Product Shuffle : framed transparencies and push pins

Good morning everyone!

Jocelyne here with another twist on how to use your scrapbook stash in fun new ways.  Today I have a 2 in 1 combo.  I played with Maya Road framed transparencies and some My Mind's Eye push pins.

Transparencies are fun to add over top pictures to give them that Polaroid retro look and these Maya Road ones are super fun considering they have sayings on them. 

I sometimes struggle with the push pins.  I ususally just add a couple under a flower or cluster of embellishment.  Those My Mind's Eye pins are really very pretty and they come in so many different shapes and color.

So the first thing I did was make little flags using the pin as my post.  I have seen some done with toothpicks, I though using some of these pins would be prettier.  Are they not cute!

I did some fussy cutting of  a tag from my Echo Park Capture Life paper and glued it on itself wrapping it around the pin. 

Now for the transparencies.  Like I said previously, we usually use them over pictures.  To mix things up I decided to use them underneath.

It created the base onto which I laid my pictures.  I love how it framed everything without hiding the layers underneath.

Here is another view of the transparency mat and the push pin flag.  I adhered my mini alpha stickers to this flag

Here is the entire layout.

I actually cut the middle transparency in half to make it visible from both side of the picture.  Along with the Echo Park Capture Life collection, I also used some CTMH cardstock, Jillibean Soup's Soup Staple paper. and a My Mind's Eye wooden button.

I hope you liked it and are inspired to look into using your stash in an unconventional way.  If you have any ideas of products you would like to see me use, please let us know in the comments below.  You know I love a challenge!

Have an awesome day!

Oldies and Goodies

Hi, Erin here today to talk a little more about using old products and new products. Last week we looked mainly at combining papers and embellishments in a mix match fashion. This week, I want to show you how to use up some older stuff, and make it new using fun new products.

I chose to dig through my rarely used chipboard, and pull out some pieces from Fancy Pants Designs. You may even have something similar in your collection.

Chipboard is one of those staple products that can always be altered to look updated and modern. Even printed pieces of chipboard can be given a new look by either peeling off the printed layer, or by recovering the print with paper or paint. In this case, I'm giving the surface of the raw chipboard new life with one of my favorite new trends; washi tape.

Any colour combo goes, you could even repeat the same pattern over and over again.  Just line each strip up side by side, and go right to the edge. You can trim off any tape that goes over.

The next step is to take your craft knife and cut out any pieces you wish to use. I chose to remove the small inner frame and shaped tags, but to leave the smaller shapes in the bottom, so it created a polaroid type frame. Cutting is very easy, as the tape is thin, and you can see the indent of the lines where you should cut.

I dug through my pile of old Christmas papers to find a paper that worked with the patterns of washi tape I used. Wouldn't you know I had a red and white polka dot that matched exactly! ( October Afternoon).

Add to that a smattering of old and new embellishments, and you've got a page that can comfortably fit in your album with this year's pages.

New embellishments used: 

Wooden Shapes : Studio Calico ( covered with Tim Holtz Platinum Distress Stain)

Alterable Chipboard Stars: Pink Paislee (Coloured with Distress Stains)

Snowflake Die Cuts: Maya Road

Tanya's Surprise Box Part II

Remember my surprise box from Tanya this month?

One of the items in the box was a Simple Stories 12x12 memorabilia pocket (pictured bottom left box, top left corner).  I was wracking my mind trying to come up with an unconventional way to use this outside of my scrapbook.

In our home we have a lot of papers/notes that need a home from time to time.  For example permission slips, or fund raising forms the girls bring home from school.  There are also checks that need to be deposited, and letters/cards to be placed in the mail.  Because my fridge is stainless steel, I can no longer use magnets to simply tack things onto the front of the fridge.  We found a solution in the form of our garage access door.  It's not pretty but it works as far as tacking papers that need to be returned/mailed/signed/deposited, etc to it with magnets.  It works, but drives me crazy to look at.

Enter Simple Stories memorabilia pocket, ribbon, pins, and stickers.  I used more of my mystery box items to create this...

A cute little pocket to hold all the 'stuff'.  I simply use magnets to hold it to the door and voila, no more eye sore of a door every time I leave the house.  Cute and functional.

Nicole's Mystery Box part 2

Nicole here again to share a few quick cards I made using the mystery box that Tanya shipped me this month! 

I had a lot of Simple Stories pocket pages inside.. and thought they would make great gift card holders!

 You can see that I cut down the pockets and attached them to bases - added a few details here and there with some Maya Road pins, twine and MME stickers from the store:

 You can see how if you tuck in some tags, instead of a gift card, it would be a different twist on using the pockets on a card or even on a page:

 and how cute are those button pins too! I love how they can be tucked into a button or twine

and go with anything!

Supplies:

MME  Howdy Doody Dimensional stickers

Simple Stories pockets

Maya Road pins - buttons

Maya Road pins - dark brown pearl

Friday Faves

With so much stock in the LCOM store these days it is not difficult to choose some faves to share with you today.

The Soleil collection by Basic Grey collection would be fun to use on some of the summer photos I have yet to scrap.  And check out the awesome flair badges.

Also from Basic Grey the Paper Cottage collection has some fun bits and pieces that would make creating so much fun.  I love to pop stickers off the page using 3D adhesive, adding more colour and dimension to my page.  And I am a real sucker for stitched brads.  Truth be told, I love these ones so much I would have a hard time actually using them on a page.

