OLW

Jessi's tip/technique

hi jessi here.  I say "it's all good" & end my sentences with "hey".  Just teasing, hey.  It's actually Ronda filling for jessi.  A couple weeks ago I made some pendants using Hambly Pattern Papers & Hambly Rub-ons.  and now I am going to show how to make them.  We all have pattern papers we love, so why not show it off by wearing it?

Supplies:
Glass tiles
Silver bails
Clear Glue (like Diamond Glaze)
Strong Glue (E6000)

You can find some starter kits & glass tiles here on Etsy. 

Kristen Krafts

Sun & Moon Crafts

I picked out some of my favorite rub-ons from hambly. Love how graphic they are.  And then choose some of your favorite pattern paper.  Rub it on to the pattern paper.

Now spread the clear glue over the top of the rub-on and paper, having your glass tile ready to go. 

 Place your glass on top of the clear glue & smooth out any bubbles. 

Let the glue dry and then cut off the excess paper.  Sometimes I put the rub-on off to the side of the glass tile for a nice design touch.

How cute is the tile?  I warn you creating these are addicting!

Next take the E6000 and put a small dot on the back of the bail.  Then place the bail on the back of the glass tile, keeping in mind where the placement of the design.

To clean up my tile, I use a little bit of alcohol on a piece of cloth.

 

Now you have your own piece of wearable art created from your scrapbook supplies!!!  These make great gifts for people.  My daughter & I made them some for her friends together...so much fun.

Lots of Love,

Ronda

Karla's tip/technique

Hello guys! Well, I'm here with another Photoshop trick to make your photos pop for your blogs with the use of drop shadows! It's a subtle way to add a little whimsy to any post.

So lets just get to the nitty gritty of it shall we? :)

1.) Start off by opening up a new canvas and opening up your picture. Then drag your picture on top of your canvas.(I do it by dragging the picture layer onto the canvas itself) Rename it if you want. I named mine picture.

2.) Select your picture layer (so that it has 'marching ants' around it) by pressing the apple key while clicking the picture in the layer pallet. (hold down the Ctrl for windows).

3.) Create a new layer (rename it shadow) and drag it under the picture layer. With the 'marching ants' still around the picture layer and with the shadow layer active, fill it in black with the paint bucket tool.

 

4.) Deselect the picture layer and click on the shadow layer. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Make it so the edges are good and hazy. I usually choose a setting of 8.5 - 9 but adjust to your taste.

 

5.) Now with the shadow layer still active. Go to Edit > Transform > Warp. Handles will appear. Take the two middle handle on each side and drag them until they almost hit the edge of the picture.

 

 

6.) When you are done with those then pull the very corners out some.

 

7.) Lastly drop the opacity down some if it's a bit too dark. I did mine to 70. And this is the final look :)

 

Play with it too. Here I made the corner of Chloe's picture super funky.

With her all I did was pull the handle of the bottom left of the shadow layer out and up. Then I pulled the bottom left corner of the picture layer out and down. Like you see here:

 

 

I dropped the opacity of the shadow layer and that was it ^_^ Just a little way to make your extra special pics on your blog look snazzy!

***One more tip...Try adding a thin border to your photos along with this technique. It's super easy. All you need to do is:

1.) Make sure your picture layer is active.

2.) Go to your Layer Styles. (it's the cursive 'F' on the bottom of your layer pallet) And go down to Stroke.

3.) Enter a stroke size of about 4 (adjust according to taste). Choose color (I usually go white) and set it to Inside.

You will end up with a nice clean border that will make your photo stand out even more. It is especially nice on darker photos. Here, take a look:

I hope you enjoy and happy posting guys!

-Karla

Lynn's tip/technique

Just want to share a little embellishment that I LOVE doing! First of all I make my own  albums and I LOVE having things dangling from the spine of my albums... so lets get started!
First of all I used a small frame that is just plain metal.... the opening is roughly 2 inches by 2 inches.... get out your paint and crackle paint as well! ( I just use the good old crackle paint....i know it requires another step but I LOVE the look I get from it!)


wait for your frame to dry then gather up some little embellishments to add to it!
I used a flower and some little letters and a tiny little picture of one of my kids....

