Spring Fling

 Spring is here.  Most notable for us this time of year, is the Easter holiday. Last year, we took our son to Atlantis' Easter fair. They had a lot of fun games along with the usual fair foods. What we enjoyed the most were the arts and crafts. My son had a blast making a candle, filling candy holders with treats and sand art. We did not do all of the crafts available. We picked and chose what seemed most interesting to a 10 year old boy. His favourite by far was making a wax hand.

glimmer mist- oriental poppy, Studio 18 jewels
Ribbon- Maya Road, Making memories
Alphas- Colorbok, Cardstock- Colorbok
Buttons- Basic Grey,Bazzill Basics
Sequins, homemade mask

I thought the Scrap Our Stash Pagerize this #20 challenge was the perfect jumping off point for making my page about our Spring Fling at the Easter Fair. Have you had a fling this Spring? Share it with us at Scrap Our Stash!

Metal Enamel embellies

  In December, I participated in Tim Holtz' twelve tags of Christmas.While I did make many of the projects, I really never got around to sharing all of them. One of my favourite projects were these little metal tags he made using sheets of craft metal. I don't have any craft metal. What I did have were some soda cans. So, since march is about green things over at Scrap Our Stash, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to finally share how I recycled the cans to make some very cool metal embellishments. How do soda cans relate to green things? Well, I am being green by recycling.See how one can twist a challenge around!!!
 Anyway...you are going to need an old pair of kitchen shears. I keep a pair around just for the purpose of cutting thick cardboard and metal. Soda cans are your next item. Be sure to wash them out. I recommend letting them dry a bit too, or you may spill water all over your work space. Take a dry can and carefully cut a slit into it.

Now for the next part, you need to be VERY careful. The edge is a bit jagged you don't want to cut yourself. Also, as you cut, try to make slow, even cuts. This way, you reduce the chance of having metal shavings fall off.  Insert your scissors into the slit and carefully cut the top off the can. You can use one hand to depress part of the can as you go, allowing the scissors to fit in the slit and cut more evenly.

Now that the top is off, cut a slit down one side toward the bottom. This will allow you to more easily cut and remove the bottom of the can.

You will then have a somewhat curled sheet of metal.If one side it jagged, you may wish to trim the ends to leave a nice even cut. If it's damp, dry it a bit with a cloth.  You can now die cut it or emboss it as desired. I chose to use my scissors and I hand cut a few tag shapes.

Once your metal piece has been embossed, you can begin to paint it. I used acrylic craft paint. Some paints cover better than others. Experiment with different types to find the look you wish to achieve. I did find that some of the paint began to peel. This is ok. It will add to the grunge look you are going for. You also need not worry if your paint job is perfect. As you can see, mine is not totally even.

Your next step is to sand down the tag. This will reveal some of the metal beneath it while leaving other areas covered. I used a nail file.

Now, carefully wipe any dust off, then stamp over the metal tag with a distress ink pad. Then cover with clear embossing powder and heat. The result is a wonderful metal enamel embellishment. The clear embossing powder seals the paint in and prevents it from any further peeling.

You can then choose to add additional embellishments to the tag.

Don't forget...if you have something green to share, pop over to Scrap Our Stash.

Project Life, January 2012

  Since the theme this month at Scrap Our Stash is all about taking a leap( and this is a Leap Year), I thought I would share something that I just ventured into. I never thought I would try Project Life. It seemed like a daunting task to add it to my long list of photos that I want to scrap. During the past month, I have been reading various designer blogs and admiring all of the neat little pockets and pages filled with  journal cards,photos, mementos and memories. I finally decided to take the leap and try out Project Life sometime in mid-January. I am not using it in place of my scrapbook pages, but rather, as a way to introduce and supplement each month. So the plan is to make the PL pages for each month, then later on, print out the best photos for the month so I can scrapbook those stories in more detail.
  So now that I had decided to begin project life, I was faced with the decision of what products I would use. Buying a project life kit was not an option for my budget. I can see how it would have made things a whole lot easier for me, but well...maybe next year. I was happy to find that I had a whole set of  those divided page protectors in one of my albums. I had always struggled to use them with my regular pages. So now, I am happy they will get some use. I decided that, for the cards, I would cut my own from my stash. Each month, I will make a kit from my stash of supplies. It might take me a little more time than reaching for an item from a pre-made kit, but it will sure be fun.

papers- My Mind's Eye
Pink paislee ticket, stickers, border and alphas by Echo park
Jenni Bowlin journal spot
MME chipboard journal spot, star, tag
MME border
Maya road sheer calendars and trim
October Afternoon buttons
Twinery twine in cappucino
Crate paper photo croners
Sassafrass alphas

   Though I may have gotten a late start, I am not too far behind. I have my title page and the first page for January. My PL pages will be more about monthly happenings rather than weekly ones. So I think it will be easy to complete each month.  I always like to make an introductory page for each album. However, finding the right photo for those can be a struggle. The PL pages will be a nice substitute and an easy way to divide up my albums in a way that makes sense. Hopefully, this will translate to more pages and more stories to be shared in my albums.