 

These stamps would be welcome accessories in my scrap room any time.  With summer vacation only slightly forgotten these BoBunny guys would be great a page.  And the Prima ones below would be a perfect fit on any page.

Maya Road never fails when it comes to embellishments, and these little guys are no exception.

If you know my style, you will know that I am, more times than not attracted to muted, toned down colours with pops of bright.  So you may be shocked to know that my absolute favorite item in the shop right now is the bright and cheerful Grandma's Lima Bean Soup collection by Jillibean Soup.  Inexplicably, I was immediately drawn to the fabulous lush colour in the collection.  The alphas are the perfect size, and come in a variety of colours. 

Here is my first layout completed with the collection.

Quote found on Pinterest

All my faves and more can be found in the shop here.  Get ready, once you start looking, you won't be able to stop.

Happy shopping friends!

Some More Smash and Some Friday Faves

Hi everyone! It's Kate here again today. I would like to share more of my Smash book with you and show you some of my favourites in the store right now.

Here is one of my favourites from the shop. This is the 'Journal' Smash Folio. I like this one better than the pink one that I'm using. I find this one more versatile.

Here's another page out of my Smash book. This page documents how my horse, Cash, was really green (untrained) when I got him and that he was especially afraid of water. It took quite a lot of convincing to get him in the water. This is a must for an Eventing horse, so I was pretty determined to get him in! Once he was in, he thought it was fun to splash around.

You can see my background stamp a little better in this photo. I created the horse Silhouette file myself.

That brings me to another of my store favourites. I used this Pretty Party chipboard in my Smash book quite a bit. I can't get enough of Crate!

This is my favourite page from my Smash book so far. I love these pictures of my youngest on a horse for the first time. You can tell by the look on my face that I'm a lot more excited about it than she is! I want my kids to love the same things that I do so badly; scrapbooking, horses and skiing.The folded doily is a Silhouette America die cut. You can see that I used a lot of Crate's Pretty Party here and some of the new Studio Calico Hey Day combined with some Sassafras stuff that I have been hoarding.

Here's another close up.

If you miss Sassafras as much as I do, you don't want to miss out Studio Calico's Hey Day. It was designed in collaboration with Sassafras. Basic Grey's Soleil collection was also designed in collaboration with Sassafras, and it will be in the store soon as well!

Here's the last page that I would like to share with you. This one is a journal page about things that I want to change about myself or that I feel I need to work on.

Here's another of my recent favourites in the store. Aren't they the most amazing buttons ever? They are part of Basic Grey's Paper Cottage collection.

Last, but certainly, not least, there is so much new Maya Road stock in the Let's Capture Our Memories store right now that I don't know which one I'm most excited about. I think that my favourite item is probably this vintage trim. It would go very well with just about any of the paper collections currently out.

Thanks so much for making it down to the bottom of my very long post! Have a great weekend! Kate

More Canvas

You may have noticed lots of canvas around lately. It seems many companies have gotten into creating canvas embellishments that can be altered,as well as bags, aprons, books, and well...canvases. 

If you've wanted to try doing a canvas, but feel a bit intimidated, a canvas mini album may be the perfect solution- small size, and lots of pages to practice on!

Here's what I started with, this fun book by Canvas Corp.

Now because of how I work, this isn't a step by step tutorial, but it will give you some ideas of where to start. I began with  a Crafter's workshop Stencil, and a bottle of Sugar Cane Tattered Angel's Glimmer Glaze. The brush is built right into the cap, so there's no need for any special tools, or brush clean-up!

Once I had the Glimmer Glaze applied, and dry, I played with several shades of Glimmer mists like Timberline, Coffee Shop and Tattered Leather. I worked and blotted with a rag. I eventually went too dark, and rinsed and scrubbed and then went back in with some more mist, some Pewter Glimmer Glaze, and added a finishing mist of Biscotti Perfect Pearls to even out the colour. ( I did warn you that this wasn't an exact science).  See how the Glaze works a bit like a resist with the mist?

I stamped a Canvas Butterfly By Maya Road with Staz On ink. I found the best way to do this is to apply your canvas directly to the stamp and apply pressure all over with your fingertips. It's a subtle transfer, but adds just a bit of interest.

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I added a bit of metallic embroidery floss, some lace trim, which I glued on, and two beautiful cotton flowers. I also added a bit of colour to the edges of the butterfly using the Glimmer Glaze. The added benefit, is that it also helps to keep the canvas from fraying.

Now I just need to figure out what I'm going to make this little book into.

Erin Morehouse

It's a Kit!

This month, I put together a kit for myself full of goodies from the store!
It has some Bella Blvd Baby girl, Crate Paper, and October Afternoon in it. Even some Maya Road twine and some fun Evalicious badges too ! (psst...there are some new ones in the store too !! Yay!)

Here is a picture of my "kit" all ready to be dug into!

Here is the first page that I created with this mix of manufacturers:

 I really Love the Evalicious badges and knew I wanted to add some into my kit:

 Look how pretty that sparkly twine is too ! just the right hint of sparkle to the page.

 I did add in some Bella Blvd. chipboard from my stash that I had already picked up from LCOM before. The summery shapes are perfect to mix in with these lines! You could use any chipboard - the baby girl ones that co-ordinate with the paper are in stock!!

 of course, there are more Elle's Studio tags on here too - can't get enough of those!!! Perfect for adding little bits of journalling on your pages.

and I just love the Bella Blvd Baby Girl stickers too!!! Not just for baby pages either!

You can create this kit for yourself by heading over to the store now and checking out!