I use these little metal attachers...(totally don't know what to call them!) to attach to the back of things to make it easier to hang.

attach picture to the back of frame and then attach  metal attacher...i used glossy accents to adhere everything.

Voila!!! the finished embellishment! I used some wire to attach some beads and another little metl flower and then used some bead chain so that I could hang it from the spine of my album! Have one with these everyone the possibilities are endless!

Gudruns Tip / technique

Make a fun and easy background

I have been really into bright, fun colors combined with neutrals lately, and I often use my paint - so why not combine the love of bright fun colors and paint to make a simple, fun background for some scrappy projects?

Today I'll share a really simple way to use something you have around your house, and use it as a stamp to make a background-paper.  I have used a little metal-cup from my kitchen-drawer. You can also use a plasic cup, a starbucks-cup or whatever you have around.

Here is what you need to get started:

-A sheet of cardstock (I prefer a neutral color like craft, white or cream )

-acrylic paint in bright colors (or the colors you prefer)

-a cup or something to use as a circle-stamp

-a paintbrush

-some sort of glimmer-mist

1. spray a little bit of glimmer-mist onto your cardstock.

2. grab your paint and painbrush and add acrylic paint to the top of your cup

3. Use your cup as a stamp. Add more paint for each time you stamp the circle-shape.

4. I have used many different colors for a bright and fun look.

5. Let dry.

Now you have a fun backround for your LO, card, minialbum or wherever you want to have a fun and colorful background.

Happy scrapping.

~gudrun~

Denise's Tip/Technique

I was fortunate to go to CKU album in Stanford Ct. in 2005.  I signed up for Heidi Swapp's SHE album and it was really a wonderful experience.  One of the best techniques I learned during the weekend was using spray paint with her fabulous masks.  They come in an array of designs and alphas and they are super fun.  I also like to make my own stencils and masks using paper punches or free hand cutting.  I use spray paints and also glimmer mist.  This technique is really really easy and you can make the coolest backgrounds.  Okay, lets get started.

 

you'll need spray paint in various colors, paper punches, card stock and patterned paper and a Heidi Swapp mask if you have one.

 

Take your paper and begin randomly punching out a shape.  (I chose a star)  To get in the middle of your paper, fold it in half and continue punching.

    

unfold your stencil and place it over another sheet of paper or cardstock.  Choose a color and spray paint over your stencil.  Make sure before you start you shake the can really well.  Also, it's best to spray outside with some cardboard behind your project.

 

Next you can create another stencil to layer over the background.  I used a hole puncher to randomly create circles in another piece of paper.  Again, to reach further into the middle of your sheet, just fold the paper where you need to.

    

 Take a contrasting color and place your second stencil over the first and spray. 

         

You can use the Heidi Swapp masks or think of things you have around the house to use as a stencil or mask.  I have had these pretty felt snowflakes forever so I decided to use them.  Chipboard shapes work really well as masks and you can use them over and over.

 

These are just a few background papers I created using masks and stencils.

This layout was created from the K&Co. butterfly punch out paper.  I used it as a stencil and spray painted yellow over it.  Then I took my hole punch stencil and sprayed black over it.  The butterfly stencil, which was now yellow, I ended up using for my NO layout.  There really is no limit to what you can do with this technique and it feels delightfully rebellious spray painting stuff!!  Enjoy.

Denise

revlie's Tip/technique

some of you might have noticed i use a LOT of handwritten journaling on my pages. and not only handwritten journaling, but i also LOVE to create handwritten titles. so it is about time to show the trick, there is really nothing to it. really. believe me, once you've tried it, you will thank me. ha. or not.

