Category Archives: ScrapBook

Designer Duos

04 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by in Classes, ScrapBook

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

,

Yesterday, Cathie and I taught a fun class at The Paperie called Designer Duos – Part 1 (I hope)!

I know she and I loved it and it pushed both of us out of our comfort zones a touch since we used colours for our base papers that we never use – orange for me and green for her. I don’t have pictures on Cathie’s LO yet but I’ll post that here when I add them. For now, here’s her (unfinished) LO, done by me!

my boy

Love how she used the stencil, with 4 layers of acrylic paint! It’s super cool and dimensional, and the confetti was awesome, so big right now as an embellishment. She also die cut hearts from a circle of wood veneer, backed them with patterned paper and then added glossy accents – one of my favourite things – but the best part was the title; we wrote our words, then hand cut them, love it!

my boy – shiny glossy!

My LO turned into two LO’s! The first one I did had a smaller centre section and I felt it was too little space for a pic, so I turned it into a home decor piece:

Like a bird I sing…

…but then I felt bad for the people who wanted to be able to add pictures so at 11:30 the night before, I changed it up a little to make a bigger central portion:

You make my heart smile

…and then I gave everyone the choice of which LO they did. That means trying to teach two sets of slightly different instructions at once – ha!

I think everyone had fun – we even had three out-of-towners! I love seeing new faces at classes – hopefully we didn’t scare them away and they’ll make the trip in to play with us again! Thanks for coming ladies, it was great to meet you all!

I’ll be back tomorrow with a new Tuesday Technique series – get ready to stencil!

S.

Things on Thursday…

18 Friday May 2012

Posted by in ScrapBook, Things on Thursday...

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

,

(EDIT: Totally forgot to post this yesterday – sorry!)

1. You know how much I love to do handstitching? Well, here’s a great blog by Kinsey Wilson showing some awesome handstitching techniques – definitely worth checking out!

2. Speaking of handstitching, this looks like a great class and it’s on sale right now!

3. A few days ago I mentioned on Twitter and Instagram that I was making these brownies and promised an update once they were taste tested. Here’s the update: they’re awesome. Gooey and rich and easy to make!

4. I had a Paperie Pick blog post go live this past Friday. My “pick” was Freckled Fawn washi tape and here’s the LO I made specifically for that blog post:

cozy…

5. The Paperie is having a crop night tonight followed by an all day crop tomorrow – wish I could be there, it’s going to be a blast! And lunch is from Manna, that alone is worth the $15 crop fee!

S.

12 on Fourteen & a mini…

14 Monday May 2012

Posted by in 12 on Twelve, Mini Album, ScrapBook, Week in the Life 2012

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

(note: This is a long one, with lots of pics – you might want a coffee, or wine, or…. whatever, to get you through!)

So…. You all know how much I love the 12 on Twelve photo taking adventure each month, right? I love that little collage of one ordinary day in pictures – no journaling, just snapshots of our life.

And this month I forgot all about it. Sucks. I was bummed. And then that little person in my head went, “knock, knock, knock. Hey dummy! You can take 12 pictures any old day!” Ummm, yeah. Duh!

So today is the day! Anyone want to join in? There’s still lots of time! And my camera battery is dead so I’m crossing my fingers and hoping against hope that absolutely nothing happens for half an hour! 🙂

I’ll have today’s twelve ready for Wednesday.

The other thing that occurred to me was that I haven’t shared any retreat projects with you yet – sorry!

My Week in the Life album is almost done, just a couple of papers left to toss in there and then I’ll photograph and share it. Still love that project and I’m so happy I stuck with the album and finished it (almost!).

The thing is, when that album was done, I had a handful of pics not in there. Either they were cute, but didn’t really tell a story, or I had better ones to tell the story of the day, so they got cut. But, as I said, there were some cute pics – what to do, what to do?

I made G a mini album with the extras and some more of the fabulous Clever Handmade Embroidery Board!

Out for Publication

Love Cards that I Love!

11 Friday May 2012

Posted by in Cards, ScrapBook, Techniques

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

, , , , , ,

And I love them because they are made with the brand spanking new Spring Seasonal Distress Ink Colours – Peacock Feathers, Squeezed Lemonade, and Shaded Lilac. Seriously though, don’t they sound awesome, even before you know what the colours are? Yup. They do!

I wanted to give the inks a test run, see how the colours dried and blended, so I made two super simple cards using the Hero Arts Lotus Background (one of my faves!) and an Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday set – Love Always Wins.

