Paper Pile Kitten

Bundle of Joy 12x12 Layout

This is an easy to make - and inexpensive! - but oh so pretty layout. I used white canvas cardstock from Bazzill and put a few drops of October Afternoon Sprinkle colors on the background. I added the photo and the title that I had die cut from a foam sheet with the new Tim Holtz dies Word Play and Alphabetical from Sizzix. Those two fonts go very well together.

All this didn't take many minutes. Finishing the layout was a tad more time consuming but not hard to do in any way. Using paper from the 6x6 Prima paper pad from the Sweet Fairy collection, I punched out almost a hundred of tiny butterflies with a small hand punch. Then I glued them to the page in a spiralling motion so that they look like they are gently swarming around that sweet baby photo. I only put a small dot of glue to the middle of each butterfly so that I could fold up their wings and make a more dimensional look to the page.

I was very pleased with the result, and with the minimal cost of this page. If you're a frugal scrapper with a limited budget, feel free to scraplift and use the idea! 

 

Digital Spring Layout

I made this page in Photoshop and I suddenly realized that I don't make that many digital layouts anymore. That's a pity because I love working in Photoshop, I have quite a stash of digital collections and supplies, and making a page is Photoshop is fast and easy. Other advantages of digital scrapbooking are that you get to use your latest photos right away, no waiting for prints, and you might share your layout with family and friends with just a click to attach the image to an e-mail message. Isn't it great?

For this layout, I used the digital Spring Junque collection by House of Three and, if you think that you recognize the background design, there's actaually a current paper version of it in the Spring Jubilee collection by House of Three and Pink Paislee!

 

A Card Is Always Pretty in Pink

This is a fun card I made last week, from Tim Holtz/Sizzix Sewing Room die and a wood texture print. Very pink and girly! Lately, I have used felt for embellishments more often than before. You're probably recognizing the felt flowers from earlier posts. Here, I cut a dress form from a sheet of pink felt and cut it to make the base of a dress.

I made the skirt from a piece of wide ribbon and then added a bow of organza ribbon for the waistline. The tinsel neckline is made from Pink Paislee's Sweetness tinsel ribbon (there are still a few of them left in stock at Scrapbook.com, on sale at 50 % off!). I decorated the top of the dress with pearl stickers. To finish the card, I wound the spool with Doodlebug twine (there are a few of those left in stock, as well).

I gave this card to my mom who loved the dress because it reminded her of those pretty dresses she used to make for herself in the '60s. :)

 

Fun Fun Fun 12x12 Layout

I made a scraplift from one of Amy Tan's layouts. It turned out to be one of those inexpensive but pretty pages and that's just awesome.

I used white canvas cardstock from Bazzill as base. Lately, I've been doing more and more pages on just white cardstock. Add some vibrant colors and you have a gorgeous  fresh looking page without much effort. I love that!

For this layout, I placed two photos on the cardstock and doodled a bit around them as a frame. Then, I put some washi tape below the photos and added some washi tape strips, cut as banners, beside the photos. 

I die cut the butterfly shapes and added some rhinestones to those. Then, I die cut a small tag and the title letters. I added some tiny text words to the title, and finished by adding a couple of buttons and rhinestone stickers. Fast, easy and very low cost if you already have those dies!

Here are some of the supplies that I used for this layout:

Birthday Cards For Boys

When it comes to scrapbooking and cardmaking, I'm quite girlie. I love to throw as much pink and bling as I possibly can on a page. Making layouts and cards for the men in the family is a little bit trickier. Not that I think that they would mind getting a pink card with rhinestones on it - the men in my family are certainly openminded when it comes to color matching - but they would probably not consider that very beautiful. lol!

Here are a couple of more masculine birthday cards that I made recently. Apparently, I couldn't resist adding at least some little bling, glitter and pink accents. Hmmm... I hope they won't notice. ;D

Fast and Easy Made Birthday Card

Have you noticed that I love using my Big Shot and the Tim Holtz dies? ;D  Yes, I use them almost every day!

The other day, I had to come up with a birthday card, and fast! A very dear friend was turning 40 and I needed to put a card in the mail before lunch. These were the conditions for the design: Clean and simple. No pink. No bling. Nothing even remotely girly. My friend hates girly pink glittery stuff. I know, I know... but obviously opposites attract. lol! 

I die cut a bird and a picket fence and some foam letters for the sentiment. I know there are some small spots of pink and one tiny rhinestone sticker for the bird's eye, but I hope she won't notice that, teehee.

The bird has become one of my favorite dies! It's the bird from the bird cage die. I don't like to lock in the poor bird in a cage so I usually only use the bird. That picket fence is also a great die for using on all kinds of projects!

