Inspiration Station - Layering à la Terhi Koskinen!

Hello, hello! Aurelie here today for another round of Let's Capture Our Memories' Inspiration Station - where I aim to inspire by being inspired. With so many scrappy video tutorials out there these days, finding inspiration is as easy as a few clicks on the internet. That's exactly how I found the fabulous Terhi Koskinen. 

I'm a scrapbooker from Finland. Mother. Wife. Friend. Sister. Daughter. Horsebackrider. I'm a paper crafter with lots of inspiration and addiction to make beautiful things.

Scrapbooking is more than a hobby for me, it's a lifestyle - it starts with photograph session and ends when I get my creation where I wanted. And then it starts again. Surrounding myself with pretty things and my family is how I want to live my life. My creations are filled layers, straight lines, and techniques I want to try out. My biggest passion is to make scrapbook layouts (12" x 12"), but sometimes I'm inspired to alter some daily used objects.

I've been very lucky and honored to get myself into several design teams, you can find all current and past design teams and my published pages here. Lately I've done some tutorials too, hope you get inspired by them. 

Now, for those of you who know me, you must me thinking, uh, Aurelie, you always layer. But Terhi brings layering to a whole other dimension, adding in mixed media elements to her work. And after watching a few of her tutorial videos, I fell in love with how she takes pieces of one collection (or two, or three!) and just starts piling one piece on top of each other with no worries. How many hours have I played with paper trying to find the right combo even when the papers all come from the same collection and perfectly match? It's fun, I know, and definitely part of the process, but following Terhi's lead, I dared myself to let go and not sweat the small stuff. And it totally worked! I didn't even use my cutter - just took my scissors and chopped pieces free-hand. Oh! And the doodling of circles with a pencil, embossing some more circles and creating texture with some stencils and gesso/paste!! Be still my beating heart!! I did have to pump myself up to get that going, but as soon as I started, I thought to myself, this is SO fun! Here's my layout followed by a few close-ups:

Tons of My Mind's Eye On Trend collection on this layout - patterned papers, stickers, chipboard buttons, and die-cuts. I also used a bit of Stampin' Up cardstock, Fancy Pants patterned paper, Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type alphas, Elizabeth Craft Designs Peel-Off stickers, Prima crystals, Tattered Angels Glimmer Glaze, Close to My Heart and Scrapbook & Cards Today stamps, Stampin' Up clear embossing powder and vellum, Magenta mesh, Freckled Fawn star paper clip, MME wood dots, Heidi Swapp stencil with some Liquitex light modeling paste, and yup, you guessed it, hand-stitching using a Crafter's Workshop stitching template and some good ol' DMC floss.

Wanna see some of Terhi's work up close? Here are a few close-ups of some of her work that totally inspired me for this reveal (I've included the link for Terhi's video tutorials below each photo):

https://youtu.be/eiV4ykiqUrk

https://youtu.be/YkgSclGYwnU

https://youtu.be/Zohf-_SaMAg

If you'd like to see even more of Terhi's work, just hop along right over here:

Blog: http://tellimaria.blogspot.fi

Social media: Facebook, Instagram (terhi_koskinen), YouTube, Twitter (@terhi_koskinen)

Online galleries: Scrapbook.com, CSI, Pinterest, Flickr

Huge shout out to Terhi who so kindly allowed me to lift some of her ideas and post some of her own work onto today's feature. You are truly an inspiration and I look forward in seeing what you come up with next! ;)

Happy scrapping!

Aurelie

Versatile Christmas Papers

Happy Friday friends,

I'm here today with a non-Christmas themed layout using Christmas papers.  I fell in love with the All is Bright collection by My Mind's Eye.  I love the colour, combo, and think it's a gorgeous one for Christmas, but also one that could be used all year round.  Turquoise, cream, and red can be used for just about anything, including both male and female pages.

I especially loved this paper from the collection.

I cut it apart and stitched it back together leaving teeny bit of space in between each chevron for a really neat look.  Here is the layout I created using the collection. 

 

Notice the silver doily peeking out from behind.  I found that little gem at the bulk food store last week, and knew it would make a wonderful addition to my doily collection.  I don't know if doilies are a thing of the past or not, but I can't seem to keep from adding them to my layouts.  I've also added some old Jillibean Soup alphabets, May Arts trim, Studio Calico mist, TCW mask, and some flair from my stash.  You may rest your mouse over the photo to read the story behind the layout.  You can find the All Is Bright Collection right here.

