Last one (for today)

The 4th, and last for me, challenge that Shimelle offered up today for this weekend’s scrap party was to scrap an “older” photo. Right now all of my photos qualify as older, I suppose, as I am working through photos from last year. I would have preferred to work on something much older, but this will do. Since I didn’t have part 1 of the challenge to my satisfaction, I decided to go ahead with the optional part 2 of using monochromatic (a challenge posted previously that I missed, so all the better).

Now, I’m off to print more photos as I’ve scrapped myself almost out of prints. Goodnight. And I’ll be back tomorrow with more challenges I’m sure.

Shimelle Challenge #3

So Shimelle’s scrap party is moving right along. Her third challenge for the day is to use old fashioned color blocking. I’ve actually been thinking of a design layout that combines blocking and fish-tail banners. So this challenge was super easy for me to pull together.

Shimelle talked of bringing modern personal style to the old blocking look. I did this with the banner tails, embellishements (enamel dots & phrase stickers, both by Shimelle), stamping, and by outlining blocks & photos with pen. These are all current touches I add to my layouts.

When I was trying to think of a little something to put into the middle of the title, it popped into my head that I had this old Making Memories stamp set with a mantis on it! It was a good touch and a nice use of a stamp set I have hardly touched.

Because the quality of the stamp set isn’t what I am used to I wanted to use my Misti stamp tool to position the stamp. With this tool I can line up my paper on the grid and stamp my image. If the stamp isn’t clear enough then I can just make sure it is lined up right and stamp again. This gives perfect over-stamping for a nice crisp image. This tool is sized for greeting cards and I wasn’t sure the 12×12 layout would fit without without bending/squishing the paper. But it worked very nicely. In the end the imaged stamped just fine the first try. However, what did happen was that I dropped the ink pad on my project.

It smudged my title and parts of the other papers. I used a trick I learned from Jennifer McGuire. I used a craft knife to scrape away the stained paper, then an eraser to smooth out the scrape. Once done it looked alright.

So go check out both lovely crafters I mentioned and try the blocking challenge or even some stamping on your layout.

Two challenges in one

I don’t usually combine challenges. To me if feels a little like cheating. But today I am taking it not as cheating, but as a time saver (as I’m sure most people take it!). So using Shimelle’s challenge to scrap something that “has value” to me and DCWV’s March stack-a-holic challenge I came up with a lovely layout about my son. The thing I value about this layout is the photos of him. Most scappers would think photos are a given. But being where he is, I have a different feeling. He is (and has been for a little while) at an age where he doesn’t want me to take pictures of him. And it makes me sad. So, when the opportunity is there to capture him on “film” I take it. In fact one of the things that I have asked him for as a Mother’s Day gift is just to let me take his picture. And I mention Mother’s Day since these photos were taken last May.

So here is the sketch I worked with…

I used mainly DCWV product from the Stencil DIY project stack, along with some of their foiled and corrugated cardstock stacks. Adding in some Shimelle True Stories embellishments (stickers, enamel stars, wood buttons) and I came up with a page I am very happy with.

I don’t normally layer and layer papers. But with this sketch I felt like I could just take all these papers and run with it. And with so many paper layers I decided to simplify the column of strips from the sketch and I used the stripe stencil to add texture and movement to that side of the layout.

Go check out both of these challenges above and give them a go.

Shimelle Scrap Party!

Shimelle.com is hosting a weekend scrap party — Happening now!

There is fun happening on her blog and facebook page (and I’m sure her other social media outlets!). Come on over and check it out.

The first challenge is to use one of her (new this year) previous challenges. I went with the “something old + something new” as well as the “use hearts” challenges. I did the original use hearts challenge and was very happy with it. But when I did the something old + something new challenge I was not at all satisfied. See…

There was just a whole lot of things I didn’t find worked (for me!) about this layout. It is one that I felt like taking apart and re-doing, but I resisted that urge and put it up on my display wall anyway. So, getting a second chance at this challenge made me happy. And here it is…

I am very happy with this one! My “old” was a pre-made layout I completed at a scrapbook convention either last year or the year before. I tend to just tuck those layouts away and don’t hardly ever go back to them. But I’ve been on a binge of using them up, so this challenge was great. The pre-made layout base included the teal cardstock, the black & cream polkadots pattern paper, the text pattern paper, the red & cream doily pattern paper and the large paper-rolled flower + leaf stitching. I added in some layers old vellum from my stash and some bling cardstock to mat my photo. All this made a perfect pretty base to add in my new(er) products: Shimelle dies (the “lovely” in the title and the banner cuts in the embellishment clusters), thickers, True Stories 6×6 pattern paper pad (to cut those flowers for the clusters), enamel dots and wood buttons; DCWV foiled cardstock (to use with the dies) and corrugated cardstock.

So lovely!

Hope you can join the party too!

