I had another great Scrapbook With Me session on Wednesday this week with my group. We worked on our layouts using another sketch from Becky Fleck's Page Maps. I love being able to show my group these sketches and how to work with them and put their own spin on the layout. My version is for when Meghan and I went to a local artisan shop to take a Terrarium-Arium class and make terrariums using air plants. Meghan is definitely the green thumb in our family while I am not so air plants seemed to be a better bet for me to take care of.
We used the following sketch from the Page Maps Archives which can be found here. I had the perfect paper for this from a retired Close To My Heart collection called Twitterpated. I incorporated the paper along with some retired and current alphabet stamps and a few fun embellishments to create my version of the sketch.
A personal favorite technique of mine is to combine fonts when creating my title. For this title I used a retired script stamp set from Close To My Heart along with the serif stamp set - Simply Said. I used a dotted circle stamp to create the stitched-look circles around part of the title but this could just as easily be done by hand or even using a sewing machine.
I tend to work with groupings of 3 for embellishments so on this layout I did 3 groups of 3 buttons I pulled from my stash. I added a little bit of embroidery floss to each.
I hope you liked the layout. Thanks for stopping by.
Starting a new series of blog posts today with a Father's Day card. I want to share with you some techniques to step up your card making to take your cards from simple to stunning.
Each post will showcase a card design and I will show you steps you can easily take to add something extra to the card to take it to the next level. These are the three versions I came up with for the Father's Day card for this week's post.
The basis for the cards started with this week's sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. You can see the sketch and variations on it here.
For the first, simple version of the card, I followed the sketch using a stamp from the Legendary Father's Day Stamp set from Close To My Heart. I am in love with this set and am having fun creating some fun things for this upcoming Father's Day. This set is only available through June 30th so make sure to hop on over to my website to shop today!
I stamped the image in Archival Black Exclusive Ink and then colored in using TriBlend Markers. I used Sapphire cardstock for the base along with some paper from the Mix-ins paper pack. I added some twine and used 3-D foam tape to add some dimension to the card.
For the next, stepped up version of the card, I first used a die from the Stitched Squares Thin Cut set to die cut the piece for the stamped image. I embossed the Sapphire card base and then used some of the zip strips from the Mix-in paper pack to add a little more patterned paper to the card.
For the final, stunning version of the card, I added an additional layer of Mix-in patterned paper along with some Clear Sparkles to the card. I had fun working and adding additional elements and techniques to take this card from simple to stunning.
I hope you like the cards and learned some techniques to take your cards from simple to stunning. Thanks for stopping by.
I am having so much fun doing these Scrapbook with me sessions with my group each week. Having this time to work on my layouts alongside my friends has been really helping me catch up on my scrapbooking. This week one of the layouts I completed was this one of Thankgiving from 2016. I know, I definitely have a ways to go to catch up but I am getting there.
I changed things up a bit with the group and used a sketch from Becky Fleck Page Maps and challenged myself to combine patterned paper from different paper packs in one layout.
We used the following sketch from the April 2020 sketches on the Page Maps blog which you can find here.
I combined papers from the current Mix-Ins paper along with paper from the retired Pathfinding and Hawthorn collections. I tore the edge of the corrugated pattern paper and inked the edge using Espresso Exclusive Inks. I added a stamped title from the Pathfinding Workshop-on-the-Go stamp set and some die cut leaves from the Layered Leaves Thin Cuts set.
I added a scalloped strip along with some machine stitching to the top of my journal box. I also used the current Tags & Tabs Thin Cuts set to create a date tab and stapled it to the journal box using the Mini-Stapler.
I am very pleased with how this came out. If you are interested in attending one of my Scrapbook with me sessions, follow me on Facebook to get notifications for these twice-weekly events.
I hope you like the layout. Thanks for stopping by!
Hi everyone! Sharing the latest technique I showed my Scrapbook with Me group last week. We worked on creating layouts based on a sketch from the Close To My Heart Blog. I changed mine up by creating some of the paper pieces from shapes and taught this technique to my group during the session. Here is my finished layout.
The layout uses the retired Oh Deer Collection from Close To My Heart along with the Huntington sketch, which can be found on the blog here.
There are multiple ways to create and use shapes as background pieces in your layouts. To cut the shapes you can use any of the following:
- Punches
- Metal dies
- Shapes available in Design Space for the Cricut
- A cutting system like that from Creative Memories
- Strips of paper, like Zip Strips from Close To My Heart patterned paper packs.
Using shapes is also a great way to use up scraps of paper!