Battery Powered?

  I homeschool my son and one of our favourite subjects is science. I tend to hoard science kits like I hoard scrapbook supplies. So my son and I made a commitment to not bring any more home until we used some kits up. This kicked off some good fun in our home, though I must admit, some of those kits were duds. As in...duds, not working, it's a no go. This was one such kit. Maybe the citrus was too old to conduct a charge.( we live on an island and it's shipped in). Maybe we had the wrong kind of penny or paper clip. Who knows!?!? We never got the light to come on using oranges and lemons as batteries. We still  had a great time and managed to learn about electricity. I took a bunch of photos for me to scrap which meant I not only used up a science kit, I used up stash too. It was a win-win all around.

Sketch from Cathy Zielske
Jillibean soup papers, stickers
Webster's pages sparklers
Twinery Twine- cappucino
glossy accents
star punch
DMC floss
Glimmer mist- Electric blue
Maya Mist- Creme Metallic
Pink paislee alphas

  Can you tell what's new on my page? Probably not. No hard feelings about that. It's hard to tell unless you know. I got Adobe Photoshop elements 10. I must say that it has helped me out quite a bit in the "having better photos" category. I still need to learn to take better pictures, but at least the ones I have look a tad better. I also used a large photo on my page thanks to the Cathy Zielske Design your life class at Big picture Classes. It's not something I would normally do. There is one other new thing on my page...I finally got around to weaving.
  Initially, I had just stitched boxes on the right hand page to even out the design.After stitching the boxes, I thought it needed a bit more than just a plain box with mist droplets in it. I was, sadly, too lazy to stitch a whole pattern inside the box. If I had planned things out, I would have evenly aligned the holes to make the weaving easier. So the weaving is a bit uneven. No matter, it turned out to look pretty interesting. I added some punched stars with a bit of glossy accents and ended up with some nice texture on my page. Here is a close up:

I wove the threads at random through various strands of the thread. It created this lovely pattern through the block. Proof positive that trying something new can yield a wonderful result.

So now it's your turn. Try a new tool, a new technique...anything new will do. Then share it with us at Scrap Our Stash!

The Making of a Monster Shirt

  I have a very vague memory of making an iron on shirt with my mom as a kid. The memory is so vague that I am not sure if it ever even happened. Saying that makes me feel quite sad. So much so that I hope  my son manages to have more vivid memories of me. At the least, he will have tons of scrapbook pages to reference what some may believe is an over-documented childhood. Isn't it great to be a mamarazzi?!?!

  Anyway, When I saw Amanda's page for the Scrap our Stash Pagerize this challenge, I knew I had to lift it. I loved the dynamic look of the circles on her page. I also liked how the smaller cropped photos acted like embellishments to support the main photo.

SEI papers, Basci Grey Brads,DMC floss, glass beads
artsylicious green brad, Fancy pants star sticker
papr trunk alphas, basic grey woolie
Cosmo cricket chipboard arrow with souffle pen in white
colorbox black ink

   Can you spy my new favourite product? I began using them on my pages within the last few months. They are glass beads. I have some that have been in my stash for awhile now. They are sprinkled onto the word   "monster" and then adhered using glossy accents. The little black beads were salvaged from one of my favourite evening bags( I was pretty sad when it broke!). I am finding that glass beads are an economical way to add a little more umph to my pages without breaking the bank. I have made my own stick pins as well as using them to decorate pages or embellishments. I hope to add more colours to my stash at some point in the future. Meanwhile, I am glad I finally pulled these out to play with.
  If you have something new to share or would like to pagerize Amanda's page, please pop over to Scrap Our Stash and drop us a note.

A Tone on Tone Background

  I've been eyeing border punched backgrounds for awhile. Tone on Tone punched backgrounds always seem to make quite a statement. So when I saw the current pagerize this challenge at Scrap Our Stash, I felt the punched background would be a nice substitute for the stamped and painted background of La Vikinga's page.
Since this was a page for my wedding album, I chose to use some of Bazzil's pearlized cardstock. I only own three border punches and only one seemed to be appropriate for my wedding theme. This meant that  I had to get a little creative. I hand cut scallop borders from one inch strips. I then layered the leftovers from the punched edges and the hand cut borders in alternating patterns. Doing this made it seem as though I had more border patterns then I really did.

