Designer Showcase: Banners

Can you believe it's the first Wednesday of February already?  Well here I am to share another Designer Showcase with you. Today we are looking at a hot trend in paper crafting, banners. I've heard some people refer to them as garlands.  Whether they are garlands or banners in your vocabulary, we've got a few projects to inspire you.

Sarah created this gorgeous tag. Take a look at those beautiful banner pendants that she used to accent the tag.  Each of them is distressed and inked. Which really adds to the vintage elegance of her tag.  She layered them to create the look of a skirt at the bottom of the tag.  The beautiful cherub, dainty flowers, ribbons and the precious pearl heart finish it off beautifully.  Sarah used the ScrapThat! February kit. This would make a great Valentine!

Cindy has a double page layout to share that has double banners!  To accent her July 4th page, she created a garland banner using stars across the top right.  But you could count her title area as a banner too. It reminds me of a ribbon banner. She cut pointed angles on the edges of the paper strip and placed this at the bottom of her photo block.  Great idea for highlighting the title!

Take at look at this beauty from Gael.  There's lots of pretty stuff on her page. Let's take a look at how she made her banner.  Each flag on her banner is made of 2 layered papers with a gem where the points meet.  Gael then rolled the top of each flag to create dimension.  She used a string of matching bling gems to help make it look even more like a continuous banner.  So chic!

On this digital page, I used a banner as part of my title.  It added a bit of interest to the area above the photo. It also helped tie in the sports theme of the page. Can you tell who my son's favorite football team is? He loves his Steelers.  The digital papers, banner, helmet, title and pennant were all made by me. The tape and foam finger is by Chelle's Creations (foam finger is recolored). The vintage football and watch are by Quirky Twerp.

This banner was made to give this page a bit of fun. I made this page using a photo from a trip to Hawaii. I wanted the page to have a summer time feel with a hint of whimsy.  The flip flops are hybrid. I used a digital kit by Stellajane Designs called Aloha Spirit.  The rest of the page uses plain cardstock by American Crafts and Bazzill.  Most of the shapes were cut on my Silhouette Cameo.  I used twine to create a clothesline for the banner of flip-flops. Tiny strips of paper serve as the clothespins.

Here's a little banner that I put on a card.  This is a hybrid card using the digital kit Howdy Ma'am by the DigiChick.  I cut the triangles for the banner and layered them. Then I put eyelets in the corners to thread the twine through and hung it on the card front.

These are just a few ways that you can use banners in your paper or digital scrapbooking and crafting.

Mixed Media + Layout

I've been playing around with mixed media a bit lately and decided to finely put a bit of it on a layout.

 

 

This page is blue cardstock and on it I've used a Stencil and with it I used an artist's knife to smear Gesso over it.  This has resulted in the unusual yet nice 1/2 circular design in top right and bottom left corners.  Gesso is great for work on pages because it dries so quickly and doesn't warp your paper.  I've then cut a 12" circle using the new Martha Stewart Circle Punch, best product I've purchased in a long time, it takes all the guesswork and measuring out of creating circles and the bonus is that you get gorgeous edges as well.  I then cut another one using the same punch, that is only 6" across.  This punch cutes from 6 - 12 inch circles.  Then got into my flower stash which I can't help doing with my granddaughters pages, and a few other smaller embellishments from my stash, mainly the bird at the top and in the centre at the bottom is a cute little resin embellishment which has a butterfly on it, this was made by an Australian Company called Handmade Halo Designs and I love all there products.  Thank you for looking.

 

 

Designer Showcase: Winter

Brrrr! December was really cold. Then we had a few days in January when we hit warmer temps.  My daffodils started to pop up! Last week we plunged into the single digits with negative wind chills on the Fahrenheit scale!  I think winter is letting us know that it is not quite over!

Cathy here to bring you this weeks Designer Showcase. Our theme is Winter!  These projects are going to highlight all the chills and thrills of winter. But they will also warm your heart!

Isn't this so cool? I love how Cindy created her title.  She made the circles just like the stone and wrapped the word "curling" around it!  Then she repeated those colors in the stripe in the middle of the page. This gives the page the feel of the motion of the curling!  Really neat.

