day or two.

Like those two tone flourishes...well you can make them yourself. The "faux pearl swirl" explanation coming soon. And look, there's some more of those dual colored paper roses.

Last month, Bo Bunny listed a free transparency title for download. I saw so many beautiful uses of it with winter themed layouts and thought the title fit well for Valentine/Heart themes as well. The "You Melt My Heart" phrase can be found here. I thought it would be cute to shrink my kiddos and add them to the background scenery. I used a swivel exacto knife to cut around the flower so it could sit on top of the added photograph. Neat little effect huh?

The background on my heart was a lot of fun to make and I'll be posting a pic by pic tutorial soon.

I used faux stitching along the ruffled edge of the heart. To create this ruffled edge, I cut 3/4" strips and used my scalloped deco scissors along one side. I then pleated the strips at various intervals. It took about 4-5 twelve inch strips to complete the heart. After gluing the pleated strips around the edge, I added the faux stitching on top.

Here's another look at both the background and the pleated strips around the edge.

Last week, I posted the 3 cards I did for the Lil' Lambs Boutique card challenge. Since I made coordinating gift bags/boxes to go with the cards, I added them back into the photos here, for the full collection.

The bag was part of the Deluxe kit and it's a decent sized bag, so that one goes to Dear Hubby. I used the Martha Stewart Deep Edge Daisy Fan punch for the top and bottom border and grabbed a tag/card from the Love Bandit Cut Out page.

Next up, are candy holders for my girls. The gift boxes were made with the Shutt-erfly template from My Time Made Easy™. Aren't they too cute?

I created this one below with one of the Love Bandit sheets.

I picked up the pink, faux stitched background from the card and added it to the gift box. The embellishments are cut outs from the tag sheet and a punched flower from the paper line.

Here's a view of the top. The packaging makes a butterfly closure at the top, so I added some matching accent paper and added the layered flower by gluing down only one petal to one of the butterfly tabs. (Note: do not glue the whole flower down or you will be unable to open the package.)

More cute cut outs from the tag page and hand punched flowers.

The kit had a sheet of Bo Bunny double dot paper. This "solid" colored cardstock is very sturdy and makes a nice gift box.

The Love Bandit line has so many adorable critters that make perfect accents for kiddie gifts.

I followed the card theme using the Martha Stewart Lattice Heart and Scallop Heart punch to add a border and top accents to the gift box. The flower is a combination of flowers and brads from the kit and a hand punched flower using the paper line. Again, I only glued part of the flower to one section of the top to allow for easy opening.

Here's a view of the opened box where you can see the attached flower.

Don't forget your honey or loved ones this coming Valentine's Day. And be on the look out for my tutorial posts this week.

And finally, a "heart-y" congratualtions to the New Orleans Saints!! A wonderful comeback and fantastic victory!