Techniques on Tuesdays: Working with Vintage Photos

A couple of years back my grandma found some old negatives in her collection of family photos. I created a way to scan them and we now have digital prints of these priceless photos. Yay! But, even though they are digital, they are still limited prints of heritage photos that need to be properly preserved.

One of the things I find challenging about heritage photos is how to scrap them in an artistic way, without damaging the photos. Afterall, one of the main reasons to scrapbook is to preserve memories in an archivally sound way. For example, in the layout below, I wanted to layer elements over the photos as well as below them.

Supplies: Patterned Papers, Stickers, Journaling Card - Simple Stories; Photo Corners - Recollections; Twine - Unknown; Pen - Sakura; Journaling Spot - Maya Road

Design for The Scrapbooking Studio

So to protect the vintage photos I used a few tricks. First, I used photo corners to hold the photos on the page.

Then, I cut clear acetate to the same size as the photos and slipped them over the top of the photos and into the photo corners in order to protect the photos. That way, I could still layer the ticket stickers over the bottom of the photos to achieve the layout I wanted, while still preserving the integrity of the photos.

If you'd like to use this technique on your next layout, here's what I use:

Grafix Craft Plastic in the .007"



I also incorporated a shopping bag from The Scrapbooking Studio. Even though the bag wasn't acid free, I used Archival Mist to make it safe for use with photos.

Cards on Wednesdays

Well, how perfect is this? It's time for cards on Wednesdays and today I have a birthday card to share with you AND it's my birthday (and my boss' birthday). Who knew the scrappy fates would align so perfectly today!?

So I leave you with this Birthday card that I designed for The Scrapbooking Studio Design Team while I head off in search of a piece of cake :)

Supplies: Patterned Papers, Canvas Stickers, Pen - American Crafts; Felt Flower - Basic Grey; Stamp - Studio G; Cardstock - Bazzill; Ink - Versafine; Adhesive - Kokuyo

Design for The Scrapbooking Studio

Techniques on Tuesdays: Snow Card with "Faux Blizzard" Paint Technique

Ah, it's Tuesday again, and you know what that means... it's time for another technique!

As much I'd love for you all to think that my scrapbooking room is perfectly styled and that all of my projects just magically appear in simple perfection, made with my flawlessly manicured hands.... I have to break it to you, my endeavors are really far more "test kitchen" than a seamless craft segment ready for its prime time spotlight on The Martha Stewart Show. I know, I know... you're all just shocked by today's revelation.

...

...Aren't you!?

So anyway, always wanting to be an overachiever I felt the need to create what I like to call "the faux blizzard" techinque... well... um that or I accidentally managed to somehow get white paint all over my fingers, and then discovered that I had also unknowingly  managed to smear it all over my project. I'll let you decide which version of the story is the truth. *wink*

Supplies: Kraft cardstock - The Paper Studio; Patterned Papers - Little Yellow Bicycle; Letters - Tim Holtz Grungeboard; White Paint - Ranger; White Pen - Sharpie; Circle Punch - EK Success; Pearl - Queen&Co; Ribbon, Snowflake Punch -Martha Stewart

Design for The Scrapbooking Studio

Here's how to create the "Faux Blizzard" Paint technique seen at the bottom of the card

1. Get paint on your fingers. Not tons, but enough to create a few solid spots of paint on the kraft cardstock. 2. Do a little finger painting. (Anyone else thinking of a quote from the movie "The Cutting Edge" right now? No. Oh... um... never mind then.) Using your painty fingers add a few dots and a few streaks of solid white to the punched area. 
2. Let solid paint dry. (If you're impatient like me, speed up the process with a heat gun.)
3. Water down the paint in a Ranger Snow Cap dabber. You can do this by squirting a few shots of water from a mini mister and then mixing the water into the paint with a popsicle stick. Otherwise, sometimes (if you haven't used your paint in awhile) if you don't shake it before applying it, you can get a watery affect too.
4. Swipe the top of the dabber across the die cut area to get a streaky paint effect. If it's too thick use a damp paper towel to lift off some of the paint until you get the desired effect.
5. Make sure you do this BEFORE you add your patterned paper!

The Scrapbooking Studio Design Team: Quick & Easy Christmas Gift

For one of this month's design team projects for The Scrapbooking Studio I put together a 7ge Printer's Tray will some favorite images from a dear friend's wedding. I mixed it with some Teresa Collin's Notations collection papers.

While this one will be on display at The Scrapbooking Studio for a bit, this would make a great Christmas or Anniversary gift for the new brides in your lives. (I'm guessing you may know a few since Christmas is a popular time to get engaged!)

Printers tray and stand; round sticker - Seven Gypsies; Patterned papers, letter "F" - Teresa Collins; Metal frame, numbers, bottles - Tim Holtz; Black paint - Ranger; Black embossing powder - American Crafts; Purple flowers - Prima; Pearls - My Mind's Eye; Purple bead glitter - Martha Stewart; Cream letters - Momenta; Letter stickers - October Afternoon; Putple Spica Pen - Copic; Trinket pin - Maya Road; Seam binding ribbon - Craft Supply; "Oct" letters - Girls Paperie; Purple Cardstock - The Paper Company; Label Die Cut - Spellbinders; Number "11" stickers - Making Memories.

