My Scrapbook Evolution-Blog

Monday, November 3, 2014

Welcome, November!

I am starting off this month with a big announcement.I am joining the Simple Scrapper Creative Team. I have been a member at Simple Scrapper for awhile now. I attribute the Stash Bash event as the means to helping me get my creative space under control. If I need help for a story idea, I can look to the monthly story starters. I am especially a big fan of the sketches. (You can learn more about the full Simple Scrapper team here.)

I often use sketches as a jumping off point to get my creativity flowing. I chose to start November off with my latest JBS Mercantile kits and one of the Simple Scrapper November sketches. This layout is a blend of the JBS Mercantile Main and Artisan kits.

The weather is awesome and I am settling into fall quite nicely. I have a lot planned. Lots to create and hopefully, lots to share. I adore all of my fall supplies. Both the October and November JBS Mercantile kits have checked off a lot of products from my wishlist. With the time change, I find myself feeling well rested and back to a productive schedule. Fall is definitely my favorite time of the year!

Supply Options

All supplies from the November 2014 JBS Mercantile kits, available while supplies last.

Additional Resources

Join in the fun with a Simple Scrapper Premium Membership.

Friday, October 31, 2014

The DigiScrapGeek Podcast: Episode 8- It's all Good for the Industry

It wouldn't be an episode of the DigiScrap Geek podcast if something crazy didn't happen behind the scenes. Usually there is a slight technical issue. You, the listener, might not ever know about it. Carrie is wonderful at editing the shows. This time though, there was no denying it was obvious and it happened to me. We were almost through the end of the show when there was a power surge at my house. Power surges and outages are common in the Bahamas. For that reason, we have our electronics on surge protectors and voltage regulators. A good thing too. Ours did its job, flipping itself off when the power came back. We had power everywhere, except not to our tv, cable and internet. We checked all the breakers and finally figured out we had to reset the surge protector. Unfortunately, it wan't in enough time for me to rejoin the show.No matter. The show went on just fine and it's a good one.

This week's guest is Betsy Sammarco. I have had the pleasure to work with and get to know Betsy through my time with JBS Mercantile. In this episode, we talked about paper companies and their digital products. I personally think it's wonderful that so many products are now available to both digital and paper scrapbookers. To listen to this week's episode, stop by the DigiScrapGeek website .

Do you remember earlier in the month when I mentioned my Halloween class. It's now available. You can find out more about it here or at Creative Passions Classes. For a limited time, use code SPOOKY15 to save 15% of my class and other classes from Creative Passions.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Get It Scrapped: Stand Out Products

There are scrapbooking products out there that are just plain cool. Sometimes they are big and bold. They capture your eye and make their way into your supplies. Then what? It's not always easy to use some of those stand out products. The simplest thing is often just to covet them and leave them in your stash. The better choice is to challenge yourself to work with them. Recently, I was called to do just that for Get It Scrapped.

I love wood veneer.Usually, I use it as small accent pieces on my layouts. However, I had come into possession of a die cut wood veneer sheet measuring 12x12 in size. I had some ideas, but the sheet was so large and seemed to call for a special treatment. Therefore it sat in my stash for a few months unused. I knew I needed to use it or my love of it wood wane. So I pulled it out and came up with a way to work it into a layout.

K and Boo by Christy Strickler |Supplies Patterned Paper: Studio Calico; Letters: American Crafts; Die Cuts, Flair, Acrylic,Stickers: Basic Grey; Wood Veneer: Crate Paper, Studio Calico, Basic Grey; Stickers: Crate Paper; Enamel Dots: Twine and Ink; Other: Sequins

The obvious choice would be to use the 12x12 die cut wood veneer as a layer over patterned paper. The paper needed to have a pattern that was discernible through the die cut portions of the wood veneer. I chose this numbered patterned paper to go along with the twenty four seven die cut. I liked that it contrasted subtly with the wood. I felt the wood veneer sheet would get lost within the layers despite it's large size. I used large wood veneer circles along with smaller wood bits to bring the wood layers into the upper dimensions of the layout. I used small wood hearts to reinforce the heart shapes in the large wood veneer piece.

Large eye catching products like this wood veneer sheet are unique but sometimes difficult to use. While you want that product to be a large part of the design, you also want it to work with all of the elements in your layout.Add smaller products that reinforce the texture, color, or shapes of those stand out products and use them to add repetition that supports the stand out product.

Additional Resources