This layout, also by Cindy, is just so adorable. It's all about the first time her son saw snow.  The background paper is embossed with snowflakes - great way to add some interest and texture to pages.  I also like how Cindy offset the photos on the far left and far right of the double page spread.  

  

Winter in Northern Michigan is a great place to play and Marlene wanted to do a page highlighting snowshoes but couldn't find an embellishment to match.  The snowshoes were made using a Cricut Expression and Cricut Craft Room by welding three different characters, then cutting out four snowshoes.  Magic Mesh was placed on top of two cuts (bottom/base), then the remaining cuts were layered to cover the base.  The mesh was easy to trim, since it went on top of the bottom cut, the outline was very visible.  The mesh made great webbing for the snowshoes.  Such a clever way to create her own embellishments!  The bling in the title and the trees adds to the feeling of a chilly winter's day!

Lesley has shared two wintry layout with us. In this first one she captures the Magic of Winter using some holiday papers and elements. She added snowflakes and beautiful white lattice to bring out the winter side of things. Great way to stretch your scrapping budget by making use of leftover supplies.

In this second page, Lesley has reflected the brightness of winter with the choice of her background  patterned and accent papers.  That huge snowflake matting her photos is the perfect addition to the page. It adds to the cool wintry look with its blue colors and bling, yet the subtle shape lends itself to representing the sun and warm happy memories!

Our final project to share with you is a card that I made. Winter is a great time to send warm wishes to friends and family.  I used these digital papers since the blue colors and snowflake patterns really represent winter.  To warm the card up a bit, I created the hot cocoa mug using my Silhouette Cameo. I added "steam" by cutting a piece of vellum and adding some Stickles bling to it.

We hope that you are finding your winter days to be warm and filled with memories to scrap!

Making Resin Embellishments

Hi, it’s Gael here today and I’ve been having fun making my own resin embellishments.  I’d like to show you what you need and how I make my resin embellishments.

You will need the following - 2 part resin (I use the one from the local “Spotlight” store), some moulds,  gloves,  a small disposable plastic container and a stick for stirring.

NOTE: Follow the instructions on the resin as it may vary depending on the brand you are using. 
For the brand I use I pour equal parts (for example - one cap full) of the Part A Hardener and Part B Resin into the plastic container and stirred for at least 2 minutes using the wooden stick.  
It’s a bit hard to see in the photo below but you do get air bubbles at this stage. 

There are a number of mediums you can use to colour the resin, in this example I used white acrylic paint.  After adding the paint I stirred with the wooden stick until well mixed. 

At this stage it’s best to let the resin sit for a minute or two as this reduces the air bubbles.

Then pour the resin into your moulds.

I like to leave the moulds for about 24 hours to ensure the resin is set hard.

When you come back the next day just flex the mould and the resin embellishment should easily come out.

As you can see it’s not hard it just requires a few moulds and the resin and you’re ready to go. 

Thanks for looking and I hope you try making resin embellishment.  It’s a lot of fun!!

Reader's Pages: Year in Review

Happy Monday!!  Cathy here, and I'm so excited to be bringing you some Reader's Pages today. We've got some really cool Year in Review pages to share. So let's get to it!

Michelle shared a few pages that she has created.  This first one is completed with photos, embellishments and journaling. She used a blocked look to get all those photos on the 2-pages. I really like how she offset some of the photos. It really helps to highlight them.

Michelle also shared a few pages prior to adding her photos. Let's us get a "behind-the-scenes" look at the design process. I really like how Michelle works with coordinating papers and adds a touch of shape and pattern to each of her designs.  She also adds just enough embellishments for interest but allows her photos to be featured.  You can see more of Michelle's work at her blog Homespun Scrapbooking.

Next up, we have a few digital pages from Rachel. In this first one, she has also blocked the photos and included one from each month of the year. I really love the way she did her journaling.  She ran through the highlights of the year and listed them in chronological order by month. This allowed her to include so much information in a concise way. It also makes you realize just how busy a family can be! 