                

 

A Love Letter On a Weekday

Why save the love letters and cards for Valentine's? Make someone near and dear happy on a regular Thursday! :)

I made this card with some scraps, a heartshaped jewel sticker and tiny letters from Cosmo Cricket, Authentique and Glitz. There's plenty of space for letter writing on the back of the card.

 

Digital Winter Layout

I made this digital layout using Jenni Bowlin's Red/Black Extension line for the background and the journaling card. I love her patterns and designs! Thank you for looking!

My Pinterest Addiction

These are my Pinterest boards. That web site is so much fun! And dangerous. Before you know it, you've spent two hours pinning pretty pictures and totally forgot to eat your lunch. Look at those vibrant colors! Oh, gorgeous designs! Wonderful photos! Amazing ideas! Pin! Pin! Pin! I can't stop! lol! I think I'll have to look for a 12 step program or something. ;)

Follow me on Pinterest at your own peril, and prepare to get caught up in thousands of gorgeous images. 

 

Paisley Butterfly Card

This is a birthday card in vibrant pink with paisley patterned butterflies inside. I also die cut three butterfly shaped "windows" at the front of the card so you can see the patterned butterflies behind those. I used the 6x6 paper pad from Prima's Paisley Road collection. I added a couple of color matched rhinestone stickers to each butterfly.

Weekend Shopping: October Afternoon's 9 to 5

Finally! The 9 to 5 collection is in the online stores! We have been waiting and waiting for so long. This is one of my favorite lines this spring.

You can find this line at TwoPeasInABucket.com, BlueMoonScrapbooking and at Simon Says Stamp! I had to dive in and get big box (or two!!) of those goodies! Can't wait to play with it! :D

Washi Tape Storage, Free Washi Webinar Link and Favorite Rolls

Remember that fun little shop in my block I told you about, where I sometimes find amazing storage solutions? I found this Pharmacy box and I immediately spotted the possibility for a washi tape storage! I love that the glass lid allows me to get a quick overview and still protects the tape rolls from collecting dust.

Not that those tapes are collecting any dust - don't worry - there's definitely no time for that! I'm using washi tape on almost every project right now. I love the vibrant colors and the versatility. Besides, every tape roll is at least 10 yards so they will last (almost) forever.

This is indeed a trend for the frugal scrapper on a tight budget! A few inches of washi tapes on a cardstock background and a couple of photos, and you have a gorgeous looking page to a very low cost! Awesome!

And if you run out of ideas on how to use it, be sure to check out this awesome article by Lisa Truesdell! AND do not miss the free webinar Washi Tape, Wahoo! with Monica Bradford that Lain Ehmann has organized on May 30 at 8 pm EST! Register here!

You will find a lot of different patterned washi tape at my favorite online stores: in stock at Scrapbook.com, TwoPeasInABucket.com, BlueMoonScrapbooking and Simon Says Stamp!

Below are some of my favorite washi tapes right now! <3

Oh, Tags!

Yesterday, I saw the most gorgeous tags on two manufacturer blogs! I just have to reblog them here so I'll keep them for inspiration!

Prima had a load of tags made by their design team. The ones above are made by Karola Witczak, who is the queen of stunning pages! Look at those details!

Petaloo had a dreamy Spring Tag  (below) made by Irene Tan (any connection to Amy?) on display! My jaw just dropped when I saw it! It's so adorable!! Thank you so much for the inspiration,  ladies! :)

 

 

Love Nic Howard!

I'm adding a new category to this blog: Love! There are many people in the scrapbooking business that deserves some extra love, and the first one that we are going to shower with lots of love is: Nic Howard!

Nic is one of my favorite scrapbooking instructors. Well, I have a long list of favorite instructors so prepare for loads of Love posts to come. :) 

Nic's specialty is to make those wonderful dimensional clusters of textured details on a page. You know those gorgeous layouts that you see design team members make for different brands, for example Webster's Pages and Prima? The ones that look so intricate and complex and pretty that you think it is out of reach for you to make something even remotely resembling those masterpieces. Well, Nic is showing you how to make those!!

The extra special thing about Nic is that she is such a hands on teacher. To watch a video with her is to be taken by the hand and guided through every little detail in the process of making a page. While you watch her working on that page, or on a detail to put on the page, she is so careful to describe and show exactly how she does it, and she gives you additional tips on the way. It really makes you confident that you could do it too. And then you try it for yourself, and you are amazed that you really did that and it looks totally awesome! LOL! 

And then, of course, she has that lovely New Zealand accent that I've come to love ever since 2007 when I first saw the Flight of the Concords tv show and the adorable film Eagle vs Shark. :)

Nic is going to teach a 13 week long class (July 5 to October 3) at Big Picture Classes. It's called Dimensional Details and it's about making and working those details that makes a scrapbook page look like "Wow!". The registration just opened. I'm so excited that I'm bouncing up and down here! I can't wait until July! I know it's going to be one of the best scrapbooking classes I've ever taken. And how exactly do I know that? Because every class with Nic Howard has been a dream! I have learned so much from Nic's workshops.

