Using the 6x6 Paper Pads I've been Collecting

Hey Scrap Fans! I took a little break from blogging over the weekend to spend time with my husband, daughter and niece. I'll be blogging the pics of our weekend later in the week. 

Today I'm sharing a layout that shows a very simple way to use papers from all those 6x6 pads I've been collecting. 

On this layout, I used a pad from Heidi Swapp, and simply picked four sheets, trimmed off about a quarter of an inch on each one, and stitched them in a block on a sheet of solid cardstock. I then cut of the heart design from one of the pattern papers and used it as my focal point for my title. I journaled on a tag, did some stamping and embellishing and I was done! 

Here's another layout where I used my 6x6 pad The Pier by Crate Paper:

I cut two inch strips from various patterns and put them together as a base for my photo.  I also punched shapes from the paper to make my embellishments. The small scale of the 6x6 papers work well with the smaller shapes. 

On this layout, I used a whole 6x6 sheet of pattern paper as the base to layer up my photo:

I hope you've been inspired to pull out and use some of those 6x6 paper pads! Until next time, Happy Scrappin'!!

Making the most out of paper pads

Hey Scrap Fans! It's July 2nd already and summer is in full swing. I'm still plugging away at my 100 layout goal, although I did more photo organizing in June than actual 12x12 layouts. I've also been working to organize my scrap room to better fit the way I work. It's been a process, but I'm gradually getting it the way I want it. 

My latest project was organizing my paper stash. I have vowed to limit myself to keep only the amount of paper that fits in a milk crate sized container. If I start to get too much, I have to weed out what I'm not going to use. This method has worked to keep my paper stash somewhat under control. 

I was storing my paper in a storage ottoman under my desk, but it often became the landing place for other stuff (including my feet) and I found it difficult to pull out and open when I needed paper. I wanted something shallow and on wheels so I could move it around and easily access my paper. I ended up with the open organizer cube by Recollections on the tray with casters. It's the perfect size and mobility for my paper stash. 

In order to keep my paper stash to my limit, I had to go through some of my paper pads and determine what I loved and what I knew I would never use. If a pad had multiples, nine times out of ten I kept one and got rid of one. I separated all the pads and stored the papers in plastic paper keepers by Cropper Hopper and I labeled them by manufacturer. 

When I was all done, I had the pad cover from the Dear Lizzy Daydreamer collection and it was just too cute to throw away. 

I have been taking May Flaum's Camp Scrap class and she was talking about grid designs and the pattern paper samples on this paper pad cover reminded me of a grid design. So rather than discard it, I cut out the parts I knew I could use and went to work. What resulted was this layout:

I cut out the middle 16 grids and put the rest aside for another project. I sprinkled some pink Heidi Swapp Color Shine on a sheet of white Studio Calico Cardstock and adhered my grid to the center. I printed six 2x2 square photos from a trip to the roller rink on my Canon Selphy. At first I was going to mount them directly over the squares of pattern, but it was much too busy, and the pictures got lost. So I cut a 4x6 piece from Amy Tan's Yes, Please collection and mounted the photos. I printed my journaling and mounted it on a piece of 2x4 pink pattern paper. 

I used the top three grids for my title, and used my Silhoutte Cameo to cut and piece a roller skate embellishment in the upper left. I used pink glitter on the skate toe and bow to create a visual triangle of pink with the skate, title and asterisk in the lower left corner. My letter stickers are from Webster's Pages, October Afternoon and American Crafts Thickers. 

I'm pretty happy with how this layout turned out. I still have some blocks of pattern left from the cover, plus all the pattern paper to work with. I hope you enjoyed this layout, and I hope you've been inspired to use some packaging or paper pad covers instead of throwing them out. Until next time, Happy Scrappin'!! 

Editing and Showcasing Unique Photos

Hey Scrap Fans! As promised, today's layout showcases the uniqueness of a single photo. As I previously mentioned, my little sister went to her first prom in early May. Of course I took tons of photos of her and her date, but her dress was so unique, I really wanted to capture it without the distraction of awkward smiles and forced poses. So I snapped this pic of her from behind as she walked to the car. 

This was the original photo. 

I cropped the photo to eliminate some of the background distraction.  Next, I used an iPhone app called Color Splash ($1.99 in the App Store) This app turns your photo black and white, and allows you to selectively add color back in to your photo wherever you'd like. You simply run your finger over the area you want to color. You can zoom way into your photo to get clean lines and turn areas gray where necessary. It is a very easy app to use and I love the results. 

After I finished colorizing just the dress, I then save the photo and pulled it into Adobe Photoshop Express (free in the App Store, but does offer in-app purchases.) I changed the photo to sepia, brightened it and added a vignette.  I printed it straight from my iPhone to my Canon Selphy. I was ready for my layout. 

I wanted to keep the layout simple so I started with a whitewashed background paper (I'm sorry, I can't remember who makes it) and I layered up some patterned paper from a 6x6 paper pad from Basic Grey Indie Bloom. I also used two small strips of the sequin paper from Carta Bella Wildflowers. I used a Heidi Swapp stencil and inked stars around the edge of the paper with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Picked Raspberry. I embellished with a few speciality clips and enamel dots and added a trendy, timely title #promdress with letter stickers. I finished it off by stamping the date with my a Pebbles roller date stamp in the same Distress ink. 

I just love enhancing and changing photos with the various apps available for photo editing. Special effects can really make that unique photo stand out on your layout. I hope you've been inspired to try some fancy photo work of your own. Until next time, Happy Scrappin'!! 