To use the shapes you can do the following:
- Create the background piece on a separate piece of cardstock and then adhere to your layout.
- Create the background piece directly on your layout. Have a couple of the shapes overlap your photos - as you can see below.
- Add the shapes in a random pattern on your layout.
- You can leave spacing between the shapes to have your background paper show through or you can adhere the shapes right next to each other.
Here are a few examples of using shapes from other layouts I have done in the past. I do think I might be a little biased towards hexagons.
For my layout, from the session, I created the background pieces using a piece of coordinating cardstock since I wanted the color to show through, almost like "grout" would with tiles. My steps are shown as follows:
Step 1: Draw a line down the center of the piece and start laying out the shapes to create your pattern, without adhering so you can play with placement. When ready adhere to the cardstock. I left a few spots open on the top and bottom to fill in later.
Step 2: Trim off the excess pieces that overhang the cardstock.
Step 3: Use the extra pieces to fill in where you left blanks.
Alternate 1: Adhere 1/2" wide strips to the cardstock.
Alternate 2: Adhere the 1/2" wide strips on a diagonal to the cardstock.
You can check out my video on this technique on my YouTube Channel, here or by watching below.
I hope you enjoyed the tips & tricks and the video. Thanks for stopping by!
I am having a lot of fun crafting with the June Featured Paper of the month from Close To My Heart - Stitched Together. I love the patterns and colors in this collection. They are perfect for scrapbooking those good times we have with good friends and family. I am sharing with you a layout I did recently with my group though another of my virtual Scrapbook With Me sessions.
This layout is based off of the Magic Mystify pattern from Close To My Heart.
I pulled out a retired stamp set for the title and the embellishments. I also used one of the Picture My Life Cards from the Stitched Together collection for the butterfly image on the left-hand page. To give the page a little bit of something extra I used our Clear Shimmer Brush to add some sparkle to the butterfly and the centers of the flowers.
You can check out all of the Stitched Together collection on my website by clicking here.
I hope you liked the layout. Thanks for stopping by.
Supplies Used:
X7257S - Stitched Together Paper Pack + Sticker Sheet
I know I am a little late in sharing this layout here on my blog but I am working on getting caught up and seem to be going in reverse order though - such is my brain right now with all that has been going on. This layout is from another one of my Scrapbook with me events I held with my group.
We worked with the Imagine Subtitles pattern from Close To My Heart. My version uses some retired paper and embellishments from the Hello Lovely collection. I added some extra embellishment with Blush Shimmer Ribbon. I used Thin 3-D Foam Tape to add some dimension to some of the stickers.
If you follow me and are interested in joining me for one of these events, head on over to my Facebook page (the link is on the right of this page) and check out my Event listing to sign up. I usually share a sketch that we work on but always love having people join me even if you are not working on the sketch.
I hope you liked this layout. Thanks for stopping by.
I was so excited to create this layout the other day with my Scrapbook with me group! As soon as I saw the post on the Close To My Heart blog with the Magic Moments sketch I knew I wanted to create my own version to document a recent outing I did with my husband, Mike, and daughter, Meghan. We had gone on a couple of hikes along the Blackstone Valley area near us and the I knew that the Blue Skies collection from Close To My Heart would be perfect for this layout.
I stamped the title from the Beautiful Day stamp set in Sapphire and Lagoon ink using the Rock-and-Roll technique. I also added an additional border to both pages with a stamp from the Blue Skies stamp set and Green Apple ink. I also used some of the other stamps from the Beautiful Day stamp set to create the embellishments for the layout and added a little bling with Silver Glitter Gems.
The Blue Skies collection is available through June 30th but there are some bundle specials going on right now for National Scrapbooking Month that will only be available through May 31st. Click here to see all of the Blue Skies collection.
You can see the original version of the sketch on the Close To My Heart blog here. I hope you like my version. Thanks for stopping by.
If you are like me and try to get as much usage out of a piece of patterned paper or cardstock as you can, I think you will appreciate this tutorial. I recently learned a new technique (well, new to me) for getting more photo mats out of 1 piece of 12" x 12" paper. I was so thankful to have this shown to me that I knew I wanted to share it with you.
In this post I will share with you the instructions for cutting 4 4 1/4" x 6 1/4" photo mats from 1 piece of 12" x 12" cardstock. You can also use this technique to cut 4 5" x 7" photo mats from 1 piece of cardstock. I have included a video of the technique at the end of this post as well as a link to a downloadable PDF of the instructions. Both the video and the PDF contain details for the method to cut the 5" x 7" photo mats.
