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Cuttlebug Placecards

November 28, 2011 By designteam 2 Comments

Hi everyone!

I’m not super-proficient with the Cuttlebug so when I got my assignment to create something with the Cuttlebug this month, I wanted to keep it simple, experiment, and have some fun.

Since Thanksgiving was last week in the United States and more holidays are coming up, it thought it would be fun to create some place cards for the guests you might have over during this season of celebration.

Here’s what the finished card looks like:

The first thing I did was to cut a piece of Mistables paper and put it through the Cuttlebug using Fanciful Labels. I had several different label pieces.

I then used my distress inks to color the labels lightly so the pattern showed through.

The next step was to cut a small rectangular piece of the special Nantucket Core’dinations Pack. I put it through the Cuttlebug using the Seeing Spots embossing folder. Here’s how it looked at that point:

The next step was to cut the paper so it was slightly larger than my label and sand it so the white in the “core” showed through. So now I had both my pieces ready:

The last step was to ink around the edge of the diecut label piece and glued it on top of the blue one. I then used some Cushies to add the name on top and I was done! Here it is one more time:

If your guests’ names are longer, the set has other labels. You can also use smaller letters and even put the label through your typewriter.

I hope this gives you a fun little idea to use next time you have a dinner party. Thank you for letting me share.

 

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Four Photos: Slow Down

November 23, 2011 By designteam 7 Comments

Hi everyone!

A few weeks ago, we went to a local park/zoo as a family. It was a sunny day and the kids ran around and had fun. By the time we were ready to leave the park, I felt grouchy and tired. I just wanted to get home.

But the kids were still having fun and they took their time walking out of the place. After a few steps, I realized they were falling behind and turned around to tell them to hurry up. What I saw was my six-year-old and my two-year-old holding hands and walking from one corner to another slowly and touching each of the painted footsteps on the ground. They were laughing with so much joy that it melted away my frustration and reminded me that magic of life is in these moments.

So I made a layout to remember and to thank them:

The title reads: Thank you for teaching me to slow down.  You make life worthwhile.

And the journaling says:

On this particular day, I was tired and ready to go back home and frustrated that you two were taking so long. But then I heard all your giggles and turned around to see you were holding hands and touching each dino footprint on the ground and laughing every single time. It’s moments like this that remind me I need to slow down and appreciate life more. Thank you, my boys.

I also wanted to take a moment to highlight something I mentioned a few months ago: I tend to take a lot of photos that show something happening in time. So within five minutes, I will take twenty shots. This is my way of showing motion through pictures. In the photos below, you can see my kids holding hands, stopping to notice a dino print, the little one pointing out another one, and finally, both of them touching it. You can almost feel the passage of time. Having several photos on your layout gives you the advantage of being able to create motion.

Thank you for letting me share my layout. I hope you share your multi-photo layouts with us in the Live Pink gallery!

 

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Product Pick: Phantom Chipboard Alphas

October 24, 2011 By designteam 3 Comments

Hi everyone! I am back to tell you all about the Phantom Chipboard Alphas. I’ve already told you all about what an alpha-fanatic I am and how much I love to color my own alphas to make sure they match my layouts perfectly. These Phantom alphas are no exception!

I will admit that while I love chipboard for its affordability and versatility,  I am not a big fan of its color. I am always annoyed that I have to cover my chipboard with gesso before I paint it or the color won’t show properly. What’s awesome about these alphas is that they are already white! So you don’t need to create a base coat. You can just color the alpha directly. It might sound silly but this makes me very happy.

So, for my layout, the first thing I did was to color my word with pan pastels.

Another wonderful feature of these alphas is that they have the subtle green lines. They show through the pan pastels beautifully. I love the small green tint under the blue.

For the other main word, in my layout, I wanted to try inks so I pulled out my Distress Inks and picked a shade of green I liked. The ink went on beautifully  and the green lines on the alphas came to the surface in this case. I loved the effect that created on my letters.

Once I had all my letters colored, I was ready to put my layout together:

 

Don’t those letters look awesome?  I love how they match my photos and how they look different from each other.