Pagerize this challenge#16-Scrap our Stash
Bazzill Cardstock
Apron Lace border punch- Martha Stewart
Bazzill paper flowers-white
other flowers-Prima
K and Co. brad
Webster's pages trims and lace
Little Yellow Bicycle hat pins with glass beads
Pink Paislee rhinestone button
Webster's pages sparkler's buttons

  I added an additional photo to the design and substituted flowers and embellishments for the title. I did not feel the page needed a title since it will be in the middle of my wedding album. I am happy to say that the lace I used was a scrap piece. There was just enough to make a second page with the same design.

I managed to use up the last of my Webster's pages sparkler buttons and several packages of flowers. I can say that I am happy to have used so much of my stash and I now have two more pages complete in my wedding album.

Now it's your turn!Head on over to Scrap our Stash so you can pagerize this!

Scrap Our Stash Frugal Friday tip- buttons from packaging

We are all attracted to it in some way or another. Sometimes, it's part of what inspires us to make the purchase. Companies pay top dollar to design it. What am I talking about? Packaging, of course! Sometimes, I am loathe to throw it out. There has to be some way to use it.  Today, I am going to invite you to get out some of your punches the next time you open a new scrappy supply.
  Recently, I acquired a Martha Stewart embossing button punch. I have been searching high and low for things to punch( other than patterned papers) to make buttons with. I also happen to have a very messy drawer full of recycled items I hope to use in the near future. The problem with the messy drawer is that I hate to open it and look at the mess. Thus, I rarely use anything out of it. I merely pop it open as fast as I can to shove something else in. So I resolved to actually use some of that mess. I figured that if the item became an embellishment( as I had intended it too) than I might be more apt to reach for it the next time I was scrapping. Armed with my button punch, I opened the drawer and pulled out some package bits.

   In November, I had acquired the Melody Ross chip art tool. I set aside the clear packaging portion to make ghost letters and homemade acrylic style shapes. The backing is a nice thick piece of chipboard. From it, I cut the bracket shapes outlined in yellow. These will be filed into my journal spots box. I can use them as is with the quotes intact or I can paint or cover the quotes to adapt them to some future page.
  Now to punch some buttons from what's left. Parts of the packaging had lovely wooden patterns on it. That's where the buttons on the left came from. Other parts had flowers, birds and butterflies. Those would make some lovely buttons! However, the chipboard is too thick for my punch. So, I decided to peel away the chipboard layers. To loosen the layers, I took my paper piercer to a corner and separated the edges.

Once the corner is started, you can carefully peel away the layers. I did my best to peel it in half. This made thinner chipboard which my punch could handle and also allowed me to punch images from the front and back of the package.

Try to plan out where you want to punch. I cut away the unwanted  parts of the back which had wording and the sku number. This made it easier to punch the parts of the image I wanted.

As you can see, these made some nice embellishments. If you don't have a button punch, try using one of your own favourite punches.

Sneaking in Some Pink and Yellow

  I think everyone has a colour nemesis. Two of mine are pink and yellow. Yellow...I just don't care for a whole lot. Pink... well, I've talked before about how a male dominated household means scrapping with pink is not a regular occurrence. So I really surprised myself with this next LO for the November challenge at Scrap Our Stash.  I pulled out this plaid paper by Cosmo Cricket. The yellow and pink reminded me so of a cozy morning. It became the basis for the design behind Pancake Morning.
  While there is nothing wrong with pancakes from a box, it's really not hard to just make your own mix. My son loves helping me and so, when the challenge to scrap a family recipe was issued, it was the perfect excuse to make pancakes for breakfast. I should do this more often. I guess I am just more of a " let's have cereal" type of mom. Anyway, to make your own pancakes " not from a box", try this recipe"

Ingredients: 1 1/4 cups flour, 1/4 cup of sugar( yes I know it's a lot of sugar. We like em' sweet. You can reduce the sugar if you want to), 1 Tbsp. baking powder, 1 egg, 1 cup milk, 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

- stir dry ingredients together
- in a separate bowl, mix egg milk and oil. then mix with dry ingredients
- spoon onto a heated pan, allow to bubble, then flip and cook until golden brown

It's such an easy recipe! It makes a lot more than we can eat. So I proportion the leftover pancakes into zip loc bags and freeze. I then have my own toaster pancakes!

paper- Cosmo Cricket
ribbon- unknown
BG paper clip
Sassafrass flowers
glass beads
 K and Co. chipboard- Let's eat
Pink Paislee pink foam alphas
Rusty pickle brown alphas
 glossy accents
Webster's pages sparkler button
knife and Fork- unknown
tiger lily glimmer mist
Plum pudding smooch spritz
maya road sheer journal spot- recipe card

  To make the page more quickly, I left the white edges from the photo paper.The smaller photos are all one sheet of wallet size photos, three to a row. Some of them printed in groups with the photos in those rows aligning the same direction. I kept one group of three and simply cropped away the excess white. I cut the two photos which were horizontal and left the vertical photos in groups of two. This allowed me to save time( and supplies) by having photos that were already matted and easy to place on the page.