Step 1: Align the cardstock to the 6 1/4" mark on your trimmer.
Step 2: Cut down to the 4 1/4" mark on your cutting strip.
Step 3 through 5: Rotate the cardstock 90 degrees to the left and repeat steps 1 and 2 three more times. You will end up with a piece of cardstock that looks like this.
Before the next step, it is important that you flip the cardstock over to the back side.
Step 6: Align your cardstock to the 4 1/4" mark on your trimmer. Cut down to the 6 1/4" mark on your cutting strip. This will give you your 1st mat.
Step 7 through 9: Rotate the cardstock 90 degrees to the left and repeat step 6 three more times. You will end up with 4 mats and a piece of cardstock that looks like this.
Step 10: You can trim the extra piece and you will end up with a 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" piece as well as 4 1 1/5" x 4 1/4" pieces. These are great for additional photos or journaling boxes.
Here is the link to the video of this tutorial.
Click here for a downloadable PDF with the instructions for cutting the 4 1/4" x 6 1/4" mats as well as the 5" x 7" photo mats.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Thanks for stopping by!
I have been enjoying my Scrapbook with me times with everyone that joins me but want to apologize to you all that I have not been posting my completed layouts here. I will be sharing some of these layouts in the coming days with you. The first one I want to share is a layout I did of a recent visit Mike, Meghan and I did to the Old Stone Church in West Boylston MA. We have been trying to get outside as often as possible (while maintaining social distancing) and decided this day to head up to the Wachusett Reservoir and walk around a bit. It was a nice day and I had fun scrapbooking our little adventure.
This layout was based on the Olivia sketch which can be found here on the Close To My Heart Blog. I love getting inspiration from the sketches and layouts shown on the blog. If you do not subscribe to the blog, you can click here to sign up.
For this layout I dug into my stash of to grab some of the retired Basic Fundamentals paper. I paired this with letters cut with the Block Alphabet Thin Cuts, some small stamped letters, some Wooden Arrows and some Silver Glitter Gems. I am really pleased with how this turned out.
I hope you like this layout. Thanks for stopping by.
I am happy to be celebrating Mother's Day this year with my mother-in-law in person. I had fun making this card for her to show her how much we love her. I used the Mix-In paper from the current catalog along with the Stamp of the Month for May.
I got my inspiration for the card from a sketch in the Make It From Your Heart Volume 4 How-to Book. I had fun coloring the fawn from the Woodland Greetings stamp set in with our Triblend Markers.
The Stamp of the Month for May - Time To Celebrate contains 28 images that are perfect for adding sentiments to so many cards and layouts.
You can purchase this set during the month of May for $18.95 or for $5.00 with a $50.00 purchase on my website.
I hope you like the card. Thanks for stopping by.
Supplies Used:
X9015 - Mix-in Paper Pack X9016 - Mix-In Coordinating Cardstock S2005 - Time To Celebrate - May Stamp of the Month C1813 - Woodland Greetings Z4221 - Mink Twine Z4189 - Intense Black Exclusive Ink 9044 - Make It From Your Heart Volume 4 Z2496 - Pale Pink Triblend Marker Z2478 - Earth Brown Triblend Marker
Keeping the mojo going here after a fun National Scrapbook Day with another Scrapbook with me session with my ladies. Today's session worked with a sketch from the Close To My Heart blog and I am excited to share my version here with you. I have been asked recently to share my process so I have also included a process video for this layout here.
This layout uses the Tinkerin' Sketch which can be found here on the Close To My Heart blog.
As soon as I saw this sketch I knew exactly what I wanted to scrapbook with it and was so excited to be able to pair it with the new Aurora collection from Close To My Heart. I changed the sketch up a bit by rotating the pages so the borders were on the outside instead of the bottom as my photos were in a different orientation than the ones in the sketch. I also used an image from the Artbooking Cricut Collection from Close To My Heart to create the borders instead of the scallops. I cut the border image out and then used the negative space left and placed a strip of patterned paper behind to create a different style border. You can see the Artbooking Collection on my Cricut affiliate link here.
I also used one of our new Cricut Collections to create the title for the layout. Close To My Heart has introduced a new mini collection created to coordinate with the Aurora paper collection. You can see this collection here.
I did some stamping for the embellishments on the layout using stamps from the Aurora Scrapbooking stamp set as well as the Here & There stamp set. I added a few acrylic shapes from the Aurora acrylic shapes to finish it off.
You can see a walkthrough of the creation of this layout along with my process towards working with sketches on my YouTube channel on this video.
I hope you liked the layout and the video. Thanks for stopping by.