I took Colour! or is it Color? last year at BPC and learned how to work the colors in my pages. I also took Nic's workshops in True Scrap and I keep watching those videos over and over again.

At True Scrap 1, she teached about Texture and showed us how to add dimension to a page with all kinds of cool techniques! At True Scrap 2, she had a great workshop called Ready, Set, Distress! where she is showing how to create that distressed vintage look. She makes a totally amazing tag in that video! (Those two workshop videos can now be purchased individually for a very small fee, just click on the links to get to that page) and at True Scrap 3, just a month ago, Nic taught us how to make different kinds of gorgeous flowers! And I have kept making my own flowers since then! (Picture of a couple of those below.) It's so much fun! And the cost is a small fraction of the price for those ready made flowers in stores. Nice, huh?

In fact I'm sitting here right now, watching those True Scrap videos again and I'm so caught up that I'm almost forgetting to finish this blog post! Be sure to visit Nic's blog here at Typepad. And if you love Nic too, leave a comment here. :)

Thank you, Nic! For being such a great teacher, showing me how it is possible for me to make those "impossible" professional pages. And, for all those great instructions on how to make my own details that are as pretty as those expensive brand name embellishments. That is so great for a scrapper with a limited budget. You rock!

 

Some Minor Content Changes To This Blog

I started this blog almost two years ago during CHA Summer 2010. It was all about new scrapbooking collections and inspiration of how to use them. I wanted to collect the new lines, make lists and comment on them for my own wishlist keeping. A couple of years later, a great number of scrapbooking bloggers are reblogging sneak peeks from CHA within minutes of release so, lately, I've come to the insight that  I would rather just visit some of those blogs then take on the exhausting work to catch all those new collections. 

After CHA Winter 2012 in January/February I was rather worn out and so for a couple of months I have only been updating the blog sporadically, not daily as I used to. I'm hoping to change that now, as I feel new and fresh blogging inspiration coming my way! I will aim for about 4 or 5 posts every week.

This blog will be more about daily scrapbooking life, my own projects, problems and solutions, tips & tricks, inspiration, general trends... In fact, that's exactly how it's been since CHA Winter. So, if you like it here now, you will continue to like it here. :)

I will continue to reblog some of the CHA sneak peeks from the manufacturers, but ONLY the lines I personally fall in love with, not every new collection out there. You will, however, be able to catch a list of ALL news from CHA at Scrappypedia.com, which is my scrapbooking product database and inventory management website that goes along with the free ScrapStash iPhone app.

That's because the CHA overview lists have been the most popular item on this blog, so I'm giving them a new home over at Scrappypedia. There will be no reviews there, though, just the list of new lines and pictures of those. And, after some time, all those new and coming products will be entered into our product database so that you can put every new item you would like to buy in your Scrappypedia wishlist (where you can also rate exactly HOW much you really want it on a scale of 1-5 hearts).

Sneak peeks for CHA Summer 2012 will begin in June so, if you want to have a look at them all and then get a good overview, head over to Scrappypedia.com! 

 

Spring Color Distress Inks, Workshop and Storage

You haven't missed the limited edition Spring Color Distress Inks from Tim Holtz and Ranger, have you? I got mine a few days ago and I'll be back here with a review as soon as I get the time to try them out. The online stores that have these ink pads in stock right now are: Scrapbook.com, Simon Says Stamp and BlueMoonScrapbooking.com.

The cool thing is that they released re-inkers for all the seasonal inks, and since I have all of those ink pads I had to get the re-inkers (naturally, lol!). They are currently stocked in the same online stores as I mentioned above. Like the ink pads, these re-inkers are limited editions, so grab them while you can. There are all kinds of totally awesome things that you can do with those re-inkers, other than just refill your ink pads.

I get a lot of stamping inspiration from Jen Gallacher. She has a self-paced workshop at Two Peas, called Scrapbook Stamper's Workshop. You get 5 topics with 10 lessons each, great videos and a comprehensive workbook (62 pages!) in pdf format for a very modest fee. That's really good value if you want to learn stamping techniques and get loads of inspiration for the use of your ink and stamping supplies!

A couple of weeks ago I got new storage for my Distress ink pads. We have small shop in our block, where they are selling all kinds of odd things for a nice price. Sometimes, I find some amazing storage solutions in there. This time it was a metal box pretending to be some vintage first aid kit/medicine storage. It was perfect for my ink pads and, as you can see, there's plenty of room for the summer colors, as well. :)

 

Summer Birthday Card

Here's a birthday card that is easy to make but yet elegant. The sentiment is the word Celebrate! in Swedish. I really love the classic scalloped Nestabilities dies from Spellbinders. I have also used them for making the pretty pink felt roses (below).  It's my first set of Nestabilities and I have a feeling that I will get more of the shapes from that series of die sets.

