Friday, August 26, 2011

sketch support | happy 5th birthday

 

My layout is based on a one-page sketch at Sketch Support.

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Get your free copy of the sketch here.

 

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Supplies: patterned paper: Echo Park; letter stickers: Basic Grey & American Crafts; buttons: stash; label stickers: October Afternoon; other: embroidery floss & vellum

1) The first, most obvious change I made was turning this one page layout into a two-page spread. It was such an easy change up! All I really did was add two more 4x6 photos. Doing this gave me extra space for my title & journaling. All other dimensions were kept the same.

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2) I swapped out the hearts in the sketch & used buttons instead. I usually just glue my buttons down, but there was so much stitching on here already that I thought it just fit. I also slid a label sticker behind each cluster of buttons to ground them a bit more.

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3) To get my journaling to pop on my printed paper, I printed it on vellum & then put it on top of the patterned paper. I added an extra label sticker with the date to camouflage where the vellum ends on the paper (since I came up with idea AFTER I started stitching Smile)

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

christmas cards 2010, part three

 

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My third & last layout of Christmas Card photos! And my fifth Christmas themed project in the last few weeks….I think I’m getting into Christmas mode!

Monday, August 22, 2011

christmas cards 2010, part two

 

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More inspiration from Nichol Magouirk, and more supplies used up! I did go out & buy the letter & number stickers (My Little Shoebox) because I didn’t have enough “1”s .

Something I did differently this year, that I will continue in the future, is labeling each photo. I added a number sticker on each, and then listed on the side who was in the photo/who it was from. I also used more than one photo from each family IF their card came that way (in the past I’ve just chosen one if they had a collage card).

Sunday, August 21, 2011

christmas cards 2010, part one

 

I love getting Christmas cards! I love seeing pictures of people I don’t see very often, I love reading updates on everyone’s lives. And I love saving those photos so I can look back on them as the years go by.

The quandary is, how on earth can I get ALL of those photos onto a scrapbook page?

The answer: usually not on *a* single scrapbook page, but a few.

Last year I was able to consolidate all of my card photos onto four pages. This year I took a different approach & actually created a layout for my cards…and ended up with six pages (three layouts) all together. It took a little bit more work, but I’m very pleased with the results!

I was inspired by Nichol Magouirk from Two Peas. I subscribe to her blog, so I’ve seen a few of her  card layouts. Then I checked them out on Two Peas & sketched my own version. Here’s the first layout:

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supplies are all Echo Park (except the date, Thickers of course!)…and yes, I almost used up my stash with all of these layouts! What was left went into one card & a goody box for my five year old Smile

Thursday, August 18, 2011

sketch support: add-on | christmas card

 

{See what the rest of the team came up with the add-on sketch here}

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Supplies: paper & stickers, Echo Park; ink: Tsukineko; scallop punch: Stampin’ Up!

After doing my Christmas two-page layout, I had a ton of scraps sitting on my desk. What better way to use them than in this month’s add-on sketch? So instead of making a party hat, I made a fun Christmas tree!

The first thing I did was cut a sheet of scrap paper to 3 1/2” x 5”. I cut my triangle base from that using the directions on the original sketch. Then, using the sketch as a guideline, I started laying leftover strips of paper across the base paper. I used more green than the other prints to keep it looking more like a tree than just a bunch of paper. Once everything was adhered, I trimmed the edges & inked them. I punched one strip with a scallop punch for the bottom of the tree.

I added a sticker to the top of the tree, on pop dots, for the star. I used two more stickers, also on pop dots, for the sentiment.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

10 things i love about summer

 

This layout is based on the latest two-page sketch on Sketch Support. I didn’t get it done on time to be on the blog, but you can pop on over to check out more ideas based on this sketch, and to get a copy of the sketch for free Smile

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supplies: patterned paper: Echo Park & Little Yellow Bicycle; journaling card: Technique Tuesday; rhinestones: Doodlebug Designs; title block: Little Yellow Bicycle; Spray Mist: Tattered Angels; other: embroidery floss, (All items from my August Green Tangerine’s kit)

1) I flipped the sketch horizontally & also vertically, just because.

 

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2) To get the swirl that I stitched, I opened up the sketch in Photoshop Elements. I cropped & resized the actual sketch so that the dimensions were 24x12. Then I cropped the portion where the swirl was to 8.5x11 so I could print it out at 100%. Then I traced a line onto the swirls so I could figure out where to punch it. Once I punched all of my holes, I flipped the paper over & punched my swirls onto the layout. (My layout is flipped, so I needed my swirl to be flipped too, I hope that makes sense!). After punching my holes, I flipped my layout over & traced the dots (on the back of my layout) so I could see what holes went to which swirl. Then I just started stitching! I’m pretty pleased with the results!

 

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3) For the strait stitched line I used my Sew Easy tool. I’m still getting the hang of it, but I find if I lightly draw a line where I want my stitching to be, I can make a straight line.

The journaling block is from Technique Tuesday, and is from a sheet of paper.

 

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3) The title block came with 10 strips to write your 10 summer memories on. I was going to ask my kids, but then decided it was going to be MY favorite summer memories Smile I wrote one on each strip, and when I placed it in the page protector I cut a slit on that page so we can remove the strips to read them anytime.

 

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4) This was also the first time I used spray mist…love it! I sprayed the blue waves just to make it more blue, so nothing exciting, but I had fun playing as I sprayed. I can totally see now why people are addicted to their mists…I may have to find me some more things to spray now !

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

sketch support: merry christmas

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Supplies: Patterned paper & stickers: Echo Park

This layout came together so easily! All Echo Park supplies, and all of my strips came from the sheet of border strips! Yippee! The hardest part was trimming around the trees, and that’s just because my eyes don’t like seeing up close too well anymore, LOL!

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1) I kept all the photos on the left hand side the same sizes in the sketch. However, I decided to make a 6x12” photo block on the right instead of four 6x4 photos. Thank goodness for photoshop, right? I just played around with the pictures that I had from Christmas until I liked it, and then resized them to make them fit. I added a 10px stroke outline border to all of the photos in the block because they were blending together too much.

2) Well, obviously this isn’t a “summer” theme, so no waves on this layout. I kept the striped border the same, and added a “ho ho ho” border strip on top. The Christmas trees are attached  to the stripes, so I just trimmed around each tree to add some shape to the strip (instead of waves like in the sketch).

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3) Another change is how I used the trees & Santa instead of the cool swirls in the sketch. The trees were too green on their own, so I added Santa. And the sticker sheet that I had came with this nice little journaling box. Woo-hoo!

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Monday, August 8, 2011

new winner!

Well, Tootie never contacted me with her info :(

That means I still have a copy of Sketches for Scrapbooking up for grabs!



So I went ahead & drew another name for this fabulous prize:

Congratulations Brenda! Email me at christinechain19 (at) gmail (dot) com so I can forward your contact information to Allison at Sketch Support.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

one page sketch book giveaway winner...

Tootie...

Please contact me by midnight tonight, August 7. I haven't heard from you yet, and I need your contact information to send your prize to. If I don't hear from you by tonight, I will re-draw a winner.