I love little groups of random items from my desk that can come together to make some sort of lovely embellishment on a scrapbook page. Well, I guess you knew that. But when it does honestly happen from just bits and pieces sat on the desk – remainders of a kit or cast-offs from other projects – it makes me happier than searching out all those pieces for ages. This was one of those times when the pieces were all there and they just fit into the space to finish the page. A journaling card, then washi tape, a strip of paper to bring in some colour, a label to bring in something lighter, letter stickers for initials, postage stamps with the right numbers to back those, something round to add a bit of variety (and an ampersand), and some stamping to pull everything together. That’s how I finished this most recent Sketch to Scrapbook Page project.
This sketch is designed for those patterned papers you don’t want to cover up. Something with a print you really like to see or a pattern that doesn’t read well in small amounts. It gives you plenty of room for writing and the chance to showcase a 4×6 landscape photo with some repeated embellishment – perfect for punching shapes from papers to make your own accents.
All the supplies used for this project are from the February product picks for Best of Both Worlds, with the addition of a sheet of 12×12 black cardstock for the background and a date stamp at the bottom of the journaling card. I used an embossing stylus for the dotting tool with the mist – that’s a quite general craft supply that you might already have on hand, but if not they aren’t too hard to find.
Love locks are something you can see on bridges all over the world, but just in time for Valentine’s Day, there were some special love locks in Covent Garden in support of the British Heart Foundation. It was just as interesting to look at all the other locks as to leave your own. And so pretty through the lens.
Because I was cheeky and running behind, I’ve already shared the guest project for this sketch. It’s a Valentine card by Julie Campbell, and in addition to making a card from the sketch, she shares a clever trick for using rub-ons with stitches to amaze your friends with your hand-sewing skills! Perfect.
And now it’s your turn! Create a page in your style with this sketch, post it online, and share it with us. You can upload to your blog or to a scrapbooking gallery like Two Peas or UKScrappers, then just follow the steps to link to your project wherever it can be found online!
March is the time when I do most of my on-the-road scrapping for the season, and pretty much every weekend this month will see me lugging my scrapbooking things near and far. This week not too far, but then a few trips long enough to require a passport – I’m off to Germany and Italy to teach. (If you’re reading in Italy and would like to come along, let me know! The event in Germany is sold out but there may be a few seats for you in Italy.) But long train journeys or no, it is now March! And that means a new set of scrapbooking product kits for the Best of Both Worlds!
If you’re new to this idea, the basic principle works like this… throughout March, I’ll be using this set of supplies to make pages. You’ll see them in Sketch to Scrapbook page videos and other posts, like Starting Points. If you want to have the kit just like I do, click that link and add one of each thing (well, almost – more on that in a moment) and check out your order! BUT this set-up gives you the freedom to make changes for whatever reason: maybe you already have some items or some really similar items in your stash and you don’t need duplicates, maybe I’ve picked something that you would never use and you can substitute it for something you would love. Plus of course there is no subscription – you can join in on the months you want to and leave others out with no obligation, though of course it does take a little more effort on your part to check this post and click over and add the items. But it’s another option if you like the idea of a subscription kit but in practice it turns out not to be your favourite thing in the world. That’s the general idea!
Now, there is one thing to note about this month’s shopping list. I’ve included some options for the large set of letters, and I don’t expect you to order them all! With this kit, I really wanted to put something together that could be very feminine or by turning the papers to the other side, could be quite neutral or even masculine. It was an interesting challenge! But lettering is something you can’t just turn over and find the perfect set on the back, so I added some options and you can choose the set that is the best balance to your style: black if you prefer quite neutral titles, turquoise if you want something colourful that can work toward either masculine or feminine pages, or a rose-coloured glitter alpha if you want to fully embrace the most girly looks this kit can provide. There’s also a set of letter stamps on the list – it’s a set that is exclusive to Two Peas and is currently half off, which makes it a great bargain. If you like letter stamps, then this is a great time to add it to your collection and if you’ve wanted to try letter stamps but haven’t so far, this is a great way to add a good set at a fab price. It’s a really versatile alphabet in a size that works great for titles, subtitles, and embellishments. During March, I’ll be sharing a few different techniques for letter stamps, and they work specifically well with something that has some weight to the letters like this set. But the general idea with all that lettering is that you would choose one or maybe two from those options rather than all of them!