OK, let's go:

 

here's the easy part. get these materials ready. some left over white cardstock, pencil, pens, scissors, eraser, ink.

write your title with a pencil. i just try to write 'italic' and really do not mind if the letters are straight / even or not. just go with the flow and write in ONE time.

sometimes i use just one word as a part of my title, sometimes i write it completely by hand. if you look at it now it looks crooked and sooo out of line. just hang in there. it'll all be okay :D

after you write your title, outline it. just put some 'shadows' here and there. i don't know any rules. i just create extra lines.

after you draw the extra lines, color it in, still with the pencil. so you create the shadows.

when you are happy with how it looks, than color it in with a (black) marker.

after i colored all the letters in, it looks like this. still looks kinda crooked right? use your eraser to erase all the pencil lines still visible, and the stains (i always have stains...)

than cut it out. leave a little bit of a white margin around the letters and just cut around them following the lines of the letters.

after you've cut the word out, you'll have this. looks so much better to me than the 2 pics above.

next:ink the edges with a contrasting color, put on some glue dots beneath to let your title pop up and create a page, like this one:

(background is fabric) i'm really really blessed to be a part of this group, and extremely happy to call them my friends. thanks girls.

of course you can use this technique to create titles, but also subtitles, or part of titles. some examples...

on the front of this mini-album i used it as a part of the title (uhm. strange title? yes, it was a mini about my almost 2 year old boy Ruben having heavy diarrhea for 3!!! weeks...)

here i used it not as part of the title, but just to mention her name on my layout.

and sometimes the letters i want to use as a title are too large, or the word is too long. than it comes in handy, cause you can create any size you want!

so, what are you waiting for? embrace your inner Heidi Swapp (who started my love for handwriting by the way) and get going!

rev

gigi's tip

you may have noticed i love to sew on my paper projects...hand stitching, machine stitching, embroidery...i love it all...i think it lends such a homemade, crafty look and adds tons of texture too...

so if you are interested in experimenting with sewing on your projects, here are some great links & tutorials that i've found extremely helpful:

french knots
i LOVE french knots...LOVE them...they had mystified me forever until i found this little how to from purl soho

backstitching
i find myself back stitching almost on everything...it is a super quick way to add a frame to your design, add a flower stem exactly where you want it or just add a bit of color...and with embroidery thread being so affordable, backstitching could become your new favorite go-to technique...again, purl soho has a great how-to  (after the back stitching instructions, keep reading that post...it has has a bunch of great embroidery basics...these basic stitches will definitely add a ton of character to your crafts)

machine stitching
i was mystified by machine stitching on paper for the longest time...i thought there had to be some special skill or trick to it...but there's not!  all you do is pop that paper under the sewing foot & sew away...you don't need any special adapter for your machine, i've never even switched needles...you just sew away...viola!
but here are some tips that are helpful:
* i usually (but not always) adhere whatever i'm sewing on with dry adhesive (i use those koyko dot roller things)...this helps keep the ribbon or patterned paper in place...don't sew through glue dots...totally will gunk up your needle

* i get questions all the time @ how to keep your stitches straight...truth is i don't really worry about that at all...i generally use the guide on my machine right on the little "platform" to keep in the general area of straightness...but if i'm making a frame around my page or photo, i go around a few times...this way the stitches will create a defined frame & because i went around 3 or 4 times, i gave myself a better chance of one of those many rows of stitches matching up & kinda being straight...i actually try to make sure the lines aren't perfectly straight...i like it better that way...lol

* try to let go of that whole perfection thing when sewing on your pages...you'll have much more fun & really like what you've created so much better...when i was finishing up a recent page i just wasn't thrilled with it...it was kind of boring, but i didn't want to add any more "stuff" to junk it up...so i decided to sew some crazy stitches on it...i don't know why, i just figured a little color drawing the design outward would help a bit...well i added the pink (i was going to keep the design to just white/orange/pink) in straight stitches & it was still blah...so at this point i kind of had no fear b/c what the heck, i wasn't thrilled with the whole thing as it was...so i re-threaded my machine with green & switched to zig zag stitches & then just stitched the heck out of it, over those pink straight stitches...& you know what?  i like it SO much better now...so lesson learned here:  let it go...it's just paper & this is supposed to be fun :)

lisa truesdell put together a really wonderful blog post with some fabulous machine sewing tips & tricks...definitely check it out for some great information

so i hope you take the plunge & start stitching on your projects!  it is really fun & you'll find it a bit addicting :)

