Pink Paislee | Oh the Places You'll Go

This is a personal blog. All editorial content and projects are intellectual property of ashleyhortondesigns.com. I do receive compensation and material product from Pink Paislee to develop my craft posts, but all ideas and opinions are my own.

It's Travel week on the Pink Paislee Blog, and I kicked things off yesterday with a new layout using the Take Me Away collection by Paige Evans!  I love that this collection can be used in a variety of ways. It’s perfect for everyday layouts, but also has a mix of travel elements that are perfect for documenting road trips, vacations, etc. I decided to go with the US map paper, but wasn’t sure at first how I wanted to use it… then inspiration hit!

I had the idea to use the paper to document all of the places I’ve visited. I wanted the map as the full background, but thought it might be too busy and distract from my photo, title, and embellishments. To solve the problem, I added a sheet of vellum over the background paper to soften the look of the map. I stitched along the top of the page to secure the vellum to the background paper.

Then I used a second sheet of the map paper and cut out the states and countries I’ve visited and layered them over the coordinating spot on the map background. This was a fun effect because the fussy cut states and countries stand out from the softer states in the background.  It was a perfect way to highlight all of the places I’ve visited so far.

Since the focus of the layout was on the places I’ve been, I chose a selfie for my photo and placed it in the negative space around the places I’ve visited. I had a lot of room left at the top of the page, so it was the perfect spot for a large title. I chose the Dr. Seuss quote, “Oh the Places You’ll Go” and varied the colors in the Carefree Thickers. To complete the layout, I created a visual triangle using the Take Me Away wood ephemera pieces and chipboard pieces.

Make sure you stop by the Pink Paislee Blog all this week, for more travel inspiration from the Design Team!
 

 

ETSY STORE

The Cut Shoppe & Creative Scrappers!

This month, The Cut Shoppe Design Team is teaming up with Creative Scrappers for Sketch #297!  Today is the reveal for TCS Design Team.  I'm stopping in to share my layout here, and you can head over to the Creative Scrappers Blog to see the full reveal.  You can see the Creative Scrappers reveal HERE.

I used two cut file sets on my layout.  The Pop Caps cut file worked perfectly with the sketch design and I wanted to use the Open Letter Alpha for my title.

We also have some fun things going on during the team up, that you won't want to miss!

You can download the FREE Inner Circle cut file set HERE.

There's also a Discount Code for The Cut Shoppe Etsy store that is valid ALL month long!  Use TCSCS25 at checkout to save 25% off of your purchase!

And if you play along with Sketch #297, you can win a Gift Certificate to TCS Etsy store, by linking up on the Creative Scrappers Blog!  While you're there to link up, make sure you check out some of the new Cut Files that are being offered by Creative Scrappers!

 

ETSY STORE

Pink Paislee | Book Lover

This is a personal blog. All editorial content and projects are intellectual property of ashleyhortondesigns.com. I do receive compensation and material product from Pink Paislee to develop my craft posts, but all ideas and opinions are my own.

This past week, the Pink Paislee Design Team shared projects using Grid Designs.  I love using grids on my layouts!  There are so many different ways to use them.  You can use grids to add multiple photos to your layouts or just one like I did and still have plenty of room for your favorite patterned papers and embellishments.

I knew I wanted to do a symmetrical grid design for this layout, but wanted to do something a bit different with the layout title. So I hit Pinterest for some inspiration and found this fun design. I loved the way the letters were included in the squares and I wanted to recreate the look for my layout. I cut each of my squares from the Fancy Free 6×6 paper pad a bit smaller than 3×3″, so I could fit four squares across the layout. I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the letters in the squares that I needed for the title, Book Lover.

I only had one photo for this layout since it was just snapped in a moment of reading at the library. I sized it to the same dimensions as the patterned paper squares and added one of the puffy stickers over the photo to make it stand out. I also wanted the title letters to stand out more, so I hand stitched around each one with embroidery floss that coordinated with the colors in the Fancy Free collection.

I finished the layout with a variety of embellishments including ephemera pieces, wood veneers, chipboard, and buttons. I liked that each of the square spaces had its own type of embellishment.

If you missed any of the projects this past week, head over to the Pink Paislee Blog to see how everyone used grids!

ETSY STORE

Pink Paislee | Silly Selfies

This is a personal blog. All editorial content and projects are intellectual property of ashleyhortondesigns.com. I do receive compensation and material product from Pink Paislee to develop my craft posts, but all ideas and opinions are my own.