For the first one, I simply added ink randomly to the stamp, misted with water to allow the inks to blend, and stamped onto watercolour paper. Once it was dry, I added the sentiment and some twine:

For the second, I wanted to see more of the true colour so I swiped each ink pad over the stamp to make three lines of colour. I lightly misted with water to get some slight blending and again stamped onto watercolour paper. Another awesome sentiment from Ali Edwards and some twine and I called it done:

So…. simple, but I love the colours and the texture of the watercolour paper added just enough interest!

Have a great weekend, see some of you at The Paperie tomorrow for the sale and Taffety’s baked goodies!

S.

Tuesday Techniques – Dry Embossing

08 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by in ScrapBook, Tuesday Techniques

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

, , ,

Today’s technique is super simple but I will be expanding on it over the next couple of weeks. Let’s talk about dry embossing!

You will need:

Supplies

An embossing machine (I use a Cuttlebug), embossing folders, ink, and a blending tool.

First, put your tag or paper in the folder:

Before you ask, I cut a slit in the top of my folder so the tag would fit the way I wanted. Hey, Tim said it was ok so I’m going with it!

Second, run the tag and folder through your machine, using the sandwich specified in your user’s manual.

For the Cuttlebug you will need the A plate, B plate, embossing folder with paper, then another B plate.

And this is what you get on the other side!

Next, use your ink blending tool to add colour to the tag, concentrating on the embossed areas. As you can see below, the embossed pattern really stands out once you start layering colour:

Finally, finish up your tag and enjoy! I always make sure to add brown to the edges and blend colours for more definition and depth.

Pretty, hey? I think the embossing just adds another layer to the texture and interest of the tag.

Next week, I’ll show you some different materials that you can emboss!

Make sure you leave me a link if you try this out – I’d love to see what you make!

S.

Some crafty goodness…

04 Friday May 2012

Posted by in Cards, Classes, ScrapBook, Techniques, Yearlong Album

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

…as promised! Here it is!

Last weekend we had a birthday party to attend and I had to teach the Yearlong Class at The Paperie that day as well. Unfortunately, I had no card made for the party before hand. Oops! Luckily, as I was teaching one of the two bonus cards we made…

… Cathie mentioned the Distress Stain splats would make good monsters. Ummm, yes, they totally would! And I had coloured googly eyes at home – awesome! Here’s how that 3 minute card turned out:

Monsters!!!

So yeah, I totally *love* it! And I think Pine Needles might be my new favourite colour – see that fantastic greeny blue guy? He makes me happy… 🙂

The other card we did on Sunday was made using The Crafter’s Workshop Mini Fragmented Flower Stencil and mists.

I get a lot of people asking me how to mist properly and I always say to press on the nozzle. Seriously.

It seems to me that a lot of people are scared they’ll get too much colour or spray in the wrong place or something and they gingerly press down on the nozzle. Slowly. And that’s guaranteed to get you splats and drops, not mist. So just give your mist a good, solid press, people – go for it! And if you’re worried about too much colour, place your paper in a box, aim the mist at the back of the box, press down, and just let the mist drift down on your page. It’s much finer this way, but you’ll have more control about the intensity but since it’s mist, it will go where it wants, for the most part – you have very little control there, my friends!

All that being said, I thought we should have some misting practice in class! I used Adirondack Colour Wash in my sample – I love the colours and intensity of these. The trick with mist and stencils is to go light. The more mist, the more liquid, the more seepage under the stencil. So, go light and get a great impression! And use colours that will blend nicely together! And if you don’t think you have enough colour down, trust me, you do – do not spray again, it will be fine! 🙂

Anyway, simple cards, both done in about 5 minutes each, but fun techniques that can be used for a bunch of different things! If you want to see more techniques with Distress Stains, check out my Paperie Picks post from last week.

Have a fabulous weekend everyone – I’m at the Retreat and I know I’m having a great time!

S.

Week in the Life | Wednesday

27 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by in Cards, Classes, Family, ScrapBook, Week in the Life 2012

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , ,

So yesterday was crazy and I’m only now getting to post Wednesday’s Week in the Life pics – enjoy!

Still loving the process, though it is getting harder to motivate myself to write everything down! I know it will be worth it when the album is all put together.

S.

Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger

25 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by in Cards, Classes, ScrapBook, Techniques

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , ,

I’m playing along with the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger again this week. It’s a fun one that inspired one of the cards I made for last night’s Hero Arts/Studio Calico class at The Paperie.

The trigger was watercolour butterflies:

Butterfly Reverie

As soon as I saw the border of butterflies in the Calico Borders set we were using in class, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

Watercolour Butterflies

I misted watercolour paper then coloured it with Distress Stains while it was still wet. As I was drying it with a heat tool, I kept misting to blend the colour and get water spots. I then stamped my images with black Archival Ink. I cut around the wings of two butterflies, coloured them with my favourite Sakura Stardust pen and bent the wings for dimension. I coloured the string with Distress Stain and wrapped it around the card front several times. To finish, I adhered the card front with dimensional adhesive for depth.