This will be my last post for Let's Capture Our Memories.  I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here, and will forever be grateful to Tanya for the opportunity.  Isabelle has done a fine job with the transition of ownership, and I know you all will be supportive of her as she continues to grow this sweet little community.  I know she will be having a Marketing Team call in the near future, and suggest you keep your eyes peeled for the announcement.  Thanks so much for popping in from time to time to see how I've used the products in the store, and especially to those of you who took the time to leave comments, they sure made my day.  If you'd like to keep up with me you can find me on the web at http://faithandscraphappiness.blogspot.ca/ or on Instagram at http://instagram.com/sherrifunk

All the best, and may this weekend be a great one, as we look forward to a month of Christmas prep, and celebrations.

You & Me

Happy Friday friends,

Have you seen the new Pink Paislee Portfolio Collection?  I just love it.  yellow, cream, and grey seem to be very big right now in the industry, and Pink Paislee mixes them perfectly in this new line.  I had this photo of my little buddy Nyah and I kicking around since summer.  I love this photo of the two of us.  She is one great kid!  I knew I wanted to create a great layout with this sweet photo of us.  With this collection, and the help of my Silhouette Cameo, I think I did pretty good.

 

You can see the Portfolio papers in the shop here.  I added some old Echo Park brads, and some mist from my stash to this layout as well as some flair from a fun new shop I discovered on Etsy.  I hid the journaling on the tag with the pull out ribbon under the banner flair badge.  It reads "I couldn't love this girl anymore if she were my own.  I remember praying for her while she was still in China.  She's been here 4 yrs now, and she blesses us all."

I hope you have a great weekend in store.  I'll be back next Friday with my very last post as a member of the Marketing Team. 

Sherri

Easy Hidden Journal Tag

I often like to add journaling to my pages.  Sometimes it's right out in the open on the layout, and other times it's hidden, either because of it's sensitive nature, or because I don't want to throw off the balance of the design.  It can be tricky trying to figure out a way to hide your journaling.  I almost always end up creating my own journal pocket.  I usually sew a little pocket together, but today I'm going to show you a quick and simple way to create a pocket without a sewing machine.

The biggest help with this is some sort of narrow double sided tape.  This one we sell in the LCOM store is nice and narrow, and really tacky, this would be perfect.

I either use a scrap of cardstock or an office supply tag as my journal spot.  Sometimes you can even use an actual journal card, like I did on this layot.

I decided this time to decorate an office supply tag using stickers from this sheet in the Carta Bella Beautiful Moments collection.

I should note that I always create my layout first with exception of the journal spot.  This will help me decide on size and placement.

To create/decorate the journal tag, I first cut the shaped journal spot sticker in half vertically.  I then stuck in onto the end of my office supply tag.  I used a scrap piece of cardstock to place under the sticker making it more durable, and keeping it from sticking to my layout, as this is the part I'll need to pull on to reveal the hidden journaling.

I then cut out the journal sticker from the scrap paper using my craft knife.  Once that was completed I need to figure out placement on my layout.

To create the envelop.  I simply used strips of double sided tape placed closely to the sides and bottom of where my journal spot will lie on the layout.  This will create a natural little pocket once the matted photo and papers are stuck on to the layout, keeping the journal tag from sliding out of place.

What you're seeing is the reverse side of my matted photo cluster

**Note** You will not remove the backing from these strips of tape as then the journal tag will tend to stick to the tape inside the pocket once it's placed on the layout.  Leave the backing on, and you will not encounter that problem.

Add adhesive to the edges of the matted photo cluster and stick it to your layout. You are now ready to decorate the rest of the tag and add your journaling.

I used two more stickers from the Carta Bella sticker sheet

Tuck your tag into your new formed pocket, nd you're done.  Easy peasy, and no sewing machine required.  Here is my finished layout.

See how journaling would have thrown off the design?  This way I have a design I'm happy with and all the memories safely recorded on a hidden little tag.

Here are a couple more layouts that have hidden journaling done the same way.

 Hope you've been inspired to give it a try.

All the Carta Bella product I used can be found in the store, here.

Happy Saturday friends!

(Pretty) Homework

Can you believe it's been a month since the days of school homework?  If you're like me you have to stop yourself from thinking "It's only one more month until we're back into homework".  As a little bit of a control freak, planner, I struggle with living in the moment, a lot.  But that's another story for another time.

Today I have a super simple design with lots of straight lines, and as usual a few layers.  I'm still working with Crate Paper Pretty Party Collection, and still finding lots of variety to go with pretty much any photo.

I've layered some of the cardstock stickers, and die cuts from the collection, topping them off with an Evalicious badge.

