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Maximize your stamps Day 5: Non-birthday projects

 Welcome back! Today marks the last day of blogging about how you can use your stamp set from Kellie Stamps.  I hope that you have enjoyed all the tips and tricks as much as I have and that you don´t forget to enter the giveaway from yesterday! Today I wanted to share a few non-birthday related projects from me and the some of the other DT members from Kellie Stamps. Enjoy!

Alexandria made this great pocket page spread! 

The challenge is using theme products for projects that don't match that theme. I picked my photos for the week, and chose one digital stamp for each photo that I could use as a jumping off point for the journaling. I lowered the opacity so I could see a bit of the photo through the words, and placed them in the center of each photo. I made simple black and white 3x4 cards to match, and added simple little chipboard pieces to each photo.

 

Diane is back today sharing this fun pocket page! 

"It's easy to use 'themed' digital stamps on a regular week of Project Life! With just a small amount of modification and a few embellishments, I used a birthday-themed set from Kellie Stamps on a pretty ordinary week. Sometimes those ordinary moments deserve just as much celebration as the big events!"

Diane also share process videos on her Youtube channel. Here is the link to the video for this page!

Julie worked in the Project Life app to make these pages.

Highlighting some of our summer favorites in this Project Life app layout. All of these photos are also in my Little Summer JOY album, but I wanted to bring them into our family Photobook as well because, truly, they're some of our biggest highlights from the summer. Our favorite spots, favorite moments, favorite things.

 

I made this simple pocket page that will go into my regular scrapbooking album. I really think that the sentiment of "celebrate" can be used in so many ways, don´t you?

What did I tell you? I think I can use this stamp set over and over again without getting tired of it! 

Have a great weekend and thank you for stopping by!

Lisa

 

 

Scrapbook | Sketch

Hi! Lisa here today! 

I love sketches. That´s a fact. I try to use the sketches that are shared here on the blog as often as I can. I rarely end up with a page or project that is exactly like the sketch and that is partly why I like to use them. They are great starting points if you can use a little nudge to get creative. But you can interpret it just as you like. 

Today I´ll show you two projects where I used the sketch from Saturday as my inspiration.

 

 

I loved that the sketch had so many photo slots! Christmas is a time of the year where I take many pictures and often I have several I´d like to use. Making a collage is the perfect way to include many photos on one layout. 

 

I use Picmonkey  and they have a variety of collages to choose from. It is easy to use also!

 

Next I made a card. I used my watercolors to create the blocks (photo slots) on my card. 

 

Here is what the card looked like when it was all dry. 

 

Next I added several rub-ons and stickers. I thought it was a fun way to play with the sketch! 

 

Do you use sketches?

Use up your random letterstickers

Hi there!

Lisa here today and first I must say that this months theme of re-using, re-cycling is one of my very favorite! I do tons of this in various ways all the time. This time I wanted to talk a little bit about those odd, left-over letter stickers...

If you have been a scrapbooker for a while you are sure to have them; left-over letter stickers. Right?! I have a big stash of odd letter stickers that are not being used mainly because they are out of vowls. But also because I don´t like the style or color. I have a few tips on how to use them anyway!

 

Odd letters

 

 I created this page on how I miss my Sadie dog like crazy. For this I made a cluster with odd letters (still from the same set) and to make the title I used a different color letter stickers to make it stand out. 

 Another example is to use number stickers on a birthday card like I did above.

 

Color

 

 

I used chipboard letters for this art journal page. The letters were all white and I painted over them to create unity.

I had several older sticker sheets with colors I wasn´t so keen on anymore. I didn´t want to just toss them since there were still quite a few letters still. So, I simply painted the whole sheet with black craft paint. Suddenly I had a whole lot of “new” black letters that I find easier to use! 

 

And here is a layout where I have used one of my "new" letterstickers!

I hope that I could give you some inspiration for using those unused letterstickers!

Lisa

Learn a New Technique! Day Three: Watercolor

 

Welcome to another Learning a new technique post this week! Lisa here and today I am going to show you how very easily you can use watercolors to make pocket cards. The trend of watercolors in memory keeping has been going on for a while now, but let´s face it not everyone is a painter me included! But, really, if you can hold a brush and color then you are set. I am going to show you 4 examples.

 

Let´s start!

Circle card

1. First cut cardstock/watercolor paper to the size card you would like to make. I cut mine to 3x4” cards.
2. For this first card I used a fuller brush like this.
3. Choose your color and then simply paint a circle that is filled in.
4. Put aside to dry!    

 

Striped card

1. I used a flat brush for this.
2. Choose your color and with the flat brush paint stripes across the card. 

 

Splatter

1. Change back to the fuller brush.
2. Clear your workspace so that nothing will get splattered that shouldn´t.
3. Choose your color and make sure that you use a little more water so that you can easily get splatter.
4. Then hold your brush like you would a magic wand (he he) and make a rapid motion downwards so that you get small drops of color on your card.

