A Few Shares

This week has been a whirlwind for me . . . so much going on my mind can hardly keep up with it all. :) Do you ever have weeks like that?

I have a few shares for you today.

This first one is a page I did for the My Mind's Eye blog focusing on the simple, and oh-so-versatile circle. :)




I love to use circles on my pages! Whenever I feel like a project is missing "something", the first thing I do is look to see if I can add a circle element to my page. Circles soften hard edges and corners. They add whimsy and movement. They can "hug" your photos and draw your eye around your page. They are also great for anchoring an element.



I layered circles to create a background for my photos to rest on. I also added my title along the curve of one of the circles.



You can even use circles to create flowers for your pages.

The rosettes on this page were created by punching a 3" circle. Use scissors to cut a spiral on the inside of your circle.



Roll the spiral upon itself beginning with the small outer "tail" piece.




Put a glue dot in the center of the circle.



When you have finished rolling up the spiral secure the flower by pressing the layers into the glue dot.

Easy-Peasy!

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I have to let you know about a fantastic giveaway going on at the A Page 4 All Seasons blog . Find out the details, read the directions, and COMMENT ON THIS POST by Friday for your chance to win the My Mind's Eye Alphabet Soup collection! :D :D :D Happiness!




While you're over there, take some time to browse the new page kits available. Here are a few designed by little ol' me. :)

SEPTEMBER - A Page for All Seasons Autoship




SEPTEMBER - She Said



FRIENDS - Page kit



EXTREME - Now available for purchase outside of the Autoship kit.



Thanks for stopping by!
I hope you're having a great week!

Jana

Memorial Day with Pink Paislee

I am convinced that the "sewing with material" gene skips generations in my family. Both my mom and my mother-in-law are expert seamstresses . . . Me? Not so much. I can sew on paper, but give me something flexible, like fabric or ribbon, and I fumble like a fish out of water.

Now, that doesn't mean I don't admire the look of homespun items, . . . infact, every year about this time I get the itch to create a quilted-looking item on my scrapbook pages. And that is one of the things I wanted to show you today. :)

First of all, here is my completed page. First, I'll show you how I did the background, and then I will show you how to create the 3-D star embellishments (they are sooo super easy! You will be shocked at how simple they are! :) )





First, I cut out a series of 3" hexagon shapes from several Pink Paislee Papers using my Cricut Expression machine and the Accent Essentials cartridge.

I arranged them on my paper in a combination that was pleasing to my eye, then I inked the edges with dark brown ClearSnap Chalk Ink and curled up the edges a bit with my fingers.



Before adhering them down, I stitched around the edges using my sewing machine. I like to stitch my elements before adhering them *just in case* I make a mistake. That way if I mess up, I can just remake one little element and not sacrifice my entire page. :)



And that's it! Now you have a colorful, summer picnic quilt look on your background. Fun, right?!!

Now, the 3-dimensional star embellishments. This week I found these rustic, barnwood stars on clearance at my local craft store. I am going to hang them in Owen's bedroom, but first, I'm using them as my inspiration piece for this page.



I cut out two 2.5" stars, one 3.5" star, and one 4.5" star for this page.

Using the Scor-It-All add a score line going from each tip of the star to the opposite indent, like this.




Continue around, scoring each of the five tips until you are finished.



Use your fingers to pinch and fold the star into shape.



Now it looks like this! :)



Stack a few foam dots together and adhere to the underside of your star. You are now ready to add it to your page.



Easy! I hope you'll try this star technique on a soon-to-be Patriotic Parade layout of your own.



Happy Scrapping!
Jana

Making Flowers with Border Stamps

The NEW Noel Mignon Lemonade Stand kit (Just 13 LEFT!!!) includes an adorable little stamp set by Prima with two lace border pieces. Naturally you could use these to add a border strip along your page somewhere, or even stamp several strips and create a mitered frame around the edge of your page or a photo. But today I wanted to show you how you could use the border stamps to create FLOWERS.



First, stamp your image repeatedly along a strip of smooth cardstock. I used the edge of the paper as my guide. If you would like a larger flower, simply leave a space from the edge. You will need two 12" stamped strips per flower.



Next, score your stamped strip along the design. You will want to score in two places along the design; the top of the scallop and the bottom of the scallop.



You will have something that looks like this.



Next, cut out your design.



Fold the strip accordian style along the scored lines. You should now have two strips that look like this.



Glue the two strips together end-to-end, matching up the pattern. You will now have a circle that looks like this.



Punch a circle from a scrap piece of cardstock. Apply a glob of quick-drying glue or hot glue to the center. Gather your circle together and push it down flat into a flower shape. Adhere to circle and hold in place until the glue dries.



This is what the back of the flower looks like. My cardstock dried a little off-center, but that won't matter because you won't see it. :)



The larger flower will have the white portion of the strip towards the center. Don't worry about that, you can cover it up with a flower center.



