single page layout

Jan 1, 2012

The Paper Variety’s Black & White Challenge

Join us on The Paper Variety for a Challenge!

You could win this awesome prize with October Afternoon’s Farmhouse line!

I really loved this challenge! I picked up Lily Bee’s Head Over Heels Collection from the January My Scrapbook Nook kit and it was so appropriate for a black and white theme! I also used papers by Crate Paper and Pretty Little Studio. To add to the black and white with a splash of colour theme, I edited my photos to black and white, but I left my daughter’s red outfit and her striking blue eyes in colour. Her eyes are so striking as it is, but with this type of treatment, they really stand out!

I stamped my red heart with red paint and a foam stamp by Donna Downey on a transparency, and I added it to the layout on the reverse (unstamped side) where the colour was more consistent. I added a bling flourish by Prima on top and wrapped some black twine by May Arts around the heart. I also used Maraschino twine by The Twinery, white ribbon with bling by Harmonie and black and white striped ribbon by My Mind’s Eye. The ribbon slider is from my local scrapbooking store, Scrapbook Queens.

For my journalling, I incorporated the strip from the bottom of the paper into my sentence. The background paper is called “Smitten” from the “Head Over Heels” line, and that became part of my sentence. The rest of the sentence is made up of stickers by Glitz and Basic Grey.

Some detail shots:

I really love how this one turned out. Thanks for letting me share it with you!

Linking up to these parties.

Scrapsation, Kate Vickers, Ontario, canada

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Post Categories: 12X12, Challenge, contest, Crate Paper, Design Team, Lily Bee, My Scrapbook Nook, Photoshop, Pretty Little Studio, scrapbooking, scrapsation, Single page layouts
Post Tags: 12X12, challenge, contest, crate paper, kate vickers, scrapbooking, scrapsation, single page layout, The Paper Variety, win

Oct 20, 2011

Falling for Autumn (and planning for Christmas)

I have had this paper from Crate Paper’s Lemongrass collection FOREVER! You can get it from Crate Paper’s Overstock Web site for a deep discount! The whole collection kit can be had for $11.50, plus if you are in the U.S. and you spend more than $50 shipping is free. Not bad, eh?

I have been procrastinating on scrapping my Fall pictures from last year. In fact, I haven’t scrapped anything from the Fall of this year, either! Eeek! I’m falling more and more behind as I type this! This picture is of my youngest daughter, she is 21 months old now, so these pictures don’t even look like her anymore! They are awfully cute pictures – I guess I was just waiting for the right time and the right idea to come along to scrap it.

Right now I’m working on an Advent Calendar from Kaisercraft. It’s a pretty big project. I didn’t realize when I took it on how time consuming it would be! LOL!

Linking up to these parties.

Making Waves With Déjà Views & Little Yellow Bicycle

This was originally published on The Little Yellow Bicycle Blog. I was featured as a Déjà Views guest designer on July 7.

Little Yellow Bicycle recently launched a new collection of embellishments from “Déjà Views – a Little Yellow Bicycle Brand”. To welcome the new collection they ‘challenged’ all of us LYB fans out there to scrap a layout with the new brand for a chance to be featured as a Déjà Views guest designer. Read more about this on the Little Yellow Bicycle Blog. I wasn’t planning on submitting a layout, but I came across this really cute journaling pocket, ’10 Things I Love About Summer’, at Michael’s and it followed me to the cash register! The journaling pocket goes really well with last year’s summer release, Boardwalk — which Little Yellow Bicycle graciously sent to me when I recently won one of their challenges.

I decided to incorporate the journaling pocket into a layout of my oldest daughter visiting Port Dover Beach on Lake Erie.What I like about the 10 Things I Love About Summer journaling pocket is that it allows you to create a lot of journaling without it taking over the entire page. As well, it’s not immediately visible so your journaling is a bit more private. The journaling pocket also doubles as a page title with its’ bold lettering.

I wanted to create a sandy beach type effect as a page border at the bottom of my layout. I considered gluing real sand to kraft cardstock before I realized that I would be reinventing the wheel! Why not just use real sandpaper, right? So that’s what I did. The sandpaper that I used needed some spiffing up, however. So, I brushed on a layer of Tim Holtz Rock Candy Distress Stickles. While it was still wet, I put some microfine clear glitter on it as well – just to create more sparkle. The overall effect is fabulous, it really sparkles and looks like sand catching rays of sunlight.

