I loved creating my Halloween layout using Suzanna's sketch from The Scraproom, so I decided to play along in November as well. The sketch can be found in the November JumpStart Sketch Challenge on TSR blog. I created my own kit using papers and embellishments from my stash.
The sketch called for an embellishment cluster at the top of the page and I decided to repeat the labels as well as a word strip to repeat elements on the page. I find that repeating similar elements helps tremendously in making a page look cohesive and intentional.
By overlapping the foam words that create the title with different elements on the page -in this case the photo and the different patterned papers or placing the word sticker on the seam of two different patterned papers= I am able to connect the items and let them appear as a unit.
If you want to hear all about my thought process and why I chose certain papers and embellishments and see me struggle, please check out the process video on my process video on youtube.
Hi Shimmerz friends, it's Simone again with another 12x12 layout. This month for the Shimmerz color challenge I picked Shimmerz "Pink-O de Mayo". I love the light pink tone of this shimmerz and also that it would work so great for cold, snowy winter layouts. However, here in the San Francisco Bay Area it cools down, but never enough for snow. So I decided to scrapbook something else instead. In September I went to my first scrapbooking crop and met some of my online friends for the very first time. I had such a great time and this layout tries to capture that feeling. I love how it turned out!
I prepped my background with white gesso and then used the Dazzlerz "Foiled Again" and a stencil by Tim Holtz to create a textured background behind the area of my photo. Look how amazing this looks. The "Foiled Again" is so sparkly, I just love it! On top of that I added the my colors and I have to admit, I just couldn't use only ONE color. I had to add some Coloringz "Pink Stiletto" as well as Shimmerz "Teal the end of time"- I just love when I can use two or more colors and create so many different shades. That's what makes using mixed media so much fun. I used a brush and the trusty packaging technique to add my color and then created the layout on top of that.
In some areas, I went back in with a brush and the paint to add even more color after I had created all the different layers in my layout. But somehow it still felt flat. I decided to just accept that when I stumbled across phrase stamps while I was grabbing my date stamp. Well, that was just the answer and when I saw the phrase "be adventurous", I grabbed my ink pad and added stamping to the background. Don't you think that it rounds off the layout perfectly?
Here is a link to my process video on youtube. If you place an order in the Shimmerz Store, don't forget to mention my name Simone in the comments at checkout to receive a free mini surprise product! Thanks for stopping by today!
SUPPLIES: Shimmerz - PINK-O DE MAYO, Teal the end of time Coloringz - Pink Stilettos Dazzlerz - Foiled Again
When Suzanna and I tried to come up with five items for the newest edition of Grab 5, we joked about the wedding tradition that we all know: "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" and wondered how that would translate to scrapbooking. So we decided to make this the challenge and just add "something else" as the fifth item for the challenge. The five items I chose were: the new 6x6 paper pack from Elle's Studio, old silver alpha stickers from Studio Calico, yellow thread, a blue alpha set from Studio Calico as well as die cuts. If you want to see how I used the items on the spread, head on over to youtube to watch the process video.
Thanks so much for stopping in today! I hope you were inspired to create some simple spreads documenting your favorite memories!
I had so much fun working in my October Journal that I decided to make another one for November. I went with a similar formula than I did for October - I usually go by the saying: "never change a running system".
If you care to see how I went about it, here is a link to the video on youtube: November Journal Setup. Thanks so much for stopping in today!
Another hodgepodge of cards from Cocoa Daisy, aliedwards and feed your craft - they work together beautifully and are brought together by the phrase stamps from Citrus Twist kits. Only minimal embellishments round out this spread.
I love the look of journaling added to filler cards and had the chance to do this twice in this spread, which gives it a whimsical look. If you want to hear all about my thought process and why I placed cards and embellishments the way I did, please check out the process video on my process video on youtube.
My friend Suzanna is a member of The Scraproom Design Team and created a sketch for their October Jumpstart Sketch Challenge. So I decided to participate and I'm so glad I did. I had completely forgotten how much I enjoy working from sketches. The photos were taken last year at our elementary school's Fall Festival where they had a Halloween photo booth. I used papers from Pebbles Inc. as well as some new items from the Elle's Studio October release.
