Making Use of Scrapbooking Supplies

 

                Scrapbooking tools are essential to creating a successful scrapbook. The supplies for scrapbooking are what make your scrapbook come to life. What most people don't know is that there are many ways that you can use ordinary scrapbook supplies and do something extraordinary with them. I'm going to walk you through a few tips and tricks of scrapbooking, and teach you techniques to come up with your own scrapbooking ideas! Take a rubber stamp, a scrapbooking material that every scrapbooker should have. You can use this scrapbooking tool to stamp images beside your photographs, or you can take it a step further by stamping a collage on solid-colored scrapbook paper to create a custom scrapbook page layout background. Also, you can color in your stamped images to bring them to life and make them pop out more on your scrapbook page. Another scrapbooking tip to make use of your supplies for scrapbook is using scrapbook templates creatively. It's easy to become stumped while using this scrapbooking material. You can decorate around a photo, or even the border of a page. These scrapbook supplies can be used to draw an area the put your scrapbook journaling in, also. One other useful technique for scrapbook templates is for making a page header. There are many attractive letter templates that make for beautiful scrapbook page headers, or even write words around the border of a page with the letter template. You can do creative things with a pair of scissors, also. Although decorative scissors with different patterns on the edge are nice, they are not a necessity of scrapbooking supplies. Cut mats for photos with creative borders, or use them with templates to cut out letters and other things to give a 3D effect on your scrapbook page. Those are just a few of the many ways you can use scrapbook supplies. Be creative with your scrapbooking tools. To come up with original ways to use your supplies for scrapbooking, simply look at what others have done. Take ideas that you like, and alter them to fit your scrapbook. Use scrapbook tools in any way that you like. There are no rules. Test your ideas out on scrap paper before you actually put it into your scrapbook. This way, you can see if you really like the idea or not, and tweak the design a bit to your liking. If you come up with something that you like, but don't know when you will use it, write it down for later reference. Remember that there are no rules to using your scrapbooking materials and scrapbook supplies. Be creative!

Evolution of the Scrapbook

 

                  What are the roots of today's digital scrapbook? A scrapbook is a visual method of storytelling to preserve a legacy of history in the form of photographs, printed media and memorabilia presented artistically in decorated albums. The digital scrapbook can be traced back to ancient Greece, where a special notebook known as a "hypomnemata" was used to record events people had heard, seen or read that they wanted to preserve and remember. In early America, some of the most well-known scrapbookers included Thomas Jefferson and Mark Twain. An avid scrapbooker, Mark Twain devoted entire Sundays to the hobby and then sold his books through Montgomery Ward. In the 15th century, books called commonplace books, often used by students, were used to record prayers, poems and information such as weights and medical formulas. Eventually, commonplace books also held illustrations, newspaper clippings and recipes, and proved to be a valuable way to share information. With the advent of photography, scrapbooks began to feature mounted photos with handwritten captions. A scrapbook layout might include letters, newspaper articles and other mementos. Young women in the Victorian period created memory books, friendship albums or visitor's albums containing signatures, cards, locks of hair, poetry and pictures of their family and friends to give as gifts or preserve memories. The Traditional Scrapbook In the United States, Utah's Marielen Christensen is often credited with reviving interest in scrapbooking. She began designing creative pages and three-ring binders for her family's photo memories and displayed them at the World Conference on Records. She and her husband published a how-to book, Keeping Memories Alive, and opened a scrapbook store in 1981 that remains open today. The traditional art of scrapbooking has often brought women together socially to make scrapbooks and share their work and memories. These hobbyists, known as scrapbookers or scrappers, still gather at each other's homes, local scrapbook stores, scrapbooking conventions and retreat centers. The term "crop," a reference to cropping or trimming printed photos, was coined to describe these events. In the late 1990s, many U.S. scrappers opened stores to turn their hobby into a business. Between 2001 and 2004, the scrapbooking industry doubled in size to $2.5 billion, with more than 1,600 companies creating scrapbooking products by 2003. In America, the hobby has surpassed golf in popularity: One in four households has a golf enthusiast; one in three has a scrapbooking enthusiast! Scrapping Goes Digital Naturally, scrapbooking has modernized with the computer age. Creating a digital scrapbook is the process of using a scrapbook layout to create pages using photo- or image-editing software. Digital scrappers import electronic photos and scrapbooking graphics into their image-editing programs and arrange them to create digital scrapbook pages. Digital scrapping was inspired by the methods, style and culture of traditional scrapbooking. Today's scrapbook layout and computer programs are designed to capture the look and feel of traditional scrapbooking and provide creative control over all the elements--even ones on premade templates. And the social element remains intact in the digital scrapping world. Many digital scrappers get together to share their digital resources and knowledge about editing programs. They read blogs, attend scrapbook conventions and meet others in online digital scrapbooking chat rooms and forums. It's easier than ever to share a digital scrapbook with anyone, anywhere! Time and money savings are among other benefits digital scrapbookers realize over glue-and-paper scrapping. In addition, while a traditional scrapbook layout and photos can fade or yellow over time, a computer-generated scrapbook layout is archived in a digital format where it's kept safe from the effects of time, heat, oxidation and other factors. A digital scrapbook layout never loses its detail or color. Another feature people love about the digital scrapbook is that they can add small notes or embellishments to each photo in the scrapbook layout to convey the story more vividly. This allows them to add their own creativity to the scrapbook layout. With digital photography rising quickly, many scrapbookers edit all their photos on the computer before they ever put them in an album. They remove red eyes, crop distracting backgrounds and enhance the color of images, sharpening the overall effect of their digital scrapbook and giving it a professional look. Traditional scrappers are realizing they don't have to learn programming to create a digital scrapbook or photo collage. This part of the digital scrapbook has been catered to by professionals and is served to the scrapper on a platter in the form of a premade template and scrapbook layout, often featuring themes carrying mass appeal.

