Special Guest Artist - Cathy Lane

Hello everyone, I have another special guest artist to share with you all! Today I am sharing a post by Cathy Lane who creates some of the most beautiful pages that are generally  in the style of  shabby chic. I love the feeling I get when I see her pages, it reminds me of my childhood and my warm blankets and lace!  I literally sit and scratch my head wondering, "how did she do that?". You can pop on over to her blog to see so much more. Get ready for another wonderful guest artist post by Cathy Lane!

I am a scrap-booking addict of epic proportions. I live in a little sea-side village off the east coast of Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa . I share my life with my hubby and seven dogs and I count myself very lucky to have them. I have a beautiful daughter who is now 24 and whom I am very proud of and love dearly. I am also godmother to little Isabella, my niece whom I also love to bits. Whilst scrapping is my number one hobby, I am also an avid reader and I am happiest when I am at home surrounded by the familiar routine of every-day life.  I am inspired by so many things and I see opportunities everywhere and I don’t think my thirst for knowledge will ever be quenched. I am also very fortunate in that I have made so many friends through the common love of crafting and sharing ideas. 
blog: http://a-stroll-down-memory-lane.blogspot.com/

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String Art Tutorial

To start with, decide where you would like to position the string art. Draw two light pencil lines as per the illustration directly on to your paper. 

Make tiny little holes 1cm apart on each line

If you’re doing this for the first time, it helps to number the holes as per the illustration to eliminate confusion.

Thread your needle with the required colour thread (I usually use embroidery thread) and insert your needle into the  back of hole number 12 on the vertical line.

Bring the needle to the front and thread a few beads (3 or 4 will do fine) and then insert needle into hole number 1 on the horizontal line.

Then insert needle from the back into hole number 2 on the horizontal line, bring it to the front, thread another few beads and insert needle into hole number 11 on the vertical line.

Insert needle from the back into hole number 10 on the vertical line, thread beads and insert needle into hole number 3 on the horizontal line.

Insert needle from the back into hole number 4 on the horizontal line, thread beads and insert needle into hole number 9 on the vertical line.

And then you continue in the same pattern: No.8 vertical to number 5 horizontal, number 6 horizontal to 7 vertical,  6 vertical to 7 horizontal, 8 horizontal to 5 vertical, 4 vertical to 9 horizontal, 10 horizontal to 3 vertical, 2 vertical to 11 horizontal, 12 horizontal to 1 vertical. Fasten your thread with tape to the back of the work.

Don’t forget to thread a few beads as you go along.  Once you have completed the string work, you can then adjust the positioning of the beads as and how you would like them to be as they are loose on the thread and can be moved.

 

Have fun and enjoy!!

 

Regards

Cathy Lane

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Thanks so much Cathy for your great tutorial!!

Working with Patterned Paper + Sketch

Hey all, it's Pam here with a sketch and two examples of using patterned papers in interesting ways. I love to use strong design in my layouts as you will see below. In this first example, I created an interesting number page along with lots of color. My dog is the center of the page. She is an adored pet and I wanted to create a celebration page with her at the age of five. I chose patterned paper that was mostly from the Country Charm collection. All of the circle cutting and fussy cutting was done with a kraft knife. I don't own a big die cut machine, so I must do everything by hand, which I actually like. As you can see each patterned paper is cut to fit into different circles and it actually does a good job of drawing your eyes to the main two photos.

Supplies: GCD Studios Country Charm, Flower Child Collections, American Crafts Thickers, Making Memories flower, October Afternoon sticker.

My second example is my son's first day of school for fourth grade. Here I spread out the patterned papers into squares and added them to my page. I purposely planned my photos like that so they would stand out the most. With bright colors surrounding them, they stood out quite well. I alternated with papers and patterns to add lots of interest to the page. For instance notice how the blue patterned paper on the bottom ties into drawing your eyes down the page. Below my page is the sketch. I hope you enjoy and use this sketch for your upcoming projects!

Supplies: GCD Studios Country Charm, Flower Girl, Sweet Tooth, Bonjour Collections, American Crafts Thickers, Jenni Bowlin Stickers, October Afternoon embellishments, Chic Tags Circle Tag, My Minds Eye Paper, Bazzill Basics Kraft Cardstock.

Have a great day!!

Designer Showcase: Dimension/Texture without Bulk

Happy Wednesday!  It's Cathy here with you today to bring you this weeks Designer Showcase. Do you love to add texture to your layouts? But not like all the bulk that goes with it?  We've got a few ideas to share with you that add yummy texture, but keep your layouts on the then side, able to fit nicely in your albums.

Cindy created this really sweet page with some neat tricks to give it dimension. She used tone-on-tone to add dimension to the circles, banner, star and journaling. Gives a really nice deep look without the bulk. Nice, huh?