  I don't have a lot of cooking themed embellishments in my stash. I had a Eureka moment when I discovered food themed embellishments in my travel supplies. Prior to this page, I might never have thought to look in my travel stash for such a thing. I noticed many of the travel themed collections had papers or items about places you had eaten. So next time I have a cooking themed page, I will also look to the travel themed papers.

 I am very happy with the title. Glossy accents is one of my go to adhesives. It allowed me to add dimension to the flat brown letters. Now they look more like epoxy letters and I was able to add some glass beads to add more texture.

  This year, my goal was to learn how to take better photos of my pages. I am best at photographing one page LO's. Two pagers are very difficult given that they often have a warped or bent look to them. With this two pager, I think I finally found a trick to reduce the warped look and get a more flat, even photo. I placed the LO on a travel trunk which reached to my knees. I was then able to bend over the photo and I found that if I cocked my wrist as I photographed the page, the page came out more flat as I cropped in afterwards. So try finding something to lay your page on that is about the height of your knees and experiment with moving the angle of your wrist. 

  Overall, I really enjoyed making this page...from staging a photo shoot with a pancake breakfast, to adding the finishing touches on the page. Yes, it's true...I staged the photos. So now it's your turn. Find a recipe you like and stage your own photos to make a wonderful LO. Don't forget to submit it to Scrap Our Stash.

First Gondola Ride

 I started off with just one page. I ended up with two! The page on the left is a  scraplift for the Pagerize this Challenge #15. Tamara's page was easy to work with and I was inspired enough to stretch over to a second page.

MME Stella and Rose papers, ribbon, chipboard button and sticker
Prima Jewels
MM chipboard alphas
Echo Park mini alphas
Paperframe designs acrylic snowflake
unknown twine
sei inke blue ink
Glimmer mist in elctric blue and black magic
DMC floss

On a trip we took this spring, my son rode on a ski gondola for the first time. I loved his facial expressions every time the lift took off from the station. Tamara's page allowed me to highlight this moment perfectly.
   Now it's your turn! Do you have a moment to highlight? Pagerize Tamara's LO and share it at Scrap Our Stash!

Scrap Our Stash On the Grid Challenge

When most people think of a grid design in scrapbooking, they tend to think of photos and papers evenly aligned. Yet here I was, painting wayward lines in a grid pattern on a piece of cardstock. The lines came first, and then came the photo. I began placing page elements around it...some floating free, other held fast with a bit of hand stitching. The placement is sort of haphazard with a plan. Fussycut items are anchored to the grid while the eye flows across it. The page reminds me of how my cat was rolling across the rug...and I hope it gives a sense of motion as you view it. I myself can see him now, wiggling and moving, pausing just long enough to shoot me that imploring look.

We R Memory Keepers papers- grandma's kitchen
K and company yellow frames- cut apart
acrylic paint
dmc floss
Kiasercraft tiny type alphas
Pink Paislee alphas
Colorbox chestnut roan ink

  In the making of this page, I have come to realize two things. 1. I almost  never use a frame as a frame. I almost always cut it apart. Sometime earlier this year, I came to the realization that I am allowed to alter and use the items in my stash as I want to. So if there is something in your stash, like a frame, and you want to cut it apart or change the colour of it, go for it! 2. One of my favourite tools is my hole punch. Yep, just a cheap school supply style hole punch! It works wonders on many pages. In this case, I punched out tiny stars from the patterned paper and sprinkled them on my page.

There is still plenty of time for you to try out the grid challenge at Scrap Our Stash. We would love to see tour work!

The Last Mission

   We didn't get to go see the shuttle lift off in person. Like many, we watched it live on TV. For a few days, it was all my son talked about. So it was definitely something I wanted to document. When I saw the current pagerize this challenge at Scrap Our Stash, I knew it would work well with the shuttle commemorative patch and the photo of my son at KSC.  Sometimes, it's difficult to find a sketch or page idea for using a 5x7 photo. Often, when I use 5x7's, I substitute it for 2 smaller photos as I did here. I also rotated Tammy's page to fit the orientation of my photo.