 

Mother's Day Flowers For Free - With a Little Help from Tim Holtz

For the moment, I have a very limited budget for new scrapbooking supplies. Here's were the dies that Tim Holtz designed for Sizzix come to the rescue. I can make my own embellishments! This time, I've tried the new Tattered Flower Garland Sizzlits die. AND the flowers on this card did not cost me anything. Here's how:

A local online scrapbooking shop are stuffing their cardboard boxes with non-woven fabric, the kind that you use in the garden, to stop the items from moving around during shipping. Instead of throwing this white fabric away at the arrival and unpacking of my boxes, I have held on to it and used it as a protective layer under projects while misting. All the surplus mist lands on this fabric, instead of getting wasted. That's how I get good use from every drop of precious Glimmer Mist, because I use this colored fabric for die cutting later. How's that for thrifty? lol!

The Tattered Flower Garland die is perfect for making your own flowers for cards and layout. The flower and leaf shapes come in different sizes on this die, which is making it easy to layer the flowers and mix and match different shapes.

I assembled a number of flowers and used some brads from my stash. Hands up, anyone who hasn't hundreds, if not thousands, of brads lying around. They sit in the stash for years, unused. So I won't count that as a cost, and I didn't pay for the fabric, I don't consider the Glimmer Mist waste being a cost, and I have this die anyway, so voilá - "free" flowers fresh from my stash! :D

To make the Mother's Day card, I used my stash of washi tapes as a background. Washi tape is a very economichal way to add accents to your layouts and card. A tape roll is typically at least 10 yards and will last forever, considering that you usually don't use more than a couple of inches each time! 

To complete the card, I added a sentiment that I die cut from a sheet of plastic foam (my own home made Thickers to a fraction of the price for the real deal!), using another of the new Tim Holtz dies: Alphabetical. Being a frugal scrapper is fun!

The new Tim Holtz dies can be bought from Scrapbook.com, BlueMoonScrapbooking, TwoPeasInABucket.com or from Simon Says Stamp.

 

In the Bag - A New Die From Tim Holtz

I'm playing with my new Tim Holtz dies. This one is called In the Bag. It is perfect for small gifts such as chocolate, gift cards, hair clips... It's definitely another favorite from Tim's new collection of dies.

For this bag, I used a really old paper from my stash: Diva's Stitch from the Quilted Garden collection by Angela Hoffmann and Dream Street Papers (remember those? :)

The die has two areas where you could put a small Movers & Shapers die to get a window in your bag, so I did use a die from the Mini Butterflies Set to make a small window for peeks of the content. Using double sided paper is great because then you get a gorgeous inside of the bag. I put some pretty pink tissue paper in the top of the bag to further enhance the appearance.

Buy the In the Bag die from Scrapbook.com, BlueMoonScrapbooking or from Simon Says Stamp. To get the best result, use it with a Sizzix Crease Pad on top of the paper instead of the regular acrylic pad. That will make it the envelope easier to fold at the right places after you've cut it out.

 

Creating With the Pocket Envelope Die From Tim Holtz

I have been playing with a couple of new dies from Tim Holtz and Sizzix with my Big Shot machine. This is my absolute favorite die from the latest collection! It's called Pocket Envelope and I have been waiting for Tim to create something like this. I often use envelopes on my layouts because an envelope is an excellent place to hide extensive journaling. I also use small envelopes in cards for gift certificates and small gifts.

I love this envelope model where you close it with twine or other kind of string and a couple of brads. Very pretty! To get the best result, use it with a Sizzix Crease Pad on top of the paper instead of the regular acrylic pad. That will make it the envelope easier to fold at the right places after you've cut it out.

For this particular envelope, I used a paper from 7 Gypsies' Lille 8x8 paper pad. The 8x8 format is perfect for this die, just cut off a couple of inches on the bottom of the sheet so it will go through the Big Shot machine. Using double sided paper makes the inside of this envelope as beautiful as the outside.

The problem is that the back of the envelope is so beautiful that I don't want to glue it down to a page. LOL! I'll have to figure out some way to attach the envelope without permanent glue. Maybe stick it into some kind of paper pocket on the page (Hey, Tim! That's an idea for your new die collection! ;)

The twine is from My Mind's Eye's Kraft Funday collection. I love that set of twine in neutral colors like cream, grey, beige and kraft brown.

The Pocket Envelope die can be bought from Scrapbook.com, TwoPeasInABucket.com, BlueMoonScrapbooking or from Simon Says Stamp.