Scrapbook Albums and How to Construct One

 

                  Your honeymoon was delightful. You spent 11 days in Bora Bora, and now you'd like to capture those memories in one place. A friend suggested a scrapbook album, but you don't know how to construct a scrapbook album. Honeymoon scrapbook albums can be fun to make, even if you have never tried one before. Tropical scrapbook albums also are exciting. When one combines the best of tropical scrapbook albums and honeymoon scrapbook albums, the results can be amazing. But how do you make scrapbook albums? Let's look at the steps. How to Construct a Scrapbook Album - Step 1 Scrapbook albums come in a range of materials, sizes, and styles. The first step in constructing scrapbook albums is choosing the album itself. 1. Materials: Leather scrapbook albums are likely to be the most expensive. Honeymoon scrapbook albums are precious, however, and you may want to choose durable leather for yours. Cloth-covered scrapbook albums are also a good choice. Some have a window opening on the front cover for a special photo. The cloth used is usually book cloth, so it is strong. Cheap scrapbook albums are also available. These are usually made of heavy cover stock, plain or covered with paper. 2. Sizes: Standard scrapbook albums have a useable page size of 12x12 inches. The scrapbook album itself may measure 13x14 inches or more, but part of that is the book's spine. Some scrapbook albums are larger - as large as 18x20 inches. Smaller scrapbook albums are as small as 4x6 inches. As a novice, you may want to select from the standard scrapbook albums, since scrapbook supplies are made to that standard. 3. Styles: As the popularity of scrapbooking has increased, the variety of styles in scrapbook albums has mushroomed. Plain cover scrapbook albums come in many colors. Some scrapbook albums have a military-themed cover, featuring the military branch and a gold plated service medallion. Others have a Disney theme, with Mickey Mouse and friends adorning the cover. Tropical scrapbook albums, which you might choose for a honeymoon in Bora Bora, would be attractive in scrapbook albums with a bright red or blue Hibiscus-patterned cloth cover. You might even find unique Bora Bora scrapbook albums. How to Construct a Scrapbook Album - Step 2 Once you have selected a scrapbook album, you need to sort the photos and memorabilia you will use. Pay attention to the theme of each piece as well as the colors. How to Construct a Scrapbook Album - Step 3 Honeymoon scrapbook albums already have an overall theme - the honeymoon. Your next step will be to decide sub-themes for each 2-page spread. For example, you might have a theme of arrival at Bora Bora, with approach photos of the island from the air. This theme could also include photos taken upon landing. First impressions are important memories. Lay out your photos, deciding a theme for each page or 2-page spread. Then move to the next step. How to Construct a Scrapbook Album - Step 4 Background papers are a good way to tie pages together. Scrapbooking paper in standard 12x12 inch size comes in a multitude of colors and patterns. Plain paper is also available. Be sure you purchase paper that is acid free to protect your photos and memorabilia. Choose paper to complement the photos on each page. How to Construct a Scrapbook Album - Step 5 With your scrapbook album paper in place, arrange photos. Resist crowding your pages with photos. You will need space for notes and other elements. You might want to add a bit of torn paper beneath photos to set them off from the background. On come pages, you may want to put a paper frame around the photos. Such scrapbooking supplies are available at scrapbooking stores and websites. How to Construct a Scrapbook Album - Step 6 After you arrange and affix the photos, it's time to add journaling. "Journaling" is nothing more than notes or captions that help explain the photos. You may have a memory of what was said when a certain photo was taken - or a comment about what happened immediately before or after. Journaling can be done on small pieces of paper that are added to scrapbook albums much as photos are added. How to Construct a Scrapbook Album - Step 7 The final touch in constructing scrapbook albums is to add embellishments, charms, stickers, and other small pieces that add interest. Honeymoon scrapbook albums might include small hearts or kisses. Bora Bora scrapbook albums, or other tropical scrapbook albums, might include small sandals or seashells.

