Design Team Monday!

The team is back again with a Style Challenge for this week.

Playful Charm

This style incorporates complementary colors in muted or bright tones. Paper with coordinating patterns, checks, dots, strips, and accents such as paper dolls, three dimensional and whimsical accents are common.

Tracey

Here is my take on this style. I have a really hard time creating based on different styles. I tend to just 'do my thing' and see how it turns out.

Supplies:

Bella Blvd Christmas Wishes collection

Bazzill cardstock

Lace trim & gold ribbon from Turtle bulk wall

Buttons from stash

twine from The Twinery

Stickles

Smooch Spritz 

___________________________________

Michele

Playful Charm was new to me and upon researching, I fell in love with it. Well it's a form of Freestyle and I'm so fond of that as you know. So yes, I so enjoyed doing this layout!!

Papers: Echo Park - Season's Greetings Collection

Inks: Brown Cat's Eye chalk inks, willow green mist (with a Crafter's Workshop tree template), black pigment ink pen for doodles and purple Glimmer Glam for the bottle cap

Ornaments: 1 large bottle cap, Fancy Pants hats glitter transparency, letters cut with QK-Central Park, gems, a little witch pot, 2 bats Rub-Ons and a piece of green ribbon 

________________________________

Julie

Products used:

Echo Park Holly Jolly Christmas paper

Misc. holiday stickers

Misc. green cardstock



Inspiration from the Blogosphere!

I found this fabulous tutorial and had to share it here.  Kelly borrowed the idea from others and you can check out the links on her blog post.  That's what this scrapping & blogging world is about, right?!?!  Passing on the inspiration!

Flower Tutorial

By Kelly Goree

Supplies: BasicGrey Small Rook Sampler, Picadilly and Out of Print papers, Stitched & Glazed Brads

Other: Uni-ball & Pentel Pens, Fiskars scallop scissors, Fiskars Scallop circle & heart punch.

Here's a close up of the flowers to let you really see how cute and in a minute how EASY they are to make! 

1. Punch one circle base to hold the flower (size depends on the size you're making the flower. Here it was 1.5" and the scallop circles were 2") and eight scalloped circles.

2. Fold the scalloped circles into quarters.

3. Adhere four folded quarter circles around the base circle with scallops at the edge as shown.

4. Add more adhesive to this layer and add the remaining four folded circles on top of the first layer, off-set slightly for variety.

5. Punch hole in center of flower once layers are all added.

6. Add brad to center to secure the petals.

7. Gently separate the petal layers to add dimension to your flower and there you have it! Just right for embellishing your project!

Thanks to Kelly for the inspiration!



DT Special Assignment Day!

Make your own transparencies with Stickles

by Michèle (Mimita) Harris

Who doesn't like Stickles?? We all see Stickles applied to just about anything. But you can make your own ornaments with Stickles too!!

This is a very easy way to create your own fun transparent ornaments.

I have to give credit where it's due and so I must tell you that I learned this technique from Joanie Guillemet a few years ago.

You will need:

- Clear plastic (I use packaging for this (what's underneath on the picture below), the plastic from packaging is nice and sturdy and I help the planet by re-using it.)

- Alcohol ink pad (think Archival... only archival alcohol ink will stick and dry permanently on plastic... Water based dye ink won't dry, it will smudge)

- Stamps (anyone you like but don't choose intricate designs for this, simple ones are best)

- Stickles (any Stickles works well)

- Scissors to cut the plastic pieces

Now cut pieces of plastic to fit your stamp(s) and stamp your image(s) onto them:

Be careful not to press too hard because your stamps might slide over the plastic. If your plastic is too slippery, one little trick that helps is to sand very slightly over the plastic first. Your stamp will not slide as much after this. But you know, after you stamped over plastic a few times, you get good at it and you won't need to sand at all.

You see that it did slip a little bit on the darker circle-wheel stamp, that's why I made more than one. But with using a simple stamp design, you will see that it doesn't matter, the piece will still turn out pretty good. So don't overly worry about that.

Now you are ready to fill in areas with Stickles.

With circles, I find it easier to start on the outer edge and work my way in:

I don't go all the way in, I stop at about this point...

 

And I finish spreading the Stickles with a needle and I also make sure that I did not leave any space uncovered on the edges:

I just put one or more drops of Stickles in the middle for more delicate designs and I spread to the edges with a needle... The needle is so much more precise than the nozzle of the Stickles bottle!!

