Ribbon and Washi Tape Flower Tutorial by Tracy McLennon

My Creative Scrapbook Guest Designer Tracy McLennon is featuring our February Creative Kit today with a flower tutorial!

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Today I am sharing this quick tutorial on how to create this pretty little ribbon and washi tape flower.

Project Recipe:
6 pieces of Ribbon (3-4” long)
Washi Tape
Hot Glue Gun
ATG adhesive
Small Flower for the middle
Cardstock circle base
Scissors

You are going to start by covering your cardstock circle with ATG adhesive. You are then going to create ribbon loops. I used 6 loops for my flower.

Here are all 6 of my ribbon loops. You can set this layer aside for now.

Next you are going to take your Washi Tape and fold pieces over on itself that are about 1.5” long. I made 6 of these, but you can also make a couple of extra.

I then took those pieces and shaped one end of each one. They do not have to all be the same. I just wanted to make a more natural petal shape.

I took my Washi petals and adhered them in back of your ribbon loop circle.

Next I took a slightly smaller cardstock circle base, and my Washi Tape again. This is the tricky part... You are going to accordion fold your Washi Tape around that circle. This may take a couple of tries to get the hang of it. I found it a little easier by adding a little extra adhesive to the circle before starting. That way your Washi Tape folds will be sure to stay in place. ***Another little hint: It doesn't have to turn into a perfect circle. You can always trim it afterwards!

Now you are ready to assemble your flower! This is where the hot glue gun comes in handy. It's simple, the ribbon layer is your base, add the Washi accordion layer, and top it off with the small Prima flower. Your flower is now ready to add to your layout or card!

On my layout I also added a couple of hand cut patterned leaves.

Thank you so much for stopping by to check out my Ribbon and Washi Tape Flower tutorial!

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Please visit our Design Team Gallery to view more of Tracy’s beautiful work.

Here's the February Creative Kit:

For full descriptions of our kits, subscription information, and more, visit our website at MyCreativeScrapbook.com

Two Fun Uses of Washi Tape on Your Pages + How to Make a Flower Embellishment with a Circle Punch by Mendi Yoshikawa

My Creative Scrapbook Guest Designer Mendi Yoshikawa is featuring our February Creative Kit today with a trio of tutorials to help you re-create the special details that you see on her beautiful layout!

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Hello there!  I am so excited to be joining My Creative Scrapbook as a guest designer!  I thought today I would share with you several mini tutorials on how I created some of the special elements for my layout using this month's Creative Kit.

One of the first things I knew I wanted to do when I saw the wide polka-dot washi tape in the kit was punch it with a decorative edge.  This is super each to achieve by temporarily adhering it to vellum, parchment paper or even lightweight cardstock if you don't push it down to tightly.  I started by adding the tape to the edge of my piece of 12" long cardstock, clipping it off with my scissors on each end.

I wanted my punch to be centered as much as possible on each edge so I used my Tim Holtz ruler to find the center of my paper and line it up with the center of the scalloped design.

I then punched the center and continued my way down both sides, lining up the scalloped design with the guides on my punch as I worked.

The last step is as easy as gently lifting the tape up from the paper below to reveal the beautiful scalloped edge.  It's so easy and yet it gives the tape such a fun look!

Up next is a little tutorial on how I created this flower embellishment with only the use of a simple circle punch.

I started by punching 4-1/2 circles from a 12" x 2-3/4" strip of patterned paper.

Next, I used my ruler to find the center of each circle.

I lightly used this mark to draw a light pencil line down the center of each circle.  This line became my guide for punching my flower petals.

I then punch up to the pencil line on both sides of the circle resulting in two petals from each circle.

This gave 9 flower petals from the 4-1/2 circles.

I chose to add a bit of chalk ink to the edges of each petal before stitching around them with my sewing machine.  I like the texture this gives them and how it makes them stand out against each other when layered.

The last little detail I added to my layout was filling in the heart of the silver glitter sticker in my title.  To do this I added two strips of the washi tape side by side on a piece of scratch paper.  I then temporarily adhered the heart sticker over the top to trace it onto my tape with a pen.

I then removed the glitter sticker to fussy cut the heart just inside my pen line using a pair of scissors.  When I was done I was able to slip the washi tape heart under my title to give it an extra splash of color and tie in my scalloped borders.

I finished my layout off with 3 Prima Flowers that came with Creative Kit which I paired with hand-cut and stitched leaves.  I love how I was able to create not only some bright and playful layouts with this fun kit, but one that is soft and pretty!

I hope I've inspired you to try one of these fun techniques!  :)

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Please visit our Design Team Gallery to view more of Mendi’s beautiful work.