Valentine’s multiples

I teach a card making class for kids. We are having a Valentine’s Day party this week so they can exchange cards. I decided to also give each student a Valentine from me. However, I didn’t get to work on them until the last minute since I wasn’t feeling well this week. I’m not entirely satisfied with the design or execution, but my 9 year old declared them “super cute”. The thought is what counts anyway, right? So the moral of today’s post is: just do it.

These cards measure 2.75×4.25 (I folded a card front size in half to make small Valentine’s).

I added a little sparkle to one of the hearts with a Wink of Stella pen. Hard to show up in this photo. I only did one heart to mimic what is waiting inside…

…this super cutie little monster (from the Monster Hugs stamp set from Simon Says Stamp). I don’t have the die set for this stamp so I just fussy cut this little guy out. The nice thick simple stamp outline made it easy. Adding the little sparkle to the heart made it just a little more special.

I attached all these little guys on a strip of cardstock mounted to pop up this guy when the card is opened. I stamped the “Monster Hugs” sentiment and added some more sparkle to the words. The scribble hearts on the outside aren’t a design match to the simple line-drawn monster. This is the design choice I said I wasn’t satisfied with in the beginning. But adding the faux stitching inside and out helped pull things together just a little bit.

Hope you all have a lovely Valentine’s day.

DCWV Feb challenge

After the busy holiday and CHA season, DCWV is back with their monthly challenges. There is the usual layout and card sketches to give your crafting a design base. Check these sketches out.

And here is my take on the challenge.

I used the DCWV Blue Citrus stack, plus some gymnastics paper and embellishments I’ve been hanging on to for years. My older two kids took gymnastics when they were younger and I never scrapped any of that adventure. Now that my middle & youngest are (back) into gymnastics, I can pull that product back out!

My least favorite paper in the Blue Citrus stack was that geometric paper I used for the background. I thought it an odd addition to such a floral driven collection. But I think it worked perfect for a page. The hard geometric lines remind me of the structure of the gym equipment, especially the balance beams. The florals and curves soften out the layout with the idea of grace and music that gymnastics incorporates.

And now, I have one tip for you on this layout. One of the gym embellishments I pulled out was this “Perfect 10” brad.

But the color and distressed look was too harsh for this layout. So I took the idea, and parts of the embellishment, and altered it to fit my needs. I pulled off the epoxy top layer & sticker. I punched a circle from the same paper I used for my journaling and stamped a “10” on it in a lighter ink. I added this back onto the brad and found in my stash an epoxy circle that just fit over to make the brad look almost exactly as it was to begin with. It just has a new toned down color that fits a bit better.

And now on to the card…

I used the Stencil DIY stack for this one. Even the card base is kraft paper from the stack, cut to create a large 6×6 card. To create the circle, I heat embossed the little hearts over a white pattern paper (using the heart stencil and clear embossing powder). I then inked over that with pink ink. You can still see the pattern even under the ink. I then used a pen to outline a few hearts to add extra layers to this simple card. It is a nice effect. Add a few more hearts and it is done.

Heart Challenge

Shimelle has a new weekly challenge up… use hearts. When I sat down to scrapbook tonight I didn’t intend to work on this challenge but them two things happened. 1) There were a pile of hearts on my desk from a previous project and 2) The papers I pulled for this page happened to have a small pink heart print on the B side. Guess hearts is where I needed to go!

(Just FYI I blanked out faces for privacy.)

I didn’t have any plans for this page in mind when I started. I just had my photos printed in 4 2×3 prints and one 2×3 plus a border print. So those sizes lead to the page design. I knew the focal photo with the border needed to be up higher on the page near the title and the other photos would be in a block to continue the story. The focal photo placement made for a good place to add a large vertical block and it would serve as my journaling space also.

This brought the hearts into play. One of my go-to journaling tips is to number each photo and then number my journaling to match each photo. What better way to number my prints than with popped up hearts? Plus the Shimelle roller date stamp has little hearts and numbers that I used to print on the journaling “tabs”.

The heart theme led to another benefit to my page. It helped me with my title. This page is just different things that my daughter did for the month of March 2015. And what “love”ly little things they were. See what a did there, hearts, love. Get it? Ha!

I filled in some empty space with more hearts and some stickers and called it done.

This lead to part two of scrapping tonight. I’ve been on a mission to get a bunch of pages done so I can get “caught up”. (Yes, I still have the mind set, but I’m happy with it, so don’t worry). In order to get things done I need to work fast and work simple. So for this second page I used many of the design elements from the first page to just make life simple. I kept the small block of photos, the large vertical strip and the numbering of the photos. Only this time the numbering is a sequence of events. See how that numbering could work in more than one way? I love it.

I used up leftover papers from what I pulled for the first page. Made the page all about the story. I even needed more space to add more story. So I just added some note sheets that came with a Shimelle roller stamp to finish my journaling. Throw on some of my favorite embellishments, wood veneer and cork shapes, and called it done.

Hope you can use the heart challenge and also use your own design to keep going to make more pages.