 

 

Stamped card

1. For this I used an outlined heart stamp from Technique Tuesday, but the important thing is to have a stamp that is outlined.
2. Stamp (with your normal stamp pad) randomly on the card and then let dry.
3. Now, use a thin brush (or even a q-tip) depending on how big the space is that you will color in is.
4. Tip! Don´t use too much water when you color in the stamp.

 

Now you have your basic cards. Here is how I used my 4 cards in my Project Life album!

 

 The circle card became a title card. 

 

The lined one is perfect for journaling.

 The splattered one is a weekly card.

 

And finally the stamped card is used as a background.

 

Fun, eh?! I hope that I have been able to inspire you to try watercolors for yourself! Have a great day!

Lisa

Sketchbook Saturday

Hello! How are you? Has school started yet? Not here, gratefully. I am looking forward to the peace and quiet, but am not in any way ready with school supplies, the teacher assignments, the getting up early. (Though in ten days I will be singing praises for a return to routine, and having a schedule back. Ten days. Which means nine to get ready, I suppose?!)

 

Until then, I continue to sneak in layouts when I can. This week, I made a sketch from Jennifer's gallery layout,

as it seemed like a wonderful layout from which to create one with its ten photos!!

 

Look how it turned out.

 

 

When it came to making my layout, I moved the photos to a middle strip. It seemed a little more orderly with my photos having so much color, design, and varied perspectives. I think it was the right decision.

 

 

Amy switched it up a bit, too, using fewer photo, but still maintaining the spirit of the sketch.

 

And let's not forget that our sketches work equally well for cards. Kate made a lovely one as a reminder.

That one will certainly be making an appearance at my house! Love that!

 

If you would like to purchase a limited time offering of the layered template, you may do so by clicking below!

Thank you for choosing to spend some time with us this weekend!! We adore you!

Fun with embossing folders

 

Hi there, it's Cristina here with some embossing inspiration for you. Since I got into scrapbooking through digital scrapbooking, I missed out on a lot of traditional tools. I am gradually catching up, though, ever since I got into paper scrapbooking when I started Project Life. A couple months ago, I took the plunge and bought a manual die cutting machine. After considering other options (mostly the Cuttlebug, which is smaller and less sturdy, but cheaper), I decided to get the Big Shot. My main motivation to buy it was to use it as a cutting machine with wafer thin dies, but I also bought an embossing folder, just to try it out... and since then I have fallen in love big time with embossing!

I really love the results! Here are a few cards I made for my Project Life album. The process is so quick and easy, and works with pretty much any kind of paper. I love to add watercolors or stamping to the embossed cards, and I even tried the faux letterpress look.

Embossing and watercoloring

I love to use watercolors to accent my embossed cards. This first example uses a thick grid card from Studio Calico. Since I wanted to use watercolors heavily on this card, I needed thick paper that could hold that much water and paint.

Embossing folder: Amy Tangerine

This card was done using a cheap index card from Staples. My watercoloring is done in a few spots and using little water, so the paper held up well.

Embossing folder: Tim Holtz

This next card was done on thicker paper. Adding a sticker and my photo, this card is ready to put in my Project Life album.

Embossing folder: We R Memory Keepers

 

Embossing and stamping

As a big fan of stamping, I also love to combine embossed cards with stamped accents. Here's two examples. 

Embossing folders: Cuttlebug (left)          Tim Holtz (right)

 

Faux letterpress

Finally, since letterpress is all the rage and I love the look, but don't own any letterpress plates nor paper, I have been playing with creating a faux letterpress look with my embossing folders. I just used some Hero Arts shadow inks to make this card (index cards from Staples). I inked the embossing folder with the ink pad, and ran it through the machine. Next, I cleaned the folder, inked it up with another color and embossed again.

This one is probably my favorite plate set! By We R Memory Keepers

Seriously.. embossing, where have you been all my life?? ;) Are you a fan too?

Anniversary Week - Day 3

Welcome to Day 3 of this Anniversary Week! Today I will be sharing some inspiration for anniversary cards.

I find it especially meaningful to give a homemade card to celebrate the sweet milestone of an anniversary.

Some of the tips I shared on Day 1 still apply to cards. In particular, focusing on the numbers is always a nice way to build a card.

Here's an example from me for our 6th anniversary.

In this card, Laura cleverly used a bingo card for her in-laws' 49th anniversary.

For my in-laws' 50th, I made a card that featured gold - the color of the 50th anniversary.

Kate made this lovely card with a bold word art.

Laura made these two cute cards with animal couples.

Finally, this is the card I made this year for my husband.

Come back tomorrow for some mini album inspiration!