I invested a bit more time into making waves. Here is what I did, step by step:

I used Little Yellow Bicycle’s Pool Side/Turquoise Tonal paper from the Boardwalk collection and I die cut some wave shapes. I used my Silhouette die cutting machine with a shape called ‘Wave Border’. There are a lot of different shapes that you could use – it doesn’t have to be this one. You could also draw some wave shapes onto the paper and hand cut them. It doesn’t need to be precise. You could use any blue/green coloured paper, it doesn’t have to be the same one that I used.
Next, I roughed up the edges of my waves with a Tonic Studios Tim Holtz Paper Distresser. I couldn’t use it to get into the corners and around the really small edges though, so for those areas I used the blade on a pair of scissors to distress the paper. This creates a sort of ‘foam’ effect – like what the water does when it hits the beach.
I added more depth and texture to my waves by brushing on some Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint in Picket Fence (white). Any white acrylic paint would work for this step.
When that was dry, I mixed some Adirondack Alcohol Ink in Sail Boat Blue with some Adirondack Alcohol Blending Solution and painted overtop of the entire wave. This goes on very translucent and creates even more depth and interest.
Last, but not least, I applied Tim Holtz Rock Candy Distress Stickles to my waves. This added a finishing sparkle. My motto is that everything is better with glitter! LOL!
My waves curled and distorted with all the paint and ink treatments. This made them look more interesting and more authentic. I applied them to my page without smoothing them down. I wanted to maintain the distorted curviness of them. I think that the overall 3D effect is very eye-catching.

Here is a shot of my ‘waves in progress’.
How to create paper waves with distress crackle paint

Some other design elements on the page are that I added dimension to my flag banners by applying them, along with a small circular picture, to the page with pop dots.

The final page layout:

Little Yellow Bicycle Deja Vus scrapbook layout

Linking up to these parties.

Scrapsation, Kate Vickers, Ontario, canada

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Post Categories: Challenge, contest, Déjà Views, Little Yellow Bicycle, scrapbooking, Single page layouts
Post Tags: challenge, Déjà Views, Little Yellow Bicycle, scrapbooking, single page layout

Jul 5, 2011

Sassafras Lass, you are so stylish! ;-)

These series of photos were taken just a week ago and were totally impromptu, yet they turned out to be the most insightful photos, delving deep into my daughter’s character! She was trying on my older daughter’s sunglasses on our front step and she spotted some neighbourhood kids coming down the street and got excited. She was smiling and pointing at them. These photos truly capture just how fashion-conscious, social, beautiful, charming and funny my little girl is. She really makes me smile. She is so innately ‘girl’ – without me even trying to influence her.

The paper, by Sassafras Lass, from the Cherry Delicious line is a bit older. It’s wild and wacky and went really well with both the feeling and theme of the photos, as well as the colour scheme. I have had this paper stashed away for almost a year and when I pulled it out, I knew immediately that it was the right paper for these photos. The layout itself is fairly simple. As is ‘my way’, I added a lot of layers, used a lot of 3D dots and clutter to make it more interesting. I’m not a ‘whitespace’ person. I try… yet my ‘whitespace’ just ends up filled up with embellishments or layers of paper and photos.

The most interesting thing about this layout, to me anyway, is the use of Hambly Screen Print, rubons. I haven’t used them before, and I have to say that I was really impressed! They are great quality, easy to use and super sticky! My only qualm with them is that because they’re so sticky – you have to be really sure that you want to put them on if you put them down. There’s no turning back and changing your mind. Once you lay them on (even gently, without rubbing) – they are ON! I made a mistake in the top left hand corner of my top left picture by trying to move a rubon. I eventually ended up hiding my mistake by covering it with the ‘Admit One’ Sassafras ticket and the Sassafras flower. I love how the ‘ribbon’ rubon at the top and the pennant rubon at the bottom under my title worked out though. The pennant rubon really highlights my title and makes it that much more interesting and special. Take a look for yourself…

Sassafras Lass Cherry Delicious Single Page layout - Scrapsation

Linking up to these parties.

Scrapsation, Kate Vickers, Ontario, canada

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Post Categories: Sassafras Lass, scrapbooking, scrapsation, Single page layouts
Post Tags: 12X12, baby, sassafras, scrapbooking, single page layout

Mar 31, 2011

My take on a Becky Fleck Sketch with Crate Paper

As anyone who has viewed my online portfolio can tell, I’m a huge fan of Crate Paper. It’s so ‘ME‘. I love the colours, the design, the vintage cottage feel to it and the overall girliness of it. I love girly stuff, especially rosy pinks with yellows, blues and brown.

I created this layout based upon a Becky Fleck sketch, available on the Scrapbooks & Cards Today Web site. Yes, I copied my friend Heather and did the same layout. I hope that she doesn’t mind. I’ve learned a LOT about scrapbooking over the years just from watching her. I admire her very much. As I always remind my 6-year-old daughter when she says, “Stop copying me!!!!” to my 3-year-old son — imitation is the best form of flattery. Someone will imitate you, or try to follow in your footsteps when they admire and look up to you. …anyway… enough mushiness! ICK!

Here is my take on the layout. I used quite a bit of distress ink on this project and some stitching to keep up with the vintage look of the paper. The ’1, 2, 3′ on top of the photographs are Crate Paper stickers that I applied on top of buttons. They just happened to fit perfectly on my buttons.

Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe Layout, Becky Fleck Sketch