Western Scrapbooking Pages Free

 

                  Western scrapbooking pages, free of charge, can be found on the Internet and in scrapbooking magazines. Scrapbooking is one of those hobbies in which people enjoy sharing pages they have created. Whether novice or professional, they want to help others have similar happy experiences. Sources of Western Scrapbooking Pages Western scrapbooking pages, free for copying, appear in many places on the Internet. You might want to try these options. 1. Galleries: Scrapbooking galleries are probably one of the best places to find western scrapbooking pages free. These galleries feature photos of successful scrapbooking pages, free for you to borrow from their creators. Scrapbook has nearly 350,000 images in their gallery, including both layouts and digital layouts of scrapbooking pages. A search there on the word "western" produced 214 western scrapbooking pages at the time this article was written. A mouse click at this gallery enlarges any photo so you can easily see the elements. 2. Forums and Chat Rooms: You may also find western scrapbooking pages free in forums and chat rooms. Sometimes, if you are cooperative, a forum member may even volunteer to create a western scrapbooking page free to meet your specific needs. Forum members are often scrapbooking "addicts" who love to share their talents. 3. Scrapbooking Kits: Online retailers who sell scrapbooking kits often feature 2 or 3 kits, showing large pictures of scrapbooking pages within the kits. The pages are copyrighted, but the ideas can be adapted. Digital scrapbooking kits are sometimes free for the taking as an introduction to a site's digital elements. You may find just the western scrapbooking pages you want on a kit site. 4. Scrapbooking Stamp Retailers: Online retailers of stamps often show scrapbooking pages to illustrate what their stamps will add to a layout. We found lovely western scrapbooking pages free at one of these sites. 5. Scrapbooking Supplies Retailers: Internet retailers who sell an array of scrapbooking supplies follow the same practice: placing photos of samples to spark ideas, or giving 2 or 3 scrapbooking pages free as an introductory offer. Browse these retailers' sites and you will come away with many ideas for western scrapbooking pages. Do-It-Yourself Digital Western Scrapbooking Pages Digital western scrapbooking pages can be created at your computer if you are handy with a computer graphics program. We use Adobe PhotoShop. Begin by creating scrapbooking paper. Make your paper 12" x 12" for now. It can be reduced later if necessary. Create digital scrapbooking paper in several themes for your scrapbooking pages. These three ideas will get you started. 1. Western Riding Scrapbooking Pages Make the paper background medium to light brown with a sandy texture. Place a clear layer in front of the brown, and add words to it such as "Western" or "cowboy" to carry the theme. You won't need many words. Vary the font for interest. This layer is optional on your scrapbooking page. Find 1 or 2 clipart or photo images of cowboy hats. Then find a cowboy boot, saddle, and spurs. Add a rope if you wish. Once you have the graphics, create a pattern on your brown paper, repeating it at pleasing intervals. 2. Horseshoe Scrapbooking Pages Make the paper background light brown, and then render clouds with light brown and ivory. Find a clipart image of a steel gray horseshoe. Create a pattern over the clouds, repeating the horseshoe at intervals until the paper is covered. 3. Man and Beast Shoes Scrapbooking Pages Begin by creating horseshoe scrapbooking paper. Add small clipart images of cowboy boots at wide intervals over top of the horseshoes. It's good to have 3 different pairs of cowboy boots for interest. Completing Western Scrapbooking Pages Once your scrapbooking paper is ready, you can make digital western scrapbooking pages on it. Place cropped, scanned photos on each page. Overlap photos, with a piece of journaling placed to one side. Add a page title in bold, western font. Half a dozen wild mustangs in ivory or off-white might be placed at a page bottom, as though dashing in from one side. Add digital stickers to your scrapbooking pages and move to the next.

