Embellishment Clusters

So this weeks class is all about clustering embellishments. This is one of the difficult things to do as go one step too far and your embellishments take over the layout rather than enhancing it. I mean scrapbooking is really about the pictures and not all the extra stuff we add.

I find building cluster difficult as I want to be able to place everything so I can move it around until I’m happy with it and then glue it down but this doesn’t always work when your using stickers and things like that. You can if you have the energy use corn starch to get rid of the stick but I just don’t seem to get round to doing that so I try and cut them out of the carrier sheet and use this to work out placement. Once I’ve built my cluster I’ve found when I remove it to glue it down I never get it 100% back to where it was so I’ve been taking a quick picture to use as a reference point.

Rules for building clusters are basically start with the flat items first and then add layers on top of this one by one to give vertical dimension. Remember to think about balance and visual triangles when your doing this. Odd numbers of things always work better.

The layout I created I’m really happy with in the end. I created two overlays in photoshop and printed on overheads (the graphics I used were from Katie Pertiet at DesignerDigitals.com and her graphic flower clusters and DreamsWordArt. Always be careful to print on the roughside of overheads when your doing this. The petal border was a Prima pre-made embellishment that I got on clearance, as were the small cream flowers. I made the purple flower using paper from a dictionary and spraying it with glimmer mist. The centers are from Jolee which I found on clearance also. The other flowers are from my stash. I love those strings of pearls they are a great way to add a swirl out of a cluster of flowers. I added the single cream flower at the top right of the layout to draw the eye through the picture. Papers are Basic Grey on a neutral background cardstock.

One thing I’m finding about this clustering is that its essential to make some of your embellishments and to shop the clearance section as otherwise the cost of each layout is getting very high. Since starting this class the average cost of each of my layouts most have jumped considerably. I’m trying to use my stash but as my style is developing and moving in this direction what I had isn’t working for me. I think I need to have a garage sale to sell some stuff I won’t use so I can replace it with new stuff. Or I need to get a job with a company like the Prima Flower people so I can get an unlimited supply!

@ T Time

  Another layout for week 8. Trying out what I’ve learned over the last 7 weeks and seeing if I can design my own page from scratch. I also wanted to have more than one picture on my layout. Lots of the layouts are single layouts to highlight the techniques but I have been struggling with this as I have so many picture I need to get scrapped! Anyway this is another layout playing on the title – It reads At Tea time – do you get it? I hope so. The pictures are mounted on a piece of chipboard and then I sanded the edges to make a border. The clocks to represent the time were done using glimmer mist and a mask from Tim Holtz. I love how your able to add these masked images to some pattern paper and change it totally to work with the layout your creating. Just remember when your using these mist to do it in a box or something similar or it goes everywhere (note I’m speaking from experience here). I’m now using one of those 12inch plastic boxes for painting and spraying in – its becoming a piece of art work in its own right!

In the end the layout isn’t one of my total favorite but its another one completed and added to the album.

All papers CTMH. Chipboard letters Tim Holtz grungeboard and the time is Making Memories foam glitter letters.

Dance Celebration

So today is the start of week 8 of my 13 week course and I’m dreading the end of it all. Last night I decided I wanted to make a layout myself using some of what I’d learned over the last 7 weeks. So I got to work on a layout from one of Eleanor’s dance shows. This morning I laughed when I read the handouts for this week to find that this week is basically a challenge week to use your five favorite products on a layout. I’m not really sure what my favorite five products are. They change all the time especially when I’m doing a class like this. But here goes :-
My Gazelle – I love to be able to cut out letters of any size
Cardstock – can never have enough colors of cardstock especially textured with a white core.
Ink – such a versatile product. A swipe of ink here and there can make the difference to a layout
Chipboard – any type color or shape. Love all the things I can do with this from inking to painting.
Sewing Machine – my sewing machine is featuring more and more on my layouts especially as I’ve found a place in my room where I can leave it set-up and ready to go. The texture and dimension it can add so quickly makes it really versatile.