I wanted to mention two other things I did on my layout. I used a Transparent Frame that was larger than my photo because I wanted the oranges to stick out more. I loved how it brought out the pumpkins in the photo.

As you can also see in the photo above and below, I placed the Brads so they are sticking out a bit on the side and on the bottom. Since this made my layout slightly larger than 12×12, I trimmed a quarter of an inch from the right side and from the top so that my layout would still easily fit into the page protector.

 

There you go!  If you’ve experimented with your Phantom alphas, please share them with us in the Live Pink Gallery, I would love to see all the different ways you’ve altered yours!

 

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Use Your Stash! – And So It Begins

October 9, 2011 By designteam 2 Comments

Hi everyone!

My challenge this month was to dip into my stash and this might be one of my all-time favorite ones because of two reasons: I love so many of the older Pink Paislee lines and they all go so well together. On the layout below I used lines from this release, the previous release and two of last year’s releases. The Pink Paislee lines match wonderfully regardless of how old or new they are:

Since my layout is about my son’s first day at his new school, I thought it would be appropriate to use the Old School line so I started with that. Then, I added my two favorite lines: Sweetness and Hometown Summer and even though this was a stash challenge, I couldn’t resist pulling out one of the papers and a brad from the new Phantom line. I also mixed in Cushies, alphas from the Old School line, and the new Wood Shop alphas.  A few carefully placed stickers, banners, and embellishments and my layout was done.

I must admit that while I love all of Pink Paislee’s lines, but, for me, the true magic happens when I get to mix them up. I love seeing how well they all fit together.

Here are a few details:

and

So what about you? Do you like to mix older and newer lines or do you prefer to stick to one single line at a time? If you like to mix them in, which are your favorite lines to mix? I’d love for you to share!

And if you do mix lines please do to share it with us in the Live Pink! Gallery.

 

 

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Designer Details – Creating Frames

September 30, 2011 By designteam 2 Comments

Hi again!

I am back to share a technique I use in many of my layouts lately. I tend to scrap only white cardstock backgrounds and I like to stitch along the edges of my layout to make sure your eyes don’t wander off the page. Lately, I’ve begun to add frames to my layouts so the edges are even more pronounced and your eyes stay within the bounds of my layout.

Here’s a page I made this week using the Vintage Vogue line and this technique:



I still get my white background, which I love, but I also get some extra color on the edges and a clear frame around my page. Creating this frame is very easy.

The first thing I do is take the paper I want on my outer edge. For this layout I picked the Eau de Parfume paper. I used my trimmer to cut out the inside of the page leaving only a 0.5 inch border.

 

You can also use a craft knife. I cannot cut straight to save my life so the trimmer works better for me.

I then turned the border over and adhered the trim to the back of the border so some of it was sneaking out and some of it was adhered to my border.

Don’t worry if your paper curls like mine did because in the next step, you will glue and stitch the border down.

 

So I then turned it over, adhered it down and used a contrasting color thread to do a zigzag stitch where the ribbon and the frame meet.

Then I decided I wanted more pink so I used a border punch to create and edge and then I cut it into a strip and adhered it under my purple trim. I created four of these strips and my border was complete. The next thing I did was to layout my title and then to color the wooden letters.

I like to use chalk ink because I like the matte finish and I love how quickly it dries. I then put the rest of my title, added some journaling and decided to finish off the edges with some small embellishments. Having elements on the edges of my layout is another technique to draw your eye to the middle of my page where the “meat” is.

I like to layer my embellishments so I picked one of the chipboard pops and put it on top of the paper rosette. I also layered  the chipboards on top of each other to make sure the colors matched my layout.

Here’s another set on the other side of the layout:

Here I layered the chipboard on top of the ephemera to make it less black.

And finally, here’s a look at the layering I have under the photo:

I used the ephemera to add a bit more interest and color to my photo. I also addded a brad on the spool button and a few more small chipboard pieces and my layout was done. Here it is again:

If you’ve never created a border for your layout, I hope you’ll give it a try. It works just as well on a pattern paper background. And if you do give it a try make sure to share it with us in the Live Pink! Gallery.

 

 

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