On this page Rachel focused on the year from her perspective.  This is like one big Pinterest board of visual memories. She included tons of photos that are special to her. I love the way she designed the page to have emotional emphasis through the negative space.  The placement of the year and brackets gives the feeling of looking into the future and the excitement of making many more memories.

This page is also by Rachel. I just love that she took a look back at her year through the books that she read. From what I've heard, she read a lot of books!  These are her top 12 picks. What a great idea and fun way to look back over the year at accomplishments that you or your family have made.  You can see even more of Rachel's work in her gallery at The Digi Chick.

Kristin shared this adorable page that she created.  The page is filled with shapes and patterns and textures. Did I mention that it is a digi page? Just so much to love on this page. The little doodle hearts are so cute and really let you know that these two are in love. I like how Kristin carried the curve of the hearts and big circle into the design of the tabs for the months. Such a neat idea to capture similar photos each month to use on a project like this.  With so many using Instagram and other cell phone photo apps, it makes it easy to collect these close ups of you and your loved one (or two - check out the month of May - love how they snuck that little guy in there!) Visit Kristin's galleries at Sweet Shoppe Designs or scrapbook.com to see more of her creative work.

And now for dessert.... Susan created this "sweet" page "This Year in Cupcakes". It is a yummy page with the wonderful cupcake photos and the use of washi tape. Sorry, but I couldn't resist the puns, just like I can't resist these cupcakes! The washi tapes add a lot of color, pattern and eye candy to the layout. Placing them on an angle really helps to add movement and flow to the design too.  This would be a great idea to do with leftover scraps of designer patterned papers too.  I also like how Susan brought the cupcake shapes out of the photos and onto her page with the use of circle journal spots.  Such a tasteful page! (You knew that pun was coming, didn't you?)  Susan has a gallery at Two Peas in a Bucket where you can see more of her designs.

For more Year-in-Review inspiration, check out these 2 previous posts on Ideas For Scrapbookers: Designer Showcase: Capturing Life; and Exploding Box.

Thank you ladies for sharing your amazing designs and creativity with us and our readers!

I did my best to gather some info on the products that these gals used for their creations:

Rachel

Family Highlights: Template: Paper Blocks - In Review by Michelle Batton; Digital kit: Thankful by Elise's Pieces.
This is My 2012: Template: Misty Cato's 100 things (revised);  Digital kit: Life Story by Sherwood Studio;  Alpha: Life Story Chalked Alpha by Sherwood Studio
Top 12 Reads: Template: Insta-Love Holiday Templates by Nettio Designs; Digital kits: The Upside of Down Kit and Journal Set, Copper Road, Memory Keeper, Fierce Beauty, Shabby Couture, and Journey, all by Etc by Danyale. 

Kristin

Us in 2012: Template: Year in Review by Penny Stringmann; Digital Kit: Talking About Us by Studio Basic Designs

Susan

This Year in Cupcakes: Alpha: Thickers by American Crafts; Journaling Spots: Anna Griffin (red, yellow, blue), Little Yellow Bicycle (yum, made with love); Washi tape: My Mind's Eye, Target, Queen & Co., Freckled Fawn, Wal-mart, Martha Stewart, We R Memory Keepers, Bella Blvd., KI Memories

(sorry, I was not able to get a list of the papers etc used for Michelle's wonderful pages)

Hybrid Interactive Layout using Silhouette

On a vacation in Wyoming we had a ton of fun trying on cowboy hats.  We didn't get pictures of all of the hats that we tried on (believe it or not), but we did take a few.  I just had to create a scrap page to remember all the fun that we had.  When I started to lay it out, one page got to be too crowded. So I made it a double page.

I designed the layout in my Silhouette Studio Designer Edition software. I set my design size to 12"x24" to accommodate the 2 12'x12" pages.  Then I set out the photo blocks and elements that I wanted to include. 

The digital kit that I used is a collab by the designers at The DigiChick called Howdy Ma'am. It's a great kit for travel, outdoors, edgy,  camping, hiking, you name it.