How To Scrapbook For More Than One Child

 

                        Scrapbooking can be a delightful way to corral those family photos and memories into an exciting book. Scrapbooking can be relaxing for you as you do it, and a pleasure as you share it. Books and articles on scrapbooking for 1 child abound, but suppose you have more than 1 child. Suppose you have 7 children. Then you need a book or article on how to scrapbook for more than 1 child. You Have Scrapbooking Options Those who want to scrapbook for more than 1 child have several exciting options. 1. Make a full-blown scrapbook for each. If you have many photos and memories to preserve, this allows the most space for each child. Your scrapbooking will require more time and money, but will be a labor of love. The book's theme will focus on that one child. Place his or her photo and name on the front, and theme every scrapbooking page to that child's life. You will use family photos, of course, to show the place the child held in family activities. But you will want pages that focus solely on that child: baby "firsts"; first year of school; favorite hobbies; favorite toys; dreams; birthdays; awards; graduation; etc. If a photo shows two of the children together, focus your journaling on that one child's part in the photo. How did the world look from his eyes or her eyes? Our memories are always, I have found, as seen through our eyes. Do mention the second child, but spotlight the first. As each child becomes able, he or she can help add new pages to his or her scrapbook. Scrapbooking can be a time of bonding and love that will long be remembered. When they leave home as young adults, they can take their individual scrapbooks with them. As they mature, they will come to realize what it meant in time, effort, and cost for you to provide these treasured scrapbooking memories. 2. Make a mini scrapbook for each. If you have fewer photos, want to be more selective, or simply have very little time for scrapbooking, a mini scrapbook will still provide individual, tangible memories that can be carried into adult life. Select just one theme for each double-page spread, with one or two photos on each. Tie the photos together with your theme, mounting them on the same color of torn paper or using identical frames. Mini scrapbooking will not allow for as many family or sibling photos, but remember that this is a book about one child. When you make a mini scrapbook for each child, you can rest assured that each will get full attention. There will be no "left-out" feelings. A mini scrapbook can be no larger than 6" x 6". Or it can be half the size of a standard letter: 5.5" x 8.5". You can read details about how to make your own mini scrapbooks in my article entitled, "How to do Mini Scrapbooks". Digital mini scrapbooks would be interesting for children, since they live in a computerized world. Digital mini scrapbooks can be less expensive to make, and people who are comfortable with one of the computer graphics programs, such as "Adobe PhotoShop", will be able to apply interesting effects that are not possible with conventional scrapbooking. 3. Make a family scrapbook for each. A third way to scrapbook for more than one child is to make a family scrapbook for each. Less attention will be paid to individual children, in such a book, and focus placed on the entire family unit. Your scrapbooking theme is your entire family, including every family member. Place the family name on the cover, and a nice family photo, if you wish. On the title page, write a note about the family as a whole. Scrapbooking a single volume of memories will call for both family memories and individual memories. Theme your pages to focus on high lights of family life. Begin with Dad and Mom - the wedding, especially. You will still have a scrapbooking page for each child's birth, but there will probably be insufficient space for every "first" of every child. Try to include true highlights of each child's life. Include amusing times as well as those that were less pleasant. Include school events; sports; musical interests; birthdays; awards, graduations, and family pets. You may still want to include your children's scrapbooking efforts as they become old enough to take part in the process. Scrapbooking family memories will give opportunity to discuss those memories, and solidify them in each one's mind. When each child leaves home, for college attendance, to marry, etc., make a copy of the book as it is at that time, and present it as a going-away gift. Office supply stores or copy centers can copy each page in color on heavy paper or cardstock, and bind them with s durable spiral binding. Covers can be copied in color or black and white on cover stock. Your scrapbooking gifts will vary for each child, according to when they leave home, but personal family memories of their time at home will be preserved.

