Banner Love

Do you like to use banners on your pages? I had admired them for months on other people's scrapbook projects before I tried one myself. Once I did, I was hooked. Now I've been making banners for months and am STILL not over them. There are SO many variations, and this is one of my favorites...a banner bursting with a hodge-podge of overlapping flags. This is also my favorite page thus far with Scraptastic's Faded Jeans kit.

The fun part of banner-making is the arranging and stacking! For this page, I cut a bunch of banner shapes from various papers...some small, some large, some thin, some wide. Then I began my layering, with larger (longer) ones on the bottom and smaller (shorter) ones on the top. I cut the tickets from one of the kit papers to add to my banner, and used a couple of buttons from the kit as well. After assembling the main banner, I had a few extra pieces that were hung underneath the title block to give a little continuity to the page.

I find that making banners is great way to use up all those bits and pieces of paper that are leftover from other projects. In this case, I'd completed a few layouts with my kit, and with my penchant for layering, had cut up many of the papers leaving me with lots of fodder for my banner. All those little scraps didn't go to waste.

It was so much fun creating this page. I guess it's a good thing that I don't scrap chronologically, because every other page would have a banner! But hey, there wouldn't be anything wrong with that, would there?!

A Great Color Combo

Like Julie, I also used the Faded Jeans scrapbook kit for a Pinewood Derby photo! How could I not!? Anyone with Cub Scouts will understand what a great kit this is for scout activities. The blue hues and yellow are well matched for their uniform and neckerchief, so I just knew that one of my pages this month would highlight a scouting event! Going through my photos, I found the perfect picture.

On my Pinewood Derby page I mounted the blue patterned paper over yellow cardstock, adding photo corners all around. Next I layered blue and yellow patterned papers above and below a ticket border. Then I adhered several of the kit stickers to chipboard and used them to decorate the top half of my page, leaving room for my title.

The tags here are purely decorative. I love using them this way...sticking out haphazardly and tied with twine. 

Blue and yellow is such a great color combination. But you don't have to have a cub scout to find it appealing. Let's see what you can do with these colors.

Lombardi Party

Today I'm showing off my first page created with the Scraptastic Faded Jeans scrapbook kit. When our team won the Super Bowl a couple of years ago, the city went nuts, and the partying went on and on. Although I'd completed a couple of layouts and a mini-album about the win, I still had some scrap-worthy photos begging for a page: Coach Sean Peyton driving from the airport waving the Lombardi trophy out the sunroof of his car, Dave Matthews performing at the NFL Kick-off party, and a trio of Saints fans with their homemade trophy hats!

To tie together the disparate photos (from different days and in dissimilar sizes) I arranged and matted them together on a rectangular piece of cardstock.

Then the title was cut with my Cricut, but instead of using the individual letters, I used the negative on my page. (Glimmer Mist in Jack O' Lantern turned cream-colored cardstock to an orange that closely matched the polka dot patterned paper.)

My "trophy" is simply a piece of chipboard covered in tin foil! So easy to do!

Sticker hinges connect a journaling block to the photos. I love how this page, in words and pictures, portrays a little more of the story of those days, that year, and our super team.

Making My Mark

Two weeks ago, as I prepared for a trip to D. C., I was throwing a couple of books in my backpack (I have yet to join the "Kindle Klub"), when I realized I didn't have a bookmark. Sure, my boarding pass would do, but I was still in scrapping mode, and thought I could do better. I had some scraps on my desk and created the cutest bookmark with them. Then yesterday when I was deciding on what to make with the last of my Scraptastic scrapbook kit scraps, I revisited that idea and made another lovely tag. I enjoyed sifting through my fiber stash to find bits and pieces that matched the colors in that striped paper.

I cut a sturdy tag shape out of chipboard and covered it with a mix of paper scraps and stickers. After adhering everything, and before adding the fiber and brad, I brushed on a coat of gloss medium. Start to finish, this cute little project took less than 15 minutes, excluding drying time.

Here is the bookmark I made with the Great Adventures kit scraps:

Now I can be in the middle of two books (there's usually one in the car and one on the bedside table), and have my place marked securely in each. No more dog-eared pages or turned in book jackets! I'm also thinking these would make great stocking-stuffers for kids and other bibliophiles who still read the "old-fashioned" way!