I layered some of the embellishments behind the photo and then staggered them in height, I love how it looks. The spider repeats on of the motifs from the banner, connecting both parts of the layout. The same idea goes for the wood veneer banner. By placing the little witch die cut all the way in the background -even partly behind the photo- I was able to make one of the cute die cuts work.
If you've seen my layouts, you know that I usually don't use wood veneer, but these Halloween themed wood veneer just jumped into my cart when I shopped at Elle's Studio. So I made it my mission to use them on this layout and it couldn't have worked better: this cat just fits right next to the photo and walking on one of the paper strips from the bottom of the page.
If you want to hear all about my thought process and why I placed cards and embellishments the way I did, please check out the process video on my process video on youtube.
Since I am not using my Mini Daisy Dori for planning anymore, I decided to use it as a combination of memory planning and creative/junk journaling for October and see if I would be able to fill it up. And not only that, see if I would be able to maintain it throughout the month without feeling stressed. So far it is working well, I'll continue through the remainder of the year and see how it goes.
I am trying to order my photos for Project Life and this journal on a weekly basis. This way I can plan what I want to record in each format and also work on the spreads as soon as I have the photo. Since the Mini Daisy Dori is such a small canvas a spread doesn't take a lot of time. I had some time last week and worked on several spreads. This one simply documents my current planner and journal situation.
Here I had found a quote online that I wanted to remember and instead of saving a screenshot on my phone, I copied it onto a page. I love that I now have a place to add meaningful quotes and affirmations instead of letting them die on my phone. I then picked a journaling card that went perfectly with the quote and stamped a title for it.
Another thing I love doing is documenting happy mail. It is often orders from sticker shops and such but some packages are packed so nicely and I love saving part of the packaging. I created the left side of the spread on the day I received my order from seeamydraw and then added the photo once it came in.
My idea for the Mini Daisy Dori is to have a journal that documents my life, but I know that some things will be documented both in the family album as well as in my journal. This is one of those cases - and I don't care one bit. I was able to add tickets and a sticker from the day to this spread, that I would most likely not be able to fit into the other album.
Lastly, here is an example of one of the memory planning spreads. I love this way of documenting or logging my life and am so happy that I finally found a way to incorporate it into my journaling as it wouldn't work for me as a way of planning. I usually do this on a daily basis and won't fall behind as the space is so small and it is so much fun.
Thanks so much for stopping in today! If you have some time to spare in your day, I would love for you to join me over on youtube for a little chatty journaling session!
For this week I dug out an old Elle's Studio kit, if I remember correctly it is the May 2016 kit. It has been sitting in my stash for a long time and when I pulled out my big box of pocket cards, I thought it would be a fun challenge to use it on a spread. If you have been following my process videos on youtube, you know that my weekly spreads have been quite minimal lately. I love that I am able to tackle a weekly spread in a short amount of time and having a limited amount of elements to work with makes it even quicker. Even though having cards and supplies in kits were complicating my creative process in the beginning of the year, I am again intrigued and fascinated by monthly kits.
Besides the kit, I pulled out a Tim Holtz alpha sticker book and a date stamp. And that is it ... I told you I was going minimalistic. If you want to hear all about my thought process and why I placed cards and embellishments the way I did, please check out the process video on my process video on youtube.
This month the Shimmerz team chose one color to use on their project and I picked Shimmerz Coffee. I love the hue of this brown, sparkly shimmerz and since I already knew the photo I wanted to document I also knew this color would be a perfect fit. Somehow my project ended up being a layout in colors very suitable for the season but not at all revolving around the typical Fall topics. And I'll tell you that I couldn't be happier about it! It turned out perfectly!
I used various different free cut files from the Paper Issues store and only cut the pieces that I liked most. I resized, turned and cut pieces out of the files. I also placed different patterned papers on my cutting mat - all of this was a first for me and not everything turned out the way I envisioned it. But what I noticed again and again, if you never try you won't find out if you would actually be successful. This was a great start. I cut leaves from white cardstock as well as patterned paper. The white leaves were then colored using the Shimmerz Coffee as well as some other Shimmerz colors but spreading the color onto some packaging an dipping the leaves in the paint. I absolutely love how they turned out. If you have never tried this, I highly recommend the technique. It is very easy and since the color doesn't cover all parts equally you already have a great color variation just like that!