Create movement with collages

Hey Scrap Fans! Today's layout is a simple one where I used a collage to put together a group of pics of my daughter running around the yard. This layout actually came together really quickly for meonce I got started. I knew I wanted to scrap my daughter playing outside this weekend, but I had no idea what supplies I wanted to use. 

I often use journaling cards to hand write my journaling, so looked through my Project Life cards and found one that had enough space for what I wanted to write and I wrote out my journaling. I then went to my phone and found the pics I had taken this his weekend and did some editing to adjust the lighting then grouped them in a collage in Pic Stitch. Using a collage with a series of photos is a great way to convey a sense of movement on your layout. 

When I was done, I went to the pile of stuff on my desk and this pattern paper from the Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm collection caught my eye, but it was actually turned over and it was the other side I saw first. When I turned it over, I knew it would pair well with my journaling card and photos. A little more digging revealed this "play" cut apart card from a (I think Heidi Swapp) sheet I had cut up for an earlier layout but ended up not using. It was the perfect title for my story and gave me the color scheme for my layout. 

The peach in the card reminded me of the leftover peach and star Studio Calico paper I had and I cut two half inch strips for the top and bottom of the layout. I did go back and highlight the words "play" on the journaling card after I determined my title. I added a few wood veneers, enamel dots and arrow paper clips and some stamping and it was done! Hooray!

(After I took the photo, I realized I forgot to date it, so I added the date with my Pebbles roller stamp)  

I hope you'll try creating a collage or even grouping several photos in a row to convey movement on your layout. Thanks for stopping by. Until next time, Happy Scrappin'!!

Inspired by Color

As you may know, in an effort to make a dent in my seemingly endless supply of, well supplies, I've challenged myself to complete 100 layouts. I haven't really set a time frame, but I'm loosely working toward finishing before the end of the summer. By challenging myself, I've really been looking at Scrapbooking in a very different way, and I'm having a lot of fun with it. 

Today's layouts were inspired by color. I was looking around my desk and realized I had a lot of embellishments in various shades of teal and I was really drawn to it. I decided to look through my stash and gather a bunch of items together and see what I could come up with. 

My first layout was one that I had actually tried once before. It was a scrap lift of a layout that Two Peas in a Bucket Garden Girl Core Jones did last year for the 213 in 2013 series. 

I drew a heart using three different shades of gelatos and then layered my embellishments all the way around. I used a new Heidi Swapp stencil to trace the "love this" then painted it with some color shine. I used the frames to showcase two photos of Libby and me taking selfies at the mall. 

Even after using up all those embellishments, I still had a good bit left, so I pulled out a family pic from our church directory photo shoot four years ago that I've been wanting to get in an album. 

Here is the layout that resulted. My apologies for the lousy photos on this post, I have since rectified my poor lighting situation. I stuck with the monochromatic color scheme with this layout and placed my embellishments in a diagonal line. I sprinkled a little color shine to unify both groups of embellishments. I didn't have a whole lot of journaling so I hand wrote it under the photo. 

A great way to use up your supplies and spark creativity is to focus on color. Look through your stash, see what speaks to you, gather some items of like color and see where it takes you. I hope you afe as inspired as I was. Until next time, Happy Scrappin'!!

Try something new and just have fun with it

Hey Scrap Fans!! Today's layout was born from a desire to play with products. This is one of those instances where the photos and story came after I started, rather than scrapping to suite my photos and story. 

I had just purchased some Heidi Swapp masks and mists and felt like playing around, so I used the hexagon mask and randomly sprayed a sheet of white cardstock with pink and green. The 6x6 mask created a square, so I decided to go with it and sprayed the inside with a different shade of green. Rather than fight the obvious differentiation between the rest of the paper and where the mask was, I decided to go with it. I think I also changed the orientation of the paper as I liked it better after I turned it 90 degrees. I've been doing a lot of doodling lately in my art journal, but I've never really doodled on a scrapbook page, so I thought, why not? I used my white uni-ball pen and doodled scallops around the "frame" and then drew small sloppy flowers all around. 

I wanted a bit more pop so I dotted the inside of the flowers with my white Viva paper pen and after they dried, I decided to color them all in pink. At this point, I trimmed the excess white from around the cardstock I had sprayed, and since I had just fixed my sewing machine, I decided to stitch it to the background paper from Pink Paislee, which I thought really matched my sprayed paper.

At this point, I started looking for photos. I went to my phone first, as I often go to my most recent photos when I create the layout first, and I found a series of pics I had just taken of my daughter at gymnastics attempting her first back handspring. They're not the best quality, so I wanted to keep them small.  I created a collage in my Pic Stitch app and printed them 4x6 on my Canon Selphy. 

I left a white border and mounted them in the center of my "frame".

 I wanted to make sure the placement of my frame looked intentional, and I wanted to add a bit of color so I stamped another frame border with this arrow stamp using Heidi Swappy pink ink. I used a post it note to mask when I got to the corners. I added a title with Thickers and the date with my Pebbles roller date stamp. I kept my embellishments simple since there was a lot going on already. I created a small cluster with a cut out card from the Amy Tangerine Plus One 6x6 paper pad, some enamel dots and stamped images from the Plus One Stamp set. I stamped them with archival ink on white cardstock, cut them out and used the three mists I used on the background to paint them. I handwrote my journaling with the same pink marker I used on the flowers. 

When it was all said and done, I was pretty happy with the layout.  It really was a process of just adding things and trying things until I was happy with the results. I encourage you to try it. Grab some supplies you've been wanting to try, use a technique you've never done and just have fun. Until next time, Happy Scrappin'!!