So the layout I made. Purple – not a color I use that often but the dancer were all required to wear purple so I had to go with purple. The patterned paper is one of my favorite patterns from CTMH but one I struggle to use as its such a bold pattern. The half circle I think is just enough not to overtake the picture. I had fun playing with the title to make it using a mix of plain white chipboard (I did nothing to it – tempted but didn’t) and then the black MM foam glitter letters. I added a border of sewing around the whole page, sewed around the picture down the plain edge and added zig zag sewing around the circle. The edge of the circle was also inked and paper curled to add more dimension. The light purple strip is using my new Martha Stewart punch – way cool - thanks to May Flaum to putting me on that one. It looks like lace ribbon when its done, although I covered one edge with the white flowers. Those white flowers I got at the The Great American Scrapbook Convention in Arlington Texas about three years ago. That’s coming up again soon and I need to decide if I’m going to have a look see. Last time I was disappointed but I’ve heard that Tim Holtz is going to be in attendance this year which may make the drive to Arlington worth it.
The other secret about this layout is the program for the show which was on bright orange copy paper is in a pocket I made especially for it on the back. Then Eleanor can refer to it in the future but we don’t need to worry about incorporating it into the layout – especially with that yucky color!

Man At Work

Sewing on Scrapbook pages to many is a little strange but I’ve been doing it for a while now. I got my sewing machine as a 21st Birthday present from my parents and in reality I think I’ve used it more for sewing scrapbook pages than anything else. Since I got it overhauled at the Sewing Machine Repair shop here in Fort Worth its worked like a dream and I keep it set-up and ready to go. So this weekend when the topic for class was sewing on pages I knew I would have no problem.

The build-it page which Nic Howard does each week gives you all the directions to make a page down to the paper sizes and everything. Her page though this week was all floral and only had one picture. I have so many pictures to scrapbook that I really don’t want to do one picture layouts and I’ve done so many pages in recent weeks for Eleanor that it was time to do one for Philip and so no floral for me.

The pictures are from the Homestead Thanksgiving Fair we went to last Thanksgiving near Waco Texas. If you’ve never been to this fair you need to go in November. We had a great day arriving as they opened and staying late into the afternoon. The kids got to try their hands at many traditional skills from butter making to wood crafting. I love these pictures are they show how Philip was so engrossed in what he was doing. He worked on that spatula for over an hour.

To make the layout you cut the square center out of one piece of patterned paper and insert a neutral piece back in. Then I distressed all the edges of the papers. I sewed a border around the center square to add some dimension. Check out the heart on the picture to the right where I added a heart which I sewed using my machine (go me!). The title is made from a mix of different letters from my collection – a great way to use up some different letters when you don’t have enough for a full title. The Man was plain chipboard which I painted red and added some black ink around the edge. If you look closely behind here you will see a grey cardstock gear cutout – I got this recently – its made by little yellow bicycle. Love it for using on a boy page and as I only used about half of one piece I will be using this again in another layout soon I’m sure.

Homemade Flowers for layouts

The cost of the beautiful flowers made by Prima Marketing can be really high if you don’t use a coupon or find them on sale.  So I have been looking at ways to make my own so I can add them without worrying about the cost of my layout! I thought I share a couple of cool tutorials I’d find on the web with everyone. I haven’t tried these yet but there on my list of things to do.

Crepe Paper flowers

Flowers from Patterned paper - paper folding

Rolled Cardstock Flowers

Dimensional Flowers

Remember I also shared how to make flowers previously but here’s the link again :-

Paper Flowers using punches

Hybrid Layouts – and what is Hybrid?

Hybrid scrapbooking is somewhere between traditional and digital. The actual definition I have been given by others is that if you created anything on your computer and print it and add it to your layout then its hybrid. So even if you do computer journaling and add it them its hybrid. I really don’t see this as hybrid because I have been doing computer journaling for so long, even before the term hybrid scrapbooking was invented! So my definition of hybrid doesn’t include journaling and printed titles. But that’s just me and really does it matter – its only a label being given to your layouts what’s more important is that you’ve done a layout and not how its done.

A second part of my homework this week was the use of this title piece which said Beauty that I was to download and print. The only problem being that I’m using the class to help me work through a set of pictures that need to be scrapbooked and there was nothing that this title worked with. So I decided I wasn’t going to force a layout to use the title but would come up with a separate digital piece I could use to create a layout with the pictures I had. A few months ago I downloaded some ballerina clipart from one of the font sites – can’t remember which one now(remembered so thought I'd add it Lettering Delights). So I took the title word Ballet, a dancer and flowers which all matched sized them in Photoshop and printed them on white cardstock. With some careful cutting I created some elements to add to may page. I took several of the flowers and layered them with foam tape to give dimension. I then took a title which I’ve had laying around for a while, I think I paid a dollar for it, which was made of several pieces of chipboard and said She’s a dancer. I broke this apart so I could use it in my embellishment cluster as two separate elements. Finally I added all the pieces together with a grounding of an acrylic overlay with arrows to add to my page. In the end I was really happy with the way it came out, as was Eleanor.