Check out this two pager. Cindy created a really deep look and gave lots of texture to this page by using a few well coordinated colors. She repeated the pattern at both ends of the page which gives both the look of depth, as well as the feel of texture. There is some hand stitching that really gives nice texture too.  Cindy calls herself a "bulk-phobe" (so cute!), she loves the look of dimension, but not the hassle of bulky layouts. So she finds lots of ways to trim down her layouts. The title on this one is made from chipboard letters. But, Cindy peeled off the bottom layers of them to make them thinner.  So cool!

Doesn't this page by Nancy look so rich and deep? It makes me just want to reach out and touch it! Nancy has some buttons and brads on her page, which area always a great way to add dimension to a page.  The real depth to this page is accomplished through the layering of the papers.  The patterns and colors play together nicely, and the really cool part is the bit of shape that Nancy added to them, She trimmed a pennant edge to the papers. Great way to add detail, dimension and texture to a layout, while still keeping it skinny!

If you've been following our blog, you know that Vicky is well known for you bulky textured dimensional beauties. She even came up with a layout that has lots of detail and texture without a lot of bulk.  Vicky used doilies as the background of your design. They add so much to the page. She also used some thin chipboard and die cuts too. By repeating the pattern of the doilies on teh page, Vicky has created dimension and texture and set up a visual stimulating page!

Lesley has some great techniques for for making your page textures without bulk.  She used a punch to create a border which gives the page intricate detail and texture. She added another border on the left side of the photo mat and ran that through her Cuttlebug to emboss it to give added dimension. Lesley added great dimension and detail to her background paper. It started out white, then she blended Pan Pastels and added some Glimmer Mist. What a great way to add the feel of texture without any bulk.  The title and verson on her page were added using stamps - another great way to add the look of layers and dimension as well as the feel of varying textures with no bulk at all!


Another tip that Lesley shared is that although this page appears to be 5 layers of paper, she actually cut away the hidden parts of paper behind each layer. Making her finish page only 1 paper of thickness!  Clever idea!  Plus you can then use those scraps for other projects!

Sometimes you might have a piece of memorabilia that you want to add that is bulky.  Like I did on this page. I wanted to include the cozy wrap from my coffee.  To keep the page from being too bulky, I carefully pulled apart the cozy and spread it across the page as a large element.  I also included a used gift card. By not layering my elements too much on top of each other, I was able to keep the page from getting too bulky. Ohhh, I used to love coffee. I gave it up cold-turkey 18 months ago.  Glad I made this page before I quit that habit!

Another way to keep your pages skinny is to make hybrid pages. By hybrid, I mean a combination of digital and traditional paper scrapping. That's how I created this page.  The background of this page was created digitally. It includes the large photo at the top merged on to the digital paper on the bottom with the honeycombs, "paint" spray, journaling, smaller photo and date.  I then printed that out as one piece of paper. I layered that on a 12x12 Kraft paper.   The only "bulk" to this page is the pocket that I created for the lower right corner. I again designed that digitally and printed it so it is one piece of paper. I then glued 3 sides of it to the lower layer. I was able to stuff our tickets and wrist bands from this great exhibit into the pocket and still was able to place this layout inside a sleeve in my album. Sorry the photo is so wobbly. I was laid up following surgery when I finished this and actually took the photo while it was laying on my lap!

We would be remiss if we didn't mention digital scrapping as a way to accomplish dimension, and texture without bulk. I created this layout completely digitally.  I created a lot of layers on this page and used elements that have the look of rich grungy, and sharp textures.  The secret to getting this look digitally is playing with shadows.

We hope we've given you a few ideas on how to help your pages lose the bulk, but not the look!

Creating New Looks While Scraplifting Yourself

Happy Monday, it's Pam here. Hope your week starts out great!
As I have mentioned before I like to scraplift my own designs when I get into a scrap rut or I when I love the design. However, I do love the whole creative process when making a layout and I often don't want two layouts which look the same. I often try to come up with new looks to my pages each time. So, when I scraplift a design that I love, I make sure it doesn't look completely copied and that can be fun to achieve. :)
Here are some tips on how I go about this. I am sharing two examples today. Here is the original page that I scraplifted. It is a few years old. Notice the vertical circles with the text wrapped around the curves.

Here is my new page.  As you can see it utilizes some of the same ideas.

Here are some tips to change up your page as I did here.
1. Flip your design. Notice the text is on the left side rather than the right side.
2. Change up the color scheme. While both layouts feature my son, the color scheme is completely different.
3. Take away and add paper. If you look closely you will I added more paper on the second layout and dropped the bottom striped paper.

Here are the two layouts in my second example. The latter is the newest page.