Here's the February Creative Kit:

For full descriptions of our kits, subscription information, and more, visit our website at MyCreativeScrapbook.com

February Kits Reveal + Meet Our Guest Designers

It's REVEAL TIME!

Here we are with another reveal that we think you'll agree is pretty fabulous.

Love is in the air in February and we have just the kits for you.  If you are scrapping your family, friends, and those everyday moments, these kits will work for you.

Presenting our February 2015 kits:

February Main Kit

Authentique, Bella Blvd, Prima, and more!

 February Creative Kit

Echo Park, Heidi Swapp, Kaisercraft, Bella Blvd, Prima, and more!

February Limited Edition Kit

Carta Bella, Heidi Swapp, Prima, and so much more!

February Album Kit

Pebbles, Simple Stories, Bella Blvd, and more!

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Details about subscribing to any of our kits can be found on our website at MyCreativeScrapbook.com.  There are several membership options to choose from.  Kits are available in limited quantities, so don't delay!

The design team has done an outstanding job of creating layout and card samples for you.  We love to bring you new ideas each month and show you what a great value using the kit can be.  

Be sure and check back here on the blog to see the girls' tutorials on how they made their pages to help you recreate them for your books.  Fast and fun!

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On to our February guest designers!

The talent that this group of guest designers brings is top-notch!  But don't take our word for it... check our their inspiring work for yourself in our design team gallery.

Mendi Yoshikawa

My name is Mendi Yoshikawa and I am so happy to be here! I am married my college sweetheart and together we live in Camas, Washington with our 2 girls and one very spoiled cat. With the birth of our oldest daughter 14 years ago, I caught the scrapbooking bug (and later the card making bug) and I have been obsessed ever since. I gravitate towards designs with clean, linear lines and bright colors. I am also a sketch addict with a passion for die-cutting and sewing on my projects. You can visit me at my blog at Snippets By Mendi or on Pinterest. I also keep an updated gallery of my work at Scrapbook.com.

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Christine Meyer

I am Christine Meyer, mom to three rowdy boys and one sweet girl. My hubby and I have been married for 14 years and have lived in Texas, Missouri, and Oklahoma before settling in to rural Illinois. I teach music part time and get to stay home with my kids the rest of the week. I started paper crafting shortly after the birth of my oldest son and have never looked back. I love to create cards, layouts, and altered projects in a whimsical style with clean lines and full of bright colors!

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Tracy McLennon

Hello, my name is Tracy McLennon and I live my crafty life on the east coast of Canada in Nova Scotia. My world consists of my talented band teacher husband, my 2 beautiful step daughters and our crazy rescue pooch Kya. I have been a scrapbooker for about 17 years now, I adore papercrafting! I would say my scrapbook style would be clean, classic and layered. Currently I design for May Arts Ribbon, DecoArt and I am the new DIY Crafting Bride columnist for DIY Wedding Magazine.

I was so happy to be asked to be a Guest Designer for My Creative Scrapbook. I love the simplicity of scrapbook kits! So many of us have so little time in our busy lives to craft, and then when we do it can be daunting. It takes time to organize, plan and finally create. BUT, if you have a kit with all of your coordinating products and papers....all you have to do is add photos! This is what I like to do when going to crops, I just pack my kits, photos, cardstock and I'm good to go! Thank you so much for having me!

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A big THANK YOU to our guest designers!

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Reminder!

Don't forget about our sketch challenge... we have a terrific sketch and a fabulous prize package to give away.  You don't have to be a kit member to enter!  Visit our sketch blog for all of the details. 

February Sneak Peeks!!

It's SNEAK PEEK time!

We are so anxious to reveal the LOVELY lineup of kits that we have coming your way for February.

Just a few more days to wait until the reveal on the 5th!

In the meantime, our designers have prepared some sneak peek eye candy for you.

Have a look at our February Main Kit:

Here's a February Main Kit layout!

by Michelle McDonald

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Have a look at our February Creative Kit:

and a February Creative Kit layout!

by Christine Meyer

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Next... our February Limited Edition Kit:

and a February Limited Edition Kit layout!

by Maiko Kosugi

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Have a look at our February Album Kit:

and a look inside the February Album!

by Kristin Greenwood

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As always, this is only a little sneak peek at what's coming in the February kits. The full kit reveal is coming up on February 5th... be sure to check back then!

Don't forget to reserve your kits.

Please visit MyCreativeScrapbook.com for more information.

See you on the 5th!

Enter our New Improved Sketch Challenge (Hint: Easier Rules!) for a Chance to Win!

Have you visited our sketch challenge blog, My Creative Sketches, recently?