I then layered some paper at the top, placed my photo and created two vines of leaves coming off both sides of the photo. The open space that I created with these branches, I then used for my long title as well as my journaling. Before I added the vines and the title I added paint splatters to the background, it felt very odd to have a plain white background with piles of mixed media leaves and torn paper stacked on top. The splatters made it look messier and therefore it all blended well together.
Here is a link to my process video on youtube. If you place an order in the Shimmerz Store, don't forget to mention my name Simone in the comments at checkout to receive a free mini surprise product! Thanks for stopping by today!
SUPPLIES: Shimmerz - COFFEE, So Sappy, Wisteria Lane, Pink-O de Mayo Inklingz - Miner, Miner 49er, French Twist
These past two Scale it down episodes, Suzanna and I looked at ways to incorporate digital cut files into Traveler's Notebooks. Here are two spreads that I created using free files from Paige Evans.
I resized the summer file to about 2.5 x 2.5 inches and it still cut out well. I am in love with using full page photos in my spreads lately and so the sun worked perfectly in the sky part of my photo. It didn't cover up any important details and it also helped to increase the contrast between the background and the color of the sun. You can see in the video (click here to watch) how the visibility of the sun changes when placed on the left side of the spread on a white background. I then just added a little bit of journaling and some embellishments to the left side of the spread.
Can you see the shimmer of the paint in the background? This spread or actually the mixed media in the background was inspired completely by accident when I spilled this paint onto the page while creating another spread. But I absolutely love that the accident resulted in this spread.
The cut file is part of an 8.5 x 11 inch background and I only used two rows of clouds. I didn't resize anything, cut the original file, used some mixed media in the background, again used another full size photo and then added only a tiny bit of journaling to the left side of the spread, right above the clouds. In the video you will see how I go back and forth between using more of the clouds on the left side and then ultimately deciding on using these two rows in order not to compete with the photo and leave it as the focus of the spread.
Thanks so much for stopping in today! I hope you were inspired to create some simple spreads documenting your favorite memories!
I realize more and more that sometimes less is more. For this spread I tried to find cards that balanced the red dirt from the Baseball field as well as the blue sky. The title card from feed your craft with its matching stripes is a bold choice but took away some of the weight from these photos. The rest of the cards are very simple and light since most of my photos from that week were rather on the darker side.
With the Stanley alpha stamps from Elle's Studio I added in another bold element which is able to guide your eye through the spread. Since I am still missing the number stickers I had to be creative with the week number and chose my typewriter as another element. It also solved the problem of writing on the slick surface of the blue card in the bottom right. If you want to hear all about my thought process and why I placed cards and embellishments the way I did, please check out the process video on my process video on youtube.
I took a little break from Project Life. This was mainly due to the fact that I thought I needed to film each and every spread that I created and since I didn't have time to film over the summer, Project Life suffered. So I took an unintentional break and had a very hard time getting back into the swing of things. So I kept my embellishments very minimal. I used printable die cuts from feed your craft as well as letter stickers from Tim Holtz and tried to distribute the colors evenly and accent certain elements on the page.
Inspired by Odessa Reichel, I used a circular photo on the page and love how it turned out. I hope I can do this more often from now on. If you want to hear all about my thought process and why I placed cards and embellishments the way I did, please check out the process video on my process video on youtube.
This layout was inspired by the "love you to the moon" free cut file by Paige Evans and was perfectly complemented with the colors of the August Cocoa Daisy Memory Keeping kits and the dark blue and purple mists from the Shimmerzpaints store. I have slowly been collecting these amazing dark colors like the new Coloringz Ahoy Matey or the lovely Vibez Grape Soda and Blue Jeans. With all the white that was contrasting the dark colors it was so easy to use them. If you watch the video you will see, that there is no perfect formula for adding the colors onto the gessoed background. It's misting packaging with color, then smudging the color onto the paper and repeat until you feel you have ruined your paper. Which is usually the point where you will then check back with the photo and additional items and realize that you will cover all the color and you will need to cover even more of the background in color.