Of course you can also do other shopping while you’re picking up your kit. There are hundreds of new items, including the lines from Amy Tangerine, Dear Lizzy, Maggie Holmes, Studio Calico, My Mind’s Eye, Echo Park, Bella Blvd, and Jenni Bowlin! Lots of great things to add to your stash, and don’t forget Two Peas offers free domestic shipping to orders over $50 or $5 off international orders at the same level. You need a code to claim that discount – it can be found at the bottom of the Two Peas newsletters.
Looking for the March Edition of the Best of Both Worlds kit? A post and video is coming up today, but if you really want to run now, you can find it here. Please note this list is longer than usual – it’s designed for you to choose which large alphabet is best for you rather than add them all. More about that later today!
Today I am delighted to welcome dear friend and crafty wonderment May Flaum to the blog to share her take on a supply I know I need to get more use from: stencils. I’m already taking notes, May!
Stencils used to be really limited in designs and sizes available, and if you had told me five years ago that they would become used as much as stamps in my layouts I would have told you that it was impossible. Now with more designs available in a better variety of styles, not to mention more size choices stencils have become an absolute must in my Scrapbooking stash.
Today I am going to share five projects with you, showing five different ways to use stencils on your scrapbook pages and other paper crafting projects. To get things started, I created a seven minute video where I discuss the five ways I like to use stencils on my projects, as well as my top five tips for stencils.
I want to let you know that all of the stencils I showed both in the video and here in this article are made by The Crafter’s Workshop. I don’t work for them – I just adore their 6×6 stencils and think they are truly the best. That said, let’s dig in!
1. As a Background
Perhaps the most obvious way to use a stencil is as a background. You can repeat the pattern, just make splotches of pattern, or even layer more than one stencil. It allows you to This works best on cardstock or a subtly patterned paper. In this layout I used Heidi Swapp color shine mist on my stencil for a subtle design to compliment my photos.
My tip for coloring – if you want a solid color inks or paint works better and if you want a more splattered or more sporadic amount of color I recommend mists. I like inks for solid color on a background because there is less liquid being used, and your paper won’t warp or take as much time to dry.
2.Outline and Color
This is the most time consuming, and one I don’t do often. First I outline the stencil with a thin black pen, and then I go back and color with markers, watercolor pencils, or anything else that works for the design. In this layout featuring Amy Tangerine papers my title is stenciled, colored, and coated with glossy accents to really help it pop.
3.Partial Stencils to Finish or Accent a Page
This is fast becoming my favorite! I’ve always loved using flourish stamps to finish off my layouts, and now I can use stencils in this way too. In this layout (featuring Elle’s Studio papers and tags) I used two different stencils with ink (applied with a foam blending tool) to add little accents to my neutral background. I love all of the detail it adds – and with no bulk!
4. Stencil onto a Die Cut
Whether it is a die cut, punched shape, alphabet sticker, or piece of chipboard don’t forget you can stencil onto more than just your layout directly. For this layout I knew I wanted to use my Webster’s Pages background paper but I didn’t really have much that went with it. I pulled out my flower stencil and colored a number of hearts and a butterfly punch that I then added to the page.
This layout also features hearts that were stenciled on in peacock and purple. To do this I used scotch tape to mask off my stencil so that when I used my foam blending tool on the stencil I would only be able to color one heart. Scotch tape is a great tool when it comes to stencils – it doesn’t stick or make a mess as long as you don’t let the sticky side touch your paper.
5. The Shaped Stencil
In the layout above you saw how I used a single heart (in a stencil that had many) on my layout by utilizing a good amount of tape. Another approach to doing something like this is to create a second stencil as I did in the video. For this card I did just that! I placed a heart shaped (homemade) stencil on top of a patterned stencil and colored a heart onto a blank card. The effect is stunning – and at first glance it looks a lot more complicated than it really is which always makes me smile.
Whether you go bold and finish layouts with a spritz of mist over your stencil or keep things more in control with a bit of ink on a stencil for a particular project element, know that there are a lot of ways that you can use those stencils. With intense techniques or simple applications, my stencils help me customize my projects and allow me the creative play that I always crave. I hope I’ve inspired you to try out a stencil on your next project. Oh, and one last note – if you have a punch, die cut, or electronic die cutting machine you can make stencils of your own! Oh yes, the possibilities are endless!