We have NEW RULES to make it even MORE FUN and EASIER TO PLAY ALONG! That means it's even easier to have a chance at the beeeeeeautiful prizes!

Have a look at this month's prize package:

We are excited to get this beautiful prize into the hands of our randomly selected sketch challenge winner!

Here are the CHALLENGE RULES as shown on the My Creative Sketches blog:

The Sketch Contest begins January 16 right here on our Sketch Blog.

The deadline for this contest is February 14 (midnight EST, USA).

The winner will be a random draw and announced on February 15.

Anyone, anywhere, may enter this contest using any products. You do not have to be a member of our kit club to be eligible for the prize. We DO ship our prizes internationally!

NEW!!! You may enter this contest as many times as you'd like... multiple entries are welcome.

NEW!!! You may combine this sketch challenge with any other challenge or design team work that allows combining! Just make sure we can see the sketch in your finished layout :)

Here's the January sketch:

All of the details can be found on the My Creative Sketches blog >>> HERE <<<

We can't wait to see what you create!

Step by Step Layout Tutorial by Jodi Wilton

Jodi Wilton is featuring our January Main Kit today with a step by step layout tutorial!

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Hi everyone! Jodi here today to share with you a layout I created using the gorgeous January Main Kit! I adored this kit- the papers, the patterns, the colors, were all such an inspiration when using this kit! I often use the colors of a kit to choose my photos and theme for my layout.  For this kit I immediately thought of my youngest daughters swimsuit from this past summer with the exact same colors as the kit!  I then found a sequence of photos of her eating ice cream, which I thought would be perfect!

I started off by cutting two strips 12 inches long, and two triangles wide. I adhered this to the top and the bottom of my cardstock. Because this was a sequence of photos, I wanted to create movement on the page, so I staggered my four (3 X 4) photos from the top to the bottom of the page (left to right); as shown below:

I love using really long titles and quotes that go with my scrapbooking layout, and with the alpha's in this kit, there was so many possibilities!  I decided on the quote in various colors at the top of each photo: You Scream, I scream, We all Scream for ice cream!

I then wanted to add some embellishments from the kit, without taking the focus away from the cute photos.  I added some wood veneer at the top right and bottom left corners layered with a tag and the Happy Happy Days die cut.  I then added some clear die cut arrows in the kit which were perfect over my cream cardstock:

Finally, because I like to "fill the entire page"  when I create I added some home made embellishments with my punches.  Here are the punches I used (two inch circle punch, large heart punch, and smaller heart punch)  I then used three different types of paper, and punched two of each shape out:

Above you can see how I mixed the patterned paper up!  I used foam tape to make the embellishments appear 3-D too! Here is a close up of then:

I use this technique a lot when I want to fill in my layouts! you can use just circles or hearts, stars, etc...

Here is the final layout:

I hope you enjoyed my layout tutorial today!

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Please visit our Design Team Gallery to view more of Jodi’s beautiful work.

Here's the January Main Kit:

For full descriptions of our kits, subscription information, and more, visit our website at MyCreativeScrapbook.com

Anatomy of a Layout by Becky Litz

Becky Litz is featuring our January Creative Kit today with a look into her design process!

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Hello!

Becky here with you today to share how I put my 'Meet Cute' layout together.

Do you know what the term 'meet cute' means? Basically it comes from movies or tv and it refers to when two people meet each other in an amusing, crazy or zany way but are ultimately destined to be together in the end.

Now my daughter and my brother did not get off to the best start, but I know that she is going to love her crazy Uncle in the end....maybe he needs to shave the beard! LOL

The 'hello' paper worked perfectly for this layout and was the first piece I just knew I had to use. I wanted the layout to have a bit more of a masculine feel so I kept the pink out of it for the most part.

 One of my favorite patterns for masculine project is wood grain. There was not a lot of wood grain in the kit but I made sure to use every piece I could. The wood grain tag was the main focus but I wanted there to be some more of that pattern in the layout to balance it out. The little strips of wood grain around the layout are actually the back side of one of the barcode strips from the bottom of one of the other patterns. I cut the strip up and tucked the pieces around the layout.

Speaking of barcode strips...one of the other barcode strips had those fun little emoticon faces. I chose one that matched my daughter's face in each photos and added them to each photo.

 I think the placement of the photos and the papers help your eye to travel from the top left of the layout, down to the bottom right. The layout follows the story of the photos.

I made this layout with the January Creative Kit.

 Thanks for stopping by! We'd love to see what you do with your kits on our FB page.

Have a great day

~Becky

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Please visit our Design Team Gallery to view more of Becky’s beautiful work.

For full descriptions of our kits, subscription information, and more, visit our website at MyCreativeScrapbook.com