I have decided this morning to attempt to create my own blog to show some of my scrapbook pages and tell a bit about them. Hopefully , I will be able to learn more about scrapping from all the comments you send to me and maybe be able to teach some scrappers who are just starting some of the tricks I have learned in the past. I just finished this layout a few days ago. I had a wonderful time with this one. (I guess that's why I'm putting it first here) I do sell my work on ebay and on etsy. my ebay name is wb225222. so please feel free to come visit me there and see what other layouts I have on there.
This is Home for the Holidays page 1
I first hand cut my letters. I do not have one of those fancy machines such as a wishblade to do my cutting for me so it is all done by hand. for some beginners reading this , the trick is to lay out your chipboard letters upside down on the back side of your paper(I always use Bazzill cardstock) then trace them out lightly with a pencil.
hand cutting requires that you have a very sharp tiny scissors so that you can cut right up into the tiny corners. The next step for the letters was to heat emboss them. I use a clear embossing stamp pad and just pounced the top of each letter individually into the embossing ink. then sprinkled on the embossing powder. remember to blow off the excess powder. then using the heat tool melt the embossing powder onto the letter. Next you want to ink the edges of your letters so that they will POP from the page. I use Ranger distress inks for all my distress inking. I also love the little finger daubers to apply the ink around the edges of my letters.Don't apply ink to the embossed edge only the bare edges of the letters.
I also cut out the photo mats, punched the corners and used the same ranger ink around the edges of the printed paper on the mats. I used punches for the snowflakes and embossed them also.
The little snowmen... well my favorite site to find clip art is pc crafter they have some awesome ,cute stuff there. I always print 2 of whatever picture I want . hand cut the first one out then only cut out the parts that you want to use for the 3D effect out of the second print. I use tiny POP dots for this. I always like to use the ranger inks of the edges of my cut clip art when I'm finished with it too. this just gives it a more finished look.
My next step is to sew all the photo mats on my sewing machine. sewing on paper is actually easier than sewing on fabric. paper does not stretch and move around. I use a very little acid free glue in the middle of my 2 mats to hold them in place while I sew around the edges.(you do not want the glue at the edges of the paper, if it gets onto your sewing machine needle you have a mess) I choose to use a decorative stitch but any zig zag stitch or even a straight stitch will work nicely. after they are all sewn. then it is time to start gluing them in place on your background.
I would like to talk just a little about backgrounds here. once you place your photos on the mats , keep it in mind that your matte printed paper is covered up by the photo. I like to use some printed papers on the background page somehow also . this makes for a much prettier page once the photos are on.
I guess I have failed to talk about cutting the photo mats. I usually try to cut most of my photo mats to fit approximately a 4x6 photo so my first Bazzill cardstock is cut at 6 1/2 x 4 /1/2.
the second printed paper is cut at 6 1/4 x 4 1/4. This is a perfect fit then for a 4x6 photo after the sewing is finished. now, because you can only fit a few whole 4x6 photos on a page and some people like to cut there photos I always include a few smaller photo mats on the page. this also allows me not to waste a lot of paper.
This is the second page of this layout. always remember that a scrapbook is to keep the memories of the day or moment. so always include some sort of tags or journaling blocks somewhere on your page so that they can be recorded. you will notice here the small hang tags that I have put on this page. they are held in place with a pretty blue jean brad. I also always make sure that the brad goes through the edge of photo mat but never in the way of the photo.
I always like to attach ribbons they really make for a finished look to a page. but here again make sure that when attaching your ribbon that it is out of the way of the photo.
Poems or sayings are always nice on a page. This one was a vellum saying. I just printed it out on my computer and cut to fit a photo mat. and sewed in place. I do not like the vellum glue (I think it still shows through) so I only sew vellum around the edges or use brads to hold in place. I always try to think about the person who might be buying this page.Maybe they wont like the same sayings that I do so I make them to where they could use this as another photo mat and cover up the saying. also I would like to point out that when attaching snowflakes or anything that is around the edges of a photo mat make sure they are not glued over a mat but are loose on the edge that hangs over a mat, this way a photo will slide right under them.sometimes I use pop dots to create this.
Well I have talked a lot today on how I created this page. I am up for all suggestions at anytime to help with my scrapping. and I hope that I have been of some help to some of you that have not done a lot of scrapping yet to learn some new techniques that you didn't know how to do.
Have a great day today. I'm going into my scrap studio now to come up with another new page.
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