Do you often have your nose in a book, Nook, or Kindle? Any must-reads?

An Art Journal Page

I started an art journal several months ago. It's a fun little book where I get to play with my supplies and document things that might not make it onto a scrapbook page. To streamline the process, I like to use either scraps from recent pages or leftover kit contents. The colors are already matched which is a great time saver. Playing with scraps, I'm also not as worried about using up something valuable that I might want or need later. Double bonus!

Remember that paper chain I used as a mask last week? It's found a place on a journal page, along with some scraps and stickers from the Great Adventures kit:

Do you have an art journal, smash book, or similar? What do you do with your scraps?

Paper Chain Masking

Several weeks ago I happened upon an adorable paper chain pattern, which I sketched out immediately and set aside for a future project. I thought of it again when I began to work on this layout with the photos of kids running up and down the yard. It seemed a good fit, and I ended up using it to create an interesting title block for my page. I folded a strip of paper to fit the pattern and carefully cut around the silhouette. Instead of using the chain itself on the page, I stretched it out and used it as a mask, adhering it to the paper with repositional adhesive. Then I got out my ink pad and blending tool. The Barn Door Distress Ink matched the colors in the Great Adventures kit perfectly. After blending the ink onto the mask and into the background, I added some paint splatters in yellow and blue. Only after the paint had dried did I carefully peel off the mask, setting it aside. (You'll see in a future post how I put it to use as well.)

After completing three full pages with this kit (and I layer to the max), I had a lot of scraps hanging around my workspace. I cut several flag shapes from three of the patterns and arranged them sideways on the page, leaving just enough room for journaling.

In this closeup picture of the title block, you might be able to see my letter treatment. In order to help the white letters stand out, I used a Slick Writer to add dashes on each of the letters. Then I outlined them, tracing the letter shapes as close as possible with a regular black journaling pen. Much better.

How are you doing with your April kit(s)? Are you down to scraps yet? Next week, I've got another project done with bits and pieces leftover from my kit. Stay tuned.

One Kit, Many Looks

Believe it or not, this page was crafted using the same Scraptastic kit (Great Adventures) that produced the layout in Thursday's blog post. I love the very different looks I can get with this one amazing kit. Here I left out everything that had red in it (even cutting the My Mind's Eye plaid so that the red stripe was absent). The result is a very calming color scheme and perfect for these beach pics of my youngest son. The candid photo on top tickles me. After a wet morning in the gulf, he's probably licking the salt off his lips!

I also love the weathered look of the background paper. It gives the page a great outdoorsy look to match my pictures. As you can see, I'm still having fun with banners. This time I combined tickets cut from one of the patterned papers with various banner shapes cut from other papers in the kit. The flags and tickets were then adhered to a bit of baker's twine from last month's Be Amazing kit and attached to the page.

Looking at this layout I'm brought back to that white sand, clear water, salt air, and the sound of the surf. Is it only April? Summer is too far away!

1st April 2012 Blog Challenge

Hi everyone! I'm up with the first challenge for April and it's going to be a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) flower challenge. Each Great Adventure kit comes with shapes from an October Afternoon Sasparilla "flower sack" pack. There are stars, circles and flower shapes in complimentary patterns and colors. The fact that they come in different sizes makes them great for piling on top of each other to create a layered embellishment. My challenge for you is to make your own layered flower, with a minimum of 3 paper layers. You may use kit contents or cut your own shapes from any patterned paper that you wish. Layer three or more shapes, in succeedingly smaller sizes, one on top the other. Finish off with a button or brad and there you have it!

Before layering the papers for the flower on my page, I inked them slightly and curled the edges of the two bottom layers. This helped the papers to stand out against each other and gave my flower added dimension. After adhering my flower layers, I punched holes corresponding to those on the button, threading and tying it on with twine from last month's Be Amazing kit.

