Gotta Love Free Stuff!

I am a big fan of Free Stuff...especially Free Scrapbooking Stuff!!  Where can you find this free stuff, you might ask?  There are several digital scrapbook sites that offer free downloads and SVG Cuts sends out free weekly svg's to cut with your electronic die-cutting machines.  And, one of my favorites, is Creating Keepsakes.  Did you know, that Creating Keepsakes has all kinds of free downloads in each issue of their magazine.  You can download PDF files and use the downloads for your digital pages or on your traditional pages, by printing and cutting out the images.  Our Issue Challenge, for this week at Club CK, was to use some of the free downloads in the magazine on our layout.  Here is what I did using the Note to Self collection from Echo Park and some of the free downloads from the magazine:

 
The word banners and journaling spot are from the free downloads.  I pasted them into my desktop publishing program and then I printed the journaling spot on a white piece of cardstock and fussy cut it.  I actually printed the word banners on a piece of patterned paper from the collection and added the brads to give the appearance that they were haning on my layout.  The great thing about having these downloads, is the ability to resize.  The journaling spot and banners were a little bigger than what I needed, so I sized them down to fit the space.  If you are interested in checking out some of the free Creating Keepsakes downloads, check out their page HERE.  And if you have never visited Club CK, take a minute to head over and check things out!  There is an awesome message board for connecting with other Scrappers, great challenges hosted by CK and also by Club Members, and you can sign up for a free account and load your layouts to your own personal Gallery!  Lots of fun and great inspiration, too!!

Products Used:

Patterned Paper & Stickers:  Echo Park
Free Downloads:  Creating Keepsakes
Brads:  The Paper Studio
Button:  Michael's
Pen:  Sharpie

Washi Love - Trash to Treasure Box

Okay, raise your hand if you love Washi Tape!!  I am raising both of mine!  :)  I don't know about you, but this little roll of goodness is my new favorite of favorites in the scrapbooking world.  If you have no clue what Washi Tape is...let me give you a little explanation:  Washi Tape is basically various rolls of decorative tape...different sized rolls, in all kinds of fun colors and patterns and it is repositional.  And you may be wondering how in the world you use Washi Tape?  Layouts, home dec projects, on cards, making embellishments, taping your kids' mouth shut (well, maybe not that last one...but it would be nice!!)  :)  There are endless possibilities for this must have product!

Now, I must admit that I only currently own 7 rolls of Washi Tape, but I just started my collection a few weeks ago.  But I do plan on adding to my stash, next week, when an order of several rolls arrive at my house from A Cherry on Top!!  Today, I was sitting around thinking about where to store my Washi Tape - because even when I'm not crafting, I am still working on ideas for stuff in my head - true signs of a scrap-a-holic.  I started wondering what I had around the house, that I could upcycle into a Washi Tape holder and from there, I headed to our pantry.  Lo and behold, I just happened to find an empty gum box on the shelf...yes, I buy gum in bulk, because fresh breath is important around here!!  :)  Then I headed to my craft desk and started working.

Here is how it played out:

Step 1 - I measured my box.  The height was around 2.5 inches and the total length of the box, counting all four sides was 16 inches.  I cut my first piece of paper to 2.5x9, and then I used a pencil to mark where I would need to make my folds to fit around the box.  Once my paper was folded at the appropriate spots, I used a large Zig Pen to cover the box and adhere the paper.  I repeated this step with the other side of the box, cutting the length a little shorter than 9 inches. 

Step 2 - I grabbed a couple of rolls of my Washi Tape, to decorate and finish of the edges.  I used a chevron pattern from SEI, to go around the top edges of the box and some SMASH tape from K&Company to finish off the side edges.

Step 3 - I added a little bit of flair to the box.  I used another piece of the SMASH tape and a toothpick, to create a flag banner.  I just folded the tape over on itself and cut a notch in the end.  I grabbed some teeny alphas from Glitz Designs, to add the word Washi and cut out a tiny heart, to represent the word "love".  And last, but not least, I popped on a cute little flower from American Crafts.

 
Fun and Functional!!  I am sure that my Washi Tape collection will eventually outgrow my cute, little box but for now, it's pretty much perfect.  Once I reach that point, I'll start looking around for something new to upcycle, to make room for all of those rolls of tape!!  :)

Products Used:

Patterned Paper:  Echo Park & Bella Blvd.
Washi Tape:  SEI & K&Company
Teeny Alphas:  Glitz Designs
Flower:  American Crafts
Adhesive:  Zig Memory System
Other:  Box & Toothpick 

Little Snail in a Shell

On Friday night, a new Case File was revealed for CSI:  Color, Stories, Inspiration.  Case File #20 has a fun color scheme and some great elements to use as evidence this week.  I took a couple of photos of my little girl holding a tiny snail out in the yard, right before Debbi sent me the Case Files for the month of May, as my Special Investigator assignment.  When I saw this Case File, I knew right away that I would save these photos for this reveal.