& also, don't forget!  the deadline for your REAL projects is this coming friday, march 20th...keep 'em coming!!!  they are all absolutely wonderful thus far!!

xoxox

gi

karla's tip/technique

hey everyone!!!
jessi here filling in for karla
there is a lot going these days...karla is preggers with twins...again...and ronda has had some sad news within her family...
so i am posting a quick little project!!
homemade alphabet magnets!!
delainey is 3 and so excited about starting preschool in september...
and of course being a mom...want to give her an early start...
you know...starting her on her abc's and 123's....writing her own name...
so i came up with a fun little idea to get her started on alphabet recognition...

here's what you need....

chipboard
12x12 pattern paper with the full alphabet on it (i used the one from cosmo cricket), sticker letters would work to by sticking them onto square pieces of paper
adhesive
self adhering magnets or a magnet sheet

what you do....

cut out your alpha's, a-z, in squares

 

adhere the squares to chipboard, and cut out

 

pull the paper off the sticky backing of magents and adhere to the back
or
if using the magnet sheets pull the paper off the sticky backing and adhere the chipboard squares to the sheet and cut out squares.

there you go...easy peasy and so simple your little one can help along side you!!!
have a fabulous wednesday!!!

Lynn's tip/technique

Hey everyone! So for this time around I thought I would show you how to do photo corners! Love those things and sometimes you just need a little something  to finish of your page! You can make these any size you want just by cutting your strips bigger or smaller....


fold down corner so that you get a triangle...fold down other side then cut off excess.

fold in half so that both of your folded edges are touching(hope this makes sense!)

Trim off so that when you open it up you have a corner with the inside section cut out.

Use inks,stamps, rub ons, stitching or whatever your little self desires and pretty your corner up.


Then you can attach it to top corner of picture.

If you look through most of my layouts I have at least one photo corner on and sometimes way more! Have fun ladies!

Ronda's Tip/Technique

We all have places we create.  It may be at the table in room, a space in the basement, a closet space, or a dedicated craft room.  Regardless of where we create, organization keeps us creating.  I believe that no matter where you create, it should have bits and pieces of your personal style reflected in the organization and display.

It has taken time to collect all the bits & pieces to my craftroom.  And I am still trying out new ideas.  I am one of those gal's who likes her stuff out in the open.  While I do have some drawers, most of my stuff sits on open shelves. I also uses these same shelves to display some pieces; my pictures, old cameras, my mini albums, and some wooden words.

 
I have stuff like ribbon, flowers, felt, and other goodies in clear jars on my shelf.  I purchased mine from a local discount superstore.  I found them in the housewares section.  I also have my buttons all in one big jar that sits on my desk.  Love seeing these little beauties every day.

Other things that don't quite fit neatly on shelves, I use totes to store the items.  Some a big, some small.  I also want to see right away what is actually in my totes, so I used scraps of paper & other items to create hanging tags to label everything.  I like that they all look different and totally love that I used up my scraps.  Inside these totes are things like acrylic stamps, rub-ons, acrylic pieces, chipboard, masks & stencils, punches, etc. 

My wooden stamps & other bottled items sit out on the shelves as well.  I use a shelf expander to hold them, like this one: Expand-a-shelf.  It has 3 different "steps" that help me see each level better.  I like having my stuff in RAINBOW order.  Having everything in reach allows me to scrap a little faster. 

My little message center sits right above my computer and keeps me on task.  I write little notes on my dry erase board and pin up pieces of inspiration on my bulletin board.  Above that hangs a clothes line of fabric pieces.  I got this little idea from Better Homes & Garden.  Totally love it hanging up there, again in RAINBOW order.  It is like functional art.  I used some picture hanging hooks and picture frame wiring to make the clothes line.  The fabric hangs from clothes pins but you could use Binder clips as well.

So my encouragement to you is to make your space functional but artistic as well.  A place that stamps your personality on it and makes you feel creative.

Love Always, Ronda