When it comes to crafting May Flaum has one rule: it’s gotta make her happy. She’s not afraid to get super grungy or work with bright colors, dabble in lace and doilies then make something more splattered and wild. If she’s not in her studio (aka ‘the bat cave’) then she’s probably out running around having fun with her family or cooking up a storm. May has been working in the Scrapbooking industry for a decade and currently blogs her crafty adventures, teaches online classes, and works with amazing companies sharing her projects and ideas. She just released a new eBook Fashionably Fast with Big Picture Classes that includes twenty layouts and three bonus video tutorials. If she has one piece of advice to share, it’s always to be true to your creative heart.
This morning I’m so happy to welcome scrapbooker Leah Farquharson to share a tutorial. When I hear the phrase ‘use a colour wheel’, I imagine the tool for choosing and combining colours. Leah was inspired to take that idea to a motif, and even has a free cutting file for you to download so you can give it a try.
Color wheels are one of my favorite emerging trends in scrapbooking at the moment. They’re such a great way to include multiple types of patterned paper without overwhelming a layout. And the circle shape can become a great way to anchor embellishments, a title, or photos on a layout.
I’ve included a cutting file (click here to download) for a simple color wheel/pie chart for today’s post, and I wanted to include a few tips on incorporating the shape in your layout. I also want to talk a bit about how I’m learning to use my die-cutting machine in my Scrapbooking. I recently received my silhouette cameo for my birthday from my husband, but you could also apply these tips to any die-cutter that you can use to make shapes or letters.
Most of the time when I’m using my die-cutter, it helps me to sketch out a plan for my layout. Since I have my Ipad on hand most of the time, I like using a drawing app to create my sketches, but of course, good old fashioned pencil and paper is great, too!
After my bit of planning, I knew that I wanted to include some of my title text on a banner, one large and two smaller color wheels. I already knew that I had two photos to include. I opened my silhouette software and sketched out both shapes, with the banner piece including my title. You can see that I make adjustments along the way – I had already caught the misspelling of my main title!
My next step is to cut a sample for size. I’m usually pretty close, but I do sometimes make changes. For this layout, I decided that the color wheels needed to be bigger, but the title was great.
After I had settled on my sizes, I cut the shapes from three different patterned papers. I layered them on my page along with my title and a few embellishments to get a feel for how it was coming together.
Once I was happy with the placement, I glued things down and added stitching, the photos and title layered over, and topped off with embellishments and journaling.
One of the very best things about using the color wheel in your scrapbook pages is that it’s infinitely you! It’s all about choosing your favorite patterned papers to suit the subject matter of your page!
Leah Farquharson resides in the greater Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area with her husband of eleven years and their two sons. As a scrapbooker, she’s had the privilege of working with some of her favorite companies in the industry, including Glitz Designs, Nikki Sivils, Fancy Pants Designs, and Hambly Screenprints. She currently designs for American Crafts, Jenni Bowlin Studios, and Maya Road among others. She’s been published in Scrapbook Trends, Cards, The Scrapbook Magazine, Entrartiste, and Die Scrapperin. As the owner of bluebird chic, llc, she’s had the privilege of contributing articles to Mollie Makes Magazine, and having her handmade items featured on multiple websites including Chic Critique, Prop Insanity, and the Etsy front page. You can see more of her papercrafting on her blog a musing to create or bookmark her projects in her gallery.
I share enough pages that you can easily put together an idea of my general process. I don’t really reinvent the wheel or worry about replicating a design I’ve used previously. For all the times I start a page by piling a mix of rectangles on top of a subtly patterned background, I like the chance to balance that with a look that’s a little more tidy and inspired by dividing the page into different blocks.
Today’s sketch is not wholly unlike this one in the archives. But this time it’s a bit streamlined and includes more photographs – the same idea of two landscape 4×6 prints but also three small square pictures. This makes it perfect for using with photo photos (Instagram or otherwise) but it’s also handy for cropping into details that might be lost in a larger, less-than-perfect shot. That latter option is what I included on this page.