This closeup shows how well the blues, purples and teals work together and create a dark but still very colorful background. I added in several gold accents using gold alpha stickers, blue denim die cuts that I colored with a mixture of Grape Soda and Ahoy Matey and gold splatters using Vibez Glorious Days and Inklinz Miner, Miner 49er.
The dramatic background didn't need very much else, so I simply backed my photo with white cardstock and layered several die cuts around the photo. I tried to add gold thread but that was a disaster - I don't know if I'm just not capable to form a thread ball that looks appealing or if it's the special metallic gold thread.
Here is a link to my process video on youtube. If you place an order in the Shimmerz Store, don't forget to mention my name Simone in the comments at checkout to receive a free mini surprise product! Thanks for stopping by today!
SUPPLIES: Vibez - Jeni B Blue, Grape Soda, Blue Jeans< Glorious Days Coloringz - Ahoy Matey Inklingz - Miner, Miner 49er
Today I am sharing some of the insights that I gained while trying to catch up on my Project Life 2016. Those might be helpful for you when you are trying to decide whether or not to take on such a big ongoing project and also when you want to start tackling one of you unfinished projects. So let's dive into my five tips.
Before you start with the creative process, I encourage you to spend some time editing and printing your photos. This might sound like a very daunting task, but having everything ready to go when you have some spare time to work on a spread is so helpful! If you are working with a double spread there are 16 pockets so I suggest you choose between 8-12 photos per week. Once you have them printed, sort them by week in envelopes so you can grab them when you want to create a spread.
While you are choosing your photos keep a notebook where you add a note for each photo you choose. This way you remember why you chose the photo to be documented and what you wanted to say about it. It is also very helpful to add the week number and date range for each week, then you have one specific place you'll find that information once you start your creative process.
When you try to catch up on a big project like Project Life it is better to limit the configuration of your pocket style page protectors, the most common one is Design A. and I highly recommend this configuration due to its popularity. You will find the most inspiration for this style of page protector. It eliminates a whole step in the decision making process while printing photos: all vertical photos get printed in 3x4 and all horizontal ones in 4x6. You will also find that when you progress, you get more comfortable with this one specific style and you start to develop a routine.
Instead of using everything you have available to you in your stash try to limit your supplies: either use a special pocket kit like the Cocoa Daisy Memory Keeping Pocket kit or create your own kits from your stash. By limiting your supplies you will find that you can create a lot faster because you will not spend hours looking for the right card, the perfect sticker or the best stamp. Getting new supplies every month or rotating through your stash also keeps things fresh and interesting.
Lastly, don't force it. What does that mean? If you want to also work on other projects during this time set your monthly goals low. Commit to one or two weekly spread per month. Even if that means you will be working on this project for quite a while to come, don't let a "catching up project" overwhelm you and burn you out. And if you are done and there is just no way you see yourself ever finishing this project? Then give yourself some grace: decide to leave a gap in your album and call it finished. Remove the visible gap and don't look at the weeks you didn't finish. Give yourself a pat on the shoulder and see all the amazing things that you did manage to document! You rock!
I hope these five tips were helpful and you can incorporate them in you creative process! Here is my process video for Week 36/2016 that I am slowly catching up on. I use my Cocoa Daisy kits each month to create one week this leaves me enough time to work on so many other projects. I have everything already printed and my promots for each week in my notebook so I can take as much time as I need.
Even though I am not an art journaler I love watching other artist share their journaling process on youtube. This is how I found this idea that I had to try when I recently received a small package full of Creameez and Shimmerz. As I told you in my very first blogpost for Shimmerz in the beginning of the year, I am still new to mixed media and all the beautiful products Shimmerz offers and so I wanted to test out these paints before adding more of them to my stash. And let me just tell you, I'm in love!
Instead of swatching my paints on a piece of paper, I followed an idea that I saw James Burke do in one of his recent videos. He jokingly called it "Neighborhood Swatch Tutorial". The rectangular swatches are arranged horizontally across your paper and colors are repeated, then using a pen, all you do is draw quirky houses on top of the rectangles. And that is basically it!