October Afternoon Rocket age paper, sticker and ephemera
NASA mission patch
DMC floss
Creative memories alphas with glossy accents
Pagerize This #12 challenge- Scrap Our Stash

  Since we did not attend the shuttle lift off in person, I went on-line and gathered some headlines which I will use for a second page later on. I plan to journal from the notes I took of my son's comments about the shuttle.Newspaper clippings and personal thoughts are  a great way to document historic events in your scrapbook albums.
You still have some time to pagerize Tammy! Don't forget to share your page with us at Scrap Our Stash!

A Kitty Comparison Part Two

  I am generally not one to go back and re-do pages. I kind of get to a point in which I accept what I did and move on to the stacks of photos I have yet to scrap. However, there was always something about this next page which just begged for a little more attention.


Basic grey papers,border stickers, stickers from the
Max and Whiskers collection
Click here to see the page this was lifted from.


Overall, I liked the design. It was made for a Scraplift challenge last December at Sketches 4 all. The page has a lot of good elements in it. So I chose not to completely re-do the page, but rather to add in some of the missing details.

Pens and markers have become my go to product for giving pages a more finished look. I used my Bic Mark it in tuxedo black for faux stitching and for drawing basic lines. A paper piercer also helps give the impression that the stitching is real. The pennants seemed a bit bare so I chose to add some twine to add a little more dimension.  Hand stitching is another of my favourite ways to make a page feel more finished. Adding it to the darker patterned paper gave the page a warmer, cuddly feel.

  So if you have a page that needs a little something more, I invite you to go back and maybe try adding a few small details with pens and markers. You might just find that a quick doodle or a drawn line adds a more polished feel to your page.


Don't forget to submit your "redo" projects at Scrap Our Stash for a chance to become an upcoming guest designer!

Swim America

This month's Red, White and Blue challenge was the perfect motivation for me to scrap the photos of my son learning to swim. He participated in the Swim America program and finished up with it a little over a year ago. I've had the photos sitting, printed and grouped by theme begging for me to get them onto pages, but I was never sure of what paper to use. I had even bought swim team themed stickers quite some time ago when I knew he was going into the program. I realized that the small star print paper and borders in my little 6x6 kit of Pink Paislee's home town summer line would go swimmingly with the photos.

  I set to work, happily splattering sapphire glimmer mist onto the card stock.After fidgeting with the photos, I settled on a design. However, I was not happy at all with the team photo. My son seemed lost in the large group of children. I wanted some way to highlight him while still having him a part of the group. I chose to use a scrap piece of vellum. I used an craft knife to cut out a little window. It was a wonderful solution to my dilemma.

Please pardon the blurry photo and the covered faces, this was done for privacy
Pink Paislee border and Paper
Sapphire glimmer mist
 7 Gypsies number tags
Jolee's by you stickers-goggles
Making memories snaps
SEI Ink blue ink
Me and mY bug Ideas Stickers

I was very pleased to use up some older Making Memories silver snaps. I used my son's first ribbon as a part of the page while adding some of the sticker's I had been holding onto for so many years. In these photos, my son could not yet swim well, but they allowed him to participate with a coach as a spotter. he raced in the seahorse race(pool noodle) and a paddle board race.

  My second page started off with the best of intentions. When I was almost done, I realized I had a big problem. My photos were off-centre.

 I chose to draw attention away from that using markers and hand stitching. The off kilter squares sort of hide the off kilter photos and border. It may not be as noticeable here due to the lovely straightening feature of my photo editing software. ;)

  We'd love it if you shared some patriotic themed pages and projects with us here at Scrap Our Stash. With all of the wonderful events this month, I am sure you will have plenty of photo ops!

I want this thing off me...a Pagerize this challenge!

A very short time ago, we had a very sick cat. He had several surgeries and fought off severe infections and complications from kidney crystals. At one point, we thought we would lose him. In January, I got these photos of him trying to take the cone off of his head. It was one of those defining moments when I knew he'd be ok. Boo was back to being his clown self. He has since gained back all of the weight he lost and his personality is as playful as it ever was. When I saw Joni's page, I knew it would be perfect for this series of photos featuring Boo's attempt's at taking his cone off.

papers- We R memory keeper's Grandma's kitchen
DMC floss
Colorbox chestnut roan ink
Basic Grey alpha stickers and cat ctickers from max and Whiskers line
Making Memories Tiny type alphas in choc. and white
Bic marc it in woodsy brown

  I chose the papers for their fun, but cozy feel. I stitched under some of the title words to add some emphasis to them. The brown marker was an inexpensive and fast way to add a little detail and a more finished feel to the base paper. I used adhesive foam to add a little dimension to the paisley's.