These kinds of flowers are a favorite of mine because they are fun, whimsical, and, depending on the papers used, not too girly for boy layouts! To complete the 1st April 2012 Blog Challenge, you will need to embellish a scrapbook page or card with one or more of your handmade layered flowers, using at least three patterned papers. Then use the inlinkz tool below to submit your entry. You have until midnight on May 2, 2012 to submit your entries to all of the April challenges for a chance at the prize drawing.

In The Zone

Whew...I've been in the zone lately...completely focused on the funtastic papers in Scraptastic Club's April kit, Great Adventures. So far I've completed three pages and am amazed at the different looks that can be created from one coordinated kit. The page I am featuring today, Zone Team, uses a cool chevron paper from American Crafts. I cut out a couple of zig-zag chevron strips and separated them from each other with a carefully spaced row of vertical cardstock strips on which I placed my title. Wow! Instead of getting lost in all that color, those letters really pop!

Everything on the page (except for the addition of a swimming brad) is from the April kit. 

Here's a little trick that I use to make ordinary stickers look more dimensional on my page. I love to layer them, but first I back each sticker with cardstock cut slightly smaller than the original. I arrange them overlapping here and there and use pop dots to lift some up over others for even more dimension. I love the layered look, and with the plethora of stickers in this month's kit, you can layer to your heart's content.

How do you use stickers on your projects?

Bermuda Blues and an Extra

Ahhh...the beautiful blue waters of Bermuda! Did you know that there's actually a scientific reason that these waters are such a pretty deep shade of blue? They appear bluer than the water in many other locales due to the low levels of phytoplankton in the waters surrounding the island. Whatever the reason, it looks so inviting and I really wanted to get those delightful colors onto my page. I tried to do just that in a couple of different ways. First, I lightly sprayed my kraft cardstock background with Glimmer Mist (Lake), a beautiful blue-green color that approximated the ocean hues. Next, I chose various papers in shades of blue or blue print from the Scraptastic Club Be Amazing Kit. I cut, inked and layered them on the layout, adding a cluster of embellishments and my title. The ocean's colors were picked up perfectly in the cloud, butterfly, and patterned paper placed directly behind my photo!

What is also amazing and somewhat unusual, is that my husband and I are in the photo together, thanks to whoever took the camera from me and snapped this pic! And that thought brought about the idea of placing a camera embellishment on my page. I found this camera clip art image in the public domain and free for personal use, cut it out with my die-cutting machine, matted it on white paper, cut again by hand and added a little heart. Fun!

Aside from the tiny letter stickers, everything on this page came from the beautiful Be Amazing Kit. I love all the cute embellishments included, as they add so much to the finished page.

Here's another page I completed by layering paper scraps from the kit underneath my photo. Now I have officially used up every piece of patterned paper (except for the tiniest scraps) from the entire kit! Go me!

I hope you have just as much fun using every last bit of your Scraptastic Club kit. It was good to the last drop!

Sand & Sun

The Be Amazing Kit from Scraptastic Club has the most beautiful blue hues, colors that immediately brought to my mind the water of the Florida panhandle and our vacations to the beach. I was thus inspired to pull out this picture of my youngest and his cousin from one such joyous week of relaxation. The two boys are such good buddies now. Their backs are to the camera, but you can see that one is leaning over to talk to the other, probably saying something like "Did you see that wave I caught!" or "Let's go inside and get a snack!" They always have so much to say to each other, and my journaling expresses the desire of mine to be that "fly on the wall" or "crab in the sand", listening in on their conversation.


Two of the white tags from the kit highlight a horizon scene. Don't you just love those chipboard clouds?! The long over-sized banner on the left side of the page holds the title and gives me more room to play. A simply pieced sailboat fills up the spot, but you could put a flower cluster or other embellishment in its place. If you are verbose, that oversized banner could be a great spot for your journaling as well.


Whenever I scrap pictures of our days at the beach, I begin to dream about our next vacation. Can't wait for those lazy days to be here! Do you take a summer vacation? Winter vacation? Where do you dream of going?