  

See what I mean!!??  A perfect file to go along with these pics!!  :)  I used I actually used 8 out of the 11 elements, in the evidence portion this week and for my testimony, I put my journaling on top of something...the die cut spiral.  I also used some of the RGB codes this week to print my own patterned paper.  I set the RGB codes in my desktop publishing program, and then used some doodle fonts in word art to create the little circle border across the bottom of my page.  Michelle Singh, once of the CSI Investigators, also provides some amazing coordinates each week for the Case Files.  You can download the coordinates and use them digitally or traditionally, by printing them out.

So don't miss out on the fun this week.  Come over to CSI and upload your layout to the Gallery by Sunday, May 27.  

Products Used:

Cardstock & Brads:  The Paper Studio

Patterned Paper:  SEI & CSI Coordinates

Smooch Spritz:  Clear Snap

Thickers & Flair Button:  American Crafts

Embroidery Floss:  Janlynn

 

A Lotta Layouts

Lately, I feel like I have layouts everywhere...all over my desk, all over my laptop screen, and all over my Blog!!  But even with multiple postings on my Blog each week, I've fallen behind in sharing some of my recent pages.  So this will be another post, with a lot of layouts, but little explanations, just for the sake of keeping the post as short as possible.

These first two layouts, are some that I finished this week, for the Three Cool Chicks workshop hosted by Julie Tucker-Woleck, Yvonne Yam, and Amy Tsurata.  Each day this week, they have covered a popular trend...banners, doilies, confetti, twine, and woodgrain.  So far, I have only finished two layouts, but hope to get the other three completed by the end of this month.

Banner Workshop:

Cardstock:  The Paper Studio & Bazzill; Patterned Paper:  Simple Stories; Font:  Arial Black; Buttons:  Blumenthal Lansing; Baker's Twine:  The Twinery; Smooch Spritz:  Clear Snap; Mask:  The Crafter's Workshop; Punch:  Marvy; Other: Staples

Wood Grain Workshop:

Cardstock:  The Paper Studio; Patterned Paper, Stickers, & Flag:  Bella Blvd; Font:  Arial Black & CK Girl; Buttons:  Blumenthal Lansing; Brads:  Bazzill; Baker's Twine:  The Twinery; Washi Tape:  Heidi Swapp; Edgers:  Provo Craft; Smooch Spritz:  Clear Snap

The next three pages, were all created for various NSD challenges two weekends ago, for Studio Calico and Two Peas.

 

Patterned Paper & Stickers:  Echo Park; Font:  Arial Black; Thickers:  American Crafts; Embroidery Floss: Janlynn; Brad:  The Paper Studio

Cardstock:  The Paper Studio; Patterned Paper & Thickers:  American Crafts; Buttons:  Michael's; Teeny Alphas:  Glitz Design; Pens:  Sharpie & Sakura

 
Cardstock:  The Paper Studio  Patterned Paper, Thickers, & Flowers:  American Crafts; Smooch Spritz:  Clear Snap; Buttons:  Michael's; Mini Round Gems:  Recollections; Punch:  Marvy; Calendar:  Jenni Bowlin

This last layout, is a DT page for Sketch Support, based on the Add On sketch # 17.  I did this one for our product swap with Nikki Sivils.  I chose to work with the Audrey collection, which is predominantly feminine, but I thought it would be fun to put a masculine twist on the collection.

 
Cardstock:  The Paper Studio; Patterned Paper & Stickers:  Nikki Sivils; Rubber Charms:  October Afternoon; Smash Tape:  K&Company; Buttons:  Michael's; Embroidery Floss: Janlynn; Baker's Twine:  The Twinery

And last but not least, Case File #20 at CSI will be open later today and I will share my May Special Investigator layout with you this weekend!!

The Big Picture

Just an FYI...this post is written for my LSS, Scraphappy Pensacola, as my monthly DT post...just letting you know, so the first and last paragraphs aren't confusing!!  :)

I went through several ideas, when I was thinking about my post for today.  There are so many great trends out there right now - banners, misting, graphic shapes, wooden accents...the list goes on and on.  And then, I thought of something I haven't done on a layout in years...at least over 2 years ago...using a large photo!  Most of the photos I tend to use, are 4x6 and smaller.  This always works great for me, because I like creating multi-photo layouts, but keeping them as single pages, instead of extending to a double page layout.  But, you still have the option of using multi-photos, with a large photo on your layout, too.


For this page, I printed an 8x10 photo of our little guy playing in the mud.  This was such a perfect photo, because he just happened to look my way the moment I snapped it.  I really wanted to highlight this photo and using the larger photo was just the right way to do that.  And because I had some empty space/white space on my larger photo, I was able to add two smaller (wallet size) photos on top of my large photo.