  Now it's your turn to find the right photos and papers so that you can play along with the Scrap Our Stash Pagerize This challenge!

Frugal Friday Tip: DIY embossing folders

  Last November, I was very happy to add a Sizzix Texture Boutique to my arsenal of scrapbook tools. Of course, what would an embossing machine be without the embossing folders? Since I purchased the Texture Boutique, I began to slowly acquire a variety of folders. However,most days, my budget did not allow me to purchase more. So you can imagine that I was quite intrigued by the idea that I could make my own.  I had come across the photo of just such a handmade folder on Pinterest. The Photo led me to a blog post with directions. Mel, the owner of Mel Stampz blog, had shared, in detail, how she created an embossing folder out of recycled cereal boxes and mod podge. So the very next day, I went out to the craft store and purchased the mod podge so that I could get to work.

  Now while I do have access to quite a lot of cereal boxes, I chose instead to raid my stash for some sheets of chipboard. I had a whole pack of this thick chipboard that I had purchased at the craft store. I felt that it would be a bit heavier and longer lasting than the cereal box. Next, instead of cutting chipboard pieces, I used some of the precut ones I had in my stash. Warehouse sales and Manufacturer grab bags have left me with quite the variety of chipboard pieces. The precut pieces are also thick and durable, which in my mind, would translate to better impressions when I used them to emboss. 

   The folders were incredibly easy to make. I simply used my embossing folders as a template to mark out the size I would need on the chipboard sheet. Once that was done, I cut the sheet and set to work adhering the chipboard shapes. For my first folder, I chose some chipboard stars from the rusty pickle. I laid the stars out onto the chipboard sheet, then used a brush and mod podge to adhere them. I did go back and cover the whole thing with a layer of mod podge. Very little mod podge was needed. The hard part was waiting for an hour so that it could cure. While I waited, I made another embossing plate with chipboard hearts from Maya Road.

  Once the handmade embossing plates had cured and were dry, I next set about experimenting with a variety of sandwiches to use in my machine. I tried an extra sheet of the chipboard-cut down to size, a piece of craft foam, and also an old mouse pad. The results were very pleasing.

Handmade embossing folder made from Maya Road
chipbaord hearts, Mod podge, and a sheet of chipboard

The sandwich with the craft foam and the sandwich with the mouse pad produced the deepest embossed impressions on the paper. Some weights of paper worked better than others. I found a medium weight paper provided the best results. I also tried embossing pieces of soda can. I got a very light impressions which, though visible to the naked eye, did not photograph well. It seems that paper will work the best with these homemade embossing plates.

hand made embossing folder with rusty pickle stars,
mod podge and chipboard

I did try the recommendation of spritzing the paper with water prior to running it through the machine. I found however, that this caused the paper to stick to the hand made template. You can see the red fuzz it left behind on the star plate above. I believe mod podge does make a water proof sealer which may be worth looking into. All of the paper's I embossed were done without water though, except for the one. I tried it with Coredinations colour core card stock. Even with the water, the paper was so thick that a deep impression was not made. It does not even show well in the photo above. There was a slight impression on the star which showed through a little after I sanded it. I still recommend medium weight card stock.

  While the hand made templates do not emboss every type of paper, I can still see them as a useful tool and a money saver. I plan to make some more and may even attempt cutting my own shapes or designs to use. Meanwhile, I have plenty of extra precut chipboard shapes with which to work with.http://melstampz.blogspot.com/2009/07/free-hand-diy-cereal-box-cuttlebug.html

0001110101

   I have no clue as to what I may have said in the title's sequence of numbers. If you are not familiar with these types of number sequences, they are the language of computers. My son is sure getting curious as to how he might translate the way a computer speaks. So to that end, I bought a homeschool computer programming course for him last fall. I say it's for him, but truth be told, it's for both of us. This is all so new to me that I have to learn right alongside him. This has caused quite a few challenges for us in a short time( I am not very savvy with computer programming), though I do enjoy learning something new. It's nice that my son can see, first hand, that even adults learn new things. Learning should be something that does not ever end.
  As boring as programming may seem, I was stoked when my son programmed his first text box which proclaimed " hello world" as it popped up onto the screen. I took a lot of photos of the text box and my son working diligently at his computer. Now I needed an interesting way to document photos that, while a huge milestone for us, were in reality quite mundane. Page one was completed last fall.
                                                       