DIY Chevron Stamp and LO

Chevrons are everywhere these days! Did you know you can make your very own chevron stamp to use with acrylic paint? This is Madeline here, new to the Scraptastic Design Team, and today I'm going to show you exactly how I made my own priority box "stamp" and used it on the layout below:


I love using kraft cardstock as a background, but first tried to liven it up a bit with splatters of yellow and black paint. Hmmm...it needed something more. After an unsuccessful search around the house for bubble wrap, I came upon the idea for a chevron design and made my own stamp. My Scraptastic Club kit had arrived just a few days before in a priority box, and it was still sitting right beside my workspace. I tore off one flap and peeled back the inside layer of paper to reveal the corrugated surface underneath. Oh yeah...those stripes would be perfect!

Using a trimmer, I cut two pieces from the flap at opposite angles and trimmed them to the same length with my scissors. Placed together, glued to a separate sheet of cardboard, they would form my "stamp". A loop of paper adhered to the top would make lifting the painted stamp off the paper that I was stamping a bit easier...with less mess to my fingers...and less likely to be dropped back onto my page in an unwanted position. (Been there, done that.)


To use, brush a generous amount of acrylic paint onto the stamp and press onto your background paper. Repeat as desired. Here's how it looks on my practice piece of cardstock:


Obviously, these "stamps" can't be washed off. When finished, simply dab any excess paint onto a paper towel and let the remaining paint dry on the cardboard. It might be good for a couple of uses, but we know where to find more of the raw materials used to make another. ;)


Here is the page I created with my makeshift stamp. It is probably my favorite layout thus far with the Be Amazing Kit.


And now for a closer look at a few of the details of my page. As you can see, my love for banners continues. Circles cut from patterned paper were folded in half over twine and strung across the page not once, but twice.


In creating my title, the chipboard letters were sanded down in preparation for an application of paint, but once sanded, I LOVED the bare, distressed look and ended up leaving them alone! Scanning and printing the boarding pass/tickets accomplished two things: I was able to fiddle with the color and turn the bright Christmas green tickets into ones that better matched the colors of my layout, and now that they are printed on acid-free paper, they are archival and safe for my scrapbook. Pretty cool!


If you decide to make your own priority box "stamp", please share your creations in the Scraptastic Club members gallery or Facebook page. I'd love to see what you do!

A Special Photo

Hi everyone! This is Madeline, Guest Designer for March, and today I’d like to share my first project with the Be Amazing Kit, along with a couple of techniques that I used in its creation. This picture was taken a few months ago at my niece's wedding...my dad in his spiffy suspenders, red boutonniere pinned to the strap. I wanted to do something unique for this special photo.

First off, I was thrilled to see 2 sheets of Kraft cardstock included with this kit. A favorite product of mine, it makes a great background paper, combining easily with just about any color scheme. BUT, I thought I’d do something different with one of the sheets, and cut a few shapes...birds and leaves, elements that might work well for the page(s) I was (half)planning.

The swallow image is a free printable from the Graphics Fairy. The birds on a line are a free download from Michelle. The free Honeycomb svg file can be found on Heather's blog, Miracles Momma Designs. (Source info for the leaf cluster is unavailable.)

PLEASE NOTE: You don’t have to own a die-cutting machine to make use of these images. Simply print in draft mode (or using a light color of ink) in reverse on the kraft cardstock, cut out with scissors, then flip for use on your project.

After cutting out my images I inked them all over with Nick Bantock Van Dyke Brown and a Tim Holtz blending pad. This helped them contrast with the My Mind’s Eye Kraft Unique patterned paper. Here’s my before, after, and how they look with the patterned paper. Sweet!

And then I rethought the swallows, deciding to print them on the grey/white houndstooth pattern, ink, and pop-dot them on top of the kraft for added dimension… like the layered stickers that came with the kit! Yep…I like that much better.

NOW, here's a fun little technique for making flowers out of baker's twine. Cut out small circles from adhesive backed paper. (I recycled the leftover packaging from the kit’s layered stickers.) Press and wind twine from the center out, until the entire circle is filled. Add a little additional liquid adhesive to secure the end and voila!

Here's my finished page:

Pssst...see those little flags peeking out from under the heart on the upper left side of the page. They are cut outs from the tear strip, you know...the part that shows what's on the b-side of the patterned paper. There's a use for everything!

Thanks for looking!