Focus on Titles

This weeks homework for my class was about titles and different ways of incorporating them. The lesson looked at different ways to alter letters you may already have which is what I chose to focus on. I’d never really thought about altering all those odd chipboard letters I have left over. Occasionally I’ll mix letters up and use them in a title so they look funky but had never thought about actually changing the look of them so they work with the layout I’m doing. So for my layout this week I took chipboard letters from two sets and painted them blue. Coated them in liquid glass and sprinkled with prisma glitter. To complete the title I took a random sticker I had left over from another kit which completed the title True Bff.
 
The blue flowers I made using a punch and layering two flowers and added the sparkle in the center. The blue in both the title, flowers and there is a little piece just below the picture to the left is intended to pull out the blue in the photograph on Eleanor’s dress. All the papers are CTMH, as is the green felt vine and leaves. The white flowers I got at Hobby Lobby sorry can’t remember the make I think its K & Company but not 100% sure.

Eleanor was really happy with this addition to her album – I have to say I was happy with it as well. I’m also really happy about the amount of scrapbooking Nic Howards class at Big Picture Scrapbooking is getting me to do. I don’t think the bank manager is that happy though as I keep going to buy more embellishments. Yesterday I found some really cool Prisma Flowers on clearance at Michaels - $30 later I left with a whole selection. In my defence they would have been $90 full price. I can’t wait to learn some more later in the class about making my own flowers as these things are way too expensive. I know several ways but hoping to learn something new.

Brave - and design with lines

My homework this week was all about - Lines. They are really important in scrapbooking helping provide balance and focus to a layout. The most obvious use of lines is the addition of borders around the page edge or the photos. Other time lines are created using the meeting points of papers on your page so these ones are less obvious but still working the magic in your design. This layout uses lines to draw the eye to the one picture and is based on a layout provided as an example in my big picture scrapbooking class by Nic Howard.



There are several sets of lines the most obvious being the strips of papers - I inked the edges to give more definition. They help frame the picture with the addition of the felt scalloped frame. Initially I didn't have the lines of pearls but I added the pearls to add more lines and to help complete the frame around my picture. I even added my journaling to the lines. Papers are Basic Grey, Felt Scallop CTMH, Flower center Basic Grey - flower unknown.

A quick and simple one picture layout but effective still I think.

Jumping Jack

So as promised in my last post an alternative take on the same idea. Very different look with the colors. The silver rings are from a necklace I purchased at Kohl's. Inspiration can be found everywhere if you look hard enough. The Jack is made from Tim Holtz grunge board letters which I've painted. Grunge Board is one of my new favorite products. On Tim Holtz's website you can get lots of ideas on what to do with it. Take sometime to watch some of the video's under the demo section and you won't regret it. I got my grunge board from of all places Tuesday Morning - it was really cheap. I don't know if they still have any as this was a few weeks ago but you could check your local one out and see. Its always worth a trip to look at their scrapbook section as you never know what they may have.

Champs - male pages

Embellishing pages for Philip is really hard. I love the way the Nic H in my current class does all these embellishment clusters but they are always so girlie with flowers etc. So for this weeks homework I decided I was going to do a page for Philip's album and there would be a cluster but no flowers.

The page is very 3 dimensional with lots of layers and then the embellishments on top. I added a border with the sewing machine and then I removed the thread and added another board around the scalloped edge. The white paper was painted with texture paint and then sponged with inks to give some color and texture.

The embellishment were a mix from the box of soccer scrapbooking supplies I have. (Well when I know I have so much soccer scrapbooking in my future I have them sorted in one spot! Same with basketball and dance).

The scallop edge was meant to be handmade using 50 one inch circles which I didn't have the patience for especially when I knew I had a stack of scalloped square from CTMH from a special they had a while back. So I took the easy option and went with that.

I'm really happy with the final product and I'm now working on another layout using the same basic layout. I'll share when I'm done just to show you how two very different layouts can be done using the same basic design.