 

14 Reasons to Love Digital Products | Digital Stamps

Welcome Back to Day 2! Amy here and I've got more fun ideas to share with you for using digital products in your paper scrapbook pages and projects.

Today we're taking a closer look at Digital Stamps, also referred to as "brushes."  Digital stamps can come in a variety of file formats dependent on where they are downloaded from but will almost always be offered in an easily-accessed file format like .png or .jpg.

Digital stamps can range from handdrawn outlines, to full illustrations,to being offered in black, white, gray or even full color.  Some digital stamps are distressed to mimic the appearance of actual rub-ons or stamps, while others have a cleaner look to them. 

 

Three Reasons to Love Digital Stamps  

Below are a few of the reasons I love using digital stamps in my paper scrapbook pages and projects:

 

No 1. - You can use digital stamps to replace stamped images and sentiments on your handmade cards. 

Now I've never been a big stamper or card-maker, I just don't have the patience that is often required of these two skills. However, once it occurred to me to try out digital stamps on my cards I found that I was much more likely to take the time to make a card, rather than buy one.  

I made this no-fuss hybrid card, by simply printing a hand-drawn digital stamp by Creashens onto textured cardstock and adding a few simple embellishments.  However if you're someone who prefers to put a little more effort into your handmade cards, digital stamps can also pair nicely with mediums like watercolors, copics and more (though laser printing is usually recommended to prevent the ink from running).   

 

 

No. 2 - You can use digital stamps to make your own stickers, rub-ons or even fabric transfers.

There are a wide variety of printable mediums available to crafter's today, including sticker paper, transfer paper and rub-on film--just to name a few.  Digital stamps can be paired with these products to make affordable gifts as well as physical embellishments for your scrapbook pages.

The minute I saw this adorable ice cream cone digital stamp by Celeste Knight, I knew that it would look great on a cute little tee for my niece.      

 

 

No. 3 - You can use digital stamps in lieu of real stamps on your scrapbook pages.

There are two things that appeal to me about using digital stamps over the use of acrylic cling and wood mount stamps in my paper scrapbooking: 1). Digital stamps are less expensive and take up less physical space and  2). With a digital stamp, I feel like I have more control over the final result.  

In my page, Coming Into Focus, I printed this awesome f-stop digital stamp by Shannon McNabb onto a vellum mat which I layered over my patterned background.  The digital stamp acts as a foundation for my design and creates a striking focal point, that captures and guides the eye.

 

 

Now it's your turn...

Get started today by picking one of these ideas for using digital stamps to try out in your next page or project. You can find a large selection of FREE digital stamps hand-drawn by Michelle Houghton over on the Get It Scrapped blog or try searching "free digital stamps" on Pinterest.

Join me tomorrow for ideas on using digital journal cards in your paper scrapbook pages and projects!

 

One Card Sketch, 5 Themes - Thank You

Hello everyone! Welcome to the final day in our card sketch theme week. Today I'll be sharing some thank you cards. Like birthday cards, you can never have too many of these on hand. I like to keep them in my desk at work so I always have one on hand to give to someone going the extra mile.

This first card is from Amy. I like how she added the embellishment cluster and gratitude quote on top of a die cut background.

Laura shared this beautiful butterfly thank you card. I like how the greeting is extending in from the right side of the card, surrounded by the butterflies.

Valerie added some fun with mixed media to her card and placed the greeting in a tab along the top...so clever.

On my thank you card I kept one large embellishment along the bottom and added the smaller embellishment cluster and greeting towards the top.

On my last card, I used one large focal embellishment and moved my greeting to the side and added a smaller subtitle to the bottom.

Thank you so much for joining me for card week. I hope you can use the sketch and these ideas to create a card stash for any occasion.

One Card Sketch, 5 Themes - Congratulations

Hi everyone! Welcome to another day in our card week. Today I am sharing congratulations and good luck cards. I always like having these on hand to let someone know I'm hoping for the best for them or to let them know I'm happy for their accomplishments! All cards were made using the sketch I posted on Monday.

Stars are one of my favorite embellishments and perfect for a congratulations card, like Laura used on this card. 

Jennie also used stars on her congratulations card. She kept the layers of the sketch the same and moved the greeting to the bottom creating room for the wonderful star/circle grid.

Kate shared this next card. Kate, followed the sketch closely but I like how she converted it to a square card and moved the greeting up.

Sue  created the colorful butterfly card. I like how she simplified the embellishment triangle to one large butterfly atop a washi background.

For my first card, I rotated the sketch. I created the top layer by using washi tape for the background, then added my greeting in embellishments.

My next card features my favorite...stars, and follows the sketch almost exactly.

For this next one, I used the exact same design elements but switched out the stars for circles and added a "good luck" greeting instead.

For my last card I switched out the three embellishments for one large one and again added a "good luck" greeting.

Thanks so much for visiting. Come back tomorrow for our final card day.