Sassy Lil' Sketch made for Sketches for All's Fall Sketch-a-thon
DCWV Tech generation Stack paper
Bazzill Silver CS
Pink Paislee alphas
DMC floss
MISC. ribbons stamped with colorbox white or black inks
Basic Grey Brads
Black magic glimmer mist

  DCWV had made this wonderful computer language paper in its' tech generation stack. Paired with the Metallic silver card stock, it perfectly symbolized computers and technology.I used some chipboard numbers to create a mask for some black magic glimmer mist. I carried the number patterns off the patterned paper using DMC floss to sew little ones and zeroes onto the page. I stamped more ones and zeroes onto ribbon. It varied the embellishments a little while at the same time, continuing the theme of computer progamming. In the end, I had a layout I loved. However, I still had enough photos and paper scraps for one more page.

  Those leftover photos and paper scraps sat waiting  until recently when I saw the Pagerize This #10 challenge at Scrap Our Stash. I decided to make a page which highlighted my son's dreams of becoming a video game programmer. In place of Lea's block of rub-on's, I used the chipboard numbers to once again make a mask. I chose to use 3 photos rather than just one. I had just enough white space on a photo of the computer screen to place my journaling.

 Scraps of paper and ribbon from the first page were arranged around the photos in such a way that they gave the appearance of creating a background of data strips behind the photos.

In reality, as you can see from the  picture above, the scraps are just sort of tucked in underneath the photo. This method is both a wonderful way to use scraps and a paper saver. I use this with papers of all sizes. It has allowed me to really stretch my stash just that much farther. From the photo, you can also see a close up of the stamped ribbon. Stamping on plain ribbon is another way to optimize the theme on your page. Plain ribbon can often be found in large rolls at the fabric store and is much less expensive than printed or fancier ribbon. It's something I plan to add more of to my stash in the future.

  From the original page down to a wonderful scraplift made with, well quite literally, scraps, I have two wonderful pages documenting my son's dreams and one of the milestones he reached in getting there. There is still time to pagerize Lea's wonderful page. Pop on over to Scrap Our Stash to check out Lea's page and to submit your work. We'd love for you to share it with us!

                                                            

Frugal Friday Tip- Salvaging What You Can

  I buy and use cheap luggage. I learned the hard way, that regardless of cost and claimed durability, luggage takes an extreme beating when you fly as frequently as we do.Often, given the beating it gets, expensive luggage has about the same life span as a cheap Walmart suitcase. To top it off, if the airline breaks it, they will either give you the cost of a cheap bag or cheap bag itself as a replacement. It's just not worth spending big money on luggage. Thanks to the airlines, a duffel bag style suitcase I have broke recently( the wheels came off and it was beyond repair). I realized I could do a little recycling. Armed with a sturdy pair of scissors, I cut the bag apart.

Not pictured is the one wheel I saved.I think it would be cool to use it with paint or ink. I'll roll it all over a paper for a grungy effect. I cut out several zippers which I can pull apart to use as trim or make into flowers. There were some cool metal tags and zipper pulls with the word "embark" on them which I can use in the future for travel layouts. I also cut off part of the handle figuring that these can also be used as an interesting trim. If you don't have a broken suitcase, consider going through old clothes in search of items to salvage. I have a pair of jeans that are not worth patching. I plan to use some of the pockets, the zipper, the label and the material itself to make my own embellishments.
  Lately, I have been coveting Maya Road's zipper trim. I have seen some neat flowers made from it and have wanted to make my own. Zipper trims just aren't readily available where I live and quite honestly, I'd like to avoid having to buy them since my scrappy budget is very limited. I considered buying regular zippers from the fabric store. I can get them for around $2 or less. It's a good option if you want a specific colour or don't have any salvageable items. However, I decided to use my salvaged zippers to experiment with before I bought any.

You will need thread( I recommend using a colour that matches the zipper) and felt. As shown above in the photo, I used only one side of the zipper. I simply separated it, cut it apart and saved the pull to use an embellishment on another project. I cut the felt into a small circle. It doesn't have to be a perfect circle and if there is any excess, you can trim it away when you are finished. I started by sewing one end of the zipper to the center of the felt circle.

Then I just slowly wound it around, stitching it in place as I went. It resulted in a small rose style flower. As mentioned before, I trimmed away any excess felt from the circle that showed at the edges.

 I like having the felt as a base for the flower. I think it makes it easier to adhere it to your page later on. Maya Road also has some zipper flower tutorials on their blog. They will give you ideas on how you can change the look of your flower.

 Happy Salvaging everyone!