It's almost spring

We can't wait for Spring!!!! 

Come into Mom and Me to see all the cute new Easter cards, banners and decor!

Creating a Disney Scrapbook

seven months ago my family was having a blast on a week-long Disney vacation at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. you might have noticed that i haven't shared a single thing about that vacation.

why? well, the truth is......i'm overwhelmed with how exactly to record the magical-ness of it. (if magical-ness isn't a word, it is now.)

do you ever get that way with your photos and/or memories. frozen for fear of 'messing' it up? silly, isn't it?

i took thousands of photos on that trip. eeeps! we also took advantage of the Photopass system and purchased the CD of images which gave me another 600 or so photos.

gobs and gobs of photos.

this layout is the very first layout i've made that displays photos from our trip....i hope that there are many more to follow, like, real soon!

there are SO many stories to be told from this trip.so many. i can't wait to see them all unfold in the pages of my scrapbooks.

this layout in particular was created using some new products released at CHA from Little Yellow Bicycle's Just Because and Naturals collections. i've also used quite a few Fiskars tools in the mix too!

this layout also appears today on a few other blogs.  in one place i'm talking about tips for putting the layout together and in the other talking about recording vacation memories as a whole. click on over to the Little Yellow Bicycle blog and to the Fiskateers blog for more of the story.  there are also links to products and tools at the respective blogs. 

Hobbycraft Workshops

Hi bloggers, I have some very exciting news to share with you all and that is that I will be experimenting with hosting some vintage workshops at the biggest craft store in the UK....... Hobbycraft! Starting at the end of next month I will be hoping to regularly host some vintage workshops at least twice a month at Hobbycraft in Crawley to inspire their customers to create something vintage, using mainly Tim Holtz products and few of Hobbycraft's in-store ranges. So if you fancy having a go then pop into Hobbycraft Crawley to pick up a leaflet about What's On or you can keep up to date by following my blog or facebook page.

The first workshop I will be hosting will be a Vintage Paper Bunting workshop just in time for Easter so you can decorate the house. Have a sneak peek below and follow the link to find out more details.

Vintage Paper Bunting Workshop

Wrapped up with love

 

Well this is the final Valentine's post and I really wanted it to be full of wrapping ideas however I seemed to have come down with a bug, not the love bug I'm afraid but rather a flu virus, so I only managed to create three different wrapping ideas which is so frustrating as I have many more in my head!

Anyway to start off I have included an example of placing those yummy chocolates from my last post into a simple cellophane bag and added a cute piece of ribbon and a handmade with love tag - make sure you take credit for those chocs you made!

 

Next up are two gift bag examples which you could put any little gift or present in, maybe place the cellophane bag of chocolates inside......

 

 

 

Well thats all I had time to make and was able to make but please check out my Pinterest Valentine's board for a few more ideas, such as gift boxes and wrapping flowers and the like.

 

 

Valentine's Day Cards

We have Valentine's

at Mom and Me Scrapbooking!!!

Valentine Sweet Treats

This post will definitely make your mouth water with the temptation of sweet chocolates and they are so much fun to make.

Materials you will need:

Chocolate plastic mould (heart shaped for Valentine's)

Melting chocolate drops (Hobbycraft sell many different colours to achieve the look you want)

Bowl

Spoons

Foil wrappers - different colours (red and silver for Valentines)

Hobbycraft sell all the products you will need to make your own chocolates, with lots of handy tools, such as squeezee bottles and funnels if you need more help with precision but otherwise just have fun and play around with different effects and flavours.