There are quite similar but different too. Here is how I achieved that.
1. Change the photo arrangement. As you can see I altered the amount of photos as well as the placement and sizes.
2. Change the shape theme. using different hanging shapes on my page really changes it up. Hearts was used on my Autumn Love page while flowers were used on my Cherish layout.
3. Add more or less of the main paper elements. I think the biggest difference for me looking at this is the number of banners hanging down. Going from five to three makes a huge difference!

I hope this inspire you to scraplift your own pages!!

Photo Titles

When our family went to Legoland recently, Trevor and I posed in front of the entrance sign, like just about everyone else does. 

I printed 12 of our photos from the day, including this one, to use for my 2-page layout.  When I started arranging the pictures on the page, I realized that the Legoland sign in my photo was large and bold enough to serve as my title.  I grouped some colorful accents both above and to the left of the photo to draw the eye.  I added a third color grouping by my journaling.  It forms a visual triangle that leads right back to the title.  I think it works.

To contrast, let me show you a layout with a photo used as a title that doesn't work.  This is from our cruise to Hawaii three years ago.  Look closely in the middle left where I'm using a photo of a Hawaii sign as my title. 

This layout does not work for a number of reasons.  The title recedes into the background because it is not large or bold enough.  My fussy cut flower accents form a visual triangle, but that triangle doesn't center on the title.  There is nothing to lead the eye to the appropriate location.  This is a case where I knew I was creating a layout that didn't work, but I couldn't figure out how to fix it and finally just gave up.  Now in hindsight, it's so obvious to me why it didn't work!

Using a photo as a title can work well in a multi-picture layout.  Just be sure that the title is large and bold enough, then use your embellishments to lead the eye to the title.  Have you used a photo as a title?  I'd love to see what you made!

Design Tip: Paper Inspiration

Hello all and happy Friday once again! Today I am sharing another design tip with you all. I first introduced this tip in my "Step Out of Your Comfort Zone" post. You can read it here. Number 10 on the list is one technique I love to do! It is using patterned paper to inspire your design and I do this all the time.  Patterned paper is such a great thing for inspiration. It has shapes, colors, and neat images!  I just created two brand new pages this week using this design technique which I will share below.

My first example is using a piece of Studio Calico paper and cutting shapes which fit exactly inside each ray. First let me show you the paper before I explain how I did it.

Studio Calico - Classic Calico Collection - 12 x 12 Double Sided Paper - Plano
Scrapbook.com

As you can see this is sort of a grid-like sun ray paper. I measured, traced and cut out pieces of paper that would fit into five sections of the rays. Here I used the entire paper as my inspiration. My whole design was a result of this super cool patterned paper. Thanks Studio Calico for making this neat paper. Here's my scrapbook page!

In my second example I used a piece of patterned paper as my main inspiration. I really haven't done a large scale banner page yet and have been wanting to soooo badly. Here is my inspiration!!

Crate Paper - School Spirit Collection - 12 x 12 Double Sided Paper - Pep Rally
Scrapbook.com

In my page below you will see I extended my banner all the way across, although I used a little bit more curves in my banner. I also used colors similar to this paper to create my page.  I had a blast creating this page because it was a bit more freestyle than my normal graphic style.

So, have you used paper to inspire your pages yet? You really should! Send me examples of this if you like at scrappingpam73@yahoo.com . Have a great day and weekend!!!!!!!

Design Tip: Repetition

Hi there, it's Pam here sharing and a design tip with you that I love to do. Sometimes when I get in a scrap rut, i just need to go back to some of my favorite design techniques, repetition! This is when I use a shape or element over and over to create a design.  I will often use a photo or two to replace the shape. You might have used this before, but here are a few examples by me of repetition!

My first page is using circles over and over in a row to create a stoplight like feeling to my page. This goes along with my soccer theme and how soccer is like stop and go sometimes. I used my Coluzzle to cut out large and small circles and used a few photo in the middle of the circles.

In this next example, I was inspired by a Studio Calico stamp and also Amy Butler paper - two companies that I LOVEEE!!. I created my design and cut it out with scissors. I also replaced some of the shapes with photos.

My next page is an oldie but a goodie! Created back in 2006, I use strips of paper over and over in the background to make make my main photo pop! I like the effects of small strips of paper!

Here is another page created a while back in 2007 using repeating photos in the top and the bottom. This is a digital page which I really don't do to much of anymore, but still a favorite layout from back then!!

Here is one more repetition using both paper and photos. I created the text squares in photoshop and printed them off. I also used photos intermixed with the squares.

My last example is a layout (there is a link to the template here) where I used repeated the flower design over and over all over the layout. This created a neat place to "peek" my photo from!

I hope you have enjoyed this tip that I used! :) Have a great weekend!!