These photos of my girls doing homework in the back of the van are nothing special really.  If you look through my scrapbooks you'll see other similar photos of routine/mundane activities.  I've tried hard to make a point of incorporating the 'everyday' into my scrapbooks.  I think that is something that many of us struggle with (unless of course you  keep up with Project Life).  It's easy to get caught up in the events, vacations,and other milestones.  There are, however, so many other day-to-day occurrences, that make up our lives,  I believe it is just as much fun to look back and remember, celebrate, and appreciate them as we would birthdays, or first day of school 

 type events.

rest your mouse over the photo to read the journaling

This layout is in remembrance of this past year where my younger two girls and I would wait for 25 minutes outside the school of my oldest.  We would use that time to get caught up on home reading, spelling practice, and math homework.  It was a great use of time, and even a nice way to wind down just a bit after school, but before Dance Class and supper took over.  I know the days are not far off, where they will no longer want me to pick them up from school, choosing rather to walk or take public transportation with their friends.  I'm sure there will come a day way down the road, when my girls are grown, and gone, and I'll stumble upon this page and long for 'the days of homework in the back of the van' once more.  

How about you, are you in the habit of recording the 'every day'?  Have you ever considered that it may be neat to one day look back at the way you spent your days during this chapter of your life?  Perhaps today is a good day to start?  

As always link us up if you've been inspired by this post, or have any suggestions of your own.  

We love to hear from you!

The store has plenty of Evalicious and Crate Paper Pretty Party selection available.  There are even brand new items showing up these days.  Check out the new American Crafts Shoreline, or Basic Grey Clippings & Paper Cottage collections for starters.  I suggest you hop over to the store and see all the new goodies for yourself.  Tanya has been a busy lady.  Happy shopping!

Scrappin' Your Stash

The excitement of CHA can be felt all over the scrappy web.  It's always so exciting to see what our favorite manufacturers have come up with to delight our scrappy senses.  I know I'm not the only one who struggles with balancing wanting more new goodness and using up the goodness we still have in our stash.  As much as we want to bring brand new scrappy goodness into our home, we have a slight sense of guilt over all the scrappy supplies we still have piled up, staring us in the face ever time we sit down to scrap.  For today's post, I thought it may be a good idea to showcase a couple of ideas to help us use up some of that stash to make room for some of the new CHA goodness we've got our eye on.  So I gathered up my Crate Paper Pretty Party Collection pack, and some other random supplies that have been gathering dust in my space and got to work.

First an altered tin.  Add a little Mod Podge, eliminate a few things here and there, and voila a cute little tin for my 10 year old girly, girl to keep her treasures in.

Next up a layout.

This design uses 10 different strips of paper.  It's not a new design by any means but efficient in helping you to make a dent in that stash of yours.  Have a look and you'll see what I mean.

To create this design I began by using a lightweight piece of cardboard I recycled from my pocket page protector packaging.

I cut the piece of cardboard to 12" x 6.75".  I then marked the center point on the cardboard and drew angular lines about every two inches all the way around.

Next I sliced the pieces apart, and numbered them so that I could replicate it easily once the pieces of patterned paper were cut out.  This will also allow you to keep, and reuse the pieces over, and over again.

Because the traced pieces are always slightly larger than the original there will be a tiny bit of overlapping at the center.  This is easily covered up once you put your layout together.  I like the look of stitching on my pages, and this is a great design for it.

Remember we're trying to use up our stash, so I've layered several die cut shapes,  and boarder stickers that came with the collection around my photos.

And here is the final product.

 
The photos are from Tuesday when two of my longest standing friends came over for the afternoon. It had been a long time since we'd all been together. Hover your mouse over the photo to read the journaling.

I hope I've been able to inspire you to dig into your stash and put some of the scrappy goodness you've been hoarding, or just haven't gotten around to using, to good use.  What kinds of empty little containers have you been saving that could benefit from a little sprucing up with pretty paper, ribbon, and embellishments?  Canning jars?  Pringle tubes?  Little vases from the Dollarstore?  I'm sure you don't have to look too hard to find something.  And what about all those layouts you've been pinning, or adding to your 'favorites' folder that use a lot of little bits of paper and tags, or die cuts, or journal spots?  Maybe it's time to lift one and make some room in your stash for the new goodness that's sure to arrive in the store witin the next month or two.  If you do decide to tackle your stash we'd sure love to come and have a peek, be sure to link us up.

Happy scrapping!