Let dry overnight and the next morning, turn your pieces to reveal the lines of your stamp and this is what you get!! Ready to use on layouts or cards or any fun project. The beauty of tranparencies is that they can be placed anywhere, even right over photos!!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and I hope to see your Stickles transparencies on your projects!!!

Kit of the Week!

Just popping in to show a couple of the newest kits in the store.

First up is this week's fabulous "Quic-Kit".  It is gorgeous and almost makes me want the snow to come.  Almost.

And here is this month Calendar Kit Page....

Both kits are available in the store while supplies last!

Design Team Monday!

This week the team is offering up a technique challenge.  We want you to use a product for something other than its' original or most-common use.

Tracey

I decided to stick to basics for this challenge. I used basic product on my layout but tried to "think outside my shell" and changed things up a bit.

Supplies:

Bella Blvd Christmas Wishes collection

Bazzill cardstock

Mini Alpha Letters from My Little Shoebox

Dew Drops

Glitter

Maraschino Twine from The Twinery

Gold ribbon

1. Patterned paper is generally expected to be laid down on our layouts. I cut some circles out of mine and made a handmade flower.

2. The red "Christmas" chipboard letters were fabulous as they were but I wanted to add a little extra pop so I covered them in some fine glitter.

3. The "Family" cardstock sticker is generally intended to lay flat on the page but I decided to double matte it and pop it up.

4. The Baker's twine is generally used for knots in buttons or perhaps strung across the page like ribbon but I decided to change things up and make a flower with it.

I hope this helps you see that techniques don't have to be complicated or stressful. Take a technique and stick to the basics with it and you are sure to create some fabulous layouts!

_______________________________

Virginia

I used two elements that are typically not part of a layout to aid in the design.....

1. a Christmas gift tag

2. a Christmas card

Then I also cut the patterned paper along the top out of it's "journalling block" template and used it instead to make a banner of sorts

Supply list:

Bazzill Holiday Style: Patterned Paper

Making Memories: Letter Stickers  

Bazzill Dot cardstock

Maya Road stick pins

Maya Road velvet ribbon 

_____________________________________

Michele

For my part, I had fun making the candy cane with eyelets and ribbon.

Papers: Echo Park - Season's Greetings Collection. Red Bazzill for the die cut

Inks: Brown Cat's Eye chalk ink and white-brown pigment ink pens.

Ornaments: Prima flower vine, Buttons, dew drops and gems, white ribbon and red eyelets, miscellaneous letters.

____________________________________

Julie

I used a Starbucks coffee sleeve, covered it in paper and sealed the bottom to create a pocket for tags.

Products used:

Paper - Echo Park Holly Jolly Christmas

Maya Road pink trim

BoBunny snowflake rub-ons

Misc. Starbucks coffee sleeve

Inspiration from the Blogosphere: EP TV

Are you a fan of Echo Park?!?!

Check out the Echo Park TV Channel on You Tube!

We'd like to invite you to join us on our EP TV Channel! We've launched two new educational videos through this YouTube Channel this month to help inspire you to get creative. Watch for new videos each month featuring your favorite Echo Park Paper collections.

Inspiration from the Blogosphere!

I came across this incredible mini album and it is so fabulous that I just had to share it here.  Julia created this for the Moxie Fab World column in the September/October issue of Paper Crafts Magazine.

Family of Hearts

By Julia Stainton

I think the thing that I really loved about creating this album is that it’s of my family but also, it’s a quirky little album using playing cards and it is so small and cute. This album uses the Echo Park Paper Co. For the Record line and it makes it really easy for everything to coordinate.

Each card was chosen for a reason. The front cover card is a 7 for the number of people in our family.

Of course, my sweet hubby just had to be the king…

 

…and I’m his queen.

My oldest child, James, is the Jack.

My daughter comes next and as second child, she is on the 2 of hearts.

Next in line is of course, on the 3 of hearts.

And then comes number four.

 

I thought about using a 5 of heart for my last child but he’s such a little bundle of personality, I just had to make him the joker.

 

After creating my little album and covering the pages with papers, photos and embellishments, I punched holes with my Crop-a-dile and then bound it together with some clips from the office store.

Thanks to Julia for the inspiration!!

DT Special Assignment Day!

Badge Holder Birthdays

By Tracey

One of my crafty goals is to send a birthday card to everyone in my family (I have to justify buying all of those stamps somehow!!).  Well, if you have been following my blog at all then you know I have A LOT of family!!  Sometimes, there is just too much stuff in my brain and I can't always remember the dates.  So, I decided to make myself a memory aid.