When I look at each of the photos, I think of a western "wanted" poster. That's where the title of the page came from "Wanted Cowboy Hats". I used a few western and cowboy inspired shapes from the Silhouette online store to create the title. The letters for the word "hats" is a font called Outlaw. I typed the letters in the Silhouette software, then filled them with a color to match the digi papers.  I then used the offset option in the software to create an edge around the letters, like a sticker.  I turned the cut lines off ("no cut") for the actually font, but kept them on for the offset. I then print and cut the letters.

I also print and cut the swinging saloon doors.  My Cameo cuts pretty spot on for print and cut (yes I have calibrated it), but sometimes it might be off just a tad, especially if there isn't enough light when it reads the registration marks. So rather than just fill the door shapes with the digital papers, I create a box shape around the shape I want to cut. I then fill that box with the digi paper and turn the cut lines to "no cut" for the box, but let the shape still be set to cut. This way I get the color/pattern paper all the way to the edges of the shape that I'm cutting.

To get the look of metal for the hinges, after print and cutting them, I coated the top of them in Top Emboss. I then covered them with copper embossing powder and heat embossed them until it melted all nice.  A little bit of ink on the edges gave them a worn look.

Here's a look at each of the 2 pages

Left side

Right side

And here's a peak at the photo behind the saloon doors

Designer Showcase: Journal Cards

Have you been seeing journal cards on projects?  I've seen them popping up in all sorts of kits, both digital and traditional. They seem to have gotten a big push with Project Life. Now they are being used in a number of ways.  Hi there! It's Cathy here to share this weeks Designer Showcase, which, as you probably guessed, is all about journal cards.

Project Life is a scrapbook methodology created by Becky Higgins that was started to help simplify the process. To help get your memories and your life recorded, but to do so in an effective and efficient manner that leaves you more time to spend on.... your life.  To do this, she incorporates the use of  photo pocket pages and 4x6 journal cards to help you get it done.  You can read more about Project Life here.

K&Company has also used similar ideas with their Smash books. They have coordinating Smash Pads that make the journaling so much easier!

You can use these products and techniques in your own style of scrapbooking.  Many scrapbookers have been making their own journal cards.  Whether you use predefined prompts, or just let the writing flow, the end result is the same: you are getting your life recorded!  Here are some projects where we've used journaling cards.

In the layout above, Marlene was scrapping a fun day that needed a bit of explanation   She had created the layout with a blocked area for the photos.  This didn't leave her much room for journaling.  So she slipped a journaling card between the main part of the layout (blue) and the outer frame (black). She attached a string to the skunks tail that when pulled reveals her journaling. Clever!  A great use for a journaling card and a great way to place your journaling if you want it to be hidden.

This is an older double page layout that I did. I cropped journal cards, envelopes and my photos all the same size (I think they are 2x3").  I added journaling to the cards and placed some ephemera from our trip in the envelopes. A bit of paint on a roller stamp made a border frame. Without a lot of elements to layer, it was a quick page to create that captured many fond memories.

This is another quick page that I created (quite some time ago). My one son and I love to ride Rock n' Roller Coaster when we go to Disney World.  The photos are the ones that you can buy at the shop and the end of the ride.  I used a journal card that had the prompts pre-printed on it.  It made it so fast to get down the basic facts. I then added a Disney sticker and a Prima rhinestone guitar and the page was done!

These are part of an album in progress. My apologies for the poor photos of it.  I'm currently working on this in my spare time.  It has photos from a trip that we took to Hawaii. There are so many wonderful photos and fantastic memories to include in the album.  Rather than doing my typical scrapbook pages of all the photos (which would take me a long time), I'm creating this album that has 4x6 prints of the photos as well as some hand made journal cards. I've been using my Silhouette Cameo to create the journal cards. Some are shapes that can be purchased in the Silhouette Online Store (they have lots of them!).  Some I create by "welding" shapes or fonts.  They are making it easy for me to document the trip as I work on the album.

I'm sure that many of you have used journal cards creatively in your projects. We'd love to see them. Send them to me at scrappycath(@)gmail(.)com (minus the parentheses) and we'll showcase them in an upcoming Reader's Pages post!