With Valentine’s Day this month here’s a fabulous layout that reflects the holiday in non-traditional colors. It features Stampin’Up!’s In Color Baja Breeze teamed with the Kiwi Kiss and uses Pink Pirouette and Chocolate Chip for highlights. This layout also showcases Stampin’ UP!’s fantastic Large Heart Punch. If you’ve not used Stampin’ UP!’s wonderful punches you’re really missing out! They are the easiest and sharpest punches on the market, while many copy cats have come along they’ve been way ahead of the market.
It’s impractical for me to purchase 10 sets of chipboard alphabets for my Scrapper’s 10 Club, so I try to help them think out of the box by coming up with alternatives and I think that the Big Deal Alphabet Set used here in the title is an acceptable and attractive alternative. 
We first stamped the letters using the Baja Breeze Classic Ink and over stamped that with the dotted image from the Itty Bitty Backgrounds Stamp Set using Chocolate Chip Classic Ink to add interest.
The column of five hearts uses Baja Breeze dyed White Taffeta Ribbon, Chocolate Chip Taffeta Ribbon, a Clear Button, Faux Stitching, and the Small Dotted Texturz Plate for the SIZZIX BIG SHOT.
Stolen Heart Layout
What size picture to use?
I love playing around with different size pictures for my scrapbook pages. Here’s one way to get more pictures on your page and not crop or lose any of the details that you want to show. When you are about to print a picture from your favorite photo software you have the option (usually) right before you click the final “print” step to select ‘properties’ for that particular printer. Once that dialogue box pops up, look for the ‘Effects’ tab at the top of the dialogue box and open that up. There should be somewhere on that tab a selection that says “% of normal size”. Changing the percent of normal size is one of the easiest and quickest ways to re-size your prints for your scrapbook pages.
Here above I have shown you what the same photo is like at 50, 70 and 100%. You can print your picture on plain paper in black and white first for more accurate sizing or you can keep a sample of sizes handy like this sheet for referencing with your layouts.
I hope that if you are serious about scrapbooking you have invested in a good color printer. They have really come down in price over the last few years and are much more affordable.
NEW CATALOGS ARE HERE!
Our beautifully awesome new catalogs have arrived! I am continually impressed with the art and design staff at Stampin’ UP!, they’ve out done themselves yet again.
I have subscriptions to about 7-8 different rubber stamp, scrapbook magazines, and craft magazines, and yet the best resource by far is our very own Idea Book & Catalog. Even before I became a demonstrator I collected past issues of their catalog for inspirations.
Here are several ways you can get your copy of the 2009 Spring & Summer Idea Book & Catalog:
1. You can purchase a copy for just $10.00
2. You can pick-up your copy FREE if you are a member of the 2008-2009 Scrapper’s Club
3. Your copy is FREE with a $25.00 order.
4. If you book a workshop your copy is FREE.
First orders can be placed MONDAY January 19th, and YES I’ve got an order going in Monday, so if you want to be included in that order just shoot me an email or call.
Thanks and have a wonderful weekend!
Let it SNOW!
Here’s a fun whimsical layout for those ski or snow pictures. If you look closely you’ll appreciate its simplicity and versatility; and it’s one that you can use time and time again throughout your scrapbook pages. I’ve utilized a couple of classic design elements that will help you with your other pages as well. Using the Stamp-a-ma-jig it’s easy to make repeating borders with your stamps; change the snowflakes border with flowers and birds; the snow mounds are replaced with two shades of green and the page elements are changed out with trees and flowers and you have a spring or summer page layout ready for outdoor pictures. OR, use fish and seashells for the border strip and use tan and a pale brown for the mounds and you have a seascape ready for beach pictures…get the idea? Don’t have the right verse or greeting . . .no problem, using “Double Line Doodling” it’s easy to make just what you need, that’s where the sign came from, that’s right, it’s “FREEHANDED”. Sometimes I think we rely too heavily on stickers and stamps and forget that we can actually draw something ourselves if you just give it a little practice!
Dimensionals were used to add lift for the snowman and penguin. This also adds depth to the page as well as the excessively distressed edges of the snow mounds. I hope you like this light hearted layout, it was quick and easy. . .and that’s the way scrapbooking should be!
Hope you have a wonderful weekend. . .Enjoy!
Cotton Candy Christmas Layout
Now that Christmas has come and gone, it’s time to put some of those pictures in a layout right?!? What to do…why not look at this Christmas in a unique exciting color theme! Remember Cotton candy as a kid? How sugary and sticky and PINK it was? Even though the main color was usually basically pink there was always an array of soft lovely colors interwoven within the sugary strands of crystals, and that’s what we have in this layout…interwoven lucious colors of pinks, complemented by So Saffron set on a bold background of Old Olive and Certainly Celery. The DSP I used is from the beautiful Georgia Peach collection. And, I just love using my Large Star Punch to add a 3-D touch with our Designer Hardware. “A Christmas Wish” is from the Home for Christmas Stamp Set from the Holiday Mini Catalog which runs through January 18th.
This layout is quite versatile too, you have a large space for portrait pics or you can fill up your white canvas with multiple pictures of various sizes, as I have chosen.
In one two-page spread I have hit the highlights of our Holiday Trip to Disney World…using 18 pictures ranging in size from 4×6 to a 1 1/4″ square…now that’s what I call “Optimizing Space”!!
12 x 12 Progressive Page Final layout
Well , I apologize for the delay in posting this last entry on the Progressive Page Layout, but it has indeed been an exciting last 10 days or so as my computer slowed to a crawl not allowing me to do much in the way of imaging or creative stuff…and finally dying on Saturday, luckily though the new one had already been ordered and had actually arrived ahead of schedule (Phew!)and the old hard drive kept ‘kicking’ just long enough to transfer to the new one.
The question was raised in last weeks class, ‘Just why would you build a page this way’ and I suppose the best answer would be that not everyone is comfortable with creating 12 x 12 pages and are very intimidated by trying to ‘fill-up’ 288 sq inches of space in an appealing, attractive format. By starting out small with a 6 x 6 then building up to an 8 1/2 x 11 and then finally finishing a 12 x 12 layout ( times 2) is much simplier. It’s sort of like gardening, not many people are comfortable with large garden spaces. It’s easier and more satisfying to start small, get the hang of things and gradually work your way up. Progressive Page Building may not be for the more experienced scrapbook enthusiaist, but there are lots of folks out there that need a bit of encouragement and sense of accomplishment along the way! Have a great week!
