Hand Lettering

  My Writing is something I am not always fond of. In fact, it was something I struggled with in school. Over time, I have come to terms with my printing. I am comfortable enough to hand journal( I feel it's quite important to do so)...but in print form. I tend to make a rough draft and then...slowly, carefully copy those thoughts onto the page so it's legible. Cursive? UGH! I hate mine. I taught myself calligraphy and since then there has been some improvement. So you can imagine my thoughts at a recent challenge to hand letter a title. I shuddered to think about it. How could I pull off anything halfway decent?

  My first thought was to use my cricut to make a stencil. I started to do just that. Then, I decided to challenge myself. Could I mimic the look of a simple font? Looking at the screen, I carefully practiced a few times on a scrap sheet of paper. I decided it wasn't half bad. Now for the big risk! I pulled over the sheet of background cardstock and started the title. My one and only tombow marker slowly ran along the surface of the page. what resulted was a close rendition of the font I had in mind. It still needed a little more. I filled in the letters with the brush tip end, then took my black pen and made an outline. I actually liked it!  I decided to challenge myself to a little cursive. this time, my orange marker slowly moved across the page...and somehow, the results seem to fit with the fun, kid feel of the page.

-Arrow papers and orange triangle print from Sassafrass monstruosity.

-MM chipboard arrow- I drew on it with a white crayon, then inked it

with fresh green with moss green edges

-crate paper ribbon

-basic grey brads

- MM just chillin boy's collection: metal pow sign, diecut and journal spot

submitted at:

Sketches for You August #1 Scraplift and Ink challenge

Frosted Designs: need a little direction challenge

Club CK August week 1 Scrap Challenge; hand drawn title

Wired

I can hardly believe it. I am in round 3 of the MS. Scraptastic 2010 competition. It's been fun and challenging. If you want to check out some other entries, go here.So, for round 3, we had to complete a page about something we were passionate about or a hobby when we are not scrapping. I had the perfect topic and the funny thing is that I have had the photos waiting to be scrapped for a few months now.

Video games have been a huge part of our family. Dh and I grew up on them. When we first dated, we didn't have a lot of money to go out. So, we played video games together. While I miss those days, video games have come a long way. Dh and I now share that hobby with our DS. So, to scrap about it, I felt it needed the perfect elements.

I thought about using some of DH's spare parts. However, many are sharp in sections and I am not sure they are very acid free. So,I set out to make an embellishment based off a computer circuit board. I ended up pulling out one of DH's spare parts. I wanted to really do my best to capture the look of one. I chose to cut and ink a sheet of  clear scraps acrylic. I used green ink since many boards are green. I used a cotton ball to dab the ink on for better coverage.

Once the board was inked, I examined the elements on the board. There were several sku tags. To mimic the look, I cut the SKU bar codes from some PP. Next, I wanted to add the dimension of the black elements the circuit board had. I used some blackboard pieces. Brads became substitutes for screws, as well as some silver eyelets. I used some white opal liquid pearls to replicate the sodder points on the board. Gel pens in silver and gold completed the look. I am very pleased with the overall look of my board.

I had more photos than would fit onto the page. So I used scraps of the blackboard to build a pocket. I measured the tag the extra photos and journaling would go on, then cut two pieces: One in a blocky u shape for the pocket and one square shape to be the pocket cover. I added some Basic Grey origins paper b/c I felt the grid look matched the computer theme.

tip: if you have a lot of items for your pocket, layer the "u" shape until you gain enough height.

Each tag inside the pocket has journaling about some of the extra items we have acquired in our family hobby as well as some of the crazy things we do...like watch E3 on tv every year. E3 is a huge video game conference that tells about the newest releases. I tied a little metallic silver ribbon on the tags to show they can be pulled from the pockets.

 I  hand wrote the word "wired" for the title, then I used a paper piercer and dmc floss in silver/grey to stitch it. I used eyelets and satin cord to create the effect of wires across the page.

Initially, the photo placement was  a little off balance. So I used some grid paper to make wrap around journaling on the upper right page.                                                                                                              

Crawling with Bugs!