1. Melt the chocolate drops in a bowl in the microwave - follow instructions on the packet.

2. Using a spoon, fill up each mould and level off the top. If you have a funnel or squeezee bottle this may help with precision in getting the chocolate in the mould.

 

3. Once you have filled the mould, give it a light tap to get rid of air bubbles and then leave to set. I usually leave the mould to cool and set for 30 minutes and then pop them in the fridge for several hours.

4. Once the chocolates have set remove them from the mould. You can then either leave them as they are or you can add an extra bit of decoration using different colours of the chocolate melts, e.g. drizzle milk chocolate over white chocolate hearts - see picture below.

 

5. If you choose to add further decoration then you may need to leave these to dry for an extra 30 minutes to an hour before wrapping them.

6. Time to wrap those choccies. The pictures below illustrate how to wrap the hearts.

 

Place chocolate face down on the inside side of the wrapper. Outside of the wrapper will be shiny and coloured.

 

Fold over two sides to meet in the middle.

 

Depending on the shape and size of the chocolate you may want to trim excess foil either side before folding the rest of the foil in.

 

Fold the rest of the foil and mould to the shape of the chocolate and then you are done.

 

 Once you get the hang of the process then why not experiment with different flavours by adding dried fruits etc. I added some dried cranberrries to my white chocolate hearts for a subtle hint of cranberry. 

 

Over the next few days I will post my final Valentine's post which will include wrapping ideas for presents and these chocolate hearts.

 

 

Happy Valentine's Day

Get a jump on your Valentine's Day Cards.... 

We have all the supplies you need at Mom and Me Scrapbooking

We also have a lot of card kits!!!!

Valentines Day is coming

We have tons of cute Valentine paper, stickers and die cuts. So come into day and get the supplies you need to make your Valentine's cards. You can use our die cut machine for free with purchase of our paper.

Easy Valentine Treats for the Classroom in SRM Tubes

I am so thrilled to be sharing an idea for you and your kiddos for their Valentine’s Day classroom exchange. You should know that I am totally one of those people that like to find ways to use products in ways other than their intended purpose and today’s inspiration will be no different.

With Valentine’s Day coming up, I decided to make things easy on myself and put some of the gorgeous pieces from the Little Yellow Bicycle: Just Because: Paper Crafting Kit to use to embellish a set of lightweight clear plastic tubes from SRM Press.

These tubes are BRILLIANT for packaging small candy treats and made the job of putting together sugary sweet Valentine’s for my daughter’s classmates super simple.

 What I love most about these tubes is that you can decorate them as simple or over the top as you wish and whichever way you choose they look absolutely adorable and like you fussed for hours over them. They are about 1” in diameter leaving you with tons of options for what treat to fill them with. I’ve seen yogurt covered raisins, cinnamon hearts, tart candies, chocolate coated candies, nuts, sunflower seeds, coins, messages in a bottle, rolled up stickers, etc.

To decorate them, I started simple by adding either a vellum tape strip or a pre-scored printed cardstock strip (from the Paper Crafting Kit) along the bottom of each tube. These add a visually substantial embellishment around the base of the tube and acts to ground whatever other embellishing you’re doing. Each vellum strip &/or pre-scored printed cardstock will wrap around three tubes, so you can really stretch the mileage from the set making them perfect when creating multiples!

When using the shapes from the Paper Crafting Kit, don’t feel limited by pieces that aren’t quite the right color because you can always use the reverse side that is white. Also, don’t overlook a piece that is pre-printed with a word or image that may not convey your feelings because it can also be layered with additional pieces to cover. I did exactly that using the light blue circle piece pre-printed with the word “happy”. You’ll also notice that the banner pieces are much narrower than they come in the kit. I simply cut ¼” to ½” strip off of each side so they would look more balance for the size of my tubes.