Again, I’m working a bit simply, but not quite as sparsely as the diagonal sketch. And the recent episode of the Paperclipping Roundtable inspired me to get some of our silly self-portraits onto a page. In addition to the difficulty of taking such a picture, these particular photos make me laugh as this marked the point in the trip where my hair started to get really awkward. Because we had no checked luggage, I couldn’t travel with scissors, and I had a lot better luck getting a mani/pedi on the road than a haircut! By Malaysia, I had definitely reached that point where my fringe was so long it was in my eyes, but not long enough to pin back! I did eventually just take matters into my own hands… I bought some scissors in New Zealand and used the wing mirror on the van to cut it back to something more manageable. We’ve all had these moments of frustration, right? I suppose that’s something that needs to go in the Kiwi volume of these scrapbooks! Anyway, back to this page, these photos were taken when we toured the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The smaller photos are cropped images of the view from the bridge that connects the two skyscrapers.
This page was made with the February product picks for Best of Both Worlds. If you ordered the same, you’re welcome to put it to use in the same way, but of course you can use any supplies you would like! There are just a couple small pieces not taken from the kit – a sheet of kraft cardstock for the background and the wood veneer camera used in the final bit of embellishment. I used Staz-On ink in black for the stamping, since the surface of the JBS stickers is a bit more glossy and while some other inks work perfectly well with that surface, it is a bit more slippery and I’m just less likely to make a mess of it with Staz-On!
I had a slightly different challenge in mind for today’s sketch guest, SJ Dowsett, and that involved taking a page sketch and adapting it to a Project Life entry with divided page protectors. I think there’s quite a bit of potential for adapting sketches in this sort of way, and a more blocked page design seemed the best place to start, but I was really enlightened by SJ’s creative process for making it work:
Using a sketch in conjunction with Project Life presented me with a challenge I hoped I could rise too! – breaking the sketch up into segments so it fit into a divided page protector was harder than I initially thought. But instead of panicking, I got a pen and ruler and drew over the sketch so I could see what areas I needed to focus on.
I applied the rules, of being able to flip and turn the sketch and although it may look loosely based, the double photo, stars, scallops and left hand title are all there. I used an Ampersand card as a focal point, which is a digital download from my _Chalk it up kit available from my digital store has made me want to explore the idea of breaking up sketches like this again for Project Life. Sometimes it is a great chance for your brain to take a break of the planning the weekly layout when it’s already laid out in front of you to work from the sketch._
SJ is a stay at home mum and freelance graphic designer. Creating digital stamps and prints, she spends her days within arms reach of pen and paper for doodling all the random thoughts that wander through her mind. She believes in finding cost effective ways to scrapbook, making pretty printables and noting down the tiny things in life that ordinarily she’d forget. Read more about SJ on her blog and find her digital and printable designs at Little Musings.
And now it’s your turn! Create a page in your style with this sketch, post it online, and share it with us. You can upload to your blog or to a scrapbooking gallery like Two Peas or UKScrappers, then just follow the steps to link to your project wherever it can be found online!
Wow, this has been quite a day already, but the videos are a-loading and it’s definitely all systems go around here! I have one video and sketch for you now, and then I’ll pick up again in the morning with the rest of this catching up session! I hope you find something useful in the mix.
This sketch is meant for a scrapbook page with a single, portrait photo. It’s shown as 4×6 but could easily be bigger – especially if paired with quite simple patterned papers. The smaller strips on the diagonals could be paper, but they could be all sorts of other things – border stickers, washi tape, ribbon, stitches, and so on. This could easily work with additional photos too with a bit of rearranging to the other elements. Feel free to move it around to make it work for you!
I worked very close to the sketch this time around, and the resulting page is quite simple in style. Considering some of the major embellishing I’ve done on some pages in that album, I’ve wanted to add a few simpler pages to give a bit of balance. I love embellishing but I also want the focus of a book to be on the writing and photos, not just ‘wow, you added a lot of stuff there’, so some more stream-lined pages are in order.
For this page, I’m working with the supplies from the February Best of Both Worlds kit. Of course you’re welcome to join in with any supplies you choose.
Why yes, that will be much prettier when photographed properly in some daylight tomorrow morning! But in case you don’t have time to watch the video right this second, here’s a still image for now to show the final project.
This page from today’s guest Paige Evans makes me swoon. I love that stitched strip detail she chose to emphasise the diagonal! Paige has a few further notes:
I made this layout while I was at home in Washington state. I didn’t have my scrapbooking supplies with me, but luckily my sister is also an avid scrapper so we rummaged through her stash and found some super fun things to work with! The sketch was such a great start. I liked the two diagonal lines and decided to keep going with that idea and make diagonal lines of patterned paper across the entire layout. I mostly used the On Trend collection by Crate Paper, with some gold accents thrown into the mix. The placement of the photo, title, three embellishment clusters, and journaling are right where they are in the sketch – sketches make things so easy peasy!