Selfies are a scrapbookers best friend!  Thanks to our phones (or IPads) and the Selfie Stick, it's so easy to snap photos anywhere and everywhere.  All this week, the Pink Paislee Design Team shared Selfie projects on the Blog.  I wanted to stop in and share the layout I had up earlier this week, using a family selfie and the Fancy Free collection by Paige Evans.

I started my layout with a cut file that had a cut and fold design. I liked that the cut file let me incorporate multiple patterned papers from the Fancy Free collection and it was also a circle shape which is one of my favorite shapes to use on a layout! After I added some machine stitching around the cut file, I placed my photo near the center heart of the cut file.

Next came the embellishing and I spared no embellishment! One reason I love a circle design is because of the space around the shape to add embellishments. I used a mix of the buttons, wood veneers, puffy stickers, and ephemera around the die cut circle. I wanted a large title to balance out the embellishing, so I used the Paige Thickers to create a vertical title along half of the folded cut file.

I finished the layout with a few embellishments to emphasize the photo. I used the big wood veneer arrow to draw attention to the photo and placed ephemera, chipboard, and puffy stickers around the photo to make it stand out. I also liked having the contrast of the black & white photo with all of the colors from the Fancy Free collection.

Selfies are perfect for your paper crafting projects, and they also give you a chance to get out from behind the camera and in your family photos!!

 

ETSY STORE

Pink Paislee | Fancy Free Cards

This is a personal blog. All editorial content and projects are intellectual property of ashleyhortondesigns.com. I do receive compensation and material product from Pink Paislee to develop my craft posts, but all ideas and opinions are my own.

Take your journaling out of your hand made cards, and feature it on the front of your cards!  There are some fun journaling tags included with the Pink Paislee Fancy Free collection by Paige Evans, that are perfect for adding a decorative journaling look to the front of your cards!

For my first card, I added the Favorites journaling tag to the front of the card. Before placing it on my card base, I journaled some “favorites” in the available spaces on the tag.  The hand-writing on the front of the card adds a personal touch that you can’t find on store bought cards! I used pop dots behind the journaling tag to give it dimension. I liked having the dimension from the pops dots because it allowed me to tuck in some fussy cut flowers, stickers, and buttons.

On the second card, I continued using the journaling tags from the Fancy Free collection. This time, I thought it would be fun to use the tags as the design element on the front of my card. I cut my card base from cardstock and then arranged the journaling tags until I liked the composition. Once I had the tags in place, I added a bit of adhesive to hold them in place and then ran the card through my sewing machine to emphasize the handmade look and secure the tags to the card. I used a mix of hand cut letters and Thickers from the Fancy Free collection to add the sentiment to the card. And I completed the card with a couple of the cute puffy sticker hearts!

Both of these card designs were a bit different from what I normally create, but I loved the challenge of looking at journaling on cards in a new way. Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and find ways to use journaling in a different way on your next project!

ETSY STORE

Hip Kit Club | Live Colorfully

This is a personal blog. All editorial content and projects are intellectual property of ashleyhortondesigns.com. I do receive compensation and material product from Hip Kit Club to develop my craft posts, but all ideas and opinions are my own.

I'm stopping in today, to share my first layout with the June 2016 Hip Kits from Hip Kit Club!  I wanted to use our June Sketch for this first layout. The circle design went along perfectly with the cut file I designed for this month. I cut the design from White cardstock included in the June 2016 Cardstock Add-On and backed each one with patterned paper from the June 2016 Main Kit. I used a mix of Pink Paislee, Simple Stories and Pebbles Inc. patterned papers behind the cut files.

Once the cut files were backed and machine stitched, I added them to one of the Hip Kit Club Exclusive papers for my background. There are so many fun embellishments in the June Kits, and I loved using them to finish the layout. The Dear Lizzy Die Cut Watercolor Phrases in the Main Kit, worked perfectly for my title. The rest of my embellishments came from the June 2016 Embellishment Kit and the June 2016 Project Life Kit. I love the different textures created by the Simple Stories enamel dots, Jillibean Soup wood veneers, Heidi Swapp and Fancy Free buttons.

Once I finished all of the embellishing, I covered my photo, and added some splatters of Black spray mist with Color Shine from my stash. I had so much fun on my first layout with the June Kits and the June Sketch!