Some other tips:

• It’s a good idea to alternate the height at which you place your layered embellishments so they don’t all get tangled together at the top.
• Glue dots work best for adhering to the plastic tube. No worrying about glue drying or sticky fingers leaving marks on the tubes.
• If you like a little extra bulk to your layers add in the small flowers and hearts from the package of Chipboard Shapes.
• Use stickers from the Fresh Verse sticker sheet to add simple phrases. You can quickly turn them into a cute banner-like sticker by cutting a triangle-shaped notch in the right edge of the sticker.
• Dust the sticky portion of any stickers that overhang with baby powder so they don’t inadvertently stick to anything else.
• Consider using a tube of a different size for teachers and school administrators. Larger tubes work rather well for using the larger bows in the crafting kit.
• Don’t have a need for classroom Valentine’s? No worries. You can adapt this idea for any theme using a Paper Crafting Kit from any of the other Little Yellow Bicycle collections.
• Don’t want to use tubes? That’s okay, you can follow the same concept using glassine bags or cellophane bags too!

Happy Crafting!

Fiskars: Techniques for Altering A Canvas

stretching yourself creatively by trying new skills beyond your comfort zone of traditional paper crafting is good exercise and can be very liberating as you experiment in using some of your Fiskars tools beyond their typical scope.

that's exactly what i did with one of my latest project tutorials created for Fiskars.

i have to admit that it was super fun adding layer upon layer of paint and texture until i finally stepped back, admired my design, and called it complete.

if you've never altered a canvas before, you'll quickly learn that the beauty of altering a canvas is that once you start with the initial paint layers, you never really know quite how it will look in the end.

afterall, this canvas started out like this:

and then ended up like this:

to see the transformation and learn how to put your tools to work for you in a new way, visit my tutorial over on Fiskars.com: Spread Your Wings and Fly Altered Canvas by Tania Willis

A message with love

The most common gift given on Valentine's Day has to be a Valentine's card. Why not make your loved one something personal and from the heart by creating it yourself from scratch and they can be as simple or as complicated as you like. I have been working on three different card designs and I will share them with you below......

 

'Lovestruck'

For this card I used Tim Holtz cherub and heart die cut and also inked and glittered up some of his grungeboard hearts using his Distress Rock Candy glitter which looks amazing. Finish the whole thing off with some ribbon and a few buttons, without forgetting the sentiment at the bottom of the card.

 

'Hugs and Kisses'

Bunting is all around at the moment, with the popularity of the vintage theme so why not create a mini heart bunting on your card. Once again add some buttons and sentiment embellishments and you have a very cute bunting Valentine's card.

 

'Love and Hugs'

For this card I also used the cherub and heart die cut from Tim Holtz for the heart and arrow shapes used above. If you want to add a bit more detail to your cards, maybe take your time and emboss some of the layers. I used a dot embossing folder for the pink strip going across which adds a bit of texture and dimension. Once again a few buttons, this time I also adhered a cherub run-on to the button which I found randomly in my stash and then complete with a sentiment.

I hope these cards give you a little bit of inspiration to create something a bit different this year.

 

Home for Valentine's

Hi bloggers, today we are starting the Valentine inspirations with decorations for the home to embrace the spirit of love. Starting off with this fabric heart, decorated with Parisian flair, reflecting the colours of my room and remember Valentine decorations don't have to be about the reds and pinks. Try to add decorations that match the colours of your home, making them more natural and adding a subtle decoration for this time of year. 

However if you do want that splash of red and pink then check out the heart decorations below:

 

 The pink heart above is made from paper mache and has been painted pink and then sprinkled with Distress glitter (from the amazing Tim Holtz and Ranger). Add a white flower and sentiment and your done.

Last but not least is this beautiful heart wreath, decorated with a fabric heart and lace and flowers. Again, matching the natural colours around the home, a subtle nod to Valentine's Day.

I hope these ideas have added a little Valentine inspiration for around the home and remember to check out my Pinterest page to see what other inspirations you could use.

Valentine's Creations

Happy Weekend bloggers and it is a beautiful sunny start to the day here in Crawley, West Sussex. Well I can't believe it is February already, we are a month into 2013 and there are so many things to look forward to. Anyway we are only 13 days away from Valentine's day so this week I will be sharing some ideas, from cards and paper wrapping to decorations and sweet treats. And it doesn't matter if you don't have someone special in your life, just embrace the celebration of love and pamper yourself, after all we all need to love ourselves a little bit. Below is a sneak peek of some of the ideas to come so stay tuned this week, for some 'LOVE'ly ideas!