They were planning to decorate their master bedroom in cream and black with damasks, so the papers from the Teresa Collins "Notations" lines were just perfect for this project!

The photos are all 4" x 6" or less, so it was super easy to run them through my Xyron 510 (it has a 5" width) to make sure that they were evenly covered with adhesive and would be firmly affixed to the printer's tray. For the smaller pieces, I used the Xyron 1.5" (aka 150 or "X" sticker maker). I have always found the Xyron's permanent adhesive to be quite sturdy and reliable.

I used some letters from The Girls Paperie along with some findings from the Tim Holtz Ideaology line to add their wedding date to a few of the squares. The "08" letters were originally silver, which of course wouldn't show well against the cream, so I first painted them black and then heat embossed them with black powder. Their wedding colors were purple, so I filled the mini bottles with two shades of lavender beaded glitter and glued the corks shut so they wouldn't spill.

One of the things I love about Teresa Collin's lines is that she often does ones that are simply just black + cream or black + white. This versatility lets you customize your color scheme with paints and inks to fit your needs. In this case, I colored it in with a purple Copic Spica to add a little glimmer while introducing the purple wedding color. I also used some rub-ons to make a little monogram in the banner.

Head on over to The Scrapbooking Studio to see this project in person and pick one up for yourself. And don't worry about how you'll fill the little boxes, there are guides to the sizes on the Seven Gypsies website and it's a great way to use up little extra trinkets in your stash.

Family Frame

Did you have a grand plan to make all of your Christmas gifts this year? Are you finding yourself running out of time to get them done?

Here's a quick and easy project for you!

I found this frame at Staples for about $4. It has two 4"x6" openings and two 4"x4" openings. And it just so happens that the lovely people at Simple Stories happen to make pattern papers that have designs in 4x6 and 4x4 so all you have to do is pick your theme (baby, birthday, family, everyday, summer, school, etc.) and add some of their designs to the windows. For this frame I chose to use pattern paper and embellishments in all of the openings, but you could use pictures for some of them. You could also put the family's name or "est. date" in one of the windows (instead of the ruffled ribbon.)

Design for The Scrapbooking Studio

Patterned paper - "Generations" by Simple Stories; Key, Clock hands, Token, Brad, Washer - Tim Holtz; Cream ribbon - Offray; brown ribbon & rhinestone embellishment - Prima; Ink - Color box.

Since I used lumpy embellishments, I took the glass out, but it would also be cool to leave the glass in and add vinyl or something over the top of it.

Gifting on the Fly

As the countdown to Christmas runs down you may be finding yourself in a pickle with those hard to buy for people on your list. If you are like me, that means gift cards to the rescue! The only thing I dislike about gift cards is that they seem rather cold and impersonal so I like to present them in a handmade gidt card holder.

On my way home from work tonight  I needed a last minute gift (literally walked into the store at 5:32 and had to be at my destination with gift in tow by 6). Fortunately the giftee is a fellow scrapbooker so I popped into my LSS for a gift card. This year they are offering cute little paper bags embossed with snowflakes to put their gift cards in. Not only did I need to purchase the gift card, I needed to wrap it in store too, so I grabbed a cute little elf sticker (Doodlebug, $1.49) and a foot of metallic red cord (May Arts, 25¢) and wrapped it up at the checkout counter. (Many thanks go out to Michelle for holding it still while I wrapped the cord and for lending her finger to tie the knot.)

Here's the result. It literally under 5 minutes including checkout!

Please excuse the sideways photo. I am blogging from my phone and can't find a way to rotate it.

Dec. 25th Basic Grey

A few weeks back I shared the "foundation" of this layout on the blog. Sometimes when I have supplies I need to work with, I just go ahead and create a layout and then look for the right photo later.

The foundation page was nice, but today I thought I'd share with you how a few added touches can really bring your layout up a notch (or two, or three).

Adding texture and dimension to your pages always helps add visual interest. I like to create different vignettes within the page in order to attract your eye and draw you attention to key elements on the page.

In the image below, the "Merry Christmas" text and pleated ribbon draw the eye into the center of the page where the date of the photo is featured.

Look for this project in the Cricut Holiday Ideas Book.

This project will return in November 2012.

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The cluster of embellishments on the lower left corner help ground the photo and connect the page title "Merry Christmas" to the photo.

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And last, but not least, the white snowflake border strip helps connect the left and right sides of the page.

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Design for The Scrapbooking Studio

Supplies: Basic Grey "Nordic," Tim Holtz; Martha Stewart, BoBunny, Bazzill, Recollections, Cricut, Tsukineko, Making Memories

Using these simple tips, you too can create pages that are fast and fabulous.