If you have ever watched from the sidelines (like me) when others just do and create beautiful artwork and itched to try but never knew how and where to start, this is another way of dipping your toes. You do not need a lot of supplies: use paints you have on hand, mists like the Vibes and Coloringz or paints like the Creameez, Shimmerz or Inklingz work perfectly fine for this. You only need three of four different colors, a paint brush and paper and a pen. I, again, used what I had on hand, a black Sharpie Pen.
After my first try in the sketch book that I usually use to swatch paints which I was basically doing as well, I decided that I loved this so much, I would do another set of houses in my weekly traveler's notebook insert. I cannot wait to share this page with you on instagram once it is finished!
Here is a link to my process video on youtube. If you place an order in the Shimmerz Store, don't forget to mention my name Simone in the comments at checkout to receive a free mini surprise product! Thanks for stopping by today!
SUPPLIES: Creameez - Ride the Tide, Boogie Boardin' Blue, Daffodil, 1 Hot Mama Shimmerz - Key Lime
Have you seen it yet? Shimmerz Paints is coming out with stamps! I was so lucky to play with some of the before the release date. This layered flower stamp set called "Fresh Start" was very intriguing: I had never tried my hand at layered stamping. Have you? What should I do? Go ahead and try, of course! So I grabbed the next piece of paper which happened to be a graph paper, some ink and a stamping block and tried. And it worked. And I really loved the texture. So I decided to try some more and create a journaling background for my weekly traveler's notebook spread.
I stamped more flowers on the graph paper and then used my scissors to fussy cut the flowers and leaves. Then I used some Inklingz to add color to the background before adding the flowers to my pages. I simply adhered them with glue after the paint was dry. I had found a cute tea tag that read "The difference between a flower and a weed is a judgement" and I thought it would go perfectly with all the pretty flowers, so I added that to the bottom cluster.
Here is a closer look at the top cluster. If you are afraid your ink will bleed through the pages or are concerned of messing up your pages, it is always a great idea to stamp your images on an extra sheet of paper. It is also easier to change your design and create more dimension. By using a patterned background for the stamping like I did when using graph paper, you can even add more texture to the spread.
After I was done creating the background, I went ahead and added my journaling. There are lots of different ways you can do this and there is no right or wrong way. I had just read a quote by Stephen Hawking who had passed the day before, so I chose to feature it prominently in the middle of my page and arrange my journaling around it. I added some things in a list format. I wrote whole sentences and little paragraphs for other snippets of my life. Some of the things are deep and meaningful and some are the mundane, routine tasks of everyday life.
Here is a link to my process video on youtube. If you place an order in the Shimmerz Store, don't forget to mention my name Simone in the comments at checkout to receive a free mini surprise product! Thanks for stopping by today!
SUPPLIES: Inlingz - Green Goddess, Beets Me, French Kiss Stampz - Fresh Start
I cannot believe that this is already my last layout for the Stuck?! Sketches Design Team. Time sure has flown by! Here is the March 15 sketch that Laura Whitaker created. During the past 6 months I usually started looking for photos and stories that would suit the sketch. Asking questions like: How many photos do I need to tell this story? Can I use several smaller ones or should I use one large photo? After finding the right photos I then built a page kit around those always checking back with the sketch. Laura's sketches are very detailed and (if you choose to read them like that) even suggest the volume of each paper.
After I had assembled my page kits, I then went to create and most of my layouts came together so quickly. Except for when I chose to use mixed media. Which to my surprise I used fairly often with these sketches. One reason could be that I felt secure knowing the layout would come together due to the sketch and so I could focus all my energy on trying out new techniques with mixed media. For this layout I used my Distress Oxide inks and stencils and started adding some texture to the background. Unfortunately, most of it got hidden by the embellishments I added later on. And then I built my layers according to the sketch.
When I started embellishing I went all out. And I loved adding all of the different die cuts and chipboard pieces everywhere. Sometimes I have such a hard time just placing one die cut and finding the perfect spot for it, trying it in so many different places. But this time, I went with quick decisions and stuck them down as soon as I thought it would look nice. And I love the how much dimension the many embellishments add to the layout.