Bliss- A Scrap Our Stash Pagerize this Challenge

  When I first saw Karen's page, I was drawn to the bright colour and the use of diagonal lines. It's a little like an X. She has made such a fun and eye catching  page. One which immediately draws your eye to the main photo.

Scrap Our Stash's Pagerize This #9

  As I went through my photos, I realized I did not quite have smaller photos in my current "to scrap" stack that matched her strip down the side. So Instead, I chose to use a larger 4x6 photo and some blocks of patterned paper in their place.

K and Co. poppyseed papers
Title cut from a K and Co. Border
Basic Grey Brads
Crate Paper ribbon
Sei InkBlue ink
Bic Mark it in Playful Purple

I used circles, the title and the journaling to help keep the X shape in place. Though my main photo is in a different place then hers, the main deisgn of the page still draws you eyes right to the main photo. To keep the page fun, I added some splashes of violet glimmer mist and doodled some faux stitching with a purple marker.

The Exciting Adventures of Raft Man and Noodle Boy

 Often times, many families have something they enjoy doing together. For us, that's playing in the pool. This also means we end up with photos of the same type of event over and over again. If you are like me ( Obsessed with photos of your family) this may make it hard to narrow down the best photos for scrapping. Often, I just like to scrap them regardless of how many pool layouts end up in my albums. After all, it's about enjoying the process of scrapbooking while telling a story, right? A title like this one helps set this group of photos apart from other similar photos. It makes for a more specific story and highlights the relationship between my husband and my son. I did not come up with the title. My silly son and husband did while they were playing in the pool. I was more than happy to "borrow" it for these pages.

Scraphappy.org February Sketch
SEI papers, chipboard and Alphas
Making Memories brads
Bic Mark It pen in midnight navy

  One would think with as many water themed pages as I make that I would have all of the perfect embellishments to complete a page. Sometimes though, I wish I had a little something different. When I was making the companion page for raft man and noodle boy, I wanted some waves. I don't have any wave stamps which for some reason is what I felt it needed. It's not in my budget to go buy stamps right now and quite frankly, if I did, I would have to order them on-line. I really didn't want to wait for them to be shipped to me. I will admit, that I almost caved and bought a stamp set from K and Co.

  Common sense grabbed a hold of me. Because the image I wanted was fairly simple, I decided to see if I could doodle a wave similar to the stamp I had wanted to purchase. I got a piece of scrap paper, and used a pencil to doodle some waves. I was happy with the overall results and then made the brave step to doodle it on my layout. If you feel less brave than I, try doodling on a scrap piece of paper, then cut it out and use that on your page.White erasers also come in handy. They don't seem to leave marks on your paper.I am not quite sure if the doodle goes well with the page, but I did enjoy the little experiment and plan to try it again in the future.

Sassy Lil Sketch April 7, 2011

If you have any sun themed/ fun in the sun type projects to share, there is still time to submit them to Scrap Our Stash for the April challenge.

The Wave Machine

   For me...sunshine means getting outside to play in the pool! Living in a warm climate means that I have tons of poolside photos to scrap.So, I was very excited to see that Scrap Our Stash's April challenge revolved around the sun. I started off by pulling out my pool and beach theme project folder. It is bursting at the seams with paper and embellishments perfect for scrapping water based activities. However, the more I looked at the photos I had chosen for this project, the more I knew that these were not the right papers to use this time.
   Sometimes the story behind a page takes precedence over a traditional theme. This two page layout was just such a case. In the photos I had picked, my husband is pushing a raft up and down in the water to create waves for my son to play in. My son has come to refer to this as the Daddy wave machine. So rather than use traditional papers with a sun or pool theme,I decided to make things look a little more mechanical.

I chose a metallic silver card stock as the base. Splattering it with Sapphire blue glimmer mist gave the appearance of water. I staggered the photos in a diagonal line across both pages... giving it the appearance of movement, like waves moving up and down.I painted some Maya road gear shaped chipboard pieces with silver acrylic paint. I used a tuxedo black bic mark it to outline the cogs and gears. This gave it a little more detail and helped them stand out from the page a bit more. To make the word " wave", I hand cut some letters from the cover of a paper pad, then wrapped them in foil. I used Stream alcohol ink( from ranger) to give the turquoise color. I visually anchored the photos to the page using strips of recollections paper. and hand stitching. To make the appearance of waves in the machine, I used a template to trace a wave border onto a piece of blue textured carstock. it's been in my stash for awhile and was actually the only thing I used out of my project pack.

I used the same border template to make the journal strips. I traced it on a scrap sheet of white card stock, then moved the template down a bit and tracing the border again. I do recommend journaling before you cut out the strips. It makes it easier to write.