You can find more of Paige’s work on her blog. She designs for American Crafts and Two Peas in a Bucket, and also works for Northridge Publishing, the company behind Scrapbook Trends magazine. She loves to create on a daily basis and enjoys dabbling in everything from fine arts (painting, drawing, sculpting, printmaking), to bookbinding, basketweaving, photography, graphic design, and more.
And now it’s your turn! Create a page in your style with this sketch, post it online, and share it with us. You can upload to your blog or to a scrapbooking gallery like Two Peas or UKScrappers, then just follow the steps to link to your project wherever it can be found online!
I’m back on my feet and in for a major session (or rather several major sessions!) of catching up – with work, with life, with the world it seems! And one of those major sessions was devoted to scrapbook pages and sketches and indeed, the February product picks for Best of Both Worlds, which I’ve now turned from a kit into a stack of pages. And this weekend I’m going to transfer that big catch up session from my desk to the blog, editing and uploading and posting those videos and projects for you!
I’m in class through the middle of today and need to focus, so I wanted to gather the last several sketches here for you if you want to make a start and have missed any of these… then new sketches will start later today once I’m out of class and back and ye olde computer! Sound like a plan? I’ve really enjoyed working with the products this month – I hope you enjoy the process too, whether you’re working with the same supplies or choosing items from your own stash. The 2013 sketches so far then, in review! Each with a link to take you to page examples and videos and assorted other details.
Each post has a spot for you to share a link to your project, but I do have to put a closing date on these otherwise they get filled with random spam links to things that are definitely not scrapbooking material! If you ever complete a sketch and want to share but the end date has passed, you can always leave a link in the comments. If these sketches aren’t quite right for your needs, you can always search through the older archive of page sketches – there’s a link at the bottom of the page that takes you to all those posts.
I hope that gives you a little starting place if you’re an earlybird to your crafting desk today, and I’ll be back later with new sketches, videos, and examples from some of my favourite scrapbookers too! Have a fabulous weekend, wherever you may be!
A month has passed and it’s time for a new Gardeners’ Digest to catch up with the Garden Girls, the scrap booking design team at Two Peas in a Bucket. Since we last hopped through the team, Glitter Girl has gone on adventures through wood veneer embellishments, the design principles of white space, and most recently the world of travel writing for your scrapbook.
For more details on this project and further Glitter Girl Adventures, find her under the video tab at Two Peas more details on this project and further Glitter Girl Adventures, find her under the video tab at Two Peas.
I’m always inspired by Garden Girl Wilna Furstenburg, but this month even more so between her fab In the Mood to Scrap video and the launch of her brand new workshop, Art Class. I’ve signed up and I’m working my way through, rationing each chapter so I make sure I put all these great ideas to work. The workshop is filled with great tutorials and Wilna’s beautiful examples. More about that in a moment…
It’s a great time to go shopping at Two Peas, with new products arriving pretty much daily! Including the new lines from Amy Tangerine, Dear Lizzy, American Crafts, Crate Paper, Studio Calico, Glitz, and Echo Park! That’s some major good stuff, and you’ll be seeing lots of these new letter stamps from Amy Tangerine on my upcoming projects!
Speaking of upcoming projects, stop by this weekend for a special two day adventure through sketches and scrapbooking videos, right here at shimelle.com. Perfect if you’re snowed in, but snow is not a requirement.
Your next stop on the hop is brand new Garden Girl Celine Navarro. Be sure to check our her blog and her beautifully artistic style!
But before you go, I have something for one of you! I have a class pass for Wilna’s Art Class workshop so you can join me and plenty of other scrapbookers for this creative adventure. To enter, just leave a comment on this blog post. Entries close at the end of February, London time. And if there are 500 or more comments by the end of the month, I’ll throw in a prize pack filled with Wilna’s product picks so you will be all set to take part in the class and follow along. So tell a friend, won’t you? if the winner has already signed up, we will refund the workshop – so there is no need to wait and see. Sign up now: and get started straight away!
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2.Outline and Color