Decorate the center of your flower as desired with a patterned paper, fabric, felt, buttons, brads . . . it's up to you!



I chose to cut a design from patterned paper and then layered a dimensional sticker on top.


And here is my resulting page!





Page created with the Lemonade Stand kit.

Scor-It-All Dimensional Leaves Tutorial

I have a tutorial featured in the May 2010 Newsletter for the Scor-It-All board (one of my very favorite tools!), and thought I would share it here on my blog as well. :)

With it's raised metal scoring bar, the Scor-It-All allows you to score through a double-thickness of cardstock which means I can create these really fun leaves for my projects. :)

DIMENSIONAL LEAVES TUTORIAL by Me! :)

STEP 1
Cut a rectangle from green cardstock. Place it on your Scor-it-All board so that it is centered, lengthwise, and score a line to create the center vein on the leaf.

STEP 2
Fold the rectangle in half along the line you scored in Step 1. Cut a simple leaf shape.



STEP 3
To create the veins in the leaf, place folded leaf shape on the Scor-it-All board at an angle. Make a score line for the first vein. Move the leaf shape slightly and continue to make evenly spaced score lines all the way to the other end of the leaf.



Open the leaf to reveal the symmetrical, textured vein lines. Beautiful!



TIPS:

Leaves can be any size and color. They add dimension to layouts, cards and other projects.

Use leaves to create the feel of a jungle or combine them with flowers, vines and other elements

For a totally different look, highlight vein lines and edges of the leaves with ink or chalk, or distress with a sanding block.

AT THE ZOO



SUPPLIES:
Scor-It-All board; Cardstock (Bazzill, Prism); Patterned Papers and Dimensional Stickers are by Imaginisce; Letter Stickers, Mini Letter Stichers and Chipboard Letters by My Little Shoebox; Journal spot by Sassafras Lass; Buttons by Basic Grey

I wanted to end my post by telling you WHY this is one of my favorite tools. :)

With it's raised metal scoring bar and metal-lined score tool, this set simply creates the highest quality score I have seen in a portable tool. I come from a family that owns a print/copy store with large, professional bindery machines. I have tried all kinds of scoring tools including ones with premeasured grooves and scoring attachments for trimmers, and have always been disappointed that I couldn't get a quality score. The plastic tools used with boards with premeasured grooves would quickly go dull and not create a crisp score. Trimmer attachments worked inconsistently and would tear or cut through my cardstock. UGH! Frustrating! When I found the Scor-It-All board I fell in love because you get a professional looking score every single time. :) I LOVE IT!!!

(You should know that, YES, Scor-It-All did give me my cute NEW pink Scor-It-All tool when I joined the Design Team . . . but I already owned the 12 X 12 board of the "older" model and have been using it for a long time. When I was asked to create projects for their site, I couldn't help but say YES because it has always been one of my favorite things to use. I gave my dad my "old" tool to use at his print shop for smaller bindery jobs. :) )

Have a great day!

Make Your Own Background Papers

Today is my turn to post a Tip & Technique on the Noel Mignon Layout blog. This time I decided to demonstrate a couple of ways to create your own background patterns. Can you spot the two techniques I used on this page? :)



First, I pulled out my Sea Monkey Vibez by Shimmerz Paints. We're all familiar with misting our cardstock, . . . this time I will be using a mask to create a pattern on my page.

I used my Silhouette to out a large polka dot pattern to use as a stencil. If you don't own an electronic cutting machine you could also create a polka dot pattern using the grommet punch by Making Memories.



Lightly tape your pattern to your cardstock. Use additional sheets of paper or paper towels to cover up the exposed edges of cardstock sticking out past the edges of your mask. Covering the edges will ensure that you won't get a line of "overspray" while you are misting. Spritz the openings with your Vibez spray ink. If you need to, move and line up your pattern around the page until you reach the desired result.




For my second technique, I decided to use acrylic stamps to create my own patterned paper.

First, I created a document on my computer that looks like a large scale sheet of graph paper. I used the "hairline" line thickness at 20% opacity in a grid across the entire sheet. The lines are spaced 0.5" apart. Print your graph onto white cardstock. You will be stamping directly onto this sheet. The grid marks will help you keep your pattern straight and even.



Next, choose one or more stamps to work with. I chose the spikey flower stamp from a stamp set by My Cute Stamps called "Spunky Nature". The ink pad I used is by My Mind's Eye. I stamped directly on top of the grid, using the lines to position my image. When the design is complete, the graph underneath will be barely noticeable. Now you are ready to incorporate your custom patterned paper into your next papercrafting project!



And here is my completed page! Everything else on this page is from the NEW Sonoma County Kit . There are just a few left! Pick yours up in the Noel Mignon online store HERE . (Click on any image to view larger.)






Thanks for coming by today!
See you soon!
Jana