Mini Book Mondays: Little Yellow Bicycle

Since there are sooo many pictures to this fun little mini that I made for The Scrapbooking Studio DT that I'm going to go with less words and more pictures in this post.

Papers, Chipboard, Word Stickers; Coordinating Embellishments; Album Kit - Little Yellow Bicycle. Letter stickers & Rub-ons -Doodlebug. Snowflake dies - Lifestyle Crafts. Punches - Martha Stewart. Ledger Transparency - Maya Road. Snowflake transparency - Hambly. Grungeboard - Tim Holtz. Paint pen - Elmers. Twine - The Twinery. Snowflake stickers  EK Success. Blue Ribbon - Martha Stewart. Date stamp - Office Supply. Blue label - Dymo.

Authentique February Sketch Challenge - Card

For cards on Wednesdays today, I'm sharing a quick and easy card based on the Authentique February Sketch Challenge. This card makes good use of scraps. Plus, if you wanted to add a little texture, you could switch out the bottom strip for a piece of ribbon.

Design for The Scrapbooking Studio

Pattern papers - Authentique Gathering; Cardstock - Bazzill; Buttons - Buttons Galore; Twine - Karen Foster; Chipboard letters - Basic Grey; Thread - Coats & Clark, Sewing Machine - Janome

Authentique Blog Sketch Challenge - Layout

Every month Authentique hosts a sketch challenge on their blog. They post a sketch for a layout and card on the first Saturday and you have until the end of the month to complete your projects. I've kind of gotten into participating in challenges over the past year because it gives me a starting place and a deadline. (Apparently both are much needed motivators for me.) So I thought I'd use this month's sketch challenge as the starting point for one of my design team layouts for The Scrapbooking Studio.

Here's this month's layout sketch from Authentique:

One of the things I like about this sketch is that it could be rotated 90 degrees to the left and you'd have a whole new looking layout with the same basic format. I may have to try that next.

And here's my layout based (although perhaps loosely) on the sketch:

The square in the middle offers a great opportunity to use either a gorgeous single photo or a photo collage if you want to pack several photos neatly onto one page. 

Now that I'm looking at this, I am thinking that I need to go back and add some journaling to "tell the story" behind this layout. Journaling is one of the things I struggle with. Fortunately the ledger lines in the background paper will provide an easy way to neatly add words to the pictures.

Papers & Die cuts - Authentique; Buttons - Buttons Galore; Orange flower trim, dress form chipboard - Maya Road; Cream Rose - Prima; DIY letters - Jillibean Soup; Twine - Karen Foster; Thread - Coats & Clark; Sewing Machine - Janome; Ink - Studio G

Live a life less ordinary

I love the My Mind's Eye Lost and Found collection, but I've hesitated to buy it in the past for a few reasons:

1. Because it's that "beautiful" kind of paper that's just so luxurious you feel obligated to hoard it rather than use. 
2. Because as beautiful as the papers are, I struggle to figure out how to work with papers that already have lots of design elements going on.

I had an idea for a page titled "live a life less ordinary" and started out planning to use October Afternoon papers. Then, as I was walking by a table, I saw a kit of this My Mind's Eye papers laying there and the "ordinary" die cut was staring up at me, begging to be used. And well, when something aligns so perfectly, when page karma comes your way, you just have to go along with it right?

I used a Copic Sketch marker to re-color glittered Thickers so they would match the glittered details on the papers.

With banners all the rage, I couldn't resist the opportunity to make a little mini banner with some tiny flags and an assortment of trinkets. Oh, and of course some black and white twine, just in case it wasn't trendy enough :)

Isn't this little wooden button just the most adorable thing ever?

Here's the journaling -in case you were having trouble figuring out what track shoes and a 100K odometer reading had to do with this. 

And last but not least, the completed page.

Techniques on Tuesdays: Copics to the Rescue!

Scrappers everywhere rejoice! Today's tip will help save you a trip to the store when you're in the middle of a layout.

I've been  using my inks, paints, and distress products (inks, stains, etc.) to re-color embellishments to match my layouts for awhile. One of my recent revelations has been to use my Copics, and let me tell you, this is quickly becoming one of my favorite techniques! Yep, that's right... we're talkin' using your Copics to re-color your embellishments to match your layouts.

To tell you the truth, I really couldn't tell you much about this "Copic craze" that's been going on for awhile. I don't color with them, I don't know much about what stamp inks (Momenta?) and papers (Neenah?) to use for that purpose, but I can tell you what surfaces they work on if you want to change up your embellishments! So far I've used my Copics to re-color the following:

• Grungeboard
• Acrylic
• Plastic
• Chipboard
• Paper

On my latest layout I used a Copic to re-color white, glittered Thickers! Because Copics are non-opaque alcohol inks, the glitter still sparkles right through.

(Who woulda thought, right?) One word of caution though: the glitter is hard on the nibs, so if you do use your Copics for traditional sketching and coloring, you might want to skip this one. The best part is, just like you can go over the same area to create different shades when you're coloring, you can do the same when you're re-coloring embellishments. On this particular layout I colored the Thicker letters about three times to get a green dark enough to match the glitter on the page. Pretty neat huh?

So next time you're in a bind and looking for just the right colored embellishment, sort through your stash for some white or ivory embellishments and color away!

Scrapbooking Studio DT LO - On the Farm

Hi my name is Mollie and I'm addicted to grids.

(This is where you respond, "Hi Mollie!")

Yes, it's a well-known fact that I can't resist bling, striped paper, or grids. If you leave me unattended and to my own devices, it's quite likely that my next layout (and the one after that, and the one after that) will be a lovely line of photos and paper. (When I get really crazy it may be a block of photos instead.) So, when I found this journaling block paper in my design team kit from The Scrapbooking Studio I knew just how to use it ---as the foundation for my next grid-based layout of course!

Patterned paper, journaling cards, stickers - Simple Stories; Cardstock - Bazzill; twill "farm" letters - American Crafts; Ledger - MME packaging; Photo Corners - Scrapbook Adhesives; Pens - Copic, American Crafts; Punches - Martha Stewart.

Design for The Scrapbooking Studio

Stitching courtesy of my super wonderful husband. He took home-ec... I was in band, okay?!

I'm not sure how well you can see it in the photo, but I colored over the tree with a brown Copic Spica to give it a little shimmer.

Now, go get your grid on! :)