The original title placement is to the bottom left of the photo cluster. I chose the top right instead for two different reasons: the title was quite large and bold and would have put too much weight to the bottom of my layout and with the added journaling the layout wouldn't have been balanced properly. The other reason was a lot more practical since the chipboard banner made it quite hard to place a title there nicely without a lot of adjusting and tweaking.
Here is a link to my video on youtube where you can see how this layout came together. Please make sure to check out the Stuck?! Sketches blog and have a look at all the other layouts by the Design Team. We would love for you to play along and link your layout to the link up to win some lovely prizes!
Thank you so much, Laura for having me on your team, I had such a great time in the past six month and find I created some of the best layouts with the help of your amazing sketches. I'm so sad my term is already over!
It's March! How did that happen so quickly? Let me share this new sketch with you today that was created by Laura Whitaker for Stuck?! Sketches. Look at all the possibilities the sketch offers: you could stitch the circles, layer different patterned circles behind each other. Use washi tape for the stars, replace one of the photo spots with a journaling card or do something completely different. My first idea was to use differently colored embroidery thread and stitch the circles.
But then I accidentally stumbled across this free cut file from Paper Issues, I think what made me connect this file with the sketch was the circle obviously but also the stars in both. I was excited about using another cut file (you might have noticed that I am really starting to like them) and so I decided to go "that route". I kept the whole layout very simple: I used five different patterned papers, three photos, black card stock for the cut file, water color to do some mixed media on the background, a star stamp from feed your craft, alpha stickers and a date stamp. But even though I really love heavily embellished layouts, I don't think this layout is missing a thing. It is perfect just the way it is.
The title consists of two parts and is placed along the outer edge of the circle. Before adhering the cut file circle and photos onto the colorful background, I added tiny star stamps to several places along the circle to emphasize those areas where the photos and star embellishments would be. I really love this effect. The star cluster is from the feed your craft Plattern Play stamp set.
I love how the watercolor mixed media background turned out. I started using the packaging technique but then went in with my brush and just added color and water where I thought it looked right. Since I'm still in the beginning stages of using mixed media on my scrapbooking layouts, I'm still excited about it every time I use it and curious to see if what I envision in my head will come to life on paper. Luckily, it is just paper and the worst case would be a paper that ends up in the trash can instead of my album.
Here is a link to my video on youtube where you can see how this layout came together. Please make sure to check out the Stuck?! Sketches blog and have a look at all the other layouts by the Design Team. We would love for you to play along and link your layout to the link up to win some lovely prizes!
Remember my journal background that I created using Shimmerz Coloringz in January? I loved the effect of the spread and decided I wanted to do a layout based on it. So I brought out my Coloringz and Vibez again and in a first step mixed them with white acrylic paint and created a rainbow effect in the middle of my 12x12 card stock. I did this so that there would be one part of the card stock that was completely covered in paint.
After the paint was dry, I used the mists with a paint brush and dipped it to the top of my colored background and let it drip down the page holding the paper vertically. I mixed the colors as I went and loved the effect that I was able to achieve. I did not treat the card stock with gesso so the mist would run smoothly across the acrylic paint but once it reached the plain card stock it slowed down and started to soak into the paper. I loved how the color started to feather and intensify the individual streaks.
When my background was finished I started working on the layout and used a cut file to create part of my title which is the most prominent part of my layout. I backed each letter with scraps of patterned paper that matched the rainbow background. Then I added my photo and embellishments and called it done. Ok, maybe this sounds a bit too easy and I should add that I spent quite some time with the decision making process of where exactly each individual embellishment should be placed. And this description also lacks the fact that I didn't like my square photo. But I have a process video where you can see me make all the decisions and find a solution for my photo, which I now like much better!
Here is a link to my process video on youtube. If you place an order in the Shimmerz Store, don't forget to mention my name Simone in the comments at checkout to receive a free mini surprise product! Thanks for stopping by today!
SUPPLIES: Coloringz - My Bleeding Heart, No Yoking, Don't Citron Me, Oh Say Can U Sea, Well Blue Me Down, Heidi Ho Blue, Pink Stilettos Vibez - Jeni B Bleu, Blue Jeans