I have to admit that these ideas are not my own.  I have seen similar things around the web and I just crammed them together into one project.

Let's get to it.....

Here is a list of what you will need....

1. A package of badge holders (I picked mine up from Staples)

2. cardstock in the base colours of your choice (White is probably best for your birthday list but an alternate soft neutral colour would work)

3. Patterned Paper of your choice (I used one of my 6x6 Lime Twist pads from My Mind's Eye)

4. You will also need whatever additional embellishments you wish to add

Step 1:  First thing you want to do is open up your badge holders and remove the string.  Feel free to toss it since you won't need it.

(Once upon a time, I would have added it to my scrappy stash because 'someday' I just may put it to use but I am trying to control the natural packrat in me.)

Step 2:  Cut your cardstock. The white pieces will be used for your monthly lists.  (Mine are cut to 2.5x3)  The red pieces are the background.  (Mine are cut to 3.25x4 but this could change depending on the size of your badge holders.)

Step 3:  I used a Papertrey Ink stamp to stamp the lines on each white piece.  You could use a similar style of stamp; ruler and do them yourself or you could print from your computer. 

Step 4:  Use a marker and add each month to the top of your lists.  Once all 12 are completed, add in the birthdays you wish to remember.

Step 5: Assemble and embellish each month's list as you wish.  I did not take pictures of this part as this is entirely up to the individual.

Note:  I adhered a month's list to both sides of the red cardstock to avoid things being too bulky in the badge holders.

Step 6:  Once all pages are complete, slide them into the badge holders.  I tied mine together with twine from The Twinery (also available at Scrapping Turtle).

Here is my finished album.....

A couple shots of random pages......

I hope this provided some inspiration!

Kit of the Week!

A new week means a fantastic new "Quic-Kit"!

Get yours today!



Design Team Monday!

The Design Team is back for another round or reveals for you!

This week we are working off a PageMaps sketch for inspiration.

Check out the sketch....

And now a peek at what the team created with it....

Virginia

I don't have a ton of Christmas pics (shockingly b/c I have a million "other" kind of pics) - anyway I plan to change that this year but for this layout I decided to twist it a bit and do a December Daily type layout. I don't have the stamina to stick with an entire album devoted to the month of December but it is a special month with so many fun things going on so I decided this would be the perfect way to jot down some of our holiday memories.

I did a square for every day in December up to Christmas - I made sure that the weekend days were full circles for journalling as that's when we'll do the bulk of our Holiday activities - I'm actually not sure on a normal "work day" what I'll write but maybe a little note about listening to Xmas music etc - I'm sure I'll find something. 

Supply list:

Patterned paper: Bazzill Basics Holiday Style

Cardstock: Kraft

Stickers: We R Memory keepers

Letter stickers: October Afternoon

Costco gift tag (pine cone) 

________________________________________

Michele

Here is my take on this fun sketch!! I reversed it and played with contrasts from my Echo Park paper collection and I also tried to keep it simple. The papers are so beautiful and delicate, I didn't want to overcroud them. I cut 3 small circles to glue under my clear dew drops to bring back the pattern, I'm in love with that green paper!!!

Papers: Echo Park - Season's Greetings Collection and green, white Bazzil cardstock.

Inks: Brown and green Cat's Eye chalk inks.

Ornaments: 3 large clear dew drops, Brown and green ribbon, miscelaneous flowers, leaves, letters, buttons and rub-ons, and a shrink plastic clock from Kimmiprout. 

_____________________________________

Julie

I used Glossy Accents on the light bulbs across the top, cut small strips of the striped paper to make my own xmas tree. I put a piece of cardboard in the bottom of the bottle cap, topped with a small metal tree charm, added some gems and then poured in some Glossy Accents.

Products used:

Paper - Echo Park Holly Jolly Christmas

Maya Rd. bottle cap and pink trim

Glossy Accents

Misc. Gems, cardstock and lettering; metal tree in bottle cap 

_________________________________________

Tracey

Every year on Boxing Day most of my family heads to my parents' place to gather, have fun and open presents. Needless to say, there are always lots of pictures taken. This sketch was perfect for this.

Supplies:

Bella Blvd Christmas Wishes collection

Bazzill cardstock

Corrugated letters from Jillibean Soup

Mini Alpha letters from My Little Shoebox

Dew Drop

Buttons from stash