You can play along with our Weekly Challenge going on through Thursday, using the June Sketch as inspiration. Check it out in the Hip Kit Club Member Forum!

ETSY STORE

   

Pink Paislee | Embrace Life

This is a personal blog. All editorial content and projects are intellectual property of ashleyhortondesigns.com. I do receive compensation and material product from Pink Paislee to develop my craft posts, but all ideas and opinions are my own. 

It's Mixed Media week on the Pink Paislee Blog!  Mixed Media can be really fun or really intimidating for some people.  I had a layout on the Blog on Wednesday, that shares a fun technique for expert or beginner Mixed Media users. 

I thought it would be fun to add watercolors to a cut file, and match the watercolors to the Fancy Free collection by Paige Evans.  I started the layout, by cutting the Sassy Circles cut file from The Cut Shoppe, which is a cut and fold design.  I cut the design from White cardstock, and before folding the circles to the front, I painted each one with watercolor paints.  This way, I could paint the circle halves without getting any paint on the front side of the layout.

Once the paint dried, I folded each of the circle halves over and then adding stitching with my sewing machine.  I wanted to balance the circle design at the top of the page, so I punched the fun circles from one of the Fancy Free papers and added them to the bottom portion of the layout.  I also wanted to continue the stitching, so I hand stitched around each of the punched patterned paper circles, with White embroidery floss.

After the background work was finished, I was ready to add my photo and embellishments.  I wanted to keep the photo and embellishments clustered, to keep from covering up too much of the background.  I also chose to do a Black & White photo, because I really love the contrast with the bright colors from the Fancy Free collection.  

I hope you will give this watercolor technique a try on your next layout!  It's fun and easy to coordinate your watercolors with a scrapbook collection, and create a unique Mixed Media look!

ETSY STORE

Pink Paislee | My Heart

This is a personal blog. All editorial content and projects are intellectual property of ashleyhortondesigns.com. I do receive compensation and material product from Pink Paislee to develop my craft posts, but all ideas and opinions are my own.

Mother's Day has come and gone, and I hope you had a great day yesterday!  Last week on the Pink Paislee Blog, the Design Team shared mother themed projects, and I finished out the week with a layout, using the Fancy Free collection by Paige Evans.

I love the bright colors in the Fancy Free collection, and I wanted to contrast them with a Black & White photo.  I started the layout by cutting a large title on my Silhouette Cameo and then backing it with patterned papers from the Fancy Free collection.  Next I added half of the large geometric heart from one of the Paige Kits.

I used my photo to connect the heart and title, and then added some of the fun embellishments from the Fancy Free collection.  I clustered some of the embellishments near the photo, so help it stand out from the background.  And I just had to use some of the buttons (my favorite) to embellish the large title!

I hope I've inspired you with some ideas for scrapbooking your Mother's Day photos!

ETSY STORE

Pink Paislee National Scrapbook Day!

This is a personal blog. All editorial content and projects are intellectual property of ashleyhortondesigns.com. I do receive compensation and material product from Pink Paislee to develop my craft posts, but all ideas and opinions are my own.

Happy National Scrapbook Day!!  I hope you're enjoying NSD and that you're playing along with some fun challenges!  I'm here to bring you an NSD Challenge for Pink Paislee.  I have a thing for backgrounds, especially when it comes to creating my own custom backgrounds.  So here's my challenge to you:  Use Patterned Paper Strips to Create Your Own Background.

This technique is a great way to make use of the cute manufacturer strips at the bottom of your 12x12 patterned papers.  I started my layout, by cutting the manufacturer strips from the Fancy Free 12x12 papers.  I also cut the same size strips from some of the patterned papers in the collection.  Then I began placing them around the layout, working in a maze like design around the page.  I used a White cardstock as my base, to make the colors from the patterned paper strips stand out.

The paper strips created a center square on my layout, which was the perfect spot for my photo.  I clustered my title and embellishments around the photo to help it stand out, and to allow for my background design to show.  And I can't resist the cute buttons from the Fancy Free collection, so I placed two of them diagonally on the layout, to complete a couple of my clusters.

I hope you will play along and create a background design with patterned paper strips!  You can use my layout as inspiration or come up with your own idea.  And we would love to see what you create, so make sure you share on Social Media and use the hashtag #ppNSD2016.  You could win some awesome Pink Paislee goodies just for playing along!

ETSY STORE