Adult Ballet

I got involved in an adult beginning ballet class through a friend. I do like to dance but ballet was never my thing. I’m not a classical music lover, I’m not dainty and I’m not elegant. Dancing isn’t something I’m good at in general so I usually keep it at home. But the chance to hang with a friend, get some exercise & toning and try something new was interesting so I gave it a try. And liked it enough to stay for a year and a half. Now that class has come to an end due to scheduling issues I’m ready to move on to other things but I’m very glad I gave ballet a go.

When Shimelle posted a “scrapbook a selfie” challenge over on her blog, I knew I had the perfect story to tell. This wasn’t a typical selfie. Instead I propped up my smart phone in a pile of laundry in my bedroom and posed in front of the closet doors. Took a few tries but I got a photo I was satisfied with in the end. Converting it to black and white made it more elegant!

I used mostly Shimelle True Stories collection products. I didn’t have plan for this page at all besides the 6×8 size to fit in my personal album. Then I just started grabbing product that I liked. Having a black and white photo meant that I didn’t have to worry about colors clashing and I just let the collection do the coordination for me. With this just grab-and-go design, my elements turned out to be quite large on this size page and I was left with lack of journaling space, something I usually budget for ahead of time. I looked at the white space in my photo and debated if that was the best place for journaling. But in the end I just did it because as the saying goes, “done is better than perfect.” I love how I found little phrases in this collection that supported my story so well, especially that “give it a whirl” sticker.

Happy to have this page ready for my album. I suggest if you want to tell a story, print a black and white photo and just grab a paper collection and GO. Don’t think, just go. It is freeing and fun. And you get things done.

Color “wheel”

I’m back with another day of Watercolor Intermediate techniques for card makers class offered by Online Card Classes. The pre-class assignments are all geared to get to know your watercolor mediums. I’ve decided to focus on tube paints, just because it makes me feel more like an artist ;). But this could work for markers, watercolor pencils, ink pads and other water soluble mediums.

Last time I showed you color swatches. This time I am using just the primary colors (all I own of a “pro” quality paint) to create color wheels and what is called a glazing chart (a new concept for me!). I’ve used Winsor & Newton Professional line of paints. I have a set of “cheap” paints but bought primaries of these professional paints just to see what the difference is. All the samples in this post are used just with these paints.

Sorry about photo quality but I’ve decided that documenting the process is more important than perfection of presentation! And now you can see what I’ve managed to do with them.

Here is my color wheel using Strathmore paper (left) and Arches (right). I like how the paint floats on the Strathmore but once it dries, I’m not happy with the blotchy results. The Arches just sucks up water so I feel the need to use less pigment in order to save money. But perhaps creating art is not about saving money. Hmm.

Well, the next couple of pictures shows the difference between my pigment use. Both are on Arches paper. I’ve decided to save the Strathmore for simple projects only. The first is the heavy pigment, which felt “right” when I was mixing but in the end came out way darker than what I really wanted. The second photo used a more dilute solution. Honestly it seemed so watery when I was mixing it. But when it dried, the results were soft and lovely. I guess less really is more.

So if you are experimenting with watercolors, really do try different papers and different concentrations of color to see what is good for you.

Watercolor Class

I will be starting the Intermediate Watercolor class for card makers over at Online Card Classes here in a few days. As part of that class I have purchased some new papers, a few new paints and have been experimenting. So far the type of paper has made a huge impact on my results. I have a 12 tube set of “cheap” watercolors and 3 primary colors in a professional grade watercolor. I did some color swatching and the paper seemed to matter more than the paint at this point.

Here I have 3 papers. The bottom being Arches hot press, which I haven’t played with yet. The middle is Strathmore 300 series cold press (a student grade paper) and the topmost is Arches cold press 140lb. The color of the papers are different as you can see. But what you can’t see is that the textures are quite different as well. The Arches has a finer tooth, with almost a sandpapery feel. I honestly don’t like the way it feels. But as you can see from the color swatches in the next photo, the paper behaves how you would expect a watercolor paper to behave. The Strathmore paper ended up very blotchy for nearly all of my color swatches. I just showed a few of the worst samples below.

In each of the samples the Strathmore is on the right and the Arches on the left. Notice how solid and smooth the color is on the Arches and how blotchy it is on the Strathmore. I’ve heard the term granulating in the watercolor world recently and I thought this splotchiness was what they meant. Now I know it is the paper that is doing that and not the paint! (All of these colors are from my cheap set of paints.)

I think why this is happening is that the Strathmore is a less absorbent paper. The water would float on top of the paper and swirl around as I was using it. The Arches just sucks water and color into the paper. It was a little disconcerting since I was used the the Strathmore and the very fluidness that I’ve come to associate with watercoloring. The Arches, I had to mix up large pools of color and keep reloading my brush to get good coverage. I feel like I’m using way more paint on the Arches, which means more money. But for prettier results, I guess that is the price you pay!

I’ll be back tomorrow with some more progress on my watercolor explorations, so stay tuned.