Scrappy Goodness Used:
Crate Paper Pretty Party
Maya Road Vintage Butterflies
Maya Road Pins
Maya Road ribbon
Ormolu Chevron Tag
October Afternoon Sticky Keys
American Crafts Thickers
The Twinery Twine
3D Foam Squares
Other:
Petallo flower
May Arts Jute & Tulle

Tombow Adhesive

Pretty Party Girl

Crate Pretty party is just that, pretty, pretty papers. They allowed me to capture the beauty and girlieness of my 10 year old's birthday outfit perfectly.  The soft, yet distressed look to the papers are so gorgeous, the pages practically scrap themselves.  This layout came together a cluster at a time.  I love layering, and wanted to create a small cluster of layered goodies in the top right corner, and place my photo cluster to the bottom right corner. 

I started with this.

The button and pink brad are from an older Crate Paper collection

I was loving the elements from the sticker sheet and wanted to use as many as I could on this layout.  It's been a while since I've hand stitched on a page, so I wanted to get that in here too.  The gorgeous Evalicious badge was the perfect element to use make this happen.

Here's a better look at all the dimension.

I made the photo cluster larger.

The two doilis, lace, office tag, and alphas are from my stash

More hand stitching, more stickers, more Evalicious, and some Maya Road pins

I've hidden the journaling on the tag behind the photo.

Here is how it all came together.  A snapshot of my daughter's 10th birthday, in her pretty new outfit from her grandparents.

I added just a little more machine stitching to the corners to finish it off

Crate Pretty Party Papers and embellishments are all 40% off.  You can get this collection and more amazing deals here. If new is what you're looking for there are plenty of new release items to satisfy you in that department also.  Check out the new Heidi Swapp for example, it's bright, bold, and full of inspiration.  Regardless of what you're in the mood for the store has plenty to offer, you're sure to find something to suit your fancy.

Be sure to come back here on Wednesday. Nicole will have more creative inspiration to share with you.

See you then!

Can't Touch This

Lily Bee Design use to be one of those manufactures that I would enjoy looking at, but could never get to work in my favor.  Well, not anymore.  Over the past two years something has changed about them, and I just love their designs, and their expanded lines of product.  I can't tell you how happy I was when I opened my pizza box a  few weeks ago to see the brand spanking new Double Dutch Collection staring back at me.  It is so pretty, even more so in real life.  (Not to mention the super cute way Tanya packages everything up with pretty pink tissue, it's like getting a birthday gift in the mail).  The line is bright but not too bright, with a touch of distressing to it.  Both sides are so great, I actually had a tough time deciding which one to use. 

I have three girls, all of whom dance competitively.  This photo is of my middle daughter Théa (pronounced T-eh-ah), and her friend after their last Hip Hop performance rehearsal before the big day (she's the one on the right).  Théa is  such a happy, smiley kid, that she actually has to work hard at keeping that 'serious, full of angst, hip-hop' face during the dance.  She's got it nailed here.

Click on the photo to enlarge

As you can tell I did some stitching on this layout (under the title, and on the banner).  It's one of my go-to techniques.  So often a layout just doesn't feel complete to me without a little stitching on it.

Here, I stitched the banner stickers directly to the photo.  I know many who struggle to sew or even write over top of their photos, not this girl.  The way I see it, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do to achieve the looks she's after.  The only tricky part about stitching through stickers is that your needle will get a little sticky too.  A quick wipe with some Un-du, or any of those sticky removal products is all your needle will need to be good as new again.  If you don't have any of those, a baby wipe will also do the trick, it just requires a few more swipes than the others.

Here is a peek into my creative process. 

I began this layout wanting to weave the paper strips.  I cut a bunch of coordinating strips, and went to town.  In the end the design I ended up liking best, wanting the place the title on a curve, meant that I ended up covering most of the weave.  Oh well, no harm done, there's still a little poking out from behind the photo, and most importantly, I like the end result.  A girl's gotta do, what a girl's gotta do to achieve the look she's after right?!

You may not be able to tell, but there is actually a lot of layering going on here.  I really wanted the banner to have a 3-D look to it, which meant that I had to use some 3-D foam squares underneath the bulk of the photo/journal card cluster to achieve the right look.  

Here is a side view of the cluster.

See lots of depth and layering to get just the right look

There you have it.  A look at the more colorful side of the Lily Bee Design - Double Dutch Collection, as well as a peek into my creative process.  Hope you feel inspired to go and create something beautiful today.  If I've convinced you to give stitching on your photos a try for the first time, be sure to link us up, we'd love to come have a peek, and leave you some love.  But, before you go please take a sec to pop by the store you can see all the items I used on my layout here, and snag some for yourself while you're at it.

Have a great Wednesday everyone!