Love how it turned out – easy but fun and colourful!

S.

This and That

20 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by in ScrapBook, Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, ,

  • So, I’ve changed my mind about the album I’m using for Week in the Life – I’ve switched to a Simple Stories 6×8 album. There are going to be some challenges with this as I’m still using the daily sheet to record everything and that’s 8.5×11, and I want to include it in the finished album, but I think it’s a good system overall. The Mix and Match Documented album comes with different page protectors, chipboard dividers, and patterned, though neutral, journalling pages. Lots to work with without having to take a lot of time to root through my stash and build my own kit!
  • My god-daughter, Julianne, and her sister, Rachel, are two of the most amazing kids ever. At ages 6 and 8 they have already raised over $22,000 for the Janeway Children’s Hospital. This month, on a very stormy Saturday, they were the celebrity servers at Boston Pizza and that company donated 10% of the receipts taken in during the time the  girls were there. Because it was such an awful day, BP offered to donate 10% of all receipts turned in to Rachel and Julianne’s Special Project during the month of April. So… if you have or will have Boston Pizza receipts from either St. John’s location this month, let me know and I’ll get them from you to pass along!
  • On another note, Julianne won the kids award for volunteering in Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s for all her hard work, the same award Rachel won 2 years ago! Love you, Julianne, we’re so proud of you
  • I did a layout tag in February and never posted the completed LO here, though I did show a sneak peek. Finally, here’s the whole thing:

Madness

It’s a picture of my brothers and I at Matthew’s wedding 2 summers ago. They’re seriously crazy people, it’s almost impossible to get a reasonable picture of the three of us – they’re just nutty!

  • Heading out to The Paperie tonight for a crop night. I’m looking forward to it but have no idea what to bring! I have a LO in mind but it requires my (mom’s!) sewing machine and I’m not dragging that with me so we’ll have to see. Maybe it will be unproductive and I’ll just chat and eat!

Hope you all have a great weekend, whatever your plans!

S.

Tuesday Techniques – Making Paper into Fabric (sort of!)

17 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by in ScrapBook, Tuesday Techniques

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

Love, love, love this technique and it’s the one the always gets the “Wow!” when I teach it in a class – people love this, it’s like magic! For all those times you wished your favourite piece of paper was more durable or pliable, now it can be! This is how I made the canvas spine for the mini album I showed yesterday (weren’t the houses the sweetest?).

You need:

Supplies

Sticky-Back Canvas, patterned paper, water, and Glossy (not matte) Multi Medium.

First, peel the backing off your canvas and stick your paper pattern side down to the sticky side of the canvas. Burnish it so it’s stuck on there really well (I use the end of my Basic Grey Rub-on Roller). I repeat (because someone will always mis-hear or not believe me!) adhere the pattern to the sticky side so you can’t see it! Bear with me, I promise this will work – I’m a professional! Hahahaha! 🙂

As a side note, single or doubled sided patterned paper will work and you can use either the white or natural Sticky Back Canvas.

Adhere and Burnish

Now, mist your paper really well. Get it soaked, it will be fine!

Mist

Once the water soaks in a little, use your finger to rub off the paper. Now, don’t scrub at it like you’re cleaning a baking dish or anything, just rub so the paper peels off!

Reveal the Magic!

You may have to rewet the paper and canvas because you want it to stay wet. Just keep working at it – you’ll notice the majority of the paper peeling off but the pattern stays put – fun, hey?

Now, you may notice that you can’t get all the little paper nubbies off with just the water. This is where the glossy multi medium comes in. When you get to the point where all you have are a few paper bits, squirt a little medium on the canvas or your finger and rub it around.

Finish and Seal

The multi medium will help take off the rest of the fibers and seal the fabric at the same time!

Once it dries you can die cut or emboss the canvas, or just use it as a piece on your project. I love using this to make scarves for snowmen, or die cutting flowers for cards and display pieces. Because it acts like fabric, you suddenly have a lot more uses for your paper!

Everything on this tag, including the ribbon, has been made using this technique and October Afternoon papers – love the bright colours and patterns they have! Since this is a transfer, colours become a little more muted so it is better to start with vibrant colours, knowing they will tone down a little in the finished product.

As always, post me link to your blog or gallery so I can see anything you make – I love to see how you are inspired to create!

S.

P.S. I found a video of Claudine Hellmuth demonstrating this technique at CHA – enjoy!