  I recently challenged myself to put my camera in Macro and to find as many bugs as I could. I actually found quite a few interesting critters. I did my best to identify them with some on-line field guides...and then of course, decided to make a page all about them. BUT....what kind of page do you make about a bunch of bugs?
  I decided that I wanted some grass on the pages. I know masking is not new to a lot of you. I have done a little masking and I wanted to try it here. I cut scraps of white cardstock into blades of grass and laid them on a sheet of solid white, textured CS.

 I used meadow green glimmer mist and was quite satisfied with the results. I created the paper with the writing on it. I used a scrap piece of vellum and wrote "bugs....creepy crawlies" over and over again. I think it's an expensive way to customize the page for your theme. I used to do this a long time ago and am challengin myself to try things like this again.

I chose  to use shades of green for the trim. The photos had plenty of color and I wanted those to be what caught the eye. On a tip from Scrap Our Stash blog spot, I painted my chipboard alphas a light green. ( for more idea on using paint to change your chipboard, see here: http://scrapourstash.blogspot.com/2010/06/frugal-friday-tip_10.html )To hide the paint stokes, I added Diamond Stickles. All of the bugs used on the pages are from a swap I did on Club CK. The flower buttons are Making memories. The page sketch is from Sketches for you:
http://sketchesforyou.ning.com/

For the second page, I used the blades from the mask and a sketch from studio calico:
http://studiocalico.blogspot.com/2010/06/sunday-sketch_13.html

I find that sitting down and writing a list of photos I want to try to take can be really inspiring. A lot of great LO's come from this. So, challenge yourself...try something different with your camera or list those must have photos for your album!

Let's Gloss over it!

   Because I love gloss. When I was younger, I preferred lipstick.Now...it's almost always lip gloss. My favorite splurge being a small tub of Christian Dior gloss that just makes my lips so soft and shiny. But wait...this blog isn't about beauty tips. It's about scrapbook pages. So what does gloss have to do with anything? Well, It's about a bottle of Glossy Accents to be exact. And I have discovered that I love it about as much as my lip gloss.

   Initially, I had wanted a bottle of Diamond Glaze. Unfortunately, the Little Scrapbook store closest to me does not carry it...but they do carry Glossy accents. Same difference, or so I am told. I still want to try Diamond Glaze, if only to compare. For now though, I am liking what I can create with the Glossy Accents.

   So, what did I make? Well, I wanted to do something special for DH's birthday photo. I decided to make a frame for the photo that said Happy Birthday...and then use the glossy accents to suspend some sequins into the letters. It was a lot of work, but I do like what I made. AND... I was able to submit it for the Sketchy Thursday's 6-03 challenge:

http://sketchythursdays.blogspot.com/2010/06/603-sketch-challenge.html

  So, Now you are asking yourself, how did I make this frame? Well, If life were easy, I'd have a Big Cricut. As it stands, I only have a baby bug. So, I couldn't just make the frame fit into the cutting mat. Honestly, you could make this type of frame even without a cricut or die cut machine. You will need to have the following:

-Patience

-an exacto knife or other craft knife

-letters( these can be chipboard letters, stencils, or print letters using your word processor and cut them out to make your own stencil)

-Glossy accents or Diamond Glaze

You can see in this photo the white CS letter I traced.

1. Trace around the edge of the photo that you want to frame onto a piece of Cardstock.

2.Take  your letters(or numbers or even shapes for that matter), trace them around the edge of the rectangle( in this case 4x6) as desired.

3. use your craft knife to fussycut the frame out.

4. apply the glossy accents or Diamond glaze to the letters. Before I did so, I put pieces of cut up sequins onto the letters. On some letters, I painted with smooch ink so it would have a slight shimmery effect under the clear glaze. You could also use confetti, glitter, small beads, sand...use your creativity to figure out what you want to add to your creation.

5. let dry and then adhere photo.

Here is a photo at an angle so that you can see the raised effect of the glaze. The Glossy Accents are also a great way to turn old flat stickers into epoxy style stickers.