I decided to keep my embellishments on this page to a minimum, because the photo was the focal point of my layout and the orange, chevron patterned paper added a lot of visual interest to the page.  Just a couple of buttons, some washi tape, and some black accenting...and voila, you're done!!  That's another great advantage to using large photos...makes putting your page together quick and easy.


So, I challenge you to take on a large photo, with a bold visual pattern on your next layout.  The chevron paper on this page is from the Plumeria line by BasicGrey and Christy carries the full collection kit in the store.  This collection is great, because you can pull papers to work with feminine or masculine pages, which is a cost effective way to use your supplies.


Products Used:


Patterned Paper & Stickers:  BasicGrey
Cardstock:  Bazzill
Washi Tape:  SEI & Heidi Swapp
Buttons:  Blumenthal Lansing
Punch:  EK Success
Font:  Eurostyle

Bowl Me Over

As promised in my post yesterday, I have several layouts to share this week.  You can probably guess from my post title, that the ones I have for today are Bowling layouts.  Yep!  We finally got a Bowling Alley 2 minutes away from our house and the kids have been driving us crazy to go over there.  Well, we actually made it a couple of weeks ago, for a birthday party for one of the kids' friends.  None of them had a clue what they were doing, but they had a lot of fun...doing whatever it was they were trying to do!!  :)

This first layout uses some of the awesome Studio Calico line Take Note and a little bit of Abroad.  I did this one for two NSD challenges...at Studio Calico and Two Peas (both challenges required using chevron or going graphic with shapes).

I really love the trend right now of using negatives on layouts.  I used it in two different ways on this page.  I cut the chevron pattern on my Expression and then backed it with a gray patterned paper.  I also cut part of my title and left the negative space unfilled.  I used a few of the positive arrow shapes on my layout, as another accent...waste not, want not!!  And I just have to mention, that this layout uses another one of my favorite elements, techniques, whatever you want to call it...NO solid papers.  I love, love, love to create a layout using all Patterned Paper and I also love coordinating my paper color choices with the colors in my photos...I think these worked out pretty well!  :)

Products Used:

Patterned Paper:  Studio Calico
Journaling Spot:  K&Company
Washi Tape:  SEI
Buttons:  Michael's
Wood Alphas:  Pink Paislee
Pen:  Sharpie
Font:  Arial Black

My second layout, borders on the same color scheme as the first, minus the addition of red.  This layout was also for a NSD challenge at Two Peas, to use paper piecing on your layout.  And I also created this page for the first challenge at Thinking*Through*Design.  The Ladies came up with the challenge to use Analogous color on your layout, which is basically using 3-5 colors on the color wheel that are side by side.  I chose to work with the colors from the yellow to blue range on my layout.

I decided to add in a little bit of black, with the Analogous scheme, just to give a little pop and contrast.  Once again, my paper choice colors are working with the colors in my photos...I have been known to dress my kids to match some patterned papers in my stash, that I know I might want to use for upcoming layouts...just sayin'!!  :)

Well, don't miss out the rest of this week!!  I still have a couple of more layouts to share from my Crop this past Friday, I have a DT post for my LSS coming up on Thursday, and I'll also have another layout for the Nikki Sivils product swap with Sketch Support this week!  Things are busy around here!!

Products Used:

Patterned Paper:  Studio Calico & Authentique
Cardstock:  Bazzill
Brads:  The Paper Studio
Mini Market Stickers:  October Afternoon
Thickers:  American Crafts
Journaling Spot:  K&Company

Just a Quick Post

I hope all of the Mom's enjoyed their Mother's Day yesterday.  I was sick most of the weekend, so mine was not exactly the day I had planned.  Well, at least I napped since I didn't feel good...so I guess I was at least able to get some rest for Mother's Day!

I actually have a lot of layouts to share, from my Crop this past Friday night.  But I think I will probably spread those out this week and just share my Special Investigator layout for Case File #19 at CSI, with you today.  We had a gorgeous inspiration photo this week and a lot of great elements to choose from for our evidence on the layout.

 
I used a lot of fun little bits and pieces on this layout and yes, that is a Starbucks sleeve, as the base for my title!!  :)  There are all kinds of fun things out there, that aren't necessarily scrappy related, that you can use on your layouts.  For the evidence on my layout, I used pleating, rosettes, circles, border punch and for the testimony, I journaled in a circle.  I hope you'll come play along this week at CSI.  You have until Sunday, May 20, to add your layout to the gallery.

Products Used:  

Patterned Paper & Letter Stickers:  Authentique
Thickers:  American Crafts
Buttons:  Michael's
Brads:  BasicGrey & The Paper Studio
Doily Sticker:  My Mind's Eye
Punch:  Martha Stewart
Font:  Arial Black
Other:  Starbucks Sleeve, Pleated Flowers, Paper Flowers, Twine, Butterflies