Monday, June 30, 2014

Stuck on U Sketches Project Life Challenge: Glitter Glue -> Sparkle!

This week, Stuck on U Sketches has a Project Life Challenge.  You are to use Glitter Glue on  your projects.  I used to buy the name brand but am finding the $1 spent for twice as much at Walmart works just as well.  I love sparkly emebellies, so this project was really fun!  My dd has never taken a great school picture, so when I saw her graduation picture, where the photographer snapped it when her hat was falling off I found that to be the ultimate bad school picture.  Life is funny.  I also added some projects that I had made, one of which was a favorite fo the month and the other a digital one I made while taking the Studio Calico Digital 2.0 Class.
To photograph this, I left the pages out of the pockets, so the glitter would show better. With the exception of a Studio Calico and Becky Higgins PL  card, I made all of the others using digital stamps from Studio Calico. I am really liking the creativity and flexibility they give me in design, color choice and placement of where I want to journal.

So head over to the SOU Blog to see what other sparkly goodness the other designers came up with. Maybe you too will dust of your old bottles of glitter glue!

Friday, June 20, 2014

New Little Sister

I just love Rhylen's face in this picture of him and his new sister,  It was like months and months of waiting for
her finally came to an end and he really liked how she turned out. I also think there is a bit of pride in the fact that Mom let him hold her too, and maybe even a little nervousness.  That look just said so much.
I got the template in the Digital Class I am taking at Studio Calico.  I love what I am learning and really liking the options you get when going digital. I can leave it as is, or separate them and cut them with my Silhouette to make a hybrid.  I can change the tones of papers to make them match and resize things to just the way they need to be.  There are no mistakes,..only do overs. :)

Monday, June 16, 2014

Stuck on U Sketches PL Challenge Reveal: Texture

Who can resist the appeal of different textures on a page?  Not me? I used to be quite content with glueing flat paper to a page in different shapes and places and then think my page was done.  Then I started looking at other pages in all of the on line galleries and pondered on why other's pages turned out so much better than mine.  After all we were all using paper....right? In fact, we were. As I delved further into my study of galleries,  I found texture was what made them so different and that  there are all sorts of ways to create texture on a page.

This week's Stuck on U Sketches Challenge has a Project Life challenge.  We are to make a card using texture.  Here is my overall project...

Now you may be saying, Holly, where is your fabric, your ribbon, your corrugated paper etc.  Yes those are definitely things that make a great textured page.  However, with project life, you have the challenge of creating textured elements while still keeping the book flat so it will close.  Ad 52 pages of that stuff and you will have a circle for a book at the end of the year, not to mention torn pockets.  So these are ideas that I use to create dimension and texture without adding more than a centimeter or two on the cards.

Paints and Inks

I used a little mist and a lot of water to give that background its mottled effect.  I used an embossing folder, then brushed the tag lightly with my ink pad to color the raised surface so it would show better.  The flower is flat, but stacked and with interesting textured elements to it like the stamen and leaf....all flat.

Embossing Folders, Strings, Edgy Punches


I like to use these sparingly in project life because they do plump up the pockets. Sometimes you just gotta! This flower would look rather stark if left in its mere two dimensions.  I left it monotone to highlight the background texture of painted Gesso better.  I also could have just used a round punch, but I found the Stamping up Scalloped 1" circle gave the card more texture than a plain circle/  String is another way to add texture while keeping your pages thin. There are a lot of deals out there on twine and in my opinion, for PL the thinner the better. You can wrap it around a card, or an element as I have done here and it sort of ties the design together in a nice little bow.  (Couldn't resist the pun)  if you need a certain something something, to create balance,.string can be a great help.  It also makes great textured, but flat flowers.

Letter Press or Fake Letter Press


I love Letter Pressed stationary. There is something that just makes it so much more special than just stamped wording and images.  There are a lot of gadgets out there that will allow you to do this and even some made for personal and non-professional use.  When I started adding up the costs of the inks, the special dies and tools, I saw this is really another hobby altogether.  So I started watching some U Tubes and found videos on how to use an embossing folder as a letter press.  Granted it may not be as pristine as the tools that are built for it, but for my purposes I think that is a great idea. What you do is ink the folder itself on the raised design of the folder then run it through your Sizzix, Cuttlebug or what ever manual die cut machine you have.  This was my first attempt at it.  You can see I used too much ink and the wrong kind of ink. I think an alcohol based ink may work better than the pigment based I used.  But what I liked about it is that  got a dimensional journal card to highlight my favorite pic of the week on the overall page.  A friend of my daughters posted a  pic from when they were in Middle School.  It was a nice treat to run across a photo that I have never seen, 15 years later.

So the net/net of what I learned while going through the galleries is that texture and dimension are what give a design interest.  Sometimes it is raised, impressed or painted and sometimes it is glossy, slick and golden. It is definitely something to consider as you scrap. I know my pages are done when I put them in my folder and I want to run my hand across all of the pockets.  What...is it just  me that does that?

I have had a few sneak peaks. you may want to head over to the SOU site and look how the other designers added texture to their pages.  There are even more ideas for you to see.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Well I had to make something with them....

I made this cute pop up card with the digital papers I made last night.  Loving this!

This will be a handy skill considering the closest scrapbook store is 35 miles away.  Thanks Shanna Noel of Studio Calico who is teaching the Beyond Basics digital class.

Friday, June 13, 2014

Home Made Papers

I am taking Studio Calico's digital class called Beyond the Basics and there is a session on making your own digital papers, that can be printed.  Thought I would give it a try today using Photoshop Elements.



I thought these patterns could make a cute card.  
 


Monday, June 2, 2014

Stuck on U Sketches Project Life Challenge Reveal: Yellow!

My DD recently graduated from College. When Stuck on U Sketches offered up the challenge of using yellow on your PL spread I decided to go with the graduation as the theme. Yellow is a happy color and this was such a happy event.

Also, her school colors (VCU) are black and gold.   This school is also the one I went to.  I was thrilled to welcome her to the alumni!  It was such a happy day. I can't imagine her wedding day being any better.  We got our toes and nails done, our brows waxed and then went home and primped for the event.  After working and going to school for 10 years this indeed was a Very Big Deal!

 I am so proud of my not such a baby anymore girl!
I love using color. Since yellow is such a happy color and the event was so happy I decided to incorporate it on every card to emote the event. / The pics told the story so well that I decided to keep the journaling to a minimum to let them tell the story.  I am making a mini album of the event  where the journaling will reside anyway.  I used a combination of cards from AC Digital's Becky Higgins Midnight collection and Cards from Studio Calico.  I die cut the heart frame and the file also came from SC.  I made the flower using Tim Holtz Tissue tape which will stick but not lay flat like regular washi tapes do and through an old button in the middle. The small tag was also from Studio Calico.

Head on over to the Stuck on U Sketches blog and look at the other Happy Projects the team have made.  It will surely brighten your day!